Tempting Trade, page 6
part #1 of Desolate Lands Series
He turned to me, eyes blazing. “Why do you think they hacked into and took down the Internet? Except they didn’t destroy it. If one has the skills, it can be found. It is still there in an altered form, all you need are local servers to be able to connect and talk. Most people don’t have the tools, or the knowledge though. Not anymore. No iPhones or laptops left that work well these days, those that do can’t log onto any network, so at best they can be used for calls and nothing more, and only then if you’re in a place with a signal, which is increasingly rare. Once you destroy the infrastructure of a free and easy web, and the Internet and cell phone access everyone used to have, you can go back to controlling what people see and hear. They have access though. The powerful can talk across continents on their own, smaller, policed version of the web. But it can be hacked. It can be got into…with the right passwords and knowledge.”
He paused then gave a grim smile. “We simply need the password. Then we can know everything, including where they keep the vaccines and treatments for the virus. We need to get in is all.”
I frowned at him, trying to take it all in. I was shell shocked by all that had happened. My head swam, and nausea kept washing over me in massive waves Everything I had believed was a lie. “It makes no sense. I don’t see what’s in it for them. They could be bitten at any time.”
“Except it doesn’t matter if they are, because they have the cure, and so they are immune. And now they get to live in a huge, gated community, kind of like the one you live in, but with all the facilities you don’t get to have. They don’t have to worry about anyone stringing them from lampposts, because half of humanity has become…well, not human, and the other half are desperately trying to avoid that fate.”
“But—”
“No more discussing things. This isn’t the time or the place. You’re going to walk out of here with us, looking miserable and scared, as if you are our fuck toy, and you won’t say a word of what we’ve told you. Or you’ll meet a fate worse than death.”
“My brother is missing.” I told him. “I need to find him, and Blake Daneforth.”
“Blake Daneforth is that rich kid, right? I’m sure he’ll be returned home fine in exchange for a lot of gold. As for your brother, you come with us, and I swear to you now, I’ll help find him.”
I stared at his harsh but beautiful face and made my mind up. I stayed here, I was going to be given to the odious Greg or sold to a brothel because my insides seemingly weren’t in tip-top working order. I went with these men, I at least had a chance.
A chance of escape maybe.
Chapter Five
Jackson: The Girl Stays
Jackson: It’s done. Doc got trackers in them all. I found her. The girl from my dreams. I bought her from the latest cargo. She definitely has the sight, felt it when I rummaged around in her mind, but she has no idea how to use it. She will be powerful if her skills are trained. She needs training and I don’t think you guys are the ones to do it.
Sienna: The deal is set in stone, you get her, by whatever means necessary and then hand her over. We can train her. In more than simply the Sight, too. You know she’ll need to learn to submit, to flirt, and to get information from silly old men who get their heads turned by a pretty young girl.
Jackson: No, she’ll shut down. She’s on the edge. Plus, they took her brother, too. I promised to find him in return for her coming with us. We’ll keep her just for a few weeks. Train her up. I said it before and I’m saying it again, she’s staying with us for a while.
Sienna: Jackson, are we going to have a problem? This is already agreed. We have a plan.
Jackson: I’m changing the plan. We are going to train her. Then you come get her. Not up for discussion. The girl stays.
Sienna: Weren’t you the one who only the other day said I was your superior?
Jackson: I recall you saying in response there were no more rules. We. Train. Her. Or I let her go.
Sienna: Christ, Jackson. Okay. But you train her Sight, then we come get her and train her for…the other stuff, and she can move into position in London and start gathering intel for us. We will be her handlers. Not you.
Jackson: More like her pimps.
Sienna: Swear to God, you give me trouble on this and I’ll shut you guys down. How do you know she’ll cooperate with you?
Jackson: Because I’m going to find her brother and use him as a guarantee of her help.
Sienna: Good.
Jackson: I don’t like it.
Sienna: What do you take me for? A monster? I don’t like it, either, but I like millions more humans turning into fucking mutants even less. We get access to the web, I can contact the American’s much easier, and we can coordinate with them. We get the cure, overthrow this government, and then we will need help. We will need them to end their isolation because you know damn well very powerful forces across Europe will try to stop us.
Sienna: Jackson? You there? Listen, hopefully when she knows all that is at stake, she’ll want to help. She’ll do this willingly.
Jackson: Okay. Got to go. Speak soon.
Chapter Six
Milly: A Tempting Trade
I was exhausted. Jackson had spent hours interrogating me about my upbringing, my early years, and my health. He’d been particularly interested in a stay I’d had in hospital with an abscess on my tonsils, where I’d undergone a tonsillectomy. The man was intense.
Scary.
Kind of hot.
He was all those things, but most of all he was my captor, and I shouldn’t let myself forget that.
He and Doc led me out of the prison after they’d tagged the other girls and Doc inspected them, which I fucking hated thinking about. I didn’t understand how Doc could do it. Didn’t he care that doing it against their will was assault?
When they were done, Jackson told Chris he’d be back later with the money for me, to which Chris replied if he didn’t the Raven’s would be at the house by nightfall to take it, and on that lovely note, we left.
They marched outside, one huge man on either side of me, both pulling sunglasses from their pockets in unison, and heading to a Ford truck with tinted windows.
They bundled me in, and squealed out of the prison grounds, taking us on a thirty-minute journey before they turned off an eerily empty road, and up the drive to a huge mansion. It was a proper mansion, an old stately home, but in a total mess it seemed. As we drove through the massive gates though, all surrounded by barbed wire, I understood why they lived here.
Easy to guard and keep safe. Long drive in. Huge fence around it. It was a defensible position.
I had taken note of the surroundings on our journey as I still had hope I could somehow escape. More so now as I realized their home was nearer my compound than the prison.
As well as interrogating me during our journey, Jackson had laid down the law.
I could have the run of the house, but I wasn’t allowed outside without someone with me. All the exits were alarmed, fitted with motion sensors, and only he and his guys had the codes. He told me there were four of them: him, Doc, Ben, and Alexandru.
They worked for a shadowy resistance organization that was trying to overthrow what they saw as corrupt governments in the UK and Europe. Their focus was finding the cure. They did what the people above them told them to do, and reported to a handler of sorts.
Their plan was to overthrow these governments, get the cure, establish the good guys in power, and make alliances with the American government. And then usher in a new dawn of enlightenment or some such shit.
I thought half of what Jackson said sounded like paranoid lunacy.
When we’d arrived at the house, after a ten-minute journey up a long, tree-lined drive, Jackson had given me another little pep talk.
He’d told me that if anyone found out what I was then I’d be in danger. He then went on to tell me, even if they didn’t find out what I was, I came young enough, and pretty enough to be tempting for any Ferals in the area, and if I did try to escape, I’d simply be walking into a gang rape situation.
When we got out of the car and into the house, I looked around in awe. The place was insane! Full of gilt framed portraits of people from bygone eras. Lots of heavy drapes around the windows, rickety old wooden furniture and uncomfortable looking chairs and sofas.
They had shown me to a room, and told me to stay there for a while, said Ben would come later and show me around. Then I’d get to pick my bedroom. I was glad this wouldn’t be it. It was opulent, but in a faded, almost depressing way.
The room was huge. A massive four poster bed dominated the center of it. A large, dark wood dresser lined one wall. There was a wardrobe in a lighter, polished wood, and cream sash windows with heavy brocade curtains on either side.
I felt small and vulnerable as I curled up on the bed and tried to take in all that had happened to me. I missed my mum and dad. I missed Tilly most of all.
She was eight now, and had seen me through some devastating events, including The Collapse. She’d been my best friend and the thought of not seeing her again broke my heart.
I couldn’t cry, either. I was too battered by all that had happened to have any real emotional reaction to it, but I shook, despite the heat of the day.
After what seemed like forever there was a knock at the door. A man with short brown hair stuck his head around the corner.
“Hi, I’m Ben. Can I come in?”
I nodded, surly, but sue me. I didn’t want to be there in their gothic mansion. I just wanted to go home. The ache was growing so fierce it burned my gut like the worst hunger.
Ben looked about thirty, was built, and had close cropped hair, and a hard face, with a scar down his left cheek.
“You don’t look like a Ben,” I told him.
He stared at me for a moment, and I saw his gaze travel the length of my body. I realized my shorts had ridden obscenely high on my thighs as I’d laid on my side, so I sat and pulled them down.
“I’m to give you the guided tour,” he said.
“I don’t want to go.” My stomach churned with anxiety and anger. I felt on the edge of tears at any moment.
He sighed and stepped farther into the room. “Look, you don’t want to be here, I get it. But right now, this is probably the safest place for you. There are new raids on your compound daily, they are saying it can’t hold, not forever. Not like this.”
His words hit me like a sledgehammer. How didn’t I know? But then, the council wouldn’t tell us would they? Why cause mass panic? “Oh, God. My parents.”
And then the tears came. In fact, a great big sob came. It burst out of me unbidden as I bent double.
“Oh, shit.” Ben said this as if me crying was a direct affront to him!
I couldn’t stop though. How had I managed to go through life so blind to the dangers all around us?
At times there’d be hints of it. Mum and Dad would worry and discuss moving, but where? The other compounds weren’t much safer, except for the Central Zone, down in London, and you needed a permit to even enter there.
Over the past year, there’d been more frequent attacks around the edges of our compound. More people being snatched, but nothing like the audacious attack where we were taken today so far as I had known.
“I know there have been a few snatchings, and raids but nothing major,” I sniffed, wiping my nose on my sleeve with all the manners of a pig.
“You’re not very well informed. Where did you live?”
“Ennersly.”
He laughed. “Okay, so other than The Heights, the safest part of the compound. Central, deep into it. Baby girl, there have been raids on the outlying areas for months now, some of the territory to the East has been completely lost. They had to rebuild the fence farther in, losing acres of land.”
Oh shit. How long would the center hold? How long until Mum, Dad and Tilly were in danger? Would these men help me? If I wanted to protect my parents would they help?
A plan began to form in my mind. Perhaps I ought to be slightly more pleasant, more…accommodating. Make them think I wanted them… Seduce one of them, even. If I did that, would he consider bringing my parents here? Could I do such a thing? It would have two possible positives, if it worked. Getting one of them to help me bring my family here and also negating my value as a virgin. No more value as a virgin, no more being a tool for whatever nefarious plans Jackson’s shadowy superiors held for me. “Okay.”
I took a deep breath in. I could do this for my family, and I still needed the warlord to find Simon, so the more pleasant I was, the better it would be for me and my kin.
I’d take a day or two to get to know them, and pick the one I wanted to be my…what? Lover? Owner? Client? Ugh. Still, I needed help and I’d do almost anything to save my family. I had been willing to sleep with the odious Greg for information on Blake and Simon, hadn’t I? How much of a hardship would it be to have a roll in the hay with one of these hotties? And I would be in control, I would choose which one and when.
I was trying damned hard to convince myself, but in that moment, I couldn’t see much of a way out that didn’t involve having sex with someone along the way. Either Greg, or Slim, or one of these guys, or doing whatever nasty things Jackson and his superiors had planned. At least this way it would be on my terms.
It would be a fair trade. My body for their protection. And with how hot their bodies were, it was kind of tempting.
“Show me around.” I smiled.
He seemed slightly surprised at my sudden turn around but simply nodded and headed out the door. I followed him into a grand, but musty corridor.
“This place is a bit spooky.” I shuddered at the spiral staircase heading up to God knew where.
“It is.”
“Is my room far from all of yours?” I asked. In a weird way, hoping it wasn’t.
“Nope.” He scratched at his nose. “You need to be near one of us. It’s not safe otherwise. We rarely get raided by Ferals other than a few hit and runs on the garden, they’re generally scared of us, but if we did, we need to be nearby. Hope that’s okay, princess.”
“It kind of is. No offence, but it’s creepy as fuck here.”
He smiled at me then, a bit shy, a bit unsure, which was in startling juxtaposition to his heft and formidable presence.
“We’re Altered. Most people are terrified of us.”
“Well, if what Jackson says is true, I’m one of you, too. And yes, you’re all scary, but because you’re big and you kidnapped me, not because you’re Altered. Either way, I’d rather take my chances with you guys than the ghosts. Or vampires,” I added. “This place looks like it houses a few vampires…or maybe werewolves.” I laughed at my silly joke, but an odd expression stole across Ben’s features. Almost wariness.
“Come on.” Ben strode ahead until we got to a grand sweeping staircase leading to the ground floor. Beyond it, the corridor continued before splitting left and right.
“That leads to the two wings we occupy.” He pointed to the corridor ahead, and then turned and jogged down the staircase, throwing over his shoulder. “You will take a room in there, either next to Doc or next to Jackson.”
I followed him, rushing to keep up. When we got to the bottom, he took a right and we went into a huge, vaulted room. I gasped and spun around so fast my heels slipped on the polished wood floor. We were in a dining room the likes of which I hadn’t seen before. Massive sash windows ran along the full length of the far wall, and they all had folded wooden shutters by their sides. A gleaming table filled the long central area of the room. At the far end, a marble fireplace surrounded a large, open fire.
Above my head hung the most elaborate chandelier I had ever seen. “Oh, my word!” For a moment I forgot all about my troubles as I clapped my hands together and spun around. “This is…I have no words. It’s incredible. Do you guys have balls here?”
“Do we seem like the kind of men to throw balls?”
I jumped at the deep voice and turned to see Jackson leaning against the open doorway, watching me. He had one leg bent, that foot against the wall, the other planted firmly on the floor, and his hands either side of him. He looked…he looked hot.
“Well, when you put it like that,” I admitted. “What a room though, it reminds me of something out of a Jane Austen novel.”
I adored Jane Austen. I had all her books and they were my most precious possessions. I read and re-read them repeatedly. Longed to live in a time where men were chivalrous and brain-dead hordes didn’t roam the earth, but most of all I liked how the heroines circumvented the rules of the day and were strong.
“Wait until you see the library. You’ll swoon.” Ben laughed, and it took years off him, almost making him look like the young, carefree boy I’d imagined when I heard his name.
“There’s a library? Has it got books in it?”
“Nah, we burned all the books to keep the fire going through the winter, but it’s a cool room. Come on, I’ll show you.” Jackson pushed away from the wall with one foot, and I followed him.
I wanted to see the room, but my initial momentary excitement was dampened by the fact the books were gone. Lots of books had gone, torn apart and burned, to provide warmth during winter months when central heating hardly ever worked.
