Page 52 of Resistant

“Okay.”

“Eat.” I gesture to Sasha.

“Okay Brynn, this afternoon and tomorrow morning you and I will go for a run. I need you to hydrate. No more fainting on me. And I promise, if David is here, we will find him.”

Sasha chokes on her sandwich and looks at Brynn.

“Your son is here?”

“I don’t know. I thought I saw him, but Declan didn’t see anything.”

“I’ll see what I can find out, Brynn. There are children here, I’ve seen them. Let me know what the street name and mailbox number is, and I’ll do my best.”

Brynn sniffles and nods as the tears leak down her cheeks. Sasha sets the uneaten sandwich down and grabs a hold of Brynn and crushes her in an embrace.

She covers Brynn’s cheeks with her golden-brown hands and they both look ethereal to me at that moment. Two beautiful women with a sadness that cannot be penetrated, only shared.

“I promise Brynn. I will do my best for your boys. I need you to do your best for my girls if I can’t get to them.”

Brynn nods, “I promise.” They hug again and fuck, I’m feeling like a third wheel. I know how serious they both are, but I can’t help but smirk at the girl power radiating from them both. Sasha snatches up the last sandwich, stuffs it in her shirt, grabs the bag, and steps out the front door. I watch as she walks down the driveway and waits. Two soldiers approach from about a hundred yards away and she falls in step with them as they pass by.

I’ve strong-armed Brynn with a whole bunch of promises to go run again this afternoon.

I had to promise to slow my pace. I had to promise reasonable breaks. I had to promise I would not berate her, which is a fuck all because when have I ever? I have not.

I had to promise that if we are approached by neighbors, I would have to do all the talking because Grumpy Ass Brynn would be in charge and therefore not fit for conversation.

And I had to promise multiple orgasms when we got back. I didn’t tell her that I’d include punishment with those orgasms because there is only so much of Grumpy Ass Brynn a man can take.

True to my word, we start slow. Brynn is doing a combo of speed walking and jogging. I’m bored, so I’m concentrating heavily on the route, looking for weaknesses and cataloging them in my brain.

It’s difficult to see anything through the fog and I find myself retracing my steps to get a handle on what I think I’m seeing.

I need to get a hold of a mini camera so I can review the footage and make notes. We approach the street where Brynn fainted, and I glance at the street sign. It’s faded and peeling but I’m pretty sure this is Promenade Circle.

I watch Brynn carefully. Her attention is focused on a bungalow to the left of us, mailbox number 210. We follow the half circle and I turn left on a road that looks like it might lead us back towards our street. We arrive at another crossroads, and I stop, pulling a bottle of water from my pack and handing it to Brynn. She braces herself on knees and breathes deeply. She chugs a quarter of the bottle and hands it back. I cap it and drop it in my pack.

“In a couple of weeks, you’ll be able to keep up with my slow jog, no problem, no breaks. You are doing well considering you’ve never been a runner.”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire.” Grumpy Ass Brynn spews through deep breaths.

“Break over.”

Grumpy Ass Brynn is going to have to learn that I won’t take her grumpy ass shit forever. I remind myself that I should add more time to our run in the morning.

I hear a grunt and a loud sigh behind me and see Brynn’s sneaker in my peripheral. We close in on the end of our run, and Rick the Dick comes trotting out of his house. He is wearing chinos, a crisp white collared shirt, and his effervescent glasses. He waves in maniacal fashion. I nod and jog towards him.

“Hey, y’all. We are having a gathering here in a few minutes if you want to clean up and come right back.” He winks. Fucker winked at me, Rick the Dick.

“Sure, we both need to shower, and we’ll head over.”

We are both silent as we jog down the street toward our bungalow. Once we are a hundred yards away from Rick the Dick, Brynn murmurs.

“Declan, I’m going to need at least one orgasm before I can deal with Mr. Sparkly Glasses.”

“Mr. Sparkly Glasses?” I laugh. “I’ve dubbed him Rick the Dick.”

She snorts as we enter the bungalow and pulls her tank top over her head and shimmies out of her jogging pants. She toes off her shoes and heads past me to turn on the shower. I stand rooted to the spot, like a dumbass staring at her perfect tits and ass.

---