RA

opping into the chair beside me, still

"I'm already tired of s

o find out, he's

t time finishing what I was do

ent fo

desk, "I'll just go straight to the point

ce, three times bef

ve misheard him, "I'm not

carefully, someone has bought your contract and now you belong to the

for

sol

ind his desk with his hands in his pocket

, lis

every single thing I did in this club to buy my freedom back, yo

ot that

r, from rage. Pure, hot and three years deep, "you promised me, you sat in this office and loo

gs ch

it sounded like someone who had been pushed way past the

as too good

on Marcus, n

ing that might have been guilt if Marcus Webb was even capable of guilt, then it wa

do

can

ive him his money back,

ar

ght now, pick up tha

nversation was over whether the other person knew it or not, "his men will be her

he part of me that had been holding on, counting down days, sur

one small, "Marcus please, I'm begging you, please don't do this, I'll work extra sets, I'll

aid, and looked a

ou're

hat, because we bo

lked

ms crossed, reading my face b

t fix it,

nd she followed without being asked, closing the door behind us,

, the ugly kind, the kind that had been building for three years of counting d

s, I was eight

and pulled me in, "I've

my hands, "Gia I can't, I cannot be

kno

like I'm nothing, like three years

g," she said, firm

e across think they can just o

g with them," she grabbed my face in both hand

k of my hand and just sat there breathing, t

he ang

it had been waiting just behind it, an

going,"

ed at me

h he paid, I am not walking out of here with his men tomorro

t say

again, I cannot survive it again," I stood up, somethin

nig

and I'm walking out of here ton

ifted in her face, the worry giving way to somet

onight," she said, "Marcus doub

kno

you gettin

tched her figure it ou

she

ia

to two grown men and distract them whi

eas

is i

kno

helped you he will make

w that

me with the expression that meant she was already doing

ver fits in one bag, you don'

nly what mattered, the cash I had saved, my docume

ng me pack, "on the other side is the street, you get over

w how

arm and stopped me, "wh

my only real friend in three years, the only person in t

said, "but anywhere

ight and fast, then pushed

r attention," she said, moving t

ia

stop

I said, "fo

smiled, small and real, "Don't get

in my head, bag on my shoulder,

and I pushed through it quietly, hit the cold night air, crossed the alley in ten steps and jumped the fe

the ground