Braylon had never been so nervous in his life. He’d spent the last four days scrambling to get everything in order. How does one plan for a trip when they’ve never done so in their life and they don’t intend to return? What does one take with them?
He knew Riggs and Storm had done the same thing. Gathering whatever meant the most to them and stuffing it in one small pack. That was all they could risk bringing. One backpack each. There was no telling how far they might end up traveling on foot. They couldn’t run out the back door pulling fifty-pound suitcases.
On top of that, they each needed to carry some things for Haley. She had no possessions she cared about since she’d only arrived six months ago with the clothes on her back. Everything she’d acquired since then hadn’t yet felt like hers.
Haley had spent the better part of the last four days in bed. Luckily, she hadn’t continued spotting, but they’d all agreed to milk the situation to its fullest to keep her away from Braylon’s mother. He simply didn’t trust his own mother with his wife. She was conniving and bordering on cruel and abusive.
She hadn’t always been that way. She’d never been the most involved parent by any stretch of the imagination, but she’d always treated Braylon and Riggs with respect. Even Storm had ranked pretty high.
Lately, it was as if she were obsessed with making sure the family had an heir. Perhaps, like Marian said, it was a competition with her peers, several of whom had successfully purchased a wife for their sons who had birthed them at least one grandchild.
Braylon thought maybe his mother was concerned someone would find out they’d used donor sperm. He’d come to realize that Rush had been brought to the estate in the middle of the night and no one in the surrounding area knew he was being held against his will.
There wasn’t exactly any other way to be held. Hell, Braylon felt like he too was being held against his will. Even though he wasn’t locked in the house, he certainly didn’t have permission to leave permanently.
Tonight was the night. It happened faster than Braylon expected. The only reason for the new timetable was that Marian had knowledge of an underground system. All she’d had to do was give the word and dozens of people were ready and able to help move five souls.
Braylon went to work as usual. So did Riggs. They did their best to act as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Neither of them would tell a soul about their plans. Storm wouldn’t either, though Braylon knew he’d written a letter to his father and left it in the care of Marian.
Braylon knew Storm’s father would be relieved when he found out about the escape, assuming the five of them were successful. The kind, older man would give a silent toast to his son. He was a good man.
Marian still refused to join them, even though Braylon had brought the idea up to her several times. She insisted she would be a hindrance and that she wouldn’t leave this area and risk her daughter ever looking for her.
It was understandable, but Braylon worried about what might happen to her if anyone found out she had anything to do with their escape. Hopefully, that would not be the case.
The plan was incredibly simple, considering how risky it was. Storm had already given Rush a key to his own jail cell. He’d also given the man a watch and a spare backpack. At two in the morning, the five of them would make their way to the back door off the kitchen and slip into the night.
It was getting close to that time now, and Braylon was pacing his room in the dark, checking and double-checking his backpack to ensure he had everything he wanted to take with him. He’d included a few photos and some special letters and notes from his childhood.
More importantly, he’d packed several weapons. It hadn’t been difficult to get his hands on guns. There were plenty in the house, and Braylon, Riggs, and Storm had been taught to shoot from a young age. It was common among the aristocracy and their guards.
It was amazing how easily one could simplify their life down to one backpack if push came to shove.
His biggest problem was impatience and stress. If he failed, God knew what might happen to the people he loved most in the world. It wasn’t an option. They had to get out.
He’d asked himself countless times if this was the right thing to do. Why not stay here, take over the family business when his father retired, raise his child in a life of luxury? He could probably even convince his mother to let him share a room with his wife and at least make her existence bearable.
Every time his mind went down this path, he reminded himself that no matter what, they didn’t have freedom, and freedom was more important than money or nice things.
He didn’t want his child to grow up under the rule of The Republic. And God forbid if the baby was a girl.
Haley was one of the lucky ones. She hadn’t been taken from her parents until she was six, and her parents had done an amazing job of educating her beyond her years right up until the moment she’d been discovered and taken into state custody.
Because of that, she could at least read, but Braylon wanted more for her. She was bright, smart, and inquisitive. She deserved to learn and figure out what interested her. She deserved to live someplace where she had the freedom to explore her options.
There was no question. They had to go. And it was time.
Grabbing his backpack, Braylon quietly opened his door right as the clock struck two. Riggs was stepping silently into the hall next to him. There was no evidence of Storm, but he expected that. He’d intended to head downstairs with Haley five minutes before the others just in case they happened to get caught. It would be better if they weren’t all together.
It felt like it took an hour to descend the back stairs and emerge into the kitchen, and Braylon was relieved to see that Storm, Haley, and Rush were standing at the back door.
Marian wouldn’t be seeing them off. It was too risky. She’d given them their instructions and gone to bed at her normal time.
Haley looked nervous, but Rush looked worse. Not surprising. Of the five of them, Rush knew the least about what would happen next. He had no knowledge of the area. He didn’t have a single clue where they were.
Without a word and only a silent nod between each of them, Storm opened the back door and held it for the rest of them to pass. Luckily, it was a nice night. The weather was cooperating.
Braylon grabbed Haley’s hand as they hurried through the backyard, making their way toward the gate that led to Riggs’s father’s house. From there, they rounded the side of the house, headed down an embankment, and emerged into a wooded area.
Braylon and Riggs had played among these trees when they were young. They’d called the small copse a forest. It didn’t take long to reach the other side where they paused inside the tree line.
This would be the first hurdle and one of the most stressful parts of their journey. They were at the mercy of a van that would pick them up at two-thirty. That was in twenty minutes. They’d intentionally left the padding so that the van would only need to stop for a moment to allow them all to jump inside.
Braylon would breathe easier after they got into that van. Breathing heavily, mostly from nerves, he pulled Haley into his embrace. “You okay?” he whispered.
“Yes.” She gave his hand a squeeze. She was wearing black leggings that Marian had smuggled in for her under her dress. Haley had never worn pants in her life. One of the first things they would acquire would be appropriate clothes for Haley to wear for the long journey. Dresses were impractical and a hindrance.
“How are you feeling?” Rush asked her as he eased up next to them. He hadn’t seen her since their first meeting.
“I’m good. I promise. Not a single problem.”
Braylon watched the expression on Rush’s face. His brow was furrowed in concern as he searched Haley’s eyes for any sign she might be hiding something.
Braylon had struggled to come to terms with a new reality for the last several days, but the truth was there was a good chance Rush would end up becoming a member of their weird family unit. He was a good guy as far as any of them could tell, and he was the biological father of their group child. Not to mention the fact that he was risking his own life to help get them all to safety.
“There it is,” Storm whispered as a set of lights illuminated the area. Right on time, the white delivery van pulled off the side of this little-traveled section of road.
Braylon grabbed Haley’s hand again as the five of them rushed toward the van door just as it slid open. Without a word, they scurried into the open door in seconds. The van was already pulling away as the man in the back pulled the door shut.
“Sit along the walls so you can grab onto the frame to keep from getting tossed around,” the man suggested. He was wearing all black, and he didn’t bother to introduce himself or look anyone in the eye. He hurried toward the front and climbed into the passenger seat while the driver picked up speed.
Haley was on her knees and she fell forward as the van lurched into the next gear.
Luckily, Storm was next to her. He caught her and pulled her against his side, securing her between himself and Riggs.
Braylon found himself sitting across from her next to Rush. Her eyes were wide with fear. He couldn’t blame her. He felt a similar sense of panic.
The two men in the front said nothing. They all sat in silence for several minutes. Suddenly the van turned off the main road and came to a stop. The driver jumped out of the front while the passenger turned to face them. “We’re going to fill this van with boxes, trapping you five in the middle between them. It’s going to be tight and uncomfortable, but we make this delivery two times a week, so they know us at every checkpoint. We’ve never been stopped.”
The back doors opened as the passenger jumped out to help his partner. Sure enough, with lightning speed, the two men loaded the van, lining both walls with boxes and filling the front and the rear.
Braylon and his friends pressed together in the center. It was tight, uncomfortable, and dark. So dark they couldn’t see anything.
The man spoke one more time. “I know it’s not pleasant. We’ll be traveling for about two hours. It’s okay to lean against the boxes. When we stop at a checkpoint, hold your breath and don’t make a single noise.” He didn’t wait for a response. He simply shut the doors, leaving them to their own defenses.
Seconds later, the van was once again pulling onto the road.
“Hales?” Braylon asked, reaching out in her direction.
She touched his hand and then grabbed on tight.
Rush made a suggestion. “How about if the four of us sit two on each side with our legs stretched out? That way Haley can lie on top of our thighs more comfortably.”
If there was anything remotely funny about this situation, it was trying to get comfortable in the manner Rush had suggested in total darkness. Somehow they managed, and Braylon was glad to be on the end and have Haley’s head in his lap.
He set his hand on her hair and stroked the loose strands away from her face. She gripped his free hand with one of hers. Someone else was holding her other hand.
Braylon knew all three other men were touching her, stroking her. He couldn’t blame them. It was impossible not to. He pictured hands on her legs, thighs, and hips.
Haley wiggled against them. “Guys, I realize I’m the lucky one here who gets to lie down and rest, but I need your forty collective fingers to stop moving against me. Hold still before I self-combust.”
Braylon continued to stroke her hair, ignoring her. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, smiling. He wasn’t sure how often he would get to smile in the coming days, but he would take this moment and store it in his memory.
They may have been trapped in a small uncomfortable space in total darkness, but something about the situation was intimate and not at all unpleasant.
“Sorry,” Storm muttered, his voice husky and low and not at all indicating remorse.
Riggs chuckled. “You don’t sound very sincere.”
Storm grunted. “Are you?”
“No,” Riggs confessed.
Rush cleared his throat. “We need to get you some more appropriate clothes, Haley. I’m glad Marian gave you some leggings, but you’ll be more comfortable moving across the country on the run without a dress in the way. Jeans and warm shirts would be better.”
“Wanna know something funny?” Haley asked.
“Sure,” Rush replied.
“These leggings are the first thing that resembles pants I’ve ever worn. I don’t have the first clue what it would feel like to wear jeans. They don’t look comfortable to me at all.”
“Wow. That’s so…” Rush didn’t finish his sentence.
“Barbaric?” Braylon suggested. Even though he’d been raised among the aristocracy where nearly every woman he’d ever seen wore dresses, he was aware the entire world didn’t live that way.
“Yes. That’s a good word.” Rush chuckled. “Speaking of barbaric, we have two hours to kill. How about you all fill me in on your histories? We might as well get to know each other better. I’ll start.”
Braylon was glad. He sensed it would be in his best interest to get to know this man who might possibly be in their lives forever. “Good idea.”
Rush took a deep breath. “I’m twenty-seven. Before the shit hit the fan, I was a regular guy living with my family in Kansas. I managed to finish high school even though times were tumultuous and my school only had boys by the end. My father was a fireman. My mother was a teacher. I have one younger sister.”
“Where are they now?” Braylon asked.
“No idea. Soon after I graduated from high school, I started training as a medic for the fire department. I was hoping to join my father, but things were getting too unpredictable, and my parents were worried about my sister, so they went off the grid. It was hard, but I decided my life would be better spent finding something to do that would help society rather than hiding with my family, so I let them go.”
“Have you seen them since then?” Braylon asked. He couldn’t imagine walking away from his family and never seeing them again. And then his breath hitched. That was exactly what he was planning. He’d left his parents and everything he’d ever known tonight. There was very little chance he would ever see them again.
“No. It wouldn’t have been safe for me to know where they went, and communication is difficult out in the wild.”
Braylon swallowed past the sadness of what this world had become. Children separated from their parents never to see them again. It had happened to all of them now. He felt a strange sense of bonding, even with Rush.
Rush continued. “I knew I was interested in medicine, and I got lucky when I stumbled upon a group of doctors living under the radar, keeping a clinic and helping anyone who needed help. I joined them and learned everything I know from Dr. Dario and the other two men, Advic and Keanu.
“A few years ago, I split from the three of them and joined a large community of people called The Wanderers. They were short-staffed and needed more medical personnel, so I joined them. I was on a supply run when The Republic found us three months ago. They took me and left my friends behind. I assumed they were interested in my medical skills.”
Haley released Braylon’s hand. He knew she’d transferred her touch to Rush, and he settled his palm on her shoulder.
“I was held for three months in a prison cell with hundreds of other people before someone presumably purchased me in the night and I was moved to the Hanson estate. I still had no idea why I was brought there.”
Storm groaned. “Until I callously tossed you a cup and told you to masturbate into it. I’m sorry I was such an ass about it. It wasn’t about you. I didn’t want any man’s damn sperm inserted into Haley. Made my skin crawl.”
Braylon felt Storm shudder through their touching thighs.
“I understand,” Rush said. “It wasn’t pleasant for me either. I felt violated in every way. That’s not particularly fair considering how violated Haley must feel, but I was not pleased.”
Braylon reached out to find Rush’s arm and squeeze his biceps in solidarity. “No one is to blame. I’m sorry for what you were put through. I’m sorry for what Haley had to endure too—and still has to endure for the next nine months and then forever. We’re in this together now. No looking back. We move forward one day at a time. I don’t know what the hell is going to happen to any of us, but I’m choosing to hope what you’ve said about The Wanderers is true. I’m praying we make it there and they take us in and we find a new normal.”
Rush set his hand on top of Braylon’s. “We will. And your new normal will include freedom and choice. No one will tell you who to marry, who to impregnate, or who to love. You can wear jeans or a dress or whatever the hell you want. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Life isn’t easy anywhere outside of the aristocracy, but The Wanderers have created a large secret community where democracy is the rule of law and everyone has equal rights no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, or preferred living arrangement.”
Braylon released Rush. He took a deep breath and asked the question pressing on his mind. “The four of us are kind of a strange package deal. We’re a makeshift family. I wouldn’t want to separate from them, and I’m sure they agree with me. Won’t that raise eyebrows in your community?”
Rush chuckled. “God no. Welcome to the new world. We don’t have any sort of formally organized marriage contracts, but many of our people live in family units that consist of several men and one woman. It’s quite common simply by necessity. It’s not mandatory, of course. Women have every equal right to choose how they want to live and with whom, but a good portion of our females live with three or more men.”
“Really?” This question came from Riggs. “I’ve heard rumors, but I wasn’t sure they were true. The Republic prefers to maintain the appearance that marriage is between one man and one woman.”
Braylon chuckled. “Key word: appearance. We’re a living example of how untrue that is. I bet most households in our community have secret arrangements behind closed doors.”
Storm’s deep laugh filled the small space. “You mean like the son of the house, his best friend, and their bodyguard all falling for the same woman?”
Haley giggled, a sound Braylon hadn’t heard often enough since he’d met her. “Sounds like I get to choose for myself in this new world.”
Braylon stiffened and there was a collective inhale that never got released.
“Kidding,” she teased. “I already made my choice or I wouldn’t be here. I feel rather greedy, but I wouldn’t want to choose between any of you. You’re all stuck with me.”