by Stasia Black
“Security call. They needed me to check the long-range scanners and radar on the computer,” Graham finally managed to get out. “I didn’t leave her alone. Camila’s husband, Julio. He was there. He said he’d watch over the women.”
Nix frowned. He’d just come from Security Squadron Headquarters and there hadn’t been anything flagged that would warrant checking the long-range scanners. Maybe something came up in the last ten minutes? He’d look into it later. Right now, he had a bigger problem.
“Come on,” he growled, taking off at a jog to catch up with Audrey. Last thing he needed now was for her to try to make a run for it again the one moment he didn’t have eyes on her.
When they got to the house, though, they found her up in her room.
In bed. Sheets pulled up over her head like she was a little kid.
And she wouldn’t say a damn thing. Just pretended like he wasn’t even there.
“Real mature, Audrey. When you’re finished throwing your tantrum, the grownups will be downstairs,” Nix finally yelled, slamming her bedroom door on his way out.
He’d never met anyone more ungrateful in his damn life.
Chapter 27
AUDREY
Twenty Minutes Earlier
All week Audrey had been working at the stupid fucking candle and soap shop, forced to put up with Camila and her evil clan guard dogs. Nix said it was such a generous from their clan after she’d shot Jeffries, she couldn’t refuse. So she came every morning, not saying a single word to Nix as he walked her there. He or one of the other guys stayed with her throughout the day—which was the only thing that made it bearable.
But even then, Audrey could feel the filthy eyes on whichever of Camila’s husbands was spending the day with her crawling all over her body the whole time.
At least they couldn’t be too disgustingly overt about it when one of Audrey’s protectors was in the room.
But Clark always brought work with him and he was usually absorbed in the corner, endlessly scratching away in some ledger or other. And Danny got restless and had to go on quick jogs around the block every half hour.
Then the looks from Camila’s husbands became become taunts. Filthy language followed by even filthier suggestions of all the things they wanted to do to Audrey.
Camila ignored it, pretending like she couldn’t even hear it.
When Audrey glared at her and asked her how she put up with it, Camila just kept on doing what she was doing, ignoring her. Audrey finally jerked the bowl of hot lye and fat Camila was mixing, spilling some on herself and burning her arm in the process.
Bullshit, Audrey said. They’re abusing you.
But all Camila said was that it was better than what happened to women in the rest of the world. And without another word she’d taken her bowl back from Audrey and continued stirring.
It had been unpleasant, but Audrey could put up with a bad work environment. When the world ended, it was surprising how adaptable you became. So she kept dragging herself out of bed each morning.
Today hadn’t been too bad, really. Mixing the hot lye to make the soap totally sucked. Her eyes burned and some of it had splashed up on her arm and burned like hell. But at least they got to be outside for most of it, and Audrey felt less claustrophobic than when she was in the small front room with Camila and her clanmate.
But they’d finished with the soap and now were stocking shelves.
Okay, so still not bad.
Nix would come in twenty minutes to switch off with Graham and he never did anything else when he was there, just stood with his arms crossed over his chest watching over her. Camila’s husband—the big gorilla Julio—wouldn’t try anything with him in the room being so observant.
But the Graham got called away.
Twenty minutes before Nix was supposed to show up.
A runner came from the technology office and after talking to him for a few minutes, Graham came and gave her a quick kiss. “I’m sorry, I have to go. There might be a security breach and they need me to check the satellite imagery. But Julio’s here and he won’t let you out of his sight, right?”
Graham looked at the big man who nodded, a creepy smile crawling across his face.
“No, wait, Graham—” Audrey started, but he was already making a beeline out the front door.
And that’s when the back door pushed open and Jeffries stepped in.
Fuck his warnings. Audrey bolted and opened her mouth to scream for Graham, but Jeffries was too fast.
His hand was over her mouth before she got more than a quick yelp out. Julio immediately grabbed Audrey, wrenching her arms down and wrapping one arm around her waist to lock them immobile at her sides.
Audrey had looked frantically at Camila, begging her with her eyes to go get help.
But when Camila lowered her gaze and only nodded at Jeffries before slipping out the back door, Audrey’s heart sank through the floor. Hundred to one odds, Camila wasn’t going for help.
“My leg still aches where you shot me, bitch,” Jeffries hissed in her ear.” I’m gonna have a scar forever. It’s time to pay for that. You play the whore for Nix and now you’re gonna do it for me.”
Jeffries moved his hand from her mouth only long enough for Julio to clap his over it. She screamed in the brief second she’d been able to and prayed, please, please, let someone have heard her.
Meanwhile Jeffries unbuttoned her jeans and yanked them down.
“Let’s see this pussy that’s got Nix so entranced.”
Jeffries shoved his finger roughly inside her body.
She screamed into Julio’s hand and tried to bite and jerk free from his grasp but it was no use. He had her pinned to tight.
“Aw, I don’t see what’s so special. Seems like a regular ole’ cunt to me. But Phoenix Hale, ooh, he’s gotta have the best of everything, don’t he? Commander gives him the cake appointment. Squadron Captain. Meanwhile I’m stuck working graveyard. Even though I’m the one who saved the Commander’s life when he was about to get blown to bits on the Louisiana front. But what do I get for that? Squadron fuckin’ Lieutenant.”
Jeffries laughed a dark, ugly laugh, jerking his hand inside her around roughly and making her cry out. With his free hand, he started yanking roughly at his own belt.
“Well real soon, Phoenix fuckin’ Hale’s gonna learn some life lessons about who’s the bigger man. Everything that fucker has is gonna be mine. Startin’ with his precious little bitch’s cunt. Funniest fucking part? Your word against mine? He wouldn’t even believe you.”
Audrey could only glare in hatred. He was wrong. So fucking wrong. Because Nix would believe her. In spite of how bad things had been between them, she thought of sitting him down and telling him everything. She imagined him pulling her into his arms and comforting her. Telling her she didn’t have to worry anymore. He’d take care of everything.
And he would, too. He’d strangle this rat-faced bastard until he choked on his own tongue. Then he’d break Julio in two and string the blond up by his own guts in the town square.
Imagining the revenge Nix would take on her behalf was enough to have her smiling under Julio’s disgusting hand.
One of Jeffries’s eyebrows lifted. “Maybe he would believe you.” He nodded. “He’s such a boy scout. He probably would.” He grinned an evil fucking grin. “Guess I’d have no choice but to kill him then.”
Not before he kills you, Audrey thought with burning hatred.
Jeffries just laughed more. “I can see what you’re thinkin’, bitch. It’s written all over your face. But you think it’s just the five of us who wanna live by our own rules and run our clans the way we want? The Commander’s clueless as to what’s really going on in his little township. We play by his rules right now, sure. But our day’s comin’. Soon.”
He leaned in and chuckled at her struggles against the continued invasion of his hand “All I have to do is blink sideways and Nix will be called out on a dangerous security mission. T
hen,” both his eyebrows shot up, “poof, backup doesn’t show when he calls for them. Goodbye Captain Phoenix Hale.”
Audrey’s breath hitched, furious tears choking her.
“There are protocols in place in case I suddenly disappear, too, so don’t think that getting rid of me will take care of your little problem. Like I said,” he jerked his hand upwards and she cried out, “we’re a multitude. Like in the damn Bible. We got men everywhere. In every guild of workers. All over the government. Phoenix Hale is nothing.”
“Hello?” came the distant call from the front of the shop. Audrey’s head jerked up. Nix. It was Nix’s voice. She felt a rush of hope and terror. He would save her.
But then Jeffries would kill him.
Jeffries just laughed again. He finally pulled back from her, removing his hand from her sex. Her whole body shook while he lifted the finger he’d just had inside her and lifted it to his lips. “Remember, shhhhh. Or he dies. And all the rest of them too.”
Then Julio let go of her mouth and both of them slipped out through the back door.
Audrey let out a strangled cry and then yanked her pants up, running toward the front of her store as she did her button.
And she didn’t stop running except briefly to yell at Nix when he got in her way—something she felt immediately guilty for—until she was all the way home, upstairs in her room. She scrubbed her vaginal area with soap and water and then double-checked the locks on her window. And then scrubbed herself some more.
She’d wedged several thick dowels between the window and the frame so even if someone did manage to get past the locks, the window would still be jammed closed. She wouldn’t be having any more unexpected middle of the night visitors. She checked them and made sure they were secure.
Then she got in bed.
A week later, she still hadn’t left it other than for bathroom breaks.
Because she didn’t see any way out.
Sooner or later, Jeffries would catch her alone and Nix wouldn’t come in at the perfect moment. Jeffries would finish what he started.
And if she said anything to her husbands, she’d be dooming them to a death sentence.
Chapter 28
MATEO
“This ain’t right, man,” Danny said. “She shouldn’t be there up in bed like that all the time. She doesn’t even talk anymore. Just sleeps and lays there all day.”
Mateo agreed but Nix wouldn’t hear it. He’d stomped out earlier muttering about spoiled princesses and tantrums.
Mateo thought Graham was with them. He’d been nodding along while Danny and Mateo talked about Audrey, but then all the sudden he just got up from the kitchen table and the next thing they heard was the front door slamming closed behind him.
Clark sighed and looked at his watch. “I need to be getting to work too. We’ve got the Fort Worth delegation coming in at noon. Speaking of—they’ll be wanting an update on how the helicopter’s coming along.”
Mateo just shrugged it off. What did he care about helicopters or anything else when Audrey was upstairs, obviously miserable and suffering?
“They’re representing the President of Texas,” Clark said, obviously annoyed. “You can’t just shrug off the President.”
“I don’t care about the stupid President,” Mateo growled.
Clark raised his eyebrows and pulled back. “You really have grown a pair lately.” Clark stood up. “It’s inconvenient timing, though. I don’t suppose you could wait until after we’ve wowed the President with our engineering and technological genius so he continues to see a point in letting us run our little experiment here? You know, the one that allows you to moon over our little wify in peace, under the umbrella of the President’s protection?”
Mateo just shrugged again. He’d get back to the engine when he got to it. There were other capable engineers in the workshop. Okay, so Tony and Brett had once mistaken a catalytic converter for an N1 turbine, but that was neither here nor there.
In a world like the one they lived in now, there was always some pressing crisis or other. Audrey was a problem that couldn’t be put off. She was too important. She was the only thing that mattered.
“Danny, will you go check on the stew?” Mateo asked. “She wouldn’t eat breakfast but maybe we can get her to have an early lunch.”
Danny nodded, obviously happy to have something to do.
Clark just shook his head at both of them. “I’ll be back at sunset.”
Mateo went upstairs as Danny headed out back to the firepit.
Mateo knocked on the bedroom door even though Audrey never responded. When he pushed it open, Audrey was laying in the same position he’d left her when he’d gone downstairs to talk to the clan.
She shifted positions occasionally, moving from her side to her back to her stomach to her other side like a roasting chicken. She’d been in bed for a week now.
Her eyes were lackluster. Lifeless.
It was like all week she’d been sinking deeper and deeper.
Mateo had seen it before.
He hadn’t been the only one captured and brought to Hells Hollow. He was just one of the few that managed to hold on to his sanity.
The question was, what the hell had happened to Audrey to make her take this turn?
They didn’t know anything about her life before Nix had picked her up and brought her into town. She hadn’t exactly been in a talkative mood after getting tranqued and kidnapped. He should have pressed her for answers in the few weeks when everything had been good.
Okay, so they’d only been good because she was secretly planning to escape, but still. They’d bonded, all of them. Mateo refused to believe it was all some elaborate manipulation like Nix seemed determined to.
She’d been scared after the lottery but she’d had a fighting spirit. So what the hell had happened to douse that flame?
“Audrey?”
No response. She didn’t even look his way.
“Danny’s going to bring up some stew.”
Mateo approached the bed and sat down on the edge, reaching for her hand. Right before he could make contact, she snatched it away and pulled her arm underneath the blankets.
It hurt. Mateo couldn’t lie. It was far too easy for his old demons to rear their ugly heads.
Of course she doesn’t want you touching her. You’re a disgusting, nasty, repulsive animal and she’s pure and perfect and—
Mateo closed his eyes briefly, swallowing back all his self-recriminations and forcing a smile. “It’s a bright, sunny day out. But not too hot. Want me to open the window? We could get a nice fresh breeze blowing—”
“No!” Audrey said, arm shooting back out of the bed in a stop gesture.
She froze as if she was just as startled by the sudden movement as Mateo was. The next second she’d sunk back in bed, her face turned away from Mateo. “I’m not hungry.”
Then she made the briefest eye contact. “But don’t leave. I mean, if you want.” The words were short and stilted and she turned her back to him just as quickly but Mateo froze.
She wanted him to stay.
No, she wanted you not to leave.
Not exactly the same thing. He frowned. Was it?
Then he shook his head in frustration with himself. He needed to get over his neuroses.
Something was wrong with Audrey. Very wrong.
“If you’re not hungry, then I’m not hungry either.” Mateo laid on the floor beside her bed. “In fact, I’m not eating again until you sit up and tell me what’s the matter.”
For a long time, the ticking of the clock was the only sound in the room.
Then the door opened.
“Who wants stew?” came Danny’s overly cheery voice. “Oh.” Danny stopped at seeing Mateo laying on the floor. “Um. You tired, man?”
“I’m going on a hunger strike.”
“What?” Danny and Audrey said at the same time.
The next moment, Audrey’s head appeared over the side of the b
ed. “You can’t just go on a hunger strike against…” She fumbled for words. “Against me being depressed!”
Mateo just nodded solemnly. “I can and I will. You’re the most important thing in my life now. You’re my wife. And I’ll do anything to show you how much your happiness and well-being mean to me.”
She let out a huff and threw a hand in the air. “Well, it would make me happy if you got up off the floor. Right now.”
“Are you ready to tell us what’s wrong?”
Audrey glanced away and then pulled back from Mateo’s view. “Nothing’s wrong.”
Her voice had gone distant again, and not just because Mateo couldn’t see her any more.
“Bullshit,” Mateo said.
“What?” Audrey’s face appeared over the side of the bed again.
“I said bullshit,” Mateo repeated. “Something happened. I don’t know what, or when, or how. But you’re different. And I don’t think it’s just because you didn’t get to run away that night.”
Audrey breathed out so hard her nostrils flared. “You’re crazy.” She pulled back from the edge again and Mateo could hear the sheets ruffling as she settled back under the covers.
He imagined her crossing her arms over her chest and smiled. This at least was the most life he’d seen out of her in six days. He’d take anger over apathy any day.
Unfortunately, that little outburst was the most Mateo got out of Audrey for the entire week.
He stayed on the floor, sometimes sitting, often laying, especially as the week drew on and he grew weaker and weaker without any food. He drank water but that was all.
Even Audrey had started eating. She made sure to do it where Mateo could see her. Sometimes she’d even get out of bed and sit on the couch by the window so he couldn’t avoid seeing.
She never said a word.
She just ate.
Extremely.
Slowly.
Mateo had to hope it meant he was finally getting to her. If his hunger strike upset her enough to be constantly trying to tempt him to eat again, then maybe she’d finally break.
She slept off and on throughout the day and night.