Given (26 page)

A woman who’d helped her into the van smiled kindly at her.
“It’ll be all right,” she said, but Krista didn’t feel reassured. “Lay down,”
the woman requested.

Krista lay down in the seat and the woman covered her with
her own body. “Why are you helping me?” Krista mumbled
,
her words muffled into the seat.

“It’s what I do,” replied the woman. “My name is Mara, by
the way. I want to see you have a chance to be free, Krista. My half-sister was
Given
, and the men used her so brutally, she died.
They might claim they look out for the girls, but they don’t. I’ve been doing
this ever since. I’m just glad my mother left my father and moved to Canada
when I was small. I loved my sister very much and we saw each other every
summer. It’s not right what they’re doing. Your father is a good man. He’s
helped a lot of girls in your situation. I couldn’t turn down the chance to
help him save his own daughter.”

Even with the woman’s weight on top of her, Krista slid
around on the seat as the van made wide turns before suddenly coming to a
complete stop. The sirens grew louder and then they seemed to fade away. She
felt the woman let go of the breath she was holding.

“I thought you were crazy when you told us what you’d
planned, Todd. I can’t believe this worked!” Mara said, sitting up.

The van opened and they all got out. There was a black SUV
waiting. A short man opened the back hatch and lifted a trap door in the floor.
“Sorry for the accommodations,” he said, motioning at the space as if he were a
game show host showing off a prize. She didn’t like the look of what was behind
door number one.

Her father squeezed her shoulder and she looked up at him.
“Sorry, muffin, but if anyone sees you, we’re done. Mara can wear a disguise,
but your pregnancy will give you away immediately if anyone happens to look
into the car windows.”

Krista nodded, understanding,

“Hey, hurry up,” hissed another man she hadn’t noticed
before. He looked frantically up and down the alley. Snow crunched under his
feet. “Rescues in winter suck. It’s too easy to be tracked. Damn it, hurry.”

Todd helped Krista into the back of the car, and he tucked
pillows around her. Then he piled blankets over her.

“We don’t have time for this, man,” Nervous Guy whispered
loudly.

She peeked out of her hiding place to see him pacing like a
caged animal.

“We’ll make time,” her father replied without looking at his
cohort.

“You’ll only be in there until we hit a more remote area.
How are you feeling?” he asked as he readied the cover.

“Scared, unsure, worried about my baby, and a bunch of other
trippy emotions,” she replied, shivering from the cold.

He grinned. “I’m glad I have you back, muffin. Don’t worry.
This will all be a bad memory soon. There’s a nice female-friendly community in
Winnipeg. You and the baby will like it there. I promise.”

She nodded, ducking down as he shut her into the suffocating
space. She was chilled. Her hospital gown wasn’t made for the Minnesota winter.
Christmas was in three weeks and her baby was due soon after. She’d planned to
spend the holiday with her six, but now she had a completely different man in
her life. She’d never expected to spend her first free Christmas with her
father.

The car bounced her uncomfortably in the tight space. She
still had to pee. This was the most discomfort she’d ever felt, but if they
made it to this community her father told her about, every second would be
worth it.

When the SUV finally came to a stop, it seemed as if an
eternity had passed. She froze, terrified that the police might have caught up
to them. When her father opened the trap door, she let go of the breath she’d
been holding.

“Let’s get you some warmer clothing,” he said.

Unfolding her stiff limbs, she let him help her out of the
concealed place. He picked her up and set her on her feet. She stumbled and
felt ridiculous as he helped her walk to the door of a small, rural farmhouse.
An elderly woman opened the door, much to Krista’s surprise. She smiled at
Krista and reached up to hug Todd.

“Come in out of the cold, dear boy. So you have her.” Martha
turned toward Krista. “You are
Kristannie
?”

“Krista, this is Martha. Martha, my baby girl is going to
have a baby girl. Do you have anything warm she can wear? We didn’t have time
for a change of clothing before I took her on this little road trip.”

Martha chuckled.

“I really need to pee,” Krista said shyly.

Her father put her on her feet, but had to hold her to keep
her steady. Martha pointed to a closed door and Krista wobbled quickly toward
the bathroom. When she returned, feeling much better, Martha and her father
were whispering quietly. They stopped talking the moment she entered the room.

“What’s going on?”

Todd looked as if he didn’t want to reply, but then turned
on the television. Her picture, the official one for the protection facility
file, was splashed on the news and then it cut to
Brax
and her other men standing outside of the hospital. She saw the deep lines on
Brax’s
face and the bags under his eyes. Her stomach
clenched.

“Please, we’ll pay any amount you demand, but return Krista
to us unharmed. She and the baby need medical treatment. If you turn her over
to the authorities, you will receive amnesty for your crime if she’s unharmed.”

The image changed to the studio reporter. The man ran down a
description of the white van and that it was found at two in the morning. He
gave details on the description of her “kidnappers” and reported that a ransom
request had been sent to the hospital for two million dollars. Krista looked at
her father angrily.

“I didn’t send any ransom request. If they received one, it
was a hoax, but I’m thinking this tidbit is being used as propaganda. God
forbid any woman in this country not want to remain an unwilling victim of this
asinine forced breeding program. I can only imagine how awful it is to be raped
repeatedly for your country.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Krista whispered. Both Martha and her
father gave her surprised looks. “I love Braxton Bray. He’s the father. I would
never have volunteered for this, but it wasn’t as if they hurt me.”

Her father didn’t look happy. “Do you want to stay?”

“No. I know if I went back, they’d just take me away from
Brax
anyway. It wouldn’t be fair to my daughter to stay
here and know she’ll be sent away to a protection facility in a decade.”

Todd nodded. “I know how much it hurts to lose your child,
believe me. You’re making the right choice.”

It didn’t feel right, but she knew it was the only one she
had. Martha went into the room where the others were warming up around a wood
burning stove and returned with sweatpants and a thick wool sweater. She even
had wool socks. Krista took the items, gratefully. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“You’re welcome,
Kristannie
. Your
father has spent years waiting for this day. I’ve been a pit stop many times.
He’s helped many young women, but I know he always wanted it to be you.”

Krista nodded and went into the bathroom, happy to shed the
hospital gown and cut off the plastic identification bracelet. When she
returned with it in her hand, Martha took it and opened the round cover on the
wood-burning stove. She tossed in the incriminating evidence before replacing
the lid.

“Are you hungry? I’ll fix you up some nice steak and eggs.”

“Oh Martha, you are the perfect woman. If you weren’t
married, I’d bring you up north with me,” Nervous Guy teased.

“Jonathan, you just sit down and stop flirting with me. I’m
old enough to be your grandmother.”

So Nervous Guy has a real name
, Krista thought as she
sat down next to him at the table.

She crackled with mirth and shook her head before opening
the ancient looking refrigerator and fishing out the ingredients she wanted.

“We really don’t have a lot of time,” Todd said, glancing
nervously at the clock.

“Well, give me fifteen minutes and you can take it to go,”
Martha said.

Todd nodded. Martha set to work quickly and the heavenly
smell made Krista’s stomach grumble. The elderly woman packed up scrambled eggs
and steak along with some toast. Todd accepted the sack and kissed her on the
cheek.

Krista rode in a seat this time, the tinted windows
providing a bit of safety for now, but she still sat low and hid her hair under
a baseball cap. Mara put her fake mustache on again and Krista was glad they
hadn’t asked her to wear one. The women’s bulky sweatshirts hid their breasts.

They started down the icy, winter road again. Everyone ate
the delicious breakfast quietly, until Jonathan cleared his throat. “So one of
your boys was the comedian from all those HBO comedy specials, is he really
funny in person?” His neck craned around the middle row of seats to see her
from the back.

“Yeah, he is.” She didn’t know why she felt odd talking
about Mal. It felt wrong sharing anything personal about the men she’d grown to
care for in different ways, as if she was betraying them somehow.

“I saw his last special, not as funny at all.” Jonathan
snorted. “It felt a bit like he was censoring himself.”

“He’s funny. Maybe you just have a bad sense of humor.” She
didn’t like this man criticizing Mal and immediately became defensive.

“You care about them?” Mara sounded surprised.

“Yeah, I do. I didn’t know if I would, but they weren’t cruel
to me. I was luckier than most, from the way it sounds. If I’d been sure I
wouldn’t have been taken away from those particular men, the choice to leave
would’ve been tough.” Krista shrugged.

Mara’s mouth parted and she gaped at Krista as if she’d just
said the most blasphemous thing possible. “Well, they might’ve changed after
the baby was born. Be glad we saved you. Your father is risking a lot for you.
No one even wanted to volunteer for such
a high
profile retrieval with the two celebrities in your six and the tight security.”
She sounded bitter.

“Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m so grateful. For my
daughter’s sake, I couldn’t stay, but as a woman, I wasn’t unhappy with them
all the time. It wasn’t perfect, but they tried.”

Mara made a rude noise. “I’m so glad you liked your gilded
cage and life as a sex slave. I suppose not having to work and having a
housekeeper and everything you wanted would be hard to leave.”

“I wish it was as wonderful as you make it sound. I was very
restricted in what I could do. I knew my child would be taken away from me, and
yet I had to get pregnant or be forced to endure the awkwardness of forming new
bonds with new men. I couldn’t even have friends, unless they were hired from a
companion service. I appreciate what you’re risking for me. I was in love with
one of my six, and I’ll miss him.”

“Stockholm Syndrome, at its finest.
You’ll get past it once you have a chance to live without the constant
brainwashing. They might have treated you well, but they held you captive against
your will. Can you honestly tell me if they’d told you to just leave the
protection facility you’d have gone to these men to live your life according to
their whims?”

She’d never really thought about it like that before. “I
guess not,” she mumbled.

“Exactly,” Todd said. “You’d have gone on to decide what
kind of life you wanted, not just taken the easiest way. Your mother was feisty
and
determined,
I can’t imagine you have any less of
those qualities.”

“I can barely remember her,” Krista replied.

“Those traits have nothing to do with memories. You’ll get
past this feeling for him—them. I’ve seen other girls deal with guilt and false
love too. You need to find your anger and hold it tightly. Don’t forget what
they’ve done to you and made you endure. I’m grateful they didn’t beat you, but
as far as I’m concerned the bastards are monsters.”

“They didn’t have a choice. It’s not as if they had a way to
go out and meet women. If they wanted a woman in their life, they had to sign
up for the lottery.” Her voice rose as she defended them. Her father kept his
eyes on the road, but she noticed he held the steering wheel in a
white-knuckled grip.

“It’s the damn government that’s to blame ultimately, but if
the men— the rich, healthy men that Uncle Sam wants—grew a spine and started to
refuse the lottery, there’d be some real and positive changes for women in
America.”

“I can’t blame them,” Krista whispered.

“I have to have someone to blame for all the years I’ve
missed, muffin. They are the face of my anger, the flesh and blood for me to
hate, don’t be sad. I know a wonderful physiologist who’s helped other girls
with Stockholm
Syndrome
, and he’ll help you too.
Everything will be better once we get you across the border.”

Krista frowned. She didn’t like her father acting as if he
knew her better than she knew herself. The man hadn’t seen her since she was a
toddler for goodness sake! “So what makes this place in Winnipeg
‘female-friendly’?”

Mara reached over and squeezed Krista’s hand. “Listen, I
know you
think
those men had your best interests in mind, but even they
don’t have the final say in your fate. You know that, right?”

Krista shrugged. She did, but this wasn’t any of their
faults. She could’ve had it worse. “I get it, but you didn’t answer my
question.”

“In Canada, women are allowed to choose, and communities
that want their females to stick around work hard to keep it safe. No one comes
in or out of our gated sanctuaries without identification and a reason. Men
work very hard to protect their wives, and marriage is still a beloved
institution. Life can almost be—normal. Women can work, but most aren’t willing
to risk it. I won’t lie, there are abductions and rapes, but at least you get
to live as you please.”