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There is a lot of blood everywhere, but that’s not my fault. He can’t think I did this. I’m obviously not capable of that level of aggression. Last he saw me I was hiding under a dining table.
“So,” Shah turns to me. “You’re beating the ship girls? Getting into cat fights?”
“No! I didn’t touch her. I swear I didn’t touch her!”
He puts his hands on his hips, his muscles rippling under the aggressive tattoos. He doesn’t believe me. I can’t believe he doesn’t believe me.
“She punched me right in the fucking face,” Zeki lies. “She’s crazy! She’s a psycho bitch!”
“Talking like that might be why you get hit, Zeki,” Shah points out. “I’m going to call Malik. He can take you to the doc.”
It does not take long for Malik to arrive. I assume he’s her partner, and I feel sorry for him. He deserves someone who isn’t insane. Everybody deserves someone who isn’t insane.
“Why, little sister?” Malik sighs.
Sister? I suppose, if I squint, they do look like siblings. One of them is well over six feet and massively muscled and the other is a slim, willowy psychopath, but I suppose there’s a similarity around the nose, eyes, and mouth. Facially, I guess.
“It’s that…” Zeki points at me and makes a great show of holding back her cursing even though none of this is my fault. This girl is a dangerous snake, and apparently the sister of an Elite, which makes her an Elite too by blood. I wonder how many of Shah’s crew are the fallen powerful. “She did this to me.”
“Did she?” Malik sounds the right kind of skeptical. “Come on. You’re making a massive mess.”
He ushers her out of Shah’s quarters, leaving me alone with him. I don’t even know how to start making him believe me.
“You’re always surprising me, Dreamy,” he says with a deep chuckle. “I did tell you that you have the run of the ship, but I didn’t think I had to tell you not to fight the other girls. What am I going to do about that?”
“I didn’t touch her. I really didn’t. She came in here, and…”
“I know we’re outlaws, but I still don’t like liars,” he says. “You fought Zeki and did some real damage. I knew there was a scrapper somewhere inside you. This place will bring out the real you. But you’re going to be punished for fighting and lying. I don’t want you going feral. It happens when people come aboard for the first time. They think because this is an outlaw vessel there are no rules and no consequences.”
“I don’t think that…”
I don’t like the look in his eyes. Shah is terrifying when he’s angry. He’s also terrifying when he’s slightly proud, but incredibly stern.
“Don’t lie to me, Dreamy,” he growls. “I don’t expect you to be sorry, yet, but I do expect you to tell me the truth.”
“I am telling you the truth.”
“Dreamy…” he takes me by the shoulders and looks deep into my eyes. “You’re going to be in a lot less trouble if you obey me. I understand the urge to beat that girl. She lives to push buttons.”
“I’m not feral. I swear. It was a misunderstanding. She did it to herself. She tried to hit me, and…”
He picks me up. That’s not good. Every time he picks me up something terrible, or hot, or painful happens. I’m picking this is going to be one of the painful times. I am not wrong.
My next stop is over the same bed he ravaged me in before, the rucked-up sheets still smelling like sex. Outlaws don’t have to make their bed before 7:45 am. And they don’t have to listen to explanations either. This isn’t fair, but Shah’s already decided I deserve to be punished, which means Zeki won.
“I think a traditional punishment’s in order,” Shah says. “Six of the best with my belt.”
“But…”
“Twelve strokes.”
“Shah…”
“Twenty-four strokes. Want to keep talking?”
I grip the sheets, knowing I am going to be hurt, and knowing it’s not my fault. This is so deeply unfair. For an outlaw, Shah is intense about discipline. He pretends to let the ship run itself, but in truth he’s just as domineering as any Elite running a drone Colony. He pretends to offer freedom, but all he really offers is pain.
The belt licks my ass with a tongue like fire. I scream, and it bites again almost immediately. He’s lashing me fast and hard, with a snappy rhythm that makes the heat flower and grow and sink deep into my flesh.
