What she couldn’t understand was why, on all counts? Why did they continue to fight? Why live like this? Ryan hadn’t answered her questions.
Footfalls sounded on the ladder. Maybe it was breakfast. When the aroma of food wafted over, her mouth watered, and her stomach growled again.
Her handsome jailor placed the tray onto a table against the far wall before removing keys from his pocket. Was he going to let her out? He unlocked and then opened the door before gesturing for her to exit. Without saying a word, he pointed to the table, so she sat on one of two chairs, and devoured her breakfast. A couple of slices of toast with jam had never tasted better. She drank quickly from the glass of water provided. She was as thirsty as she was hungry.
Grateful for the food and drink, she smiled at Ryan, who returned her gesture with a slight lifting of lips, and a puzzled frown.
He stood near the entrance as though rooted to the spot and didn’t appear as if he planned to escort her back into the cell straight away. She seized the opportunity to find out exactly what his plans were.
“Thank you for breakfast.”
He continued to stare at her in an unnerving way, his expression unreadable. Looking casual yet ready to pounce at any slight movement from her, he leaned against the dirt wall. She remained seated and waited for him to speak. Curiosity prompted her impatience.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
He averted his eyes for a moment as though pondering how to answer before they returned to hers. Dark pools of blue were filled with something she’d never seen before.
“I’m trying to decide what to do with you.”
Her heart stopped. Was this beautiful man before her the same as Blade? Was he going to take her innocence from her after all? Cody’s stories about the unspeakable acts the gangs inflicted on female citizens flashed through her mind.
Fear shot cold finger pricks down her spine.
6
Fascination
After eating his own breakfast, Ryan fetched toast and jam for his prisoner. On the trip through the tunnels he considered the decision he made earlier that morning. He’d dispatched one of his best men to deliver their demands for the return of Mackenzie. Aware of how dangerous it would be to send one of his trusted soldiers into the face of the enemy, he sent him anyway.
The mention of Cody Edwards’ sister’s name could be enough for them to first listen to the terms. Ryan prayed they wouldn’t shoot down his volunteer before the message was delivered. The bravery it took to walk up to the gates of the GAP barracks and deliver the news of her capture was beyond commendable.
Mackenzie’s face flashed through his mind. What he could only conclude was desire coursed through his veins, setting his blood on fire. As he recalled her reaction to him, to the scar on his wrist, and her naive expression, he deliberated over how she could be so unaware of how matters stood. Her innocence seemed sincere. His fascination of her increased as each minute passed.
After turning in the previous evening, Simmo knocked on his door and called out, but he ignored it. The last thing Ryan wanted to do was discuss their beautiful prisoner. It had taken all his control to stop himself from going down there, from going to talk to her, to see her beautiful face again. Releasing her had even crossed his mind.
The feelings she evoked were foreign. He had no idea what to do with them. Due to devoting the past seven years of his life to fighting for freedom, he’d purposely avoided close relationships. After the death of his family, he determined it would be safer and smarter to stay away from anything personal. Being with him would be dangerous. And now, Mackenzie Edwards, with hair like silk, and eyes like honey, had sent his emotions into a flurry.
After he entered the prison with her breakfast, dragging his gaze away from her proved impossible, so he watched her eat. His bravado began to fade and he found himself tongue-tied. She’d asked him a question and he gave her a vague answer, his thoughts jumbled. Her horrified expression had him searching his mind, trying to recall what she’d asked him and what he’d said in reply.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.
The fear in her eyes turned his stomach. Did she think he was going to do the very thing he’d saved her from in the alley? It was her people that did that, not his. Except for the rogue gangs, of course, but the citizens thought they were all one and the same. It was time the beautiful Mackenzie found out the truth.
“But Cody …”
“Do you think I’m going to do those things to you? Don’t you think I would have done them already? I stopped Blade from hurting you. If I was like that, do you think I would have stopped him?”
“N-n … no.”
In two strides, he bridged the gap between them and hauled her to her feet by her shoulders. Fear still hung in her eyes, so he released her and took in every part of her face with his gaze.
A piece of her chestnut-brown hair had fallen from its confine behind her ear. He fingered the lock to find it as soft as he’d imagined, as soft as it looked.
Puzzlement replaced the fear in her eyes as she stared up into his.
“Do you believe I’m capable of … that,” he said softly.
Impulse compelled him to twirl her silky hair around his finger before placing it back behind her ear.
“I don’t know … no.”
Her large eyes reflected the same conflicting emotions living inside him.
“Why did you have to be so beautiful?” He startled himself when his mouth said the words of its own volition.
Her answer was a blink of her large hazel eyes. She chewed on her small full bottom lip.
“Your family … your brother …”
“What about him?”
Her trusting eyes stopped him from telling her of every vile thing her brother stood for. She continued to chew on her lip, her eyes pleading with him to tell her. No, he wasn’t going to be the one to reveal the evil that was Cody Edwards.
Perhaps she already knew. She was a citizen; Cody was her brother. Was this all an act? It didn’t seem so. Her innocence appeared so real.
Suddenly aware of his proximity to her and his overwhelming want, his need to taste the lip she bit, and to kiss her sweet pouty mouth, he stepped back and dropped the hand still on her hair.
“You don’t want to know what kind of man your brother is.”
“What do you mean, - the kind of man? Just because you haven’t attacked me like that … that brute nearly did in the alley, doesn’t mean you haven’t in the past. You’re just like him. All renegades are the same. Cody warned me about the kind of people you and your gangs are. My brother is a kind and decent man who provides for his family.”
The stubborn set to her chin intensified his fascination of her. Her words on the other hand surprised him. What he hadn’t anticipated was how much they stung.
His expression changed again. Moments before he’d been staring at her with such intensity … and something else she couldn’t quite fathom - perhaps longing? His gentle touch as he’d pushed her hair behind her ear sent tingles of anticipation down her spine. The same longing she thought she witnessed in his expression spiralled through her.
As he played with her hair, she noticed his was unbound and sat at the base of his neck. In the pale light it was darker than she’d first noticed, and the stark blackness against his light skin and dark blue eyes rendered her incapable of speech or thought. She desired to touch his hair as he was hers, but her inexperience glued her arms to her chest awkwardly. She didn’t want to look deep into his eyes, yet couldn’t drag hers away.
Now he glared at her, the stone coldness setting again. Ryan, whatever his surname, was her enemy and it remained crucial that she remembered this. An invisible magnetism pulled at her like a butterfly drawn to the sweet nectar of flowers. Her heart cried out to touch him, to kiss him, but her head told her no, he was dangerous, and he was everything Cody fought against.
The things he’d said about her brother confused
her. What kind of man was he? What kind of man was Ryan? What kind of man did Ryan think him to be?
Mackenzie examined his face, but only found a steely expression. Her confusion intensified tenfold. Her desire for her so-called enemy threatened to whirl out of control. Instead of doing all she craved, she stuck out her chin to indicate her bravado and indignation.
With abruptness, he strode to the opposite wall, to a cell at the end of the row, and unlocked the door. He stood, holding the door open, waiting, then glared at her without saying a word.
“I’m not going back in a cell. Let me go. I won’t tell anyone about this. I’ll tell my family I was with a friend.”
“Get in the cage. Now.”
“No.”
His eyes flared as he advanced towards her. She stepped back, bumping into the chair. Ryan seized her arm, escorted her to the cell, jostled her in, and shut the door before bolting it.
“I hoped you were different,” he said, before vanishing up the ladder.
7
Negotiation
Avoidance is the best course of action. He would send someone else down with her food from now on and avoid the cells completely. As the day went on, his resolve crumbled, and the urge to visit her again, to talk to her, tell her the truth, grew strong.
The devastation she would feel at discovering the truth about her brother, and her father before him, would be huge. He didn’t desire being the one to shatter her illusions. It was obvious now that Cody hid the truth from his family and filled their heads with government policy and lies. If that was what it was? For all he knew she was a good actress hiding a heart of stone.
His thoughts swung back and forth before settling on what he’d witnessed that morning; her reaction appeared genuine. All thoughts of revenge were gone, replaced with longing and attraction for the beautiful sister of the man who destroyed his world.
She’d been told and believed Ryan to be the enemy, and that her brother fought for a just cause. She honestly thought all who stood against the tyranny of the government behaved in the same reprehensible manner as the gangs living above ground did by tormenting the citizens. It seemed, as far as citizens were concerned, the ‘sewer rats’ were no different to those lowlifes.
The ironic thing was, Ryan and his soldiers fought against them too, for the most part. The gangs who roamed the streets were, along with the GAPs, the reason they’d gone underground in the first place. Scoundrels such as Blade had robbed, attacked and killed many of their community too before they built their tunnels and fortress below ground. They now had a mutual love/hate relationship based on trade.
Ryan spent the entire morning in his room thinking. His attention wasn’t required elsewhere and he was thankful that Simmo hadn’t come seeking more answers. He didn’t have any. His own questions remained unanswered, so there was no way he could respond if Simmo were to begin an inquisition.
Instead of his normal duties or going sub-level to seek answers, he stretched out on the couch, and attempted to read. After a couple of pages of taking in little, he gave up.
By early afternoon his concern for Adamson, the messenger, became paramount. If the GAPs decided to kill him, he would never be seen again. There would be no body to claim, no evidence of his execution by their hand. Anxious, Ryan paced his small quarters, waiting, praying for his safe return.
A knock startled him from his thoughts. He opened the door to find Simmo.
“Adamson’s back, he’s in the sick bay.”
Ryan’s stomach dropped. “How bad is he?”
“Not too bad, a little roughed up, but he’ll be all right. He wants to talk to you.”
Ryan wound through the tunnels as quickly as possible, to find Adamson being attended to by one of the female nurses in their small hospital room. His face had taken a pummelling. Ryan grimaced. He should never have sent him. There would never be any reasoning with the government.
Georgina, the young nurse, began to mend a wound on his forearm. Adamson winced as she used one of the few pieces of up-to-date medical technology they had, a laser suture.
“Are you all right?” Ryan asked him.
“I’ve had worse, Captain.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have sent you. I knew deep down they wouldn’t listen.”
“They did listen. When I first arrived, I approached the gate to the GAP barracks with my arms up. The guards allowed me to speak. I couldn’t believe they let me get that far. I told them why I was there and they took me in to see Edwards.”
Ryan gaped at him. “So they believed you?”
“Yes. When they took me into his office, he asked me straight away whether his sister was fine. I told him yes, and presented him with your proposal.”
“I guess he didn’t agree.”
“No, he laughed. Said they wouldn’t be giving us anything. That we were to let Mackenzie go immediately or we’d be sorry.”
“I told him to bring it on, that, until we’re free to live our lives as we choose, she would stay with us. Edwards told the troops to take me to a cell and then they did … this,” Adamson pointed to his face, “and told me to tell you this was only a warning.”
“Did they give you any idea what they have planned or when?”
“No, sorry, Captain.”
“I’m glad you’re okay.”
Adamson offered a smile and then flinched as his spilt lip gave him grief.
“Are you almost finished?” Ryan asked Georgina.
“Once I put this bandage on his arm, he’ll be good to go.”
Ryan waited as she applied the gauze, and when finished, he spoke again. “Adamson, are you up for going sub level with me? I think our prisoner needs to see exactly what her brother is capable of.”
Although her cell was still reasonably small, it was more comfortable then her previous confines. At least she could stretch out and stand in this room. There was a bed as well. Lunch had been delivered by a teenage boy, who gazed at her with the same contempt she’d initially seen in Ryan’s eyes.
Ryan. She still didn’t know what to make of the dark-haired rogue. Was this the right word for him? Were they rebelling against conformity or were they the victims, fighting for freedom and for their lives? Thinking that Cody could be lying to her was something she didn’t care to contemplate.
She stood up from the hard makeshift bed, and shook out of her stiff limbs. The wound on her forehead, although not troubling her, probably should be cleaned and dressed, but she wasn’t sure if the hospitality would stretch this far. Just how far did it stretch?
What she wouldn’t give for a shower about now. The dirt surrounding her clung to her skin, hair and clothes. She questioned again how they lived this way, surrounded by dirt, in the semi-dark, without sunlight or fresh air. This explained why both Ryan and her delivery boy had pale complexions. They rarely saw sunlight. Ryan’s skin was slightly darker than the boy’s, but not by much.
Mackenzie paced the cell, which turned out to be only four of her short strides. She wasn’t afraid, not as she had been yesterday. Although initially she considered he might harm her, the thoughts and panic surrounding this had diminished. Her instincts told her there was nothing to be afraid of.
So why then did Cody lead her to believe these people were savages? To justify their reasons for heavy-handed control? She shook her head. Cody couldn’t be this way. It was all a misunderstanding.
More than one set of feet clamouring down the ladder broke through her thoughts. Ryan appeared, followed by a younger man, who’d seen better days. One eye was swollen shut and beginning to blacken. His lip was cut and inflamed. Several other lacerations covered his cheeks, chin and forehead, all with spilt skin and darkening bruises. His arm was also bandaged.
“This is Troy,” Ryan said, without meeting her eyes.
He didn't introduce her to Troy. A realisation hit her. He’d yet to address her by name. Another puzzle to be solved.
“Hello,” she murmured.
“I wanted you to see this,” Ryan spat out with a scowl.
“What happened?”
“I, foolishly it would seem, sent him to deliver a message to your brother with our demands for your release. This was his answer.” He pointed to Troy.
“Cody did this?”
Her heart leapt into her throat. Please tell me Cody isn’t capable of this.
“Not by his hand, but his orders.”
“Maybe he didn’t order it, his men …” No, please, no.
Ryan interrupted with, “Thanks, Troy. Take all the time you need to get better.”
Troy nodded and left.
“Maybe Cody didn’t know,” she said. She hoped.
“Are you really that naive?”
“He … I … don’t want to believe this. You could be lying to me. He’s my brother. I’ve known him my whole life. He’s … not like this.”
“To you, maybe.”
Mackenzie shook her head, trying to remain calm. Dread filled her heart as comprehension overtook her mind. This was why they fought so long and hard against the government and army. Living this way, fighting a war, was all for freedom and their lives. Did this mean everything Cody told her was a lie? Mackenzie believed, all this time, the rebels started the war, as her beloved brother had told her. What if the renegades started nothing and merely struggled to survive?
“What would happen if you stopped fighting and surrendered?” she asked.
“They would probably kill us all and then tell the citizens the corrupt were imprisoned, as they do with all our family and friends who are caught.”
She gasped before setting her chin, determined to hold back the horror she felt, and the tears stinging her eyes. With a tone braver than she felt, she said, “I want to know the truth.”
Renegades Page 4