Free Ryland by Kathi S. Barton

she
saw him. He was close enough that her hair danced on her arms. When he stepped
out of the room and in front of her she nearly took off running, but he spoke
first, very softly so that no human would have been able to hear.
    “I came to tell you that I have Bronwyn.”
Her entire body went weak with relief. She grabbed the wall as he moved toward
her, but she stopped him and pointed to the room he’d come from. He nodded and
stepped back in as she made her way down the hall with her cart of meds.
    As much as she wanted to stop and go to
him she knew that she was being watched. He must have known as well because he
never came out to get her, but waited. She went into the room to hand the other
man in the bed his medications. Sindy spoke to him the same way he had her in
the hall.
    “Is she all right? Does she need
anything?” She handed the man his water. “She needs plenty of juice after an
ordeal. She will drink any kind, but pure juice, just squeezed, helps her the
most.”
    “I’ll take care of it. You heard about
the incident at the abandoned buildings, I take it.” She told him she had. “I
was there. She used the last of her strength to save us from ourselves. They
were going to take her again.”
    The curtain where the male stood
fluttered. Sindy asked the man in the bed if he needed anything and he asked
for water, please. She said she’d be right back and left. It really was the job
of the aides, but she needed to ask more about her friend. When she returned,
he stood in the opened curtain and handed her something.
    “It’s a cell phone. My brother Keith is
somewhat of a nerd and he fixed it so it will bounce all over and no one will
be able to track it. The number to the house is programmed in it, as are my
other brothers’ and mine. Their names are there as well.” She handed him a
small package also. He looked at her when he opened it.
    “She’s hurt, right?” He nodded. “It’s
all she can use as a pain medication. It works a little, but not if she’s hurt…
Is she hurt badly?”
    “Yes. But she’s getting better. She
sleeps a lot and, as far as I can tell, only gets up when she needs to use the
bathroom.”
    Sindy nodded.
    “She will be pissed because I came
here.”
    “You know she will. But I’m glad that
you did. I was worried the moment I saw those trucks on the news. I knew that
they’d come for her.” She wiped at a tear. “I thought they had her.”
    “They won’t get her. I swear to you,
they won’t.” Sindy only nodded, but he took a step toward her and she backed
up. “I won’t hurt either of you. You have my word. I know…she told us what
happened the night you were razed. She said that…”
    “If she told you that then she would
have told you that I won’t trust anyone. I doubt very much she will either. There
are days when I…when I wished Dana would have killed me too.”
    He nodded, but didn’t try to tell her
that she was wrong to think that. Nor did he say that things would be better. Bronwyn
did the same thing every time she said something like that to her.
    “What’s his name?”
    She looked at him confused.
    “She said that the man who is trying to
take her is in with the male who killed your family.”
    Sindy felt faint. As she staggered back
he helped her to the chair. He kept saying he was sorry, that he’d thought she
knew. She finally looked at him, tears running down her face. The man hadn’t
hurt her, but that didn’t mean she would trust him completely.
    “I don’t know the name of the man in the
lab. She might have said, but I don’t remember.” He nodded and she knew that he
was aware she was lying. “The male, the one that did those things to her, his
name is Crawford, Forest Crawford. He has a large streak. He calls them an
ambush. If he finds out you’ve been with her, taken her, he’ll kill you.”
    The male stood up and looked down at
her. He was frighteningly huge, but for some reason Sindy wasn’t terrified of
him.