The word ‘Coastguard’ was stenciled on the side of the boat. They were like the authority on the water, right?
Brace fired up our boat again. The engines sputtered, as the gas was barely at usable levels. I hoped we had enough to make it the short distance.
Now that the barrier was gone, a large set of docks was visible on the horizon. We had not been very far out to sea; the barrier had prevented us from seeing that. The females huddled closer together, and I couldn’t blame them for their renewed fear. They’d just narrowly escaped a life worse than death, and now had to trust that by following this coastguard we weren’t putting them back into the same situation. Of course, they didn’t know that I would never let that happen to them. Not while we were here to protect them.
Eva and Chrissie were deep in conversation with some of the girls. I couldn’t hear what was said over the rush of the wind and waves, but it felt like they were working double time to reassure everyone that this would be okay. Chrissie had said that quite a few of the females were from her vigiladies group, so they’d look to the brunette as their leader. They would trust her.
The coastguard remained close to our vessel. There were three or four males on board, dressed in navy-blue polos and black shorts. I hadn’t seen anyone dress in uniform in New York for a long time. That would require a level of organization that had been sorely missing for the past few years. Well, that was if you didn’t count the identifying tattoos of the gangers, which were not exactly the same as a nicely pressed polo shirt.
Our boat engines died as we crossed the last few feet of water, but we had enough forward motion to slide into the dock. Everyone jolted when we crashed into the wooden planks. Well, everyone except me. I was still firmly planted against Brace, and not even an atomic bomb could move that man.
One of the guards, who was average height with perfect chocolate-colored skin, striking features and sinfully long eyelashes, threw us a thick rope. Colton caught it with ease before tying it across a T-shaped piece of metal on the edge of our boat.
Brace reluctantly let me go to help position the gangplank. As he moved gracefully across the tight space, my mate looked like he was a freaking pirate or something. Black hair shifted in the breeze, just long enough to be stylishly tousled. Add in his half-smirk – he was enjoying my thoughts – and tribal marks – well, let’s just say I wasn’t surprised by all the wary glances he was getting from the coastguard humans.
Colton got plenty of glances too. I suppose it wasn’t every day you ran into two huge dudes, both over six and a half foot, staring you down. Colton’s marks weren’t on display, but his wolfy eyes were and that was just as intimidating.
“Keep your hands where we can see them,” said a different coastguard.
This one was in the uniform, but was overweight. His gut strained against the fitted shirt and tailored slacks. It was rare to see an overweight human in New York. There wasn’t enough food, and too much ‘running for your lives’ going on in there to gain weight. Maybe things were better on this side.
We disembarked via the gangplank. I took a moment to stare at the bustling docks around us. Bustling, but not fighting. Humans here were just interacting with each other in a normal day-to-day series of activities. I remembered when the city had been more like that.
In the distance there were hundreds of boats – some so large they looked like small houses – docked alongside long wooden piers. Holy Walker babies! There were humans everywhere. On the docks, chatting between vessels. Was that actually laughter I heard?
Shock had my already shaky knees even weaker. I stumbled once and if Brace hadn’t had a hand under my arm I think I’d have face-planted. I swallowed the huge lump in my throat. A rush of emotion was ricocheting up through my body and trying to leak from my eyes. I wasn’t the only one either. Silent tears traced down Lucy’s glittery green skin. She kept shifting her head from side to side in an effort to see everything. Chrissie was opening and closing her mouth.
“You’re going to catch bugs if you keep doing that,” I joked to bring some normalcy back.
No doubt the females we’d rescued would take this sort of normalcy over New York City any day.
I was surprised to see Eva maneuver around the emotional females, and move to my side.
I paused to allow her to say whatever she needed to.
She had to swallow a few times but eventually got the words out. “I’ll never believe that my father wasn’t my real father. He was everything to me. Nothing in this world or any other you talk about could make me doubt that.”