“Did you kill him?” Connor asked gruffly.
“No. I knocked him unconscious when he turned his back.” She swallowed the lump in her throat, but it wasn’t one of regret. It was one of lingering relief. “I stole the truck and got the hell out of there. Dumped the vehicle about five hours later and traveled on foot after that.”
Connor fell silent for several seconds. Then he said, “Why?”
She frowned. “Why what?”
“Why did you escape?”
“Because I had no choice.”
“That’s not a good enough answer.” He leaned back in his chair, but the casual pose did nothing to hide the waves of distrust rolling off him. “What made you run?”
“Dominik,” she whispered.
Connor’s entire body tensed, the way she noticed it always did when Dominik’s name came up. His hatred for Dom seemed to run deeper than the typical outlaw attitude toward the Enforcers. There was something unsettlingly personal about his hostility.
“You know him?” Connor said sharply.
I know him better than I know myself. He is part of me.
He’s my twin brother.
She choked down the confession. “He came to see me at the clinic.” He came to my bedroom. “He brought a marriage contract with him.” He brought me a death sentence.
Connor hissed out a breath. “You were supposed to marry him?”
She blanched at the thought. “No. It wasn’t his name on the contract. It was Knox’s.” She felt even sicker now. “Knox is Dominik’s lieutenant.”
“I know who he is.”
“Then you know he’s a monster,” she said angrily. “He’s a rapist and a killer and the most sadistic bastard I’ve ever known. I’m not scared of a lot of people, but Knox…” Even saying his name sent a cold shiver up her spine. “He terrifies me.”
“Dominik ordered you to marry him?” Suspicion darkened Connor’s eyes. “How old are you?”
She understood why he’d immediately gone there. Before the age of thirty-five, citizens were free to date and court to their heart’s content, to seek out a partner they wanted to make a life with. It didn’t even matter if they chose someone of the same sex, since procreation was strictly monitored, anyway.
But if a citizen remained single by the time they turned thirty-five, the council stepped in and arranged a marriage for them. Whether they wanted it or not.
“I’m twenty-four. And before you ask, no, it’s not normal to have a marriage arranged for you when you’re twenty-four. And it wasn’t Dominik’s decision.” She swallowed the taste of betrayal in her mouth. “My father arranged it before he died. I guess he didn’t think it was important to tell me.”
Her insides twisted into knots, anger and hatred tangled with sorrow and guilt. She didn’t want to hate her father. She’d loved him. But she’d also trusted him, and discovering what he’d been planning behind her back had stripped away a lot of that love and left resentment in its place.
“Dominik told me that the GC is forming a new colony,” she started.
Connor’s gaze flew to hers. “Where?”
“On the southwest coast. They’re calling it the Coast Colony. West City is beginning to get overcrowded, so the council members decided it’s time to branch out. Once that happens, they’ll need an Enforcer to lead the new colony. Knox is being groomed for the job.” Bile coated her throat. “I wasn’t about to link my fate to that twisted bastard and get shipped off to a whole other colony. I’d rather die than marry him. I figured it was better to try my luck out here in outlaw land than tie myself to someone like Knox.”
“Did Knox know about the marriage contract?”
She nodded weakly.
“So he probably wasn’t happy when he found out you escaped.”
An ironic laugh slipped out. “No probably about it. He’s not the kind of man to let something like this go. In his eyes, I’m his possession. It doesn’t matter that the marriage wasn’t finalized. He’ll never stop looking for me.” A sense of urgency overtook her. “That’s why I need to stay hidden. This place is safe, Connor. Knox won’t find me here.”
“There was never an outlaw group, was there? That story you fed me about everyone getting killed?”
She met his cloudy gaze head-on. “I lied.”
“What about your arsenal of weapons? Where did that come from?”
“Stolen from the Enforcer truck I rode out in.”
“And your training?”
“My father made sure I knew how to defend myself.” A part of her wondered if he’d done that deliberately, trained her along with the boys because he’d always planned on sending her to the coast one day.