Page 14 of Marked for Execution

Eliseo

I watched in confusion as Samuel ran into one of the old ladies who helped with the gardening group.What was that guy up to, and why was he running with packaged meat in his hand?Only Oscar from the shop used that paper.

Something small flashed between the meandering bodies and my eyes sharpened. It was the tattered brown baseball cap that gave her away. She was dressed in all black, her dusty, sand-colored boots the only thing that popped out.

I watched as she gracefully leapt over the tilting barrel and grabbed the old lady before she could fall with it. Samuel ended up jumping backward like a buffoon, trying to dodge the metal full of what looked like manure from the back of the shop.

Shaking my head, I made my way towards them. Samuel hissed as Fitri turned and sprinted…

…right into my chest. I grabbed her arms, steadied her, and she snapped her face to mine. There was a fire inside, and it intrigued me.What made this girl burn so deeply from within?This community was a human’s dream in the world we lived in. What did she have to be angry about?

With a water turbine and solar panels to provide us with electricity, we were better off than some of the other human settlements I had come across. Our homes actually had roofs.

“Can’t you just leave me alone?” she hissed quietly, and my eyebrow quirked in response. Was it notherthat ran intome?

“Damn, you got some quick strides with that little body of yours. Moves like a freaking ninja with the way you leaped.” I watched as Samuel rolled his ankle. “I got your meat.”

Fitri and I both snapped our gaze to him. He busted out laughing and wagged his eyebrows at her. She leaned into me to create a larger distance from Samuel, and I was grateful for her discernment. Samuel was known for dipping hismeatinto anything that would let him.

It was partially why Hannah got so pissed when he left. She couldn’t keep an eye on him.

“I’ll hold on to the meat for ya, but you owe us some service.”

I scowled. I needed to put a stop to this. I knew I shouldn’t have let him weasel an answer out of me. He figured it out before I could say anything, and that was that.

“Samuel, keep your dick in your pants.” My voice came out deeper than I would have liked, but something about his last statement grated on my nerves.

“I keep my dick in Hannah, thank you very much. She’d cut it off if it was anywhere else. Here.” He shoved the meat at her chest, and my nostrils flared. “She signed up for weapon checks and cleaning,” he said without moving his eyes away from her.

Fitri whipped her head around to face me and stared daggers into my eyes with accusation. The unease I felt from watching him touch her earlier morphed into something else.

“Well, now, we can always use some extra hands,” I agreed. Samuel smirked, and I curled my lip. He laughed out loud and turned to walk away.

“Asshole,” Fitri grumbled.

“He has his uses. Follow me, and I’ll take you to our weapon stores.”

“No; I didn’t agree to this.”

“Judging by the meat in your hand, you surely did.”

“What? I was still looking at the list when that asshole of yours showed up!” Her raised voice turns heads around us. She tightened down the cap on her head.

Grabbing her by the arm, I dragged her towards the location of the weapon stores on the southwest corner of the community, near my residence. I didn’t trust anyone with that shit but me and my men. I knew for a fact that weapons cleaning was not on Oscar’s list of services. Leave it to Samuel to wrangle this squirrely girl.

She pulled until she slipped from my grasp. Backing up with her vegetables against her chest, I tamped down the chuckle that wanted to escape at the sight before me. She looked like a rabid fox, fighting to protect her prize. A prize I was not here to fight for.

“Let’s get your food home. How about that? Looks like you were fixing to make something to eat. Let me help you.”

“No.” She turned and jogged away.

This little cat and mouse game she was playing made my blood boil in more ways than one. My boots hit the pavement, and suddenly she was sprinting.

I took a sharp right behind one of the empty homes and cut her off right before she reached her porch. She was moving so fast, she knocked us both down with her velocity.Holy hell.

Wrapping my arms around her, I made sure to land on the ground with her safely in my arms. The feminine growl and hiss at my face was just par for the course.

“What. Is. The. Matter. With. You?!”