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My heart flutters in my chest and I slam my lids shut to keep from crying. I’m a nomad, a wanderer who was smart and lucky enough to figure out a way to earn enough income to support a lifestyle that kept me and my dog on the move. The idea of being confined to a cell for the next twenty months is so crushing it makes it hard to take a full breath.
“Sir, we’ve located Sylas and are bringing him to your twenty now,” crackles over a comm on the colonel’s desk.
Sylas will be here in a minute. It might be the last time I see him for months. Or… ever.
“Please don’t punish him, Colonel. He… he did everything right. I mean… he probably should have reported me immediately, but he contained me on the property. He took my car keys and wouldn’t allow me to leave. We were going to tell you. We…”
“I shouldn’t judge.” His tone is low. “You’re the first woman he’s ever met. And the poor male’s in rut. A perfect storm for terrible behavior.” He exhales heavily as he shakes his head.
By the force with which his lips are pressed together, it’s clear he was told about the state of the bed, including the ropes.
There’s a knock on the door and the colonel barks, “Enter.”
Although images of Sylas bloody, beaten, and cuffed have been swirling in my head, when he walks through the door, he looks just as he did when I last saw him. Except his face is drawn tight in worry. When his gaze lands on me, he hurries to my side, even though he’s in the presence of the man who literally holds his life in his hands.
Before Sylas reaches me, Tater bounds over and swipes the side of my face with his happy tongue.
“Are you okay? Colonel, why is she handcuffed like this? Her shoulders must be aching by now.”
It tugs at my heart that he knows how painful this position is, probably from his own experience. Perhaps one day I’ll know more about his history, although it sounds as though we won’t have a moment alone together for a long, long time.
The colonel tells one of the soldiers who has been standing at ease during my interrogation to uncuff me as Sylas leans to kiss me, then thinks better of it and stands to his full height and addresses the colonel.
“Sir. I forced the female to stay with me. She wandered onto the base in search of her runaway dog and rather than report her presence to you, I chose to… keep her for my own purposes. I understand if you need to jail me, punish me, but it was my decision not to bring her to your attention. Promise me you won’t harm her.”
He’s babbling now. His desperation to keep me safe is palpable.
“Lock me up, throw away the key, but—”
“That’s enough!” Slater’s voice is thunderous as he holds his arm out, palm facing Sylas to make it clear he doesn’t want to hear one more word.
Chapter Thirty
Sylas
I’ve made a huge mess of this. Did I really put all my fellow splicers at risk just to spend more time with Cally? By the thunderous look on Slater’s face, her punishment is going to be worse than if I had simply turned her in the moment she arrived. Now my selfish desires have earned her Colonel Slater’s ire, and an as-yet-unnamed punishment I can’t begin to imagine.
I have to make this better.
“Colonel, please. Punish me, but—”
“Not one more word, Sylas!” He scans an open file on his desk, but doesn’t appear to be reading it. “Barton, Webb, you may step out.”
Something of seismic proportions explodes in my chest. There’s only one reason he would dismiss our guards. He’s planning on doing something so painful, so abusive, it’s against military regulations and he wants no witnesses.
The moment the two soldiers exit, he clears his throat, frowns, and rubs a palm on the back of his neck. I’m on guard, ready to… what? Take a bullet for Cally? But I will. Every ounce of me is ready to do anything to protect her, even if it puts me in danger.
“For never having seen or spoken to a woman before you got here, you splicers sure work fast.”
What is he talking about? I’ve heard rumors that some of the twenty males in the integrated portion of the base had found female partners. I didn’t believe it could be true, though the colonel appears to be confirming it.
His gaze flicks from Cally to me as he leans forward to ask, “Before I inform you of my decision about how I’m going to deal with this, I need the truth about those ropes. Miss Quinn used the term consensual, but if necessary, we can conduct a medical inspection to confirm.”
“I took advantage of her without her consent,” I blurt, assuming this will ensure the colonel is more lenient on her, even though it’s bound to earn me a punishment. Surely nothing the Army can devise would be as bad as what I endured in my previous captivity.
“And you’re a terrible liar,” Cally says, tearing her gaze from Slater to slash me a disappointed look, her eyes blazing with anger and her mouth a tight line.
“We felt an immediate attraction,” she explains to the colonel. “I found him hard to resist, although I didn’t know he’d turn out to be a compulsive liar to try to get me out of trouble.”
