AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Can I come, too?” Diana asks from behind us.
I glance back to see her still on the floor beside the quilt with her knees drawn into her chest, the anxious expression on her face making her look even younger than eighteen, and a fresh wave of rage sweeps through me.
I have to protect her from Bane and make sure that sick future he threatened her with never comes true.
“I think you should stay here,” Kelley says, sparing me the trouble of coming up with an excuse to go alone. “Bane’s not happy with you, honey. Until he is, it’s best if you stay indoors and out of sight. And I can give you something to help take the edge off before the banquet tonight, if you want. Easier to lick a psychopath’s hand while he feeds you scraps if you’ve popped a couple Xanax first.”
Diana sighs and shrinks into a tighter ball. “Yeah. That would probably be good. Thank God I only have to pretend to be his good little lap dog for a couple of days. Any longer and I’d be tempted to throw myself off the nearest bridge.”
“I understand that feeling more than you know,” Kelley says, reaching for a pack of cards on the mantel beside an old chess set and a few battered paperbacks. “Want to play poker? Or Hearts? I always lose, but card games are good for keeping your mind off the ugly stuff.”
“Sure,” Diana says with a small smile. “That sounds good.”
As they settle onto the middle of the quilt and Kelley starts shuffling, I grab the bucket and duck out the door.
Outside, I glance around to make sure no one is watching as I head away from the pig pen, back toward the smell in the woods, carrying the scraps with me.
If I’m caught, I can pretend I misunderstood where the pig pen was located and likely avoid suspicion. But hopefully the rest of the camp will be too busy with other things to notice what I’m up to.
I can hear what sounds like military drills, the drone of the generators powering the structures with electricity, and the smell of cooks busy in the large outdoor kitchen. With the population of a small town to feed, those people are probably busy all day, and all the others are clearly focused on preparing for impending conflict.
Still, it seems strange that Bane hasn’t assigned guards to watch the cottage, Diana, or myself. He’s either overly confident in his ability to scare people into compliance or up to something. He’s absolutely the kind of sick bastard who would give you just enough rope to hang yourself before snatching you back into his clutches.
This could be a test of my loyalty.
I could be being followed and not even know it. I’m a city wolf with city wolf instincts. If some creep sidles up to me on the subway, I’m on guard before he can get close enough to cop a feel or steal my purse. But a stealthy tracker could be following my trail right now, and I wouldn’t have any idea.
With that in mind, I make a show of circling around some abandoned pens not far from the cottage, looking confused. My nose tells me animals haven’t been confined there for years, but I can always play dumb about that later. Walking away from the pens, I turn in a slow circle, continuing to play up my confusion as I search my surroundings, but there’s still no sign or scent of anyone on my trail.
Unsure whether to feel relieved or insulted that I’m apparently not considered enough of a threat to warrant surveillance, I start toward the woods behind the sanitary station.
Once there, I linger by the last port-a-john until I’m certain I won’t be observed before moving into the trees.
I have a pretty good idea where I left my marker of sticks and am headed that way, when I hear it—a faint, but tortured, scream.
