The traders turned without a second glance. They walked right over to their truck. The driver was already at the wheel, and the tires squealed as the truck sped out of the field.
“What’s your name, little one?” Gregory ran his hands down my arm, pressing himself against my back.
I went as rigid as possible.
“None of that now. There’s no reason to be unfriendly.” His hand wandered down to my hip, and I pushed him off.
“Feisty one, huh? The boys are going to love you.”
I kept silent, knowing anything I said would just make me an easier target later.
“Have you lain with many men before?” He pressed himself against me, physically revealing his desire in a way that terrified me further.
I stood silent.
“There are ways to make you talk,” he whispered in my ear. “Ways that will be fun for me but maybe not for you.”
I shivered while he laughed.
“Relax. You’re safe for a while. I have to give you to my boss first.”
Did that mean he wouldn’t touch me on our journey to the city?
“That doesn’t mean I can’t sample the merchandise a little though, does it?” His lips brushed against my neck. I recoiled.
“Still uptight. We’ll have to find ways to loosen you up then.”
I tried to quiet my shaking.
“It’s going to be a long trip, so I think we’ll find a place to stay tonight.” He opened the door of the vehicle. I expected it to be empty but I found two men sitting in the back. One was Bolton, the young trader.
Gregory noticed my surprise. “He’s petitioning for membership. He seems stronger than half the new system boys.” The word ‘system’ was one I’d heard a few times. It was what they called the organization that raised the male babies born in Central.
The other man in the back grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a seat next to him.
“A real nice young one,” he called to Gregory.
“We barely paid half of what she’s worth. The boss is going to be very happy.”
“The whole club will be happy. Have you seen this hair?” He picked up a few strands. “Have you ever seen anything like it?”
“I’ve seen it, but not in a long time.”
Everyone seemed to be making a big deal out of my light hair. I hoped that wasn’t going to give Quinn more trouble too. I assumed Central wasn’t concerned with appearance.
The vehicle lurched forward, and I was catapulted onto Bolton’s lap.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” He wrapped his arms around my waist as though they were a seat belt.
I struggled to move off him, but he held tight. I felt his body respond to me. “You’ll be more comfortable right where you are.”
“Leave the girl alone. You’re lucky you even get to look at her,” Gregory yelled back. “If you want membership you need to fall in line.”
Bolton reluctantly let go of me, and I fell into the empty seat beside him. His eyes raked over me longingly, and I devised a plan.
Bolton was desperate. He’d do nearly anything to get with a woman, and it would take him months, if not years, in the Reine. But he was ambitious. He’d had less than twenty minutes to make his petition to the Reine during the auction.
I caught him staring at me again. He was my chance. He’d get me where I needed to go.
I returned his stare, and he moved his head back a tiny bit in surprise.
I forced a smile, hoping it looked friendly and not terrified.
He grinned back, reaching out a hand to touch mine. He was awkward about it, and I knew how inexperienced he was. I wondered if he’d even talked to a girl his age before me.
I didn’t pull my hands back, and he took it as an invitation to move his hand onto my leg. My dress was long, but the fabric was thin. He rested his hand just above my knee.
“We’re stopping soon. This storm’s going to be a bad one. There’s no way we’ll make it,” Gregory called back.
“All right,” Bolton replied absently. He was running his fingers over my leg and trying not to grin like a fool.
“What are you so happy about?” Gregory looked back and noticed Bolton’s hand.
“What? You’ll play nice with him?” His expression darkened.
I needed to respond. I couldn’t stay silent forever. “He’s my age.”
Gregory laughed. “Your age? Don’t you prefer men with experience?”
“She understands skill is about more than age.” The other man next to me grinned. He touched my other leg, and I tried to resist recoiling.
“Both of you stop touching her. If I can’t have her yet, neither can you imbeciles.”
“Imbeciles?” The unnamed man seethed. “I’m going to be higher than you on the chain before you can blink an eye.”
“Is that what you think?”
I let the two men argue. I didn’t care what they said. I needed to find a way into Central, and I knew that meant somehow reaching the city.
The road got bumpy, and then the vehicle came to a sudden stop. The sky was pitch black. Until Bolton helped me down from the car, far more gently than anyone had handled me so far that day, I couldn’t tell we were in a field.
“We’ll make camp here.” Gregory and the unnamed man pulled a tent out of the vehicle while Bolton held onto my arm.
“Are you afraid of the dark?”
“No. Why would I be?” The dark was just a normal state of life when you lived without electricity.
“I don’t know. Lots of people are.”
“I’m not.”
“Okay. I was just going to tell you that you didn’t need to be tonight.”
“Oh.” I let my fingers find his in the darkness. I had to make him feel like I needed him. Maybe feigning fear and playing to his protective side would help. “It is a little scary out here.”
He squeezed my hand. “I knew it. You can stay close by me tonight.”
I rolled my eyes, glad he couldn’t see me in the dark. “Okay.”
The rain started right as Gregory finished with the tent. “Maybe it would be better to sleep in the Humvee tonight,” he suggested.
Humvee. That was what the vehicle was called. “I’d prefer the tent.” My plan depended on it.
All four of us moved into the tent, and it wasn’t surprising when I found myself squished between two men in the small space. I moved as close to Bolton as I could.
I waited until Gregory settled into a light sleep. “I need to use the bathroom.”
“What?” Gregory sat up. “Now? In this weather?”
“Bolton, would you take me?” I hoped he’d be smart enough to give the right answer. He’d been eager to please earlier.
“Sure. It’s only water,” he replied sounding completely awake.
“Be quick about it. And Rob you go too.”
I stood up, wrapping my cloak around me. “Do you have a light?”
“A light?” Rob asked.
“I can’t go in the dark.”
Gregory grunted. “There’s one in the Humvee. Don’t let her out of your sight, boys.” He handed Rob the keys.
I tried to hide my reaction. Having Rob follow would complicate things, but it could still work.
Bolton gripped my arm and led me out of the tent into the pounding rain.
Rob stopped by the Humvee and grabbed a large metal flashlight before slamming the door.
Bolton whispered in my ear. “Follow my lead.”
I didn’t dare breath. Did he know what I was trying to do? Was he going to help me?
We walked a small ways from the tent. “Get it done.” Rob barked at me.
“We should give her privacy.” Bolton suggested.
Rob grunted. “Privacy? She’s not going to be getting any of that where we’re taking her.”
Bolton adjusted his hold on my arm. “You make the girls pee in front of you too?”
“No, idiot. But what the hell does she care? She could
run if we turn around.”
“Run where?” Bolton gestured to the woods and field. They were barely visible in the stream from the flashlight.
“Who knows, but I’m not taking a chance. Do you know how rare it is to find one like this?”
I stiffened. One like this? It’s like I wasn’t even a human being in his eyes. I wasn’t. I was just an object worth nothing more than my body could offer. The thought made me so angry I wanted to burst, but anger would only hurt me. I needed to stay calm.
“Can I see that flashlight?” Bolton held out his hand.
“Sure.” He handed it over. “Are you just going to stand there all night?” He turned and snapped at me.
“Sorry about this.” Bolton bashed Rob over the head with the flashlight.
I took in a breath in surprise as I watched his body crumble on the floor. “Did you kill him?”
“I don’t think so, but we have to go.” Bolton dug out the keys from Rob’s pocket and tugged me over to the Humvee.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Just get in.”
He unlocked the driver’s door and ushered me in. We were back on the dirt road before I even processed what had happened.
“You all right?” He glanced over at me.
“You’re asking me that question?” I looked down at my bound hands. That was the next thing that needed to be fixed.
“Yeah. That all happened pretty fast.”
“That it did. Why?”
“Why should I let the Reine have you? I’m sick of this. I’m from out in the Rurals too. You’re more mine then theirs.” He sounded resolute. His logic made complete sense to him.
“So then where are you taking me?
“My family has land near here. We can hide out.”
“I need to get my sister.”
He shook his head. “I just went through all that to get you. You’re crazy if you think I’m just going to let you go.”
“I thought you were helping me.”
“I am. Did you want to be used by the Reine? Do you realize how many men you’d have to answer to?”
I shuddered.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to put that image in your mind, but it’s true.” He rested his hand right next to my leg on the seat. “Isn’t it better to just be mine?”
“How did you do it? How’d you convince them you wanted to join the Reine?”
“It wasn’t hard. Plus I paid him more than the usual initiation fee.”
“You had that kind of money?” I asked with surprise.
He turned away from me. “I may have borrowed it.”
“From where?” I felt suspicion set in.
“That house. Your sister’s house.”
“You bought your way into the Reine with Benjamin’s money?”
“I used it to save you.”
“Is that why you took it?”
He pressed his lips together tightly. “No.”
“Please. Help me get to the city.”
“You were supposed to be Ethan’s.” He spoke so softly I barely heard him.
“You know Ethan?”
He nodded. “Yeah. We’re cousins.”
“Oh.” Cousins were almost as rare as siblings nowadays.
“He used to brag about it. Pissed me off.”
“Why did it make you mad?”
“Cause why should he get you? Why should he get a girl when I knew I couldn’t?” He gripped the wheel tightly.
“Yeah well, he left.”
“He wanted more than the Rurals could offer I guess. So stupid. He gave you up for no reason. I don’t mind it here.”
“He wanted more than me,” I said softly.
“I don’t. I want only you.” He moved his hand onto my leg. “I’m going to protect you.”
“I can protect myself. I need to get to Quinn and Bailey.”
“That’s not an option.”
The rain pounded down on the Humvee. I had no idea how Bolton could even see well enough to drive.
“Then you might as well let me out. I will not come with you willingly.”
“I don’t want to rape you, Kayla. I’m not like that.”
“Then take me to the city. Help me get them back.”
“Then you’ll be mine?” His eyes, full of longing, set on my face.
“That’s what you want?”
“Haven’t you been listening to me at all?” He returned his eyes to the road.
“We don’t have anywhere else to go,” I admitted. “We will come back with you.”
“No. You’re not just coming to live with me. You’re coming to be with me. The two of us, we know what family is. Not everyone does anymore. I want that.”
“Family? In this messed up world?”
“You want it too.” He wasn’t asking a question.
I shook my head. “No. I don’t. I want to help Quinn raise Bailey and hope that by the time she’s our age things have changed.”
“You’re scared.”
“Who knows what could be happening to them. We have to get them back.” I rubbed my wrists together.
“That’s not what I mean. You’re scared you’re a breeder too.”
“I’m not. I know I’m not.”
“You can’t know that.” He watched me again. He should have been keeping his eyes on the road.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter, but you’ll find out one day.”
“If I live long enough.”
“Keep that up and I’ll tie you down and drag you home.”
“Excuse me?” I turned in my seat.
“I’m just saying I’m not taking you to the city if you have a death wish.”
“I don’t have a death wish. I’m just thinking realistically.”
“Thinking realistically, we have to find a place to stop. We can’t keep drive through this.” He leaned forward in his seat so he could see better.
“We need to hide the vehicle. What if the Reine are looking for it?” Just the thought of the Reine sent off a new wave of fear in me.
“We’re too far from my house to go back, besides they may trace us back to it. But I told you we have land here. There’s also a truck.”
“Do you have shelter there?” We needed to stay out of sight if we were stopping.
“My dad’s old hunting cabin.” He drove a few more miles before turning onto a gravel road.
“Are you sure we won’t get caught here?”
“Absolutely. No one uses it but me and my dad, and he’s not there. I know it.”
“Okay.” I didn’t really have another choice. We needed to ditch the Reine vehicle and lay low until the storm passed.
We drove about a quarter mile from the main road before the small cabin came into view. I could barely make it out in the darkness. Bolton drove the Humvee into the trees and parked it. “No one can see it from the road.”
He got out and came around to my side. He untied my hands, and then held out a hand to help me down. Bolton was impossible to understand. Was he really just desperate to find a normalcy that no longer existed? He had the wrong sister. He would have been better off with Quinn.
He turned on the flashlight and took my hand leading me to the small house. He opened the front door and led me in before locking the door behind us and double checking it. “Don’t try to run away tonight, Kayla. You’ll only get yourself hurt.”
“The only place I want to go is the city.”
“Don’t try to go alone. We’ll take the truck when the storm dies down tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow night?” I asked with alarm. “I thought we’d go in the morning.”
“Driving during the day will make us an easy target. We’ll use the day to plan. I’m not losing you in all of this.”
“When I met you this morning, I never thought we’d end up here.”
“I pictured taking you to my own bed, not this one. But it’ll have to do.”
I froze. “I’m not
sleeping with you.”
“You are sleeping with me. I won’t touch you, but I’m not letting you out of my sight.” He said it matter of fact, like there was no other conceivable option. “I’ll light a fire. Go find a blanket and get out of those wet clothes. You’ll freeze.”
“What about you?”
“I have plenty of clothes here. I’ll find you something too.”
I helped him move some firewood into the fireplace, and he easily started a fire. The warmth surged through my freezing body.
“Here. Use this.” He handed me a heavy blanket. “I’ll find you clothes.”
“I’m fine.”
“You can’t help your sister if you’re sick. Get out of those clothes.” He turned and walked out of the room. He was right, whether I wanted to admit it or not. I peeled off my wet clothes and wrapped up in the blanket.
Moments later he returned with a pile of dry clothes. “We can hang up your clothes to dry. Try this shirt tonight.”
“Thanks.” I waited for him to turn around. “Bolton?”
“Yes?” He pulled of his shirt and dropped his pants and shorts.
“What are you doing?” I gasped.
“Taking off my wet stuff.” He stood there completely naked. Even with just firelight I could see everything. I knew enough about male anatomy to know what his current state meant. I’m sure I blushed before I snapped out of my shock enough to avert my eyes.
“Can I at least see you?” His lustful eyes pleaded with me.
“I’m not having sex with you tonight. Only if you help me get Quinn and Bailey.”
“No sex, but something?” A funny expression crossed his face. “You get to see me naked, don’t I get to see you?”
I felt my jaw drop. “I never asked to see you. I’d actually prefer if you put on more clothes.”
“I’ll get dressed after I see you.” His eyes were playful.
“Only for as long as it takes me to get dressed.” I dropped the blanket and pulled the white cotton t-shirt over my head.
I didn’t look at him until I was covered again.
His eyes were big. “I hope we get Quinn fast.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I needed to change the subject. The way he was looking at me, and the fact that he was completely naked was too much.
“What?”
“You said you’d get dressed after.”
The Corded Saga Page 3
