2: 2
02
The screen went dark, and my heart skipped half a beat.
It was over. My brother hadn't caught that the voice wasn't mine.
Maya saw the disappointment on my face, and her fingers dug harder into my chin.
Only when her nails cut into the flesh, when she watched me flinch from the pain, did she let out a cold laugh.
"I begged Nigel for so long to take me home to meet his parents, and he never did, and then a slut like you cut in ahead of me."
"Betty, tell me. What do I have to do to get this out of my system?"
I curled my lip and gave her a cold smile.
Meet his parents. In her dreams.
Before I could speak, she studied my swollen face with real interest and pressed a hand over her mouth, laughing.
"Whatever. What difference does it make who you sleep with."
"You're so good at seducing people, aren't you? Then I'll give you the chance to seduce all you want."
I looked at those dark, vicious eyes.
I froze for a second, and by the time it registered, I'd been dragged out and slammed into the business lounge next door, thrown to the floor.
Maya hung up the phone and stood over me with a slow, knowing smile.
A few minutes later, seven or eight small-time thugs in loud, garish outfits shoved their way in.
Maya raised an eyebrow and took the lipstick a hanger-on handed her.
On my forehead she wrote four bright red characters, plain as day.
"Lounge. Party. Girl."
"That suits you. Cheap. Free for the taking. Anything goes."
I looked at the pack circling behind me like wolves, and I understood what she meant to do.
My face went cold.
"Stop now and it's not too late. Otherwise you'll end up worse than dead."
02
Maya acted as if she hadn't heard, shot me a glance, and gave the order.
"What are you standing around for? Free of charge and you're not even eager? You only get going when there's money in it?"
The thugs closed in, grinning.
A sense of danger surged in me, and I grabbed the ashtray fast, holding it up in front of my chest to defend myself.
"Maya, this is a crime. Stop now or don't blame me for—"
"Aah!"
The scream drowned out the rest of my words.
Paul Jefferson, the one in front, clutched his head in pain, his exposed left eye fixed on me with a vicious glare.
"Son of a bitch, she really went for the kill!"
I said nothing, drew a breath, and stared him down.
Watching for the next strike.
But two fists couldn't take on eight, and the whole crowd swarmed me at once, driving an elbow into me and knocking me to the floor.
Looking at me sprawled there, my clothes torn, a wreck on the ground.
Maya opened the camera for the dark-web livestream and aimed it at my face.
She smiled, innocent as anything.
"What a pure little goddess. It's been a few minutes and the men are already here."
"You must know these customers pretty well, don't you? You climb out of a different man's car every day."
I struggled and got nowhere, so I lifted my head and glared at her with everything I had.
"You could have lived. But from this moment, you're going to die badly."
Because once before, another girl who couldn't see straight had gotten the wrong idea about me and my brother. She'd waited after class with people to block me and keep me from going home.
The next day the Hensons drove her out of New York, and she vanished without a trace.
For Maya to treat me like this was, without question, walking herself to her own grave.
But she only stroked her still-flat belly, smug at what I'd said.
"Whose power in the elite circle is bigger than the Hensons'?"
"I'm carrying Nigel's baby. Even if I crippled you right in front of him and drowned you in a river, all he'd worry about is whether I got scared."
She crouched down, stroked my head the way you'd pet an animal, and smiled.
"Someone in the comments is spending coins to make you bark like a dog."
"Give us a few woofs, let's hear it. If it makes me happy, once you've been bred I'll leave you a scrap of clothing to cover yourself."
I gave a cold laugh.
"In your dreams."
Maya wasn't even angry. She stood up.
At her signal, the thug beside her wrenched my hand out and pinned it to the floor.
The next second, a stiletto heel ground down hard over my fingers.
She listened to me scream until my throat tore, and the smile on her lips kept spreading.
Until a waiter heard the noise and pushed the door open.
He stared at me hurt on the floor and froze, his face shifting from fear to anger.
He reached for his phone at once.
"What are you doing? I'm calling the—"
Maya beat him to it, pulling out the photo of me and my brother and holding it up in front of him, her eyes flooding red on cue, the picture of a woman wronged.
"I just got pregnant, and this little slut came right to my door to seduce my husband."
"It took forever to track her down. We're just teaching her a small lesson. Don't worry, we'll be gone in a bit."
At that, he looked at me, my mouth held shut, my eyes full of pleading.
His face turned to disgust, and he took the two thousand from Maya's hand.
On his way out, he made a point of hitting the soundproofing switch on the lounge door.
