The Child Thief 4: Little Lies Read online

  He chuckled, then hummed in agreement, resting his chin on my head, and I couldn’t help but smile. This. This was what I’d been searching for, this perfect fit, in both body and personality. I’d finally found it.

  Now all I had to do was figure out how to keep it.

  Within seconds, he was breathing the deep, even breaths of sleep, and I decided I wasn’t going to bother to stir him and suggest we return to our rooms.

  Instead, I gave my own mind permission to let go, and a moment later the entire world faded out of view.

  “The hallway, really? Some things should be kept private, you know.”

  My eyes snapped open to find Alexy leaning over us.

  Today she had her bangs set in a controlled curve over her forehead, the hair on the right side of her head done up in a French braid leading from above her right eye, backward and down to just behind her ear. Her face was semi-obscured by large tortoise-shell glasses, and she had, to my surprise, fire-red lipstick on.

  “Who are you to talk? You look like you’re trying to dress up as a naughty librarian for Halloween,” I said in response, my voice rough with sleep as I eyed the oversized red plaid pants and tiny button-up top she was wearing.

  She laughed and gave me a light punch in the shoulder.

  “I’m just saying, you two have been flirting the whole time I’ve known you. I think the entire group would agree with me when I say we wish you’d just get on with it.”

  And that was enough of that, I thought sharply. True, Jace and I had been… well, flirting around the edge of a relationship for a couple weeks now. But that didn’t mean I wanted to hear about it from my friends, on an empty stomach and before coffee.

  “I’m sure we’ll both take your needs into consideration while working out our future,” I said tartly, getting to my feet. “What are you doing here so early, anyhow?”

  I put my hand back without even looking, and braced, feeling Jace thread his fingers through mine then use my weight to leverage his way to a standing position.

  Alexy glanced at our hands and then up at us, lifted both eyebrows in a questioning look, and shook her head slowly. Behind her, I could see Ant and Abe peering out of their door, and across the hall from them, Kory looking like he’d won some sort of bet with someone.

  “I’m sorry, are we the standing source of entertainment around here?” I snapped at the three of them, letting go of Jace’s hand. Of course, I supposed we couldn’t have expected anything else. We had, after all, fallen asleep together. Again.

  “Well, what did you want, Alexy?” I asked. “I just passed on my chance to sleep in a real bed for the first time in about two weeks. I want coffee. And preferably some delicious baked goods. If you have something important to say, can it at least wait until after breakfast?”

  She gave me an amused look. “You’ve gained a lot more attitude since the last time I saw you, Robin. I like it.” A quick grin, and then: “To answer your first question, I’m here because Nathan has plans for you guys tonight, and I wanted to let you know as early as possible. To answer your second question, yes, we can wait until after breakfast to discuss it. And, to give you one final bit of information, the plans we’re discussing involve a party. Nathan and Corona will be there, and they’re going to be making a big announcement. So, get a shower, get dressed, and let’s get some breakfast into you. We have planning to do. I only have today to get you all looking presentable for your introduction to the rest of our world.” She paused dramatically. “As of tonight, you’re officially on the payroll.”

  She spun on her toes, like some sort of psychotic, plaid-pants-wearing ballerina, and glided away from us, leaving us to sort ourselves out and find our own way to the kitchen. From there, it seemed we’d be starting a crash course on what to expect from Nathan and the party he was apparently throwing on our behalf.

  10

  I was at least showered and sporting clean clothing by the time I had to deal with anything else.

  Once everyone was awake and functional, we all navigated back down the corridor and down the staircase into the foyer, making our way toward the main body of the Hall, which held the kitchens and dining room.

  We’d been there the night before, but I still felt as if we were somehow trespassing. This wasn’t our home, and certainly wasn’t our world. Walking around on our own felt like we were taking liberties or something.

  Still, Alexy hadn’t left us a guide. And we were hungry.

  I was just jumping off the last stair into the main hall, following my crew toward the dining room, when a hand snaked out, grabbed my wrist, and yanked me into an empty nook under the stairs.

  With a combination of shock and annoyance, I bared my teeth, ready to give whoever had just interrupted my dreams of cheese pastries one hell of a lecture.

  Then I saw that it was Henry standing in front of me.

  “I can see you’re about to ask me what I think I’m doing, interrupting your breakfast,” he said, giving me a rueful grin. “I remember how grumpy you get when you’re hungry, Robin. Believe me, if there were any other guaranteed opportunity to talk to you, I would have taken it. But you seem to be pretty popular around here. I haven’t had a second alone with you since we arrived.”

  I gave him a look that I hoped told him exactly how annoyed and grumpy I was. I was certainly not in the mood for this particular confrontation.

  “What, Henry?” I asked.

  He gave a shrug, and when he spoke again, his voice was quieter. More… concerned. “Just wondering if you’re willing to give me the answers I’ve been asking for since we met up again. Rooms full of weapons? Tanks? Masks they print onto your face? What are you doing mixed up with these people?”

  I stayed silent as I tried to shuffle my thoughts into order. Yes, there were questions from him I’d been avoiding. No, I didn’t have the answers he was looking for. No, I wasn’t going to tell him any more than I already had. Especially as I still didn’t know what we were doing myself.

  He didn’t deserve to be brushed off with half-answers, though.

  I put a gentle hand on his arm.

  “Henry,” I said, speaking my thoughts as they came to me. “You have to understand there’s not a lot I can tell you. I don’t know that much myself. And a lot of it… well, it’s dangerous. Everything about this is dangerous. Even if I knew what was going on, I might not be able to give you any details. You do get that, right?”

  He was obviously displeased with the answer, but he did nod, and I took that as a signal to continue.

  “Right, well, I’ll tell you what I can without getting both of us in trouble.” I bit my lip, averting my gaze for a moment. “We’ve all, all of us in this group, experienced something bad when it comes to the Burchard Regime and the Ministry. Now we’ve banded together, and we’re trying to do something bigger about it. That’s all.”

  The explanation sounded far too short, and I made a face at him, indicating that I knew it wasn’t enough. Henry just laughed.

  “And that’s all you’re going to give me, huh? No explanation for who’s funding this or why they’re stocking grenade launchers and flame throwers like they’re going out of style?”

  “I can’t give you answers I don’t have myself,” I said bluntly.

  “And even if you did, you wouldn’t tell me,” he observed. “Because you still don’t trust me. Your group, at least, doesn’t trust me.”

  When I didn’t answer, he took a step toward me, his eyes going even softer.

  “Robin, you know me… You know that’s not who I am.”

  I stared at him, unsure, but it didn’t take a genius to realize he was going to try to prove how much I could trust him by reminding me of how in love we’d once been.

  And despite myself, I felt myself softening a touch. Yes, we were in a dangerous place, with dangerous people. Yes, we were in the middle of something a hell of a lot bigger than we’d realized, given the weaponry and plotting going on around us.

&nbs
p; Yes, I wanted to be a part of whatever Little John was doing. Wanted it so bad my bones were electrified by it. And I would do whatever I had to in order to make them trust me—to make them include me. I’d keep whatever secrets they needed me to keep if it meant I would finally get to start fighting the government that had taken everything from me.

  But I wasn’t the only one who’d lost something or been hurt by the Burchard Regime. Hope had been Henry’s, too. He might not have attached to her the way I did, and he might have run out on me the moment she was gone—something I didn’t know I’d ever fully forgive him for—but I couldn’t ignore the fact that he’d lost a daughter, too. He’d also given up the chance of going back to whatever life he’d built, the moment he saved us.

  He didn’t know that what we were doing was actually about the kids who had been stolen. The kids like Hope. I hadn’t even told him that part, but standing here, looking up into his eyes, I realized he deserved to know.

  He deserved it just as much as I did.

  The words surged up my throat to explain further. Then I was cut off by a confused voice from behind Henry.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  I jerked, surprised at the intrusion from the outside world, and a split second later recognized the voice.

  Jace yanked Henry out of the small enclave and shoved him backward, then turned to me, his face creased with… concern.

  That was not the expression I’d been expecting. Confusion. Maybe even betrayal, given how sensitive he’d been around me lately. Any of a number of other negative things.

  Instead, he looked like he thought I was hurt.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, pulling me out of the space and running his hands feather-light up and down my arms. “You looked like you were trapped. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing!” I said, perhaps a little too sharply. “Why would you think I was trapped? It’s just Henry.”

  Henry looked aghast, although I wasn’t sure whether he was more upset at what I’d said, or the fact that Jace had manhandled him. He glanced from one to the other of us and shook his head.

  “Here to save the day, huh?” he finally asked, and though I wouldn’t have blamed him for sounding bitter, or even angry, he sounded like he was nothing more than resigned to the truth. He turned to Jace. “Look, man, nothing happened. I was just asking Robin about what was going on here. I don’t do well when I don’t have all the information, and this is all sorts of overwhelming.”

  Jace turned to look at me, his eyes searching my face for the truth, and I nodded.

  “He doesn’t understand what’s going on,” I said. “Even less than we do, which is saying a lot. I’ve known Henry for a really long time, longer than Nelson, even. He’s got a right to know whatever we do, doesn’t he? Even if it isn’t all that much.” I stared at Jace for a second, watching the concern melt into confusion.

  He towed me a bit farther from Henry and dropped his voice several notches.

  “Robin, I’m not good at this,” he said, his hand rubbing the back of his neck almost apologetically. “Actually, I’m starting to think I’m really, really bad at it. I’ve never cared about anyone like this before. There’s Rhea, of course, but that’s different. And she’s not here right now. Or rather, she is, but Alexy won’t tell me where she is yet, no matter how much I threaten her.” He paused and pressed his lips into a thin line, tamping down on the frustration at his sister’s continued absence.

  “Yes, he deserves to know what’s going on. My brain tells me that makes sense. My heart… doesn’t understand. My heart doesn’t understand why I keep seeing you two alone, and you looking at him like he holds some sort of secret you’re still trying to figure out.

  I know you’ve known him a long time, and that you used to… share a life. I’ve gathered that from everything I’ve overheard and can see it just by the way you two talk to each other. I know you feel a responsibility toward him. I—”

  “Whatever you’re thinking right now, just stop,” I said, interrupting him. “It’s complicated, yes, but right now he just had some questions—that’s all. And the reason you don’t understand is because you freaking fell asleep on me last night. Henry and I—”

  “Had a child together,” Henry cut in, suddenly stepping forward, a look of sheer irritation contorting his features. “I think that entitles us to at least a few minutes of privacy, don’t you?”

  I shot him a murderous glare, but it was too late.

  Jace blinked, staring at the shorter man, his lips parting. “I… Of course,” he said, swallowing hard. “I’m sorry... I feel like a complete idiot.”

  And before I could say anything else, any soothing, reassuring thing, he strode off, leaving me standing there open-mouthed with Henry.

  Breakfast was an only slightly awkward hour of my group stuffing as much food as we could down our throats, still mentally in starvation mode after our days on the run. Jace had sat as far from me as he possibly could, and Henry had also put quite a bit of distance between us, sitting with Austin and Winter at one of the other tables.

  All in all, I was rather relieved when Alexy showed up and presented everyone with a distraction. She said she was kidnapping us for the morning, and whisked us out into the bright sunshine of Edgewood.

  The next few hours passed in a blur of learning more of the city and being introduced to multiple different operating and security systems, as well as meeting a few of the people we found out and about during our walk. We were shown a police station that looked nothing like any enforcer station I’d ever seen before, and even met the man Alexy called the Chief of Police. Alexy showed us the library, which was stocked full of books of all shapes and sizes. To my surprise, Jace flat-out refused to leave until he’d walked every aisle once, staring up and down in awe at the hundreds and hundreds of stories.

  I didn’t approach him to ask why he was so fascinated, since he was clearly in a world of his own. But it made my heart twinge all the same. I’d never known anyone quite like him, and this fascination with books just increased the depth I saw in him.

  We then passed a few restaurants open for business, clothing stores, an art store, some cafés, and a chocolate shop where Alexy insisted we stop for samples. There weren’t many people around, but those we saw moved with purpose rather than haste. From what I could see, there was no enforced hierarchy, everyone helping with everything, like the man we saw sweeping the street and dumping the sweepings into a wheelbarrow, and the others who were hauling trashcans toward a larger cart, hooked up behind a small ride-on tractor.

  After about an hour, I realized Edgewood truly was a fully functioning miniature society. There were shopkeepers and garbage collectors and window cleaners and gardeners and street sweepers and police officers; according to one woman we spoke to, her short hair spiking out from under a hard hat as she stood waist deep in a manhole cover, this little city also had its own power grid and water distribution process. It was so very different from the world we were used to.

  It was cleaner and more efficient than anything I’d ever seen operating under the Burchard Regime. Perhaps simpler than a lot of the larger cities in the outside world, but whatever Nathan was doing with his people, it was worlds different than what things looked like in Trenton.

  “Everything seem a little too bright and cheery in this place to you?” Ant asked, coming up beside me as we came out of the building where the power company was housed.

  I gave him a grin. “I was thinking the same thing. Only I was wondering how it all works and why it’s so much better than what the Burchard Regime has been doing outside.”

  “Fewer people, to start with,” Nelson observed from my other side. “It’s a lot easier to manage a few hundred or even a thousand citizens than it is to control millions. Fewer people to keep happy, fewer mouths to feed, that kind of thing. Plus, if they all got here the same way we did, it means they’ve chosen this, rather than just kind of being born into it and enslaved. Bu
t I don’t think that can be the entire story.”

  “Speaking of the entire story,” Ant interrupted. “Alexy, what’s happening with Jackie? When are we going to get to see her?”

  I nodded. “I second that question.”

  Alexy gave us a quick grin. “I asked the same thing when I met with Nathan this morning, and he got in touch with her doctors. The bad news is you guys aren’t cleared to go into the hospital yet. There are a lot of sick people there, and they don’t want any contamination from the outside. But the good news,” she said pointedly, noticing Ant’s face, “is that the party they’re throwing tonight is for everyone who was part of OH+. To formally welcome you into Little John, more or less. And that means it’s for Jackie, too, which means they’ll be letting her out of the hospital for an hour, to attend.”

  She cast a quick glance at her watch. “Speaking of which, we have to get back to the Hall. It’s party time.”

  11

  The idea of attending a party after living for so long either clinging on the edge of poverty or on the run was…. bizarre.

  Once we returned to the Hall, I spent at least half an hour in the shower, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with it at all. Don’t get me wrong, it was really great that Little John and Nathan were welcoming us with open arms and all, but weren’t we sort of in the middle of fighting a corrupt government and their privacy-invading, child-kidnapping industrial allies? It seemed like there were slightly more important things to do than have a party.

  Still, by the time we made it back down to the foyer of the Hall, freshly scrubbed but all still wearing some variation of the black, white, and pale blue ensemble we’d found in our closets, I was starting to feel pretty excited. While we still didn’t know what Little John had planned for us, a welcome party seemed like a vote of confidence, if nothing else.

  Alexy gathered us at the base of the stairs, and I noted she hadn’t changed from what she was wearing earlier either. This wasn’t going to be anything formal, then; that made me feel somehow more comfortable about the whole thing.