Page 63 of Kissed By the Alien
“I don’t sell girls.” With dark eyes, Moses glares at Virtue. “But I have no problems usin’ dem against dem smug blue bastards.”
“The og’dals are refusing to land anywhere near L.A. now and if we don’t hand over those blasters, we’re dead,” Virtue says.
“We ask for extra time.”
“They’ll kill us. We sell the girl. I got plenty of buyers who’d take a fat one like her. She ain’t as frail as those skinny bitches Wayne’s been peddling.”
That hurts. It shouldn’t, but they’ve reduced me to cattle and stamped Grade A on me because I won’t break as easily as the other unfortunate women they’ve kidnapped and sold.
“Not sellin’ her. Can’t. But we can use her to get the blasters.”
“How?” Virtue asks. “We lost a lot of men on the raid and came away with shit.”
“She ratted us out to the alien who arrested me. She works for those blue motherfuckers. They’ll pay for her return.”
“Those blue bastards don’t give a fuck about one bitch with a fat pussy.”
I cringe as I try to turn my body away from them, but they have me trussed up like a Thanksgiving Day turkey with my hands bound over my head, attached to the dump truck behind me, and my legs tied at the ankles. They’re wrong if they think that will keep me from kicking someone again. I cracked some guy in the jaw when they hauled me out of my hideout. I regret I wasn’t wearing high heels at the time.
Enough is enough. Time to steal back some control.
“If you’re thinking of trading me, forget it,” I call over to them. “I’m difficult. Not the submissive type your clients prefer.”
“Some of our clients like a girl with fight in her,” Virtue spits back. Literally. The guy hasn’t stopped chewing that wad of tobacco or spitting every few minutes since I got here.
“Untie me and I’ll show you how much fight I have in me,” I say, and it may be a stupid idea, but I’m out of options. The guy’s twice my size and probably four times as strong. But I’m getting desperate. Sitting here doing nothing goes against my nature and the more I let them stay in control of the situation, the more likely I’ll end up dead.
Virtue barrels toward me, ready to do something that’s already making me regret not thinking through what I’m saying. I turn my head to the side, awaiting the blow.
Moses shouts, “Enough! She’s no good to us dead.”
Agreed. But I don’t voice that. Virtue’s irritated enough. I need to be smart here, give them something they can’t refuse instead of a lot of lip.
Images of Lutan return and I find it easier to focus, to think strategically. I almost smile, but I force myself to stay neutral. Smiling will be taken the wrong way, worse than talking back. Lutan stays calm in bad situations. Doesn’t let the unknown throw him. That’s why he’s so good at what he does.
“You want blasters, right?” I moderate my voice, asking like my father would, like a businessman ready to deal.
Moses’s eyes narrow. “Don’t try to convince me you’re interested in helping me over that alien boyfriend of yours.”
Damn, he must have seen us together at some point. Or he’s guessing. I clench my jaw, remember all the luxuries the guards constantly brought to me. That must have looked suspicious to Moses who sat a few cells away with nothing except a cold cement floor.AndI didn’t have to escape. Hunzu released me for no apparent reason.
“Did it ever occur to you those aliens were playing us against one another? Using us both?” I spout off, with my hands on my hips. “No. You assumed I’m screwing one of them because that’s what all women do, right? What’ve you been smoking, Moses? That tall blue guy, what was his name, Leftie, Lucky?—”
“Lutan. Warrior Lutan. He punched me each time I didn’t address him byWarrior.”
I haven’t seen that side of Lutan, but I’m seriously impressed. The guy knows how to demand respect. “Well,WarriorLutan has my gun. Even without bullets, that thing still cost me. I have no more loyalty to him than I do you.”
“You have no loyalty to me. We made a deal in them cells and then you turned on me. Told them blue bastards where the meet would be.”
“I would have done anything to get out of there.” Like now. Except I didn’t fear for my life in the basement of that embassy as I do here.
I had no reason to fear Lutan and his people, even when he locked me up. I wasn’t happy with him. Wanted to rip him a new one and give him a piece of my mind. He’s lucky he left me down there long enough to calm down and realizewhyhe arrested me. Figuring out he wanted to keep me safe soothed the sting long enough to get over myself and see his side of things.
“You would’ve done the same, and don’t tell me you wouldn’t have,” I mouth off at Moses, because this is not the time to appear weak.
Moses’s right-hand taps against his thigh. I’ll say one thing about the man; he’s not impulsive and he can read people, which is a skill that’s kept him alive. He knows how much I wanted that gun, and he doesn’t know Lutan returned it to me. If I’d kept the damn thing on my person—andsecured some bullets—then I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now.
“What are ya proposin’, girlie?”
