Stuck With Me: A Cad Bane Novel

Chapter 4

A/N: yall ever just so happy that you actually updated when you said you would? also, PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS, from here on they get a bit less harrying but please do not read if this triggers you

Warnings: swearing, corpses, death, violence, sex workers and brothels, crude language towards sex workers, mentions of rape, 

Word count: 2012 (WHA -  HOW???)

Cad shoulders his way through the thronging crowds. He always hated this about Coruscant; the sheer amount of people puts him on edge, most of which know who he is. Tugging the brim of his hat over his eyes, he glances down to check you are still there. You are, eyes wide as you turn your head, taking in as much as you could at once. He left Todo on the ship, and he's glad he did, since if he was looking after his techno service and you, he'd have lost at least one of you by now.

Grumpily, he elbows past a particularly thick crowd of people - most of them drunk enough to not recognise his signature hat and legendary hunting reputation and flee before he loses his temper. There is a light tug on the hem of his trench coat, and he whirls around, expecting some slimy pickpocket, but it's just you, cowering away from him, fear in your eyes.

'S - sorry,' you whisper, so quietly he can barely hear you. 'I - I just didn't want to get lost.'
He grunts and shrugs, muttering under his breath. 'Fair enough.'

Cad quickens his pace, and soon he enters the part of Coruscant which is full of brothels. Prostitutes eye him as he passes, some with fear, some with flirtation, some with disgust. They give you curious looks - who is this woman with the infamous bounty hunter Cad Bane, how is she brave enough to hold onto the sleeve of his coat as he walks, and why, oh why is he letting her do so?

Cad isn't sure he can answer that last question.

He watches you flinch away from one of the pimps, and he hates the way he pities you. Deep down, he knows it's because, although he can hardly remember her, you make him think about how she must have been, how scared, how -

Don't think about her, he tells himself. You don't need that right now. Just focus. Get rid of the girl. She's a distraction.

And yet, he's already wondering what you're really like under that stupefied, doe eyed look that's been beaten into you from an early age. Already wondering who you really are, and how you ended up in nearly the same position as... her.

─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

You huddle behind your master (who's not your master any more) as he strides into the cantina. What feels like a thousand gazes land on you, and the hairs on the back of your neck rise. You let the brown fabric of his sleeve drop from between your fingers. What if he just brought you here to sell you? There's plenty of greedy gazes on you, even though you aren't wearing your normal exposing outfit, and you doubt that he'll have much trouble finding someone to take you off his hands. You've already seen his ship - although it's big for one person, it clearly wasn't made for two, which means he'll want to get rid of you as soon as he can.

'Hey!' Someone calls. 'Isn't that Gavinc Russ' fucktoy? What are you doing with her, Bane? No one wants to be associated with him or his bitch!'

You cringe at the Weequay's crude language. Around the bar, many heads are nodding. Bane's hands curl into fists, and your heart sinks. It's obvious now that no one really wants to buy you, and that means he will be forced to find other means of getting rid of you. Is he going to just kill you and leave you bleeding out on the street? You doubt that anyone in the underworlds of Coruscant will care enough to try and save you.