The woman’s eyes lit up. “You are a blessing, my dear,” Judice responded with a nod. We were in. “Feel free to ask us any questions, honey.”
I dropped my face to stare at the floor. I didn’t want her to see the excitement on my face. “Thanks,” I mumbled.
“Go ahead of me,” Lily said to me before whispering to Judice, “She’s more likely to join if I give her room to breathe. Her mother’s been breathing down her neck all week.”
I slipped away before Judice could argue. Surprisingly, the woman didn’t give me a second glance. I hurried down the nearest hallway, and my fingers clutched my hidden knife, safely snuggled in my sweater. The confidence in my blade blended me in. When I passed other workers, they acted as if I belonged, and for the first time, I felt like I did belong somewhere.
I knew what the workers saw. My frizzy hair, tied high into a ponytail, revealed a tired face. My dark clothes were stereotypical, and my long strides were one of a nervous person. I didn’t even have to pretend.
A small group of girls stood in the hallway I walked down. When I passed, their stares followed. I flinched when a child, a girl no older than eight, ran by me, seemingly clean, smart, and healthy. Nothing about her outside appearance suggested inner turmoil, but I knew the truth. She was probably orphaned, her parents killed by the drugs that were confiscated years ago − or worse, she had gotten ahold of some herself.
Everyone had been placed here for a reason. Did their families leave them? Did they turn themselves in? Did they have nowhere else to go? Someone’s job was to decide which girls could stay and which ones would be sent to the lumberyards to work. Some would even be sent to Phoenix. Someone had decided to send Anthony there. Someone who worked for Phelps. Someone who I didn’t want to know, ever.
I shook my head as if I could shake my thoughts out. I couldn’t dwell on their pain. I had to keep moving. I had to find Rinley, and I had to get out. Now.
A wide stairwell led me upstairs, and I searched all of the hallways for any indication of Rinley’s existence, but I didn’t have an idea of what to look for. A sun? A picture of tomo? A giant T? Those would all be too obvious. Finding Rinley was impossible. The building was full of people, and there weren’t even names on the doors, but I wouldn’t know what name to look for anyway. Rinley was hidden as well as any criminal would want to be. I had to think like Noah if I was going to find his sister.
“Sophia,” a girl shouted as I passed a communal library. “Sophia, wait.”
I spun around as Lily jogged toward me, her hood down, her white hair bun bouncing back and forth. When she caught up to me, she leaned against the wall. “I didn’t think I’d be able to find you in this place,” she panted.
“I didn’t think you’d ever get out of that conversation,” I retorted.
Lily’s eyes rolled. “Judice was in my training class.”
“She isn’t much of a security guard.”
“No, she isn’t,” Lily laughed before her expression dimmed. “Which reminds me—”
My frustration interrupted her, “I don’t know where to start—”
Lily’s bright grin interrupted me. “I logged into the system.”
My stomach twisted. “Why?” That would only let the police know where she was.
“I could look up the old girls that I used to work with,” she said.
“So what?” I spat. “This isn’t a socializing event.”
“You aren’t listening,” Lily grumbled, “I could look up girls.”
“Rinley won’t be in with her own name—”
“I know that.” Her brown eyes shaped into slits. “But I found something.” She held up her hand to reveal black permanent marker covering her palm. “Harper, room 405.”
Harper. Noah’s fake name was Nate Harper.
I grabbed her hand as if the name would fade away.
“I’m betting we might know who she really is,” Lily said, pulling away to point at the stairs. “Fourth floor is that way.”
Ready to Escape
The door was covered in paper drawings, but not one included a sun. While I hesitated, Lily knocked, and the cheap decorations floated to the floor. “They used to have us make those for the holidays,” Lily explained the paperwork. “Most of the girls burned them.”
The door opened an inch, revealing a small girl with bright red hair. Her tiny eyes moved over us. “What do you want?”
Lily smiled wide. “I’m looking for Harper.”
She placed her hand on the doorframe, “That’s me,” she said.
I stared at her thin arms. I could see the veins. All of them. But her wrist was bare. She hadn’t tried to kill herself. Harper wasn’t Noah’s little sister. I tugged at Lily’s sleeve to stop her from speaking.
“Do you have a roommate?” I asked, trying to sound calm, but my voice shook.
“Yeah,” Harper snarled at me. She heard the fear in my voice. “What do you want?”
“I’m her sister,” I lied.
Harper’s eyebrows would’ve pushed together if she had any. “You don’t look like you could be Bri’s sister.”
“Genetics,” I laughed, momentarily believing myself, but my façade shattered.
A second voice broke into the conversation, “I don’t have a sister.”
The roommate stepped into the doorway, but she stayed behind Harper’s broad shoulder. Bri had a black pixie cut and three piercings on both of her small ears. Her eyes were brown, but her pale complexion was paper-white against her dark clothes. The fierceness in her glare made me want to walk away, to try to find Rinley somewhere else, but we had to explain ourselves now. The girls were waiting.
“Sorry, girls,” Lily chirped up, remaining bubbly and confident. “I’m new to working here, and I wanted to get to know some of the residents. I think we were confused on the room—”
Harper began to slam the door in our face, but Bri had rolled her eyes. When her brown eyes moved, blue irises peeked out from behind her colored contacts. It was only then that I noticed her blond roots beneath her black hair-dye.
Before I could contemplate what my body was doing, I grabbed Harper’s red shirt and yanked her into the hallway. I used the momentum to pull myself into the room and slam the door behind me. I locked it, spinning so fast that I knocked the wind out of myself on the door. Bri moved faster than me.
She lunged to her desk and latched onto a sharpened envelope opener.
I flicked my knife out of my jacket. “Don’t try me,” I growled.
Bri’s eyes were on my weapon. Unlike her brother, she looked terrified. “What do you want?” she managed.
“To get you out,” I explained. “Noah’s here. He’s waiting for you.”
Rinley jumped forward and swung the envelope opener at my throat. I dodged it, tumbled to the ground, and dug my nails into the pressure point on her ankle. She collapsed to the floor, wiggling violently. I turned her over, covered her with my body, and shoved my arm into her open mouth. Her teeth latched down on my bare skin, and I bit back a scream as her sharp teeth dug into my flesh.
“Let me in,” Harper shouted from the hallway as she pounded on the weak door.
I focused on the little girl below me as she continued to fight, scratching and biting. I pressed my knife to her throat, and her teeth released my arm. A sigh escaped my lips before I could hold it back. Knocks continued to echo around the small bedroom.
“You’re going to get us killed if you don’t believe me,” I warned, “and fast.”
She arched her neck away from my blade, but her breath fogged over the shiny metal. I prayed she wouldn’t try to kill herself again.
“You have to trust me, Rinley,” I emphasized her name. The blade glimmered, reflecting the shaky light that my grip produced.
“You’re holding a knife to my throat,” she retorted, trying to squirm away. She was still fighting.
I did the only thing I could do.
I dropped the knife as I grabbed her le
ft wrist, running my thumb over the bumpy scar Noah had told me about. “You tried to kill yourself,” I tried to convince her with information. “Liam died saving Noah. You got left behind. Noah wears a watch that’s synchronized. Your mother loved purple periwinkles—”
Her envelope opener fell from her scarred hand as she screeched, “Okay – okay! I believe you.”
I jumped off of her, but we both gaped. Her shallow breath rose as she gripped her chest. Before I could help her off the ground, she stood herself, “Noah’s here? He’s really here?”
“Yes,” I answered, picking up my weapon. “And you’re escaping.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
Rinley’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Trust me,” I pleaded, but she was frozen. Every Tomery I knew did this.
I flipped my knife over so that she could take the blade away from me. Anything to get her to believe that I was on her side, that I wasn’t here to hurt her, that I was here because Noah needed me to be − because she needed me to be. “Please.”
Rinley snatched the knife as if I would change my mind. She flipped it into her pocket, but her eyes never left me. The knocks from the hallway continued to rise in volume, and without another moment of hesitation, Rinley ran to the door and flung it open. “Cut it out.”
Harper stepped back, and her bottom lip fell open. Lily’s bun had broken, and her white hair sprayed around her startled expression. They had been fighting, but Harper was giving in now. She looked from Rinley to me. “What’s going on, Bri?”
“These are my friends,” Rinley lied, glaring at Harper like she was suddenly the enemy – which, if she kept making noise, she was. “Stop making a commotion.”
I followed Rinley out of the door, and the little girl looked around the crowded hallway. Everyone had come out of their rooms to see what was happening. “Nothing to see here,” Rinley announced, waving her arms around. “Go back to your rooms.”
As if she controlled them, the whispering girls went back to their rooms. The fighting wasn’t significant enough to feed their drama. I sighed.
Rinley waited until everyone was gone before talking to Harper, “We’re going to the library,” she said, “Don’t bother me.”
Harper hugged herself. “Okay.” The redhead must have been older than Rinley, but her widened eyes told it all. Rinley scared her. A thirteen-year-old scared everyone.
Rinley, completely ignoring her disheveled roommate, began walking without ever speaking to Lily. She had the same stride as Noah − focused and silent. I grabbed Lily, and we followed the young girl. We didn’t speak, even when Rinley reached up to her face and rid herself of the colored contacts. She dropped them on the ground, and we stepped over them.
“This way,” Rinley pointed forward as she glanced over her shoulder.
When her blue eyes met mine, I remembered the family portrait. I saw the small girl from years ago before I stared at the older version in front of me. She was thin, but her arms were strong. Even when I held her down, I knew how strong she was. For two years, she kept herself trained. She was always ready to escape.
We neared a door at the end of the hallway, and a warning sign stopped me. It said it would sound an alarm, but Rinley slammed into the bar to open it. For a moment, I panicked, expecting a siren, but Rinley jumped outside, unfazed. Like Noah, she knew how to escape a facility. There was always an escape.
A siren didn’t sound as Lily and I followed. The alarm must have been broken a long time ago. “Cheap building,” Rinley muttered. How long she had lived there was a mystery, but it wasn’t for days. She had a reputation. The girls listened to her. She probably knew the building inside and out, even better than Lily did. It was only then that I realized Rinley had probably seen Lily – her brother’s friend − volunteering there. We had been close to her all along.
“Do you remember me?” Lily asked the girl, apparently realizing the same thing I had. “Last time I saw you, you were—”
“I don’t know you,” Rinley said, but she never looked at Lily. Her blue eyes searched the street in front of us for activity. We were on the side of the building. I could even see the main road.
“Lilianne,” Lily tried to jog the thirteen-year-old’s memory by saying her name, “I’m Miles’ twin. I used to do your hair—”
Rinley’s hand shot up to the short, black crop that she now wore. “No offence, Lilianne,” her tone was sharp, “but I want to find my brother.”
Lily frowned as if she had been denied an ego boost, and I had to push her lightly to remind her why we were here. Now was not the time to catch up over past makeovers.
“We’re meeting at the sun,” I said to Rinley, hoping she knew the code.
Rinley’s lips twitched like she wanted to smile but had forgotten how to. Before I could comprehend her movements, she flicked out my knife and handed it back to me in the same way Noah had. “Take it,” she said. She officially trusted me.
Unlike her, I could smile as I grabbed the metal. In the dim light, she reminded me of myself, standing in front of my father as he trained me in the forgery. “Be prepared to fight,” I said. It wasn’t about to get easier.
“I’m looking forward to it,” she chirped as red and blue light reflected off of everything around us.
Trucks screeched up to the building, and cops − a heard of them – leapt out. All three of us pressed our backs against the side of the building before the sirens blared.
Lily, of all people, cursed as dozens of officers swarmed the entranceway. “What—”
“Stop talking,” Rinley ordered, pulling Lily off of the wall. “Just run.”
Shoot Them
Rinley was fast. Really fast. Despite her short height and young age, she remained at my heels, her breath on my neck. I wasn’t sure if I was listening to my heart pound or hers as our feet flew across the grass, sprinting toward the river. The trees would add to the shadows of night, and the drop into the water would create an extra cover as the police swarmed the building.
A girl screamed in the distance, and my mind raced with possibilities. The police were entering a building full of troubled girls. It was guaranteed that they would fight back. They would keep the police there for a while. Hopefully, no one would get killed.
The ground dropped as the grass became slippery with water and mud. My breath caught in my throat when my eyes adjusted and focused on the river − the same river I had almost drowned in, the one I was supposed to drown in.
I stopped without thinking.
Rinley crashed into me, and we tumbled into the river, flailing our arms as we splashed into the creek bed. Cool water rushed over me, and my head slammed into something hard. Noah’s vision of drowning. It was happening. I hadn’t defied fate. I was only warned of it.
Fingers dug into my scalp before a hand yanked me up. I spit up water as I stood on shaking feet. The water wasn’t even two feet deep. It was barely trickling, and I had nearly given up because of something Noah had apparently seen.
“What the hell was that?” Rinley shouted at me. Her pixie cut was pasted to the sides of her face, and mud smeared across her forehead. “We could’ve broken something.”
“No time for arguing,” Lily yelled at the girl.
She didn’t have to say why. We had to keep running, and when they rushed off, I followed without hesitating.
We splashed through the river until we reached the bank, and we climbed it on hands and knees. Rinley slipped, falling into the mud, and Lily pulled her up, kicking dirt into my face. I wiped it away. Dogs barked in the distance, but I was the only one who turned around, listening for the sound. Dogs ran faster than we did. If they were close, I wanted to see them coming.
We weren’t close enough to the train tracks to escape. At this rate, we were dead.
“How did they know?” Lily screeched as her feet slammed onto the concrete pathway. She spun around a corner, and it was over. A man shoved her to the ground.
<
br /> Rinley dodged him by ducking under his arm. He hit me instead, tackling me off the edge of the creek bed. We tumbled down the hill, twigs scraped my skin, and his hands wrapped around my throat.
“You little bitch,” his scream ripped through my body.
Anthony.
I pushed his chest, and he toppled over, splashing into the shallow water. I pulled my knife from my sweater, but his fingers latched onto my ankle. He used the same pressure point I had used on Rinley, and I collapsed, dropping my knife. I reached out for it, but my fingernails found mud.
Anthony loomed over me, his eyes wild, his face bleeding. “I should drown you,” he snarled, digging his knees into my ribs.
I gasped, unable to breathe, and his hands found my throat again.
“You really thought I wouldn’t have Lily’s name traced if she did anything?” he continued as I choked on muddy water. “I knew she was involved. I knew!” His grip tightened. My windpipe was collapsing. “I should’ve killed Miles the second I had the chance.”
I smacked his chest, his chin, his leg – any part of his body I could reach – but he never even flinched. “And Broden,” he continued, his wrists pressing against my collarbone. “Wait until I get my hands on him.”
He pushed my face under the water, and I squirmed beneath him. The creek bed shifted against my back, and the water became foggy. He sat on my stomach. He held me down. He weighed too much to fight him off of me.
Then, as suddenly as he had taken me down, his presence was gone.
I sat up, and my head spun. My legs twitched. My fingernails never left the muddy bottom. Next to me, Rinley hit Anthony across the face with a rock. He fell sideways, and his moaning echoed around us. He wasn’t unconscious, but he was down. I was up, but I hadn’t moved a single limb.
Rinley scrambled to her feet before pulling on my shirt.
“Wait,” I said, my hands skimming the river. My knife was inches away. I picked it up and swung it into my wet pocket. My legs followed mechanically, and we were off, running, tripping, coughing up water.
Take Me Tomorrow Page 21
