Eden's Promise (22 page)

He didn’t imagine the hurt in Annie’s eyes.
 

“I’d hoped you and the baby might stay here until I get back with Eden, then we can head home together.” He turned his attention to Bill. “If that’s all right with you.”

“I don’t think we could pry that baby away from Nancy with a crowbar,” Bill replied. “But are you sure it’s wise for you to head to Sacramento on your own?”

“Wise or not, sir, I brought her to the mainland. I need to see she gets home safe.”

He wished it was as simple as it sounded.

***

The pirate—Eden had learned his name was Hawkins, but she continued to think of him as the pirate—pushed a bottle of wine across the table to her and motioned for her to pour more into her glass. She did, only a splash, because the half-glass she’d had was already going to her head, and she needed to be on her toes with this man.
 

“So you led a mutiny against him, with a new mother and a bunch of women?” He laughed, tossing his head back. “I can only imagine how pissed he is. Yeah, he’ll come after you. No question there.”

“You see why we need to keep moving,” Eden said. “We need to get to Sacramento to my sister, and head west.”

He leaned on the table. “Where west, exactly?”

Her father’s warnings echoed in her head. “I’d rather not say, but someplace secure. He can’t follow us there.”

“An island, then.”

She jolted, giving herself away. “Somepleace safe,” she repeated. “Can you help us get to Sacramento? You have the vehicles and the fuel. We could be there in a matter of hours.”

He spread his hands as he sat back. “But no motivation. You have nothing to offer me, other than the obvious.” He let his gaze travel over her. “But to be honest, I’m not all that interested in that, either.”

That shouldn’t have stung, but did. She was skinny and filthy, but still. He was a mercenary. “What about a payday on the other end? Perhaps the camp will want to do business with you?”

“Something I’ve learned about the government since this all went down. They have no money. They have the promise of money, which is how they’ve run things so far, but no cash. Not worth the effort.”

“What would you do with the money anyway? You say the government has no money, but where would you spend it? You have everything you need here.”

“Not everything. And people still have the concept that money works. So he who has the most money...” He trailed off, lifting a hand.

She dropped her hands to the table. “You want to take over the government?”

“Oh, hell no. Assholes. But I want to have what they need when they get their shit together.”

Her mind raced. What payment could she give him? Because if he could take them to Sacramento, so many problems would be solved.

Except how to reunite with Aaron. She had no idea how they would manage that. She hadn’t mentioned his involvement in their escape from Wayne because, well, she didn’t trust herself not to give away the nature of her relationship. Hawkins would wonder why the man she’d been involved with had left her on her own.

Hell, she wondered that herself.

No, she knew. He’d been right, the journey would have been too difficult with a new mother and infant. She hoped he’d gotten them to the coast, gotten them safely to the island.

“What about labor? What about sending Christine and I to collect supplies, and in exchange, you could take us to Sacramento?”

“Do you think there’s anyplace in the vicinity that we haven’t already scavenged? No, no matter that, there’s no way this is profitable for me.” He took the bottle of wine and emptied it into his glass.
 

“It costs more to have us here, to feed us. That has to eat into your profits.”

He looked her over. “Not really.”

She cast about desperately for some reason, any reason, he might take them to Sacramento. She understood, of course. It would cost him fuel and time and men. “At least let us go, so we can get there on our own.”

He pressed his lips together. “Not sure I want to do that, either. I’m not crazy about people knowing where I am.”

She flung her hands in the air. “Look, I have no intention of ratting you out, and honestly, you’re pretty well protected from anyone who might want to come in here. I just want to get to my sister.”

He pushed back from the table and rose. “I’ll consider it.” He motioned to the man who’d stood at the back of the room this whole time. “Take her back.”

The man stepped forward and Eden rose reluctantly, her mind racing, thinking of anything that might change his mind.

***

Between the cold of the storage unit and her busy mind, Eden didn’t get much sleep, though Christine drifted off eventually. Eden hated that she couldn’t even tell if it was night or day because the unit had no window, and only the eerie glow of a security light overhead.
 

So she was bleary-eyed when the door rolled open hours later, and Hawkins stood in the doorway, wearing a wife-beater and jeans, a tattoo on his upper arm. Something about the tattoo was familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Her frozen, stiff finger. How he could be dressed like that when she was freezing, she had no idea. Sweat even dampened his hair. They must have gotten more supplies, or had sold some.

“The baby,” he said. “If you can get me the baby, I’ll take you to your sister.”

She snapped her spine straight. “Even if I knew where the baby was, I wouldn’t do that.”

He shrugged, and rolled the door down again.

“So he’s just going to keep us here?” Christine demanded.

Eden shrugged. She’d told Christine everything about her meeting with Hawkins, so she didn’t know why the other woman thought she was holding something back.

“Annie didn’t want the baby,” Christine went on. “She didn’t want him, but Wayne did.”

Eden blinked her dry eyes. “You would do that? Taking an infant from his mother and giving him to that man? How would he raise that child in this world? To be like him?”

“You mean to tell me that if we knew where Annie and Aaron were, you wouldn’t consider it?”

She wouldn’t admit that her mind touched on the possibility for an instant. But she shook her head. She’d seen this world do terrible things to people, even people she loved. She wouldn’t let the same happen to her. “What kind of world is this if we trade one life for another?”

***

The occasional rumble of her stomach, or Christine’s, jolted Eden awake each time she started to doze off. She was cold, tired, hungry and hopeless. She could not think of a way to get them out of here, and she wasn’t sure Hawkins was all that keen on keeping them alive. She wouldn’t see Kelly again, wouldn’t see Aaron. Would he come looking for her? Would he get to Kelly? No, he was caring for Annie and the baby. He would never have gotten in this situation. He would have seen this place and made a wide berth, made sure he didn’t get caught.
 

That did her no good. What would he do if he was caught? He couldn’t talk his way out. He couldn’t fight his way out, not with as many men as Hawkins had working for him.
 

Maybe that was the solution—not Hawkins, but his men. Would any of them stand up to him? She just didn’t know, and since she was locked in here, she didn’t have an opportunity to find out.

Her traitorous, desperate thoughts touched on the baby, on Annie. She couldn’t consider that. What would Wayne do to a child? How would he damage him? Wouldn’t any child growing up in these times be damaged?

She snapped her brain away from that path. No. But every option she came up with was morally dark. Were there any good solutions in this world?

Her eyes drifted shut and she imagined him again asking her the question—the baby for her sister. And then she realized why the tattoo seemed familiar, and she cursed herself for not realizing it sooner. She blamed the cold and hunger for slowing her brain.

She slapped her hand against the metal door until it rolled open.
 

“I need to see Hawkins,” she told the man who stood there.

***

Hawkins scowled when she walked into the Mexican restaurant, which obviously also served as his office. “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”

She nodded toward the papers strewn on the table before him. “I would have though the apocalypse put an end to paperwork.”

“If only.” He shoved it aside and put his elbows on the table. “What now?”

“Are you a Navy SEAL?”

His head snapped up and he narrowed his eyes. “Why do you say that?”

“Your tattoo. Aaron has one.”

He rose slowly, hands on the table. “You know Jenk?”

Her heart lurched at that. She’d suspected the tattoo was a SEAL thing, but not that the two knew each other. Weren’t there a lot of SEALs? Or there had been.

“You know him?” she countered.

“We were on the same team before it all went to hell. How do you know him?”

“We grew up in the same town. He was helping me look for my sister.” She didn’t want to go into the true nature of their relationship. Hell, she wasn’t even sure what that was.

“Where is he now?” Hawkins’s voice was tight. “Is he out there looking for you?”

Her mind flipped through possible responses before she thought to ask, “Are you friends?”

He tugged down the shoulder of the flannel shirt he’d put on over the wife-beater, revealing his tattoo. “We were brothers.”

Chapter Seventeen

Aaron jounced along as the borrowed truck rumbled along the pitted roads leading to Sacramento. Using the truck had seemed expedient when Bill offered, but he’d forgotten how loud vehicles were. He felt like every person in California could hear the approach of the old engine.

Another debt he owed Bill, though. The old man had filled up the gas tank from a container in the barn that he’d used to fuel his tractors. The engine didn’t quite agree with the old gas, but it sure beat the hell out of walking.

He’d get to Sacramento in a matter of minutes, collect Eden, Kelly and Christine, then take the truck back to the old man and head for the coast. They could be home in a week.

Home. With Eden. The idea had never sounded so good. He didn’t care about the rest of the town—he was going to lock the two of them in a house for a week. He needed to make sure they resupplied on condoms, because he did not want a baby.

But if he lived out this fantasy, there would be expectations—if not from Eden, then from their families. They’d see them as a couple, as a new family, as two people with a shared future. But that future had to look different now. It couldn’t be the same future he’d looked forward to with Bev. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
 

He was, however, pretty sure he was happy to see the highway sign showing Sacramento was fifteen miles away. He’d never been to Sacramento, didn’t know where the camp might be, but he was pretty sure he’d be there within the hour.

As he made his way around the city, he imagined Eden’s reaction that he’d come for her, that he had a vehicle. He allowed himself a grin of anticipation as he pulled in front of the camp—on the far side of town, naturally—and raised his hands to the three guards, who had stepped out of their protected area, guns aimed at him. Beyond the fence, curious residents had gathered to see the newcomer in the automobile.

One of the armed men moved forward to open his truck door, and Aaron turned his legs to slide out slowly, not wanting to give them any reason to panic.
 

“I’m expected,” he said. “We radioed from Tacoma. We’re here for Kelly McKay.”

The guards responded as if he hadn’t spoken. The one who opened the door turned him around to face the bed of the truck while one of the others patted him down.

“I’m armed,” Aaron said, keeping his voice calm. “No one would risk being out here unarmed.”

Again, it was as if he hadn’t spoken. They took his automatics, his knife, and reached into the cab of the truck for his rifle. Only then was he prodded to turn back around. He looked at the three men, all late twenties, maybe, standing close enough that he could get his weapons back if he chose. Who had trained them? But his goal now was Kelly and Eden.

“There should be another woman who came recently. About this tall, blonde hair, tough as nails? Eden McKay? It would have been the last week or so.”

“No one’s come in a few weeks,” one of the men spoke at last.

Aaron’s gut squeezed. “She’s not here? Eden? What about Kelly?” If Eden wasn’t here, what did that mean? Was she hurt? In trouble? Dead? His knees weakened as the last thought flashed through his head. Any of those would be his fault for leaving her, for walking away. He had to work to breathe past the squeezing of his lungs.
 

“No one’s been here,” another man repeated.