Chapter One
Caroline
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IN ANOTHER TIME, INanother world, where my country hadn’t slid into catastrophe, I’d have fallen in love with Adam Harper all over again.His dark hair and devilish eyes would have enthralled me just as they’d done in the grim reality of Fortorus.In the alternative realm, though, things would have been different.
Better.
Happier.
He’d never have been my so-called superior, wouldn’t have had the power of life and death over me, and wouldn’t have needed to choose me over the entire life he’d built for himself in twenty-first-century Britain.We could have started a regular relationship, getting to know one another and flirting and teasing our way into the bedroom.
“What would it have been like to have met like that?”Gripping the rail, my whispered words were lost on the ocean wind as I imagined the parallel scenario.
As the commander general, Adam Harper held such authority over me that the idea of any genesis where he hadn’t made the rules was almost inconceivable.Would I have been happy to kneel at his feet without the imminent threat of punishment if I disobeyed?Would I ever have realized how much I adored the capitulation without that dark impetus?
“Unlikely,” I muttered, remembering the happy-go-lucky, independent woman I’d once been.She hadn’t knelt for anyone.Until the day she had no choice.
That version of Caroline would likely have told Harper to get stuffed, but in doing so, she might have pushed away the brightest spark of connection I’d ever experienced.I might never have found such ecstasy in the depths of our collective depravity.
“Not that it matters.”An intrepid seagull landed on the railing beside me, eyeing me with apparent curiosity.“There was no choice, was there, Mr.Gull?Ihadto kneel.”
No choice but to suffer and endure.
My fingers tightened on the barrier as I recalled the horrendous months I spent at Fortorus.The things I’d seen and dealt with there would stay with me forever, even though Harper managed to get me away.
For now.
I peered around at the waves, half expecting to see one of the new order’s vessels in pursuit of us.I was an escaped prisoner, and the man who’d helped me abscond had been in charge of Fortorus.As soon as the odious man who called himself president realized we were gone, he’d be after us, or after Harper, at least.
My belly cramped at the inevitability.We wouldn’t be able to stop the president’s response.I just had to hope we were far enough away on foreign soil for even his spineless grasp.
As though it could read my thoughts, the gull edged closer.
“I know, Mr.Gull.”I sighed.“We have to reach Dutch soil before my anxiety sweeps me away like the choppy waters below.”
The bird glanced down at the sea as though empathizing with my predicament, and pulling in fresh air, I tried not to dwell on the worst outcomes.
In so many ways, I was the lucky one.
Theonlyreal lucky one.
Unlike the thousands of other women still caged in Fortorus, destined for hopeless futures, and the other brave souls like Fern, who’d already been pulverized by the ruthless, unrelenting system, I was still alive, and the air in my lungs was free.Even the prisoners Harper and I had helped to liberate hadn’t fared as well as us, and the odds were stacked against them.With no rights, limited weaponry, and no access to food and water, how long could they last in the claustrophobic land we used to call home?Only I had a shot at a future with a man who cared about me.
I was the one who’d been plucked from Gamma to live in the luxury of Harper’s unit.I was the woman who’d escaped the deadliest retention camp Great Britain had ever seen.I was the only one with a genuine chance at a life, and that was all down to the man who’d turned my whole life upside down.
Leaning against the side ofCarla, the trawler boat that was taking us both to freedom, I looked on as that man chatted toCarla’scaptain, Andrew.Around them,Carla’screw worked on, hauling huge nets from the ocean and gathering their catch, but my attention returned to my savior.Harper’s body language looked relaxed for a man who’d just fled an authoritarian regime and who was probablyenemy number one, his grin growing as Andrew pointed out something on the horizon.
“Adam.”His name was a murmur on my lips, the gull tilting its head as though I was calling to it.“I hope this works.”
What was I saying?The plan—the two of us on the run together in Europe—hadto work.There was no contingency option.
As if he’d heard me calling his name, Harper’s focus flitted in my direction, his sapphire eyes somehow even more accentuated since he’d donned the royal blue sweatshirt I’d chosen for him.I watched as he expressed his gratitude to the captain for the tenth time and walked toward me.
I’d never seen that humble side of him before, never seen him do anything except condescend and command those the president’s order had deemed unworthy.The appreciation gleaming in his eyes was something new and unexpected, and it touched me in places that, so far, only his fleeting tenderness had been able to reach.
“Little girl.”His smile stretched wider as he approached, his brown tresses flying back in the wind as though he was on the Milan catwalk.The man was a monster, an architect of everything that had tried to destroy me, yet in that moment, none of that mattered.Not his sordid past and not my trauma.“What are you doing over here?”
