“I’m glad to see you’ve come to your senses.” Suppressed fury, teeth clenched.
The doors slide closed behind me, and as soon I hear the elevator whine and fade, I step forward. “Youbastard.”
“Excuse me?” Disbelief, shock.
“Would you like to know where I was just now, Caleb?” I ask this in my sweetest, most innocent voice.
Dark eyes narrow in suspicion. “Where were you, X? Do enlighten me.”
I am chest to chest, staring up. I seethe. “I was on the sixth floor.”
“I see.”
“In room three. I met a very interesting young woman who said her name was, strangely enough, Three. But then, you see, I was privileged to overhear a very... illuminating... assessment and promotion, in which sheearneda real name.”
“I don’t know what you think you heard or saw, X, but it’s not what you think.”
“It isn’t? That’s strange, because it seemed very much as if what I heard wasThreesucking yourcock.” My blood boils atthe memory, at the indignity of my own unstoppable arousal. I cannot temper my fury. “I’m pretty sure what I heard was youfuckingher. Just like you fuckme. Which I must say, raises some very interesting questions, Caleb.”
“You saw this, did you?” This is said calmly, quietly, in far too even a voice.
“Saw it? No.Heardis a more accurate term, I think. I was under the bed, you see. Hiding from you, and your thugs.”
Jaw muscles work. “X, there are elements to all this that you don’t—that youcan’t—understand.”
“Then enlighten me, Caleb!” I shout. “Because it feels like I’m just another one of the girls on the sixth floor. Except, I don’t get the future they have. I’m kept in the dark, alone, day after day, serving client after client. But I’m not allowed to form a friendship with any of them. I’m not allowed relationships of any kind. Except you, when you deign to visit me, in the middle of the night. Are youtrainingme too? Like you’re training girls Two through Eight? Teaching me to please a man, before you sell me to the highest bidder? Is that it? Or am I just your dirty little secret on the hidden thirteenth floor? The secret you sneak in to, late at night, to have sex in the dark with, after you’ve finishedtrainingall the other girls. Or am I—”
“You aremine!” comes the venomous hiss, cutting me off. Huge hard hands clutch my face, tilt my head up, brutal fingers holding tight, not allowing me to escape. “You are not like them, X. You’re secret because you’re special.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You think I’m selling those girls, X? Is that what you think?” An abrupt change of tactic. “That’s not how it is, and if you’d really talked to Rachel, you’d understand that.”
“You’ve got her brainwashed. Like you did me.”
“I saved her life, like I did yours! I took her in off the streets and I sat by her as she went through meth withdrawals. I bathedher, and I held her as she shook so hard I thought she’d break a bone, and I fed her with my own hands. That’s not something I’dselllike a bag of fucking potatoes! I’m giving her a future, and I’m not going to sit here and defend myself to someone who doesn’t have the first fucking clue what I’m about!” I am abruptly released, and long legs begin pacing back and forth, impatient, angry. “You know nothing about me, X. Not the first thing.”
“That’s the point!” I shout. “What do you think I’m trying to—”
“And have you forgotten what I’ve done foryou? Who was there for you when you woke up, alone?”
“You were, but—”
“And when you couldn’t talk, couldn’t walk, who wheeled you around in a wheelchair and carried a notebook everywhere, so we could communicate? Who took you to MOMA? Who showed you theMadame Xpainting? Who held you when you cried at night,everynight, for weeks? You had no name, no past. I couldn’t return your past to you, but whatdidI give you, X?”
“An identity,” I whisper.
“And afuture!” Male scent, heat, fingers gripping my waist. “I built you a life, X. I gave you the best of everything. The best clothes, the best food. An education. Skills. A job, something to keep you from going crazy with boredom! I’m not keeping you prisoner, I’m keeping yousafe!Have you forgotten all that?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten.”
“I don’t often bring these things up. You know that. I focus on the now, on the immediate future. I move forward. I don’t dwell on what was, X. I don’t expect repayment or even thanks.” Finger and thumb, pinching my chin, lifting my face. Wide, deep, dark eyes penetrate mine. I cannot look away. “What I do expect, X, isloyalty.”
“Howdareyou?” I pull away. “Loyalty? When you’ve goteightwomen just sitting around waiting toserviceyou at your every whim? Hoping for a glimpse of you, hoping for the next...assessment? Yet you expect loyalty fromme?”
“Do not speak of what you do not understand. And that is something youdon’tunderstand.”
“You show up in my room late at night, and youfuckme. That’s all it is. Just like them.Allof them. None of it means anything to you, does it? Not me, not them. We’re just... receptacles for your...male urges, prettied up with fancy excuses.” I fight a sob. “And you always leave and I just... want it tomeansomething. But you never give me anything of yourself. It feels good, sure, but when that’s over, what am I left with? You said it yourself... I don’t know the first thing about you. HowcouldI? I don’t even know the first thing aboutmyself. But why should that matter, right? I’m just there to satisfy you when you feel like picking me.”
