That was the food Hope and the others in the church had worked so hard to find. It was food meant for everyone. Food was almost impossible to find nowadays and yet Gideon and his men ate the food as if it were their own, leaving Hope and the rest of the prisoners out.
Gideon and his men had been gone for days. They should have been able to find their own damn food. Selfish and greedy. That’s what they were.
Hope went to stand up and one of the men grabbed her arm. Robert shook his head. Gideon took notice while digging into a can of sweet potatoes. He focused on her, though he went back to chatting with the men.
Robert kept his voice low, “Hope, don’t.”
Hope shot him a look. “Don’t, what?” She too, kept her voice as low as possible. “They are eating our food. It’s not right. We’ll starve.”
Robert shook his head and a few others also gave her a pleading look. Hope checked on Jake. He wouldn’t survive on beans and water. She refused to stand by after Jake had spent so much time tending to her, caring for her, long after everyone else would have given up on her. They both spent many years taking care of one another and Hope owed Jake her life. She wasn’t ready to let him go.
Hope snatched her arm out of Robert’s grip and stood up. Gideon kept a close eye on her, but said nothing. It seemed he wanted her to have a chance to fight, or back down and give way to him. Hope’s heart pounded, but she kept calm.
“It’s not right that you and your men keep eating the best food as if it’s your own. We worked hard to gather it.” Hope waved an arm around the church floor. “We need food.”
Kaden stood and removed his gun from the holster. Gideon’s attention held on Hope. The gun stayed at Kaden’s side, but it served as a warning. “Sit back down and be lucky you’re getting any food at all.” Kaden delivered the threat without raising his voice.
She took another step forward, ignoring Kaden and instead, focused on Gideon. “My statement still stands. You don’t have a right to steal that food.” She put her hands on her hips.
Kaden stepped forward and aimed his gun at Hope. Gideon got to his feet and raised a hand. Kaden sat down.
“Go sit down.” Gideon placed his can—not finished—into the garbage can a few feet away.
When Gideon turned to go back to his seat and dismissed her, Hope boiled over. “How dare you!”
Gideon froze. Slowly and deliberately, he turned. Hope blanched. “Excuse me?” he asked.
May as well step over the edge. “You heard me. We. are. starving.” Hope jabbed a finger in Jake’s direction and stormed over to face Gideon. “He needs food. So again, I repeat, how dare you. And how dare you dismiss me as though I’m not talking to you.”
Gideon’s gaze traveled over her. He glanced between Hope and Jake. “You think your friend will last much longer?”
Gideon didn’t raise his voice. He acted like what Hope said meant nothing to him, which angered her further. He still dismissed her.
Hope spoke through clenched teeth, “You think you will?”
Gideon showed no outward response, but because Hope stood in front of his face, she saw the rage. She swallowed the lump in her throat.
“I could say the same. What makes you think you can speak to me that way? I’m not sure if you’re stupid, or there is something wrong with you. Either way, I’d suggest an attitude adjustment.”
Hope stepped inside his reach to yell at him. Gideon seized her chin and brought her closer, causing her to suck in her breath.
“Get off me,” she said.
Gideon grinned, but the warmth never touched his eyes. “So be it,” he said and released her with such force he shoved her off her feet. She hit the ground with a yelp. “Take her back to the room. She has no business being in here.”
With a curt nod, Kaden dragged Hope to the back room. Never once bothered to say a word to her, but he did give her a slimy grin after he threw her inside the room and slammed the door in her face.
Gideon strode into the room and Hope leapt up to face him. She backed away upon seeing the anger that still simmered beneath the calm exterior, and hit the wall.
“What do you want now?” she asked, then remembered she was supposed to try being a little nicer. Oh well.
Gideon never stopped coming. He didn’t bother to say a word until he halted right in front of her face. May as well have stood up against her to make more of a point. Hope’s attempt to keep distance was futile, even when she smooshed into the wall.
As always, he stood there looking at her, enjoying himself. Hope struggled not to get closer to him and found it a huge problem. Breathing put her closer so she tried to avoid that, too.
Hope went to tell him off to stop him from watching her with that look in his eye, but then he did a peculiar thing.
Rather than yell at her, or hit her, he brought his mouth down closer and closer and closer. Hope couldn’t stop watching his mouth, assuming he was going to kiss her. Unconsciously, she pressed her head further back against the wall, trying to avoid it. A flush made its way from her toes to her head and left her head buzzing.
What’s worse was she wouldn’t have minded if he did kiss her. His mouth came closer to her own and the smell of him was oh-so-close. It assaulted her senses and filled her with a craving she didn’t know she wanted. Did she? And why did he have to hold her attention? He had her pinned in place and she couldn’t escape.
Hope was sure her clothes were sliding off. His gaze bore into her, penetrating her entire being and stripped her of all defenses. His mouth was close enough to kiss her. He leaned his head to the side.
Hope’s eyelids drooped and the moment she closed her eyes, his warm breath eased into her ear, “For a woman who hates me, you sure would let me kiss you right now.”
Pleasure swirled through her, leaving her vibrating. His scent intoxicated her senses. The words nudged through the haze and smacked her in the face, filling her veins with ice. She bristled. Hope punched her hands against his chest, making him step back, which made him chuckle. “You’re an asshole. Who says I’d let you?”
“Why so angry?” He pushed forward again and Hope put her hands up to stop him. Having none of that, he wrapped his hands around her wrists and pinned her arms against the wall. “Don’t be so defensive. I might believe you didn’t want me to kiss you.”
“I don’t,” she said in a whisper. “I would knee you if you tried.”
The grin curved up into a seductive smile, sending her nerves into fantasyland. The man makes being bad look wayyyy too good. Gideon forced his body into hers and an unconscious purr slipped from Hope’s lips. She pressed her lips tighter together.
Gideon’s eyes sparkled in a dangerous challenge. Hope slid her attention down his face to his lips, taking in how his looks changed from detached killer into that of a man who knew what his looks earned him.
“I don’t believe that.”
Hope stopped staring at his mouth, trying to erase the curiosity of what kissing him would be like. “Wrong. You have yet to figure me out.”
“So you keep saying,” his words slid out, enticing her further into a challenge. “Then explain why I came in here to punish you for mouthing off, but instead, I feel the need to make a point about that kiss.”
Hope sucked in a breath. Her cheeks burned. “You’re a disgusting pig.”
She struggled beneath his grip, trying to wriggle free. Each movement allowed Gideon to get closer and closer, and made his damn smile grow. When she gave up, his lips were all but brushing against hers. Hope’s body tingled in desperate need and it took everything in her to keep pressing away from him, instead of into him.
This is the man who continues to hurt you, Hope. Think!
Gideon saw the opening he was waiting for and quit playing. His mouth found hers and desire swelled, seeping under the edges of her resolve. When she went to argue, Gideon took advantage and deepened the kiss.
His hands slid down her wrists, down her arms, and wrapped them around
the small of her back to pull her closer. Hope couldn’t stop it. She didn’t want to. The few brain cells left firing told her he’d use it against her later, but she didn’t care. Not at all. She wanted more and Gideon no longer kissed her like a man who wanted to prove a point.
Gideon dragged his mouth off hers. Hope tried to regain her composure and get her breathing back to normal. She wasn’t the only one. The way Gideon stared at her made her think he was going to kiss her again. Then abruptly it closed down.
Gideon stormed out. Before the door was thrown shut behind him, he gave her a final warning, “Demand something again tonight, you’ll be dead by morning.”
He left Hope standing there with her head spinning thousands of thoughts. The way he kissed her was not of a man who had no interest in who he kissed.
Gideon meant what he said. He was furious over how she affected him, which scared her more than his temper. If he got angry every time she turned him on, what the hell was she supposed to do?
That night sleep did not find its way easily into Hope’s world. She feared Gideon coming back in and killing her. The memory of their kiss didn’t leave either and messed with her head. The harder she tried not to focus on it, the more she did, and the more she wanted another round.
The next morning, with Hope beyond exhausted from lack of sleep, Kaden brought her out into the main part of the church. Hope refused to pay attention to Gideon and did everything in her power not to. After she was led out and Kaden left her, the oddest feeling of something missing gripped her so she gave the room a once over, and quickly found the reason. The corner of the room was empty.
Jake.
Hope didn’t see him anywhere. She locked eyes on the one person she tried her damndest not to look at. By the gleam in Gideon’s eye, he knew what she sought.
Hope stepped forward. “Where is the old man?”
“Out of my way.”
Hope’s stomach lurched. She had a feeling she knew what was coming, but asked it anyway, “Where. is. he?”
“You want to see him?” Gideon’s tone made her cringe.
“Yes,” she had a hard time getting the word out.
Gideon waved. In a few moments, two of his men hauled Jake out on a board and lay him down in the center of the floor. Hope went to him, but two men grabbed her arms from behind. They dragged her over to Jake, but refused to allow her any closer. Other soldiers moved the group of prisoners farther away.
Gideon was going to kill Jake.
Hope struggled against the soldier’s hold on her, but their grip remained true. An energy burst swept through the room and caused the flames on the candles to flicker, dirt rained down around them from the rafters of the ceiling.
Gideon’s attention went up to the ceiling. When it fell back on her, there was a glint in his eye as though he were saying, nice try.
Not a millisecond later, e-cuffs snapped around her wrists. She hissed in pain. The electricity crackled against her wrists and she tried to relax. Hope’s instincts trickled a warning. Gideon had never implemented such measures before.
The damn bastard wasn’t taking chances anymore, but he had yet to ask about her past, who she was, or what she was. Why not? Unless, he was waiting for an opportunity to present itself.
Gideon stood next to the Jake, then knelt next to him. He stared at Hope. “This man is dying.”
“No, he’s not,” she stated with more conviction than she should have used.
“Why is he so important to you? He’s an old man and nothing more. He’s dying, and using up food and supplies. How much longer do you think you can keep him alive?”
Hope got the underlying message, and she was the reason that Jake was still alive, that she would continue to save him, which was the truth. She had to. She couldn’t let him go, she didn’t want to. Jake had become a father to her.
Her eyes watered. “Leave him alone.”
Gideon gave her a tight smile. There was no warmth in his manner. “This man brings us down. He uses supplies and contributes nothing to the group. That means he is expendable.”
Hope thrashed against the men holding her. The electricity surged against her wrists and her skin singed, causing her to cry out. She’d heal like all those other times. She would heal and those around her would die. Not with Jake. Not with the last thing she had that she clung to for humanity. Without him, Hope would have to face what she was.
“Don’t you dare touch him, you bastard,” she screamed. “Don’t you touch him. I’m warning you. You leave him alone!”
Gideon got up and strolled over to her. He seized her chin. “He’s precious to you, isn’t he?”
Hope remained quiet. If she said anything, she would meet the same fate. It was a struggle. Part of her wouldn’t mind if he tried. Wasn’t as if she would die. All her life she knew she couldn’t show herself. Over and over that knowledge sat within her . . . not yet.
Not yet.
And not now. As much as it broke her heart. They couldn’t know. Yet she didn’t know why. That’s why she quit listening to those voices. Because they never answered, they never gave her a good reason, never helped her. They never talked back. Only to say . . . not. yet. It wasn’t her time. So she closed the whispering into the cold void they left her in time and time again.
Why not, dammit! WHY NOT?
As usual, no answer.
She clenched her jaw. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Pain burned through her heart. Her world was fixing to tear apart and everything moved slower than a slug.
Gideon let her go and knelt in front of Jake again, facing her so she had full view of what was to come. Hope thrashed and screamed, cursed, and did everything in her power to stop him.
The e-cuffs kept sending reminders through her with one current after the other, designed to increase the voltage the harder she struggled. It didn’t matter. She wanted free. Wanted to save Jake.
To do something.
Nobody in the prisoner group said a word. They remained still, fearful that they would be next. The soldiers who aimed their guns at the captives helped them remain still. Those people wouldn’t waste their time intervening anyway. They never did. They were weak. Pathetic. Humans.
Gideon kept a watchful eye on Hope as he leaned over Jake and slipped his hands around the old man’s throat. Hope screamed, she thrashed, she cried out against the pain of the e-cuffs.
The tension in the church mounted. So too did the energy in the room until the hair on everyone’s arms rose, but there was no focus point. There couldn’t be. The energy vanished into the e-cuffs that worked overtime against Hope’s wrists.
People shot nervous glances to one another. Something wasn’t right. They didn’t understand what was happening. They eyed each other. Silent whispers in their eyes asking, what is going on? Yet they remained quiet.
The prisoners rose their arms as the hair on their arms took to the sky, and the hair on the back of their neck rose. They studied the ceilings, wondering if alien invaders were circling overhead. A couple of them paled.
All the while, Gideon kept his gaze on Hope. Watching her, reading her, knowing she was helpless. Every single time she thrashed and screamed, the currents ripped through her body, singeing her skin.
Nobody paid attention to her wrists. Nobody noticed that her skin was healing as fast as it burned, repairing itself so when she struggled again, the skin would burn anew. Burn, heal, burn, heal. A torturous game.
A deep, resounding vvvrrrrroooooooo rose within the walls of the church until all sound silenced. An unseen force sent a frightful hush through the church, rising in volume until Hope’s mouth hung open in a scream nobody heard.
A solid deadly roar overcame the church like that of bass being turned so high, the music reverberates as a solid wall. The sound placed untold pressure inside the ears and head until all they knew was the throbbing and everyone’s hands rose to their ears, afraid their heads were about to explode.
Not him. Gideon’s grip tightened. Jake
’s arms raised and his weak hands tried to stop Gideon, but they faltered with no more strength than a newborn. Tears poured from Hope’s eyes. The walls around the building shook, dirt rained down from the ceiling rafters, the floor vibrated, threatening to come apart.
A breath later Jake’s body went limp. It’d been less than a minute. To Hope it may as well have been an eternity.
The men undid the e-cuffs and let her go. Hope slumped to the floor with tears streaming down her face.
The church remained motionless. All settled back down.
Gideon stood back up, telling the men to remove the old man. Hope scrambled over to Jake’s body. When she tried to grab him they shoved her back.
Gideon gave Hope a look that said, maybe you’ll learn who’s in charge.
Hope couldn’t look at him for long. Gideon won. She deflated. The entire time he worked so hard to prove a point and now he had. She understood. He was a man to fear. A man who didn’t hesitate to kill those who either stood in his path or were of no use to him.
She had to face what she was. What he was.
NINETEEN
IT SURPRISED HOPE THAT Gideon didn’t harass her soon after killing Jake, but he hadn’t. He seemed rather content to leave her alone for weeks after that day. She left him alone. She was afraid and tired of fighting.
But then, as always, she got fed up with Gideon taking the food, and started a fight over it because he and some of his men still left the church for days on end and didn’t come back with their own food. They seemed content in stealing what didn’t belong to them. He never gave any reason for leaving the church, but his mood grew ever more foul by the day.
If Gideon and his men had asked, Hope and her group would’ve given Gideon’s group food. As it stood, Gideon and his men took the best, and allowed Hope and the others barely enough to get by. People were close to dying, but he didn’t care.
Hope did and started an argument in the middle of the church again, then it somehow progressed into a fight for her life.
Gideon grabbed a fistful of Hope’s shirt and hauled her forward. “You would give your life for these people?” He glanced around at the few remaining survivors. “These people who willingly gave you up, who would sell you out in an instant?” He tightened his grip and dragged her closer. “Why?” he demanded to know.
Hope of the Future Page 13
