THE ESCORT

TWENTY-NINE | GET CREATIVE

"Elodie," Hana said softly, eyes sparkling in the dim light of the cabin.

The noise of the jet was practically nonexistent in the room she was currently situated in, buried underneath the covers, eyes peeking from the top of the duvet she'd buried her face in before the other woman came in.

One day had come and gone.

A whole day since Vasily fucked her face, and she'd sobbed into Angelo's chest like a baby.

And she couldn't bare to face the man.

Hana walked further into the room, shutting the door behind her. "Are you okay?" She inquired softly.

Elodie considered lying—for a moment, she considered telling Hana she was just have a moment and nothimg serious—but, the words poured out like a dam, making sure to leave out the parts about the Bomb, and Vasily's name, and when she was through, Hana's eyes was suspiciously glittering; this influenced Elodie's silent tears too.

While she was talking, Hana had closed the distance between them, and was now sitting on the bed beside her.

She reached for Elodie's hand, threading their fingers together. "It's okay to be angry, scared or afraid. You were talked into doing something against your wishes."

"I did give my consent," Elodie said, sniffling. "I let him touch me."

Elodie raised startled eyes to Hana's when the other woman squeezed her hand enough to hurt.

"Don't you ever say that again," she insisted, voice serious. "The circumstances made you do it, and besides, Angelo is supposed to watch out for you, not peddle you to another in exchange for information."

She widened her eyes at Hana. "I didn't say he did it for information."

Hana's gaze was all-knowing. "Men like Angelo only give out their women in exchange for information." She cast a surreptitious glance over her shoulder at the door, lowered her voice, and said, "you're not the first person he's doing this to."

Elodie was sure that her mortification was visible on her face. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. So, all those words of warning were really that. It was no wonder he didn't hesitate to give her out just like that to Vasily.

"But," Hana was saying, "you could be the last."

That had Elodie sitting upright in bed, back leaning against the headboard. "What do you mean by that?"

Again, Hana looked over her shoulder at the door, and once she confirmed that they were alone, she said, "I know you work for the BIA."

Elodie snatched her hand back from Hana's, chest pounding.

If Hana knew, did that mean Angelo also did? Was that why he was punishing her?

"Don't panic."

It was too late for that.

"See, I'm also an agent of the BIA."

Elodie's fear melted away into surprise, and she could only gape at the other woman. "H-how...?" She could only ask as her mind conjured up different scenarios of how this came to be.

"I was assigned specifically to watch you," she said. "How do you think the BIA knew of your visit to the Yatch?"

Oh. That explained a lot, then.

She still hadn't been able to wrap her head around the fact that she was approached by the BIA first, and the offer Brooks gave her too.

"I didn't know it would come to this, though." There was an apology somewhere in those words.