Free Love and Decay, Kane's Law by Rachel Higginson

told
the truth.
    “You’d die too, Ty.” More honesty. She would.
She needed to know that.
    “And you care, Kane?” she laughed
callously.
    I held back an impatient sigh. She should
know this. I opened my mouth to say something along those lines,
but resigned myself to, “I care. Just make sure he’s alright.”
    “Whatevs,” Tyler shrugged. She was apparently
set on trying every last one of my nerves.
    “You have a very interesting family,” Reagan
said after the slamming screen door had stopped ringing through our
ears.
    “You don’t have any family left?” I changed
the subject, anxious to know more about her.
    “Not anymore,” she hissed at me- like it was
my fault her family had succumbed to the high death count of recent
years.
    I saw through her. In this moment, she wasn’t
grieving for family gone, she was afraid. She lashed out because
she didn’t have a certain future and the parts that she could rely
on were new and a little scary. So instead, I promised, “Reagan, I
know how to keep you safe. This will be a good life for you.”
    Not missing a beat, she argued, “Against my
will. You’ll keep me safe against my will. And you’ll give me the
life you think is good… against my will. Honestly, I don’t even
understand how I got here.”
    I squinted, perplexed. “We found you in the
woods this morning.”
    “No, I know how I got here this morning. But
I mean, to this place. To you keeping me under lock and key just
like Tyler said, like a pet. Why do you think this is acceptable
behavior?” Her eyes had darkened to almost black gem stones. She
was furious, vibrating with hatred and helplessness.
    “I don’t,” I swore to her. And I knew that it
wasn’t acceptable behavior- at least in the world we used to live
in. “I know it’s not alright to behave like this. But I also know
it’s been eighteen months since a girl that has even remotely
peeked my interest has stumbled upon our encampment and she died
three days later because she was too dehydrated and starved to come
back from that. Her body shut down and we watched her die in our
medical facilities. Since then it’s been a steady stream of mostly
men. Or women that won’t work for me.” And all that was true. Even
the girls that had been part of the town before we’d started
accepting outsiders hadn’t worked. They’d just been some version of
the same kind of girl. I wanted someone unique, someone both
beautiful and smart, both hard-working and feminine, someone that I
could discover but that also remained a mystery. It wasn’t just
about not finding any girl- there had been plenty and I’d passed
them all onto someone else. It was about her. It was about me
wanting her.
    “That doesn’t mean I’m the last of a dying
breed.” She slammed her arms across her chest and met my gaze
straight on.
    “No,” I assured her. “But it means you are a
rare and precious commodity. A woman is a status symbol in this
community.”
    “So you’re lazy?” Her teeth ground together
and I had the strongest urge to lay my palm along her jaw and run
my thumb across her plump lower lip. She was getting worked up for
nothing. “Go find another woman! Go find someone who’s actually
interested in you. You can’t just kidnap people.”
    Red flashed across my vision. That was an
unfair accusation and I did not appreciate having my work-ethic
questioned. “I’m not lazy,” I argued with her. “I’m an opportunist.
You should look at this from my perspective. If you were in the
same position as me and the perfect man walked across your path, I
doubt you would be so quick to let them go.”
    “I’m not perfect,” she answered quickly.
    “Perfect for me,” I told her. And I meant
it.
    “You’re delusional.”
    This time I didn’t get angry at her
name-calling. I understood her fear and I forced myself to be
patient. She would understand in time. It would only take a little
time. “I’m your future, Reagan. The sooner you come