Jaded Warriors book 2 (Jade Series)

Chapter 35

Chapter 35





I woke to the remnants of a fading dream and the backs of my fleshy pink eyelids as the sun shone through making it difficult to sleep in. ‘Hey beautiful, wake up…’  I saw Gage’s face and heard his words in my mind as I struggled to stay in my dream world.


The sheets rustled around me as I rolled over and buried my face into my pillow and hugged its fluffy softness, refusing to acknowledge morning just yet. I took a deep breath and sighed. Traces of Gage’s scent lingered on my pillow and I squeezed it closer to me as I inhaled again. I missed him desperately and I absently wondered why I could smell his scent so vividly. Maybe, I was still stuck in my dream.


Awareness encompassed me as memories of last night in fast forward motion flashed through my mind. The road block and Sonja’s abduction. Dante and I found her as well as three dead bodies. We barely escaped the gunfight with our lives and probably wouldn’t have if it weren’t for Justice… And Mahoney. For some reason I kept trying to place Gage at the scene. I felt like he’d been close to me.


My eyes shot open and I jumped upright with a start. The sights of my familiar room, my room, Gage’s home surrounded me like a warm blanket yet left me confused. How did I get here? Maybe it wasn’t a dream.


I glanced at the mirror as I moved slowly out of bed. My hair a tangled mess, a scabbed abrasion across half of my forehead. I noticed something black out of the corner of my eye on the dresser just under the mirror. Two black notebooks, I sucked in a quick breath as my eyes widened at the sight of some doctor’s handwriting on the front. The composition notebooks that I shoved in my jacket the night of the raid. They made it home with me. I made a mental note to make an attempt to read them later, but for now, I needed to find out how I got here.


A faint, pleasant smell of bacon wafted through the air and drew my attention, my stomach rumbled. ‘Weird’. I warily glanced around, unsure if I trusted myself, hesitant to believe. Even more confused I glanced down at my clothes. I sported my oversized nightshirt that was once a shirt of Gage’s and a pair of cotton shorts.


I opened the door slowly, unsure what to expect. My body ached and I moved stiff, a reminder of the last couple days. I let my fingers graze over my cheek. The tender sensation a painful reminder that Dusaro slammed me into the wall, just before he drugged me.


The wooden floor creaked underneath me as I padded barefoot across the living room and headed towards the kitchen. I passed by the front door, something unexpected caught my eye. I looked back for a second look and stared at the pack next to mine then gasped as my heart fluttered in my chest. I ran in the kitchen.


“Gage!”  I screamed!


Spatula in hand, he dropped it on the counter as he turned from the stove, catching me in his arms as I ran and jumped on him and wrapped my legs around his waist. His hands grasped my legs as he held me in place. Unable to contain myself I kissed him, his lips velvety soft against mine. A throaty groan escaped him as he smiled, his lips still pressed against mine and he chuckled as I touched his face with the tips of my fingers to make sure I wasn’t still stuck in my dream.


“I can’t believe you are here,” I whispered, my voice, still raspy from sleep.


“Did you really think I would miss your seventeenth birthday?” Gage said as he set me on the table. His hands continued to grip my arms.


“Is today my birthday?” I said, shocked. Somehow I missed yesterday and I started to wonder how long I slept. His smile faded, replaced by a longing in his eyes that mirrored how I felt. “I couldn’t stay away. I was missing you too much… did Prescott give you my letter?”


“Ya… when I first saw it… it scared me. I thought it was the letter from your box in camp.”


“I’m sorry… I thought about that after he left. I didn’t want to leave that way, but I had to.”


“It’s okay, did you find Damian?”


“No… He hasn’t shown up yet… we weren’t making much progress and with the rebels advancing and stirring things up Prescott said to take a few days.”


With the mention of the advancing rebels I glanced around the kitchen in hopes of some kind of clue as to what happened between now and last night.  What happened with Sonja? Dante? The last I remembered were the three bodies, a needle in my neck, Mahoney and a hallucination of Gage just before I blacked out. “So how… when did you get here?” I asked as I still wondered that about myself. How could I tell him I went to the city? That I was drugged and I couldn’t remember how I got here.


He glanced at my forehead as my question hung unanswered in the air. His brows wrinkled over questioning eyes as he brushed his fingers over the sensitive spot.


“What happened?”


“It’s just a scrape, it doesn’t hurt,” I said, then his forehead creased as he gave me a no nonsense look and I knew I couldn’t avoid his question. “My forehead met a brick wall and it wasn’t very friendly.”


“It’s not just a scrape… have you seen it?” He asked as if he already knew the answer.


I opened my mouth to voice my plea then stopped. A sigh escaped me as my shoulders slumped. “Yeah…”


His lips curled at the corners as he chuckled briefly but it faded as fast as it came and I could see the underlying worry in his eyes. “I heard you were in the city,” he said. The question sounded staged and his expression became unreadable. “I guess the rumors were true, huh?”


“Yeah,” I said, shrugging my shoulders, then added. “A lot has happened since you left and it sounds like I have a few days to tell you about it.”


“How about now,” he said, his eyes grew pained as he pressed his forehead against mine. My heart skipped. He knew something.


“I…” I hesitated, unsure where to start.


“I was radioed… not last night, but the night before,” he said, my heart stilled in my chest as I waited for him to continue. “Mahoney asked if there was anyone who could positively identify Charles Rogerson’s’ wife and a girl who claimed to be Jade Kennington.”


An audible gasp escaped me. “Did you come to the meat locker? Did I see you?” I breathed. “I thought… I thought I was hallucinating.”


“No… it was me,” he said, a quirky smile curled at his lip. “I brought you home… I hope that’s okay.”


A knot tightened in my throat. “It’s more than okay,” I sighed, then slipped my hands around him as he pulled me close. “Are you mad at me?”


“Yeah,” he said, his voice rumbled in my ear, pressed against his chest. He placed a kiss on my forehead then hooked his finger under my chin and brought my gaze to his. He leaned close and his lips brushed against mine as he spoke. “I’ll get over it… I’m just glad you’re okay,” he said in between kisses. Soft, velvet kisses as his hand cupped my cheek and his fingers combed through my hair. “We’ve occupied the city.”


“We have? We got them out?” I asked, my brows lifted in surprise. A few months ago, I wouldn’t have thought it would be possible.


“Yeah… for the most part, the Militia and Morrison supporters have evacuated but there could still be a few left hiding out. I don’t want you in the city, Jade… It isn’t secured. What were you thinking?”


“Uhh…”


“Never mind… we can talk about this later.”


“Thank you… how long do you get to stay?”


“I have to go back, but I’ll be here until Sunday night.”


“Four days…” I whispered. Not near enough time, but more than I could ever ask for. “What do you have planned for us?”


“You’ll see.”


“Does it involve… kissing?” I said as I looked up at him, my somber mood evaporated instantly. He laughed and leaned in closer. He cupped my cheeks with his hands and kissed me again.


“Yeah… It does actually… Are you hungry?” He picked up a piece of bacon and held it in front of me. I took a bite.


“Starving. It smells so good.”


“I want to take you somewhere… away from here.”


“Yeah?”


“Do you want to go for a ride up to the lake after breakfast?”


“I would love to,” I said, as he sighed and pulled me into his arms, his chin rested on the top of my head, allowing us for now, to put life and the war aside. I let my eyes drift closed, the steady sounds of his breath reverberated against my ear. His heart thumped in his chest, strong and vibrant. I smiled, thankful to have him home.


***


Chipmunks’ scurried through the fresh green shoots of new grass along the edges of the forest floor as we rode up to the lake. Mounts of crusted snow lay scattered under the trees in the shade. A light breeze whispered through the new budding leaves while birds sang high up in the cottonwood trees.


The sounds of the horses’ hooves swooshed as they brushed through the pale yellow meadow. Blue, coral and white wildflowers began their bloom from new shoots in the grass. The placid lake looked full and crystalline clear as the sun’s rays shimmered against the water, appearing untouched for a hundred years. As we neared the edge of the lake, I stopped for a minute to breathe in the fresh air. I closed my eyes for a minute to feel the warm sun on my face. As I opened my eyes, I glanced at Gage.


“It’s so peaceful up here… beautiful.”


“Yeah, it is,” he said, then looked over the lake as he stepped out of the saddle. Gerico’s head dropped, grazing on the meadow as Gage held the reins slack.


“This is my favorite place to be.”


“I know…” Gage paused, then looked back at me and smiled. I swung my leg over Fire’s neck and sat sidesaddle as Gage walked towards me. His arms rested on my thighs as he tilted his head slightly to look up at me, his hands gripped my hips as he gave me a gentle squeeze. “That’s why we’re here.”


I smiled back. I loved that he knew that about me. With my hands on his shoulders, I slid slowly out of the saddle and into his arms, then threaded mine under his jacket, around his chiseled waist. “Do you have a favorite place?”


“I do.”


“Where is it?”


“It’s right next to you, wherever you are.”


My heart melted like the snow under a warm spring sun and I squeezed him.  “Do you know what you have done?” I asked as my head tilted back to see him.


He looked down at me puzzled. “What?”


“You have completely stolen my heart, Gage Michaels,” I confessed as I looked into his soft blue eyes.


He chuckled a little and squeezed me back. He looked at me sweetly and gave me a kiss. “Good, because that was my plan… You stole mine a long time ago.”


***


The horses grazed as we found a nice grassy spot in the sun that overlooked the lake.  Hidden in the tall grass we laid on a blanket and watched thin fluffy clouds take shape in the blue sky. I rested my head against his stomach and he gently combed his fingers through my hair.


“Aren’t you worried your horses will run off?”


“No, if they do they will probably just go home. But Fire will come to me if I call her, wherever she is.” I whistled for Fire. Her head popped up from grazing and she trotted over towards us.


“I have to say, the first time I saw you do that, I was quite impressed.”


“When was that?”


“Once, when I walked by your house.”


“Where were you going?”


I was on my way to work at the farm,” he said, a sly smile curled at the corner of his lip.


“Really?”


“Yeah.” He laughed a little to himself. His eyes squinted from the sun as he looked up and glanced out over the lake.


“You worked for my uncle?”


“Not for very long,” he added as Fire came up to us and put her head down. She snorted at the ground as she sniffed at me. The heat from her air warmed my cool fingers. I rubbed her head and kissed her nose.


“She loves me,” I said, as I smiled up at him. I turned over onto my stomach and she wandered back over to Gerico to eat in the new tender grass.


“She’s not the only one.” He leaned over and I tilted my head, moving it to the side. His lips grazed mine.


“What do you think you would be doing right now if the virus hadn’t hit?”


“I’d be doing what I’m doing now,” Gage said, then slid down next to me, propped on his elbow. I scooted next to him, shaded from the sun by his shadow as he brushed a strand of my hair off my brow. A whiff of his spicy cologne mingled with the fragrant scent of wildflowers hung on the breeze.


“How do you know?”


“Because one way or another, I was going to find my way into your life.”


“So, if you first saw me at that soccer game when you came back… You waited two years before you said anything to me… You even worked for my uncle on the farm-”


“Only for a month,” he interrupted.


“Still… I didn’t know that’s where you were going… I’ll let you off for the six months after the virus, but why did you wait so long.”


“By the way… why were you and Trey playing on a team where everyone was two years older than you?”


“They recruited us,” I said, then gave him a scowl as I pinched his side and he squirmed. “We live in a small town. Stop avoiding my question.”


“Okay,” he smiled, “I don’t know… I guess I was waiting for you to get a little older.”


“I wish I could remember you at that game.”


“Think hard enough, maybe you will,” he said. I saw pictures of him and his team that his mom had framed and placed on the wall in the hallway along with their other pictures. He looked vaguely familiar, but somehow, back then I wasn’t able to see who he was. I thought about the younger version of Gage I competed against. I had no idea back then, that quiet boy was Gage and liked me. He wasn’t as tall then. His muscles were defined then too, but not as much and his hair was about two inches longer. I wished I would have known him then.


“Did we talk?”


“Once.”


“Really?”


“Yeah, we had a few scuffs with the ball.”


“We did?” I laughed. I would give anything to remember it. “I didn’t say anything mean did I?”


“Nah.”


“Did you take the ball from me?”


“Haha…” A mischievous laugh escaped him. His eyes glinted in the sun and tormented me as he held me in suspense. “I don’t remember.”


“What! You remember everything, Gage.”


“It seemed to have slipped my mind.”


I laughed, my grin beamed from ear to ear. I pushed him onto his back and straddled him as I sat over top of him. I leaned close. My hair cascaded in waves around us, blocking out the sun and the rest of the world. “You did, didn’t you?”


“Did anyone ever get the ball from you?”


“It happened… but not very often,” I said with an overly exaggerated scowl.


He chuckled at my refusal to admit defeat. “My point exactly.”


“But there were two who did during that game…And I know who one of them was, he took me out with a slide tackle and messed up my knee.”


“You know when you were down?”


“Yeah.”


“I remember thinking to myself… Telling you to get up… What did Trey say to you when you were down?”


I laughed a little as I thought back to that day. My knee hurt, so bad that I wanted to cry. I might have cried right then and there, but Trey came and stood over me, sweaty and red faced from exertion. He held out his hand and coaxed me to get back up as he said something completely off the top of his head and turned my almost tears into a laugh.


“I know you are changing the subject Gage. It’s okay, I know now… the other one was you.”


Gage grabbed me suddenly and rolled me onto my back. I squealed and started to laugh as he briefly tickled my sides. He leaned in closer.


“The answer to your question,” I breathed, giggling as I tried to recover from his attack. “Trey said get up and stop being a wussy.”


“He did not,” he said, then smiled warmly.


“He said, get up and walk it off, before the guys on the other team figure out you’re a girl,” I said, with my best Trey voice imitation. The bittersweet memory of Trey settled into my heart.


“I saw your frustration change and you laughed. I’ve always wondered what he said.”


“Yeah…” I paused for a moment, “well, now you know.” A sudden twinge of sadness crept in. I felt a little guilty that I enjoyed our seventeenth birthday, the first without him. But then my heart warmed at his memory. I blinked away the glossiness in my eyes as a knot tightened in my throat. “Trey always knew what to say to me, he knew what I was thinking most of the time…”


“You okay?”


“Yeah, I just miss him…” I paused, as I smiled inwardly. I knew what he would say if he saw me. He’d tell me to get over it. “But anyways, you didn’t ever answer my question. Was that you?” 


“Yeah…”


I remembered that encounter as well. I fought hard to keep the ball and he fought just as hard to take it. He managed to steal it from me and as I attempted to recover it somehow the ball had gotten under my foot and I went down. There was no one was to blame for that one but me. He passed the ball quickly and they scored, all before I could get back up. Planted on the ground I watched the ball slip past our goalie in a blur of black and white skimming over green grass as they tied the game. I let myself fall back in the grass at an attempt to let my breaths in my heaving chest recover from the strenuous run.  He walked over to me and offered his hand to help me up. He gave me a crooked smile as I reluctantly took his hand. I remembered the scene well, but for some reason, the face behind the kind gesture was a blur.


“I didn’t expect to see you there playing, Jade,” he said, as he woke me from my daydream and visions of a younger Gage. “After all that time of wanting to see you again, I didn’t know what to say. You were a distraction for me. I couldn’t focus. I’d played soccer for as long as I could remember and up until then, I was all about winning. But after seeing you and watching you score, I didn’t care that we lost. It was like I’d played for all of those years, just so I could run into you again, for no other reason but to see you,” Gage paused, then laughed under his breath. “Joel gave me crap about it for weeks.”


“Why?”


“He knew how important that game was to me and when I didn’t seem too disappointed after, he figured out pretty quickly why. He was there, he saw the game. Every chance he got he gave me crap about having a thing for the girl who broke the tie, who won the game for the other team,” Gage laughed. “After a while my mom told him to stop, but he never let me live it down.”


“She knew?”


“Yeah, she knew. What fifteen year old boy didn’t care about losing a championship soccer game? She could tell too, I guess. I told my mom then… I was going to marry you.”


“You did?”


“Yeah… I really don’t know why I told her, it was something I kept to myself. She said, then become the man she deserves... I don’t know if I’ve lived up to that or not, I’ve tried.”


“You’re perfect, Gage.”


“No, I’m not perfect.”


“You are perfect for me… I love everything about you. I look forward to the day…”


My smile faded and I sat up quickly away from him. I suddenly felt out of breath and I grabbed at my chest as it tightened and squeezed the air from by lungs.


“Did I say something wrong?”


“No… It’s not you. I’m sorry.” I looked away as I tried to recover, tried to force out the thought that so quickly intruded my mind. “It’s… Nothing.”


“I triggered something didn’t I?”


I hesitated for a moment. I looked at him and gave him a forged smile as I tried to mask my sadness. “It’s more like I triggered something… It was just something Morrison said to me once… It’s nothing.  I didn’t mean to ruin…”


“It isn’t just nothing, Jade, and you didn’t ruin anything.”


Gage went to say something else but stopped. The distant glance in his eyes pulled at my heart as he stared out over the lake. He wanted me to tell him but he wouldn’t ask.


“Morrison just told me once that…” I sighed. I looked down at my hands as I fumbled with the edge of the blanket.  Why was this so hard to talk to Gage about this, to tell him? “I was supposed to marry Damian on my birthday… Today… I forgot until now… I’m sorry.”


Gage looked somewhat relieved. He held out his arm and I moved into it close to him. The strength in his arms as he squeezed me tight told me he understood. “Don’t be sorry… You told me something, and I know how hard it was for you… Thank you.” 


“I was supposed to get Damian’s mark…” I said, quickly before I chickened out, unsure if I would be able to continue with the rest once I started.


“What kind of mark?”


I didn’t want Gage to see it, ever. I wanted it gone. I hated seeing it there every day, a constant reminder of where I once was. I wanted to look in the mirror at myself and not see the ugly tattoo across my chest. I wanted Gage to be able to see me some day, all of me without it being there, without the reminder of what happened, but that would never be. It would always be there. “I was supposed to get it… Right under the other one.”


“What mark… what other one?”


I took a deep breath and forced the air out of my lungs. His eyes pleaded with me to trust him, which made my heart ache. I wanted to tell him and I wanted so much for him to understand and not judge me. It wasn’t fair of me to think that way. I knew Gage would never judge me. I judged myself and felt ashamed that this mark was there. I slowly tugged at the neck of my shirt exposing my skin but not before I covered the tattoo with my hand so he couldn’t see it, but he knew something was there.


“What is it?”


“I didn’t want you to know about it. I want it gone. It’s… there to remind me who I belong to. It’s Morrison’s mark, the symbol he has on everything that he claims.”


“Morrison’s mark? Why his?”


“He views women like property. He was giving me to…” I paused, I didn’t want to say his name.


Gage moved closer. He knelt on his knees in front of me. His hand covered mine as he rested it there over my heart. Slowly he pulled my hand down to reveal the ugly tattoo. His expression, unreadable as he stared at it then his deep sorrowful eyes found mine as he searched for the words to say, but they never came. He looked hurt and I was the one who hurt him.


“Gage… say something, please.”


“It’s just a tattoo, Jade…” he tried to sound reassuring but I could tell he felt disturbed by it. “We’ll get it removed somehow.”


“He said it can’t be removed.”


“Of course it can!”


“I would love to try, but Damian said it was permanent, it can’t be removed. Please, don’t be mad at me, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…”


“I’m glad you told me, I’m not mad at you, Jade.”


“Okay,” I said, my voice wavered as a knot tightened in my throat. “I was supposed to get Damian’s right here… Today.”


“They could have marked up your whole body. That still doesn’t change the fact that only you can say who your heart belongs to. Not a tattoo.”


“My heart belongs to you.”


The anguished look on his face softened and the weight in my chest lifted. With his hand still over my heart he gently smoothed it up around my neck and pulled me close to him, his fingers weaved through my hair. His moistened velvety lips grazed mine as he gave me soft kisses. My lips parted, he took advantage of them and kissed me ardently as tantalizing tingles surged through me. An uncontrolled whimper escaped from me muffled against his lips. After, he pressed his forehead against mine, his soft blue eyes comforting me.


“I don’t care about a stupid tattoo, as long as I have you.”


“Are you sure?” I asked as I sank into his chest and pulled his arms around me. His soft steady breaths soothing to hear as they brushed past my ear. He placed a gentle kiss on my cheek as we watched the sunset, beautiful with ginger, crimson and violet colors.


“Positive… I thought you were going to say you were already married or something,” he said, to lighten the mood.


I laughed and looked up at him. “Liar…”


“Yeah,” he grinned, “it’s okay though.”


The quiet grew palpable between us like the sun on a warm spring day, welcoming and needed, both of us comfortable with each other. I should have known he would respond the way he did. I felt a huge weight lifted with dizzying effects now that he knew, the presence of the tattoo didn’t change anything, for him at least. My fears, made up, exaggerated.


The notebooks. I wondered how they made if from inside my jacket to my dresser. I craned my head to look at him, his perfect lips framed with a three day shadow next to my cheek. “Gage?”


“Yeah?”


“Did you undress me and put me to bed?”


A guilty chuckle rumbled from his chest. I bit my lower lip to contain my grin, unsure what I really wanted his answer to be. “My eyes were closed the whole time.” My jaw dropped and I gasped as he laughed. “No… Sonja did.”


“Oh,” I said as I nudged him with my elbow, “where is she?”


“With Charles for a few days. She brought your stuff over.”


“Did you see the notebooks I had in my jacket?”


“Yeah… I set them on the dresser. What are they?”


“Not sure… I haven’t had time to look at them,” I said, then reached for the pack we brought just out of reach, careful not to disturb his arms around me. He chuckled as the tips of my fingers barely reached the arm strap then I pulled it closer. I glanced at him and smiled as I unzipped it and pulled them out. “I brought them.”


I made myself comfortable as I settled back, using Gage as a prop and drew up my knees, resting the journals against my thighs so we both could see. Slowly, I turned the first page. On the upper left corner of the inside cover, printed in English read, property of Spencer Langdon, MD/ MPH, Director of DHCPP. Everything else written, cover to cover looked foreign, like transcribed in a different language, in a different script. My curiosity grew with his as we studied them.


“When Dante and I-”


“Dante?”


“Yeah, Sonja’s contact. She was taken and I got away. I had no choice but to go with him. We had to find Sonja,” I cringed inside at how it sounded, how it looked for Gage to find me with him. I searched his eyes, worried he wouldn’t trust me, believe me. Dante did try to kiss me, but I made sure to make it obvious I wasn’t interested and he backed off.


Gage’s brows lifted with questions. “And…”


“And… we came across a Doctor in the school science lab. I didn’t mean to take the notebooks. We helped him and a guard named Wilkes load the last of his experiments into the back of a truck before the resistance found them… we had to, we were dressed like Militia. The notebooks kept slipping off the top of a box I was carrying so I stuck them in my jacket then forgot about them.”


“Dr. Langdon?” Gage asked as he read the inside cover.


“No… That’s what it says here, but his name was Dr. Ackerman I overheard them talking though, he was mad they had to pack up and leave because he almost figured something out. He was also overly panicked… he said not to break anything because it was toxic.”


My insides bristled as I questioned whether Dante and I did the right thing by helping him. I wondered if I could find answers in the journals.


“Be careful who you show them to,” Gage sighed, “You need to be careful who you trust, Jade… I know I’ve said it over and over again, but…”


“I know… I am careful.”


“I’m not so sure Dante is one of those people...”


I sat upright and looked back at him. A wary expression creased into his brows as his eyes searched mine. “Sonja believes he is… Do you know something? Have you two met?”


“Yeah, we’ve met… We met when my mom moved us to the city… when we were waiting for our house to be built. I’ve known him since I was fourteen,” he said. “Just be careful if you ever come across him again… that’s all I ask.”


“Okay…” A fleeting smile surfaced as I gently pressed my palm against his chest, pushing him onto his back. A sigh escaped me as I curled into the crook of his arm. My head rested on his shoulder as our bodies conformed to each other. “I’m so glad you are here. I love you…”


“I know,” he whispered, his voice raspy in his throat. I felt his smile grow as he pressed his lips against my forehead. “I love you…”


I didn’t want Gage to sense my unease, but as he gave my shoulder a squeeze and kissed my head, I believed it was too late to hide my feelings.


When I mentioned Gage’s name to Dante, he acted as if they had never met, that he didn’t know who he was. He also seemed to know too much about the Militia’s plans for me, for Sonja, though I couldn’t figure out why it would benefit him to allow her to get captured only to have us rescue her.


If there was anyone I had complete faith in that wasn’t my own flesh and blood, it was Gage. He was right. I was too trusting, too forgiving and something with Dante didn’t sit quite right.