Andrea huffed out air through her nose, her lips pressed together, and I could see she was considering what he’d said.
“We do need as many hands as possible,” said Lorcan. “We’re already outnumbered, two to one.”
He must have been able to see himself in that young man’s face. When he’d been that age, he wouldn’t have wanted to hide either, but would have wanted to stand side by side with the other men with a weapon in his hand.
“Okay, Jared,” said Andrea. “You can stay. The rest of you, I need you to go down to the dry store and stay in there, okay? I don’t want you to come out unless one of us comes to get you, or unless everything goes quiet.” I knew what she was talking about. If everything went quiet, it would mean that we’d lost, and when those boys came out of the dry store, all they would find would be our bodies.
“If you need to go for help,” she continued, “you walk to the nearest house. Okay? But make sure there’s no one else here first. If it’s someone you don’t recognize, none of these men, or this woman, standing here now, then hide until they’re gone.”
I realized she hadn’t told them to go to the farm. Did that mean the place was empty, perhaps positioned purely to stop this facility from standing out so much?
“No, I don’t want to go,” cried one of the younger boys. “I want to stay here with you.”
“Everything will be fine, but I need you guys out of the way, okay? These people have come here to help us, but there’s something we have to deal with first.”
I forced a smile. “Come on,” I said to the boys, taking a few steps toward them. “How about you show me where it is? I bet we can find something good to eat in there while you’re waiting.”
The younger ones’ faces relaxed at the promise of snacks.
One of the boys, about ten years old, scowled and folded his arms across his narrow chest. “I’m not a baby. I don’t want to go down with them. If Jared gets to stay up here, I don’t see why I can’t.”
“Jared is a lot older than you, Hudson,” Andrea snapped. “Besides,” her tone softened, “the younger ones are going to need someone older to look out for them, and you’re our best bet right now. Can you do that? Be in charge of the younger ones while we’re trying to work things out up here.”
Hudson’s shoulders relaxed slightly, and he glanced over at the other boys who were all standing back, one of them with his arm around the other’s neck. I remembered how Isaac and the others had explained to me how they’d grown up together, how they saw each other as close to siblings as it was possible to get. I guessed these boys felt the same way, even though they might not be showing it right at this moment.
“Okay,” Hudson reluctantly agreed.
“Thank you, Hudson,” she said, though her voice betrayed no emotion.
I clapped my hands. “Why don’t you guys show me where you’re going? I’d like to see around.” They each looked at me like I must be crazy for wanting to do such a thing, but I continued with the smile, only wanting to get them out of the way before the shooting started.
Alex stepped into line with me. “I’ll come with you.”
I glanced up at him with a grateful smile, admiring his profile for the briefest of moments. The long, dark blonde eyelashes. The little bump in his otherwise straight nose. The way his bottom lip was fuller than the top. I allowed myself a moment to appreciate how classically handsome he was—not perfect, by any means, but just the sort of well-groomed man who would catch any woman’s eye.
The boys turned as a group to lead us through the building, and we followed. Hudson headed up the small gang of five; we’d left the older boy, Jared, with Andrea, Isaac, and the others.
The stairs leading down to the cellar were at the end of the corridor, twisting down into a spiral. Hudson led the way, the boys traipsing after. They were quiet, and I assumed this was out of character. The trainees back at our bases were always teasing each other about something, punching each other in the shoulder, or running everywhere rather than walking. They seemed to communicate through play-fighting—something I was sure I hadn’t done when I was younger, and something I contributed to being the difference in the two sexes. These boys were sullen and nervous, and they clearly realized something was wrong. I doubted they got many visitors here, especially not in a relatively big group of six, like we were.
We reached the bottom level and continued along the corridor, so it would have brought us directly beneath where the others were standing. A number of doors led off the corridor, which were also used for storage, I assumed. The low ceiling, dank light, and the cold temperature made me hope the boys wouldn’t have to spend long down here. I hoped we’d still be in the main part of the building with them when they eventually emerged.
“Here.” Hudson stopped in front of one of the doors.
Alex reached past him to push the door open, and then reached in to flick on the light switch positioned on the wall just inside. White light flooded the place. It was exactly as Andrea had said, a dry store filled with goods. Metal shelves divided the room into several partitions, so it was impossible to see right to the back.
“You guys get behind here,” I told them, gesturing to the back of the store room. “If anyone comes in who you don’t recognize, you stay quiet, okay?”
“Who’s coming to hurt us?” One of the youngest boys—who had blue eyes, blond hair, like Alex—added.
Alex stepped forward. “No one is coming to hurt you. They don’t even know you exist, okay? It’s this place they don’t like, not you, but if we want them to go away and leave you alone, we’re going to need you to stay super quiet, even when everything gets kind of loud and scary. Do you think you can do that?”
I didn’t think anyone ever said no to Alex, and the boys all nodded obediently.
“Great. Now, let’s see what snacks we’ve got in here to keep you busy in the meantime.”
I was thankful to Alex for stepping in.
“There’s chips on that shelf,” one kid piped up, pointing at a shelf near Alex’s head.
“Yeah, there’s cookies there, too,” said Hudson. “They put all that stuff there thinking we can’t reach it, but we can just pull the stool over.”
The boys laughed at their shared joke at getting one over on their trainers. Alex reached up and pulled a number of packets down from where they’d been pointing and threw them to the boys.
“There you go. That should keep you going for awhile. But don’t come back up when they’re finished. Wait until one of your trainers, or even one of us, comes down to get you. Got it?”
“Got it,” the boys repeated in unison, their mouths already filled with junk.
Alex and I retraced our steps, closing the door behind us.
“I’m tempted to lock them in,” I said, “but what if there’s a fire of something?”
He shook his head. “Don’t lock them in. It won’t do any good. The lock’s on the outside, so, if Hollan gets past us, he’ll only unlock it again.”
“I’m glad you’re here, Alex.”
He grabbed my hand and tugged me against him. “Hey, I’m glad you’re here, too, though I hate that you’re in danger.”
“No more than the rest of you. And even when we’re facing down armed men, I still feel safer with the five of you than I do any time when I’m on my own.”
His body pressed against the length of mine. My hands were in both of his, and he straightened his arms, pulling me even closer, flush against his body. He ducked his head to press his forehead to the top of mine. He was so much taller than I was.
“You’ll never be alone again, Darcy. Not with us around.”
“There are quite a few of you,” I admitted.
“You can handle us.” His tone had become gravely. “I know you can.”
“All of you.” My voice was breathy in return.
“All of us.”
He smelled so good, of aftershave and simply him, and I had to resist burying my face agains
t his neck and pressing my lips against his skin. I wanted so badly to stay there with him, hide away a little longer, as I’d done with Lorcan in the hangar, but I knew there wasn’t time.
“We’ll continue this later.” I said, forcing myself to release his hands.
I hoped we’d get a later.
Chapter Ten
We left the boys safely ensconced down in the cellar, and made our way back to ground level. Isaac and Andrea were standing side by side where we’d left them, and I pushed away a stupid rush of jealousy. It was a pointless emotion, and I had no right to be jealous, especially when I had a thing going with each of them and they’d never shown me a single glimpse of the green-eyed monster. But then they all knew and trusted each other, whereas this woman was a stranger to me, and I didn’t want her moving in on my man. Or any of my men, for that matter.
Isaac spotted us over Andrea’s shoulder. “Everything go okay?”
Alex nodded. “Yeah, we bribed them with snacks. Seems to work well on kids. Where are the others?”
“Checking out the rest of the building, and looking for the best vantage points. It’s flat around here, so at least we’ll spot Hollan long before he gets here.”
“No sign yet?” I asked.
Isaac shook his head and rubbed his fingers over his lips. “Not yet, though they can’t be too much longer. Unless something has caused them to stop, of course. They might have been held up by something.”
“Let’s hope they’re permanently held up.”
I didn’t think there would be much chance of that happening. There wasn’t much that seemed to get in Hollan’s way.
“You should see the rest of the building, so you know your way around,” said Andrea, already walking away. “We’re all on this one level, with the exception of the cellar, which you’ve already seen. This place isn’t as high-tech as some of the others, I believe, but we have everything we need.”
“Any way of getting in touch with any of the other bases?” Isaac asked, and I detected the hint of hope in his voice.
“No, sorry. We’ve been in the dark as much as I imagine you’ve been over the last few years. We’ve worked with people locally, but I’m afraid we didn’t know anything about the rest of you. We kept our ears to the ground, but never heard anything either.” She offered me a small smile, as though she was pulling me in on a private joke. “That’s the thing about spooks. We’re not supposed to be noticed, not even by our own kind.”
We continued down the corridor, our shoes squeaking on the tiled floor. This place had the feel of an old hospital—completely different than the high-tech place we’d left near D.C. Was this one of the early set-ups, or a more recent one? And why hadn’t they put more money into it? I felt bad for the boys who lived here. I wouldn’t want to be raised in this sterile place, miles away from anywhere. I knew most of the children’s homes they’d been brought from probably weren’t much better, but a part of me had hoped they’d be given more. I walked with Isaac on one side, and Alex on the other. I wondered where Kingsley, Clay, and Lorcan were. I didn’t like us being separated. It made me anxious—even more so than normal.
“I expect the layout is much like you’re used to,” she said, and Isaac and I exchanged a glance. I knew he was thinking much the same as I was; this wasn’t really anything like what we knew.
“Here.” She opened the first door on our right, and I relaxed a fraction.
The room was wall to wall with computer screens. A man sat in front of them, monitoring them. He swiveled in his seat to half face us.
“Anything unusual yet, Matt?” she asked.
The man shook his head. “All still looking quiet, Andrea.”
“Let me know the moment anything changes.”
On one of the screens was the helicopter, still sitting outside, waiting for us. I noted the blades had stopped spinning. I hoped George was all right out there with the pilot. I knew he was happy being in the chopper, and Jonathan was probably keeping him entertained with helicopter facts, but a part of me wondered if we should have brought him inside to hide down in the cellar with the other boys. At least then he’d be with kids his own age.
The thought of the children automatically made me think of the boys Hollan had taken. Were they frightened, crying? Would Hollan get what he wanted from them, and then kill them? It seemed inhuman that he would do such a thing, but I didn’t want to underestimate him. Would he do it just to get back at me, or was I putting too much importance on my existence? After all, he had what he wanted from me. Sure, I hadn’t made things easy for him, but perhaps now he thought of me as merely an inconvenience, and of no importance at all.
Everyone moving on broke me from my thoughts, and I followed Andrea, Isaac, and Alex out of the room and back into the hospital-like corridor.
Again, this base looked far smaller than the one we’d left behind. Was our base the main one? It made sense, with its location being so close to D.C. The remaining two we had yet to visit didn’t look as though they were close to any major cities. A twinge of unease plucked at my nerves. If we were the biggest base, wouldn’t it make sense that ours was the one that should be targeted first? But then again, I had to remind myself, Hollan didn’t have that information. Unless he looked at the locations of the bases, and decided that the one closest to D.C. would make the most obvious choice when it came to taking out the main one.
Devlin had been convinced Hollan wouldn’t go there first because we knew he had all the locations, and we were ready for an attack. Devlin believed Hollan would want to take on the new locations, as they’d be unprepared and would be taken by surprise, and that was true of the Atlanta base.
Just as in the other bases, there was an industrial kitchen, though this one was slightly smaller than the others. The next room was a combined dining area and living space, with a long wooden dining table on one side of the room, and a U shaped corner of couches, together with a flat screen television, a games console, and a wall filled with shelves of books on the other. Cushions were positioned on the couch, and a thick rug covered part of the floor where the couches were located. Coffee cups and magazines were stacked on the coffee table. To my relief, this place suddenly looked a little less like the poor cousin. My worries about the boys being raised in a cold, unforgiving environment appeared unfounded.
We walked through several other rooms—the dormitory, which looked like the boys shared bunk beds, and a couple of separate rooms, which I assumed were where the adults slept. There were a couple of classrooms, one of which was clearly set up for science. There was no sports hall—the size of the building didn’t accommodate it—but there was a well-equipped gym. I briefly wondered how the boys were taught to swim. Were they taken to a local pool?
“Can you guys swim?” I asked Alex as we walked.
He laughed. “Yeah, of course we can swim.”
“But where, and how?”
“Darcy, no one notices a group of boys going into a swimming pool. And the people who raised us have enough sway to get private lessons, if needed.”
“Right, of course.”
I remembered what Devlin had always told me, how no one was a prisoner. The boys stayed because they were given a better standard of living than they previously had, and maybe the older ones realized they were also being given an opportunity that would never arise for them otherwise. But with the opportunity also came danger. Were they made aware of that side of things? That they were risking kidnapping and being shot at the same time? Or was it like anything when you’re young, where you know of the dangers, but the possibility of it happening to you feels as unlikely as growing old?
Right now, I had four boys who’d been taken, and another five hiding downstairs in a cellar. Yes, they might grow into men like Isaac and Alex and Clay, but was the sacrifice worth it in the end? Shouldn’t they just be allowed to be children, and grow into regular guys with regular jobs and families to come home to at the end of the day? Maybe people like Hollan and othe
r men they’d dealt with over the years should just be allowed to get on with it, and the normal authorities should deal with them when they messed up. Maybe all of this simply wasn’t worth it.
I experienced a pang of guilt at my thoughts. I’d agreed to come on board and be part of the team, so wasn’t I as responsible for these children as anyone else who worked as ... what had Isaac called it? A ghost? And these children had been living peacefully enough until I’d opened my big mouth to that reporter all those weeks ago. It felt like a lifetime ago now. I was judging the way they worked, but I’d played my part.
’Cause this wasn’t a normal tour. I could tell that by the way my heart was constantly in my throat, and I found myself jumping, my pulse racing, at every single sound. No, we were being shown the layout of the place so we would be better prepared when they came under attack. We needed to figure out the best places to put armed men, so we would be able to cover the entrances to the building.
We came across some of the others—the older boy, with one of the men who’d been guarding Andrea when we’d first arrived, and Kingsley and Clay. The windows of the room were frosted to prevent any curious eyes from peeping in, but a couple of them stood partially open now, with the men checking their vantage to the outside area, and making sure they had enough cover from the wall beside and under the window to take cover should Hollan’s men start returning fire.
“We need to cover the back of the building, too,” instructed Andrea.
“We’re fighting with you,” Isaac added. “Make sure you give us positions.”
She nodded. “You know this man, so perhaps you’ll be better at the front, with me. I don’t know if there will be an opportunity to negotiate with him, but he’ll probably respond to someone he knows more than a stranger.”
Isaac’s lips thinned, his nostrils flaring. “I’m not so sure about that. He’s a man who takes action above conversation.”
“He killed my father,” I blurted, unsure where the words had come from. I certainly hadn’t planned for them to come out. “I was there. He died in my arms.”
Merging Darkness: A Reverse Harem Romance (Dark Codes Book 4) Page 8
