CONCEPTION (The Others) by Sarah McCarty Read Free Book Online

her strength against his. “But if they find me,
they find the baby.”
    Deuce held her until she accepted the futility of her
effort. She slumped against him after one last valiant bid for freedom, either
accepting the pointlessness of further struggle or simply being too weak to try
again. Deuce suspected the latter. The Edie he knew did not understand the
concept of surrender. He turned her in his arms. Her head dropped back against
his shoulder. Her eyes were huge and drowning in tears as they met his.
    “You can’t let that happen.”

Chapter Four

 
    He would never let the Coalition have his daughter. “You and
our daughter will be safe here.”
    The distress in her expression puzzled him at his proclamation
as much as her “I can’t stay” offended him.
    He pulled the coat sleeve over her arm. “Nevertheless, you
will.”
    The odors of female sweat and desperation swirled around
him, mixing with, but not masking the scent of her injuries. Her lids dropped
to over her eyes as she whispered, “I won’t.”
    “You have no option.” Deuce tugged the other sleeve. He
would simply make the barrier go away, but he feared it might send her into
hysteria. At last the coat fell from her body. He reached for her shirt front.
    “It’s too dangerous.” Her voice reflected the tension in her
body. She was terrified.
    Her hand hovered over his as if she knew she could not stop
him from undressing her, yet she was driven to try. She was right to think she
could not. He was desperate to see the extent of her wounds. Her gaze bounced
off his to check the window, the door, as if she feared discovery. Or attack.
It was the behavior of a person who’d learned there was no such thing as safe.
    Bohdan put his suspicion into words. “You have escaped
before?”
    “Yes.”
    Deuce worked the collar button free of its hole as Eden sank
back into his lap. If she were Chosen, she would have disappeared. But she
wasn’t Chosen, she was human and her only defense was her determination and her
wits. It never failed to amaze him how she could do so much with so little. He
opened the buttons over her chest. She jerked, her lip catching between her
teeth, her breath filling her lungs and staying there. “You were not
successful.”
    With his hands so close to her skin, Deuce could not miss
her shudder or how the memories intensified the stench of her fear. Her
memories were not pleasant.
    “No.”
    Such a little word to contain so much emotion. It was his
right to know her thoughts and emotions. His privilege to protect her from her
enemy and the memories that would hurt her. It was not right that he stand on
the outside looking in, watching her suffer. “How did you escape this time?”
    Edie did not look at him. She kept her gaze locked on her
hands, her lashes dark against her cheeks, the pale tips blending with her
skin. “I had help.”
    Deuce nodded to Bohdan who turned away before he pulled the
shirt off. “Who?”
    “I don’t know.”
    She wore no bra. A flush spread up over her chest, surging
over the prominence of her breastbone as he glanced at her breasts. Her
embarrassment tainted the air around them along with her stress. She was afraid
of, or feared for, whoever had helped her.
    “They will not find you again,” Deuce said quietly, draping
her shirt across her full breasts, preserving the modesty she valued. “And if
you give me the name or the image of the one who helped you, they will not harm
him either.”
    She shook her head. Her fingers locked together and clenched
until the knuckles glowed white. “I can’t.”
    He would have pressed, but he had fears of his own. One of
them being that she was holding onto her sanity by a thread. When she was
healed, he would know his enemies and know his debts. He pulled the bottom of
the shirt up, exposing the white bandage steeped red with blood that rose above
the waistband of her jeans. He reached for the snap.
    She jerked back as far as she could. She would