Page 53 of Chaos

“What?” I ask him again and again, but he does nothing but gargle. “Did you say Lavinia Hope?”

The thought of that woman, the one who’s been blocking off roads, taking kids, gathering guns, and sitting in the White House since the world ended, knowing my name has my chest compressing and my skin tightening.

But not enough to let him live for further questioning. We have Ben, for now, and Ephie.

I set the pillow back in place, and shove harder than I need to, hard enough to make his little feet kick on the mattress like a beetle trying to turn over.

Fine, as yet unbroken, bones in his face snap with an audible pop.

She was right in the bathhouse that this love isn’t healthy.

I shot my brother for her. I burned a town and beat three men half to death. My soul without Frankie’s is no precious thing.

I can’t ever let it happen again, a scenario where she chooses to deprioritize her physical safety for me.

Her life is a requisite for mine.

“I hope there is a hell, the opposite of the Flower-verse. I hope it’s ugly there, and dark and painful, and I hope you suffer,” I say, and it comes out rough and as ugly as him. “And Ben will be right beside you as soon as I can get to him.”

His feet kick harder, a bovine sound lowing from under the pillow.

And finally … nothing.

I release the pillow and shove it carefully under his head, and take a quick look around with my flashlight, searching for any clear sign of foul play, anything out of place.

I turn off my flashlight, silently exit the room, and pull the door shut behind me, stand in the hall and stare down at my hands.

Dead steady.

Not shaking at all.

No guilt.

Just the lingering wonder of what he meant by Lavinia Hope is looking for me. Why would she want me? How would he know?

Now, I just need to figure out how to get to Ben in his guarded cell in the basement under the clocktower.

I’M ABOUT TEN STEPSfrom the hall leading to the infirmary, when a voice stops me.

“Yorke?”

I freeze.

That’s Jacquetta’s voice.

Not as inconspicuous in my patrol gear as I’d hoped.

“Yeah?”

“What are you doing up?” she asks, stopping a few feet from me, fully dressed in military camouflage. Rey, also fully dressed like she’s ready for action, is beside her, and Rey’s sergeant, Kelly, as well.

I hesitate.

They’ll have seen me cut this way from the direction of the infirmary. I tuck my hands into the pockets of my pants and my fingers touch the necklace I still haven’t given back to Frankie, and the bullet. “Couldn’t sleep. Came to visit Wendell.”

“Good timing.” She jerks her chin toward the main exit. “We could use another warm body. Come on.”

I don’t argue or question it.

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