I reached into the inside pocket of my backpack and pulled out the laser-like pen and handed it over to him. The men made manly noises, and I was once again reminded that I was in a room with a bunch of strange men while Jason, the strangest of them all, stood in front of me, blocking everyone else’s path. It should make me feel safe, and it did, but that only pissed me off for some reason. So I bit him.
“Ouch! Dammit, Roxanna, what did you do that for?” He jumped and tried to see over his shoulder at his back, where I’d sunk my teeth in. I’m not sure what was wrong with me, maybe I’m overtired from last night, but I had the strong urge to poke my tongue out at him like a child. I couldn’t believe what he did next, right there in front of all of them.
I saw the light change in his eyes before he gripped my chin and pulled me in. Then his lips were on mine. My eyes widened in shock, and I tried to pull away, but he just tightened his hold as I tried my best not to respond. He pulled away with a grin while the other idiots in the room grinned and whistled. I was about to slug him when I heard a child’s voice.
“Daddy, where’s everyone?” A little girl with the cutest ringlets came into the room, rubbing sleep from her eyes as she stopped in the middle of the room. “Come here, Catalina, you’re just getting up? Your mom and big sister went down to the beach with your grandmas and the others.”
Lyon held out a hand for her to come to him, and the way she cuddled into his side so innocently made my heart tear. There was no fear in her eyes when she looked around the room at the others, and I wondered what that must feel like. Her eyes landed on me, and she eased her head away from her dad’s hip.
“Ooh, who’re you?” She looked me over like I was the latest Barbie or something. I was surprised when her dad didn’t stop her from coming to me. Didn’t he know what I was? What had been done to me all my life? How could he let his precious daughter get this close?
I waited for the sound of his voice calling her back with each step she took in my direction, but it never came. “Uncle Jason, is she yours?” She looked from me to Jason and back with a half-smile on her face.
“Yes!” For some strange reason, his answer seemed to release the other men in the room from some invisible hold, and they all started filing out.
“Who’s watching the kids?” One asked Mancini.
“The staff, they’re here to pick up the slack so that the women can catch a break whenever they went one. I say women, but we all know what happens when we’re here, so they’re really here for us.”
I didn’t have time to ponder Mancini’s words, because Catalina, I think that’s what her dad had called her, was busy trying to drag me away somewhere. “Let’s go get Lily, and we’ll go to the beach to find the others. The girls never stay with the boys when we’re here because then they can’t get anything done.”
I tried not to laugh at her antics, but it was almost impossible. “Where are we going, eolin sonyeo?” I had to tug on my hand to get her to stop. My mind was still twirling when I looked at her dad to see if there would be a look of horror on his face. I’m pretty sure he knew what I’d done last night, and about all the others I’d taken down, but there was no look of disgust on his face, just one of exasperation for his kid.
“You might as well go, or she’ll make your life a living hell. Mengele unhand the girl and stop tugging on her like that; she’s not a toy for fu…for heaven's sake.” She barely spared him a grin as she pulled me along behind her prattling on about someone named Lily and some kid named Nia, who I supposedly reminded her of but only a little.
When I looked back at Jason, I’m not sure I wasn’t begging with my eyes to be rescued. “I’ll be right back.” Now, why did I do that?
Roxy
She pulled me down a long hallway that had most of the doors closed to what I was sure were all bedrooms. The place was huge, which I’d seen from the outside when we landed in the dark. All I knew for sure is that we were near the ocean because I could smell it, could feel that certain breeze that comes only with clean, fresh sea air. Something I hadn’t felt since before my dad died.