Chapter 9

Sometimes things just don't work out as you hoped, and Vilas is finding that out.

"Keep moving," Carter said, pushing Vilas out of the car onto the sidewalk. She was holding the side of her face where he had punched her, causing her eye to start to swell up, and it was already changing colors. She was crying hard from the pain coming from her face, arm, and, most of all, heart. Carter had come up with a pistol and hit Vecher hard, throwing her to the floor before kicking her hard in her stomach. Vilas tried to jump up from the table and dash for the back door, but Carter kicked the table into her belly, shooting her against the wall.

It wasn't the first time Carter had hit Vilas. It wasn't the first time she had been roughed up, and she could handle it. What she couldn't handle was Carter jerking the pistol towards Vecher, aiming the barrel right at her head as she lay there on the floor in agony, and pulled back the hammer.

"No, no, no," Vilas cried, making Carter stop, and before she knew it, after he agreed not to kill Vecher, she was in the back of a car outside the house. He had punched her hard in the face, causing the driver to glance up at them, shrug, and look away.

It seemed this wasn't the first time the driver had dealt with such an event happening in the back of his car. Vilas cried and begged Carter for forgiveness while trying her best to calm him down. It didn't take a lot when it came to Carter. She put his hands up her dress and put it in the place he liked the most. She was under no delusion about what she was going to have to do when they got to wherever they were going.

And it seemed the best they were headed was a private airport, a hotel owned by the Liongrace Family and Company, one of the biggest airship traders in the country. Everyone seemed to know the Liongrace Family was doing backroom deals and underhand jobs for most of the crime families in the world, but the head of the company, Kadmiel T. Liongrace, had made a lot of the right deals. He not only worked with the crime families of the world, but he also worked with the government.

No one was going to touch him.

He was far too powerful for such a thing, and his wealth would make King Solomon himself be in awe of it, but as Vilas was pushed into the back doors of the hotel and airport, she glanced skyward, seeing there was no airship at the top of the small tower.

There weren't many tall buildings in New Rockwell, and those that stood five stories or higher had to be ports for the airships. It was the reason the Liongrace company had built their airport into a hotel along with a trading post. It allowed people who wanted to see the states a luxury stopping point to relax and enjoy some time out of the skies.

Most of all, it was safe due to the fact that there had been a lot of outlaws, pirates, and freedom fighters from the south raging a war in the blue skies again. The US air fleet was moving to counter them, but the fleet was small, and after the Great War, people did not have the heart for more blood. It left it up to private companies to come in to help counter the fighting and a dashing hero named Zorro.

He owned the skies above these states. He would come out of nowhere with his black plane named Tornado, save the day, and disappear just as quickly, but as Vilas was taken up to their room, she knew there would be no hero like Zorro coming to save the day.

She was doomed.

She was damned.

And when Carter pushed her into a room near the top floor of the hotel, she stood there in the center of the place, holding back tears. She stared out the window, seeing all of New Rockwell before her eyes, wishing she had never run for her life. The military base and the airports were behind her, and the sight before her now would have been lovely to see as the dying rays of the sun painted the world in deep reds, but all she saw in those rays were the hues of Hell.

For a second, she thought about throwing herself out of the window. She would be free then. She would hit the ground, dying in a flash, but she would be free of this life and the horrors to follow. She almost took a step towards the window, then she would run with hast, throwing herself out and welcoming the afterlife, but she saw before she took another step the windows were locked.

"I'm sorry, doll," Carter said, moving up behind her, placing his hands on her shoulder and breathing onto her neck. She closed her eyes, wishing she was anywhere else in the world. She wished all those years ago, after her first run with the Circus, she had put the barrel of the gun into her mouth, which she did, and she had drawn back the hammer, which she also did, and then blew out her brains, which she did not.

If only she had done the deed, then she would be free of Carter.

He started to kiss her long neck; she didn't moan as she felt his hands, fingers mostly wrapped around the tips of the dress, pushing them down her shoulders. Soon, the dress would crash to the floor, and soon Carter would be on top of her.

"I didn't mean to get so angry," he said softly. "Just you hurt me so badly."

She took a deep breath, stepped away from him right as her dress fell off her body, and turned to face him. She wore a soft smile on her lips, standing there in almost nothing, and studied him, seeing he was ready in more than one way.

"I'm going to," she said, watching her words carefully, "get cleaned up. I still have the smell of the road on me."

"Good idea," Carter said, putting his hands into his suit pocket. "We do have to pay for this room."

"How are we going to do that?" She asked with her heart racing. She didn't know how bad the punishment was going to be. She didn't know if she would have to stand on a stage fully naked, singing for a room of shadows, or if it was going to be worse.

"Dathen Liongrace Jr," Carter said, "is a big fan of you and a good friend of Boss Tom-Tom, which is why he's allowing us to use the room." He smiled, looking around the place. "Almost feels like the honeymoon suite, huh?"

"What do I have to do?" she asked.

"Nothing too much," he said, turning his hard gaze back to her, "sing for him and his friends while they wait for his airship to get out of dry dock."

"Then what?"

"We go home," he said, smiling and rocking on his heels. "Tom-Tom wants us to meet at St. Andrew."

"We are going to meet with him?" Vilas asked, no longer caring that Carter had been letting his eyes wash over her lovely body. He was lusting for her, but that was nothing new.

"He's not happy with you having run away," Carter said, shrugging. "He wants to talk to you."

"S**t."

"It won't be too bad," he said, "as long as you play nice with me and do what I want."

"Right, yes," Vilas said, nodding hard.

"Now," he said, smiling big, but it wasn't a smile she enjoyed. She never enjoyed it, "let's watch you take a bath before our show tonight."