Badlands: Next Generation Collection, page 38
“If you feel the sudden need to let me know where my sister is being held, we can end this whole charade tonight. If not…”
I pressed the drill to the area of his leg just beneath his knee and held down the button. The tip spun rapidly, easily burrowing through flesh and muscle.
His good eye widened until it looked as if it would pop out of its socket, the whirring drowned out only by his pained, muffled screams.
CHAPTER SIX
I jerked awake, the motion causing my head to collide with the stone wall behind me. I winced and reached up to hold the now aching portion of my skull.
The past few hours came rushing back to me, memories making a fresh assault on my mind.
My escape. Marcy’s death. Claire. This whole plan had failed drastically from the start.
I shut my eyes and sighed, tucking my legs tighter to my chest to ward off the chill within the room.
After a moment, itchiness kicked in and every inch of my mud-caked skin begged for relief, but before I could lose myself in self-pity and sorrow, the clearing of a throat turned all my muscles to stone. I opened my eyes and slowly turned my head.
How long had he been there?
It was the man from before, the one who seemed to be the ringleader of this group. He was leaning against a long table with boxes of overflowing junk piled neatly on top of it.
This whole room was full of things like that. Food and other goods too. They had a supply of rations that could rival the A.R.C’s, making me wonder who exactly these people were. More so, this guy.
“Bad dream?” His voice was smooth but also gritty.
I shook my head from side to side. “This situation is bad enough.”
“Good answer,” he replied. “Reality tends to be a nightmare most people don’t want to face.”
I think I understood just what he meant. He pushed away from where he’d been leaning and walked past the pen. There were three small squeaks, and then he reappeared near the gate holding the head of a hose.
“Take this,” he instructed, shimmying the end through the chain link fencing. “Get some of that mud off of you.”
I stood up and crept forward, pulling the sprayer further into the enclosure. When I went to reopen the gap between us, he stopped me with a warning.
“If the water runs from that end, you’ll have to stay at this one. Makes more sense to let it drain from here if you want to hide in a corner.”
Drain?
I scanned the floor of the pen, spotting a round metal grate dead in the center. I hadn’t noticed it until now.
“I’m not hiding,” I protested.
“Go ahead then.”
Because I had a streak of stubbornness that refused to wane, I went to the opposite end of the enclosure and held the sprayer to my arm.
I squeezed, surprised when warm water sprayed out. I’d been expecting it to be cold. I would have dealt with that just so I could be rid of this itching sensation. It took a bit of maneuvering to spray and scrub.
I had nothing to use but my two hands, one still trapped within a cuff, but the mud gradually came off. I sprayed my arms and legs, using my fingers to spread water around my collar bone and wash my face.
It felt amazing even without soap. I did what I could for my hair, doing my best to detangle it and remove what was left of the flowers. I almost laughed, watching their broken pieces be sucked towards the drain.
When I was as clean as I was going to get given the circumstances, I pushed the sprayer back through to the other side and then retreated anyway. Of course, he had been right. Now I was standing in a puddle.
He continued to watch me like he had been this entire time. It was impossible not to notice. His aura filled this entire room.
His weighted gaze made me even more aware of his presence. He hadn’t bothered to turn the overhead lights back on either.
There was a helpful glow coming through a square window of a door located on the opposite side of the room that helped me see his outline.
“You going to cooperate and tell me where you came from?” he asked, carrying the hose back to wherever he got it.
I debated how honest I wanted to be. I didn’t know who he was or what faction he’d aligned with. Telling him I was from A.R.C could go a few different ways. He could take me right back. Or, if he wasn’t planning to already, he could kill me.
“From the woods,” I replied once I made up my mind.
I think he laughed. The sound was too faint to be sure. There was a click, and then the lights came on, momentarily blinding me.
My eyes narrowed on their own accord, slowly adjusting to this new level of lighting. When I was able to see, all I saw was him. I was struck by a temporary loss for words.
He was…odd looking. Not in bad way. In fact, he was the exact opposite. I’d seen men with tattoos before but not to this extent. They peeked out from beneath his solid colored shirt and went all the way down to his wrist.
His biceps were large, but they conformed perfectly with his impossibly toned body. They didn’t look overly inflated like a few of the guerillas did. Some ink was etched along his neckline too. There was even a tattoo beneath one of his eyes.
A cross or something. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t place where I’d seen it before. I shifted on my feet, the coldness setting in secondary to my curiosity about this person in front of me.
I looked at him subjectively, from the dark hair that was longer on top and faded on the sides and the sun-kissed skin, all the way down to his black boots. He had a strange kind of beauty about him. Not soft or gentle, but rough and jagged.
The tilt of his lips had me focusing on his mouth for a moment before finally meeting his gaze.
He was smiling.
“You want me to turn around so you can get a look at the back of me as well?
He ran his eyes down my body, dragging them slowly back up to my face. “You’ll have to go first.”
The action, as well as the words, made me acutely aware of my heartbeat and had a foreign kind of warmth spreading across my cheeks.
His smile grew bigger, and this time when he laughed, I heard it.
“Oh, I could have so much fun with you.”
“You couldn’t handle me,” I retorted, adding politely, “and, no thank you.”
He stepped back and crossed his arms, tilting his head to the side. “Do you know who I am?”
My legs carried me forward and I looped my fingers through the mesh. Staring at his face, I felt as if I should have recognized him somehow, but I didn’t.
“I’ve never met or seen you before.”
He straightened and rubbed his chin. “Where did you say you were from?”
Did he really think I’d fall for that? “The woods,” I repeated.
He smirked and came closer, looping his fingers through the mesh a few inches above mine.
His jaw line was incredible, his hues completely black. I’d never seen anything like them. I hadn’t seen anyone like him period.
We stared at each other in silence, attempting to search the darkest depths of one another. I didn’t have an issue holding any man’s gaze, but looking into his eyes felt dangerous. Yet, I couldn’t turn away.
He was the first to speak, breaking the row of silence we’d fallen into.
“Thought my charms might work.”
“Charms are for naïve little girls,” I retorted with emphasis.
His lips curved slightly.
“You know, it’s only a matter of time before I have the answers you won’t give me.”
I did know that, but at the very least I hoped stalling would give me some time to attempt to think of a way out of this. I needed a solution that kept me safe from the A.R.C.
“And until then?”
“I’ll keep you. I might keep you even when I do know. You’re a cute lil thing. I think we’d enjoy each other.”
I refused to get caught up in the last part of his words and found the middle portion of his statement to be offensive. Cute and little were not complimentary. Furthermore, I didn’t want to be kept. I wanted to be safe.
“I could say the same thing about you.”
“That your way of admitting you think I’m cute too?”
Whatever look flashed across my face had him grinning.
“Hey, you want to know a secret?”
No, my brain replied as my mouth said, “Sure, why not?”
“I’m big everywhere it matters.”
I almost rolled my eyes. I’d heard way too many guerrillas discussing what was between their legs. It was like a competition to brag about whose was the biggest and what it could do. There were even a few foolish girls that slept around with them and later shared details.
While I may not have been suicidal enough to do such a thing, I’d seen plenty and didn’t get the hype. All dicks looked like rattlesnakes—sometimes lifeless, sometimes ready to strike.
“What’s your name? Can you tell me that?”
“Star,” I supplied willingly. I had to give the guy something.
One dark brow raised in response. “Your name is Star?”
Suddenly realizing how close we were, I nodded and stepped away from the fence, wrapping my arms around my middle.
“What’s that short for?”
My god. He was frustratingly perceptive. With his onyx colored eyes drilling into mine I was almost compelled to tell him. Only, my name wasn’t all that common. That seemingly small piece of information could be the key to him figuring out everything else.
“I go by Star,” I repeated.
He tsked at me. “This game you’re playing… you won’t win.” The fencing rattled when he stepped away. He walked over to one of the boxes sitting on a table and began to dig inside.
After a minute, he withdrew a thick plaid throw.
“Here.” He effortlessly launched it over the top of the pen.
I reached up and caught it before it could land anywhere near the remaining water still making its way towards the drain.
“Thank you.” I examined the blanket closely. It wasn’t dirty from what I could tell, just old with a dusty smell.
“By the time I see you again, I’ll know all I need to. You sure you don’t want to make this easier on yourself?”
I responded by wrapping the throw around my body and taking a seat on the ground. Accepting this response without argument, he left. The overhead lights went off and the door slammed behind his departure.
After a few minutes of dim-lit darkness and silence, I berated myself for wishing he’d stayed.
CHAPTER SEVEN
If her name was Star, it was fitting.
I called bullshit, and I was rarely ever wrong. I wasn’t sure what to make of her. I could count on one hand the number of times someone piqued my interest enough for me to grant them any semblance of space inside my head. I was normally too busy to give a shit about anyone other than my family.
She had somehow secured a position without really trying. I could guarantee the last thing this girl wanted was to be the sole fixation of the devil.
With Cam dealing with his brother, Bella and Ice in their own worlds most of the time, and the acolytes eager to handle the majority of my simpler tasks, kidnapping this girl was the most excitement I’d had in over a month.
That was pathetically sad. Maybe I should catch someone to fuck with. Bloodshed could be good for the soul every now and then. A hunt never hurt, either. It would be a helluva lot more entertaining than watching Cam torture Butcher some more.
As I walked away from the storage room, I contemplated how I wanted to go about dealing with my new house guest.
“You get anything out of her?” Cam asked, appearing at the end of the hall as if I’d summoned him by thought.
I hadn’t seen him all morning. I didn’t know what time he’d called it quits the previous night, but his hair was damp and the bags beneath his eyes had gotten noticeably smaller, so at least he was still washing his ass and sleeping.
“Her name is ‘Star.’”
“Hm,” he grunted, staring in the direction of the storage room. “That tells us nothing.”
“Yeah, but her not knowing who I am lets us know a fuck ton more.”
“You think that’s why she wasn’t afraid of us?” he asked, falling in step beside me.
“No. I think she has a skewed perception of our world in general.”
Spotting Ice and Bella on the sectional in what made up the living room, I beelined for it.
“Finally,” Bella chirped when she noticed us. “Is she still alive?”
“You’d know if she wasn’t.”
Damn near bouncing on the balls of her feet, she moved from one end of the circular couch to the other.
“Okay, so, what are you going to do with her?”
I eyed her, biting back a smile. Her energy knew no bounds. It was good to see her spirit hadn’t been broken when she was taken. She reminded me more and more of our mom every day, but significantly less fucking insane. I meant that with the deepest love and respect regarding our mother.
“We’re not sure yet,” Cam replied, taking a seat beside her as I planted my ass on the other side of Ice.
“Yeah. We need to figure out who the fuck she is first.”
“She couldn’t just be some random straggler?”
I knew she already had the answer to that, but I replied anyway. “If that were the case, she would be dead.”
“Lags don’t look like her,” Cam added.
“Exactly.”
Ice and Bella shared a sly glance, then both smiled.
“And how does she look, Luce?” Ice asked.
“Yeah, our inquiring minds would love to know,” Bella echoed.
“You’ve seen her,” I responded somewhat dismissively.
“She’s not starved, and aside from looking like she went for a roll in the mud, it’s obvious the girl doesn’t wander around the Badlands.”
I kept my answer simple. If I said what I was really thinking, I’d never hear the end of it. I didn’t really get it myself. Star wasn’t typically the kind of girl I was attracted to, and that’s exactly what made her even more alluring.
Her hair was a mix of auburn and golden brown, hanging nearly to her waist. Her skin reminded me of porcelain, slightly freckled.
Beneath whatever the fuck she had on I could see everything, and it was far from disappointing. She was soft and petite with curved hips. The cute remark had been my way of fucking with her. She was gorgeous. I had to believe she knew that.
It wasn’t just that though. Most chicks wanted me because of what I would become and who I was. I’d be their status symbol. The rest were terrified of me.
The absolute lack of fear in those hypnotic pewter eyes and her blatant intrigue were rare. I liked it. Just as I liked how pink she turned when I smiled at her. Add in the fact that she was a complete anomaly, my mind was set on figuring out everything I could possibly know about her.
I’d just met her and was already planning on keeping the girl. The list of reasons why may have been small, but each one was crucial. She could be good for Cam too.
He didn’t have to say it.
I could sense it from the moment he carried her down the hall. He’d have dragged any other woman by the roots of their hair. I think we’d both appreciate having someone like her around—even more reason to figure out her identity.
I needed to know who was seeking her out, who she was running from. It may have seemed barbaric and like something from the Stone Age, but men didn’t let someone who looked like her wander off freely. The only logical explanation for her being there was that she’d escaped from somewhere.
Her being a prisoner would explain the handcuffs, if I wasn’t ninety-nine percent positive someone had been on the other end. Only one side was secured to her wrist, the other was in perfect condition and cinched shut. Had she been attached to some sort of object that wouldn’t be the case.
“I’ll let you be vague for now, but if we’re keeping her around for the time being you can’t keep her locked up in there forever,” Bella stressed.
Realizing I’d shut out her voice for the past minute or two, I pretended otherwise. “I gave her a blanket.”
“You gave her some dead person’s blanket? How utterly romantic of you,” she deadpanned. “It’s already been half a day. Don’t you think the girl is hungry? And I’m sure she would like to use an actual bathroom and change out of her night clothes.”
She had valid points, minus the blanket thing. That wasn’t a gesture of romance, I was simply trying to make her somewhat more comfortable until I spoke with my acolytes and my father to get a clearer picture as to who she was.
The sooner I got this worked out the better. I would never allow myself to lounge around and wait for answers. I couldn’t stand not having all the facts or necessary information. Sitting on my ass could prove to be a fatal mistake. I’d wasted enough time as it was.
“I need to get in contact with Dad.”
“I’ll come with you,” Ice volunteered.
“Cam?” I looked over at him.
He glanced at me and nodded, not even taking a second to think about it.
“Yeah. I got it. I’m sure there’s something in one of those boxes she can put on.”
Ice made a face that spoke volumes of his disapproval. His freakishly blue colored eyes conveyed how much of a bad idea he thought that was.
“What is wrong with you two? My Satanas,” Bella sighed and stood up, shaking her head. “Come with me Cammy, we can find her something of mine that will fit. You aren’t dressing her up in some dead bitch’s gaudy old clothes. Who knows how long some of that’s been in there? Ew.”
I preferred she remained in what she had on, but I could see where Bella was coming from.
The storage area was one room our dad hadn’t bothered clearing out. Some of the shit in there was older than me.
We divided into two teams to get things done, each walking in different directions of the compound.
CHAPTER EIGHT
