Bjorn steps farther into the room. “Your girl is in a position of incredible power; you know that, right?”
No way. “She stays here, they could do anything to her.”
He nods. “I understand. That’s too bad. The resistance could have used someone with her standing. We have no one at that level.”
Bjorn radiates passion, and not the sex kind. I shouldn’t even ask, but I do. “Resistance? What are you talking about?”
“There’s no such thing as a perfect person or a perfect society. My sister was amazing, but to them she was trash. You can make a girl meow like a cat, but you’re not good enough either. Where are they going to stop? When we make everyone white, blond, and six foot two? There are a lot of angry people, Martell, but there isn’t a whole lot we can do right now other than smuggle people in and out.”
“Well, good luck with your resistance. I really hope you take these assholes down, but I’m getting out of here and I’m taking Amelia with me.” No one is stopping me.
“I getcha. I’m just saying we really could have used someone that deep inside.”
“Did I stutter? She’s pregnant. Her father could force an abortion. We’re not taking any chances.”
If Bjorn even looks like he’s going to stop me, I’m taking the guy out. I get what he’s saying. There’s a bigger picture, and Amelia could make a difference. But why should she? She’s suffered enough. I’m not crazy about traveling through the wild lands with her. It’s dangerous as fuck out there, to say the least. Both options suck, but at least running, she and the baby have a chance.
I stuff three more boxes of ammo in my bag and zip it shut.
Bjorn lets out a breath and extends his hand. “Well, good luck, buddy.”
I eye him, his hand, and cautiously shake it.
“Mind if I keep the cat?”
“Happy to oblige.” Amelia will hate me for this.
He scoops the obnoxious thing up and tosses it over his shoulder. “I suggest you bypass Ashville and go on to Masontown. It used to be Knoxville until one of the Barry brothers grabbed it. Commander Mason, he calls himself—took his wife’s name. Guy’s smarter than his brothers and has a brilliant military mind. He’s also great at directing resources. Going inland would also put a nice layer of insulation between you and the Arc.”
He talks a good talk, but I don’t know that he won’t grab a comm unit and report me the second I walk out. I should just shoot him to be on the safe side, but I won’t. No one burns like that without knowing rage. He understands what it is to want something so badly you’d risk your life for it. He knows what it is to lose someone important.
I sling the duffel over my shoulder and stifle a groan as the stitches pull. “Know of any transportation I could steal?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Amelia
“How do you know you can trust this Bjorn guy?” I hug my arms to my chest. I sneaked out through the bedroom window at eight o’clock, just like Jackson said. Snow as hard as pinheads falls all around us and pings off the ground, and of course there’s wind. My nose already burns, and we haven’t even gone a hundred feet.
He shifts his weight onto his other foot. “I don’t.”
“Where’s Charlie?” He’d better not have left him in some bag, freezing on the back of the snowmobile.
He sucks in his lips. “Snuggling with Bjorn.”
“You left him there?”
“Cat likes him. It’s mutual. You want to take the fella out in all that? He’ll be eaten in a day.”
“He won’t be eaten!”
His expression darkens. “Amelia, this is a rough trip. You know that, right? You’ve made it before, but people weren’t as desperate then. The countryside is crawling with taints and gangs. It’s bad enough I’m risking you.”
He sounds, well, like he regrets the whole thing. My stomach twists. “You don’t want to go.”
“I’m not saying that. But just for the sake of argument, let’s say you were able to influence your dad.”
No. “Maybe, and that’s a big maybe. They told him who he was supposed to marry and he did it, no problem. He was all about the family line, and he didn’t give a crap about my mother.”
He does this thing where he scooches closer and touches my tummy. It makes me flutter. Seriously, I’m so horned up I’d do it right now if he asked.
“I’m thinking about medical care,” he says softly. I would even say tenderly. “You’re so little, and out there who knows what they’ll have to offer?”
“Sure, but what if these guys find out I can get pregnant and decide to pair me with someone?”
“Isn’t gonna happen.” He crosses his arms and gets this hard-jawed “I’ll kill them” look on his face. Then he sighs. “I got an extra sidearm for you, by the way. Ammo for it too. Bjorn scored us a snowmobile and a spare three gallons of gas. That’ll get us at least as far as the mountains.”
Extra ammo. Gunshots. Cannibals and gangs, and we have to walk through the mountains. I hum a whine and squeeze my toes.
“We can leave right now if you want to, unless…”
“Unless what?” I flick him a look up through my eyelashes. Please let him have a suggestion that includes four-wheel drive with tractor-size tires, medical care, and a heated home.
He retreats a step and holds up a hand. “This is just an idea. You don’t have to agree to it. We’re ready to leave right now. What if we give your dad a chance? Find him, drop the bomb, and see what he says. He just got you back. He may be a self-entitled prick, but he does love you.”
Is he out of his freakin’ mind? “He doesn’t love you, and I highly doubt he’ll be happy about the baby.”
He shrugs closer. “That’s where we need to think. Your dad may be one of the top dogs, but he still has to look good if he wants to remain there and for the rest of the Arc to stay happy with his plans. This would be excellent PR for him. I’ve got an IQ of one-fifty-five. I can do anything those guys can do. I was majoring in the right field at Cornell, so it would appear like I’m already one of them. He wouldn’t look bad vouching for me. Plus, not only did I save your dad’s ass, but I saved yours, and because of me they came up with the answer to their labor problem. I’m their goddamn sunshine boy, sweetie.”
I shake my head. Violently.
“Everyone knows I’m the commanding officer for Atlanta.” He’s practically pleading. “I just found his little girl. You’re all that’s left of his family. He can still keep you if he wants. All he has to do is talk me up a little, maybe fake some decent DNA records for me. I promise if he doesn’t immediately buy into it, we take off. Boom!”
“Don’t boom like that. I’m already nervous.”
He pulls me close, and I bury my face in my chest. God, I love his chest. He smells so good, and right now it’s the safest place I know.
“The whole thing—it’s for you to decide.”
No. I pull away. “This is too much. I need to think.”
“There isn’t time. You’re leaving for the Arc, remember?”
I clasp my head. Why this, now? We had everything planned. I don’t want to be part of any resistance. I want to find another Post-Ash apartment and cuddle with Jackson. I know that’s selfish, but I’ve had it with toughing things out.
If we stay with Dad, we’ll always have to be careful that the scientists don’t look too closely at Jackson and the baby. I don’t know if I should just trust Jackson and take that risk, or say no and insist we run.
Then again, what if Jackson’s wound breaks open out in the wilds? What happens if we can’t get one of those towns to take us in? I’ll give birth squatting over a snow bank. I bite my lip until I taste blood.
“Jackson, what do you think we should do? Be honest.”
He takes a solid breath. “Both choices have their risks. I don’t know which is worse—fanatical scientists or cannibals. I think whether we leave and warn the other cities or stay and help the resistance from the inside, we’ll be doing a
good thing. Anyone can warn the territories, but you’re the only person who can get close enough to the council to do any good. It’s your decision, Amelia.”
“So you think we should stay?”
“It’s your decision.”
I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him. “You have to make the choice for us, Jackson. I feel trapped. Whichever way I decide, I know it’s going to be the wrong one.”
He blinks. I think his jaw even drops a little. “Doesn’t that go against your code? You have never in your life given someone else control over your future.”
“It’s not just me anymore. It’s us.”
He hugs me tight, rests his head in my hair, and rocks me. He’s so warm, so safe.
“Okay, let’s at least try with your dad,” he says finally. “All we need to do is get your things to the vehicle. After that we’ll go straight to your dad and tell him it’s you and me together, or we leave and he never sees you again. If he plays good dad, we’ll swear to act like we’re totally with him and we support everything the Arc stands for.”
I tug at my scarf. “What if he tries to hurt you or the baby?”
“Not gonna happen. Trust me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Jackson
I am not going to take any of Wester’s “I’m a rich guy” attitude. He’s used to being in charge, but he’s not in charge here—I am. This is my kid and my girl. I just have to make him see that.
Amelia and I wait for her father in his tiny living room area, which by military standards is a palace. Where they got the furniture, I have no idea, but we’re talking about mahogany and plush cushions. My little dancer rests her fists in her lap and grows whiter by the second. My crotch seam pinches, and as subtly as I can, I adjust my junk.
When the dad does come out, he’s wearing, so help me, a bathrobe. No guy I know would own one, much less get caught dead in one. In fact I didn’t know they made them anymore. Aren’t they for grannies?
One good thing, I don’t see a comm unit anywhere, and with him practically neutered in that robe of his, we could be out of here and on our way before he has a chance to do anything. Putting as much distance between us and any pursuit is key. We’ll just have to stay off-road where their heavy-duty vehicles are less likely to go.
Wester stops short and looks back and forth between Amelia and me. His eyes narrow. “Amelia?”
She gets this look. She’s faced down gangs of cannibals and eaten rats for dinner, but now she stares at her dad like she has a chicken bone stuck in her throat.
Fuck. So much for not being nervous. “Amelia and I—”
“When Jackson saw me the first time, I’d left the church and gone to this building I knew. It’s one of the places I went to dance. Jackson spotted me. He was with his squad, and he distracted them so I could get away.”
Wester nods, but his expression is guarded.
My balls pinch and I really want to fix it, but her dad is boring a hole through me. “I couldn’t stop thinking about her and I—”
“I kept seeing him, all over the place when they were out hunting survivors. I don’t know how many times I almost bought it. He kept helping me get away.”
“She was too little and pretty and too graceful to kill, sir. If I’d followed orders, she’d be dead, but I couldn’t. So I—”
“He looked for me everywhere, and when he realized I was living in a collapsing building and eating rats and mice, he tried to help me. He let me take a shower at his place and gave me a grilled cheese sandwich. He said come back anytime, but I was afraid it was a trap. The soldiers were shooting everyone. I mean, everyone.”
She glares at me like I’m going to challenge this. Fat chance. Her version is way better than the truth.
I cross my arms. “Go on. You’re doing fine.”
“So after that I kept breaking into his place at night and stealing food, and then this one time he caught me.”
The dad blinks slowly. “Do I need to sit down?”
“No,” says Amelia.
“Yup,” I tell him.
“He really liked me, Dad. He was always so kind.”
My little dancer is one hell of a liar. I owe her my ass.
“He let me take another shower and gave me his own clothes to wear. They were too big, but at least they weren’t things I’d been wearing every day for years.”
Her dad’s eyes narrow, and his face just gets redder and redder.
“At first he slept on the couch and I took the bed, but…I liked him too…”
Now she stops. Wester’s practically purple, and his eyes are narrowed to slits.
I swallow. “I didn’t know who she was. I never got past the Amelia part.”
“You didn’t even know her last name?” If smoke could pour out of his nostrils, I’m sure it’d be happening right about now.
“I just thought she was beautiful and sweet and she didn’t deserve to die like that.”
Wester snorts. “Sweet?”
“I hadn’t talked to anyone in years, Dad. You had to hide from everyone out there or you’d be killed. Jackson made me feel like nothing bad would ever happen to me again.”
“You’re in love with this Neanderthal?” He shakes his head at her.
Okay, I’m tall and brawny and my beard grows fast, but I’m not a Sasquatch. “Jesus. I’m not a—”
“Of course. Jackson thought I was worth saving. He looked everywhere for me, and he didn’t give up until he found me. I lived worse than a homeless person, but he didn’t treat me like I was nothing; he talked to me and he cooked for me and let me bring my cat. He made me laugh. I hadn’t laughed in six years, Dad. I cried plenty of times, but I never laughed once.”
He rubs his face in his hands. “Amelia…”
“No. He was there when I had no one and nothing, and he made me feel human. He’s good and he’s smart and he’s funny and he…” Her eyes go wide and she blushes. “I’m not interested in anyone else. No one’s going to be as loyal as he is. You’re just going to have to accept that he’s the one for me.”
“Oh, he’s the one? You’ve never been on another date in your life and he’s the only one?”
“You married Mom, and you dated plenty of girls first.”
He locks his jaw. He looks at me like I’m dog shit. “You took advantage of my daughter, didn’t you?”
“I… Absolutely. Yes.”
“You are getting out of my home, and you are never coming near her again. If I so much as hear that you’re—”
“She’s pregnant.”
There’s a heavy pause. “Jesus Christ.”
“Dad, it’s not the end of the world. I’m in love with him. I’m happy.”
“You’re barely eighteen years old!”
She shrugs. “Nineteen. Forty in street years.”
“This is not going to happen. Look at him. How could you want this beast? Honey, you were desperate, and I understand that. I’ll take care of it.”
I step forward. “You won’t touch her. Amelia’s mine and so is the kid.”
Wester shifts closer. “What did you say?”
“I was hoping you’d be happy for us. It would have made things a lot easier.”
“I promoted you because you gave me back my daughter, you perverted child-abusing prick! I’m going to—”
“I was nineteen,” Amelia interrupts.
He gawks at her. “What?”
“No child abuse. I was nineteen.”
The guy’s just not going to see reason. It’s time to pull out plan B. “We’ve distributed several letters that are to be delivered to the leaders of the closest territories if anything should happen to me, Amelia, or the baby. In it we outline the Arc’s long-term plans, our suspicions about what happened in Atlanta and Charlotte six years ago, and your whole genetic-superiority deal. The wording isn’t nice, unless you don’t mind references to the Third Reich.”
Dad pales. “Don’t you threaten me.”
&
nbsp; “I don’t want to. Whether or not you like me, the whole thing’s a gold mine of great PR. You got your daughter back, and she’s in love with her rescuer. People love that shit. You can tell those elitist freaks I went to Cornell on scholarship and I’m smarter than you are. Which, now that I think about it, is probably true. As a bonus you won’t have to worry that the Wester line will die out.”
“Oh, about that…” Amelia does this thing where she looks down and up through her lashes at her dad. She looks like a naughty kitten, and the guy is riveted. “The fact that I got pregnant at all is a fluke. I don’t think I’ve had ten periods my whole life. I doubt this’ll happen again, so you should probably be thanking Jackson.”
Amelia beams up at me like all the things she said about me were true. How am I supposed to live up to that?
“Damn.” Wester stuffs his hands in his pockets and wanders over to the window. “I wanted better for you.”
She lifts her chin. “Better for you, not for me. You wanted me to be a senator, and I didn’t. You kept trying to get me to sign up for science classes, and I didn’t want that either. You wouldn’t let me do what I loved, which was dance. With Yellowstone it never would have happened for me, but still. I’d really rather not run off to Chattanooga and live on whatever their terms are, but I will if I have to.”
His head whips up. “Do you know what their health care is like? You’re not going anywhere.”
I grab Amelia’s hand. “You have no say. It’s up to us.”
“You mean you.”
I raise my brows. “You’re right. I will never give her back.”
“Come on, Dad. Jackson and I are more than willing to cooperate with whatever the Arc’s deal is. All you have to do is accept Jackson as your son-in-law and accept me and the baby.”
He flinches at baby and rolls his eyes to the ceiling.
“And you.” He snorts. “Obviously I’m not sending my little girl to Atlanta. She’s pregnant, malnourished, and she needs modern healthcare. So how do you expect to earn your keep? You’re not commander of anything now, I can tell you that.”
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