“There is a reason the localpoliciadon’t like them or call on them unless they must,” Ceyda says solemnly. “They are not good men, not in the slightest. They come through my place sometimes. The girls are terrified of them, and for good cause. More than one whore has died at the hands of those monsters.”
“It’s Tahar,” Sammi spits. “He is the one who incites the rest, fuckingpendejo.”
I snort a laugh at the insult, having heard it before.
“So, this Tahar…”
“He believes he is doing The Order’s work, acting in their Messiah’s stead over New Europe.”
“I haven’t heard of this Messiah,” I say with a frown. I know I’ve been ignoring politics for the past few years, but that doesn’t seem like something I’d have missed.
“It was only months ago,” Ceyda says, her voice dropping. “No one knows the full details, but something happened from within and a singular man rose above whatever council was in place in The Order before. Extraordinarily little is known, only hushed whispers.”
“What do they call this so-called Messiah?”
Sammi shakes her head. “No name is being spoken, as of now he is only the Messiah.”
“I see. And this Tahar, he is recent to the area too?”
Both women nod.
“Only the last six months or so we have been dealing with them. Before that, maybe once a year or so we would have a random Watch come through for a day or two. Since the Messiah, Tahar has taken a liking to this region.”
“This used to not be so bad a place to live, even after the Split,” Ceyda adds. “But ever since then, The Watch is slowly turning the men bad. They rape and steal, adding to their ranks as they go and find more men without morals.”
My mind works quickly as I consider all of this.
“So, no one in Tekir really likes or wants them here,” I state. “Where is the next closest big town? Where will The Watch be coming from?”
“Well, there is the D1219 prison south of here, you may have heard it as being called The Tomb, and other than a few very small villages there is a larger town called Goksun that is about a day or so north. Normally, I’d say they’d be coming from the north, but I have a feeling they are south investigating the prison break that happened last week,” Ceyda explains.
I do my best not to react but can feel myself tense up without meaning to. Sammi catches my eye but doesn’t look worried, giving me a small reassuring smile. Ceyda looks at us both knowingly.
“It’s okay, Ana. You can trust Ceyda,” Sammi says and my eyes widen a fraction.
“I knew it,” Ceyda says with a smirk and I sigh, hoping to fuck that Sammi is right and we can trust her. If not, our visit to Tekir is about to get even more interesting.
Chapter Fifteen
Axle
“I’m sorry, Ax. We just can’t risk it,” Luis explains. My skin is crawling, and I just want to be done with this conversation. Fucking cowards.
“If we see The Watch, we’ll do what we can to hold them up,” Papi lies through his teeth. I’m not stupid enough to think these two won’t go the other way if they see those fuckers, but I nod my head anyway.
“Here,” I take out a small pouch with our money and pull out a few coins, throwing them over. “Now get the fuck out of my face.”
“Ax, I—”
“I said fuck off.”
Luis looks slightly wounded, but I could give a fuck. What a shitshow.
It’s only a minute after they walk out that I feel a tug on my soul and look up to see Ana entering, with Sammi only slightly behind. I could give two shits about the latter though. My eyes are wide, my mouth open, when I take in Ana.
I’ve only ever seen Ana in a dress once before at that was the gaudy awful thing Dick put her in. I’d wondered before what Ana might look like more feminine, but damn. I wasn’t expecting this.
The dress she’s wearing now is a pale brown color, much better than the bullshit whore-red, and falls to the floor. Fabric billows around her legs, but some kind of slits up the sides reveal the smooth expanse of her legs. It’s bunched up under her chest, pushing it up and giving a glorious view of her tits. The urge to rush forward and shove my face into them is won over only by the desire to stab the eyes out of every man who might be looking at her.