Page 31 of Hidden By the Convicts
Teagen leaned back and tried to focus on the harvester problem. She had an idea, but Bowen wouldn’t like it. Maybe if she told Gavin first, he could talk to Bowen with her, support her idea. Bowen’s decisions were final around here, but he did listen to his unit.
What felt like hours later, light streamed into the pit as Harlis lifted the floorboards.
“Give me your hands, princess.” He pulled her out as if she weighed nothing. As she straightened up, working the stiffness out of her muscles, he replaced the floorboards and bed back into position.
“Where’s—” Teagen asked as she turned and spotted Bowen laying on his right side in Harlis’s bed, staring at the wall. Gavin was gone.
“Bowen?” she said ever-so-gently as she approached him.
“He’s not talking,” Harlis explained. “He was soaked, shivering, and covered in mud. The expression on his face said Bowen had been in truly bad shape.
“It took us a good twenty minutes of scrubbing him to get him clean. He didn’t move or speak, which was eerie. He didn’t even say anything to me when I said something crass about you.” Harlis flashed a weak smile. “I didn’t mean what I said about you. Just wanted to see if I could get a reaction out of him.”
“It’s fine. What do we do now, and where is Gavin?”
“I guess we talk to Bowen like normal. That’s what Gavin did. He gave him updates on what’s going on in the fields without him, how Vi’Jen took over for him and has the other prisoners who work under Bowen picking vegetables by hand.” Harlis scrubbed his hair and stopped talking.
She could guess the rest. There weren’t enough hours in the day or men to pick the amount of vegetables needed for Bowen to make his quota. He’d get thrown back in the hole again. Or sent to West Side, to the mines he feared.
“Hey, Bowen,” she said in a light, upbeat tone. “Are you hungry?”
“He won’t eat. Probably needs to sleep, but he’s not doing that either.”
She sat on the edge of Bowen’s bed. He lay on his right side with his back to her. The blanket had been draped over him only as far as his waist. Despite how cold her hands were, he didn’t startle when she touched his bare back.
“Any injuries?” she asked Harlis.
“No. Watch him for a minute, will ya? I need to dump all his clothes in the bin outside to rinse and scrub.” The guys had rain collection tubs that they used to launder their bedding and clothes.
When Harlis headed outside, Teagen stripped out of her pants and left only her shirt on. Her shirt reached mid-thigh. She slid under the blanket and laid down beside Bowen like he’d done with her several nights. When her upper thigh bumped against his ass, she realized he was completely naked. The guys probably had a hard enough time cleaning him that they weren’t worried about dressing him afterward.
“It’s okay, Bowen,” she whispered as she caressed his back. “You’re out of the hole, and you’re not going back in. I promise you. You asked me to obey you, and I never did give my pledge, but this promise I can give.”
She heard the door open and close again and knew it was Harlis.
“You’re safe now,” she continued talking as her fingertips lightly ran up and down his back. “His skin feels cold, Harlis.”
Harlis draped a second blanket on the bed, pulling it up to Bowen’s neck. “He doesn’t have a fever. Shock maybe. Keep doing what you’re doing, princess. You’re the best medicine anyone could have.”
Harlis leaned in and kissed her cheek before moving to the middle bed. That’s when she realized the room was darker than when she’d entered the pit. Night.
And still Gavin wasn’t back.
She never had anyone to worry about before. It felt nice, but scary, too. She tried not to think about what that meant and instead focused on helping Bowen.
When she ran her fingers through his hair at the base of his neck, he moaned. The good type. Relief sailed through her, taking that one small moan as a sign Bowen hadn’t given up.
“That’s it, Boss Man. Just relax, and sleep, and tomorrow everything will be better.”
She continued running her hands over his body until his breathing fell into a steady rhythm with a soft snore. Then she heard two other sets of breathing and slowly turned over in the bed. Both Harlis and Gavin were sleeping. She must have nodded off herself for a bit, because she hadn’t even heard Gavin return.
When she was sure the men were sound asleep, Teagen slipped from the bed as quietly as she could and dressed. Remembering what Bowen had said about her bare footprints, she slipped her feet into Harlis’s boots after stuffing socks into the extra space. She could walk, just not run.
Thankfully, the door didn’t creak when she opened it. Given the position of the moon, she had a few hours before dawn, and just enough moonlight to find her way.
She took her time skirting the perimeter of the compound until she found the path that led down a hill to the harvester sheds. When she was sure there were no guards around, she slipped inside the first shed and found a hand-held light. It wasn’t the best for working on the large machine, but she’d just have to make due and work fast. She had to leave the area before sunrise and sneak back into the house before any of the men woke.
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