Page 10 of Pushed Through The Dark
Blue stroked his jaw, spinning the blade in his hand. "How do I know you're not lying?"
"Do I look like a man who lies?" Furrowing his brows, he held his arms out, wriggling his fingers softly. "I don't like when people doubt me, and I don't like when people tell me I'm lying."
"Blue," Virgo's voice crashed through my brain. I wanted to look up at him, but instead, my body shut down, the reflexes he poisoned my mind with kicked in, causing my eyes to drop to the floor. "You're not being rude to one of our guests, are you?" His fingertips softly started to touch my hair, brushing through it gently. "He bought her fair and square. Paid a pretty penny for this little vixen too."
"No, Virgo, I was just getting his new toy ready for him." Tucking the knife away, Blue held out his hands as if to show he wasn't a threat, and he was standing down.
"Koa," Virgo said smiling. I could hear it in his voice, his lips lifting, and pulling back. His hand moved down my head and slipped under my arm. Lifting me to my feet, he held me tightly in his grip. "This one might not be right for you. She's still young, hasn't had as much training as some of the other girls here. We can arrange someone else if you'd like, someone more experienced, more willing."
Taking the chance to peek, I flicked my eyes up. Koa chuckled as he crossed his arms over his chest. His muscles rolled like boulders under the surface, stretching the material of his shirt. The buttons on his shirt pulled taut, threatening to shoot off like tiny bottle caps.
"Virgo, I know what I want." His gaze shifted to mine, so I looked away immediately. "And I gladly paid for it. Period."
A shiver ran down my spine as they talked about me as if I wasn't there like I was a car and this was a dealership. But this wasn't just a transfer of property, this was the sale of a human, the sale of a woman, the sale ofme.
I knew this was one of the things that Virgo did, he sold women. But being that woman had an out of body feel to it. None of it felt real, I was watching it from outside myself, and for the first time, I saw what he had done to me.
The way my shoulders rolled submissively, the way I kept my head down and my hands in front of my waist. Nothing about the girl I was staring at was recognizable as me as Aubrey Moretti. A twenty-three-year-old woman, who came from a hard-working family, with an older sister, and a pet parrot named Squish.
That girl was gone, vanished, erased from the earth as if she never existed to begin with. What was left?
Just a shell of the woman I once was. No identity, no past, and definitely no future. Not anymore.
"Can I have what's mine now?" he asked, thinning his lips and tilting his head.
It took Virgo a moment to release me. His fingers unwound from my arm one at a time as he let out a heavy breath. I felt the air as it swept across my cheek, and his eyes as he glared at me.
Giving me a little shove forward, he waved his hand. "Here, she's yours." The man took my arm, tugging me close to his side. Virgo kept his eyes on me, the small red flame flickering in the background. "You know what I don't understand, Koa?"
"What's that?" His fingers tightened around my forearm as his voice came out cold.
"You've been here a dozen times. You sit in my bar, you drink my alcohol, you watch my girls. But you've never bought anyone, and yet today you do. Tell me, Koa, Why? Why today? Why her?"
"Isn't it obvious, Virgo? You finally had something I wanted." Koa started to pull on my arm as he walked towards the door.
Fear swept down my body, causing heaviness in my chest, making it hard to breathe. I didn't know this man, I knew nothing about him other than the fact that he knew Virgo, that he spent time in this place willingly.
I don't want to go with him.
Digging my heels into the floor, I pulled back. "No, I can't go! I won't go!"
For all I knew this guy was just as bad, or worse than the man who stole me violently. This feeling of being thrown into the unknown flooded my system, causing my heart to slam wildly and my body to get hot.
At least I knew what to expect here, I knew what Virgo wanted from me, I knew what my job was. I didn't like it, and I fought against it the best I could. But this man was foreign to me. And the fact that Virgo didn't challenge him, the way the man wasn't intimidated at all by Virgo, it just made me fear him even more.
Koa stopped and looked down at me, his mouth forming a slight smirk to one side. "We can do this the easy way, which is my way, or the hard way, which is your way. You decide."
Baring my teeth, I dropped back on my feet, trying to use my weight to break free. All I could think about was running. I didn't think about what he was actually saying, I didn't think about how strong he actually was, or how tightly he had me in his grip.
"Fuck you!" screaming at the top of my lungs, I pierced his hand with my nails, trying to break his skin. "I'm not going with you!"
"Told you she's feisty," Virgo said with a chuckle. Snapping his fingers, he flicked his head over his shoulder. "Come, Blue, she's his problem now."
"No! No!" My voice crackled as it strained. I didn't know why, but the thought of Virgo leaving me with someone else scared the fuck out of me.
Why is he doing this?
"Don't go!" I called out to Virgo, begging him with my eyes to not do this. "Don't leave me with him! Virgo, please!"
