by Allison West
Holden’s stomach dropped. Chilton acted kind, but there was a dark sinister nature behind the beast that he didn’t show. The older gentleman kept his coat buttoned around him and wore a fedora along with an ever-present crooked smile. In all his life on Adair he’d never seen a fedora until he’d visited Earth. Had that been where the hat surfaced from? He was no idiot, it was public knowledge that Adair’s resources had been bled dry and they borrowed minerals and water from a sister planet in the nearest galaxy that sustained a human population. Holden waited for Chilton to deliver the bad news.
Chilton unlocked the door to the room they’d been a prisoner in for the past hour or so.
Holden had lost all track of time without being able to see outside or have a watch handy. His watch must have broken sometime during the fight with the guards in the cargo hold. He reached for Jade’s hand, keeping her a few feet behind him, not trusting Chilton.
Leading them into a long hallway, he unlocked a door and gestured for them to step inside. It looked remarkably like the nursery on the prison colony. What was going on?
“I thought you’d find the accommodations warm and familiar,” Chilton said, staring at Jade.
Holden glanced around the room. A giant canopy hung over the mattress covered with a pink and sparkling quilt. The room wasn’t identical in design, but it was close enough to replicate the little one’s nursery. He’d thought they were done with Jade being little, not that he minded being her poppa and having the ability to discipline her bottom when she did naughty things, but he didn’t like the rules where he couldn’t stay with her and they couldn’t be intimate together. He may not have have known Jade that long, but already the bond between them was unbreakable.
“It sucks,” Jade said, clearly not afraid to voice her opinion. “You do realize I’m a grown woman?” She shook her head disgusted by the men who ran the facility. “You should all be ashamed of yourselves!”
Holden glanced at the twin-sized mattress and approached the dresser, his fingers glided over the wooden surface. The room was covered in fairy wallpaper and pink curtains hung over a window that was nothing more than a picture affixed to the wall and lit up pretending to be daylight. “This is where you train the poppas, isn’t it?”
“Very good, Holden,” Chilton said and nodded. A faint smile met his lips, seeming quite pleased with his acknowledgement.
Jade’s top lip twitched. “What about the girls? Do you kidnap them up off the street to run a test drive for the poppas?”
Chilton shook his head and turned to face Holden. “You should put a leash on that girl. She needs far more discipline then you’ve been instilling into her.” He paid little attention to Jade but still answered her question. “Little ones who leave the prison colony face a probation period before being rereleased into society. They come here where the poppas are in training. Well, where they’re usually training.”
“What does that mean?” Holden asked, his eyes narrowing as he suspected Chilton was hiding something from the two of them. Not that he had any reason whatsoever to trust the man either.
“It means a storm is wreaking havoc and we’ve been forced to evacuate the facility. Well, most of it. You need not worry, we’ve got it under control,” Chilton said, brushing the weather off as if it were no issue at all.
Holden’s brow furrowed. “What level storm are we talking, Chilton?” He remembered the levels as a child from one to ten. Tens were the absolute worst and would devastate a city flattening it to pieces. He’d never witnessed a ten first-hand, because there were never any survivors. Those that had been stubborn and stayed always found themselves burned from acid rain or torn to shreds from the wind that destroyed homes and buildings, shattering glass and ripping siding from the exterior. If you made it outside and alive, then debris undoubtedly would defeat you.
In recent years, buildings were designed to withstand intense gale-force winds but the storms only further intensified beyond what any human had been capable of creating. Warnings developed days before a storm as forecasters watched the weather systems and knew what was coming and when.
Holden rested his hand against the wallpaper, feeling the structure, trying to determine if a mild five or a strong seven would take this building down. It didn’t seem as though they were on the outside, near the edge of the building. However, as silence filled the room, he could feel the wind shudder against the wall, vibrating against his hand.
Chilton wasn’t to be trusted. The storm, it likely had just begun since the pod had landed a few short hours ago. They would have delayed transport of cargo and prisoners if their lives would have been in danger.
“What level storm?” he asked Chilton once again. It was coming and they needed to be prepared for the worst.
“An eight, possibly a nine. Don’t worry yourself, the facility here is secure.”
“Yet you evacuated everyone already?” Holden grew frustrated with the lack of answers.
“That’s none of your concern. The required personnel are still on staff, including the physician who Jade will be meeting with regularly.”
“What are you talking about?” Jade asked. “I’m not sick.”
“Of course you’re not. We hope to learn a lot from you. We want to understand how the activator and drug works inside your body. We can learn a lot from you and your people.”
“You mean the ones you’re invading?” Jade spat back.
“Keep your little one in line,” Chilton said, scolding Holden. “Or I’ll have that physician up here within the hour.”
Holden snorted under his breath. He’d had hell of a time keeping her in line. What made Chilton believe she’d suddenly listen to him?
“I don’t want to see a doctor,” Jade whined as she reached for Holden’s hand. She disrupted the conversation, just as a young child would that’s begging for attention. Had she done it on purpose and was showing them that she could be little or was she actually interrupting them?
“You will do as you’re told,” Holden said. He led her to the corner and put her nose first facing the wall. “The next time you interrupt the grown-ups, you’ll receive a spanking to go along with that punishment.” Already she was testing his patience and Holden knew Chilton expected him to act like the adult, discipline her and keep her quiet.
Jade grumbled under her breath.
Holden couldn’t quite hear what was said but he knew she wasn’t happy about the situation. He walked back toward Chilton. “Listen, I get what you’re trying to do but Jade isn’t from Adair. Her biology may be very similar but we know there’re differences already from the invasion.”
Chilton’s eyes narrowed, sizing up Holden. “I’m not letting her go, if that’s your grand suggestion.”
Holden glanced up at the surveillance camera in the nursery. Unlike the prison colony, any broken rules would be witnessed. “I’d like you to remove the equipment. If we’re not your prisoners, than we deserve at least some privacy.” He couldn’t ask for much more and that would be a long shot.
“Can’t do that, Holden.” Chilton gestured toward the camera. “How else am I going to know that you’re keeping your bratty Earth girl in line? Besides I need to know you’re not planning to retaliate or escape.”
Chilton had given away more knowledge than Holden originally had gained. Had it been intentional? He doubted it but at least he knew the surveillance was rigged with microphones. They would be watched in the facility, always. Holden hadn’t taken a full tour and didn’t know if the bathroom also had a camera. He hoped not for Jade’s sake. What about his room? Would he be watched as closely when he slept?
“You have my word,” Holden said.
“Little good it is, considering you’re already a fugitive. You should be thanking me,” Chilton said and paused, tilting his head slightly as he watched Jade with a fascination that made Holden’s stomach lurch. “I kept you from being executed and off the radar. There are only a handful of men who know you’re at this facility.
I assure you, we both have the same endgame.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” Holden said, his eyes narrowing at Chilton. Was the man really that stupid? Chilton had a reputation for bringing muscle with him, always getting what he wanted without question.
“I’ll leave you two alone. The washroom is across the room and the door nearest the window leads to the playroom and kitchen.”
“Kitchen?” Would he be expected to prepare a meal, just as a real poppa would? Holden could cook, but he didn’t know what food was available, let alone what Jade would eat. The last thing he wanted was to force her to eat her meal. He’d make do when the time came, for now he watched as Chilton retreated toward the door. Holden didn’t move an inch, his feet firmly planted on the wooden floorboards. A pink and purple carpet covered a large swath of the room, including the bed.
“We don’t have any nannies on site at the moment, due to the storm,” Chilton said, his hand on the door knob. “I expect you can partake in any of the responsibilities until we can get another young woman on the premises.”
“Of course.” Would they even bother to find a nanny for Jade? The cost was too great for someone without military clearance. Jade was alien and if word got out that she’d visited from the planet they invaded, then the Adairans would want her dead.
Why didn’t Chilton intend to kill her? Or perhaps he did, after he was done using her for his scientific experiments revolving around the age regression system and the prison.
“Good. Rafael will be by soon.”
Holden didn’t have the slightest idea who Rafael was or why he’d be having a say in any part of what was going on between Holden and Jade. Was Rafael a guard expected to keep them apart? No one but Holden would guard her door, he’d make sure of it.
Chilton headed out of the room without so much as a goodbye. The door shut behind him and Jade spun around.
“This is ridiculous!”
Holden held up a finger as if to silence her but instead was pointing up at the camera at the corner of the room above his head, as a reminder why she was doing this. It wasn’t just him, not that he minded disciplining her, to a certain degree he found it arousing. “Get your nose back in that corner young lady.”
Jade huffed and spun around, facing the wall yet again. “I hate all of you!” she screamed, hands bunched in fists. Stomping her feet, she kicked the wall with the toe of her shoes and grimaced.
“Enough!” Holden said, silencing her.
She mumbled something under her breath but Holden didn’t hear the words.
He chose to ignore her for the moment, she was still adjusting to the fact that nothing from the prison colony to their escape had really changed. They were back in almost the same position they had been earlier. He wasn’t thrilled with the situation either, but at least on the surface perhaps he could get into the communications room and reach out to someone who would help them. Who would be an ally and betray their own kind? Stefan had gifted him the galactopter over a decade ago, but was he still alive? If the government had any inkling that Stefan had been involved, he’d be dead by now. He needed to tread carefully.
Without a watch to glance at, Holden decided Jade had spent enough time with her nose in the corner. She was lucky her bottom hadn’t been reddened along with her punishment. “Your time is up,” he said to Jade, reaching for her hand as she stepped from the corner. Her eyes were bent down, focused on the floor instead of him. “Look at me,” he said as he walked over and lifted her chin with his thumb. “There are worse situations we could be in.”
“I don’t see how,” she breathed, staring into his gaze.
“I’ll figure it out.” He couldn’t rely on Jade, especially as a little, to come up with a solution to aid in their escape. If the activator worked and she did become as they intended, then her mind would regress to that of a six-year-old. He understood that it didn’t last forever. The longer a prisoner stayed at the colony in space, the more often they’d need boosters. It was why Jade’s nanny hadn’t been affected by the gas pumping through the corridors.
“I can help,” Jade said.
He kissed the top of her head, knowing she may have wanted to help but this wasn’t her home world. She wouldn’t know where to even start looking for Stefan and the air outside wasn’t like her home. It had been poisoned in certain sectors, making breathing impossible without a mask to filter the air. Everyone was required to carry an oxygen filtration mask on their person. Most secured the mask to their belt, offering easy access to the device in a moment’s notice. Signs flashed yellow, warning when it was necessary in certain pockets to use a mask or die from lack of oxygen.
At least inside the air was filtered and clean, easy to breathe and without worry.
Thunder rumbled overhead and Holden did his best to ignore the offending storm that tore through the city. As long as the structure they were in held up, they’d be fine. If not, the outside elements would kill them far before they made their escape.
A loud knock sounded at the door and a gentleman with honey golden skin and brown eyes stepped into the room. “I’m Rafael,” he said introducing himself. “Chilton sent me to come by to give you this.” His fist opened and he revealed a black jagged pill that glistened under the florescent lights. He walked over to Jade, waiting for her to take the drug.
“No way.” Jade shook her head and backed herself against a wall as Rafael lifted the pill between his fingers.
“Do I need to have your poppa hold you down?” Rafael asked.
Her top lip snarled at Rafael.
“Do as he says,” Holden said. Though he didn’t want Jade to be forced to swallow the pillow, he couldn’t tell her to tongue it though either.
Thunder echoed overhead as lightening crackled across the sky. No one had to see it to hear the sizzle as it landed somewhere nearby. The lights remained on, at least the building hadn’t been hit. The storm no doubt drew close.
Jade examined the pill between her fingers.
Holden’s hand came down to her bottom, spanking her exactly as thunder again roared.
Her eyes widened and she popped the black jagged pill into her mouth.
“Are you going to give her a glass of water?” Holden asked.
“No need. The pill dissolves the moment it’s activated by just a tiny amount of saliva.”
Gross, yet efficient. There’d be no way to tongue the offending pill.
Jade’s body grew slack and Holden caught her before she fell to the ground, unconscious. “Was that supposed to happen?” he asked Rafael.
“I just deliver the drugs, I don’t make them.” He headed out of the room, leaving Holden to deal with an unconscious Jade.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed, placing her gently onto the twin-sized mattress for her to rest. Her eyes didn’t so much as flutter as she’d been placed into a deep tranquil sleep.
Holden wanted to stay with her but had grown tired himself. Besides, he needed to find out what food was around. It had been hours since they’d eaten and if he didn’t make the next meal, he doubted they’d have anything to eat. It seemed the cooks and little’s staff had all been released due to the weather. Hopefully they’d made it home and were safe wherever they’d been shuffled away to.
Quietly he tiptoed from her room and through the door for the kitchen. He closed the door most of the way, letting her come find him when she woke up. Perhaps he could spend a few minutes looking around, discovering if there was any other way out of the facility without being noticed.
Chapter 11
Jade’s eyes were heavy and her stomach grumbled. Her mouth felt dry and pasty. She stuck her tongue out, not that she could see anything. Pushing herself from the bed, she stumbled down and onto the floor, her feet not quite cooperating as she’d have hoped.
What happened to her? The last memory she had was of Rafael and Poppa insisting she ingest that stupid black pill. She glanced down relieved to see her clothes were still intact. Not tha
t she thought her poppa would have done anything to her, but Rafael and Chilton she didn’t trust.
Stumbling further from bed, she found the washroom and an empty cup by the sink. She filled it with water and gargled the strange black color that had stuck to her tongue. Most of it vanished with water and she glanced around noticing a surveillance camera in the corner of the room. She stared up and shoved her middle finger at the video for anyone watching.
“Take that boys,” she spat, stalking out of the washroom for the nursery. The light beneath the door shined brightly, revealing to her that something was on the other side. Did she dare want to see what?
She darted across the room and inched the door open to see who was out there. If it was Chilton or Rafael, she’d scurry back into her room and pretend to be sleeping.
Poppa stood at the counter and dished the contents from the stove onto their plates for dinner.
“What’d you make? It smells really good,” she said. Her stomach grumbled as if on cue.
“Go wash up and have a seat at the table. I’ll bring it over in a second.”
“I just washed my hands in the washroom, when I was getting a sip of water.”
He glanced at her, probably trying to determine if she lied or not. “Wash them again,” he said.
Grumbling under her breath she stalked to the sink and flipped on the faucet, shoving her hands underneath. She forced the container of soap onto its side as she lathered her fingers before dipping them back under the warm water. “Happy?” she asked, coming to stand beside him as he removed the green beans from the stove.
“I’d be happier if I didn’t have to tell you twice,” Poppa said.
Jade fussed on her way to sit down, knocking the chair backwards. “Shit.” She hadn’t intended for the chair to fall over. She bent down, forcing it back onto its four legs.
Poppa carried the plates to the table and set them down before grabbing Jade, pulling her over his lap.
Her eyes widened as she tried to pull away from him. “What are you doing?”
