Silas Read online

  Christa and I watched him.

  When he reached them, he picked up one of the fat electrical cables. “Dead,” he called back at us. “No electricity running through them.”

  “Is that bad?” said Christa.

  “Fuck.” Emmett kicked the downed tangle of wood and wire.

  * * *

  “Must have been old power lines,” said Emmett. We were all sitting in the woods. Night had fallen. We hadn’t had the will to go any further that day. “Maybe they ran them out here a long time ago. I should have been suspicious when the grass hadn’t been cut. Should have realized that if they aren’t being maintained, they aren’t actually in use.”

  “You couldn’t have known,” Christa said, putting a hand on his forearm.

  He looked up at her, into her eyes.

  Her hand lingered on his skin.

  Okay, what the fuck was up with that? Why was she touching him like that? “Yeah, it’s not your fault, Emmett,” I said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re screwed now.”

  “Hey,” said Christa, removing her hand. “Don’t attack him.”

  “I wasn’t,” I said. “I was just stating a fact.” I was pleased that she wasn’t touching him anymore, but I wasn’t happy that she was defending him.

  “We were always screwed,” said Emmett. “We’ll just… we’ll have to think of another way out of here.”

  Right. A way out. That was what we needed. I had promised that I’d get Christa out of this. There had to be a way. But right now, I had to admit, it seemed sort of hopeless.

  Christa leaned back against a tree trunk. “I feel like I should be crying or something, but I don’t seem to have the energy for it. This has been such a bad day. First Milo, then this.”

  “Yeah,” I said dryly, “and don’t forget the men chasing us trying to shoot us dead.”

  “Oh whatever, Silas,” said Emmett. “How many times you been shot already? You don’t even have any idea what it’s like for the rest of us, do you?”

  “Sure I do,” I said.

  “No,” he said. “You can’t, because you aren’t in the same kind of danger we are. It only takes one second for it to be over for us. We took a break this morning, and Milo got shot. One second fine, the next second dead.”

  “We only took that damned break because Milo was wounded,” I said. “He was probably going to die anyway from that arm wound. Only more slowly and more painfully.”

  “And Silas says stupid jerky things,” said Christa, rolling her eyes. “As usual.”

  “It’s the truth,” I said. Christa confused the hell out of me. She spent half her time trying to touch my dick and the other half calling me names. “Look, I’m not saying that I wanted anything bad to happen to Milo.”

  “You didn’t even care about him,” she said.

  “I didn’t know him,” I said. “None of us did. But no matter what, he didn’t deserve to go out that way. What they did to him was fucked up.”

  Emmett laughed. “You’re saying that for her, aren’t you? Like you pulled Milo along with us before so that she wouldn’t know that you didn’t give a rip about him.”

  I glared at him. I hadn’t forgotten the fact that he’d given me up to Christa, telling her all about how I’d wanted to leave Milo behind. “No. That’s not why I’m saying it.”

  He leaned forward. “I’ve seen guys like you before, Silas. Guys that get off on violence. Guys that don’t have any kind of conscience. You might be able to fake it good enough for some people, but I see right through you. You’re nothing but a mindless killing machine.”

  “That’s not what I am,” I said.

  He turned to Christa. “We’d be better off without him. He’s going to take bad risks. He’s going to put us in danger. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”

  What the hell? “No. That’s not true.”

  Christa furrowed her brow. “You want us to leave Silas behind?”

  “He’d leave either of us behind if it suited him,” said Emmett.

  “I wouldn’t,” I said.

  “Of course you would,” said Emmett. “What kind of guy are you, anyway? You’re an assassin. You kill for money—”

  “I was forced to kill for money.” I clenched my hands into fists. “You don’t know what it was like in Op Wraith. We had to do what they said or else they had someone else take us out. And my sister was with me. I had to protect her. So, I had to do what they said. And I had to try to keep her safe. Keep her safe from them, from her own head, from… You shouldn’t talk about things you don’t understand.”

  He just smirked. “You kill people for money, and you sleep with other men’s wives.”

  I shook my head. “You don’t understand any of it.”

  Emmett looked at Christa. “Admit it. You’re not with him, are you? You two aren’t together. You didn’t know a damned thing about him. You’ve been angry with him every minute that we’ve been here.”

  Christa shrugged. “What if we weren’t together, Emmett?”

  “We’re together,” I said. I was feeling really annoyed with Emmett for saying this shit about me.

  Christa wound a strand of hair around her finger. “Apparently, Emmett wants to fuck me too.”

  Emmett turned to her sharply. “No, that’s not at all what I’m saying.”

  She giggled. “I’d be flattered if I weren’t the only girl here.”

  Emmett looked at me, shaking his head. “I am not trying to move in on her.”

  I folded my arms over my chest. “You’re not?”

  “I swear.”

  Christa let out a dramatic sigh. “I’m sorry, Emmett, I don’t think it would work. See, we can’t leave Silas behind. He may be a big jerk, and he may kill people, and be self-centered, and all the things you said, but—”

  “I am not a jerk,” I said.

  She put her hands on her hips. “I was talking.”

  I sighed.

  “But,” she continued, “he’s invincible, so if he gets shot, he comes back. And that’s something that can be really useful to us. Besides, he’s taken care of me thus far. All I’m saying is that I don’t want to leave him behind.”

  I smiled grimly at her. “Well, thanks for that.”

  She chewed on her lip. “I’d say that you guys could just share, but given the fact that you shot the man who was fucking your wife, Emmett, I’m kind of guessing you aren’t particularly good at that.”

  Emmett’s face got red.

  My lips parted, but no sound came out. She had not just said that.

  “I’d let you, though, if I needed to,” she said. “Now that there are only two of you, I think I could handle it. As long as nobody wanted to stick it in my ass, because there’s not a lot of lube around here.”

  I coughed in surprise. I was beginning to wonder if Christa were not seriously damaged in some kind of way. I couldn’t believe she’d gone there.

  She turned to me, giving me her innocent look. “What?”

  “Oh, nothing,” I said sarcastically, “casually talking about butt sex with two guys while we’re all on the run from people shooting us is, you know, totally the most normal thing on earth. Nothing about what you’re saying is the least bit fucked up.”

  She shrugged. “Whatever. Silas, you’ve been trying to get back into my panties since the minute you got out of them, so don’t even act like you don’t want to hit this, because you do.” She turned to Emmett. “And I figure it’s probably been a long time since you got laid at all. So, you can both pretend like you weren’t thinking about it. But I know you were.” She got up. “I’m going to go find a bush to pee behind. Play nice, boys.”

  I watched her disappear into the woods.

  I looked back at Emmett. His face was still red. He wasn’t looking at me.

  “Well,” I said, “we’re, um, not exactly together.”

  He shook his head. “It really was not about trying to make the moves on her.”

  “
Yeah, she’s, um, not exactly the kind of girl who needs you to make a lot of moves.” I rubbed my face.

  He cleared his throat. “You know, let’s just drop it.”

  I didn’t figure there was much else to say.

  Christa reappeared and sat down with us again. “So, I guess we’re not having a threesome?”

  I glared at her.

  Emmett got up. “I think I’m gonna try to get some sleep.” He took off to a spot about fifteen feet away from us and laid down.

  Christa raised an eyebrow at me, grinning wickedly. “You want to snuggle, Silas?”

  “Um… that’s okay,” I said.

  I curled up by myself and tried not to think too much when I was falling asleep.

  * * *

  I floated in the sort of half-awake, half-asleep place where everything seems a little bit unreal. I was hovering in sensation—sweetness radiated through me, starting at the root of my cock and flowing through the rest of my body.

  My eyes were closed. I wasn’t quite awake. So, at first, all I knew was a fervent throb, my body grasping for deeper pleasure, yearning for release.

  A minute later, I realized that someone was touching me. There was a hand on my cock, gripping it tightly, dragging itself up and down over my sensitive flesh. I was rigid and huge, so fucking aroused.

  I sighed.

  It was good.

  It was really good.

  Instinctively, I reached out for the person touching me and was rewarded by the softness of female flesh. My hands wandered over her body, finding the springy give of her breasts. I closed my hand around one, gently squeezing.

  My hand was moved. A soft voice whispered, “Shh, that’s okay.”

  What the hell was going on?

  The hand on my dick was moving frantically on me, tugging me in the most pleasant of ways, urging my desire along. I groaned softly. I felt like I might burst at any second. I was lost in how thrilling it felt.

  I struggled to open my eyes.

  Christa was next to me. It was dark. There were dry leaves under my body, shadowy trees blocking out the night sky above.

  We were in the woods.

  We were in the woods, and Christa was jerking me off. She looked straight into my eyes as she did it, but I didn’t like her expression. There was something odd in it—a mixture of triumph and derision.

  I wanted to stop her.

  But I was too caught up in it, then. I couldn’t.

  Her expert hands moved on me, clutching me tightly, slamming back and forth.

  My climax had already been building, and it washed over me now, before I had the chance to say or do anything.

  I grunted, my entire body going stiff as rapture jolted through me.

  Christa pressed my cock against the ground, and I spilled out onto the leaves, spasming again and again.

  She let go of me, and I gasped for breath, stunned and confused.

  I watched her wipe her hand off on the leaves.

  I rolled onto my back, away from the place where I’d just ejaculated. I stared up at the shadowed leaves of the trees overhead. I tried to steady my breathing.

  What the hell?

  With trembling hands, I tucked my cock back into my pants, zipping and buttoning myself. I felt…

  She was close, but I reached up with both hands to ward her away.

  She sat back, resting on her knees, watching me.

  I sat up, pulling away from her. “Why?” I whispered.

  “You didn’t like it?” she asked.

  I shook my head.

  She raised her eyebrows. “It seemed like you liked it.”

  “Get away from me,” I breathed. “I am not your toy.”

  She gave me a funny look, but then she nodded. Once. And she got to her feet and left me.

  I shut my eyes, thinking of Sylvia, thinking of the other women like Sylvia, thinking of that same triumphant look in their eyes when they had me.

  * * *

  I awoke to a delicious smell.

  Emmett had a fire going. He’d caught three fish, and they were roasting over an open flame.

  I sat up, stretching. Christa was still asleep several feet away from me. I got up and went over to the fire. “Hey, you could have woken me up. I would have helped you fish.”

  “Nah,” he said. “Kind of would have messed up my gesture. I’m trying to apologize here.”

  “Apologize?”

  “For, uh, last night,” he said.

  “You don’t need to—”

  “You know, I really wasn’t trying to move in on her or anything like that. You have to believe me.”

  “Hey, I told you that she and I are not actually together. I’m only trying to keep her safe.”

  “I’m not that kind of guy.” He looked into the fire. “And, you know, I wish like hell that I hadn’t done what I did to Diane.”

  “Diane your wife?”

  Emmett nodded. “She didn’t deserve what I did to her. You know, when I remember it, it’s almost like someone else was doing it. Like I’m watching myself from outside of my body. It’s all hazy and strange. And when I came to, afterward there was blood everywhere, and she was dead, and I couldn’t take it back.”

  Emmett took a deep breath. “It kind of didn’t bother me that they were going to kill me. I felt like I deserved it. And I didn’t want to go on without her. Everything was fucked,” he continued. “Getting dumped in the woods like this, trying to survive… I almost forgot what it was like to want to live. But now that we’re out here, I realize I don’t want to die. Nothing like running for your life to make you appreciate it. When they kill you in jail, it’s all sterilized. They take you to a room and they do it. They don’t let you take off. They don’t let the adrenaline run in your veins. They don’t let you remember what it’s like to be free again.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say. I’d been free before I’d been dumped in here and forced to run for my life. But I knew what it was like to be imprisoned. That was what Op Wraith had been like. Stuck in a place, my free will taken away.

  He eyed me. “You think we’ll make it? Seriously? That we’ll get out of here?”

  I settled down next to him at the fire. “I think we have to try.” I paused for a minute. “I think I kind of know what you mean.”

  “What I mean about what?”

  “About it being hazy when you remember killing her?” I said. “The first time I killed anyone it was kind of like that. I don’t exactly remember doing it either. I got through it because Sloane needed me to do it. Sloane’s my sister. Anyway, they recruited me as an assassin because I was so good at it. I was never good at anything before that. Being good at killing is kind of the way I’ve defined myself for a long time.”

  “Yeah, I kind of get that too,” he said. “That’s what combat’s all about. Being good at killing.”

  “Look, let’s just forget about last night entirely,” I said. “We need to focus less on this shit and more on what we’re going to do now.”

  “Well, we keep running, right?”

  “We can only do that for so long,” I said. “The hunters are going to get to us eventually. They’re well rested and well fed, and they have guns. We’ve got nothing out here. We’re going to get too tired and too weak eventually. We need a better plan than running.”

  “I agree,” he said, “but I don’t have a plan. I thought the power lines was a good idea.”

  “And it was,” I said.

  “But beyond that, I’ve got nothing.”

  “Rolf’s the key,” I said. “If Rolf was out of the picture, the others would scatter and give up. They do what he says.”

  He nodded. “Cut off the head.”

  “Exactly,” I said.

  “But how are we going to get to him?”

  “They’ve got to have someplace that they’re staying, right? A hunting cabin or something? And they’ve got to sleep. If we could find that place, and we could strike when they were vulnerable—”
>
  “With pointed sticks?” he said. “They’ve got guns. They’d kill us all.”

  I sighed. He was right. I didn’t know what we were going to do.

  He reached out to test one of the fish. “This seems almost done. We shouldn’t let the fire go on for too long. Too conspicuous.”

  “True,” I said.

  I helped him get the fish off the fire and laid out on a rock to cool. Then, together, we kicked dirt up on the fire until the flames died into smoldering embers.

  We stomped on the smoking branches until they went out completely.

  “You want to wake up Christa?” he said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

  “Hell yes,” I said. We’d only eaten fish and nuts yesterday, and we hadn’t had anything since around noon the day before. I was weak from hunger.

  I started towards Christa.

  There was a sharp pain in the back of my head.

  I reached up to touch it.

  I was bleeding.

  And then, I heard the shot. Like it was delayed.

  I brought my hand in front of my face.

  “Silas, down!” yelled Emmett.

  Too late, I thought. I turned around to look at him.

  I was unsteady on my feet. I stumbled and fell to my knees.

  Another shot exploded through the air.

  Emmett’s neck burst open in a spray of gore.

  He screeched in pain.

  I reached out for him.

  But his eyes were going glassy, and he was falling.

  And the world was going out for me, like paper burning at the edges.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I woke up to jeering laughter. I opened my eyes.

  I was lying right where I’d fallen. I could see Emmett’s body lying on the ground. His eyes were wide open, and he was staring blankly at the sky. There was blood everywhere.

  He wasn’t the one laughing.

  I pushed myself to my feet, looking around.

  The laughing stopped.

  “You really don’t die, do you?”

  I turned around.

  The hunter was standing over Christa. She was lying on her back, gazing up at him warily, her hands up in a protective gesture.

  He had a shotgun. He whipped it up to point at me. “Rolf said you didn’t die, but I don’t think I really believed him. Sure, I thought I saw you go down that first day, but there were so many of you guys then. It was hard to keep track of who was who.”