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“I’m sorry,” I whisper before smacking him in the back of the head with my gun. Pain reverberates up my arm, making my now mostly healed shoulder throb like a bitch.
“Jesus, Avery, what the hell happened to you?” Lara reaches for me, but I take a step back. I can’t handle kindness right now. If she hugs me, I’ll fall apart.
“Where is the other one?” There are always supposed to be two guards on the children.
“He went to get food. There was nothing here, and the kids were getting upset. Lucky for us, some men can’t handle crying children. He’ll be back soon, though.”
“We need to get out of here. The Boss Man turned up just as I was leaving. He’ll come for the kids next.”
“Shit. Okay. Wait, where’s Emma?”
My face falls, my chest hurting as I picture her on the other side of the glass. “She’s gone.”
“Gone where? Oh no. No, no, no, no,” she curses, yanking her hair.
“She saved me, saved these kids. Let’s not let it all be for nothing.”
“Right.” She breathes, trying to calm herself down, and pulls a flash drive from her pocket and hands it to me. “Here.”
I look at it with a frown.
“Emma told me to give it to you if something were to happen to her.”
I close my eyes and nod, slipping it into my pocket with the tracking device. She looks at me and whips off her sweatshirt before helping me into it.
“You’ll scare the kids looking like that. Hold on.”
She disappears inside before returning with a pack of wipes. She cleans up my face as carefully as she can, and I try not to flinch when the cuts on my face sting. “Okay, that’s as good as it’s going to get. Let’s get the kids and get the hell out of here. Do you have a plan?”
“Don’t die?”
“Well, it’s a good place to start.”
I follow her into the living room and see the four children that were the current Division residents. Most of the children we find are placed with families or in group homes, which I now know are controlled by the Division. But some are kept onsite—those deemed too dangerous without more training or too vulnerable. Looking at Bella, Emma’s daughter, I realize it has nothing to do with her vulnerability and everything to do with how valuable she is.
“Avery!” she yells when she sees me and runs over, wrapping her arms around my legs, and bursts into tears. I hold her as Lara rushes around getting the other children ready.
“She’s dead, isn’t she?” she asks once her sobs have subsided.
I get down on my knees and dry her tears. “Yeah, sweetheart, she is. But she died a hero. She wanted me to tell you that she loved you so, so much.”
“I know. I saw her.”
I blink back my own tears when I realize that Bella had a vision of her mom’s death. How the fuck do you come back from that?
“I’m going to stay with you, right?”
“Yes, you are, but we need to leave now. It’s not safe.” She nods and runs to put on her shoes and jacket.
Standing, I move over to Noah, an eight-year-old boy who has been with us for about a year. I’m not sure what his gift is, but he’s amazing with numbers. He doesn’t talk, and knowing where he came from, I can understand why. When we found him, he was being kept in a dog cage with a leash around his neck.
I bend down in front of him. “I’m getting you out of here. I know it might seem scary now, but my friends will find us, and they will never let anyone hurt you again.”
He stares at me for a second, and I hold out my hand to him and wait. After a few moments, he slips his hand into mine. I stand as Bella runs back over and takes my other hand.
I look over at Lara, who is holding Delaney’s hand. Delaney is also eight and what the Division called a sensor. She can tell when someone is nearby because she can sense them before she sees them. Right now, she can’t tell if they are friend or foe, but hopefully that will come with age.
Alfie, on the other hand, who is the ten-year-old standing just behind Delaney, has a gift that’s already fully developed. He can recall and repeat, word for word, every conversation that has been spoken to him or around him. It sounds convenient in theory. But people can be cruel. Unfortunately, he has no way of ever forgetting the nasty things people have said about him, including those that came from his parents. The Division had a complex name for his gift, but most of us call it the echo.
