Bend For Him

by Hamel, B. B.

  I was fucked either way and I knew it.

  So I put my underwear back on and got dressed. I left the Victoria’s Secret stuff lying on the bench then slipped back out. I moved across the hall, far enough that he wouldn’t see my shoes, and walked as quietly as I could past the dressing room door.

  No sound, no movement. He didn’t come bursting out after me.

  I made it to the end of the hall and walked faster. The dressing room lady gave me a smile then a frown when she saw that Leo wasn’t with me.

  “Where’s your—”

  “Still busy,” I said and walked faster.

  I could feel her eyes on me. But I didn’t care.

  I made it to the exit—

  And stopped myself.

  I stood there on the cusp of leaving the store. An old couple walked past. I saw a pair of young kids with a stressed mom. A young couple lingered nearby on a bench eating ice cream from small bowls with plastic spoons.

  I could run up to any one of them and beg for help. Well, any one of them except for the little kids.

  But something made me look back.

  Leo stood by the dressing rooms with his arms crossed. He frowned at me, head tilted to one side.

  I made a break for it.

  I don’t know what I was thinking. But in that moment, I knew it was my only chance. I ran as fast as I could, sprinting out into the mall. I heard him come after me, crashing through the store, knocking over racks as he plowed forward. I heard someone yell after me but I couldn’t think.

  I just ran.

  I didn’t know where I was going or what my end goal was, but I had to get away. I risked looking back over my shoulder and saw him gaining on me, little by little. A scream threatened to rip from my throat but I held it back. I jumped down a small set of stairs and nearly lost my footing.

  The mall whipped past me. He kept coming, my bags gripped in his hands as he barreled forward. For a second it occurred to me how absurd it was that he stopped to grab our stuff before chasing after me.

  I crashed through a group of tired-looking teens, nearly bowled over an older woman with a pair of headphones shoved in her ears.

  I could see the exits up ahead. I almost shouted in excitement. I smashed against the door and shoved it open as hard as I could—

  But it slowed me down too much. He caught me, hand rough on my wrist, grabbing tight. I let out a yelp as he pulled me against his body.

  I was breathing hard, gasping for breath. He stared down at me and his expression was strangely blank.

  “Good try,” he said. “But you were too obvious.”

  “Fuck you.”

  He tightened his grip on my wrist and pulled me out the front door.

  I thought about fighting or screaming. But I knew it wouldn’t be any use. People stared at us but none of them came over to help. None of them stepped up to see if I was okay.

  They let him drag me off.

  He took me to the car and threw me into the back seat. He tossed the bags into the passenger side then got into the back with me.

  I crawled as far from him as I could. But it wasn’t a big car.

  “You know what I said would happen.”

  “Don’t touch me.”

  His eyes raged fire. “You ran. I told you not to run.”

  “Can you blame me? I had to try.”

  “It was stupid. You did the most obnoxious thing possible. You thought parading your tits around would turn me into a moron?”

  “I thought I could throw you off your game.”

  “Almost worked, too. You have nice tits.”

  I chewed my lip. “What are you going to do?”

  “Spank you.”

  “Leo,” I said. “Don’t touch me.”

  He leaned toward me. “You wanted me to touch you back in that dressing room. Don’t act like you didn’t. You wanted me to rip off that bra, lick your pink nipples, then palm your tight ass hard until it left a bruise. You were dripping wet just thinking about what I could do to your pretty little body.”

  “You’re a fucking psycho,” I said. “And a monster.”

  “And what does that make you?” He smiled at me. “Girl that wants to fuck a monster?”

  “Fuck you.”

  He reached for me. I slapped his hands away. He didn’t stop. He grabbed me and pulled me over to him. I tried to struggle but he was strong, so strong. His fingers bit down into my wrist and my hip.

  “Asshole,” I said. “Fuck you.”

  He pulled me into his lap, made me straddle him, then grabbed my hair.

  And kissed me.

  At first, I couldn’t believe it. I thought he might be joking, like this was just another game.

  But no, I felt his hard cock between my legs, like chasing me down only made him more excited. Then I tasted his tongue against mine, and for a brief, blissful moment I lost all control and kissed him back.

  It was heaven. It was hell. I felt like I’d gone insane, just like him, and couldn’t stop.

  Until his hand spanked my ass nice and hard.

  I gasped and pulled back. He smirked, tilted his head, and pulled my hair. I groaned in pain.

  “Don’t run again,” he said. “Or next time I spank your bare skin with my belt. Then you’ll have to come to grips with the fact that you like to get spanked by a monster.”

  He released me then. I climbed off his lap and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Asshole.” I wanted to hit him or scream at him, but I knew it wouldn’t make a difference.

  He shrugged and got out then climbed into the driver’s side.

  “Still got most your stuff,” he said. “Lucky for you, you only dropped the expensive shit.”

  I blinked and looked at the bags.

  He was right. I’d lost my boots, a couple pairs of jeans, some nice tops.

  He started the engine and looked at me in the rearview.

  “Don’t run again,” he said. “It’ll only get harder.”

  Then he banked out of the spot and drove back to the city.

  5

  Leonid

  I parked outside my place and carried her bags up. As soon as we were inside, she stormed back into my room and slammed the door.

  Fine by me. I dropped her shit in a corner and stretched. My hamstring was a little tight from chasing her ass down.

  She had no clue how close she’d gotten to getting away. Her little ruse was painfully fucking obvious, but as soon as she showed up in that dressing room wearing just a bra and panties, I kind of lost my goddamn mind.

  She looked gorgeous. Fucking perfect in a scary kind of way. She made me wild with animal lust for her. I knew she was going to run. I knew she was going to skip out on the next outfit and make a break for it. But some stupid part of me wanted to find out if maybe, just maybe, she really was putting on a show for me.

  I was wrong about the show. But right about her running.

  At least three mall cops saw that chase. One called it in on his radio, and another almost joined in, but he was a few years past his prime and about fifty pounds too heavy. In the end, I got her ass out of there before the real cops could show up and make things very, very difficult for me.

  Goddamn though. That moment in the dressing room, then that kiss in the back seat was very much worth it.

  I filled up a glass of water and drank it down. Then heard a thud from the bedroom.

  I frowned. It was a loud thud. I thought for a second she might try to open the window, which really was stuck. There was no way in hell she’d get it up.

  Another thud. Something rattled. I heard a grunt.

  “What the fuck?” I said and walked toward the room. “Robin? You okay?”

  I heard another grunt, this one distinctly masculine.

  My pulse spiked. I threw open the door.

  And found a man with his arm around Robin’s throat.

  He had dark hair, dark eyes, wore a black shirt and jeans. His arms were covered in shitty j
ailhouse tattoos and his beard was scraggly and uneven. He was choking her out, but she was trying to slam an elbow into his gut and stomp on his foot. She was doing a good job, but the guy was twice her size, and seemingly hell-bent on making sure she stopped.

  I ran over to them just as he looked up at me.

  Then punched him in the nose.

  It wasn’t the hardest punch ever, since I had to make sure I didn’t hit her. But I got him square in the nose and felt a satisfying crunch as the cartilage and bone snapped. He grunted and his grip released. I ripped his arm off Robin and shoved her onto the bed as I slammed my other fist into the guy’s gut.

  He doubled over. I brought my knee up and smashed it into his face.

  He stumbled backwards and ran up against the wall. His eyes went blank as he came at me, punching hard and furious. I turned the first blow, took one on the cheek, returned with my own jab to his broken nose. He gasped in pain and staggered back.

  I pushed hard and hit him three more times. Each punch made a dull thud. His body crumpled forward as I brought my elbow into the back of his neck.

  He dropped. I fell on top of him, my hand rifling over his body.

  There, in the back of his waistband. I grabbed the gun and ripped it free.

  He stared up at me as I shoved the barrel of his own gun against his face.

  The whole fight lasted less than ten seconds.

  Robin coughed, gagged, coughed again.

  “You okay?” I asked. “Robin, you alive?”

  “I’m okay,” she said, gasping for air. “I’m alive, I’m okay. What the fuck, what the hell, what the hell?”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Stay calm.” I looked back at the guy. He was younger than I guessed at first. The beard threw me off. His eyes were a deep, dark brown and his teeth were white and straight, though tinged with blood from his smashed nose and torn gums.

  “You’re making a mistake,” he said.

  “What’s your name?”

  “No name,” he said. “Fuck you. No name.”

  I pressed the gun harder. “What’s your name?” I asked again.

  He spit at me. I hit him in the face with the butt of the gun.

  He groaned and his head rolled back.

  “I can keep hitting you all night,” I said. “Or you can save us both the trouble and talk.”

  “Donald,” he said. “My name’s Donald.”

  “All right, Donald. Who sent you?”

  “Fuck you.”

  I hit him again. Then again. Then again. Robin sat up and stared as Donald groaned on the floor. I stood up and kicked him in the gut.

  “Who sent you?” I asked. “Make me say it one more time and I won’t waste another breath on you.”

  “Volkov,” he said, wheezing. “Volkov sent me.”

  I glanced at Robin. Not a big surprise, but still.

  “Why were you choking the girl?”

  “Sent… to kill her. And you.” He grinned at me. “Others will come. Just you—”

  I shot him in the face before he could finish that sentence.

  His head exploded. Blood and gore splattered across the room. Robin let out a strangled scream and fell backwards. She covered her head with a pillow and I heard a strangled sob.

  Interesting. She hadn’t reacted like that to her own cousin getting killed. She was probably too afraid to freak out, or maybe getting brought to the brink of death terrified her even more.

  Fucking bastards. I expected them to come for me.

  But I never thought they’d go after her.

  I sighed and tossed the gun onto Donald’s corpse.

  “What an asshole,” I said. “What a fucking asshole. Now we have to run, all because he had to come into my apartment and try to kill us.” I shook my head, annoyed and frustrated. “I’m going to have to find a new fucking place to live.”

  Robin lay curled into the fetal position on the bed.

  I let her stay there while I packed a bag. At least her stuff was ready to go. I grabbed my black duffel bag from the closet and jammed clothes inside. When I finished, she sat up and rubbed at her face. Donald’s blood spread across the carpet in a thick puddle.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Packing.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “We’re going somewhere safe.”

  “But—”

  “We can’t stay here.” I gestured at the body. “We could get rid of this, but a neighbor would’ve heard that gunshot. Plus, they knew where I live, which means they’ll send someone else. It’s not safe here anymore.”

  “He tried to kill me,” she said.

  “I guess you’re about as worthless as you said you were.”

  Her face drained of color. “They’re not going to ransom me back,” she whispered.

  “No, they’re definitely not.”

  “So then are you going to…” She trailed off and her eyes strayed to the dead guy on the floor.

  I faced her and took a deep breath. “I’m not going to kill you, birdie.”

  “Then what are you going to do?”

  “You’re useful in other ways. And even if you weren’t, I’m not the type that murders innocent girls.”

  “Right. Okay.” She blinked a few times. I could tell she was in shock.

  I put my bag down and walked over to her. She stared up at me as I reached out and took her hand. She let me pull her up and off the bed.

  “You got to move now,” I said. “We need to get going. Can you do that?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “I think so.”

  “We’re going to a hotel for tonight. Then after that, maybe a safe house, I’m not sure.”

  She stared at me. “My uncle tried to kill me.”

  “Yeah. He did.”

  She chewed on her lip and said nothing.

  I held her hand, grabbed my bag, and guided her out into the main room. She helped carry some of her stuff back down the stairs and out to the car. We got in and shut the door, but I didn’t leave right away.

  “You know what this means, right?”

  She stared out the window. Her face was blank. She still had her cousin’s old blood on her clothes.

  “My family abandoned me.”

  “Yeah, they did. Pretty fucked up if you ask me. But it also makes you wonder. Why would they go to that much trouble to kill you?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “Think about that one for a while.” I started the engine. “Maksim might be weak, but he’s not stupid. He wouldn’t try to kill you if he didn’t have a damn good reason for it. Maybe you should try and figure out what that reason might be.”

  She turned to look at me, but didn’t answer.

  I pulled the car into traffic and let the silence stretch between us.

  6

  Robin

  I woke up in scratchy white sheets and stared at the digital clock. It was just after six in the morning and my head still ached. I rubbed my neck where that guy had wrapped his bicep around my throat and took a few deep breaths just because I could.

  Leo was stretched out on the little couch at the other side of the room. His legs hung off the end.

  He looked asleep.

  I slipped out of bed. I wore a pair of black cotton panties and an old t-shirt. I didn’t remember much from the day before.

  Just a blur of moments. That guy with his arm around my throat. Leo kicking him in the chest. Leo shooting him in the end. The car ride to this hotel.

  And not much after that.

  I snuck into the bathroom and shut the door. I thought about running but the idea seemed stupid. Yesterday I probably would’ve bolted for the door and screamed my head off in the hall until someone came to save me, but this morning I couldn’t bring myself to do much more than splash water on my face and start the shower.

  I closed the toilet lid and sat down. I stared at my hands. I thought I saw blood crusted in my fingernails from where I scratche
d at my attacker’s arm as I desperately fought him away.

  I got up with a shiver and showered.

  Leo had his feet up on the coffee table when I got out. I kept the towel wrapped around my chest. He looked up and I saw a spark of something in his eyes, but he didn’t come near me as I rifled through my bag and found clothes.

  “Morning,” he said.

  “Morning.” I picked out a pair of jeans and a gray crewneck sweatshirt. I didn’t remember buying either of them.

  “This might be a stupid question, but how do you feel?”

  I stood up and looked at him. “How do I feel?”

  He nodded and gestured for me to go on.

  “I feel like my family just tried to kill me,” I said. “I feel like I watched you kill two guys in two days. I feel like my head’s about to break into pieces.”

  “You haven’t eaten anything in a while,” he said. “Food and coffee might help the last thing.”

  I frowned. He was right. I couldn’t remember the last time I ate.

  “I’m not hungry,” I said.

  “I’ll order some food up.”

  I shook my head and carried the clothes into the bathroom. I got dressed, brushed my teeth, stared at myself in the mirror.

  Dark bruises bloomed along my throat. I tugged at the neck of my sweatshirt and tried to get it to cover them, but it was impossible. I needed makeup or a turtle neck.

  Leo lingered in the bathroom door but didn’t come inside. I tried to ignore him but he kept staring.

  “What do you want?” I asked him in the mirror.

  “You’re in shock still,” he said.

  “I’m fine.”

  “The mind goes through some shit, when you see things like— you know, like yesterday.”

  “Like you murdering my cousin? And that… that guy?”

  “Donald. Yeah.”

  I grunted. “I don’t want to hear his name.”

  “All right.” He kept staring at me.

  I turned and spread my arms. “Seriously, what do you want?”

  “I want to help you.”

  I laughed, bitter and angry. “You could’ve left me the fuck alone. That would’ve been a good start.”

  He grimaced. “I didn’t put you in that house.”