Page 6 of Darkness I Become
“Where are we going?” Asha asked.
“Angel’s place,” Cade replied, his tone clipped. “Tomorrow, we go home.”
“Home?”
“The old capital,” he said. “But let me give you some advice that’ll serve you well, both here and there: don’t ask so many questions. Just keep your head down.”
Great, so it’s like the compound, but without the security or the conveniences of modern living to make having no control over our lives bearable.
The former shop—Angel’s place, apparently—was cracked concrete walls and blown-out windows and not much else. The interior walls were badly decayed to the point that it was now mostly one room, with not much inside except a pile of furs on the floor, a lantern, and a couple of well-worn chairs. Fear pulsed unpleasantly under her skin again when Cade entered the building behind her.
“You’ll stay here tonight,” Cade continued. “You should try to sleep before the long walk tomorrow.”
“Yeah, good luck to me,” Asha scoffed. “Surrounded by dozens of horny gangsters who all just watched me onstage.”
Tiny creases formed at the corners of Cade’s eyes, and though his mouth was still covered, she could’ve sworn he smiled.
“Not sure they’d mess with you after that display,” he replied, then turned serious again. He met her eye for the first time since she’d spotted him over the crowd. They were steel grey and serious, and they stopped her in her tracks.
“But I’ll guard the door,” he said, his voice low and gravelly. “My men won’t touch you without my permission.”
Somehow, the way he saidpermissionsent a different kind of shiver through her—one she wasn’t prepared to entertain.
“Now I’ve got a question for you,” Cade continued, and she braced herself. “Anyone looking for you? Is someone gonna storm those gates tonight and take you back?”
Asha studied him, trying to gauge what he wanted to hear, but he didn’t reveal much. Rationally, she knew he was asking if he needed to be prepared to fight. But the way he said it almost made it seem like he hoped the answer was yes.
Unfortunately for both of them, however, nobody was looking for Asha Agarwal, in part because there was no one left to look. It didn’t feel like there was much point in lying, either, because he wouldn’t let her go regardless.
“No,” she said, straightening her spine, trying to adopt a bored, haughty tone. “I don’t need saving.”
She thought he’d laugh in her face at that, and if she was being honest, she would’ve, too.
To her surprise, however, he said dryly, “I believe it. What’s your name, darling?”
“Asha.”
“Pretty. Well, Asha…goodnight.”
He turned to leave, but Asha’s thoughts suddenly went to Angel and his explosive rage. Whatever she said, fear bubbled in her gut. She tried to keep her bored façade going, however.Give them nothing,she reminded herself.
“Wait…what about Angel?”
It didn’t work. Her voice sounded as scared as she felt.
“Wouldn’t worry about him tonight,” Cade said over his shoulder. “He’ll be drunk as a skunk, and some of my guys will probably have to babysit him. Happens every time we come here.”
“And after that?”
He didn’t answer. “Get some sleep.”
Cade turned to cover the doorway with the makeshift door, sealing her in. Asha let out a long breath, and though the sounds outside—of men talking, laughing, fighting—still made her uneasy, she felt safer than she had since her ordeal began.
She didn’t know what to make of the man who’d come to her aid, but she somehow knew he had. She got the sense from the crowd that Angel’s appearance had been a surprise, and there was no reason for him to have intervened without Cade.
Still, she worried and wondered, as she lay on the bed of furs on the dirt floor: what on Earth could he have said to make a gang leader willing to speak on her behalf?
Chapter 3
