Page 42 of Harbor (The Wanderers 3)

From what Maya gathered, women who lived among the militants were treated horribly. They were kept alive, but mostly to be used. Often they were forcibly impregnated by the men who held them. Sometimes the men didn’t even care if the women got pregnant or not. They weren’t overly interested in the continuity of the species, so to speak.

Anastasia winced every time Dario touched her. She drew her knees up, squeezing them together. She gripped two of her men’s arms in an effort to remain still.

“I think you have a few cracked ribs, but luckily none seem dislocated, nor have they punctured a lung.” Dario glanced at her men. “I’d like you to leave her here at least for the night so I can observe her. It’s hard to tell yet if she’ll be able to maintain the pregnancy.”

Jed nodded and then glanced at the blond. “Alan, we need to go clean up the place and get rid of the bodies.” He turned toward the darker man next. “Rick, you should stay here with Ana.”

Rick rubbed his face and nodded. “Okay.”

Jed leaned over Ana, cupped her battered face, and kissed her forehead. “I’m so sorry, my love.”

Ana gripped his arm, but she didn’t speak.

The blond, Alan, kissed her cheek. “We’ll be back as soon as it’s safe.”

She blinked at him, her swollen eyes hardly moving.

Keanu led Jed and Alan out of the cramped room. “I’ll see you out. Please be careful. There’s no telling how many men might exist to back up those three.”

Maya winced again as the three of them passed her with hardly a glance. Keanu was right. Militants didn’t usually travel in threes. There were undoubtedly more, and when their comrades didn’t return to the home base, they would send people out to look for them.

The only hope Jed and Alan had of not being murdered themselves would be if no one knew precisely where the three men had gone today and no trace remained of their existence.

“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” Jed stated before he and Alan climbed the stairs.

Keanu turned around, his expression grim. He headed back toward Maya and then grabbed a rolling chair from the second exam room before dragging it up to her and pointing at it. “Sit, hon, before you fall.”

She lowered onto the seat. Her adrenaline had been pumping so hard it hadn’t occurred to her she was standing on shaky legs. She hadn’t supported her weight this long since the accident.

She was grateful Keanu hadn’t made her move to another location. She felt a strong, protective need to remain near this battered woman even if the woman didn’t know Maya was there.

“I need to do a vaginal exam, Ana,” Dario stated softly. “Do you think you can relax and let me do that?”

Ana whimpered and shook her head. “No. Please. Not yet. I’m not… I can’t.”

Maya understood the unspoken words. Ana knew if she was losing this baby she would be bleeding, and she wasn’t ready to face that possibility yet, so she wanted more time not knowing. She gripped her knees together tighter.

Ana was wearing black leggings, tennis shoes, and a loose blouse. Her hands were on her belly, cupping it. She was shivering.

“Okay. We can wait a bit longer,” Dario stated.

“Is that a good idea?” Rick asked.

Advic set a hand on Rick’s shoulder. “It’ll be fine.” He held his gaze.

Maya pursed her lips. She understood the unspoken words. It wouldn’t matter. Ana would either lose the baby or she wouldn’t. Dario, Advic, Keanu, and God himself couldn’t stop what happened next. If postponing the exam for a while helped Ana, it wouldn’t change anything.

Fucking stupid world.

Some days Maya abhorred the world she lived in. She was only twenty-nine years old and she’d lived with fear embedded in her for most of those years. She closed her eyes and pictured her mother lecturing her not to ever open their apartment door for any reason.

Maya swallowed back the slam of emotions. Her mother had been an amazing woman. A single mother with only one child, she’d worked two jobs to keep food on the table and the rent paid.

Maya shook the visual of the last time she saw her mother alive from her mind and refocused on the woman in the other room. The one who was shaking with fear. Alone in a way because no one surrounding her could possibly understand what she was going through.

In a perfect world, someone like Ana would receive therapy and counseling to get over what she’d been through today, but they didn’t live in a perfect world. They lived in this new fucked-up society in which people had to bury their problems and muscle on with life. There were no other options.

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