I pulled my new passport out of my back pocket and got to my feet, my pulse racing as I thought of my girl still hiding in that cupboard. What would happen if they found her? We couldn't take on the fucking army, but I knew we'd fight for her all the same. I eyed the assault rifles the four soldiers carried and swallowed thickly. Shit, I really hoped they didn't find her.
The female officer took my passport as I offered it up and I realised I should have double checked the damn information on it in case she asked me to confirm it.
My heart thundered as I waited for her to flick through the pages and find whatever photograph Saint had used to get this forgery made. She looked at it for a long moment before snorting a laugh which she tried to cover with a cough.
"Is everything alright?" I asked her, my brow furrowing as I wondered if she could tell it was fake. I'd just blindly trusted Saint to have gotten us good forgeries but how the fuck was I supposed to know if it would be good enough?
"Your name is Simone Dipsickle?" she asked, clearly biting her tongue on another laugh as one of the other officers snatched it from her to see, this one laughing shamelessly as he looked from the document to me. "Isn't Simone a woman's name?"
My lips parted as a mixture of confusion and annoyance filled me. Simone fucking Dipsickle??
"He insists that it's a male name in Italy," Saint deadpanned but as I looked at him, I caught the edge of an evil smirk at the corners of his lips.
"You don't look Italian," the male officer pointed out. "And Dipsickle sure as shit ain't Italian. Did your momma hate you or something? Why else did she give you a name like that?"
"It's a family name," I ground out, not needing to hide my irritation because if my name really had been Simone Dipsickle, no doubt I would have been fielding this shit my entire life.
"Okay then, Mr Dipsickle, will you submit to a finger prick test?" the female officer asked, handing my passport back.
"It didn't much sound like we had a choice," I replied, holding my hand out to her as she produced the testing kit.
Saint handed his passport to another man and Kyan climbed out of his bed, making a show of hunting around for his in the pile of crap beside his bed. Most of our stuff was still loaded up in the car, so at least we didn't have to worry about them finding some of Tatum's clothes or anything because Saint might have told them my name was Simone, but I wasn't going to pretend I liked wearing lacy thongs too.
The sharp prick to the pad of my finger drew my attention back to the soldier standing in front of me and I watched as she carried out the test, using a pen to add my fake name to it as she set it down to wait for the results.
I obliged her as she took a throat swab too and she directed me to sit down and wait as she started work on Blake.
Saint took a seat beside me when he was done, his thigh pressing up against mine as he kept his eyes dead ahead. None of us had so much as glanced towards the cupboard where Tatum was still hidden behind the bed and the adrenaline surging through my veins was making my fingers tremble a little.
It felt like we should be running. Or fighting. Anything but just sitting here while these armed people sniffed about and drew closer to discovering our girl.
A couple of the soldiers headed off into the rest of the building, searching for other people despite the fact that we’d told them we were alone when they asked.
I noticed Saint's passport poking out of his pocket and reached over to pinch it, needing something to take my mind off of freaking out about Tatum being discovered.
"Rex Power?" I muttered, making sure my voice was too low to carry to anyone else.
Saint didn't reply but that hint of a smirk was back as he took the passport from me and returned it to his pocket.
Asshole.
I snorted a laugh and nudged him with my elbow, hard enough to knock him forward a few inches as I swear he actually laughed too.
Blake and Kyan came to sit with us once their tests had been carried out and we watched as the soldiers moved around the space, opening doors, looking behind the couches lined up against the rear wall. One of them even yanked the bed back to open the door to the cupboard where Tatum was hiding, and my pulse raced as I tried not to look that way.
I shifted in my seat and Saint’s hand landed on my thigh, squeezing once tightly before he released me, a clear warning for me not to do anything stupid but my heart was thrashing and my need to protect Tatum was overwhelming me, urging me into action.
Kyan cracked his knuckles in a move that almost looked casual, but let me know he was readying himself for a fight too. Just in case. Because if they found her, we’d do everything and anything it took to stop them from taking her. She wasn’t going to end up in some lab again. No matter what it cost to keep her out of it.
But thankfully, he knocked the door shut again with less than a glance, the shelf Kyan had replaced to hide her clearly working.
The female soldier checked her watch before moving over to take a look at our test results, carefully photographing them like she had our passports before typing away on the iPad in her hand.
"So, what's the result?" I asked her when she failed to tell us and she glanced around at me through her visor.
"I assumed you already knew?" she asked, confusing me, but of course Saint didn't skip a beat.
"It would be rather hard to forget the weeks the four of us spent battling through the hell of the Hades Virus," he said in a dry tone. "So I assume we have antibodies now that we've survived, but a confirmation would put our minds at ease about the idea of us contracting it again."
"The four of you all survived?" Sergeant Jeffers asked in surprise. "None of your group died?"
"Thankfully not," Saint clipped. "But it was a closely fought battle."
"Not the kind of thing you forget easily," Kyan added. "I doubt I'll ever be able to cough again without being reminded of the feeling of my lungs shredding apart inside my own body. But apparently, we're a bunch of tough bastards so we made it through."
Sergeant Jeffers nodded like he'd seen enough stories like ours to buy into it, though I could tell the female soldier was surprised to find that we had all survived it without losing anyone in our group. It seemed simpler to stick to that story than it would have been to invent someone for us to be grieving though so I didn’t add anything.
"So we have to relocate to somewhere where you’re housing other survivors?" Saint asked. "How long do we have to get ourselves there?"
"No need to worry about that, lad," Sergeant Jeffers said patronisingly and if looks could kill, Saint would likely have made his head explode on the spot for that little endearment. "You can grab some basic supplies now and we'll be on our way. There are vehicles ready to transport you to your new location."
"We can get there ourselves," Kyan said, folding his arms. "Just give us an address and-"
"Refusal to cooperate can and will result in arrest under martial law in defence of our country and our citizens," Sergeant Jeffers replied, his hand falling to the gun at his hip in a less than subtle gesture. "Are you going to make this more difficult than it needs to be?"
The four of us exchanged heavy looks, but we'd already figured out that this was coming, so we just had to accept it and trust our girl to get herself out of here. She'd wait for Kyan's uncle and we'd get ourselves away from their camp before the day was out then reunite with her. It was the best hope we had of all of us making it out of here in one piece and no matter how much I detested the idea of parting from her, I wasn’t going to risk her life just to keep her within my line of sight.
"Alright," I said, lifting my hands in a placating gesture as I got to my feet. "We'll grab some of our shit and come quietly."
"One bag," Sergeant Jeffers replied. "We don't have room to carry too much crap."
"We don't have much here anyway," Blake replied in the smartass tone he always liked to use on me when I was teaching him and I could tell that pissed our new soldier friend off a bit. He should try teachi
ng a bunch of preppy, entitled little shits day in day out. He might have been used to bossing soldiers around, but elitist little assholes were a whole other kind of beast.
I tossed a few spare clothes and my toothbrush into a bag, focusing on keeping my face blank of emotions as we followed the soldiers out of the abandoned movie theatre and left our girl behind.
I swear it went against every single fibre of my being to do it and I wasn't even sure I could. But as Saint clapped a hand on my shoulder, encouraging me to follow the soldiers out, I made my feet keep moving. One in front of the other. Step after step leading me further and further from Tatum. But I just had to focus on the fact that we were leading the soldiers away from her too. This was what it took to keep her safe and that was all I cared about.
We walked down the street outside with our little group of soldiers and were directed to climb up into the back of a huge, covered army truck where there were already a bunch of people inside waiting for it to leave.
I hesitated a moment before climbing the steps, wondering if I'd ever feel totally comfortable in the company of strangers again or if I'd forever be left with this niggling sense of nervousness when it came to interacting with people I didn't know. Months of lockdown and fearing the Hades Virus had definitely changed my outlook on the world. It had made me more thankful for the things I had, more appreciative for the things I'd once taken for granted and had shown me just how easily the entire world could be thrown into turmoil. Yeah, the virus had changed a whole hell of a lot, but we'd survived it, so I guessed we were doing better than some and I was determined to come out the other side of this crisis stronger for it.
I dropped onto one of the benches and Saint took the seat beside me while Kyan and Blake sat opposite us, all of us sporting the same grim looks as we were forced to leave our girl behind.
"Before you ship out, we need all of you to take a look at this flyer and let us know if you've seen this girl anywhere in the last few weeks," Sergeant Jeffers called out, handing the flyer to Saint and making my damn heart skip a beat as I spotted the photograph of Tatum in her school uniform.
Saint didn't even blink of course, studying the picture for a few seconds before shaking his head and passing it to me. I gave it a long look then muttered a no before passing it to the guy closest to me.
Blake yawned widely as the thing made its way around the truck and I couldn't help but side-eye everyone who looked at it. We'd been damn careful to stay out of sight since arriving here, but you could never be totally sure that we'd gone undetected. What if someone had seen her when she and Blake had run off to go visit his father? Or when we were coming in and out of the building? What were we going to do if those army assholes strode back into that movie theatre and hauled her out here? Was I about to get myself shot down trying to wrestle her from their arms?
I tried not to think about how that might play out, but it was impossible. My life was worth offering in sacrifice for Tatum Rivers. After I’d seen how weak and hurt she was by Troy Memphis’s people, there was no way I was letting him get near her again. But I prayed death wouldn’t be what it cost me to save her, because I still planned on being there when Troy fell from grace, wetting my hands in his blood and marking his death on my body for Mom and Michael.
The flyer made it back around to Blake and he gave it to Kyan last who released a low whistle.
"Holy hell, if you find her can you give her my number?" he asked with a grin. "She looks like the kind of girl I could have real fun getting naked with."
"She's hot as fuck," Blake agreed and Sergeant Jeffers snatched the flyer back from them.
"She is also a wanted woman who may have had a hand in releasing the Hades Virus into the world, so perhaps you should be choosier about who you want to stick your cock into," he snapped.
"Well I could still hate fuck her pretty good," Kyan reasoned. "But I can't guarantee she'd come quietly - get it?"
Sergeant Jeffers huffed a breath of frustration which momentarily fogged his visor before he hopped out of the truck and thumped the side of it a couple of times to get the driver going and we took off down the street. It was a relief to know they’d bought our bullshit, but the knot of tension in my chest still didn’t ease.
"I don't like this," I muttered, my voice so low that only the other Night Keepers would be able to hear me.
"She's a strong and capable woman," Saint replied as if I needed reminding of that fact. "Besides, Simone, we need to concentrate on how exactly we are going to be getting ourselves out of this, because as it stands, I think we are the ones in the worse situation."
"Simone?" Blake asked, cracking up at my fake name.
"Simone Dipsickle," Saint confirmed, that smug almost smile on his lips again as I growled irritably at him.
"You're an asshole," I muttered, allowing myself a moment of amusement too.
"I had no say in the names," Saint replied but he was so full of shit I could practically smell it.
"Yeah, sure. I guess the fact that Rex means king has nothing to do with your name, Mr Power."
Kyan laughed loudly and I glanced at the other people in the truck, but they seemed to have noticed the dangerous vibe our group gave off and had all shuffled the fuck away from us. Good thing too because I didn't want some mouth breather getting up in my business even if we were vaccinated now.
"What's yours then?" I asked the others.
"Rodger Cumming," Blake snorted.
"Levi Grinder," Kyan added with a dirty as fuck smirk.
"What the fuck?" I complained. "How come they get to be porn stars while I'm a fucking Dipsickle?"
"Perhaps, you shouldn't have lied to me about your past identity," Saint said in a low voice, shrugging one shoulder. "You do realise I have the power to eradicate your badly fabricated persona of 'Nash Monroe' and make you forever Simone Dipsickle, don't you? Perhaps you should remember that in future if you consider lying to me again."
My lips fell open, but I knew there was no point in me arguing with the Devil especially after it was done, so I just blew out a laugh and embodied my inner Simone. I just hoped she was a badass bitch because as I cast my gaze over the rows of military vehicles lining the streets, I got the feeling she would need to be if we seriously hoped to get out of this.
I’ d forced myself to wait until the sounds of the army in the streets outside were long gone before I moved. Every muscle in my body was cramping up as I shoved the door to the cupboard open, pushing the bed out of the way as I scrambled back into the room. I took a moment to grab everything that had been stashed in there with me, tossing the full pack on the bed with Kyan’s bat before placing the box of vaccines back in the fridge. I took out my phone, switching it back on as my heart beat fiercely in my chest.
My Night Keepers were gone. Taken. And as capable as I knew they were, that didn’t make me feel any better about that. So I was going to do everything within my power to get to them.
I tapped on the app I could use to contact them, sending a message as my breaths came a little heavier.
Tigress:
Are you okay??
Koala:
Just fine, baby. They’ve taken us beyond the barricade out of the city. We’ll get away as soon as we get to the camp. Squid has a plan.
I’ve spoken to my uncle Narwhal, he’s gonna be with you soon.
Scorpion:
I will not respond to ‘Squid.’
Baboon:
You just did!
Nighthawk:
*squid emoji*
Miss you Tigress, I plan to steal you away from these assholes when I see you next and get real *pretzel emoji* with you.
Baboon:
Oh fuck, can I get in on that *pretzel emoji* action?
Koala:
I’ll be too busy *octopus emoji*-ing the fuck out of her for you guys to try that.
Tigress:
Glad you’re all taking this situation seriously…you could at least be a little *onion emoji* about it.
Baboon:
Nothing can keep us from you, sweetheart, we’ll be back inside you in no time *wink emoji*
Scorpion:
I’m done with this conversation. See you soon, Tigress.
Nighthawk:
byyyye Squid *waving emoji*
Scorpion:
At least use proper punctuation and grammar, you halfwit.
Baboon:
i TINK we fckd off squid wot u guys fink?
Scorpion:
I will leave you all behind when I escape.
Tigress:
You can’t do that! I need you all to *protractor emoji* in my *wastepaper basket emoji* when I see you next.
Koala:
FUCK. YES. Me first. *squid emoji*
Scorpion:
Ha! You gave the game away. The squid is clearly used as a symbol of excitement.
Koala:
Well now you’ve got me feeling *squid emoji* about it *crying emoji*
Scorpion:
Fuck, I give up. Cease and desist.
*Scorpion has left the chatroom*
Tigress:
Love you guys. Stay safe xxxx
I tucked my phone away just as a loud thump came from downstairs and I swiped up Kyan’s bat, raising it defensively. Heavy footsteps pounded toward the door and I weighed my options against whoever was on the other side of it. They sounded like a big bastard.
Screw that.
I snatched the gun out of the bag on the bed, trading it out for the bat. I was opting for bullets over brawn. It was definitely the better option right now. I primed it, taking aim, my breaths coming unevenly. Keep your head, Tatum. If they have a gun, shoot first.
The door flew open and my heart lurched into my throat as I found a huge man pointing a sledgehammer at me. He was at least as tall as my Night Keepers, though may have had a few inches even on Kyan and his dirty blonde hair was swept away from his face in a casual I-give-zero-fucks way that a lot of men spent hours trying to perfect. I guessed it just came naturally to him because I seriously couldn’t imagine him standing before a mirror and preening. Colourful tattoos crawled over his hands and up his neck and the smile on his face was next level psycho.
Queen of Quarantine Page 24