Page 2 of Dust and Ashes

Both of them dehydrated.

Kenna sniffed and only got a nose full of hot air for her troubles. The whole place smelled like sour dirt and sweat. The tang of sewage. She tried to swallow but didn’t have the moisture to get rid of the dusty taste in her mouth.

Elisa cried out.

Kenna turned in time to see her shove Lola to the ground and scream a curse.

Elisa flounced away.

Ana dragged the crate to the truck as though determined to do the job no matter what. Even if it was impossible to lift the items, she would strain until someone told her to stop. But was it fear—or something else?

Kenna went to Lola and crouched. “Are you hurt?”

The girl wore a similar shorts and shirt combo that Kenna had been given. Ill fitting, frayed at the edges. Kenna had kept her Converse from when they’d been captured, praying every day that Maizie really had slipped some kind of tracking device into the shoes. The teen tech guru would be working night and day looking for Kenna—she hoped.

Working on a rescue plan.

Sending everyone and anyone who would listen after her and Jax.

And yet, it had been days, and no one had come.

Don’t lose hope.

She of all people knew what happened when a captive lost hope. When despair took over and death looked like a way out. That thought made her want to glance at the white building where she knew they were holding him.

She hadn’t heard a sound all day.

Jax.

She looked down at Lola, determined not to give away where her thoughts were. What had she been thinking about? Shoes. This girl wore flip-flops. No one was coming for Lola. Did anyone even care? Kenna held out her hands to help the girl up.

Lola ran a finger over the scar on Kenna’s left forearm.

Kenna nearly pulled back, a reflex to defend herself. The muscles of her forearm flexed, and pain ricocheted every direction from the spot Lola touched. Kenna sniffed through her nose.

Lola grabbed the inside of Kenna’s elbow and pulled herself up. “I’m okay.”

“All I see is a whole lot of standing around and not much working.” A man’s voice thundered down the channel between buildings where vehicles were parked out of sight of the road. Out of the sun. But Kenna knew how hot it got inside.

Lola whipped around. Kenna turned more slowly to face him. Ian Kartom—who they all called Kart.

Broad shoulders, a tapered waist. Cargo pants and a tight T-shirt. A beard. Brown eyes with gold flecks. Attractive by all reasonable measures, but there was something about him that kept people at arms’ length. A lethality so tangible she could almost touch it in the air around him.

Elisa sashayed past Kenna to stand close to him. All but offering herself up, probably hoping she’d be retasked with a different assignment—one that didn’t involve manual labor. Kenna couldn’t even fathom what she might’ve been through in her life that she made such an advance to a man like this.

“The truck isn’t going to load itself.”

Lola and Ana both rushed to grab another long crate.

Kenna’s arms weren’t going to lift much more before her permanently damaged tendons got permanent damage on top of what there already was.

Elisa shot her a scathing look. Like Kenna was trying to be her competition?

Kenna’s heart broke that the girl thought as much about the people around her. That she thought she could better her situation by offering up her body to a guy like this, or his friends. Or all of them.

He stared at Kenna. “Won’t be long.”

“Same threat.” She managed to shrug her shoulder. “Different day.”

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