"Look at me when I'm talking to you. You lookin' at me, but I'm lookin' through you. I see the blood in your eyes. I see the love in disguise. I see your pain hidden in your pride. I see you're not satisfied... Mirror on the wall, here we are again. Through my rise and fall, you've been my only fan."
Rafe casually shrugged his shoulders at my acceptance to be Jax's, and turned toward the table. I bit my lip to keep from reaching out.
Failing stinks.
I needed to do something to get his attention again.
"Rafe, you are Angel, aren't you?" Why didn't he understand the question? "Qiú nǐ le , gào sù wǒ," I pleaded with him. The whimper in my throat was out before I could stop it. And for a brief moment, I thought I'd gotten to him as his shoulders stiffened and his head tilted so he could stare at me from the corner of his scarred eye.
Jax smirked and scratched over his stubble. "Yeah, he's a real saint this one." Jax pounded a hand against Rafe's back. "So, first things first--"
"Hey, Jax, do you mind if I take her for a few hours?" Rafe asked, keeping his back to us.
Despair transitioning into hope wasn't something I experienced often. It's a mad world, full of pain and suffering, so any form of hope was fleeting. Instead of ignoring it, I latched onto it. Needing something to pull me up and get me through this so I could go back home. A lump lodged in my throat.
Had he finally caught on?
Jax tilted his head and licked his lips. "And that favor I owe you?"
"Consider it paid."
"Good, but kitten here will need to give me something now," he said and flitted his fingers at me. "First, we're gonna give them," he gestured with two thumbs at the ten voyeurs with lustful, predatory gleams in their eyes, "a show."
My heart dropped. I licked my dry lips and tried to pull myself away from him but his arms held me in place. "But you said—"
"You'll dance with me."
"Dance?" I released my breath and closed my eyes, too relieved to care that he saw it on my face. I opened my eyes to see him staring at me. "You should know, Jax, I can't dance."
He shrugged. "How many years you been fightin?"
"What does that have to do with dancing?"
"It's a lot like fighting... and you do fight, don'tcha sugar?" It was more of a statement than a question.
I swallowed, but nodded. There was no point in lying to him. "Since I was little."
Jax chuckled. "You look surprised." He paused and gestured towards my shoulders. "It's the way you move. I figured dancer at first, but a dancer doesn't visually map the area like you did when you first came in."
He was giving me too much credit. I hadn't mapped the area completely because I'd been too afraid of making eye contact. My sensei taught me how to defend myself, taught me how to fight, but his most important lesson was that fear would keep me alive and that it was healthy to know my limitations. It was the one thing that I felt made me lucky to have been born poor because I learned early on that knowing how to fight didn't make me infallible. Maybe that's why I've been letting my fear get the better of me.
"It's like fighting?" I asked.
He nodded and I punched forward, but Jax jerked back. He caught my wrist in a crushing grip and the fierce look on his face washed away as he realized what he'd done. I shut my gaping mouth so hard my teeth chattered. He moved like a cheetah. I was glad I followed my gut.
"I wasn't trying to-" I started.
"I know. Sorry. It was a reflex." He rubbed the back of his neck and released my wrist. "It's like fighting, but don't take it so literal," he said and held a hand out. "Let's piss some higher ups off, eh?"
I paused as I reached for him. "This is going to piss them off?"
"Oh yeah! They don't come here to see dancing. They come to see brutal beatings and sex... they like it best if the new arrival is unwilling. The rules are to give 'em a show though. Any kind will do, but I bet they'll be more specific after today."
Stepping forward, I accidentally stepped on his foot. He pushed me back and gave me a puzzled expression before he pulled me against him again. Jax twirled me. I tripped over my feet and fell to the concrete. I gave him a pained expression and leapt to my feet, rubbing my aching behind. We started off a little slower this time. Side to side lasted a minute before my head knocked into his nose. The sad thing was that I didn't do it on purpose.
"Ò gǒu shǐ!" I slapped a hand over my mouth. My forehead ached where it had smashed into his face and I rubbed it vigorously. "You're bleeding!" I stepped forward to help, but he held a hand up warding me off. I bit my lip. "I tried to tell you."
My inability to dance had baffled many people considering I could mimic fight moves after seeing them done a few times. I'd never been interested in dancing though. If I bothered to care I knew it would come just as easy as fighting... if I could get past the level of intimacy it required.
"I can give you four hours with Rafe, spread out throughout the rest of this week. I'm assuming you want to go with him. Offer me something... from over there," Jax said.
I felt like a pariah with the way he looked at me and I almost asked if he regretted even talking to me. I glanced at Rafe, hoping he would help, but all he did was watch me. "I can sing."
Jax snorted. "Everyone can sing."
"But I'm good." He shook his head. "Next and last offer." Jax folded his tattooed arms across his chest. "Give me an offer I can't refuse."
I shrugged, completely at a loss as to what to offer him. "What about money?"
Jax raised an encouraging eyebrow. "Continue."
"My owner on the outside is attached to me and really rich. I'm participating in a program here..."
"Keep that to yourself!" Rafe snapped. The anger in his voice made my eyes widen.
Jax offered a nicer explanation. "If others know you aren't in here permanently they'll make you pay for it. It's the way it works in here. Only the six independents here know of this program and we're being indulged, if you will, to keep quiet about it, so it's a good idea to keep it to yourself."
I nodded and continued, "Anyway, I get luggage and I have real cash in one of the bags." Hayden told me it was over a million Yuan in case I got into a bind and needed to buy myself out, but no matter how nice Jax was being, I wouldn't tell him how much it was.
"I want ten thousand Yuan... for four hours."
I didn't answer right away. I gave him a pseudo-worried look, but nodded. "I think I can do that."
"If I don't have it in three days you'll pay with your body. This new arrangement doesn't include my promise from earlier. Are we understood?"
Nodding, I turned towards Rafe and bowed my head. I gripped the sides of my jacket and stepped towards him. "Where's a place we can be alone?" I asked.
His frown deepened, and his eyes searched mine. "Follow me."
When I asked if there was a place we could be alone I didn't expect him to take me to a whole new world. Well, a whole new shopping world within the prison system. It was further underground than the holding cells but instead of cement the walls were made of hard mud and clay. The tunneling was a good six feet in height and ten feet wide. There was a round door with a knob at the end and when Rafe turned it, I felt like I was entering a wonderland for the desolate and imprisoned.
I wrapped my arms around myself and skimmed my nails against the cotton material of my black jacket as we walked past a stand filled with cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and e-marijuana. The guy standing in front of it looked normal, cute even –minus the dirt— with blue eyes who had a silver hue and spiked white hair. He'd taken the top of the tan prison uniform and wrapped it around his lean hips, exposing his muscled, tattoo covered torso and chest.
Returning my gaze back to the man's handsome face I started to offer a smile, but the hunger in his eyes stopped me and when his peach colored lips parted exposing teeth sharpened to points I knew he wasn't admiring me the way I'd been doing to him. He tongued the points of his teeth until blood smeared on the yellow tinged bones.
"Don't make eye contact," Rafe said, suddenly next to me. He was so close his breath ruffled my hair against my cheek making me shiver. His calloused hand clamped on my forearm when I continued to stare at the monster in front of me.
"Rafe, ya got some meat for us?"
"Not today, Reg." Rafe pulled my arm and tried to walk forward, but Razor Teeth Reg shifted in front of us like a cat pretending to stretch before it pounced. My breath caught in my throat and my chest burned like a bad case of reflux.
Being near Reg was like being near starving lion. Beautiful. Deadly. Powerful... insane. There are levels to fear and just being close to this man brought me to a new level.
Reg mock pouted. "Not ever you mean. Ya interested in buying meat? I can give ya an ounce for ten minutes with her, half an ounce if I can't leave bite marks."
My stomach dropped and I had to swallow the pooling saliva in my mouth or I knew I'd throw up. I darted my eyes to the side of Rafe's face, watching his tight features, looking for a sign that he was going to toss me to Razor Teeth for... meat or sex. I swallowed again.
Meat was highly illegal. I only knew what meat was because of books and stories from my parents about round pieces of semi-cooked beef from a cow and a sauce that started with an A. The war killed off a lot of the livestock and mostly what remained was either contaminated or dying. A few of the animals that could be salvaged were bred and cloned only for the rich. Even if I had millions of Yuan and wanted to by some, I couldn't. So how in this hell were these people getting meat?
"Meat? How do you guys get that down here?" I asked before I could stop myself. I knew I shouldn't have spoken as Rafe's fingers dug into my flesh so hard tears popped into the corner of my eyes, stinging.
Razor Teeth Reg tilted his head to the side and watched me for an entire minute before the corner of his mouth exposed the right side of his sharpened teeth in a half smile. He reached forward with two fingers, but my free arm shot forward and I clamped his hand, twisting just enough for it to hurt. The material from my black laced skirt ruffled around my thighs and dust particles shifted around me. I could feel adrenaline spark inside me, readying for a fight.
"You must be new," Reg mumbled with an excited pant and a dangerous gleam in his silver hued eyes. "I like you." He took a step forward and inhaled as his nose almost touched my cheek. "Be careful, or I'll eat you up."
I blinked, trying to keep my eyes from widening with fear, and twisted harder, bending his elbow. He gave an appreciative growl, but thankfully he did stop
"Pain just turns me on. I'll give you two ounces, Rafe. Ten minutes with my wild cat."
My grip loosened and I flung his surprisingly soft hand into his handsome but nightmare inducing face.
"Reg, I said no."
Reg's eyes darted to Rafe for a second before returning to me. "Pretending to be a veg, now? Seven months ago you were a meat hound. Always wanting, but never providing. I thought you'd gotten desperate enough to bring some down to me."
I watched Rafe visibly shudder with disgust and his face filled with guilt. "I'm going cold turkey."
With that Rafe pulled me away and whispered something to me that I didn't catch. "What?" I asked.
"Don't ever--ever eat any meat here."
"Why?"
His green eyes darkened with something I couldn't place, but it was gone within moments. "Hope you won't ever find out."
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Rough translations through Google translator:
Ò gǒu shǐ = oh shit!
Qiú nǐ le , gào sù wǒ = Just please, tell me
A little more forceful with the punch, and without the prom getups, but this is how I imagined the dance scene starting!