Sunset Rising (26 page)

“I’m not looking for anything
, Sunny. I just think we could both use the human contact tonight. And besides, we both know you’re going to be all over me again as soon as you fall asleep.” He laughed softly.

I couldn
’t help but laugh, too. He was probably right. And after the day I’d had, it did feel good to be pressed against the length of him and feel his arms holding me.

“There weren’t as many peo
ple there tonight,” I said.

“Some left when they saw you weren’t there. I almost cancelled the whole thing to go look for you myself.
But I knew if I did that I would never get the few back that were interested in being there. You don’t know how worried I was.” His arm tightened around me, hugging me closer.

“Did you think Holt caught me?”

“That was one scenario I imagined. I also thought maybe you suffered heat stroke and died. Or your supervisor was beating you to within an inch of your life. I can honestly say it never crossed my mind you killed her and dumped her body.” He started shaking with laughter

“It’s not funny
.” I playfully hit him in the chest. He caught my hand in his and held it.

“I don’t know how this rebellion of yours is going to work if we don’t get more people involved,” Jack said
, his voice serious.

“It doesn’t matter anymore
. Our time here is running out. I guess it was a stupid idea.”

“It’s not a stupid idea.
We’ll find a way to make it work.”

As he talked, the rhythmic sound of his deep voice hypnotised me.
I let go of all my fears and allowed myself to feel secure in his arms. Sleep took me almost instantly.

I bolted awake, my heart pounding, an image of Madi sti
ll burned into my mind. I’d dreamed that she wasn’t dead when I dumped her and that she was climbing back up the mineshaft looking for me. Now that I was awake, the dream seemed ridiculous. She was very dead when I sent her down there.

I was all over Jack again, just as he had predicted.
My legs were entwined with his and my arm was sprawled across his chest. He was snoring softly, so I gently eased myself away from him and got out of bed. My stomach was protesting the fact that I’d missed dinner last night. I padded into the kitchen and drank a glass of water to fill the emptiness.

I was wide
awake now and knew there was little chance of getting back to sleep. The back of my neck was tight with stress, and my head ached. I decided to exercise. It always eased my stress whenever I worked out with Jack.

“Sunny?”
Jack called from the bedroom.

“You’ll be happy to know I’m working out. You’ve taught me well
, Jack,” I said between deep breaths.

He stumbled
his way into the living room, stubbing his toe on one of the chairs. When he was done cursing, he joined me on the floor. “You couldn’t sleep?”

“Bad dreams.”

“You shouldn’t let it bother you. I bet a lot of people in the laundry room will be happy today when she doesn’t show up.”

“It doesn’t bother me that Madi is dead.
It bothers me that I killed her.”

“And yet you want to start a rebellion.
People always get killed when there’s a struggle for power. No one’s going to miss a supervisor like Madi. They won’t blame you for killing her. They’ll respect you.”

“People aren’t going to know I killed her
.”

“I thought there were other people
in the room when it happened?”

“Di and Crystal were, but they won
’t say anything.”

“Maybe not to a guard, but they’
ll talk.”

The
bong bongs
rang out, and the lights clicked on. Jack had taken off his t-shirt, and there was a film of sweat on his muscular torso. I averted my eyes since I found the sight a little too appealing. I got up and filled the sink with cold water.

“I’ll give you some privacy if you wan
t to get washed. But don’t drain the water,” Jack said as he left the room.

I bathed as quickly as I c
ould, fearing he would come in while I was naked, but he remained a gentleman. Then we exchanged rooms, and I found more clean clothes in the bag Bron had brought us. I put the hated vest on and went back out when Jack was done.

The line
for breakfast was already getting long by the time we got to the common room. People greeted us cheerfully when we joined the queue. It shocked me that Jack and I had become so well known in such a short span of time. Just the day before I had been a stressed-out ball of nerves waiting for Domers to come and take us away at gunpoint and hand us over to President Holt. Today I was being addressed as ma’am by the guards and had complete strangers wanting to shake my hand. It all felt so foreign, but it did help me to feel more confident that no one would turn us in.

Jack and
I collected our rations and found a seat alone together. Despite my nervousness at the thought of returning to the scene of the crime, I was starving.

“You want mine
, too?” Jack asked when he saw me gulping down my breakfast.

“No
, thank you.” I was embarrassed at eating so fast. I was getting far too comfortable around him.

I looked around the room and saw Crystal get up and head for the door.
She was leaving for work already. She walked with her head down, hiding her face behind the curtain of her long hair.

“Are you going to be okay this morn
ing?”

“I have to be.
”

We pushed our chairs back and left the room, heading for our respective jobs.
I tried to squelch the nervousness in my stomach, but it wouldn’t go away. Jack reached for my hand and held it as we walked along the hall to the stairs. I was grateful for his support. He kissed the top of my head before he left, as had become his habit. I watched him walk down the stairs until I couldn’t see him anymore, as had become mine. I climbed the few levels to the laundry room.

Crystal was already there, standing in front of the doors looking a little lost.
The bruising on her face was worse today. One of her eyes was almost swollen shut. She had a hand protectively wrapped around her side where Madi had kicked her.

“I’m not sure what to do,” Crystal whispered when I walked up to her.

“Just stay here as if we’re waiting for her. That’s what we do every morning.”

“Okay
. By the way, I saw your friend last night.”

“Summer?”

Crystal nodded.

“You didn’t tell her what I did, did you?”
I didn’t want Summer to know. I was worried about what she would think of me.

“No.
I’m not going to tell anybody what
we
did. I just told her what you wanted me to tell her. She says she misses you, too. She also said that the president is getting really upset because you and Jack haven’t been found yet. He had a complete door-to-door search done in the Dome and didn’t find any sign of you. He’s finally beginning to think that maybe you’re hiding down here.”

“I’m surprised he hasn’t looked h
ere yet. I mean, what is it that makes him think we wouldn’t come here?”

“Because he still thinks of Jack as one of them.
As much as the Holts hate the Kenners, their family still belongs to their elite group. None of them would ever be caught dead in the Pit, so they assume neither would Jack.”

“They must know I would come home
, though.” Could Holt really be that blinded by his own prejudices?

“Don’t forget, Leisel told her father that Jack married you for love
, and he believes that every good wife follows her husband. It’s never occurred to him that Jack would follow you. But he’s come up empty looking for you two in the Dome.”

“How much time do you think we have left?”
I knew I should be grateful for the amount of time we’d already had, but it still made me anxious to know that my death was getting closer.

“I don’t kno
w. Last night I overheard the president tell Mr. Forbes to put together a search team for the Pit. You might have a day or two at the most. Sunny, can I ask you a personal question?”

I nodded.

“How did you and Jack end up married?”

“Leisel tricked us into it so she could discredit Jack. But don’t tell. Everyone thinks our marriage is a big love story.”

“You mean it isn’t a love story?” Crystal
looked confused. “I see the way Jack looks at you. He never looked at Leisel like that.”

Her confession surprised me.
I didn’t really think Jack was attracted to me. “No, we’re not together like that.” I shook my head. “Like every bourge I’ve ever met, he likes the finer things in life, and I’m… well, I’m just me. An urchin.”

“
I think you’re wrong—on both counts.”

The conversation
made me uncomfortable. “So things went okay at the party last night?”

“Mr. West was really angry
when I showed up with a black eye. He likes me to look pretty when I sing at public events. He demanded to know who gave it to me, so I told him truthfully. He talked about sending his own guards down here to have a word with Madi. I’m sorry. I should’ve lied. I didn’t expect him to take any action.”

I put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“You had to tell the truth. If you lied, then you would be implicating someone who didn’t deserve punishment.” She nodded. “Just remember, if they do show up, act like you know nothing. We came to work this morning and Madi didn’t.”

“Oh good!
” Di said, startling us. “It’s just the two of you here. I had an epiphany last night.” She marched right past us and into the laundry room.

Crystal and I looked at each
other in confusion before we scrambled to follow her.

“Anyone here?” Di called out to the empty room.
No one answered. “You know, I think I would’ve messed my pants if someone answered back.” She laughed nervously. “I was thinking last night if we keep this place running ourselves, it might be quite a while before they notice Madi is missing.”

I gave it some thought.
We didn’t have many options. “It might work.”

Madi’s scanner was still sitting on the desk, so we scanned in.
As we did, a few more workers came into the room and lined up behind us. No one seemed to notice Madi wasn’t at her desk. Crystal went to the sink, and I claimed a cart of dirty laundry and started my day. Di did the same. A few minutes later, Kai came in. I could tell by the look on his face that he wondered where Madi was. I held my breath for a moment waiting for him to ask, but he didn’t question it. He scanned in and went to see Di.

“There are some carts over there for you to take up,” Di
said. “Drop those off and pick up the dirty ones for us to work on today.”

Kai did as
she told him. We worked for a few hours before a pair of Domers came strolling into the room. I assumed they were the ones being sent by West on Crystal’s behalf.

“We’re looking for Supervisor Madi,” one of them called out to the room at large.
No one said anything.

“I expect to be answered.”
Both guards raised their firearms.

“We haven’t seen our s
upervisor all morning,” Di said.

“Who let yo
u in this morning?”

“The place was already open when I got here.
Guess she had somewhere else to be.”

“Any chance you know where
that might be?” the other Domer asked.

“No
, sir,” Di said.

“Does anyone here know?” he called out to the room again.

I watched the confused
expressions on everyone’s faces and mimicked them. The guards went back to Madi’s desk, rummaged through her things, and checked her calendar. One of them picked up her communicator and gave the other guard a puzzled look. Guards and supervisors were supposed to have their communicators with them at all times. I had forgotten about that. The guard holding the device typed a message into it. They were probably letting Madi know she was wanted for questioning. I was relieved when they left.

I had some hand washing to give to Crystal and made my way over to the sink.

“Do you think those were West’s guards?” I asked.

“Probably
. I don’t know for sure.”

I still felt sorry for Crystal.
As bad as my situation was, at least I had some freedom. But she was a slave every single minute of her life. During the day, she worked here under the supervision of a malicious woman, and at night she belonged to a man old enough to be her grandfather. I knew that if I had not met Leisel on that fateful night, I might have ended up just like Crystal and Summer. I think I preferred my death sentence.

“How long
have you… belonged to West?”

“Two years.”

I remembered she
’d told me she was fourteen years old. “You were only twelve when you were sent upstairs?” Even I could hear the revulsion in my voice, and I felt bad for making my feelings so clear.

“I know.” S
he hung her head in embarrassment.

“I didn’t mean it the way it sounded, Crystal.
I know it’s not your fault. Was Madi the one who sent you up there the first time?”

Crystal nodded.

“Then I’m glad I killed her.
The Pit is a better place without her in it.” For a moment my guilt at having killed Madi morphed into a sense of justice, and I relished the feeling.

“The Pit is a better place with you in it
, Sunny. I’m going to do
everything
I can to help you and Jack.” Tears rolled down Crystal’s cheeks. “Someone needs to save us and you’re the first person who’s ever stepped up.”

“Crystal
, you said something last night —” I started to say, but she cut me off.

“People need to know what I know!
And you need to get them ready.”

“Crystal, you’re scaring me. Just
tell
me what you know.” I tried not to sound frustrated, but I was. She kept hinting at something, and I wanted to know what it was.

Just then the
bong bongs
announced the beginning of the lunch break. Workers came in with the food and water cart and set up in their usual spot near Madi’s desk. Everyone stopped working and lined up to get their rations.