Page 95 of Bad Seed
“Yes, sir,” the dark haired one with a perm says.
“Good, good. You’ll go far.” Red can barely get that out without snickering, but he slaps Green on the back and the two head out. In the doorframe, Red jerks his cigarette toward me. “You better have brought some fucking earplugs.”
The door slams.
“Well, boys. Settle in,” the blond one says, and he pulls out a gun.
I jerk in the chair, scraping the back down the cold window I’ve been pressed against all night. The move draws the eyes of all three men, one of whom lingers way too long on my bare legs.
“Heh?” The wiry, dark-haired one breaks from his pack. He stares down at me, but doesn’t hunch to my level.
A hand grabs the back of the chair, and his fetid breath etches down my chest. “So this is the bait?”
I grab the bottom of my chair and try to shrink, but he’s so close there’s no escape. My heart pounds, and I start to tremble. His merciless eyes peel down my loose tank top, then dart back to the bed. “Why don’t we have some fun?”
Oh, fuck. Oh, shit. I glance to the bed myself, then impale my nails under the chair. I want to merge with the wood, make it impossible for him to—
“That’s not what we’re here for,” the blond man interrupts. “Mr Ato will be most displeased.”
“He’s not gonna fucking know. Bradly?” He shouts to the other dark-haired man. “You in?”
No. No. No.
Bradly shrugs and reaches for the zipper on his jumpsuit.
I leap back, smacking my head and the chair into the window. “You’ll be a good girl, or else—” The wiry one folds up his fist to smash into my jaw.
“I wouldn’t,” the blond one says without a care while checking his gun.
“Who the fuck cares what you’d do, Mike?”
Mike doesn’t even take his eyes off his gun. He casually drops over his shoulder, “That’s Talong’s girl.”
A bomb exploding in the room would have caused less of a reaction. The dark haired one leaps away, hands extended like they’re coated in nitroglycerin. “I didn’t… Is she really—?”
Mike stares long at him. “Why do you think we’re here, dipshit?”
“Fuck!” He’s gone white as a sheet and can’t stop shaking his hands as if to prove he didn’t touch me. “We, uh… Can we get you anything?” he asks.
The man went from about to… To asking me if I want anything? I don’t know who this Talong is, but I’m realizing I shouldn’t have been willing to give him up so fast. Whoever he is, he could be the only way to get me out of here. Or break my body into a million tiny pieces.
“Water,” I say, my voice crackling after the long day.
“No problem. Bradly.” He snaps his fingers at the man who’s zipped his jumpsuit so fast his neck’s gone red.
“And something to eat. Maybe a pizza. Extra cheese. And turn on the TV.”
The two terrifying men scamper off to fulfill my wishes. Bradly fills one of the glasses in the bathroom from the tap while the third one’s on the phone ordering room service. As Bradly holds the glass in front of me, I stare up at him.
“Could I have some ice?” I drag my fingers over the bottom of the chair. “Please.”
His grunt of displeasure turns into abject panic. “No problem,” Bradly shouts and he flees out the door.
“I said a cheese pizza. You have to have something like that. It’s a fucking kitchen. Make me a god damn cheese pizza!”
With two violent mobsters answering to my every whim, I start to lean back.
Cold metal presses to the base of my skull.
