Unwilling to Back Down (Survival of the Fittest Book 2)

by Shawn Keys

  Jackie’s eyebrows rose. “You want a decision just like that, huh?”

  Kyle nodded. “I need to know where you stand. I need to know what I’m dealing with. I owe it to the others. I owe it to the kids who are coming.”

  Jackie met his eyes. “What If I don’t believe you? Are you going to keep your promise to surrender?”

  Clenching his teeth, Kyle stiffened against Megan. “If after all we’ve shown you… if you still aren’t at least questioning what the hell is going on inside the FDPC, then you were never seriously open to the possibility. I know what we have is a patchwork of broken facts. There are a thousand holes. But that doesn’t change the fact that six FDPC agents tried to sterilize me…” Outrage sparked in his eyes. “When that didn’t work, they tried to kill me,” he reminded her. “When Claire Erinson tried to report them for potentially rogue behavior, two other agents from their own Office of Professional Conduct showed up and tried to kill her because she opened her mouth.”

  Megan stroked his hand, then reached back to pet him along the leg, trying to calm him down. She knew the stress he was under, and she knew how much he cared about protecting them all.

  It helped a little. Kyle began less frantic, calming into something steadier. Serious, but more deliberate. “To keep us quiet and from going to the authorities, they framed us for the murder of Dazz’s parents who they killed practically in front of our eyes! Ignore the rest of it. That alone should be enough to make you wonder what the hell is going on.” He glared at her steadily.

  The DOJ agent let him rant. She weighed his emotions as much as the facts. When he finished, she let him calm down enough to hear her semi-rationally. “You are right. There isn’t enough here to draw conclusions. Not for me to know what is going on, and certainly not to prove in any kind of court of law.” She pursed her lips, then closed her eyes in pain. “I promised my boss I wouldn’t chase unicorns on this one. The FDPC isn’t just a monster organization. The government has set them up as the only possible saviors for our entire way of life. If the CDC can’t stop this bug, they’re it. No-one wants to hear about what they are doing wrong. You understand that?”

  Kyle was quick to answer, “If I’m right, people will care. Because if I’m right, this isn’t just about them sterilizing or killing a few people for the good of the country. I would get that, even if it is horrible. The government has sacrificed a lot more on the altar of necessity over the course of history. No. It isn’t just that. If I’m right, this hidden organization is eating the heart out of the country we all love. They’re corrupting who we are! They might have tentacles reaching all the way around the world. Do you understand?” he demanded. “They are making a concerted effort to eliminate undesirables from the population. On any level, that’s horrible. On the level they are doing it, it is downright terrifying. This is blatant eugenics, even if they aren’t the ones who cooked up Persterim in the first place!”

  Jackie held up a finger in caution. “We have no evidence of that. Making bald accusations is not the way to win my support.”

  Megan stepped in, “But you can’t deny threads of information just because they might strain your sense of normality. This shadow organization is depending on our doubt. They are depending on our disbelief, telling ourselves that ‘nah, this can’t happen’. History repeats itself and tends not to lie. People like this are smart, motivated, and they don’t stop until someone forcefully stops them.”

  “They want to scare us, but we’re not going to back down,” Kyle insisted. “We’re not going to stop, either. Not until the country and the rest of the world wake up to what they are doing. If that means we need to chase a few dead-ends or false leads, then so be it. But something is going on. You have to see that!”

  Once again, Jackie spent a thoughtful moment before she answered, “Alright. We’ll see where this goes. I’ll play it your way, with a few restrictions.”

  Kyle scowled. “We aren’t cops. And these bastards aren’t going to be playing by any of your rules.”

  Jackie held up a hand to stay his frustration. “I can’t change who I am. If you want official support, you going to have to deal with being on the right side of things. That said, I’m not here to put you in a straight-jacket. I want to see what is in that camp near Seattle. If you are right, they’ll kill me or discredit me if I tried to walk up to the front gate and ask. I get it. We’re going to have to be a little sneaky.”

  “If we’re right, they might already know you’re here,” Megan pointed out. “You realize that?”

  “Kyle suggested as much. I’m as close to undercover as the DOJ gets,” Jackie said. “I was being careful. My boss is the only one who knows I was headed this way, and not even he knows how I got here.” Jackie shrugged. “I get the idea. We need to do this covertly. Carefully. Might take a few tactics that some judges might not like. But we need to question every choice we make before bending any laws. We need to question them twice if we decide to break any. Otherwise, they’ll be able to paint us as the bad guys.”

  Growling, Kyle said, “Fine. But honestly, Jackie, I think that when we peel back the layers on these bastards, even the puritans and pacifists will help us string this trash up by their ankles and gut them.”

  His less-than charitable thoughts were interrupted by the distant sound of a small yet powerful engine churning away. It was an ATV, fighting through the irregular valleys and hills and slopes of the forest path. It was growing slowly louder; whoever it was, they were coming closer. Probably Lily, though Kyle would keep a small trickle of caution in the back of his mind until he saw the flash of her pixie-cut blonde hair.

  The door into the chalet opened. Out stepped the elegant, long-limbed, former language professor at their community college: Yvette Laurier. She was tall, and even now she was thin and lean. She had become pregnant only a few days apart from Megan, but her ‘baby-bump’ was the sort that would make most women jealous: a precious swell that seemed to have affected her tummy alone. It would probably vanish as quickly as it took for a child to be born. Her normal figure, which lingerie models would envy, seemed impervious to gaining calories. Yvette walked with a casual sensuality that drew in the eye of anyone watching. With child, she moved with a little extra care, but her sexy glide was still there. She had spent the night with Kyle, so he knew that under her heavy robe and faux-fur boots, she had on a white, baby-doll nightie with a lacy bodice. He could imagine it even now, refreshing the pleasant flutter of arousal in his core.

  Standing by the door, not far from Jackie’s spot leaning against her post, Yvette searched the forest for the source of the sound. “Lily?” she asked, almost rhetorically.

  Jackie nodded for her benefit, answering since she was the nearest one to her.

  Megan cast a fond look toward Yvette, always happy to see the woman who had been and continued to be her submissive in bed. They were all loyal to Kyle on this crusade of his against whoever was trying to kill him, but Megan had a little added spice in some of her relationships with the other women. Yvette and Laura most of all, and Yvette for far longer than any others. “Morning, Kitten.”

  Yvette flashed her an immediate smile. She was a professional in her own right, accomplished in her field of linguistics and could speak multiple languages. That didn’t change the fact that she was clearly thrilled whenever Megan gave her the least bit of attention. She was Megan’s pet, through and through.

  Kyle chuckled as he remembered Dazz’s ongoing training as a budding dominant. Well, a shared pet, perhaps. A twang passed through his body at the thought of Dazz. His erection inside Megan pulsed a little. He was attracted to the fiery, hacker girl that he had known for so many years. Unless he missed his guess, she toyed with the idea of pouncing on him from time to time, especially when a minor orgy broke out and they were in the same room, ravishing the same women. She was bisexual, though her other encounters with boyfriends had been rocky at best. Other than a few tumultuous affairs, no men had really stuck in her life
.

  His new sexual liberty might have brought them together, but unfortunately for them, that liberty came along with his sudden realization that he was one of 0.5% of all men who remained fertile despite the Persterim virus’s best efforts. His recent sexual adventures had been so supercharged because of the underlying, powerful drive to get the women in his life pregnant. Not just because he wanted it. Because they wanted. Demanded it, in fact. Megan most of all.

  Dazz was different. In her own opinion, Dazz wasn’t ‘mother’ material. She wasn’t willing to risk it. Sure, there were ways to protect themselves; STDs were still out there, after all. But the lust between them hadn’t managed to erupt. He laughed at himself. Perhaps because there was plenty of other sex to go around for both of them. It was their own fault.

  Megan felt him swell inside her. She turned her head to look at him. “Hmm, wonder what’s going on your mind? Lily?” She gave a small revolution of her ass on him, grinding her buttocks against his pelvis in a suggestive way as she said her name.

  Well, if I wasn’t thinking about her before, I am now. Kyle laughed at himself inside. Then, he said aloud, “Thinking a little about all of you, actually.”

  “Mmmm. Yeah, that would get me going, too.”

  Yvette had finished scanning around, then cut into their quiet conversation before they could get each other worked up. “Shall we gather everyone together?”

  Kyle had asked her to be ready for that, as soon as Lily appeared.

  Megan let out a regretful sigh. She leaned forward to slide off of Kyle’s hard shaft. Letting her robes fall back into place, she turned to kiss him warmly on the mouth, lingering, then walked toward Yvette. She said, “We should. I’ll go help get everyone out of bed.”

  Jackie watched with more than a little interest as he wrestled his impressive phallus back into his jeans. Kyle chuckled toward Megan and said, “Remember, the goal is to get people out of bed.” He knew Laura was a heavy sleeper, and he foresaw what was likely to happen: Megan would demand that the former cheerleader get up, Laura would object, Megan would threaten punishment, and then things would turn into something more erotically charged from there.

  Megan swayed up to Yvette, then crooked a finger to summon her submissive lover closer. The French woman’s night-black hair spilled off her shoulder as she meekly bent down to let her mouth be claimed in a kiss. They eased together, just a little offset so that their baby-bumps didn’t keep them apart, caressing each other a little as they kissed passionately in the morning air. They didn’t rush.

  When they parted, Megan flickered a grin back over her shoulder at Kyle. “No promises.” Then, cradling each other, the two pregnant women carrying his children sauntered back inside.

  Kyle watched them go, totally fixated. “Have you ever seen anything sexier than that?”

  Jackie laughed at his naked lust, reflected in the bulge threatening to explode out of his tight denim. “Doesn’t bother you at all, the way they carry on? They’re ‘your women’, aren’t they?”

  Kyle laughed easily enough. “Not sure I’d ever say it that way, but… yeah, guess they are. I know I’d bring the whole world to its knees to stop harm from coming to them. I’d say I pretty much love them all.” He shrugged. “Nothing hotter in this world than watching Megan give Yvette a good ravishing, then having them crawl to me together, still breathing hard, ready for me to do whatever I want to them. We’re all together in this, so we might as well be all together in bed. Right?”

  “But –”

  He held up a hand, seeing the ATV roll into sight. “I’ve tried to explain this a hundred times, Jackie. I owed you that since you’re in this mess with us. Maybe not all the way in. You haven’t technically broken any rules yet, but we both know it’s just a matter of time before you go from ‘trying to talk down a fugitive’ to ‘outright cooperation with one’.” He shrugged. “This works for us. Maybe it wouldn’t work for a million others, but we’re happy. Don’t try to find reasons to tear it down, alright? Claire. Chloe. Lily. Even Dazz in some ways. They haven’t joined us in bed, but they know when they see something special. They know enough to let it grow. I’d ask you to do the same.”

  Jackie smirked. “None of them are standing all that far aside.”

  Kyle nodded, looking more than pleased about the whole idea. “There’s a lot of beauty in the world, Agent Moraker. Everyone talks about how big and unending and limitless love can be. I think my heart has enough room for every one of them if they want to be tucked in there.”

  Jackie chewed at a lip, considering that. “Fair enough,” she said, and Kyle swore there was a part of her that looked like she wanted to fan herself a little with her hand.

  Kyle smiled. He had to admit, she was less judgmental than some people would be. He enjoyed watching her preconceptions and prejudices being overturned. It was slow. She didn’t seem to fully believe how this couldn’t be about him exploiting these women. The idea that they were united behind him, choosing to be with him and share his bed with each other must have seemed impossible to her. He liked showing her how glorious it could be.

  Not to mention… if he was honest with himself, the fantasy of seeing her athletic, perfectly toned body writhing in ecstasy alongside his other lovers was an ever-present, tempting dream. Impossible? Well, that word didn’t mean what it once meant to him.

  That was all they had time to say before Lily’s ATV roared into sight. She took the last hill with a bit of a hop, then swept into the courtyard. It was a perfect match to the other three, and Kyle instantly recognized the petite nurse sitting astride it. He waved happily, a clear welcome sign. They didn’t really have a code; that was probably short-sighted of them. Part of their daily chores was to range out into the forest and make sure no-one was watching and no-one had found them. But it wasn’t a good defense. There wasn’t enough of them to hold off a real attack. Their only true protection was in secrecy, and to be ready to run if the bad guys found them.

  Kyle was impressed with the confident way Lily handled the ATV. She wasn’t an outdoors person by nature, but she had spent the most time out of all of them zooming along the trail, both to go to the hospital and to take care of shopping for medical supplies. She spun the ATV up to the end of the line and killed the engine. Tugging off her helmet, she racked it inside the small shed used to hold all their riding gear. Next, she doffed the elbow and shin pads, stored those as well, then unstrung the backpack and the small, foam-wrapped package that were fixed to the ATV’s cargo bed.

  Normally, Lily enjoyed walking around in a sexy outfit that would set Kyle’s heart racing, tempting him every day to grab her and have his way with her. He swore she saw it as a game, trying to nudge him over that line with teasing smiles, flirtatious struts, seductive poses and her fantasy-worthy clothing choices. At the moment, she was dressed more practically. A leather coat to battle the chill and any whipping branches, thick canvass cargo pants for her legs, and then a light cashmere sweater underneath for a little warmth and to have at least one pleasant type of fabric pressed against her skin. She shouldered her pack and swept a hand to brush her shortly cut hair into order, banishing any sign of helmet hair.

  Not that Kyle would ever wish away the sexy outfits she typically wore inside, but he couldn’t deny the rustic, feminine charm this look brought out in her.

  Moving with her characteristic, bubbling charm, Lily bounced up the steps and dove into a hug in Kyle’s arms. Kyle embraced her with all the warmth in his heart. The nurse was a great example of what he meant earlier. Lily might not be in his bed yet, but she was fully and completely committed to their strange little family. She was a confidante to the women. If Megan was their leader, Lily was the best approximation of a counsellor for when they had to talk over their feelings and troubles. She wasn’t scared of intimacy, either. She hadn’t joined him or any of the women in bed for their sexy fun, but he had found her with fingers buried inside his pregnant lovers, giving them relief from their frequent nee
ds. She seemed to take quiet delight in ‘healing’ them in a way that would be frowned upon anywhere else. He recalled her solution to his own problem on the first day they had met, so that came as no real surprise.

  Their hug lasted as long as it needed to. Then, Kyle glanced down at the package she was carrying. “You stopped to go shopping?”

  Lily beamed up at him. He wasn’t tall, but she was truly petite, only a fraction over five feet tall. Her slim build only emphasized that. In contrast, her personality exploded out, more than enough cheer and vitality for any two people twice her size. “A few essentials.”

  “How was the hospital?”

  She struck a sour face. “Informative. I’m learning tons. But half of it is about paperwork I won’t need up here. I can’t blame them. They’re trying to make real doctors and nurse-practitioners, and real doctors need to know that stuff as well as they know the medicine. But every second I spend learning how to enter patient data into the national register is another second I’m not learning how to sew bullet holes together.”

  Kyle nodded in sympathy, understanding her frustration. It wasn’t impossible that they would return to the ‘normal’ world. If they did, she would need both those skills. But that happy outcome felt a long way off. It was far more likely that a few more bullet holes lay between them and any happy futures. “Glad to have you back.”

  Lily reached up and pecked him on the cheek, her lips making his skin tingle in all the best ways. She had to cling to him to reach, which made it all the better. Then, she acknowledged the agent leaning nearby. “Nice to see you didn’t run off, Agent Moraker.”

  Lily had left for her latest hospital shift almost right after the DOJ agent’s arrival. Lily hadn’t been present to see her slowly coming around to their point of view. Jackie said pleasantly, “Please, call me Jackie. We’ve gotten past that part, at least.”

  Lily gave a bright laugh. “That’s as far as you’ve all gotten?”

  “Maybe a little further. I’m not in handcuffs, at least.” Kyle smirked.