Lottie wasn’t sure how long Ethan and Teo let her sit in the dirt and cry. It had to have been several minutes at least. While she cried, they had mocked her, but eventually, they grew bored and stopped. Slowly she regained control of her emotions and her tears subsided, leaving her to sniff ineffectually as she wiped her eyes. Between the tears and the warm sunshine, she felt itchy and hot.
She took a few deep breaths before struggling to her feet. Ethan and Teo laughed at her effort. As she stood, she had to press her palm to her side when the baby kicked her in the ribs, but she managed to stifle the hiss of pain. Lottie was sure any sign of weakness would set the men to mocking her further, and she didn’t think she could handle anymore at the moment.
With effort—and confidence she didn’t feel—she stiffened her spine and walked between Ethan and Teo to get to the handwashing station behind them. It took her a moment to juggle the soap and the tap, but she did manage to wash her hands in the small trickle of water without their assistance. Once her hands were clean, she splashed some water on her face. The sun warmed water felt good on her skin.
“You ready to eat, precious?” Ethan asked.
No. Her hunger had disappeared the moment he threatened her.
Her stomach did a flip—flop and the sensation of a band tightening around her abdomen started up again. She nodded in answer, even though she didn’t want to eat, and wished to ignore him.
“Good, I’m hungry,” Teo groused and pushed past her.
Ethan unsettled her again when he shoved her between the shoulderblades. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to make her stumble, and she had to take a hasty step forward to keep her balance. The nerve down her leg spasmed and she bit her tongue to keep from crying out. “Move, babydoll,” Ethan ordered.
Lottie followed after Teo. Her hands wrapping around her belly, and she felt her cheeks flame when they marched her passed Paul and Hong. She tucked her head in shame. It was amazing how Teo and Ethan could make her feel like a burden. None of the other soldiers—not even the ones who disliked her—worked so hard to make her feel small and insignificant as they did.
Reaching up to the stick that held her hair off her neck, she pulled it loose and let her hair fall around her shoulders, shielding her from their scrutiny. But the hairs on her arms stood on end, and she knew Paul and Hong still watched her. She hunched her shoulders and tried to become smaller. Gone was her earlier bravado when she’d walked between Teo and Ethan to wash her hands.
They gained the clearing and Lottie went to sit on the log she usually sat on for meals. She glanced across the cooking fire, as she eased herself down. Jaesen and Matt were working on the meal and Adan was standing near them and talking. Besides Teo and Ethan, no one else was in the clearing, but she could see Paul, Lincoln, and Hong headed toward them.
Lottie glanced back at the men preparing breakfast and caught Adan’s glare. She dropped her gaze and brushed her hair forward, trying to ignore the prickles on her skin his stare created.
The band tightened around her belly, and Lottie couldn’t hold back the hiss she uttered in reaction. This spasm was stronger than last time and actually hurt for a moment before it relaxed. The baby squirmed in her belly, and she patted her stomach soothingly, calming the baby and herself.
The action distracted her, and she wasn’t paying attention to the soldiers around her, so she was startled when a slightly raspy, gruff voice grunted, “Here” and a plate of eggs and grits was shoved into her hand. Lottie looked up in time to see Matt turn and stalk away. If he had stayed a few seconds, she would have thanked him. He didn’t like her, but he wasn’t mean either, and she felt she owed him a bit of courtesy.
She spooned some grits onto her eggs and forced herself to take a bite.
“Hey Momma,” Tristan said as he plunked down on the log next to her.
“I thought you were on perimeter duty,” Lottie mumbled.
“Na, that’s Jules and Ty right now. I’m supposed to be sleeping before my evening shifts tonight, but it’s too damn hot,” he answered, and dropped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. “I thought I’d eat breakfast with my favorite Momma.”
After her morning with Ethan, his touch was too intimate, and she could feel the tears threatening to overflow. “Please,” she whispered, hating how her voice cracked on the word. “Don’t touch me.”
Tristan lowered his voice and turned to her. “Momma?” He kept one hand on her shoulder and brought the other hand up to grip her other side. She tensed, knowing he was trying to see her face. But she kept it averted from his scrutiny. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? In pain? Are you in labor?”
“I’m fine. Please just let go,” she begged.
“I want you to talk to me,” he told her, his tone firm.
She shook her head. She didn’t trust herself to speak. If she said anything at all, she would burst into tears again, and that was no way to convince Tristan she was fine.
He grabbed her chin and turned her face toward him. She resisted, but his grip was firm and she had to yield.
“Your eyes are red and shiny. You’ve been crying. Why?” he asked, searching her face for an answer to his question.
She tried to not glance at Ethan, but her gaze was drawn to him. Lottie quickly averted her eyes and looked to the ground. But it was too late. Tristan had seen where she looked.
“What did Ethan do?” he growled.
Lottie was unable to look him in his eyes. She shook her head and pinched her lips together. She wasn’t going to say anything and raise Ethan’s ire. It was bad enough, Tristan supported her. She didn’t need him to challenge Ethan. She shuddered at the thought of Ethan acting on his threat before the baby was born.
Her thoughts once again drifted to possible escape plans. She’d put them on hold after the first night in Casey’s camp on the hope that once she had the baby she’d be able to travel faster, but maybe she should plan on leaving sooner.
Tristan let go of her chin and stood. “What did you do to her, pup?” he asked Ethan.
She tugged at his sleeve, trying to get him to sit again. She didn’t need him to talk to Ethan.
“Just a minute, Momma,” he told her without glancing down at her. Lottie looked at Ethan.
Ethan shoved a bite of eggs and grits in his mouth. He waved his fork in her direction and said with his mouth full, “I didn’t do a damn thing to sugar—pie over there, so bug off.”
“She’s been crying,” Tristan said.
Ethan took another bite and spoke around it. “And that’s my fault how?”
Lottie pulled on Tristan’s sleeve again.
“When I asked her what was wrong she looked at you and refused to say anything. If she won’t tell me what you did, then I’ll ask you.”
She pulled harder, desperate for him to stop.
“Not now, Momma,” he replied without looking at her.
Lottie let go of his sleeve and set her plate aside. She didn’t feel well enough to finish eating.
“There’s no reason to blame me, Tristan. Maybe she’s just crying because she’s a stupid girl.”
“She is not stupid.”
“Yes, she is. All she does is sit around the camp.”
“Sitting does not equal stupid, or you’d be the king of ignorance,” Tristan retorted.
“She doesn’t work for her food or a place to sleep, yet we’re required to work harder because she is here.”
“It was work you already had to do. She didn’t add to it.”
“I have double watches now because of her.” He pointed his fork at her again. “That is adding to my workload,” Ethan grumbled. “All I told her was she needed to add value to the camp. That’s it.”
“Add value?” Tristan queried.
Lottie swallowed hard. The value he wanted wasn’t something she was willing to give. “Please, Tristan, let it go.”
“See, even she knows she doesn’t do shit around here and ought to,” he replied. When he looked at her he smirked. “Isn’t that right beautiful.”
Lottie dropped her gaze from his and shook her head.
“Of course she isn’t all that beautiful right now, carrying all that weight. The only work she does do is get fatter.”
“She is not fat. That’s all baby,” Tristan defended.
“Doesn’t matter. Looks like she’s tubby to me.”
Tristan growled and took a step toward him, and Teo stepped behind Ethan, adding his support.
“I told ‘er she needed to work for her keep. Plenty of the guys agree with me,” Ethan replied and took another bite of food. “So don’t go looking at me if she got all uppity about that.”
There was a grumble of agreement from the men sitting around the campfire. Not a single one besides Tristan and Lincoln looked like they disagreed with what Ethan was saying.
Tristan stood a little straighter. “She is working for her keep.”
She really wished he would stop arguing for her. The other soldiers were starting to get agitated and the increased hostility made her stomach hurt. The tensing of her belly kept happening and Lottie hoped it would go away if Tristan would just drop the subject.
“Don’t start that bullshit again, she’s got it easy. I’ve seen her. I’d love to sit around in the shade all day, taking naps whenever I am tired. She does nothing worthwhile.”
There was a quiet chorus of agreement from several of the soldiers.
Tristan reasoned, “Growing a baby is hard work and you know we need the addition to the population.”
“It will just be a boy. We don’t need more of them. There are enough of us as it is,” Ethan shrugged and took another bite of food.
“Every baby brings us closer to solving the fertility problem. He might be a brilliant scientist who finds the cure,” Tristan argued.
Oh. That spasm made Lottie hold her breath for a second. “Please, Tristan. It doesn’t matter,” she told him after the pain passed.
Teo spoke over her. “No one is going to find the cure. No one’s going to solve the fertility crisis.”
“You don’t know that,” Tristan countered.
“You’re right, I don’t. But it’s been what? A hundred years? The human race will die out. And we should start right there,” Teo punctuated his words with his forefinger pointed at Lottie. “When she has the kid, leave him in the woods to die.”
Lottie sucked in her breath and her hands wrapped around her stomach. He couldn’t mean that, could he? He was just speaking from anger in the moment, right?
Tristan seemed to struggle with that statement also, for he sputtered and did not answer right away. In the silence, Ethan added, “We should get to have some fun before we die.”
Wu and Adan laughed.
“Fun?” Tristan choked out.
Ethan didn’t reply, but Adan and Wu nudged each other and grinned in her direction, while Lincoln stared at her impassively. Lottie shivered. She wasn’t sure what he thought of the conversation, but his cool gaze made her think he favored their opinion.
“I told you, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Hong spoke up.
“No one asked you,” Teo snapped.
“Fun, pup?” Tristan interrupted. “What type of ‘fun’ are you referring to?” He took a step closer.
“Oh, get over yourself,” Ethan huffed. “I told her she needed to pay for what she was using.”
Someone laughed and Lottie didn’t catch who.
“Pay?” Hong questioned. “She doesn’t need to pay for anything. We swore an oath to bring dodgers back to the city. The army thinks that baby in her belly is her payment for our duty.”
Ethan looked at Hong. “Huh. I didn’t peg you as someone on the ‘protect the pussy’ brigade.”
“I’m not, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think she doesn’t already pay enough,” Hong replied and fell silent.
“She’s using up rations I have to replace,” Ethan groused. “I want some form of payback.”
Adan chuckled and whispered loudly to Wu, “I want some payback too.”
The way Wu grinned at Adan’s statement made Lottie think he agreed with Teo and Ethan. She gulped.
“Ethan, shut up,” Matt grumbled. “You too, Wu.”
Lottie pinched her lips together. Was Matt on their side?
“Dammit Ethan!” Tristan growled. She watched as he looked from Ethan calmly sitting, eating his breakfast, to Teo, Wu, and Adan, showing their support by standing behind him. “What kind of payback are you planning?”
Get her arms! Hold her legs! she remembered and shuddered. She tried one more time to stop him. “Please... don’t, Tristan,” Lottie begged. She didn’t want to hear their plans for her again. Especially now that there were four of them that wanted her to pay with her body.
“Not now, Momma,” he snapped at her, and she flinched.
Lottie jumped and squealed in alarm when someone grabbed under her arms from behind. “I’ve seen Tristan this pissed before,” Jaesen whispered in her ear. “You need to get out of the way before his fist starts swinging.”
Lottie swallowed hard. Jaesen tugged her backward off the log and lifted her to her feet. “I suggest you go to Case’s tent to get out of the way.” She nodded. The tension in the clearing was making those spasms worse and she longed to flee, but her feet would not move.
Ethan set his plate on the ground and stood slowly. She was amazed at the menace he portrayed. Tristan was older, bigger, and heavier than him, and she didn’t think Ethan would win in a fight against him. “I told her several of us planned to take the pay from her after that brat is born.”
She watched as Tristan looked to Ethan and the three other men who stood in solidarity with him. Lottie could see the exact moment Tristan understood what they wanted as payment. “What?!”
“Yeah that’s right,” Ethan confirmed. “I told her she needed to part her legs. I’d be willing to take her payback that way.”
“Now would be the time to move,” Jaesen urged.
“That’s rape,” Tristan spat.
“Fuck you Tristan. Don’t tell me you never tasted the wares while you were in the labs.”
“If you’d spent any time there, you’d know how stupid you sound,” Tristan threw back at him. “No one touches the women in the labs. The mission is to keep them there, and keep them safe.” Tristan took a deep breath.
He worked in the labs?
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