Asa
I woke up early in the morning, my head clear, my senses on high alert. What was I hearing? Talking? Rambling? Sounded like the drunk from before just outside my door.
“Shut the fuck up, Snake!” bellowed a voice from across the room. “Some of us got a shift in the morning!”
Snake? That was definitely the drunk from before, the guy who'd been handing me beers all night. I strained my ears to hear what he was saying.
“Fuck that slut,” he yelled. “Gonna go down there, get my fucking pickle wet.”
I knew exactly what he was talking about. Who he was talking about. My eyes opened wide, the anger rising in my chest as the adrenaline kicked in. I leaped out of my bed, pulled my clothes on in a flash, didn't even bother to lace up my boots.
“Shut the fuck up!” called the same voice as before.
“Fuck that slut!” Snake yelled back.
I hit my bunkhouse door at a run. Snake was there, at the rickety table, a couple more beer bottles than before out in front of him.
“Tomorrow,” he yelled as he went out the front door. “No, tonight! Gonna make that little whore scream my name!”
I stomped down the hallway and out into the little courtyard. By the time I got outside, he was already half-way to the Fortress. I wasn't going to hurt him. I was going to get him to apologize for calling her what he had. He was rip-roaring, shit-canned drunk, and I knew it. Everyone knew it.
“Hey,” I barked as I got closer. “Hey, Snake!”
He lurched back around till he could see me. He wobbled a little on his feet, stumbling in that way some drunks do to keep their footing. “What?” he slurred.
I kept on my warpath, didn't stop till I got right up in his face, my teeth bared like a rabid dog. “The fuck you say about Lauren?”
He didn't even try to push me away or reply, he just swung a fist. His muscle memory was good, too, from years and years of fighting. He knew how to throw a punch, and it came at me like a city bus. I was better, and more sober. My instincts kicked in, same as his, and I blocked his punch with my forearm, slamming it out of the way. Before I could take it back, I was slamming my elbow into his temple.
His eyes rolled back and he crumpled like a tin can, folding in on himself as he dropped to the ground. Just above his ear, his head cracked hard on a rock, and it sounded like a melon landing after having been tossed off a second story. Blood trickled from his ear immediately, and I knew he wasn't going to wake up anytime soon. Maybe never. Head injuries like that were traumatic. My stomach turned immediately as I looked down at him. Not because I abhorred violence, but because I knew I'd just fucked up. They'd be looking for whoever did this, and who would be a more likely suspect than the new guy? No one. I glanced back over my shoulder, at the bunkhouse door.
No one was coming. They were probably just happy Snake had shut the fuck up.
“Fuck!” I hissed under my breath. I nudged Snake's motionless body with the toe of my boot, tried to roll him over.
He didn't respond and didn't flip. There was too much dead weight there for me to move with just my foot. I ran a hand down my face, growled low. I couldn't run and leave Lauren behind. Even if I had to give up on my goals, I wanted her with me. I needed her with me. And what kind of man would abandon her with motherfuckers like these around? Less than twenty-four hours here, and there were already drunks threatening to rape her.
And I couldn't go, especially not when I was so close to Dalton Saylor. I'd been working towards this for months, trying to hunt Lauren down, trying to get myself into the Fortress. And besides, there were too many guards surrounding the place. I'd never get out at this time of night, definitely not unquestioned, and likely not full of bullet holes.
“Fuck!” I hissed again as I looked to the Fortress, and my eyes settled on the door. I nodded at them, the wheels turning in my head.
The tunnels below the Fortress. They'd seemed practically abandoned when I was down there just a little while before. I could hide out down there, till Lauren and I could figure out a way into the manager's office. Then, with her daddy dead, we could sneak out together and figure out our next move. I left Snake's unconscious body in the middle of the courtyard and headed for the Fortress. As I went through the door, I heard a startled shout from direction of the bunkhouse.
“Holy shit!” called the voice.
I found the access stairs I'd used earlier to get down to Lauren's cage and slipped into the tunnels. I could hear murmuring voices, and I tip-toed down to the room where they were keeping her. It sounded like she and one of the men were discussing something in a hushed tone.
As they were speaking, though, I heard the crackle of a radio. “Anderson?” called a static-filled voice from inside the room. “You there, boss? You awake?”
A pause.
“I'm here,” Anderson replied. “What's wrong?”
“We got a problem. Snake's been beat up real bad. Think we got someone in the compound that ain't supposed to be here.”
Shit. I took off down the hallway as quietly as I could, not knowing where I was headed. A half-dozen men? I could handle that. A small private army? I might as well have just killed myself right then and saved them the trouble. I darted around the corner from Lauren's cage room and pressed my back against the wall as I tried to control my breathing, just listening.
“I'm on it,” I heard Anderson say as he came out of the cage room. Soon, his footfalls receded as he headed back to the access stairs, then headed upstairs. “Get security on high alert and lock down the fence. No one in, no one out till we figure this out. And make sure Mr. Saylor has plenty of guards!”
I leaned my head back against the wall, still out of breath. Well, this was going well.