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- Herausgeber: Valley Publishing Ltd.
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
Tomas is excited about this new direction in his life. Working for Levi allows him to use his vast array of skills in new and varied ways. He doesn’t expect to be sent undercover in a supremacy group, loaded with weapons. Yet what he finds is much more complicated than that.
Amber had joined the group to help get her friend away from the members, only to find out her friend is dead, and no one will talk about it. The group is in the middle of a coup from within, as the leader barely maintains control. It’s a dangerous place to be, but she is not leaving without answers. Needing help, she contacts an old friend. Tomas isn’t what she expects.
Still, as long as he will help her do what she needs to do—before she gets into further trouble—he is fine with her. Except it doesn’t take long for both of them to realize that the danger is escalating to the point where it is possible that neither of them will leave the compound—at least not alive.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About This Book
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
About Carson’s Choice
Excerpt from Ryland’s Reach
Excerpt from Damon’s Deal
Author’s Note
Complimentary Download
About the Author
Copyright Page
About This Book
Tomas is excited about this new direction in his life. Working for Levi allows him to use his vast array of skills in new and varied ways. He doesn’t expect to be sent undercover in a supremacy group, loaded with weapons. Yet what he finds is much more complicated than that.
Amber had joined the group to help get her friend away from the members, only to find out her friend is dead, and no one will talk about it. The group is in the middle of a coup from within, as the leader barely maintains control. It’s a dangerous place to be, but she is not leaving without answers. Needing help, she contacts an old friend. Tomas isn’t what she expects.
Still, as long as he will help her do what she needs to do—before she gets into further trouble—he is fine with her. Except it doesn’t take long for both of them to realize that the danger is escalating to the point where it is possible that neither of them will leave the compound—at least not alive.
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Prologue
Back at Legendary Security HQ, Levi walked into the massive dining room. “What do you think about this guy?” he asked Ice, dropping a file in front of her.
She flipped it open, looked at it. “Tomas. I brought up his name last year.”
“Why didn’t we go with him then?”
“Just after I talked to him, he got hurt.”
“What’s his status now?”
“Let me see.” She pulled out her phone and called him. “Tomas, how are you doing?” A strong male voice came through her cell, and she turned on Speaker.
“I’m doing well,” he replied. “How are you?”
“I’m doing fine, and Levi’s on here with me. We’re looking for some more men.”
“Oh, hell. I figured I would be out of the running for good after last time.”
“What happened?” Levi interjected.
*
Tomas stared at the phone. “I was shot on a mission. A revenge scenario,” he explained.
“Fully recovered?”
“No. Well, as recovered as I’ll be,” he noted, not pulling any punches. “I’ll always walk with a bit of a limp.”
“Anything else?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“Nope,” Levi stated. “If it’s just a limp, I’m good with that. Are you still a weapons specialist?”
“For anything I’ve had a chance to work on, yes,” he agreed, “but I’ve been out of touch for the last six—make that eight—months.”
“That’s fine,” Levi replied. “We’re looking for somebody to take over. One of our people who handles some ops for us is pregnant.”
“Pregnant?” Tomas shook his head at that. “You have a female field agent there?”
“Several actually, but Kai is pregnant, so we’re changing her duties temporarily, so we’ve got her in charge of the arsenal for a bit.”
“Makes sense to me. Is this a full-time or part-time gig for me?” he asked. “I never expected to take over for someone on maternity leave.”
Levi burst out laughing. “You should be honored in this case, if you get the opportunity.”
“So, what do I need to do? Try out or something?”
“Not so sure about that, but we do have a job opening. If you want to come on as a spare,” Levi offered, “we’ll see how it works out.”
“I can do that,” Tomas replied.
“Are you on any medication?” Ice asked.
“Nope, I came off the last of them a couple weeks ago.”
“And what were they for?”
“Blood thinners. I was having clotting issues early on.”
“Interesting,” she murmured. “But, as long as you’re healthy enough, and you think you’re ready to give it a go, we’re more than ready to give you a shot.”
“Perfect. What’s the job?”
Levi and Ice both hesitated, then Levi looked over at her, shrugged, and said, “We might as well tell him.”
“Tell me what?” Tomas asked curiously. “I don’t like going into things without knowing at least a little about what I’m dealing with.”
“That’s fair,” Ice agreed. “We have news of a militia group that’s collecting weapons and possibly women.”
“Where?”
“Just outside of Houston here,” Levi noted. “We don’t get too many local jobs, and we have a lot of people who want to do this one. So, while we do have men available, we just thought it might be an opportunity to see how you handle things.”
“If you say so,” he stated, “I’m totally up for it.”
“Whereabouts are you right now?”
“Dallas,” he replied, “so I can be in Houston in just a few hours.”
“Good. I’ll set you up at a hotel with an alias to check in.”
“A hotel?”
“Yep, you’ll be joining the group as a friend of a woman who’s already inside. Amber contacted us a couple days ago. She wanted in to help free her friend from it, but that friend is now dead, so Amber’s looking for help. Not just to get herself out but to burn the group to the ground.”
“Ah, undercover then. That’s perfect. You got a story for me?”
“Yep, I do.” Levi chuckled. “It’s a doozy. If you’re in, I’ll send you the details in a minute.”
“I am definitely in,” Tomas replied, “particularly for bringing down something like this.”
“Absolutely. Way too much of this shit happening in town right now.”
“Send me the details. I’m packing already.” And, with that, Tomas hung up, a broad smile on his face.
When Ice had called him before his injury, he’d been thrilled. Only two months out of the navy, he was at loose ends, figuring out what to do next, when she had contacted him. But, sure as hell, he’d been called back in because somebody had a grudge to settle, and Tomas had ended up in the middle and got shot. Now, here he was with the potential for a second chance. He felt good about that, particularly in this case.
He smiled a happy smile. Who the hell knew where this job would take him? Wherever that may be, he was more than ready for the journey. He’d had his fill of the last several months of nothing but rehab and physical therapy and just wanted back in the action. As he walked around his small apartment, his to-go bag in his hand, he took one final look.
If things worked out, he may never live here again.
And, with that thought, he walked out with a huge smile on his face.
Chapter 1
Tomas swiped the card key and stepped into his hotel room. It was empty, as expected. He quickly locked it behind him, dropped his bag, and sent a text to Levi. I’m in.
Levi’s thumbs-up was a quick acknowledgment, followed by an incoming text. Company coming your way in two minutes.
Knowing this intel came from Levi, Tomas expected two minutes to be right on schedule. He stood in the middle of the room, mentally listening for the sound of footsteps coming in his direction.
Sure enough, within two minutes, a knock came on the door.
He quickly stepped behind the door and pulled it open. In walked Saul and Dezi, both men Tomas knew. He looked down the hallway, then closed the door behind them. He smiled. “Now these are faces that I haven’t seen in a very long time.”
They greeted each other, as always. Tomas had met these men in the line of duty and had served with them on multiple occasions. He was even happier to see them now. “Damn,” Tomas muttered. “It’s really good to see you guys.”
“Same,” Saul agreed, looking at him. “So how much experience do you have with the prepper world?”
“Not a whole lot.” He shrugged. “And yet in a way, … far too much.”
“You’ll have to explain that one,” Dezi stated calmly, as he looked around the small room and sauntered over to sit in the single chair beside the only bed. “We’ll need to know everything about whatever experience you do have.”
“Any prepper experience I have,” he explained, “comes from an older brother who got involved with a really heavy militia group.” He winced. “He never joined the navy, like we did, and had no interest in anything to do with the government. Therefore, I was quite surprised that he ended up in civilian militia, until I realized it branched into all kinds of anti-movements.”
“Like?”
“Anti-government, anti-authority, anti-everything it seems. It made more sense as I heard more about the group. It was right up his alley, and I knew he was hooked.”
“Yeah, a lot of those are out there, aren’t they?” Saul nodded.
“Too many, honestly,” Tomas murmured.
“So what is your brother up to now?”
“He’s dead,” Tomas noted quietly. “Things got a little ugly at one of their meetings, and the cops came in heavy. Somebody started shooting, and the group returned fire, and the gunfight was on. He ended up taking a bullet, which nicked an artery, and he didn’t make it.”
“Wow,” Dezi replied, fascinated. “You could definitely be the right person for the job then.”
“It depends.” Tomas frowned.
“On what?”
“On what you have in mind.”
“Tell us everything you can. First, would you be recognized?”
Tomas sighed wearily. “I don’t know anybody in those groups. My brother’s death does give me some backstory and maybe a little bit of an edge on anybody who doesn’t have any experience or knowledge of groups like these at all. I definitely had a lot of back-and-forth with my brother, as I tried to convince him to get the hell out. He wasn’t having it though.” His voice took on a note of sorrow, mixed with anger.
“He wanted nothing to do with the government or paying his damn taxes, but that was just the start of it. He definitely wouldn’t serve his country,” he murmured. “Honestly, my father really struggled with Torres’s choices. Then, after my brother died, things just got worse. It certainly was harder for my father to deal with his loss because it was such a senseless death,” he added quietly. “I mean, not that any death is ever good or makes sense, but, in this case, it just didn’t need to happen. He didn’t need to be involved with those people at all.”
“No,” Dezi murmured softly. “I agree with you there. Too often that’s exactly what does happen though. You really try hard to keep everything normal. However, when one of the family goes off like that …”
“What are you even supposed to do?” Tomas asked, his voice riddled with memories.
“Sometimes you can’t do anything,” Dezi replied.
“It broke my mother’s heart. And my dad took it really hard. I mean, losing a child isn’t easy at any time, but in a deal like this? … Just makes it all the uglier.”
“Did you have any contact with the group after that?”
“No, none at all,” he confirmed. “Are we thinking it’s the same group?”
“No, I don’t think so. My guess is that Ice has already run into this intel and has taken a deep look into what group your brother was in and where that was, so I would think that connection would be a long shot at this point.”
“You’ve certainly got my attention,” Tomas noted. “Can you fill me in a bit?”
“In this case,” Dezi began, “Amber joined the group, hoping to get her friend out, but found out the friend was already dead by the time she was let in. Details are sketchy at this point, but what we do know is that Amber can’t get out.”
“So is she the one who contacted Levi and Ice?”
“Yes, some of her message was unclear. We’re not sure, but maybe she can’t get out safely, or maybe she thinks her friend was shot by somebody within the group. Either way, our job is to get her out.”
“So you suspect the friend was murdered then,” Tomas remarked quietly.
At that, Dezi nodded. “Yes. So it’s not just Amber we’re after. We’re also trying to figure out just how far and wide the rot inside this group has gone.”
Tomas stared at them, as he slowly sank onto the side of the bed. “That’s interesting.” He paused. “You know what? That angle never once occurred to me. I knew that my brother’s life was in danger, but I never considered the idea of betrayal coming from within his own group.”
Saul pointed out, “We’re in an odd scenario here where it seems like a possibility. Who knows? Maybe something like that is what happened to your brother too, although the truth would be hard to find now.”
“Wow.” Tomas gave his head a shake and returned his attention to them. “It’s too late for my brother but not for Amber,” he stated. “If they are anything like my brother’s group, I’m pretty sure something’s seriously wrong with them. Anytime I talked to him, he seemed pretty strongly affected by the groupthink and was always spouting off about how the US needed to go back to the way it was and how he was part of a crew strong enough to make it happen.” Tomas shook his head. “You know—that cult brainwashed stuff.”
“We do, but, at the same time,” Saul asked, “did he say anything specific that would give us something to go on or an angle to pursue?”
“Not that I know of, or maybe I just haven’t thought of it much,” he admitted. “Honestly we didn’t know anything much about it until he was killed and only then what the cops told us. Supposedly he died in the middle of a gunfight, and he was on the wrong team, more or less. Obviously they didn’t say it in those words, but the cops did ask us back then if we had any information about his associates. I wasn’t even in the country at the time,” he murmured. “So I had no answers for them.”
“No, of course not. When you came back, did you look into it?” Dezi asked. “Sorry, I know this is painful and not the thing you want to be dealing with right now, but you must have had some inkling.”
“I did. Absolutely.” He got lost in his thoughts for a moment. “But I also knew that he was either bad news or somehow caught up in trouble all the time. I don’t have any illusions about my brother, so let me make that clear. If anybody was looking for trouble and looking to get himself into something likely to blow up in his face, that would be Torres. Regarding the group and the cause, he was a die-hard believer, and it seemed almost a religion, cultish to me. I don’t think he was a leader type, so always the follower.”
Tomas stopped, then thought about it and shook his head. “No, I can’t see him as a leader in the group at all. I see him as somebody who got caught up in it as a fervent follower. He’s been dead a few years …” He stopped for a moment, making mental calculations, then added, “Four years, I guess. I lost track of time in the service and later with my injury and rehab, but I think it’s been four years. So, not all that long. It just seems a lot longer.”
“It also seems like a long time because you’ve been superbusy dealing with your own life.”
“Absolutely.” He nodded. “It feels strange to even think about it that way, but …” He shrugged. “My parents buried him, and we moved on.”
“What else can you do?” Saul asked. “You carry on because that’s what you’ve been left with.”
Tomas smiled at them. “Exactly. Accept the facts. Move on. That’s all there is to do with my brother’s death.”
At that, both men nodded. Just then the door burst open, and a tall lean woman with a long auburn braid stepped inside, closing the door quickly behind her. Saul opened his arms, and she raced into them.
“Oh my God,” she murmured, “I’m so glad to see you.”
Saul chuckled and turned to introduce her. “Tomas, this is Amber.” Saul pointed his finger back and forth by way of introduction. “Amber Billings. An old friend.”
Tomas looked at her in surprise. “I thought you couldn’t get out.” He walked over to shake her hand, with a welcoming smile.
She looked at him carefully. “Believe me. I’m definitely not out, and, if I want my life back, it’ll take a whole lot more than slipping free of the noose,” she noted. “As it is, I have to be back before someone notices that I’m missing.” She handed something to Saul, and her gaze shifted to Tomas. “We’ll talk later. I don’t know you.”
“I don’t know you either,” Tomas repeated calmly.
She studied him, and then a narrow cunning look appeared in her gaze. “So I dropped the hint that I might want to bring in new blood. A friend. A special friend.”
“Why would you do that?” Saul asked her.
“Because I’m getting some heat from some of the guys,” she replied calmly. “I needed an excuse to keep them at bay, … like away from me.”
“Like arm’s distance away? Like physical touching distance?” Tomas asked curiously.
“Something like that,” she murmured. She looked at the other men and continued. “The guys all have a code, but unfortunately some of these men tend to be on the raunchy side. In many ways, they are like a biker gang, and some believe women should be locked up and held tight. Otherwise the women are pretty free for anyone to use.”
“I can certainly be your special friend, if you need me to be,” Tomas stated, surprising them all, his mind racing at what she was dealing with.
It was apparently something she hadn’t anticipated either, and she laughed. “You must be prepped to fight for me.” She stared at him, smiling broadly.
“Interesting.” He wondered what he had gotten himself into.
“Some of these guys are pretty … rough.” She stopped to collect herself, then continued. “Let’s just say I’m willing to take all the help I can get in order to get out.”
“Why is it that you’re going back if you’re not comfortable?” Tomas asked, confused.
“Because someone else is still on the inside, so I need to be there,” she murmured. “And I know Saul and Dezi don’t understand that, and they don’t like that I’m going back, but, until you can get all the women out safely—those who want to leave, me included—I have to be there. That’s non-negotiable.” She had already made up her mind, and there was no way out of it. “It’s just the way it needs to be.”
“So, Amber,” Tomas said, yet looking at Saul, who smiled and shrugged, “is this other person willing to be there?” He needed to ensure they were talking about a rescue, rather than a kidnapping.
“No,” she confirmed. “She wants out, but getting her out, and everyone else, will be tricky.”
“Everyone else? Great,” Tomas noted. “I always like a challenge.”
“My kind of man.” She flashed him a smile. “When you see me, and I throw my arms around you and give you a big smacking kiss,” she explained, “know that things have gotten a little bit uglier, and I needed the excuse to go a little further.”
“Got it.” Tomas nodded, and, with that, she was gone. “Wow. She’s intense.” Surprised and confused, he turned and looked at the others. “Interesting life you guys have.”
“She and my wife are friends.” Saul shrugged. “She’s good people. I’m not terribly happy that she went into this on her own or that she keeps ignoring our warnings and going back.”
Tomas snorted at that. “That’s not exactly a surprise,” he murmured. “Most people don’t respond well to orders, and my sense is that she is a freaking force of nature. You know? Like a thunderbolt.”
Saul chuckled and nodded. “But everybody needs to listen to sage experienced advice sometimes,” he added. “It might keep them alive.”
“I hear you there. So who is this other person she wants to get out so badly?”
“We’re trying to track down information on her now,” Dezi shared. “But we don’t really have anything much to go on so far.” Saul remained silent, lost in his thoughts.
Tomas knew too well that scenario could be deadly. Things tended to go sideways when you didn’t have enough intel. He worried about that, but not a whole lot he could say. As he looked around, he asked, “What is your take on this then? Are you guys in or out?”
“I’ve been in already. I came from one of their other bands,” Dezi explained, with an eye roll. “Saul is keeping an eye on the outside.”
“Good enough.”
“So let’s get our stories straight. You and I are friends.” Dezi pointed at Tomas, then turned toward Saul. “And you, I don’t see.”
Saul chuckled. “Exactly.”
“Simple, I like it.” Tomas laughed too.
Then Saul added, “I’ll head out back to avoid anyone. Plus, I need to send in some reports and pick up a few supplies. I’ll see you on the ground.” And, with that, he just walked out. Tomas wasn’t surprised, as many people in this line of work weren’t big on formalities; their focus was purely business.
Tomas waited until the door closed, before he turned and looked at Dezi and asked, “And what is my relationship with you?”
“We’re friends,” he repeated, adding, “from the same division that I’m from.”
“Has anybody checked into your background?”
“They sure have,” he said cheerfully. “You can bet that, when it comes to these things, we set them up perfectly.”
“I’m sure you did. The story has to be solid with guys like this. They are always suspicious as hell.”
“That’s also why Amber has to watch her every step. She’ pretty stubborn and won’t leave until she gets her answers.”
“That’s not good.”
“Nope, it sure isn’t, but she’s a little more obstinate than most,” he stated, with half a smile.
“Got it. Okay, so what’s our plan of action?”
And Dezi laid out the plan as he had it. “Remember. We’re just gathering information, while trying to get Amber out, collecting as much evidence as we can for the cops,” he reminded Tomas. “We’re not there to take down the group or to start World War III.”
“Sounds like they’re already pretty edgy about starting a war to begin with,” he murmured.
“I think they’re dying to start it, and I’m pretty sure that’s what the girlfriend’s murder was about. It also sounds like maybe it’s similar to what your brother went through, but that group of men wanted to be warriors, and, of course, … the ultimate warrior is the one who takes a life.”
“Sure, but a real warrior isn’t just somebody who takes lives,” Tomas protested. “It should be somebody who understands the value of life and only takes one when there’s no other way.”
At that, Dezi looked at him and nodded appreciatively. “Glad to hear you say that,” he noted, “because, in this place, sometimes people don’t know the difference. Now you need to understand these people. Stop thinking about yourself as a warrior and be the spy this time.”
*
The whole purpose of getting free of her guard was to see who Tomas was. Having accomplished that, Amber also knew that absolutely no way could she stay gone much longer. She returned to the mall, breathless, bolted downstairs, taking the steps two at a time, until she slipped into the ladies’ room. She needed to go badly and then stepped out, all in record time. As she did, her handler, as she liked to call him, stepped out and glared at her.
“Will you stop taking so damn long?” Brutus spat.
“Hey, when Mother Nature calls,” she snapped, with a shrug, “what am I supposed to do?”
The fact of the matter was, he didn’t give a shit. He’d prefer it if Mother Nature didn’t call at all. Then he could keep her under watch all the time. She wasn’t exactly sure how she’d become somebody who had to be under guard all the time, but somehow she had.
It was also a very strange feeling, having somebody always looking after her—or spying on her. It might be because of her dead friend Annette or because Amber was a single female. It was hard to know. Annette had supposedly died under natural circumstances, but Amber had yet to see any proof of that.
In Amber’s mind, no doubt this group had done this a time or two before, and it really made Amber mad to think of somebody like Annette falling in with this group. Early on, she may have had a chance to get out, but she’d stayed too long. Nobody had been there for Annette, and that was something that Amber would always regret.
Annette had written her a letter, saying that she was in deep trouble. Amber had come running but had been too late. And that was the only reason she was still with this group. She wanted to make sure that these assholes paid, but, to do that, she needed to get as much information as she could. And now she needed to help the other women, as needed.
To help her, she’d called Saul, and Saul had a perfect solution, or at least she hoped it was. Only time would tell. She quickly hustled to keep up with her guard, Brutus. The name was most apt. The males all had a chance to change their names when initiated. They picked the names that they liked and wanted to be associated with.
So Brutus was it. He was rough, uncivilized, and didn’t give a shit about anyone or anything. He loved his guns a little too much for her comfort. He even slept with them. He liked his booze about the same.
He’d held one of his pretty beauties, as he so lovingly called his handguns, against her throat multiple times, reminding her who was boss in this dynamic. But, so far, he hadn’t crossed the line, and she wasn’t sure why, but that’s what bothered her the most. It was like walking a double-edged sword, and she didn’t know when she would fall and be cut in half.
She’d always expected this shit to blow up in her face; she just didn’t know when. She could only hope that she would survive whatever the hell was coming her way, but the more help she could get on her side, the better her chances were.
And having Saul out there was a huge help. She almost never got a chance to get into town. The group bought all their supplies in bulk, and usually one of the guys did the errands. But today was a different story, and she’d asked, pleaded really, just for a chance to get out. And having done that had given her a chance to meet up with Saul and to get a visual on Tomas.
She couldn’t let Annette down. Not now. The fact that Peaches was desperately trying to get out herself was another hard reality. These women didn’t have anywhere to go and nobody to help them, and that made it almost impossible for them to leave.
When Amber was cuffed a little heavily on the side of her head, she cried out and turned to glare at Brutus.
Brutus glared back. “Come on! I called you twice.” He shook his head. “Remind me why the hell we even have women in the group?”
As a woman hater, that made him even more dangerous.
He just wanted an excuse to pop one on her head or to smack her. At the same time, she’d already figured out that he wasn’t interested in her sexually, and she was damn grateful for that. But it also made him something of an anomaly in the world of wannabe-warriors and frustrated men. It was like he didn’t want any women around, unless he could beat on them. She was sure that the world would be a much better place without him.
Chapter 2
When Amber exited the vehicle at the compound, she quickly helped unload the groceries. The protocol was clear: pick up and carry them into the kitchen. As she walked inside, her gaze quickly flickered to Peaches. Her anguished eyes flared with relief, as soon as she saw Amber.
Amber quickly dropped the bag of groceries she was carrying on the counter.
“How was town?” Mary asked her curiously. Mary was always upbeat and totally okay with anything that went on in this place. It’s almost like she didn’t have a brain in her head. But she did, and anybody who misjudged her would surely pay the price.
“Busy,” Amber replied. “The traffic was a mess.”
“Houston traffic is the worst. One of the reasons I won’t go into town anymore,” she said calmly. “Who the hell needs that?”
Amber nodded. “Still, it was nice just to get out for a moment.”
“I don’t know about that.” Mary studied Amber carefully. “I wouldn’t have thought getting out was anything you’d enjoy. Why would you?”
She turned in surprise. “Just a change.” She shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“No, nothing wrong with that,” Mary repeated, but an odd note filled her voice.
Enough to remind Amber that she could never discount this woman, the head guy’s wife or girlfriend or whatever. She was dangerous and difficult at the best of times. And, at the worst of the times, she was totally amiable, which made it easy to forget that she had another side. Sometimes Amber worried that the damn woman had a split-personality disorder.
Under everyone’s watchful eye, Amber quickly put away the groceries, knowing the chance of ever being accepted in a place like this was nonexistent. While that was a good thing, as far as she was concerned, it also made her job to get more info more difficult, more complex, with too many moving pieces.
When she had put up all the food, she walked over to the coffeepot and poured herself one.
“Now you can help Peaches with the potatoes,” Mary stated calmly.
Maybe calmly and in a decent tone of voice but it meant Do it, and do it now.
Amber nodded, walked over, picked up a paring knife, and got to work. She didn’t say anything to Peaches but casually asked Mary, “How were things while we were gone?”
“Peaceful as always,” she replied. “That’s the nice part of coming back to a refuge.”
“Exactly,” Amber murmured.
And, with that, Mary walked to the other room.
Peaches kicked Amber ever-so-slightly, as if warning her of something she had missed. She looked at her friend and raised an eyebrow. Peaches just gave her a quick head shake.
Amber realized that maybe things hadn’t gone quite as smoothly as Mary had described. Amber frowned at that but kept quiet. She was pretty darn sure that these guys and gals, with their extra paranoid personalities, had every room bugged.
So Amber spoke as if everything were normal. “We caught a couple sales today. I picked up a few extra bananas. I wasn’t sure if banana breads were wanted,” she added, carrying out a quiet conversation, until Mary walked back in again.
They had done a pretty good job on the potatoes. As she looked around, Amber asked, “What else can I do?”
Mary looked at her in surprise. “We need a dessert.”
She picked up the bananas, and she asked eagerly, “How about a banana bread?”
Mary smiled, a first real smile at that. “Sure, that sounds great.”
With that feedback, Amber mixed up ingredients for the banana bread. She knew that the only way to get along in this place was to work her ass off.
It truly seemed like the only thing appreciated around here was working yourself to death. Multiple houses were here on the acreage, and not everybody came to this communal area, but those who did were expected to be fed. Mary always made sure that they were.
Something was so very strange about the way this society functioned, and Amber had never gotten any explanation on the policies this group was founded upon. The only way to succeed here was to fake it till you make it, and that was all Amber could sort out.
Mary added, “Make sure you do lots.”
“Sure,” Amber replied, with a casual shrug, because to show any refusal or argument would get her smacked. “Banana bread is always good to eat the next day.”
“There won’t be any leftovers,” Mary stated. “Got a couple new guys coming in tonight,” she murmured.
“Sounds fun. We haven’t had anyone new around in a while.”
“Don’t assume anything. We keep to ourselves as a rule. New people aren’t always welcome.”
Amber looked at her in surprise. “And here I thought you were the social one.”
“I’d prefer we stick to ourselves and keep everyone else out, but always somebody from another group wants to join us and see how we run things,” she muttered. “And that’s what’s happening tonight. So I certainly won’t be socializing with them,” she snapped. “They should learn from others.”
That isolation mentality was something Amber had seen before with others here, but, at the same time, she presumed the visitors would be Dezi and his friend Tomas coming in. “Hey, new blood is always fun,” she said, with a casual note.
“You say that now,” Mary muttered. “I’d just rather not have any new blood. We have more than enough people for us to deal with now. The bigger you get, the more problems come up.”
“I guess,” Amber agreed, with an unconcerned shrug. “But it’s also fun to get to know other people. I hadn’t realized I was as social as I am, until I got here.”
“Yet you’re keeping all the men at arm’s length,” Mary stated, as she eyed Amber intently.
“And I told you why too,” she said cheerfully.
“No point in saving yourself for somebody who’ll never show,” Mary snorted. “And it’s pretty damn lonely if you’re sleeping by yourself at night.”
“I’m fine.” Amber knew that Mary’s insistence was getting louder and more obnoxious as time went on. At some point, Amber understood that she must come up with a better excuse. Since she didn’t have a whole lot of choice as to her timing of these things, it would be now or never. “Besides I haven’t even heard from him in a while, but, the last time I did, he was planning a surprise for me.”
“He better not just show up here out of the blue,” Mary replied. “You know the men don’t take to that very well.”
