Chapter 6
The rest of the day passed in a blur of chores.
Lana walked Asha through the women’s daily work, from prepping food to sorting supplies to cleaning laundry on old-fashioned washboards and hanging it to dry.
She also helped tend to a small vegetable garden that they kept in a fenced-off yard near the clubhouse.
In the early spring, they’d only just begun planting, which meant hours kneeling and digging in the dirt.
It was all backbreaking labour. Asha had never worked so hard in her life, and she had a newfound respect for the women and girls who lived there.
Meanwhile, the men did things like guard duty, strategy meetings, and patrol.
It struck her as a rather charmed existence, even if it did theoretically carry more risk than washing a pile of laundry.
“You’ve done really good for your first day,” Lana said, giving her a sweet smile. “And I’ve got good news! I talked Angel into letting you stay in the dormitory with the rest of us until Cade comes back. I have a bunk ready for you, so you’ll have a real bed tonight.”
It didn’t seem like much, but when Asha thought again of the straw pallet on the floor, it was the best news she’d gotten in some time.
As afternoon slipped into early evening and it was nearly time to prepare dinner, she found herself exhausted and irritable.
She was grateful when Leo appeared to rescue her, looking vaguely apologetic.
“Sorry I didn’t check on you sooner,” he said, running a hand through his short blonde hair. “There were more patients than I expected today, and then I ran out of alcohol, so…anyway, how’re you holding up?”
“It’s fine,” Asha replied with a shrug. “Hard work, but if they do it every day, so can I. What do you mean about patients? Do people go see you regularly?”
“Oh, yeah. I’ve converted one of the rooms on the west side of the clubhouse into a clinic. I’ll show you.”
Relieved to take a break from domestic duties, Asha followed him to the west wing of the clubhouse.
She’d never been in that area before, but she noticed it was considerably less shabby than the east wing, where the women were housed.
More structures were intact, there were fewer cracks in the concrete walls and floors, and overall, it looked as though it had perhaps been minimally maintained.
However, the west wing was far smaller, with just a few doors to choose from.
All of them except for one were closed, and at the end of the corridor, there was a set of double doors that were painted in vibrant navy blue, which stood out against the bland grey and beige of everything else.
Curiously, in front of the colourful doors, Dax stood with his arms folded, staring ahead into space. It looked like he was guarding something.
“Angel’s Wing,” Leo said, catching her looking. “He has a few doormen, but he seems to have a special fondness for Dax for some reason. Best to keep your distance.”
Asha nodded, though she wondered about what Angel did all day.
Did he simply lounge around in his quarters, being waited on?
He hadn’t appeared for meals in the mess hall, and when she’d asked, Lana had told her that she brought his meals to him personally.
Supposedly, it was an honour, an acknowledgement of her as his favourite, because it meant he trusted her not to poison him.
Lana needs to take one for the team, Asha thought bitterly as Leo led her through the single open door.
Leo’s clinic was far more impressive than she’d have expected, given their limited resources and the fact that he had no formal training.
It wasn’t a large room, but he’d packed in a long metal table for exams that he’d somehow managed to polish to a sheen, as well as a single cot in the far corner with a privacy curtain connected to the ceiling by small hooks.
On the table lay an array of metal surgical tools and syringes, along with clean bandages, and a large bottle of alcohol.
Most impressively, there was a new-looking cabinet on the wall behind the table with a glass window, through which Asha could see various pill bottles and other medicines.
“How did you manage all this?” Asha asked in wonder. “The rest of the place looks like it’s about to fall apart.”
Leo smiled. “With some help. Most of the fixtures were made in the Settlements. Angel—and everybody else—benefits from a doctor having the right tools.”
She frowned. “But where’d all the medicine come from? I can’t imagine they can make much of that in the Settlements. Not if they’re anything like Little River.”
“Little River’s in worse shape than our settlements,” Leo replied, “but no, a lot of it is scavenged. Or grown by Dom.”
“Dom?” Asha asked, more surprised by that than even the medicine. “He grows things?”
“Oh, yeah. He’s a big gardener. I’m lucky he helps me out.”
Asha couldn’t help herself; she giggled. Her limited experience with Dom made clear that he was a man of few words, and usually grumpy. The image of him kneeling in the dirt, fussing over delicate flowers, was too much.
But another question niggled at her, and she raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t scavenged medicine long since expired?”
Leo shrugged and looked away. “Sure, but we make do with what we have.”
His too-casual tone gave him away. She couldn’t imagine why, but Asha was certain that he was lying.
Before she could interrogate him further, however, he changed the subject.
“I should bring you back to the mess hall. Wouldn’t want them to think you’re missing at dinner.
” He paused briefly, staring at his exam table.
“But…if you need help at any time, come find me.” He pointed at a door behind the exam table.
“I live in the back room. I’m always here. ”
Asha nodded slowly, trying not to think of why she might need his help. “I just hope Cade…”
She trailed off, not sure how to express herself, but Leo seemed to understand.
“He’ll find a way, Asha,” he said gently, touching her shoulder. “He’s the most determined man I’ve ever met. If it’s at all possible, he’ll do it.”
She smiled in spite of herself, cheered a little by his kindness.
“Thanks, Leo.”
A week passed in hard domestic labour and little else. Each night, Asha fell into bed exhausted and slept like a baby. Besides the hard work and constant leering from the men, however, she had few complaints. Lana and the other women were decent company, and Leo checked up on her often.
She hadn’t actually seen Angel since the night of the claiming. He rarely seemed to leave Angel’s Wing during the day, and in the evenings, it seemed like Lana mostly kept him entertained. Still, there was that nagging worry at the back of her mind that Cade wouldn’t make it back in time.
On the eighth night since Cade’s departure, Asha was sound asleep in her bunk, much like the other dozen women who shared the dormitory with her. All candles had been extinguished, and the room was pitch black.
She was abruptly awoken by a cold hand wrapped around her throat. Alarmed, she tried to scream, but the man tightened his grip, strangling the sound.
“Don’t scream,” a voice she recognized as Dax’s demanded. “Stay quiet and I’ll let you go.”
Asha nodded slowly, terrified. Dax forced her to her feet and directed her out of the dormitory and into the corridor wearing nothing but the standard-issued nightdress that all the women wore. At least out here, there was a single torch burning on the wall, illuminating the way.
Dax pushed her down the hallway, stopping in front of Lana’s door. The silence of the night was split by his hard knock on the wood. Asha heard movement within before a bewildered-looking Lana appeared.
“Find something for her to wear,” Dax ordered. “Angel wants her.”
Lana’s confusion turned to alarm. “Why?”
“No business of yours, is it? The boss wants what he wants.”
“If he wants entertainment, I can—” Lana began, but Dax growled at her.
“Shut the hell up,” he spat. “He wants the new girl, and that’s what he’ll get. Got it?”
Lana nodded mutely, her eyes wide. She gestured for Asha to come into the room, and closed the door behind them. Lana’s young sister, Cassie, appeared to still be asleep on her side of the bed.
“What’s happening?” Asha asked in a low voice, and she hated that her fear had crept into her voice. “What does he mean?”
Lana’s mouth hardened into a thin line. “I think you know, Asha.”
Panic flooded Asha’s system at her words. She’d expected Lana to give her some kind of comfort, or an alternate explanation. Instead, she was left with only the horrible truth: she had no control over what happened to her next.
After that, they spoke only occasionally.
Lana went into her closet and found a skintight black dress that was a little short on Asha and barely covered her ass, which was probably the point.
She sprayed Asha with rosewater to make her smell good, and applied some approximation of lipstick to her lips.
“What now?” Asha asked, her voice cracking.
Lana sighed, her expression weary, like she’d seen a thousand nights just like this one. Like she was tired, not just of this, but of everything—of living.
“Now, you do your best to forget, sugar.”
Half an hour later, Asha stood in front of the colourful doors to Angel’s Wing, where Dax the doorman was waiting. He gave a low whistle on seeing her, and it made her want to peel her skin off.
“Hot piece of ass. No wonder the boss couldn’t wait any longer.”
For a moment, Asha was frozen, unable to make her legs move.
She couldn’t think about what that man would do to her.
She took a deep breath and tried to think of what Lana had said just before she left: just close your eyes and let him have his way.
Pretend you’re somewhere lovely. I like to think of a beach I went to when I was a little girl.