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“We’re not unhappy,” Zeke said. “We haven’t settled in yet, but we will. We just need time.”
“Rosie can answer for herself.”
A hitch in Zeke’s lip showed he was entertained by that. Cadence had stopped on her way back to the table and wore a deer-frozen-in-headlights look. Rory felt like the spark. “I’m unhappy.”
“You were unhappy in the decay. You used drugs to try to find your happiness and you were killing yourself. You don’t know how to be happy. You need to trust I have your best interests at heart.” He gave off a father-knows-best vibe with a hint of big-bad-wolf huff and puff. “Can you trust me, Rosie?”
There was no measure too small; the flicker of a brow, the thickness of a fingernail, the moisture in a breath for how little she could trust Orrin, especially as broken promises were a currency in Abundance.
They’d attracted a lot of attention, heads turned their way, eyes glancing, hands raised to hide words whispered. She could keep pushing her discontent and earn Orrin’s anger or roll over and show her belly. “I’m scared.” Belly it was.
Down came his hand again and she locked down her dislike of that. Up went Orrin’s voice to please the spectators. “Child, you have no need to fear. Look around you. This is a community, selected carefully and brought together at great expense by me. I chose you to join us. This land is a gift. This pure air we breathe is our joy. The children we birth are hope for the new world. We are the future. The only part of any worth that will survive. You are valuable. You are loved here. You are free. The one thing I ask of you is to trust in me like all of these good people, your new brothers and sisters, have agreed to do.”
Cue crescendo of strings in the orchestra that would be playing if this was a TV show. Even knowing what Orrin was doing to her, forcing her to voice her trust in him, to commit it out loud with witnesses, she felt the pressure of the moment.
A smile flirted on Zeke’s lips. That was all she needed.
“I trust you.” She should’ve put more of a tremble in her voice, but there was applause anyway. It rippled out from all the folk who’d pretended seconds ago no
t to be listening.
Orrin wore a look of triumph as his fingers grazed her cheek, before he bent to speak in her ear. “You will learn to love me. As I love you. Be patient, my beauty.”
It would’ve been less disturbing if he’d detailed how he wanted her skinned alive to make soup from her bones, but she didn’t react until he’d moved away, searching for the comfort of Zeke’s eyes.
“Game on,” he said. “Not sure I like the play, but here we go.”
No time to say more. Cadence was back, still wearing the stunned look. It clashed with what she said. “You’re favored.”
It was more like a warning. Behave or else.
“Orrin singled you out. He wouldn’t have touched you. He wouldn’t do that and in front of everyone if you had a black mark. This is good news. Couldn’t be better.”
If it was so fantastic, why was Cadence crocheting with her hands with a look on her face that said I’ve lost count of my stitches and I’ve forgotten what I’m making?
Rory’s body was full of the shudder she’d had to hold back, the flinch, and the stifled desire to tell a man who put his hands on her without permission exactly where he could fuck himself.
She needed to move. “I’m going for a walk.” She’d find some new people who’d ignore her, make sure she was seen, and then she’d go cat-burgle Orrin’s office.
There’d be time later to find out why Cadence’s words and picture didn’t match.
First person who didn’t actively avoid her was Macy. “Best barbecue I’ve eaten, hands down,” she told the chef.
Macy gave her a genuine smile and lifted the tumbler she was holding in a toast. “Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it. I saw you speaking with Orrin. You’re bold for someone who’s dang useless.”
Rory shrugged. “I didn’t make that happen.”
Macy passed the tumbler hand to hand. “I heard you asked Orrin about a new job?”
She’d heard. Already. This was what happened to people when they didn’t have TV. Or cell phones. Or the internet. News traveled at the speed of prying eyes and busy ears. “He told me to—”
“Be patient. I know. Good goddamn, I told you already that was what you had to do.”
“I can’t just stand in the corner while everyone else works hard all day.” That was a recipe for being disliked. She’d been here a week and she was already the slacker who Orrin favored. That did not sound like a secure position in life.
“You can because you’re just going to make work. I have my reasons for wanting you exactly where I put you.”
“Why is this so hard? I want to fit in and you’re making me stand out.”
