Page 21 of God of War

I never should have left my room tonight, that’s for sure.

9

Delaney

My body feels stretched and taut, like my veins are made of elastic and they’re being pulled, pulled, pulled, so tight that one slip will send me snapping back, crumpling to the floor with emotional whiplash.

Some prick deputy, the Wastelander had said. That could be anybody from the department, many of them just as corrupt and awful as my father. But I suspect it’s Aaron Flores. If Dad’s not here himself, he’d only send his most loyal henchman for something like this.

For something like me.

Ares’ grip on my arm is bruising. I wonder if he knows he’s holding me that tight. That he’s hurting me. He probably does. He just doesn’t care. Ares never cared. He’s just like the rest of them — Wastelanders, police, social services. Nobody ever fucking cares.

“Keep up,” he grunts. He yanks me around a corner, leading me deeper and deeper into the rabbit warren of a building. My thoughts struggle to keep up with our pace. Everything is slipping away faster than I could have imagined. Lilly’s sweet little face flashes into my mind and I stumble.

“Wait,” I blurt out, tugging back on Ares’ hold. My chest is tight. I feel the walls closing in. “Wait, just…”

“What? Fucking what?” Ares snaps. He lets me go, rounding on me in a flash. My resistance, that tightly stretched elastic, goes slack and I slam into his hard chest. For a moment, my vision goes blurry and I forget how to breathe.

“I…” Everything goes still as I stare up into those unfeeling gray eyes. Something runs through me. A jolt of electricity, a static shock fizzing along my nerve endings. I want to slap myself — remind myself that Ares is not the same man I felt that little spark of a burgeoning pre-teen crush for.

“I just…” I can’t get the words out. How can I convince him to help me? That my father has to die?

For a second, I think I see his eyes soften, like he’s somehow read my mind, glimpsed into my past and seen every horrible, soul-shattering thing my father has done to me, but then his hand finds my arm again. His grip is just as hard as before.

“I don’t have time for this shit,” he grumbles under his breath.

He drags me further down the twisting hall and through a storage room. Ares wrenches back a steel door and it groans with disuse. All of a sudden, we’re outside, sharp afternoon sun glaring down on us. I blink, trying to clear the fuzzy spots in my vision.

We’re behind the main clubhouse. There’s a dumpster to one side with broken lawn chairs and old wooden pallets stacked up beside it. A sagging chainlink fence separates the gravelled area from the woods and I’m surprised when Ares drags me straight toward what looks like a dead-end.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Somewhere safe,” he replies gruffly.

He pulls open a part of the fence that I thought had been secured in place, only now there’s a gap big enough for us both to squeeze through. He pushes me ahead of him.

“I’ve had enough of being fucking manhandled,” I say, and jerk my arm away. “God, do you all treat women this way?”

“You’re not a woman, you’re a pain in my ass.”

He plants his hand in the center of my back and shoves. I stumble into the tall grass on the other side of the fence. Ares ducks through behind me and folds the wire fencing back into place.

Ahead of me is a narrow track of dried, flattened grass leading into the woods. I follow it, a beast of a man looming at my back. Something cracks underfoot, a twig, and I jolt, my heart wrenching.

“Keep going,” Ares rumbles over my shoulder. “Into the woods.”

Does he know how freaked out I am? That I feel Aaron Flores lurking just out of sight?

“What about the compound? Will Deputy Flores search it?”

“Who said Flores was here,” Ares says, more like a statement than a question.

I shrug one shoulder, the weight of my backpack heavy on the other one. “I just know.”

A few more yards and we pass the tree line. It’s cooler here, the harsh sun hidden behind a canopy of green. The path opens up and Ares’ long strides brings him ahead of me. He doesn’t look at me, seemingly confident that I’m still there, trudging along behind him.

“He won’t get in. No way the fucker got a warrant. Besides, there’s no proof you were even there.”

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