by Angela White
“They don’t really need me, not like Charlie. He already craves time with me, and it’s never been sexual. When we...if we ever got that close, I might...”
“What?” Leslie pushed. “Fall in love with him?”
“How could anyone not love that Sweetheart” Tracy scoffed softly, thinking of the trinkets and poems she’d found on her pillow over the last month. They meant nothing compared to the way he looked at her. “It’s more of a satisfaction issue. He’ll please me, instead of the other way around. And I don’t mean sex.”
Leslie was shocked. “You can’t pick Charlie in any way, and then go service Adrian. It would break Charlie’s heart.”
Tracy stunned both women with the answer.
“Maybe, if I had him, I wouldn’t want to do that for these men anymore. I’d want to change.”
Angela had finished the shift in deep contemplation. When it was over, she’d found herself looking for the right way to give them both what they wanted.
Charlie caught most of it through their connection and Angela regarded him tenderly. “You’re a good son. I couldn’t be prouder of you. If she’s what you want, you have my blessing to try.”
Charlie was stunned to find out that he’d been making progress. “Thank you.”
“Need her for more than fun, and you’ll have a bond that will last.” As she said it, Angela reluctantly accepted that she shared the same connection with Adrian. And after only months, it was unbreakable.
6
Samantha concentrated, falling into that beautiful place where only she and nature existed. Called the zone or a groove, she sometimes wished she could stay there forever.
The buzzing got louder, and Sam steeled herself. What she was doing would probably get her stung, but she was curious as to how the shield would react. They could make it go up with enough worry and keep it from going up if one of them was out of the perimeter, but how did it pick those boundaries? Did it recognize the caution tape? That was today’s question to be answered.
Sam had brought two female rookies with her. She’d had them adjust the caution tape to include the tree she was standing under and then made them get clear so they wouldn’t be hurt. On one of the low branches of the tree, an enormous beehive was alive with violently protected activity.
When she tapped the hive, the mental concern from her and her witnesses should trigger the shield. They’d been instructed to observe, one each, the tape and the perimeter line, to discover where the shield came up.
Am I ready? Sam was strangely ecstatic to be doing such a stupid thing. “Born that way.”
She sent out her senses, searching, reading what nature had to say. It was easy to pick up the unease of the bees as she stood below them. Samantha quickly jumped up and punched the branch, not crazy enough to hit the hive directly.
As she touched the ground, the bees exploded from the hive, and Sam found herself being jerked away from them and pushed into the creek that she’d planned to jump into if chased.
Jeremy dove in after her, grabbing her arm and pulling her body tightly up against his. As the bees flew over, he hit the button on his air horn.
The blast sent the bees away, and Jeremy lumbered to his feet, dragging Sam up. He pulled them onto the bank, ready to defend them against the things that sometimes came out of the water.
Sam gasped air into her lungs, coughing. She’d hit the water with her mouth open in surprise.
Jeremy waved the rookie females back as they came to the bank. “Keep the camp away. Tell them someone fell in the creek and we fished them out. No danger.”
The two women left with slightly envious glances as Jeremy gave her a rough shake.
“Stop being crazy, and do it right now!”
Samantha, who thought she’d had things under control until he interfered, surprised them both by laughing.
Jeremy was instantly offended, and it broke through the cool reserve he’d been treating her with. He jerked her forward and kissed her.
Samantha had chosen Neil by the lines that he and Adrian had noticed, but the deciding factor had been one they hadn’t known to use because they were men. Pleasure was easy for them, but in her life, few men had roused true passion in Samantha. Rick, her shame, and Neil, her light, were two of only four men she’d ever felt lust for. At this moment, with Jeremy breaking the rules and tasting her as if she was the best dessert he’d ever had (His small groans were enough to tighten her chest and send heat into her stomach.) he became the fifth. She’d sensed it all along, that they were more than a match physically.
Samantha curled her arms around his neck, and caught a fiery gasp with her mouth. When she kissed him back, he shuddered against her hip and sealed her decision. She would have them both.
Jeremy drew back, expression wild. “What do you want from me?”
Sam swallowed the pity. In this new world, she made the future.
“Friendship.” She wrapped her arms tighter around him, letting him feel that impossible-to-fight lure of a woman determined to have her way. “And relief.”
It was a line he’d recently used, successfully, on a camp groupie, but hadn’t followed through.
Sam waited, letting the temptation of her being in his arms do the heavy work.
Jeremy fought…for seconds, and then he caved. He wanted her too much to refuse whatever she would give. He’d never been so lonely.
“How does this work? He and I alternate nights and start fighting again?”
Samantha let her hair brush against his cheek and saw his jaw muscle tighten. “How does it usually work when two Eagles pick the same female friend?”
Jeremy didn’t want to answer.
Sam did it for him. “It’s my choice as to who or when. It always has been.”
Jeremy was layered in the humiliation of cheap use. Like the camp whores must feel, he realized with shame that he hadn’t known he should be carrying. He would never treat them the same way again. “Has he agreed?”
“About as much as you have,” Sam grunted, not moving out of his arms even though she knew the two males were now locked in eye-to-eye combat over her shoulder. Neil was the senior guard over this area. It was one of the reasons that she’d chosen to do the experiment today. She’d felt safer, knowing Neil would be here.
She heard Neil leave them in peace and was flooded with shame and elation in equal measures. She finished the scene as gently as she could. “I’m greedy, Jeremy, and it’s so wrong for me to ask this of you. If you can’t handle it, I understand, and I’d never hold it–”
Jeremy kissed her again, unable to take the rest of the speech that each of the Eagles had given to their chosen relief source at one time or another. It was humiliating. And, he couldn’t wait to be called to serve.
Jeremy drew back. “What were you doing?”
Sam sighed, resting her head on his shoulder instead of letting him put space between them. “Bubble range test.”
Jeremy chuckled, arms tightening. “It follows our perimeter, meaning the Eagles, not the tape. Next time, just ask. Adrian and Angela have been running tests on the shield since it appeared.”
“I should have known!” Samantha groaned.
“Yes, you should have,” Jeremy agreed jokingly. “But rookies take time to come to the understanding.”
“The understanding?”
Jeremy placed a kiss on her head. “That Adrian has it covered. If it could help or hurt these people, he and Angela have considered it.”
“Makes it seem like they’re gods and they don’t need help from the camp or the Eagles,” Sam commented, testing his line a bit.
“Actually, it means they need us more than if they were powerless,” Jeremy stated, tone implying a double meaning. “You need us.”
“How do you figure?” Sam asked, still not moving from his strong arms.
“Because it’s never safe,” he stated pointedly. “As long as you guys have power, someone will always want it. Without protection, you’d spe
nd all your time just trying to survive and we wouldn’t get these amazing results.”
Sam hadn’t thought of it that way and she nuzzled Jeremy’s jaw, loving the openness of their embrace. “Thank you.”
Jeremy let her happiness do battle with his unease over the situation, and was pleased when she won. He kissed her cheek and then her lips. It was official now and Jeremy had no plans to hold himself back any longer. “You’re welcome, baby.”
Samantha melted.
Part Three
Provocation: an action or words likely to cause physical retaliation.
Chapter Nineteen
Required Blood
June 27th
5 miles West of Little Rock
1
“She fits my qualifications.”
Angela stared back at the seven furious, stunned, confused faces without sympathy. Her team list had come out an hour ago, and they’d all come to express their displeasure. She had indicated they should wait.
Now that the final piece–her new XO and escort–had just come in, Angela stood up. “I chose based on the things I need. Organization, communication, willingness to follow my moral lines, and the devotion to follow orders.”
Many of the females started to protest, but Angela interrupted. “To some degree, all of you have that, which is why you made the cut in the first place. To be honored with my right, however, you have to be overflowing with that last one. And frankly, you guys can’t give me that.”
“What makes you think she can?” Leslie sneered, used to fighting dirty to get what she wanted. “Hell, she might die squeezing out those Mexican puppies!”
Angela spun around.
Thud!
Leslie fell backwards and landed on the canvas floor, holding her bloody nose. “Oww!”
“Three strikes and you’re gone. That’s one.” Angela didn’t think any of them would need a demonstration like this again, but if they did, she could handle it now. “The same goes for everyone. If I have to hit you that many times, you’re too dumb for what I need.”
She had their attention now, over personal concerns, and the Eagles outside the flap grinned and crowded each other for listening room.
Angela walked to the front of the tent, wiping her bloody hand down her jeans. “Tell them why Cesar’s former slaves hate you.”
Kyle started to protest, he already knew the answer and could still barely cope with it. He wasn’t at all happy about being here, either. When Jennifer had mentioned the Eagles, Kyle hadn’t known she and Angela had already settled it.
Jennifer put a hand on his arm. “I want this.”
Beaten before the fight even started, Kyle stormed from the tent, scattering the crowd of men outside.
“Tell them,” Angela repeated.
Jennifer used the steel she’d found while facing Cesar. “I was the one they came to when they got pregnant. They couldn’t do it themselves.”
“Do what?” Sam asked reluctantly, a horrible idea forming. No way had this girl had the strength to do that to others and then still keep her own. No way.
“I made them miscarry,” Jennifer confirmed.
“How?” Cynthia demanded, refusing to believe she’d lost to a pregnant 14-year-old girl.
“The only way I could,” Jennifer revealed bitterly. “Cesar saw the bruises and assumed one of his men was responsible. And then he would slaughter whoever he thought was considering a takeover. I killed two birds with every baby.”
The tent was full of a thick, revolted tension that Angela fed with her next prompt. “And the ones who attacked you when you first joined Safe Haven?”
Jennifer looked around in defensive anger. “I cut them, the ones who didn’t ever want to have enslaved kids! They came to me, begging, because I managed to keep my hope when they didn’t! And even when I told them I wasn’t doing it to mine, they still came to me.”
“You could have refused,” Crista offered quietly.
“No, I couldn’t,” Jennifer refuted. “Those women had no power in Cesar’s camp. Their kids would have been unprotected. They were better off never being born.”
“And why do yours deserve to live?” Cynthia questioned in dislike, still not quite believing.
Jennifer’s chin went up further. “I never said those babies deserved it! I said they were better off.”
“Tell them why,” Angela directed. She hadn’t coached Jennifer on this moment, but their abilities were off-limits. If the teenager made a mistake on that, she would immediately be replaced.
Jennifer had already spent six months walking that line. “I wasn’t hurt by anyone but Cesar and the other slaves. His men thought I was crazy. They said I was the reason he couldn’t be killed. Our children would have been exempt as long as I kept them believing it.”
Now, there was complete confusion.
“How did you do that?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You have to be lying. The other slaves have never mentioned that.”
“Yes, they have,” Angela interrupted the angry females. “It’s in their glances every time they walk by her, in their words when they run into her at meals and showers. They’re jealous, and scared that she’ll tell everyone what they asked her to do.”
“I was a target with the women, but my children would have been left alone–at least until they were older.”
“And by then?” Samantha asked, sure she knew this time. “You hoped he’d be dead, right?”
Jennifer’s expression stretched into a hatred that each of them recognized as lethal.
“I was waiting to feed him the poison until after the birth, so I survived the fight for control. I would have become the woman of whoever won. My place, and that of my kids, was set until I could get strong enough to find a way out. That’s why they hate me. I’m smarter, and I always play for the future.”
Angela leaned back as the other females eyed Jennifer warily, expressions full of dislike, but also respect.
Sam turned to Angela. “You’ve put a killer on your right!”
Angela was satisfied. That was what she needed them to understand. “Yes, and a pair of hard-asses behind her.”
Angela glanced at Cynthia’s shocked countenance. “If you guys can take the order.”
Angela strode back to Leslie, locking gazes. Her tone was rough. “I’ve never liked you, but Jeremy thinks you’re a hard-ass, too, and that it will swing the other sisters into Adrian’s light.”
Finding out that Jeremy had spoken up for her went a long way in soothing the woman’s ruffled feathers over her bloody nose. It also instantly created a rivalry with Samantha.
“I’ve started to do it,” Leslie stated quietly. “Sam knows.”
Angela held out a hand. “Good. There will be more female teams to be filled in the future. The leaders of those teams could come from this tent.”
Leslie accepted the hand up, as the others murmured in surprise.
“You have to make a choice, ladies. You’ve been rookies long enough to feel the magic. When I tell you that is nothing to being on the inside, take it to heart. If I absolutely had to pick between being an Eagle, and being Marc’s woman, I’d arrange for one of the whores to console him.”
Angela didn’t glance at Tracy. She didn’t want to even consider that match. Tracy was one of the few women in Safe Haven that actually stood a chance with Marc. Tracy knew what men wanted, and that was dangerous.
Now there was complete silence in the tent.
Angela went on with the half-truths, hoping Marc wasn’t close enough to hear. She honestly wasn’t sure which way she would go. Both meant the world to her. The only thing more important than either of them was her son. “Until Jennifer is ready, Sam will cover that place. Keep in mind that I won’t ever tell you all of my reasons for putting her there, or for anything else that I do. You have to be able to accept my choices.”
Those who knew Angie’s secret felt some of their anger fade. If Jennifer wa
s as strong as Angela was, she belonged on the right–where she would be most useful.
“Though the camp needs to think it for a while, I did not just pick you for my team.” Her words rang through the tent, capturing them. “I’ve chosen you to lead your own.”
Angela looked at Jennifer, as the others muttered in surprise. She was careful with her wording. “Will you serve, even though it will take you away?”
Jennifer was honored. “You know it.”
“And the rest of you?” Angela asked, certain of the answers. “Anyone want out now?”
Silence.
Angela smirked–a hard, cold expression that each of them would get used to seeing right before she had them do something important for the camp.
“While I’m in Little Rock, think and be sure. I’ll expect everything from you, and then demand more.”
“Who are you taking in…to watch your six?” Becky hesitated to volunteer, not sure if she had the sand yet.
Angela didn’t pause in her answer or her exit from the tent. “Adrian.”
2
“You can go in tonight with the clearing crew.”
Silence fell over the center table at Adrian’s words.
The clearing crew had been to Little Rock for the last three nights, making a road where one hadn’t existed since the war, but it was far from safe.
“We’ll be ready,” Angela said casually.
When Adrian didn’t deny the request, Marc relaxed a bit. The females that had emerged from the tent on Angela’s heels were currently wearing determined expressions that usually only Adrian could inspire. She had them in line now.
Kenn glanced up. The sky hung closer, clearly about to dump something on them. “Smells like rain.”
Angela played along. “About time. It’s been...” She glanced over at Adrian. “Months!”
“Not since the rest stop,” Adrian replied. “We’ve had a couple chilly days and a few warm ones, but we’ve mostly hovered in the 60s for the last two months.”
Angela felt his concern and it made her consider the deeper implications. What she came up with scared her. “We’re about to take a drop.”
