by Carly Fall
She laid her hand on his cheek. “It’s not a waste of time, Titus. You’re a Warrior. It’s your duty to stop him—you must stop him. As a Healer, it makes me sick to my stomach to hear about what happened last night, but I’m sure if you asked the Saviors, they would tell you that every Colonist has been difficult to catch and kill.”
“I’m sure you’re right. Jovan seemed to lose his mind a little bit last night, but I hope he’s better today.”
“I hope so, as well.”
He kissed the tip of her nose and ran his hand up and down her arm. Her core warmed at the lust in his eyes, and he pressed his erection into her thigh. Rolling on top of him, she kissed him fully, excitement coursing through her.
Then, his phone rang.
“Ignore it,” she pleaded.
He nodded as his fingertips slowly caressed each bump in her spine.
The phone stopped, but then immediately started back up again.
“If I don’t answer it, they’ll come looking for me.”
Sighing, she rolled off him. “You’re right. The last thing we need is for them to catch us together.”
He chuckled as he stood up, his long, thick sex bobbing at his hips. “Yeah, the gossip would drive us nuts.”
She admired his physique as he retrieved the phone from his pants. He glanced at the screen, then hit a button and brought it up to his ear.
“What’s up, Blake?”
Goodness, how she loved the hard ridges of his stomach.
“No, I’m around. I’ll be there in ten.”
He hung up and came over to the bed. “I have to go to a meeting in ten minutes.”
“That’s too bad.”
“I agree.”
He leaned in and kissed her, making her heart flutter and moisture gather between her legs. She loved having sex with him—she should make it a point to do it more often.
“Will I see you later?” he asked.
She nodded, and he put on his clothing from last night.
“Let’s hope I can get upstairs to my quarters without running into anyone and having to explain why I’m in last night’s clothes.”
She grinned. “I hope so, too.”
He left and she stared at the ceiling. Yes, she cared about Titus, but she also knew that they could never move on into a real relationship. The ghost of Simon would always stand in the way and always be the barrier between them. Being with him slaked her loneliness, and he found comfort in her. Would it be enough for her?
“It has to be,” she whispered.
Chapter 29
Titus sat in the War Room, reluctantly back in reality. He’d slept well, and now waited with Noah and Blake for Jovan so they could give a full report of the night before. However, he’d much rather be curled up around Macy.
Jovan stumbled in, looking worse for wear. His eyes were bruised from lack of sleep and he wore sweatpants and a white t-shirt with a large stain on the front. As he sat down next to Titus, he smelled of booze and body odor, and Titus wondered if he had even been to sleep yet.
“So I heard things got pretty ugly last night,” Noah said.
Titus nodded. “Yes. We came face to face with Daniel.”
Jovan pulled a flask from his sweats. Apparently, he didn’t care who knew he was shitfaced at eleven in the morning.
“And there were two casualties?” Blake asked.
“Two casualties that we know about, and one fucking murder. Who knows who else that fucker killed?” Jovan slurred. “Actually, we don’t even know if the females lived, so there could have been three murders. That we know about. Or there could have been more.”
Noah sat back in the chair, narrowing his gaze on Jovan. “Are you okay, man?”
Jovan stared at the flask he held between his hands resting on the table. “No.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“No.”
A beat of silence ensued, and then Noah said, “Titus, can you give us the deets of last night?”
He took a deep breath, not looking forward to reliving the night, but understanding he needed to as Jovan seemed to be in bad shape. “Yup. We did an alley patrol and Jovan tripped over a body.”
He continued his tale, feeling sick to his stomach when he came to the part about Mary.
“Jovan then took off after him, and I stayed with Mary until the ambulance came. I got out of there before I had the pleasure of meeting them.”
“And what happened from then on, Jovan?” Blake asked.
“I chased him. He slit another female’s throat. The end.”
Blake and Noah exchanged glances.
“It might be better if we could get some more details, Jovan,” Blake said.
Jovan rose from his chair, his nostrils flaring, his cheeks red. He threw his flask against the wall. “Fuck the details! It doesn’t matter! None of this shit matters, you dumb fuck!”
Blake stood and walked over to Jovan, placing his hand on the male’s shoulder. “You need to chill out, my friend.”
Anger flashed across Blake’s face. The two had been the best of friends, but it seemed Blake didn’t take too kindly to being called a dumb fuck.
“Don’t you get it?” Jovan railed, pushing Blake’s hand away. “He’s going to keep killing! All of the offspring are going to keep killing! We’ve lost the war—we might as well just say fuck it and drink ourselves to death. That’s my plan. Fuck you, fuck the Colonists, and fuck this rock! I’m done!”
Blake laid his hand on his shoulder again. “Jovan—”
“Don’t touch me!”
Jovan spun out of Blake’s grasp, then hit him squarely in the face, sending Blake to the floor. Jovan pounced on him, and Blake kneed him in the gut before Jovan landed on him. He also got in a good right hook before Jovan punched him in the face again.
Titus got to his feet, as did Noah, and broke them up. As he hauled Jovan off of Blake, Jovan fought him and tried to hit him. Titus balled up his fist and laid a hard uppercut to Jovan’s jaw, stunning him.
Titus then pushed him back down into his chair.
“Now you listen to me, Jovan,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm. He leaned down and grabbed the arms of the chair, caging Jovan in. “You get as fucked up as you need to, but you remember this: it is your duty as a Warrior to fight to the end, and we aren’t near the end, my friend. So drink yourself into oblivion with the understanding that when your hangover goes away, you are still a Warrior at your core, and you must live by the Warrior code.”
Jovan stared up at him for a moment, his eyes barely focusing, then nodded.
“Now, are you done trying to beat the shit out of Blake?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry, man.”
Titus stood upright and glanced over at Blake, who appeared murderous as blood trickled from his lip and nose.
“Let’s call Liberty and get him out of here. A few more pulls on his flask and he should be down for the count,” Noah said.
Titus pulled out his phone and called the female as he retrieved Jovan’s flask. Jovan drank greedily, and she showed up a few moments later, anger and worry crossing her features. Her hair had been highlighted blue yesterday, but now, pink ran through the dark curls. The female changed hair color faster than he could keep track.
“Let’s go, Jovan,” she ordered.
He stood and followed her out of the War Room, his head hung low.
As they left, Liberty looked back with confusion on her face. Titus followed them out.
As soon as Jovan had staggered a bit down the hall, Titus whispered, “Just be there. If he wants to talk, let him. If he doesn’t, just be in the room. He’s going to draw his strength from you.”
Her eyes widened in surprise, and he turned back into the War Room. He could only go on his experience with Macy the night before, and he hoped he was right in his assessment of what Jovan needed.
With a collective sigh of relief, he sat down with Noah and Blake.
“I’ve never seen that fro
m him before,” Blake noted, dabbing his nose with a tissue.
“Me, neither,” Noah agreed. “With all the injuries lately, and Jovan’s breakdown, it almost feels like we’re falling apart both physically and mentally.”
The observation reminded Titus about Roman, and he asked how the male was doing.
“Better. He came around last night,” Noah said with a grin.
“What happened? How did he get stabbed so many times?”
“It wasn’t the ambush, but a female. At the end of the shift, he thought he could get a little action, but it turned out he hit up the wrong female. Instead of politely telling him to go fuck himself or throwing a drink in his face, she stabbed him.”
Titus sat back in his chair, surprised. “That doesn’t seem like normal behavior for a female.”
“No, but it is for a Colonist offspring. We’re going with that theory since she cut him up and left him in the back of the Black Cuff.”
He sighed, noting the irony—the same place he’d lost his virginity to Simon.
“Those of Rescue One have a lot to learn about the ways of this planet, even though they’ve been here for a while.”
Noah nodded. “Agreed.”
They all remained quiet for a bit.
“What about you, Titus?” Blake asked. “You seem to be hanging in there.”
He grinned. “By a thread, but yes.”
He wouldn’t dare tell anyone that Macy had so much to do with it, and without her, he felt certain he’d eventually totally unravel. The space he’d been in had been so dark, he wouldn’t have even considered Warrior pride. Now, at least he had a small ray of light to hold on to.
‘That’s good to hear, man. So happy to hear it. Let us know if we can do anything else for you,” Noah said, standing.
“When’s that kid of yours going to be making an appearance?” Blake asked.
Noah shook his head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t want to leave her body.”
Blake nodded. “My guess is it’s a male. I mean, isn’t that the way we all feel about women?”
Noah and Blake laughed, and Titus smiled. He still had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that he had loved Simon, loved having sex with him, yet, he found so much pleasure and comfort in Macy.
As they joked around about male babies coming out of a female then spending the rest of their lives trying to get back in, his thoughts drifted back to Mary, and he remembered wanting to ask Blake to check on her.
“Blake, you can get into a hospital website, right?”
“Do dogs sniff butts? Does Pinocchio have wooden balls?”
Titus furrowed his brow, not sure who Pinocchio was, and wondered what dogs had to do with his question.
Noah laughed. “I like that Pinocchio one.”
Blake grinned. “Yes, Titus. I can get into a hospital website. What do you need?”
“I wanted to see if you could check on the victims from last night and let me know how they’re doing, namely a female named Mary.”
“Is she the one you helped out?” Noah asked.
Titus nodded. “Yes. I came home with her blood on me, and I just want to know how she is.”
He couldn’t bring himself to talk about her in the past tense.
“You got it,” Blake said, walking over to the computers. “My guess is she was taken to the hospital downtown, so we’ll start there and work our way out of the city.”
A few moments later, medical records came up on the screen. Blake paged through them quickly, mumbling.
“Well, two women named Mary were admitted last night to the hospital downtown. One was ninety-two, and the other was thirty-five. The old woman had congestive heart failure and died.”
“And the other?”
“A stab wound, but she’s alive, yet in critical condition. I’m not a doctor, but it looks like her last vitals were strong. I’d say she’s going to make it.”
Relief washed through him and he clapped his hand on Blake’s shoulder. “Thanks, man. I really appreciate it.”
Mary may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and gotten caught up in his world, but at least she would live to see more days of her own.
Chapter 30
The next week went by with very little drama, which made Macy happy. The patrols had gone well, no one had been seriously hurt, and there hadn’t been any deaths they could attribute to a Colonist or the Colonist offspring.
Life in the silo buzzed. Liberty had taken Jovan for a little vacation in Northern Arizona. A winter storm had moved through, leaving fresh snow, and they’d gone to Faith and Rayner’s cabin by the Reservation. Liberty had hoped that a few days away would center Jovan, and she confided in Macy they’d been having issues for a while.
“He’s just not communicating with me anymore,” she’d whispered with tears in her pink eyes. “It’s like he’s totally shut me out.”
Macy hoped their trip would mend whatever chasms had been created in their relationship.
She’d finally talked to Beverly about getting some birth control pills, and Beverly had handed them freely to her with very few questions. She had said that she was sorry Macy’s cycle had been causing her trouble, and to let her know if the pills helped.
Macy hadn’t been sure whether to be offended that Beverly assumed she wasn’t having sex, or just be happy she could keep her relationship—or whatever she had with Titus—so easily from everyone.
Titus had spent every night with her, which she loved, but Simon’s ghost always seemed to be present. Although he was better and a bit happier than he had been a few weeks ago, she would still catch him staring off into space, the aura of sadness around him almost palpable. She would never be able to compete with Simon and the love he and Titus had shared, but she did enjoy her time with the male and would continue to do so until they decided their arrangement no long satisfied them.
They’d found it best for Titus to sneak into her room either immediately after dinner, or late into the night. No one missed Titus if he excused himself after the evening meal or didn’t show up at all, as he hadn’t been around much to begin with. She’d had to feign stomach issues, a headache, or just the need to be alone.
The sex had been amazing, and when she studied herself in the mirror, it seemed like she glowed. Titus had been a fast learner on what she liked, and they never seemed to tire of exploring each other’s bodies.
During the day, they laughed and joked around with the other members of the silo, but kept their physical distance. They also found themselves gossiping about the other Warriors and their mates in private, as if they really were a couple. However, Macy constantly reminded herself that would never be the case.
She’d just returned to her room after pretending she had a headache, and a moment later, a light knock sounded at her door.
Opening it, she grinned. Titus walked in, carrying a bottle of vodka. “I hope you have some soda water or something down here.”
“I do. I just brought down some Diet Sprite.”
“Diet? Really?”
“Yes, Titus. Some of us need to watch our figures.”
With that, he took her in his arms and kissed her. “And how I love that figure.”
Heat flushed her cheeks, but a thrill went through her at his words. She’d always thought of herself as too thin, but Titus seemed to like her bony frame.
He poured them each a drink, and they sat down in the overstuffed chairs in her sitting area.
“I was speaking with Alaina today, and we were thinking how nice it would be to go to the park one day this week. She said she knows one that’s in downtown Phoenix and has a great play area for the kids, and they are having a festival there with clowns there to do balloon animals, and they have a little train for the kids to ride.”
Titus frowned. “I don’t know if going downtown is really a good idea.”
“Well, the way I see it is that you and the other Warriors are always there at night, and that seems to be when th
e bad things happen. During the day, the humans are carrying on with their lives. I would like to get out of the silo for a bit, as would Alaina.”
He glanced around the room for a moment, then took a long drink. “I supposed you’re right, but you should have one of the Warriors go with you.”
“Well, I was hoping you could. Alaina says she’d really like a few hours away from Nico.”
“You don’t think the others would find it strange?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Everyone is pretty busy, and we wouldn’t make a big deal out of it.”
“Okay, it sounds good. I haven’t been downtown in a long time during the daylight.”
“I think it will be a fun time. We can pack a picnic lunch and bring Killian and Megan. Megan just adores Alaina.”
“What day were you thinking?”
“How about the day after tomorrow? Are you on patrol tomorrow night?”
He shook his head. “No. That will work out well. We can go in the morning, and then I’ll come back and grab a quick nap before patrols.”
Her phone interrupted their conversation, and she stood to answer it.
“Hi, Beverly.”
“Macy, I was wondering if you had a few minutes right now to come talk to Abby and me. We’re in her quarters.”
She glanced over at Titus. No, she didn’t want to leave him, but what excuse could she give Beverly? The female knew that even with a headache, Macy would do whatever anyone asked of her. Disappointment coursed through her. “Of course. Is everything okay?”
Beverly sighed. “Yes, but we need to discuss a plan for Abby’s baby who doesn’t want to come out. It’s over a week late.”
“Very well. I’ll be over in a few minutes.”
She hung up and explained everything to Titus.
“You’re welcome stay, if you like,” she said.
He grinned, a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “I’ll be here.”
A couple minutes later, she sat with Abby and Beverly in Abby and Noah’s quarters done in deep, rich brown tones.
