by Lilly Black
"Olivia," he repeated, desperation in his eyes because this was not the wife he knew. This wasn't the woman he'd seen sitting up all night to watch over a field mouse who had a run in with a cat, the woman who would relocate spiders rather than step on them, the woman who had an entire forest full of animals whose lives she had saved. Crucifying a human being for anything short of seriously harming Savannah or Evil seemed completely antithetical to the person he thought he married.
"I know what you're thinking, Reid," she said. "I know the punishment wouldn't have fit the crime in the old world, but this isn't the old world. Did you not encounter anyone on the road with evil intentions? Because we have. When Austin came here with those two men from the prison, they tried to take Dani, Penny, and John's daughter, Kylie - a 15-year-old child! - back to their group so they could rape them. Billy and James know the men at the prison and another group that could be even worse. If we would banish either of them, they could come back with a small army to try to take this place. The dead aren't the enemy out there. They're just drones following their programming. The real enemy is human - all the evil people who survived, and I will be goddamned if I don't do everything within my power to protect our daughter from those people. If that means crucifying a couple of treasonous bastards who want to take this place from us, I'll drive the nails into their wrists my fucking self."
As she stared at her husband's face, his eyes darted back and forth between her and Alek, who clearly worshipped her, and he realized he couldn't argue because she was right. His wife hadn't lost her way. She had adapted to the new world to protect those she loved, and he would do nothing to hinder her. Aiden, however, remained unconvinced.
"Even if you insist upon the death penalty, can't we just shoot them in the head? There's no reason to be so cruel unless you're getting some kind of thrill out of it," he said with accusatory eyes. She was, after all, the person who built those BDSM rooms in her cabins.
"What are you saying, Aiden?" Alek demanded, standing up, his 6'3" frame menacing as he protected Olivia, but Olivia didn't need protecting.
"It's fine. I know exactly what he's saying, but I'm not bloodthirsty. That's the myth Liana created, and it's a good myth because it will keep us safe in the long term. Look outside this compound, Aiden. Life is cheap. The threat of a bullet in the head isn't a deterrent when someone is desperate to take what we have, but if these new people who have joined us see that the rumors of our crucifixions are real, they're going to think twice before rising up against us."
"But you said they're not real," Amina blurted out, then she covered her mouth, her eyes large because Reid had warned her never to speak of it.
"It's okay, Amina," Olivia assured her. "The people in this room are the only ones who you can be sure know the truth. At this point, we haven't really crucified anyone, but maybe it's time we do."
"This is insane," Aiden said. "Billy was just talking."
"It's up to the people now," Olivia said, "but I understand that you're struggling with the idea of the death penalty. If they vote for it, it's on me, not you, and I'll be the executioner so no one else has to live with it on their conscience."
"You're a real fucking saint, Olivia," he scoffed as he got up and stormed out the door, Liana on his heels. Angry, Jax, Reid, and Alek all instinctively stood up to follow him.
"Just let him go," Olivia said. "Let Liana deal with him."
"Aiden, please," Liana begged as she chased him up the hill to their cabin where he opened the door so violently, it smacked against the wall and swung closed before she could get inside. She had to unlock it again. "Aiden!"
"I can't deal with these people, Liana!" he shouted, pacing back and forth between the living room and kitchen. "I know she's your friend, but Olivia is a fucking monster! Murder is her answer to everything."
"I know, and maybe when things start to settle down, she'll realize it, too."
"That'll be a bit too fucking late for Billy and James, now, won't it?" he demanded.
"What do you want to do with them, Aiden? They don't just know the guys at the prison. They know the guys who were buying most of the drugs from the solar farm. We fucked up their drug operation, so they're probably already looking for us. If we release Billy and James, they can lead them right to us."
"Billy and James were blindfolded on their way in," he argued. "And how do you know so much about these guys?"
"Because..." she paused for a long moment before finally making her confession, slumping down on the couch with her head in her hands. "This whole thing is my fault. I set this up to happen. Olivia and I asked Widow to wear a wire so she could get proof that Billy was planning this. Widow pretended that she was interested in his plan to get him talking about it and..."
"That's entrapment!" he shouted.
"I don't think that matters anymore, Aiden. Olivia's right. This is life or death, and I love you too much to risk your life. I guess I just wish you felt the same about me," she said, and he felt a sharp pang of guilt in his heart. Olivia was willing to kill every man, woman, and child on the planet for those she loved, yet Aiden was always campaigning to protect those who could put the woman he loved at risk. Nothing was going to change his mind about Olivia's liberal use of the death penalty, but he knew he would kill for Liana if he had to. And she needed to hear him say it.
"Mon cœur, I would destroy the whole world to defend you and Rey," he whispered as he sat beside her, taking her into his arms. "Nothing is more important to me than your safety. You have to believe that. I love you, Liana. You're my only reason to go on in this fucked up, new reality."
"I love you, too," she said, kissing his chest as he held her tight against it. Then she pulled back and looked up into his eyes. "You know, we have all day before we have to be at the lodge for dinner..."
"Liana..." he began to protest. He had wanted to spend that time talking to Billy and James and trying to find out more before the trial, but Liana had learned the right words to say to make him put the rest of the world on hold.
"Please," she breathed in a lustful purr, "Master Aiden."
Day 53
Jax and Dani
When Dani and Jax got back to their cabin, she was excited, virtually drunk with the power of her newly discovered abilities. She had never felt so in control, and after following Jax on the mission and hearing the loving things he said about her, she had never felt so close to him. The meeting had been a tedious obstacle that she barely paid attention to because all she could think about was getting her hands on him. But Jax had paid attention. He had also paid attention to the footage from the drone of Death Row at the prison, and the very last thing on his mind was sex.
"Not right now, baby," he said, gently grabbing her hands as they snaked down his body.
"Come on," she purred. "Dinner's a long way away, and you'll still have time for a nap."
"It's not that. I'm not even sure I could sleep," he said, burying his face in his hands.
"What is it, Jax? What's the matter?"
"The video feed from the prison. I just can't get those images out of my head," he said as tears began to fill his eyes, and Dani put her arms around him. She remembered his face as he watched the screen. He had looked troubled, but she didn't realize how bad it was. She had chosen not to look too closely lest she see more than she could handle. Jax had no choice. Someone had to bear witness.
"I thought since I've seen so much sex on the bus and backstage over the last twenty years, I could just tune it out," he told Dani. "I thought I was better equipped to handle it than the other guys, that I'd be able to detach myself and save them from having to see it, you know? But, God, Dani! It was so..." He broke down, sobbing in her arms, and she held him tight. She didn't know what to say, but she hated herself in that moment. If she had just told him about her powers, she could have been there for him. She could have been the one to watch Death Row and protect everyone from having to see it.
"They have to die, Dani," he said fi
nally. "We can't let Aiden do anything to stop that. Those men have to die."
And if that meant that Jax had to be their man on the inside in order to make it happen, he was willing. He would have done anything to erase the damage watching the scene on Death Row had done to his soul.
Day 53
Dinner
The first to arrive at the lodge for dinner that night, Olivia and Alek were taken aback when they walked through the door. They had authorized a crew to expand the space as it was starting to get cramped, and though that construction had just begun, they had already removed the reception desk and replaced it with thrones - seven chairs of intricately carved wood on a pedestal with two smaller chairs on the ends, and the one in the middle was just a bit higher and more ornate than the others.
"What's all this?" Olivia asked Nathan, who had joined them on one of the scavenging runs. He and Penny were put in charge of the remodel because he had been a contractor before the apocalypse, and Penny was in an online school for interior design.
"We found these before Lord Anders came home," he said. "But there are more back at the mansion we looted. We'll get them for him and Lady Amina tomorrow."
"Come on, you guys, this isn't necessary," she protested. "And the titles..."
"...are all completely necessary," Nathan said. "You're our queen. They're our leaders."
"But those are just our jobs. We don't deserve anything better than anyone else in this community."
"That's why you're our queen," Alek reminded her in a soft whisper, and the others who had gathered around nodded in agreement.
"We know that you treat us all as equals," Nathan said. "But all those people out there who see you as the bloodthirsty tyrant we've painted you to be? Well, if they ever end up in here, they're going to see you on a throne and fear you like they should."
"But..."
"No arguing," Penny said, pushing to the front. "You've saved us all, and now it's time to take your rightful place."
Olivia sighed and looked at Alek, who shrugged his shoulders then offered her his hand to help her onto the platform.
"My queen," he said, and the subtle hint of desire in his voice made her smile as she took her seat in the center of it all. As the others arrived, the new arrangement was met with similar resistance from most, though no one hated the idea more than Reid, who tried to sit in one of the chairs on the ends that were not thrones at all, arguing that it wouldn't be right for him and Amina to show up yesterday and take two thrones. The truth was that he didn't want to sit at Olivia's left while Alek sat at her right. It was too much too soon, but the people wouldn't have it. With immense dread, he sat down between his wife and his mistress. At least, he could only see the top of Alek's head from his spot since Olivia's throne sat higher than the rest. This arrangement left the regular chair on one end for June and the other for Jax.
Neither cared, though Dani found it disappointing. She absolutely loved the attention and wished Jax was feeling good enough to enjoy it with her. That wasn't going to happen as they prepared to tell the community that they were going to be invading a prison. Then, of course, there was the trial. He didn't see the point in the trial. He had heard the recordings of Billy and James discussing taking over the Deadfall, and after seeing the horrors that men were capable of, he was 100% on board with putting them down. He didn't care how. The feed from Death Row had hardened him. He had no sympathy for anyone who could do anything that might hurt Dani, and stealing the Deadfall from the good people who ran it would most assuredly hurt her.
As he sat brooding, a long, narrow table was lifted onto the pedestal with the thrones as dinner was served, then afterward when it was removed, it was time to get down to business. The original plan had been to have the trial before mentioning the prison, but Jax had already asked Alek to persuade Olivia to do it in the opposite order. He wanted the room in his frame of mind when the time came to deal with the would-be usurper, and once Olivia gave him the floor, he got up with tears in his eyes and described what he had witnessed. Though there were a few who expressed concern about wasting their resources and possibly losing lives, most everyone agreed that this mission was a humanitarian necessity. Even if the men from the prison never came to Pipestem again, their brand of evil had to be driven from the world if the good people of the Deadfall were ever to build a safe future for their children. With the vast majority on board, Olivia asked those who wanted to be part of the mission to see General Navarro afterward, then she moved on to the next order of business. The traitors.
With Rena broadcasting the audio to the phones of those who had guard duty during the meeting, Olivia explained why the new members present who had come from the solar farm were two men shy, and then as she played the highlights of the recording where Billy discussed his plans, Alek and Jax led a small group of guards to get the prisoners.
"How did they know about the prison?" Porter demanded as soon as Olivia stopped speaking. It was obvious to all of the leaders that Porter thought he should be one of them. He even looked like a politician - a pasty, white man in his forties with a gut and no muscular evidence of a single day's hard work. He had never really been a successful politician either, having lost every race he'd ever run, but that did not deter him at the Deadfall. Any time he opened his mouth, it was to take issue with something. "This is the first I've heard anything about the prison, but these outsiders already knew?"
"Everyone from the farm knew about the prison and the kind of men who are running it," Widow said, standing up at the back of the room. "When the queen asked me to wear a wire, I used the fact that the people of the Deadfall had learned about the prison to get Billy talking. He assumed that you all would go to rescue the women there because you're good people. He wants to use that against you."
"How do we know the rest of you aren't thinking the same thing?" Porter demanded.
"I turned him in, didn't I? I know what your queen - my queen - does to traitors. I saw the last one hanging on a cross outside the gate. Do you think I would have taken that risk if the rest of us wanted what Billy wants? We don't want that. We want to be a part of this community, so much so that if Billy's actions are going to jeopardize that for us, we'll kill him ourselves. We're never going back to the life we lived at the farm." The others from the solar farm stood with her, nodding in agreement.
"Nobody gets killed here without a fair trial first," Olivia said, trying to diffuse the situation as Billy and James were escorted into the lodge by Alek and Jax.
"Fair trial?" Billy demanded, and suddenly, all eyes were on the accused man. He stood by Alek, at least a foot shorter, though it was obvious that he worked out, some muscle groups bulging to almost clownish proportions as he tried to overcompensate for his height. His hair was dark and buzzed so short, his scalp showed through, and it seemed to showcase the receding hairline he was trying to detract from. He wasn't an unhandsome man, but when he spoke, his face contorted with extreme rage, making it hard to see him as anything beyond the emotions displayed as he asked, "How am I going to get a fair trial? You've already convicted me!"
"Your own words convicted you!" Widow shouted.
"Words you wheedled out of me! Did they play the recording for you?" he asked, looking around at the faces, chasing the eyes of some away with his intense stare. Then he stopped at Widow. "Did you hear her part in this?"
Suspicion broke out all over the room because what they had heard had only been Billy and James.
"Guess not," Billy said as if he had somehow won.
"You're right," Olivia admitted, suppressing a smile when she noticed the bruise on his forehead in the shape of the butt of Alek's gun. "We cut Widow's part out before we played it because it was her mission to get you talking about your intentions, not to make her look guilty in front of the community. We cut a lot out of it so we don't have to sit here for the next three hours and listen to the whole thing, including how each of the others told you they weren't interested."
"They di
dn't say they weren't interested. They said they were scared! Scared of a crazy woman that crucifies people who don't agree with her! It's no wonder I wanted to take this place over, and as I look around, I can see that I'm not the only one who thinks maybe you shouldn't be in charge. How about you?" he asked Porter. "You think just because she owned this place back when that shit mattered she has the right to sit up there on a throne like she's superior to you? Ever thought that maybe this place would be better off under new management? Do you deserve to die for thinking that?"
"There's no such thing as thought crime here," Olivia said. "But you didn't just think it, did you? You were actively recruiting and planning for it, and that's why you're on trial."
"Can I speak?" asked one of the two teenage boys who had come from the solar farm, and Olivia nodded. "I did tell Billy that I couldn't be involved because I was scared of you, but I didn't say that because it was true. I'm not scared of you. I'm scared of Billy. I was afraid to tell him the truth. I was afraid that if I told him I was happy at the Deadfall and that I like the people here, he'd kill me so I couldn't rat him out."
"And what about me?" James cried out suddenly. He was the opposite of Billy - a tall, skinny kid without an obvious muscle on his body. "I did the same thing, only I thought it was safer for me to pretend to go along with him. I don't want to overthrow anybody. I lost everything between those bastards from the prison and Widowmaker at the drug farm. I know what they do to people, especially to females, and if you think for a minute that I would have supported Billy knowing what would happen to the women of the Deadfall if we brought in the prison gang to seize power, you don't know me at all. I don't care if you find me guilty and kill me. I have nothing to live for anyway, but I was not on his side. I was just trying to protect myself until I could warn somebody because I'm more afraid of him than I am of any of you."
Great! Olivia thought as Aiden glared at her with a smirk. The last thing they needed was this defense, particularly since it could very well have been true.