Chapter 3 #3
“Seize everyone and inspect the cargo. Pay particular attention to the black crate,” he said softly, and his guards surged forward.
Bane turned back toward the blue men then, all of whom had been detained by Syndicate guards at just his word.
“You’ve been a loyal smuggler of mine for some time. You wouldn’t try to pass one over on me, Blue, would you?” Bane said, his voice dripping with a blatant warning.
So his name was Blue. Huh.
Well, that was unoriginal.
Blue trembled slightly, his arms held behind his back, but he stayed silent. His eyes anxiously flicked from the black crate and back and he struggled, trying to break free from the Syndicate guard who had captured him.
One guard walked over to the crate and unlatched it, slowly lifting the top to reveal what was inside. I tensed, leaning forward as I tried to see what it was.
“It’s an armed bomb, sir,” the guard declared, and Bane shook his head.
“This isn’t like you, Blue. I know you better than that.
You know what betrayal of this caliber means,” Bane murmured, his tone hard and dangerous.
He pulled his gun from his hip, the very one I’d tried to shoot him with and failed.
He cocked the weapon and curled his forefinger around the trigger, adjusting it in his palm as he did so.
Blue shook hard, and I swore I could see his life passing before his eyes at that very moment.
“Please. It wasn’t me. They threatened my daughter,” Blue cried out. He was clearly terrified and scant seconds away from tears.
“Who? Be specific or else I’ll ensure that you never leave here alive,” Bane demanded.
“It was Credare. He intercepted my usual smuggling route; somehow knew I was on my way to you and forced me to take on that crate and told me I had to deliver it straight to you, personally,” Blue explained. He looked just about ready to piss himself, he was so scared.
Bane walked up to him and pressed the gun underneath his chin.
“You’re telling me the truth, Blue?”
The blue man nodded enthusiastically.
“Please. Have mercy, boss,” he begged. After a tense, prolonged moment, Bane withdrew his weapon and sighed.
“Disarm the bomb and have it taken apart for scrap metal,” Bane instructed his guards.
“As for you, Blue, consider yourself fucking lucky because now you get to do something for me. You’re going to let Credare that I got his message loud and clear and that if he wants to meet to discuss his encroachment on my shipping routes, he better come here and tell me himself.
Oh. And get your daughter somewhere safe, for fucking god’s sake,” he bellowed.
Blue trembled and nodded his head.
“Anything else I need to know?” Bane pressed and Blue shook his head.
“Good. Now get the fuck out of here before I change my mind and splatter your brains all over the dirt,” Bane said then.
“Yes, boss. Anything for you,” Blue replied, clearly still terrified.
Bane waved his hand and the guards released the blue alien crew. They raced back onto their ship, while several guards worked on disarming the bomb.
“See? I knew having an assistant would be useful,” Bane purred at me and I scoffed.
“You’re just saying that because I touched your cock,” I retorted, but I could help myself as I grinned back at him.
“Maybe,” he answered with a shrug before he turned his eyes back to me. Dark and full of promise. “You’ll do more than just touch it later, my little human.”
I shivered, aroused at his words, suppressing a laugh at the same time.
Yeah. I probably would.
* * *
The next several weeks passed by in a blur.
I accompanied Bane on several more scheduled smuggling drop-offs as well as all around the city to visit local businesses so that Bane could collect his share of the profit.
I learned more about the Syndicate’s operation here, and how he provided many different products to various people throughout the entire planet.
I saw more of Dryac than I had ever seen before, from the nicest, most upstanding neighborhoods to the sleaziest alleyways and bars, but Bane never left my side.
With his presence alone, no one thought to even touch me. It was liberating in a sense.
As his assistant, I was both his eyes and ears.
His business associates constantly underestimated me for a dumb, ditzy half-naked human female, but I was able to pick up on many things Bane hadn’t been able to before, like when his associates tried to undercut his profits and keep a larger share for themselves.
I even stopped an assassination attempt from one of the Association’s planted allies.
Bane paid me very well for the help I gave him, and I was able to start consistently transferring credits into my family’s account on a more regular basis. It was good work and I enjoyed it.
I began to grow more comfortable with each passing day.
The more time we spent together, the more I craved being around him and the more I began to care about him.
Beneath his dark, gritty exterior, he was actually a kind man with a quiet sense of justice and understanding.
He showed his nature time and time again, from freeing a starving child from a brutal sentence of hard labor for thievery to ensuring that the women who sold themselves on the street did it for themselves, and not for any man who claimed to own them.
I even saw him slip bread and sweets to the homeless families on the street from time to time.
He pretended that he didn’t, that he was big and tough, but I saw it all.
I began to genuinely like him, far more than I thought I would.
I looked forward to our nights and mornings together in the privacy of his home. When I was with him then, I felt like I was the only one in the world. He’d look at me, his eyes bright with both admiration and control. He was an incredibly dominant man and I liked that.
He kept me entirely naked most of the time so that he could enjoy my body whenever he pleased.
I craved those moments when he would trace his fingers across my shoulder and push my hair to one side, revealing the tender flesh of my throat and then kiss me there, causing a shiver to race down my spine.
Or when he would gently take me over his knees and spank me before telling me to lie down and spread my legs for him.
Sometimes he would fuck my pussy and other times he’d take only my ass, but every night I would end up sore, spent, and sated, cuddled into his embrace.
Sometimes, in the evenings, I’d curl up at his feet while he worked with my cheek resting on his knee, his fingers moving absently through my hair while he read something on his screen.
He never made me. I just ended up there.
I told myself it was because the floor was warm. I didn’t examine it further than that.
There was one evening in particular I kept coming back to.
He’d been working late, something about a disputed shipment, and I’d fallen asleep on the floor with my head on his knee without meaning to.
When I woke up his hand was still in my hair.
He hadn’t moved me. Hadn’t put me in the bed.
Just left his hand there and kept working, like keeping me close while I slept was the most natural thing in the world.
I didn’t say anything about it the next morning.
Neither did he.
But I thought about it. More than I wanted to.
It hadn’t been submission exactly, I’d submitted to plenty of things in my life out of necessity and it had never felt like this. Like the shape of what we were together had edges that fit the shape of me, in some place I’d never let anyone close enough to find.
I told myself it was just the tail he’d started having me wear some evenings. The warm, constant pressure of it. The way it made me move differently, more carefully, more aware of my own body and who it belonged to. That was all it was.
I was a very bad liar.
We’d fall asleep in each other’s arms each night and then in the morning, we’d enjoy coffee in bed together, all served by the cylindrical robot that I had named Nate.
For once, life was glorious.
It was so wonderful. Too wonderful and I kept waiting for something to go wrong, for my handler to return and for the Association to steal me back into their clutches once more.
My life had always been a series of difficult events and I had no doubt that sometime soon, it was all going to go to shit.
I figured that I’d enjoy our time together while I had the chance. So, I did just that and the more I relished each day, the more my heart began to beat for him.
One morning, the two of us were enjoying a hot cup of coffee and a panicked knock pounded on the bedroom door. I pulled the comforter up around my chest, covering my nakedness. I looked at him with a measure of annoyance and he sighed.
“They only interrupt me when it’s urgent,” he grunted, before climbing out of the bed stark naked. He answered the door that way, without a care in the world. The hinge squeaked just a little as it opened, and I peered around him to see who had come and disturbed us.
“Yes?”
“Sir. I’ve just received word from the Association. Apparently, Credare received your message loud and clear. He wants to meet and discuss a potential alliance between the Syndicate and the Association,” the guard said, his voice shaking a bit with nervousness.
“How soon is he arriving?” Bane asked, his tone suddenly serious.
“This afternoon. Only a few hours from now,” the guard replied.
“Fuck. That’s not enough time,” Bane growled. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, clenching and unclenching his fists as he tried to come up with a plan. Finally, he sighed and began to speak once more.