Page 26 of Pushed Through The Dark
"Good isn't it? It's my grandmother's recipe. I like to make it once in a while when I have company, and today, I have company. You." Pointing his fork at me, he took another giant bite with a smug grin on his face.
I'm tempted to smack the grin off his face. I wasnothis company, I washisdamn property, and I didn't fucking like it.
Nodding, I tried to eat slowly. I was fucking starving, but I didn't want him to know. I didn't want him to see any weakness in me. Those are mine, not his. Not his to ever use against me.
He might think he owns me, but he was going to get a rude awakening when I disappeared one day.
I'm saving myself, only I can do that.
He chatted casually as we ate, talking about the kitchen and the vegetables he liked to use in his dishes. He mentioned a small farmer's market that he liked to go to weekly in town, and how everything was so fresh. Koa was talking to me like we were friends.
It was strange for me sitting there, having this man talk to me as if he saw me as an equal. His voice was so smooth and calm, I almost forgot for a moment that I wasn't here by choice.
"You're really not a chef? You're not a personal cook for the elite assholes of the world?" I asked, poking around the little bit of food left on my plate.
"No, fucking way, cooking is just a little side hobby of mine." Grabbing my plate, he rinsed them both in the sink and set them in the dishwasher. Koa cleaned up the pans and wiped down the counters.
"You don't have anyone here to do that for you?" I asked.
"Like a maid?" he asked. I nodded, running open palms up and down my thighs. "No, no maids here. I hate the idea of someone cleaning up after me. And I don't need people I hardly know wandering around my home. You think I'm one of those guys who can't take care of himself?"
"No." My eyes drifted to the big window behind me as I turned on the stool. "Virgo had people, I just assumed you would too."
"Virgo is a lazy motherfucker. I'm not." He slammed the door shut on the dishwasher, and checked the time on his watch. "We need to go."
"I don't have any shoes," I answered, hoping he'd just let me stay there.
"Exactly, it's harder to run barefoot, and I'm not in the mood to chase you today." Grabbing a set of keys off the counter, he turned and started to walk away. "Let's go, I don't like being late."
Again, my body defied me, following his orders as if there were strings attached to my limbs. Following him down another long hall, my heart started to race in my chest. My mind flashed with still frames of the hall in Virgo's home that led to the pit.
I fucking hated the pit. It was a place you were punished in, left in the dark, alone, and with nothing but your thoughts.
Fear raced up my throat, causing me to swallow hard. Koa probably had a pit too, or maybe a cage. Fuck, maybe he was just going to tie me to a damn pole like a dog.
My entire body shivered, forcing me to stop moving.
Koa opened the door at the end and stepped inside. He noticed my absence immediately, his voice echoing as he yelled for me. "Come, little minx."
Timidly, I moved towards the door, but my muscles were refusing to work. Reaching out, I gripped the door-frame and tried to force myself forward, but it didn't work.
"I said come," he demanded, his voice razor-sharp as it startled me into motion.
Jolting forward, I crossed the threshold and realized it was just a garage. There was a jet black Escalade, with blacked-out windows. Tools hung on the walls, and there was the frame of a motorcycle against the back wall.
Koa was standing by the back door of the vehicle, holding it open.
A sigh of relief forced my lungs to work again. It wasn't a dungeon he was taking me to, just a normal garage.
"In." Nodding his head towards the car, his mouth pulled tautly. "Don't make me ask you again, I don't like having to repeat myself."
Stepping down, the concrete floor was cold as ice under my feet, so cold it almost felt like glass. Climbing into the back, he held the door for a moment and just stared at me.
"Look, I know you have your reasons for not trusting me and thinking the worse, but the more you comply, the easier it will be on both of us."
"I'm not a dog, you can't just bark orders and expect me to jump."
"And yet, here you are." His lips curled into a smile, baring his perfect white teeth. Running the tip of his tongue across the edge of his teeth, he slammed the door shut.
