Play 2 Wage: Linked

“Gah-rah, Ali! What the hell?” I exclaimed, causing her to flinch and go from looking unsure yet determined, to something more like embarrassed with a touch of anger.

“I’m to attend to your every need, sir. It’s my duty.” She replied, her cheeks reddening as she switched poses to something less suggestive and more aggressive. Despite myself, I could not help but notice the way her movements made some parts of her move in interesting ways.

“Aren't I your boss? That’s not your job, consider it removed from your duties. Damn.” I turned away and faced back down the hallway. “When have I ever even hinted at… at… wanting that kind of service?” I struggled through my flustered state.

“If I’m not to your liking, we could arrange for someone else to be brought in, sir.”

I felt a bit of anger working its way into my voice and continued to look away from her. “That’s not it, Ali. That kind of thing is special, not something I just do because I can, but because of a deeper connection. I want love, equal love between partners. Not… to be attended to, that’s just wrong.”

I kept facing the wall, and she remained silent. After a few deep breaths, I finally glanced back in her direction and realized she had shrunken into herself, and was now sitting on the edge of the bed, hugging herself tightly around her stomach with her head tilted forward and eyes lowered to the ground.

I just watched her for a moment, entirely unsure what to say. By my line of thought, I would expect her to be happy to not have to throw herself at her boss. Yet I recognized the slumped and slightly shaking shoulders of despair, and was shocked when she peeked up at me and I saw shining tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Hey, woah. Don’t take it personally.” I reassured her as I reflexively crossed the room. I raised an awkward hand thinking to pat her on the shoulder, yet hesitated and ended up pulling my hand back when my sleep deprived brain remembered that she was nearly naked and touching her might send the wrong message. Instead, I sat down on the edge of the bed next to her an arms length away.

“What’s wrong? You’re a total badass, Ali. Shouldn’t not having to sleep with your boss be a good thing?”

She shook her head, and shivered, taking in a deep breath and seemed to regain control of herself. “I’m not though. I’m a total failure. That’s why I’m here, I failed at everything else and I can’t even do this properly.”

“That’s not true, you handle everything here for me. I haven’t had to worry about anything going wrong or being forgotten at home since you arrived. Plus, you’re the best chef I know, which is saying something. That's what I need from you, not… this. What made you think I wanted this?”

She still hadn’t looked up from the floor, but seemed to have stopped shedding tears at least. “It was made very clear in my training, this is part of being an attendant, it’s part of my duty. They said that you’re new to your status and might just need some… some convincing.”

I shook my head and looked down at the floor as well, disgusted at her situation. “That sounds like some messed up training.”

We sat like that for a long few seconds before she replied in a small voice. “I’ve trained so much. Sometimes it feels like that’s all I’ve done.”

I glanced over at her for a moment, surprised at the sincere and vulnerable tone of her voice, before looking back down. I was so lost in this conversation, and already stressed out enough knowing that my Row was still in the midst of the trials. Every moment I spent sitting in my cushy apartment dealing with whatever the hell this was and away from them put us all at a disadvantage.

I wrenched my thoughts back to the present after a moment, and thought over what I knew about her and this very out of character conversation. While mentally picking through it, I zeroed in on something she had said. A felt the spark of anger ignite within me that must have crept back into my voice.

“You said they talked to you about convincing me, right? Who are ‘they’?”

She stiffened at my words, then stood from the bed and backed up a few steps towards the door, reverting to her normal stiff pose. The movement combined with her lack of an outfit was distracting, which only made me even angrier.

I had only just started to become used to her as kind of an obsessive yet highly capable roommate who handled all the chores and would probably have my back if shit hit the fan. I thought of her as a combat veteran and diligent worker, always sharp, always on task. The thought of someone instructing her to dress in the skimpy getup and offering herself up like she had set my blood to a boil. I know, orders are orders, but this was too far.

“Sir, I’m sorry if I’ve upset you. I’ll make you a meal, and leave you to…” She noticed the forgotten piece of chicken I had raided from the fridge still in my hand, and I watched as the veneer of professionalism she had picked back up shattered again. “You already fed yourself… I can’t even do that right.” She whispered.

I stood up as well, somehow even angrier. “You still cooked it, but forget that for a moment. Who put you up to this? Katie?” I knew my overseer would try something eventually, but had not expected something like this. What even was her plan here?

“It’s in the manual and training course, sir.” She replied, still remaining at attention as tears welled back up in her eyes.

“I’m not angry at you, Ali.” I barked, and seeing her flinch in response was like someone had thrown liquid nitrogen in my face, a painful cold stabbed through me. I asked again, my voice now low and icy smooth. “Who told you to greet me like this?”

She winced, seeming to struggle with something before she sighed and finally answered. “Dalls. He’s in charge, I just do the work.”

“Thank you. I want you to stay here for now, until I come back, okay?”

Her training must have kicked in with my direct request, and she gave a sharp nod. “Yes sir, Nick, sir.”

I rose from the bed and walked past her and out of the room. Closing the door on my way out, I felt more like I was watching myself walk down the hallway than driving my own actions. I was absolutely sick of everyone pushing and pulling, guiding and advising me towards what they thought I wanted. I could decide that for myself, and this was one instance where giving ground was not an option I would even consider.

I had not entered the last door before the Link room in the apartments hallway before then. In my eyes, it was part of Ali and Dalls personal space. Still, the door opened at a touch and I pushed through into a narrow L-shaped hallway that turned to the right about 25 feet ahead. There was a door on each side, the closer was to my right and the further to the left.

The first door automatically opened when I neared it. I looked inside to see a tiny room with a fold-up bed against one wall, and a small cleared desk with a folding chair neatly tucked under it. There was a single glass covered shadow box filled with small keepsakes, pins, and medals hanging on the wall. The little room didn’t even have a window.

Not seeing my target, I moved on to the next room. This door did not open immediately as I approached but crumpled easily when I knocked, the locking latch tearing out a section of the doorframe under my heavy kick.

Inside, Dalls sat at a larger desk with a pair of computer monitors, and we both looked at each other in surprise before the hollow steel door rebounded on its hinges and flapped back against the doorframe. I recovered from my surprise quickly and wordlessly pushed through it on my way into the room.

He started to speak in his normal smooth tone before I cut him off by grabbing him by the nape of his formal jacket and yanking him up out of the chair.

“Sir, should you not be- hey! What are-”

I smacked him with my free hand and drug him to the door. “It has come to my attention that you are an asshole, your services are no longer necessary.”

My voice was glacial, and I didn’t give him a chance to speak before I started to drag him forcibly out of the room.

“Mr. Spenser, you can’t just come in here and assault me like some common wh-” He tried to argue, and I interrupted him again by catching him against the damaged door frame as I carried him into the hallway.

He reeled from the blow and started struggling against my grip on the back of his thick woolen jacket. “I’ll have your title for this, you impecunious filth! I knew you couldn't be-”

I interrupted his yammering by slamming him against the wall, then pushing him out in front of me as the entrance to the main hallway opened. I kept my grip on him and drove him before me, kicking at his heels and knees to keep him stumbling forward as I all but carried him out through the kitchen.

“You’ll fall on your face in a week without me! You’re an amateur, you don’t know how the powerful do things!” He tried reasoning with me as I pushed him towards the front door. I didn’t bother replying to him, my frozen anger unmoved by his pleading.

The door to the public hallway outside of the apartment opened before I had crossed half of the room, and even though I was not sure what caused it to open, I seized the opportunity. Placing my booted foot into the center of Dalls lower back, I kicked out with all my might and sent him flying across the room and through the door.

He skipped across the hard stone floor, rolled once along the way and then crashed into the wall across the hallway. I stormed up to the edge of my property and looked down at him as he lay in a heap, his lip split from my slap and face red with anger and humiliation as he started to scramble back to his feet.

My hands clenched into fists as I stared down at him for a moment. I felt the forgotten piece of chicken I had been carrying as It partially squished between my fingers. Still overcome with anger, I threw it at him. The smashed bit of meat smacked into his reddened face and fell to pieces, leaving a smear across his cheek.

“You’re fired, Dalls.” I said coldly, before keying the button next to the doorway and closing the door, locking it down before he had a chance to spout more nonsense at me.

I turned around and took two steps away from the door, only now realizing how hard my heart was beating. I pulled out my mobile comm and sent two text messages. The first to Rin, letting him know he was now in charge of my staff, his first assignment to send Tevin to get rid of Dalls before he made a scene in the hallway. The second was to Katie, filled with seething anger at her recommendation of the man and a barely veiled threat to take up one of the offers I had received to relocate if she tried to place another monumental asshole such as him into my retinue again.

By the time I finished typing out the messages, my hands had started to shake. I put my comm back in its pocket and moved over to the island countertop and leaned against it, putting my elbows down and cradling my head in my hands for a moment as I tried to calm myself.

What the fuck had I just done? I refused to feel bad for firing the man, but already was starting to regret how I had done it. Could he press charges against me? Did he have the connections to meaningfully retaliate? How had the door been so easily kicked open?

I focused on that last question, deciding it was something I could act upon immediately. I worked my way back through the hallways and stopped outside of the room I had forced my way into. I grabbed the bent door and pushed it back and forth, getting a feel for the weight of it, before tapping on it with my knuckles.

It really was a steel door, albeit hollow and not thickly built. I looked over at the door jam where the latch had ripped free, and saw the ripped out twisted metal plate that held it into the frame. There was a clear footprint where I had kicked it in the center and caused the panel to buckle inwards towards the dent. The whole thing was deformed and wouldn't properly fit into the frame when I tried to close it.

My comm chirped in my pocket. I heaved a breath and pulled the device from my pocket with a shaking hand to see the message was a reply from Rin.

Rin: I do not want that job. Tevin is on it.

I smiled, but could not quite muster a laugh. Of course he would refuse being placed in charge of people, Rin seemed to dislike people in general. Unfortunately I seemed to need someone who I could actually trust in that position, rather than another plant from Katie. I sent another message back.

Nick: It’s either you or Tevin

His next message came back almost instantly.

Rin: Fine, I will do it until I can find a replacement. We will be there in a moment and you will explain yourself.

I actually did manage to get a laugh out of that, looking down at my comm in the harshly lit hallway. The only thing Rin would hate more than being in charge, is having Tevin be in charge of him. I was interrupted by a small voice from the end of the hallway that caused me to jump in surprise.

“What happened, sir?” Ali was standing in the doorway to the main hall, still wearing next to nothing with her hands clasped together over her chest, her eyes wide and vulnerable.

I felt a surge of mixed emotions. A swirl of righteous triumph at having stood up for her, tainted by pity and a caveman-esque desire to take advantage of what I had defended. I tamped them back down, and with them went the anger, it all drained out of me and left me hollow. My shoulders slumped, the overwhelming exhaustion from the past month seizing its chance to drive into the cracks of my fading anger as my wrath and adrenaline faded.

I gave her a sorry look, then turned back to the door so I did not have to look at her. “I fired Dalls. Please, go put on some clothes. Rin and Tevin will be here shortly.”

“Okay, sir. Right away. I’m… sorry, sir.” She disappeared into her tiny spartan room, leaving me alone in the barren room.