The Bait
It was early, too early. The early morning settled heavy and deep in the siren's bones. She wasn't ready to become active just yet. Everything within her was sore, from her heart right down to the meet of her thighs. But she left her quarters behind upon Jack's insistence.
He'd sounded overly eager when he'd echoed her. The playful tone of his voice only unnerved her. That slight quip in his words was never something she associated with anything pleasant. That tone of his only ever ended in something horrid, as did most things associated with Jack. Her hands were on the doors to his office before she could wallow in her thoughts for too long. She had little time to linger on the events of last night and the situations at hand. She was here to answer to Jack, nothing more.
Instantaneously heterochromatic eyes shifted over her form as she near dragged herself over the length of the CEO's office. His stare burned holes in her very being as it settled on her, dragging her in, beckoning her in. His shit eating grin was set wide over his thin features and that only unsettled Maya's stomach further. He was far too cheerful. There was something significantly off about the dictator before her. Maya immediately felt herself wading in shallow water soaked with danger. There was something wrong in his demeanor, in the way he sat overly proud in his office chair, fingers laced together like thin wicker. His pupils played over her, teeth all on full display for her viewing pleasure. A heavy feeling of dread formed deep in her gut, twisting and churning like she had eaten something bad. Everything in her seemed to fill with dread, fill with unease.
Maya stood stupidly before the grand span of Jack's desk, legs stiff and breath coming to her in short whispers. Her eyes dropped to the floor in his presence, not wanting to meet eyes with him.
"Why don't ya siddown kitten." Jack husked his tone vile and laced with bad intentions.
Maya obeyed, sinking slowly into the leather chair sitting in front the massive oaken desk before her. All the hairs on the back of her neck seemed to prickle as his fearsome gaze drank her in, perfect brow cocking ever so gently.
"Why did you call me sir?" Maya whispered slowly.
It's a rarity for Jack to summon her in so early. She knew he'd been working on projects late into the night lately, and getting up early was not something of the norm for him in the past few weeks. This unnerved her farther. The bags clinging to his eyes and the unstable way his lips twitched upward only supplied to her fears.
"I just wanted to…have a little chat…Maya." He cooed softly, tilting his head to the side very slowly.
The motion was teasing in the way he carried it out, teasing, taunting…playful. Maya felt trapped like a rat in a cage. Her fingers curled too tightly around the leather armrest of the chair and she sucked in a slow breath. Her smoky eyes searched over Jack's slim features, looking for something she could not decipher, looking for answers in his sharp jaw and glittering eyes.
"About what sir?" Maya questioned lowly, her eyes never leaving the maniac sitting only feet from her.
It was like being in a room with some dangerous animal, it was best to know it's every movement at all times.
Jack seemed to ponder her question, teasing it around in his mouth, savoring the flavor slowly before offering her any sort of answer.
"You're a pretty girl aren't you sweet cheeks?" Jack snapped suddenly, something dark flickering across his pupils.
Maya looked taken aback by the comment.
"Sir?" She said her voice low and shaky.
"You heard me. You're gorgeous, thin, toned, powerful. What man wouldn't want to get a hold of you right? I mean kiddo, kiddo you really are such a pretty little thing. So of course it wouldn't be out of the norm for you to be pursued am I right?" Jack snarled pressing his thumb against his bottom lip slyly.
Maya knit her eyebrows together suddenly feeling just slightly more hot around her collar.
"If you called me in here at six in the morning to talk about my ex-boyfriends sir, I believe you are wasting your time. I don't have any. I was raised in an abbey most my life. Men escape my knowledge most days." Maya lied through her teeth, but she felt it was a convincing enough façade.
A low chuckle vibrated up off Jack's ribs and Maya knew he'd seen straight through it like glass.
"We're not talking about ex-boyfriends here kiddo. I don't really take you for the dating type. I wanna know you ever let any of those dirty bandit vault hunter buddies of yours fuck you? I mean you bandits are all the same right? All you know how to do is fuck, sleep, eat and kill." Jack snarled his expression cocky and vicious.
Maya drew in a sharp breath, anger bubbling up from her innards, coming to join with wild, breathtaking fear. There was no way Jack could have known what went on last night….was there? But she had been so careful, she had checked for cameras, she had taken all the right steps. It was impossible.
"No." Maya lied once more her voice quiet and meek.
Jack made a clicking noise with his tongue.
"Oh c'monnn now pumpkin. Don't be shy, you can tell big bad Handsome Jack all your dirty little secrets." Jack purred shifting slightly in his chair and shooting Maya the most awful, painfully teasing look.
"There's none to tell." Maya whispered.
Jack pursed his lips together in an overdramatic pout and scoffed, shaking his head in disappointment.
"Sweet cheeks I thought we we're friends. I'm so hurt…that you would actually lie to me. You're breakin' my heart here kitten." Jack sighed reaching to turn his computer screen around slowly and then clicking on a file that had been minimized in the bottom corner.
Maya felt her stomach drop right out of her ass. On the screen, displayed in all its vibrancy and brilliance, was recorded video feed. Video feed of her, splayed so shamelessly across Zero, in a fit of passion that should have never happened. She should have been more careful. She should have known better. She should have been smarter, and yet she had not been. She had let all of it get the better of her. She had bug her own grave and now she was about to be buried in it. Everything within her felt numb, everything felt horridly sick, her entire being shivering with absolute terror.
Jack seemed overly pleased with Maya's vacant expression, her eyes wide, pupils blown.
"Honestly I didn't know you had it in ya kiddo. Going behind my back like that? Classy, real classy cupcake." Jack hissed tapping his digit against his lip thoughtfully.
His grin was malicious and haunting as it rattled Maya's bones and shook fear down into her very core.
The idea to beg crossed her mind for a moment, to beg for Zero's life, not her own. Her own did not matter at this point. But the words simply would not come to her mouth, she couldn't will a single syllable to come forth from her lips. She simply downcast her eyes to the floor, looking to her worn boots.
"Do you know how to catch a monster Maya?" Jack questioned looking to her with vicious, wild eyes.
Maya did not answer, simply looked to the floor hard, everything within her stirring with wild terror.
"You just have to have the right bait pumpkin." Jack husked grinning manically.
Maya felt everything within her wither and die.
What in the world had she done? She had just sealed both of their fates. The laugh that trailed behind Jack's slow sentence was haunting, like ghosts flowing off his lips. His laughter sounded like bones and brittle. It invaded her every fiber, her ever nerve.
What had she done?