Maggie

 

“I didn’t have to help you back there,” Blade said when he got in the car. He cranked it up, and the heat came on. The air blowing through the vents was cold at first, but it didn’t take long to warm up.

 

“I guess I should be grateful you’re holding me captive now, huh? I’m just waiting for you to tell me what you want.” I was starting to think about giving him a blowjob just to calm him down and soften him up a little. I wondered how long it had been since the last time he got some.

 

He had seemed so nice back at the auction, but he was turning into a commanding jerk. Yeah, he’d saved me from being sold off to those creeps, but he looked more and more like them every minute. All I wanted to do was get some sleep and start sorting my life out. I wasn’t going to do that in his car.

 

“So are we going somewhere?” I asked him.

 

“Not at the moment, no,” he answered

 

“Well, I figured since we were in the car and it was running, you would be driving me somewhere.” I didn’t turn to face him. I sat staring out the windshield at the road running in front of the parking lot. There wasn’t any traffic this time of night, and the streetlights didn’t seem to do much to light the street.

 

The world around us was pretty dark, and there weren’t any other cars in the parking lot. We sat inside the dark car with the lights out. I knew if I was going to make a run for it, the time was perfect. If I was going to make my move and suck him off to distract him, now was the time to do it. I was also waiting on him to finally ask me for a sexual favor before letting me go.

 

He shifted his weight in the seat and turned to face me. My eyes immediately cut to the side to see if his pants were open. They weren’t. He was just sitting and staring at me.

 

“I want you to come clean. I’m really starting to think you were sent to disrupt the auction. There’s no way they just picked you up off the street like you say they did.”

 

I rolled my eyes and groaned. His whole attempt at trying to make sense of what was happening was getting old. I rubbed the sides of my nose and crossed my arms. I wasn’t even going to address his probing again.

 

“I’ve been trying to figure you out all night,” he continued.

 

“You should save your energy,” I told him.

 

“You’ve got spunk. I’ll give you that. But you haven’t really tried to get away from me, so that tells me either you really need my help, or somehow you knew I was going to be there tonight, and you’re trying to get to the MC,” he mused.

 

“You’re very observant. Have you ever thought about going into detective work?” I shot him a severe look.

 

He just laughed. “If you’re going to hang around, you’re going to have to start talking. If you want me to take you somewhere, you’re going to have to start talking. Otherwise, we’re sitting here until morning. Then, you’re going to have to run errands with me until you start talking.”

 

“Just drop me off at the bus stop, okay? I’ll get out of your hair then.” I didn’t have money for a bus ticket, but at least I wouldn’t be out in the cold.

 

“Where are you going to go? Or do you have someone meeting you there?” he asked.

 

I groaned loudly, almost roaring in frustration. “Just think what you want to think. I don’t care. You’re nobody to me except some biker thug who happened to pay some guys off so they wouldn’t sell me to some rapist. You may have even saved my life tonight. Thank you. And thank you for feeding me. Really.”

 

Really, it was the best damn cheeseburger I’d probably ever had, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of hearing me admit that. I just wanted to go on about my business and work on forgetting the last twenty-four hours even happened.

 

“You’re welcome, but I didn’t do it for the thanks,” he said, his tone guarded, like there was something else he wanted to say.

 

“What then? Do you want a piece of ass in return? Do you want me to thank you by sucking you off in the parking lot? What? What do you want?” I was furious. I was sick of his questions. I was sick of the accusations. I was sick of the expectations I felt him placing on me.

 

“I just want to know what I can do to continue helping you. You obviously need help. You’re running from something, or you’re caught up in something, or you just need a warm place to sleep. I can’t tell what it is, but something’s wrong, and I want to help.” He lowered his voice and explained himself calmly to me. But it was the same shit he’d been feeding me all night.

 

I looked out the passenger side window. The diner caught my attention and I turned my gaze to it. The cook and the waiter were standing at the counter looking outside. I wondered if they were watching us. I wondered if they were trying to figure out what we were doing in the car. They probably thought I was giving thanks for this man’s generosity.

 

If it had only been that damn easy with him. No, he wanted to help me.

 

“Your door is unlocked if you want to leave,” he suggested. “I’m not going to hold you here.”

 

I grabbed the handle in the door and went to open it, but something in his voice stopped me. He was being gentle again, soothing. Calming. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Even if I got him to drop me off at the bus station, I didn’t have anywhere to go. What did I have to lose by telling him the truth, yet again? I had already told him that his boss had picked me up on the street, but he didn’t want to believe that.

 

If I just could have made him accept what I was telling him, then sitting in his warm car, accepting his warm food, and having some company so I wasn’t facing the world alone for a little while wouldn’t have been so damn bad.

 

Whether he believed me or not, nothing changed the fact that if I got out of his car, I had nowhere to go. I would have been on the street until I found a better option. I remembered how cold it had been in the alleyway. That had been miserable. And the streets weren’t safe. If the cold didn’t get me, there were people out there who would. My first attempt at sleeping on the street had been proof of that.

 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said.

 

He was getting on my last nerve. I clenched my fists and turned in my seat to face him. “Okay, you want the truth?” I asked him.

 

“It’s all I’ve been trying to get out of you,” Blade said again.

 

“Fine. Here it is. All I know is that I was trying to get some sleep in a dark alleyway after the worst day of my life. Some guy who lived in the alley gave me a blanket. I finally got warm – not comfortable, mind you, just warm – and fell asleep. The next thing I knew, I was waking up at the auction surrounded by other naked girls. I was tied to something that felt like a table or a board, or whatever. I have no idea how I got there. I don’t remember anyone coming to get me. And I certainly wasn’t sent there to spy on you or anyone else,” I explained vehemently.

 

He tilted his head and looked at me like he’d heard the story so many times he could have recited what I’d just told him.

 

“Fine. You obviously don’t believe me. That’s okay, Blade. I’m sure you hear shit like this all the time from the other girls. If you don’t believe me, you can drop me off at the bus station, like I said earlier, and I’ll just go.”

 

“Where are you going to go, Maggie?”

 

“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out. I always do. No need for you to worry about it. Just let me go, and you won’t have to save me, or whatever it is you think you’re doing,” I told him.

 

“So you really don’t have anywhere to go,” he said, apparently looking for confirmation, but I was done.

 

I looked out the window again and stopped talking. There was nothing left to say that we hadn’t already said a hundred times, it seemed. He was just too dense to get it. It was embarrassing enough that I found myself on the street after fighting with Axel, after getting hit by him. I didn’t want to have to relive it again and again by having to tell someone about it. It wasn’t anyone’s business, really, and there was no reason for this guy to keep asking me about what had led me to that alleyway.

 

Blade put the car in gear and started to pull back out of the parking space. “Buckle up,” he said.

 

I pulled the seatbelt across my chest and lap and buckled it, not saying anything to him in the process. I just wanted the night to be over. I hoped he was taking me to the bust station so I could have a chance to get the hell away from him. I didn’t know how I was going to make it work, but I was going to. I had been in worse situations and made it through just fine. Some jackass ex-boyfriend wasn’t going to stop me.

 

Neither was this big, burly biker with his ink and scars.

 

I wished we didn’t have to fight. I wished I could have trusted him when he said all he wanted was to take care of me, but that was the same shit Axel had said when he took me in after I ran off from the last asshole boyfriend who hit me. Having met Blade at a sex slave auction, I could only assume what he had in mind for me was far worse than a couple of bruises.

 

We didn’t talk as he pulled out of the parking lot. I didn’t ask where we were going, and he didn’t tell. We drove out of the seedy side of town, past all-night liquor stores and gas stations with bars on the windows. We passed a handful of people walking the streets, a handful of lit up porches with people huddling against the cold.

 

There were Christmas lights in some of the windows. I tried to imagine the families sleeping in their homes, the children excited for the arrival of Santa soon. It won’t be long now, I thought. Christmas was just around the corner. I imagined that somewhere, someone was excited about the holiday. I wasn’t.

 

This year was definitely living up to my tradition of shitty Christmases, but I wasn’t so sure anymore. Blade’s silence felt promising. He’d finally stopped asking me to come clean and tell him everything. Maybe there was hope for him after all.

 

I knew morning was approaching. A new day. Blade might have been useful in trying to get my things from Axel. I didn’t have much to get, just some cash and my phone. If I’d taken my phone with me, none of this would have happened. I could have called someone and secured a place to stay.

 

Something told me I had a place, if I were just willing to accept his help. I watched him as he drove. He didn’t glance over at me. He kept a firm grip on the wheel and kept his eyes on the road ahead. He didn’t look angry, but he was definitely focused on where we were going.

 

Where were we going? I wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to lose the beautiful silence we were sharing. It was so peaceful not to have him trying to pry into my business or accusing me of lying to him when I did try to tell him what was really going on.

 

It really was a shame we’d met the way we did. Otherwise, he might have been attractive, and his overpowering, intrusive nature would have seemed protective instead of suspicious. A girl could dream.