When I finally reached the big square, I grinned. The place was pretty busy, which meant there would likely be a ton of options for me. My eyes gazed out across it, taking in the hustle and bustle of Dryac’s most popular market.
Merchants set out tables in a haphazard sort of a grid pattern. They openly sold drugs of every kind, weapons, and attachments for illegal high-powered machine guns, mods of all sorts for ships, and disguises of all kinds. You could pretty much find anything you wanted here if you looked hard enough.
The wind chose that moment to pick up and the dirt around me hurtled across my cheek, getting in my eyes, and I groaned, wiping my eyes with my fingertips.
I needed a shower. This place made me feel dirty.
I saw the message board over on the far end of the market. It was a big wooden plank set up to communicate about crew opportunities, jobs, and all manner of work, and it was covered with pieces of paper. It was the best place for me to start looking. I’d find something there. I was sure of it.
I started down the stairs and descended into the square. I made my way between tables and avoided as many lecherous grabs as I could, but at least seven hands squeezed my ass and tried to slink in between my thighs on the way. I didn’t react to any of them. That was asking for trouble. Instead, I just carried on and walked a bit faster than I had before.
If I’d had a crew with me, I would have kneed them all square in the balls, but I was on my own. This place was dangerous, if you weren’t ready for it that is.
Once I reached the board, I started scanning the papers. Some were written on yellowed notebook paper, some on napkins, and some on thin pieces of cardboard, nailed on or pushed in with a thumbtack. Closer to Earth, things were way more digital, but many different pieces of technology just hadn’t made their way here yet. Even Intergalactic Coalition cyber failed to work out here. No cyber tower planets way out here. Too far out of range.
No. Dryac was a forgotten place and that’s what made both its inhabitants and its visitors like it that much more. Out here, rules and propriety didn’t apply.
People and aliens and all manner of creatures roamed around me, their shoulders brushing against mine, elbows skewering me in the side, but I ignored them all. I focused on the messages on the board, searching for any of them that were looking for a mechanic or an engineer. I saw one, tucked up in the corner, and I reached up and grabbed it. I skimmed it, noting that the captain wanted to meet in the local bar called The Alley Pub. I shivered. I hadn’t ever gone in there. Tucked away in a rather grimy alley, all kinds of shady things happened there, but if a job was there, I needed to go find it.
I turned and that’s when I noticed a big man watching me. Normally, this wouldn’t concern me, but he was standing less than two feet away from me and the look in his eyes was dangerous. I gritted my teeth and lifted my chin. I practically snarled in his direction, but I remained silent, waiting to see what his first move would be.
His get-up was pretty ridiculous. Kind of like a cowboy, but kind of not. He had a big hat on his head, but it was more of a high-top hat than a cowboy one. He wore a heavy-looking dark gray leather jacket and beneath was a dingy brown colored button-up shirt. He wore dark, dirt-covered khaki pants with thick, steel-toed black boots.
He was big. Probably some sort of human and alien hybrid, likely Crannix with his pale, bluish albino skin and large, circular spaced eyes. Freaking creepy really.
Dude fucking smelled too. The hair on top of his head was covered with grease, mud, and so much dirt that I couldn’t tell what the original color was.
“What’s a pretty thing like you doing down here, darlin’?” he asked, looking me up and down as he did so. Probably imagining me naked. I’d have bet money on it.
“What’s it to you?” I answered. He didn’t need to know why I was here.
“I like to employ pretty things like you. The men here like to fuck them the most,” he said, the tone in his voice mildly threatening as he stepped forward just a little bit.
Shit. He was a pimp. A slaver of women who profited off of their bodies. And he’d just decided I was his next target.
No one around us paid him any mind. No one cared. He took another step closer and I stepped away, but the message board was just behind me and the back of my boot scuffed against the wall beneath it. I had nowhere to run.
He was much larger than me. At least seven feet tall and probably three times my weight. My chances in a physical confrontation were slim, but I’d fight anyway. I hadn’t gotten to live my life out here on the edges of space without getting into brawls from time to time.
I stiffened, positioning myself so that I could kick him in the nuts or punch him square in his oversized nose. It was then I noticed his breathing made a wheezing noise. Ugh. This guy was gross.
He chose that moment to surge forward, clocking me in the jaw and forcing his hand into my hair. His fingers curled into a fist and he jerked his arm to the side, pulling my hair cruelly along with it. I cried out, feeling a few strands rip free from my scalp, and I tried to kick him between the legs, only he shifted his hips to the side and I missed him entirely. He jerked my hair again and I lost my balance. He dragged me off with one hand and I screamed.
No one interfered. People glanced my way, but they did nothing as the slaver dragged me across the dirt. I kicked and clawed at the ground, but none of it did any good. I couldn’t use any of the defensive maneuvers I knew when he had me like this. I had to do something though.
My scalp was on fire and the rocks and pieces of concrete scraped at my skin. I tried to ignore the pain, but it was becoming too much. I wanted to cry, but I knew that would only make me look weaker and I had to focus on how to get out of this mess without losing face. I grabbed his wrist with both of my hands and tried to twist out of his grip, but he stopped, lifted me clean off the ground, and forced me up against a dirty brick wall, his other hand working its way around my throat.
“You better learn to be more obedient, human,” he growled, his spittle bouncing off my cheek. I grimaced but as his hand tightened around my neck, I began to grow even more worried. He released the hair at the back of my head and brushed his dirty fingers against the top of my breasts. I would have pulled away, but I couldn’t.
“I’ll show you them, if you’ll let me go,” I offered, hoping that I could use my body to distract him.
His hands ventured down beneath the collar of my shirt and across the swell of my breasts, and I couldn’t help my shiver of disgust. He grinned, his large, circular eyes staring down at me, and then his fingers crawled beneath the fabric of my cotton bra. I really wished I could kick him straight in the balls. As soon as I got the opportunity, I would have this man singing for the stars.
I stilled, staring daggers at him as he took a nipple in between his fingers. His gaze never left mine as he pinched it harshly.
I cried out, pain lancing through my body, and then out of the corner of my eye another man strode up beside us.
“Fucking bastard. You know better than to pull this shit when I’m in town,” a firm, gravelly voice said, and I turned my head, lifting my eyes so that I could gaze on the face of the man who had dared to interrupt my abduction. Eyes the color of the midnight sky met mine, soft and hard at the same time.