Andre

by Sybil Bartel

  “Who?” River barked.

  “Decima, sir.”

  Until that very moment, I did not realize Hero, nor any of the hunters, knew my name. We all knew their names. Especially Hero. He was the tallest, broadest hunter, and I’d always assumed it made him good at his job.

  River’s tone took a turn. “My daughter, Decima?”

  We were all his daughters.

  “Yes, sir,” Hero answered.

  “Send her in.”

  I drew my soiled dress into my muddied fists and begged the sweet Lord not to make me do this. “No,” I whispered to the unrelenting walls, but Hero was already coming at me.

  With an angry scowl, he glanced at my hands and his nostrils flared. “Drop your arms.” Then, just like Persephone, he took my wrist and dragged me toward the inner room.

  Before I could draw a breath to calm my threatening heartbeat, I was standing in front of a rough wooden desk with no less than half a dozen hunters behind me.

  With eyes the exact same color as mine, River smiled. “Decima,” he purred.

  Spots crowded the edges of my vision as fear and anger took control of my breathing. “Yes, sir?” I forced words out because you never not acknowledged the holy one, not if you wanted to live.

  His head tilted and his shrewd eyes took me in. “Your hair is long, your face is fresh, you look beautiful on this glorious day, child.” He smiled. “Or should I say woman?”

  The five-letter word filled me with dread. “I-I…,” I stammered. “I am still a child, sir.”

  “Not for long.” River dropped the smile. “But as you can see, I am busy, child.”

  His reversion back to child made me hate him more.

  “I do not have time to take care of you,” he continued, as if everything he was saying made perfect sense. Glancing at Hero, he tipped his chin. “Hero is going to tend to you. For the next week, you are his charge.”

  “Sir—” Hero interrupted.

  River held a hand up to Hero but kept his eyes on me. “You will obey him, respect him, and mind him. You will do exactly as Hero says or he will report it to me. Understood?”

  A week? I bit back tears of anger. “Yes, sir.”

  River turned to Hero. “You will still man your station. Cover any gaps before tending to her.”

  “Yes, sir,” Hero bit out.

  “Theonides.” River glanced at one of the hunters. “You are on door guard until Hero returns.”

  The older hunter stood. “Of course, sir.” He moved toward the outer chamber as Hero took my arm again.

  Right before the door, River called to him. “Hero, after you tend to her, you may educate her. I will be along to finish the job when I am done.”

  Finish the job? I dared to glance up at Hero in sheer panic.

  His jaw locked, his nostrils flared and anger colored his cheeks. “Yes, sir.” He ground the words out.

  I squeaked like a field mouse as Hero dragged me out the door, my feet tripping over themselves. “What is he going to finish?”I dared to ask, but my stomach knotted as if it knew.

  Three of his long paces across the compound, and Hero practically yanked my arm out of its socket. “Stop resisting,” he snarled in a whispered hiss. “You will draw even more attention.”

  “He-he’s not to-touching me, is he?” Trying to control my stammer, I sucked in a breath, but no air filled my panicked lungs. “I’ll run.” I would hide. I would do what I had to.

  Ignoring me, Hero dragged me over to the supply building and barked at the attendant. “Monthlies,” he demanded.

  The elder behind the half door didn’t even react. His weathered face impassive, he merely nodded and disappeared. A few seconds later, he held out one of the well-used canvas bags we made on the compound for carrying items.

  Hero snatched it out of his hand. “Thank you, brother.” Except there was no graciousness in his tone.

  I didn’t have time to ask him what was in the bag or appeal to him for a gentler hold, because he dragged me clear across the compound and around the wash building, and suddenly we were in forbidden territory.

  Horror filled my head and spread through my veins as I managed to dig one bare foot into the ground. “No!” Panic consumed me. “I am not allowed here.” This was the path to the men’s quarters.

  Hero halted and his tall frame that had grown over the past year from boy to man loomed above me. He had only taken eighteen turns around the sun, but he may as well have been River’s age for the sheer size of him. “Quit being so naïve, Decima.” He looked down at my dress in disgust. “You are a woman now.” He kicked one of the doors open on the backside of the men’s quarters and shoved me inside.

  I stumbled and fell on the step up, scraping my bare knee across the rough wood floor. Blood seeped and my panic grew into fear. “I’m… I’m sorry.” I frantically wiped my skinned knee with my dress. “I will clean it up.”

  Sucking in a breath of impatience, the hunter stared down at me. Then he shocked me and softened his voice. “Are you hurt?” he quietly asked.

  His sudden change in tone disarming me, I stupidly took liberties and begged. “Please, do not make me do this.”The second the words left my mouth, I knew I had made a mistake.

  Anger contorted his face once again. “Get up and get inside,” he growled.

  Terrified, I barely noticed the single room with a bed, a chair, and a washroom to the side. Retreating to the corner as he slammed the door, I tried to curl in on myself, but I couldn’t take my eyes off him. In the few seconds between asking me if I was all right and me asking him to not do whatever he was about to do, I saw something. More than hunter, more than the face of River Ranch, something close to compassion had shown through. Searching his face, wishing it to come back, I stared. If a being could be more beautiful in anger, Hero was exactly that.

  The second he slammed the door shut, he was removing his weapons and placing them on the only shelf attached to the rough wooden wall. After his weapons came off, he stripped his shirt, and I fought a gasp as I quickly looked away. “Wh-what are you doing?” Oh please, Lord, forgive me.

  This time, he didn’t have an angry comeback. His heavy boots moved across the floor, and his voice dropped as he stepped up to me. “Arms up,” he commanded, his tone suddenly weary.

  River’s warnings still burning my ears, I lifted my arms, but even had I not been instructed, something told me I still would have done what Hero asked.

  He pulled my dress over my head with surprising gentleness, and the humid air of the room hit my naked body. I covered my breasts that had grown bigger in the last year.

  “No,” Hero ordered, his voice growing deeper, harsher. “Drop your arms.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and did as he said.

  “Open your eyes, Decima.”

  My name touching his lips in barely a whisper, I did as he said.

  Blue eyes stared down at me. “You no longer hide from men.”

  “All men?”Oh, Lord, no. I did not want to be like Alathena.

  “Yes.”

  “Please, not River,” I uselessly pleaded, swallowing back bile.

  “If we ask, you show us your offerings.” Hero bit out the word we as if it were an unholy curse.

  I sucked in a breath, fighting tears. “Offerings?”

  Without warning, he grabbed my breast and pinched my nipple. “These.”

  I gasped, then a sensation took hold between my legs and I knew instantly I would take my own life before I let the man who had created me touch me like that.

  As if Hero knew my body, he touched the hair that had grown between my legs, then he pressed a thumb against a spot I never knew existed. “And this.”

  Dizzy, suddenly panting, I dared to grasp his strong arms. Unholy words bled from my mouth. “I never want River to touch me like this.”

  His sharp inhale of breath flared his nostrils and for one heart-stopping moment, he said nothing. Then his blond hair fell over one of his blue eyes, and
he held his hand out. A thin cylindrical paper-wrapped item lay in his hand. “Before breakfast, before lunch, before dinner and before curfew—” His voice broke and he swallowed. “I am going to put this in you.”

  I glanced at the tube, not understanding. “What is that?”

  “This is going to catch your blood. It needs to be changed four times a day, but you do not do that.” He stared at me as if he had regret. “I do.”

  My heart flew into my ribs, and I took a step back. “You can’t… no.” Pieces of protest my only barrier against him, I wished for his soft voice to return. “Please….”

  He tossed the thing on the bed and grabbed my arm, but his firmness ended there. Gently pulling me to his chest, he held me until my breasts touched his bare flesh.

  I gasped.

  Searching my eyes as if asking a question, he waited.

  Confused, afraid, I said nothing.

  His rough fingers coasted the length of my arm. “Use the sink, wash between your legs, then come to the bed.”

  Something beyond fear happened to my body, and I started to tremble. “Please,” I shamelessly begged one more time. “Do not let him touch me.” I didn’t care about the doctrine that all River Ranch women belonged to the holy one. I no longer cared about the strict rules and threats of punishment for disobedience. River Stephens had become a monster to me and although I didn’t understand it, instinct told me a hunter had become my only chance at survival.

  Hero’s jaw locked and without a word, he ushered me into the bare bathroom with only a sink and a toilet. Grabbing the one washcloth off a hook, his movements rough, he wet the cloth and briskly wiped between my legs. Then he threw the washcloth in the sink and led me back to the bed.

  My bottom hit the edge, and my legs dangled at an awkward angle. I pulled them together, but his large hand pressed against the inside of my knee.

  “No. Spread your legs.” He didn’t reach for the white tube he’d tossed on the bed. He reached for his belt and undid it.

  “What are you doing?”My voice shook and fear clawed at my throat. “The… the… the tube. You said you were going to….” As I saw his manhood spring from his pants, I couldn’t finish the words.

  “I am taking you first.”

  Male voices downstairs kicked me out of my memories, and I snatched a dress out of the backpack and threw it on.

  “YOU WERE ALREADY SUPPOSED TO be on the Cobalt.” Neil’s voice had zero intonation as he walked into his house, but he was still giving me shit. I knew him enough to know when he was pissed off.

  I glanced down into the garage before he shut the door, and saw one of his supply trucks backed up to the house. “We were on our way when you showed up.” The bedroom door upstairs opened, and I looked up the stairs before turning back to Neil. “What are you doing here?”

  He leveled me with a look. “You smell like sex, and the woman is coming out of my bedroom.”

  “Watch it,” I warned.

  His colorless blue eyes sized me up in a fraction of a second. “Love is not an excuse for stupidity.”

  “Jesucristo.” My nostrils flared. “Don’t pretend you know what this is.” I didn’t know if I was more pissed off at him for saying that word, or myself for ever looking up to him because I’d stupidly thought he was always fucking right.

  “I pretend nothing.”

  I couldn’t accuse him of lying, because he was painfully fucking honest. “Why are you here?” Neil didn’t do anything that didn’t have a purpose.

  “Retrieving the crates.” He looked over my shoulder and tipped his chin.

  “The crates are here?”

  “Company,” he quietly warned.

  I spun and my heart fucking skipped. Barefoot, in a short, tight, sleeveless black dress, her hair the right kind of messy, she took my fucking breath away. “Kendall, you remember Neil.”

  She didn’t even look at me as she dumped our backpack on the couch. “Viking.” She said his name sarcastically. “Let me guess, you’re here on a rescue mission.”

  Neil didn’t miss a beat. “You have not changed.”

  “Lucky for you.” She strode to the fridge and gave us an eyeful of her perfect ass as she bent to grab a bottle of water.

  Internally groaning, I tore my gaze away and glanced at Neil. “Outside. I need to talk to you.”

  Kendall smirked. “Don’t leave on my account.”

  I was reaching for the door handle to the garage when the sound of bikes coming down the driveway filled the kitchen. “Mierda.” I grabbed the backpack and pulled a baseball hat out. “Chica,” I barked. “Go out the back and get in the Cobalt. You know how to start a boat?”

  She casually drank her water as the bikes got closer. Then she shrugged like she wasn’t in grave fucking danger. “It’s an engine, you put a key in. How hard can it be?”

  I shoved the hat on her head, took her water and handed her the backpack. “Start it up and keep her at a low throttle. If you hear shots fired, undo the tie-downs, and head out southeast until you’re in open waters. If I don’t call you within thirty minutes, call Talerco. Go.” I gave her the Cobalt’s key, and her SIM card from my pocket. “Only put the SIM back in your phone if you have to use it.”

  She didn’t say shit, but she took the key and sim card and went toward the sliders to the back porch.

  Neil glanced out the kitchen window, then issued me a command. “Go with her.”

  I went to the closet off the kitchen where he kept his gun safe and opened it. Ten seconds later, the familiar weight of a rifle in my hands, I set another rifle on the counter for him, but I didn’t go near the windows. “How many and how far out?” I didn’t want to fucking argue with Christensen, but I was more effective behind a scope.

  “Three.” He didn’t move. “Now four. Ten seconds. You are out of time. Leave.”

  I ran to the sliders to make sure Kendall made it to the Cobalt. She was already at the helm with the water churning behind the boat as she fired up the engines. “I’m not leaving yet.” I ran in a crouch to the dining room window, slid it open a crack, then leveled my aim as four LCs drove around the last bend in the driveway.

  Goddamn it. “The two bikers in front saw me and Kendall an hour ago.”

  Neil picked up the rifle and voiced what I was thinking. “One of us was followed.”

  “I lost them in Homestead. You were tailed.”

  Neil checked the magazine. “Or you did not watch for a second tail. Either way they are here.” He spared me a quick glance. “Go with the girl. I will handle this.”

  “We will handle this,” I corrected as the assholes parked in front of the truck to block it in. “You remember the signal?”

  “Ja.” He tipped his chin twice, giving me the signal we’d used since Afghanistan.

  I sighted the assholes as they slowly walked toward the garage, looking cagey as fuck. “I’ve got the three in back, you take the one in front.”

  “Wait for the signal.” Neil left through the kitchen, but he didn’t pull the door all the way shut, so I could hear the conversation.

  My aim was on the three bikers in back as Neil walked out of the garage, his rifle resting on his shoulder like he was Tom fucking Sawyer.

  “Private property,” he warned the LCs.

  The front biker moved his hand to a 9mm resting in a belt holster. “We’re looking for a friend of yours.”

  “You are trespassing.” Neil swung the rifle off his shoulder, his hand already on the trigger. “You have a choice to make.”

  The third and fourth bikers pulled their weapons and aimed at Neil as the second biker stepped up alongside the first.

  The front biker chuckled. “The way I see it?” He glanced at his buddies before looking back at Neil and smirking. “You’re outnumbered.”

  “I am always outnumbered. That does not mean you will not die. You have five seconds to get off my property.”

  Bold as fuck, the front biker took a step toward Neil and seale
d his fate. “You give us Luna or you—”

  The butt of Neil’s rifle slammed into the asshole’s face as Neil swept his foot out, hooked his leg, and yanked. The asshole crumpled to the ground with a broken nose and who the fuck knew what else, but not before Neil had taken his sidearm. Already shoving the muzzle of his rifle into the next biker’s temple, Neil aimed the unconscious biker’s handgun at the other two assholes.

  “Do you know what will happen if either of you shoot me?” Neil calmly asked the third and fourth bikers.

  “You’ll fucking die,” the third biker answered.

  “Don’t shoot.” The second biker held his hands up.

  Neil ignored him and addressed the third biker. “Then why have you not pulled the trigger?”

  “What the fuck, dude?” The fourth biker shifted nervously. “We just wanna talk to André Luna.”

  “We saw that rice rocket earlier.” The biker with Neil’s rifle to his temple pointed at my Ducati in the garage. “We know he’s here.”

  The asshole on the ground twitched like he was coming to.

  I waited with my finger on the trigger as the sound of another approaching motorcycle grew louder.

  “You are wasting my time.” Neil raised his aim, but he didn’t tip his chin.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” The fourth biker dropped his aim and held one hand up as a bike came around the last bend in the driveway.

  Talon pulled his Aprilia up next to Neil and cut the engine. Taking his helmet off, he smiled like a pig in shit. “What’s up, Vikin’?” He glanced at the LCs. “Ladies.” He chuckled and tipped his chin at Neil. “Y’all start the fun without me?” He got off his bike.

  The third LC aimed at Talon. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “It’s not me you should be worryin’ ’bout,” he drawled. “Did you know Vikin’ here and your prez are tight?” He clapped Neil’s shoulder. “Yep, him and Stone go way back.” Talon glanced at Neil and grinned. “Tell ’em, Vikin’.”

  Neil shoved the LC on the ground’s 9mm in his waistband and pulled his phone out. Without a word, he dialed a number and put the phone on speaker.

  The president of the LCMCs, Stone Hawkins, answered on the first ring. “Neil Christensen,” he said dryly. “What’s up?”