Chapter 9 #2
His grip tightened painfully on her arm as he scurried through the station, with each turn moving farther and farther away from the crowds, and deeper and deeper into the station.
The first elevator ride, she let out a yelp as, instead of moving up or down, it jerked sideways, almost throwing her to her knees in the small space.
A’Kar had laughed at her discomfort, and she had seethed, vowing to get her own back against the disgusting cretin of a—
“We’re here.”
What? She’d been so stuck in her own head, plotting all manner of revenge against him, that she’d barely noticed he’d dragged her to a dark corridor.
An empty, dark corridor. There were signs above the doors, but in a script that she couldn’t read.
It didn’t help that the only light was from a flickering bulb halfway down the hallway.
A’Kar stopped in front of a steel door and banged on it three times. A small hatch at eye level slid open to reveal a screen behind a reinforced mesh cage.
“The race stands forevermore, pure as it began,” A’Kar said, hand braced in a fist over the middle of his chest, middle two fingers splayed.
What the fuck?
The door unlocked with a metallic thud as bolts slid back. A’Kar smiled and stepped inside, dragging Aletta behind him. The first room was little more than an empty corridor, apart from the giant bouncer standing guard over a second door.
The main door shut behind them with a thud, and Aletta whirled as the hallway behind her disappeared.
The air smelled like an oddly sweet tobacco, and the soles of her shoes stuck to the floor, peeling away with effort like it hadn’t been cleaned in a decade.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This was not good.
A’Kar bent so his face was in line with Aletta’s, his hands on her upper arms. She leaned back as far as she could to avoid his fetid breath, turning her head to one side and closing her eyes.
“So this is where Dylan is?" She avoided breathing through her nose, which made her sound a little nasal.
“No.”
“But you said—”
He snickered. “Stupid girl.”
She pressed her lips into a thin line. She was going to kill him.
But first, she had to get out of here.
She shot the bouncer a look. He was as huge as Arik, with beefy arms crossed over his chest. His black tee gripped his bulging biceps, and his thick thighs were encased in black combat pants.
He didn’t acknowledge their presence. So no help there, then. She snorted. What did she expect? Nobody had helped her so far.
She ignored the little voice that whispered the name of a certain alien ship’s captain.
Gark would come. Surely he would, if he knew where to go. This station was so big; how could he possibly find her?
She gritted her teeth.
Focus, Letty. You have to figure this out.
A’Kar let her go, the pungent stench of his breath giving way to the smell of sweet smoke, like the vapes the boys she’d dated as a teenager had smoked.
Aletta looked between the bouncer and the closed door. She couldn’t get out; that much was clear, so there was only one choice.
You always have a choice.
She scowled as A’Kar beckoned her with a crooked finger, shoulders tense and hands gripped in fists by her side as she forced herself to walk toward him.
Forward. The only way was forward. Into whatever this place was. Let them think she was compliant and then find a way to escape.
With her new, albeit very flimsy, plan in place, she walked through the now-open doorway into an unsurprisingly dingy bar.
It was small, barely bigger than the apartment she had shared with Dylan—she pushed that thought away rapidly—with a bar running the length of one side behind which a woman stood in a skimpy outfit as she cleaned glasses.
A human woman. Aletta stared, trying to catch her eye, but the woman didn’t even look up as they entered. She was short and curvy, with breasts barely covered by a semi-transparent band that wrapped around her chest. Her head was bent forward, her brown hair falling over her face like a shield.
Aletta’s chest tightened. Who was this woman? What had brought her here? Who?
“Woman!” A’Kar was halfway across the room and obviously upset she hadn’t followed him. She forced an apologetic look on her face and scurried after him.
“Woman!”
She nodded, keeping her head down, and had to force herself not to roll her eyes as he actually stomped his foot—was he a complete child?
Her palms were sweaty, but she didn’t wipe them on her jeans in case it gave her away. She needed to seem subservient and cowed. She fought to calm her breath and to look at her feet.
There was no way she would let any of these people see that she was absolutely terrified.
She glanced at the woman behind the bar, who had looked up at A’Kar’s shouts.
Shocked, wide brown eyes met Aletta’s, and the woman’s mouth fell open, the cloth she was using to dry the glass dangling from limp fingers.
“Run,” she mouthed. “Run!”
Aletta gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile, but the other woman had already dropped her head once more and gone back to wiping the glass.
Aletta dragged her attention away from the woman behind the bar, desperately wishing she could do something to help her—it was obvious she didn’t want to be here any more than Aletta did. But she couldn’t get herself out yet, let alone someone else.
When I get out of here, I’ll come back and help you, I promise.
A’Kar had stopped in front of a table of aliens, all much bigger and more well built than him.
Aletta covertly memorized their appearance.
Every one of them was dressed the same. Black pants, black boots, black shirt with the sleeves ripped off to show the same tattoo that A’Kar had on their upper arms. The script looked familiar as well, and she realized it was the same as the one in the hallway, but stylized as a circle, with the silhouette of a woman in the background.
Her stomach flip-flopped. These were not good people. Aliens. Whatever. They were bad news.
They ignored A’Kar when he walked up. He shifted from foot to foot and cleared his throat. Not one of them at the table lifted their heads.
They appeared to be playing a betting game of some sort, possibly like poker? There was a pile of what looked like money of some sort on the table in front of them, and each alien had a collection of square metal pieces.
A’Kar grabbed her by the arm and thrust her forward. “Look. I brought you another one.”
Aletta stumbled, her hands reaching for the table’s edge to break her fall. Her hands slid across the slick, polished metal surface with a loud squeak, the front of her hips hitting the edge of the table so that she bent over at the waist and face planted into the pile of chips.
She groaned, lifting her head. One of the chips had stuck to her face, and she reached up to peel it off with a grimace, dropping it back into the pile on the table.
Aletta shot a look at the woman at the bar, but she looked away quickly, turning her back to reveal angry red welts where her halter top exposed her pale skin. Aletta curled her fingers into fists, her nails biting into her palms.
A searing pain in her scalp had her reaching for her hair and crying out as A’Kar grabbed her by the hair and jerked her upright.
The bar had gone deathly silent. The players at the table stood up slowly, chairs screeching against the floor.
A’Kar’s hand shook where he held her hair. So much for him being a tough guy. The similarities to schoolyard politics weren’t lost on Aletta. If these guys were the popular crowd, and A’Kar was trying to impress them… that didn’t bode well for her.
“And you think this will impress him?” It wasn’t the biggest one who spoke, but a whip-thin, tall man she hadn’t paid any attention to.
He was the only one still sitting on the far side of the table, his voice deceptively quiet.
He took a drag on the odd-looking device he was smoking and blew it out in a thin stream.
This was the source of the sweet-smelling smoke.
A’Kar cleared his throat.
“Be quiet.”
A’Kar’s hand was still shaking, tugging Aletta’s hair and making her wince. She reached up and gripped her hair below his hand in an attempt to stop the tugging that was ripping the strands out at the roots.
“Let me see her.” The thin one turned in his seat slightly and gestured with his hand.
A’Kar sagged, his hand loosening on her hair, and Aletta jerked it back out of his grasp. He gripped her shoulders from behind, steered her around the table, and pushed her in front of the man who obviously held all the power here.
“She’s yours,” A’Kar said, and Aletta bristled.
She’d never before understood what it meant to see red, but now she did. How dare these assholes abduct women from their homes and take them across space against their will! How dare they treat them like objects, as if they were able to be bought and sold!
Comply or die, girl. That’s what will happen here. You can rage, scream, and yell later.
Something in her expression must have given her away, because the thin one laughed. “She’s a fiery one. Good. She’ll last longer that way.” The thin one smirked, gesturing to someone behind Aletta with one hand as he took another drag of whatever he was smoking.
Too late, Aletta felt a prick in her neck. She turned, confused to see one of the big guys holding a syringe. Her vision started to swim.
“What was that...” Her words slurred, and her legs went wobbly.
The last thing she saw before she fell to the floor was the tear-streaked face of the woman behind the bar.