Sitting on the hotel room bed, my body felt so numb, and it wasn’t because of the ice pack that I was holding against my cheek. I’d imagined so many different scenarios when it came to standing face-to-face with my brother or my father. I guess I just never expected for them to end with me telling the world I was a whore.
Not that I would change a thing. It hurt Abel, I knew it. And not because I was his little sister and he hated the idea of me using my body to please men. It hurt him because soon the entire Colony would know that the blood that ran through my family’s veins was anything but worthy of leading all those faithful and dedicated people to the highest place in heaven.
It was dirty, it was tainted.
But what had me scared now was what they planned to do to try and fix it.
Me running away was easily lied about, covered up. I had no doubt they told the people of the Colony that I’d been sent away because of some higher calling, that I was made for something more than spending time with peasants. There was no way my father would have ever let them believe that his eldest daughter, the one meant to set an example for others in her faith, did a runner.
“Here,” Hadley said, coming to sit on the edge of the bed. She handed me a short glass with clear liquid inside. She grinned as I studied it. “Just a hint, it’s not water.”
“Thank God.” I sighed, tossing back the liquid in one shot and holding out the glass for more as the taste of vodka attacked my tastebuds and stole the air from my lungs.
Jess snorted from the sofa. “Ironic choice of words.”
I choked out a laugh, trying to find my breath and feeling the warmth of the alcohol settle in my stomach. Hadley poured me another glass and screwed the lid back on the vodka bottle. When I pouted, she shook her head and wiggled her finger at me.
“I promised to look after you while the boys sorted shit with the cops downstairs,” she warned, all motherly like. “If they come back and you’re drunk, Leo will have my ass.”
“Funny, I would have thought he’d had it already,” Jess said dryly, her face lighting up in an over the top smile when Hadley turned and narrowed her eyes. “Oh come on, you walked right into that one.”
Hadley was fighting a smile and controlling it pretty well. I, on the other hand, couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled up. My body shook, and my head pleaded with me to stop, the constant headache I’d had since Abel slapped me had been undeterred by painkillers.
I groaned, raising the glass to my lips and swallowing the liquid in two large gulps, hoping it might make my muscles and my mind relax a little.
A couple of officers had shown up as Abel was dragging himself to his feet, looking dazed and confused. People had called them right after seeing him slap me across the face. I expressed that I didn’t want to press charges, but the police were essentially the ones who would make that call given that people had witnessed the event.
The same was to be said about Eagle’s involvement, and that’s what I was most nervous about. Because he didn’t come at Eagle, it can’t be classed as self-defense. If the police wanted to go after him they could, even though Abel had done the smart thing and opted not to.
Hence why the boys were all down in the hotel’s meeting room with the police chief and Rivet, waiting on Digger, the Texas Brothers by Blood President. He was the one with the most pull inside the police force, hopefully enough to make this whole mess go away.
“Was wankstain your full brother?” Jess asked out of the blue. I knew she was dying to hear more about who the Colony was, and what the hell went on there. After everything I blurted out today, I’m sure they had more questions than I probably had answers for, the boys included, which was why I was trying to wait until they got back. So that I didn’t have to repeat it more than once.
Just putting my head back there with the memories of what it was like, it was fucking painful. It always left me feeling nauseous and sometimes angry. Seeing Abel today had already sucked the life out of me and pulled me back into a place that I spent a lot of time trying to avoid.
There was a lot of beauty in my story. I still remembered the times my siblings, and I would laugh and play, using whatever we could to make games. Sometimes it was sticks from the dead tree in our yard, other times it was old flat tires or torn rags that were made into capes.
Children in the Colony were encouraged to be children because when we came of age, things changed.
Girls were married off to older men—some often even relatives like uncles or cousins—and boys when they turned twelve were sent to work. They would do twelve hour days on construction sites and farms for one of the many businesses owned by the Colony. At the end of the week, they might end up with one hundred dollars.
The rest was taken for the community.
“Wankstain, now that’s a new one,” I joked, falling back onto the bed after Hadley took my glass.
“Don’t avoid the question,” Jess snapped, pointing her finger at me accusingly.
I rolled my eyes. “No, he’s not a full-blooded sibling, he belongs to my father’s first wife, my mother is the second and I’m her only child. You could say, she was the dud wife, and that’s sort of reflected in me.”
“You’re not a dud,” Hadley scolded with a frown as she made herself busy, tidying mine and Eagle’s things.
“Not sure grumpy pants will like you touching his stuff,” I told her with a smile as she folded the T-shirt he had dumped on the floor hours before, in our rush to get to the charity event.
Hadley laughed lightly. “He loves me, he’ll get over it.”
I can’t explain how those words twisted my gut, and the green head of jealousy reared up to make an appearance.
“He also seems to be extremely protective of you,” she added, taking a seat at the end of the bed.