Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
I lost time after that, days, weeks, and when I eventually came to, I was in the hospital. He was in the chair beside my bed, and he seemed wrecked. Rolling my head sideways, I was staring at him, and he startled when he saw I was awake.
“Fuck, baby,” he’d gasped, and I couldn’t pull my head away when he cupped my face in his hands. It was a fight even to try and keep my eyes open. “I didn’t know they would leave and take you with—I’m so sorry, I couldn’t find you, and…but it’s over now. They’re gone.”
Gone meant he’d killed them. They were dead. Normally news of his protectiveness, his possessiveness, came with a surge of happiness. He’d made someone pay for touching me or hurting me, and it made me feel loved, prized. But not that time, and never again. I finally knew better. He saw me as something he owned, nothing more. He couldn’t make money pimping me out if I was gone.
I closed my eyes after that, too broken to look at him.
Once I left the hospital, I was taken to his mansion in Beverly Hills, and I had a room, just like the others. Sometimes he slept with me, sometimes men who worked for him showed up, and men he wanted to be in business with. He hit me because I was a robot. He wanted me to love him, but that was gone. He showered me with jewelry and watches, so many clothes, made my suite an oasis, and beat me because I no longer gushed. The light in my eyes, he said, had gone out. My spirit had been extinguished. He hated that he’d done that even as he gave me to others, the money and favors they offered too much to turn down. People wanted me whether I was willing or not. It didn’t matter to them. They enjoyed themselves either way.
Life went on, and while he thought of me as lifeless, that wasn’t the truth. I was hatching a plan. I waited and listened. Because no one watched when he put things in his safe, but I saw all the numbers as he pressed them. It needed his handprint and the code, and there was only one shot at it. If he messed up, it locked down for the day, and while he grumbled about it, he liked the security.
The last night I was there, I was my old self with him. He actually cried; he was so happy. We had sex, and he never suspected that I’d drugged him. While he was loopy, I walked him to the safe, pressed his palm to the plate, and dropped him on the floor. He didn’t move. I then entered the code and cleaned out the safe. There was a hundred grand in cash, fake passports, a pouch full of diamonds, and an eight-terabyte hard drive.
Fortunately, there were ten of us in the house, four women, six men. It worked out perfectly. Each person I released from their locked room received ten grand. I didn’t mention the diamonds, and nobody asked. I was sure they probably had etched serial numbers on them, and I didn’t want anyone to get in trouble. I took them purely because Gen was probably holding them for someone else, or they were a deposit and would be exchanged for cash later. I didn’t know, didn’t care. I simply took them.
I didn’t ask if everyone was escaping with me, I knew their hearts. They all wanted out as much as I did. We’d all fallen for Gen in the beginning, each taken to his heart and his bed. Not one of us didn’t feel regret, shame and, mostly, that we were, without a doubt, the stupidest people on the planet. To be so gullible was insane. But it was a new day and not one person didn’t accompany me to the airport. Every single one hugged and kissed me and then got on a plane. I got a ticket for later in the day and called Erast.
“Holy shit, Pax,” he barely managed to get out. “I’ve never seen Gen so—he’s foaming at the mouth, I swear to God.”
Somehow, I didn’t have that need to run like the others had. I mean, I did, I was not sticking around, but not immediately. I had something to do first.
“I know you’re working with the FBI,” I told him. “I’ve heard you on the phone. I’ve followed you and seen you talking to them.”
Silence on the line.
“I didn’t tell Gen because, let’s face it, if I had, you’d be dead.”
Shaky exhale then. “Yeah.”
“I hate you for doing nothing, but I hate him more.”
“Listen, Pax, I—”
“Here’s what I want,” I began. “I want you and your FBI contact to come to the airport where I’m sitting outside the security checkpoint at terminal three. I will be here for two hours, so you better fuckin’ hurry.”