The Culling: Book 1 (The Culling Series)

by Tricia Wentworth

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” he says with hatred boiling off of him. He punches Grady a few more times before more people show up.

  “Reagan, Reagan can you hear me?”

  I briefly see Henry’s face above me. I try to focus on it, but everything is a little hazy and fuzzy. Then everything fades to black.

  Chapter 13

  As I come to, I’m lying down in what I assume is a hospital of sorts. I’ve never been to one before, so I wouldn’t really know. I feel a warm hand in mine and smell Lyncoln’s cologne so I know that he is here. Wherever here is. As I move my head side to side, I feel a dull throbbing. It makes me want to squint my eyes. Or turn off the lights.

  As I sit up, I see Jamie standing at the foot of my bed looking worried. “You okay?” he asks as I sit up.

  “Ouch,” I say groggily.

  “Can I get you anything?”

  “Tylenol.” I slowly finish sitting up and wince in pain. The dull throbbing is escalating.

  “And bring some ice too,” Lyncoln adds with a nod, standing up beside me.

  Jamie quickly leaves and it’s just Lyncoln and me.

  “What happened?” I ask confused. “Where am I?”

  I try to remember what happened…we were out in the field for paintball…and we won! Then I found Elizabeth and Grady.

  Oh crap. That.

  As I remember Grady tackling me and hitting my head hard on the ground, I can’t help but shiver. I wasn’t that scared when it was happening because I was focused in on one thing, fighting him off. Now that it’s over, I realize how terrifying it all was. Then I remember the look on Lyncoln’s face as he was punching Grady unconscious. He looked...ready to kill. He is still wearing the black paintball gear, minus the jacket and is now in a v-neck t-shirt that is entirely too tight on his pecs.

  “We’re at DIA for now. We’ll be heading back to Mile High shortly,” he informs me.

  “Does Grady need a new face?” I ask softly while trying to take a peek at Lyncoln’s knuckles.

  He half-smiles as he picks up a bag of ice and sits on the bed next to me. He places the bag of ice at the corner of my eye. I have to suck in my breath at how cold it is. He doesn’t respond to my question so we just sit there a moment.

  “Before you start wondering, Henry just left for an emergency meeting with his Dad back at Mile High so he asked me to stay. Grady has been dismissed effective immediately, and they are in the process of determining proper punishment. Henry is personally making sure of that so he had to go back right away. We weren’t sure how long you’d be out for, but it wasn’t long, not even five minutes.” He takes the ice away and ever so lightly presses on the skin around my eye.

  I don’t want to see it because I’m sure it’s ugly. I will more than likely have a big bruise where Grady elbowed me. Great. I got my first black eye and my first kiss all in one evening. How about that?

  I think back to that kiss. It was…intense? I remember thinking at the time that it was borderline violently aggressive, and that is exactly how I still feel about it. He acted like he was drowning and I was the air he needed to breathe. He went from almost ignoring me to consuming me in two whole seconds.

  All of a sudden I feel slightly annoyed and then just downright pissed. That was my first kiss? How dare Lyncoln ignore me all week, hang out with Attie, throw me up against a tree and kiss me senseless, and then take care of me after Grady knocked me out, but bring up Henry all nonchalantly.

  Who does that? Has he lost his ever-loving mind?

  “What are you doing?” I demand annoyed and feeling brave.

  He seems somewhat confused at my sudden mood turn but looks at me and simply says, “Putting ice on your eye.”

  His dark blue and brown eyes seem to be a door into my soul. Is there anything he can’t see through those? And why does he look at me like he knows me and has me all figured out, but I am still completely clueless about him?

  “I meant earlier. Kissing me…like that…after ignoring me all week. Now you are taking care of me yet talking about Henry. Maybe you should be with Attie,” I say quickly and then wince as he puts the ice back on. I didn’t want to sound jealous. I utterly and completely failed.

  “Do you want me to be?” he asks without emotion but his eyes show a hint of amusement.

  “Don’t you want to be?” I ask sarcastically, zero amusement.

  “No,” he says honestly and continues to hold the ice in place.

  A minute passes and he doesn’t say another word.

  “You are the most frustrating person I have ever met!” I try to move my head but regret it and wince again, this time from the pain and not from the ice. “Why would you kiss me if you are with her? She’s one of my best friends, if not my best friend.”

  “I’m not with her,” he half-smiles, looking me in the eyes again. I believe him for some odd reason.

  “Then what is going on?” I ask confused.

  “You have a smart head above those lovely shoulders, think about it.” He shrugs.

  “No. You tell me. Get to talking. I let you carry on doing your dark and dangerous thing being hot one minute and cold the next. After all that,” I gesture to mean the paintball events of kissing and what happened with Grady both, “I deserve an explanation. You chitchat all day with Attie, and yet you can’t even give me a straight answer to any questions.”

  He starts explaining in short sentences. “Henry is my best friend. He wants you. He’s the better man of the two of us. You will become the Presidential Couple with him if you choose it. If you don’t, the country needs a backup.” He is not a man of many words, but the words he uses count.

  “And Attie is the best one of us all,” I interject, making him smile.

  “No interrupting,” he bosses me as he leans in closer causing me to immediately shut up. “I’m not interested in her. I approached her and told her I would help her find a partner. In a sense, she is using me. If you don’t want this, we need to have a plan in place. We need a backup and a backup to the backup. The wrong person will not win this,” he says determined and then softens a bit as he looks at me. “I want to help her as she is a backup plan, but I had to make sure with you that it wasn’t in my head. I had to make sure you felt about me a fraction of how I feel about you.”

  “But what about you? You need a partner. Why are you doing all this?” I ask breathless, his eyes inches from mine.

  “I want you, but it has nothing to do with the presidency or the Culling. I’ve tried to find someone else but I just can’t make myself do it. Out of respect for Henry, I’m trying to stay away from you, but you are just so…” he closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, “intoxicating. I don’t want the presidency. I just want you. You, however, would be the perfect Madam President. We need someone like you.”

  “Why are you deciding what I want for me? And why don’t you want the Presidency?” I ask confused. This is the second person in 24 hours telling me they don’t want the presidency, the whole reason why we are all here. Are there more of us still here that would rather not have all that responsibility? And what do these people know that I don’t?

  “Because my skill set makes me a bit…cold, you could say.” He shrugs. “I wouldn’t do the honor justice.”

  “You aren’t cold, Lync,” I respond, using my nickname for him and wholeheartedly meaning what I say. He almost killed Grady in protecting me. There is nothing cold about that. If anything, it makes me proud.

  “Well, I only want you, so the only way I’d do it is with you. Otherwise, I’m good with my military career as is,” he leans in to steal a quick kiss, half on my cheek and half on the corner of my mouth again. “And when you want me to do that again, just ask. I am here whenever, wherever, however.”

  “Maybe I should quit before I come between the both of you and go home.” I look down at my hands. Maybe it’s best to leave with my dignity intact before I fall for one of these two men and have my heart ripped to smi
thereens.

  “Don’t you dare,” he scolds me and brings my chin up with his fingers, forcing me to look at him. “This isn’t about us or Henry and me. It’s about our country, and it really needs you. I wish I could tell you everything I know because, yes, I think it needs you specifically. You’ll be happy with Henry.” He gently massages my shoulder causing my pulse to accelerate before adding, “I will try to behave.”

  “Okay,” I say feeling disappointed. Then I feel guilty for being disappointed.

  “How’s your head?” He reaches out to gently feel the spot where I bumped the back of my head.

  “Excruciatingly…,” I start sarcastically, but as he leans in and is just by my lips, I lose all train of thought, “…excruciating.”

  What happened to that whole him behaving gambit from not five seconds ago?

  “Excruciatingly excruciating, huh?” He grins the real grin that I rarely see but already love.

  “Yep.” Neither of us moves.

  “Do you want me to move?” he asks and I see a rare break in his confidence. Who would think that this confident and intense man could be vulnerable in any sort of way?

  “Nope,” I say honestly and then feel bad when I think about Henry. “Lync…” I look down, feeling like the lowliest human being left on this planet.

  “Yeah, babe?” He says “babe” affectionately again and I can feel his breath on my face. I hated his terms of endearment for me at first, but now that it isn’t in a sarcastic way, it makes me feel...alive. Turns out, I don’t hate it at all. Not even a little.

  “I really do like Henry, but I would be lying if I said I felt nothing for you.” I search his eyes for answers that I don’t even know the questions to.

  Why can’t I stop myself? I should just tell him I’m with Henry and be done. But after that kiss and seeing him take out Grady out of loyalty to me, I feel like he deserves the truth. Plus, I don’t think I could lie to him anyway. I don’t hold anything back with him and although he has this tough bad boy persona, I don’t want to hurt him either. I know he has been through enough hurt in his life.

  “I know,” he half-smiles and massages my shoulder again. “You seemed to enjoy that kiss. I had to be the one to stop it.”

  I roll my eyes and can’t help but smile. “Mostly you’re a huge pain in the butt, but sometimes not.” I like him like this, but there are times I just want to punch his face right off.

  He lets out a laugh, “I think it’s time you get to know me better. More than likely you will not like what you find and run far, far away. But on the very, very small chance I still have a shot with you, I’ll take it.”

  If only it were that simple.

  ****

  “So other than being bruised,” the doctor man explains back at Mile High, “you just have a minor concussion. Just to be safe, we will monitor you here throughout the night, waking you every couple of hours, and you should be up and at ‘em and released tomorrow.”

  I run my fingers along the red marks on my right arm where I can already tell Grady’s fingertips will bruise me. “Thanks, doc.”

  “Also. I have tried to get rid of your suitors for you, but it looks like they will be taking shifts with you through the night. Just a heads up.” He smiles knowingly.

  I let out a groan and blush seven shades of red making him laugh.

  I rode with Lyncoln back to Mile High once I got cleared by the medic there. Lyncoln insisted on carrying me and holding me the entire time. I would be lying if I said I didn’t like it.

  “One last thing, I know you won’t feel like it, but try to eat something,” the doctor nods kindly.

  “I’ll try,” I promise though I’m not feeling even a little bit hungry.

  We are then interrupted by Henry barging in looking worried. He doesn’t even see the doctor standing beside me as he hurries over to me giving me a huge hug. The doctor smiles and slips out to give us some privacy.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner,” he whispers, tickling my ear.

  “It’s okay. I’m fine,” I whisper back. He smells good. He is still wearing the paintball gear too, with the splatter across his chest from where I shot him.

  “It’s not fine. What Grady did was not fine,” he pulls back and sits on the side of the bed at my feet while wrapping his fingers around mine. “I didn’t want to leave you at all, but I also wanted him dealt with right away.”

  “Well, at least he won’t become the next president then.” I’m trying to find the positive in this whole debacle.

  “Yeah. Over my dead body,” he says protectively as he looks me in the eyes.

  Those eyes! How can someone have such smooth green eyes? When he is happy, the green in them almost bounces. When he is angry, like now, it’s as if the green freezes solid. I have never seen eyes so fluid. He lightly touches the skin around my eye where Lyncoln was icing. It must look really bad because I can see that it literally pains him to look at it.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, having never seen him like this.

  “I should be asking you that, but yeah.” He shakes his head. “When I saw you lying there crumpled on the ground...I just haven’t been that scared in a long time.”

  Trying to find a lighter subject, I think on the rest of the paintball experience, which was a lot of fun up until the whole Grady thing. “I know I said it before, but I can’t get over the fact that you shot me tonight!” I say pretending to be shocked, trying to lighten the mood. It works.

  He rolls his eyes and smiles. “I can’t believe I didn’t know what you two were up to. I know Lyncoln. I should have known he would plan something as cutthroat as that. And, of course, you would be in on it.”

  If only he knew exactly what we were really up to. Yikes.

  Not wanting to think more about that subject, I ask, “Can you believe I’m stuck down here until morning?”

  “Reagan, I saw how hard you hit your head. I would demand it if they didn’t. Throw my dad’s name around if I had to.” He says it like he’s scolding me but looks at me protectively. It warms me all the way down to my toes that he is trying to take care of me. He’s a true gentleman. I wasn’t sure those even still existed.

  “I feel fine. I just want my soft bed in my room,” I argue.

  “Yes, but then I couldn’t stay with you now could I?” He bounces his eyebrows flirtatiously.

  I blush. “You don’t really need to stay with me anyway. What if I am an ugly sleeper? What if I snore…or drool…or wet the bed even?”

  “Then you will be all the more adorable, well minus the bed wetting, which I’m sure you don’t.” He pauses to give me a slow smile then adds, “Besides, it will be good for me.”

  “How so?” I see a dark cloud briefly pass across his facial features as I ask.

  “I’ve avoided this place since mom passed. I spent way too much time down here when she had treatments so I haven’t been back since. I’ve just avoided the whole hospital. Even when they need my blood drawn or if I get sick, I make them come to me. So it’s time I grow a pair and get over it.”

  Wow. That wasn’t what I expected and it’s totally heartbreaking to hear him voice it that way.

  “I’m sorry about your mom.”

  Word is that she died from some type of cancer. It was a slow killer, and unlike Trident, wasn’t over within just a few days. It has been two years, but in seeing the pain in Henry’s eyes, I can tell he feels like it was yesterday.

  “Me too. She would have loved to meet you,” he smiles, squeezing my hand.

  He then picks up the soup bowl and crackers on a tray a few feet away and forces me to start eating. Since I know he hates hospitals but is here for me anyway, I decide not to fight him and eat as much as I can in cooperation. I also try my hardest not to dribble soup down my chin. He makes me so nervous.

  “So what happened while I was out cold?” I ask as I finish up my now cold soup.

  “I was with you for most of it, getting you to DIA before I hopped on
a copter to get here faster, but what I have been told is that four guards immediately took Grady away. More so for his safety from Lyncoln I think. Lyncoln took it pretty personally. Then Bennett said the winning team’s award would be announced at a later date due to the unfortunate turn of events. He informed everyone that Grady was kicked out. He gave a good long lecture on Grady’s actions and if anything of the sort were to happen again. Then everyone got loaded up and returned back. You should know Elizabeth is fine. More worried about you than anything, and extremely grateful. If you hadn’t noticed her in time, it could have been really bad.” He shakes his head and I remember Grady’s hands all over her and shiver.

  “I just don’t get it. Why would he do it? He isn’t an ugly man by any means and there are a lot of girls here. Surely he could have wooed someone. He knew Maverick and her are a thing so why would he do that with Elizabeth specifically? I don’t think he ever sought her out to begin with. I just don’t understand.” I can’t put my finger on it, but something smells fishy about this whole thing.

  “Me neither. Lyncoln neither and that’s why he was so furious. Grady went through basic training with us. We not only know him, but he’s in Lyncoln’s unit. Yeah, he can be a jerk around girls and test his limits, but we have never ever seen him lay a hand on one like that before.” His eyebrows come together confused. “It just doesn’t make sense. He’s seen Elizabeth before too. They are both from here. So why now?”

  Something in my gut tells me there’s more to this story, but I don’t want to tell Henry that right now. If it were up to Henry and Lyncoln, they would have the head of Grady on a post by now.

  ****

  I’m woke up in the middle of the night and immediately can tell from the smell and the dangerous tension in the room that Lyncoln is back. It’s weird I know who is here based on their smells. They are different but equally enticing. One is more outdoorsy and one is fresher and almost minty.