After the shouting stops, there’s silence for about ten minutes, maybe more, before I hear footsteps outside of my room.
The door slides open and the bald man steps in. He shuts the door behind him and smiles at me.
“I’m Anton,” he says. “And you’re mine. Do you understand that? I own you. Logan worked for me.”
I sit up and stare at him. “Logan worked for you?”
“That’s right.”
“What do you mean ...worked?”
He smiles at me slowly, that wicked and gross smile again. He looks like a pig. Or at least he looks like what a pig would look like if it were pure fucking evil.
“He’s not with us any longer,” he says.
“What happened to him?” I feel desperate and I know I shouldn’t be asking questions, but I can’t help it.
“You’re fond of Logan,” Anton says. He walks over and sits down at the foot of my cot. “I can understand that. He was a handsome man, I’ll give him that.”
“Was ...?” I’m practically pleading with him.
I have to know what happened to Logan. I have to know. I can’t sit around without finding out if he’s alive or dead, forever in suspense.
“It doesn’t matter, Riley,” Anton says. “Maybe he’s alive and maybe he’s dead. Is that what you want to know?”
“Yes,” I beg. “Please. I just need to know if he’s alive.”
“I see.” Anton leans back and sighs. “It’s been a very trying day, you know. Very trying. You know I have a shipment coming up?”
I don’t know what he’s talking about and I really don’t care. My whole body is screaming for more information about Logan but he’s clearly not giving me any. I can already tell that this man likes to play games.
He’s the boss. That’s obvious. He’s the guy that runs this whole operation, and I know that I need to be careful. If this man is the one in charge, that means he’s a very dangerous man. He’s probably broken many, many girls already, and probably killed even more. I’m in danger with every passing second this man sits near me.
I don’t know how I know this. I can just sense it. I’ve been around horrible men my whole life and maybe I’ve just developed a sense for it. I knew Logan wasn’t a bad person instinctively, deep down inside of my body, in the same way that I just know that this man is rotten.
It’s the way he’s looking at me, like I’m not a person but a piece of luggage. He says he owns me, and although Logan said similar things, I think this man really means it literally. He owns me like a piece of property, and I’m his to do with whatever he wants.
That includes breaking me. Physically breaking me.
I have to be careful, but I have to know the truth about Logan. I need to find some way to get it out of him.
“Do you want to talk to me about it?” I ask, leaning toward him.
I don’t expect him to backhand me. It comes out of nowhere. He whips his hand and smacks it across my jaw, sending stars dancing across my vision. I collapse back onto the cot, curling up into the fetal position.
He grins at me. “Did I fucking ask for you to speak, bitch?”
I stare at him quietly.
“Good. There you go. Learned your lesson. You speak when spoken to.” He leans back against the wall, smiling again, looking innocent and normal but I saw it, there for a second, the beast inside of him.
“So, lots of stress. I don’t need you pretending like you give a fuck. I’m sure you’re just trying to get me to open up about Logan.” He sneers and spits on the ground. “That stupid fuck.” He looks at me, shaking his head.
Why does he hate Logan so much? He has to have seen through Logan’s façade. Or maybe he can sense these things, just like I can, and knew that Logan wasn’t like the rest of them.
That has to be it. This guy can sense these things, just like I can, but he didn’t like what he felt about Logan. Now that Logan is out of the picture, wherever he is, this Anton guy is going to take it out on me.
All because Logan was good to me. All because Logan tried to save me, to shield me from the worst of it. My time here was easy compared to most of the girls, and now this bastard Anton is going to try and take that away from me. He’s going to try and taint Logan’s memory as much as possible.
“And now your precious Logan is all gone. He treated you like a queen, even made sure you were okay with everything that happened.” He grins at the look on my face. It’s pure and abject horror.
“That’s right,” he continues, moving closer to me. “We were listening. We heard everything you two said to each other. Absolutely everything. We even heard you, too.” His grin is disgusting and I want to hit him or scream, but I know that will only make it worse.