Before he could pull her outside, the door opened to reveal the all-beloved Mr Culligan. Beka wasn’t entirely sure whether to be relieved or frightened. She settled for something in between.
“What are you doing?” he growled in a very low tone of voice. Harper tried his hardest to look confident.
“We’re leaving!” Mr Culligan cocked his head.
“Oh you are, are you? Rebekah?” The tone of his voice made her shiver and she never replied. Instead, Harper did it for her.
“Of course she wants to leave. Who’d want to stay here?” The hostility in Harper’s voice was the last straw. The larger man grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked him away from Beka, causing him to lose his grip.
“You are not taking away my main attraction,” he roared before half-carrying Harper out of the room, mostly dragging him down the stairs. Beka ran after, not quite sure what to do.
“Leave him alone,” she cried, “I’m not going to go anywhere. Just let him go.” Mr Culligan turned towards her, stopping for a moment.
“You know you are free to go at any time.” His tone was dangerously sweet. “But I don’t accept people like him,” he shook Harper, “trying to lure you out.” She took a step back, then followed as Mr Culligan dragged Harper out. Eventually, he pushed the engineer out of the door, following himself. Beka stopped, praying he wouldn’t harm her friend.
“Friend?” she briefly asked herself, “are we friends?” Were they? She sank down, clutching her knees, not even noticing as Mariah came up to her, sitting next to her on the floor.
“You know him?” She nodded.
“He used to be my best friend.”
“And now?”
“I…don’t know. I thought I’d left them all behind, but it seems they caught up with me. Like Rev would say, ‘The Divine works in mysterious ways’.”
“Who’s Rev?” Beka flinched, almost having forgotten the other woman was there.
“Another old friend. Doesn’t matter.”
****
“Now you,” Mr Culligan hissed, “are going back to wherever you came from, and you’re staying there!” Harper gulped, wondering how he was going to save Beka now. He felt himself being pushed forward by the bigger man, but at least now knowing he wasn’t going to get killed. “And if you ever, ever come near Rebekah again, I will kill you myself.” Ok, so maybe he was. “You are not stealing any of my employees, do you get it? Rebekah belongs to me.”
“She does, does she?” A deep voice from behind startled both the men and they turned around to find a dangerously calm Nietzschean along with an angry high guard captain. Mr Culligan, now not so tough anymore didn’t reply, but just stood with his mouth wide open. He let go of Harper, who ran to stand behind Tyr, and backed a few steps.
“You’re…you’re Dylan Hunt.”
“The very same. And what claim do you have that Beka belongs to you?” There was no answer. “Where is she?” Again Dylan was met with silence. Tyr took a step forward and grabbed the pimp’s collar, almost lifting him off the ground.
“If you do not bring us to her, I will have your intestines for breakfast, is that understood?” He said it in a calm growl, but the words were enough to make the not-so-tough-now man’s eyes nearly pop out. He stammered something unintelligible and Tyr put him down.
“T-t-this w-w-way!” He scampered off in a walk that much resembled a gerbil’s and the three men were quick to follow.
****
Beka let her hair out and sighed as the red locks fell back down to her waist. Looking out of the window, hoping Harper hadn’t got hurt, she couldn’t see anything. No sign of him. Hopefully Mr Culligan had only told him to get out and never come back. Which would be a good thing. Beka didn’t want him back.
“Maybe I can get him to tell me later,” she thought, “in exchange for some…favours.” She swallowed. Somehow, even though she’d never admit it, Harper’s words had made an impression on her, and her work suddenly seemed worse than it had before he came. “Thanks Harper,” she muttered sarcastically, “I guess I didn’t have enough misery as it went.” Steps outside alerted her and she hoped it wasn’t Mr Culligan coming to scold her. Or worse – throw her out! Her suspicions were confirmed when he came into the doorway, but he didn’t look angry. He looked very, very scared.
“Here she is,” he whispered and took a step back, allowing someone else to enter her view. Her eyes widened and she shook her head.
“Oh, God, no,” she whispered as she backed away. It was Tyr in the doorway, soon replaced by Dylan as he walked in. Harper came last, looking slightly sheepish.
“I didn’t…they found us Beka, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take them here.” She only needed to take one look at his face to know he was telling the truth. He wanted her back, yes, but he knew letting everyone find out what she was doing wasn’t going to help the issue. She believed him. They stood in awkward silence for what seemed like years, before Dylan spoke up.
“Why Beka?” His voice was quizzical and almost accusative. A mistake. She sank onto the floor, hiding her face with her arms. The embarrassment was almost too much to handle and she started to whimper. Tyr, not being extremely sensitive, looked around him.
“So,” he muttered, “are we leaving this place? No matter how…classy it might be, I’m not so fond of the idea of buying sex. It’s for the weak.” This caused Mr Culligan, who until now had been cowering outside, to come in with new strength. Maybe he’d just realised that he was in his own place and didn’t need to answer to anyone, or maybe that comment just made him angry, but he didn’t seem scared anymore.
“This is it!” he yelled. “You!” He pointed to Beka who looked up fearfully. “You may be a very good whore, but I get more trouble from you than all the others combined. You are leaving my establishment NOW!”
