Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,46

adult. Short brown hair. The corner was too dark to tell the color of the woman’s eyes. Jana guessed her age to be late twenties or early thirties. Definitely adult. And yet … runaway.

“Excuse me.” The woman had a husky voice.

Jana offered a smile but kept her distance. “You need some help?”

“Are you boarding the train in the morning?”

“Actually, I’m returning to the car in a few minutes.”

“The regular car?”

“No, the earth native car. I’m heading for Bennett.”

“Oh.”

“Are you in some kind of trouble?” Was she officially an officer of the law yet?

The woman stood and came closer to the spin rack, closer to the light. Jana noted the way she favored her left side, particularly her left shoulder. The top she wore was oversized—the kind that could be worn off one shoulder. The woman pushed it off her left shoulder, revealing a dark, fist-sized bruise.

“Have you ever dated someone you thought was really great until you learned his being really great was an act and you saw the real man? I was fast enough that he missed hitting my face.” She hesitated. “I need to disappear. He went off to meet up with some friends or cousins or something. I need to be far away before he returns and starts looking for me.”

“I don’t have much …” Jana reached for the back pocket of her jeans and the few bills she’d tucked there.

“I don’t need money. I have money. A couple of nights ago, he wanted a ‘loan’ to play a few hands of poker, and when I wouldn’t give it to him, he hit me. So I closed out my savings account, packed my clothes and personal papers, and I caught the first bus out of town. Got off here. I was hoping to cross the border, find some work. But border crossings aren’t easy, or safe, without the right papers.”

From a few comments she’d heard from passengers in the regular car, you could cross the border if you put enough money in the right hand—unless one of the Others observed the exchange. If that happened, you’d end up in someone’s belly and your skin would be nailed to the station wall as a warning.

She wasn’t sure if that was only a story told to scare people into behaving, or if it had started because someone had seen a skin nailed to the outer wall of a train station. She just hoped she didn’t see any evidence that the story was more than a story.

“What’s your name?” Jana asked.

“Candice Caravelli.”

“You in any trouble with the law, Candice Caravelli?”

“No, but Charlie might be. Charlie Webb. He’s the man I was dating.”

The spin rack suddenly started spinning. Coloring book pages riffled. Then … nothing.

“What … ?” Candice’s brown eyes widened with fright.

Before Jana could think of a reply—or even a way to voice her suspicion of what had just happened—John Wolfgard walked into the station.

“Air says this female is running away from a bad mate,” John said.

Oh gods, oh gods. She hadn’t considered that an Elemental might be listening to her conversation.

Air was not the only Elemental, but Jana was not, was not, so was not going to think about what that might mean when she took a shower.

“Yes, she is,” Jana said. “She needs to get far away from here, and she’s willing to work. Right?” She looked at Candice.

“Absolutely. I’ll do anything.” Candice thought for a moment. “Almost anything. I’ll do any kind of work that’s legal.”

John cocked his head. “You have money for a ticket to Bennett? If I allow you to cross the border with us, you have to come all the way with us. No getting off at one of the stops and leaving.”

“Okay. Why?”

“Because the terra indigene don’t know you.”

There was no mercy in the wild country, no safety in the dark. She had heard that over and over again from Karl Kowalski and Michael Debany while they had tested her skills. They hadn’t been trying to scare her off; they’d wanted her to use caution and common sense because there would be no boundaries between the humans living in her new town and the most dangerous forms of terra indigene.

Candice took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay. Are there jobs in Bennett?”

“There is a lot of work,” John replied. “Tolya Sanguinati is the town leader. He will decide if you can stay and what work you should do.”

“Sanguin … Okay.”

“Would you rather stay here?” Jana asked.

Candice shook her head.

Jana helped