William’s first glance outside told him why no one bothered to escape. He came through the door, stopping as soon as he saw the landscape.
The word barren was really too lush a word to describe the terrain outside of the stadium walls. Dust filled the air, making his lungs feel dirty with his first breath of free air.
Bergeron coughed a few times as if adjusting to the air quality as well. He turned to face the three of them, his expression filled with…not joy, but perhaps…satisfaction. William saw him open his mouth as if to say something.
Meanwhile, Jeremy didn’t seem to notice Bergeron’s eagerness to tell them anything. He didn’t waste any time concerned about the monumental journey that faced them now that they’d escaped the stadium. Jeremy grabbed Bergeron’s shirt with two handfuls of anger, shook him, and moved toward the steep drop off near the top of the stone staircase.
“What the fuck, Bergeron?” he asked in a calm, quiet, and terrifying voice. The heels of Bergeron’s boots now lined up evenly with the edge of the platform and it was several stories down to the harsh, dried-up land below.
“I…I…had to. Or else…or else he would have…put me in…with the slaves,” Bergeron stammered.
“I don’t believe you,” Jeremy said, shaking the younger man like a rug he wanted to clean in the wind. “You waltzed into Lord Harcourt’s dining room like you were familiar with it, even though it had to have been at least several months since you visited.
Bergeron grabbed Jeremy’s wrists trying to hang on. “I need to tell you—”
Jeremy cut him off. “You were on Angelica’s ship. Then you came on mine to ‘help’ find her. But you’ve known Lord Harcourt for how long now? A year and a half, is it?”
Angelica approached the two men. She poked a finger into Bergeron’s chest. “That’s right. What did you do to my ship, you bastard? I know you must have been the one who sabotaged it.”
William approached, wondering if he should be the voice of reason or simply let them duke it out and finish him off.
He wondered briefly what Bergeron was trying to tell them? Perhaps they should listen if only for a few minutes. Then something occurred to him. He said quietly, “I certainly don’t know this man as well as the two of you do, and I don’t want to keep you from doing to him whatever he deserves, however, I wonder why he revealed himself today at the dining table?”
Bergeron stopped struggling and sent a grateful glance in his direction. Angelica and Jeremy each looked over a shoulder at him. “What are you asking, Will?”
He shrugged. “Why now? Why not wait until we got to the shuttle? I don’t think it was a secret to anyone in the Den of Iniquity that we were leaving, so why was it important that he showed himself before we met up?”
“I have a reason,” Bergeron said, the relief in his tone was evident. “I have something I need to tell you.”
Jeremy shook him again. “Tell me fast, or I shove you off the edge.”
“I couldn’t put the shuttle in the original coordinates you wanted.”
“Why not?” Jeremy asked at the exact same time as Angelica asked. “What shuttle?”
Jeremy shook him harder. “Where is my shuttle, you cowardly traitor?” William expected Bergeron to flail over the side at any moment. He hoped they got the information they needed before he dropped to his death below.
“It’s four klicks closer to the arena, but two klicks west of the original spot.”
“Why did you change it? The original location was a clearing between a circle of tall brush. It had the perfect cover.”
“I scanned the area from the shuttle before landing. The onboard computer said the spot was unstable.”
Jeremy took half a step closer to the edge. “I don’t believe you. We scanned the terrain from the Stargazer’s main computer.”
“I’m telling you what the shuttle’s onboard computer told me when I tried to land there,” he said—his voice half an octave higher than before—as his boot tips now danced along the barest edge of the platform, and the rest of his body was hovering over dry, dusty air courtesy of Jeremy’s strength. “Why would I lie? I volunteered to come with you so I could tell you where it was. You’d have been lost otherwise.”
“He does have a minor point.” William didn’t trust him, but also didn’t think they should kill him. “What if we took him with us? He could then show us the new location, personally.”
Jeremy pulled the struggling Bergeron away from the edge a few inches. “What? Take this little piece of shit with us into the dry wilderness?” Jeremy looked over his shoulder at William once more.
William nodded. “I believe it would be best, don’t you?”
He stared at Angelica. She shrugged and made an I don’t care face.
“Yes. You’re right. Good idea, William,” Jeremy said, releasing Bergeron at the same time as he flung him back to the center of the platform. “Lead the way. No tricks or I kill you with my bare hands.”
Bergeron frowned. “Wait. I can’t go with you,” he said, looking over his shoulder at the large wooden exit door.
“Sure you can,” Angelica said. She grabbed his shirt sleeve and pushed him toward the staircase.
“Lord Harcourt expects me to return to the dining table tonight.”
“Too fucking bad,” Angelica said, shoving Bergeron down the first few stone steps. “You’ll be getting back a little late.” Jeremy went toward the door again.
William followed Angelica and Bergeron down the first few steps, turning to see where Jeremy was headed. He picked up a loose stone and on the left wall next to the door, he scratched some symbols into the stone. Marks William didn’t understand. Was it a message? Who was it for?
Maybe Vidarr and Sapphire.
Jeremy dropped the rock, caught up to William, and followed behind. “Do not trust our guide,” he whispered.
“Not a problem,” he whispered back. “How long to the new location, do you think?”
Jeremy pushed out a sigh. “It’s maybe an hour closer, so seven hours instead of eight.”
“That far?”
“I wasn’t certain of his perimeter security. I didn’t want them to come out looking for my ride.”
“That’s smart.”
“Not my first time at this particular kind of rodeo.”
“Good thing for us. So will we be taking Bergeron with us on the shuttle or will we just eliminate him once he shows us where it is?”
“Currently, I’m open to either choice.” Jeremy grinned. “An argument could be made that he needs to face justice for all his crimes. You and Angelica aren’t his only victims.”
“Do you mean Vidarr and Sapphire?”
Jeremy nodded. “They must sneak out of the arena, since Lord Harcourt didn’t offer them their freedom. And you should know that I promised to wait for them at the shuttle.”
“I have no issue with that.” William smiled in return. “I’m just glad you decided not drop Bergeron off the edge of the platform to his death.”
“Well, it wasn’t easy,” Jeremy muttered.
William nodded. “The high road never is.”
“Why did you want him alive?” Jeremy asked.
“I’m also hoping he might have knowledge of where I came from before arriving here.”
Jeremy nodded. “Well, if he doesn’t, we’ll figure out something. I’ll reiterate Angelica’s promise to help you find your family once we’re safely out of the Forbidden Zone.”
“Thank you.”
They both jogged on ahead to catch up with Angelica, who kept a hand in the center of Bergeron’s back as she marched forward with an angry pace, pushing him further and further into the heated desolation that was their escape.
In the dressing room they’d found several water skeins, filled them up, and hid them beneath the loose clothing they wore.
For a seven hour journey, he wished they’d been able to bring more, as this ultra dry and dusty terrain was worse than he’d realized. The
air sucked the very moisture from his exposed skin and promised to make their journey incredibly difficult.
* * * *
Angelica sipped the last bit of her limited water when they were still an hour away from their destination. At least she hoped it was only an hour yet to go. If Bergeron was telling the truth, which she didn’t truly expect. But since they didn’t know what his ultimate intensions were, she did her best not to beat him into an unconscious heap.
Making an already bad situation worse, Bergeron hadn’t stopped complaining since they’d left the platform and the Gladiator arena behind. After the first three hours, she was tempted to find a way to silence him. If only she had engineer’s tape, she’d wrap it around his head twice and cover his whiny mouth.
“I need more water,” he complained.
“Shut it. There’s no water left.” She didn’t have any to give him anyway. The shuttle would have a few supplies, hopefully. If he was lucky, they’d share. If he wasn’t, they’d just sedate him for the coming trip.
“I didn’t want to come along. Lord Harcourt is going to be furious with me.”
Jeremy and Will were following behind them currently. Jeremy said, “Guess you should have left the shuttle where we agreed on.”
Bergeron opened his mouth again, and Angelica knew something whiny was about to come out. She wasn’t sure she could be held responsible for her actions. Instead of strangling him, she stopped and pushed him to the ground. He landed on his face.
She dropped down, putting a knee into the center of his back. “You should be more worried about what I’m going to do to you if you don’t stop whining. If you want to live, I suggest you stop talking.”
“Now I need to pee,” he said, in that incessantly whiny tone.
Angelica lifted up and turned away. She wasn’t by nature a cruel person, but she wanted to kick the living shit out of him. Not a good idea when he was down on the ground courtesy of her shoving him there in the first place. I still have some humanity, don’t I?
“I need to pee right now!” Maybe not.
“If you want him to remain breathing much longer, someone else needs to take over his guidance and care. I’m at the end of my tolerance.”
Will grabbed Bergeron up, marching him forward several yards off the main trail they followed. He continued to complain all the way. She heard him even over the snapping and crackling sound of the dry foliage and into the bushes. She tried not to hear him peeing, but with the quiet nature of the bleak landscape, they were the only things alive here. Any and all bodily functions echoed.
“Not much longer,” Jeremy said, grabbing her into a quick embrace. “We’ll sedate him when we get to the shuttle.” Great minds think alike.
“Listening to him speak makes my head hurt. And I’m warning you right now, I won’t last long with him in the shuttle if he’s conscious.” Her head likely hurt because she wasn’t near any stupid fresh-cut flowers. How long would it take her brain to stop hurting now that she’d gone cold turkey? Hopefully before she did something out of character, like kick Bergeron’s butt all the way to the shuttle. Step. Kick. Step. Kick. The visual amused her for a moment, making a trickle of guilt fall into her belly.
Jeremy hugged her. “Oh. I’ll knock his ass out well before takeoff, trust me.”
He released her enough to hand over his water container. She took a tiny sip, but he motioned for her to keep it.
He continued, “I ordered the shuttle fully stocked. There’s water, food, and of course the all-important medical supplies. One shot of sedation, and he’ll be out until we rendezvous with the Stargazer.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
Angelica wasn’t a female often prone to emotion, but in this instance, her mouth trembled with gratitude. “For coming after me, especially here.”
“You already thanked me for that,” he said, kissing her forehead.
“Not enough,” she said, brushing a kiss to his lips. “It’ll never be enough.”
“I’m willing to let you thank me as much as you want, but we both know you would have done the same for me.” He paused and looked down at her with a serious expression. “Wouldn’t you?”
She grinned. “Yes. Most certainly.”
Bergeron’s whiny voice came easily from ahead on the trail, begging Will for more water.
Will called out. “You two coming? His majesty is ready to show us the rest of the way to our salvation.”
Jeremy kicked a dried-up bush to one side of the trail they traversed. He’d been making obvious marks along the way. At first she’d thought it was to guide them back to the stadium should they need it.
“Is that for us to go back if we need to, or for someone else to follow us?”
“Either.” He shrugged. “Or maybe both. We’ll see.” His sexy half-grin followed.
Angelica wondered how they could possibly keep from hearing a file of ants coming up behind them along this dried-up forest trail. Surely they’d hear any humans from a klick away. Although, hopefully, Lord Harcourt wasn’t planning on sending anyone else out here to look for them. Or Bergeron.
Less than an hour later, they stumbled into a small clearing where a shuttle from the Stargazer waited for them like a lush oasis in the middle of the desert. She made a sound of pleasure the moment her gaze took in the familiar contoured lines of the small ship.
Bergeron rushed forward into the clearing toward the back of the shuttle before anyone could grab him. He fumbled for something beneath the back quarter panel and suddenly turned with a triumphant expression.
Now he faced them with a laser pistol. One he’d obviously hidden before leaving the shuttle. He fired off a round at Jeremy’s feet, illustrating that the weapon was loaded and functional.
“I want some fucking water,” Bergeron said tartly. He pointed at Jeremy. “You. Go get it for me from the shuttle.” He then pointed the gun at Angelica. “Or else I’ll shoot her.”
Angelica didn’t think he had the balls to kill her. In fact, she was fairly certain he’d done all he had in order to get her under his thumb, or perhaps more accurately, into his bed.
Will and Jeremy stood stock still as Bergeron waved the laser pistol around. “Did you hear what I said?”
“You aren’t going to shoot Angelica,” Jeremy said calmly. “Isn’t she the reason you’re here?”
Bergeron’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?” Usually he was brighter, perhaps dehydration had a bad impact on his mental faculties.
“Aren’t you here to whisk her away to some remote place so you can romance her?”
His glance went her way. His gaze narrowed as he seemed to struggle with the question. “I can still shoot her and not kill her.”
Jeremy rolled his eyes. “True.” He walked to the shuttle and opened the hatch.
“No tricks,” Bergeron said, waving the gun in her direction. He started moving closer to her. His eyes were bloodshot, he was sweating too much.
“Do not shoot her, Bergeron.” Jeremy commanded, calling out from the shuttle.
“Hurry up.”
“I’ve got to get into the supply locker.”
“I want something to eat, too. Bring me a ration bar.”
“Sure thing.” He rattled around in the shuttle for a couple more seconds before emerging empty handed. “You are such a dumb ass,” Jeremy said.
Bergeron’s brows wrinkled. “What?”
A gun turret on top of the shuttle popped up, targeted Bergeron in a flash right before a white beam of light from the artillery mount hit him square in the chest. Bergeron dropped the gun, falling onto his back against the brush along the clearing’s edge.
“Is he dead?” William asked.
“Just stunned,” Jeremy said, ducking back in for a moment and exiting the shuttle with wrist restraints.
Will picked up Bergeron’s gun. He held it correctly, but she wondered if he’d ever held one before by the puzzled expression on his face.
<
br /> “Do you know how to use that?” Jeremy asked as he bent over and secured Bergeron’s wrists in front of him.
“It seems familiar and odd at the same time.” Will put his finger to the trigger, pointed it away from them, and fired off a shot into the bushes. A plume of dust rose in the wake of his test fire. “But understand how to use it. Wish I’d had this in the gladiator’s arena.”
Angelica said, “That would certainly have filled Lord Harcourt with rage.”
Will secured the pistol in the back of his pants waistband and helped as Jeremy started to drag Bergeron toward the shuttle.
“He’s going with us?” Will asked.
Jeremy frowned. “I want him to face justice and pay for what he did. And it seems to me like a quick death by laser pistol is not punishment enough. I want the words ‘penal colony’ to be a lengthy part of his future.”
Angelica pushed out a sigh, sending look to Will. “He’s right—”
Before she could finish her sentence, they heard noises coming from the main trail they’d followed into the desolation. Someone was coming. As the crashing through the dry wooded terrain, grew louder and louder, Jeremy said, “I’m expecting Vidarr and Sapphire.”
“But just in case it’s not them.” He motioned for William to hide in the brush. Will had barely disappeared when three men—only one of them familiar—abruptly entered the clearing.
Two armed guards, carrying laser rifles, accompanied the gaunt man who always sat at Lord Harcourt’s side, wearing his ever-present pinched, satisfied smile.
Chapter Twenty-Two
William looked through the narrow branches from his hidden perch, seeing clearly the three men who’d just entered the space near the shuttle. He instantly recognized Lord Harcourt’s thin sycophant between the other two gun-toting guards. Shit. Were more guards on the way? He listened intently for others, but didn’t hear anything.
Sexual Memory [Dark Colony 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 24