Page 88 of Swerve
and take all your worries away. You have to save yourself, little by little, day by day.”
?Charlotte Eriksson
SHE HEARS THE key turn in the lock, stiffens from her spot on the edge of the bed. The door swings in. She stands quickly, pressing her hands down the front of her silly, pink dress.
The woman enters first. Behind her is a tall man in a suit all but carrying a younger man also wearing a suit. Fear rises on a rush of bile in her throat.
The man drags the nearly unconscious man to the bed and drops him there.
“What is this?” Mia asks, raising her chin to offset the quiver in her voice.
“Your date,” the woman says. “He’s a bit out of it at the moment, but he likes little girls, so you should be able to bring him around.”
Mia’s face blazes red as the man standing next to her stares at her bare legs, the fitted waist of the dress, and finally at her face. “Very nice,” he says.
The woman looks at him, her eyes narrowing. “Do you have any special instructions for her?”
“Wake him up. And just make sure he smiles for the camera,” he says.
“Camera?” Mia asks, horror replacing her nausea.
“Of course,” the woman says in a calm voice. “How else will I know you’re following through on our agreement?”
“Please,” Mia says. “Don’t do this. I’m not—”
“You know what your options are,” she says, her gaze as cold as her voice. “I’m sure you have concluded by now that this limp excuse for a man will be a walk in the park compared to what I have planned for you if you do not cooperate. You have one hour.”
She walks out of the room then, the other man following along behind her. The door closes behind them with an ominous thunk of the lock.
The man on the bed makes a moaning sound. Mia turns to look at him, pushing back her own disgust for what she has agreed to do. She glances at the corners of the ceiling, looking for the camera she knows is hidden somewhere. But there is nothing obvious. She cannot tell where it has been placed.
Is it worth it? Doing this to stay alive? How much time will it buy her? Is it time to give up? Let whatever is going to happen, happen?
She thinks of Emory and the fact that she would be leaving her alone in this world. If their places were reversed, would Emory leave her?
She knows the answer. No. She wouldn’t.
Mia walks over to the sink, staring at her reflection in the mirror. It’s like looking at someone she doesn’t know. Maybe that’s how she can get through this. Pretend she’s someone else. A person she’ll never see again after tonight. She picks up the glass at the corner of the sink, fills it with water. And then she walks over to the bed and tosses it in the man’s face.
Emory
“Do not avert your eyes.It is importantthat you see this.
It is important that you feelthis.”
?Kamand Kojouri
WE’RE STANDING AT the front desk, and Knox is working his magic with the woman now smiling at him and waiting to hear how it is she can help him. She is mid-twenties with a serious manner supported by her dark-gray suit and the severity of her hairstyle, a bun at the nape of her neck, pulled back so tightly that her eyes appear to squint a bit. She hardly looks like a pushover, but Knox has adapted a relaxed, easy-going posture that somehow manages to make him an even sexier version of the man I came to dinner with.
“I met the owner of this beautiful place earlier at dinner,” he says, leaning one elbow on the mahogany reception desk. “We were chatting in the hallway, and I think I might have dropped my phone near there. We’ve searched the hallway, but I thought she might have picked it up and turned it in here.”
The woman—whose name tag reads Sarah— shakes her head and says, “No. I’ve been here all night. No phones have been turned in.”
“Is she still here? Or has she gone home for the evening?”
“Actually, she lives here on the property, but she’s not available at this time of evening.”
“Ah. Is there a chance she might have put the phone in her office?”
