Page 13 of Harbor (The Wanderers 3)

Chapter 10

“No… Please… Stop…”

Maya rolled her head back and forth, trying to reason with these men. It was useless, and she knew it, but she had to try.

“Shut up, bitch. Your whining is getting on my nerves.” Someone slapped her across the face.

She winced, holding her breath from the pain. She jerked her arm, wanting to reach for her cheek, surprised when she was able to move her arm. They always kept her tired down, spread-eagle.

“Hey hey hey.” Someone was talking to her. Someone kind. “You’re okay. You’re safe.”

She opened her eyes and blinked at the man leaning over her. Her heart was racing as her memory flooded back. She was in a clinic. She’d fallen and cut her leg.

The man in her line of sight was named Advic. He wasn’t going to rape her.

He cupped the top of her head and stroked her forehead with his thumb. “You’re safe,” he repeated. His brow was furrowed, making her realize she might have been talking in her sleep. How much had she said?

“Take a deep breath for me, baby.”

Maya pulled in a long breath and let it out slowly.

“There you go.”

The room was bright. This was not the dark cabin she’d been left in for dead. She hadn’t been raped and beaten. That had happened five years ago.

She lifted her arms and ran her hands over her face, grateful for the ability to move. Oddly glad she wasn’t restrained.

“Whoever hurt you isn’t here. You’re safe. I promise.”

She winced as she looked at Advic.

He held her gaze. “You’ve had a lot of nightmares. I assume they’re flashbacks.”

She closed her eyes. Fuck.

Advic stroked her forehead again. “Do you have someone…somewhere? Someone who’s looking for you? Someone who…loves you?” His voice grew softer with every word.

She shook her head. “No.” That was partially true. At least the way he meant it. She didn’t have a man somewhere.

“I know you must have people. I won’t pry. I understand your hesitance. But if there’s anything we could do to let them know you’re safe…”

She jerked her gaze to his. “What makes you think I have people?”

He sat on the edge of her bed and lifted her hand again. The man was always holding her hand.

She jerked it away this time, mostly because she hated the fact that she liked the way he touched her. She needed to stop letting him get so close. This wasn’t a damn fairy tale. This was real life. It was time to get a grip. She wasn’t the sort of person who let anyone get close to her.

Advic swallowed, but he didn’t comment on the fact that she was leaning away from him. “When Keanu found you, you were in rough shape, but you had clean clothes. Your pack is in good condition. You’d bathed recently. Your hair was plaited in a tidy braid. You had come from somewhere. Not nowhere.”

She turned away from him, not answering. He was astute. She was relieved to realize his assessment was based purely on her appearance. He didn’t know anything about her. She may have muttered in her sleep, but not about The Wanderers.

Which was worse? Blabbing about her people or about being gang-raped? She lived in a fucked-up world.

She was still formulating a response when Dario stepped into the room. “How’s our patient doing?” he asked.

She met his gaze. “My mind is clearer,” she informed him.

“That’s good.” He eased the covers away from her injured leg, carefully tucking them up around her thigh. “Let’s take this bandage off and see how it’s healing.”

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