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“Completely normal.” Ransom shook his head. “It gets increasingly bad and then it ends. It’ll be intermittent. It’s not Net or anyone else messing with it. Just wet and noisy.”
I was dead on my feet by the time we went to bed, climbing in between Gunnar and Mace. The storm still clamored on outside, raging with wind and thunder. I clung to Mace while Gunnar hugged me from behind. “Will you guys be sleeping tonight or is it one of those nights where you won’t, even though I need to?”
“We might doze,” Gunnar said and laughed gently. “Don’t worry about that. It’s very restful to be here with you while you breathe. We love it, sleeping or not sleeping.”
That was good because I wasn’t sure I could have stayed awake another minute if I tried. The bed dipping woke me. Both Gunnar and Mace had gotten up, though it still looked dark outside. I lifted my head and Mace bent to kiss my cheek. “Sorry we woke you, but it’s better anyway. The rain caused flooding down at the coastline. People need help, so we have to go. But don’t worry. Sleep for a bit. There will be a Super Soldier in and out of here all day to check on things until we get back. When we’re finished, we’ll come back.”
I rubbed at my eyes. “I’m not worried about being alone. I don’t think anyone here wants to hurt me or anything. Can I help somehow?”
“No. I don’t want you anywhere near the floods. Get some more sleep, but if you need us, just start talking aloud. Whichever Super Soldier is patrolling here will hear it, and they can come get us. We’ll be a few hours away.”
Gunnar took my hand. “Or we’ll stay, if you want us to.”
“No, go. They need you.” I rolled over. “I’m sure I can find things to do today. People to see. Be safe. How are you going to handle it while it’s still raining?”
Cruz poked his head through the door. “Probably badly. See you later, beautiful.”
Gunnar and Mace both left but Ransom sprinted back to kiss my shoulder. “Don’t go outside. I don’t want my Butterfly to drown in the rain.”
Maybe I would spend the whole day in bed. Was that something I was allowed to do?
I closed my eyes, amused by the luxury of the idea.
* * *
I washed all the dishes and hummed to myself when Gator poked his head through the door. “I’m trading with Wave. We meet in the middle, then he’ll be here. Anything you want me to tell your crazy four guys who are probably insane with worry because you’re here alone?”
“Tell them I am fine, and I’m slightly reorganizing the kitchen to make it more aesthetically appealing, but I’ll put it back if they don’t like it.”
He smirked. “I’m sure they’ll think whatever you do is perfect. They love you. I know next to nothing about that, but that’s what I see around, anyway. You just want the other person to be happy. Check on Raine later for me, will you?”
I looked over my shoulder. “I will.”
If I knew him better, I might tease him about caring about what she needed, too. But I didn’t, and I had no idea if their feelings for Raine ran that way, or if they were just nice because she needed somewhere to go.
I went back to organizing the shelves.
Maybe I never would’ve expected being smacked, but getting hit on the arm when I didn’t even know someone was there shocked me. What the hell? I looked down where I’d been struck almost instinctively. A metal object stuck awkwardly out of my arm.
“Don’t make me use it.” A female voice drew my attention from the pain on my arm to the person who stuck it there. A blonde woman I’d never seen before held a device pointed at me. I recognized the markings on her head—she belonged to Clarke. “If I press a button on this device, it will cause you a huge amount of pain. I don’t want to do that.” She held up a device I did recognize. “No one can hear us here. This makes it impossible for them to hear us, not that they could right now anyway. There is a dead zone of time when they change places. I think I timed my visit perfectly. In fact. I’m sure I did. Raven, you’re coming with me. Clarke wants you back, and I’m here to get you. Are you going to make this hard or easy?”
17
THE WHORE AND THE BOUNTY HUNTER
I leaned against the counter and stared at her, twirling a lock of red hair around my fingertip casually. She was like me, except obviously…she wasn’t. At some point, she likely started as one of Clarke’s whores. Everyone knew the tattoo, even if they didn’t know about Clarke—it meant we were available to have sex if you paid someone. Ransom knew it when we met, and he didn’t even know Clarke.
But she intended to capture me and bring me home. That wasn’t something we did. We spread our legs and said things like oh yes, so good. We didn’t grab runaway whores and drag them home.
“Why are you doing this? How are you doing this?” The metal attached to my skin burned, so I waved it at her. I’d pull it off, but it might take all of the skin on my arm with it. They weren’t meant to be detached by the wearer.
“I’m doing this because I have to, which is also how I have a ship, and Clarke has the technology to get through bad lightning storms. So, move. We’re going. Now.”
Leaving with her seemed like a bad idea overall. The longer I stalled, the more likely a Super Soldier would notice they couldn’t hear me. Then they’d come find out why. That was the plan. It had to be. I’d attack her, although I had no fighting skills, and she’d probably press that button to hurt me. Pain didn’t frighten me, but what did she mean by hurt?
“What will it do? The thing on my arm?”
She scowled at me, some of her long blonde hair falling over her shoulder. “It’ll incapacitate you. And it won’t be pretty. You’ll hurt for days. Ask yourself…do you want to go back to Clarke’s ministrations in that much pain?”
