Jamb: (18 page)

A man backs into me, nearly knocking me flat, but I
grab onto a woman beside me.  She tries to shove me off, but I hang on and right myself.  Back on my feet, I glimpse Milo four people away, as he yells, “Get in!”

I don’t waste my energy yelling back, letting him know that I’m not leaving without him.
I might be able to run away, but I’ve got a job to do and Milo knows The Fury and how they work.  This might be my only shot at making it wherever these trucks are going and uncovering where The Fury are hiding.  But all I really know right now is that I need Milo with me and I fight against the heaving mass of flailing bodies and screaming faces, to get to him.

As
I grab him, we’re pushed to the outer edge, near the back wheel.  Exhaust suddenly sputters from the tailpipe.

“We’ve got to get o
n!” he shouts to me.  But it’s worse than that.  The trucks are backing up.  If we don’t get on, we’re going to be smashed under the tires.  Over one shoulder, I see the other truck backing up.  The Fury are climbing over each other to jump in.  One slips on the edge and falls, getting an arm caught between the bed and the back bumper.  But the truck doesn’t stop.  I look away as the other truck continues to roll backward, over the screaming people on the pavement.

“Co
me on!” Milo shouts.  He grabs the chain hanging from the back door and hauls himself up.  There is not enough chain dangling for me to grab, as a woman falls in front of me.  The wheels are moving back.  I see the woman’s hand reach for help and then it disappears under the bumper.  Even as I spring backward, the wheels are coming for me and the bumper is nearly at my chest.

And then the truck
pitches.  Milo’s made it into the box and the chain swings free, right at my face.  I grab it as the truck lurches to a halt, slamming the opposite door closed and jerking me off balance.

Don’t let go! 
Focus and run up the ramp! 
My father’s voice explodes behind my eyes and just the sound of him blinds me with its force. 

But t
here is no ramp.  There is only a pile of bodies.

I
focus and I run as the truck starts moving again.

I stumble
up the squirming ramp that shakes uncontrollably beneath my feet.  I hop on shoulders and as the truck begins to really move, I push off someone’s head like a spring board.  The screams of those left behind follow me through the air.  I land hard on the wood floor of the truck bed.  The door slams shut behind me.

Someone
tears the chain I’d been holding from my grip and fastens it across the doors.  It’s only then that the screams really flood my ears as the truck driver smashes the rest that didn’t make it, right under the wheels.

***

Inside the truck, Milo grabs me by the forearm and drags me across the dirty floor to him.  He pushes me against the side of the truck and stands next to me.  The Fury line the walls, most of them tending their wounds, some talking, some whispering.  One, straight across from me, crooks his finger into a fishhook and smiles as he wiggles the hook, motioning for me to come to him.  Fear rises up from the back of my throat, until I see Garrett.

Garrett is on the opposite wall, standing over a seated Teagan.  Grace is crying in her arms
and Teagan is dancing Iris’s teddy bear in the baby’s face, trying to soothe her.  As we make eye contact, Garrett holds it for a hard second and then breaks it by squatting down and running his hand over the baby’s head as he murmurs something to Teagan.  She reaches up and runs her fingers along his jaw.  Slowly.

It’s a caress.
Garrett grins at her, the kind of grin that he’s always kept for me.  I push my feet under me to stand, ready to bolt across the bed of the truck, but Milo’s hand clamps down on my shoulder and he shoves me back onto the rumbling floor.

“Stay,” he growls.
The man who was signaling me to come to him, grunts at Milo.

“Give her to me.”

“She’s mine,” Milo turns his growl on the man, but the man seems unaffected by any threat.  He just sits back, stroking the inside of his own thigh.

“I could giv
e her back when I’m through,” the man says.  Garrett looks up, and although his expression is flat, his eyes dart from me, to the man, and then over to Milo.  But Garrett remains where he is, running his hand over Grace’s covered head, the muscles jumping slightly near his ear.

The
man across the truck lunges for my ankle.  In one swift movement, Milo and I kick at once.  I shriek as my action releases the man’s grip, but Milo’s kick lands square on the man’s jaw, sending the guy reeling backward.  The man drops against the opposite wall, holding his face as I pull my legs in close to my chest, but Teagan’s voice suddenly rings through the bed of the truck.

“What is
she
doing here?”  Teagan shrieks, pointing at me.  “She is one of
them
.  Get her out of here!  Throw her off the truck!”

There is a commotion
until Milo drops a foot in front of my folded body on the floor, towering over me.

“She i
s mine!” he snarls as he points an accusing finger at Teagan.  “And who are you to talk?  You brought one as well!”

“I brought Sean!  He’s Simple and he’s mine!”
  She holds up her empty wrist.  “He found me in the ambush!  He loves me and wants to be with me!”

My mind flashes back to the Totus, when she kissed Garrett.  She has no idea which Reese brother she’s with.  Milo must realize it too because he
falters, but recovers quickly.

“I
t doesn’t matter if he’s Simple!  He’s still one of them!  If you can bring one, so can I!  Otherwise, we throw them both from the truck!”

“
No!” Teagan shrieks, clinging to Garrett.  But one of the men near the doors gets up, his hand ready to release the chain. Teagan shakes her head violently and stabs a finger toward me.  “She’s different!  She is from the last Addo’s inner circle!  She’s dangerous!”

The alarm in Garrett’s eyes never makes it to his face, but he whispers something in Teagan’s ear.  Teagan shakes her head.  “No!  I said, t
hrow her off!”

The chain rattles and
the awkward Contego from the courtyard, the one who was always so itchy, knocks away the man who is about to release the chain.

“She stays,” Itchy says, but his smile is even more frightening than the man who went for my ankle.  He rubs his hands together and my brain fires
off the names of five different transmittable diseases that might be the reason for his constant itching.  His eyes seem to gleam when I shrink away from him.  I force my entire body to stay rigid, disguising the shiver that cuts through me.  I can not be afraid.  They feed on that.

Milo barks over
everyone, “I said, she is mine!  You want new Contego to fight for our Fury?  Ones who know what they’re doing?  This one was just trained.  She knows some of the new ways.  She will fight for us. I’ll make sure of it.  She belongs to me now and she will obey only me!”

“And what if she doesn’t?” Teagan asks.  “
She’ll kill us or bring them to us!”

“
She won’t kill anyone,” Milo growls.  “I’m stronger than she is.”  And before I can react, he spins on me and lashes out.  My field explodes, but Milo swipes the slightest tip of his finger across my heart Cavis and it knocks me out cold.

***

I moan and Milo whispers,
keep your mouth shut,
as I come to.  I’m cradled in the v of his legs, my back to his chest and his lips are on my neck.  One of his hands is also on my chest.  Not just anywhere either.  I try to raise my own hand to push his away, but he pins my arm to my side with his knee.

“Do as I say,” he commands,
his lips at my ear.  And my skin is moist beneath his kiss.  He holds me so tightly that my flinch goes undetected.  He’s kissing me and there’s nothing I can do about it.  I’m pinned.  “They’ll kill you if you don’t.”

My vision is hazy as
the truck bed bumps along, bouncing all of us like heavy popcorn kernels.  I search for Garrett and find only his back, the muscles so tense that they strain against his shirt.  Milo grabs me under my jaw and pulls me back against his shoulder.  He wrenches my face toward his and then his lips are on mine.

His lips
. 
On mine.

I struggle, but his embrace is
so tight it is like fighting metal.  I don’t know how we all missed that he was Contego.  All the signs were there, from not being able to write, to his interest in our training.  And how did the Addo miss something this monumental?  Or if he didn’t miss it, why didn’t he tell us?  My muscles tighten at the thought of Milo being a traitor.  What sounds like Milo’s groan, but is actually a growl that he drops between my parted lips.  His tongue pokes at my cheek, as potent as if he were jabbing me with his elbow.

His hand is anything but tender as it pushes at the bone behind my ear, the fingertips digging into my skull as he forces my head to lay against his neck
again.  Most of the others in the truck aren’t staring at us anymore.  Even the man we kicked only glances at us from across the truck, but his gaze is weak and shamed.  He finds other places to look.

Milo
relaxes under me and then I get what he’s doing.

This make-out session is for the benefit of everyone on the truck, but it is also an opportunity for us to exchange information without being suspected of doing it. 
Milo’s positioned me near his own ear, to ask what I need to ask.  I turn slightly in his arms, taking a deep breath and forcing my lips against his neck.

His skin is not unpleasant
, but it is still vinegar compared to Garrett’s.  And Milo’s scent is deeper and darker up close.  Foreboding as patchouli. I crave the citrus scent of Garrett, along with his gentle hands and energizing embrace.

Instead of tilting his head back
with the contact of my lips, Milo moans lightly and ducks his ear down toward my lips.  He releases his knee-grip on me, allowing me to remove my hand easily now, and I slide it stiffly into his hair.  He hums in agreement, letting me know I’m doing the right thing.  I pull his face down to mine. 

I feel like I’m breaking a hundred laws and deserve the death penalty.  But I know this is also
how it must be done.

“Where are
we going?” I whisper and he hums a pleasing sound, pressing me closer as if my tongue is in his ear instead of just my words.  His answer comes with a fervent kiss near my ear.

“Fury compound,” he answers.  I nod against his cheek, but when I open my eyes, I spot
Garrett again.  Teagan’s hand is on his thigh.  My body tightens, wanting to go to him and tear Teagan away.  But Milo senses the change and clamps around me again, with a throaty chuckle.

“You want to fight me?” he
announces with a laugh.  The creep-factor in his tone makes me shiver, but men in the back of the truck wet their lips as if they’re about to see a show. Milo pulls my face up, ripping my gaze from Garrett.  Milo adds, “That’s right, you do what I say now.”

That might be fine
with me, if he’s saying he wants me to barf on him.

“Don’t look at him again,” Milo whispers
in a kiss and if anyone overheard, I’m sure they’d think it is another command, but when Milo’s hand gently strokes down my arm, I think he’s trying to comfort me.  Or to keep me from going five-star crazy and ripping Teagan’s arms clean off for touching my Vieo.

“You didn’t have to knock me out,” I say, with a grin
that’s as hard as an hour-boiled egg.

“Yes, I did,” he smiles back.  Okay, so he did.  But
my whole body still aches from it.  As he runs his hands over my arms, I notice he is massaging the muscle as much as he is touching me.  I don’t know if I want to thank him for getting me this far, or throw him from the truck myself.

He should never have known my Cavis, but from those hours watching me train, he definitely knew which
Cavis was my weakest and where it is located.  I lay back against him, unable to relax at all.  I don’t even know for sure that he’s on our side.  Probably he is.  Maybe.  I’m not sure.  Reviewing what’s happened, I can’t really separate if he’s actually one of us or if I’m just being sucked in.

He
never told me he was Contego, or even more important, that he’s a child of the Cusp, like me.  The community seemed to act like I was one of a kind, so I never expected there’d be anyone else who shared my fate.  But it makes sense that Milo would be a freak, just like me.  He was raised by my father; he’s not blood, but he’s almost my brother, in a weird, warpy way.  And it feels even warpier when he kisses my lips again.  “Just stay by me and do as I say.”

I w
ant to vomit, but I nod instead.  But when my head swings in Garrett’s direction unintentionally, Milo’s fingers catch my chin and they dig a little into my skin.  His voice rumbles through his chest and into my back as he orders me like an animal, “No.”