The Company

Ghosts in the Night

Warning: rape scene in this chapter. I apologize, feel free to skip ahead, this is just a flashback.

4 years ago

No one would ever suspect two kids at a mall.

What's a nice girl like me going to do? And Viktor? Well, he's just some young eighteen year old stud taking some girl on a date.

I almost wish that was our reality, but no one would guess the truth.

Besides, Viktor hates my guts ever since the first time we met, when I beat him.

Since that day, Aramis often pairs us up as his two strongest proteges to take on minimal missions. I fear he is preparing us for bigger things by getting us to run these errands, and that always makes my stomach sink. I try not to think too much about what we are doing.

On today's agenda? Kidnapping.

I stare at Viktor from across the table, where we are sitting at the food court, waiting for our target to move again. He is intently watching the store for any sign of the girl while I examine the strong contours of his high cheekbones and the curve of his long, dark lashes.

"Why do guys always have pretty eyelashes?" I wonder out loud, talking around the straw of my strawberry milkshake.

"Hm?" he grunts, eyes staying in place.

"Nothing," I grumble.

The girl's head comes bobbing out of the store, her red hair shaking as she laughs with her friends, all dressed similarly in miniskirts and flipflops.

I look down at my black sweatpants and combat boots. I definitely look like one of those teenage girls; the ones who know suicide hotlines off the top of their heads rather than the numbers of her friends' cells.

"Let's go," Viktor says, already up on his feet.

"Fine," I sigh, taking one last sip of my milkshake before discarding it.

We follow after the trio.

"Gonna be hard getting her alone," I say.

"We need a plan."

I look at Viktor's strong back, inadvertently on display in his black t-shirt. A lightbulb goes off in my head.

"Hey," I say, pulling him to the side to whisper. "I know what we have to do."

He arches a dark brow at me. I never take the helm in our missions, but the truth is I'm just trying to stretch out time so that I don't have to go back home.

My mom is off with that Rumor girl somewhere in the world, but the asshole still comes around. Mom gave him a key, apparently. He told her he would look after me, or so he says everytime he undoes his belt.

Let's have some fun

"Sasha?" Viktor's voice storms into my thoughts. He is still waiting for me to explain.

I get it together. "So, what you have to do is flirt."

"Flirt?" he says, giving me a look.

"Yeah, flirt. Flex your muscles, make her feel pretty. She'll go off with you, she's a dumb preteen girl, and you're some hot, older guy at the mall."

Viktor's cheeks actually turn a faint shade of red, and this amuses me to the core. "That is the most ridiculous plan I have ever heard," he scoffs, crossing his arms defiantly.

"Do you have a better one?"

"...No."

I laugh, spinning him around. "Then go get 'er, Tiger!"