The Divide (The Divide Series Book 1) (13 page)

He kept his eyes on me, his hands still fisted at his sides. A tick started up in his jaw as we stood staring at each other not saying anything. Finally, he turned and went back into the other room, and I took a deep breath before I followed him out.

Gregory leaned over the side of the bed, I couldn't see because of his large frame, before he stood back up—clothes in his hands—and walked back into the bathroom; slamming the door behind him. I walked over to the bed and set the duffel bag down; I zipped everything up and grabbed the other duffel bag and backpack. I pulled open my purse and dumped out the contents: two books, a knife, and one wallet fell out. I opened up my wallet and peeked through; the money I had brought back from the school was in it, along with my ID, and more money was added to it. Skimming through the bills, I was amazed at the amount of money sitting in my wallet—I had enough money to live comfortably for at least six months. How did she get this much money? I closed that wallet and set it back in the purse, along with the books and knife. The bathroom door opened up, and I turned around. Gregory’s hair was wet, and he was pulling down the rest of his shirt, covering his magnificent washboard abs. Which was a shame. I looked up at his face; he still seemed angry, but I didn’t care because he could get over it.

“So, what’s the plan?”

He looked like he wanted to say something but just shook his head. He walked by me and to the pile of crap on the floor and started going through it. He was silent for so long that I started to get nervous. Biting my lip, I watched as he went through papers and berated myself for assuming he would help me. “I…ah.”
Smooth, Mia, real smooth
.

From his crouch on the floor, he looked up at me. “The inn burned down. I think we should go back there and see if anyone is around. If Alithea is looking for you, I bet she'd go back and wait.”

I felt hopeful at the “we” part. “So you’re going to help me?” I hated how my voice came out wobbly.

He went back to the pile of crap. “I think the first thing we should do is eat,” Gregory said, ignoring my question. He stood up and slipped something into his pocket.

“Wouldn’t it be better to find Alithea first?” I asked.

“No.” He held up his hand to stop me from talking. “We need food for energy. I don’t have any here. This morning might be the only chance for you to eat.” I noticed the lack of 'we' that time. 

“I’m fine. I’ve gone without food before for days. I think I can handle going without food for now.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You have money to spend on all types of food, but you don’t eat? What the hell?”

Well, when you’re not allowed to eat, it doesn’t matter the amount of money you have. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine. I don’t need food,” I said. I threw a smile on, trying to reassure him, which instantly failed.

“Well, I’m hungry, so let’s go.” He grabbed both duffel bags and slung them on one arm. I slipped the backpack onto my shoulders and slid my purse across my chest. Gregory walked to the door, opened it, and walked through. I followed quickly, not wanting to get lost in the building.

As we made it out of the building, the sun was beating down. It must have snowed last night because fresh snow covered the ground. Gregory led the way down the road, and I tried keeping as close to him as I could. We rounded a couple more decaying buildings until we walked up to a small rundown shop. It looked much like the bar from the other night, but instead of smelling like alcohol and trash, it smelled like eggs and bacon. He took us to a small table in the very back so that no one would see us. Pulling out a chair for me, I sat down and he walked over to the opposite side and sat down, where he was able to face the entrance. 

Gregory picked up his menu as I looked around the small shop; the walls were made of brick, and many of them were falling apart. The floor was wood, and the tables were made of blue plastic. People were coming in and out, talking in whispers. I was surprised to see the establishment open after what happened yesterday.

“Here.” Gregory was holding out a menu for me. 

“I’m fine,” I said, not taking the menu. I knew I had a lot of money to use on food, but I didn’t know how long I would be on the road, and the money could be used elsewhere. “Why is this place running? I figured with what happened yesterday people would have scattered."

“I think they stopped firing on citizens when they realized many of them would join in. So it's back to business they go. And just take the damn thing,” he said, shoving the menu in my face.

I just shook my head. “Nope. You can eat, and I’ll just wait.”

He shrugged and dropped the menu, but I could tell he was pissed. My stomach betrayed me by growling at the smell of food. Gregory rolled his eyes but thankfully didn’t say anything. I was hungry, but I could go without for now.

“What can I get you two?” a redheaded waitress asked, with a notepad and pencil ready to jot down our orders.

“I want two hot chocolates, two orders of French toast, two orders of eggs, and two orders of white toast.” Gregory handed over the menu. My mouth dropped open. How could he eat that much?

“Nothing for me,” I said.

The waitress took both menus and walked away. Looking at him closely, I watched as he crossed his arms and kept his attention on what I assumed was the door. He was on edge. Hell, I was on edge. I bit my lip as I stared at his face; it was a nice face to look at. I was still looking at him when his eyes caught mine. He raised an eyebrow. I tried to raise mine back but failed epically.

“How old are you?” He looked to be somewhere in his twenties, but I couldn’t be too sure.

“Twenty-three.” He kept looking back and forth between my face and whatever was behind me. “What about you?”

“Seventeen,” I said. His eyes bulged, and he rubbed his face. I hastily added, “I’ll be eighteen in three months.” He scratched his head and had an uncomfortable look on his face.

“What are you thinking?” I asked. 

“Nothing. You just don’t look seventeen.” He kept his eyes focused behind me.

I groaned. “Please don’t tell me I look younger.”

He cleared his throat. “No, you definitely don’t look younger. So that’s why you were at the bar the other night. You weren’t old enough to go to the one on your side, so you thought it would be fun to sneak over here.”

“Well, it wasn’t my idea. Trust me, I wouldn’t have gone if I’d known what was going to happen.” I moved my hand up and down the table.

“Learned your lesson, didn’t you?”

I rolled my eyes at him as the waitress showed up. She started putting the plates on Gregory’s side when he stopped her.

Gregory pointed over to me. “One of each goes to her.”

“Gregory, I told y—” I started, but he put his hand up to stop me from talking. I glared at him.

After the waitress put the last plate down, Gregory started eating. I just stared at my plate. The food smelled delicious. My stomach growled painfully. “If you’re not going to eat it, you’re just wasting it,” he said.

“I told you I was fine. I’m not hungry.” I glared at him. I didn’t know why I was being stubborn. I was starving now that food was in front of me.

“Your stomach says otherwise,” he said. “Just eat the food.”

I glared at him once more and then started to eat. The French toast was delicious. The eggs were mouthwatering, but the bacon was the best; the meat sent bursts of flavor into my mouth. Once I’d cleaned the plates, I looked up to see Gregory staring at me. “What?”

“I told you, you were hungry,” he said. A smirk started to take over his mouth.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I would have been fine if I hadn’t eaten it.”

“Watching you eat is fascinating.”

“What? Why?” I asked, confusion taking over.

“Well, the one time we had lunch you ate the pizza like it was a gift from God. You did the same with the breakfast.”

“I like food,” I said defensively.

He threw his hands in front of him. “I wasn’t saying it to upset you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

“What?” Confusion now crept into his face.

“Nothing,” I said. I sat a napkin down on the table.

Gregory narrowed his eyes and searched my face. Just as he was about to say something, the waitress came by and gave Gregory a piece of paper and collected the empty plates. Gregory took a black wallet out of his pants and took out some money. I reached for my purse, but Gregory shook his head. He handed the money and paper to the waitress and stood up, and I hastily followed him toward the exit of the shop.

“I heard they’re looking for some girl, can’t seem to find her,” I heard as I passed a table of two men eating. My feet stopped involuntarily and my ears perked up to catch more of the conversation. Both men had their heads bent down while they ate and whispered, oblivious to where I was standing. I wondered if they would notice if my head joined theirs.

“What girl?” the other whispered back.

“I dunno, some rich girl, but there is a price on her head, so whoever finds her gets a reward.”

“What kind of reward?”

“A thousand dollars,” the other said excitedly.

“How are we supposed to know who we’re looking for?”

“They’re supposed to be handing out pictures in an hour. I want to find her. D'you know how much I could get with a thousand dollars?”

I hurried away from their table, my mind reeling. People were now going to start actively looking for me unless there was another girl out there these people were looking for, which I doubted. As I hurried forward to catch up to Gregory, I grabbed his hand to stop him. Turning around he took one look at my face and pulled me into the closest abandoned alley; which wasn't very far since many of the alley's were abandoned.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. He looked me over, checking to see if I was hurt.

“My face is going to be on papers!” I rushed out. I tried to keep the panic from crawling up my throat, but I could feel the claws digging in.

“What are you talking about?” His brows pinched together.

“We have to find Alithea.” I tried to sort through my head for what I had to do. “Find a way to get out of here before it’s too late.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” Confusion and concern masked his face.

“Otherwise they’ll find me and do God knows what.”

Gregory cupped my face with his hands, bringing my attention to him. “What in the hell are you talking about?”

“I just overheard two men talking about the rebels. They’re looking for me. There is a reward on my head—a thousand-dollar reward mind you—and in about an hour they will have pictures of me and will be handing them out to everyone.”

“Shit,” he said, letting go of my face. He started to pace back and forth while rubbing the back of his neck. “We need to get to the inn now.” 

Well, duh,
I thought, but I knew better than to say it out loud.

He grabbed my hand, and we walked as fast as we could to get to the inn. It only took us about twenty minutes, but it felt like hours. I tried to keep my head down, but what I really wanted to do was look around and see if people already got the pictures. I took out my ponytail and let my hair fall in my face to help cover it. We stopped across the street from the inn and I bounced on the balls of my feet as I looked around.

“What does she look like?” he asked.

We were looking at was left of the building. “I don’t know. Agathy told me to find Alithea.”

“How are you supposed to find her if you don’t know what she looks like?”

I never thought of that.
Shit
. “I don’t know. She knew I was coming, so I thought maybe she would look out for me.”

“Well, we can’t stand around here all day. People will start looking for you,” he said.

“Maybe we could ask someone?” It came out as more of a question than a statement.

“It could be risky,” he said. Gregory was still holding my hand as he moved us closer to the building.

“What other choice do we have?”

“I don’t like it. If Alithea were here, she would be hanging around or something. We have maybe a half hour before your picture is given to everyone. Let’s just walk around the building for a few minutes. I say if we don’t find her in fifteen minutes, we leave. Deal?”

I nibbled on my bottom lip. I knew it was important to find Alithea but was it important enough? We could get caught, and I would be screwed. And Gregory would be too, most likely. But what could we do if no one came up to us? We couldn’t exactly hide away at his place and hope it would never get searched. I looked up at him to see his eyebrows pinched together. “Deal.”

We walked in front of the building, peering in to see if anyone would be cleaning up or looking for stuff. We walked all the way around the building: twice. People were loitering around, but no one came up to us to talk. Gregory kept a hold of my hand the whole time, either to make sure I kept up with him or to make sure he wouldn't lose me I didn't know which.

As we turned to head back to the safety of his building, something caught my eye. A person was peering around the opposite wall of the inn and as my eyes hit theirs, they waved me over. I pulled on Gregory’s hand to stop him.

“There’s someone back there.” I pointed to the alley where the person had just been standing, but the spot was now empty.

“How do you know?”

“I just saw them. They waved me over. It could have been Alithea,” I said. I could hear the hope in my voice.

“Or they started handing out the pictures and someone wants to turn you in.”

I stared up at him. I hadn’t thought of that, but something in my gut told me that wasn’t true. “I don’t think so. We should check it out.”

He looked down at me, probably contemplating whether or not to go. He closed his eyes for a brief second and then opened them. “Fine, but if I tell you to run, you run back to my place.”

“Okay!” I said. I wouldn’t tell him I had no idea how to get back to his place on my own. We slowly made our way over to the alley, and as we rounded the corner, a figure was standing all in black, their hood up, looking at us.

“Alithea?” I asked. It was worth a shot to ask.