Page 13 of Free

“I’ll let you call them,” he tells me, shocking the hell out of me. I could scream for help. I could tell them what’s happening to me, but to be honest, do I want to? Do I want to be saved? Yeah, he’s going to drug me, but if it isn’t really going to hurt me, then what’s the issue? Listen to me! I can’t believe I’m even thinking like this. He bought me, which raises my next question.

“You paid for me.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“How much?” A mask slips over his features. He locks himself down as if he doesn’t want to tell me, and that bothers me. Was my life worth so little?

“I don’t usually give out that information,” he replies.

“Why not? That low?”

“No. Okay. I’ll only say this once, and then we move on, yeah?” he asks me. I shrug. Will we move on after I hear how much? I don’t know. I don’t even know how much you would charge for a person.

“Okay.” I agree. I don’t know why, but I do. I agree not to question him further.

“Two hundred and fifty.”

“Dollars? That’s it?” I’m almost disgusted with the number that left his mouth. That’s how little a human life is worth. I look at him and wonder how many people he’s bought before me, but before I can ask him, he narrows his brows and shakes his head.

“Thousand,” he says.

“Excuse me?”

“Two hundred and fifty thousand.” I choke on the food, coughing into my hand. He didn’t just say that amount. There’s no way I heard that correctly. No way at all.

“Are you … you’re not joking?” I ask him as I stare into his eyes. I can see the truth. He isn’t lying to me. I don’t even have words. Nothing is forming in my head. What the hell? How? Why?

“I have money,” he states, shrugging his shoulders, answering my question before I ever even asked it.

“You buy people because you can?”

“You were … different. They typically pick up blonde girls and don’t ask me why. Then I saw you and decided what the hell.”

“So I cost more?” He nods. “Than a blonde?”

“Yeah. Blondes are easy to come by. Redheads? Not so much. And maybe it was a little personal preference, too.”

“Personal preference?”

“I have a thing for redheads. You just don’t see them often,” he says as if this is just a casual conversation. My green eyes lock with his brown ones, and that’s where they stay. I don’t know what to say. He bought me because of my looks?

“But …”

“I know. Makes no sense, does it?”

“Not really,” I say.

“I like what I like. I think redheads are a whole different breed of woman. They’re sexy and full of life. They’ll give me a fuckin’ run, and I like that.”

“You wanted me to be a challenge.”

“Aren’t you gonna be?” he asks me.

“I planned on it,” I admit to him. He laughs now, and it goes straight to my core. How could someone who bought me make me feel things like this? I shouldn’t allow it. In fact, I’m going to lock this down now.

“Good. I like that. I like to see the fight in your eyes.”

“You’re a little weird, don’t you think?”

---