The Escape (4 page)

Jenna, even if she was dangerous, was beautiful, and she knew it. He hadn’t gotten laid since the Pulse. The girl he’d been dating before it happened—he never saw her again. Without cell phones, they just never found each other. He liked to imagine that she’d escaped the city, but with most people dead and the rest at Grand Central, he knew, in his heart, that she didn’t make it. Like the others.

“If you’re really not gay,” Jenna said, “then I’m not good enough for you? Don’t want used goods, am I right?”

Barker didn’t answer. It did bother him that she’d slept her way through the military, but he also knew that wasn’t her fault.

“We didn’t do a very good job of keeping you safe, Jenna. And I’m sorry about that.” He looked her in the eye so she’d know he meant it.

To his surprise, her blue eyes were wet with tears.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and started to wipe her face, as if she’d already forgotten she was cuffed.

“Please . . . don’t thank me.”

“No, I mean—thank you for looking at me like a human, instead of like . . . prey. Haven’t seen that in a while.”

Barker didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing.

“Let’s go.” He took her carefully by the arm, and they walked.

The sun had
been slowly setting for the past half an hour, but Jenna trudged on with Barker, and didn’t say a word. All of her progress walking away from Grand Central, and now it was being reversed, step by step.

Damn it. It wasn’t fair.

Think, Jenna.

The best way to get what she wanted—the one way that always worked for her since the Pulse—was to use her body. Sex was power, it was her currency. Her body was better than gold when it came to getting what she needed. If she’d learned anything in the past year, it was that.

She had to get him to sleep with her. It was the only way she knew to control the situation. But if he’d been able to resist her lying on the ground with her pants down, what else could she do? He was so different from most of the soldiers who visited the Tracks.

His body, his movements, everything about him screamed “man.” Straight man. Jenna liked to think she had pretty good gaydar, and she wasn’t surprised when he told her he wasn’t gay. So it must be something about her that he wasn’t attracted to.

“It’s getting dark,” Barker said, and stopped walking.

Jenna looked at him. “Do you feel how spooky the city is now? Or is it just me?”

“It’s . . . different. Without the people.” Barker shrugged.

“Please, untie my hands. My back is killing me walking like this. I promise I won’t try to run again.”

“I’ll cuff them in front, so you can stretch a bit. But I can’t have you running off in the night. I need to tie your legs too, when we sleep.”

“We’re stopping?”

That was good. Anything to delay the inevitable, and to give her more time alone with him, to seduce him. Maybe change his mind.

“We have no choice,” he said sharply. “Come on.”

“Wait. My hands, please. Please.”

Barker looked down, as if he were ashamed he’d been making her walk with her hands tied. “I’m really sorry about all this. I never wanted to do this, you know that.”

“You don’t have to do what they say, Barker. You’re your own man. You can do what you want.”

“That’s a nice fantasy,” he smirked.

He pulled a switchblade from his pants and cut her free, but held her hands and pulled them around to her front, massaging them. “Are your hands okay?”

“No,” she lied. “They’re numb. You had the zip-tie on too tight.”

Not true, but she wanted him to feel as bad for her as he could. He held her hands between his large, warm ones, rubbing them.

Jenna smiled at him. “What did you do before the Pulse?”

“Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters. We used to be different people, all of us. Do you think I used to be a whore? No. Do you think a year ago, you’d have been dragging me, tied up, to my execution? No.”

Barker shook his head. “Just taking you in for questioning, okay? Stop saying that.”

“You need to get real, Barker. You’re a smart guy. Think about it, please. The Colonel
will
kill me. And my blood will be on your hands.”

“Stop.” He dropped her hands from his, and Jenna winced, ready for the blow she felt sure would come.

“Hey—” Barker touched her chin, angling her face up to his. “I’m not going to hit you. Goddamn it. This is so fucked up.”

“I’m sorry.”

He sighed. “Me too, Jenna. Me too. You don’t want to run away from me in the dark, right?”

“No, sir.”

“Good. Then hold my hand, and we’ll walk like that for a bit, okay? If you let go and run, I’ll tie you up again. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Jenna smiled and took his hand, reveling in its warmth. She wouldn’t run, not now. Not when she was so tired, and everything hurt. They’d sleep, and she’d find a way to get his gun and escape when he was passed out.

“I used to be a lawyer,” he said. “Lot of good that did me.”

“Maybe you could represent me when I talk to the Colonel.”

He laughed. “Wasn’t that kind of lawyer.”

“I used to be an office manager,” she offered. “And I was single then, too.”

When he didn’t say anything, just kept walking, looking at each building they passed, she sighed. “What about you? Is that why you don’t want me? A wife somewhere?”

“I had a girlfriend. I think she’s dead, though.” He said the words with no emotion, as if he was relaying the information without thinking about what it actually meant.

“I’m so sorry, Barker. That’s terrible.”

“My loss is nothing like what other people have gone through, though. People whose children died. Wives. Babies. If we dwell on it, we’d never be able to get up in the morning. So I don’t dwell.”

“Gotcha.”

“Here we go.” He stopped and pointed to an apartment building. “Let’s squat here tonight. We’ll be safer inside, where we can barricade the door.”

“There’re bodies in there. The place will be haunted.”

“Come on.” He had to give her hand a tug to get her to move toward the door.

“It’s a bad idea.”

“No, it’s not. We have no idea if there are criminal elements running around at night. We’ll be safe if we have four walls around us and a roof over heads. Warmer, too.”

“How do we know this place isn’t already being used by this ‘criminal element’?”

He didn’t answer. “Now.”

Fuck. Jenna followed him, hoping she wouldn’t see any dead people.

“Let’s go up the back stairs,” he said, and opened the door for her. The darkness was thick and cold and complete when the door shut.

“I can’t see anything,” she whispered.

“Just hold on to me, and to the rail. I’ve got my hand on the wall. We’re going up one flight, and we’ll go in the door at the landing.”

“Okay.” She stepped slowly, tentatively, praying her toes didn’t encounter anything in her path. Like dead rats, or worse, people.

When they felt their way to the first landing, she clung to him, feeling his muscular body beneath his uniform. And feeling the edge of his rifle as it swung against his body on its strap.

With a grunt, he opened the fire door and pulled her into the corridor. Still completely black.

“Where are we going if we can’t see?” she asked.

“To the left. Most people will go to the right, so we’ll go to the left, okay? And I’ll feel along the wall for a door.”

She had her arm around his waist, terrified of being separated from him.
This building is full of ghosts
.

“Here we go.” He pushed open a door, and it swung open, since it had already been broken into at some point.

Finally, blessed light! Thin moonlight shone in through the open windows. Sprayed on the door, she could see now a white circle with an X through it, and numbers: 1 dead, 0 alive.

“Someone died here,” she whispered. “Look.”

Jenna pointed first to the spray paint that the soldiers had put on all the doors when they searched the buildings for survivors, then to the bloated, disfigured foot sticking out from under a thick layer of blankets huddled on the couch. Vermin had gotten to it, tearing chunks of flesh from the bone.

“I’ll move the body. Stay here.”

“No, don’t move it, don’t touch it, Barker!” Jenna looked at him in fright. “Please, don’t touch it. There’s only one body, so let’s just go into the bedroom and sleep in the bed, okay? Please? Leave the body.”

“Yeah, okay. You don’t have to twist my arm on that one.”

“He must have died last winter, without heat, or food,” Jenna whispered.

“That’s what would happen to you, too, if I hadn’t found you.”

“Well, at least I won’t be cold or hungry right before I’m executed,” Jenna said dryly.

“Enough.”

Barker pulled her quickly past the corpse, and into the bedroom. The moonlight lit it dimly, and she could see a queen-sized bed with only a sheet on it.

“Damn it. The dead guy took all the blankets to keep warm.”

This is it. Time to shine, Jenna.

She smiled and slowly pulled her shirt off. “I heard the best way to stay warm is to have body heat. Let’s strip and cuddle up. I’ll keep you warm, soldier.”

Barker couldn’t tear
his eyes away from her full breasts, naked and so beautiful. It had been too long.

God, how he wanted to wrap her in his arms and forget everything, for just one night.

No. Don’t do it. You can’t do it.

“Put your shirt on, Jenna.” He turned his back to her, confident she wouldn’t escape in the pitch-blackness outside the room, not with the way she’d clung to him earlier.

He waited for her to tease him about being gay again, but she didn’t. He heard the sounds of her putting her shirt on. The bed creaked when she sat on it.

“I must really disgust you,” she said softly. “I’m sorry.”

“No,” he said, swallowing hard. “You do not disgust me. Not at all.” He knelt down on the carpet and looked up at her pretty face. “You’re incredibly beautiful, Jenna. I want you, I do. But I refuse to take advantage of you.”

“I’m offering myself to you.”

“Would you have done that back in the day? Before the Pulse?”

“Everything’s different now.”

Barker got up and sat beside her on the bed. “Everything’s different, but I’m not. At least, I’m trying not to be.”

“See?” Jenna wrapped her arms around him, surprising him with the ferocity of her embrace. “You’re a good guy, Barker. You don’t want me to die. Don’t take me back there.”

Her body felt so good pressed against his, so right. Here, unlike the Tracks, they’d have real privacy. A bed. They could lose themselves in each other’s arms and pretend everything was normal, if only for a few hours.

“Are you hungry?” he asked. “I have food, in my bag. Water.”

“Yes.” Her voice sounded so small, like a child.

He pulled his bag on the bed and opened it. “I have a sleeping bag. We’ll use that as a blanket, okay? On the bed.”

Jenna smiled. “That sounds lovely. I haven’t slept on a proper bed in a long time.”

Barker smiled back. “I have two weeks of rations, because they didn’t know how long it would take for me to find you. We can eat until we’re full, if we want.”

“I don’t even remember what that feels like,” Jenna laughed.

He handed her two thick pieces of bread, and several strips of dried meat. It was chewy, but it did the trick.

They ate in uneasy silence. What would happen when they were done eating, and it was time to go to sleep?

He wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to resist her.

“Barker?” she asked, swallowing some water. “Do you miss your girlfriend? Is that why you don’t want to be with me?”

“I can’t even remember what she looks like anymore. Whenever I try to picture her face, it’s not quite right. So I don’t try anymore.”

“Why did you give me your ration that time?”

Barker shrugged. “Because I wanted to go to sleep that night, knowing you were sleeping too. Not—not being abused by one of the assholes who call themselves soldiers.”

“Sometimes I like it, though. A lot of times. Does that bother you? That I might like being a whore?”

Her long, unkempt blonde hair fell into her eyes, and he resisted the urge to touch her, to smooth it in place for her.

“I guess it’s better that way. Better than being like some of those other women. The ones who show up for morning rations with bruises. But don’t ever call yourself a whore again.”

His anger simmered within him.
Fuck.
He wished he could shoot the Colonel himself and take over, make everyone toe the fucking line and get their shit together.

Whoa. Where did that come from?

Something about this entire situation, being with Jenna, seeing her fear about being killed—it made him see everything he thought he knew about the camp in a different light.

Could he really trust the Colonel?

“Thank you for dinner, Barker.”

“I’m glad I got an opportunity to feed you,” he said.

“Let’s go to bed,” she whispered. “But . . . I sleep naked. Just thought I should warn you.”

Barker laughed, his mood considerably brightened now that his belly was full, and they were safe for the night. Alone. In a bedroom, with a bed.

And with a beautiful woman who was throwing herself at him.

“Fuck it,” he said, and set his rifle down on the dresser top. He noticed her eyes follow his movements, but she quickly looked back at him, and grinned.

“Well, hello there. Glad we’re finally on the same page.”

She started to pull her own top off again, but Barker pulled her in close, and stripped it off for her, running his hands along her curves. Her hips flared out despite the lack of any extra meat on her, and he held her ass through her pants, his cock hardening.

“Fuck yeah, soldier,” she murmured against his lips. “Let’s do this.”

Jenna
kissed him deeply, her face angled up to meet his. He was so tall, and so strong. So fucking hot.

But she couldn’t let her desire cloud her thinking. She had to keep her goal in mind.

Get him to fall asleep, to let his guard down. Then grab the gun.

Barker pulled her tightly to him, and she moaned, her panties dampening from his touch. Part of her was conflicted about manipulating him, but the other part—the survivor in her—couldn’t stop thinking about what the morning would bring if he succeeded in taking her back to Grand Central.

Back to hell.

“We could do this every night. Find our own place, hole up . . .” she whispered.

“Please, Jenna . . . Everything’s going to be okay. Pretend with me, just for tonight, that everything is fine.” His fingers dipped between her legs, and she inhaled sharply.

Fuck, that felt good.

“Okay.”

She stood on her tiptoes, trying to give him better access. He teased her wet pussy with his fingers, rubbing her clit. God, when was the last time a man took his time bringing her pleasure?

It had been way too long.

“Get on the bed,” he said softly. “I’ve been wanting to do this since I first saw you.”

She grinned and hopped on the bed. “How do you want me?”

“On your back. Legs spread. Just like that.” He smiled down at her and shook his head. “You’re so fucking amazing, you know that, right?”

Jenna licked the tip of her finger and ran it through the short curls on her mound, finding herself wet.

“I’m ready for you.”

“Mmmm.” Barker settled himself between her legs and dropped a tender kiss to her inner thigh. “I won’t consider you ready until you’re begging for it.”

She let her head loll back on the pillow, luxuriating in the feel of something soft beneath her head, of a real bed beneath her thighs instead of a thin, dirty mattress on the floor of a subway car.

And then he licked her.

Jenna ran her fingers over his shaved head, wishing he had hair she could tangle her fingers into. Wishing he didn’t look like a soldier.

The gun. Don’t forget the gun
.

But all thoughts of escape fled her mind as he took her body to the edge of climax and kept her there for what seemed like ages, kissing her, licking her, sliding his fingers deep inside.

She came hard, gasping, and gripped the sheet until her knuckles turned white.

“Fuck me, please, Barker, fuck me,” she moaned. “I need it.”

He pulled himself up to her face, his lips shiny with her gloss. “For a dirty girl, you taste really good.”

She laughed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Come on. I begged—I’m begging. Please.”

With a hard thrust, he was inside her, his cock filling her.

She gasped at the intensity of the sensation. He was fucking
huge
. “Holy shit.”

“Are you okay?” He paused, not moving, letting her body become accustomed to his size.

“Better than okay.” She rocked her hips up to meet his, taking in all of him.

Barker groaned and slid out before thrusting into her again.

“I need to do this quickly first, and then I’ll be able to take my time with you,” he whispered. “So hold on.”

Jenna gripped his back, wrapping her legs around his waist as he rammed into her again and again, the bed slamming against the wall with each thrust.

He fucked her so hard it hurt, the erotic pain melding into pleasure with the pressure on her G-spot. Her pussy spasmed around his cock, and he moaned, his face distorting into a primal grimace as he came with a hoarse shout.

“Don’t move,” he warned. “I’m not done. I just need a minute.”

Jenna laughed. “My pussy needs a minute, too, after that.”

Barker frowned and pulled out of her, caressing her sensitive folds. “Everything okay?”

“I’m a whore, Barker, not a virgin.” She sighed.

Suddenly she was facedown against the bed, and Barker spanked her ass with one hard swat.

“Hey!” Jenna scrambled to the top of the bed. “What was that for?”

“You are officially no longer a whore. I don’t ever want to hear those words come from your mouth again.”

“Well, I am.”

Barker shook his head and pulled her over his naked lap again, spanking her just once, but hard.

Jenna felt a flush rise through her body, warming her cheeks. She sat up.

He looked at her sternly. “You did what you had to do, and now you don’t have to anymore. When we go back to the camp, I’ll make sure you get what you need.”

The camp. When would he realize that taking her there would be a death sentence?

“That sounds great,” she said simply, because arguing him would only make him more alert, more aware of what she was doing. And she needed him passed out.

“Sorry about that,” he said, nodding toward her spank-reddened ass.

“That’s okay. . . . I’m used to men lying to me.”

Barker stood, naked, from the bed. Even in a semi-flaccid state, he was hung like a horse. “Whoa. What do you mean, lying? How did I lie?”

“You told me you wouldn’t hit me. My ass knows otherwise.”

“There’s a big difference between a little spanking and punching a woman in the face.”

Jenna shrugged. “Okay. Didn’t realize you were kinky.”

“I’m not. I’m a traditionalist, if anything. My girlfriend used to love it when I gave her a bit of a discipline spanking. Guess I’m . . . out of touch.”

“Okay, so we’re back in the fifties, then.”

Stop arguing with him, Jenna. Shut up already.

But she was never very good about shutting up.

“I’ll play your sweet little housewife,” she said, “you’ll play the hardworking husband who spanks his wife for not having dinner on the table at six.”

He shook his head. “Forget it. Sorry I cared that you were degrading yourself. Calling yourself a whore.”

Fuck.

“No, wait, Barker. . . . I’m sorry. I think I’d rather be a fifties housewife than a prostitute. Really.”

“I didn’t say anything about wanting a housewife, okay? I just wanted to get your attention, and spanking you just happened. Probably because your naked ass was right there.”

“Ah, yes. Blame the woman’s naked ass for asking for a spanking.”

“I’m going to sleep with the dead guy,” he said, and started to grab his rifle.

“No!” Jenna jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, desperate to get him away from his gun, and back into the bed. “You promised me another round.”

“I don’t think we’re such a good match, after all.”

“Please, please, come back to bed,” she begged, reaching down between their bodies. She grabbed hold of his cock, wrapping her fingers around it.

“Let go.”

Jenna ignored him and dropped to her knees, putting her mouth on the tip and swirling her tongue around the salty slit.

“Don’t do this, Jenna,” he groaned, but he wasn’t fighting her. No, his hands were in her hair now—and he wasn’t pushing her away.

His cock tasted like sex, and she took as much of him into her mouth as she could, gently stroking the rest with her hands.

“You don’t have to do this. . . .” he said, but his eyes were closed.

“I want to,” she whispered. “Lie down, you’ll be more comfortable.”

To her surprise, he listened, stumbling backward until he hit the bed. She ran her hands up his thick, strong thighs and swallowed his cock again.

“I’m sorry I spanked you,” he said.

“I think you were right, if it makes you feel better,” she said, taking her lips off him. “I promise not to call myself a whore anymore.”

“Good.”

He was hard, so hard.

“Just relax and let me do all the work this time,” Jenna said, and straddled his muscular legs.

Barker smiled up at her and moaned with desire as she sank down onto him.

She leaned forward, circling her hips slowly, using his body for her pleasure. They rocked together like this, with her on top, until she climaxed magnificently and gasped his name into the dark night.

Her orgasm sent him over the edge, and he grabbed her hips, lifting her up and down on his cock until he came hard, exploding inside of her.

She fell forward, her head resting on his shoulder, listening to their light panting until her heartbeat slowed.

“Sleep with me tonight,” she whispered. “Keep me warm.”

Barker pulled her into the crook of his arm and spread the sleeping bag over them. “Everything’s going to be all right,” he murmured.

“Where would you be, if you could be anywhere in the world right now?” she asked softly, feeling the rise and fall of his chest.

“Right here.”

“Think about it. Where would you be, you know, to be safe?”

“We’re safe tonight,” he said, kissing the top of her hair.

“I’d be fishing on the coast somewhere. Eating well every night. Getting a tan.”

“I love fishing,” he murmured. “And sailing. Used to go sailing all the time with my dad, you know . . . before. We’ve got a boat at the Locust Point Marina. Used to sail out to the Long Island Sound.”

“Never heard of that marina.”

He laughed softly. “It’s random. In the Bronx, off the Throgs Neck.”

“I like random,” she said. “I’m going to dream about that. A boat. Sailing.”

“I wish I could take you there,” he whispered.

“It’s a date,” she said, and smiled.

They fell asleep, comforted by each other’s nearness. The night was eerily silent without the sound of people or traffic that used to flow beneath every apartment window.

Jenna woke with a start at morning’s first light.

Fuck.

She hadn’t meant to sleep so long. Barker was still passed out next to her, his arm shielding his handsome face from the light.

Slowly, carefully, Jenna extricated herself from the bed and pulled her clothes on. She grabbed his backpack of supplies and put it on, surprised by how heavy it was.

The sleeping bag would help, but she couldn’t risk taking it without waking him up.

Get the gun and go.

Imagining him waking up, only to realize he’d been duped, bothered her.

Forget him. Get the gun or you’ll be dead.

She grabbed his gun, and headed for the door.

Barker felt more
comfortable than he had in ages. With his eyes closed, he could pretend he was back home, before the Pulse hit and everything changed. Before he became one of Colonel Lanche’s soldiers.

He’d dreamed about his father’s boat last night, something he hadn’t thought about in ages, not until Jenna brought it up. Some of his best memories were on that boat. It was sweet that she wanted to dream about it too.

Barker opened his eyes. The bed was empty. Jenna was gone.

“Jenna?”

Please let her be taking a piss somewhere.

No answer.

But, more telling . . . his rifle was missing.

“No. No, fucking
hell
no.” Barker jumped out of bed, naked, and threw his pants and shirt on, not taking the time to button them.

His bag was gone too. The bitch stole his gear.

And to think, just two minutes ago he was lying in bed, thinking how happy he was, in that moment.

It had all been a lie.

No wonder she hadn’t wanted him to take his gun and sleep in the other room. She’d completely played him.

“I am a stupid motherfucker,” he said to the empty room.

Now he had to hunt her down, all over again. But this time, he wasn’t going to play nice.

Jenna ran as
fast as she could, away from the apartment building and away from Grand Central. Barker would wake up soon, if he hadn’t already, and she needed to put as much distance between them as she could.

He’s going to be so angry.

Well, it didn’t matter. What did it matter, right? It didn’t. She had to live, and if she had to betray the one man who’d actually been good to her, then that was it.

Her lungs hurt, but she pounded the pavement, keeping close to the buildings and out of the street as much as possible to avoid being seen.

He would find her. Surely he would. There was no way he’d go back to Grand Central empty-handed and face the Colonel’s wrath.

But he had no weapon now. If he came after her, she had his gun and she could shoot him dead.

One less thing to worry about, if she killed him. It could be days before the Colonel sent out a recovery team to find them, if ever.

She tried to picture it in her mind, to visualize the scene, so that when it happened she’d be better prepared for it. It was a trick her therapist had taught her years ago, when she was having anxiety. All she had to do was imagine whatever worried her playing out perfectly in her mind.

Okay. So run, and imagine.

It would start like this, she supposed. She’d be running. And Barker would come up behind her, shouting for her to stop.

Jenna stopped as if it were actually happening, and hefted the rifle up. It wasn’t as heavy as it looked, and after seeing the soldiers carrying them for so long, she knew how to hold it, keeping her finger outside the trigger guard until she was ready to shoot.