Rise (New Haven Book 3)

by Sara Jo Cluff

  The door to the room I paced in opened. I cringed when I saw Tami, Whit’s daughter. Both she and her mom came to my side of the city. I was sure they didn’t want to be around me or make it look like they supported me, but they couldn’t stay over on the other side with Austin. He’d killed Tami’s father and Amy’s husband. The man I loved.

  Tami looked nothing like her father, which helped ease the pain. I was glad Joshua had left. If it were him standing in the doorway, I couldn't have handled it. He looked exactly like his father. I closed my eyes for a second to try to compose myself.

  “Austin sent another spy.” Tami’s voice came out sharp and closed off. She hated me. I didn’t blame her. I’d broken up her family. Her hazel eyes showed no sympathy for me. Her face was tight and uninviting just like her mother’s. She had her dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, making her face even more rigid. Tami couldn't pull off the dress she wore. She looked sloppy and the dress was too big, especially in the chest area.

  “Do you have them in your custody?” I asked. I forced myself to keep my voice calm and even when I was around her or her mother. I didn’t want them to see me suffer. They’d enjoy it too much.

  Tami looked behind her and mumbled something to someone I couldn’t see. After a few seconds, Tami let herself into the room. Amy followed, holding on to a short, blonde-haired girl. At least Amy looked decent in her sweater and skirt. More put together.

  The girl she held was petite, making her easy to detain. She wore a Recruitment leader's uniform, even though last I'd heard, Recruitment had been temporarily removed from Infinity Corp until things were straightened out.

  The room I was in had a table at one end where I could work during the day. On the other end sat one chair where we could question traitors. Amy shoved the girl down on the chair and then tied a rope around her body.

  Amy stared at me for a moment, her gaze piercing. Her short black hair was a little disheveled. The spy must have put up quite the fight.

  “Do you want me to stay?” Amy had to force the words out.

  I glanced at the spy whose jaw was clenched like she was holding back the urge to scream out in anger. A smile came to my face, but I pushed it away. Tami stood near the door, looking straight ahead.

  The three of us had come to an agreement. We all knew they loathed me, and I loathed them, but we had one thing in common: we wanted Austin to suffer for his crime. So, we decided to work together to accomplish our goal. It meant that we had to see each other more often than we wanted, but we tried to minimize the amount as much as we could.

  “You can leave.” I looked at Tami. “Both of you.”

  Tami opened her mouth to say something, but then snapped it shut. She and her mother left the room without another word.

  I leaned back against my desk, taking in the spy. A little bit of blood dripped from her nose and her lip had been split open. I reached down for my cup of water sitting on my desk and took a sip, wetting my throat. “We’ve met, haven’t we?”

  She glared at me with all the hatred in the world. “Yes.”

  “When?” I swished the water around in my cup, keeping my gaze on her.

  I wasn’t sure she was going to answer, but after a moment, she spoke. “Over a year ago.”

  Setting my cup down, I stood and walked toward her. “Remind me.”

  “I was your daughter’s dorm leader during Recruitment.”

  I eyed her Recruitment uniform. She must have just felt comfortable in it to still be wearing it. “That’s right.” Whit had questioned her, wanting to know about Emmie’s every movement. I had been in the room during some of the conversations. Her name escaped me now. “You had to break up her fights.”

  Something crossed over her face, but I couldn’t pin it down. Anger? Annoyance? Admiration? “Yes.”

  “She has a stubborn side, that’s for sure. I would like to say she got that from her father, but I know she got it from me.” I didn’t realize how much those words would hurt as they left my mouth. Her whole life she had thought Philip was her father. He was the one who’d raised her. But Whit was her biological father. Some days I had wanted to take Emmie and Whit and just run. Live by ourselves without the rest of the world interfering. We could have been the perfect family. And now it was too late for that to ever happen.

  “If you’re trying to butter me up, it isn’t going to work,” she said.

  The smile came and I couldn’t push it away. I was really starting to like her. “You’re going to have to remind me of your name. It’s been a while since I last saw you.”

  She analyzed me, probably wondering if she should reveal it. She bit her lip before she spoke. “Jen.”

  I nodded. “Yes, that’s right. Well, Jen, we seem to be in a predicament.”

  “No, we’re not.” Her voice was flat.

  “You’re tied up in a chair.” I walked around her, keeping my pace steady and light. “You were sent as a spy.”

  Jen swore. “No, I wasn’t. Tami hates me. She’s doing this on purpose.”

  I stopped in front of her, tilting my head. “You know Tami personally?”

  “Unfortunately, yes. We’re the same age.” She moved her nose from side to side as if there were an itch. Since her hands were bound, there was nothing she could do about it.

  “You swear on your life that you aren’t a spy?” I bent down so I could look her straight in the eye. Working for Whit, I’d become good at reading people.

  Jen kept a firm gaze on me. “I’m not a spy. I wanted to get away from Austin and his strict military style of life. I prefer President Randall’s style over his.” She didn’t take her eyes away from mine. “And I always hated him.”

  I stood and started walking again. “You’re quite honest.”

  “I don't like liars." She kept her head high, staring straight ahead as I walked in circles around her. She never once followed my trail.

  “So, you came over here to get away from Austin …”

  “I already said that.”

  Tucking my hair behind my ear, I walked back to the table. I leaned up against it, pressing my palms down on the top. “But you didn’t support President Randall.”

  “I answered that, too.” She licked the split on her lip and then spat the blood out on the floor.

  “What about my daughter? Do you support her?”

  My question surprised her, but I wasn’t sure why. She stared at me for a long time. I didn’t try to break the silence. I just stared back. She cleared her throat. “If you’re making me choose between you, Austin, President Randall, Tami, or Emmie, I guess I’d have to choose Emmie.”

  My eyebrows rose. “You guess?”

  “Honestly, I think you’re all a little crazy. It must be something in the Oliver and Randall blood. But Emmie seems the most … sane.”

  “I’m not a Randall.” Though I wished I was.

  Jen smiled and then sucked on her bottom lip. “You constantly did one for years and years, so it’s safe to say it rubbed off onto you.” She laughed at her own pun. Her comment made me wonder how much about my affair had spread around the city.

  “Jen, you’ve been quite frank about everything, so I’m going to trust that you’re telling the truth about not being a spy.”

  Her eyes went wide. “Is this a trick?”

  “No.”

  “What are you going to do with me?”

  I pushed away from the table and went to her, untying the ropes. “If you work for me, I won’t harm you.”

  She got up from the chair and turned toward me, her face skeptical. She rubbed her wrists. “Why should I trust you?”

  “Because you need to.” Placing the rope in the corner of the room, I went to my desk, sitting down in the chair. I gestured to a chair on the other side of the table.

  Jen reluctantly walked over and sat down, sitting on the very edge of the seat. I turned my chair around and pulled a bottle of water out of a box behind the table. I set it on the table in front of
Jen.

  She sat completely still, looking back and forth between me and the bottle. If I said anything, she wouldn’t take it. I waited patiently until she reached for it, opened it, and took a sip.

  Sitting forward, I rested my arms on the table and clasped my hands together. “I can’t say I completely support my daughter or her choices. I think she made a rash decision about a stupid prophecy that never even existed.” It still bothered me that Whit never mentioned the prophecy in the twenty years we’d been together. Sometimes I wondered if he ever fully trusted me. I would never know that answer.

  “I don’t know anything about a prophecy.” She held the bottle of water in her hands, her grasp tight as if I might reach over and try to snatch it back.

  I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. She started a revolution and the result was Vice President Oliver’s death, President Randall’s death, and a split in River Springs. I could dwell on all of this, but instead, I plan to fix it and move on.”

  “How do you plan to do that?”

  “We need to end Austin’s rein. We need to put Infinity Corp and River Springs back how they were.”

  Jen nodded in agreement. “The city was just fine before your daughter went on a hormonal spree and screwed us all over.”

  “How would you like to be a part of the solution?”

  “What do you mean?”

  I eyed Jen for a second. I hardly knew her, but I needed to trust my gut. It had gotten me this far in life. “I want you on my team. I want you to help in the capture of Austin.”

  Jen narrowed her eyes at me. “Why are you asking for my help? Two minutes ago, I was strapped to a chair.”

  “I like you.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “Why?”

  “You’re honest and you know what you want.” I glanced at her bloody nose and lip. “And you obviously don’t back down without a fight. Amy and Tami don’t see eye to eye with me. I don’t trust either of them.”

  She laughed. “Neither do I.”

  “Good.” I sat back in my chair and crossed my legs. “But you and I agree on one thing, and that’s restoring the city to its proper order. What do you say? Are you in?”

  Jen bit her lip again and looked down at her bottle of water. “I don’t trust you.” Her eyes finally found mine. “I don’t trust anyone. For how honest this city is supposed to be, it’s full of a bunch of phony liars.”

  “I’ve been honest with you. Just like you’ve been with me.” When she didn’t respond, I continued. “Ask me anything you want.”

  She coughed and took another drink of water. “Anything?”

  “Yes, anything.”

  “How long had you been sleeping with President Randall?”

  I took a deep breath, relaxing my body. I needed to be calm if I intended to tell her everything. “It wasn’t long after I started my job as his assistant. We had an instant connection.”

  Jen leaned forward. “Infinity Corp frowned on things like adultery. In the past, people have been seriously punished for it."

  “President Randall never thought the rules applied to him.” I smiled. “And I was too attracted to him to care.”

  She seemed to approve of my answer. “Did you love him?”

  “Yes. With all of my heart.” I truly did.

  “And your husband?”

  “I loved him as a father to my children. He raised them well. They would have turned out much worse if I had been more hands-on.”

  “Did you agree with the way President Randall ran Infinity Corp?”

  That was an easy answer. “Yes. He did what was necessary for the good of the city.”

  Jen scoffed. “Rumor has it he tried to kill your daughter.”

  I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. That was one topic I hoped she wouldn’t bring up. I had always agreed with everything Whit did. He always had good intentions. But Emmie was my daughter. Our daughter. He tried to kill her without telling me what was going on. He also kept the prophecy a secret. “President Randall always did what he thought was necessary to protect the city.”

  “He tried to kill your daughter and you consider that necessary to protect the city?” Her grip tightened around the water bottle. “From what? She was seventeen.”

  I almost lashed out, but I took a deep breath. “Well, Jen, if you look around, you can see what her choices did.”

  “Because he tried to kill her. Have you ever thought about the fact that if he hadn’t tried to do that, Emmie would have stayed here, continued with Recruitment and started her job at Infinity Corp?”

  “The prophecy stated …” The stupid prophecy. I didn’t even believe it and here I was trying to use it as a defense. If I wanted Jen to help me, I needed to be honest. “I don’t know what would’ve happened. Emmie was one for bending the rules.”

  She nodded. “That’s true.”

  “But I didn’t want my daughter killed if that’s what you’re asking. I would’ve handled it differently.”

  “How?”

  She was really enjoying the questioning and using it to her advantage. It made my need to have her on my side so much stronger. “I would’ve done what I should’ve done from the time Emmie was born. I would’ve been involved in her life. Kept her close so I could keep an eye on her. Anytime she tried to step out of line, I would rein her in.”

  Jen took another drink of water. “And if you couldn’t rein her in?”

  “I could. Everyone can be reined in at a price.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think Emmie could. She’s too strong. Too determined.”

  I thought of that cute, blue-eyed, blond-haired boy she had a crush on. Eric. It would’ve been easy to rein her in if I promised she could have him. Or if I threatened to harm him. “She could. I know her weaknesses.”

  “What’s my weakness?”

  I looked her over, taking her all in. “You’re too honest.”

  Jen cracked a small smile. She finished off her water and set the bottle on my desk. I took it and threw it in the garbage bin.

  “Are you in?” I asked, watching her closely.

  Her eyes validated her answer. “Yes.”

  I didn’t know what I was expecting when we got to Kingsland. I’d never stepped foot into one of the other cities. It looked neatly structured like River Springs, but everything had more of an outdoor feel to it. Most of the homes and buildings were made of logs. There was something comforting about it that made me want to curl up and have a cup of hot cocoa.

  We had driven around the east side of the city, a few miles out so we wouldn’t be seen. We came to a stop on the north side, two miles away from the brick wall that stood between their city and the forest. There were a lot of trees around to give us the cover we needed.

  We had all taken turns, going in our groups of four to scout out the area from a closer distance. From the fact that there were a lot of security guards on the roof of Headquarters, it was safe to say security was still tight.

  When my group got back, Dante was standing near a tree by himself with his eyes closed. I went to him and put my hand on his arm. “How are you doing?”

  Dante’s whole body sighed. “I don’t know. I didn’t think it would be this hard to come back. I miss it.” He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. “I miss the smell of the trees. I miss the sounds of the forest and the birds.” He looked down at me. “I miss Whitney.”

  Whitney was his girlfriend back in his city. They weren’t supposed to date, but they somehow managed it. She became sick with a disease and ended up passing away.

  I rubbed his arm. “I’m sorry you have to go through all of this. Relive it all.”

  Sadness engulfed his eyes. He pulled me into a hug and rested his chin on my head. “I saw her brother, Brandon.”

  “Where?” I wanted to pull back so I could look at him, but I stayed in place.

  “On the roof of Headquarters,” Dante said.

  “He’s a security guard?” I asked.

  He nodde
d against my head. “Yes. And one of us is going to kill him.” He sighed. “I just hope it’s not me that has to do it.”

  None of us would know what he looked like since we didn’t grow up there. But Dante’s sister would. “Ask Vivica to do it.”

  “Vivica was close with their family,” Dante said. “She dated Brandon.”

  I thought back to when Vivica had told me their mom had died because she was distracted by a boy. I wondered if that was the boy she talked about. “Terrance, then.”

  “I can’t believe this is finally happening, Em. It was easier with Juniper because I had no attachment to them. But these are the people I grew up with. People I once considered friends.”

  I lowered my arms and looked up at Dante. “I know. But it must be done. They’re holding thousands of people prisoners. They’ll all die if we don’t do anything.”

  Dante nodded and stared up at the sky. “It doesn’t make it any easier.” A single tear slid down his cheek. “This mission is too important to mess up. Which is why I have to be the one to kill Brandon.”

  Once the sun had settled in for the night, we crept our way to the wall. We went in four lines, the revolutionaries leading each group. We had decided to wear all black when we first came up with the plan, so we would blend in with the darkness. But the more we thought about it, the less it made sense. Kingsland was surrounded by the forest, densely packed with trees. So, we went with our new camouflage uniforms that were a mix of black, green and brown.

  We each had on a long sleeve shirt, pants, a thick jacket, and a beanie. Everyone had a bag slung around their shoulders with the supplies we would need. We also each had a bow and set of arrows, which was the weapon Kingsland security would be using. Dante had shown us how to conceal ourselves by putting leaves and sticks on our clothing, plus using face paint so our skin didn’t stand out too much. We had earpieces in so we could communicate in case we were separated.

  The one thing that gave me the most ease was the vests we were wearing under our shirts. Scorpion provided us with bulletproof vests. If anything, it protected our chest and abdomen, which were the weakest spots on our bodies. I happily took the small advantage.