Page 5 of Inside the Maelstrom: Part One
I didn’t need to check my phone to know that my friends were on the other side of the perimeter fence that ran around the center. It was the only prison-like feature of this place. I knew without a doubt they were there, because Sampson was allergic to being late. Or being early. He was exactly where he needed to be, whenever he needed to be there. Not a moment before or a moment after.
Me: Jump the fence. We’ll hang by the pool.
I slipped from my room and out into the main hall, nodding at the night nurse and giving her my signature cocky grin. Otto always said it was an expression that made girls swoon, and it didn’t matter if the girl was seventeen or seventy.
Combined with the shitload of money I was putting into her retirement fund, it was enough for her to ignore the security monitors for the night. Plus, I’d solemnly sworn that I wouldn’t do anything crazy like escape, or try and off myself. I snorted internally. Because crazy people and addicts didn’t lie. Yeah, right.
Lucky for Nurse Becky, I didn’t intend on doing any of those things. My father put me in here to get me out of the way, and honestly, it was better than being at home, with the constant fighting and arguing. Then there was the political trail and the false smiling that was so goddamn tiring. I’d rather stay here and talk bullshit to Dr. Arabut, which he’d feed back to my dad, despite all his Hippocratic oaths and statutory non-disclosure provisions.
At least the food was good and the view was nice.
I slowed near the room that I knew was Aviva’s. She was… interesting. Unpredictable. And she seemed to hate me, which I kind of found refreshing. She didn’t want to fuck me, or try and marry me. At least, I didn’t think so. Hell, if she was playing the long game, getting thrown in here for whatever terrible thing she’d done, all in the hopes of intriguing me enough to put a ring on it… Well, I liked her dedication.
Opening her door quietly, I was glad the lights were dimmed at bedtime. She had the bed by the back window, which meant I had to creep past her roommate, whose name I didn’t remember. Standing over Aviva’s bed, I reached down and slapped a hand over her mouth, dragging her from beneath the covers and into the hall before she was even fully awake.
Then the bitch bit me.
“Fuck! That hurt.” Dropping her to her feet, I looked at the crescent-shaped dents in my hand. Which was why I didn’t see the punch coming until it cracked into my nose.
“What the fuck iswrongwith you, you goddamn psychopath?” she screeched, and I hushed her.
“Be quiet. Fuck. I just thought you’d like to hang out, not maul me like goddamn Jeffrey Dahmer. Christ, that’s going to get infected.” It was definitely beginning to bleed. I looked up just in time to catch the next hit in my hand. “Woah, calm your tits.”
Her chest was heaving as she panted through her teeth. “You pulled me out of bed in the middle of the night, covering my mouth and dragging—” She paused, like she was trying to collect herself. “Dragging me into the hallway. Because you want tohang out?”
“Well, when you put it like that, it sounds dumb.”
She stepped closer until her finger was in my face and I could feel the hot gusts of her breath on my chin. She was kind of short, and it ruined the intimidation factor. “I don’t want anything to do with you, let alone to spend timeat nightwith you. Fuck, I thought you were dragging me out here to rape me, you fucking entitled Neanderthal.”
I took a huge step back, flinching from her words in a way I’d never flinch from her fist. “You think I’d rape you? Or any woman?” Okay, maybe it was my turn to get a little angry now. “Listen, and listen good. I have never, and will never, force myself on a woman. I get enough pussy thrown at me.”
She snorted, narrowing her eyes. “You don’t have to be Dr. Arubut to know that rape isn’t about sexual satisfaction, dickhead. It’s about power. And for a guy like you, who’s had everything handed to him his whole life? Trust me when I say it isn’t a mental stretch to imagine you wanting something that isn’t freely given.”
I blinked at her in shock. I wasn’t an idiot. I’d gone to private school with the exact assholes who Aviva just described, right down to their trust fund legal teams. But I wasn’t like that—surely anyone could tell that, right? But just in case…
“I’m not like that.”
She rolled her eyes so hard that she probably saw Jesus. “Sure. I believe you. Now I’m going back to bed, and if you sneak into my room again, I’m going to cut off your balls and really give them the Dahmer treatment.”
She spun on her heel, and my hand flung out to grab her wrist. I don’t even know why. Because I felt something? Even if it was just pain from a bite and some words that were sharp enough to cut.
“I’m sorry. Just come and hang out with me and my friends. We’ll hang in the pool, swim under the moonlight, and pretend we’re just normal people for a minute, okay?”
“Your friends? Oh sure, allow me to go into the unsupervised darkness with an undisclosed number of probably men, who are strangers. What could possibly go wrong? God, you can’t be that oblivious, can you?”
I gritted my teeth. “I promise they’re good guys too.”
“You’re a fool.”
“My business degree would say otherwise.”
“I didn’t say you were an idiot. I said you were a fool.”
“Just five minutes. They say it only takes twenty-seven seconds for you to form an opinion of someone, so if you don’t like them in five minutes, you can walk right back inside. What do you say, Aviva?”
Chapter3
Aviva
