Genesis Lost - Books 1 - 6, page 61
She pushed herself away from me, facing me straight on. “I need to tell you something.”
I felt the pointy end of a knife poking against my heart, and I couldn’t help but shrink back half an inch. Nervous and unable to take a single breath, I waited for her to continue.
“I love you, Max!” Her tongue hurried through the words. Once they were out, she squinted her eyes as if raising a draw-bridge. Joy trembled my fingers. Then she sat there for a long time, allowing those four words to fuck with my brain.
They were like dynamite.
Blowing final doubts to pieces.
Leaving behind a hot mess of a man that wanted to bury himself inside this woman — cock first; never coming out again.
My brain told me to think first, but my heart pried open my lips like an inmate desperate for freedom. “Au-autumn, I… I… I…” my voice came out a stutter that changed the pitch three times and scared the birds from the tree outside. I cleared my throat, making sure it came out just right this time. You know… in a deep and raunchy voice that would make her panty drop right then and there.
I cupped her chin in my hand, waiting for her eyes to slowly open. “Autumn, I —”
Wumth! Two figures avalanched through my door and into my living area, their shuffles, and word-turmoil drowning out whatever words I managed to confess.
Out of breath and with rose cheeks Ruth stared at us, her eyes alarming. But the black gym bag in Svea’s hand baffled me even more.
She swung it to the ground right in front of us. “The clanswoman needs to get out of here. Defenders are going to storm Ruth’s place any moment now.”
My heart fell out of my ribcage, and the floor seemed to swallow me whole. This couldn’t be happening. She needed to get out of here… where?
Still knotted up underneath legs, arms and unconfessed feelings, Autumn and I struggled away from each other and onto our feet. Before one of us managed a question from our tongue, Ruth had grabbed Autumn by her arm. “I’m bringing you to … place on the far end of the hall since she isn’t home. The defenders won’t look for you there. At least not for now. We’ll take it from there once it all boiled over.”
Autumn turned around, giving me a wide-eyed glance filled with confusion and fear. Her weight shifted in my direction, but her feet stumbled the opposite way, dragged across the room and out the door. Each step she took brought a mile of heartbreak between us, unscalable and cruel.
“Max!” Svea shook me by my shoulders as if I had drifted off. “They found evidence that she stole classified information from the server room. We need you to cover her.”
“Cover?” I asked in a voice that sounded too far away to be mine.
“They will come. And they will interrogate you.”
I dodged her stare and leaned to the side, hoping to get a glimpse of Autumn. “Where are you taking her?”
“Home where she’ll be safe.”
She picked up the shoes Autumn had left behind, opened the window and threw them out and to the side. “You know nothing, and you never expected her to do something like this. Do you hear me?” She snipped her fingers in front of me, pulling me out of the fog.”
My knees caved in, my frozen blood apparently doing all the work at keeping me standing. “Huh?”
“You know nothing, Max.” She repeated, but she could have said it a thousand times and yet I wouldn’t have cared. “And if they ask where you’ve been during the breach, you tell them you came to my office to discuss funding for your lab. That way we can keep you out of this.”
“But… but I don’t want to be kept out of this.”
“Believe me you do.” She walked over to my desk and leaned herself against it, straightening her shirt and brushing off her pants. Then she folded her arms in front of her chest, stood straight and metamorphosed her face into something with no lines, no tension, and no particular expression. “Although I do understand why you don’t want to. At least on a psychological level.”
Her creepy eyes pinned me down, making me fall back onto my couch. In the hall, footsteps combined into a march of boots and the quick brushing of one leg against the other made me sick to my stomach. Sure enough, what seemed like a battalion of defenders squeezed themselves into my place.
Armed and ready, they stood motionless about the room neither looking at nor away from me. A guy in black uniform walked in, his built suggesting he must have fallen into the protein powder as a kid.
He grabbed a cookie from the coffee table and pushed it into his ugly hatch, showing off the huge scar that ran from his cheek across his mouth. It had parted his lower lip in two, and each side seemed to have its own mind as he crunched down on the goodie. A quick nod acknowledged Svea’s presence, then he sat down on the coffee table.
“And you are?” I asked.
“Doesn’t matter.” He grabbed the gun from its holster and placed it next to him on the table. As if that shit was supposed to intimidate me. “How did you help her get inside the server room? Did daddy give you a fake card?”
I let my eyes dart over to Svea, but she gazed back at me from empty eyes. My throat turned raw, every breath I took burning all the way down into my lungs. “I had nothing to do with this, and my dad hasn’t been active ever since his arrest.”
“When was the last time you’ve seen him?”
“It’s been years.”
“Is that so?” He grabbed another cookie without moving his stare from me and shoved it in his mouth. Crumbles clung to the cleft in his lip like boulders in a ravine, a throaty mmmh coming from the column of his neck. “I could have sworn it was two days ago at that little chapel out west.”
His words came down like a slap in my face, making the room around me distort into a nightmare.
Panic gnawed on my nerves. Dad!
I leaned back into my couch playing it cool, pretending the fact never came up. Whatever this was, I had to keep the upper hand if I wanted to keep Autumn safe. At least until she got out of here. Without me.
The guy grabbed his gun and popped the magazine out. He peeked into the well, cocking his head from left to right and back again. His thumb fondled the bullet on top of the cartridge. This was nothing but a mind-fuck.
“Where were you today between four-twenty and four-forty in the afternoon?” he finally asked, pushing the magazine back in. Svea’s face remained as neutral as space, but the tension on one of her calves outlined against her pants.
I slowly leaned over and grabbed the box of cookies, holding it inches away from his chin. “I happened to have an appointment with councilwoman Svea, on the funding for the lab. Care for another one?”
He glanced over his shoulder where Svea confirmed with a quick nod. Then he turned back to me and shook his head. “That’s all then. For now.”
“Captain.” Svea pushed herself away from the desk and walked over to us. “It also wouldn’t hurt to send a few men into the Drainpipes. The scum there would clearly be her biggest support, and we can’t let her get away.”
“With all due respect, councilwoman, but councilman Merrick wants us to split into smaller teams and raid the community homes.”
“I’m sure you know exactly what to do.” She strolled over to the window, her chin high and her posture unbothered. “I hope it will pay off to look among people who despise the clans, considering your promotion will be up for vote in three weeks.”
He gave a villain-smile and jabbed two fingers in the direction of the door. “Everyone outside. We’ll split up and flank the Drainpipes from three sides.”
At that, the stomping and marching resumed until the last defender had left my place, leaving behind stagnant air and sweaty odor.
With trembling hands, I put the box of cookies back down and began pacing from one end of the couch to the other. I pointed at Svea, my index finger overflying from the tension inside me. “I have questions, and I want fucking answers.”
“And let me guess,” she mumbled against the glass, “you think I got them.”
“Why are you helping her?”
“I’m not helping her. I’m helping myself,” she said, her voice calm and confident as if she just recited the multiplication tables.
“Am I supposed to get that? Do you know there was another person in the server room? This makes no sense. Where are you taking her?”
So many questions and she answered all of them in less than a second with a shrug of her shoulders.
Panic slowly rolled up my spine. What if I never got to see Autumn again? Suddenly, everything that happened between the time Nathalie died and the moment Autumn entered my life seemed like a grayscale daydream.
Some sort of awakening kicked me in the bells, ringing all the way up into my brain. I was so stuck in the past, I couldn’t take a single step toward the future. And now with Autumn gone, what was left for me?
By the time that panic reached my mouth, it had turned into full-blown rage, bubbling inside me like lava with nowhere to go other than through my vocal cords. “Where the fuck are you taking her?” I shouted, the desperation palpable on my tongue. “I have to talk to her, and you will tell me where she is or… or…”
My voice trailed off taking that rage right with it, dumping it in a load of self-pity. I had no leverage. No bargaining chips. “Or I’ll have to get in touch with my dad and go about it my way,” I added, my frail voice not even convincing myself.
She turned around and met me with an unflinching stare. “What do you think who helped me arrange all this?”
I felt a strange twitching in my ears as if someone scratched a nail across my eardrums. The always reliable dad. Coming to save innocent lives. Over and over again.
“Is he in any danger?” I asked.
“Probably.” She stated it like a fact, void of any consideration for the emotional load. “And you will be too if you go after her now. They will come for more questions, and anything less than your cooperation will turn them suspicious.”
Goosebumps formed along my neck the moment I opened my mouth, “Then I’ll leave with her.” My eyes couldn’t detect a single reaction on her. Her stare continued, along with the steady up and down of her collarbone and that expressionless face of hers.
She walked over to my desk and sat, ripping a tiny piece of paper from an old magazine. Then she grabbed a pencil from the old-fashioned bamboo stationary and began writing. “If you decide to leave, then here is the address along with instructions. You can’t be caught.”
She folded it a dozen times, walked over to me and placed it on the coffee table. It lay there between dust and crumbs, making anxiety lick the walls of my stomach.
“If you decide to leave, you won’t be able to come back.”
My head nodded as if on auto-pilot.
But my brain still played catch-up.
My breath stilled in my chest as if turning my body into a soundless vessel, allowing my thoughts to speak up loud and clear. All my research would stay behind as if it never happened. Nobody would be left behind to keep looking for the truth unless Ruth was stupid enough to. But most of all, I’d have to leave dad behind.
I sank deeper into my couch and stared on the little piece of paper in front of me. “Why doesn’t your file list any parents?”
She rummaged her hand through one of her pockets. Unsuccessful, she let her hand dart for the other. “Because I have no parents. Nobody to advocate for me. But, before I forget… your dad wanted me to give this to you.”
She let Nathalie’s necklace dangle from her hand, the chain twice wrapped around her middle finger. I pressed my eyes together, grasping what a monumental fuck-up of a son I had been.
Chapter 23
Autumn
I stirred the spoon through the gooey contents of the can. It reeked of old boob sweat and turned my tongue numb at every bite. Still, the stomach cramps it gave me had nothing on how my muscles clenched around my heart. Every organ I needed to survive seemed paralyzed, and my lungs only kept me conscious enough to live through the pain.
Tonight I would leave the Districts behind for good.
Without him. Without Max.
That was, if I wouldn’t die of a broken heart before that.
Found in a dark cherry-red puddle. Where it had bled out.
I pushed the can into the only brick corner that didn’t have mildew spots growing from the ground up. Then I lay on the sleeping bag and rolled myself up — fetal-style.
Motionless and covered in self-doubt, I moaned a few sobs into the fabric. The room around me cooled by at least ten degrees, growing more confining by the minute. “Fucking shiiit!” I groaned, pushing whatever air I had left inside my lungs into the room.
Still, it wasn’t enough to make me feel better. Banging my head against the wall wasn’t an option though. After all, I had to tell Rowan about what went down here.
Everything around me dimmed, the outline of the memory stick Svea had given me turning into a blur. Resting atop the can of pyramids, it was the last thing I’ve seen before I fell to sleep — and the first thing I saw when a hammering noise woke me.
Half awake, I pressed my hands over my ears muffling the bangs. First sweat beads formed along my spine. They found me!
The thuds against the metal door grew louder.
More forceful. Desperate.
I jumped into my jeans and buttoned it up. Nobody wants to be dragged off to jail in nothing but a shirt and your panty. Not even in the Districts. I fought my brain for each step I took toward the door, my knees weak and my thoughts thick fog.
The rusty key whined in the peephole. I moved my hand toward the handle, but the door already swung open.
“Max…”
My heart stuttered in my chest like a vintage engine unable to kick in gear right away. I felt the weight of my body shifting in his direction, but stopped myself. This couldn’t be anything but a dream.
Max wrapped his arms around me, pulled me into a hug and made it a reality. His breath sounded irregular as if sobs punched his lungs. He squeezed so hard it made me gasp for air, the shower and fresh linen scent on him making my knees melt.
His fingers fumbled through my hair. His hand caressed my back. And his lips ran along the side of my neck without spilling a single kiss. He eased his hold and gazed down at me. “I thought I’d lost you forever.”
His lips robbed me of any response, pressing fiery onto mine in a kiss that spelled it all out. He couldn’t let me go, and I immersed myself in the desperate and aching tone of his words.
“How did you find me?” I asked, my voice way too earnest considering how little I cared. He was here. He came for me, and I didn’t give a shit about anything else.
Neither did he.
He closed the door behind him, turned the key and scooped me up without effort. Unwilling to let go of my lips, he kept kissing me and bridal-carried me over to the sleeping bag.
Uninvited and without permission, he grabbed the edge of my shirt and pulled it over my head, his new-found confidence turning my pussy fever hot.
His needy hand cupped my breast, kneading it and pinching my hard pebble between his fingers. Then he placed a kiss on it, followed by a hard suck that made me moan. With one arm he held himself up. With the other he pulled his shirt off, revealing his ripped body and that narrow, hazel happy trail I loved so much.
He lowered himself down, and I spread my legs to receive him, regretting that I had put my pants back on. It mattered little, because I felt him hard and ready, docking his cock right at the seam of my pants where I was hot and wet and a greedy little bitch.
Lust shook his fingers. They still managed to get the button through the hole, and he tugged on my pants like a K9 that had caught on to an irresistible scent. Once the pants were gone, he placed kisses along the inside of my thighs and worked himself up. He left the sweetest ones for my scar, that ugly fucking scar, making me feel less broken and damaged.
“I owe you something,” a mumble came from between my legs. “But I won’t be able to pay up without you guiding me a little.”
At that, he pulled my panty down, and I wiggled my leg in a desperate attempt to help speed things up. His head disappeared between my legs once more, and carefully placed lips sent a tingle across my pubic bone.
Max tasted every inch of me, trailing his tongue across my folds and sucking my lips open and exposed. My heart pounded hard and slow, pumping a gush of blood into all the nerve ends he tickled.
“Oh, fuck,” it pushed out of my mouth, the tone of my voice so shaky and primal, I barely recognized it as my own.
“That any good?”
I tousled his hair and shoved his head closer to my entrance in response. He spread my legs wider with his strong shoulders as his tongue disappeared inside of me. Blunt and adventurous he penetrated my pussy with it, taking in all of my taste and drowning in my excruciating need for him.
His tongue circled my clit, pushed down on it with the tip of his tongue and sent me bucking against his face. A hot numbness spread through my core and radiated to the junction of my legs. I was at his mercy, and I didn’t mind it one bit.
My legs pressed together trapping his head between them. He wouldn’t cease and managed to pry my legs open once more. He teased my folds, my hole and my pulsating clit in a rhythmic dance between lips and tongue, sending my head into a spin.
“Oh… M-maaax…”
An orgasm ripped through me.
Tearing down walls and strongholds.
Crumbling into nothing but bliss.
He kissed his way up along my body and to my mouth, his drenched lips sharing some of my sweet taste with me. “How was that?”
“It’ll be hard to top that,” I said, and his eyes sparked a challenge accepted.
He quickly pushed his shoes and socks off while fumbling down his pants. Hungry and selfish, I pushed his briefs down and wrapped my fingers around his hard shaft. He moaned and lowered himself down on me, placing the tip of his cock at my juice-dripping entrance.
His cockhead teased my hole, rubbing it without entering. Wet and ready I pushed my hips up like a frantic invitation, begging him to push inside of me.
