Savages Recruit (8 page)

She didn't have time to lick her wounds however, not ten minutes later Savage was in the doorway. “Ready?” He snapped the question at her, he was clearly back into hard ass mode. There was not the slightest bit of warmth in his expression, his face was like granite as he glowered at her.

He took her down to the transport bay where she was loaded into a windowless van with bench seats flanking the sides of it. It rather reminded her of a prison van, but it was slightly more well appointed with a desk in the middle. Savage got into the back with her and another man, the one she recognized from the day Savage had accosted her at her apartment got in the front to drive. To her embarrassment, she was forced to try to sit with Savage watching her. She tried to do so as gingerly as possible, but putting pressure on her bottom was unpleasant in the extreme. The moment she put her full weight on the seat she let out an involuntary yelp of pain. She didn't look at Savage but she knew he probably had a look of satisfaction on his face. He enjoyed beating her, she was sure of it.

“Lay down if you want,” he said gruffly. “This will be a long trip.”

Zora didn't want to lay down, but she also didn't want to sit on her sore ass the whole time. When the van started moving, jolting her backside as it went over increasingly bumpy ground she quickly elected to spread out on the vinyl seat on her stomach. Savage sat near the front of the van, his long legs stretched out in front of him, his arms folded across his chest. He nodded when he saw her taking the common sense approach to avoiding more pain. “Better?”

“I guess,” she said. It was a lot better actually, but she wasn't going to tell him how much he'd managed to unsettle her with his spanking, it would only encourage him.

“You've taken a hell of a hiding lately. Your rear looks like a war zone,” Savage said conversationally, as if there was nothing strange at all about discussing the state of her bottom.

She frowned at his matter of fact description. “Of course it hurts. You hit me with a shoe.”

There wasn't so much as a scrap of guilt on his face. “You deserved it. Tell me. What were you thinking?”

Growling to herself, Zora wished there was some way of escaping the conversation, but she was locked in a small, fast moving box with the man and there was no way out. “I was thinking I didn't want you to hit me anymore.”

“So you thought you'd kick me?” Savage smirked at what he clearly considered a laughable plan. “Not the brightest idea you've ever had.”

Fuck it, Zora thought to herself. She may as well tell him what she thought of him. “You're a bully,” she said. “You only hit me because you can.”

“No,” he shook his head. “I hit you because you need it.”

“That's insane,” Zora argued. “Nobody needs to be hit.”

“You do. You don't understand that you can't always get your way. You don't understand how important it is you do what you're told when you're told. There won't always be time to argue. In some matters, hesitation means death.”

“Not for me though,” Zora persisted. “I just do math. Who cares how I behave?”

“I do,” Savage said heavily.

“And we're back to square one. You hit me because you like hitting me.”

“If I hit you because I liked hitting you, I'd be spanking you right now,” Savage said, his voice low.

Zora caught the hint of a warning, but it only served to confuse her. She couldn't work out what she was doing wrong, if anything. She fell into silence as they traveled along fresh roads. Her bottom stung and twinged periodically, reminding her over and over again what he had done to her. “I just don't understand,” she said softly.

“You don't need to understand, you just need to obey.” The sentence sounded like a line right out of the hard ass training manual, and Zora wasn't buying it for a moment.

“When are you going to tell me what's going on?”

Savage sighed, his voice strained like that of a parent who has been asked a myriad of times if they were there yet. “Soon.”

“Not fair,” Zora pouted, burying her head in her crossed arms. He wanted her for something. He wanted her for something so bad he'd broken laws to get her and now he was telling her she had no right to know what it was. She didn't believe his promises to tell her at some point in the future. He was keeping secrets, and those secrets couldn't be good.

She closed her eyes, but even with her eyes closed she could feel his presence close by. He was solid, unyielding. A total mystery in many respects. She knew very little about him. He wasn't married, she could deduce that from the fact that he didn't wear a wedding ring. Did he have a partner? It seemed unlikely given the amount of time he spent working. Surely he was too handsome to be single though, women usually swooned for the military type, especially one who could be courteous and charming when he wanted to be. Catching herself at the beginning of a dangerously soppy spiral of thought, Zora berated herself silently. It didn't matter how attractive he was, he certainly wasn't interested in her. He'd seen her half naked more often than her last boyfriend had and he was completely indifferent to her apart from when she displeased him in some way.

Her mind drifted back to the evening he'd used the tawse on her, when she had been too upset to stand or speak he had held her gently and spoken to her with some small trace of affection. The mere memory of the moment made her feel warm all over. It had been such a fleeting moment though, and he had left her to her fear and misery afterward as usual. No, she couldn't start to think he cared, it was too obvious that he did not. She had no-one. She was utterly alone. Thinking that Savage was interested in her in any way other than a useful tool was just wishful dreaming.

“I know this is confusing and frightening.” His voice broke into her mental tirade. “But I'm going to do my damnedest to keep you safe, do you understand? Even from yourself.”

Zora's eyes fluttered open. “Keep me safe? Am I in danger?”

The look on Savage's face was conflicted. “I was going to wait to tell you this until you'd learned to trust me more, but it doesn't change anything one way or another and at this rate I'll be thrashing you until kingdom come.”

“Okay,” Zora said, scrambling up into a half sitting position. “Tell me.”

His eyes were dark and serious as he looked at her. “We need you for your math skills, Zora, that much is true, but you won't be working at the compound. You'll be in the field.”

“In the...” Zora's mouth dropped open as she realized what he meant. “You mean getting shot at?”

“Hopefully not, but it is a possibility,” Savage nodded.

“No. Fucking. Way,” Zora said, emphasizing each word. “You've got the wrong person.”

“I don't think so,” he shook his head.

“Yes, you do. I can't go out and do things like that. I'm a fucking accountant! I watch television! You need some G.I Jane lady.”

Savage smiled slightly. “You watch too many movies.”

“No, I watch enough movies,” Zora disagreed. “I watch just enough movies to keep me safe inside and not out in the middle of nowhere getting shot at.” She sat back, then yelped as her sore backside made full contact with the seat. “This is why you've been thrashing me? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Watch your language, Ms Matthews,” Savage said sternly.

“Fuck off. My language is the least of your worries.”

“I will take your pants down in this van,” he warned.

“God, I don't care,” Zora frowned. She'd been sitting there wondering if he liked her and the whole time he was planning to get her shot at. “Fuck, I am such an idiot,” she exclaimed.

Savage's demeanor was swiftly returning to that of the no nonsense disciplinarian. “One more time and you'll be back over my knee.”

“Stop it,” Zora insisted. “Stop fucking....”

She did not get much further. True to his word, Savage reached for her and manhandled her across the small space between them. “No!” Zora shrieked, suddenly aware of the very real threat to her bottom. “Please!” She was pressed up against his body, mere inches from being over his knee. She tried to resist, but his muscles were like bands of iron. She was helpless when he wanted to enforce his will and in short order she ended up face down, balancing over one of his thighs like a see saw.

“Now listen,” Savage said firmly, placing his hand on her bottom. “I know you're afraid. But trust me, I am not going to let anything happen to this,” he patted her rear gently. “And once we're done training, you'll be ready for whatever the world has to throw at you, okay?”

His hand was large and warm, and the feeling of it against her sore bottom was strangely comforting. The same strength that had frightened her moments before was now being presented in a different light, as a sheltering force. “Why would you do that? Why would you care what happened to me?”

“Because underneath it all you're an innocent woman who doesn't deserve what's happening to her,” Savage said. “That's the way of the world. Bad things happen to good people. I joined the military because I wanted to stop some of those things. You're not going to be harmed on my watch as long as you do as you're told.”

She couldn't see his face, all she could see was the carpet on the van floor, but there was a note of very real sincerity in his voice. Instinctively she trusted him. He was not denying the danger, but he was offering her some measure of protection from it. “Thank you for telling me what's going on at least,” she said, finding some measure of gratitude.

“You're welcome,” he replied, letting her up. “When we get to the camp I'll get you some lotion for your behind,” he said, glancing towards her rear as she kneeled on the seat, keeping her hind quarters out of contact.

“That's awfully kind of you,” she mumbled. She did not move back to the side of the van she'd been on.  Instead she perched where he'd let her up, close enough to him that they were almost touching.

“You'll be briefed on the exact details closer to the time,” he informed her. “But I can tell you this, it should be a clean and simple operation, no casualties, no fire.”

Zora nodded and picked at a spot on the desk with her index finger. Her nerves were all too 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? That's the guy you want to emulate?”

As awful as Savage's point was, it was a valid one. There was no way anyone would pay attention to her even if she did speak out. Her past scrapes with the law alone would ensure that her story was dismissed outright. “You suck,” she growled.