“Home sweet home,” Lucy says, and leads me to the trailer second in from the right.
It is neither homey nor sweet. She takes a key ring from her pocket and unlocks the screen door, then the dead bolt and doorknob of the second door. Not quite high-tech security, but you can’t go wrong with the trusty lock and key. I mean, I could break in here, but most could not. Also, why would they?
The inside is more spacious than it appears from outside. We walk into a small kitchen: a sink, stovetop, miniature refrigerator, and a microwave. To the right, wooden cabinets of varying size, a washer and dryer tucked into the wall, and a single door. To the left is an eating area, a couch, and on the far side, another door. Lucy gestures for me to sit, and I rest my backside on the edge of the table as she leans against the sink.
“Do you live here?”
“How the mighty have fallen, eh?” Lucy chuckles softly. “No, I’ve only been here a week, and they were kind enough to put me up in this trailer. It is efficient, I’ll say that.”
I nod. “To be honest, this looks like a place I would like to live. No frills.”
She smiles. It looks pained. “That’s what I thought too.” The silence between us is awkward. It hasn’t been awkward in a long time, but there are so many elephants in the room I’m surprised we even fit in the trailer. “I know you appreciate brevity, so I will do my best to catch you up. I woke up in Derek’s apartment a few days after the airport, stitched up and feeling like a bear ate my head. Clearly, he’d gotten someone to patch me up. I…I don’t know how I survived.”
“She spared you.” If my brain could get past the glory of Lucy being alive, maybe I could figure out why. “Hunter would never, ever miss a shot that close.”
Lucy frowns but nods along. “I guess you haven’t heard from her?”
“No.”
“Right. Well, Derek said you were the one who sent him to the airport. I didn’t even know he was Order.”
That was an uncomfortable conversation. Not for him—he was amiable and desperate to help Lucy. It was uncomfortable for me because I am unaccustomed to jealousy. “Hunter recruited him. We taught him to fly and got him the interview with your father. When I organized your escape flight, I ordered him to wait as backup in case something went wrong.”
Lucy turns pensive. “I asked him and I think he told me the truth, but I’d like to hear it from you. Dating me…that wasn’t part of his cover, was it?”
“Absolutely not.” I balk. “I would have explicitly forbidden it, but I never considered he would have the audacity. It was completely unprofessional. He could’ve compromised the Order.”
Lucy snorts. “Got any more stones to throw in your glass house?”
“I was trying to save your life, not sleep with you.”
Lucy raises her eyebrows and leans her palms on the counter. “Sure. Anyway, I wanted to find you, but Derek hadn’t heard anything about you on official comms or word on the street. He thought…He told me you were probably dead.” Unable to hold my gaze, she looks at the linoleum. “I, um, was in a pretty bad way after that, and Derek got worried and contacted Delilah. She confirmed you were alive but that she didn’t know where you were, and asked me to come to Detroit. I did, because I remembered you telling me that if everything went south, I would be safe with her.”
I nod. “Good.”
“We tried so hard to find where Theia put you. Looked through prisoner records, deployments, intel, anything for even a trace, and we came up with nothing for weeks. Finally, we got an encrypted message from someone at HQ telling us you werein New York. Delilah practically had to handcuff me to keep me from getting on a copter and going back. Instead, she found another way to distract me.” She sighs and crosses her arms over her chest. This part of her story frustrates her and I smile. I would’ve felt the same. “Which brings me to why I’m here.”
“Right, with the rebels.” The distaste creeps into my voice, but I can’t help it. They killed Faith, maimed Mason, hurt Cassie, and have tried to kill me twice.
“I know you think this is a betrayal, but I assure you it is not.”
“I don’t think I have yet earned the right to take the moral high road on deception,” I reply.
“Oh, right. Like when you charmed me at a masquerade ball and got me so worked up I nearly debauched myself in front of the entire ballroom?” She grins at the blush heating my cheeks. “Glad I can still create that classic Taylor blush.”
I clear my throat. “Lucy, how are we both here? It’s been months and suddenly…we’re in this place at the same time?”
“By complete accident. It took us a while, but we tracked down the person who shot you and Mason in Michigan. As you suspected, she is in the rebel group. She’s actually their leader. We didn’t know much about her, and I got the okay from Delilah to come down here and find her.”
A small smile creeps on my face. Lucy out here doing recon by herself, as I used to do. Using skills I taught her and her own excellent intuition. I’m proud, but I don’t want to sound patronizing, so I ask, “And you did, presumably?”
“I captured Captain Finley and demanded to see who she answered to.” I full-on smile and Lucy laughs at me. “I knew you wouldn’t like her. The minute we met I thought, ‘Taylor would hate this person so much.’”
“She talks a lot,” I reply, frowning. “And she is arrogant.”
“True. She’s not that bad, though.” Unimpressed, I cross my arms and gesture for her to continue. “Met the leader, Roxana, a couple days ago in exchange for bringing Captain Finley back.”
I raise an eyebrow. “And they just so happened to attack the UR train we were in?”
