The Bleeding Crowd (32 page)

Dahlia continued to look at him.

“They gave him the chance to get you out of
here,” Jude said.

“They aren’t going to...” She shook her head.
“He wouldn’t fall for that.”

“He loves you,” Jude said. “He feels guilty
about getting you here.”

“He didn’t...” She waved away the unpleasant
thought before continuing, “If there’s anything he cares about more
than me, more than anything else, it’s this cause. He wouldn’t
throw everything away for the fool’s chance that—”

“You know he would,” Jude insisted.

“He couldn’t have.” She looked at the
door.

“He finally admitted to himself that he’s
fallen for you. When he commits to something, he really commits.
He’d do anything for the cause. Now he’ll do anything—”

“If that’s what happened, he’s an idiot,”
Dahlia said.

Jude just looked at her.

She shook her head, moving to the window. “We
need to find a way out of here.”

“What?” Jude frowned.

“If he was that much of an idiot...if he told
them what they wanted to know, anything they want to know, they
don’t need us anymore. Trying to get something out of us is the
only reason they haven’t killed us yet as far as I can figure.
There has to be a way out of here.”

“What about Ben?”

Dahlia shook her head, pulling at the window.
“It’s sealed.”

Jude paused but released a breath. “There’s
an air vent.”

Dahlia looked at it. “Too small. We wouldn’t
fit.”

“You might,” he said.

“I doubt it.” She looked around. “Anyway, I’m
not leaving you behind. Ben might have been enough of an idiot to
sell you downriver, but we’ve made it this far, I’m not leaving
without you now.”

“I don’t think he was thinking about me at
all.”

“That’s why I said idiot and not jerk.”
Dahlia looked around. “There has to be...”

“I don’t think there is,” Jude said.

She looked around, then sat heavily on the
bed. “Damn it!” She picked up the glass on the nightstand and threw
it at the wall. It shattered loudly covering the floor nearby with
shards.

“Jesus Christ, Lia,” Jude moved towards the
wall, picking up the bigger pieces of the glass. “Be upset, don’t
make it so we can’t walk—”

She held her hand up. “Did you hear
that?”

“The shattering? Yeah I managed to.”

She waved him away moving through the
shattered glass to the wall. She knocked lightly before turning
back around. “Come here.”

He frowned, but kicked some of the glass out
of the way and stood next to her.

She grabbed his arms and kissed him, holding
him so he couldn’t fully recoil.

“Wha...?” He shifted, uncomfortable.

“Play along.” She pulled him back to her
fully, kissing him before moving to his neck and ear. “They know
what we’re doing here, I just don’t know if they can see us. Either
way they’ll be suspicious if we’re just whispering.”

He paused, but kissed her pressing her up
against the wall. “If Ben can see us?”

“Maybe it’ll give him a reason to recant.”
She slid her hands under the back of his shirt, speaking against
his lips. “The wall’s hollow.”

“What?” he whispered.

“There’s nothing behind that wall. Go ahead
and hit it.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.” She sighed, continuing to
move her hands over him. “Put a hand out to the side like you’re
bracing yourself or something. Do I have to think of
everything?”

“You’re better at it than me,
apparently.”

“Just do it if you don’t believe me,” she
said.

“I’ll take your word for it.” He released a
breath.

“Jude, give me something to work with here. I
know you’re a better kisser than this.”

“I happen to have some other things on my
mind at the moment,” he shot back in a whisper.

“Pull my hips to you or something.”

“What?” He pulled back a bit.

“Are you going to going to question
everything I say?”

He slid a hand low around her back and pulled
her towards him.

She returned to kissing his neck near his
ear. “It’s a door.”

“Huh?” he panted slightly.

“It’s a door, probably into the tunnels.”

“So we need a guard to let us out?”

Dahlia smiled.

He felt it, turning his head to try to see
her. “What’s made you so happy?”

She kissed him. “Heather gave me her
key.”

“What?”

“She’s brilliant. She put her key around my
neck while I was sick.”

“She knew you’d need it?”

“She knew she’d be with Des and that she
wouldn’t need it,” she said. “Pull my shirt off.”

Jude hesitated briefly, but didn’t question
her this time, just caught the hem and pulled the shirt off over
her head.

“Do you know how to work the clasp of the
necklace?” she asked against his mouth.

“Vaguely.”

“Try then,” she said. “Kiss my neck and try
to get the chain undone.

Jude followed her directions as she attempted
to keep up pretenses.

He groaned slightly. “You’re going to have to
stop that?”

“Stop what?” She frowned.

“Rubbing against me like that.” Jude
continued to try to get the clasp undone. “It’s hard enough to try
to concentrate without you doing that.”

She smiled to herself. “Sorry.”

There was a long pause. Dahlia tried to move
less, waiting for some sort of answer. “Is everything all
right?”

“Got it.” He straightened again.

Dahlia placed her hand at her neck, pulling
him back to her mouth to use his body to block her from the rest of
the room. She slid the key down doing her best to find the seam in
the wall and then the keyhole with her hand. She found it and tried
to get the key to fit without looking at it. After a tense moment,
it slid in with a quiet metallic noise as the pins fell into
place.

“It’s in,” she said.

Jude tensed, but nodded.

“On the count of three I’m going to pull it
open, and we make a run for it.”

“Run?” Jude frowned.

“And pray to whatever powers that be they
don’t notice that we’re gone long enough for us to get away,”
Dahlia said. “You have a better idea?”

He shook his head, pushing her hips back a
little. He released a breath. “Ready when you are.”

As quietly as possible Dahlia turned the lock
and got a solid hold on the door. She released a breath. “All
right. One, two...”

She never said the final number, just swung
the door open, pulling Jude by the shoulder after her. She
faltered, barely managing to stop before the steep stairs
began.

“All right?” Jude caught her waist.

“Yeah.” She nodded, looking down the dark
staircase. She wavered slightly at the sense of vertigo that came
over her.

“Let me go first.”

Dahlia didn’t so much as attempt an argument,
taking his hand and letting him lead.

“How are we going to get Ben?” Jude moved as
fast as he could with her behind him.

She didn’t answer.

He glanced back before looking toward the
stairs. “Formulating a plan?”

She pressed her lips together tightly and
shook her head. “We can’t.”

“What?” Jude slowed.

“We don’t know where he is.” She pressed him
gently to get him to move. “We don’t know where he is or with whom.
We don’t even know if he’s alive. We can’t take the time to wander
around the building looking for him.”

“So, we’re just leaving him here.”

“We get out,” she said weakly. “We regroup.
We see what we can find out there, and then we see what we can do
for Ben. It won’t do anyone any good if we get caught again.”

“He wouldn’t leave us.”

“He sold you out,” Dahlia said.

“He wouldn’t leave you.”

She let out a shaky breath. “His refusal to
leave me is what led to this. I don’t want to leave him, I don’t
want to have to be this cold, but if Ben’s going to give up
everything because of some mushy love sickness, one of us has to
think clearly. One of us needs to make sure that we don’t all get
killed.”

“You love him.”

“Yeah,” her voice broke, pushing him to force
him to go faster.

“Then how can you—?”

“Because I have to,” she cut him off. “I have
years of experience fighting off emotional urges. It isn’t what my
gut is telling me to do, but it’s what my head is, and I’ve always
gone with my head. I would tell Ben to do the same thing if he were
in my position.”

“He wouldn’t.”

“Well, he’s not thinking clearly,” she
said.

Jude hit the next platform and stopped short,
causing Dahlia to run into his back.

The group of four guards didn’t move.

Dahlia peeked around his shoulder. Jude
forced her back, keeping her out of sight.

“We aren’t going to shoot,” the tall
dark-haired girl at the front said. “You don’t have to shield
her.”

Jude didn’t move.

The woman sighed. “Come on, we need to keep
going.”

“Are you...?” Jude hesitated.

“Hurry up.” The guard motioned.

The six made it down the last two flights of
stairs and with the guard’s help slipped outside without raising
the alarm. The guards circled Dahlia and Jude shepherding them
through the streets out of town in silence. They ducked out of
sight into the trees, only stopping at what the guards seemed to
think was a safe distance from the last road in town.

They released a collective breath, finally
looking at each other.

“I’m Lucy.” The dark-haired girl offered her
hand to Dahlia, breaking the long, tense stare-off that had
started.

She took it without pretense. “Dahlia, and
that’s Jude.”

“You’re on our side?” Jude asked, not willing
to wait until the end of the introductions.

“It would seem so, wouldn’t it?” Lucy gave
him a tight smile.

“And you’re...?” Dahlia looked at the other
women.

“Joanna, Maureen, and Tracy.” Lucy pointed at
the two brunettes and one blonde in turn.

“Nice to meet you.” Dahlia lifted her hand in
a half wave.

The first brunette, Joanna, looked Dahlia
over with a smirk. “Nice show in there. Threw us off for a
while.”

Dahlia crossed her arms across her chest
self-consciously. “I seem to be good at the on-the-fly plans.”

“Escaping in a bra, though,” Lucy said.
“Shows an entirely different level of commitment.”

“What can I say,” she said with heavy
sarcasm. “After twenty years of it, I’ve become a little fond of
living. You’re willing to do a lot you wouldn’t do normally when
your life’s on the line.”

Lucy nodded.

Silence took hold.

“You aren’t wearing grey,” Dahlia said.

“We aren’t lesbians,” the other brunette,
Maureen, said.

“No?” She frowned, recoiling at the look she
received.

“We’re just strong, straight women.” Lucy
looked more good-humored than the others. “Our aptitude tests said
we’d do best in physical careers and that ended up with us being
trained as a military force for a hypocritical government.”

“You’re combat trained? All of you?” Jude
looked between the four women.

Lucy unwrapped something at her hip pulling
out a revolver. “They want people who can protect them.”

“But, now you’re trained and you don’t want
to protect them,” Dahlia said.

“It’s a time bomb waiting to go off, I’ll
admit,” Lucy said.

“I don’t have a reason to fight for a lie,”
Joanna said.

Dahlia nodded. “Do you have a reason to fight
against one?”

“Lesser of two evils I believe is our thought
pattern,” Lucy said. “You can use us. We know that building inside
and out.”

“We’re better trained than any of you, I’m
sure,” Maureen said.

“We have some good fighters,” Dahlia said.
“Not me by any means, but some—”

“Can you get Ben out?” Jude prompted.

“Who?” Lucy frowned.

“Our friend,” Jude said. “The other guy who
was in the room with us.”

“Oh, the turncoat,” the blonde, Tracy,
finally spoke. “Yeah, Lisa’s got him locked away somewhere. Last I
heard she had him moved to her room. You know, maybe a little
‘interrogating’ of her own.”

“What do you mean?” Dahlia frowned.

“I think she’s implying that she wants to
sleep with him,” Jude said.

“She would force him to have sex with her?”
Dahlia’s eyebrows furrowed deeply enough for a crease to form
between her brows.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Joanna said. “I
don’t really blame her, I mean he’s attractive. I’d have sex with
him.”

Dahlia released a tense breath. “She shot
him.”

“She’s not above mixing business and
pleasure,” Tracy said.

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Lucy looked at
Dahlia with sympathy. “From what I heard out of your room, he’s
completely into you. I don’t think she could make him forget about
you. Anyway, the longer she’s interested in him, the longer he’s
probably going to live.” Dahlia’s skin prickled.

“Understand how I ended up being pushed off a
crate yet?” Jude almost whispered.

“Shut up.” Dahlia shot him a look.

Something glinted somewhere off in the
woods.

“What was that?” Tracy turned, staring off
into the distance.

“Someone friendly, hopefully,” Dahlia said.
“Put your guns on the ground.”

“What?” Maureen frowned.

“If they are our friends, they aren’t going
to come out here just to have you shoot at them.”

The guards paused, Lucy finally lifted her
revolver in her hand to show anyone out in the woods what it was
and then set it on the ground. The others followed suit.

Slowly shapes could be made out, Heather came
into view, something large strapped across her back.

“Heather!” Dahlia smiled, hugging her before
even thinking about it.

“I thought I heard you.” Heather smiled,
hugging her briefly before pushing her back. “Hey, Jude.”