Rippled Read Online Free

Three
     
     
     
    Krista
     
    In the time it took for me to take a breath and keep my teeth from chattering, I was in Brian’s arms. I winced around the ache in my temples as he held me to his chest—for warmth or some other agenda, I couldn’t say. No matter his reasons, I was thankful for it. Not just because I couldn’t walk straight, but for keeping me warm, or at least as much as he could against a freak blizzard.
    As he carried me over an open yard, past men in uniform, it was then I realised just how exposed I was. Frantic, I hugged the clothing and blankets closer to my skin, but God only knew where the rest of my things were.
    I knew I should’ve been freaked out by this guy I’d just met, but something somewhere inside told me I knew him. I just couldn’t remember what that something was.
    Not to mention if it even exists.
    I could’ve been suffering from that mental state kidnapped victims get. The one where I’m supposed to trust my captor because they’re all I’ve got.
    No, that couldn’t be it. I would’ve remembered. Drugs. Okay, so that might have been it, but it just didn’t feel right. When I looked at his eyes, I didn’t have any negative feelings. And his voice. I’d heard it before.
    I lifted my head away from Brian’s shoulder when he stopped in front of a smaller building, and looking around, I saw it wasn’t the only one. There were dozens of them laid out into rows. Houses, I decided, or as close as one could get if they were all just single-storey buildings.
    Again, I tried to figure out what had brought me here, but every thought, every scenario, seemed just as unlikely as the last.
    Brian said he’d explain everything.
    Maybe, but how much of that did I really believe?
    It’s hard to be sure of anything when your memory sucks.
    Had it always sucked? Had I become this way after I got here?
    Did you make me this way?
    I glared at Brian, but his eyes were set in front of us, staring down one of the men in uniform. My eyes went wide when I noticed the man’s sidearm, and I shrank against Brian’s chest.
    “He…” I whispered, trying to send my voice over the howling wind. “He has a gun.”
    Brian nodded to me, then said, “Open the door.”
    “Name?” the guard asked.
    “Krista,” Brian said.
    “I’m sorry,” the man in uniform said. “But Malcom has ordered that this one not be—”
    “Let them through,” another man called from behind us, his eyes settling on mine. “She’ll catch her death out here if you don’t.”
    “Sir.” The first man stepped aside so Brian could open the door. “You will find everything you need inside.”
    Brian nodded and glanced back over his shoulder, but the second stranger had already disappeared. “Come, let’s get you out of this snow,” he said, cradling me with one arm as he made his way indoors.
    “What was that all about?” I asked in a thin whisper.
    “What?” Brian asked, seeming somewhat surprised. “The guards?”
    “Uh, yeah? Is he going to be there all day?”
    “All night, too.”
    I eyed the door when it closed, able to hear it lock somehow from the other side. “And how do we get out?”
    Brian pointed to an odd speaker beside the door with a button underneath it. “Intercom,” he said gently. “You push the button and then let the guard know when you need to use any of the facilities. He’ll be the one escorting you when I’m not around.”
    “And…am I the only one with an escort?”
    Brian shook his head. “No, everyone here has a guard standing outside their quarters.”
    “What about you? You didn’t have a guard escorting us here.”
    “I’m a senior resident. The trust they give me comes with the territory.” He shrugged.
    “Mind telling me how long this headache is supposed to last?”
    Brian set me down on the edge of the bed and handed me a glass of water from a side table. “It’s hard to say. We all react differently.”
    “We?” As in, you’ve gone through this