Chapter 3 #2
Cade left his place by the carriage to join them.
He’d lowered the covering over his nose and mouth, and she more clearly saw his face.
He was unfairly handsome, just as his stormy grey eyes had suggested, with a sharp jawline, full lips, and shockingly nice-looking teeth.
Everyone else she’d encountered so far, except for Leo, had had teeth practically rotting out of their heads.
He was mostly clean-shaven, but there was a hint of five o’clock shadow along his jaw.
He’d removed his helmet to reveal that his hair was cropped close to the scalp, in the closest approximation of a buzzcut one could get without electric clippers.
“Cap,” Leo said in acknowledgement, with a tip of his head. “How’s things?”
“All’s calm,” Cade replied, but he was looking at Asha. “Why don’t you go check on His Highness over there? He’s complaining about his back again.”
Leo sighed and rolled his eyes as he got to his feet. “There’s only so much I can do if the man won’t do the exercises I prescribe. He’s just gonna yell at me for not wasting drugs on it.”
“I know,” Cade said with a shrug. “Nobody said he was a great listener.”
Leo left with another huff. Cade dropped his bag on the ground and took a seat in the grass across from Asha, who had started to feel paradoxically nauseous with hunger.
“When’s the last time you had water?”
Asha shrugged. “Don’t know, but I learned my lesson on drinking water direct from rivers. I was the sickest I’ve ever been in my life last time I did.”
He reached for a flask at his hip, unfastened it from his belt, and held it out to her.
“Here,” he said. “The trick is to boil it first. This stuff is fine.”
She hesitated briefly, but she was so thirsty that she couldn’t stand it. She took the flask from him with shaking hands, and the first drop of water on her tongue was pure heaven. She couldn’t help it—she started to chug.
“Hang on,” Cade warned, catching her wrist. She flinched, and he let go abruptly. “You’ll make yourself sick if you drink too fast after being dehydrated. Go slow.”
She surprised herself with a small giggle. “I thought you were stopping me because I was drinking all your water. Sorry.”
A small smile curved those attractive lips of his. “No. Drink up. Just…slowly. You hungry?”
Starving, she wanted to reply. It was the honest answer…
but she was still wary of showing weakness, even though he’d helped her.
She didn’t want to need him in any way, if only because he might be gone tomorrow.
Just like everyone else she’d ever known.
Besides, his kindness was such a rarity that it made her strangely nervous.
Unfortunately, her stomach answered for her, choosing that moment to growl louder than ever. She flushed, embarrassed, but Cade chuckled.
“That’s what I thought,” he said, rummaging in his bag. He unwrapped a bundle of cloth to reveal a sparse meal of dried jerky and a small stack of dense, hard drop biscuits. He held it out to her. “It’s not much…but you can have it.”
Asha hesitated, but her hunger had grown too powerful to ignore. She devoured the jerky first, which was dry but flavourful. The biscuits, however, were hard as a rock, powdery, and tasteless. A flash of amusement crossed Cade’s features when she coughed after biting into one of them.
“Tastes like shit,” he agreed, “but it’s better than nothing. Ask Dom nicely, and he might find you some plants to eat.”
Asha raised an eyebrow. She got the odd impression that he was distracting her on purpose, but it wasn’t working.
For hours, she’d wondered what she’d gotten herself into with this group—Guardians, or Blackguard, or whatever the hell they called themselves—and Leo had given her a bunch of non-answers.
“What’s going to happen to me?”
Cade pinned her with a look from those steely eyes. She didn’t like how his gaze made her feel exposed, naked, like he already knew all her secrets.
“I guess that depends.”
“On?” she prompted. “Look, I need to be prepared. I’m not an idiot; I know you helped me for a reason. So, if that reason is to sell me on at the next stop…well, a warning couldn’t hurt.”
He studied her for a moment in silence, making her even more uncomfortable. She crossed her arms and stared pointedly at the ground.
Finally, he replied, “It depends on whether you’d rather be my woman or not.”
Her eyes snapped wide. “Your woman? Like…how? Like ownership?”
“Yes,” he said, point-blank, and she scoffed. “Look, that’s how it is with the Guardians. Men are in charge; women are extensions of their men.”
“And I’m sure you delight in that,” Asha shot back.
“My opinion is irrelevant,” he answered coolly. “Just like yours. It’s how it is, and we have to make the best of it.”
She chewed her lip. “What’s my other option?”
Cade mimed covering his heart with his hand. “I thought you liked me, darling.”
“My liking you or not is irrelevant.”
“Now, that’s where you’re wrong,” he said, a sly look in his eye.
“Choosing me means that you get to live with me, instead of in a crowded dorm with all the other unattached women. It means that you’ll get more rations.
And it means that you won’t have to open your legs for every man here and back at the Nest—including Angel. ”
Asha’s eyebrows had risen so high they might’ve disappeared into her hairline.
“And for you?” she asked. “I’m assuming this generosity isn’t free.”
He shrugged. “You’re not wrong. You’ll work for me. Fight for me. And yes, I’d like to fuck you. You’re a good-looking girl, and it’s been a long time. I won’t force you…but I won’t lie to you, either.”
Asha laughed bitterly. “I guess I have to appreciate your candor, at least.”
He grinned, showing those surprisingly perfect teeth.
“It’s what I’m best known for.”
“Why can’t you just let me go?” she asked. She hated how fear creeped into her voice, but reality was starting to sink in: she was never going to be free again.
Cade blew out a breath. “Because they’d know it was me. And I don’t want a bullet in my head.”
She considered that. “We could make it look like an accident—”
“It’s not an option,” he cut in forcefully. “If I could, darling, I would. You don’t have to believe me, but it’s true.”
Even if he could, she thought, where the hell would I go? She’d be lost and alone and starving to death, the way she’d been before Pike and his goons had found her. That was a one-way ticket to a slow, painful death.
“Anyway, we need to move on,” Cade continued. “But think it over on the rest of the trip to the Nest. You won’t have much else to do anyway, since Dom is practically mute most of the time.”
Cade stood and returned to Angel’s wagon.
Asha watched him go, chewing her lip some more.
Anxiety was alive in her veins. She hadn’t known what she was getting into when she asked Cade for help.
Now, it was a choice between servicing him—a strange man who had, at best, questionable ethics—or being passed around to a bunch of gangbangers, who might hurt or kill her before or after they were done raping her.
Their lack of basic hygiene doesn’t help, Asha thought ruefully. At least Cade looks like he’s bathed in his life.
If he hadn’t helped her, would it have meaningfully changed her options? She doubted it. At the slave market, those men wanted one thing. The best she could’ve hoped for, as much as she hated it, were the choices she now had in front of her.
Cade had been right about Dom; he barely spoke to Asha as he escorted her through the woods. Compass in hand, he helped steer their direction, but other than that, he left her to her thoughts. Which was good, because she was a little preoccupied at the moment.
I don’t think he’d hurt me, Asha mused, glancing over her shoulder towards Angel’s convoy. She couldn’t see Cade clearly from this distance, but she felt his eyes on her. She scolded herself briefly: You’ve known him all of a day. How can you possibly know what he’s like?
But he had helped her, hadn’t he? Yes, maybe he was getting something out of it, but he also hadn’t had to offer for her.
He could’ve left her to Angel’s men. Maybe he was helping her in the only way he could.
Who knew how long he’d been living amongst the worst kind of people, after all? Maybe this was all he knew.
Asha’s gut told her that Cade was the lesser of two evils, and it wasn’t particularly close.
He was the only one who’d treated her with an ounce of dignity during her captivity, and he’d never shown signs of aggression toward her, which was more than she could say for the men who still occasionally catcalled at her as she walked.
It said enough that Cade had ordered Leo and Dom to guard her against his own gang; even he didn’t trust them.
She would’ve died before she admitted it out loud, but she also had to concede that fucking Cade—who was unnaturally good-looking, especially compared to the other men—was far more appealing than the alternative.
It was hard to see his body under the tactical uniform, but he was clearly in good shape.
Maybe seeing him naked wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
It made Asha feel cheap and crass, to sell herself off to some guy she barely knew. Her parents would’ve been ashamed of her. But she wasn’t an idiot. She knew that he was the only realistic chance she had for survival. She would do what she had to.