Last week's episode ended with Duncan admitting that the alien didn't take Addy from Earth, he did. Find out why in today's episode.
If you just found CAPTIVE, you can catch up reading here: Chapter 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch 4 Ch 5 Ch 6 Ch 7 Ch 8 Ch 9 Chs 10 & 11 Ch 12 Ch 13 Ch 14 or buy the full book at your favorite retailers for only $2.99.
An abducted cop and a gladiator prisoner must learn to
trust each other with their lives…and their hearts…to escape their alien
captors.
CAPTIVE
Chapter Fifteen
“You?” Addy jumped to her feet. “Who the hell do you think you are? What gives you the right to take me and enslave me in some alien world?”
Tess’s hand covered Addy’s fist. “Addy, please calm down.”
She jerked away. “I will not calm down. I trusted him. I trusted you. And you both lied. You made me believe Ferly Mor kidnapped me when it was Duncan all along. Why? Why did you bring me here?” She turned to Tess. “Were you that desperate to be a mother?”
The slap stung Addy’s cheek. Her eyes watered.
Tess gasped and covered her mouth. Shock and terror whitened her pale face even more. “I’m sorry, Addy. I didn’t mean to hit you.”
Addy’s heart wrenched so hard a tight pain rippled through her chest and down her arm. It was as though a Hyborean had sat on her torso. Her legs trembled. She sat on the couch before she collapsed, waiting for the episode to pass.
“I’m the one who’s sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean it. I’m just angry. And confused. Why me? Why here? Why all the secrets?”
“Do ye remember telling me ye reached for someone to pull ye from the rapids?”
“That was you?”
“Aye. Ferly Mor hovered his craft over the river and sublimated the door so I could grab ye.”
“That’s ridiculous. I didn’t see a spaceship.”
“Of course not. It was cloaked. All ye would have seen was the gaseous door and my arm reaching for ye.”
“You saved my life?”
His lips puckered as if he sucked on a lemon wedge. “No’ exactly. ’Tis true enough I pulled ye from the river, but it was only after ye hit yer head on a rock and drowned. Yer body was swept downstream. Ferly Mor maneuvered his craft downriver where we caught yer body.
“Ye died, lass. No one on Earth could remedy that, save Ferly Mor.”
“You’re saying Ferly Mor brought me back to life?”
“Aye. Ye were reawakened.”
How could that be? She didn’t remember dying. Wasn’t there supposed to be a light at the end of a tunnel or something? She slumped into the soft pillows of the couch, closed her eyes, and recalled the horror of the raging inferno, the rapids crashing around her, and choking on white water and smoke. She shivered away the thought of death.
She moved to the sideboard to fill a glass from the hanging water bottle. The liquid cooled her throat and washed away the charred remains of that hellish nightmare. Carefully setting the glass on the sideboard as though it would break at the slightest pressure, she turned to Duncan. “Why? People die all the time. Why bother saving me? What makes me special that an alien creature would reawaken me?”
Duncan cleared his throat. “Ye best sit down, lass. Ye may not be ready for what I’m about to say.”
Like she had done as a child attempting to delay punishment in the timeout chair, Addy shuffled back to her seat on the couch next to Tess. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear any more, but she had to learn the truth. Tess took hold of her hand and gave it a light squeeze.
“Ye’ve always been special, lass. Ferly Mor has been tracking ye all yer life.”
She couldn’t open her mouth to shout her outrage. Her clenched jaw ached from the pressure. Even if she would have been able to speak, no words could articulate her anger. Her resentment. Her mortification. It was a thousand times worse than the humiliation she’d felt the summer before junior year when skinny-dipping at the watering hole. It was after she’d gotten dressed that the three boys spying on her made their presence known.
Had Ferly Mor witnessed everything she’d done since childhood? Had he been taking notes? Had her mother known about the aliens? Maybe that was why she’d always resented Addy. Maybe Mom had been a broodmare raped by gladiators and then escaped.
Stop it, Dawson. You’re getting carried away.
Mom had loved her biological father. The reason she resented Addy was because she was an oops. Correct that—she was a how the hell did I get pregnant while on the pill? And because of Addy, Mom’s lover never married her. As much as she wanted to blame the aliens for her dysfunctional family dynamics, it wasn’t their fault.
Traveling to Earth and back to spy on her, however, was their fault. How many times had they secretly visited?
Wait a minute. That was the answer. Addy couldn’t have been the only Earthling under surveillance. Ferly Mor or someone was bound to head back to Earth in the near future.
She’d have to wallow in anger and humiliation and ask all her why me questions later. Right now, she needed to shove her emotions aside and think. She got off the couch. She always thought best while moving.
“Are you okay?” Tess asked.
Of course she wasn’t okay. Who would be okay after hearing news like this? But she nodded anyway. She drew on her training to remain calm in the face of stress. Why Ferly Mor had monitored her didn’t matter right now. The past couldn’t be changed. But the future could be. That was where her focus needed to be.
She could reward herself with a meltdown after she figured out how to escape and hitch a ride to Earth.
She poured another glass of water and returned to the sitting area. With renewed confidence, she declared, “Duncan, you’re taking me home.”
“Och, lass, I canna take ye back.”
“Why not? You brought me here, therefore you can bring me home.”
“Addy, he can’t fly a spaceship. No one can. This is your home now.”
She slammed her glass on the table, water splashing out everywhere. “This will never be my home.” So much for staying cool under stress. Rookie.
The room was silent except for Duncan shifting in his chair and Tess wiping the spill with Addy’s discarded towel.
Addy dried her hand on the seat of her shorts. She calmed her voice. “Duncan, when is your next trip to Earth? I’ll stow away onboard their ship.”
“I dinna ken, lassie. I’ve only gone four times since Tess was a wee bairn.”
“How often is that, once every five or six years? I can’t stay in this Yard that long.” Where could she run to and hide while waiting for the next trip to Earth? “If I can’t return home yet, then I’ll escape to the equator.”
“Surely ye’ll die out there.”
“I should have died in that forest fire five weeks ago, Duncan.”
“Ye did die, lass.”
“I mean I should have stayed dead,” she snapped.
“Such contempt. Aren’t ye pleased ye’re alive and well?”
“Alive and well? I’m a freaking broodmare on an alien planet. Captivity might not bother you two, seeing as how you were born here, but in America we value our freedom. Live free or die. It’s the heart of who we are. Of who I am.”
Adrenaline coursed through her blue blood. Leaping onto the couch, arms in the air, she shouted, “‘Give me liberty or give me death.’ ‘Let freedom ring.’ ‘I have a dream.’”
“Get down before you fall.” Tess stood and reached for her hand.
She jumped to the other cushion, quoting, “‘I’ve not yet begun to fight.’ Now, unless you want to hear me butcher the national anthem, I suggest you tell me how to get out of HuBReC.”
“I dinna ken how.”
A deep inhale. “Oh, say can you see...,” she belted way off-key.
Duncan and Tess covered their ears. “But I ken who does, lass.”
“Who?”
Duncan uncovered his ears and let out a heavy, dramatic sigh. “Max.”
The name snuffed out the patriotic fire in her blood.
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Will Addy ask Max for help getting off this crazy planet? Find out next week Chapter 16 or read the full story now at your favorite retailers for only $2.99.
Romance with a rebel heart
So Max is the key to escaping? Great twist! :D
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to more.