Schism (38 page)

No lights were on, as expected, and the lock to the front door easily gave way with a strong push. Inside was pitch black and the air was stale, but it was dry and warmer than outside, which was all that mattered at the moment. Ben panned the entryway with his flashlight and led Andy down a hallway into the living room that had a large fireplace. A pile of wood, considerably smaller than the one underneath the front porch, sat beside it. He touched the top piece of wood. Though covered in dust and cobwebs, it was thankfully dry.

Soon, Ben was busy feeding a growing fire while Andy removed her wet jacket, shoes, and socks. Using her flashlight, she went upstairs and found a few blankets in a linen closet. Still shivering violently, she proceeded to remove her soaked jeans and sweater before wrapping herself in one of the blankets. With her wet clothes in one hand and extra blankets firmly grasped in the other, she returned downstairs to the living room and placed her clothes in front of the fire to dry.

Ben looked up from the fire to her. They hadn’t said a word since entering the house. “Here, sit down,” he said as he stepped away from the growing fire that soon became a roaring inferno.

Andy kneeled down in front and drew her knees into her chest beneath the blanket. Despite removing her wet clothes and the warmth of the fire, she continued to shiver violently. “God! I c-ca-can-t-t-t…ge-ge-t-t…wah-warm,” she stammered through chattering teeth.

Though chilled himself, Ben wasn’t shivering nearly as much. He quickly shed his own clothes down to his boxers. After placing his wet clothing beside hers, he picked up one of the other blankets and sat down between her and a large ottoman. Drawing up to her side, he wrapped the blanket around them both. “Body heat,” he muttered as he pulled her head into his bare chest. It felt like ice against his skin.

“F-fun-ny…”

“What is?”

“Th-this. L-like a b-bad roh-mance nov-v-vel.”

He let out a small laugh. “Andrea Christensen reading trashy romance novels? I’m shocked.”

“R-ran outta real b-books in Ber-muda.” She tried to smile but her lips kept quivering.

“Sounds like it…” Leaning against the ottoman, he rubbed his hands through her wet hair to warm her head. “Not to sound like a complete pervert, but if you let go of your blanket so that more of our skin touches, you’ll get warmer faster.”

She released her blanket immediately and wrapped it around them both, creating an additional layer of insulation. She then pressed herself against every possible inch of his skin as he wrapped his arms around her. In time, the fire and the heat from his body thawed the icy chill running through her until the shivering ceased. As she grew warmer, she didn’t pull away but instead leaned in closer as her body finally began to relax. With her left ear pressed firmly against his chest she stared at the fire. She could hear the steady beat of his heart. Her eyelids began to flutter as the rhythm lulled her into a welcome sleep.

***

Sitting in the dark, Sean stared down at the pistol in his lap. Green Haven was just a few miles away. For six years, he had managed to get where he was without killing a single person with his bare hands. Many people had died under his orders, but he had never actually killed anyone, himself. He’d never pulled the trigger or put a needle into someone’s arm. Or plunged a knife into a person’s chest as Chad had done to his mother. Sean admired the boldness of the act. The police report from the small Iowa town made no conclusive accusation that young Chad had killed his mother, but a quick skim over the file said it all: he had snuffed the life out of someone he was supposed to love. And he had done it with a knife—an intimate act that also required great physical strength. Sean couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous.

He gazed out the car window into the darkness. The rain increased until the windshield wipers struggled to keep up with the pace of the downpour. He exited the SUV the moment it pulled into the prison entrance. He spotted Luke and made a beeline toward him as he stuffed his gun into the back of his jeans underneath his raincoat.

“Well?”

Luke swallowed.

“You haven’t found them yet?” Controlling his anger, Sean threw the hood of his coat over his head. “Show me the map.”

Luke led him to the rear of his SUV. The back door was open and sheltered them from the rain. Spread out in the back was a detailed map of the prison and the surrounding neighborhoods.

“Where was the abandoned car found?” Sean asked.

“Here.” Luke pointed at a side road that ran perpendicular to the main road from the prison, Route 216, the same road that served as the entrance to the airport.

“And where were the cars first spotted?”

“Here, at the airport. It’s probably where they staged everything. I’ve got everyone searching five miles around the abandoned car, but so far, nothing.”

Sean squinted at the map and shook his head. “They won’t be down here,” he said, pointing to areas south and west of the airport. “The second car was abandoned north of this road…216. They were heading north when their car was abandoned, right?”

“Right,” Luke confirmed.

“Then they probably kept going in that direction to put distance between themselves and the prison. They’ll be up here somewhere.” Sean traced a circle with his finger around a large area north of the prison containing many residential neighborhoods. “Move everyone searching south of Route 216 up to these neighborhoods. And tell everyone that the person who finds them will get an entire night with Lily.”

***

Alone in the living room, Morgan kept the fire going. There was no point trying to sleep. Not even the soft sounds of Katie’s rhythmic breathing in the crib beside her could quiet her mind. It was after midnight, and the other girls were all asleep. The house was drafty, and the wind outside seeped through the cracks in the doors and windows. Upstairs, Maria shared a bed with her sister to keep warm while Susan huddled under a pile of blankets in a spare bedroom.

Morgan placed another log on the fire. As it began to burn, there was a knock on the front door. She peered through the peephole, but could barely make out the shadowy figure standing in the darkness. She reached for the flashlight on the small entry table and unlocked and opened the door without removing the chain lock. “Danny?”

“Yeah, hi…Sarah, right?”

She nearly forgot her own fake name. “Uh, right.” She noticed that he was soaking wet and immediately took pity on him. “Come in.” She ushered him inside. “Sit by the fireplace.”

“Thanks,” he uttered through chattering teeth. “Sorry to come by so late, but I need to talk to Ben and Jim.”

“Oh, they’re not here.” She shut the door and locked it again. “How did you know where to find us?”

“Ben gave me the address on his last visit to the city a few weeks ago. He wanted me to update Jim’s and his ID to indicate that they were members of the Infantry.”

He stripped off his dripping raincoat and took a seat on the floor by the fire, and rubbed his arms to get warm.

“You’ll never get warm if you stay in those wet clothes,” said Morgan.

“My shirt is dry. Just my jeans and shoes are wet. I rode my bike from the city.”

She looked at Danny as though he were insane. “What’s so important that you had to come fifty miles in the rain?”

Danny looked up at her gravely. “It’s Sean. He found out that Ben’s been back to the city.”

Her eyes grew wide. “What…how…?”

“I knew something was up when he found out your friends were at
Papillon
on the same night back in August, but I didn’t know exactly what. When he came around a second time to scan a set of fingerprints that turned out to be Ben’s, I didn’t have time to stop him from figuring out that Ben had returned.”

“But how he get a copy of Ben’s fingerprints?”

“No idea. But he was
furious
when he found out Ben had sneaked back into the city.”

She didn’t know exactly how much Jim and Ben trusted Danny, but the fact that they had reveal to him their location seemed like it was time to tell the truth. She took a seat beside him. “Danny, I’ll be honest with you. My name isn’t Sarah. It’s Morgan. Ben and Jim didn’t want Sean or anyone else knowing our real names.”

The deception didn’t seem to bother him at all. If anything, he seemed to approve of it. “I figured as much.”

“Well, I’m sorry you came all this way, but after tonight, it won’t matter anymore what Sean knows.”

“Well, whatever Sean and Luke were worried about, it seemed pretty serious.”

It was the first time Danny had said anything about Luke, and at the mention of his name, Morgan froze. “Luke?”

“Yeah. He was there when Sean started asking about your friends. Isabel and Katrina.”

“It’s Maria and Andy, actually...” she murmured. She shut her eyes tightly and rubbed her temples. “Bloody hell. This is bad.”

“What’s wrong?” Danny asked, confused.

Morgan started to explain when another knock on the front door echoed through the house, this time louder and more urgent. When she opened the door with the chain lock still attached, she saw Jim and Charlie standing in the rain on the other side.

“Thank God!” she cried out as she released the chain and opened the door. She hugged Jim tightly before he entered.

Charlie walked into the living room where he spotted Danny. “Who are you?” The two had never met before.

“I’m Danny,” he replied, standing up.

“Oh, the hacker?”

Danny held out his hand to Charlie, who shook it. “That’s me.”

“What took you so long? Where are Andy and Ben?” Morgan asked Jim.

“What, they’re not here?” he responded with concern, causing Morgan’s face to fall.

“They didn’t come back with you?”

“We got separated leaving the airport,” said Charlie.

“I’m sure they’re fine. They’re probably either looking for us or are on their way back,” Jim replied with genuine assurance.

“I’m sure,” Morgan repeated softly. She leaned into Jim’s chest. “Did you destroy it?”

“Yes. It’s gone.”

***

Andy awoke sometime in the middle of the night. Her eyes opened as slowly as they had closed, and she became acutely aware of her body and its position against Ben’s. In their mutual sleep, her cheek had landed firmly against the center of his chest and her torso, wrapped snuggly under the thin blanket, was cradled within his. With her body temperature restored, the necessity of remaining pressed together had disappeared, but she made no effort to release herself from the grasp of the strong arms still draped around her.

The fire had dwindled, but the area of the room near the fireplace was still warm. As she moved to relieve the crick in her neck, Ben stirred in his sleep but did not wake. She checked the time on his watch lying among their pile of clothes. They had been asleep for five hours, which gave her confidence that they were safe from discovery. After placing a few more pieces of wood on the fire, she returned to her position beside him. The rise and fall of his chest was hypnotic and prevented her from looking at anything but him.

From the day they first met, Andy could never deny her attraction to Ben. His dark blue eyes like the sea before a storm, his jaw set with determination. But over the many months, she had grown accustomed to his appearance and had simply put that particular aspect of him in a figurative box and shoved it aside. After all, his looks had nothing to do with their relationship. They were close friends, confidants in many respects, and always would be.

And yet, as she stared down at him, at long last she allowed herself to admit that she wanted him as something more. She had denied her desires by hiding them deep within a secret compartment in her mind and heart. But this effort had worn her out. He was absolutely everything she could ever want in a man, but what was she to him? She was a tomboy, wild and rough around the edges and not remotely sexy. Perhaps pretty, but she knew her place in the world of superficial appearance. Morgan was a graceful and elegant beauty. Susan, now nearly sixteen, grew more beautiful every day, her smile and demeanor ever intoxicating to Charlie. Maria, meanwhile, was exotic…sultry.

But Andy? Strong. Intelligent. Daring. Yes, all of those applied. They were qualities she was proud to possess. Stunning? Sexy? Gorgeous? No, these weren’t words she’d ever use to describe herself.

Still, it wasn’t entirely implausible that what Morgan said was true and that Ben could actually love her. Who else would have traveled alone hundreds of miles in the cold winter and hot desert to find her, and then enter a stadium filled with half-crazed, bloodthirsty spectators and dozens of armed men with only a single rifle for protection? Only someone who was more terrified of her death than his own.

As though under a spell, her hand slowly reached out toward his abdomen, his perfect set of muscles never failing to distract her. And now her hand was seemingly acting on its own as her fingertips delicately brushed his skin. They outlined each muscle and ran up and down the length of his stomach, slowly and lightly like feathers. Then, her hand became her own again, and she jerked it back, suddenly aware of what she was doing.