“I’ll be back.” He rose from the couch, dropping a chaste kiss on my lips before making his way through the masses. Unsurprisingly, people got the hell out of his way without him saying a word.
Unsure of what to really do with myself, I just sat there, receiving more than a few weird hand signals and genuine grins, one of them from a redhead I remembered being at my initiation.
“Wanna girl chat?” Arlen asked, bounding up to me and wiggling her brows.
I had no idea how to do that, but one could try.
“Sure.” I grinned and let her pull me off the couch and through the crowd. Surprisingly, people were quick to move the hell out of my way, too.
We passed a man that had a woman sitting on his lap, stroking her hair. She was naked, and her throat was split open. He smiled at me, so I assumed he was lucid.
She took me through the back door, out into the warmth of the night. We walked to a patio set and sat down.
Across the lawn, I saw teepees of flames with some of the Order delegates and sisters being burned alive within them thrashing around in pain. Their screams were full of agony.
I’d seen much of this from my initiation, so it was easier to take in stride this time around. It would take a minute for me to adjust to this fully, but it was easily doable.
“How are you doin with everything?” she asked, tearing her gaze away from the fires.
“Well, I know my father went from being the head of a bullshit religious cult to a cannibal, but…I don’t really care. I’ve never had parents. This Brock guy doesn’t change that.”
“I totally get it. My sperm donor would rather run the Kingdom than be a dad,” she shrugged.
“Run the Kingdom as in…?”
“He’s the mayor,” she answered slowly, as if this was common knowledge.
“Your dad is mayor of Centriole?” I confirmed.
“Shit, you didn’t know?”
I shook my head. No wonder no one seemed surprised when she dropped Kingdom knowledge left and right.
I think people tended to forget my limited knowledge of the world. How would I have known who she was? I didn’t watch the televised news segments, or have cellulars.
The only news I’d ever been interested in was about the Savages. I only discovered my music preferences and clothing style four years ago.
“ It’s not something I ever discuss freely, but it’s not a secret. I thought you knew.”
Her tone was apologetic, so I believed her. I just couldn’t see it, and I didn’t understand why she was still in the Badlands, along with her sister. After Romero’s cryptic response about Beth, I was positive something was going on with that whole situation and they were both tight lipped about it.
I wasn’t going to dive into her business—that included raging at Romero to tell me what the fuck it was, because I knew he knew. If she wanted to tell me, she would.
“You know what’s crazy?” she asked.
“Hmm?” I responded absentmindedly.
“If people in The Order are turning on each other and either joining the Savages or branching off, and the same is happening with everyone else, where are these rouges aligning? No one wants to be alone in the Badlands. That’s fuckin suicidal.”
I replayed her words in my head twice.
She was right.
“You’re right. There’s someone else, a third player!” Goddamn, why hadn’t I thought of that? It was the same question I’d asked myself long ago: who the fuck was the enemy of whom?
I sat up in my chair, already spinning through who it could be. I began speaking aloud. “Whoever is feeding people info is on the inside and close to this person. So close that they knew Romero had me the first time and exactly when he had me the second time. Now, who would run off and tell David Romero had found me?”
“That little bitch, Dahlia.” Cobra’s venomous voice cut through our conversation.
