Page 66 of Resistant

She bursts into tears and fuck me, I’m an asshole. I reach for her.

“I’m sorry, Brynn. I’m an ass. I need to know what we are dealing with here. And I don’t like walking into a situation unprepared.”

She’s crying in earnest now; she’s not going to stop. My shirt is wet with her tears, and I’m whispering to her that I’ll take care of everything. I don’t think she’s hearing anything I’m saying, but I keep crooning to her anyway.

I smooth her hair away from her face and stoop down so I’m at eye level. My Angel’s eyes are red and swollen and she swipes at her nose with disgust.

“I want to take a shower and go to bed. I’ll tell you everything. I can tell you in the dark, but I can’t talk about it otherwise.”

“Okay sweetheart. Drain the water heater. I’ll be here when you are done.”

I’m lying in bed reading over some research, and I set it down when Brynn enters the room. Her skin is pink. She tried to scrub herself raw for the last half hour. I hate that she will only confide her secrets in the dark.Is she afraid of my reaction? What emotion doesn’t she want to see on my face?

I pull back the covers and pull her over to me, as close as I can get, and I reach out and turn off the light. The darkness covers us like a blanket.

I want to tell her there’s nothing she can tell me that will change anything between us, but I hesitate. I’m not sure that she will accept that from me, and I don’t want to burden her. Her mind is already stretched to breaking so I wait her out.

“I told you about Knox wanting to buy me at auction.”

She pauses when I tense at her comment. My body becomes steel as the shock rolls through me. The connection between “him” and Knox hits me like a bolt of lightning.

“I’m sorry, Angel, you surprised me, that’s all. Tell me all of it.”

I take a deep breath and relax around her. Her soft curves soothe me. My fingers trace a trail on her hip.

“What I didn’t tell you is that I worked in the Trades before I came to the camp. Do you know what that is?”

“No, Angel. I left to fight in the Resistance early on, I don’t know what was happening to civilians. I ended up here about a year later.”

She sighs. Her body sags, and her agony swirls around us, palpable in the darkness. My heart bleeds out knowing that she’s about to bare her darkest moments with me and I wish she could keep it buried deep where it can’t touch us.

“After Wyatt left to fight, a woman who called herself a Transitioner visited my house. Thank God my boys were not home. She told me that new work programs were being set up and since my husband wasaffiliatedwith the Resistance, and I was barren, I only had one option.

My job was called a Trades Worker. The job was prostitution. I was assigned a Provider, who functioned much like a pimp. Nathan and I tried to figure out a way out of it, but by the time we’d decided to leave soldiers were executing my neighbors for noncompliance.”

I rub her back and try to bring her some comfort. My jaw is clenched so tight that I wait for my teeth to crumble. My Angel has been through more than I know, and what I knew was pretty bad. She’s a fucking survivor, and I know I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she is safe, that she finds her kids and gets free from this madness.

“My phone was obliterated by the EMP blast. Afterward, the Reform repaired the cell towers and built new phones for government use only. Prostitutes were given phones. There was a preinstalled app on the phone called the Mercantile…”

She breaks off into a sob. I’m gripping on to my shorts so tightly I’m afraid I will rip them, but the fury I feel cannot be restrained. And I know she doesn’t need that right now, so fuck it, ripped shorts it is.

“And they gave us profiles so men or women in the Reform who wanted to fuck could pick their own victims.

They rated us on our performance and paid us with credits. I needed credits for food, for my kids to go to school, to pay the toll to drive on the main road. I couldn’t do anything without credits. And we were starving.

So, I logged on. My first client was Knox. I had seen him before; he was part of the convoy who told us that the Reform was taking over and implementing all these new programs.

He made appointments with me regularly, at least once a week. He always picked the same item from the menu, a blow job.”

She weeps against my chest, and I expect there is more there she’s not telling me. I don’t push her.

“He never hurt me, and he paid me well. I knew what to expect from him, so I kept making appointments with him.

I didn’t know that he was becoming attached until weeks later. I had been raped by the client the day before his appointment. My lip was split, and I had cracked ribs.

He told me I should have canceled, and he renegotiated his appointment on his phone right there in front of me. He asked for sex, to give oral sex and some other things.”

I’m only restraining my fury at this point, but my anger won’t change what Brynn went through. And I need her to tell me, so I keep silent and try not to show what I’m feeling. Her voice lowers to barely a whisper and I strain to hear what she says next.

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