The Great Below

The Boss: Part 3

Alex sat in the hallway in front of his room, knees drawn up to his chest. It would have been callous to go inside where he could rest on his own comfortable bed. He sat with the unforgiving concrete at his back, letting the cold sink into his bones. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes and tried to pretend that the long rows of fluorescent light coming from above were warm like the sun.

A muffled scream erupted from down the hall.

He jerked back to watching Dominic's door. Everything went quiet again. When he accounted for the thickness of the walls, the depth of this floor – it was a tomb, really. It didn't matter what happened to any of them while they were buried in it. The security door to the far staircase clacked open, and Nick approached.

"Didn't you drop her off?" he asked.

"Yeah. You were right."

Nick came close, leaning his shoulder against the wall and towering over him. "So now you're either punishing yourself for something you had no control over, or he's asked you to be some kind of kinky referee."

The girl's voice drifted toward them. She was trying to say stop.

"This is wrong," Alex said. "I didn't know he was doing this."

"Put it in perspective," Nick told him. "We've done worse things. On a scale of 'disappointing a kitten' to 'killing people for money,' this is like a five. It's, uh...well, it's 'raping a stranger.' I guess maybe it's closer to an eight."

"She thanked me for killing Victor."

Nick smiled. "She thinks you're her guardian angel."

"Yeah, right up until I put her in there," Alex said.

"Remember, she didn't concern you at all until a few hours ago. If you want to keep your career on track – if you want what he wants for you – then you might have to let this one go."

Alex leaned his head back again, ignoring him, letting the cold whisper over his scalp.

"Get some rest, Corvin," Nick said, then retreated to his own room down the hall.

Alex begrudgingly climbed to his feet. Nick hadn't racked up five years' experience working for Dominic by speaking his mind and standing up for things he believed in, and it didn't seem all bad. They had both saved up a fair amount of money, and never worried about rent or groceries. They didn't work desk jobs.

Alex turned to unlock his door. After all, he would have to go to sleep some time, even if it required a pill or two. His door opened just as a noise came from the other end of the hall.

The girl came spilling out of Dominic's room. There was no good reason for Alex to be standing where he was, but it would look more suspicious if he fled, so he hesitated as Dominic emerged from behind her.

"Get down here," Dominic shouted toward him. He grabbed Octavia's wrist and pulled her up until she stood on the balls of her feet, then he turned her by pushing on her hips like a show horse. "Did you even look at her?"

Alex had, of course, but there was no way he would tell his boss that. "What is it, Sir?"

Dominic bunched the hem of Octavia's sweater in his fist and hoisted it, exposing a mosaic of bruises. Purple, yellow, sickly green. Her torso was covered in them. "Why didn't you tell me about this?" Dominic demanded.

A new cold crawled over his skin. He'd pushed his shoulder into her stomach not twenty minutes ago, and it wasn't the first time he'd lifted her that way. Alex knew he hadn't put the bruises there, but he certainly hadn't been considerate of them, either. He'd seen the burns on her hands and even the bruise near her collar and assumed he'd seen everything. He could have been kinder. He'd been treating her like a nuisance. "Your instructions weren't very specific, Sir."

Dominic shoved him square in the breastbone. "Why does she keep asking me for a job? Did you put her up to that?"

When Alex didn't respond, he received a second, more forceful shove. He stumbled back a step. "I'm sorry, Sir. I should have done a better job of inspecting your hostage."

"She's not a hostage!" Dominic dropped his hold on the girl, who yanked her sweater back into place. "Stop putting ideas in her head. She is here for one reason and one reason only. Until she's ready to do that, she can sleep in the Infirmary."

The door slammed and they were alone, facing each other in the hallway. Octavia rubbed absently at her wrist.

"I didn't know about those," Alex said. "I thought it was just your hands."

She didn't say anything, which was a relief, because she could have easily called his bluff by pointing out that she'd been awake when he'd pulled down the neckline of her sweater. Alex felt far removed from the generous savior she'd hugged in the stairwell. He wanted to comfort her by saying something like at least Victor can't hurt you anymore, only that was a lie too and he didn't need to dig himself any deeper. What was the saying – when you find yourself at the bottom of a hole?

"I'm sorry if I hurt you," he continued.

Her hands held the hem of her sweater as if it might snap up at any moment like a rolled curtain. "If there's an alarm clock in this next room, the Infirmary," she said quietly, "I'm going to hit you with that, too."