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“I know,” I said, and the pain in my voice was apparent even though I did my best to hide it. “It’s on my mind all the time. I wish I knew if he was dead or alive.”
“We have to go ahead like he’s still alive, or we’ll lose hope,” he said, and something in his voice let me know that he felt this as deeply as I needed to. He had feelings for Kingston, strong feelings. Like they had become more than friends, more than adversaries. He loved him, not as I loved him, but like he was part of our group at last.
It warmed me, knowing how tight-knit we could be once we escaped. The four of them gathered around me, forming the perfect group relationship.
Ifwe escaped, I should say. There was a big emphasis on if, and I felt a swirl of nerves in my gut at the thought of never seeing the Kings again, never having the chance at a happy life with the four of them.
“Do you think they’re going to kill us?” I asked after a moment, dreading his response.
He sensed my need, though. Or he was sincere in his belief. I needed him to be sincere when he said, “They’re going to fucking try, princess. But they’re going to fucking fail.”
“We need to survive,” I said with a fierce determination in my blood again. Ryker re-ignited the fire that had burned out overnight.
“We will,” he told me. “I’ll make sure of it.”
The door opened at the end of the hall and two guards walked through, tapping their batons on their hands as they moved towards my cell.
They opened Ryker’s first, and then Penny’s but not mine. I gripped the bars and said, “Let me out.”
“You don’t have to do this one,” the guard said. “Leave it for your friends.”
“No, she needs to stay here and rest. I’ll do whatever you have planned for her,” I insisted.
They ignored me, stepped back and the taller guard said, “Follow us.”
Penny was just waking up and struggled to stand. She was so weak, she could barely push the heavy blankets off her. I banged the bars and said, “Fuck! Take me instead!”
One guard looked at the other, their unreadable white faces giving nothing away.
“Come on, leave the girl alone,” Ryker said. “She obviously can’t take much more.”
One guard nodded, and the other slammed Penny’s door shut and opened mine.
“Come with us,” he said, and I followed them, walking in front of Ryker. I wanted to hug him for standing up with me, but couldn’t do anything just then.
They led us back out into the courtyard of the prison where we stood among the rows of other kids.
There were a few empty spaces in the lines now and I wondered how many had been taken out by Ryker and me the day before.
I felt a thrill of triumph, followed immediately by a wrenching sense of guilt. What if that meant they were being sent somewhere worse? Or if the Organization killed them for non-performance or something?
I felt sick just thinking that I might have played some part in it, but I couldn’t let it get to me now. I had to focus one hundred percent of my energy on the task in front of us, whatever the Organization chose to do.
We took our places in the middle of them all, the two of us standing proud against them all.
Thackeray wasn’t present at the head of the line-ups this time. There was another man there, a thinner man who looked rough around the edges, but he was handsome, and in a well-tailored, expensive suit. He had tattoos that extended down the backs of his hands, and his hair was long, like an old rocker’s style.
The guard with the black mask stepped to his side and took the mic from his pocket again. The rocker rubbed his hands together and licked his lips as his eyes slid across every one of us. I shuddered as his gaze lingered on me.
“Today’s challenge will be difficult, but it will help the Organization further separate the wheat from the chaff,” the black mask guard said into the mic. His voice boomed across the prison yard and reverberated off the surrounding buildings. “You will also entertain one of our most honored members, so please keep that in mind while completing your tasks.”
The kids around us nodded as if they’d done this before. I didn’t understand what he meant by it, but I decided to wait until things started heating up before worrying about it.
“Today, you will divide yourselves into two groups based on gender. The boys group will line up on the left, and the girls group on the right.”
He gestured for us to split up now, so we did. I reluctantly left Ryker and walked across the yard to where all us girls were lined up against the fence. On the other side, the boys were lined up along a building. Ryker stood tall over them all and even from where I was standing, I could see the arrogant curl of his beautiful lip.
The rocker strolled across the yard to the boys and took black mask’s baton. He tapped it on the shoulder of a boy occasionally, including Ryker, and when he was finished he stood back.
