Corrupt Desires

by Jennifer Bene

  “It’s only been… what? Five days? How can they already be organizing?” Bryant sounded concerned, and from the way he interlaced their fingers on the bed to grip tight she knew that he was scared. For her.

  “Because they have the advantage of having already been organized before the coup.” Davis spoke up from the couch. “We’re still adjusting to being able to publicly organize, to speak through direct channels. Not to mention, we’re actively recruiting those who want to be a part of this new city, but we don’t even know how it runs.”

  “Fuck,” Bryant growled, leaning his head back against the bed as he paled slightly. “Tell me what exactly is happening.”

  There was more strength in his voice when he looked around at them again, and Phee stayed quiet, holding his hand as she listened. It was someone from the back wall that spoke this time. “The most urgent issue is the water. Parts of the city are reporting low pressure, or a lack of water completely. That includes some of the downtowners.”

  “Shit…” Rubbing his forehead, Bryant closed his eyes, brows furrowing as he mumbled under his breath. “You’ve got to find… um. Fuck, what’s his name?” A rough exhale that made him cough slightly. “Ross, Ross Matthews. He’s the Public Works Director, you need to find him and have him get people back to work. If the water is failing it’s probably because everyone is too fucking scared to go to work.”

  “Okay, who else?” Carol asked, opening a notepad to write down the name.

  “Gabriel Chapman is over sanitation. He had an issue last year with my uncle.” Cursing, Bryant looked around at them as they listened, everyone desperate for guidance that Phee knew he could provide, but he seemed reluctant.

  There was nothing she could do except squeeze his hand in hers and stay by his side. Leaning close, she whispered against his shoulder, “They need your help.”

  Glancing down at her, he kissed her forehead and took a slow breath. Finally, he seemed to gather his thoughts. “Okay. I’ve got a laptop at my apartment on my desk, someone needs to get it, along with the key fob in the top-left drawer. I’m not going to be able to remember everyone’s names, but if I can get into my email I can help. I am not agreeing to be your figurehead, but if we let the city fall apart we’ll lose support and whatever is left of the COF will take it back.”

  “I’ll have someone get your laptop,” Davis answered, standing to attention and nodding before he walked out of the room.

  “I’ve got a list of questions from Parks that he wanted me to run past you, if you’re up for it.” The younger man from the wall stepped forward, pausing next to Carol.

  “Fine, I’ll do what I can.”

  People came and went over the next couple of days, a mix of the resistance and medical personnel who helped Bryant with the walking. Forcing him to work through the pain, which broke Phee’s heart again and again with the remnants of guilt.

  As Bryant sat down with another collection of resistance leaders, Phee slipped out the door to find Easton sitting in chairs near the nurses’ station… with Regan.

  “Oh my God!” Phee yelled, immediately hushed by the woman behind the desk as her best friend squealed just as loud and ran for her. They collided in a hug, and the ache in her ribs and cheek didn’t even matter as they held onto each other.

  “I tried so hard to get here earlier, but everything is so crazy. Easton had to come get me himself with a big group of guys, and they had guns, and what the fuck, Phee?! How are you involved in this? Did you know that Bryant was some kind of resistance leader?” Loud rambling, too loud for the mixed company of the hallway, but she couldn’t chide her as happy as she was to see her.

  “I swear I’ll tell you everything, Regan. I swear, I’m just so fucking glad you’re safe.”

  “I didn’t even know what had happened! I got to work on Thursday and no one showed up. Not you, not Alex, and I called your cell probably a million times and you never answered. So I went to your apartment, and there were cops!” Regan was talking with her hands, flailing, and Phee grabbed her arm to drag her into an empty hospital room. Easton followed, hovering at the door as he watched the hall.

  “Regan, you’ve got to lower your voice, okay? I’ll explain, but you have to be quiet.”

  For once, Regan looked like she’d actually do it. Her chin was shaking as she nodded, eyes threatening tears. “There were bodies, Phee. I thought one of them was you. They questioned me for hours.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Phee whispered and hugged her. She’d asked Easton to call Regan but had never followed up. The city seemed like it was about to shake apart at the seams, Bryant was recovering, and she had completely forgotten about what Regan could be going through. “I am such a shit friend, Regan. I should have sent someone to get you sooner.”

  Sniffling, Regan leaned back and shoved her shoulder. “Honestly, it’s super hard for me to stay pissed at you when you look like that. What happened, Phee?”

  “A lot…” Taking a breath, Phee tried her best to summarize everything. How Bryant had shown up, the COF men he’d killed to save her life. Alex.

  “Wait Alex had a gun? He tried to kill you?” Regan gawked at her, and she shrugged.

  “I don’t know what he was planning to do, and I don’t think we’ll ever really know. I mean, he was angry that I’d gone with Bryant. Apparently, he told some COF people about it, and that’s how Bryant’s uncle found out about me.”

  “I told you he liked you.”

  Rolling her eyes, Phee sighed. “Yes, you were right. Happy? He liked me and he was fucking crazy, because he definitely wanted to kill Bryant, but he’s dead now.”

  “Holy shit,” Regan sat down in one of the chairs and Phee took the one beside her.

  “Yeah, but that’s really just the beginning.” It took a while to fill in her best friend, to explain it all with Regan interrupting her every fifth word, but eventually she caught her up. “So, things have been insane, but it’s no excuse.”

  “Of course it is, Phee. You almost died, like, twice!” Regan groaned and hugged her again. “You’re all I have left, Phee. What the fuck would I do if you were gone?”

  “I’m sorry, Regan. I promise it won’t happen again.” Smiling a little, she leaned back from her bestie. “So… do you want to meet Bryant?”

  “YES!” Regan shouted, jumping to her feet, and Easton laughed from the door.

  Phee stood up and grabbed her hand to lead them back down the hall, with Easton on their heels. As they approached Bryant’s room, which had become a kind of headquarters, Phee felt her stomach twist. Easton had heard everything she’d told Regan, which meant he was the only one besides Bryant and her best friend to now know the full scale of what had happened. Just before she knocked on the door, she turned to him.

  One dark brow arched, the scar on the side of his head catching the lights as he met her gaze. “What?”

  “Please don’t… mention what you heard to anyone? It’s just that—”

  “I won’t tell anyone. It’s not my story to tell.” Easton looked like the same asshole that had threatened Bryant, and scared the shit out of her, but there was another side of him that made her trust him. The same side that had watched over her as she’d slept and gone to get Regan so that she was safe.

  “Thanks, Easton.”

  “Don’t mention it,” he muttered, pounding his fist on the door. “Really, don’t mention it. I like it when the other guys piss themselves around me.”

  A smirk tilted his lips, and Regan laughed, just as the door opened. Bryant was up walking around on a crutch, but he smiled the second he saw her. “Hey, baby. I was wondering if you’d gone to get something to eat.”

  “If you guys are hungry I can go get something.” Robbie Mills, the young assistant to the resistance leaders, held the door as they stepped inside.

  “I’m fine,” Phee answered, smiling as she bumped Regan with her shoulder. “This is my best friend, Regan.”

  “I’m so glad I finally get to meet you
,” Bryant said as he limped over, skipping the hand that Regan offered to hug her with one arm. “I’ve been told you’re the reason Phee agreed to go on a date with me.”

  Regan was grinning as they parted. “That’s true, I also spit in your food for being an asshole.”

  Bryant almost choked as he started laughing, grabbing his side where the laughter tweaked the wound in his side. “Uh, well, I guess I deserved that?”

  “You did,” Regan confirmed without a hint of apology, and Phee couldn’t help laughing. “Just don’t hurt my best friend again, and you’ll never have to find out what else I’d do.”

  “Noted,” Bryant replied, a little more sobered.

  Phee rolled her eyes, squeezing Regan’s hand. “I promise she’s not as dangerous as she sounds.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Easton said from behind them, but he was grinning, his eyes roving over Regan from top to bottom.

  “Baby,” Bryant pulled her attention back to him, the light finally coming back to his turquoise eyes now that he was feeling a little better. “I was hoping you could run through the speech they want me to give? Maybe after you spend some time with Regan?”

  “Oh, that’s okay. I’m starving, so I was going to head downstairs for food. You guys do your thing, I’ll bother Phee more later.” Regan hugged her once more, tight enough to make Phee’s ribs protest, but she didn’t say anything. “Don’t disappear on me again, okay?”

  “Promise,” Phee answered, hugging her back one more time before they separated.

  “I’ll join you downstairs if you’re going to eat, Regan.” It was Easton talking, a very different smile on his lips as her bestie turned to face him.

  “That sounds fun,” Regan answered, and Phee knew the edge to her tone. She was about to go into full-flirt-mode and for once Phee couldn’t tell who would come out on top in that battle of wills. “See you later, Phee.”

  “Bye,” Phee waved, watching the odd pair leaving together. As soon as they left, Robbie Mills was buzzing around her and Bryant.

  “Now, as I was saying before this is an important speech. It will help to bolster the things Parks has been saying on television, but Mitchell doesn’t have the same influence on the downtowners as you will, Bryant.”

  “So you’ve said…” Bryant muttered, settling into a chair beside the small table that was littered with handwritten pages. Taking the chair across from him, their hands found each other without words, holding on. “Just start at the beginning, Robbie, and I’ll practice.”

  12

  Six Months Later

  “They’re calling it the Golden Age on television you know.” Phee grinned and wrapped her arms around Bryant’s shoulders from behind. He was sitting at his desk, scrolling through something on his computer, but he stopped immediately to turn and kiss her. It was fantastic, and when he nipped her bottom lip and groaned against her mouth it shifted to perfect.

  “Who comes up with these names anyway?” Bryant laughed when she stood up, but he grabbed her and immediately pulled her into his lap, burying his face against her neck. “It’s as silly as the New Democratic Fellowship.”

  “Golden Age is a little overconfident.” Phee laughed and brushed a hand through his chestnut hair.

  “Everyone is being overconfident. They act like it’s been ten years since the COF was in charge. Six months isn’t very long, I mean, the resistance was still taking out and capturing targets a month ago.” Bryant sighed and leaned back, but she saw the twinge in the movement and made sure she wasn’t leaning on the place where the muscle still hurt him when he moved wrong. The place where his uncle’s bullet had torn through his side, collapsing one of his lungs. Even months later she could remember the fear of him dying like it was yesterday.

  Those two long weeks in the hospital had been just the start of his healing, and all of the political chaos that still ruled their lives.

  The whole world had gone insane for about a month, even with the early speeches where Bryant, Parks, and others spoke to the city. Then the resistance had started their nightly talks on television. At first it had just been an explanation of why the uprising had happened, paired with assurances that it wouldn’t happen again. Then they’d started revealing all the horrors of the COF. The spying, the widespread exterminations of the poor down in the fog, the systematic corruption in the government to keep those in the fog from improving anything.

  All of it.

  And the world had been surprised, even those living in the fog had been shocked to discover that their disgruntled concerns had actually held merit. But now, the nightly news reports were all about the future, about the New Democratic Fellowship, and about the upcoming elections. A whole different kind of chaos, but just as stressful.

  Phee glanced at Bryant’s computer screen as he double-clicked an email to pull it up. “So, everyone is pretty sure Mitchell Parks is going to win the election,” he said with a sigh.

  “That doesn’t surprise me, Parks led the resistance, why wouldn’t he lead the new government?” Phee looked over the email that outlined Parks’ candidacy, and then she saw another line. “Wait, he wants you—”

  “Yeah. Parks is a great leader, but he was a leader of soldiers, and if these polls are accurate then he’s probably going to have to be a civic leader now and he doesn’t know anything about running the city. He wants people on his team that can keep the world going so we avoid those issues from the early weeks.” Bryant shrugged and looked up at her, his turquoise eyes were bright again, gemstones over brilliant light. “So, he wants me on his cabinet. Because I was the right hand, of the right hand, etcetera, etcetera.”

  “Also because you saved their asses in those first weeks, but talk to me. How do you feel about officially being on his cabinet? I know you never wanted to be in politics.” Phee tried to temper her voice to neutrality.

  “Honestly…” Bryant groaned. “I’m interested in it. I think I could actually help the NDF do this the right way, and Parks has always been a good man. He’s never been prideful, and he’s always listened to the people around him. He’s not ashamed of not knowing something or asking for help as long as it feeds into the success of the mission.”

  “Okay.” Phee nodded, prodding him to continue. “I feel like there’s a but in there somewhere…”

  “But… I don’t know.” He sighed heavily, pressing his face into her neck to hug her tight. Running her fingers through his hair, she tried to imagine what he’d want. Bryant was still her king of fire, he always would be, and he loved the fire in her too. Sometimes, when they were lying in bed, he would ask her to tell the story she had made up the night he was dying on the floor under her hands. She’d told it again and again in the hospital as he healed.

  It was his favorite story of hers because it was their story.

  “You know I’ll be here no matter what, right?” she asked, confirming it for him, and he held her tighter.

  “I know, baby. This is just a big decision.” Bryant’s eyes had snuck back to the screen. Her king of fire could blaze with a ferocity that made the world stand up, take notice, and step back from the heat of it — and other times, like now, he could be a subdued, steady forge. No less dangerous for the heat it produced, but not explosive. It was the kiln of thought and determination, and it was what would make him a great leader if he chose to participate in the fledgling government.

  However, she kept all of those thoughts to herself.

  Instead she simply ran her fingers up and down his arm before interlacing their fingers. “It sounds like you want this, Bryant.”

  “But it doesn’t matter what I may or may not want, Phee, I don’t need to be a part of them. I want to be with you, and if we do this it will not be an easy road. If you want a regular life, if you don’t want to be involved with the NDF like this, I’ll be happy doing anything. I’ll be happy as long as you’re with me.” Bryant leaned her up on his lap to brush her hair behind her ear. “You’re the one thing I can’t
live without, Phee.”

  Her heart sped up a little as he laid this insane decision at her feet, and she welcomed his kiss as he pulled her close, his tongue parting her lips to capture her mouth in a dance that they had long ago mastered — but it still managed to take her breath away.

  I can’t think like this.

  “Wait.” Leaning back from his lips, she mourned the loss even as she tried to get her mind back in gear. “You want to do this, don’t you?”

  “Phee…” he groaned.

  “I need to hear you say it, Bryant.” Shifting in his lap, she felt the growing erection under her thigh and couldn’t fight the grin that spread across her face.

  “I want to do it, but this will change everything.” He shook his head, looking back at the computer for a long moment before his eyes met hers again. “I’d never make a decision like this without you being on board, because it’s both of our lives.”

  “Come here,” she said, hopping off his lap to tug him with her to the windows. Her favorite view in the entire city, and even at mid-afternoon she could see the rolling fog in the lower parts of the city, fading to a milky haze as it neared downtown.

  Bryant wrapped his arms around her from behind, leaning his chin on her shoulder. “Alright, I’m here. Now what?”

  “What do you see when you look out there?”

  “Construction,” he answered, deadpan.

  “Come on, be serious.” She nudged him with her elbow, and he took a deep breath.

  “I see Lakehurst, divided as usual by the fog.”

  “What else?” she prompted, and he sighed against her ear.

  “Baby, you know I don’t see the world like you do. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?” Pressing a kiss to her temple he tucked her closer, and she didn’t miss the hard ridge growing against her ass.