Resistance (16 page)

“My grandfather emigrated to New York when he was a
teenager. His parents had died and he didn’t want to impose on relatives. He
was a very independent man. He became an apprentice for an elderly butcher he
met on the boat ride over to the States. After he learned everything there was
to learn, he opened his own shop. My grandmother was one of his first
customers.”

Reena got a really nice wistful smile on her face. “My
grandmother was working as a housekeeper for some rich people and was only
sixteen when he first saw her. He said she was the most beautiful woman with
the reddest hair and greenest eyes he’d ever seen. He said he fell in love with
her the instant he saw her. Grandmother said she didn’t particularly care for
my grandfather in the beginning because every time she came into the butcher
shop he would stare at her and barely spoke, he was so tongue-tied.”

Cade and Will laughed.

“She thought he was slow in his mind until one day he came
to her rescue. As grandfather told it, even after months he still hadn’t been
able to utter a word to her and so badly wanted to get to know her. But for
some unexplainable reason, he was shy around her.

“Anyway, one day he noticed two men passing the shop window
immediately after she left. He got a really bad feeling because they looked
unsavory. Leaving several customers stranded, he exited his shop with a cleaver
in his hand and followed them. He quickly realized they were up to no good
because when my grandmother took a shortcut through an alley, the two men
cornered her. When my grandfather saw the two men were about to attack my
grandmother, he showed the hooligans his meat cleaver and found his voice,
ordering the men to leave my grandmother alone.

“Unfortunately the two men decided to gang up on my
grandfather. When they attacked him, he chopped off the hand of one man and
sliced off a good portion of the other man’s forehead before they both ran
away. My grandmother was so impressed with his strength, she asked him to go
out with her. The rest, as they say, is history.”

“That’s a pretty cool story,” Blade replied.

“Which brings me to the question of how the two of you first
met?” Cade blurted. This walk down memory lane was the perfect opportunity to
find out a little about their past relationship.

Both Reena and Blade frowned. Neither said a thing.

Okay. So, why had Blade been so gung-ho last night about her
sweet pussy? And why did he possess other sexual knowledge about her if there
wasn’t some kind of serious thing going on?

“Something I said?” he prodded.

Uneasiness swept through him and he didn’t like the flicker
of darkness in Reena’s eyes.

“It is private,” Blade said, tossing Cade a cool gaze that
asked him to back off.

“Actually, I should tell him, Blade. I owe both of you the
whole truth. Why don’t I make us some coffee and we can talk?”

She stood, turned and headed back toward the kitchen,
sighing heavily.

Nope, she was not looking forward to this confession.

Chapter Nine

Up until a few minutes ago, Reena had been damned
irresistible in tight jeans and a navy-blue sweater that perfectly hugged the
curves of her breasts. But as she stood silently, staring out the nearby window,
her arms crossed over her breasts, she appeared serious and untouchable. Maybe
she was thinking about those hunters who’d roughed her up the other day. Blade
was surprised she hadn’t shown herself to be more deeply affected by that
experience. She was probably just good at hiding her emotions.

Except for now.

His gaze drifted to Cade, who was also watching her with
concern. He had probably never been a threat to her. Most likely, if Blade
hadn’t come along, she and Cade would have gotten together sometime on the
trail back to civilization. She would have been dead months ago if Blade hadn’t
developed this sexual desire for her and hesitated pulling the trigger the two
times he’d had the chance. It seemed like such a long time ago. So damn long.

Will winced at the sudden jolt of pain zipping through his
chest, compliments of the bullet wound that still ached whenever he moved too
quickly. He tried to ignore the discomfort and shifted in his seat, returning
to studying the satellite phone he’d partially pieced together. The sizzle of
pain reminded him that he was recovering from a bullet wound and shouldn’t be
thinking about having sex with her again. Not until he was a hell of a lot more
healed.

“You’ve been fiddling with that all day. Any ideas if you
can fix it?” Cade asked in a low voice so Reena wouldn’t hear. Blade knew the
last thing Cade wanted was for Reena to get on the phone and call the
Resistance. If the Outlaw brothers discovered Cade’s bounty was Tyler’s good
friend, there would be hell to pay.

“I’m pretty sure the damage can’t be reversed,” Blade said
truthfully and gazed over at Red, still staring out the window. His balls
tightened in awareness of her beauty and his protective instincts concerning
her made his heart pick up speed.

“She looks stressed,” Cade commented.

“Fucking her 24/7 would take care of that problem, but I
don’t think she’d want that.”

Cade chuckled. “She just might if last night was an indication.”

Blade gritted his teeth as his cock twitched against his
pants. Memories of her sensual whimpers stroked his senses, the powerful orgasm
he’d experienced in her sweet, tight mouth.

“By the serious look on her face, having sex with us again
is the farthest thing from her mind.”

“Do you have any idea what she wants to discuss?”

Blade let out a low, deep sigh that didn’t loosen any of the
tension tightening his body. He suspected he knew what Reena wanted to talk
about. If his suspicions were correct, he may as well give Cade the lowdown and
soften the blow by a few minutes.

“Most likely, her time as a pleasure slave would be my best guess.”

Cade’s mouth dropped open in shock. His face went a bit pale
behind his healthy outdoor tan. It appeared Cade hadn’t been briefed on that
short period of her life.

“Are you serious?” he asked in a strangled voice.

Blade shrugged and returned to working on the radio. He
wished he’d just kept his big mouth shut.

* * * * *

Cade reeled from this newest tidbit of information. Reena
had been a pleasure slave? But he quickly reined in his surprise. Reena’s
father had mentioned he’d lost touch with his daughter while she’d been in the Terrorist
Wars. Cade knew women had been forced into weekly R & R sex with the
soldiers. Her father had said he’d tried to protect her for as long as
possible, but then he’d lost contact with her.

Is that what Blade had been referring to? Her time in the Wars?
Before he could question Blade further, Reena thrust a mug of black coffee in
front of his face and the moist steam whispered against his cheeks. When he
accepted the coffee and looked up at her, his gut clenched at the torment
etching her facial features. For a woman in her early twenties, she suddenly appeared
many years older. She was a woman of vast sexual experience—good and bad—and he
got the feeling she was about to tell them the really bad part.

Suddenly he wished he was anywhere but here.

* * * * *

Reena didn’t want to explain her past to the two men. But
the intense way they’d been looking at her all day made her realize she had to
say something. Their we-want-to-have-more-sex-with-you stares and her own
cravings to experience more pleasure with them made her want to remind them she
wasn’t some dainty virgin who was just starting to explore sex. She was
experienced and she’d put her life in danger on many occasions for the Cause. If
she needed to die in order to help free women from the insane Claiming Law, the
same that gave men the right to rape women and take them as wives against their
will, then she was quite willing to make that sacrifice.

At least she had been until last night. Before then, she’d
used sex to gain something. During the Terrorist Wars she’d disciplined herself
into not thinking about what happened to her on a daily basis. Instead she’d
turned her emotions inward, hidden her dreams, forgotten her desires for a man
to love her and cut off all ideas of having kids and a family. She’d buried it
all deep inside. Concealed her dreams somewhere safe, where no insane Claiming
Law or X-virus or R & R could reach and ruin them.

She’d turned cold toward men. She’d lost her innocence and
trust because of what she’d been forced to endure. But in such a short time, Cade
and Will had snuck past her defenses.

They’d allowed her to trust again. Trust in strangers. With
that trust, hope had been bursting through her all day. Hope for all women. Because
if two guys she barely knew would put their own lives at risk to save hers, this
meant all men weren’t as bad as she’d originally believed.

Sure, Cade had an agenda to keep her alive so he could get
his bounty, but Will didn’t. He could have shot her in that camp with all those
hunters and left Cade to fight it out with those men. Cade could have killed
Blade when they’d discovered her missing and come after her alone. But he
hadn’t. The two men, working on opposite sides—one to kill her and one to take
her in—had banded together against bad odds to rescue her.

She had hope for man again and this was the best she’d felt
in a long time. But before she let her hopes grow, she needed to tell them the
truth. People said “the truth shall set you free.” She hoped they were right in
her case.

Emotions, thick and raw, welled up as she sat down upon the
chair she’d occupied earlier. Both men stared expectantly at her as they nursed
their coffees. Once again, they looked at her as if she was just some normal
woman they could have sex with.

She closed her eyes and breathed deep, gathering her
courage. She hoped one or both men would reassure her that whatever she said
wouldn’t change things. Better yet, she hoped they urged her not to tell them
anything.

They remained silent.

She opened her eyes. Both men were smiling encouragement at
her. Gosh, they were both so cute. One dark-haired, the other fair. Her
rescuers. Her guys.

She shook away those thoughts and concentrated on what she
needed to say.

“During the Wars, I was forced to serve many soldiers,” she
said. If the men were shocked, their faces didn’t show it and this encouraged
her to continue. “I went into the R & R program unwillingly, as many other
surviving women did. We were required to have sex with our colleagues,
subordinates and bosses.

“We were sexual chattel, comfort women for soldiers, our
rights stripped away. We were put on a weekly schedule to work eight hours a
day. Half an hour for each man. At night we were bedded by superiors and slept
in their beds. Our health was of the utmost importance. Condoms and spermicide,
as well as other forms of birth control, were mandatory. Video surveillance was
24/7. I learned to cope. I learned to please. I learned to hate.”

She stopped speaking as a quiver of rage made its way into
her voice. It was very difficult to maintain eye contact with both men and, despite
them trying to appear strong and indifferent, Will’s fists were clenched in
anger and muscles spasmed in Cade’s cheeks as he ground his teeth together.

“I also learned to listen. While they fucked me, the men’s
guards were lowered. I pumped them for information. Anything and everything I
found useful about them, I tucked away in my brain, because I knew someday I
would use the information against them. And I did. Since I came back to the
United States, many military installations have been taken out under mysterious
circumstances because of what I learned during those days.”

“So, effectively, you became a spy,” Cade said.

“It’s why the government wants me. They don’t want to talk to
me about a compromise. They want to know what I know.”

“Which is?” Blade asked.

“I have told my people enough to keep the Resistance active
for quite some time. Most of what I know has been filtered through the ranks.” Reena
wasn’t afraid of the information getting out. It would just make the government
shake in their boots. “As with most of the members of the Resistance, I went
undercover, too. Where the opportunity exists to gather more information on
powerful men, we go in and get it using any means necessary—and that includes
sleeping with them.” She turned her attention to Will. “That’s why I was at the
Pleasure Palace when your SKULL men thought they were rescuing me. My getting
caught and sent there was a well-orchestrated plan. While at the palace, I was
a sex slave for a couple generals from whom I was able to pump some extremely
valuable information regarding White House security. Last month’s suicide
bomber inside the presidential palace was compliments of yours truly.”

“Twenty people died and more than a hundred were injured,”
Cade replied.

She detected the disappointment in his voice and was glad
she’d told him. Told both of them the truth about who she really was, what
she’d done and, hopefully, give them an idea of what she was capable of doing.

“Do you feel guilty over those people being killed and
injured?” Blade asked.

Her heart caught at that unexpected question. Damn him. Guilt,
thick and hurtful, bubbled up from somewhere deep inside of her.

Shit.
She thought she had a lid on that emotion.

“She doesn’t need to answer that. It’s written all over her
face,” Cade said roughly.

“She wouldn’t be human if she didn’t,” Blade replied,
keeping his gaze fixed to her face.

“Why are you telling us this?” Cade asked. His soft words
smoothed over her tattered heart. She’d expected his disappointment to linger,
but Cade seemed more concerned for her over the horrible thing that had
happened. They still didn’t know the whole story.

“Because you two saved my life. You should know who you
saved.”

“Do you not think your life is worth saving?” Blade prodded.

She couldn’t help but wince as the question lanced through
her. Yeah, she’d thought that a couple of times.

“Is that why you’ve been biting off everyone’s head? Is that
why you came out here alone?” Cade asked. “Because the guilt of that suicide
bomber, who acted on her own, was eating you up inside?”

“How do you know all of this?” she asked him. “It isn’t
common knowledge that the woman went rogue on us.”

Cade shrugged casually. “I overheard someone talking.
Someone in the Resistance.”

She wondered if he was talking about his brother Tyler and
Tyler’s woman Laurie. He did live with them. They probably talked, maybe even
in front of Cade. Laurie and Tyler had suggested Reena get counseling to deal
with the renegade suicide bomber. Reena had trusted only a handful of women
with the information she had discovered while sleeping with that general, and
one of those trusted women had rolled on her, turning into a suicide bomber.
The break in trust had shattered Reena’s ability to read the women in her most
trusted group. If she couldn’t trust those closest to her to follow orders and
remain mentally and emotionally stable, then who the hell could she trust?

“Yeah, I guess that’s why I’m being a bitch,” she
acknowledged.

“I wouldn’t say you’re a bitch.” Blade chuckled, setting a
part of the satellite phone down on the floor near his seat.

“Definitely not a bitch,” Cade remarked. He winked at her.

She liked the searing way their gazes slid over her entire
body. It made her feel just a tad better. After revealing both her vulnerable
and evil side at the same time, they still looked at her in the same
appreciative way. Even with all the blood of those people on her hands.

“If you didn’t order a suicide bomber to go in there, then
the deaths are not your fault,” Cade continued in a soft voice that wreaked
havoc upon her senses.

“She did what she did based on what I told her. I should
have read my people better. She was one of my strongest women. I trusted her,”
Reena confessed.

“Even the strongest of us can snap, Red,” Blade soothed.
“I’ve seen it a few times. People you least expect to roll take matters into
their own hands. You can never be a hundred percent sure of the mental
stability of someone. It’s the chance you take when bringing someone into your
confidence.”

“This empathy coming from a man who wants me dead?” Red
blurted. She wanted to know if Blade still truly wanted to kill her. Had the
sex they shared just been sex? Or something more than that?

Beside her, Cade stiffened as if sensing an argument.

Anger spark in Blade’s eyes and she read a distinct warning
to back off.

“He’s not going to hurt you. Ever. Right, Will?” Cade’s
voice was cool and demanding.

Blade snapped his gaze to Cade. “If I wanted to hurt her,
she would have been dead months ago—that first time you stopped me.”