Page 183 of Merciless Desires

Her eyes narrowed. “Eight hundred.”

“Higher.”

Her fingers curled round the arms of her chair. “A thousand?”

“Higher.”

“Rose, really? Okay, two thousand.”

“Higher.”

“Fuck. How much, Rose?”

“One hundred. Thousand. Pounds.”

She stared at me, motionless, her jaw slack. "What?"

“A hundred grand,” I clarified.

Remi didn’t move for nearly a minute.

"You okay Rem?"

"Um yeah.” She reached for her phone. “What is this website? Are you sure it’s not a hoax?”

“Are you saying I’m not worth a hundred grand?”

“Oh God, Rose, no. That’s not what I’m saying at all. And you’re worth more than that anyway. You’re… you’re priceless. I’m thinking maybe…”

“You’re not a virgin,” I reminded her.

She paused and chewed her lip. “This is true.”

Wringing her hands together, she frowned. “So, you’re going to go through with it?”

“If he pays up.”

She nodded, still frowning as if deep in thought. “Okay. Make sure you get the money first. Tell me exactly where and when it’s happening. Take a can of mace.”

I laughed lightly. “Okay, okay.”

“And remember, Rose…” She regarded me with a wariness bordering on fear. “This man is not your knight in shining armour, okay? More likely he’s a deranged freak who gets his rocks off to breaking in virgins and has way more money than sense.”

“Right,” I replied, forcing back the fear I’d managed to block out. “Got it. He’s no knight in shining armour.”

Then I tipped back my bottle of beer and drank it, recklessly, in one.

My nerves did star jumps and somersaults as I watched the auction counter tick down. I stood up for the hundredth time in ten minutes and paced through packed cardboard boxes, swigging Pepsi and chewing gum like a six-year-old who’d just consumed a lifetime’s supply of Haribo.

I hadn’t told Mum and Jeff I was moving out. As far as they were aware, I’d forgotten the hitting incident and had moved on, just slightly more submissive than before. I hadn’t ventured out of my room unless it was to leave the house altogether. I hadn’t tried to approach Mum again and she hadn’t attempted to approach me. It broke my heart that she wasn’t standing up for her own daughter, but if I was ever going to be able to help her, I had help myself first. And getting far away from Middlehurst Drive was top of my list.

I swigged down more Pepsi – the caffeine helped jump start my thinking away from my sorry home life towards the possibility of a future in which I’d have enough money to get the education I’d dreamed about. I glanced back at the screen. Then, as if time itself had stopped, I stared at the ticker, wondering why it hadn’t budged for an age. I tapped the track pad and nothing happened.

What?

I hit the track pad and, again, nothing happened.

Whaaaaat? Fuck, fuck, fuck. What was going on?

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