Love and Decay, Kane's Law (8 page)

I breathed out a foul curse and narrowed my
own eyes until I could feel my contacts push into my eyelids. I
hated these damned things, but glasses weren’t exactly practical
when hunting Zombies. I could tell the day was winding down though
and the intense urge to remove them and replace them with my
glasses plagued me. Using that additional frustration, I growled,
“Get off your high horse, Ty.”

She didn’t even pause to take me seriously.
“First, get out of my way.” She yanked the screen door open and all
but bowled me over in her attempt to get inside. “Alright, Kane,
introduce me to my new sister-in-law.”

I sighed again, but followed Tyler over.
“Tyler, this is Reagan. Reagan, this is my little sister,
Tyler.”

“Well, little as in two years younger. But he
loves to hold that over me. How old are you?” She didn’t even give
Reagan a moment to process all this new information. This was
exactly what I was afraid of.

“Um, uh, twenty.” She glanced from me to
Tyler uncertainly.

“Yay!” Tyler squealed in that fake way again.
“We’re just a year apart then!”

“Yay,” Reagan drawled.

I allowed myself a small smile.

But Tyler wasn’t finished, “Big brother, be a
good host and get us something to drink.”

I contemplated telling her to get her own
drink, but Reagan seemed comfortable around Tyler and I wondered if
maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing Tyler stopped by. Girls were good
at… empathizing with each other. Maybe they could start a
friendship and the transition for Reagan wouldn’t be so hard. My
sister might be on her way out, but she would never be so stupid to
take something of mine. I understood her sympathy for Miller, even
if I didn’t feel any. But Reagan was different- she was actually
mine. Tyler would respect that.

On my way to the kitchen around the corner, I
asked over my shoulder, “Did you have anything to do with Miller’s
stupid little stunt last night, Ty?”

She laughed hysterically- unknowingly giving
herself away- and explained, “Uh, did you see Miller this morning?
Dad beat the shit out of him. I am not about to be part of his
crazy antics. He’s just doing it for attention.”

It was stupid to lie to me, but it was like
she couldn’t help herself. And probably it was smarter not to tell
me the truth, I would just tell our father. They didn’t want to
play by the rules. They didn’t want to believe that this was the
best place for them- the safest. But my siblings had always been
entitled and immature. They couldn’t see the big picture so they
fought the small one. What I did was for their good. What my father
did was for their survival. One day they would get that… although
it would probably be too late for them.

“Right, attention. Seems like there’s better
ways to get dad’s approval.” I went along with it. I always went
along with it.

“Well, you would know all about that,
wouldn’t you Golden Boy?”

Her comment rubbed my nerves raw, but I
didn’t bother giving her a reply. I walked into the kitchen and
started banging around for beverages. Listening intently to the
girls in the living room, I went about getting them drinks. I
couldn’t hear anything though- which meant they were
whispering.

Immediately alarm bells started ringing in my
head. There could be ten different reasons why they were sharing
secrets. The least offensive was that Tyler was asking about the
outside world, gaging her chances of survival with Reagan’s
intimate knowledge of what’s out there. The worst… the worst meant
my sister was a dirty, filthy traitor.

I grabbed two Cokes and joined the girls in
the living room, hoping to catch them in something nefarious.
Instead, I found my sister in her insensitive glory telling Reagan
how plain she was. My sister could be such a catty bitch. Good
grief.

“Tyler,” I barked. I shoved the Cokes at the
girls and glared at my little sister. As if I didn’t have enough on
my plate, she had to pull stunts like this?

She better not drag Reagan into her mess of a
life. When her rebellious little tornado finally landed, I didn’t
want Reagan anywhere near the fallout. My father would likely skin
Tyler alive.

She glared right back, letting me know
exactly how much she blamed me for all her drama. I rolled my eyes
and looked suggestively at the front door.

Taking the hint she announced, “Well, I’m
off!” She finished her Coke in one long pull and I shook my head at
her terrible manners. “I’m on dinner duty,” she said. “Besides, I’m
sure you want time to get to know your new… plaything.”

I watched her retreating form and then gave
into the gnawing guilt that had been my constant companion for a
while now. Usually I could ignore the churning in the lower part of
my gut. But something about this morning demanded more of my
attention than other days. “Tyler,” I called out. “Check on Miller,
make sure he’s alright.”

“Why don’t you?”

“If I show him I care right now, he’ll think
it’s Ok to behave this way. We both know, that under no
circumstances can he be allowed to leave this place. He would die
by himself; he would die in less than a day.” That was as much for
her benefit as it was for his.

“What if he wasn’t by himself?” She sounded
so casual, so... normal. She was good at that. And if I wasn’t her
brother, I would never know when she was lying and when she told
the truth.

“You’d die too, Ty.” More honesty. She would.
She needed to know that.

“And you care, Kane?” she laughed
callously.

I held back an impatient sigh. She should
know this. I opened my mouth to say something along those lines,
but resigned myself to, “I care. Just make sure he’s alright.”

“Whatevs,” Tyler shrugged. She was apparently
set on trying every last one of my nerves.

“You have a very interesting family,” Reagan
said after the slamming screen door had stopped ringing through our
ears.

“You don’t have any family left?” I changed
the subject, anxious to know more about her.

“Not anymore,” she hissed at me- like it was
my fault her family had succumbed to the high death count of recent
years.

I saw through her. In this moment, she wasn’t
grieving for family gone, she was afraid. She lashed out because
she didn’t have a certain future and the parts that she could rely
on were new and a little scary. So instead, I promised, “Reagan, I
know how to keep you safe. This will be a good life for you.”

Not missing a beat, she argued, “Against my
will. You’ll keep me safe against my will. And you’ll give me the
life you think is good… against my will. Honestly, I don’t even
understand how I got here.”

I squinted, perplexed. “We found you in the
woods this morning.”

“No, I know how I got here this morning. But
I mean, to this place. To you keeping me under lock and key just
like Tyler said, like a pet. Why do you think this is acceptable
behavior?” Her eyes had darkened to almost black gem stones. She
was furious, vibrating with hatred and helplessness.

“I don’t,” I swore to her. And I knew that it
wasn’t acceptable behavior- at least in the world we used to live
in. “I know it’s not alright to behave like this. But I also know
it’s been eighteen months since a girl that has even remotely
peeked my interest has stumbled upon our encampment and she died
three days later because she was too dehydrated and starved to come
back from that. Her body shut down and we watched her die in our
medical facilities. Since then it’s been a steady stream of mostly
men. Or women that won’t work for me.” And all that was true. Even
the girls that had been part of the town before we’d started
accepting outsiders hadn’t worked. They’d just been some version of
the same kind of girl. I wanted someone unique, someone both
beautiful and smart, both hard-working and feminine, someone that I
could discover but that also remained a mystery. It wasn’t just
about not finding any girl- there had been plenty and I’d passed
them all onto someone else. It was about her. It was about me
wanting her.

“That doesn’t mean I’m the last of a dying
breed.” She slammed her arms across her chest and met my gaze
straight on.

“No,” I assured her. “But it means you are a
rare and precious commodity. A woman is a status symbol in this
community.”

“So you’re lazy?” Her teeth ground together
and I had the strongest urge to lay my palm along her jaw and run
my thumb across her plump lower lip. She was getting worked up for
nothing. “Go find another woman! Go find someone who’s actually
interested in you. You can’t just kidnap people.”

Red flashed across my vision. That was an
unfair accusation and I did not appreciate having my work-ethic
questioned. “I’m not lazy,” I argued with her. “I’m an opportunist.
You should look at this from my perspective. If you were in the
same position as me and the perfect man walked across your path, I
doubt you would be so quick to let them go.”

“I’m not perfect,” she answered quickly.

“Perfect for me,” I told her. And I meant
it.

“You’re delusional.”

This time I didn’t get angry at her
name-calling. I understood her fear and I forced myself to be
patient. She would understand in time. It would only take a little
time. “I’m your future, Reagan. The sooner you come to terms with
that, the sooner you will be able to move forward.”

I left her gaping at me to padlock the front
door. I dropped the keys back into my pocket and felt comfort at
the heavy weight in my pocket. I felt even more ease with Reagan
taking up so much space in my house. Not physical space, but
metaphysical, philosophical, spiritual space.

And that’s what she didn’t understand.

I was a kidnapper to her.

But she was my redemption.

Chapter Four

I finished checking the upstairs and assured
myself I’d gone over the downstairs three times. But there was this
uneasy feeling sitting in my chest, winding me up in funny ways. I
looked over at Reagan and tried to believe she wouldn’t just
disappear into thin air- that she was real, that she was mine.

The feeling of impending loss didn’t leave,
though.

And I hated her for a moment. I hated that
she made me care about her so deeply after only one day. I hated
that I suddenly couldn’t imagine going back to the lonely, solitary
existence I’d enjoyed before she walked into my life. And I hated
that every time I looked at her a swelling ache ignited in my chest
and consumed me in a fire of lust, longing and something
stronger.

I wanted her.

I wanted to kiss her.

I wanted to talk to her for hours and
hours.

I wanted to make her breakfast… lunch…
dinner.

I wanted to do the dishes side by side.

I wanted to whisper “goodnight” and stretch
out beside her in the early dawn and croak “good morning.”

I wanted her smile focused on me.

I wanted her laughter to fill my home.

I wanted her hand in mine.

Her body underneath me.

And most of all her soul.

I wanted her everything.

She looked up at me, a hesitant glance in
which her eyes were uncertain and her brow furrowed with confusion.
I didn’t have those things I wanted tonight, but the press of her
lips and her mystified silence told me I could have them one
day.

She’d been perfect today. She hadn’t meant to
be- in fact, I thought she might have meant to be the opposite. But
still, it was like she was created specifically for me and this
place.

She’d seen the process for which most people
come into our Colony. She’d been furious with our methods. Her
cheeks had heated, her petite body shook with self-righteous
indignation and the only thought I could process through my foggy
brain was how badly I wanted to take that passion and kiss her
until it was focused solely on me. She was utterly
breath-taking.

I could watch her for hours.

There’d been moments between us all day. She
hated me. I told myself this was a normal reaction and that I would
change her opinion. But she wasn’t quiet about her feelings. And
while I wished she felt differently, I looked forward to the time
when she was as vocal about the good stuff too.

Eventually, I needed to speak with my father.
I took her to the laundry room and put her to work. She needed time
away from me to appreciate what I could do for her, how I could
help her live. And I needed to check my instincts about her and run
this by Matthias.

I’d left her for a little bit with an easy
chore and women I trusted to keep an eye on her. I sought out my
father and checked on Miller- although I tried to keep myself at an
emotional distance.

Miller was as stubborn as all hell. And my
father had been uncharacteristically lenient with him. They were
together in my father’s office. He’d been forcing Miller to sit
there through his daily business. It wasn’t the worst punishment he
could have doled out, but Miller had trouble sitting still. Plus,
it hadn’t helped that his hands were still cuffed behind his back
and he was oozing blood from various places all over his body.

“I’m surprised you picked her,” my father had
said immediately. He wasn’t one to beat around the bush.

“Why is that?” I drawled casually, forcing
myself to disguise my disappointment.

“She’s…” He couldn’t seem to find the right
word while he stared down at his calloused hands. After long
moments of pensive silence, in which I waited with my breath caught
in my lungs, he looked up at me and said, “Untamed. Kane, she’s
wild.”

I forced my body into submission so I
wouldn’t react to his words meant as insults. I knew those things
about her. They were part of the unavoidable force that drew me to
her. “She’s been on her own.” My words sounded hollow even to my
own ears.