Page 86 of Volatile Waters

Her eyes raced to the wall at my back, in the direction she overheard Kirill whipping and fucking a male slave.

“—I want…” I waved my hand dismissively. “No, I need to witness your sacrifice.”

“Link’s father has him very well protected. Plus, Link’s at Harvard.” Her sneer was as if the mere thought of someone violating her friend was atrocious.

It was exhilarating to witness her fight return. And to squash it. “Expecting you not to believe me, I have another video for you.” Even though I never took the time to see what my men recorded, I knew it was dire. Fire’s eyes were locked to whatever she was seeing, and her hand was slowly rising to cover her appalled mouth. Then I heard water running. When I heard a male’s voice singing some song about “time after time,” I knew they were filming Link in the shower. It was right after that, that Fire cried out in horror before slapping her palm over her mouth even harder, her eyes filling with terrified tears.

Taking a gander, I was pleased to see a gun being held at Link’s head while he slept. Glancing back at Fire, I saw her now staring at me. And, just like that, her eyes told me she no longer trusted Link’s father to protect him. It was now all up to her.

I asked, “Do you wonder what I will ask of you?”

Fire’s flames evaporated. Tiredly, she leaned against the wall at her back. “I do, but it doesn’t matter.” After a pause, she added, “I would live or re-live any horrid event to have Link… safe.” Her words were as sacred as a vow, just as Wolf’s had been to protect his family.

Without lifting her head from its resting place, she studied me. “You don’t look like the monster you truly are.”

I sighed, thinking of how my looks had Wolf believing I wasn’t evil. “Appearances are a façade we profit from hourly. Young girls believe our lies, and then we sell their bodies.”

Hurt exuded from her. “Am I to be sold?”

How could I explain she was only there for my selfish reasons? “You already have been.” It wasn’t a total fabrication. I was indeed paying a high price to have her with me, including alienating my father. “But, Fire, you pique my interest.”

Baffled, she uttered, “Why does it sound like this is a good thing?”

I continued my lie, “I’m debating on going against Father’s orders and keeping you for myself.”

I was hoping she would be satisfied with my answer—find me to be the more pleasing option, but she replied, “What are the chances that my illegal human buyer is better than you?”

So, I chose to make myself appear more appetizing than her fake purchaser. I got creative and described past customers. “Seeing how your new owner has gone through one redhead with green eyes every six months, for the last decade or so, I would say you will be dead in, let’s say, eight months.”

She locked her jaw, “I thought you said six,” almost implying she didn’t want to live the extra two months.

“Two months of training.”

“Training?”

I had to swallow more saliva as I hungered to torture her. “We sell anything that can be imagined in the trade of sexual servitude.”

Her upper lip snarled as if my job was repulsive. “Meaning?”

“Some deliveries go straight into sex farms. Others, our Elites, are trained for certain perversions.” I realized, with this reasoning, things I wanted to do to her, would now be explainable. “Your soon-to-be owner has paid a very high price for you to be an expert in oral sex and bondage. I have to build your endurance. The non-written agreement says you have to last as long as possible.”

As it was with Wolf, Fire had been mystifyingly easy to converse with. And, as had happened with Wolf, Fire’s presence seemed the only other chance of me ever being a decent human. Something inside her had the only ounce of my humanity fighting to the surface, desperate for her to hear my silent cry for help.

I dare say she heard that plea.

Maybe that is why, by the end of the conversation, Fire chose to win me over rather than be sent to her fictitious owner. Maybe it was the fact that I only gave her two horrid options to choose from. Either way, it was time to move us forward, but she had another demand: warm water.

Not for Wolf, but showers for slaves were always cold. It was a technique to break them down even more so. Washing your body in cold Russian water was a torture of its own. So, Fire and I made a deal. She stared at me as she spoke over my burner cellphone. “I’m calling to say goodbye, Mother. There is no need to continue the façade. You don’t love me, never will. Be well.”

I needed to cut ties that I could control, and I knew her parents well. I knew they would happily accept Fire exiting their life. I knew they wouldn’t ask questions. And they didn’t.

When she handed me back the burner cellphone, her voice sounded defeated. “You are literally using against me the only person who cares for me on this earth.”

As I had with Wolf, another weak moment took over, for the sake of a slave. In disbelief, I watched as my hand reached out and took hold of hers. “You are lucky to have one.”

I relished in the sensation of her fingers clinging to mine until she asked, “Will I ever see Link again?”

Thinking of the blog Reether was presently working on, and realizing my recruiter was indeed wise, I replied, “Frequently, if you behave.”