Free Savages Recruit by Loki Renard Page B

clear and he reached out and clasped her shoulder. “You'll be fine.”
    “What if I can't do this?” She echoed the question he had refused to answer days before.
    “You can do it,” Savage said confidently.
    She looked at him sidelong. “What makes you so sure of that?”
    “Well,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back on the seat. “For starters, it took almost twelve hours to pick you up because you did a Houdini out the window at the first sign of trouble.” He gave her a stern look and Zora smiled a little at the memory. “Secondly, just this morning you took it into your head to try to fight with someone much larger than you who had already shown he was prepared to cause you pain. You may not make the best decisions all the time, but you're more than brave enough to deal with this mission.”
    “So it was a good thing I kicked you?” A glimmer of mischief appeared in Zora's eyes.
    “Don't push it,” Savage replied.
    She didn't push it, what she did do was contemplate what she'd been told. Even though he was being kind and reassuring, it didn't put Savage in a good light. He'd stolen her away to take part in something dangerous. He'd taken her, a complete stranger, and put her life on the line. A new question came to mind as she thought about the outrageousness of what had taken place. “What happens when we're done? When do I get to go home?”
    He looked at her, his expression suddenly hard with harsh truth. “Zora, there is no done. The things you're going to see mean that you'll never be able to go back to a normal life. You've already seen more than most people ever will. You'll get more freedom in time, but for the moment, this is your life.”
    Zora shook her head. She was beginning to feel nauseous. “And you're just telling me this now. Well thanks. Thanks for giving me a choice.”
    “Life doesn't always give us choices, Zora. We make the best of the realities we find ourselves in.”
    She glared at him and shuffled around on her knees so that she could point a finger at him accusingly. “You had a choice.  You had a choice to find someone who wanted this.”
    He glanced at her finger then swatted it away. “No. I had a job to do and a certain amount of time to do it in. I'm sorry that means your life has been disrupted, but it could not have happened any other way.”
    “That is such a cop out,” Zora said, her face screwed up in disgust.
    Savage appeared unmoved by her emotion. “You can argue, you can throw your little tantrums, but it isn't going to change the reality.”
    “And what is the reality, Captain Savage?” Zora snarled. “Do tell me, you seem to be such an expert on the topic.”
    His eyes bored into hers as he answered without hesitation. “For the foreseeable future you sleep when I tell you to sleep, you wake when I tell you to wake, heck, you breathe when I tell you to breathe. Tantrums won't change that fact, they'll just waste your breath. If you disobey me I have dozens of implements to use on your hide.” Leaning towards her, he spoke in a dangerous low tone. “In short, Ms Matthews, I own you.”
     

 
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    It was impossible to glower as much as Zora wanted to glower at Savage. She glowered as hard as she could and still it was not enough. He was entirely unaffected by her dirty looks, probably because his ego knew no bounds. Zora found the declaration that he 'owned' her ridiculous and yet somehow very difficult to disprove, especially when he had the backing of a monolithic institution. “I'll escape and go to the media,” she threatened as the van began to climb a slope.
    He gave her a withering look. “Zora, think about that for a moment. Even if you could escape, which you can't, can you name a single person who has successfully gone to the media against the military?”
    Zora frowned. “Well there was that one guy...”
    “That one guy spending the rest of his natural born life in military prison?