“No thank you, Hayley. I’m not used to this heat and I’m finding the alcohol a little too dehydrating.”
“Girl!” Hayley said, looking at me. “Your master needs water.”
Could this night get any better? The heat of my shame manifested itself in my cheeks at being ordered around by Jack’s girlfriend. I resisted the urge to stomp my way into the building. An attitude like that would get me punished.
“Another beer?” the bartender asked me.
“Just water, please.”
The bartender handed me a tall glass of water with ice and a slice of some kind of fruit in it. I went back outside and put the drink in front of Jack. This time, I didn’t bother to make eye contact with him. I just kept my head down and returned to my corner, trying to blot out the merriment of the people gathered around the table.
After what seemed an eternity, General Powell slammed an empty beer glass on the table, drawing everyone’s attention. “Well, I’m going to call it a night.”
He stood on unsteady legs and Gaia went to his aid. They walked to the door of the mess and two soldiers fell in behind them.
Jack pushed away from the table. “I better get going too. I start my new job tomorrow.”
“I’ll walk back with you,” Alex said.
“Me too,” Hayley said.
Jack cast a glance in my direction and I knew to follow. As I fell in behind them, his security team fell in behind me.
After we had made our way through the crowded bar and back out onto the street, Hayley wrapped her well-toned arm around Jack’s elbow. He carried on witty conversation with her and she laughed at everything he said. He didn’t seem to mind that I was right behind him. Maybe what I thought no longer mattered.
As we arrived at the house, the trio stopped and continued to talk. I desperately wondered if they would ever leave. Not that I wanted to go into the house and be alone with Jack, but my feelings were overwhelming. What I really wanted to do was run, although I didn’t know where.
“Listen guys, I’m tired,” Jack finally said.
“I’ll teach you how to drive the bike tomorrow,” Alex called.
“Good night Jack,” Hayley said.
He waved.
Chapter Five
Jack unlocked the door and we went into our temporary home. It was big, unfamiliar and painfully quiet after the raucous noise of the mess. Closing my eyes, I pressed a thumb and finger against the building pressure behind them. My head was beginning to ache, although I wasn’t sure if it was from hunger or information overload.
His hand gently wrapped around my arm and I resisted the urge to yank away from his touch. I was angry, but I was conscious of the fact that we promised each other before setting out for dinner that we were just playing our roles. It was necessary for our survival. I wasn’t a stranger to being a slave. I was born one. Yet being Jack’s slave had been humiliating. He was my partner, my almost-lover and my friend. It made hearing his role in the sterilization program that much harder to take. I thought I knew him, but he was still a stranger.
He turned me around to face him, his expression sad and apologetic. “Sunny…I’m sorry.”
I could tell he was struggling and a part of me was grateful that he might be feeling some remorse. “The sterilization program?”
My voice broke around the lump in my throat. For once I was glad my emotions had stolen my ability to speak. I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted to shut down.
“I was a little kid when my parents campaigned for that program,” Jack said, his voice cracking with emotion. “They pushed it through as an alternative to lowering the age of the Cull. They saved thousands in the Pit from being rounded up and killed.”
I opened my mouth to speak, challenging that lump, but my tears decided it was a good time to show up. I jerked my arm out of his grasp and started toward the bedroom.
“Don’t walk away from me.”
I stopped and turned to look at him. “Was that an order, sir?”
We glared at each other from across the room. Jack was the first to look away. “No, it wasn’t,” he said. He rubbed a hand across his eyes.
I continued to glare at him. “Is that why you were acting so jumpy earlier tonight? You were afraid I’d find out what you’re really like?”
“I’ll admit it was one of the reasons.”
My eyes widened in shock at his honesty.
“Don’t look so surprised, Sunny. I was the presidential heir! You think I didn’t do anything to earn that title?” He stared at me, waiting for my reply.
I didn’t have one. Maybe because at some point during our association I had convinced myself that the presidential heir I had seen on TV so many times didn’t actually exist. That man was just an image and not the same person I had lived with in the Pit.
“I told you before we left the Dome, you changed me,” he said, breaking the silence that had grown between us. “I had my eyes opened during my time down there.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell me about the sterilization program? Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
“Jesus, Sunny, I was in the Pit surrounded by thousands of people who hated me. You really think it was the best time for me to come clean?”
I dug my nails into my palm. “You could have been honest with me, Jack!”
“So you could tell your boyfriend?!”
“Reyes? You’re bringing him into this?!”
Jack balled his hands into fists and looked wildly around the room. I’d never seen him so angry. Wondering if he was looking for something to punch, I took a step away from him. He caught my movement and glared at me again. I returned his stare, refusing to back down.
He closed his eyes and his hands relaxed. “Reyes wanted me out of the Pit and he really didn’t care how I went.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Everyday in the mines, he tried to provoke me into a fight. When I didn’t take the bait, he tried to convince everyone I was some kind of traitor working for the bourge so they’d want to kill me. I’ll give him credit—he never once said who I was. But that was for your protection.”
I was speechless for a moment. Not because I didn’t believe Jack—it sounded exactly like something Reyes would do—but because I wondered why Jack kept it from me. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I thought you were in love with the guy.”
“I told you I wasn’t.”
“You told me on our last day in the Pit.”
He was right. I covered my face with my hands in a vain attempt to shut myself off from reality. Too much had happened and I couldn’t make sense of it anymore. “When did everything get so screwed up?”
“It’s always been screwed up. We just got caught in the middle of it.”
Angrily, I rubbed the tears from eyes. “You still should’ve told me about Reyes.”
“Remember the day I got into a fight with the guards?”
I nodded. How could I forget? It was the night I had to sit up with him because he might have had a concussion—the night we really talked to each other for the first time. It resulted in the formation of the Alliance.
“That was the day I hit a breaking point. Reyes and his friends were taunting me, the guards were getting in on the act, and then some poor kid stepped in the middle. I just…lost it. When I started swinging at the guards, I didn’t care if I lived or died. I needed it to stop.”
Why didn’t I know about that? Had I even bothered to ask what his life was like in the mines? The truth was that I was too wrapped up in my own misery to even consider what he was going through. I was too worried about Summer and blamed him for not helping
her enough. I was worried about my dad and held Jack responsible for his arrest, too. I didn’t care what he was going through. I only cared if he could help or not.
Suddenly, I didn’t like myself very much.
“I’m sorry, Jack. I should’ve known.”
His shoulders slumped and I saw the fight leave him. “Unless Reyes told you, there’s no way you could have.”
My mind flashed back to that day in the Pit—the day the guards had dragged my father away and Reyes had cornered me about our future together. He had been adamant that we had to get rid of Jack. I thought I had made my position clear to him that it wasn’t going to happen. But I knew what Reyes was like. I should’ve anticipated that he would try to find a way to get what he wanted.
The sound of my stomach growling suddenly filled the room and I quickly placed a hand over my abdomen to muffle the sound. The awkward noise drew a grin from Jack and the tension between us eased.
“You haven’t eaten in a long time,” he said. “The fridge should be stocked by now.”
I shook my head. “I’m not that hungry.” Why did I just say that? My head was booming and my stomach was cramping. I knew food would make me feel better, yet a stubborn sense of pride prevented me from admitting it. Watching him eat a king’s meal while I stood on the sidelines drooling made me feel more than a little pathetic.
He held out his hand to me, his expression rueful. “Come on. It’s my turn to serve you.”
How did he know? With a heavy sigh and a roll of my eyes, I ignored my irrational grudge and took his hand. He led me into the kitchen and pulled out a stool for me.
“Have you ever had eggs?” he asked, rummaging through the refrigerator.
I nodded. “In your apartment before the wedding, remember?”
“Oh yeah.” He pulled a few items out and placed them beside the stove. “Well, I think mine will be better.”
While he hunted through cupboards and collected items, I sat at the counter and watched him. He seemed to know his way around the kitchen—another fact I hadn’t known about him. Did they have private kitchens in the Dome?
“Where did you learn to cook?” I asked.
“During college. The first time we pulled an all-nighter studying for an exam, we woke up the cook and asked him to make us something to eat to keep us going. Instead, he showed us how to use the stove and told us never to wake him up in the middle of the night again. He’s lucky we never started a fire.”
What a privileged life he had led to be able to wake up a cook and demand food. The image was a stark contrast to the Jack Kenner I had come to know in the Pit.
He poured a glass of milk and set it in front of me. I took a sip, conscious of the fact that he only poured one glass. “Aren’t you having any?”
He shook his head. “I’m full—” I saw the barest hint of a blush creep up his face. “I’m not hungry right now.”
He took the frying pan off the stove just as the toast popped up. I tried to remember the last time I ate. It must have been a few days ago. No wonder Jack was able to eat his dinner, despite our predicament.
He set a plate full of eggs, toast and slices of some kind of a red fruit or vegetable in front of me. It smelled delicious. “Thank you.”
He sat down on the stool next to me. “You’re welcome.”
All he had was toast, and I’m sure he only had it to save me from eating alone. I didn’t care. I was so hungry I wanted to dispense with the cutlery, open my mouth and empty the food straight into my stomach. Instead, I forced myself to pick up my fork. It took every bit of my willpower to not shovel the food in. When all my eggs and toast were consumed, I eyed the red things. My stomach felt ready to burst, but I didn’t want to leave a scrap behind.
“That’s tomato. It’s really good,” Jack said.
Picking up a slice with my fork, I bit into it. It was juicy, kind of sweet with a hint of a bitter taste. I put the other half back on my plate.
“You don’t like it?”
“I’m just really full, I think. Thank you. It was delicious.”
“But you didn’t eat very much. I’ll make more eggs.” He stood up.
“Please Jack,” I said, stopping him. “I’m fine.”
“Do you feel better?”
I nodded.
He sat back down. “Then we should talk.”
Although the food was taking care of my aching head and stomach, my emotions were still in turmoil. I put my elbows on the counter and rested my face in my hands, hiding my eyes. Talking wasn’t going to change anything. “Will it do any good?”
He swiveled on his stool to face me. “I’d at least like the chance to explain about the sterilization program.”
I turned my head to look at him. Though I wasn’t sure I wanted to learn anything more about Jack the heir, I knew I had to. “I’m listening.”
He took a deep breath. “Like I said earlier, my parents advocated that program fifteen years ago when Holt wanted to lower the age of the Cull to thirty. If Holt had been successful, it would’ve meant rounding up everyone between the ages of thirty and thirty-five and exterminating them. My parents presented the sterilization program as a way of curbing the rising population in the Pit. They managed to convince most of the influential families, which forced Holt to adopt the program.” Jack paused to look at me to see how I was taking the information.
“Go on.”
“I went to work for the Holt government when I became engaged to Leisel. I had no choice—I was the president-in-training. One of the first projects I was given to manage was the sterilization program, probably because it was my family who pushed it on Holt. In the beginning, sterilization was done by surgery, but in the past few years a compound had been developed for chemical sterilization.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “I supported it because it’s less invasive and I was told the problems cited with it were minor. I didn’t know the extent of the problems until I met Raine’s wife, Flo. I had no idea before I met her. I swear.”
“But you knew there were problems, so why didn’t you try to find out what they were?”
“Because women had died during surgery, but no one ever died from getting the injection.”
The regret on Jack’s face convinced me he was telling the truth, but it wasn’t his sincerity I questioned. What rubbed me the wrong way was why the bourge never included themselves in their own policies. It was only the Pit subjected to population control. Even though we all knew we were bound by the terms of the treaty, it still caused a lot of resentment.
Wearily, I propped an elbow on the counter and rested my head in my hand. I decided some thoughts were better kept to myself. There had been enough arguing between us and nothing good was going to come from debating the point.
“Then your decision was a fair one,” I said. “Is there anything else I should know?”
Jack shifted uncomfortably and turned his stool back to face the counter. “Sunny, I grew up in the Dome. I worked for the president for almost a full year. I pretended to love his daughter. I think it’s safe to say I did a lot of things you might construe as…questionable. So if we decide to stay here and keep up the pretense, I can’t guarantee there won’t be a repeat of tonight.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean if we decide to stay here? What choice do we have?”
“We can run.”
I sat up straight and searched his face. “You mean abandon the Pit? Let them all die?” I shook my head. There was no way I would agree to that.
“No!” He looked shocked by my suggestion. “I mean try to get away from here and find a different way into the Pit.”
“You said it was a fortress.”
He nodded. “It is. And we’ll al
so have to contend with armed soldiers patrolling the area while we’re trying to find a way inside.”
I studied Jack for a moment, trying to gauge what he wanted to do. Yet his expression was expectant, waiting for my answer. “Earlier, you said our best option to save the Pit was by staying here, so why are you changing your mind now?”
He leaned an elbow on the counter and rubbed a hand across his eyes. “Because if tonight was any indication, staying here might rip you and me apart. We’re a team, Sunny. No one from the Pit trusts me, so they aren’t going to listen to anything I have to say. And you can’t free them alone because you—frankly—don’t have the technical skills. We need each other to do this.”
Even though everything he said was true, his words hit me like a cold blast. They reduced our relationship to a business partnership.
An unhappy feeling crept over me and I fought to keep it at bay. I felt bad enough without adding sadness to the mix. Things had been so much easier between us in the Pit and I just wanted to have that again. I wanted to forget about what I heard, forget about seeing him with his friends…with Hayley.
Then I remembered things weren’t easy for him in the Pit.
Feelings were beginning to cause a lot of confusion, distracting me from what was really important: freeing the Pit before Holt annihilated everyone. Life was complicated enough without the added worry of our relationship.
I turned to face him. “If staying is the best chance we have, then we stay. And I agree—we’re better off strictly as partners.” I held out my hand to him to shake on it.
Instead of accepting my offered hand, he held up his own as if to ward it off. “Whoa! I never said that. And what exactly do you mean?”
“I mean that if there was some kind of…relationship…starting between us, maybe it’s not a good idea.” I looked at him to see his reaction.
“If there was a—” he repeated, then stopped. He stared at me for a moment. “I thought there was something between us.”
Worlds Collide: Sunset Rising, Book Two Page 5
