by Sandra Bats
Elin stepped around the board, shyly pulling at her hair tie. Her red curls clashed against the white of the dress. The fabric clung to her, showing off curves I hadn’t noticed before.
She turned slowly. The skirt on that dress was short. It ended just below the curve of her ass. Between the hem of her dress and her boots, there was a lot of ivory skin on display — her legs seemed to go on for miles.
“Think it’ll work?” she asked, sounding unsure.
The longer I looked at her, the more the blush of her face extended; from her cheeks down her throat, right to where the fabric started again. Where I could see the swelling of her breasts rising and sinking with each shaky breath.
“You look …” I trailed off, looking for words when she chuckled.
“Well, you know, if you think it’s slutty looking, you can tell me. It’s supposed to look slutty.”
“Slutty” wasn’t the word I’d have used. In her own way, Elin still managed to look innocent. I cleared my throat. “Well, it looks like it’s going to get the job done.”
Biggest understatement ever. That guard would have to be interested in men to not fall for it. I needed to get out of the room.
“Well, I just remembered — I still gotta check on some stuff for tonight, so … see you later,” I said.
I was out of my room the next moment. I exhaled deeply, shaking my head to clear it. My excuse hadn’t been obvious at all. I scoffed, avoiding the temptation to smack myself in the forehead. I opened the door to my office. Cam was in there. So much for time to myself.
“You look happy to see me,” Cam said, crossing his arms. “What’s wrong?”
I dropped into the chair across from him with a sigh. “Elin just tried on clothes for tonight. In my room. She was supposed to look slutty, but she looked hot.”
Cam chuckled and raised an eyebrow. “Do you want me to leave you alone? You know, so you can picture that a little longer?”
I rolled my eyes, though that was why I’d come to my office in the first place. “Nah, sharing that with you ruined it all anyway.” I made a face and picked up a pen, just to fiddle with something.
“Can’t believe you ran from her because you were horny. What happened to you?”
I shrugged. “I dunno, man. Was all I could do to keep from trying to make a move on her. She’d surely have flipped if I did. She scares easily.”
“You need to get into town.” Cam winked.
I made a noncommittal grunt. “I have no time for that.”
“That never stopped you before,” Cam mused. Then his eyes narrowed at me. “Unless .… Huh, you’re interested in Elin.”
“What?” I looked at him for a moment, opening my mouth to find words for how ridiculous he sounded. When I couldn’t come up with a smart comeback, Cam’s grin stretched wider.
“I’m right, yeah?” He wiggled his eyebrows exaggeratedly.
“No, you’re not. That’s bullshit. So yeah, she’s easy on the eyes. Doesn’t mean I’ll hook up with her. Besides, she’s not interested in me anyway.” I shut my mouth to keep from blabbering.
“See, that’s it.” Cam pointed his finger at me. “She’s not interested in you. It’s the chase.” Then he mockingly imitated me. “She doesn’t care about my charming personality. I’ve lost my swagger. Oh why won’t she succumb to my lovely looks?”
I snorted. “You’re an ass.” I relaxed into my chair. “Seriously though. It’s bullshit. Don’t tell her shit like that, she might actually believe your bad imitation is true.”
Cam was still snickering and I was glad about it. Poor guy had had a rough couple of days. I was glad he could relax a bit.
“How’s Nigel doing?” I asked.
“His fever finally went down. Jane said it’ll be a while till he’s back to normal, but he’ll make it. It was awfully close though.”
“I’m glad he’s better.”
“Yeah, me too.” Cam sighed. “I kept wondering what I’d do if he … you know. I’m not sure I’d stay sane. Thought of Alex and how he was before he lost Mary and the baby. I think it just broke something inside him.”
Raising Nigel and his teenage brother Josh, Cam had a better insight into that kind of connection. The kind that could break you if you lost it. And Alex had.
I told Cam what I suspected happened between Alex and Elin the night before. How she’d been scared and Alex remained unapologetic when I confronted him about it. That I didn’t think giving up on Alex was the right thing, but I didn’t see another option if he didn’t change. In the end we decided that we’d be watching Alex closely, hoping he’d get better. It felt like we were hoping for a miracle.
◆◆◆
Ready to head out for the ammunition factory, I met Elin in the hallway. She wore her regular clothes, the tube dress underneath. Her fingers trembled trying to close the zipper on her jacket.
“You all right?” I asked.
“Yeah … You’ll be there, right? In case anything happens?”
“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.” I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Elin blushed for a second, then squared her shoulders and took a step back.
“Let’s go then.” Her voice was steady with determination.
The other guys were already waiting outside. I threw them an assessing glance. I trusted them with my life. No doubt about it. But I was also responsible for bringing them back alive.
Truth was, I was never comfortable with the mission. There were simply too many uncertainties. I didn’t know how Elin behaved under pressure. If she’d actually be able to take out the guard. We’d had very little time to plan. We needed the ammunition. Desperation was never a good wing man.
We had no other option though, so I signaled the guys to get going. It was a quiet and cold evening. Almost no moon, and clouds would soon cover the remaining crescent. Elin sat behind me. Her breath was hot against my neck and she seemed tense all over. It worried me that she wasn’t as confident as she pretended to be. She’d be on her own with the guard. With how revealing her outfit was, we hadn’t been able to give her a weapon.
We slowly rode in silence until we reached the spot where we hid the bikes. I took a steadying breath before facing the group. Contrary to what they might’ve believed, I wasn’t a natural leader. I’d only accepted leadership because I didn’t like someone else ordering me around. As a soldier in the labs, I’d been ordered around enough in my lifetime. It was time to make my own decisions, even if it meant carrying the burden that came with it.
Despite people naturally listening to me, it felt like I had to become a different person before I gave out orders. I squared my shoulders and schooled my face into calm features. I recapped the basic instructions.
Josh would stay with the pick-up truck until we were ready for him to drive to the warehouse. Walt would be our lookout. Adam and Brady would take out the guard at the back. Pablo would help Josh, Elin and me load the ammunition into the pick-up. It was pretty straightforward — get in, grab the stuff, get out.
Elin stood awkwardly off to the side. The guys watched her warily, just as she watched them.
“And guys, Elin is risking a lot for us. I think that makes her one of us. And we keep our kind safe, so let’s all look out for her.”
I watched them agree in unison. I didn’t know why I felt the need to remind them. They were good guys, but we’d never had a woman on a mission before. I really hoped I wasn’t going to regret it.
Six
Elin
I stepped off to the side to remove my top layer of clothing. The cold immediately stung at my skin. I ground my teeth to keep them from chattering. But I didn’t manage to keep the shivers away, and I wasn’t sure if they stemmed from the cold or from the fear of what was to come.
I had learned a long time ago that my biggest weakness — being a girl — was also my biggest attribute. I’d often used it to my advantage before, had pretended to be weak; ignored the disgusting roaming of hands while
I used a man’s moment of distraction to search his pockets.
I glanced up to find the guys, including Jayden, politely staring at their feet. I handed my clothes over to Jayden, tugging at the hemline of the skimpy white dress to pull it down at least another inch.
“Ready?” Jayden glanced at me like he was still offering me an out. If I’d taken it the whole mission would fall to pieces, so I gave him a simple thumbs up. He sternly looked at me. “Three minutes, ok? If you don’t open the door within three minutes of leaving our sight, we’re coming in no matter what. Understood?”
I made a face at him, but admittedly I was glad to know if it all went to pieces people would come to my aid; that I had backup. My arms were covered in goosebumps and I rubbed my hands over them for a second before taking a deep breath.
I slipped out of the shadows, walking towards the guard, making sure to swing my hips. I had the guard’s attention from the moment I stepped into his line of sight. The first few seconds it was maybe because he actually did his job and watched whomever came down the street, but he quickly relaxed, leaning into the wall behind him — having judged me as non-threatening — yet his eyes kept following me.
“Hi there.” I stepped into his personal space, smiled at him and kept my voice deliberately high and flirty. “I’ve been out here a couple hours and it’s gotten awfully cold.” I bit my lip, pretending to be deep in thought. “Would you mind … Oh no, it’s probably silly.”
The guard let his eyes roam over me then he said: “I like silly things.”
I giggled. “Well I wondered if maybe I could warm up inside for a few minutes. And we could … chat while I do.”
He gave me another once over. I used the moment to run my hand over his chest. I’d be showering for hours to scrub the disgust off my skin. He looked me up and down for another moment and I almost hoped he’d reject me. Hoped that I could say I tried but it just hadn’t worked. He smiled and inclined his head towards the door behind him. I followed as he led the way.
“Wait a moment. I need to disarm the security so we don’t trigger it,” the guard told me as we stepped inside. I hovered by the door as he did so, quickly scanning the room, trying to memorize as many possible weapons as I could. There was a crowbar on a desk off to the side, probably used to open crates of ammunition. I shuffled a little closer to it, the closer I was, the faster I’d be able to grab it if I had to. I feigned interest in the shelf on the wall and found a bag of cable ties on there.
“Well, all done,” the guard was suddenly behind me, his breath on my neck. His hands gripped my hips and I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. He spun me around towards him. I didn’t even have time for a breath before he kissed me. Well, tried, because I averted my face out of instinct. He didn’t even notice, instead moved his mouth down along the side of my throat. I tried grabbing the crowbar. It was just out of reach of my fingers. I pushed at his chest and giggled. “Slow down a bit.”
Instead, he grabbed at the hem of my skirt, pushing it up. My breath stuttered. Things were getting out of hand. I pushed at his chest again. His fingers were already skimming my underwear. Desperately I brought my boot down on his foot.
One moment I was fine, the next, he backhanded me. My forehead slammed into the shelf with the cable ties on it. I scrambled to my feet. He grabbed at my neck, turning me around. He bent me over the desk. Held me there with one hand on my neck. Oh no, no, no. His other hand pulled at my underwear, working it down.
I tried to focus but my heart was racing. How long had it been? Where was Jayden? The guard bent forward, his breath moving me hair.
“You’re so feisty. I like it.”
I slammed my head back. Made contact with his nose and he flinched backwards. His hand slipped from me and I spun to the side. Grabbed the crowbar and swung around as the guard moved to grab me again. I brought the crowbar down on his head — once; twice — and he dropped with a sickening thud.
I made quick work of tying his hands with the cable ties. Then his feet. Once he was secured, I moved aside. I had to hurry and open the door for Jayden and the others but I just needed a moment. I adjusted my clothes, closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. My hands were shaking, and I’d need a week of showers to feel clean again. I kept telling myself over and over that I was fine. Nothing had happened. He didn’t get what he wanted.
I kept my eyes on the guard — he was still unconscious — and moved over to the door, pushing it open then retreating inside. It took less than half a minute before Jayden and Pablo were in the doorway. I knew Adam and Brady would’ve hurried over to the back entrance, taking care of the second guard.
Pablo opened the door wider so Josh would be able to drive the car inside. Jayden moved over to the guard right away, checking his bonds.
“You’re bleeding. You’re ok?” he asked. I touched a finger to my eyebrow and flinched. Must’ve happened when my head had knocked into the shelf. I was surprised Jayden even noticed in the few seconds he’d glanced at me.
“I’m fine. My clothes, please.”
He handed them to me but there was concern on his face. The guard stirred at his feet and groaned, then opened his eyes to glare at me as he struggled to sit upright.
“You bitch! You better let me go before anyone notices!”
I was about to respond, but Jayden beat me to the punch; quite literally. His fist connected with the guard’s head, knocking him back on his side. Despite that, the guard seemed to have no common sense; he didn’t stay quiet.
“You will pay for this!” he yelled “Help! Frank!”
Jayden crouched down on his heels, pulling the guard upright so he was level with Jayden’s eyes. Jayden’s mouth pulled into an almost maniacal grin. “Frank — Oh? Your buddy out back? We took care of him.” I flinched as Jayden knocked the guard’s head back into the concrete floor, hard enough that the guy fell unconscious again.
When Jayden straightened up, he caught me staring at him and raised an eyebrow. “What? He got what he deserved.” He threw a pointed look at the cut on my face.
I didn’t respond as I slipped my clothes back on over the trashy dress. Jayden and Pablo opened the wooden crates, checking their contents and once Josh had successfully backed the truck up into the warehouse, they started loading the crates onto the truck bed.
I passed a wooden box, for a moment thinking the light was playing tricks on me. This was an ammunition factory; the boxes there should have only contained weaponry. Still I recognized the seal on the side of the box. Each farm was required to hand a certain amount of their produce over to the government and boxes containing these “taxes” were required to be marked with a circle that looked like a sun and a cornucopia filled with produce in the middle of it. Exactly the kind of seal I was staring at that moment.
“Jayden, hand me that crowbar,” I called out.
He walked over to me with a frown on his face. “We have enough ammo. Leave it be. We don’t have room for more on the truck.”
I waved him off, instead taking the crowbar out of his hand and jamming it under the top of the crate. I tried to lever it off but it wouldn’t budge. Eventually Jayden huffed under his breath, nudged me aside and tried his luck using his full body weight, lifting the top of the box enough that we could remove it.
“What the …” Jayden shot me a baffled look. “How did you know? Why are there bags of vacuum packed produce in here?”
“Tax payments,” I muttered, inspecting the food in the box. “It’s either a mistake that box was distributed here or it was a bribe from one of the farmers in exchange for weapons. It happens all the time.” I tossed the bag of leafy greens back into the box. “It seems to mostly be chard. Won’t last too long but it might get us through a couple days.”
We hurried to take the bags of chard from the box and stuffed them into the driver’s cabin of the truck, filling every last nook we could with this weird mix of food and ammunition. Jayden instructed Josh to drive the truck home, to not stop for any
thing and when Josh left we closed the doors to the warehouse. We’d almost made it back to the motorcycles, were already at the place where we were supposed to meet up with Adam and Brady when the thunder of gunshots and rapid footsteps sounded.
“Military is moving in,” Brady panted as he reached us.
Jayden cursed under his breath, then barked out orders for everyone to return home on different routes. I climbed onto the motorcycle behind him and managed to hold onto him just in time for the engine to come to life.
Our tire tracks in the snow made us easy to follow. Jayden changed lanes, whipping the motorcycle around a corner. I felt us skid sideways on the snow before he got it back under control. We were obviously not driving towards home; Jayden seemed to try and lead the military down the wrong street.
I glanced behind me. The glare of the headlights made it impossible for me to tell how many people were inside. They picked up speed and the sound of machine guns filled the cold, moonless night. Bullets whisked past us and Jayden cussed. I hoped he hadn’t been hit.
Jayden drove towards downtown, towards heavier traffic. My eyes watered from the rushing wind. He merged into traffic. Someone honked at us, but we kept going. We changed lanes and took a few sharp turns until it seemed we’d lost our pursuers. Jayden circled back and drove down a smaller side alley, slowing the motorcycle to a crawl; slow enough he could shout over the engine.
“Elin, are you alright?”
“Yes. You?” I shouted back, and he responded with a thumbs up before speeding up again.
On our way home, snow started to fall, covering the last of our tracks. By the time we got back the others were anxiously waiting for us.
Everybody had gotten away without a scratch. I climbed off the motorcycle. Jayden hovered for a moment longer, examining everyone. He inhaled deeply. “How did this happen?”
Brady was the first to explain. “We were by the back of the warehouse and a regular nightly military patrol came by. We thought we’d moved far enough into the shadows but they saw us and opened fire.”