Page 33 of Brutal Game

Pasting a flirtatious smile on my face, I served student after student, cleaning as I went because Dick was too cheap to hire barbacks. I tried to ignore Jack’s conversation with Lindsey, but it was practically impossible. He hadn’t left his seat at the bar, just grinned at her. She giggled at something he’d said. It would be bullshit of me to not like her just forflirting with an objectively attractive guy. A guy who happened to have been inside of me only a few hours ago.

Fuck my life.

“Aviva!” Dick hollered from the back. “Get in here.”

“But I have customers,” I called back.

“Don’t care. Tovah can handle them. Get in here.”

Sighing, I dropped my rag on the counter, signaled Tovah, who rolled her eyes and shook her head. I walked around to the end of the bar and headed down the hallway to the back room.

I pushed the door open to find Dick, straddling a chair in front of his desk and, of course, leering at me. Revulsion filled me, but just like every other day I came into work, I buried it. I needed the money, he was my boss, so I was stuck hiding how I really felt and letting him push me around.

“What’s up?” I asked him.

He tried to hide his leer under a stern look, but I saw right through him. Even if I hadn’t been able to read his real thoughts on his face, his hardweinertold the story.

Ick. Ugh. Ew.

“I’m concerned about your performance, Aviva,” he told me. “You’re late all the time?—”

Barely.

“—You’re rude to the customers?—”

The only customer I’d ever been rude to was Jack, and Dick hadn’t been there to see it.

“—And you’re not picking up the slack.”

I worked my ass off, it was his ass that was lazy.

“I’m sorry. I’ll do better.” I forced out the words.

Dick smirked. “Unfortunately, better isn’t enough. I think I’m going to have to let you go…”

No.

He couldn’t. He couldn’t fire me. The Stacks was the only bar in Gehenom or the surrounding towns that would hire me without a bartending license, and any other job would conflict with my classes. Work-study didn’t pay well enough. The tips at The Stacks weren’t amazing, but they were better than anywhere else I could work. What was I going to do?

Jack can help you.It was a bizarre thought. Jack was wealthy, but he didn’t want to help me, he wanted to hurt me. I dismissed the thought, focusing on Dick.

“Please, Dick, don’t fire me,” I begged. “I need this job. I need?—”

“I know Aviva, I know,” he shushed me, and the sound slithered over my skin like a slug. I swallowed down bile. “We can come to an…arrangement.”

He winked at me, and I wanted to die. I knew what he meant.

But as if I didn’t, he placed his hand on his zipper. “You take care of Big Dick, and I’ll let you keep your job.”

Overcompensation. When someone exaggerates to cover up a shortcoming.Dick’s macho bullshit was straight out of a psych 101 textbook.

I covered my mouth. I was going to laugh, or scream, I wasn’t sure, but neither would serve me right now.

But I knew my answer.

No.

No, I couldn’t do it. Wouldn’t do it. I was already being sexually blackmailed by one man, I refused to let it be two. Let it become a pattern. I’d rather start an Only Fans than let Dick touch me.

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