Under His Guard Read Online Free Page A

Fight for him.” Steely determination pulled me upright.
    â€œDon’t dis seem like a damn fool place to spend the night? Me and the old girl are gonna hit the hay.” Tommy made a big show of cracking his back and wincing, trying to make me feel sorry for him.
    The old coot wasn’t getting any sympathy from me. “You’re the damn fool.”
    â€œHey, now. My place is right next ta Nathaniel and Caspar. Dem boys are screamers. I gotta wait until they pass out from fucking before I get any shut-eye. Oughtta be old enough to be deaf already.” He slapped his scrawny thigh and whistled. “C’mon, Gal.”
    â€œYou know, Liz thinks Gal’s a guy,” I called after him.
    â€œThat’s ’cause she don’t want no competition when it comes to her menfolk.” His eyes twinkled with glee.
    Left alone once more, I walked to the door and looked out. Up and down the lane, lights were off in the mess hall, the schoolhouse, the trade hall. In the distance, beyond a sentinel of trees, the lanterns glowed from the neighborhood of caravans.
    I squared my shoulders and walked down the road, alone but resolved.
    No one was gonna take Leon from me. Not Cutler, not the Revolution, and certainly no fucking Plague.

CHAPTER THREE
    A fter a mere two hours of lying on top of my bed, I stomped into the town hall the next morning. My demand that Leon go to my place last night had apparently failed to convince him, since he’d never showed up. Maybe being a domineering prick wasn’t the way to play things with him, but damned if I could remember how to woo someone.
    Cannon and Nate sat side by side at the long table that had been returned to its proper place, along with the chairs I’d kicked out of my way last night.
    I overheard the tail end of Hills—our commune elder—saying, “Wrecked the place a little bit.”
    I settled in an empty seat next to Liz and grabbed a cup of coffee to hide behind. “Sorry ’bout that.”
    The air around me was cloying with pity, thick as the mud I needed to knock off my boots after my walkabout last night. I kept my head in my cup and held up a hand to ward off everyone’s sympathetic glances. “Aw, shit. Don’t start pussyfooting around me now. Whatever the CEO dishes out, I can take, so long as Leon doesn’t have to.”
    There were coughs and mumbles and more looks I chose to ignore. Linc, Eden—who was Nate and Linc’s mom as well as the Chitamauga healer—and Hatch, the tech guru, took their seats.
    Liz turned to me. “How was Leon last night?”
    I blew across the steam rising from my coffee.
    â€œYou pissed him off, didn’t you?” Her tone turned icy.
    â€œHe’s got a hairpin trigger; you know that.” I took a scalding sip from my cup, not even wincing as it burned my tongue.
    â€œAnd?” she pressed.
    â€œI was a dick.”
    â€œWell, there’s a surprise.”
    The door opened and I shot to my feet, expecting Leon.
    In swanned Farrow, who looked ready to reign over a tea party in her swishy dress, only the dark circles under her eyes giving away her fatigue. She’d been our go-to girl in Beta, the real mole as far as I was concerned. “Ah’m sorry to be late, y’all. It was a rough night after Ah told Sebastian about Leon.”
    Her brother, Sebastian, and Leon had become friends in Beta while Leon worked to infiltrate the Posse Omnis Juvenis , the hard-core crew of militants Cutler had under his thumb.
    Farrow swept behind me, running a hand along my back. “Ah’m purely distraught for you, Darke.”
    I grumbled a response and returned to watching the door. Two minutes of chatter later, Leon still hadn’t showed. “Where the hell is Leon, anyway?” I asked.
    Guess I wasn’t so good at playing it cool after all.
    Hills hooked a white strand of hair behind his long pink earlobe. More of the crushing