Eden's Promise (16 page)

The soldier’s forehead wrinkled for an instant, then he turned and led them down the hall to the mess. Aaron linked his fingers through Eden’s as they followed, wondering at how easy that simple gesture was. The truth was he didn’t want to be separated from her, not even by a few inches.
 

The commander rose when they walked into the mess. His gaze flicked to the knapsacks they carried and he raised his eyebrows.

“You’re not thinking of leaving us already?”

Those words would have raised Aaron’s suspicions if they hadn’t already been alert. Most people were just as glad to see newcomers gone, since supplies were so limited now that the chain of food supply had broken.
 

“We want to keep moving while the weather is good,” Aaron said amiably. “We appreciate your hospitality”

The commander sat as they did, and motioned to someone standing in the shadows. A young man brought out a tray with three plates loaded with eggs and bacon, the scent of bacon teasing senses Aaron had forgotten he had and he started salivating. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had bacon. He eyed it warily. Why were they being treated so royally?
 

“I take it you have a farm and a butcher,” Aaron said. “But you can’t eat like this all the time.”

“You came at a good time. We just butchered a pig. Can’t get any fresher than this. We’re careful, of course, with our supplies, but we have renewable resources. We can indulge now and again. Dig in.”

He didn’t have to invite them twice, but Aaron found himself getting full about halfway through. He wasn’t used to eating so much. He hated to see good food go to waste, but he just wasn’t able. He glanced over at Eden’s plate—she seemed to be having the same problem, down to the guilt at being unable to finish.

“We have a good operation here, could use a couple more people to help man it,” the commander said, his own plate unfinished. He leaned back in his chair, watching the two of them.
 

Aaron straightened, unaware until this moment he’d been hunched over his food like a starving man. He always took care not to reveal weakness, but he’d done so with this man, and he had a feeling that mistake would cost him. Would cost them. “That’s not the usual line we get from people we meet out here. They’re usually quick to send us on our way, away from their supplies.”

“You’re both strong, quick, just the kind of people who would fit in here. We have animals to take care of, a garden, a clinic, a regular city. We don’t have a great deal of supplies, but we have the basics. I am very interested in adding you to our little group. I think you’d be assets. I’d like to train Aaron to be a soldier, and Eden, you could work in whatever capacity you’d feel comfortable. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about being out on your own when you step on a nail. Or whatever.”

Every nerve in Aaron’s body was on alert. They needed to get out now, now. now. He pushed back his chair.

“We appreciate that. But we have family waiting.”

The commander watched him steadily. “You hope. You have no idea if they’re still alive or not.”

“We’re willing to risk it, just to be sure.”

The commander’s expression hardened. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I was hoping to convince you.” He made another signal and suddenly men were behind them. They grabbed Eden first.

“Hey!” Aaron rose from his chair, reaching for her. His movement was stopped cold when a pipe was laid across the side of his head, and everything went black.

***

Eden twisted and screamed in the arms of her captors, struggling to get to Aaron, who slumped, bleeding, on the floor. She looked past him to the commander, who’d risen during the attack and was now striding away, his hands in his pockets as if nothing had happened. The two men who held her carried her backwards from the room. Aaron hadn’t moved, and now two other men crouched over him, grabbed his arms, and hauled him to his feet. His head lolled on his shoulders. God, was he dead? She tugged harder, making her knees go slack, hoping her captors would lose their grip, but they didn’t. She let them take her weight so she could kick. Still they held tight. She tried to bite, cursed the missed opportunity she had in the moments before they grabbed her. Why wasn’t she more aware? She hadn’t even seen them.

Aaron had, though, and he’d been trying to warn her. And now he was...what? Where had they taken him?

The men dragged her out of the building and into another. The smell here was different, mustier, closed-up, but before she had time to process, a door was open and she was shoved inside. She dropped to all fours on the concrete floor. Wrists stinging, a moment passed before she recovered. She pushed her hair out of her face and stared.

Four other women were in the room, looking as surprised as she felt. Two women were dressed in desert camo pants and beige T-shirts, but one of the women had the T-shirt stretched over a hugely pregnant belly. Another woman was older, maybe fifty, with wiry salt-and-pepper hair and a defeated expression. The fourth woman was maybe thirty, and watched Eden apprehensively.
 

Eden took all this in in the time it took the guards to close the doors and she pivoted. Too late, not that she’d been very effective anyway. She took in the barred windows, the cinderblock walls, the metal doors, the Spartan furnishings.
 

“What is this place?” she asked.

“Hell,” said the pregnant woman.

***

She discovered the pregnant woman was Annie, and the other soldier was Christine. Both had been serving on the base when the world went to hell. Other women had been stationed here at the time, but many left to go home to their families. Christine and Annie had felt compelled to stay. And then the commander, who was not military, as Aaron had suspected, had arrived at the base. He’d applied to them for help, and then took over, turning some of the soldiers against command, then stepping in to fill the void. He’d locked the women away from the other soldiers under the guise of protecting them from the baser instincts of men. But then he started visiting them regularly, then sending other men to them, some of them soldiers they’d served with, some of them strangers he had apparently let onto the base.
 

“And you see the results of that,” Annie said darkly, rubbing her hand in wide circles over her belly.

“I came here with my husband seeking help,” the younger civilian woman, Teresa, said. “We were starving, our city had gone crazy, we were looking for a safe place. We were so enthralled when we saw all the food, all the preparations, the normal way of life. We were sold. We wanted to stay. And then one night, they came to the room and separated us. I haven’t seen my husband in weeks. I don’t even know if he’s still alive. Other men come, but never him.”

Eden’s stomach twisted. She didn’t know if Aaron was alive, either.
 

The older woman, Adele, spoke next. “My husband and I also came here looking for help. He was taken away and I was brought here, but I’m not...used...as much as these women. And I am allowed to see my husband for short visits. But my husband likes it here, he feels like he’s providing for me by doing as the commander asks. He believes in the life we’re building here.”

“What kind of life? The kind where women are used as, what, release and brood mares? The one where they’re whored out to well-behaving soldiers?” Annie asked, her tone weary. Apparently they’d had this conversation before.
 

“What’s your story?” the older woman asked. “Did you come here alone?”

“With my husband.” Still felt strange to say the word. “We just wanted a night inside, and were planning on making our way to Texas. But the commander decided he wanted us to stay. He hit Aaron, so hard.” She swallowed the bile that rose when she remembered the sound of the pipe cracking against Aaron’s skull. “I don’t know if he is all right or not. Surely, if he wanted Aaron to be one of his soldiers he wouldn’t kill him, right?”

“Maybe he wasn’t looking for a soldier. Maybe he was looking to add you to his harem,” Christine said.

A chill ran through her as she thought about being someone’s whore—worse, a whore for more than one man. Not when the only man’s touch she wanted was Aaron’s.
 

“There has to be a way out of here.” She scanned the room, but the only windows were high along the ceiling, and covered with wire mesh. Had this place been the brig?

“You think we haven’t thought of that?” Annie spat. “You think we want to just lie back and take it? There’s no way. Even if we could get out, we wouldn’t have the supplies to survive.”

“We could find them.”

“And the commander and his men would be hot on our heels,” Christine said. “We’d have no means to fight them off, and we’d be dragged back here.”

“I won’t leave my husband,” Teresa said. “I don’t know if he’s alive or not, but I won’t leave without knowing.”

That hit home. Aaron wasn’t her husband, but she couldn’t imagine being out in the world without him. But if he was dead, then what? Was she willing to be a whore instead of striking out on her own?

No, she wasn’t.

“And there’s no way of seeing the men? Seeing where they are? If he’s hurt, there’s an infirmary, right? We can’t get to it?”

Three pair of accusing eyes turned to Adele, who backed up, hands raised. “They occasionally bring me in to help, but I don’t know who the men are, not well enough to tell you how your men are doing.”

“Aaron is almost thirty, brown hair, hazel eyes, and has a tattoo on his chest below his left shoulder. Please, I need to know.”

Adele’s expression remained aloof. “I can’t just tell the commander to let me in there. I have to be ordered.”

Already Eden could see why the other women were frustrated with her. How could she stand back and let this happen?

“And when any of you are hurt? Are you sent to the same infirmary?”

“That’s never come up, but I can only imagine. I don’t think there is any place else.”

Eden stood and braced herself. “So someone hit me.”

***

Aaron came to on his back on a flat bed, staring up at a florescent light. So long since he’d seen artificial lighting, and it burned his eyes, sending a hot blaze of pain through his already throbbing head. Turning his head took great effort, nausea rising in him with the movement. Shit, he had a concussion. Even if he was able to get up, get out, he wouldn’t get far.

And first he had to find Eden.

She wasn’t here, in the sterile infirmary. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a place so clean, spotless, no sign of being without supplies or power in almost a year.
 

The room had no windows, or from what he could see, neither did the hall. Were they underground? That would make escape that much more difficult—fewer ways out, and all likely guarded. And he was without his weapons.

“Glad to see you’re coming around.”
 

The commander stepped into his line of sight and Aaron fought back the anger, the urge to rise and fight back. Ridiculous, since he didn’t think he could sit up right now.

“Where’s Eden?”

“Safe, for now.” The man affected a casual pose, propping a foot up on the rung of a stool, folding his hands over his thigh. “I can make a good life for both of you here. You’re a smart man. Surely you can see that.”

“We prefer to be on our own, together,” Aaron said through his teeth.

“Being on your own is too hard, even for a SEAL like yourself.”

Aaron tensed. He didn’t have enough control to mask his concern, but he did have enough to hold his tongue.

“I recognize the tattoo,” the commander said, straightening, both feet on the ground.
 

His tattoo. He realized now he was wearing a different shirt—someone had changed him, maybe because his other shirt was covered with blood. But his tattoo didn’t have a SEAL insignia or anything blatant. He’d been thankful for that when the world went to hell. Only someone from his own SEAL team would know, but he didn’t know this man. Was one of his other teammates here? What would be the odds of that?

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aaron muttered, closing his eyes against the light that made his head hurt.

“Of course you do. I see it on your face.”

“I just want my wife. I just want to go to Texas.”

“I’m sorry about that, truly I am, especially if your people are still there. But I need a man like you. And God knows, I need a woman like Eden.”

Aaron’s better judgement left him, and he heaved himself off the cot and lunged for the man, dropping to the cement floor feet away, his head spinning, pulse pounding against his skull. The commander merely laughed and turned away, leaving him on the cold floor.

Chapter Thirteen

“No, stop.” Adele stepped forward and caught Christine’s fist just as she was about to plow it into the side of Eden’s head. “I’ll see what I can find out. I will.”

Slowly the older woman moved to the door and knocked. It opened a crack and one of the soldiers stuck his head in. His response was so quick, Eden realized the room was always guarded. God. What was she going to do? As far as she could see, that was the only way out. Her only hope was to get to another part of the compound and gauge her options from there.