Page 26 of Repossess My Heart

I let my long hair fall around my face, hiding it as I lift one to my mouth. Ignoring the burn of the hot synthetic meat inside. Flavor erupts on my tongue, making a groan slip past my lips. I’m halfway to shoving another piping hot bite into my mouth when his hand snaps out to stop me. He squeezes my grip on the metal skewer, making me drop the food onto the table, taking my heart with it. By the time my head snaps away from my murdered food to argue with him, he’s already taken it and headed back to the booth. The woman’s aged, tattooed face pales. Everything that happens next happens fast. Nine grips her ashen hair, slamming her face onto the hot plate in front of her. Our shared silent shock is short-lived.

“Nine!” I yell, tripping in my hurry as I try to extract my legs from the table and chair.

The woman screams as he jerks her face back up, revealing badly burned flesh. Jerking the sobbing woman to face me as I grip his arm, trying to make him release her, “Stop it! What are you-“

“Apologize to her. Now.” He growls, halting my frantic tugging.

“I-I’m sorry.” She wails.

Another woman bursts from the back a knife in hand before his drone zips to her, stunning her with an electrical pop her as her body shudders and drops. Nine doesn’t so much as glance at the other woman shoving the older woman up and the still steaming food into her arms. “Make it again, this time without your spit.”

My stomach rolls as his drone hovers beside me again, bopping up and down before its monotone voice answers the question I didn’t get a chance to ask, “You have not consumed anything harmful.”

My breath leaves me shakier than it was moments ago as I watch the woman shakily prepare more food. Nine returns to my side, not bothering to speak again, slipping into his Repo Man persona. I wish I could see his face. The drone goes to the woman, making her squeal before she realizes it's just watching, ensuring she doesn’t spit in my food again. Suddenly, I’m not that hungry anymore. My hands on my stomach willing myself not to vomit. “It’s okay, let's just go.”

“No.”

“Nine…”

“You need to eat, and the vermin will feed you or I’ll gut it and cook its organs for you instead.” He taunts her more than me as I plop back down at the table in defeat.

“You can’t really blame her.” I whisper, mostly to myself.

I don’t flinch when he jerks his hand to the side of my head, brushing my hair back over my shoulder. “I might be a murderer, but even I wouldn’t blame a captive for what her captor subjects her to.” He says it loudly, causing the remaining shops to slam their doors. He’s lying for my sake and we both know it. I’m no more a captive here than the drone.

When the food is done, it’s the drone that brings it to me, but Nine is already pulling me to my feet. “Eat and walk sweetling. We’re low on time. It doesn’t serve us to stay around the filth.” The hate in his voice is scathing and it's not even directed at me as I grab my food and once again fall in step with the monster at my side.

“This district is more affluent than mine.”

“Vermin often possess wealth even the likes of me have never seen.”

I quickly chew my food, forcing it down my throat before it was small enough to be safely swallowed. “You’re talking about the people Above.”

The nod he gives me could barely be considered one. For a moment I debate correcting him. Telling him everything because… he defended me, I guess. He’s killed for me, sure, but that was because they wanted the same thing as him. They got in his way. He didn’tneedto stick up for me.

He wanted to.

I’ll tell him before he kills me. Maybe… I don’t know if he can do something useful with the information. If he’d even be interested. He doesn’t seem like a savior type. I hardly think now is an appropriate time to blow his entire understanding of our world straight to shit.

“Shouldn’t we be hiding or something?”

“No.”

I wait for him to elaborate, using the quiet pause to shove more food in my mouth. When minutes pass and I realize he isn’t going to, I open my mouth again. “Why?”

“I cloaked us to a few that matter.”

“The man on the roof? Another Repo Man, number Ten right. You’ve got beef with him.”

He scoffs, “Something like that, but no, he’s the one that needs to see us.”

I practically blanch holding out my now empty food container to him. “Why the fuck would you want that?”

He takes it and I can feel his scowl more than I can see it as he tosses it in a wastebasket a little ways behind us. He doesn’t answer my question, because of course not. “Why-“

“We’re here.” He interrupts, “You’re going to be a good girl, aren’t you sweetling?”

“Not at all. I told you I wasn’t helping-“

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