Chapter 6
Qknew seeing Flora again would only set him up for disappointment later.
She was too beautiful. Alluring and mesmerizing were words that could be used to describe her.
She was very innocent. Someone at the shelter could help her with that.
Surely, they would have someone who could help her get on track to a good life.
The place he’d looked up wasn’t too far away.
He turned off the freeway, and his first impression of the area left a lot to be desired.
Surely, it would get better as they approached the shelter.
But it didn’t get better. It got a whole lot worse.
The neighborhood was awful. He slowed as he saw some man stumbling close to the edge of the sidewalk, almost falling.
That guy was either drugged up or drunk.
This wasn’t a location Flora could walk around on her own.
She was way too na?ve. Someone would take advantage of her the moment she stepped outside.
“What is wrong with that man?” Flora asked.
“He probably had too much to drink.”
Someone ran out of a shop and was being chased by what looked to be one of the workers. A car drove by with really loud music and almost hit a pedestrian. Chaos seemed to rule in this area.
He stopped the truck outside the shelter and cut the engine. No question, this was a rough area. Even streetwise women would be at risk here.
He opened his door and stepped out, not liking the needles near the trashcan or the bottles piled up next to them. He went around the truck and opened the door for Flora, helping her out.
She looked around, biting her lip. Her eyebrows were pinched tight. “This is the place?”
Someone burst out the door of the shelter and screamed some curse words. The door popped open again, and an older lady screamed back, telling the woman to never come back.
Flora grabbed his hands and squeezed them tight. “Please don’t make me stay there.”
He shook his head. Making her stay would be wrong. There were too many problems in this area. He shouldn’t take her home with him, but he couldn’t make her stay here. “Yeah, this is too wild.”
“I swear I’m not a bother. I don’t eat much food.”
Q drew in a deep breath, trying not to acknowledge the tightness in his chest. He was probably making a mistake.
He couldn’t really help Flora. She needed someone to coach her on life, to help her get training for a job.
It was more than he could handle, but he couldn’t leave her here.
“Listen, I might know someone who can help, and it won’t be like this.
You can stay at my place until I can figure something else out.
I have a guest room. Well, it’s a bedroom you can use.
It’s not decorated fancy, just a bed and a dresser. ”
She squeezed his hands again, and he saw tears in her eyes. “Thank you.”
He opened the passenger side door for her and helped her back in. “It will be okay. We’ll figure this out.”
Q didn’t know the first thing about shelters, but this place wouldn’t do.
Maybe someone knew of a place that could actually help her.
There was a place he’d heard about where military guys could go for help, but he hadn’t paid too much attention.
Wolf would know someone who knew about the place. He was sure of it.
The drive to his house took another thirty minutes.
He lived down the street from Bud and Clove, and Kevlar and Remi were down from them.
There were a few guys on other streets not too far from his house, so at least he had people close by.
As soon as he got home, he would send a note to his team asking them for resources.
The women would help, no question. He just hoped they didn’t overwhelm Flora.
Flora knew she was being difficult, but she couldn’t stay at that place. She would make sure Q didn’t regret helping her. Cooking and cleaning were things she was used to. She just had to figure out how to live in this world.
They pulled up in front of a house that looked huge. She stared open-mouthed at it. “It’s huge.”
“Not really. It’s two homes in one building. I don’t live on both sides.”
“Oh. Does someone else live with you?”
He shook his head. “Not with me. Our homes don’t have doors connecting. We just share a wall. It makes the place cheaper to own.”
“Thank you for not making me stay at that place.”
He nodded and then got out of the truck. “No problem. We’ll figure it out.”
She insisted on helping him carry his equipment inside and put it up.
His sink had warm running water. She washed his dishes and opened all the cabinets so she could learn where everything in the kitchen was.
They had a cold box where she lived, but they only had power during the day and for a few hours at night, so they had to be careful opening it later in the day.
Q had told her she didn’t need to worry about that here, that they had power all the time.
After she had his dishes put up and had studied the kitchen layout, she moved to the big glass door at the back of his house, looking out into the yard, worry filling her. Q came over and stood next to her.
“Everything okay?”
Her cheeks heated. “It’s embarrassing, but where is your toilet? I don’t see it out there.”
He opened his mouth to say something, then paused and tilted his head to the side. “I have indoor plumbing like at the hotel.”
“Oh. Where is it?”
He moved to a door under the stairs and opened it. “This is the downstairs bathroom that only has a toilet and sink in it. Upstairs, there is a shower in the bathroom along with the toilet.”
“You must think I’m so stupid.”
He shook his head. “Absolutely not. You just haven’t lived in a place like this. It’s okay. You’ll learn. I’m going to contact my friends and see if they have any resources that are better than the last place I found.”
She nodded and headed into the bathroom.
The lights in the bathroom were bright, and the mirror was clear.
While she was washing her hands, she stared at her reflection, worry twisting through her.
Why had she run? Tomorrow morning, they would return to the purification field to dig her up, but she wouldn’t be there.
If her father ever found her, he would kill her.
She could never go home, not that she wanted to, but living in the community was what she knew.
Being here with this stranger was weird.
He acted like he didn’t know what she was talking about half the time, and she certainly didn’t know what he was talking about.
Q was sitting at the table when she stepped out into the main room. She went to him, kneeling beside him. “Can I get you anything?”
He turned to her and pulled her up then pointed to a chair. “Please sit in the chair. You don’t have to kneel next to me.”
Fear and confusion raced through her. She’d spent her whole life being trained to be a servant, and this man was treating her differently. “Sorry, years of training.”
“I understand. It’s hard to break away from our training.” He cleared his throat. “I contacted my friends. A couple of the women are going to come around tomorrow to make sure you have clothes and other things you’ll need. They are all nice.”
She swallowed over the lump of fear filling her throat. “What are their names?”
“Ellis, Clove, Vera, Andie, and Talia. They are good people, maybe not what you’re used to dealing with.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’ve lived in my world their whole lives.”
She worried her lower lip with her teeth, trying to imagine how it would go.
The women in the community weren’t really nice to each other.
No one had really helped her after her mother died.
At least her mother had taught her how to run a house before she passed away. “Do you think they will help me?”
“Yes. They are all good people. They will help you with whatever you need.”
Her stomach clenched. She hadn’t had much luck in the community.
Then again, they weren’t given much time to talk or get to know girls outside of their families.
Her two older sisters had left the family when they turned twenty-one.
Her middle sister, Aqua, had died in childbirth recently.
That had scared Flora and been another reason she’d run.
Now she was here, living with a stranger, but feeling safer than she ever had at home.
When her mother died, it made everything more desperate.
Here, in this environment, she could almost forget the desperation and fear she’d felt.
Q made everything feel safe. She could see herself staying here forever.
Somehow, she had to find a way to get him to see that he shouldn’t make her leave.