Chapter 11
“You loudmouth cunt, TAKE IT!” Geo screamed in her ear, ramming his hips into her as he thrust violently, over and over again.
Sailor screamed again, the metal of the bed of the SUV cutting into her hips, the rough carpet burning her shoulder and cheek as he held her down.
“Stupid BITCH!” a faceless man yelled, getting in her face, then landing a blow on her cheekbone that made her scream again.
“This shit is fucking tight!” Geo groaned, then shoved into her and came, filling her with cum as he let out a sigh of satisfaction.
“I got next!” a man laughed darkly, yanking her head back by her hair before spitting in her face.
“We ain’t got time for that shit,” Geo grunted, “I ought to let them slit your fucking throat, bitch! Be glad that was a good nut!” he told her, then yanked her off the bed of his SUV and let her fall to the ground as he stepped back to fasten his pants.
Sailor cried out, then screamed as a boot landed hard on her hip, then another on her shoulder.
Sitting up, Sailor panted and looked around at the pitch- black room, flailing around her. Disorientation lasted only a moment as the dream faded. The memory.
Sobs welled up, and she managed to get to her feet, hugging a blanket around her as she sobbed and paced. She couldn’t lay down, she might fall asleep again.
With sleep came dreams. Memories.
It didn’t matter that she was in a living nightmare, the original nightmare seemed to be worse.
When Mig opened the door in the morning, she was sitting at the little table, huddled in on herself and shivering.
“Shower,” he barked.
It didn’t take her long to clean up, but she stayed under the hot water, trying to let it work on the knots in her shoulders and back.
It didn’t help.
When she returned to her room, clothes were laid out for her.
Not a dress like she’d assumed, but more yoga pants and a hoodie that was way too big on her.
She didn’t care, it was warm! They kept this place far too cold, and she was freezing.
Mig led her out to Geo, and he glanced up at her only momentarily as she approached. He was listening to another man talking. Mig stopped her halfway across the room and didn’t move closer until the other man left with a nod at Geo.
Geo stood as she got close, looking her over. “Why ain’t you sleepin’?” he demanded.
“I… I did?”
He snorted, then pulled out his phone. Hitting something, pulling up a video, he hit another button to speed it up, then showed it to her.
She watched herself lay in bed in the room, a night vision camera showing the shine of her open eyes. They closed for a moment, then she was screaming and jerking, then sitting up. She paced for several hours, then sat in the chair and rocked until she went still .
He stopped it before Mig opened the door.
She looked back at him, her face going red. “I have nightmares.”
“You tole’ me you don't lie,” he sneered.
“I didn’t lie! I did sleep! It just wasn’t for very long.”
His lip curled as he looked down at her, his eyes glittering. “How long you been sleeping like that?”
“Since the night you did what you did,” she told him in a whisper, looking down.
“You need ta fuckin’ sleep, Rue. If tha’s my kid in there and you need ta be takin’ care of your body more.”
Sailor looked up at him and opened her mouth, ready to say something about how he shouldn’t be handling her so roughly and raping her, but she thought better of it at the last moment. Closing her mouth, she glowered at him instead.
“Sit her down,” he told Mig, sitting down as he did something on his phone.
Mig pushed her to the small couch beside Geo, and she immediately pressed herself to the far side. Pulling her bare feet up to tuck under her as she made herself small and still.
Geo tapped on his phone, ignoring her, and Mig opened his phone. There were two other men in the room, but they seemed to be bodyguards, one at the main door and the other at the door to the hall.
After a moment, Mig left, going back down the hall. He came back with a blanket and stopped in front of Geo. Geo flipped a wrist at her, and Mig tucked it around her.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, huddling in it.
Geo grunted but never looked up from his phone, and Mig didn’t acknowledge that she spoke.
It got quiet again, with no one speaking as they stayed on their phones. Half an hour passed, and Sailor was starting to nod off, exhaustion winning out with the warmth and comfort seeping into her.
A knock made her jump, and Mig answered the door and brought food bags. Setting them on the table, he pulled out a covered plate and handed it to her before getting larger ones for Geo and himself. After handing out forks, he pulled the cover off of hers. Looking down at the omelet, she took the drink he offered.
“Thanks,” she mumbled again.
No one answered, Mig and Geo eating silently as they stayed on their phones. She ate just as quietly, finishing everything and surprised at how hungry she was.
Mig took her empty plate and threw the trash away before moving to the chair nearby, sitting close and tapping away on his phone.
Sailor didn’t understand why she was out there but stayed quiet. She was full, and warm, and the couch was soft.
Jerking, she lifted her head at a loud knock on the door.
When Mig got up, she realized she’d fallen asleep. The brighter light came in the windows, shining on the floor, not the side wall. The sun had moved quite a bit, meaning she had slept at least a few hours.
Mig opened the door as she blinked, sighed, and rested her head on the armrest.
When Geo sat up and put his phone down, she could feel his movement in her feet. She was curled up in the small space but pressing against him.
She noticed then that it was Gabe coming back in, looking like he hadn’t slept yet. “I finally found someone,” he told Geo. “As far as he can tell, it all checks out. She’s right. All that software is monitored, even ones that are illegally downloaded. They have some sort of proprietary, umm… shit. They have a thing that makes it so even ones not sold from the sites are all monitored. They also monitor keywords and shit? Images. There are… algorithms that can pick up all kinds of things from all the software like it. The asshole liked to hear himself talk. Umm… he did make an offer, though? Said he knew what we were wanting, and he knew what to do to go around all the proprietary shit and could clone something? Anyway, he said he could do what we were wanting. ”
“Did you tell him what we wanted?”
“No! No, I told him we were testing someone we might be working with, seeing if they knew as much as they said they did or were they full of shit, you know? It was all just hypothetical, like you said last night. He said she knew what she was talking about and why none of what I was doin’ would work. He says he can make it work if he were paid the right amount? Got a cut of it?”
Geo snorted. “She said that was the hard way. Why would I wanna do shit the hard way when I got me the easy way sittin’ right here?”
Sailor almost cut in to say she wasn’t doing shit for him, but she decided against speaking up. She would say no if he asked her, but not invite trouble before she needed to.
“I got his number anyway. He don't know who I am, and I made sure he wouldn’t say shit to no one.”
“Aight. Go get some sleep. Mig, call in the boys. Call in them little fools, too. The ones from her school.”
“Yeah,” Mig grunted, picking up his phone.
Geo looked Sailor over as she stayed still on the arm of the couch. “You slept some. Twitched and jerked, but no yellin’ and thrashin’ and shit.”
Sailor only looked at him, wondering if she was supposed to say something to that.
“You want some coffee or some shit?” he asked her.
She blinked. He was being nice now?
“Get her one ‘a them mocha whatever,” Geo told Mig. “Order lunch, too. Chicken. She needs meat. Protein and shit.”
“Yeah,” Mig grunted again, still on his phone.
“How ‘bout you sleep some more till my boys get here?” Geo demanded of Sailor.
Sailor didn’t answer, rolling to her other side to huddle into the blankets and hide her face from him.
When she curled up and pulled her feet closer, he immediately moved his hand under the blanket and pulled her back against him. “Sleep, Rue,” he commanded, setting his hand on her feet over the blanket.
She stayed still, staring at the back of the sofa. Was he reading about pregnant women and what they needed? Was that why he was being this way?
“Do you already have kids?” she asked him after several long minutes of silence.
“Nah,” he answered distractedly. “I don't fuck with bitches.”
“That… makes no sense.”
He snorted.
“He doesn’t have sex with most the girls who hang out here,” Mig offered. “He lets them get him off. Girls like you? Ones he has to teach a lesson to? They typically don't live through that shit.”
Sailor went cold, her body going stiff.
Geo chuckled. “Never thought about a kid,” he shrugged. “Not the fatherly type. But that don't mean I’m ‘a let you just hide mine from me. Mig, she ain’t goin’ back to sleep. Go get her dressed.”