Jose looks relieved. “Yes, that sounds great. Make it go away.” He makes shooing motions.
“See you tomorrow… boss.” I smirk at the jab, but Jose’s eyes are still trained on the cup and its contents. Maybe I’d better wrap this thing up before wandering the halls with it. Wouldn’t want to scare the locals.
I’m trying to juggle a plate of food in one hand, and a drink in the other, so I end up kicking Trey’s door with my scuffed boot. He doesn’t answer. I give another sharp kick, harder this time, and I hear a muffled grunt from within. That’s probably the best I’m going to get out of him.
I look at my hands and internally shrug. Fine. I can do this. I carefully balance the full plate on top of the mug, gently… gently… then, keeping my hand within a safe distance to grab the plate in case of toppling emergency, I reach out quick and turn the knob. At least he left it unlocked for me? I’m a glass-half-full kind of girl. And with that thought, I look down at his mug of milk, and decide that it would look better if it were half-full. I take a quick swig and even it right up. I can’t keep the self-satisfied smile from my face when I push the door open.
“Babe,” Trey states from his perch, lounging across his bed. He doesn’t even bother to look up from his magazine. What do I see in him again? When he finally deigns to grace me with his attention, and he flashes me that smile with the dimples that make me melt, I remember exactly what I see in him. Dammit. I’m so shallow.
I honestly hate myself just a little right now.
“Aw, babe, you’re the best,” he says, beaming. He glides up, all lithe muscle in his tight white t-shirt. Would it be considered rude to ask him to bend over? I close my mouth with a snap, to hold in all the drool. Yup, hating myself a little more.
He gives me a quick peck on the lips before plucking the food from my hands. “Why only half a glass of milk?” he asks with a pout.
“Sorry,” I say, shrugging as casually as I can manage. “They were running low.”
Even though his room is massive in comparison to every other room in the compound — except for maybe the higher officers’ quarters in their locked kingdom — Trey plunks down on the edge of his bed with his meal. He pats the bed beside him, giving me a little eyebrow wiggle.
I perch awkwardly down beside him, leaving a fair amount of space between us. I’m not a prude, Trey and I have fooled around, but I can’t ever seem to get comfortable around him in this kind of setting. You know, alone, just the two of us, with an excessive amount of privacy.
I give his bed a little bounce. His mattress is too soft, the room too cavernous. I’ve spent the past five years being cooped up in the narrow hallways and microscopic rooms. When I look around at all the space designated to this… goon (no offense, Trey)… when he isn’t even in the compound half the time, it makes me feel a little bitter. I guess it makes sense that the soldiers risking their lives should have a few perks, but all of this? I bet if I yodeled right now, it would echo.
I look over at Trey and watch him scarf down his steak. None of us common folk are getting beef, that’s for damn sure. We’re assigned only enough calories to do our jobs, and even then, we’re not exactly moving at top speed. Even I’ve had it better than most, what with my mom’s position in the compound. We’ve had fresh fruit and vegetables, the occasional chicken drumstick. I don’t usually think about the benefits too often, but when I see the disparity between even myself and Trey, I feel downright queasy to think of the compound’s bottom feeders.
My brother Brent refers to them as “breeders.” They’re here just to keep the human population from dwindling into extinction. They have no other significant purpose, according to what’s left of the government.
Speaking of breeding… Trey’s hand is slowly creeping across the gap between us. His other hand is still shoveling food into his mouth, and I’m trying my best not to watch him eat. It’s not exactly what I would call sexy. Oh god, I made eye contact, and now I finally understand the expression ‘bedroom eyes.’ They do not disappoint. Wow.
I can’t help but laugh, but it only serves to encourage Trey. He sets his tray of food aside on the bed and wipes his mouth on his forearm. It’s when he swivels his body towards me and offers a full smirk that I know he means business. My heart rate picks up, and I can feel the blush already blooming on my cheeks.
Now, don’t get me wrong when I say this, but Trey is out of my league. Like, way out. I’m not saying I’m not attractive in my own way; I’ve got my father’s eyes, so dark they’re almost black, and a cute little button nose. My dark hair is long and thick, easily my favorite feature whenever we’re not on half water rations; nobody’s hair looks great when we’re not allowed to shower.
“How was it out there? Do you want to talk about what happened?” I ask, one, because that’s what caring girlfriends are supposed to ask when their boyfriend has gone through something traumatic, but I’m also insanely curious.
Trey gives a shrug. “It was whatever.” He grabs me by the thigh and pulls me over until our legs are pressed together. He leans in, and I find myself turning my head to the side at the last minute. How can he feel like having sex after everything that happened today? Trey, determinedly forging ahead, runs his tongue down my now-exposed neck.
Even as his hand is running up the inside of my thigh, I can’t get the sight of Dan and all that blood out of my mind. The way they shuffled him through that classified door. The claw. “Whatever?” I find myself scoffing, even as Trey is pulling me into his lap, my legs straddling him. He ignores me, and instead takes advantage of my shocked distraction to grind against me, his hands groping through my coveralls.
“Whatever!?” I say again, louder. “You’re one of the few people who ever gets to see what it’s like outside, and all you can say is ‘whatever’? Like, is it so boring that you literally can’t find a single word to describe how boring it is? Or maybe it’s so mind-blowing that you don’t want to describe it and risk blowing my mind. You get all this shit,” I growl, gesturing at the room around us, and the soft mattress and feather pillows, “and I don’t even have a clue what you do! What the hell do you do that makes you more important than anyone else?” I had started out just curious to know how he was handling everything, and now I’m coming out the other side mad. How did I get here again?
Trey’s tongue has frozen in place against my earlobe. “Huh,” he grunts. He shoves me off his lap onto the mattress and gets up to pace. My body feels cool from his absence, but also because the air in here has seriously just dropped 20 degrees. “You know, normally I don’t mind talking about myself, but the way you just said that makes it sound like an accusation.” Trey jabs his finger in my face. “What exactly are you accusing me of?”
That is the question. What am I accusing him of? As far as I can tell he’s done nothing wrong. He’s just another cog of the government machine; is it his fault that his cog helps move the legs, while mine makes the tail wag?
“I’m sorry,” I say, trying to convey just how much I mean that. “I’m still a little shaken up about everything that happened today. I was really worried about you, you know?” I get up from the bed and make my way over to Trey. I try to swing my hips side to side in an alluring swagger, but it doesn’t look like he’s buying it. I move on to Plan B; I pop the top button from my coveralls. This is one of the few times I wished I wore the same clothes as the other civilians. You could call their scrubs a uniform if you want, but it looks more like pajamas. And we’re not talking satin and lace. We’re talking the kind that look good on your grandpa. But at least that would still be sexier than these coveralls. Do you have any clue how hard it is to make this look sexy? I pop another button for good measure. Trey stops his pacing, and his eyes are following my hands.
“You were worried about me?” He sounds half-whiny, half-hopeful. He really does love it when I baby him.
“I’m always worried about you when you’re out there, risking your life…” I walk my fingers down his chest
to the hem of his t-shirt, sliding my fingers under it to brush against the skin of his abs. Trey gives a shiver and leans into me.
“Nothing can touch me out there. I’ll always come back.” He grips my hand and pushes it lower to his belt buckle. I take the hint and start tugging on it.
“It must be so scary out there, never knowing what to expect.” Without meaning to, I realize I’m both stroking his ego and leading him back to my original question. I try to distract him from noticing by undoing his pants and sliding them down a few inches. Just low enough to make him suck in a breath.
“I can handle anything thrown at me.” Trey tugs the top half of my coveralls off in one fell swoop, like a magician pulling a tablecloth off without scattering the dishes. How did he manage that without moving my hand off his crotch?! “Were you scared today?” he asks me. “When we brought Dan in? Tell me how terrified you were.” He grinds himself against my hand, and I can tell exactly what answer he’s hoping I’ll give.
A shiver runs through me. It feels… wrong, creepy, that he’s turned on by my fear. I swallow back my misgivings and smile up at him. “Of course I was scared. All that blood! And then when we found that claw. It was so sharp that—”
Trey’s grip on my biceps cuts me off. “Ow! That hurts, Trey!”
He just squeezes harder and gives me a little shake. “What claw?” he growls, his breath hot in my face. It smells like masticated steak and his smug ego.
I instantly realize my mistake. I should have given it to him right away, but I figured he would be in a better mood if he got his food and booty call out of the way first. “I-It’s right here.” I pull the wrapped bundle from my pants pocket. “I just thought… Jose and I didn’t know what to do with it, and…” I trail off as Trey grabs it from my hands. He isn’t listening to a word I say.
Trey takes the small bundle over to the table and unwraps it carefully. He doesn’t say a word. His back is to me so I can’t even see his expression, but he’s rigid as a board.
A full minute passes, but I stay exactly where I am. If I move, he might turn his rage back towards me, and I remember for a brief second how my fear turned him on. When he finally speaks, his voice is once again controlled, but I get a sense that there is a lot more going on under the surface. “Get out,” he says simply. He’s not angry, not frustrated. More like he’s distracted.
I quickly pull the coveralls back up and do my best to button it up as Trey is physically pushing me out the door.
“Will I see you before you go?” I finish the sentence talking to a closed door. “Okay then, love you.”
5
Kenzo
“Kenzo?”
I startle… No, that doesn’t begin to explain the full-body reaction I experience. My whole body jerks at the sound of Lori’s voice, and I instinctively slap my hands across the paperwork on my desk.
“Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” Her lips are twitching, and it’s the most relaxed I’ve seen her for months. I almost wish I’d overreacted on purpose, just to get a smile out of her.
“I guess I should thank you for not outright laughing at me?” I try to keep her attention on my words, rather than my actions as I shuffle the papers into a folder. I sweep the folder into a desk drawer, and I can tell by the way her eyes dart down to my hands that she isn’t fooled for a second. “It’s getting awfully late. You probably shouldn’t be wandering the halls by yourself, it’s not safe. Did you need something?”
“Well, I was just heading home, and then I thought maybe I could swing by and see how my mom was doing… but then figured, since I was down this way and you had a promise to fulfill…” she says in her most determined voice. I can tell already that she’s ready to do battle. “What happened today? And I don’t want any bullshit answers, either. I’ve had my fill of those lately.”
Lori crosses her arms across her chest and tries her best to block the door, my only exit. She’s small enough that I could easily slip past her, but she would probably just chase me down the hall until she got her answers. She’s feisty like that, and it’s one of my favorite things about her.
“What do you want to know?” I ask, and she looks almost disappointed that I’m giving in so easily.
“Just like that? You’ll answer my questions?”
I shrug and gesture to the chair in front of my desk. “I can’t promise that I’ll tell you everything, but I’ll do my best.” Lori’s been exposed to little tiny pieces of a giant puzzle, and it’s going to be nearly impossible to give her enough to satisfy her without dumping the whole box of pieces out on the table. But if I tell her too much, it will only put her in a dangerous position.
I’m walking a narrow path, here.
Lori slides into the chair and tries to take a relaxed position, one leg crossed over the other. And I would almost buy it if her hands weren’t balled into white-knuckled fists. “What happened today?” she asked.
“Nice try,” I chuckle. “I know how you work; ask vague questions in the hope that I’ll drop more information by accident. No way, I’m on to you. A lot of things happened today. Be more specific.”
“Why? So you can decide which lies to tell me?” she snaps, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, kinda,” I say honestly. “I’ll tell you what, I promise I won’t lie to you, but I’m still under a military gag order. So, you ask specific questions, and I’ll answer them if I can.”
Lori eyes me from across the desk. Her dark eyes are bottomless and impossible to read. She looks beyond tired, bone weary. She bites her lip before diving in. “The dorm, something happened.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “That’s not a question.”
Lori makes a little noise in her throat, half growl, half exasperated sigh. “Just tell me,” she whines.
I take a pause and just observe her for a moment. Her little pout reminds me that she’s still so young, but then again, I suppose I’m not that much older than she is. I was just forced to grow up way too fast, and I really wish that Lori wasn’t being herded in the same direction. In a normal world, she would probably be going to university, hanging out with friends, and drinking way too much.
Instead, I’m about to lead her down a much darker path.
“Come with me,” I say, pushing back from my desk. Lori gives a little frown, but she’s drawn by the promise of answers. I can’t even imagine the questions that are still lurking beneath the surface. She’s likely sitting on hints and clues that she’s stumbled on over the years. I mean, just look at what David does for me in the lab. I can’t see him telling her about what he’s been up to, but she must have some idea about how he earns his keep in the compound.
I lead Lori out of my office. From the corner of my eye, I see her glancing at the empty beds on our way through the hospital. There’s been a distinct lack of patients lately, and I hope desperately that she doesn’t choose to ask about this because it’s one of the questions I can’t answer. It’s not that there haven’t been any illnesses or injuries. It’s just that we don’t have the resources to patch everybody back up.
Bile rises up my throat at the mere thought of where the disposable citizens end up. Even the lowliest member of the compound has a use in the end. What would Lori think of me if she knew about the experiments I’m being forced to do.
She would probably say that I always have options. But then I meet her eyes, and I know that I really don’t have a choice, not when it involves Lori.
We walk the length of the hallway, and Lori pauses briefly outside her mom’s room. I stop too, waiting for her. “Did you want to see her?”
Lori considers it, biting on her lip. “It’s late…”
I can see how conflicted she is. Part of her wants to see her mother, to help distract her from her pain. But the other part of her gets torn apart every time she sets foot in that room. I give her an out, in case she needs it: “She won’t be awake, I gave her some painkillers about an hour ago. But if you want—”
“No,” she cuts in. “I wouldn’t want to disturb her sleep.” Her shoulders sag in relief. I wish David would listen to me and go visit his wife. Lori is taking the full burden of bedside vigil on herself, and it’s draining the life out of her.
We reluctantly turn away from Judith’s room and continue down the hall, until we stand in front of a door tucked into a corner. I pull a set of keys out of my pocket, their jingling echoing through the bare hallway.
“Hey, doc,” a voice calls. I turn to see a soldier hovering around the bend in the hall. Although he has a sidearm holstered, he’s brandishing his club in one hand. “Everything all right?”
I’m not sure if he’s asking because I look like I’m being threatened by the woman at my side, or because it’s yet another excuse to act intimidating.
I nod. “Everything’s fine, soldier. At ease,” I tack on, reminding him that I’m technically above him in rank and am therefore immune to his intimidation tactics.
He gives a little nod and then goes back to whatever he was doing before he decided to snoop.
Lori’s quivering a little, and I freeze, key poised in the lock. “Are you okay? We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”
She’s still looking over her shoulder in the direction the soldier disappeared, and I’m struck by the realization that maybe the soldier’s intimidation wasn’t intended for me. “I’m fine,” she says, looking back to me. I don’t believe her for a second. “Let’s get this over with.”
The room is small, dark, and cold, and flipping on the light does little to change its status. There’s a noisy refrigeration unit installed into an air duct over our heads, blowing cold air into the cramped space.
I lead Lori into the room and close the door behind us. She shivers, and it has nothing to do with the temperature; her eyes are drawn to the table in the middle of the room. “Is that…” I don’t need her to finish her question.
Prey (The Shade Chronicles Book 1) Page 4