Page 7 of Exit Strategy

He fucked me with never a care about getting me off. In fact, the few times that I had were a deep source of shame, as though my own body had betrayed me. I closed my eyes, gripped the covers beneath my hands, and let him ride me. It was over faster when I didn’t resist.

I hated how he’d suckered me in the beginning. Always sweet, so respectful, until he’d slid the ring on my finger, and I’d discovered too late that the gold band was a pair of shackles in disguise. I was forever chained to Arik Rex and, by default, the New Eden Centre and I hated it. Hated myself for being so naïve and wishing that I’d been born into far different circumstances.

The wet slapping of his cock driving into me ended in a crescendo of his satisfied grunting. He slipped out of me, slapping me on the ass with a cruel smirk.

“Clean yourself up and get back to the mansion,” he said. “We’ll go again when I get home tonight. App says you’re primed.”

I hated that fucking app – the one that tracked my cycle when I was ovulating, all from the convenience ofhisphone.

Part of being beholden to the New Eden Centre was to be a good wife and mother to the next generation charged with the continuation of the healing of our planet. The planet was life and Mother to us all, and we were charged with her protection and care into the future, into the beyond…

All lies. All to keep men like Arik and August happy and content with young pussy.

He threw my dress down into my hands and said, “Don’t even think about showering before you leave. Gotta give my little swimmers time to reach their goal.”

I nodded mutely, and he left the trailer. I looked after him, cringing when Kurt looked past my husband to see me on the floor in my underwear.

Humiliation was par for the course.

I dressed and took the time to settle myself before I went back outside. Kurt was waiting and I handed him his book.

“Thank you for letting me borrow this,” I said.

“You finished?” he asked, steely blue eyes skating over my face. I couldn’t meet his eyes and just shook my head. He seemed nice.

“No,” I answered. “But Arik wouldn’t like it if he knew I had it. You don’t know any better… I took advantage. I apologize,” I said.

“It’s no trouble, it’s just a book,” he said.

I nodded and took a deep, cleansing breath.

“Shall we?” I asked.

“Your makeup… the paparazzi are around the bend,” he said, and I sniffed and pulled my big, bug-eyed sunglasses out of my purse and put them on my face.

“Sufficient?” I asked.

He gave me a strange, lingering look and nodded. I put a dazzling smile on my face, and he sort of reared back. I asked, “Shall we then?”

He nodded. “Right you are, Miss Callie. This way.”

He escorted me back to the waiting car – my prison transport back to my gilded cage.

3

Kurt…

One of the first things you learn about major cities is that there are a lot of strange people who live in them, living their own lives, doing their own weird thing. Then you learn that regardless of what that weird thing is, you stay the fuck out of it. People lying on the ground are something to be avoided. Over in Afghanistan, and some other countries that we were officially never in, you might see someone lying in the road or next to it. The humane thing is to stop and render aid, or just drag the body out of the road just out of respect and not driving over it with a convoy.

That’s when the snipers start picking your guys off, or the bomb that they’re wrapped around detonates. Urban encounters are similar, but they don’t explode. You end up being part of a performance art piece, blood thrown in your face while another asshole you didn’t notice uploads it to social media. It’s a homeless person and you’ve rolled a crazy over, and they decided that the best course of action is to take a bite out of your face, or maybe take a couple fingers.

The lessons are quickly learned.

Sometimes it’s a mugger with a concealed gun, and then it’s in your belly button while they’re telling you to hand over the goods. Sometimes it’s a revolver, sometimes it’s a flashlight, but who rolls those dice?

The same thing is applied with couples. There are people who seem like they have no reason to be together, the chemistry makes no sense, the dynamic isn’t there. But that was in public and there was no telling what they were like when no one was watching. That’s what it was like with Arik and Callie. In public they were a celebrity couple, pretty in all the pictures. In person, their relationship was cold, cold like ice. She said things sometimes that were disturbing, that painted a dark picture. Unsettling to me…

Then they’d be in REX 1, and I could hear them going at it like animals, gagging and gasping, groaning, and shouting.

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