The Woman They Kept (23 page)

“
I've been getting sick in
the mornings,” she said through her fingers, the sound coming
out muffled and wet. “Don't tell Gideon.”

It took a moment to register
what she meant, but when it got through Rheannon's eyes widened and
she raised Rolanda's head. “Why wouldn't you tell Gideon?
That's some of the happiest news you can get.”

Rolanda only met her eyes for a
brief moment before burrowing herself back into Rheannon's bosom and
crying again.

A thought struck her and Rhea
raised her eyebrows. “Rolanda, the baby is Gideon's, right?”

She didn't answer for a long
time, clutching at Rheannon's increasingly wet dress. “Gideon
and I have had sex once,” she said.

Relief caused a large sigh to
come out of Rheannon. “Well then, what's the problem? This
should be a joyous time, even if you're not ready for it we can all
be around to help you out. To tell the truth I would be delighted
if all this baby stuff we have finally goes to good home.”
Rheannon held her face up and smiled at her. "This is good
news."

Her face was red and splotchy as
she let out another cry. “This started before we had sex,”
she said.

Pursing her lips, Rheannon said
nothing. Silence hung heavy in the air. Even Rolanda's crying fell
into soft whimpers as they sat together. “You been with
others,” she said. “That boy's going to be
heartbroken.”

Rolanda sniffed and nodded. “I
was made to. They made me, I didn't have a choice. That's when
they put those things in my brain.”

“
Hush,” Rheannon
said and she pet Rolanda's hair, rocking her back and forth. “That
boy Gideon's a good boy, he don't deserve to get hurt like that.
You've got this secret and you've got to keep this your secret, just
lock it away and forget about it, because you know what? Even if
Gideon isn't the one who put that seed in you, he's the one who'll
help it grow. If not, if you let that secret out, Gideon's heart
will be broken, and that kid won't get to have a father. It's
better to just keep it inside.”

A fresh wave of sobs burst from
Rolanda, and Rheannon kept holding her, hushing her quietly and
stroking her hair.

...

After Gideon came he stayed
inside Leanin. He was softening but it felt good to be enveloped
inside her. A pleasant dull sensation clouded his brain. She held
him firmly, her muscles hard against his body, her nipples standing
straight up in the open air. The smell of cinnamon was all around
him. Finally he rolled off her and lay in the grass.

“
Why are we doing this?”
Gideon asked. White clouds rolled gently on the breeze far above
them.

“
It feels pretty good to
have your cock inside me,” Leanin said. She stood and began
pulling on her things. “What other explanation are you
looking for?”

Gideon frowned. “No, it's
something more than physical, I know it is. Why are you attracted
to me? I don't get it. You're so strong and independent, I'm
nothing like you.” He stayed on the hill, naked, the open air
drying the sweat on his body.

She pulled her shirt over her
head and picked a blade of grass to chew at. “When we were
back in that sadist's cell and he was going to torture us, he made
you kiss his shoe. Do you remember?"

Breathing heavily, Gideon
blushed. “Of course I remember, what of it?”

Leanin knelt down beside him and
placed a hand on his chest. “Something snapped inside of you,
I could see it. You went berserk when he told you how he had hurt
Rolanda. Something deep in me responded to that, I haven't been
able to shake it.” She shrugged. “What more can I
say?”

It was a clinical answer, and he
didn't like the way it was phrased. She hadn't said that she felt
anything for Gideon, she had said that something in her responded to
him. There was no will there, no feeling, just cause and effect.
He stood and began to pull on his pants, avoiding looking at her.

“
Why do you love Rolanda?”
Leanin asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

He glared at her. “I
don't want to talk about Rolanda.”

Leanin laughed and pulled her
hair back into a ponytail. “Have I touched a sensitive
subject? Interesting, you'll stick your cock in another woman but
you won't talk behind her back? Do you love us both equally? Do
you love us differently?”

Gideon turned and began to walk
away from her, but she stopped him, grabbing hold of his arm and
turning him around. She stuck a finger in his face. “Here's
a big question for you, right now you're toeing a line and trying to
have us both, but you know it won't work out, and you have to assume
the damage that you're doing. If you had to choose one of us, which
would it be?”

Gideon threw away her arm and
pushed her back, his nostrils flaring, a high flush in his face. “I
told you, I choose her.”

“
Then why are you here?”
Leanin spread her arms wide. “I know why I am.”
Gideon turned and walked away from her. “You don't know, do
you? You're just a kid, you don't realize that actions have
consequences. You get horny and you do something about it, and I'm
that something, aren't I?”

He disappeared into the trees
and Leanin watched him go, her chin jutting into the oncoming wind.
The afternoon sun was just beginning to tilt towards evening. Her
eyebrows furrowed and she stuck her hands deep in her pockets. Two
paths lay coming from the meadow. One lead back to the cottage, one
away toward the mountains. If she got to the edge of the forest she
was fairly confident she could find their bikes.

Breathing evenly, she stood
still, chewing the inside of her lip. She may have claimed to
Gideon that she knew what she was doing here, but did she really?
She was just toying with some version of normalcy, trying to feel
what a regular life felt like. How would she feel if someone had
treated Jenny the way that she was treating Rolanda? Leanin
frowned. Things were too muddled here, she didn't belong. In a
split second decision she turned and walked toward the edge of the
forest, away from the cabin.

...

Harold and Rheannon were in the
kitchen when Gideon got back to the house. Rheannon stood when he
entered and came over to give him a hug, she was wearing an apron
dusted with flour that puffed out when she held him. Harold turned
and nodded to him, his hands busy cutting strips of meat for a stew.

“
Oh, I'm so happy that
you're going to be building out here,” she said. As she held
him tightly Gideon thought for a moment he could see a tear in her
eye. “Rolanda's in the bedroom, I don't think she's feeling
well.”

“
I think I'll go in and
check on her,” Gideon said, unwrapping himself from her
embrace and brushing off the flour that was now all over him.

Rolanda was laying on the bed
with the lights on, staring up at the ceiling. Her eyes were open,
her chest rising and falling almost imperceptibly. Placing a hand
over hers, he sat next to her. “How are you doing? Rheannon
said you weren't feeling well.”

She smiled at him, her eyes
glassy. “I'm okay,” she said, and then she rolled over
and placed her head in his lap. Her nose crinkled and she withdrew
almost immediately. “You've got the bad smell on you.”

Gideon lifted his shirt and
inhaled, the faint hint of cinnamon lingered on him. “I smell
like the forest, because that's where I've been all day. Your
thoughts are getting jumbled again.” He smiled largely and
stroked the side of her face. Pulling the blankets around herself,
she curled into the fetal position.

“
It's a bad smell,”
she said.

...

The sun had begun its descent by
the time that Leanin reached where they had stashed their bikes.
She ran her fingers over her motorcycle, passing gently down the
scars and scrapes along the side. A grey mud had caked itself up
around her back tire; Leanin took out her knife and chiseled it
away. She bent over the front, the lines were well oiled, the tires
didn't have a single crack or tear in them, the front forks sturdy
and straight.

It didn't take long to get her
bike ready. All her gear was already strapped on. She kicked the
bike once and it roared to life. Her fingers shook as she fastened
the straps under her helmet and she took a long look at Gideon's
motorcycle before lowering her visor and turning away from it.
Twisting the throttle hard, the front wheel bucked up a few inches
into the air and she was away.

...

“
Is it all just a
transaction?” Rolanda asked. Gideon had stayed by her side,
sitting at her feet while she lay curled in a ball.

“
What do you mean?”
he asked.

“
I was bought and sold
before, Gideon. I had to earn my place. They made me. It was a
transaction.”

He put a hand on her hip and
listened quietly.

“
Is it the same way? Do I
have to buy your love?”

“
Rolanda,” he said,
moving closer on the bed, “you have my love. You know that.”

She sat up suddenly in the bed,
her hair flying in wisps around her, her eyes bloodshot red. “I
have a portion of your love, but not all. I can smell that for a
fact. You tell me I can't trust my senses, but Gideon, that's all I
have, and that's all I'll ever have.” She kicked out and
caught him in the chest with her heel, driving the wind from his
body and knocking him back.

He stood slowly, regaining his
composure and struggling to breathe. Rolanda looked hideous,
standing on the bed before him, lines on her face, hair out of
place, her teeth bared and feral. Gideon swallowed hard. He barely
knew this person any more; this was a shell of his fiance. Perhaps
he had never really saved her at all and she had died that first
night when she was taken; died when they buried Gideon alive just
for being there; died with the rest of her family. He had tried to
put that thought away, to bury it deep, with the hope that if he
didn't think about it for long enough it would stay underground, but
all things come to the surface eventually.

...

Leanin was cresting a hill when
she saw the lights on the other side. She hadn't gone far beyond
the forest, hadn't even crossed the mountains walling Meadowood off
from the outside world, when she saw them. Squeezing her brake
lever hard she shimmied off the road, barely keeping her tires to
the ground as the loose rock shuffled under her. When she was far
enough off the trail she killed her engine and hopped off, opening
her bag and bringing out her pistol.

The lights continued to shoot
out over the hill, and with the noise from her engine gone she
gradually began to hear other sounds as well. She heard the rumble
of a few engines being shut off and hearty laughter. With her
motorcycle hidden behind a rock she stole quietly up the hill. Her
fingers twitched at the trigger, her hands shaking, her breath
coming in great gasps as her heart raced. A sinking feeling dropped
in her stomach as she peeked down at the camp.

A fire burned below her with
figures huddled around. Their motorcycles were parked behind them
in a circle, each with the number thirteen on the back of the
leather armor they wore. Riders.

She strained her ears and picked
out a single part of a sentence.

“
...where the geolocation
said her tag was,” was all that she could get, but it was
enough to send her running as quietly as she could back to her
motorcycle.

It was too much of a risk to
start her engine, she couldn't afford to have them hear and give
chase, so she shifted it into neutral and pushed it back the few
miles to the forest. By the time she reached the first trees her
arms were burning with exhaustion, she dumped the bike next to
Gideon's and ran back to the cottage.

Harold was walking back from the
chicken coop when Leanin ran out from the woods.

“
There you are!” he
said when he saw her. “I was wondering when I didn't see you
come back with Gideon.”

“
Harold,” Leanin
said, gasping for breath, “we need to get inside. Something
terrible is headed this way.” She grabbed his arm and dragged
him toward the front door.

“
What's going on?”
Harold asked.

“
Rolanda! Gideon!”
Leanin shouted as she stormed inside. “Akem is here.”

Rheannon was sitting at the
table, her fingers curled around a cup of Harold's honey beer.
“What's going on?” The corners of her mouth began to
quiver.

Rolanda and Gideon emerged from
the back room. They stood apart, their faces drawn and tight.
“What did you say?” Gideon asked.

“
Akem is here,”
Leanin said. She reached for Rolanda and pulled her forward. The
smaller woman resisted, but Leanin's grip was strong and insistent.
“Rolanda, when they took you did they inject you with
anything?”

She looked away from Leanin's
fierce eyes. “I got bit by a spider,” she said before
pulling aside her hair to expose the back of her neck. There was a
millimeter sized puncture wound with a small cylindrical bump raised
up underneath it. Leanin pulled her knife from its sheath and
Gideon sprang forward, catching her arm.