Page 68 of Judas

Fuck, Sadie!

“S… Sadie,” I rasp out.

“Shh, we got her. She’s passed out in the car. Can you walk? We’ve got to go—now.”

I nod and cling to him when Lucien marches by with his hands cuffed behind his head and—woah, it’s attached to a spreader bar. The man who is leading him has his back to us, a gas mask pulled over his face, and another rifle pushed into the middle of Lucien’s spine.

“W… who, you?”

He drags my own gas mask over my face and I suck in a breath of pure oxygen. He returns his own over his visage and grabs my hand. Lacing our fingers together, he leads me away from the blazing crosses, burning branches cracking and snapping above us. Falling down to hit the ground with a shower of sparks and embers that shoot off in all directions when it makes contact with the unforgiving floor. I wince but he manages to block most of them when he yanks me in front of him.

“Babel.”

“Stupid name.”

With a hearty laugh, he ushers me into the vehicle once we make it over. It’s the Honda Lucien stole—in the back is a passed out Sadie. I drop inside, grab hold of her with zero hesitation and pull her to me. Hugging her limp body so damn hard I swear she wheezes. She looks so vulnerable. Too skinny, her wrists are angry, I can even see lingering yellow of faded bruises on her face. I must have missed them in the shadows of the trees earlier.

“Let’s go,” the other man grunts out when he drops into the driver seat. He reaches back, putting his rifle on the floorboard where Sadie’s legs should go but I’m clinging to her too tightly tolet her get that far away. Not now… not for a while. Holding her head to my chest, I simply nod. The other door rips open and in lowers Babel. Not missing a beat, he pulls his mask up and off then turns to look at the both of us. Leaving the other man to take care of the driving—putting it in reverse and hauling ass out of the area.

“Here, he took them off of her. We have extra clothes where we’re going, err, back to the apartment,” Babel says.

I take the shorts he hands me and maneuver enough to pull them back up her legs. He put her through so much, yet he needed to strip her, too—fucking animal.

“Why?”

“Hmm?”

“Why did he take her shorts off? Please don’t tell me he was going to—“

“No,” the other man snaps, I look over at him finally.

“He didn’t say,” Babel returns.

“Ra?” I ask, tilting my head looking at the other guy. He’s not near big enough to be Ra; maybe it’s Ez and he’s fucking around. Thank god he’s not looking back here. I might have to smack him for just reminding me of Lucien. When he nods, I shrug and look down at Sadie. Brushing her hair out of her face—she’s such a pretty young woman. Kace would be a proud father. Hell, I’m proud and I’ve not known her for more than a few moments.

“I left the key to the apartment in my backpack on the hill just north of the cabin. My car is parked by the lake.”

“I know,” Babel replies and says nothing else.

Well, he sure as fuck wasn’t lying. The vehicle I saw pull in after me was him. He quickly ushered me into the back of the SUV where there’s more water waiting for Sadie and I. A blanket, too. She’s so cold and still; if I didn’t know any better I would think she’s dead. Ez gets in my car and drives off before we aresituated, leaving the Honda abandoned. All of us are on our way out of the park when fire trucks start racing down the narrow roads where the blaze has already eaten up a lot of the trees. I hope to God it’s incinerated the arm that was sticking out of the ground; if that comes back on Sadie, we will be skipping town and leaving the whole damn continent. There is no fucking way in hell I’ll let her take the fall for something Lucien forced her into.

Speaking of, where is that lousy mother fucker?

“Babel, where’s Lucien?”

“Havok has him in the trunk of your car. Thought it was fitting since he threw your daughter in his. Taste of his own medicine.”

“Havok?”

“Yeah, the cantankerous asshole that took off in your car. Friend of mine, old and grumpy. Think he’s mad he had to walk away from his Werther’s Original’s and Seinfeld.”

Hmm, not Ez then. He’s young. Whoever Babel is, I guess this Havok came with him. But his interference is fueling a whole lot of questions I don’t have the energy to dig into.

“He did seem rather cross. You make sure he brought his Breath Right strips and Tiger Balm?”

“Oh, she’s got jokes. I dig it.”

Chuckling, I look down at Sadie while she sleeps. “Said the same thing to a friend of mine and he told me about some Urban Dictionary shit. They have everything on there, plus things I’ve never heard of before.”

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