Hope (16 page)

He followed them out to the far field.

George started laughing, he assumed at the look on his face.

“It is going to be a long day,” Damon said. George threw a
rake at each of the men, and they were set to work.

****

Penny watched the men from the kitchen. She could make out
their shapes on the field. Laura was baking, kneading some bread dough and muttering
to herself about the amounts needed.

“Stop your worrying, honey.
 
They’ll sort through everything. I doubt Damon trusts those men. At
least they’ll be giving my man a hand. They took our food, and they should work
for their keep,” Laura said.

The children were in the sitting room, playing.
 

“They were going to kill us yesterday. I don’t understand
why he’d willingly let them go.”

“Do you know the reputation of Mad Dog?” Laura asked. The
kneaded dough went into a chipped bowl.

“I know he’s a fighter.”

“He’s more than a fighter. That guy has a reputation I bet
spans all four areas. He’s more than a fighter. He’s a protector. Sure
surprised me when he showed up yesterday.”

Laura wiped her hands.

“He works at the sex club for Don.”

“Before the sex club, in fact, before anything there used to
be underground fighting. George and I heard about him all the way out here. We took
over from our parents and started working the land and came to an agreement
with Don about harvesting et cetera.” Laura sat down at the table. The older
woman looked tired. “Do you know how the areas picked their masters?”

Penny shook her head taking a seat at the table.

“Everything with men is a fight. The strongest men at the
time fought for the right to own a part of the city. Don Michaels, Ben Grimes,
Jordan, and Tristan Kendrick were the four men left standing. I don’t know why
Jordan
doesn’t
have a last name. He’s always been known as
Jordan
.”

“I know this. What does Damon have to do with any of it?”
Penny asked, intrigued.

“When the four heads took control, they had meetings about
food and electricity along with many more fundamentals. Anyway, they couldn’t
agree on anything. They fought until they were black and blue. Then to settle
their little battles they’d chose one fighter from their area to battle all the
others. It became a contest. They didn’t fight to the death, only until there
was one fighter left standing.”

Laura stood up to check on her kids. Penny stared out of the
window, scared to find out what happened next. She knew there was more to Damon.
Those men who’d attacked her inside her own apartment had been afraid of him.
She’d never heard of Mad Dog before.

The other woman came back through. She checked the dough in
the bowl and then sat down. “They’ll need their lunch soon.”

 
“I’ll help you make
it, and I’ll take it out to them.”

“You want to hear the rest of the story?” Laura asked.

Penny nodded. Her enthusiasm got the better of her.

“I’m going by gossip with the rest. I’ve never seen Damon
fight, and I never want to see him fight.” Laura took a deep breath. “Damon, or
Mad Dog as he was known as at the time, was young. When this was all happening
he was considered to be a young man, the underdog in the fighting arena. He got
into the arena, and only he came out,” Laura said.

“What do you mean? What makes him so special?” Penny asked,
confused.

“I said that the fighting wasn’t to the death. Damon was the
only one to walk out of that arena breathing. There is a reason they call him a
mad dog, and you know it’s not because of the way he looks.” Laura gave her a
pointed look.

“It’s because in the arena he turned into a mad dog?”

Laura nodded her head. “These are rumours, but he gets enough
respect for it to be true.”

“Did it say how he killed them?” Penny asked looking toward
the fields.

“Some say he ripped their throats out. Others think he
drained their blood like a vampire. I don’t know, Penny. He looks fine to me.
Maybe he wants to leave the past behind.”

The other woman got up and started making some lunch. Penny
helped her chop some vegetables that they added into a pot.

“This soup will keep them nice and warm. It will also keep
them going until supper.”

Penny stirred the ingredients while thinking about the man
who made her whole body hum with excitement.

She couldn’t believe a man who killed men in a fighting ring
was the same man who wrapped his arms around her every night before she went to
sleep.

Chapter
Fifteen

Damon stood and winced when his back clicked into place. He
was getting too old for this kind of shit. The other men were happily working
the field. George was sowing the seeds for some new lettuce. They’d found the
seeds in
Tony’s
left over supply.

He saw Penny walking towards them. She carried a steaming
saucepan in one hand and bowls in the other.

“Laura told me to tell you to dig in.” Penny stopped next to
him. He noted the huge space she’d kept between them. Her gaze never met his.

When she continued to stare at all the other men but him, he
knew something was wrong. One, John, and Edward eagerly took the food offered
to them.

“I never knew doing farming could be so freeing,” Edward
said.

“You like working, son?” George asked.

“I love it. Grimes
doesn’t
have any
real work for us to do. We go around scaring people. Not a lot of satisfaction
when people are trying to get by.” Edward sipped at the soup. “Delicious. Give
your lady my regards, sir. She’s a mighty fine cook.”

Damon chuckled at the blush on George’s face. There was more
to the red-head than met the eye.

He turned his attention back to the woman at his side. “I’m
just going to have a word with Penny,” Damon said.

The men waved him off. Penny froze beneath his touch.

When they were a good few feet away he turned her to face
him.

“Look at me,” he said.

She stared at his chest. Her gaze didn’t reach his eyes.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“I could ask you the same questions.”

Her gaze flitted to his before turning away. “I need to get
back to the house. Laura has a lot of jobs to do, and I can help her.”

“Last night you lay in my arms content to do so. Why do I
feel you wouldn’t welcome me tonight?” he asked.

Her arms were wide open when she looked at him. “Last night
I didn’t know what I know now.”

Damon stared at her. “What do you know now?” He had a good
idea of what she knew now.

“Why are you called Mad Dog?” she asked.

Bingo.

Damon laughed. “Why ask me a question you know the answer
to?” He put his hands on his hips waiting for her response.

“You killed men,” she said. He heard her accusatory tone.

“Whatever, you think what you want.” He looked ahead of her
to the house.

“Why would you do it?” she asked.

He walked away from her. Damon knew it would piss her off,
but he didn’t care. She clearly had her ideals to think of. His anger rose
inside him. He watched her grab the soup and bowls then storm to back to the
house.

“What’s the matter?” George asked.

“Fuck if I know.”

Damon started working. He dug the ground and set to work on farming,
pummelling all of his frustration into the ground. His anger was so acute it
left a bitter taste in his mouth.

When the sun started to set they made their way back to the
house. He ate outside with the other men, not wanting to see the judgement in
her eyes.

Once the meal was finished, he locked the men back in the
shed and made his way to the front of the house. Pearce would be back tomorrow.
He’d feel better with another man who understood him by his side.

“It’s getting late. Are you coming inside?” Penny asked. A
threadbare blanket was wrapped around her shoulders. “Are you going to ignore
me?” she asked.

Her voice made his anger rise once again. Damon turned to
stare at her. “You can look at me with disgust, Penny. I don’t give a fuck
about what you think.”

Clearly you
do. Otherwise you wouldn’t be feeling like shit.

“I thought you were someone you weren’t,” she said.

“Keep your innocent opinion to yourself. You don’t know what
it’s like to be at war every single day.”

He stood up and walked to where she stood. Her back was to
the wall. Her gaze was on him as he moved. Putting his hands on either side of
her head, he leaned down until they were face to face.

“You killed men.”

“I did. I went into that ring fighting for what I believed
in. Do you really think men would have let me walk out of that arena?” he
asked.

“Laura told me you didn’t have to kill anyone,” she said.

“Laura was never there. She wasn’t in the ring fighting for her
leader and for what she believed in. I did what I had to do.”

“And that makes it right? Killing men for the greater good?”

“I killed men to survive.” He growled the words at her. In
the next instant he slammed his fist against the wall. She cried out staring at
him scared.

“I would have killed those men as well, Penny.”

Her eyes widened.

“Those men who were going to take you against your will and
you couldn’t stop it. Those men who held you down even as you fought, should I
have backed away from them? Should I walk away and let the animals have the
world?” he asked.

She remained silent staring at him.

“When you go to sleep tonight I want you to think about what
would have happened if I hadn’t fought to the death. Think about the men who
lay dead at my feet, and ask yourself if you’d be safe to even walk this earth
if I hadn’t.
Don’t
fucking judge me until you’ve
walked in my shoes.” He slammed his fist against the wall and then walked into
the house. Damon left her stood on the porch. He passed George and Laura on the
way up to the bedroom.

He bathed with some of the water that had been carried
upstairs in a bucket and changed before she made it upstairs. When she walked
into the room he saw she’d been crying.

“Damon?”

He ignored her.

After the third time she called his name he held his hand up
for her to stop and then rolled over.

He heard her go to the bathroom and the water running. Minutes
passed before he felt her sink under the covers bedside him.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Don’t say anything, Penny. I can’t hear it.”

Closing his eyes he fought for sleep to claim him.

****

The following day Pearce arrived after Penny had served
lunch. She helped Laura around the house and assisted her in collecting herbs.
She packed away the food that needed to be transported to the factory for
preserving.

“It seems such a waste for food to be preserving,” Laura
said, writing on the box.

“We need to preserve it. Going without food is impossible.” Penny’s
body felt heavy. The argument with Damon had left her cold and alone. She
shouldn’t have judged him, and she’d ruined their friendship. It hurt her to
see him so angry. He hadn’t said morning or goodbye to her.

“I didn’t mean to cause a problem between the two of you,”
Laura said.

“It was my mistake. I judged, and I shouldn’t have judged.”
She tucked her hair behind her ear wishing she could take back the words she had
said last night.

“Men do things for a reason. Damon is not a bad man.”

“I know, and I should have remembered that fact yesterday.”

Penny continued to help her with the food.

Later that day Damon ate with the
men,
and Pearce found her waiting out front on the porch once again. She watched the
sun starting to set.

He sat down on the steps where she was perched.

“Did you have a safe trip?” she asked.

“I had no problems at all. I come back and see the two love
birds fighting. What’s happened while I’ve been gone?” Pearce picked up a stone
and threw it out.

“I found out how he became Mad Dog,” she said.

“You know it wasn’t part of him joining a club.” Pearce
chuckled at his own joke. “He’s angry with me. He won’t even talk to me.”

“You’ve hurt his feelings, Princess. The words spoken
between you have cut him deep.” She heard Pearce sigh beside her.