Page 28 of Brutal Empire

My heart didn’t stop its frantic beating all night. We kept to the shadows, walking, and I kept jumping every time a dog barked, but somehow, I didn’t feel all that scared. It went beyond the fact that if anyone dared grab me this time, they would meet their end, and it scared and disgusted me that part of it had to do with the man leading us.

There had been a change in him. The Bastian I knew had a playful nature. I didn’t understand all the things he said to me, but I saw the way his eyes danced and how they warmed, and they caused my stomach to recoil. Not in warning, but in something I couldn’t begin to comprehend.

The Bastian before me now was sharp. Something switched in his eyes, and that warmness I had been used to had been shut off, and the inkiness was pools of black ice. Then it hit me, the memory as if it had been yesterday.

“Bailey, be careful on the way to school, and watch out for the black ice. It’s very slippery.”

I stopped for a second, and I didn’t know how he knew, but Bastian immediately turned, took hold of my wrist, and gently pulled me.

Emotions I didn’t understand began to rush me. I didn’t need to see her face, but I knew deep down in my heart the voice that came to me was my mother’s. My mind had forgotten her, but somehow, my heart remembered and ached. Her voice was soft and caring. I had been loved.

Then we came to a street that seemed to be busy with life. Bas stopped walking and turned his profile toward me.

“We need a place to stay the night,” he told me.

This I knew. The way things had been here, not many people were out at night, and those who were had affiliations to the cartel or doing patrols for the military. I did know crossing either of them wouldn’t bode well for us.

Much like me, Bas must have aliases, weapons, and money in his bag, but those wouldn’t get us anywhere without being smart.

Here it was, just the two of us against everyone, and for some reason, that made me swallow as I looked at him.

“I know you know that I know about you,” he told me, and I nodded. “It’s our best option for the night, or else I wouldn’t make you go there.”

I sucked in a breath, getting the feeling of where we were going. Bastian waited for some sort of confirmation from me, and then he started to move as soon as I nodded. We came out of an alley, and the street was filled with life: bars, strip clubs, and dingy hotels.

If Bastian’s warning had not clued me in to the fact that this hotel was in the middle of a street like this, this was already a red flag.

The hotel, if it could even be called that, was small. I’m talking about a small light hanging over a beat-up desk that looked ready to fall apart at any second.

I gulped as I saw men coming in and out of the halls. They all looked seedy, with wrinkled shirts, remains of red lipstick on their faces, and their zippers halfway up.

My master liked to have parties, but the men who attended those parties looked nothing like the ones crawling these halls. They all had crisp-cut suits, manicured nails, and groomed hair, but at the end of the day, they were savages.

“Un cuarto.” Bastian’s smooth voice pulled me out of my thoughts. He spoke with the man behind the counter and pulled out a few five-hundred Mexican peso bills.

I was no expert, but I would say that was more than what was expected of a place like this.

As soon as Bas snatched the key, he began to pull me with him. I didn’t know if I could do this. Half the doors weren’t even closed, and I could hear grunts and moans—men on top of women or in groups with just one.

I didn’t realize what I was doing until my whole body was pressed to Bastian’s back, my head nestled by his neck. His grip on me was ironclad.

“Oh, little pet. So young. So pretty. So naïve. So fucking perfect for me.”

My head was a fucked-up place. I wanted to remember my past, but in remembering it, I also dragged up my history with him. Either I remembered all of it or nothing at all.

A soft tap on my cheek brought me back to the present. I blinked and found Bastian’s dark eyes. We were in a room, if it should even be called that.The light wasn’t bright enough to lighten the whole place. The bedsheets were a dark cream, and it took me a second to realize they were once white.

“I think I’d rather sleep on the floor.” I broke the silence with a disgusted tone. Bastian didn’t hesitate to crack a small smile, and I took a step back, only for my back to press against the door. Noting this, he stepped away from me.

“It’s not a five-star hotel, but let me tell you, it beats camping in the fucking tundra.”

I scrunched my nose.

“At least the snow is clean,” I countered.

He looked horrified.

“You know what freezes in the snow?” he asked.

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