If the seed survived, she was sure she could bargain for her freedom in exchange. She would just need to hand over what grew inside her.
But as much as she didn’t want the seed, she refused to give it to them, either.
She’d never hand it over to people like them.
Never.
She hadn’t given them any part of her willingly and wasn’t going to start. She’d rather die first because she’d never be able to live with herself.
Her gaze swept the area next to the building where a couple of fifty-gallon barrels had fires burning in them. The glow of one picked up some movement from under what looked like an open-sided pavilion.
Steady movement.
She tried to focus on what it was making it.
Her brows pinned together as everything became more clear, in her sight and in her mind.
A man.
His pants around his knees. Thrusting.
A woman. Naked from the waist down.
On her stomach, bent over the end of a picnic table.
His hand was fisted tightly in her hair, holding her down.
His other hand was smacking her.
On her ass. Her hips.
He was breeding her.
Trying to plant his seed.
Forcing her to produce a baby.
One for them to raise.
She couldn’t pull her eyes away.
She couldn’t fight the urge to watch. To witness what he was doing to her. To see if she also needed to escape.
He began to hit her harder and thrust faster.
Did Autumn hear her screaming?
Yes, barely.
She was crying out something.
And then his head was thrown back, and his pace stuttered before slowing to a stop.
Autumn still couldn’t pull her eyes from them.
This was what happened to her.
This very thing.
What she was forced to submit to.
How the seed was planted.
The man stepped back.
And the woman moved.
She wasn’t tied down.
She was free to stand. To escape.
Unlike Autumn had been.
The woman turned to face the man and went to her knees onto the concrete.
Autumn couldn’t see what she was doing. His big body blocked her. But his hands were in front of him.
A couple minutes later, whatever she was forced to do was over and she stood up again.
The flame of the roaring fire nearest to them lit up her face.
She wasn’t scared. She wasn’t crying.
She was smiling as she wiped her mouth with her hand.
She liked what he had done. She liked what she had done, too.
He grabbed both sides of her head and pulled her into a kiss, then yanked up his jeans, while she wiggled a short skirt down over her hips.
She ran her hand gently down his face. And he threw an arm around her and steered her out of Autumn’s view.
Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears, she didn’t hear the door open.
She didn’t hear him approach.
But she jerked when she felt his presence.
Behind her. Close.
“She wanted it,” Autumn said to the window as she continued to stare out at the emptiness.
Silence.
“She liked it.”
“Who?”
“The woman.” The sheet fell from her fingers.
“What woman?” A slight sharpness colored his question. Maybe suspicion? She didn’t know him well enough to be sure.
“Out there.”
Sig moved the sheet away from the window and looked out, scanning the area. “There’s no woman out there.”
“There was. With a man.”
He didn’t say anything for a few moments. Maybe he was waiting for her to explain her disjointed thoughts. And if she did, she’d reveal more than she wanted to.
Finally, he prodded softly, “What were they doin’?”
Autumn blinked and let what she witnessed run through her mind again. Like a movie. This time knowing the man and the woman were both willing participants. Both had enjoyed it.
Like she used to. In the past. When she was willing.
Something moved inside her and it wasn’t the seed.
No, it was a weird sense of warmth that swirled through her. Something she hadn’t felt in a long time.
“What were they doin’, Red?”
Red.
His name for her.
“Not breeding.”
More silence, but the air around them became heavy, thick. Like it was tangible and she could reach out and touch it.
“Having sex,” she whispered. “They were having sex and they both were enjoying it.”
“Happens a lot around here, Red. Most of my brothers ain’t shy. They don’t care who’s watchin’. So, if you keep starin’ out that window, you might see a lot of it. When you go downstairs into the main barn area you might see it out in the open there, too. You walk through the bunkhouse, you may hear it. Sometimes in stereo. May even hear it comin’ through the wall when Judge has got a visitor. No one’s forced here, Red. No one. So anythin’ you see’s okay with all parties involved. No one’s bein’ hurt unless they enjoy that type of shit. It’s all good. And you don’t have to do anythin’ you don’t want to here, either. No one will ever force you while you’re here. You’re safe. Trust me.”
You’re safe. Trust me.
Her new “stepfather” had said the same thing. You’ll be safe. Trust me. No one’s going to hurt you if you cooperate.
She didn’t know him well enough to believe him, either. “I don’t know you.”
“But I know you.”
What did he mean by that? She had no memory of the man standing behind her.
“You hungry?”
“It’s the middle of the night.”
“Yeah. Seein’ as we’re now both up, and you slept all day, I’m sure you need to eat somethin’ again. Gotta get your strength back up, gotta fill out those bones. You’ve got a long way to go.”
She turned to find him still so close. He was a lot taller than her and his head was tipped down.
She couldn’t see the color of his eyes, but she knew what they were.
Brown.
Even though she couldn’t see them clearly, she knew they were hard and troubled, held a lot of secrets and a lot of pain.
He’d lived a hard life.
She only lived a hard year.
He was still standing after whatever he went through.
She needed to do the same.
And to survive, to show the Shirleys they hadn’t broken her, she needed to eat. She needed to find herself again.
To find that good life she lived over a year ago.
To find Autumn once more.
Or even a woman named Red.
Chapter Seven
Autumn sat on the examining table in one of those blue gowns. She had been told to tie it in the front.
A knock on the door preceded it opening and a female voice calling out, “Hello! I’m Dr. Bryson, but you can call me Carly.” The doctor came around the curtain with a wide smile and stopped. The smile faltered as she took Autumn in. It wasn’t hard to see that she had to force it back in place as she continued, “My office is very informal. Stella called and told me... Well, that you needed a checkup because you’re pregnant and haven’t had any proper prenatal care. Is that correct?” Her eyes fell to Autumn’s stomach. “Well, that was easily answered. She didn’t say over the phone you were that far along.”
The doctor put her chart down on a nearby counter and stepped up to the examining table. “You can go ahead and lie back.”
Autumn adjusted her position, the paper cover under her making a sharp crinkling sound as she did so.
“Do you know how far along you are, Autumn?”
“No.”
“Oh... Uh... When was the last time
you had sex?”
Autumn frowned up at one of the tiles in the drop ceiling. “I don’t know. Months. He stopped once I stopped bleeding.”
“Bleeding?”
“My period stopped and he stopped not long after that.”
“He? The man outside in the waiting room?”
“No.”
“Then who? Your boyfriend? Husband?”
How did she answer that? Should she lie?
“I don’t know his name.” She decided to lie, though she didn’t know why since it would only make things messier.
“You didn’t know him?”
Autumn squeezed her eyes shut and cursed. This doctor was going to examine her. She was going to figure out everything soon enough. And she wasn’t sure how much Stella told her already.
“Just a man I know.”
“A man you wanted to have a baby with?” The doctor grabbed a rolling stool and moved it to the end of the table, then pulled out the stirrups. “Slide down to the edge, please, and put your feet in the stirrups.”
She didn’t want to. She really didn’t.
“I just want to check you to see if you’re okay... To make sure everything is... okay.”
Autumn already knew that answer. Nothing was okay.
She ground her molars as she slid her butt to the very edge of table and plugged her feet into the stirrups.
“Drop your knees and relax.”
Relax. Right. She knew the deal, it just had been a while since she did it.
And now one more person would soon know what happened to her.
“I’m going to exam you now. I want to make sure nothing is... That everything looks normal. Okay?”
No, it wasn’t okay. “Yes,” she whispered. She promised Stella she’d do this.
“Have you had any spotting?”
“Sometimes.”
“Cramps?”
“A few.” She had figured most of them were from hunger.
When the doctor was done down between her thighs, she rolled back and removed her gloves with a snap. “I’m going to measure your stomach next and then call in the tech to do an ultrasound. Is that okay? This way we can try to figure out a due date and see if everything is on track.”
Nothing was on track. “I can’t pay for any of that.”
“I... I think that’s been covered, so don’t worry about that right now. Let’s just worry about you and the baby.”
“Seed.”
Suddenly, the doctor was standing at her side, peering down at her and wearing a confused expression. “Seed?”
“Yes. What he planted inside me.”
Carly’s surprised eyes flashed to Autumn’s face and her frown deepened. “You mean when you got pregnant?”
“When he planted his seed.”
Her brow dropped low and her eyebrows pinned together. She quickly grabbed her chart off the counter and glanced at it. “Autumn, how old are you? I just want to make sure my chart is correct and there wasn’t a typo.”
She had to be a year older than what she was before she was taken. “What month is it?”
“It’s... uh, October... October third.”
“I’m twenty-five.” She had missed her birthday. Not that there had been anything to celebrate.
“Autumn,” Dr. Carly said softly, like she was talking to a three-year-old. “What’s the highest level of education you’ve completed? You marked college on your form.”
College seemed a lifetime ago. When her future seemed bright and shiny. But why would the doctor ask her that? “I finished my degree...” Not long before... “A while ago.”
“So, you should understand how a baby is conceived.”
Of course, she did. “Yes.”
“And that the baby inside you shouldn’t be... isn’t considered a seed.”
That stinging sensation in her eyes began again.
The tall, blonde doctor only hesitated a moment before saying, “You’re definitely underweight. That’s not good for you or the—”
“The seed.”
“The... seed,” Carly finished awkwardly. “Let me get the portable ultrasound machine in here. Sit tight.” She squeezed Autumn’s hand. “Then we’ll get some answers, okay?”
She suddenly wished Stella had come along with her, so she wasn’t so alone. But the woman had apologized because she was needed at her bar and said Sig would take good care of her, instead.
The door to the examining room opened again and another woman, shorter with dark hair, pushed a portable ultrasound machine into the room, followed closely by the doctor.
“The man out in the waiting room... He’s not the father?”
“No.” He did not plant the seed.
“Do you want him in here when we—”
“No.”
After the ultrasound was set up and jelly was squirted onto her exposed rounded belly, the doctor stood by her head, staring at the screen as did the tech.
“Do you want to hear the heartbeat?”
The heartbeat. “No.” Seeds didn’t have heartbeats.
Autumn dropped her eyes and watched as the wand slid around her stomach. Back and forth, pause. Click. Back and forth. Pause. Click. It looked bigger today than yesterday.
The last couple of days, Sig had made her a big breakfast and made sure she ate it all. He did the same this morning before tucking her into an old Jeep and driving her to this office in a large medical building.
He had made her wear one of Stella’s scarves around her hair, covering it completely, a big pair of dark sunglasses and more of Stella’s clothes. As well as a pair of borrowed sneakers.
The doctor squeezed her hand again. “Do you want to know the sex?”
“No.” Seeds didn’t have a sex.
“Do you even want this baby, Autumn?”
Seeds didn’t have a heartbeat or a gender... but babies did.
Her throat got tight and her own heartbeat began to speed up.
“Laura, can you step outside and give us a few minutes?” Dr. Carly said softly.
“Yes.” The ultrasound tech quickly left, leaving Autumn and the doctor alone.
“Autumn,” the doctor began softly. “The life—what you call the seed—in your womb is viable, even though very small for its age. I need you to understand it’s not a thing. In a couple of months you’re going to give birth to a living, breathing baby. As long as we can get you two back on track with nutrition and pre-natal vitamins. You realize that, right?”
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and she quickly swiped at it. A burning started in her nose as a second tear escaped.
“It’s too late to terminate this pregnancy, Autumn. You’re too far along. You have no choice but to see it through. I’m assuming from the little Stella told me and from what you call this baby, you don’t want it and having it wasn’t your choice. Can you tell me why? Can you tell me why you’re in this condition and why you call this baby a seed?”
Autumn tried to swallow but she couldn’t.
The woman squeezed her hand again. “Autumn, if you were raped, I can help. I can notify the police—”
“No! No... No... I...” She licked her dry lips. “I can’t go to the police.”
“They can arrest whoever hurt you, if that’s what happened. The bruises... Were they done by the man waiting for you?”
“No. He’s done nothing but help me.”
“Help you...?”
“Escape.”
A small noise came from the doctor. “Let me help you sit up.” She wiped the jelly off Autumn’s stomach, tied her gown shut and powered the table until Autumn was sitting upright and looking right into the doctor’s pretty, but very concerned and serious face. “You’ve clearly been abused. Your low weight, the marks on your body. The baby being undersized. Please talk to me. I can help. As a doctor, I’m obligated to help.”
“I can’t tell you, because if I do, they’ll find me.”
The doctor’s face paled and she whispered, �
�Who will find you?”
“The one who planted the seed.”
Dr. Carly rubbed at her forehead where it was wrinkled due to her frown. She opened her mouth, and nothing came out. It snapped shut and when she opened it again she said, “If you don’t want this baby, Autumn... If you can’t love or take care of it, there are plenty of couples who would love that chance. It’s not a bad thing to want better for your child than what you can give it. It takes a lot of strength to recognize that fact. It’s not easy, but sometimes it’s for the best. You and the child would both be better off. The child would be loved unconditionally and you could get a chance to heal from your ordeal and you wouldn’t live with a constant reminder of what happened.”
She was right, the seed would be so much safer with someone else other than her. If she kept the seed, the Shirleys would never stop looking for it. Never stop trying to steal it back.
And they were never getting it.
“Yes... Yes, someone needs to take the seed and keep it safe. I can’t. It would always be at risk with me.”
“Does the person who,” Dr. Carly grimaced, “planted the seed... Does he know you’re pregnant?”
“Yes. That was the reason they took me.”
“Took you.”
“Brought me here to Pennsylvania.”
“Did someone force you to come here?”
Autumn closed her eyes. She didn’t want to talk about it. She just wanted to forget it all. Just go away somewhere and begin a new life. “I’m tired. I need to go back now.”
“Autumn...”
“Please. I’ve had enough. I want to do what you said. Give it to someone who will love it and take care of it. That’s not me.”
“Autumn...” Carly said with a sigh.
The woman was getting frustrated. Well, so was Autumn. If she didn’t want to talk about it, she wasn’t going to talk about it.
“Do you give me permission to discuss my findings from your exam with the man who came with you?”
Yes, that would be good. Sig could explain things better than her. His thoughts would be clearer. His words would make more sense than hers.
Right now she was feeling exhausted, her mind was scrambled and her thoughts tangled into knots. “Yes. Please talk to him.”
Carly squeezed her shoulder. “Okay, get dressed. I’ll come get you once I talk to him. And we’ll figure some things out, okay? It’ll be fine. You’ll be fine.”
Blood & Bones: Sig (Blood Fury MC Book 2) Page 9
