Chapter Twenty–Eight
Cat
I paced back and forth in the middle of the room.
“Breathe, Cat. Breathe. It’ll be okay. It has to be.”
I had been telling myself the same thing for hours, trying not to panic.
They had Cash.
I hadn’t seen Tate or David in hours.
Paul was nearby.
And I was alone.
Adam had dumped me in Hilltop’s hotel. To say I was scared was an understatement. I was terrified.
I wrapped my arms around my middle and hugged myself tight. I had no idea what was going on. I was back in the same bedroom Cash and I had shared when we were in town. In the same room where I had told him I loved him for the first time.
Morning light streaked across the floor, touching my bare toes as I walked back and forth. My eyelids felt like sandpaper. I hadn’t slept since being woken up by Cash crawling out of our makeshift bed on the floor in the cabin. That had been hours ago.
Tears clogged my throat. I could still smell him on my clothes. Oh God, where was he?
I stared at the closed bedroom door. Adam had locked it behind him as he left. I had screamed and pounded on the thick wood until my voice grew hoarse and my hand went numb. Giving up, I had started pacing, my fear growing.
Tate and Cash were all I cared about and all I had left in this fucked up world. If something happened to them, I wouldn’t know how to go on.
“Please God, let them be okay,” I whispered, studying my toes. They were caked with dried mud. So were my jeans and strands of my hair. For the millionth time, I replayed in my mind the moment it happened.
When Cash fell to the ground and my world came crashing down.
~~~~
“Let me go! Let me go!” I screamed as Cash crumbled to the ground.
I struggled to get away from Paul but he chuckled and ran his fingers down the front of my jacket and across my collarbone.
“That’s it, little bird. Struggle. You know I like it.”
I tried jerking away from him but he had a tight hold on me. I wanted to fight and scream but hysteria bubbled up in me.
Cash was lying in the wet grass, unconscious. I didn’t know if he was alive or dead.
Oh, God, I’m going to be sick.
I bent over at the waist and vomited. Paul yelped and let go of me. I fell down to my knees in the grass, heaving.
Tate shouted at me to run and started fighting to get free from the men holding him but I couldn’t move. I was too sick and scared. Too frozen with fear.
David had his eyes tightly shut and was praying as his hands were being tied behind his back. Men were everywhere. Pulling weapons out of the cabin. Hauling out our meager supplies. Flinging the tarp off David’s old truck.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Cash. A big, militia soldier strolled out of the cabin wearing his cowboy hat. He walked over to Cash and nudged his limp body with the toe of his boot. When Cash didn’t move, the man pulled back his foot and kicked him in the ribs.
“Nooo!” I screamed, scrambling to my feet. Paul grabbed me and yanked me back. I twisted and kicked to get away as the soldier kicked Cash again and again.
Paul ran his hand down my face, smearing the tears that rolled down my cheeks.
“Don’t be sad. I’ll take care of you,” he said, nudging his nose into my hair.
I screeched and twisted in his arms. With as much power as I could, I drove my hand into his windpipe just like Cash showed me.
He gasped and grabbed at his neck, letting go. I spun around and took off sprinting. I had to get to Cash!
Glass from the broken windows slashed the bottoms of my feet. I slipped in the wet grass but managed to stay upright and run.
My hair flew behind me. I heard a shout but I only had feet to go.
The man kicking Cash looked up at me. Seeing I was no threat, he pulled back his heavy boot and kicked Cash again.
“Stop!” I screamed, running.
He looked up at me and grinned a second before someone tackled me to the ground.
The side of my face hit the wet earth. Pain exploded from the bullet wound in my side. I squeezed my eyes shut and gasped. Mud soaked my clothes and oozed between my fingers. I reached out to grasp a handful of grass and pull myself up but someone grabbed me by the back of my shirt and pulled up.
“Guess I need to clip your wings,” Paul said, gathering my hands in front of me.
Weakness and pain made the blood rush from my head. This was it, I thought, my body going limp. The end.
But a sound woke me up. A grunt.
I forced my eyes open. Cash was looking at me.
Then the man kicked him again.
“No!” I cried out, trying to get away from Paul. I need him! I need him! I was Cash’s and he was mine. I twisted and turned, fighting and struggling.
Frankie stepped in front of me, blocking my view of Cash. “Settle down, girl,” he grumbled in an aggravated voice.
I drew back my head and spit in Frankie’s face. He froze, saliva rolling down his leathery cheek.
His eyes went dark. His expression hardened. I wasn’t just looking at a man anymore. I was looking at the devil.
His hand snapped out and grabbed my throat. I gasped but a second later I was struggling to breathe. He tightened his fingers on my neck, choking me. My toes scrambled at the ground as he lifted me up by his grasp. Blackness swam at the edges of my vision as my airway was cut off.
I heard Tate shout to let me go. David pleaded in his deep voice for heavenly intervention. But it was Adam who saved me.
“Let her go, Frankie. You can deal with her later. For now, we need to leave.”
Frankie frowned. I didn’t think he was going to listen to Adam but then his fingers relaxed on my throat. He set me back on my feet and let me go. I took big gulps of air, sucking in as much oxygen as I could get.
He peered over my shoulder at Paul. “Tie her up so she doesn’t get loose again.”
Paul stepped in front of me as Frankie walked away. He pulled a piece of leather from his back pocket and started wrapping it around my wrists.
“I hate to see my little bird hurt by someone else. I’m going to be the only one that touches you like that from now on.”
I stared at Cash, tears blurring my vision, my hope disappearing. He was still unconscious. Frankie and the big man stood over him, talking. Around me, men were busy loading stuff in David’s truck and pouring something on the porch of the cabin.
They’re going to set fire to the cabin, I thought in a daze.
“Sis? Sis, you okay?” Tate asked as a man shoved him past me.
“Tate?” I felt dizzy and ill.
He stumbled and looked back at me as the man pushed him on. “He’s not dead, Cat. He’s not. You got to keep believing that.”
I glanced at Cash but Paul spun me around. “Let’s go, little bird.”
He pushed me to follow the men heading into the woods. I tried looking back, to see where they were taking Tate and David and what they were doing with Cash, but Paul blocked my view.
At the edge of the clearing, I heard a whoosh and felt heat at my back. I glanced over my shoulder and saw the flames. They licked at the sides of the cabin and engulfed the roof. In minutes, it would be gone.
Paul pushed me into the woods. All I could see was right in front of me. All I could hear was Paul’s hot breath behind me.
I was about to die.
The woods would be my graveyard. I wouldn’t have a headstone or a final resting place. I would just have leaves as my coffin and wild, hungry animals as my companions. I would never see Tate or Cash again. I wouldn’t feel worried or scared or hungry. I would feel nothing. At one time, that’s what I wanted. But not anymore.
Paul hummed a song as he led me through the woods. Cold seeped through my clothes. I shivered uncontrollably. My teeth chattered loudly.
“I’ll take her,” a deep voice said somewhere beside me.
>
I jerked my head to the side as Paul drew me to a stop. I heard a match strike and flare to life. Adam was a few feet from me, looking ominous and deadly in the dark.
“Keep your hands to yourself. She’s mine,” Paul grumbled, tugging me a safe distance away even though Adam made no attempt to grab me.
He stared at Paul. “Finders keepers.”
Paul snorted. “What are you? Twelve?”
The match went out and I heard the click of a gun being cocked a second before it appeared aimed between Paul’s eyebrows.
“No, but I’m old enough to know my manners. Let her go. I’m not finished with her yet.”
Paul’s Adam’s Apple danced up and down in his throat but he didn’t move out of the way of the gun.
“Her and me got unfinished business. Stay out of it, killjoy. You had your chance.”
Adam cocked his head to the side. “She’s my finders fee. You don’t like it, take it up with Frankie.”
Paul opened his mouth to argue but Adam raised one of his eyebrows in question.
Paul let go of me and held both of his hands up.
“Fine. But you just made yourself an enemy. She’s mine and I’m gonna have her, one way or another. I can guarantee it.” He glanced at me then backed away, disappearing a minute later.
As soon as he was gone, Adam hooked a finger in the leather band around my wrists. “Come on.”
I jogged to keep up with him as he pulled me around trees.
“Where…where are they taking Tate and David?” I asked, stumbling to keep up.
He didn’t answer so I tried again. “Is Cash okay?”
Again, nothing. I grew angry and yanked back on my bound wrists he held, stopping him.
“You either tell me or you have to drag me.”
Adam sighed and grabbed a fistful of my shirt, jerking me closer.
“Paul was taking you away from where everyone else is at, you realize that, don’t you?” he asked, almost yanking me off my feet.
When I stuck up my chin and didn’t say anything, he scowled. “You are such a little—”
“Paul says there’s a problem. Is there?”
Frankie was in front of us, his arms crossed over his chest and a deadly knife hanging from his belt loop. Terror made me start to shake, remembering how he had almost strangled me.
Adam let go of me and faced Frankie. “There’s no problem. Paul just doesn’t understand the logistics of my job.”
“And what would they be?”
I could feel the tension in Adam. He might work for Frankie but he didn’t like being questioned.
He grabbed the leather around my wrists again. A warning to stay quiet.
“I do your bidding – no matter what it is – and I get paid nicely for it. Whatever I want.” He shrugged. “I want her. She’s my trophy. Paul seems to not understand that.”
“Did you ask my permission?” Frankie ground out.
“No. But I got you what you wanted so I get her.”
Frankie frowned, considering it. “Fine. Do what you want with her. But then hand her over to Paul. I don’t want any discourse in my unit. Understood?”
Adam nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Frankie turned to leave but then paused. “I have to ask. Why her? The girl’s more trouble than she’s worth. There are plenty of women in town—”
Adam interrupted in a cold voice. “I want to teach her a lesson. America won’t become great again unless people know their place and pay for their crimes. You taught me that. She needs to pay.”
Frankie smiled with pride. “That’s why we’re here. The lawless shall suffer and the righteous shall thrive. But be warned – Paul’s obsessed with her. That’s the only dang thing I’ve heard for days.”
“Obsession can get you killed,” Adam muttered, dragging me past Frankie.
“So can a possession,” Frankie said as we walked away.
~~~~
The militia had left four running vehicles hidden in the woods. Seeing so many working trucks in one place made me stumble and almost fall as Adam and I approached the small clearing. It brought back memories of better times. Better days when I wasn’t fighting for my life or struggling to survive.
“Where’s Cash?” I asked Adam for the hundredth time. “Is he alive?”
“Don’t know.” Adam pulled me over to the nearest truck, yanking on my wrists.
“I hate you right now,” I muttered as he heaved me up onto the tailgate.
“I don’t particularly like you very much either,” he said, following me up into the bed of the truck.
I glowered at him. He sighed and put his hand on my shoulder, shoving me down.
I fell to my bottom on the cold, slick metal of the pickup. I had no coat, jacket, or shoes. I was going to freeze to death or get myself killed before the night was over. I was sure of it.
“Where’s my brother and David?” I asked, glancing around at the men throwing weapons in the trucks and climbing in.
“They took them in David’s truck and will meet us back in town,” Adam said, stretching out his legs and nodding at a man climbing up in the truck bed.
I eyed the stranger carefully as he sat down across from us. Deep scars crisscrossed his face and his hands looked like weapons.
I eased further back against the truck.
“What’s going to happen?” I asked Adam, tearing my gaze away from the man.
Adam kept his eyes on the soldier. “No talking.”
I bristled, the man forgotten. “No talking? Tell me what they are going to do with Cash and tell me if he’s still alive. Now or I’ll scream my bloody head off and tell them everything!”
The man raised an eyebrow.
“Hell,” Adam sighed, smiling at him. “Women.”
I shrieked and flew at him, my claws unleashed despite my wrists being bound together. The next thing I knew, I was flat on my back, Adam was holding me down, and the truck was bouncing over rough terrain.
Leaning down, he put his mouth near my ear, causing our heads to bump together when the truck hit a deep hole in the ground.
“I’m this close to turning you back over to Paul,” he whispered. “So shut up and be a good little captive, okay?”
“A good little captive?” I shrieked and kicked at him. He climbed off me and sat back, smirking and putting his arm on the edge of the truck.
I couldn’t stand it any longer. I got to my knees and slugged him as hard as I could with my hands tied together as the truck bounced and flew around trees.
His head jerked to the side. I felt smug until he looked at me and I heard a click.
I turned my head slowly. The man sitting across from us had his gun cocked and pointed at me.
“You gonna shut her up or am I?”
Adam looked at me, his gaze blazing. I lowered myself back down and scooted into the corner.
We rode the rest of the way in silence. The wind whipped my hair into my face. The woods gave way to abandoned homes. I tried to look for Cash or Tate in the other vehicles around us but their headlights were too bright and we were going too fast.
I shivered and sank deeper into my little corner, wishing I could get out of the wind. It cut through my shirt, chilling me from the inside out.
I had resigned myself to freezing to death when the truck slammed to a stop.
We were at Hilltop.
I stared at the wall in front of me. It surrounded the community like a barricade. Hilltop wasn’t a town. It was a prison.
A loud screeching sound came from the big, metal gate that kept the crazies in and the sane people out.
“Home sweet home,” Adam muttered beside me as the gate slid open.
I swallowed hard and felt fear choke me as we drove into town. Nothing had changed. The grass was still cut neatly. The streets were still clean. The war hadn’t touched Hilltop. They had power and food and anything else they could steal. Hunger didn’t exist there and neither did diseases. It was a fortress where we
thought we could find supplies. Instead, we had found trouble.
Our truck followed the others into the town square. Even though it was the middle of the night, people were gathered outside, waiting for us. They glared at me as we drove by. I was never one to cower but I felt like doing it then.
The truck rolled to a stop in front of the hotel. I looked up. The old water tower still sat on top, the words Hilltop Hotel proudly written in green paint.
“Let’s go,” Adam said, jumping out of the truck and reaching for me.
I ignored him and slid off the tailgate myself. The other man jumped out and headed elsewhere. Adam watched him leave with a raised eyebrow.
“You really know how to make friends around here,” he said, grabbing the leather rope around my wrists.
I glared at his back as he started leading me into the hotel by the leather. “And you fit in perfectly with all these crazies.”
He grumbled something under his breath and stepped up on the curb. I jerked back on my wrists, wanting to buy time before he dragged me inside. I needed to find Cash and my brother. Plus, where was David? The townspeople wouldn’t be happy that one of their own had switched sides. If Adam got me inside, I may never see any of them again. I had to stall.
“I’m not going in there!” I said, taking a step back.
Adam sighed and turned, still holding onto the leather around my wrists. He started to say something but his gaze snapped to someone behind me.
“Bitch!”
I swung around. A woman was racing across the street toward me, fury on her face. It was one of those moments where you were so shocked, you didn’t know how to react. I had never seen the woman before and had no idea why she would call me a bitch.
She raised her arm as she ran toward me. My mind screamed at me to run but my legs didn’t get the message. A rock hit me in the hip.
“Ow!” I shouted, glaring at her.
But she snatched another rock from the ground.
Adam stepped in front of me and scowled at the crowd that had gathered. “Back off!” he roared.
I recoiled. In front of my eyes, he turned into something else. The killer David said he was.
He was big and wide and a wall of muscle. I backed away into the hotel entrance as he stood in front of me. He glared at the crowd one more time then looked over his shoulder at me and frowned.