Page 66 of The Harbinger
“Which one is the lesser of two evils?”
He took his seat, legs spread out before him, commanding the space around us. “That’s for you to decide.” Sacha opened a manila envelope, ready to do business, while I weighed the decision in front of me. “Better the devil you know.”
“I don’t know you.”
He glanced up at me. “You know him less.”
My gut quivered and my skin chilled.
One. Two. Three.
My fingernail scratched across my middle finger, and I gasped, the pain pinning me down at this moment.
He won.
If I sat on the man’s lap, he won.
If I kneeled at his feet, he won.
Either way, he’d get what he wanted. Disobeying could have consequences worse than simply doing as I was told.
One. Two. Three.
I gnawed on my bottom lip and sank down, every fiber in my being screaming with protest. The men grumbled when my knees hit the floor. My vision blurred, the warm trickle of a tear trailing down my cheek. Pain surged through my knees as the hard floor pressed into my bruises, searing and relentless.
“Good choice,milaya.”
Sacha’s hand glided over my head like I was his pet, then pulled away. Before the warmth left my scalp, he dropped five colored highlighters on the floor and placed the holder beside me, igniting a flutter inside my chest.
Red, orange, yellow…
I reached for the first color when he tugged at my hair.
“Leave them.”
Chapter 16
Mia
Purplebruiseshadspreadacross my knees after hours spent kneeling, but it was nothing compared to the inability to put my thoughts into action and the hunger panging my belly. The pens waited for me to pick them up, but he’d frozen me in place, unable to move. Every second they lay there sent my heart rampaging through my chest.
When the men had left, Sacha helped me to my numb feet. His softness returned, and my insides melted, but still, the pens remained.
After Sacha heard the grumbling in my belly, he forced Dmitri to make a pitstop, then ordered an ungodly amount of food that I scarfed down while Dmitri drove us home, the sky painted with false hope and twinkling stars.
During my week on the streets with Jenny, I’d lie down on the warm pavement and watch the stars drift across the night sky, wondering if someone out there loved me—someone who gazed at those stars and pondered the same thing about me.
And now I know.
Lex was out there, her bright shining smile lighting up the world, hopefully taking the pain away from my disappearance.
I frowned at the thought of my parents. Didn’t they miss me?
Would Sacha help me find them?
Sacha’s screen lit up the back seat as he stared down, the luminescence accentuating his perfected beard and granite jawline. If I asked, what would his answer be?
He wouldn’t. He didn’t give a damn about my family waiting for me… He sought only to use me.