Chapter 4
Uninvited
The shower tiles were cold as steel slabs. Rey leaned into them as she stared at the stark white ceiling, gashed with cracked paint. Scalding water dripped over her skin, making her shoulders and chest flush with a crimson burn.
Grey water pooled at her feet, bubbling with soap. She had lathered herself in it—all over her body, inside her—everywhere.
And yet she'd never felt so filthy.
She turned off the tap and stepped out amidst vapours of steam. Overheated and sluggish, she wrapped a towel around her body, and another folded in a tight cover over her hair. She moved on autopilot, her mind trapped in the events of the night before.
Flashes of ecstasy, smouldering eyes, gentle touches, rough thrusts, and a haunted face, stacked together in a kaleidoscope of sights and sensations.
To be honest, she was still in shock. Last night's experience had rocked her, from being fucked by that soulless robot, to being held so tenderly and … yeah, that. Whatever that was.
In the kitchen, her phone was ringing.
She peered at it, hesitating to even touch it.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. It vibrated loudly on the bench, the name on the caller ID: Phasma — Brothel
She needed to answer that call...
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
She picked it up, holding it a fair distance away from her ear and with her bottom lip caught firmly within her teeth, pressed "accept".
"Hello?"
"Rey, It's Phasma. I've called you three times this morning already. Are you ignoring me?"
"No, of course not. I was in the shower—"
"It doesn't matter. What time are you coming in today?"
"Coming In?" Rey gulped, quashing down the way her stomach did nauseating somersaults. "I thought you didn't need me tonight, seeing as—"
"I'm not paying you $200 an hour to sit on your arse at home! There's plenty else you can do other than sleep with guys. It's a full house this evening, and we're booked back to back. I need you in here at 5 pm or don't bother picking up your paycheque this week."
A feeling of cold water washed over Rey's head.
"Are you coming or not, Rey?" Phasma asked.
Rey swallowed and looked at the spring-flower calendar she had bought from the dollar shop.
"Well?" Phasma snapped again.
"Yes, yes," Rey almost stumbled over her words — just one month —the silent promise was her secret mantra, clinging to her every negative thought and fear.
She could do this. She had to do this. And with a deep breath made one more promise. "I'll be there."
The night passed in a blur.
A gag-inducing, revolting blur of lap-dances, massages with a happy ending, and giving head to guys that made her skin crawl.
Phasma had worked her harder than any of the other girls, a game of Russian roulette that neither of them would back down from.
But there was one thing Phasma hadn't counted on.
Rey was a survivor. And by God, she would survive this. She hadn't lived on the street, scavenging meal scraps through her teenage years, just to give up at the first sign of hard work.
So every hour, Rey marched down the stairs, dressed in some ridiculous fetish costume to ask which client would be next. Phasma's perfectly shaped brow arched at the sight of Rey each time, daring her to give up.
Not a chance .
It was exhausting work, and Rey had spent more than one trip to the toilet dry-heaving in utter misery.
The only clients she could think about without wanting to projectile vomit was the guy who wanted nothing else than to watch her eat pizza. He wasn't too bad, as long as she didn't focus on his dopey, slack-jawed expression, and the way his arm straddled between his legs, pumping wildly.
Then there was financial domination Thomas, who'd insisted she tie him up while she robbed him blind by going on a shopping spree courtesy of his credit card. He could come back again.
But mostly, her clients were walk-ins: drunk, bored and horny loners who wanted nothing more than to watch her, suck her, and grind their bodies up against her.
There was only one rule: no penetration.
All ages, all sizes, one after the other, they came through the doors, scouring over the menu before pointing to Rey, and following her up the stairs.
None of them was anything like Kylo Ren.
And whether that was a good or bad thing, Rey had no idea.
All she knew was by Friday night she would be with him again. Most likely pinned beneath him like some kind of limp sex doll.
Dappled light streamed through naked beech trees into the courtyard of the Taco-dana Restaurant, as serving staff bustled around the tables in their subtle black slacks and white t-shirts, taking orders and placing oversized sombreros on eager children, and the occasional adult.
Kylo Ren shifted uncomfortably in the coal-coloured wicker chair, his knees bumping the table as he tried to stretch his legs underneath it. Snoke had insisted on the restaurant, and they'd travelled half an hour to get here in place of their usual lunch spot.
That alone was enough to put Kylo on edge.
"Comfortable?" Snoke asked with a smirk that created smile-lines beneath his eyes.
"Of course," Kylo lied. "Why the new place?"
"I like the scenery," Snoke gazed around the courtyard nonchalantly, but Kylo noted the way his pale blue eyes never stopped searching the faces around him.
"Funny. I never pictured you as a 'scenery' guy."
"I appreciate beauty as much as any man." Snoke's lips curled into a sneer. "I dare say as much as you do, Kylo."
Their eyes met again and Snoke smiled at him. A chill darted through Kylo's veins. What was this? Snoke turned on his favourites as easy as flicking the lights off, and everybody was expendable. Even him.
"So, how was your evening the other night? Phasma mentioned you came in," Snoke asked, his words smooth and venomously friendly.
"Fine," Kylo answered brusquely.
"You had the new girl, didn't you? I haven't had the pleasure yet. How was she?"
"Fine, like I said." Kylo looked away indifferently, but inside his heart was racing.
Snoke laughed. "She must have been more than 'fine'. By all accounts, you booked her out for the entire week!"
"What of it?"
"It's just curious. You've never shown a preference for any of my girls before."
"There was no preference. She was nothing special. I have a boring week ahead and—"
Snoke looked up at that, eyes narrowing. "Boring? "
Kylo froze. That was the wrong word to use.
"Have you forgotten what your job is this week?"
"Of course not." Kylo swallowed down a lump in his throat, drying his sweating hands on his thighs.
"There can be no screw ups on this one, Kylo."
"There won't be. San Tekka is due to arrive tomorrow night and everything is prepared," Kylo said, working hard to keep his voice from wavering. "He's a dead man."
"And yet you've booked this girl for the same evening."
"I like to unwind afterwards."
Snoke stared at him unmoved, those baleful eyes never shifting from him. Kylo could feel them peeling back his layers, cutting deep into his words, his mannerisms, the speed of his breath, and even the rate of his pulse.
Kylo worked to blank any expression from his face. Snoke knew he could find the truth there, in those subtle micro-expressions that always betrayed him.
Snoke laughed, an undulating wave that carried through the courtyard. Light enough for Kylo to relax.
In the periphery of his vision, Kylo noticed a waiter approaching. He didn't bother looking over at her until the sweet British accent filled the air around him.
"Hi there. My name is Rey and I'll be your server today, can I start you off with some drinks?"
Fuck! Kylo avoided her gaze, devouring the menu below as if it was some kind of sacred text.
Snoke began. "A black coffee for myself, and my friend here will have…?"
He let his words hang in the air, pulling Kylo into the conversation.
Kylo looked up at her, blank and indifferent. "Just give me a cup of water, no ice."
Rey froze at the sight of him, her lips parting in shock. The pen between her fingers slipped to the floor although she didn't notice.
"Do you need me to repeat it?" Kylo asked, forcing an edge of aggression into his voice.
She flushed, the bloom of colour spreading onto her cheeks, down her neck, and dipping beneath her shirt.
"Water and a black coffee." She slid her notebook into the pocket of her slacks. "Got it. I'll be right back."
She turned and sped away from them as Kylo watched her go, realising his eyes had lingered on her far too long.
Snoke chuckled as she left.
"What the hell is this?" Kylo asked, turning back to face his boss.
"I just want to make sure you're not straying again," Snoke purred, a smile breaking across his face, exposing his yellow-stained teeth, gold fillings glinted in the light.
Kylo's heart raced, blood rushing through his body like a boiling rapid. "So it was all a test?"
"Do you think you passed?"
"You're a perverted fuck, you know that?" Kylo spat.
"Stop! it hurts too much!" Snoke cried with a high voice, struggling between fits of laughter. "She played her part well I thought."
Kylo's eyes stung, unsure which betrayal was worse, Snoke's or the girl's, or the fact he had fallen for it all. Muscles twitched beneath his eye and he bit on the inside of his lip, turning away to hide the emotions fast betraying his features. "I can't fucking believe this."
"And what did you do to her? God, I almost vomited when she phoned me. How could you defile yourself in such a way?"
"Shut up." Kylo gripped the menu, his skin blanching at the knuckles. He'd been fucking played.
He tried to breathe, to meet Snoke's gaze without hesitation but his vision faltered. Rage, deep within, building, burning, churning like a storm breaking. He squeezed his eyes shut, the motion producing bursts of white light beneath his lids before he opened them again to face him. "What is your point?"
"The point is you are unbalanced. What is it about this girl that makes you so incapable of being a man?" he spat out the last word with utter disgust. "And to think after all these years, she still—"
After all these years? Kylo looked up, his heart stopping.
"Yes Kylo, don't pretend you didn't know."
He didn't. There was something the other night that triggered him, the faintest flicker of a memory, a fleeting feeling of déjà vu the moment those hazel eyes pleaded into his own to stop. It had stunned him, to say the least. But… Fuck!. His hands trembled as he clutched them together.
"Kira," Kylo said breathlessly, slumping in his chair with defeat.
"She's changed her name now—obviously," Snoke leaned back in his chair, fanning his fingers together before his chin like a Machiavellian mastermind. "Turns out there isn't much she won't do for a bit of cash."
After everything he had done this had come back to haunt him. His dark gaze wandered over to the coffee machine, noting the way her palms rubbed at her eyes, the way she clutched the bench where she worked. Her lips were pale and her cheeks sallow. She was exhausted.
"You think she is beautiful?" Snoke asked with a velvet voice.
"Yes," the word escaped him, hushed and low. It was automatic, forced out of him at a question he couldn't deny. Maybe not in the traditional sense, but there was a fiery spirit in those embattled eyes that was attractive to him. Not to mention, the way loose strands of hair fell across the sun-kissed brow, her child-like freckles, her athletic body and the way it felt beneath his …
Yes, she was beautiful in his eyes. Far too much so.
"Just think, if you had done as I asked you might have had her much earlier. She could have been your own. I would have gladly gifted her to you. A reward for work well done."
Kylo was silent, gaze still fixed on her. "Why are you doing this? I've given you everything I proved—"
Snoke reached his hand towards him, reaching out in a fatherly gesture, but Kylo just looked at the pale disfigured mass on the table with disgust. "I'm trying to help you son. To show you they all lie. Your parents… your uncle… this girl… But I will never lie to you. That is my promise.
"I have sensed in you these past few years a loss of purpose. Ever since that night, you have questioned your path, your worth. We are on the cusp of something great together you and I. But I worry your compassion for this girl is part of a larger epidemic. And with the Santecker job coming up this week, I don't know if I can trust you any more to pull it off."
Snoke paused for effect, tucking a serviette beneath his chin. "And if I can't trust you—"
Snoke glowered in the direction of Rey, holding his sentence unfinished. "You know more than most that things don't go so well for people when I lose my trust in them."
"I told you," Kylo leant forward, his voice in a loud hiss. "I will do what you asked me."
"I know you will," Snoke relaxed.
Kylo's gaze returned to Rey, the gravity of her presence pulling him toward her.
"Oh, and here." Snoke slipped his right hand into his pocket, searching around for something. "If you doubt me about her. Search for her old name using this. I'm sure you'll find it very … enlightening."
"I think your coffee is done!" Jess Pava laughed, bumping Rey along with her elbow.
"Huh?" Rey jumped, realising she'd been staring into the distance with one hand gripped on the portafilter of the coffee machine and the other holding a full cup of black coffee beneath it. "Oh shit. Sorry, I was lost in thought."
"Yeah, so I see." Jess leaned forward, switching off the grinder. "You look terrible, what's wrong?"
"I'm okay, just a little tired." Right on cue, Rey's mouth gaped open in a slow yawn, causing her eyes to water and her shoulders to hunch. "Hey, Jess, how much do you love me?"
"Not much," Jess deadpanned, as she steamed a jug of milk.
"Is it enough to take table 20?"
"That depends," Jess drawled as she turned an appraising eye to where Rey pointed. "Ew, creepy bald guy, no thank you."
Rey sighed resolutely, dying a little inside.
"Wait, hold on!" Jess raised her hand, a mischievous smile lighting up her heart-shaped face. "Look at his friend though. Did someone order tall, dark and mysterious?"
"Not me," Rey added sharply, leaning back against the counter with arms folded.
"You can't tell me you wouldn't want to wake up to next to that in the morning. I mean, look at the size of him. I can only imagine how big his—"
"Oh God, don't even say it," Rey cried, the blush on her face blotching all over again. "Trust me when I tell you that guy needs a complete personality reversal and possibly many years of therapy before he is anything close to passable."
"And he's hot as—why are you bailing?"
Rey bit her lip, shoulders slumping at the question. That was one story she was not prepared to share, even with her closest girlfriend. "Please Jess, I'm begging you. I'll give you my tips for the day."
Jess clicked her tongue, pulling the clipboard of table bookings towards her from the counter. "Alexander Snoke. Table for two."
Rey's heart plunge into the cold tiled floor.
"What did you say?"
"The guy you were serving, Alexander Snoke. Do you know him?"
"No," Rey breathed, clutching her stomach as a wave of nausea radiated through her body. "Please Jess, I can't—"
Jess put a hand on Rey's shoulder. "Listen, if you can take their order while I settle up some accounts, I will take it from there."
"Thank you! I owe you, Jess."
"You owe me an explanation!" Jess said a little too loudly. "Now get over there. Tall, dark and mysterious has been staring at you this whole time."
Rey's feet shuffled along burnt orange tiles as she slowly made her way to table 20. Snoke and Kylo were deep in conversation, they hadn't even noticed her coming towards them.
Snoke leaned across the table like a hook-necked vulture leering towards its prey. Rey shuddered as she came closer to him, his bald head scabbed with skin cancers, crusted and corroded. Her throat closed at the way his yellow-stained fingers scratched along the table towards Kylo.
There was something too unsettling about the image before her, it almost felt … violating in some way. Even more so, when she noticed how Kylo leaned away from him, his face surly and his stormy eyes glued to the floor.
Mr Snoke will want to try her out, Phasma's words banged in her head. The reality of that statement sent a visceral fear down Rey's spine. It wasn't even Snoke's looks that bothered her so much, or his tall, spindly body draped in a sleazy gold-satin shirt. No, there was something far more menacing beneath the surface. An unspoken thing. Invisible but ever present and unnatural
Not safe. The words spiralled in her mind over and over again. Years surviving alone, having no-one to watch out for her or keep her safe mean she had recognised it almost instantly. Snoke was a predator.
Had Kylo Ren tried to protect her that night? Was he protecting her still?
She came up to the table and cleared her throat. "Are you ready to order?"
Snoke beamed at her with a crooked smile, carefully watching the reactions of his companion. "I think we both know what we want, don't we?"
Kylo dragged his head up, right eye twitching as he looked between them. If rage was a tactile thing, she was sure she could have felt it all around him.
"Let me see, I think I'll have the enchiladas, with extra chilli," Snoke said.
"Sure," Rey repeated the order back to him until a rogue yawn escaped her once more. She smiled awkwardly, covering her mouth and apologising.
"Young Rey, late night was it?" Snoke asked.
"You could say that." Rey jotted down his order, holding her pen so tightly the words came out in a messy scribble. "And you?"
Kylo snapped the menu shut with a loud slap, and this time he looked up at her with resolve. A look exchanged between the two men as Kylo gave his order with a tenuous sneer. "I'll have a stuffed taco."
Rey stiffened at the private joke and Snoke chortled. With lips pursed she read back his order, venom lacing every word. "And what kind of meat would you like in your stuffed taco?"
"Ladies choice," he said lazily, eyes meeting hers again, unblinking.
She met his gaze, head keening to the side as she stared daggers at him. "For you, I'd recommend the crab."
Snoke laughed out loud, while Kylo simpered in her direction. She felt her face glowing, at their attention, hot tears razored the corners of her eyes. "Is that everything?"
Kylo nodded, but as she turned to leave Snoke's voice arrested her again.
"Wait, come back here child," the old man cooed at her, hooking his finger as though to lure her in. Rey hesitated,
"Come here, I said," his voice was flatter this time, and far deeper. Rey took a slow step closer to Snoke, her shoulder curving forward protectively.
"I've changed my mind. I like the idea of that stuffed taco too."
Rey felt her body shaking, she clasped her hand upon her elbow anchoring it. "Fine, I'll change your order."
"Extra hot, remember?"
She nodded slightly and turned away as she felt long fingers sweep across her arse.
"Don't you touch me again," she hissed at him, head pounding as blood rushed through her body.
Snoke laughed. "Don't be angry with me, Rey. You had something there. I was merely trying to clean you up. You want to look pretty for your next customer, don't you?"
The table moved, a shuddering scrape as though it had been kicked and Rey finally breathed again. She snatched the menu from Snoke, her chin creasing and her breath coming in uneven waves. And then she turned to Kylo, reaching for his menu but it wouldn't move, his fingers locked around it in a steel grip.
"I'll take that for you," she said quietly, but he wasn't listening. Head bowed, dark curtains of hair falling across his temple and cheeks, and then she noticed his eyes, they had almost changed colour, they were so black and focused. She pulled it away again, and he released it suddenly, causing her to stumble backwards. It was the only thing to break him from his concentration.
She turned away from them and didn't look back. Throwing the order into the kitchen on the way before bolting out the back doors before anyone could call her back.
Behind the restaurant, in a gloomy alley bound by faded graffiti-lined walls, Rey sat crouched in a sitting fetal position. She had backed into an alcove, curling her body to fit in the small space, just as she had done as a child on the street.
Her fingers madly tapped onto her phone, searching for any kind of distraction that might stop her head from exploding. She rubbed her eyes, roughly wiping away the hot tears threatening to spill over.
But she wasn't going to cry, not over them. She wasn't going to cry over anyone.
The smell of rotting food wafted through the laneway, radiating from the steel bins lining the backside of the restaurant. Rey wrinkled her nose as she continued playing with her phone until the screen went blank.
Damn! Rey rubbed her eyes harder this time. She certainly wasn't going back in there to get her charger, not while he was-
Rey jumped as a loud crash bellowed through the narrow alleyway like the sound of metal smashing into the wall.
She sat bolt upright, just in time to see another metal bin fly past her, spewing its contents all over the street. She jumped out, just as a lid flew past her like a frisbee, narrowly missing her shoulder.
"What the hell are you doing?" she shrieked.
Kylo Ren froze, body trembling, muscles twitching, wide-eyed and wild.
Their gaze met in the gloomy shadows and Rey stopped herself from looking away. There was so much intensity in the way he looked at her. She took a step back, shrinking away from him.
"What are you doing back here?" he demanded.
She gaped at the sharp tone in his words. "You better clean that up!" She shouted, pointing to the rubbish spread all over the alleyway.
He glanced at the mess around him, his lips puckering as he considered his answer. Which of course was silence.
"You worked last night?" He changed the subject.
"Phasma wants me to earn my keep." Rey leaned against the wall, rolling her eyes. "Apparently, there's plenty of other work to be done that doesn't involve ... penetration. "
Kylo stiffened, his hands clenched into fists at the base of his sleeves. "I'll fucking kill that bitch."
"Right," Rey stretched the word, feeling like she had found some exposed wound that she could irritate. "Let me guess … psychotic tendencies?"
"Anger issues." Kylo smiled sardonically as he took a step closer, edging on the boundary of her personal space. "No one else was supposed to touch you."
"I don't need your protection," Rey hissed.
"I'm not protecting you. I'm keeping what belongs to me."
"You're a monster! Both you and your fucking boss."
Kylo stared at her, lips parting softly as he took another step closer, forcing her to crane her neck to look at him. His eye twitched again, lips tightening into a thin line.
Bring it on, she thought. "How dare you both come down here and—"
"I didn't know you worked here," he snapped at her.
"Well don't you dare come back here again, ever!" she cried, her voice shrill and unsteady.
Kylo turned away from her robotically, making his way back to the restaurant as though her emotions were nothing. But she wasn't done yet.
"And another thing. You don't own me. You don't own any part of me. If you ever—"
"You're right!" he spat. "I don't own you. Snoke does. And once you finish spying for him you can crawl right back to him."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"You told him what happened between us the other night," he hissed, pointing his finger to her chest menacingly. "I know, Rey. I know about the whole fucking thing."
She gaped, completely blindsided. She had never seen or spoken to Snoke in her life, where was he even getting—
"And you're wrong about one thing." He towered over her even closer now, squaring his shoulders and straightening his back so she could take in his full height and mass.
"I own your nights." He lifted his hand to her face, gently brushing his thumb across her lower lip. "Every fucking one of them."
She bit him on the thumb, hard enough that he pulled it away with an audible curse. Then she pulled her hand back, torpedoing it to slap him hard across the face but he grabbed her wrist yanking it away from him, leaving himself vulnerable. Suddenly, her knee shot up, sharply hitting him in the groin. Kylo stiffened, a muffled groan come out of his mouth and his eyes watered, but that was all, no buckling over or howling in pain. He only released her, rubbing his hand along his jaw.
Rey braced herself for the repercussions, but she was startled to see him smiling at her.
"What's so amusing?" she demanded.
"You learned to fight after all," he said, face blank of expressions. "I wasn't sure you would."
Rey looked confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Forget it, I'll see you tonight, Rey." Kylo turned to walk away from her, picking up a garbage lid as he went.
"I thought you weren't coming in until Friday," she called out after him, voice shaking much more than she wanted it to do.
"Change of plans," he said, barely turning back to her as he replaced the lid. "And I'm planning on getting my fucking money's worth this time."