Savages Recruit (17 page)

"...enter the facility and secure it at key points. Zora will enter the codes that will disable security. Once that's done, we're out and the other teams go in."

"That's it?" Zora interjected inappropriately. It was hard to keep the smirk off her face when his eyes snapped back to her.

"That's it. The other teams will secure the missile, we'll be out by that stage."

She slouched across the table channeling all her petulant energy. "We're doing all of this so I can walk into a room and punch codes into a computer?"

"We're doing all of this so you can walk into a room, punch codes into a computer and come out alive," Savage said, fixing her with a stern look.

"Ah. That makes sense. Carry on," she waved at him airily. It was a small power play, a tiny power play, but the thrill she got from it was great. She was fizzing inwardly with the joy of testing her mettle against his.

The conversation continued on around her, various team members confirming their understanding of their roles. It was of course, a great deal more complicated than it sounded in summary, but she did not concern herself with the nitty gritty. She didn't understand it and she didn't need to. Savage would keep her safe, she was certain of that. Well, fairly sure anyway. She returned to reality just long enough to catch the tail end of an announcement that made her heart race for a completely different reason.

"... leaving today to make the final preparations to ship out," Savage announced. "So get packed up and lets get out of here. Dismissed."

That was the cue for the team to burst into coordinated activity that had been drilled into them over the years. They made for the items they were responsible for with calm haste and began packing. Zora hadn't even begun to absorb the information before the sleeping bags had been packed away, with the exception of hers.

"Hop to it," Savage said, resting his hand on her shoulder and waggling his eyebrows meaningfully in the direction of her sleeping bag. A few minutes earlier his touch would have brought a near orgasmic flood of pleasure, but the news that they were leaving had interrupted the pleasure party in her imagination.

"We're really going?"

"Yes, we're heading to a base for deployment. We'll stock up on what we need there and then wait for the final orders to ship out. I'm thinking three days, but that could change."

Nodding mechanically as she took in the news, Zora obeyed the order and began packing away the few things she had. She was glad that there was something to do, it kept her out of everyone else's way and it meant that they didn't notice how very pale she'd suddenly gotten and how much her hands were trembling. It was real. Really real and it meant leaving behind everything she'd ever known and risking everything she had.

Though they'd only been at the cabin for a couple of weeks and it was crowded and annoying, it was starting to feel like home. There was something cozy about being packed in there so tightly, getting on one another's nerves. Now they were on the move again and just like that the atmosphere of the place had changed completely. She tried to convince herself that it would be fine. Her job was the simplest of them all, just walk in to a room and do some sums. Nothing to it. But if there truly was nothing to it, why was she suddenly so very afraid?

She was quiet as they all piled into the van, chatting amongst themselves quite calmly. Whilst everyone's backs were turned to her, a sudden impulse took hold. She slipped away from the van and back to the empty cabin. It felt hollow now that nobody was there. It was hard to believe how much had happened in that space, that now seemed so very small. She looked over at the wet back fire, remembering how the flame light had gleamed off Savage's naked body. There was the platform where they'd all been sleeping for days, lined up like a row of puppies. Then there was the table she'd been bent over. Would she ever return to this place? Would she live long enough to do so?

The door creaked open behind her and Savage's hand descended gently onto her shoulder. "Ready, Ms Matthews?" His voice rumbled through her, calming her. He was still here. She still had him. It wouldn't be too bad as long as he was there.

"Yeah," she agreed reluctantly.

He squeezed her shoulder. Perhaps he understood a little of how she was feeling. She allowed him to lead her out to the van and put her into the front of it with Brian, who was driving. She sat in the middle seat whilst Savage took the passenger side. Looking from Brian to Savage and back again, she felt an odd sense of deja-vu. "That's weird," she muttered. "Feels like we've done this before."

"This is pretty much how we took you in," Savage said, smiling slightly as Brian started the van. "You want to vomit in memory of that event?"

Zora stared at him for a long moment before she realized he was joking, though she probably had thrown up all over him at some point. "You'd deserve it if I did," she said. His chuckle made her smile in spite of her nerves and the twinge of sadness that peaked as the van turned to head down the hill and the cabin went out of sight entirely. She tried to distract herself by being flippant. "So are we there yet?"

"It's a long trip. Ten hours at least, depending on traffic."

Zora wriggled in her seat. Brian and Savage were not small men and they didn't leave a lot of room for her. She was pretty much forced to be pressed up against one of them, and as Brian was protected by the gearbox, Savage got the honor of her warm and cuddly presence.

With the soothing motion of the vehicle, and the solid feeling of being pressed up against a couple hundred pounds of muscle, some of Zora's amorous feelings began to renew themselves. In a spirit of mischief, she sneaked her hand back behind their bodies and tried to stick her fingers down the back of Savage's pants.

"What do you think you're doing?" He growled the words, but he wasn't really mad. He reached back, closed his fingers around her wrist and extracted the offending digits from their close proximity to his backside.

"Nothing," she grinned.

"You're getting very handsy, Ms Matthews," Savage noted, returning her hand to her her lap. She felt the lingering warmth of his fingers on her wrist and silently treasured it.

"Well you're pretty handsy too," she pointed out with a playful smile.

"I see." His jaw was set firmly, but his eyes were warm with a stern sort of amusement. "It's been too long since your last spanking."

The casual reference to her getting her ass tanned made Zora's jaw drop. She cast a horrified glance over at Brian, then back at Savage. "He can hear you, you know."

"Well then imagine what he's going to see if you keep this up," Savage mimicked her horrified tone, sending her into an almighty pouting session. She determined not to speak to him again if he was going to be so immature. Her resolve might have held if the journey had been a short one, but ten hours is a long time to drive, especially with a bunch of hyper focused military types who don't do bathroom breaks lightly. After just a couple of hours, Zora was whining about wanting to stop, even though she didn't really want to go.

"I want ice cream," she declared, leaning over Savage to press her face against the window as they drove by a perfectly good rest stop.

He grabbed her by the collar and moved her back to her seat gently. She knew she was pushing him. That was kind of the point. Maybe it had been too long since her last spanking. Maybe she was scared about deploying to save the world, maybe she was just a contrary little wench by nature. Maybe she really wanted ice cream. There were a million different reasons, but none of them really explained why she decided to lunge across him once more and try to open the door whilst they were moving.

"Zora!" This time the growl was not playful, nor was the hearty slap she got on her wrist. She yelped and withdrew her hand quickly. "This is not the time to get silly. You're a grown woman, not a little kid. Start acting like it," he lectured harshly.

The words stung Zora somewhere deep inside. What he said was true, but that didn't make the scolding more effective, it only served to strip away the tentative feelings of submission she'd been feeling and slam her abruptly back into her original rebellious state of mind. If she'd been behaving childishly it was because she'd felt safe with him, secure. His aggressive reaction shocked her out of that place, sent her scrambling for emotional refuge.

"Fine," she said, her tone very icy, very grown up. She did not look at Savage or speak to him again for the rest of the journey. Eventually Brian and Savage struck up a conversation about football players, which she ignored pointedly. When they did stop for food she refused it. At one time she would have used the opportunity to try to run away, but in the spirit of being a mature woman, she instead stayed in the van, fuming silently.

When they rolled into Fort Whatthefuckever as Zora dubbed it in her mind, her stomach was growling and she was about to burst from her need to pee. An eight hour sulk is a difficult thing to maintain, but she was holding onto her anger like she was going for a world record. How could she ever have considered thinking about wanting to sleep with the guy? He was old and he was mean and he could go fuck himself for all she cared.

Making a bad situation worse was the fact that he totally ignored her very obvious rage. Everyone did, which served to make her hate everyone. When they disembarked in the large military camp filled with soldiers coming and going, she hated them too. A woman scorned is a terrible thing, and Zora was very scorned indeed.

"Captain Savage," a military man with a mustache that would have made a walrus jealous greeted Savage with a crisp salute. Zora stood a couple of feet away, leaning up against the van and watching.

"Captain Brown," Savage responded with a salute in kind. They were like tin robots, playing out roles programmed into them.

Captain Brown put his hands behind his back and looked over the cluster of soldiers behind Savage. They hadn't exactly snapped to attention or anything, but there was a certain stiffness to the way they held themselves that imparted formality."This is your team?"

"Yes," Savage nodded once, curtly. "This is them."

Brown inclined his head in Zora's direction. "And the civilian?"Well that was nice, she wasn't even worth the honor of open acknowledgment. She could have been a dog or an interesting piece of wood for all anyone seemed to care.

"Ms Zora Matthews." Savage looked over at her. She knew from the way his eyes flicked from her to the ground in front of him that he wanted her to come over to him, but if she was going to be a dog, she wasn't in the mood to be a lapdog. "Come here," he said finally.

"Go fuck yourself."

His face drained of all emotion. One moment he was tense, the next moment there was nothing there, nothing in those cold eyes at all. She'd angered him obviously. Judging by the harsh looks she was getting from the team, she'd managed to piss most of them off too. Good.

Savage turned to his right hand man. "Get her out of here," he snarled at Brian.

"Come on Zora," Brian spoke in hushed tones as he grabbed her by the arm and practically dragged her away to a low line of buildings that served as barracks. He ushered her inside an empty room. It was a depressing place with bare concrete floor and wire framed bunk beds that looked like they'd be hell to sleep on.

"What's the big deal?" Zora shrugged out of Brian's grasp.

"You just embarrassed him in front of another commanding officer."

"So? He embarrasses me all the time."

Brian didn't have the opportunity to point out the problem with that line of thought because the door slammed and Savage came storming into the room. Brian only just got out of the way in time for Savage to grab Zora by the front of her shirt and lift her up off her feet, carrying her backwards until she met the wall none too gently, her feet still dangling off the ground.

Held there helplessly she felt his fury and frustration like never before. He had never been like this, even in the early days when she'd tested him he'd gotten angry, but not in the seething furious way he was now. When he spoke, it was through gritted teeth and a jaw clenched so tightly the muscles stood out on his face. "We are three days out from deployment. You will co-operate or I will make you wish you had never been born, do you understand me?"

Zora nodded quickly. She'd always felt this hard edge beneath the patience and the kindness, but seeing it was more overwhelming than she'd expected it to be. Savage had finally decided to abandon the nice guy approach and underneath the nice guy was a terrifying hardness that threatened to make her soil herself.

"Tell me!" He roared the words.

"I understand," she squeaked.

"I understand, SIR!"

"I understand sir," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, hoarse from fear.

He released his grip on her and let her fall the few inches to her feet. She stumbled against him accidentally, but recovered quickly, pulling away. She could not believe that she had played with him so affectionately earlier. She'd no more play with him now than she'd play with a tiger. He was breathing hard, his nostrils flared. "This is too important for you to fuck up."

"Okay, I'm sorry," she whimpered. Tears were not far away. She was scared of him now, scared in a way she never had been before. The look in his eyes was not a look she was accustomed to seeing, it was not a look that spoke to any affection or care. It was a look that demanded everything, up to and including her life.

He turned around and slammed his way out of the room, and that was when the tears came. She curled up on the floor, bawling hysterically. Brian tried his best to comfort her, but he was awkward and standoffish and patting her shoulder wasn't going to cut it.

The door opened again, but it wasn't Savage. It was Anja. "What's wrong with her?" The question was distant, but vaguely interested, as if Anja wanted to know how to get the same sort of result.

"Savage tore her a new one."

Shaking as she sobbed, Zora waited for Anja to gloat. She was probably loving this, seeing Savage finally reject Zora completely and publicly. "So you finally got the horns, huh?" Anja stepped over to her and sat on the bunk bed behind her. She made no move to touch Zora, but she didn't mock her either. "It was only a matter of time."