by Harley Tate
No. It was much, much worse.
He shook a gaudy concoction of cheap silk and lace in her direction. “I said, take it and put it on.”
She shook her head over and over. Pushed the heap of fabric away. “No! I won’t!”
He threw it at her and it landed in a swoosh at her feet. He unholstered a handgun and pointed it dead center on Melody’s chest. “Do it or I shoot you.”
She stared at his beady eyes, narrowed into slits. Greasy complexion, scruffy half-beard. Rank whiff of body odor. The National Guard wasn’t keeping up with its hygiene. Melody bent and picked up the dress. “Can you turn around? Please?”
He flicked the gun barrel up and down. “And risk you doin’ somethin’ stupid? Not a chance.” He smirked. “Ain’t like I’m not gonna see in a minute, anyway.”
She glanced around at the room. Bed in the middle all made up with sheets and pillows. Some college girl’s frilly pink blanket used as a curtain in the window.
Melody swallowed. “Why do this? Why go to all this trouble if you’re just going to take what you want?”
He motioned to her clothes and Melody unbuttoned her jeans. She wiggled out of them and picked up the dress.
“You think all this is for you?” The soldier shook his head. “Naw, this is morale, babe. Got to keep all the guys workin’ somehow, right?”
Melody stepped into the dress, one leg at time and shimmied the red fabric up her hips. She tucked it under her shirt and zipped it halfway up the back. “So this is, what? A brothel?” She couldn’t believe she even uttered the word.
The soldier shrugged. “It’s whatever the colonel wants it to be.”
Colonel Jarvis. The more she learned about him, the more Melody hated the man. She unhooked her bra and hoisted the dress up to cover her chest before yanking her clothes off. She zipped up the rest of the dress and looked down.
It had to be a prop from some production the drama department put on at the campus theater. The skirt flared out around her in layers and the boning up the side mashed her breasts up toward her neck. It was ridiculous.
She glanced up at the soldier. “Happy now?”
“Gettin’ there.” He lowered the gun. “Kick your clothes this way.”
Melody did as he asked. The longer she kept him talking, the longer she could delay the inevitable. “So where are you going to get all the women?”
He laughed as he gathered her clothes and shoved them in a hamper in the corner. “Anywhere.”
“So that’s it? You’re just going to kidnap them?”
“It’s worked other places.”
“But this is the United States! Prostitution is illegal!”
“Not anymore. Now it’s every man for himself.” The soldier puffed his chest out like he was proud of it.
Melody pushed the issue. “Why listen to Jarvis, then? Why take orders when you can get out on your own?”
The soldier scowled and opened his mouth, but he hung there, unsure what to say. After a moment he stormed toward her. “Shut up and get on the bed.”
Melody backed away, sliding along the wall until her hip hit the mattress. She had to get out of there. She couldn’t let this happen.
The soldier grabbed her by the arm and she batted at him, smacking his knuckles with her palm. He jerked her forward and she stumbled in the dress, almost falling on top of him.
He reached for her hair, but Melody shied back, ducking as he swiped at the air.
The door to the room burst open and Melody spun, hoping for salvation. But she saw the opposite. Her eyes went wide as his name slipped out. “Captain Ferguson.”
He smiled, broad chest puffed, shoulders wide and open. “Ms. Harper. We meet again.”
The other soldier hoisted her closer, but the captain shook his head.
“Back off, Private. Officers first.”
“But the colonel said—”
“The colonel sent me to check on your progress. I’m telling you to leave. Go set up another room. We might have more lovely ladies joining us tonight.”
Melody’s eyes went wide. “What did you do?”
He grinned. “I’m afraid that’s classified.” Ferguson sauntered forward while the private stalked toward the door. As soon as it shut, the captain reached for her.
Melody stumbled back until she hit the wall. There wasn’t anywhere left to go. She reached for the bed, scrabbling for anything to hold onto. Ferguson’s hand snaked around her waist. He pulled her close.
She inhaled and the smell of him, all sweat and stink and son of a bitch swirled together, made her gag. Melody whimpered.
Ferguson laughed and his hot breath hit her face as he grabbed the front of the dress with his free hand. His fingers dug into her side as he yanked, hard. The cheap fabric ripped straight down the middle, exposing her skin.
A tortured sob bubbled up her throat, half scream, half cry of desperation. This shouldn’t be happening, couldn’t be happening. A month ago at this time, she would be tucked into her own bed and about to fall asleep.
Now she was trapped in a waking nightmare that might never end. The men under Jarvis’s command were no longer the military. They were evil, terrifying soldiers who didn’t care about the people of Eugene.
Ferguson’s hand dug beneath the dress, groping her body, and Melody pinched her eyes shut. I’m never getting out of here. I’m never going to get away. She thought about Dani and how hard she fought off her attackers. How she didn’t let any of them touch her like this.
Melody didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to fight back or save herself. She opened her eyes and stared at the man who was about to take what he wanted. Her hands balled into fists. Her toes dug into the floor.
She never played sports or got into a fight or learned kickboxing at the gym, but she had to try. She had to fight back. Melody pulled back her leg to kick the captain where it counted when the door slammed open.
Ferguson shoved Melody onto the bed. “Get out! I’m not even close to done!”
Melody landed with a bounce and scurried back as a man she’d never seen before swayed in the doorway. “Get your hands off my w-woman!” He listed, more drunk than sober, into the room.
Ferguson advanced toward the bed. “You can wait. I’m first.”
The drunk shook his head so far he stumbled with it. “Not a chance. Major trumps captain, remember?” He pointed at a shiny thing on his collar and grinned.
Ferguson swore, his hands hanging in the air in front of Melody for a moment as if he couldn’t decide. At last, he stepped away from Melody. She struggled up into a sitting position and tugged the ruined front of the dress around her body.
The captain snorted. “This is bullshit. I earned this.”
“You wanna t-tell Jarvis that?”
Ferguson cursed again. Ran his hands over his big head. “Fine. She’s all yours.”
“A little privacy, please?”
The captain practically spat at the man as he rushed past. “Don’t wear her out. I’m next.” The door slammed shut so hard, it shook the whole building. The other soldier stumbled back to it and twisted the lock.
As soon as he turned around, all pretense of intoxication disappeared. He straightened up and smoothed his shirt. “Ms. Harper?”
Melody risked a nod.
“I’m Major James Larkin.” He smiled. “I’m a friend of Colt’s.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
MELODY
University of Oregon Campus
Eugene, Oregon
10:00 p.m.
Melody tugged the dress tighter around her chest and stared at the major. Was he serious? Or was this just some sort of trap to convince her to let her guard down long enough to gain the upper hand?
Larkin stepped up to the window and lifted the pink blanket. He spoke so quietly, Melody strained to listen. “We don’t have much time. Ferguson will be back as soon as his raging case of blue balls dies down.”
“How do I know you’re tel
ling the truth?”
He let the makeshift curtain fall. “For starters, I’m not pinning you to the mattress and ripping off the rest of that hideous dress.”
“And?”
“I’m going to help you escape.”
Melody didn’t know if his words were enough, but what choice did she have? “How do I know you’re not some psycho who just wants to get me out of here so he can lock me in some abandoned building and torture me for days?”
“You don’t. Guess you’ll have to trust me.” He frowned at her dress and all the layers spilling across the bed. “Please tell me you have some other clothes.”
After pointing him to the hamper, Larkin tossed her clothes at her and turned around so she could change. Her hands still shook and her heart beat like a race horse after a quarter mile around the track, but she managed to ditch the dress and shove her clothes on in record time. “Ready.”
Larkin turned back around, nodding at her black shirt and jeans. “Good. Now let’s get out of here.” He motioned toward the bed. “Get up there and bang it around, will you? Maybe scream, shout for help? This window is going to be loud.”
Melody did as he asked, jumping up on the bed and shaking it about as she banged on the wall. “Get off of me! No! I won’t!”
She slammed the bed into the wall in a rhythmic motion as Larkin shoved the window with all his might. His face turned red, his shoulders hunched, but after an agonizing screech, the glass moved. He motioned for her to keep going.
Melody banged the bed against the wall again as he shoved once more. After a final burst of strength, he pushed the window open far enough to fit through. He ushered Melody over and she hoisted herself up as he cupped his hands around his mouth to shout back into the room. “Don’t you run away! I’m just getting started!”
He slipped out after her and landed on the grass beneath the window. “All right. Now we run. Keep close behind me.”
They skirted the buildings in the dark, weaving in and out of the campus, freezing every time a soldier appeared. Melody didn’t know how far they would go or what Larkin had in mind, but she was free from that hell hole and Ferguson couldn’t touch her now.
She almost ran into Larkin as he pulled up short a few feet from the end of another dorm. “We’ve got extra uniforms in that building over there. If we’re going to get out of here, you need to change. Wait here.”
Melody nodded and waited as Larkin emerged from the darkness. He strode across the road to the front steps of the building where a junior soldier waited. The other man saluted and Larkin reciprocated before launching into some sort of explanation. A minute later, he disappeared inside.
All the air whooshed from Melody’s lungs and she eased down onto the grass. If she wanted to run, now was the time. But where would she go? The second she left Larkin, she would be caught and hauled back to that room.
She shoved down the horror of what might have been and breathed in the cool night air. Trusting Larkin was the only choice. He could get them out of there and with any luck, back to Colt, Doug, and the rest of her little makeshift family.
Just as she made up her mind, Larkin strode out of the building with a bundle tucked under his arm. He said something to the soldier that made him laugh and stepped off the platform. He walked past where Melody was crouched and doubled back.
“I wasn’t sure what size you’d be, so I had to guess. Put them on and the cover, too. Then we’ll see about requisitioning a vehicle.”
Melody tugged the uniform on over her clothes and tucked and buttoned as best she could before shoving all her hair up and away. She would never pass for a soldier in the daylight, but maybe in the dark she had a chance.
She glanced up at Larkin. “What do you think?”
“You’re the sloppiest soldier I’ve ever seen, but it’s better than jeans and a T-shirt. Let’s go.”
He led the way through more mazes of buildings until they stopped at the edge of a parking lot. “Jarvis keeps most of the vehicles under tight control, but since I’ve been off campus for the past couple weeks, I should be able to leave.”
“What if we run into trouble?”
Larkin smiled. “Shoot first. Then punch the gas.”
Great. Melody followed him into the parking lot.
He whispered as they walked. “Straighten up. Add some swagger.” He dropped his voice even lower. “Walk like you’ve got a dick.”
Melody tried, bowing out her legs like a cowboy as she puffed out her chest. She felt like Yosemite Sam.
“Shoot for average. Not porn star.”
Her cheeks flushed hot and Melody dropped the waddle.
“Better. Now hurry. Look for a Humvee with a jerry can in the back.” Larkin headed toward the nearest one and peered inside.
Melody followed along right behind. “What’s a jerry can?”
Larkin grumbled about civilians and their lack of knowledge and yanked open the door to the vehicle. “It’s that thing, back there. Now get in.” He left the door open and rushed around to the driver’s side.
Melody glanced at a container that looked like a massive metal canteen. A jerry can. She’d learned something new. After climbing in, she reached for the door. It was flipped all the way around to the outside. How am I supposed to reach that? Melody grabbed the handle and tugged. It didn’t budge. Crap!
Leaning even further out the door, she braced herself on the floorboard. With two hands on the handle and a massive heave, Melody managed to swing the beast of a door and fall into the seat as it slammed shut.
“It’s about time you got in here.” Larkin flipped a metal switch on the dash and waited a moment before cranking the engine. The Humvee grumbled to life and Larkin backed it out of the space. “Hold on. It’s not the smoothest ride.”
Melody grabbed onto the seat as the vehicle lurched forward. They barreled out of the parking lot and onto the road. “Where are we going?”
“To Colt. I’m assuming you know where that is.”
“What about Gloria?”
Larkin cast Melody a glance. “Who’s that?”
“My neighbor. She was taken the same time I was. They dropped her off at a building closer to where we came into campus.”
Larkin thought about it as he drove. “Must be the brig. They converted a dorm over there to a makeshift prison.” He shook his head. “It’s too risky. We can’t do it.”
“But we can’t leave her here!”
“It’s that or get ourselves killed. We can regroup with Colt. Come up with a plan, and break her out. But we can’t do that right now.”
Melody leaned back on the seat. She couldn’t leave Gloria, but what choice did she have? She was right back to zero options. She crossed her arms. “Harvey is going to be furious.”
“Who’s Harvey?”
“Gloria’s husband.”
Larkin grimaced. “Tell me where to go.”
Melody looked at Larkin. From the side he seemed like every other army guy around the place. Clean-shaven, angled jaw, no-nonsense demeanor. Could she really trust him? “How do you know Colt?”
“We overlapped at Walter Reed. I was recovering from back surgery, him from the helo crash that ended his career as a SEAL.”
Plausible. Melody sighed. She could be making the biggest mistake of her life, but once again, the options were this or nothing. “He’s up north of campus on Bellemeade. I’ll show you the way.”
Twenty minutes later, they stopped at the end of the street. “Are you sure this is right?” Larkin squinted into the gloom, idling the Humvee on the side of the road.
Melody couldn’t believe it. She yanked on the door handle and kicked the door open and was running before Larkin could shout a single word.
It can’t be. It can’t be. She tore down the street, her two sets of clothes rubbing against each other like sandpaper. As far as she could see, there was nothing but chaos. Charred beams, collapsed roofs, smoldering ashes. Bellemeade Way was burned to the ground.
She stopped in front of Harvey’s house. Nothing stood except the stone of the chimney. The big beautiful oak tree with its gnarled branches and perfect reading nook sat naked and covered in soot in the backyard. Not a single leaf remained.
Stumbling down the street, Melody looked in horror at house after house. At last she stopped in front of what used to be her own. Jarvis’s words from before the brothel filled her mind. “Burn it down.”
They had burned every last house. She crumpled to the ground next to the mailbox, now blackened and half-falling down. Her parents’ house. The home she grew up in. The place that held the greatest memories of her childhood.
Running through the sprinklers in the backyard. Making ice cream with the hand-crank churner in the shade of the patio. Her first kiss under the porch light. Her parents waving goodbye and never coming back thanks to a car accident outside of Portland.
Larkin’s footsteps stopped behind her.
She sniffed up the sooty air. “Are we too late? Are they all dead?”
He crouched in the street. “If I know Colt, he’s safe.”
Melody wiped at her face. “Then the others are, too.”
“Any idea where they would have gone?”
Melody lifted her head. “Only one.”
Day Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
DANI
Shaw Residence
Eugene, Oregon
1:00 a.m.
Dani squinted into the darkness from her position in the window. Lucas Shaw’s apartment sat on the top floor of a shabby walk-up catering to broke college kids and lower-tier employees. Apart from the lack of drug dealers and loitering addicts, it wasn’t that different from her mother’s place.
A small living room with a futon, beat-up coffee table covered in books and water rings. An eat-in kitchen with a table big enough for two at best. A bedroom that smelled like dude, with a black sheet for a curtain and piles of clothes on the floor.
Dani glanced behind her to the small table Colt, Doug, and Harvey crowded around. They pointed and whispered and made sweeping motions with their hands. Discussing options and plans of attack.
