Page 84 of Freedom Mine
“Shut up, you lousy shit,” the guard yelled. He offered nothing in the way of first aid.
The guards continued talking as if these men weren’t crammed into cages like animals. . . worse than animals.
The next two cages were empty, which brought a strange sense of relief. She inhaled a sharp breath when she spotted Kayo, sitting on the floor of the last cage. Blood soaked the bandage on his injured leg, and bruises covered his face and arms. Like a predator tracking its prey, Kayo’s eyes, intense and dark, locked onto her. There was no sign of recognition in him, only a foreboding.
Alli lowered herself to the floor, to sit at eye level with him. With his knees bent and his back against the wall, he made no move to approach the edge of his cage. Dark eyes remained locked on her, as his parched lips thinned.
“Leave,” he said, his voice rough.
She glanced to her left. Only one guard remained, but he was watching her closely. Jace had warned her not to speak.
Slowly she placed her hand against the bars, carefully spreading her fingers to avoid the barbs. One finger edged past the barbs, hoping he’d approach, so she could touch him.
Kayo’s head leaned back and he stared up at the bright lights in the ceiling. “Please,” he said, struggling. Then his eyes suddenly shifted, focused above her as a shadow fell on her. She didn’t need to turn to know a guard stood behind her.
* * *
KAYO
He’d lived this nightmare before, except that cage didn’t have barbs and was large enough to allow him to lie down and sleep. How long had he been in here? A day? A week? He’d lost track of time. Hours disappeared each time the walls and ceiling closed in.
Having people in the Magistrate’s office helped, as the noise and movement gave him something to focus on, though his ability to focus waned as time passed. He tried talking to the other prisoners, only to be beaten by the guards. The walls kept closing in on him, forcing him to shut his eyes and think of open fields, endless sky, and Alli.
Even as his body screamed at him to shut everything out, to drift beyond reality, the thought of her kept him anchored. Every so often, when the panic surged to almost unbearable levels, he imagined himself touching her cheek, feeling her warmth and seeing the acceptance in her beautiful eyes.
He was loosely aware of where he was and the aches and pains of being unable to fully stand or stretch his limbs in the cage when Alli walked past the half-wall. Earlier, Kayo had thought he’d heard Jace’s voice, but his mind was prone to playing tricks on him in here. Then, Alli’s brilliant blue eyes found him. He could smell the lovely fresh scent of his Alli.
Then his fear surfaced again, threatening to crush him. His Alli stood feet from him, in the middle of this gods-forsaken cesspool, where anyone could steal her or worse.She sat down on the floor in front of his cage as if she were a free woman with the right to go and do as she pleased.
She was wearing the yellow dress, the one that was too loose at the top and too clingy everywhere else. Hells, even now, with the way she sat cross-legged across from him, he could see past the too-short hem of her dress to the lovely outline of her womanly flesh behind the black lace panties. He didn’t need to look around him to know every man in this place was watching her. Yet despite how luscious her body looked in that dress, her face was one of sweet innocence. And worry.
He hated that she worried about him, that she had come here at all. It wasn’t safe here, not without someone to protect her. Where was Jace? Had he let her come alone?
“Leave,” he said, the word hard to force from his dry throat. Had she heard him? He couldn’t be sure, because she was placing her hand against the bars, carefully threading her fingers around the barbs. She slipped her forefinger in. He wanted to touch her, if only to place a single fingertip against her soft skin, to know he wasn’t imagining her.
He was about to reach forward, to touch her, when Paktol, an asshole of a guard, approached her from behind and started stroking her hair. Fear filled Alli’s face as the guard’s hand slid to her shoulder and down toward her breast.
Kayo forced himself to stand, or rather hunch over in the too-short cage, hoping he could intimidate Paktol, but in reality, he could do nothing, he couldn’t protect her like he’d promised.
“Go, Alli,” he said with a growl meant for the guard.
Before she could rise, the guard’s hand covered her mouth. Paktol pulled her up and pushed her face-first against the wall in the back of the room, where the partition reached the ceiling and no one on the administrative side could see him. No one heard her muffled cries as the guard restrained both her hands in one of his, pushed up her dress, and unzipped his pants.
“Jace!” Kayo yelled at the top of his lungs, praying he hadn’t imagined hearing him earlier.
Jace and another guard rounded the corner. Paktol hastily zipped his pants while shooting a venomous look at Kayo.
Jace pulled Alli to his side. “I told you to stay with me,” he reprimanded her, making a show of how she belonged to him instead of turning his temper on the guard. Smart move.
The senior guard, Aruth, shoved Paktol toward the front of the office, ordering him to stand guard by the Magistrate. Alli looked shaken, but she knew how these situations worked. To accuse the guard would only invite trouble. She kept her mouth shut as she huddled closer to Jace.
“Open the cage,” Jace said to Aruth.
Kayo’s heart pounded. They were letting him go?
Aruth tapped a code into his datapad and Kayo’s cage slid open. “Get going, Variz.”
Kayo stumbled forward, his leg throbbing more than ever. Jace steadied him as he straightened his back to his full height for the first time since they’d thrown him into the cage.
