Jessa Ch. 14

"Our cell phones are on their way east, in the general direction of Düsseldorf, along with a detachment of Security Forces. By the time Drau figures out we're not with the phones, our trail should be good and cold."

"Won't he suspect we've gone back to Paris?"

"We're not going back to Paris," Torah answered after a moment. Jessa stared at him. "Not for a while, anyway," he added with a shrug.

"I don't understand," she said softly.

"When you were running. In Paris. You were headed for Calais, weren't you? The fishing fleet?"

She shrugged. "I hadn't really thought it out that far."

"Reacting. Not acting," he stated flatly, though she clearly remembered him saying the same about himself.

Jessa nodded slightly. She hugged herself. "I just needed to get away. From cages and fear. And death," she added softly, gazing out the window.

"How far away?"

"Maybe North America," she said with a hint of defiance, daring him to laugh at her. He didn't, though she did earn another eye roll from Erich.

Torah looked thoughtful, then shook his head. "You may well have been able to reach the other continent, but Drau would never believe it. But Calais, the channel, northern Britain. Jacq can sell that."

"I don't understand," Jessa murmured.

"I think Drau may be part of this conspiracy against us, against our children. We need to convince him that we have disappeared beyond his reach."

"So we're going to northern Britain?" she asked, shaking her head in confusion.

"Of course not. We just want him to chase his tail there, which hopefully will happen after he storms Paris, which will happen after he figures out that we aren't on our way to Dusseldorf. Jacq will feed him a story about how we were going to return to Paris and hide out, but then you talked us into going to Calais and stealing a boat to go north..."

"I talked you into something?" she scoffed. "There's no way he'll believe that." Torah just looked at her patiently in the mirror. "So where are we going?" she asked.

"Italy," he answered with a shrug.

Jessa gaped at him. "You want to go to the virus?"

"How else do we get rid of it?" he asked nonchalantly. "Once it's gone, nobody will care whether we are alive or dead or what the genome of our children is."

"But..."

"Think big picture, Jessa. Maybe someday we'll untangle who wants to release the virus and who wants our baby to be the cure for the virus and who invented the damn thing. Someday. And maybe - just maybe - the virus won't be released before then. Or maybe it will. If we go pound on Drau's door, or someone else's door demanding an explanation, we walk right into the cage that you want to be free of. Sometimes, you have to get to the solution before you get to the answers."

For once, the next question wasn't flooding into Jessa's mind and Torah actually seemed bemused by her dilemma.

****

They drove north and west for a few hours before pulling into a long driveway winding through an unkempt orchard. At the end of the driveway, a dilapidated farmhouse nestled under a covering of ivy and brambles. Torah pulled around to the back of the building, where Erich jumped out and entered through a remarkably intact-looking door. A moment later, he emerged and waved. Torah pulled up to a post that hid a charging station and plugged the car in as Jessa got out and stared at the building that looked for all the world like it was on its last legs.

"We're staying here?" she asked, to which Torah only grunted, pulling a rucksack from the trunk of the car.

"Is it stocked?" he asked when Erich came to fetch more items from the trunk.

"If you call bread and cheese sustenance, then yes," Erich replied. He pulled a long heavy bag from the back and slammed the trunk.

"You were hoping for pizza?" Torah asked with a grin. He placed a hand at Jessa's back, firmly guiding her toward the farmhouse.

"Could have at least left a pork roast in the oven," Erich muttered.

They entered the door into a porch that plant life had made a staunch effort to repossess, though when Jessa looked more closely, she could see evidence of trimming. The inner door, even more solid looking, opened into a bright, clean, well-lit kitchen. The incongruence struck her even more than the dilapidated, yet working gas stations she had seen. Torah dropped the rucksack on the kitchen floor and continued to guide her toward a room off of the kitchen. Here, there was gleaming computer equipment.

"We don't have much time here. Make the best use of it."

"But how? Satellite feed to the network?" Jessa asked, peeking around the mini-server for lines and cables.

"Is that what you consider the best use of the time you have? Asking me questions?"

Jessa shook her head and fired the system up. "Good girl. I'll bring you a sandwich."

A few hours later, Jessa was still furiously typing away and committing everything she could find to her memory, resolving to sort it all out later. The window to her room had long been boarded up and she'd lost track of time when Torah came to pull her away from the computer. "We need to leave at nightfall," he said, rubbing her shoulders. "Erich is rested and is putting together a dinner for us."

"How much longer do I have?" She asked as she typed.

"There's a bed here."

"What?" Jessa asked, finally turning away from the computer.

"I want you in it," Torah replied with a shrug.

"But I can sleep in the car," she protested.

"I want you in it with me," he clarified.

Instinctively, her hand went protectively to her belly. "But if we..."

Torah leaned down toward her. "Now is the time I want to see your defiance. Don't let others decide our future. I want a child and I want him with you."

"Or her," Jessa pointed out.

Torah rolled his eyes. "I can't even manage to handle one of you."

"Nor I, you," she argued with her chin raised.

"Fair point. Nevertheless, come with me. You can finish this later while you eat some dinner."

They went out into the kitchen and Jessa was shocked to see the table covered with weaponry and items she didn't even recognize. Erich seemed to be inspecting the equipment even as he cooked dinner. "The bolt's loose on that one," he complained. "I'm going out in the shed to see if I can find something to jury-rig it with. Jacq's going to be hearing from me." With that he turned his back on them and strode out the door. Torah took Jessa's arm and pulled her in the opposite direction. Only a few of the rooms in the house had been reclaimed. One of them had been converted to a cozy bedroom, though the curtains only partially hid the boarded-up window.

"Clothes off now," Torah commanded. When Jessa put her hands on her hips and stared at him, he added, "Please."

Jessa smiled in triumph as she began to unbutton the man's shirt Jacq had provided. When she wasn't disrobing fast enough to suit him, though, he crossed the room to help, tossing her onto the bed to pull her shoes and pants off. Once she was naked on top of the bed, he studied her as he removed his own clothing. His eyes paused at each scratch and bruise. Jessa couldn't tell what he was thinking, save that he didn't seem any more dismayed with her current battle wounds than he had with ones he'd inflicted himself.

No sooner had he kicked his pants from about his ankles then he was on the bed, straddling her. He grabbed her wrists, pinning them next to her shoulders. "How do you want it, Jessa? Hard or easy?" His voice was guttural; an echo from the past.

"Rough, but not angry," she answered, but this time, her answer didn't fill her chest with fear. She didn't have to wonder how he would take her response. They'd played this game before; it had ended well that time and while she wasn't sure how this new iteration of their relationship was going to play out in the long run, she felt safer somehow, when her brutally honest tongue took charge. His lascivious smile suggested she was right.

"Lustful fucking," he nodded in agreement, then dove at her neck like a starving vampire. He kissed and sucked and nipped at every inch of her, save where he'd mapped out the bruises and scrapes earlier, until she thought for sure she would expire from the torture of far too long delayed gratification. She begged and pleaded and demanded of him only to feel his lips smile against her overheated flesh as he prolonged the sweet torment. When she grabbed his hair to try to push his head between her thighs, he caught her wrists and pinned them above her head with one hand as the other palmed her pussy, so close, yet so excruciatingly not quite close enough; all while his lips and teeth created an ever deeper aching in her tender nipples.

Jessa writhed against his rock-hard body, sure that if she hadn't ovulated yet, the roiling turmoil in her belly would force the issue. It wasn't until she screamed and swore in frustration that he finally relented, and she found she didn't care in the least if Erich overheard, though she swore she heard a snicker coming from the kitchen area at some point. All she cared was that Torah rolled her onto her stomach and then slid her up the bed, wrapping her hands around the slats of the headboard. "Show me how strong you are, Jessa," he said next to her ear.

She didn't have a chance to ask him what he meant. Her hips were yanked up and he was slamming into her. She braced and pushed back against him and he slapped her ass cheek in approval. Her knees could barely get a purchase on the satiny bedspread but it didn't matter. Her arms and her back were ramrod straight and strong and her belly roared in appreciation of the overdue fucking. Even as she came the first time, her muscles quivered with the effort to maintain the position. He wanted to give it to her rough and that was exactly the way her pussy wanted to get it. And it was definitely screaming for more. Maybe Erich could even hear that. Oh, well.

Jessa took a deep breath, adjusted her grip on the headboard and arched her back, daring Torah to slap his belly and balls against her with each thrust. He reached forward and cupped her breasts, then without warning was pulling and twisting her nipples until she came again, cursing and wilting under him until he took her hips in hand and pulled her back onto his cock. He buried himself deep within her for a moment, letting her catch her breath, but she only snarled a challenge. "Come on, superspy. Surely you can fuck better than that!"

A chuckle rumbled deep in his chest, then he was plunging his full length into her again, seemingly indefatigable. Jessa cried out as yet another orgasm ripped through her, this time the waves of contractions so strong that Torah was forced to rock inside her, leaning heavily on her shoulders, unable to withdraw against the force drawing his cock deep into her belly, unable to resist his own need to blast his seed against the beckoning entry to her womb.