Clayton nodded. “Very well. The Glen was all my idea. I don’t say that to take credit, I say that so you understand where this all started.”
Kayla and I exchanged looks. All his idea? And he claimed he wasn’t a leader.
“Oh?” Kayla gestured for him to continue.
“I knew other safe havens existed. Pockets. Places outside of the purview of the clubs or Central, but none of them had a greater mission. None of them could see beyond the short-term. I don’t blame them. The short-term is important. Saving even one child is important, but what if we could do more? What if we can change the face of the future?”
“Does your plan involve getting rid of Central? Because eventually Central or the Traders find every haven.” Kayla frowned. I felt exactly the same way she did.
“Is that what happened to you? Is that how you ended up here?” Clayton’s voice was softer now.
“Isn’t this supposed to be your story?” I had no time for this. “Not ours.”
“But our stories have intersected. That makes it relevant.” He was playing mind-games.
“If our story is relevant explain the use of the drugs. Separating us. We’ve been waiting patiently for answers. If you can take the time to question us, you can answer those.”
“Waited patiently?” He tugged on his beard.
“Yes. We’ve waited very patiently.” I tapped my foot. I didn’t say I was still patient.
“Is this what you call patient?”
“Yes.” I stopped tapping. “If you think this is impatient you don’t want to know what the real thing is.”
He laughed. “Maybe I do.”
I remained stone-faced. “Nothing we’ve said is funny.”
“We drugged you because it was the safer option.” He took a seat on an empty bed. Kayla and I moved to continue to block his view of the girls.
I glanced at Bailey still curled up with Faith. At least they had each other. “Safer option? You mean easier.”
“Easier?” He raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“How’d you do it anyway? Did you put something in the water?” Try as I might I couldn’t remember anything. I was careful not to try too hard lest more memories of the dream would come back.
“Yes.”
“I knew I tasted something.” Kayla sighed.
“Yet you drank it.”
“Sometimes we don’t have a choice in what we do. We have to do it.” She rubbed the back of her head again. I worried that her head was hurting more than mine. My headache was already fading away.
“You’ll have some choices now.”
“Oh? Will we?” I sounded like Kayla with all the sarcasm.
“Yes. We all have power in the Glen.”
“Power. Right.” Kayla put a hand on her hip. “I’m sure.”
“I understand your skepticism. You have lived lives that encouraged that attitude. But those lives are over.”
“We aren’t staying long.” Kayla crossed her legs at the ankles.
“Why not?” He said it so simply. As though he didn’t have an agenda even though he quite clearly did.
“Because we won’t be.” Kayla stared him down.
“That isn’t an answer. Where is it you are going? What are you searching for? Or is it not a place but a person?”
Kayla paled. He’d hit the nail on the head when it came to her. I knew she was searching for a safe place, just like the rest of us, but she’d always be searching for Mason.
I answered for her. “Where we are heading is none of your business.”
“It is our business so we can help you get there.”
“We don’t need your help.” Kayla snapped.
“No? You planned to leave the way you came? Through the dirty water?”
“No. We will find a new way.” She raised her chin.
“The is no other way. We are protected here.”
“There is always another way.” Now wasn’t the time to give up.
“Not here.” Clayton shook his head. “The sooner you face that fact the better.”
He wasn’t just talking about the way out. He was letting us know we had no choice but to follow his rules.
Kayla stomped her foot. “No. I haven’t come this far, fought this hard, to be trapped.”
“You aren’t trapped. You are finally free. Free to make good choices for once. Not just for you but for your children.”
“I’m sorry you do not have your child with you, but that does not mean I’m going to turn over any control over my own.” I gritted my teeth.
“Nor do we expect you to. Your girls are still with you, are they not?”
“You drugged them. That was not something we agreed to.” There was no way I was putting any trust in this man or anyone else at the Glen for that matter.
“And that will never happen again.” Clayton gazed into my eyes. “You have my word.”
“And why would your word mean anything to us?” Kayla said exactly what I was thinking.
“It won’t now, but it will eventually.”
Kayla shook her head. “It won’t.”
“How can you know that already?” His face reddened.
His growing frustration didn’t deter Kayla. “Where are the others?”
“The men?” Clayton asked as if there was anyone else we would be asking about.
“Yes.” She scowled.
“In the men’s area.”
“You are a man, yet you are here,” I pointed out.
“To visit. Not to stay.”
“Then why can’t they visit?”
“They will once they get set into their new jobs.”
“Jobs?” I asked with surprise. I was relieved he hadn’t said he’d kicked them out. But jobs? I wasn’t expecting that.
“One is a doctor. One a farmer. Both are valuable here.”
“How do you know what they are?” I couldn’t imagine the men would have shared much willingly. They were likely frantic about our whereabouts.
“It was easy enough to discern.”
“And what of us?” Kayla clasped her hands together in front of her. “Have you discerned our value?”
“Your value? You both know you are valuable on many levels. But you are both farmers as well, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” Kayla nodded.
“Then you can work in the fields.” Then he turned to me. “Or you can make clothing if you prefer.”
“How did you know—”
“As I said. None of this is hard to discern. “If your daughters are ready, I would be happy to give you a tour.”
Kayla rocked back on her heels. “We won’t be staying long enough to need a tour.”
“Oh yes. How could I forget? Then take a tour so you can learn from what we have here.”
“We don’t need to learn—”
“We would love a tour.” I cut Kayla off. A tour is what we needed. We might find Bolton and Maverick that way. Or another way out. Both were things that needed to happen soon.
Twenty-Two
Kayla
On the surface, the Glen was exactly what we’d thought. A commune trying to fly under the radar of Central and the traders. In some ways, it felt like a much bigger version of where we’d left, but in other ways, I immediately knew it was something different.
There were distinct sections just like Clayton had explained. Some were for living. Some for working. There was an entire medical complex—the area where Maverick would likely be spending the vast majority of his time. There were also acres upon acres of fields and orchards. A military and weapons center, as well as a textile area. It took several days to finish our complete tour of the entire place, and I nearly flash-backed to my tour of the club. Everything was so organized and separate. Just as it had been there. It reminded me that no matter what, humanity found the same ways to survive. I wasn’t entirely sure if that was good or bad. And it made me miss Mason even more than I did already.
Thankfully by t
he end of the second day of touring we had found both Bolton and Maverick.
“Kayla!” Bolton yelled out my name the second we reached the military zone where he was working. He tossed down a pack of something, and luckily all it did was make a clinking sound. With weapons one never knew.
“Bolton.” Without really thinking about it I ran toward him, holding Faith tightly in my arms.
The other men- and noticeably women, I’d never seen quite so many in the same place before—working inside turned to look at us. I ignored them. I had more important things to worry about than the other workers.
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” Bolton rubbed Faith’s back.
“We are fine.” We were physically, although that did not mean I was ready to put my guard down. “What about you?”
“Yes. They put me to work.” He spread out his arms. “As you can see.”
“On weapons. What happened to the orchard?” I adjusted Faith on my hip.
“They thought I’d be more useful here.”
I nodded, realizing that it was where he probably thought he’d have a better chance of protecting us. “I understand.”
“I’m going to get us out of here,” He whispered. “You can count on me.”
“I just wish I had a better understanding of where here is.” I leaned into him. “We still don’t know.”
“So you knew whether Mason could find you?” Bolton raised an eyebrow.
“And so I know what they want with us. Have you found anything?” I kept my voice as low as possible, completely aware that we were still being watched.
“Nothing yet. But I will.” He tickled Faith and she burst into giggles. He had the ability to make her laugh when no one else could.
“I can’t imagine things are as happy here as everyone pretends.” So far everyone we had talked to on our tour spoke of the Glen with reverence. Everyone wore smiles and seemed to enjoy their work or activities.
“I guess anything is good compared to the alternative.”
“True. Or they have really good drugs in the water.”
“Yeah… It took me a while to wake up from what they dosed us with.”
“Same. I am so relieved they didn’t give too much to the girls.” I brushed some hair from Faith’s face. “At least I don’t think so.”
“I gave them quite a mouthful about that.”
He grinned. “I bet.”
“Kayla, it’s time,” Clayton called from directly behind me.
“I’ll find you soon,” Bolton promised as Clayton led us away.
I took a glance back at him over my shoulder on our way out.
“Are you finally ready to start trusting me?” Clayton handed me a cup of water as I walked out of the fields. I no longer worried about what he put in my drinks and food. As far as I knew, the use of the drugs had been a one-time thing. That didn’t mean I’d forgiven him for it.
“What makes you think I will ever trust you?” The sun was on its way down and a cool breeze made it feel more like winter than fall.
“You’ve been here close to a year, Kayla.” He watched me intently. “That’s a long time.”
“We are only here because you will not let us leave.” We’d searched for a way out, but there was none. The only opening was back through the water, but that wasn’t a real exit plan.
“Oh, is that so?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. You gave us no choice.”
“And where would you have gone?” He rested his chin on his hand.
“I don’t know. You know that.” And I hated that he was wasting my time when he already knew the answers to his questions.
“Exactly. So don’t act like you are a prisoner.”
But I could do the same thing if he wanted to play things that way. Faith was safe with Quinn. I had a few minutes to spare. “If we wanted to leave would you let us?”
“Let your children venture out into danger?” He frowned. “You know I couldn’t allow that.”
“Exactly. We can’t leave.”
“You have nowhere to go. It’s time you learn to be happy here. What we are doing here is important. Don’t you want things to change?”
“I still don’t understand the need to separate children from their families by age ten. It makes no sense.”
“It makes lots of sense. Traditionally many groups have sent their children away for schooling.”
“But this isn’t for schooling.” I didn’t know why Clayton wasted his time trying to convince me of his ways. He was never going to change my mind.
“One day Faith will have to move over to the girls’ dormitory.”
I shook my head. “We will leave before then.”
“Yes. To go out to the unknown. Yet you know she is safe here. Your hesitation is selfish.”
“Selfish?” I slammed the water down on the wooden fence separating the fields from the pathway. “How dare you call me selfish? Everything I do is for Faith.”
“Yet in your heart, you understand her best chance for survival is here. This has nothing to do with you being a good mother or not. This is bigger than you.”
“This is bigger than Faith, isn’t that what you want to say? That the greater good is more important.”
“No.” He shook his head. “That’s not what I’m going to say. This way she gets an education. She gets a chance to interact with peers. To develop a healthy independence so she will be ready to start a family if she is able.”
“She needs me.”
“Right now, yes. She is still very young. I am not trying to take her away from you.”
“You are. You limit all interaction between parents and children once they move over.”
“It’s to make the separation easier on everyone. You know that.”
“I don’t know that at all. It’s what you say.”
“I know full well how hard it is to have a child taken from you, but it is nowhere near as hard if you know the child is safe and cared for. We are the only place of our kind. The only chance our species has for survival.”
“That’s not true.” I thought about Mason’s mission. About the reason he’d missed so much of Faith’s early years already. “There is a cure on the other side of the wall.”
“Then why hasn’t it been brought in here?” His eyes were kind, but I didn’t care. He only wanted me to hear what he wanted me to hear. “After so much time?”
“Because Central hasn’t allowed it. They put up the wall…”
“And what makes you think they will ever allow it? Or whether the rumors are true? We need to focus on the truth. What we can actually do.”
“How is it that so many children end up here? There were only a few in the beginning, but there are more every few months.”
“I have scouts scouring the country. I only wish we could have found you that way instead of you having to suffer so much ahead of time.”
“I wish I could trust you.”
“You can.” He put his hands on my shoulders. “Let yourself. Quinn does.”
I shook my head. “She doesn’t trust you, but she sees that Bailey is happy.”
“And Faith is happy too.”
“Faith is too young to know what happiness is.”
“Do you even know what happiness is?” He rested a hand on the fence. “Even when the opportunity is right in front of you?” He looked at something over my head. I turned to see Bolton heading down the path toward us. “I urge you to give the Glen a chance. Has anything bad befallen you in the past year?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Then let that guide you for the next year.” He smiled before walking away. “Hello, Bolton. Beautiful evening.” He walked off, leaving Bolton and me alone.
“You worked late tonight.” Bolton brushed some dirt off the sleeve of my dress.
“So did you. And you are taking the long way around to the men’s house?”
“I was hoping to find you here.”
“I’m nothing if not p
redictable.” This wasn’t the first time Bolton had surprised me this way. I never minded the visits.
“When Faith is with Quinn. Otherwise you’d long before gone home.”
“True. But Quinn always gets off earlier on these nights.”
“She does. Because Maverick does.” Bolton shrugged. “Think that’s a coincidence?”
“One day she’ll stop fighting herself.”
“The same could be said to you.”
“Bolton—”
“Don’t even start. That’s why I’m here,” he interrupted before I could finish my thought.
“Oh?”
He cleared his throat. Something he only did when he was nervous. That made me nervous. “I wanted you to know I’ve agreed to put myself into the mating pool.”
“Oh?” I tried to ignore the lump in my throat.
“Oh? Is that all you have to say?”
“If it’s what you want. Do it. I mean just know I might still leave. Just because you decide to stay doesn’t mean I have to,” I struggled to string words together in a coherent fashion. His statement had taken me by surprise. I’d always assumed he’d leave with us when we did. That was my fault. I never should have started to rely on him.
“You aren’t leaving, and neither am I. We both know that. If we were going to leave we would have done it months ago. Do you want me to wait another few months? I can do that if you want me to. You know that.”
“No. There’s no reason to do that. As I said, I’m free to make my own decisions about leaving or staying.”
“There’s no other reason you’d want me to put it off?” He looked deep into my eyes.
“No. You know I gave my heart to Mason a long time ago.”
“And I think it’s time I listen.” Bolton frowned. “But know I’ll always be here for you and Faith. No matter what happens.”
“I wish you the best.” And I did, even if the lump in my throat was growing bigger by the second.
“This isn’t goodbye, Kayla. We will always be friends. Didn’t you hear what I said?”
“I need to go. Faith is waiting.” I ran off back toward the unmatched women’s area. I refused to let Bolton see the tears I knew were building behind my eyes.
Conflicted (The Corded Saga Book 3) Page 12