by Raven Dark
Deep scratches marred his cheeks. I glanced down. More gouges raked across his smooth chest, one cutting across an old cigar burn. I took his hands in mine. The back of one hand was scraped.
“Hawk, why are you all scratched up?” My heart raced, especially when he looked at me, deep lines of concern creasing his brow. “What happened to you?”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m fine. Come here, let’s get you—”
Right outside the tree hollow, men’s voices sounded, one of them Pretty Boy’s, before he rushed inside.
“Princess, there you are. I was—” Pretty Boy cut off when Hawk climbed off the bed mat and stood up, facing him.
My blond master’s pale blue gaze zeroed in on Hawk’s face, then his chest. His gaze flicked to me, visibly taking in my face, which must have been pale as a sheet, my sweat-soaked hair. Then he glared at Hawk, once more zeroing in on the scratches.
Oh, no.
Anger thundered across his face. “What did you do to her?”
“Pretty Boy, calm down. I didn’t—”
“Master, don’t. It’s not what it looks like.” I was on my feet, reaching for him.
But Pretty Boy shoved me behind him and launched across the room at Hawk, getting in his face. “What. Did. You. Do?”
Hawk backed up, body moving into a ready stance that somehow looked prepared, ready, yet perfectly calm. “Back up. You don’t want to do this.”
“Pretty Boy, stop—”
“Oh, I’m going to enjoy whipping your fucking Yantu ass.” Pretty Boy drew his fist back for a punch.
“General,” I heard T-Man growl from somewhere else in the camp, his voice gruff with exertion.
Men’s voices rumbled, Sheriff’s growled with sleep, and then footsteps sounded throughout the camp.
“Everybody get out here,” Sheriff snapped.
The three of us looked at each other, the confusion on Hawk’s and Pretty Boy’s faces echoing mine.
Outside, men started talking all at once, and I thought I heard Diamond among them, sounding worried.
Pretty Boy put his finger in Hawk’s face. “We’re not done here. Not by a long shot.”
By the time Hawk and I had thrown on clothes and dashed outside after Pretty Boy, the whole camp was gathered around a harried looking T-Man and Sheriff.
“What’s going on, Sheriff?” Pretty Boy asked.
“T-Man?” Sheriff prompted.
T-Man ran his hand through his curls. “Fireworks went off near here, so I went to check them out.” His voice was gruff. “There’s a huge camp a mile west of here. Our friend with the blue mohawk is there. It’s Saketh, and he’s got Emmy.”
Chapter 16
The Only Way
The Dregs.
My heart battered my ribs. We’d been lucky they hadn’t raided the camp and attacked us again. They must not have noticed we were here, or they would have done just that.
“Well, at least we don’t have to go looking for those fucks anymore,” Pretty Boy said. But the words sounded flat.
“Let’s go,” Steel growled, throwing on a shirt and punching his huge fist into his palm. He looked a little unsteady, his face paler than usual. From sleep, I hoped. “I’ve been itching to pay those sons of bitches back, Sheriff.”
“We will, Brother, but not yet. We’ve got to plan this carefully.” He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but his gaze snagged on Hawk. On the scratches on his face. He rose a concerned brow.
Hawk just shook his head.
Sheriff’s expression cleared. He inclined his head at Hawk and T-Man. “You two, scope that camp. I want to know how many Dregs, where exactly Emmy is, where their supplies are, and anything else you can find out. Come back, and we’ll figure out our next move.”
I seated myself on a log by the fire with the others while Hawk and T-Man’s shadows disappeared into the darkness. Worry for them twisted my gut.
Pretty Boy sat beside me, looking me over. “You okay? What—?”
“It’s not what you think. Can we talk about this later, Master?” The last thing I wanted to do was think about that nightmare right now.
Pretty Boy gave me a lingering look of concern but nodded slowly and squeezed my hand. “Later then.” His tone suggested he wasn’t giving me a choice.
No one else said a word while Hawk and T-Man were gone. They couldn’t have been gone more than an hour, but it felt like days. When they came back, T-Man was puffing. Hawk looked as stoic as ever. When everyone was seated, Sheriff looked up from his log, waiting.
“We counted at least fifteen men, but there were more,” Hawk said. “They’re camped in a valley. There were supplies and beer, and at least four fires spread out between the trees.”
“Enough supplies for sixty men or so,” T-Man added, “There’s food, water, explosives, lots of those flashbangs, and the camp spread over about an acre.”
Sheriff’s brows went up. Steel cursed, Pretty Boy shook his head.
Sixty Dregs, and there were nine of us. Nine of us, but Crash’s leg was still healing, and Diamond and I weren’t fighters.
“You saw Emmy, though?” Diamond asked T-Man anxiously.
“Is she okay?” I asked him.
“It was hard to see from where we were, but she was moving around. She’s alive.” Then T-Man paused, looking at Hawk. “Sheriff, there’s something else.”
The General nodded.
“Those bastards have Emmy in a cage, hanging from a tree above the camp,” Hawk said. “We counted twenty other cages, all with women in them.”
“Twenty women?” Pretty Boy demanded. “Are you sure?”
T-Man nodded. “As I said, it was hard to see from a distance, but yeah. There were people in them, hanging just like Emmy, all around the camp.”
“Like fowl for the cookpot.” I felt suddenly ill, enough that I put my head between my knees.
“How the hell did one group of men end up with that many females?” Doc muttered. “No one has been that fertile since the Old World. The only way they have that many…”
“Is if they raided a zone,” Sheriff spat.
“Or five,” Doc added. “Which they must have done long before Saketh hit the Oasis station. Saketh and the men who had Emmy must have met up with some of their club here, planning to take the women to the auction in Zone 8. The auction’s only an hour’s ride from here.”
“That many women…they won’t sell them all. They’ll keep some for themselves.” My stomach roiled.
“Sixty men…we won’t do well with those odds,” Hawk said. “We have a choice to make. We can go in now… Or we can wait until the auction tomorrow morning and rescue Emmy then. There won’t be more than four Dregs escorting them there. We can handle them.”
“But if we wait, we’ll be leaving her with them for hours yet.” Pretty Boy shook his head. “There’s no guarantee they’ll sell her instead of one of the others. And even if Saketh has ordered them to sell her, some of those fucks might decide not to play by the rules.”
“Especially if they’re drunk or high,” Doc put in.
“It’s a risk, I agree.” Hawk eyed each of his Brothers. “And if we go in now, we have darkness on our side. But we’ll have to find a way to sneak in undetected, get Emmy, and get out again. We wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight against that many Dregs.”
Sheriff inclined his head in agreement.
“I say we go in now.” Steel’s blue eyes burned with vengeance.
Sheriff glanced around at the rest of the group and received agreement all around.
“All right, we go now, but Doc will have to stay back here with Crash, which will leave us with fewer hands.”
I made myself stand up. “We have to help those women, Masters.”
“Sit down, Onyx.” Sheriff’s eyes were brutal.
The same deep dislike for him slashed at me as I’d felt when we’d first arrived here. I could see it in his eyes, the women were expendable. Just like Emmy
.
Except for a flash of sympathy from Hawk when I’d spoken, the looks from the other men were no better, foreboding and hard. I expected a dark look or a warning about speaking out of turn from Diamond, but she just watched me in a way that looked calculating.
I refused to back down. “We can’t just leave the women to those wolves,” I said firmly.
“Kitten,” Hawk warned.
“No, she’s right.”
I stared at Diamond. She’d stood up from her own log, and when the men glared at her, her throat worked hard, but she met every stare with determination.
“Who knows what those animals will do to them.”
“Diamond,” Doc said.
For an instant, a fraction of a second, she glanced at me, drew a deep breath, and added to him, or perhaps to Sheriff, “Sir. We have to do something.”
T-Man rolled his eyes at Diamond, then at me. “What is this, a revolt?”
“Fuck, Princess. See what you’ve started?” Pretty Boy’s eyes were accusing, but for some reason, the accusation lacked force.
“Please, Masters.” I looked at them all again. “We can’t just leave them there.”
“We have to!” Sheriff snapped.
“Because they’re just slaves, right?” I said flatly.
“Yes, damn you!” He stomped over to me. “Sixty Dregs and five of us who are able to take up arms? I won’t allow us to enter a fight we. Can. Not. Win. Now sit your ass down before I put your ass down!”
I closed my eyes, torn between resignation and anger. My fists tightened. It felt wrong to rescue Emmy and then leave the other women to suffer at the hands of the Dregs. Part of me couldn’t help thinking Sheriff didn’t care about those women, but part of me knew he was right. We’d be slaughtered if we tried to rescue all of them.
Maker, the wrongness of the situation weighed down on me. My heart heavy, I lowered myself back down.
Sheriff returned to his log, his back stiff.
For a long while, the men planned. According to T-Man and Hawk, the Dregs had hung the women in their cages around the perimeter of the camp, at least ten feet above the ground. Emmy was on the western end of the camp. There were small areas where someone could sneak in past the Dregs unnoticed, but the fewer people the better.
“I suggest only one of us goes into the camp itself to get her,” Hawk said. “The rest of us should keep at a distance, watching in case something goes wrong.”
“Whoever it is will need to climb up the tree and open her cage, and then help her down,” T-Man said.
“The smaller the person, the better. If there’s already a cage hanging from the branch, we can’t risk that the added weight of a man will break it. The lighter the person, the less likely the tree branch will break.” Pretty Boy grinned at Steel. “That leaves you out, big guy.”
“Gee, thanks, Brother.”
“I can do it, but I’m no lightweight either,” Hawk shrugged. “I know how to get in without being seen, but once I get up there, the branch might snap, and then we’d all be dead.”
“Pup could have done it.” Crash’s voice was quiet.
Everyone was silent for a moment.
The last thing I wanted to do was speak up again, but the solution was too obvious to ignore. I stood slowly up and drew a long breath.
“I’ll do it.”
“Setora,” Sheriff’s voice was deadly. “Stop trying to play hero. Sit—”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Pretty Boy snapped, talking over Sheriff.
“General.” T-Man nodded to me when Sheriff looked at him. “She’s right. She’s lighter than any of us. She’s our best bet.”
“Absolutely not, Sheriff.” Brows went up at Crash’s words. “Sorry. I promised Cherry I’d take care of her. She can’t go in there alone.”
“She’s got a better chance than the rest of us,” T-Man repeated. “There were women moving among the Dregs, serving drinks and food. If she does this right, they won’t even notice her.”
“Fuck this.” Steel stood up and punched the nearest tree. “Unbelievable.”
Doc leaned forward on his elbows. “We can make her look like one of them. Diamond and I can help get her ready. This can work.”
Diamond nodded.
“What happens if she gets caught?” Sheriff bit out. He was glaring at me, but I knew he was talking to Doc.
“Then you leave me there. I am just a slave, after all.”
“Kitten. Enough.”
Diamond snickered.
Sheriff rose to his feet again and stalked to me. He gripped my jaw in his fingers.
“You belong to me,” he rasped. “You are ours. We didn’t almost lose you just to have you die now. Fucking hell, you’re always challenging everything. Can’t do as you’re told, can you?”
I swallowed, forcing my eyes to remain on his. “Sheriff. Let me do this. I can do this. There is no other option.”
He released me roughly and grabbed his head with a loud growl. When he looked at me again, his indigo eyes were wild. Without saying anything, he turned and started pacing around our small fire like an angry cat.
Pretty Boy marched over and put his face in Sheriff’s. “Tell me you’re not even considering this craziness.”
Before Sheriff could say anything, Pretty Boy rounded on me.
“This is not going to happen. The Maker’ll keel over dead before I let you go into that camp, alone, with those fucking psychos.”
Hawk walked over and took his shoulder. “Pretty Boy, take it easy. Let Sheriff—”
Pretty Boy shook him off violently. “Shut the fuck up, Hawk.” He stalked off into the darkness, and Hawk sighed, rubbing his forehead.
Everyone fell silent, letting Sheriff pace.
Sitting on one of the logs now, T-Man lit his pipe. “We need a distraction,” he said at last, using the pipe’s tip to emphasize his point.
“I have an idea for that.” Crash’s smile was evil. When everyone looked at him, he nodded to Doc. “I’ll need your help, though.”
“With?”
“Remember Zone 9? Two years ago?”
Doc grinned and nodded to T-Man. “I think I know what he has in mind. We got this.”
“Are you guys brain dead?” Sheriff didn’t stop pacing or look at them. “We haven’t agreed to let Setora do this.”
“How long do you two think it will take to cook up this…distraction?” T-Man asked as if Sheriff hadn’t spoken.
“Twenty minutes or so,” Crash said.
Doc nodded.
“Kitten.” When I looked at Hawk standing on the other side of the fire, his eyes were solemn. “Are you sure about this?”
I walked to him and took his hands. “I’m positive. I won’t get caught.”
Hawk gave my hands a squeeze, then reluctantly dropped them. “General?” he prompted.
Sheriff had stopped pacing and now stared silently into the fire. After a long moment, he growled, “Fine. Here’s how it’s going to be. Listen to me, Setora… all of you. As soon as Doc and Crash are ready with their…distraction…we’ll head out.”
As Sheriff talked, huge, warm arms wrapped around me from behind. Steel. He rested his chin on the top of my head. Resigned acceptance radiated from him, and I rubbed his arms, silently thanking him for giving me his trust.
“Doc’ll take Crash somewhere safe,” Sheriff continued. “I want Setora in and out of that camp as quickly as possible. The rest of us will wait as close to the camp as we can without being seen. But, Setora.” He pinned me with a cold glare. “You get in, you get Emmy, and you come back to us. Those women aren’t ours, they don’t matter. I see you do anything else, and I’ll beat your fucking ass so hard they’ll hear you howling all the way to Delta. Don’t play hero. Am I clear?”
They don’t matter. My blood boiled. “As crystal, Master.”
As soon as the planning was done, Doc took me into Steel and Pretty Boy’s tree hollow with Diamond. Fear snaked up my spine, but I pus
hed it down while I mentally prepared myself for what was coming.
“T-Man said there were Dreg women serving the men,” Diamond said. “We can make you look just like one of them.”
“How?”
She waved me over. “All you need to look like one of those bitches is more makeup, wilder hair, more bling, and more tears in your clothes.”
She dressed me in a pair of skin-tight black leather shorts that barely covered my ass cheeks, and a top that covered the Dark Legion’s tattoo on my back. Laces criss-crossed up the front of the top. We added knee high boots and a metallic belt. She applied heavy black charcoal to my eyes, teased my hair higher, and then started drawing on my cheeks with the charcoal, of all things.
“What are you doing?” I turned my head away.
“Stay still, you’ll see.” She slashed across my cheek with a finger covered in charcoal.
Diamond looked like she was going to say more, but Pretty Boy walked into the tent. I turned to him. He wore a smile that looked a little resigned until he saw me, then a grin showed all of his teeth. “Love it,” he said before he claimed my mouth.
I rubbed his back, gratitude bubbling up for his acceptance of what lay ahead.
“You might want to try to look a little crazed or high or something,” Diamond said when she had my attention again. “A little less like a pampered princess.”
“How do I look crazed exactly?”
Pretty Boy cocked his head and stuck his tongue out. He had a wild, untamed look down. “Just pretend you want to eat someone’s face off.” He tipped my chin up, then backed up, looking me over. “Needs a little work.” He took out a small blade, sliced off a strip from the bottom of his shirt. He gathered my hair up and tied it up on the top of my head with the strip of cloth. Diamond added an extra metallic belt around my waist.
“Nice and tacky.” Diamond grinned.
“Do they really look like this?”
“Yes.” Doc chuckled.
“I feel like a freak.”
“It’s too bad you don’t have a nose piercing,” Diamond said. “We could put a nice long chain going from those pretty little ears of yours to your nose.”