Gabriel took in Lucille’s predatory expression and answered, “I will not be available.”
“So she,” Lucille tossed a frosty glance in her sister’s direction, “is not expected to share like
everyone else?”
“My focus will be on the project,” he snapped, noticing the scathing look Lucille gave his wife.
Chairs slammed against the locked doors of Room 3. Anger vibrated in the air as the line of women
and children surged out of the anteroom and onto the loading port.
“Is that how it will be in this new project of yours? She will get preferential treatment?” Lucille
cried out, her gaze sweeping the women who had not made it onto the buses just yet. “Then that’s
something we all should think about.”
Jean looked at him. A strange silence settled over the anteroom as the women, in unison, turned
Gabriel’s way.
Jeremiah popped his head in the room, tapped the gun in his hand, and held up two fingers, signaling
how many they had shot.
Jean splayed a hand across Gabriel’s chest and whispered, “We’ll deal with her later. But for now,
answer her question,” she commanded.
“The women will choose their mates. I will select from among those who are not paired at the end
of the process,” Gabriel said, addressing the women.
“But you said we were the—”
“Lucille,” Gabriel snapped. The vise grip he put on her upper arm caused her to flinch. “I will
say this once, so hear me well. Challenge me openly like this again, and I’ll send you back to your
husband with haste.” He tightened his hold. “Women are the ultimate focus of the project, but until
you understand how it works, I suggest you find other ways to sharpen that tongue of yours.”
She looked visibly shaken as she snatched herself from his grasp.
“If this poses a problem,” Gabriel added more softly, “then there’s the door where your husband is
angered or weeping about your abrupt departure.” It crossed Gabriel’s mind that Luke was probably
one of the men the guards had shot. Lucille was on this side of the door. So more than likely he had
been the one raising holy hell.
Gabriel turned back to the women waiting for the next bus to pull in front of the open doors.
Lucille held back, smirking at Jean, whose eyes glazed over with a coldness Gabriel had never
seen before. He would have to limit his involvement with the feisty woman and make sure her
chambers were as far away from his and Jean’s as possible.
Gabriel extended his hand to Della, who stood on Jean’s left. She walked slowly, almost warily,
toward him. Lucille didn’t wait for his invitation. She strutted, hips swaying, and made her way
over to her sister. Jean’s expression was impassive, but Gabriel could tell from the tight set of her
shoulders and lips that she was barely keeping her anger in check.
Jean leaned over to Lucille and said in a voice loud enough for Gabriel to hear, “I will kill you
myself if you ever pull something like that again.”
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