by V. K. Ludwig
I let my eyes dart over to Svea, but she gazed back at me from empty eyes. My throat turned raw, every breath I took burning all the way down into my lungs. “I had nothing to do with this, and my dad hasn’t been active ever since his arrest.”
“When was the last time you’ve seen him?”
“It’s been years.”
“Is that so?” He grabbed another cookie without moving his stare from me and shoved it in his mouth. Crumbles clung to the cleft in his lip like boulders in a ravine, a throaty mmmh coming from the column of his neck. “I could have sworn it was two days ago at that little chapel out west.”
His words came down like a slap in my face, making the room around me distort into a nightmare.
Panic gnawed on my nerves. Dad!
I leaned back into my couch playing it cool, pretending the fact never came up. Whatever this was, I had to keep the upper hand if I wanted to keep Autumn safe. At least until she got out of here. Without me.
The guy grabbed his gun and popped the magazine out. He peeked into the well, cocking his head from left to right and back again. His thumb fondled the bullet on top of the cartridge. This was nothing but a mind-fuck.
“Where were you today between four-twenty and four-forty in the afternoon?” he finally asked, pushing the magazine back in. Svea’s face remained as neutral as space, but the tension on one of her calves outlined against her pants.
I slowly leaned over and grabbed the box of cookies, holding it inches away from his chin. “I happened to have an appointment with councilwoman Svea, on the funding for the lab. Care for another one?”
He glanced over his shoulder where Svea confirmed with a quick nod. Then he turned back to me and shook his head. “That’s all then. For now.”
“Captain.” Svea pushed herself away from the desk and walked over to us. “It also wouldn’t hurt to send a few men into the Drainpipes. The scum there would clearly be her biggest support, and we can’t let her get away.”
“With all due respect, councilwoman, but councilman Merrick wants us to split into smaller teams and raid the community homes.”
“I’m sure you know exactly what to do.” She strolled over to the window, her chin high and her posture unbothered. “I hope it will pay off to look among people who despise the clans, considering your promotion will be up for vote in three weeks.”
He gave a villain-smile and jabbed two fingers in the direction of the door. “Everyone outside. We’ll split up and flank the Drainpipes from three sides.”
At that, the stomping and marching resumed until the last defender had left my place, leaving behind stagnant air and sweaty odor.
With trembling hands, I put the box of cookies back down and began pacing from one end of the couch to the other. I pointed at Svea, my index finger overflying from the tension inside me. “I have questions, and I want fucking answers.”
“And let me guess,” she mumbled against the glass, “you think I got them.”
“Why are you helping her?”
“I’m not helping her. I’m helping myself,” she said, her voice calm and confident as if she just recited the multiplication tables.
“Am I supposed to get that? Do you know there was another person in the server room? This makes no sense. Where are you taking her?”
So many questions and she answered all of them in less than a second with a shrug of her shoulders.
Panic slowly rolled up my spine. What if I never got to see Autumn again? Suddenly, everything that happened between the time Nathalie died and the moment Autumn entered my life seemed like a grayscale daydream.
Some sort of awakening kicked me in the bells, ringing all the way up into my brain. I was so stuck in the past, I couldn’t take a single step toward the future. And now with Autumn gone, what was left for me?
By the time that panic reached my mouth, it had turned into full-blown rage, bubbling inside me like lava with nowhere to go other than through my vocal cords. “Where the fuck are you taking her?” I shouted, the desperation palpable on my tongue. “I have to talk to her, and you will tell me where she is or… or…”
My voice trailed off taking that rage right with it, dumping it in a load of self-pity. I had no leverage. No bargaining chips. “Or I’ll have to get in touch with my dad and go about it my way,” I added, my frail voice not even convincing myself.
She turned around and met me with an unflinching stare. “What do you think who helped me arrange all this?”
I felt a strange twitching in my ears as if someone scratched a nail across my eardrums. The always reliable dad. Coming to save innocent lives. Over and over again.
“Is he in any danger?” I asked.
“Probably.” She stated it like a fact, void of any consideration for the emotional load. “And you will be too if you go after her now. They will come for more questions, and anything less than your cooperation will turn them suspicious.”
Goosebumps formed along my neck the moment I opened my mouth, “Then I’ll leave with her.” My eyes couldn’t detect a single reaction on her. Her stare continued, along with the steady up and down of her collarbone and that expressionless face of hers.
She walked over to my desk and sat, ripping a tiny piece of paper from an old magazine. Then she grabbed a pencil from the old-fashioned bamboo stationary and began writing. “If you decide to leave, then here is the address along with instructions. You can’t be caught.”
She folded it a dozen times, walked over to me and placed it on the coffee table. It lay there between dust and crumbs, making anxiety lick the walls of my stomach.
“If you decide to leave, you won’t be able to come back.”
My head nodded as if on auto-pilot.
But my brain still played catch-up.
My breath stilled in my chest as if turning my body into a soundless vessel, allowing my thoughts to speak up loud and clear. All my research would stay behind as if it never happened. Nobody would be left behind to keep looking for the truth unless Ruth was stupid enough to. But most of all, I’d have to leave dad behind.
I sank deeper into my couch and stared on the little piece of paper in front of me. “Why doesn’t your file list any parents?”
She rummaged her hand through one of her pockets. Unsuccessful, she let her hand dart for the other. “Because I have no parents. Nobody to advocate for me. But, before I forget… your dad wanted me to give this to you.”
She let Nathalie’s necklace dangle from her hand, the chain twice wrapped around her middle finger. I pressed my eyes together, grasping what a monumental fuck-up of a son I had been.
Chapter 23
Autumn
I stirred the spoon through the gooey contents of the can. It reeked of old boob sweat and turned my tongue numb at every bite. Still, the stomach cramps it gave me had nothing on how my muscles clenched around my heart. Every organ I needed to survive seemed paralyzed, and my lungs only kept me conscious enough to live through the pain.
Tonight I would leave the Districts behind for good.
Without him. Without Max.
That was, if I wouldn’t die of a broken heart before that.
Found in a dark cherry-red puddle. Where it had bled out.
I pushed the can into the only brick corner that didn’t have mildew spots growing from the ground up. Then I lay on the sleeping bag and rolled myself up — fetal-style.
Motionless and covered in self-doubt, I moaned a few sobs into the fabric. The room around me cooled by at least ten degrees, growing more confining by the minute. “Fucking shiiit!” I groaned, pushing whatever air I had left inside my lungs into the room.
Still, it wasn’t enough to make me feel better. Banging my head against the wall wasn’t an option though. After all, I had to tell Rowan about what went down here.
Everything around me dimmed, the outline of the memory stick Svea had given me turning into a blur. Resting atop the can of pyramids, it was the last thing I’ve seen before I fell to sleep —
and the first thing I saw when a hammering noise woke me.
Half awake, I pressed my hands over my ears muffling the bangs. First sweat beads formed along my spine. They found me!
The thuds against the metal door grew louder.
More forceful. Desperate.
I jumped into my jeans and buttoned it up. Nobody wants to be dragged off to jail in nothing but a shirt and your panty. Not even in the Districts. I fought my brain for each step I took toward the door, my knees weak and my thoughts thick fog.
The rusty key whined in the peephole. I moved my hand toward the handle, but the door already swung open.
“Max…”
My heart stuttered in my chest like a vintage engine unable to kick in gear right away. I felt the weight of my body shifting in his direction, but stopped myself. This couldn’t be anything but a dream.
Max wrapped his arms around me, pulled me into a hug and made it a reality. His breath sounded irregular as if sobs punched his lungs. He squeezed so hard it made me gasp for air, the shower and fresh linen scent on him making my knees melt.
His fingers fumbled through my hair. His hand caressed my back. And his lips ran along the side of my neck without spilling a single kiss. He eased his hold and gazed down at me. “I thought I’d lost you forever.”
His lips robbed me of any response, pressing fiery onto mine in a kiss that spelled it all out. He couldn’t let me go, and I immersed myself in the desperate and aching tone of his words.
“How did you find me?” I asked, my voice way too earnest considering how little I cared. He was here. He came for me, and I didn’t give a shit about anything else.
Neither did he.
He closed the door behind him, turned the key and scooped me up without effort. Unwilling to let go of my lips, he kept kissing me and bridal-carried me over to the sleeping bag.
Uninvited and without permission, he grabbed the edge of my shirt and pulled it over my head, his new-found confidence turning my pussy fever hot.
His needy hand cupped my breast, kneading it and pinching my hard pebble between his fingers. Then he placed a kiss on it, followed by a hard suck that made me moan. With one arm he held himself up. With the other he pulled his shirt off, revealing his ripped body and that narrow, hazel happy trail I loved so much.
He lowered himself down, and I spread my legs to receive him, regretting that I had put my pants back on. It mattered little, because I felt him hard and ready, docking his cock right at the seam of my pants where I was hot and wet and a greedy little bitch.
Lust shook his fingers. They still managed to get the button through the hole, and he tugged on my pants like a K9 that had caught on to an irresistible scent. Once the pants were gone, he placed kisses along the inside of my thighs and worked himself up. He left the sweetest ones for my scar, that ugly fucking scar, making me feel less broken and damaged.
“I owe you something,” a mumble came from between my legs. “But I won’t be able to pay up without you guiding me a little.”
At that, he pulled my panty down, and I wiggled my leg in a desperate attempt to help speed things up. His head disappeared between my legs once more, and carefully placed lips sent a tingle across my pubic bone.
Max tasted every inch of me, trailing his tongue across my folds and sucking my lips open and exposed. My heart pounded hard and slow, pumping a gush of blood into all the nerve ends he tickled.
“Oh, fuck,” it pushed out of my mouth, the tone of my voice so shaky and primal, I barely recognized it as my own.
“That any good?”
I tousled his hair and shoved his head closer to my entrance in response. He spread my legs wider with his strong shoulders as his tongue disappeared inside of me. Blunt and adventurous he penetrated my pussy with it, taking in all of my taste and drowning in my excruciating need for him.
His tongue circled my clit, pushed down on it with the tip of his tongue and sent me bucking against his face. A hot numbness spread through my core and radiated to the junction of my legs. I was at his mercy, and I didn’t mind it one bit.
My legs pressed together trapping his head between them. He wouldn’t cease and managed to pry my legs open once more. He teased my folds, my hole and my pulsating clit in a rhythmic dance between lips and tongue, sending my head into a spin.
“Oh… M-maaax…”
An orgasm ripped through me.
Tearing down walls and strongholds.
Crumbling into nothing but bliss.
He kissed his way up along my body and to my mouth, his drenched lips sharing some of my sweet taste with me. “How was that?”
“It’ll be hard to top that,” I said, and his eyes sparked a challenge accepted.
He quickly pushed his shoes and socks off while fumbling down his pants. Hungry and selfish, I pushed his briefs down and wrapped my fingers around his hard shaft. He moaned and lowered himself down on me, placing the tip of his cock at my juice-dripping entrance.
His cockhead teased my hole, rubbing it without entering. Wet and ready I pushed my hips up like a frantic invitation, begging him to push inside of me.
He locked his hips, stalling all movement.
Then he RSVP’ed with nothing but a deep stare into my eyes, making the room around us disappear. He brushed some stray hairs out of my face, resting his thumb on my lower lip. “Will you marry me?”
“What? I…” My lungs near collapsed, leaving me behind a breathless, mindless ball of ecstasy and elation. I was trapped between a sleeping bag and the man I loved. Pinch me now, because there is no way he just asked me to marry him.
“Where is this suddenly coming from?”
He slung his arm around my neck and cradled my head, pushing the tip of his cock against my hole and splitting my lips apart. His hand wrapped around mine.
“Right here,” he said, placing my hand onto his strong, heaving chest. “This is where this is coming from because I love you and I can’t imagine another day in my life without you in it. Please marry me.”
I stared at him for a long moment.
Not because I didn’t believe him. I did.
And I wanted to bathe myself in this moment.
Soak it into my skin.
Treasure it at my core.
I gave him a slow but confident nod, the smile on my face pushing my cheeks at the edge of a cramp. Without another word exchanged, except for the silent ones, he penetrated me in one unhurried, long dive.
“Damn,” Max groaned, “it feels so good to be inside of you again.”
He stayed deep inside for what felt like forever, circling his hips and exploring the far end of my cave. When he pulled back out, he did so excruciatingly slow, letting the rim of his cock plop against every single ridge inside my pussy.
Our eyes remained locked, and each time my walls clenched around his instrument, he gave me a half-lidded proof of his pleasure. With each thrust he offered, his lips parted some more.
He pushed my knees up and parted my thighs wider, giving him all the room he needed to go fast and deep. I received every thrust eagerly.
At that moment there were no walls, no clans, and no districts. Just a man and a woman. Their bodies merged at their cores. Exchanging unspoken words about that primal lust that controlled us. It made my skin pebble, my nipples harden, and my clit throb each time his pubic bone made impact.
I put my soles back on the ground, joining his intense beat, grinding myself against him. He plunged back into my wet pussy, sometimes staring down at us, his moans growing deep and throaty.
Each thrust sent an earthquake through my body which seemed to start at my very roots. He filled me up completely, and I took it all in, riding the waves of pleasure that broke against my love bud. “Max…”
Max
The way she moaned my name made another gush of blood pump into my cock. This was fucking, making love and claiming her as mine all at the same time and I relished every second of it.
“I love you, Max!” Damn. An
other sweet moan in my ears, but this one made me grow another eights of an inch.
Nobody had bound our hands yet or given us the pastoral blessing, but shit she was my wife right then and there, underneath me, her tight walls twitching as I claimed her. Again.
But the first time was different. The first time was all curiosity, unchecked desire and lack of control. Not that I had gained any control since then…
Curiosity, however, changed into consciousness.
Desire turned into a conscious decision.
I wanted her with all the strings attached. Even the bad ones. Damn, especially the bad ones, because even the worst times with her couldn’t overshadow a lifetime without her.
I gave another deep thrust, my balls plopping audibly against her bridge. The room had grown from stale and musty to humid and sweet, our shared moans resounding on the bricks. Autumn melted inside my arms and underneath my torso, her body bending and arching toward her own pleasure.
She lifted her hips and met each and every one of my strokes, bucking her swollen clit against my pubic bone underneath quivers. I rocked in and out of her, staring down at us and how my head disappeared once more between her soaking wet lips. The mix of our juices had turned a milky-white, dripping out of her and covering my shaft.
Her walls had stretched just enough to make me fit, but her tightness still milked my cock as if she wanted my cum right fucking now. Damn… the thought alone placed it right there, at the tip, ready to blow inside of her in several rapid jerks.
But something else pushed into my monolog, like a guest I thought had left, twisting my guts and clasping my ballsack. I ignored it and kept on driving into her hole, my eardrums twitching at every smack of our lovemaking.
“Say that you’ll marry me,” I moaned, pounding in and out of her hard and deep.
“Mmh… Max…”
The urge to explode built up inside of me. “Say it!”
She flung her hands around my hips and pulled me deeper into her, meeting my rhythm in a mix of deep penetration and circular motions. “I will… I will… I am all yours… oh, Max!”