Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 206(@200wpm)___ 165(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 206(@200wpm)___ 165(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
“Is it because you have brown hair? Should I dye my hair again?”
“Maybe?” I don’t know what else to say. Giving Zeki advice on how to seduce Shah feels strange. And pointless. “But I think if he wanted to sleep with you, he probably already would have. He takes what he wants.”
“You’re a cold bitch,” Zeki says, giving me a horrified look. “You think you have the only pussy in space?”
“I don’t think that,” I say, trying not to insult her. I really didn’t mean to. I don’t want a fight, and I don’t need to make an enemy. “I just think he wants me. And not you.”
Oh dear, I’ve done it again. More harshly this time, too. Why can’t I stop? Why is the truth so brutal?
“I should kick your fucking ass,” she hisses. “But you’re hiding behind Shah.”
“I’m not hiding behind anything. You can do what you want to me.”
Okay, that time, that time I might have been inviting some kind of altercation. She’s not the only one feeling emotionally tender. I know I have a lot to prove on this ship, and I also know that everybody thinks I am weak. Being bent over and fucked in front of people trying to have their lunch has done nothing for my street cred.
Zeki tries to slap me. I see her lift her hand, open palm. For a second, I can’t believe she’s actually going to do it. Girls shouldn’t hit. I suppose boys shouldn’t either but try telling them that. Zeki’s slap doesn’t connect, because I take a step back just as she lunges forward, putting her entire body into the attempt to hurt me. Her momentum sends her spinning around, off-balance, and she ends up running face-first into the nearest wall.
“Oh fuck!” She curses as she uses her nose as a brake for the rest of her body. It’s not very effective.
I feel immediately sorry for her, and I go to her to try to help her, but she reaches out with bloodied hands to push me away.
“Get the fuck away from me!”
“Just… look, you’re bleeding.”
She’s bleeding absolutely everywhere. I’ve never seen any mess that intense. Noses must be reservoirs of incredible amounts of blood.
“Leave me the fuck alone, you…”
“The hell is this!” Shah’s deep voice booms over the chaos of her screams. He’s returned to his rooms just in time to be too late to stop the chaos.
“She made me bleed!” Zeki screams at the top of her lungs, hysterically. “She’s a fucking mad cunt. Look what she did to my face. She broke my fucking nose.”
There is a lot of blood everywhere, but that’s not my fault. He can’t think I did this. I’m obviously not capable of that level of aggression. Last he saw me I was hiding under a dining table.
“So,” Shah turns to me. “You’re beating the ship girls? Getting into cat fights?”
“No! I didn’t touch her. I swear I didn’t touch her!”
He puts his hands on his hips, his muscles rippling under the aggressive tattoos. He doesn’t believe me. I can’t believe he doesn’t believe me.
“She punched me right in the fucking face,” Zeki lies. “She’s crazy! She’s a psycho bitch!”
“Talking like that might be why you get hit, Zeki,” Shah points out. “I’m going to call Malik. He can take you to the doc.”
It does not take long for Malik to arrive. I assume he’s her partner, and I feel sorry for him. He deserves someone who isn’t insane. Everybody deserves someone who isn’t insane.
“Why, little sister?” Malik sighs.
Sister? I suppose, if I squint, they do look like siblings. One of them is well over six feet and massively muscled and the other is a slim, willowy psychopath, but I suppose there’s a similarity around the nose, eyes, and mouth. Facially, I guess.
“It’s that…” Zeki points at me and makes a great show of holding back her cursing even though none of this is my fault. This girl is a dangerous snake, and apparently the sister of an Elite, which makes her an Elite too by blood. I wonder how many of Shah’s crew are the fallen powerful. “She did this to me.”
“Did she?” Malik sounds the right kind of skeptical. “Come on. You’re making a massive mess.”
He ushers her out of Shah’s quarters, leaving me alone with him. I don’t even know how to start making him believe me.
“You’re always surprising me, Dreamy,” he says with a deep chuckle. “I did tell you that you have the run of the ship, but I didn’t think I had to tell you not to fight the other girls. What am I going to do about that?”
“I didn’t touch her. I really didn’t. She came in here, and…”
“I know we’re outlaws, but I still don’t like liars,” he says. “You fought Zeki and did some real damage. I knew there was a scrapper somewhere inside you. This place will bring out the real you. But you’re going to be punished for fighting and lying. I don’t want you going feral. It happens when people come aboard for the first time. They think because this is an outlaw vessel there are no rules and no consequences.”