“Are you girls going to dance with me tonight?” he asked, tipping his chin towards the band setting up on a small stage.
“No chance,” Rory said. “You’ve got two left feet.” No chance because she might forget to play her more or less real-life part of fractious little sister if she let go on a dance floor with him. There were too many ways the flirty rhythm of their bar-top dancing history could leak out and wreck their cover.
“Cadence, don’t hang me out for bonding meat,” he said with a groan.
“I have a headache,” she responded, without half a glance his way.
“Crash and burn,” Rory said, laughing. She made a sizzling sound and waved a hand about. “Fragile male ego all over the road.” That got Cadence to smile at least.
“Fragile male ego walking,” Zeke said, flatly, as he strode past them towards the food, and that made Cadence laugh.
The food, oh the food. Macy knew food. People likely wanted to stay at Abundance just for the barbecue socials. Now that Rory wasn’t tense from standing in her corner and eating alone, she sank into the food. She ate ribs and Zeke had steak, Cadence had a burger and it was all lip-smacking delicious.
They ate at a table set with a red and white checkered cloth under a string of winking fairy lights while the band played country music, and in the mild night air, with a full belly and Zeke chowing down not arm’s length away, Abundance was a good time and she was content.
She’d been on worse assignments where her role was to be ultra-glamorous, where she barely ate a thing, where her function was to make entitled rich men feel more important and suffer the contempt of their anxious trophy wives. Where she was more of a pretty decoration with intent to deceive than a secret weapon set to discover the truth.
Tonight’s truth was no challenge so far. Cadence was indeed a spy, but a reluctant one, Macy could make a fortune if she bottled her barbecue sauce back in the real world and Zeke was bond bait in three, two, one.
“Hi, I’m Susan.” A tall woman with a plume of hair that fell to her waist and eyes that said yes please, held her hand out in front of Zeke. “You’re new.”
“We’re eating, Susan,” Cadence said, though their plates were just about licked clean.
“I’m being friendly. You know friendly. Oh, wait, you don’t. You could introduce us,” Susan said.
“This is Zack and Rosie Woods,” Cadence said with vinegar in her voice. “Rosie is my roommate.”
“Same last name,” Susan said, frowning.
“Same family,” Rory said, unhelpfully. Deliberately.
Zeke bumped his knee into hers under the table. “Rosie is my sister.”
Susan’s face lit up like an airport runway in a blizzard. Come to Momma. “That’s wonderful. Welcome to Abundance. I’ve seen you around, Rosie. But where have you been hiding, Zack?”
“He doesn’t want you hitting on him,” Cadence said, before Zeke could get a word out.
“I’m not.”
“You were.”
“Excuse us,” Susan said with a forced smile before she zeroed in on Cadence. “Are you speaking for him then? Is he your bond choice?”
Commence violent headshakes from Cadence. “No. I—”
“Well then.” Susan smoothed already glossy auburn hair back. “Let’s start again. Hi Rosie, Zack. I’m Susan and I’m glad to meet you. And to be clear, I am looking for a bond so if you happened to be interested in me, you let me know. I’m fertile if you’re wondering. I’ll get out of your way now so you can stare at your empty plates in shocked silence.” She gestured towards the nursery, and right before stalking off said, “I’m a pre-school teacher. Look me up sometime.”
She was right about the stunned silence. Zeke broke it by saying, “Wow, that was,” he hesitated over a description and then said, “refreshing,” as he knocked his knee on hers again.
“Did she say look me up or hook me up?” Rory said, knocking him back.
“Might as well be hook me up,” Cadence said. “People are upfront about who they want to sleep with. Susan is one of Orrin’s favorites. Already has three kids, one is his. You could do worse, I guess.”
Orrin has favorites. Zeke would’ve picked up on that. The band who were called Continuous Chords had shifted into Springsteen. A woman beckoned to Cadence and she excused herself, but before Rory could take advantage of being alone with Zeke she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“How are you settling in, Rosie?”
That deep, indolent voice. Orrin. She turned to face him, to stand and dislodge his hand. “It’s very different to home.” She could hardly pretend to be meek with him after the scene she’d caused.
“There was a mix up,” said Zeke, standing too. “It made things difficult.” He wasn’t playing it submissive either.
“I understand,” Orrin said. “I’ve had words about you being separated when we promised that wouldn’t happen. But you know, maybe it’s for the best. You’ll settle in, make new friends quicker.”
“I’ve already made a friend in Cadence, but I can’t be of use in a kitchen. I need a new job.”
“You will settle, Rosie. It will feel like home soon.”
Which wasn’t an answer. “Not if I can’t be useful.”
Orrin’s expression changed. It wasn’t that he showed anger, but he had a look about him that said he liked to start fires and watch them burn. He’d had that look about him when he watched her from the HQ top floor balcony as she’d shouted at him. It made Rory feel like kindling.
“Zack is useful but all I do is stay out of people’s way.”
Orrin laughed. “And you think that might not be useful?”
She knew it was designed to break her spirit. “How is that contributing to Abundance?”
“Are you unhappy, Rosie? If you’re unhappy you don’t need to stay. Are you also unhappy, Zack?”
“We’re not unhappy,” Zeke said. “We haven’t settled in yet, but we will. We just need time.”
“Rosie can answer for herself.”
A hitch in Zeke’s lip showed he was entertained by that. Cadence had stopped on her way back to the table and wore a deer-frozen-in-headlights look. Rory felt like the spark. “I’m unhappy.”
“You were unhappy in the decay. You used drugs to try to find your happiness and you were killing yourself. You don’t know how to be happy. You need to trust I have your best interests at heart.” He gave off a father-knows-best vibe with a hint of big-bad-wolf huff and puff. “Can you trust me, Rosie?”
There was no measure too small; the flicker of a brow, the thickness of a fingernail, the moisture in a breath for how little she could trust Orrin, especially as broken promises were a currency in Abundance.
They’d attracted a lot of attention, heads turned their way, eyes glancing, hands raised to hide words whispered. She could keep pushing her discontent and earn Orrin’s anger or roll over and show her belly. “I’m scared.” Belly it was.
Down came his hand again and she locked down her dislike of that. Up went Orrin’s voice to please the spectators. “Child, you have no need to fear. Look around you. This is a community, selected carefully and brought together at great expense by me. I chose you to join us. This land is a gift. This pure air we breathe is our joy. The children we birth are hope for the new world. We are the future. The only part of any worth that will survive. You are valuable. You are loved here. You are free. The one thing I ask of you is to trust in me like all of these good people, your new brothers and sisters, have agreed to do.”
Cue crescendo of strings in the orchestra that would be playing if this was a TV show. Even knowing what Orrin was doing to her, forcing her to voice her trust in him, to commit it out loud with witnesses, she felt the pressure of the moment.
A smile flirted on Zeke’s lips. That was all she needed.
“I trust you.” She should’ve put more of a tremble in her voice, but there was applause anyway. It rippled out from all the folk who’d pretended seconds ago no
t to be listening.
Orrin wore a look of triumph as his fingers grazed her cheek, before he bent to speak in her ear. “You will learn to love me. As I love you. Be patient, my beauty.”
It would’ve been less disturbing if he’d detailed how he wanted her skinned alive to make soup from her bones, but she didn’t react until he’d moved away, searching for the comfort of Zeke’s eyes.
“Game on,” he said. “Not sure I like the play, but here we go.”
No time to say more. Cadence was back, still wearing the stunned look. It clashed with what she said. “You’re favored.”
It was more like a warning. Behave or else.
“Orrin singled you out. He wouldn’t have touched you. He wouldn’t do that and in front of everyone if you had a black mark. This is good news. Couldn’t be better.”
If it was so fantastic, why was Cadence crocheting with her hands with a look on her face that said I’ve lost count of my stitches and I’ve forgotten what I’m making?
Rory’s body was full of the shudder she’d had to hold back, the flinch, and the stifled desire to tell a man who put his hands on her without permission exactly where he could fuck himself.
She needed to move. “I’m going for a walk.” She’d find some new people who’d ignore her, make sure she was seen, and then she’d go cat-burgle Orrin’s office.
There’d be time later to find out why Cadence’s words and picture didn’t match.
First person who didn’t actively avoid her was Macy. “Best barbecue I’ve eaten, hands down,” she told the chef.
Macy gave her a genuine smile and lifted the tumbler she was holding in a toast. “Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it. I saw you speaking with Orrin. You’re bold for someone who’s dang useless.”
Rory shrugged. “I didn’t make that happen.”
Macy passed the tumbler hand to hand. “I heard you asked Orrin about a new job?”
She’d heard. Already. This was what happened to people when they didn’t have TV. Or cell phones. Or the internet. News traveled at the speed of prying eyes and busy ears. “He told me to—”
“Be patient. I know. Good goddamn, I told you already that was what you had to do.”
“I can’t just stand in the corner while everyone else works hard all day.” That was a recipe for being disliked. She’d been here a week and she was already the slacker who Orrin favored. That did not sound like a secure position in life.
“You can because you’re just going to make work. I have my reasons for wanting you exactly where I put you.”
“Why is this so hard? I want to fit in and you’re making me stand out.”
Macy eye-rolled. “You think that’s why you stand out? Everyone knows you went to HQ shouting about your brother. You’re lucky Orrin didn’t boot you back to the decay. He’s a saint, that man. And to think he singled you out.”
“What exactly am I singled out for?” She needed the clearest picture possible.
“The men do their part. The women do the growing, birthing and the caretaking. We share our wisdom and our hands, and no one is left alone to struggle. It looks like Orrin is interested in you for himself. Touching you intimately in public, that was declaration of intent.”
She needed Macy to say it so her own impression from her encounter with Orrin was verified. “What intent?”
“You might be useless but that doesn’t make you stupid,” said Macy. “You pop out his babe, you’ll always be favored.”
There it was. That accounted for Cadence’s mixed signals and her own revulsion at Orrin’s words and touch. “I’m not interested in being favored.”
“Maybe you are stupid. It would be an honor to be bedded by him.”
“I’m not ready for that honor so soon.” She chose the words carefully, heeding Cadence’s warning.
“So soon.” Macy made a tsk-tsk sound. “The world is ending. It’s not like we have time. You’re healthy, fertile?”
“That’s not it.” Rory dug her heels in and spooled out her cover story. If she was lucky, the gossip ran all the way back to Orrin and he’d meditate on her reluctance. “I was an addict. My body is still recovering. I’m not even regular yet.” She was also wired up with an IUD and progestin, so pregnancy would be a genuine miracle, plus she didn’t have to worry about having a period while she was on this rollercoaster.
“No one is ever ready,” said Macy. “You’ll have all the help you’d never get in the decay.”
“From Orrin?” Rory asked, struggling to keep incredulity from her voice.
“What do men know about raising children? Having a man around is like having another child. A lot of us here were raised by single moms or had deadbeat dads. Women are natural with kids. Your sisters will be with you all the way. You won’t have sleepless nights or struggle with feeding or teething or potty training. Our kids get all the attention they truly need and deserve without anyone needing to be exhausted.”
That was some gender normative bullshit. “You truly believe that?” If Zeke fell for someone and decided he wanted to be a dad, there’d be no stopping him being up to his armpits in the chaos of that. Rory scratched her neck. All this talk about motherhood was giving her a rash.
Macy laughed. “Oh don’t you look like you lost your virginity all over again. Girl, you are saved now. Whatever worries you have from your old life, you don’t need to think about them anymore. Once you’ve bonded with Orrin you’ll have respect, and no one can ever take away the fact that you’re the mother of our founder’s child.”
“What if I say no?”
Macy looked at the sky as if it had better answers to Rory’s questions. “I was wondering if I was too harsh calling you useless, but now I know I wasn’t. Half the women here would do something desperate to have Orrin pay them one heartbeat of the attention you got tonight.”
She’d been here a week and not only was she a troublemaking slacker no one wanted to talk to, she was favored as a brood mare. Time to watch her back and reel her defiance in. “It’s a shock, that’s all. Everything is so different.”
Macy studied her. “Hmhm. Okay, okay.” She threw her hand up. “This here is a party, and it’s for dancing and making eyes at men, and getting some later and I’m in need of some. I’m out.”
Macy’s departure was Rory’s cue. She had a lot to think about and a signal jammer to find.
Chapter Nine
Cadence had no intention of dancing with Zeke. He asked her three times. The first time to be polite. The second because the band were playing “Radio Nowhere” and his feet were tapping and so were hers, and the third time because Susan was on her way back.
“Dance with me. If you don’t, Susan is going to take Rory’s seat and I don’t think you want that.” He sure didn’t. He angled his head towards the dancers and smiled at Cadence. “Save me, please.”
Cadence stood with the grace of a drunk giraffe that made him want to laugh. He followed her onto the dance floor, conscious of the eyes on him, Susan’s frown and Chuck’s undisguised astonishment.
The band played “I’m on Fire.” This was slow dancing and he wasn’t sure how to approach that. Cadence looked around, hands flapping at her sides. “I just wanted to get away from her. I didn’t realize it was this kind of dancing.”
All the other couples were doing their best prom impersonations, holding close, barely moving. “We could just sway a little. It’s still dancing.” He planted his feet wide and shifted his weight between them.
She snuck a look around. He figured she’d bolt if she wasn’t certain that would attract more attention than coming out here already had.
“Maybe we could hold hands.” Zeke turned his towards her. “Just the one.” He didn’t want to touch her with his injured hand and he didn’t want to make her any more uncomfortable than she was.
Cadence stepped in closer and took his hand, was fine about him folding it to his chest. They danced like that for the remainder of the song, barely moving, no other co
ntact, part of the sea of others doing the same. When the song changed he expected her to head off, but she made no move to.
“Susan would be a good bond for you. She has influence. She wants to have more babies. A bond isn’t forever. You get to end it whenever you’re ready.”
“I’m not interested in bonding with Susan. I’m not interested in bonding with anyone.” He could hold out a while, but then he’d have to find a way to either avoid it altogether or fake a bond. Rory, though, Rory needed a better strategy to avoid Orrin’s predatory attentions. He’d been attracted to her meekness on arrival; she’d have been banking on putting him off with her switch to sharp. He seemed to grok that defiance in her even more.
“You’ll want to. Men can’t go without sex.”
“Sure they can.”
Cadence looked up. “That’s an idea from the outside that never worked. We don’t pretend in here. Men want sex. Women do too. I can’t wait till I’m too old to breed and then I won’t have to worry about it. That’s one advantage of being a woman. You’ll be expected to father kids till you drop dead.”
That wasn’t in the Continuer fine print.
“The only men who deny their sex drive are priests and all that led to was the worst kind of abuse,” she said.
“I won’t die if I don’t have sex.” So long as they weren’t talking about forever here. “Abstaining from sex isn’t denying my sex drive. It’s being careful about who I get involved with and I have no intention of being a father anytime soon.”
“You say things like that and I wonder why you came here.”
“Same reason you did. Outside is fucked up. I want to survive.”
Cadence freed her hand. “Thanks for the dance. I’m going home now.”
She left him standing there while the band played “Dancing in the Dark.” But she’d given him a cover story. Enough people had seen them. He could claim he followed her if challenged.
He didn’t stop to look for Rory. He could guess where she’d be. He cut through the dancers, weaving this way and that until he got to the edge of the fairy lights and then walked out of the glow. Once out of sight, he headed for HQ.
The Mysterious Stranger (The Confidence Game Book 3) Page 8