Hummingbird by Nathan L. Flamank Read Free Book Online Page A

perfect white crispness of the table’s cloth.
    ‘This would make me a slave.’
    Jack chuckled.
    ‘That’s a little melodramatic Selena, I’ve never really studied the history of slavery but I’m pretty sure no slave ever got paid the sort of money you owe.’
    ‘Thirty days and my debt is wiped clean, the Fat Man won’t come after me?’
    ‘Thirty days and nights Selena, the contract is quite clear on that little detail, and no, to answer your question, the Fat Man won’t be coming after you.’
    Selena snorted.
    ‘You have my word.’
    Selena laughed and even to her own ears she could hear the harshness in it.
    ‘Your word?’
    Jack nodded his head; his calmness was infuriating but Selena kept her emotions in check, she really didn’t need Jack abandoning her.
    ‘When have you ever known me to break my word?’
    And there it is , Selena thought, I know he means it, Jack’s many things but he’s no liar .
    ‘But this, this,’ Selena shook the paper in her hand, ‘contract basically says that if I sign it I’m yours to do with as you please.’
    ‘There’s no basically about it Selena, that’s exactly what that contract means, you sign it, you give up any rights you have for the next thirty days.’
    ‘Don’t forget the thirty nights,’ Selena spat back.
    ‘Oh I haven’t forgotten.’
    ‘Jesus Christ,’ Selena sighed. ‘I can’t believe you actually expect me to sign this.’
    Jack shrugged his shoulders.
    ‘I don’t expect anything Selena, this is just an option that you have, an option that only you could have, but it’s up to you.’
    ‘And what if I sign it and then decide to say fuck you, or I don’t want to do whatever it is you ask me to do, what then?’
    Jack smiled and sipped his water.
    ‘It’s all there Selena, you renege during the period that the contract covers, right up until the last fucking second of those thirty days and nights and the deal is void and you’re back to owing the Fat Man.’
    ‘And how do I know you’ll honour this contract?’
    ‘My word.’
    There are those two words again and despite everything I know I can trust him to honour his word, damn it, the simple fact of the matter is what choice do I have?
    Selena asked Jack for a pen and he handed her one. She looked at him one last time and then scrawled her signature where it was required.
    ‘There,’ Selena said and she threw the pen down on top of the contract and sat back in her seat. Jesus, what have I just done….you’ve just saved your ass girl , Selena’s inner voice/s said and she exhaled a huge sigh of relief, at least the Fat Man’s out of my life .
    Jack leaned over the table and picked up the papers, he signed his own name and then had the waiter witness the document, he folded the contract up and slipped it back in to his jacket pocket.
    ‘Can I have that scotch now?’
    ‘Sure,’ Jack said and he ordered them both a shot of a very expensive and rare single malt.
    ‘Trying to impress me?’ Selena asked.
    Jack laughed, ‘I have this contract, I have no need to impress you.’
    ‘So what now?’ Selena asked.
    ‘Now y ou’ll take that dress off.’
    ‘What?’ Selena asked, she hadn’t expected Jack’s response and the full meaning of what she had just signed came to her.
    ‘Paragraph two, clause one: “the individual will follow any command given to her without hesitation or question, failure to do so voids the contract” so take that fucking dress off right now.’
    ‘B-b-but the waiter?’
    ‘I can accept that this is all a learning curve for you Selena; that you might be slightly discombobulated by your unique situation but if I have to ask again then I’m getting up and leaving you to your fate.’
    ‘Fuck,’ Selena said, and she felt her face flush with embarrassment, the waiter was heading directly towards her but she did as she’d been instructed and she took hold of the hem of her dress and lifting her ass up out of the chair she began to work the tight