“Take that with you,” I said to Jack, pointing to his breakfast. No one in the Pit would ever leave food behind. His full container would sit on the table like a beacon.
I stood beside Reyes as we shuffled out the door with the rest of the crowd. His hand searched for mine, and I willingly accepted it. I felt guilty for getting mad at him earlier and gave him an apologetic look, to which he responded with a sad one. We both knew we could never go back to the way we were. Our future together had disappeared the minute I agreed to be Leisel’s victim.
“I was hoping to see Summer, too,” I said. “I wonder why she wasn’t at breakfast.”
Reyes drew his brows together, and his expression became closed off. “She’s been eating breakfast somewhere else the past few days.”
“What does that mean?” I asked even though I was pretty sure I knew what it meant; Summer hadn’t been sent home early from that bachelor party. Someone upstairs had claimed her for himself.
“You know exactly what it means,” Reyes said accusingly. “I’ve only talked to her once since the night you two left for the party, and that’s when she told me about you two meeting Leisel Holt. I’ve seen her a few times since, but she doesn’t look at me. She doesn’t look at anyone. She just keeps her eyes on the floor.”
I knew why Summer kept her head down; she was ashamed. I never understood why girls who were taken as mistresses by the bourge felt ashamed and embarrassed. It wasn’t their fault. And the thought of my best friend—the happiest person I’ve ever known—being used by one of those pompous old men at the party sickened me with disgust.
When we came to the stairs, Reyes dropped my hand to encircle my waist with his arms. I knew he didn’t want to let me go, and maybe if I weren’t so consumed right now with hatred for the bourge, I would feel the same way.
“Stay safe,” he whispered and then kissed me. Reyes dropped his arms from my waist and turned to Jack. “You touch her, and I’ll kill you.”
Jack stared back at him, seemingly unfazed by the threat. I really didn’t want Reyes to create another scene, so I ignored him and joined the flow of traffic on the stairs. Jack followed me. There were armed guards positioned along the staircase who made it their job to keep everyone moving as quickly as possible. It didn’t take very long for us to get back to the apartment that was an exact replica of where I grew up, and yet was so unfamiliar.
“I have to take this off,” I said as soon as we entered the apartment. Thoughts of Summer and my dad were weighing me down enough without the bulletproof vest adding to it.
Jack lifted up one of my arms to examine the bruises Reyes gave me. “Your boyfriend’s a really nice guy.”
I jerked my arm out of his hand. “It’s none of your business.”
“You’re right. And that’s the only reason he has any teeth left.”
I ignored him and went into the bedroom, shutting the door behind me in an attempt to get a few moments alone. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to cry or be sick. Summer was always the brightest light in this dark Pit, and it tore me apart inside to think of her being abused. I was worried about my dad, too. There was no way for me to find out if he was safe or not.
I just wanted to kill someone—anyone—to make the madness stop.
I stripped down to the vest, undid the straps, flipped it over my head, and let it fall to the floor with a thud. The weight off my shoulders and chest was a relief. I put Jack’s t-shirt back on, and it hung from my skinny frame.
A loud banging on the door invaded the small apartment. I knew it would be a guard to perform the routine check-in. Reluctantly, I left the sanctity of the room and went out to answer it. I was surprised to find Jack stripped down to his waist doing sit-ups on the floor.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m a little stressed out,” he said between deep breaths, “and exercise always relaxes me.”
He jumped up off the floor and came to the door with me. I opened it. The guard held out the scanner, eyeing the two of us with a smirk on his face. My shirt was askew, and Jack was half naked and breathing hard. Not hard to tell what the guard thought we had been doing. We both scanned in, and the guard continued to the next house.
“Want to try?” Jack asked, sitting back down on the floor.
“Why not?” It might help me work off the anger I was feeling about Summer’s predicament.
I lay down beside Jack on the floor and fell into sync with him. I had never done sit-ups before, but it seemed easy. I still wasn’t sure how it would ease my stress, though.
Jack rolled over onto his stomach. “Try this.” Balancing with one leg tucked over the other, he began to push himself up and down using his arms. “Push-ups.”
I rolled over and did the same. Up, down. Up, down. This felt like a better exercise than the sit-ups. At least I could feel some of the tension in my neck and shoulders turn into fatigue. Jack counted under his breath. We were at thirty.
My breathing was heavier, too. I was starting to sweat. “How many of these are we doing?”
“Fifty. I don’t want to push you too hard on the first time.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
After another moment he said “fifty” and stopped. I had only counted thirty-six but stopped, too.
“You’re right, it did help to relax me.” I rolled my shoulders, enjoying the feel of my weakened muscles, but I still had murderous energy flowing through me. “What’s next?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t have any equipment down here. Usually I lift weights, run the track, swim, that kind of thing.”
“I know! Teach me to fight—like you fought the guards at your apartment.”
“That’s actually a good idea. You need to learn self-defense with that boyfriend of yours.”
“I don’t think that’s funny.”
“It wasn’t meant to be,” he said, and pushed a small table out of our way. “We’ll start with T’ai Chi, an exercise that teaches martial arts through repetition. Just do what I do.”
He stood up straight and slowly brought his hands up to chest height, crossed them, then stretched out his right hand as he extended his right leg. He curled his right leg, bringing his knee waist high, and then set it down. Then he repeated everything with his left side. Each action was very controlled and flowed into the next. He was going slowly so it was easy for me to follow.
“Seems more like a dance,” I said. “I was hoping for something faster paced and a little more violent.”
No sooner had I spoken than Jack sped up his movements. His leg came up and his foot snapped at my chest, stopping just inches from making contact. Less than a second later, the back of his hand stopped just half an inch from my nose.
He smiled. “Like that?”
“Like that.”
“You need to learn the exercises before you can control them. Try again?”
I nodded.
We went back into the first stance he’d shown me, and he repeated all the actions. Our hands were always moving, stretching one way, and then recoiling and stretching another. Our legs were constantly in motion. We squatted one minute then moved one leg up and balanced on the other leg.
“So how long have you and Reyes been together?”
“Why do you want to know that?” My relationship with Reyes was none of his business.
“Just trying to make conversation.” He shrugged. “Okay, I’m wondering what he whispered to you that made you so upset.”
“He told me that Summer is being used by those ugly old men I saw at your bachelor party.”
“Oh.” He stopped and looked at me. “I’m really sorry, Sunny.”
“Are you?” My anger came bubbling up to the surface again. I decided that killing someone actually would be a good release of all these emotions I had pent up. “How about we try out these moves you’ve been teaching me?”
I tried to strike out at him as fast as he had struck out at me earlier, but he easily blocked my punch. I raised my leg to kick him, but he stepped out of the way. I momentarily lost my balance, but recovered quickly and threw the heel of my left hand toward his face. Knowing he would block that strike, I had my right hand ready to catch him off guard. But he just grabbed both my wrists and somehow spun me around, pinning my arms to my sides.