Niko Read online

  Chapter 20

  After a few more questions Ari propped her chin on her fist and gave Niko a provocative smile. “Can you keep a secret?”

  “It’s not really a secret, Ari,” Ben said. “Everyone knows, we barely wear the Circle colors as it is.”

  Ari fanned her hand in a shushing gesture. “But that doesn’t mean they know why.”

  She turned to Niko. “Because we disagree with what they’re doing, the four of us decided that we are no longer going to be a part of the Rose Circle and we formed a new one. Order of the Black Rose.”

  “Okay.” Niko said, she didn’t think a name change was going to help the people struggling to survive outside of the city walls.

  “Well that was anti-climactic.” Duc noted dryly. “I don’t think she cares much about the name thing. Why don’t you tell her about the other stuff?”

  Ari glanced around furtively as if they weren’t the only ones in the room. “We’re leaving. Not right now of course.” She laughed softly under her breath. “But before they catch on and try to stop us. We’re not meant to be in cages.”

  They all looked at her expectantly waiting for her to agree to join their cause. They’d revealed so much about themselves that there was really only one answer and it’d be a convenient way for her to leave the city and search for Jared. Still ...

  She chewed on her bottom lip. “I don’t know ... What if I leave with you and Jared comes back? There’ll be no one here for him, they might turn him into a Grey-man.”

  They glanced at each other, with that quick split-second eye communication they seem to think she never saw. Ari sighed. “I guess a few more weeks won’t kill us.” She prodded Malik with her foot. “Right?”

  Malik didn’t answer his eyes were on Niko some nameless emotion swimming behind his glasses. Part of her hoped that it was because he wanted to tell her the truth, but her more cynical side doubted it.

  She stuffed her hands into her pockets and slid off the chair in a rustle of fabric. She had given them a chance to come clean and they'd decided to lie.

  “I’ll think about it.” She offered Ari a tiny frigid smile. “It’s just so much new information, I’ll need a moment.”

  Ari nodded slowly. “As long as you say yes, take as long as you want.”

  She walked past them all, Duc, Malik, Ari, last of all Ben, he reached out and opened the door. Unlike Malik it was easy to read the expression in his eyes, he was concerned.

  For a moment her heart froze. He had probably looked through the folder after she’d left. Did he realize that there was a picture missing? If he did he might have an inkling of the plan forming inside her head. But he let her leave without saying a word so maybe he didn’t.

  Niko traipsed the halls alone and on an empty stomach. She’d forgotten to grab something to eat before she left the breakfast room and she didn’t want to go back there and feel all of their eyes on her. She could go to the kitchen but seeing the plethora of food there always made her light-headed.

  She passed the Director on her way back to her room and she watched as the woman’s eyes cataloged the black shirt and jeans that she wore. The Director shook her head.

  Back in her room she sat cross-legged on the bed. She felt around the side of the mattress until her fingers brushed against the edges of Jared’s photo.

  She pulled it out and tapped the glossy surface absently. She wished she knew how to fly the helicopter herself then she would have a way to leave the city and there would be no need for all the subterfuge--- on both sides.

  She flipped it over, she wished she recognized the handwriting, she wished they’d written down more information or that she had a chance to peruse more of the folder’s contents. She had no idea who the Gemini gang was.

  Niko’s stomach growled loudly admonishing her for missing breakfast. What good would it do to go Outside already half-starved? She swung her legs off the bed and got up. She would join their clandestine order if only because they would never be able to trust her if she said anything other than yes. She wished they thought to trust her enough to tell her that they knew where Jared was.

  She retraced her steps down the hall intending to get something to eat before she began searching for them. The door to the breakfast room was open and the scents of that meal still wafted out of it along with a strange soft sound. She hurried; her bare feet silent on the carpeted floor then paused in the doorway.

  Ben was no longer standing sentry by the door. Duc had switched seats and now sat beside Ari who had her arms loosely draped around his neck. They were kissing and a thought floated vaguely in the back of her mind, she wondered how he managed it with his lip piercing.

  When they broke away another hand reached out and turned Ari’s head until she faced him and he kissed her as well, hands sliding down her back as Duc began to untie the straps around her neck. Ben was gone, back to the lab where he usually absconded to after breakfast.

  She didn’t make a sound but Duc must have felt her presence because he was the first to slide mismatched eyes toward her. His mouth hovered millimeters over Ari’s throat. She opened her eyes, staring at Niko as well and when she broke contact Malik was the last to realize someone else was in the room.

  They all stared at her with mismatched Slither eyes, utterly silent, utterly still. They didn’t look startled or concerned, they looked patient as if they were waiting for her to either join them or leave and whatever choice she made was of no real object.

  The seconds turned to minutes or at least it felt that way to Niko. She took a single step forward and for a brief moment wished she had decided to wear shoes as she desired the assertive clack of a hard sole against a hard floor instead of the tentative pad of her bare foot.

  For a moment she did nothing but stare at the fabricated wood paneling, breathing in and out trying to make the air rushing past her lips the only sound she heard.

  She balled her hands into fists and the sound of Jared’s photo crumpling was what was finally enough to distract her. She hastily smoothed it out; she hadn’t realized she’d brought it out of the room. That was reckless of her.

  She wiped her eyes. She was still hungry.