Page 5 of Retrograde

“I didn’t think you’d be so fucking hilarious, Riley. This is great. We’ll have lots of fun, you and I, I can already tell. But back to the topic. How tough are you, really? I know you’ve been shot, and I know you’ve been beaten up. Ever been raped?”

He makes to slap me again, and I squeeze my eyes shut, preparing for a blow that never comes. His hand stays frozen inches from my face, and he’s looking at me expectantly.

“Well?” he urges me.

I breathe deeply through the nose, helplessness coursing through my veins like rage.

“Three times,” I say, my mind in too much of a frenzy to come up with a lie. “But only twice on the job.”

When he slaps me again, I have to chew the inside of my cheek to stop angry tears from welling in my eyes.

“Oh, only twice on the job, is that all?” Aron croons. “Did you like that? Do you like having your cunt torn apart by strange men’s cocks without permission?”

Corrado whines. The ground destabilises beneath me, and my insides turn to ice. Cold sweat erupts all over me. But I try to keep my features expressionless under Aron’s gleeful scrutiny.

“No, not particularly.” I shrug, and he guffaws before bringing the outstretched hand in contact with my cheek yet again with a particularly resounding crack.

“How about your asshole? Did they fuck that too?”

“One of them did.”

“How did you like that?”

“Even less than the other stuff.”

“Well why the fuck would you keep coming back for more then?” he asks, raising his arms wide theatrically. “Huh, why? Could it be that Volker won’t let his little mascot quit?”

I grit my teeth and count to ten before replying, “I wouldn’t know. I never asked him.”

With the next slap, an involuntary whimper peels off my lips. Straightening back up from the blow, I ball my fists.

“This is what I do. It’s who I am. That’s why I keep coming back,” I force through my clenched teeth.

For a heartbeat, Aron looks at me with something suspiciously close to respect. But then his gaze hardens, and his hand whips forward. I yelp and stumble, holding the inflicted side of my face with both hands.

“What you are is a traitorous fucking bitch,” he tells me coldly, all traces of his smile evaporating. “And if you think that what happened to you until now was bad, then think again.”

He brings his arm back a little further in preparation for another merciless slap. My fist shoots forward and collides with his jaw—feebly. He doesn’t even blink.

The air around us solidifies as everyone goes completely still. I hardly dare breathe.

Aron tilts his head, not taking his eyes off me. “It fights back,” he drones, his tone dripping with vitriol. “Good. I was hoping for that.” His glare clashes with mine. “It’s way more fun hurting people who don’t just let you. And I’ve wanted to hurt you for a very long time, Riley.”

“Mr Krasnik, this is a misunderstanding!” Corrado squeals before I can react, wiggling in the hold of his captors.

“Mr Krasnik, he says.” Aron shakes his head. “Fuck me, that’s one I haven’t heard in a while. Why don’t you⁠—”

“Aron!” I cut him off, and he refocuses on me with a frown. “Listen to me! We are in the resistance. Sort of.”

“Is she for fucking real?” one of the men giggles, the sound like a girl’s and at odds with his bulky stature.

I roll my eyes.

“Sort of in the resistance, are you? While shooting pretty pictures for the Continuum propaganda?” His body’s heat envelops me as he closes the distance between us.

“Think! Yes, I’ve been taking pictures for them. Pictures they wanted me to take. But I’ve also been taking photos that I wanted. And we’ve been trying to send those to Synechord.”

“Oh, so you’ve been sort of in the resistance while whoring yourself to the Continuum Consuls while trying to send photos to Synechord. The same Synechord that’s been silent for five years. The same Synechord that dropped nukes to cut us off. Do I have that right?”