by Carly Fall
ached a little.
Going by the night’s events, he seriously doubted it.
Chapter 49
Beverly looked out the window of the car, the chatter of Faith and Abby in the
front seat a distant buzz.
Because the Colonist was dead, Faith and Abby were allowed to go out
unaccompanied, and they were acting as if they had just won the lotto. Neither seemed fazed by the violence that had taken place the evening before.
Beverly was more certain than ever that she didn’t belong in their world,
regardless of how much it felt like she did. Yes, she had grown to care deeply about Hudson, but watching him kill another being brought a stark fear in her gut, even if the guy deserved it.
She wanted to be as far away from violence as she could get.
“Beverly? Are you okay?” Abby said, looking at her in the rear view mirror.
Beverly met her eyes and smiled.
“Yes. Just tired. I didn’t sleep well.”
Wasn’t that the truth. She had been up almost all night, the horrifying images
replaying themselves over and over in her mind. They also did nothing to help soothe her anxiety. Yes, last night had been tough, but she was really proud of the way she was able to make it through with breathing exercises and a hardcore workout.
And no pills.
She watched as the desert gave way to the suburbs, and the suburbs turned into
the city. She felt no excitement at the new life she was embarking on; however, she reminded herself again that it was better than being a drug addict.
Hopefully, she would be able to find some small slice of happiness in the near
future.
She sighed. She had thought about going to Hudson the previous night, but she
couldn’t bring herself to do it. He wasn’t around to say goodbye to her this morning, and it was probably better that way. She didn’t want him to see her all teary-eyed about leaving, but so conflicted about him and violence she had witnessed.
“Hey, Beverly,” Faith said, softly turning around to lay her hand on Beverly’s
hand. “We’re here.”
Beverly hadn’t even realized they’d come to a stop. She looked around and, yes,
they were at the impound lot. When the Colonist had shown up, Talin had called
everyone back home, and they didn’t get her car.
She smiled at Faith. “I’m going to miss you two,” she said.
Faith gave her hand a squeeze and said, “Us too.”
All three got out of the Escalade and went to the back. Abby pushed a button on
the key fob, and the back end lifted. Beverly grabbed her small suitcase. She looked at Abby, who had tears in her eyes.
Abby reached for her and they embraced. “Do you have everything you need?”
she asked. Beverly nodded. Faith gave Beverly a hug that she thought might break her in half. “Take care of yourself, Beverly. We’ll miss you.”
Beverly nodded, her words caught in her throat. Yes, she was going to miss these
two.
She pulled up the handle of her suitcase and made her way to the office. There
were no numbers exchanged, no promises of keeping in touch.
She didn’t look back.
Chapter 50
It had been two weeks since Beverly left. Hudson felt like a little slice of his life was no longer present. It wasn’t a pain like Iris had dealt him, but more of an ongoing, low-grade ache.
He sat at the bar of the Black Cuff, a club in downtown Phoenix Faith had
introduced them to many months back. The strobe lights pumped to the sound of the music. The black lights flickered on and off, revealing the walls spattered with neon paint. In a few hours, the booths would be would be jammed with people looking to party, have sex, get drunk, and imbibe in illegal narcotics. He wore black leather pants, a white Gucci button-down shirt, his hair pulled back into the standard ponytail. The place was almost empty, as he had arrived before the crowds came. He had claimed his seat at the bar and waited.
The techno music blasted, the strobe lights flickered, and the crowds began filing in.
Tossing back his third scotch, he saw what he was looking for, and they were
eyeing him as well. He gave a slight nod of his head that could be perceived as an invitation or just a simple hello. He left it up to them to decide.
Looking away, his gaze traveled to the mirror above the bar. He watched the two
women make their way through the crowd. The blonde had on a skirt so short he could almost see London and France. She wore no bra, and her white shirt was transparent every time the strobe light flashed. The other had brown hair and wore pink leather pants and a black silk tank top. He wasn’t sure how she walked in her black fuck-me pumps they were so high.
Their perfume invaded his nose as they approached, making his eyes water. He
watched in the mirror as the blonde put her hand on his bicep. Her touch made his skin crawl, and he looked down at her long, pink nails with little flower decals on them. He turned to her.
“Hi,” she breathed. Her eyes were glassy, and he wondered what she was on. He
felt the brunette lay her hand on his other shoulder, and he wanted to scream and push them both away.
Instead, he gave the blonde a small smile and said, “Hey.”
“Buy us a drink?” the brunette said into his ear.
He turned to her heavily made-up face and glassy-eyed stare. “Of course, lovely
lady. What will it be?”
She smiled and giggled. “This is embarrassing, but my favorite drink is a Slippery Bald Beaver.”
He had to stop his eyes from rolling.
“Have you ever had a Slippery Bald Beaver?” she asked innocently.
As he looked into her brown eyes, all he could think about was Beverly’s green
ones. The way she carried herself so regally, her sweetness, her natural beauty. But he needed this from one or both of the women at his sides; he couldn’t allow a woman he would never see again to cloud his thoughts.
“I have had a Slippery Bald Beaver,” he said in a low tone, “and I do have to say I think it’s delicious.”
She inhaled quickly, then giggled again.
“Why don’t you sit here,” he said to the brunette, pointing the seat to his left, “and you sit here,” he said to the blonde, pointing to the seat to his right. “We can talk for a while, and maybe in a little bit I’ll get to have a double shot of Slippery Bald Beaver.”
The girls laughed and took their assigned stools. Hudson ordered the drinks,
trying not to cringe as their hands traveled up his arms, around his neck, into his hair.
Their nails felt like claws; their perfume made him want to vomit.
But he needed this. He had to stay on top of the pain.
An hour later, all three were in a stall in one of the back bathrooms. Their hands roamed his chest, and he methodically explored their bodies, finding no pleasure in it. He watched them give each other a look, then they both dropped to their knees. They clawed at his fly, finally freeing his sex. He heard one of them gasp, the other said, “Oh, my.”
As both of them licked and sucked, he felt nasty and dirty. He hated this, hated
that he needed it so badly. For the first time, he despised Iris for destroying him and bringing him to this level. He let his mind go, trying to forget about the women on their knees in front of him, trying to only think of Beverly and her beautiful, green eyes.
Chapter 51
Eight Weeks Later
Beverly watched the sun come up over the horizon. She had been driving all
night, and she was tired.
She had followed along with her plan to drive up the west coast and eventually
ended up in Astoria, Oregon. It was a quaint town that didn’t have much to offer, but Beverly felt drawn to it and decided to stay a while. She
rented a small house on the ocean and became friendly with her next-door neighbor, an older gentleman who was born and raised in Astoria. She thought she would enjoy the rain—that was one of the reasons she had chosen the area— but after two weeks she prayed for sunshine. She woke up disappointed every day. When she asked her neighbor when they would see sun again, he laughed and told her they’d be lucky to see the sun in March.
It was the beginning of October.
She wanted to cry.
She longed to go back to the sunshine and the secret world she had left behind.
After thinking a lot about the violence she had witnessed, she realized that she should have talked to Hudson about it. Yes, she knew the guy was a Colonist and had most likely deserved what he got. According to Abby and Faith, the Colonists killed a lot of people here on Earth. So yes, they needed to be stopped. That she agreed with.
What had terrified her was Hudson. He had been the very definition of violence,
before and after he fought the Colonist, and watching him murder someone had scared her enough to make her bones rattle.
But now things had changed since she had been able to get some distance from
the situation. She remembered the way he was with her, what a contradiction he was to what she had witnessed. He was tender in his touch and gentle in his words, and maybe there was a way for her to reconcile what she saw Hudson do and the man that she knew intimately.
She thought so anyways.
However, what she did know for certain was that she needed to talk to him.
As she flew down Interstate 10 toward Phoenix, her heart grew lighter, her spirit lifting, as though she was headed exactly where she belonged.
She hoped she remembered where the turnoff was. The first time she had been
blindfolded, and she hadn’t paid much attention on her outing with Hudson, or on the way out with Abby and Faith.
What if they were gone?
She couldn’t think about such things; she needed to stay focused and try to
remember the turnoff.
There.
Veering to the right, it was almost as if there was an energy guiding her, like a magnet to steel. She could feel him—actually feel him.
The rest of the trip went smoothly. It was as if her heart was navigating instead of her fingers.
She pulled off onto the dirt road, her heart beating faster and hands shook with
nervousness. She stopped at the outside gate and didn’t know what to do. Staring up at the cameras for a few moments, she hoped someone would see her. It was just after six in the morning, so she guessed everyone was still sleeping. She thought about climbing the fence and setting off the alarms, but then she remembered the terrifying sound, and she didn’t want to put them on alert if there was no need. There was no point in waking a whole house—or silo in this case—when she only wanted to talk to one person. She
could wait a couple of hours.
Turning off the car and locking the doors, she leaned her seat back and stared at the dirt road in front of her. A pack of coyotes crossed the road, three adults and two pups. They ignored her as they walked out into the desert, then disappeared, blending into the landscape. Her eyes became heavy, and she decided that it would be okay to rest them for just a few minutes.
A few minutes of rest became a deep sleep.
Chapter 52
Hudson was on his way down to the gym when his bedside phone rang. He was
agitated and beginning to shake, and decided that three hours of mind-bending, physical excursion would make it all somewhat bearable again. He needed to calm the fucking demon.
“What?” he growled into the phone.
The past few weeks had put him on the top of everyone’s shit list, including his
own. Jesus, he would love to get away from himself.
The pain was more intense, but different, which he didn’t understand. He got the
whole Iris-cannonball-to-his-heart deal, because SR44 males found one mate. One. He could never love another the way he loved Iris. What he didn’t get was the whole new dimension the pain took on since Beverly left.
“You need to come see this,” Talin said in a low voice.
“Unless the mother ship has arrived, or Jesus himself is here to forgive my sins, then I don’t need to see shit.” He hung up the phone and headed for the door.
The phone rang again, and he picked it up.
“How about the fucking mother ship has arrived and Jesus himself is driving. Get
your cranky ass up here,” Talin said.
This time Talin hung up on him.
Hudson cursed, cursed some more, and then a couple more times as he rode the
elevator up to the main floor.
He stomped through the kitchen, down the hall to the War Room.
“This better be good, Talin. Like I mean…”
His words trailed off. There was a white Audi on the screen.
“Just shut up and watch this,” Talin said softly, zooming the camera in on the
figure in the car.
Hudson felt his heart race and his breath catch. “That’s Beverly,” he said
incredulously.
“Really? I didn’t know that,” Talin said, his words dripping with sarcasm.
Hudson ignored it. “What’s she doing?”
Talin shrugged. “She hasn’t moved for the past twenty minutes, but we can see
she’s breathing, so I’m taking that as a good sign.” He turned to Hudson. “It looks like she’s asleep. Maybe she’s waiting for someone.”
Hudson nodded, not full registering what was going on. But there she was. Her
hair looked wild as it spread out just below her shoulders, and her beauty made his heart thump in double time. She looked so peaceful.
“So,” Talin prodded, “someone should go check on her. See why she’s here.”
Hudson nodded again, remembering the way her green eyes bored into his soul,
the sound of her laughter. He recalled every touch, every kiss as though it had just occurred a few hours before.
But why was she here? Had she told someone about them? Was the government
after her?
“Maybe someone who cares a lot for her should go out there and talk to her,”
Talin said.
Hudson remembered the peace Beverly had brought to him, the way it felt so right
to hold her, how she knew his deepest secrets—
His memories were interrupted by Talin yelling, “For God sakes, Hudson! Do I
need to spell this out for you? Get the fuck out of here and go to her! She’s not out there waiting for Santa Claus! She’s waiting for you!”
Chapter 53
Beverly woke to a light tapping. God, she was so tired. Maybe if she ignored
whoever it was they would leave her alone. And when had her bed become so damn
uncomfortable?
She turned her head away from the noise, looking for her cozy spot.
The tapping was louder. “Beverly,” a deep voice entered her consciousness. She
recognized that voice, but from where? She hadn’t heard it in a while, but the deep timber made her bones feel weak as though…
Her eyes flew open and she turned to see Hudson standing at the window. Tears
stung her eyes as she stared at his face—he was even more beautiful than she
remembered.
“Hudson,” she whispered. She sat up, tried to open the door, and failed. Then she remembered she had locked herself in. Fiddling with the locks, she finally opened the door and stepped out.
She longed to throw herself at Hudson, but refrained. They had business to
discuss. Important business. And she didn’t know where she would be at the end of their talk. She could very well be behind the wheel of her car driving back up to Oregon, kicked to the curb, so to speak.
“Beverly,” he said quietly, his face growing soft, “what are you
doing here?”
Yes, good question. And she had answers. However, she needed to eat something
and she needed a bathroom. Bad.
“Do you think we could go inside, Hudson? I…I need to talk to you.”
“Is everything okay, Bev?”
She studied his face, his concern for her evident. She allowed her eyes to travel down to his wide chest covered in a black tank top. He stood with his hands on his hips, the most comforting and wonderful sight she had seen in the past month. Looking around at the brown landscape interspersed with green cacti, an overwhelming feeling of
belonging overtook her, bringing more tears to her eyes.
“I really need to use a bathroom, Hudson.”
His face grew soft again and he chuckled. “Let me drive us in, okay?”
She nodded.
As she moved around him to get to the other side of the car, he wrapped her in his arms and held her. “It’s really good to see you, beautiful,” he whispered in her hair.
She let her arms snake around his waist, feeling like she was finally at home.
“You too, Hudson. You too.”
***
Beverly felt apprehensive about going into the silo. She held on to Hudson’s hand
as they climbed the stairs, he punched in a code, the door popped, and they were in a little entry area. He did it all again, and the door opened to the kitchen area. It was just as she had remembered it. The stainless steel Viking appliances sparkled, the black countertops were neat and tidy. She smiled as she imagined everyone gathered in the space.
She was relieved that the place seemed deserted. Yes, she was excited to see
everyone, but she had important things to talk over with Hudson. What she had to say made her outwardly shake with bouncy nerves.
“Do you remember where the bathroom is?” he asked.
She nodded and headed down the hallway. When she got back, Hudson was
brewing coffee.
“Would you like some coffee?” he asked.
“Just a half cup, please.” The last thing she needed was caffeine.
They waited in silence until the coffee brewed, and Hudson brought the cups over
to the small table. He smiled and looked at her expectantly. “Things must not be going well for you to drive down here from Oregon,” he said.
