*****
Early the next morning, she went to the chicken coop as usual. Mina didn’t even bother to look up when the door swung open before closing against the frame with a small thwack, expecting Coop. He claimed it reminded him of the summers he’d spent with his grandmother. Yeah, just what she wanted, to invoke memories of an elderly woman to whom he was related. “You’re late,” she said cheerfully. “You’ve already missed Lionel strutting around like the stud he thinks he is and pecking at my feet when I got in his way.”
“That’s too bad,” said a deep voice behind her.
She froze, egg in hand, before slowly turning to look up at Shane West. He’d never spoken directly to her, and she’d certainly never been this close to him, or the sole focus of his attention. He was taller than she’d realized, with a solid build that somehow felt intimidating rather than comforting, unlike Coop’s. She swallowed thickly. “Hello, Lieutenant West.” It seemed natural to call him by the more formal name, even though he wore a plain T-shirt and snug faded jeans instead of his army camos.
“Call me Shane. You’re Ken?”
She blinked, wondering how he had gotten the idea she was named Ken. It didn’t even sound much like her name. “Mina.”
He gave her what was probably supposed to be a sexy smile, but made her stomach curl a bit instead. “That’s much better. I’ve never seen a Ken that looked like you before.” His gaze lingered deliberately on her breasts in the tank top before he looked up again. “I did have a sergeant in basic named Ken. He was built like a brick wall and not at all feminine. Unlike you.”
She managed a jerky nod, unsure what to say. Instead, Mina focused on retrieving the eggs, hurrying through the familiar task so she could escape the chicken coop. Coop should be arriving soon, at least.
“I wanted to ask you something, Mina.”
She nodded again, watching him peripherally.
“You’re quiet. I like that. It’s a nice change.”
Feeling like a puppet, she found herself nodding again.
“Let me know what you think of this situation.”
“I can try,” she said softly, bracing herself to discuss Lia. That had to be why he’d sought her out.
“Let’s imagine you met a woman that seemed like she was everything you’d ever wanted. Smart, sexy, and fun.”
“I’ve never found any woman sexy,” she said a bit flippantly, though Mina’s stomach tightened. After witnessing the scene between them yesterday, she had no doubt he was talking about Lia. Did he really think she was going to give him some advice on how to capture her married sister’s attention?
He laughed slightly. “It’s reassuring to know you like cock.”
Mina flinched at the word. Of course she’d heard it before, but never from someone ten or fifteen years older than her, and in such strange circumstances. Bending her head, she focused on the nesting box.
“Assuming you’ve actually touched one?”
She stiffened, not liking his tone or the way he was speaking to her. Putting the basket on the box, she said, “Excuse me,” and tried to move past him. When he stepped in front of her path, his sheer size blocking her, Mina’s mouth went dry.
He continued on as though he hadn’t been crude, and she hadn’t tried to leave. “This woman is married to a friend of yours, and he’s someone you work with. You’re technically his boss.”
Mina frowned. “I wouldn’t pursue her.”
Shane sighed. “I wasn’t asking your opinion.”
Mina looked up at him. “You said you wanted to know what I thought.”
“Not about that. Just listen.”
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she returned to egg collecting and did her best to endure the man’s presence, still wondering when Coop would show up. Once he finished, he’d move on and she could escape back to the house. How she longed for a hot shower, more than any time in the past thirteen months. Talking with Shane left her feeling unclean.
“It turns out when you make your move that she isn’t immune. You have a hot affair over a few months.”
Mina closed her eyes, pained by what she’d heard. The idea of Lia cheating on Tony seemed incomprehensible, but there was clearly something going on between them. “Oh,” she said softly.
“Oh, indeed. You’re shipped out for eight months, but before you leave, you tell this woman you love her and want to marry her. She tells you she’s not leaving her husband, but she still goes to bed with you a couple more times before you deploy. So you go along with it, thinking a lot can happen in eight months. People are killed by friendly fire all the time.”
Mina squeezed her hand without thought, breaking the new egg in her palm. She looked up at him, horrified. “You were going to kill Tony?”
He lifted a shoulder. “It was just a thought, born of desperation. Obviously, it didn’t happen. When I want someone dead, they die.”
He was so cavalier about taking lives that it made her shudder. The egg residue was still in her hand, and she wiped it on the hay the best she could. “What do you want from me?”
He put his finger to his lips. “Shh, and listen. After you’re deployed, the world goes to shit, and you think you’re never going to see this woman again. You’re hurting over it, because you think you love her, and you’re worried about her.”
She should have been slightly reassured to know he had strong feelings for Lia, but something about him still set her teeth on edge.
“When your friend, her husband, offers to bring you back to his family’s house, where your woman is waiting, you jump at the chance. You go through hell and back, kill so many people you lose track, and keep fighting just to survive, all so you can get back to her.”
Mina balled her hands into fists. “You’re wasting your time, Shane. She loves Tony. I don’t know what she was thinking when she had an affair with you, but Lia and Tony are soul mates. They’ve been together since seventh grade. You have to let her go and move on.”
His mouth tightened, but that was his only acknowledgement to her input. “When you see her, she treats you like a stranger, but you think she’s just trying to hide her feelings in front of her family. Except she keeps avoiding you, and you soon realize she wasn’t missing you the way you missed her.” His voice broke, indicating he was upset. “It sinks in that you were just a fun fuck for her and nothing more.”
Mina felt a bit of sympathy, even though she didn’t condone cheating. Who hadn’t been in a position where they felt more for someone than the other person did? She could easily recall the boyfriend she’d had as a sophomore. She’d been sure she and Billy would get married. Less than a month after she’d given him her virginity, he’d dumped her for someone else. It had taken her weeks to get over the heartbreak. Tentatively, she touched his forearm. “I’m sorry you were hurt.”
His expression softened. “I knew you’d be a sweet little thing.” Shane let out a long sigh. “So you go on each day, trying to forget about everything you had with her. You even try really hard to hope she’ll be happy with your friend.”
She gave him a small smile. “That must be hard.” Maybe he just wanted some sympathy, or someone to talk to, and she seemed like the only option, having seen him with Lia.
“Then, one afternoon, you’re working when your friend comes up to you with his baby. You hadn’t paid much attention to it before, because it hurts to think she’d had a kid with someone else.” His voice surged. “But you hold the baby when he’s offered, and you realize almost immediately that he has your eyes, your nose, and your crooked second toes.”
Mina slapped her hand to her mouth to hold in the gasp of dismay. She wanted to refute his assertion, but she knew exactly what he meant. Her sweet little nephew had second toes that bent in at a slightly odd angle compared to the rest of his straight digits. “Oh no,” she whispered.
He nodded, his eyes blazing with fury. “When you confront the bitch, she tells you her husband is the boy’s father.” In his ange
r, he dropped the pretense of telling a story. “It doesn’t matter who gave him DNA, because Tony’s name is on the birth certificate, and with the world the way it is, I’ll never be able to do anything about getting rights or establishing paternity. When I tried to convince her I deserved to know my son, your bitch sister slapped me and threatened to have me thrown off the farm if I didn’t leave them all alone.”
Mina’s stomach churned with nausea. How could Lia have gotten herself into such a situation? Much as she hated to, she had pity for the man beside her. Though he had brought a good deal of it on himself by sleeping with a married woman and betraying his own friend, it had to be heartbreaking to know he’d lost Lia and any right to his son. “If you wanted my advice on how to proceed, I have nothing to offer, Lieutenant West. I’m sorry for your situation, but I don’t see any good outcome from trying to claim Tyler.”
He surprised her by nodding. “You’re right. I hate having to concede defeat, but I don’t have a chance in hell of getting Ty or Lia.”
She frowned. “Then what did you want my opinion for?”
He propped his hip against the nesting box, effectively blocking her in completely. “I just wondered if you thought a man could be happy if he had the baby sister of the whore who broke his heart and stole his son?” He stood up completely, looming over her. “Do you think he’d no longer feel the urge to plunge his knife into the whore’s chest if he fucked her little sister? If he fucked that sweet young thing until she gave him a child, do you think that would satisfy the need for vengeance and give him what he wanted?”
As the meaning of his words sank in, Mina tried to dart past him. Shane blocked her exit, so she recoiled backward, squeezing herself behind the nesting boxes and into the corner. The wall pressed into her back, and she cursed that her dad had built the structure to last. There was no way she could kick out the wall in just a few seconds.
He regarded her with calm eyes. “Well, what do you think, baby girl? Can you make me happy, since Lia isn’t worth half what I thought she was?”
Mina shook her head. “I have no interest in even trying. This mess is between you and my sister. Leave me out of it.”
He sighed. “I’d like to, but I don’t think I can.” Shane moved toward her, scooting the line of nesting boxes out of the way as if they weighed nothing. “See, I’m a guy who needs revenge. I can’t just let this go. I can either take something more valuable, which is you, or I can go kill your fucking slut sister.”
She shook her head, screaming as he got nearer. Shane’s large hand clamped down on her mouth and nose, effectively cutting off oxygen. As he pulled her closer, she kicked the side of the wall, hoping to catch someone’s attention.
He lifted her from the corner and laid her across the nesting boxes, pushing his face up against hers, his hand still in place. Even in her panicked, oxygen-deprived state, she immediately recognized his eyes. She’d seen them countless times in Ty’s face. Her lungs burned, and she thrashed against him, trying to free herself to draw in a breath.
“Just calm down, and I’ll move my hand. No screaming though.”
It was hard to try to cease fighting when she couldn’t breathe. Her brain was feeling fuzzy already, and fear urged her to keep struggling. Somehow, she managed to stop squirming a little, and he slowly lifted his hand, looking poised to slap it down again at the first sign of her trying to cry for help. She was too busy dragging in a deep lungful of air to replenish what she had lost. Her head spun for another few breaths before the world righted itself.
Even after she could think straight again, she didn’t try to cry out as she watched him warily. “Please let me go,” she whispered. “I won’t tell anyone. I get that you’re angry. You just had to get it all out of your system.”
He caressed her cheek in a manner that made her shudder. “I’m not even close to having this out of my system, baby girl.” In a quick motion, he jerked her upper body against his, bringing his lips against hers. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
She turned her head when he tried to kiss her, whimpering when he licked her exposed cheek instead. “You can’t do this.”
“I can.” Grasping her chin, he forced her face back to his, smashing his mouth against hers.
The kiss started out rough and punishing, but it grew even worse when he softened his touch, trying to coax her to respond. Mina kept her mouth clamped shut until he pinched her nose, once again denying her oxygen until she yielded. As she gasped to bring in oxygen, his tongue plunged inside her mouth, tasting her with confident strokes.
As she started to bite him, he abruptly pulled away, backhanding her before she even realized he had raised his hand. Stars danced behind her eyes, and she cupped her throbbing cheek.
“Play nice, baby girl. I want you to enjoy this too, but I can live without your pleasure.”
She shook her head. “No one enjoys being assaulted.”
He dragged her off the nesting boxes and to a bale of straw that she hadn’t yet strewn about on the floor. It was waiting for her to shovel up the current straw and droppings first. The straw dug into her back and buttocks when he pressed her against it, his body settling over hers.
“Wait ‘til you see what’s waiting for you. You might enjoy it a whole lot.”
She tried to twist away, hitting out at him. Mina clawed his chest, making him hiss, before he grasped her wrists in his hands and held them over her head. A cry escaped her at the greater vulnerability, and he hit her again. “No noise.”
Twisting in a painful manner, she managed to bring her knee up between them, aiming straight for his testicles. Shane slid to the side at the last moment, and she knocked her kneecap against the solid flesh of his thigh, probably hurting herself more than him in the process.
He retaliated by punching her in the face. As her head snapped backward into the straw, and the taste of copper burst on her tongue, she had enough faculties left to realize he had really held back his full strength, since she was still conscious and alive. God, it hurt though, making her whimper. Immediately, she bit her tongue to hold in the sound, before he hit her again.
“Good girl, you’re learning.” He kissed her neck, biting roughly and sucking as though he wanted to mark her as his possession. “I think you’re going to be everything I need, with some proper training.”
She bit back the urge to tell him she wasn’t a dog, knowing he wouldn’t care. To Shane West, she was simply an object, a means to an end, and a way to beat Lia. Her silence didn’t equal compliance, and she struggled to escape when he squeezed her breast.
“Fine, we’ll do it quick and rough this time, baby girl, until you have time to calm down and appreciate a gentler approach.” He released her and leaned back to rest on his knees.
Mina’s eyes darted to the exit, and she calculated her odds of escaping, or at least getting someone’s attention, but froze when he removed a large knife from the back of his pants, where he must keep a sheath. “Don’t…don’t cut me.” How she hated that pleading note in her voice, which shook with fear.
“Hold still, and I probably won’t.” He hooked his fingers in the belt loops of her shorts. “Unless you want to be a good girl and just take off your clothes?”
She glared at him, not moving. It was bad enough that she was too afraid to shout for help. There was no way she was going to make it easier for him to rape her.
He laughed, looking pleased. “I like your spirit, in small doses.” With unnecessary force, he slit the side of her shorts before doing the same to the other. She winced when he nicked her thigh.
“Oops, sorry, darlin’.” With his thumb, he wiped the blood off her thigh and across her tank top. “Maybe you should just cooperate.”
“Never.”
He winked. “We’ll see.”
She tensed when he slid the knife under the waistband of her bikini pants, certain he was deliberately caressing her skin with the blade to frighten her. Mina held her breath when he sliced the garments fr
om her, not moving until he buried the knife in the side of the straw bale, within easy reach. At that point, she tried to shield her nudity from the waist down.
“None of that.” He grabbed her hands again, confining them above her head once more. “You know, I really don’t think you mind this too much, baby girl. You aren’t screaming or carrying on, or trying to escape. I think you just want to pretend like you’re the innocent victim here.”
“Fuck you,” she said shakily. There was no choice about screaming. He would hit her, or worse, if she tried it again. With the knife so close, she could easily envision him plunging it into her heart, as he said he wanted to do to Lia.
“Definitely.” A second later, he leaned over her again, and the head of his cock pressed against her. “Are you a sweet little virgin, Mina? Should I go slowly, maybe lick you first to get you soaking wet?” He nudged in deeper. “Or should I just go for it?”
“You should go to hell.” She hissed with pain when he pushed himself deep inside her, thankful she wasn’t a virgin. It would have been much worse, she was sure.
“You’re dry as the desert, but nice and tight.” He withdrew to spit on his hand to coat his shaft before entering her again. “Much better.”
“Speak for yourself.” She squeezed her eyes shut as he began thrusting into her, shoving her deeper into the prickly straw. His scent, which might have been pleasant under other circumstances, filled her nose and made her instantly hate the scent of Emme’s homemade pine soap. “You’re a bastard.”
“And you’re mine.” He plunged in and out several more times, his face growing redder with the exertion. “I’m going to have you however and whenever I want.” Suddenly, he lunged deeply inside her a scant second before sticky hot fluid filled her. “I’m going to fuck you until we make a baby, and then I’m going to fuck you twice a day until you’re so big I can’t anymore, just because I want to.”
Tears streamed from her eyes at his words, but she didn’t reply. There was no way he’d get another chance to do this to her. As soon as this was over, she was going to make sure her dad and Tony sent him packing—or put a bullet in his head and buried him in the back forty. Not normally so bloodthirsty, it was disconcerting to find herself yearning for his head on a pike outside her window, so she could look at it every night before sleep to ward off nightmares.
He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead, which left her feeling more violated than the violent sexual possession. “Maybe Lia did me a favor.” Shane shook his head. “I have to admit I wouldn’t have really looked twice at you if you hadn’t seen me with Lia, and she hadn’t been such a whore.” Shane stood up, pulling up his pants and righting his appearance. “That would have been a shame.”
She wiped at her cheeks and struggled to sit up. Her face was throbbing simpatico with the ache between her thighs, but she did her best to hide any trace of emotion, refusing to let him see how badly he’d hurt her, in case it added to his sick satisfaction. “A damned shame,” she mocked in a husky voice.
He knelt beside her, picking up her hand and ignoring her attempts to pull free. Pressing a kiss to the back of it, he said, “I know it’s tempting to brag about this, but I’m going to have to insist we maintain radio silence. I have a feeling some of the people around here wouldn’t be too crazy about our relationship, considering the age difference.”
She shook her head. “No, they’d be a lot more concerned about the fact you’re a raping psychopath.”
He slapped her. “That tongue needs to learn when to stay still, baby girl.” Then he rubbed her temple lightly. “We’ll work on that.”
“Over my dead body.” She cringed away from him. “Don’t ever touch me again.”
“Not your dead body, at least not right away,” he said easily. “I think I’ll start with your momma. You seem close to her. Do you prefer me to shoot or stab her?”
She swallowed down her fear, shaking her head. “I don’t believe you. You’re a big bully, using your strength to get what you want, but you aren’t going to kill anyone if I tell them what you did to me.”
Shane sighed. “Baby girl, did you meet Santiago at all?”
She frowned, vaguely placing a face with a name. “Yeah. He was the kid who fell out of the window during the supply run.”
“No, he was the arrogant little bastard I pushed out the window. He was mouthy and always challenging my leadership. He also insulted me too many times. The last time, I told him I was going to kill him. He laughed.” Shane grinned. “The little prick wasn’t laughing when he went flying out of that building, hands scrabbling to grab onto anything to keep him from hitting the cement.”
Mina flinched. She might have said only a few words to the private, and they hadn’t even been acquaintances, but just the fact that she was human made her sad for the fate he’d met. Clearly, Shane didn’t labor under the same burdens of humanity.
He put his hand on her thigh, stroking higher with his thumb. “So don’t fuck with me, Mina. I will kill your entire family if you push me. Remember what I said. If I want someone dead, they die.”
She couldn’t come up with a response, just staring at him with wounded eyes. Meeting his gaze, reading the sincerity there, her stomach churned with nausea. Turning from him, she bent and dry heaved, but brought up nothing.
He stroked her hair. “Pretty soon, you’ll be puking ‘cause my kid’s in you. As much as I hate it, I have to leave you now and get to work.” Grasping her chin, he forced her to turn back toward him. “Give me a kiss first, lover.”
She tried to shake her head, but had no luck against the force he applied to her jaw. “No.” The word came out garbled due to the way he gripped her face.
“I insist. I want you to give me a big kiss, like you mean it.”
“Why?” she mumbled. What the hell did it matter to him?
“Because you’re mine.” The mark of ownership was blatant in his voice.
As he dragged her forward, she closed her eyes and let him kiss her, filled with loathing and disgust. As his mouth touched hers, his tongue slipping inside, she realized this was part of what he wanted from her. He wanted to make her submit completely, to become an active, if not willing, participant in her own humiliation.
Her hands dropped to her sides, and her eyes widened when she touched the handle of his knife. Acting on instinct, she gripped it and tore it free from the straw. With a heave of determination, she plunged it, aiming for the back of his neck. Mina sobbed with frustration when he intercepted it before she’d covered even half the distance, wrenching it from her hand with a sharp cracking sound that brought agony to her wrist in its wake.
He seemed shocked. “That was the wrong thing to do, Mina. Absolutely the wrong thing to do. My trust is tenuous, at best, and you’ve just shown me I can’t trust you. I think it’s time to teach you a little lesson.”
Coop rushed to finish filling the last of the buckets, cursing under his breath that Janie had caught him on the way out of the kitchen after he had stopped for breakfast. Asking so sweetly, but with a hint of steel in her eyes, how could he refuse the task? Even though it meant he wouldn’t be able to see Mina for a few stolen moments in the chicken coop.
As he pushed down the handle on the hand pump for the last time, he snorted with amusement at himself. Here he was, a twenty-eight-year-old man, and he was reduced to sneaking around to meet the girl he liked in a chicken coop because he didn’t want her daddy to catch him. It was ridiculous and pathetic, though he saw the silliness in the situation.
His humor faded when he returned to the thought that gnawed at the back of his mind most of the time. Did Mina see him in any way other than an old guy who was friendly? Maybe nine years wasn’t too much of a difference to her, but he couldn’t help applying pre-Pulse norms to the situation. Not many nineteen-year-old women would want to date a career soldier almost a decade older.
Of course, that was then. Dating was already a forgotten concept, it seemed. He’d considered aski
ng her out, but drew a blank as to what he could suggest. A walk in the hayfield? A horse ride? Maybe she could help him put up fence posts, and they could make cow eyes at each other.
“Ri-damn-diculous,” he muttered. Coop hefted the last bucket onto the garden wagon and started pushing the load back to the house. The End sure was a pain for the love life, all other considerations aside. He’d never had any trouble before everything went to hell. Of course, the women he’d chosen had mostly been short-term or one-night material, since he refused to be one of the soldiers deployed and worrying about a wife and kids back home. It was no way to live, being a half-assed soldier and a half-assed family man in those conditions. He planned to put off anything serious until he retired at the end of his twenty years.
The End had a way of screwing up plans too, though he had to admit that if he’d met Mina in pre-SHTF circumstances, he might have decided to reorganize his goals. There was just something about her that drew him in. She was funny and sweet, but with a good dose of sass that often exited that smart mouth. And the lips were so tempting too. Half the time when they were talking, he had to force himself to listen to her words, instead of just watching her lips form syllables and imagine how she would taste if he leaned forward to lick them.
Finally, he finished his water errand and set off at double-time pace toward the chicken coop. Judging from the sun in the sky, she was probably long gone. He’d have another chance to catch up with her during some of the day’s chores, but they wouldn’t be alone, and it wouldn’t be the same.
Knowing it was unlikely, he still opened the door to the chicken coop, hoping to see her. At first glance, no one was there, but when he looked deeper in the room, he frowned at the mess. The nesting boxes were tilted against the wall, and food had scattered everywhere. The water dish in the middle was tipped over, leaving the frantic chickens pecking at the moist hay covering the concrete floor.
As he stepped inside, Coop’s heart sank when he saw a familiar figure lying against a straw bale. “Mina?” He hurried toward her, his heart breaking when she began thrashing, putting up her hands to protect her battered face. “Hang on, Mina. It’s me. Cooper.” To his surprise, she stilled immediately, not protesting when he bent to lift her into his arms.
Looking down, he discovered she was naked below the waist. His stomach churned with anger, and his chest burned when he tried to drag in a deep breath. He didn’t know whether to cry or scream, torn between empathy and rage. Knowing she needed him to hold it together kept his voice calm, his tone measured. “I’m going to set you down for a second, honey.” When she whimpered and clung tighter to his neck, he patted her back the best he could in the current position. “Just for a sec. You’re bare, and I don’t think you want everyone to see you like that.”
Her lips wobbled, but she shook her head in response, releasing her death grip so he could put her down. Coop looked around for options, but found none. After a second, he stripped off his own shirt, pretending he didn’t notice the way she recoiled from him. Ruthlessly, he ripped it down one side to give her more length, and then helped her fashion it like a sarong around her waist.
As soon as she was semi-covered, he lifted her again, and she snuggled against him, her body shaking violently. His rage was building, but he kept it in check as he carried her from the coop, calling out for help. Within minutes, several people surrounded him as he carried her onto the porch.
Her father was there, arms extended, but Coop walked on past him. “Where’s her room?” he asked Emme, who ran ahead to show him. He could hear people whispering and hoped she didn’t. He could only imagine what they were saying as they speculated why she looked the way she did, and he wanted to shield her from that, even though he doubted anyone was being malicious.
Her room was a little juvenile, with yellow paint and purple accessories. He laid her on the purple bedspread and stepped back so her mother and sisters could close rank around her. No one asked him to leave, so Coop took a spot against the wall, waiting to hear the identity of the person who had raped Mina. His Mina. He clenched his hands into fists so hard his knuckles hurt.
“What happened?” asked her father, his tone as gentle as a summer breeze. It was strange, since he usually sounded on the gruff side.
“A man…in the chicken coop. He hurt me,” she whispered.
“Who was it?” asked Janie.
Mina shook her head.
“You don’t know?” asked Kelly, who seemed in shock.
“I couldn’t say,” she whispered. “Please, I need water.”
“You need more than that,” whispered Emme as she stood up. Walking by him, he heard her saying, “Pennyroyal and ginger.”
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” suggested Lia.
Mina scowled at her sister. “I don’t want you here.” She didn’t seem to care that Lia looked devastated. “I just want Momma.” Clasping her mother’s hand, she said, “Please make them leave, Momma.”
Coop didn’t wait to be asked or told. He stood up and slipped from the room, having learned what he needed to know. Rage was really bubbling inside him by the time he strode out to the porch, where her family and his friends waited.
“What happened?” asked Chelle.
Not even aware he was going to do it until he did, Coop slammed his hand into the post on the porch, barely feeling the sting. “Some fucking animal laid in wait and attacked her.”
“You mean like a mountain lion?” asked Ben, the naïve private.
“No, you idiot,” said Shane, looking upset. “Some human animal. That means this place isn’t safe, if some piece of trash can just stroll onto the land and rape our women.”
Coop didn’t like the way he phrased that, as though the women were objects, but he couldn’t argue with the conclusion. “Security has to be a new priority. We all know having a good harvest is important, but if we don’t protect it, what good will it do us? If we can’t protect the people living here, we’re all fucked.”
“Right, so let’s do something about it,” said Hector. His Latin blood was clearly boiling. “Gun turrets, tanks, the works.”
Shane scoffed. “Man, how are we going to get those things? Remember what a shit storm it was when we liberated the Humvees and the weapons cache from that National Guard unit? Firepower is important, but so are fences. It’s feasible to get supplies to build a walled enclosure, at least around the house. That way, people can regroup inside if needed.”
“And be caught there in a siege to starve to death,” said Dana.
Shane nodded. “That’s why we’ll have some backup plans too, like a secret escape tunnel, but fortification should be our first line of defense.”
They hashed it out, but Coop wasn’t much of a participant. His mind was too preoccupied with the sight of Mina Marsden lying on that full-size bed, surrounded by vestiges of her teen years, looking so broken. It pained him that he hadn’t been able to protect her from a random predator. “We should look for him,” he said abruptly.
“What’s that?” asked Shane.
“I said we should look for that piece of shit. He’s probably still around somewhere.”
After a second, Shane nodded. “Couldn’t hurt. If we find him, we can keep him from hurting anyone else.” With the natural air of leadership he’d possessed since Coop had been assigned to his platoon, he said, “I propose we split into two groups. A few of you go hunting for that dirt bag, and the rest of us will go scope out possibilities for fortification and defense.”
Coop didn’t wait to be assigned. Technically, he was no longer a soldier, and Shane wasn’t his commanding officer, even if old habits died hard. “I’ll head up the team looking for the rapist.”
Shane nodded. “Sounds good. I know you’ll deal with him if you find him.”
It should have been abhorrent to be planning to summarily execute the offender, but his conscience didn’t twinge. In that instance, and for that occurrence, he was glad they were freed from the old system, wher
e the rapist would have gone through a lengthy trial that would have further traumatized Mina, likely to end up either with probation or a ridiculously short sentence. In this new world, he would get what he deserved, and it would only take a few minutes and the cost of a bullet.