Page 35 of A Light in the Darkness
When I break out into the courtyard, it is every bit of the chaos that Kent predicted. Right there in the middle of the front lawn is the giant plane we arrived in. I knew that Kent was going to disable the airspace radar when he tripped the door locks, but something about seeing the great thing in a place it’s not supposed to be is bizarre. It almost makes me want to laugh as I stumble through the groups of people standing around, looking confused, scared, suspicious.
Once I spot Rook ushering a group of women to the plane, where Dom helps pull them up into the open cargo space, I feel a little more in control. From the corner of my eye, I catch Kaia, motioning emphatically toward the plane to a group of three women. And beyond them, there’s two men rushing at them.
I freeze, preparing to reach for the gun, but the men run past them, hands raised and mostly nude as they run for their escape. Harley motions them onward, up the ramp of the cargo door, and then glances up at me.
“Boudreaux!”
It’s Rich, standing there with a rifle in his hand, that spurs me forward, creating a path through the people fighting to get into the plane. They look almost like zombies, desperately trying to get to the living in the plane, to become one of them. They clear a path for me at Rich’s request, and I pass the small girl off into Dom’s arms. He turns with her, and Harley follows him, leaving Michael and Victor to come fill the space they vacate.
I lock eyes with Victor, registering his shock and horror as Michael begins to take over for Dom, pulling people forward onto the back of the plane one by one. Dimitri moves behind him, passing out blankets and sheets for the survivors to cover themselves. I know that the senator has been in war zones, that he’s seen things I haven’t, but the look he’s fixing me with assures me we’re in a nightmare unlike any he’s ever witnessed.
He recovers quickly, taking a stack of blankets that Dimitri passes him, draping them around the shoulders of people as they board the plane. Michael passes me a rifle. Now that we’ve given ourselves away here, I may as well upgrade.
I turn, surveying what’s left behind us. The house stands still against a darkening sky, eerily quiet. I grab the pistol too as I walk back toward it, afraid that we’re forgetting something… someone.
Where are the masters? And for that matter, where is John?
A young man streaks past me so fast I feel like I’m standing still rather than moving deliberately forward. Kent appears in the doorway, a trickle of blood running down his forehead. His brow furrows as he takes in the scene before him, and then his gaze cuts to mine. “You get ‘em all?”
“Harley’s supposed to be keeping count. I haven’t seen John?” My statement comes out as a question.
He shakes his head, answering what I didn’t explicitly ask.
Something’s wrong.
Chapter twenty-one
Claire
“What about that one?” I suggest, nodding at a girl laughing as she splashes water on her bronze skin. It glistens on her taut stomach, and though her face is obscured by sunglasses, she looks cute.
Moose growls his dissent without even looking up from the book before him, which has a boring title and looks like nonfiction. I have my doubts whether he’s actually reading or just looking at a porn magazine tucked inside it, but every time I look over it’s just to see the cream paper with lots of small words printed on it. I don’t know if they even make porn magazines anymore, now that I think about it.
We’re set up on the beach, just steps away from the vacation home behind us. The water is also close, brought higher by the tide coming in. We’ve been out here all day, again. Just like yesterday. I’ve been as social as I can manage, chatting with old acquaintances and finding what everyone has been up to, what their plans are after graduation, dodging questions about my own plans.
Social work is hardly glamorous, so when I tell people I’m going to apply for the department of Oregon Human Services, their eyes glaze and I get out of getting any deeper into the conversation. Because the truth is, I want to help. I want to do good. But I don’t want to be a part of the same system that failed me. You could argue, I suppose, that I can make the system better by being a worthy advocate, but I don’t really want to make the system better. I want to dismantle it from a distance and replace it with something better. I just haven’t found out what that is yet.
“She’s cute…” I say, trying to tempt him into looking up at the girl I just chose as his potential conquest.
“Bunnies are cute, Monroe. I’m not interested in cute.”
“So, you want someone hot?” I surmise, scanning the beach again.
There’s no shortage of young women who would be glad to hook up with Moose. I’ve seen how they all look at him, throwing heavy glances his way to see if he looks up and their eyes meet. But he never does.
“I don’t want anyone at all, princess. As fun as it is to watch you try to be my pimp, you can give it up. If I wanted to fuck someone, I would.”
I narrow my eyes at him on that, wondering whether he means he’d just take what he wants. “You’re scared of women, aren’t you? That’s it. That’s your big fear.”
I expect to get a wry laugh out of him, but he just meets my gaze. “I already told you, I’m not scared of something I can crush under my boot.”
Maybe it’s the heat or the fact that I’m suffocating myself to try and look like I’m not insane, but his words trigger me more than they should.
“You are such a fucking ass!” I yell, scrambling to my feet to get away from him. He is maddening. He has been from the start, but I keep having these moments where I think I can trust him, where I think we could be friends. And then he goes and says something that just reminds me he is another man who takes what he wants, says what he wants, and does what he wants without regards for how it affects anyone else.
“And yet, you love me.” He calls after me, unbothered.
I’m relieved that he doesn’t follow me into the house. I think by now he’s decided that none of the twelve other occupants of the rental are any kind of threat to us. We’re all just what Rhea said—a bunch of college kids who knew each other before Moose and Eli ever entered our orbit, enjoying the throes of our freedom.
