045147399X by Tom Wood

Author:Tom Wood [Wood, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780751556001
Publisher: Sphere
Published: 2016-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-FIVE

It was a risk telling her, of course. But he considered it a calculated one. She was a prisoner – a slave – kidnapped, mistreated and raped. She hated her captors and was terrified of them, with good reason. He wouldn’t have long with her and he needed to gain her trust now. He had to sell her his idea fast and make sure she bought it. He couldn’t leave her unless she was on his side. He couldn’t risk her revealing anything to Rados or his men, which she might as a bargaining tool to procure better treatment. It wouldn’t make a difference, but she might be desperate enough to try. So he had to make an instant impression.

She stared at him for a long time: analysing his eyes; searching his expression; evaluating each and every word for subtext and hidden messages and for the possibility of deceit or trickery. He said nothing further, allowing her to process the information.

In the end, she could find nothing, so her response was a simple, ‘Why?’

‘There is no why,’ he replied, ‘not really. In most cases who lives and who dies comes down to nothing more than convenience. This is no different.’

‘And how will you be convenienced by that bastard’s death?’

‘It conveniences me only because it will convenience others a lot more.’

She understood, he saw, but she tried to hide it. She did not yet see him as anything more than an enemy, whatever he said. She needed convincing.

‘The other women,’ he began, ‘who were transported with you. Tell me about them.’

‘Why?’

He waited.

She said, ‘What’s to tell? They’re young. They’re going to fall apart. They’re not going to make it.’

‘They won’t survive?’

She shuffled and shrugged. ‘I don’t mean they’re going to die – I can’t know that – but this will break them. They’ll never be the same again, even if they’re one day set free or manage to escape like I did.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘They’re too young. Their lives have been too easy. They haven’t known any hardship. They don’t know how cruel the world is. They won’t be able to handle it.’

Victor nodded. She seemed to know what she was talking about, despite his evaluation that she had come from an affluent background. ‘And you’ve known that cruelty outside of this?’

She didn’t answer. Wouldn’t.

He gave it a moment before he said, ‘You said those other women are too young.’

‘Yes.’

‘Younger than you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Prettier?’

She hesitated, then said, ‘Yes, a lot prettier. Why does that matter?’

‘It matters only because I could have chosen one of them instead of you,’ Victor explained. ‘Any of them. Maybe even two of them. But I didn’t. I chose you.’

She sneered. ‘I don’t give a shit about your sense of charity.’

‘I didn’t do it out of charity. Trust me when I say that I’m not of a charitable nature. I picked you so you can help me. In return for your help, I’ll help you. I said before that it was simple, and it is.’

She was still suspicious, still confused.

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