“You have to tell us where we’re going.” Kayla’s voice came from somewhere that sounded far away.
I blinked, and there was moonlight. I was outside. I was in something moving. Then everything came back to me. Leaving Central. Running. The vehicle. “Bailey.”
I looked down, and Bailey was still curled up on my lap. “Thank you.”
“You okay, Quinn?” Dr. Morton turned to look at me from the row of seats in front of me.
“You have to stay quiet and out of sight.” The bearded man was still driving.
“But we left the city hours ago. It’s safe now,” Kayla leaned forward in her seat.
“It’s never safe,” the bearded man snapped.
“Kayla? Do you trust him?” I knew Kayla would do anything for Bailey—she wouldn’t lead her into trouble.
“I don’t know Denver very well, but Mason thinks we can trust him.” She leaned slightly into Mason.
Denver. That was the name of the man in the blazer. I turned to Mason. I studied him, trying to get a read. He looked nothing like Ethan, the only other man Kayla had ever shown any interest in. Well, boy really. Ethan wasn’t a man yet when he left home. If he had been, he probably wouldn’t have left.
“We can trust him.” Mason turned to look at me. “I promise.”
“Be careful with promises.” Benjamin had promised to protect me. I’d promised to give Bailey a life better than the one I had. So far none of those promises had been kept.
Mason cracked the barest hint of a smile. “You two are clearly sisters.”
“I thought the same thing.” Dr. Morton glanced back. “Looks aren’t where the similarities end.”
“Do you know each other, Dr. Morton?” I looked between him and Mason. I still didn’t quite understand how or why we’d been able to escape. How did this group connect?
“Maverick.” Dr. Morton gazed right into my eyes. “Please call me Maverick.”
“I can’t,” I responded immediately.
“Sure you can. Especially now…”
“All of this chit chat can wait.” Denver called from the front. “We aren’t home free yet.”
“I thought we passed the last check point.” A girl called from up front. In all the confusion I’d almost forgotten the girl who’d run with us.
“The last official one. You never know when we are going to run into an unofficial one.” Denver looked straight ahead. I couldn’t see him much in the dark but I imagined he was gripping onto the wheel tightly.
“Better safe than sorry.” I heard my father’s voice in my words.
“Kayla.” Bailey stirred from my lap. It was still shocking to hear her little voice. What had sparked the change in her language development? I knew in theory it was a good thing, but I didn’t trust anything that happened inside the prison we’d escaped.
Kayla reached across Mason and took her little hand. “If it isn’t my favorite niece.”
Maverick chuckled. I had to start thinking of him that way, otherwise it would be too much like being back in Central.
“You can have a favorite even if you only have one.” Kayla released Bailey’s hand and leaned back against the seat.
Bailey scrambled up to wrap her arms around my neck. I held her against me, inhaling her scent.
“Is that so?” Mason put an arm around Kayla. “I hope I’m your favorite then.”
“You are.” She leaned into him in such a natural way. “Even if I don’t quite know what you’re my favorite of.”
“Your daughter is beautiful.” The girl in the front turned around.
“Thank you.” I smiled even though I doubted she could see in the dark.
“What part of be quiet don’t you people understand?” Denver snapped.
“Fine. We’ll talk later.” The girl turned back toward the front.
“Bailey seems okay.” Kayla leaned over Mason.
“I hope she really is,” I whispered. I was afraid revealing my fear about her talking would make me sound crazy. I was already convinced I was crazy.
“We didn’t do anything to her.” Maverick turned around. “She is fine.”
“How would you know?” Denver shot back. So much for him being quiet. “Were you responsible for the infants?”
“She isn’t an infant,” Kayla nearly rose to her feet.
“Infant can be a blanket term for children.” Denver looked at Kayla in the rearview mirror.
“Please use the word child.” Kayla huffed. I wasn’t sure why his words had bothered her so much.
“Kayla is big on word choice.” Mason kissed the top of Kayla’s head.
It was strange watching someone be so intimate with her. How had so much changed so quickly?
“You can rest.” Maverick turned around. “You look exhausted.”
“Sleep is the last thing on my mind.” I didn’t want to admit I’d slept already. Would that make me seem like a reckless mother? I already felt like a complete failure in every way.
“Because Bailey is always what is on it.” He tapped his head. “I know that. But now you have someone here you trust.” He nodded to Kayla.
“He’s right.” Kayla smiled ever so slightly. “I’m here.”
“I am sure you need rest too,” I argued even though for all I knew she had napped too.
“Who doesn’t need rest?” Denver yelled back. “Maybe that’s what needs to happen. Everyone else needs to sleep so you all shut your mouths.”
“I could hold her for you.” The girl called back. “I mean if everyone else wants to sleep.”
“Thank you for the offer, but I have her.” I didn’t want to insult the girl, but I wasn’t giving Bailey up. I needed her close. Plus it didn’t seem safe putting her in the front seat.
“It’s going to be okay.” The girls’ voice was soft. “At least as okay as it can be.”
“I hope you are right.” There were so many pressing questions, yet there were no questions as important as the two words I owed her. “Thank you.”
“Why are you thanking me?”
“For going after Kayla. For caring about her enough to do that.”
“I did it for more than her.”
The meaning of her words weren’t lost on me. She didn’t have to say the words for me to know. We were all in this together. She was right, somehow everything would be okay. There was no other choice.
Kayla
Quinn and Bailey were in the van with me. Even hours into the drive I didn’t quite believe it. I’d reached across Mason to touch Quinn to make sure she was real. That’s when I realized she was sleeping. The fact that she was sleeping said so much. She was truly exhausted. Bailey looked okay, at least physically. But sometimes the worst kind of wounds were those you couldn’t see.
She was sleeping too, first in the arms of Maverick, and then even more soundly when she was back with her mother. What a brave little girl. I wondered if I would have held up as well as a child in her position. I’d never been alone. Even after my mother’s death I had my father, brother, and sister. I had never truly appreciated just how lucky I was until now.
“I missed you.” Mason brushed his lips against my cheek once the van had fallen back into silence.
“I missed you too.” I had, and I knew now I’d always miss him if we ever were apart again.
“Promise me something.” There was a real and primal urgency in his voice.
“Yes?” I owed Mason so much. He had brought Denver with him, and somehow Denver knew how to get everyone out of Central.
“Promise me no matter what crazy plan you hatch, you trust me enough to keep me a part of it.”
“I never hatch crazy plans.” I shoved his side.
“Yes you do. Sneaking into Central was a crazy plan.”
“But I didn’t really have a plan.” I still couldn’t quite believe what I’d done. It had been reckless, but it had also been necessary.
“And you don’t think breaking into Central without a plan was crazy?” He raised an eye
brow. “Because I can assure you it was. Extremely crazy.”
“But it wasn’t a crazy idea.” I crossed my arms.
“You don’t like being proven wrong.”
“Who does?”
“You have an exceptionally hard time with it.”
“Is that a problem?” I leaned back against the seat, which meant I was leaning back against his arm. He’d kept it draped around me for most of the drive.
“No.”
“Good.” Something had changed. There was an ease between Mason and me that hadn’t been there before. I could be myself with him in a way I couldn’t before even though we’d been intimate. I could joke—I could be vulnerable with him. The only other non-family member I’d ever been that way with was Ethan, but that had been as a child. This was completely different.
“Denver?” I called to the front.
“Yes?” he said as part of a yawn.
“Are you ready to tell us where we’re going yet?”
“Nothing I can tell you will prepare you. None of you have ever been there before.”
“Still, you could give us some information so we don’t go in completely blind.” I tried to swallow down my annoyance. I was exhausted and hungry. Of course I was relieved to be reunited with Quinn and Bailey, but now I had to keep moving forward. Finding and breaking them out was only the first step.
“It might be better if you go in completely blind.”
“How? It’s important to be prepared.” I’d been stumbling around without preparation since leaving the Rurals, and I had grown tired of it. I needed to return to my comfortable world of strategy and planning.
“And this might be a trap.” Quinn spoke out loud a fear brewing in the back of my mind.
“It’s not a trap.” Denver didn’t glance back.
“Then where are we going?” Mason rested his free hand on his lap. “You can give us something. You must understand their apprehension.”
“Very well.” Denver turned onto another dirt road. “We are going to a community unlike any others I know of. It is secret in every way, and I am risking each and every member’s life by bringing you in.”
“What kind of community are we talking about?” He was talking in evasive terms, and that made me even more nervous.
“The good kind.”
“Is there such a thing as a good kind?” Quinn was spot on with her questions. I was surprised by how much she was speaking up. Usually Quinn sat back and let me do the arguing.
Denver laughed. “I shouldn’t find that amusing but I do. Might as well laugh because you can’t cry all the time.”
“How do you know it’s safe?” Quinn pressed further. “What do you really know about this community?”
“I know it’s safe because I know the people running it. I know the founders well.”
“How well?” I jumped in.
“As well as I know myself because I helped found it.”
“Yet you were living in the city?” Maverick asked. “Explain that.”
“Because others needed me.”
“Are you ready to tell us who you really are?” Maverick pressed his hand up against the window.
“It’s not a matter of who I am.” Denver slowed down and for a second I thought we were stopping, instead he turned onto another road that was surrounded on all sides by trees. They curved above us, effectively creating a tunnel. “Focus on other things.”
“But shouldn’t we know more about you before we blindly follow you?” The trees sent us back into darkness and frayed my nerves further.
“You’ve already followed me.”
“True, but we are out of Central now. We could split up.” As if we could run from this van into the dead of night with nothing. Mason and I had done it before, but that time we had an ultimate destination. Now that we had Quinn and Bailey I was at a loss for where to go next.
“That would be ill advised. You’d be on the run again.” The engine revved and made a strange clicking sound.
“And we won’t be on the run in this community?” I listened to the clicking engine, hoping it didn’t die and leave us all stranded. I tried not to focus too much on it, but it was easier to worry about something like an engine. That was here right before me. It would either stall or not. Worrying about the future, about how to protect my family, was far more complicated.
“No. You will be safe. That’s not to say that you will never face danger again, but that time it will be your choice. Everyone deserves choices.” We drove out of the trees, and the moon lit our way again.
“I agree.” Addison turned in her spot in the front seat. “Everyone deserves to make their own choices, no matter who they are.”
“And we will have choices in this community?” This place sounded too good to be true. And in my experience that generally meant it was.
“Yes, as long as you don’t step on the choices of others. You will also have food, shelter, clothing. You will want for nothing.”
“Sounds like paradise.” Addison turned back to look out the front.
Denver briefly glanced over at her before returning his eyes to the road. “But that doesn’t mean you should forget about what’s happening out here. What we just left behind. As I said, there will be choices.”
“I’m going back.” I didn’t realize the words had slipped out until I felt Mason’s arm tighten around me.
He pulled me close. “You don’t have to decide on anything yet.”
I was relieved he didn’t outright shoot down the idea, but I knew he’d want to. He couldn’t stop me from doing what I wanted to do, but also I didn’t want to disappoint him. I didn’t ever want to have leave him again. But either way, I only had one real choice. Once I knew for sure Quinn and Bailey were safe, I had to think about all the others back in Central. I knew I could never turn my back on those in need.
“Mason is correct. No one needs to decide on any of this yet.” Denver sounded more relaxed now. He hadn’t snapped at us to be quiet for quite some time.
“Are you sure we will be welcome?” Maverick asked. “Even those of us with questionable backgrounds.”
“Yes.” Denver didn’t hesitate with his answer. “You will all be welcome.”
“Because three of us are women?” Addison chimed in. “Is that why?”
“You will all be welcome because you are on the right side of the only fight that matters.” He stepped on the gas, and we hurtled forward at a much faster speed.
“There will no forced…” Quinn trailed off.
“Of course not.” Denver jerked the car to the side. I grabbed hold of my seat to hold on. “That would not be a safe place. You will be safe in every way. Your child will be safe too. I promise.”
“You can’t promise that.” Quinn gritted her teeth. “No one can promise us safety.”
“I can’t know what will be in store far in the future, but for the time being your daughter, as well as everyone else, will be safe. And no one inside this community will hurt any of you.”
“Do they know we’re coming?” That seemed like a very important question.
“In some ways.”
“What does that mean?” I sighed. Couldn’t anything be straight forward with this guy?
“It means they will not be surprised by your sudden appearance.”
“Why do you always speak in riddles?” Addison asked what we’d all been thinking. I wasn’t sure how many hours had passed since we left Central, but during that time I was no closer to understanding what was in store for us. The perfect community talk did nothing to enlighten me.
“Not always.”
“But often. You never say things straight forward.” Addison wasn’t going to drop it, and I’d let her handle him. She seemed to have some sort of kinship with the man. Maybe her time in Sray had taught her how to deal with difficult men.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Denver laughed.
“Fun? I don’t even know what that word means.” Addison slumped down
in her seat.
“We’ll have to change that.”
“How can we have fun when so many others are suffering?” Addison’s words reflected exactly what I was feeling.
“Enjoying yourself does not mean turning your back. You owe it to yourself to recharge. You are worthless to anyone if you are not healthy and strong.” Denver flexed his arm to show off his muscles.
I laughed. I laughed harder than I’d laughed in what felt like forever. It released so much tension I couldn’t stop, and it seemed to be contagious. Before long the entire car, including Denver, was laughing. It lasted for at least three or four minutes, and by the time I finally returned to normal there were tears streaming down my face.
No one said anything for several minutes until Quinn broke the silence. “When we get there, Bailey will stay with me. I am not separating from her again.”
With the return of spoken words came the return of reality. The car was back to its somber state.
Denver nodded. “I wouldn’t suggest you separate. There should still be ample housing options.”
Mason pulled me close. “You’re staying close by.”
“I know.” I rested my head on his shoulder. “As long as I’m close to Quinn and Bailey too.”
He rubbed my neck. I was far more tense than I’d realized. “How much further is this place?”
“Another few hours,” Denver turned once more. I had no idea how he was driving in only faint moonlight, but I assumed turning the lights on would be risky.
“I might rest.” I curled into Mason’s side more.
“You should.” He released my neck, and instead started to run his hand down my back.
“What about you?” I grabbed hold of his shirt to pull myself closer to him.
“I’ll rest tonight.”
“We can sleep at the same time you know.”
“It might take me awhile before I stop worrying.” He kissed the top of my head. He did that a lot. It almost seemed like a reflex reaction when he was worrying about me.
“I’m sorry…”
“It’s more than you slipping out, although that definitely doesn’t help.”
“You said we could trust him…” Suddenly sleeping didn’t sound so good.
The Corded Saga Page 27
