She shot the bouncer a look. He was as huge as Arik, with beefy arms crossed over his chest. His black tee gripped his bulging biceps, and his thick thighs were encased in black combat pants.
He didn’t acknowledge their presence. So no help there, then. She snorted. What did she expect? Nobody had helped her so far.
She ignored the little voice that whispered the name of a certain alien ship’s captain.
Gark would come. Surely he would, if he knew where to go. This station was so big; how could he possibly find her?
She gritted her teeth.
Focus, Letty. You have to figure this out.
A’Kar let her go, the pungent stench of his breath giving way to the smell of sweet smoke, like the vapes the boys she’d dated as a teenager had smoked.
Aletta looked between the bouncer and the closed door. She couldn’t get out; that much was clear, so there was only one choice.
You always have a choice.
She scowled as A’Kar beckoned her with a crooked finger, shoulders tense and hands gripped in fists by her side as she forced herself to walk toward him.
Forward. The only way was forward. Into whatever this place was. Let them think she was compliant and then find a way to escape.
With her new, albeit very flimsy, plan in place, she walked through the now-open doorway into an unsurprisingly dingy bar. It was small, barely bigger than the apartment she had shared with Dylan—she pushed that thought away rapidly—with a bar running the length of one side behind which a woman stood in a skimpy outfit as she cleaned glasses.
A human woman. Aletta stared, trying to catch her eye, but the woman didn’t even look up as they entered. She was short and curvy, with breasts barely covered by a semi-transparent band that wrapped around her chest. Her head was bent forward, her brown hair falling over her face like a shield.
Aletta’s chest tightened. Who was this woman? What had brought her here? Who?
“Woman!” A’Kar was halfway across the room and obviously upset she hadn’t followed him. She forced an apologetic look on her face and scurried after him.
“Woman!”
She nodded, keeping her head down, and had to force herself not to roll her eyes as he actually stomped his foot—was he a complete child?
Her palms were sweaty, but she didn’t wipe them on her jeans in case it gave her away. She needed to seem subservient and cowed. She fought to calm her breath and to look at her feet.
There was no way she would let any of these people see that she was absolutely terrified. She glanced at the woman behind the bar, who had looked up at A’Kar’s shouts. Shocked, wide brown eyes met Aletta’s, and the woman’s mouth fell open, the cloth she was using to dry the glass dangling from limp fingers.
“Run,” she mouthed. “Run!”
Aletta gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile, but the other woman had already dropped her head once more and gone back to wiping the glass.
Aletta dragged her attention away from the woman behind the bar, desperately wishing she could do something to help her—it was obvious she didn’t want to be here any more than Aletta did. But she couldn’t get herself out yet, let alone someone else.
When I get out of here, I’ll come back and help you, I promise.
A’Kar had stopped in front of a table of aliens, all much bigger and more well built than him. Aletta covertly memorized their appearance. Every one of them was dressed the same. Black pants, black boots, black shirt with the sleeves ripped off to show the same tattoo that A’Kar had on their upper arms. The script looked familiar as well, and she realized it was the same as the one in the hallway, but stylized as a circle, with the silhouette of a woman in the background.
Her stomach flip-flopped. These were not good people. Aliens. Whatever. They were bad news.
They ignored A’Kar when he walked up. He shifted from foot to foot and cleared his throat. Not one of them at the table lifted their heads.
They appeared to be playing a betting game of some sort, possibly like poker? There was a pile of what looked like money of some sort on the table in front of them, and each alien had a collection of square metal pieces.
A’Kar grabbed her by the arm and thrust her forward. “Look. I brought you another one.”
Aletta stumbled, her hands reaching for the table’s edge to break her fall. Her hands slid across the slick, polished metal surface with a loud squeak, the front of her hips hitting the edge of the table so that she bent over at the waist and face planted into the pile of chips.
She groaned, lifting her head. One of the chips had stuck to her face, and she reached up to peel it off with a grimace, dropping it back into the pile on the table.
