Mason could only stare.
“I know it’s only been a few months since Justin was killed,” Shanna said, “but . . . Rich is very good to her.”
Rich? Mason glanced at Shanna, eyebrows raised.
“It’s only that Justin . . .” Shanna frowned. “He never . . .” She twisted her lips. “Sometimes arranged marriages are difficult, Mason. I’m glad you didn’t have to marry Mia, though I’m sorry over what’s become of her. But perhaps you both have a chance at happiness now.”
Happiness? Mason didn’t want to be negative, but he doubted such a thing was possible anymore. He’d been liberated, for crying out loud. Though as he looked back to his mother and Lonn and saw the man hold one side of his mother’s face in his hand, smiling as he spoke to her, their foreheads touching, her lips curved in a smile, Mason did wonder. He couldn’t recall ever seeing his parents kiss, though they must have since they produced three sons.
Much had changed about romance in Mason’s mind, though he still had much to figure out. But if his mother could choose love with a Safe Lands national, why couldn’t he?
For one simple reason. Because he was here, in the Lowlands, and Ciddah was not.
CHAPTER
8
There’s wisdom in your words, Shaylinn,” Aunt Chipeta said. “But I still don’t feel comfortable letting our children go to their school. Not if the teachers belittle them.”
“I agree,” Levi said. “Can you ladies create your own curriculum?”
“We’ll manage,” Eliza said. “But we should heed Shaylinn’s advice and find other ways to befriend the Kindred.”
“Think on it, all of you. And I will as well.” But at the moment Levi couldn’t really be bothered with whether or not the Kindred liked him. He had more important things to worry about. They’d combined their elder council meeting with the rebel meeting because the only time the women could all get away was at night, and that was also when Zane and Ruston were free. “So now that moves us to the subject of the Jack’s Peak women in the harem.”
“We need someone who’s been there,” Zane said. “I mean, even if I could turn off the cameras, I don’t know my way around there. None of us do. How will you know where to go?”
“I know where to go,” Jemma said. “I could come with you and — ”
“No.” As if Levi would put his wife in danger.
“Don’t just say no without thinking it through,” Ruston said. “I realize the idea of sending any of the women back there is not a pleasant one, but she could be a great help.”
“No,” Levi said. “That is not an option. Can we find a way to communicate with them?”
“There’s no way to communicate with them,” Zane said. “Not secretly. Everything is monitored.”
“Who else can go, Levi?” Jemma said. “Hazel needs Chipeta. Aunt Mary’s knees are too bad. Eliza’s children need their mother. Naomi has the baby and is still recovering from childbirth. And Shay . . . she can’t go back there, Levi. I’m the only option. Unless you’re willing to use Ciddah.”
Levi gritted his teeth. “We can’t trust Ciddah.”
“I think we can,” Naomi said. “She’s been such a help with the babies. And she’s so sweet.”
“She lied to Mason, and very convincingly, if I understand things correctly,” Levi said. “She’s good at what she does. She stays here.”
“Then let me help,” Jemma said.
Levi glared at his wife. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“I want to get my wife out now,” Beshup said. “It might already be too late for her.”
“I agree,” Mukwiv said. “My wife is not as young as the others. If something goes wrong, she could be liberated.”
“And now that they took the lenses from Mason and Omar,” Jemma said, “we still don’t know what that means.”
Levi shook his head at his wife. “Jemma can draw a map. Then we’ll know where to go and she can stay here.”
“Levi, I can’t draw.”
“It doesn’t have to be like Omar’s art. Just a simple map with arrows and stuff.”
“I promise you, I can’t,” Jemma said.
“Between the six of you, I’m sure you can,” Levi said.
Jemma glared at him, and he knew she wanted to go. Why she wanted to go, however, he couldn’t guess.
“Let’s try a map first,” Levi said. “Please.”
And so the women set to work drawing a map, and when it was complete and they all somewhat agreed on how it looked, they handed it over to Levi. The only problem was that no one knew which rooms the women might be living in. According to Jemma, there were two floors with suites.
“It’s silly, Levi,” Jemma said to him that night. “Just let me come with you. We’ll be twice as fast with me as a guide.”
“You’re not coming with us.”
“Why? Why do you get to decide?”
“Because I’m the village elder and I’m your husband.”
“And that makes you my boss?”
“Yes! I mean, no. I just . . . don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“You’re a liar. You think you can control me. Keep me here. You think I should obey your every word.”
“I don’t think that.”
“So you are going to become just like your father, is that it? Are you going to hit me too?”
Levi could only stare at her. He was so angry he wanted to shake her. Did that prove her point? So he left the room, then the house.
He stormed through the corridors, so desperately angry. And hurt. He knew people had talked about his father’s temper. But he really thought no one knew that Elder Justin had ever struck his wife. And he hadn’t . . . often.
Maybe his mother had told someone.
But that didn’t mean Levi would harm Jemma. Ever! Why had she said that? Did she think he would? Was she afraid of him? Had he given her reason to fear him? He hadn’t. Had he? Surely he hadn’t.
He couldn’t fathom why she’d said such a thing.
Hours later, when he was certain he’d walked every inch of the underground corridors, he ended up at Ruston’s house. The man invited him in, gave him a piece of some kind of cake his wife had made. Levi ate it in silence.
“I like to go on walks when Tova and I have a fight.”
“What makes you think Jemma and I fought?”
Ruston chuckled. “Didn’t you?”
“She said so many mean things.”
“Women do that. Some men do too, I suppose, but men are usually quiet in a fight. The women do most of the talking.”
“Yelling, you mean. She cut me with words. I swear I must be bleeding.” Levi looked at his arms, turned his hands over.
“I doubt she meant any of it. Women, they get emotional. Half of the fight takes place in their imaginations.”
“Yes. She yelled at me for things I hadn’t done.”
“But what is she really angry about? That’s all you need to focus on.”
“She’s mad I won’t let her help with the harem rescue.”
Ruston smiled at him kindly. “And why won’t you?” At Levi’s glare, he added, “Humor me.”
“Because she could get hurt or arrested. I could lose her. I lost her once. It was agony.”
“What do you love about her?”
Levi frowned. “What’s that have to do with —
” “Humor me again, please.”
Levi sighed and rubbed his temple. “Fine. Jemma, she’s kind. And smart. And when I look at her, it’s always a shock that she loves me. Such an amazing, beautiful creature . . . and she’s mine.”
“And you’re hers.”
“Yeah, so?”
“You’re a team. That means give and take. Why should you get to be the only brave one?”
“I told you, it’s not safe.”
“Nor is it safe for you.”
Levi had no reply to that.
“You’re going to have to let go of control, Lev
i,” Ruston said. “That can be a difficult thing. And I’m not necessarily saying that Jemma should come with us. But if you want to have peace in your house, if you want to keep that woman in love with you, you’re going to have to trust her. Otherwise, her love will slowly turn into resentment.”
So Levi went home. The lights in the house were all out. He walked carefully so he didn’t wake Trevon and Grayn, who had taken to sleeping on the couches to be apart from the little boys in the boys’ bedroom.
The lights in his bedroom were off as well. He changed in the dark and climbed into bed, trying not to wake his wife.
“Where have you been?”
So much for not waking Jemma. “Walking. Went to Ruston’s house.”
“Why?”
“Don’t know. He says I need to let go of control.”
A pause. “Interesting.”
“You think I’m controlling?”
“I think you worry too much.”
Levi stared into the darkness above. “The village elder has a lot of responsibilities.”
“Yes, I know. And you handle them well. But fretting isn’t going to change anything. It’s only making you cranky and impossible to be around. Trust God to take care of us. He will, you know.”
But Levi didn’t know about that. Sometimes people died, like his father and uncles and Papa Eli. Like Susan and little Sophie. “Why do you want to come on the harem rescue?”
“Because I can help. My presence can shave ten minutes off your time. I promise you.”
“That’s it? You just want to help us be fast?”
There was silence again for a long moment, and Levi wondered if his wife had fallen asleep. But then she spoke. “I’m trapped here, Levi.” And there were tears in her voice, like she was struggling to say these words. “I want to help. And this is a place where I can help. I’m the best one for the job. Me. Only me.”
“It means a lot to you? To come?”
“Yes.”
Levi felt like the next words might kill him, but he said them anyway. “Then come.
“I don’t like it,” Levi said. He and Jemma were in the nest with Zane, sitting in chairs beside him, looking at his GlassTop computer screen, where Zane had somehow pulled up a real floor plan of the inside of the harem.
“It’s the best we can do,” Zane said. “I can’t find a camera for that back stairwell. So that’s how you go in. Jemma leads the way. Once you’re inside, you might have to stun the matron and an enforcer or two, so be ready. Then you come out the way you went in. It’s pretty easy, really. What don’t you like about it?”
What Levi didn’t like was having Jemma involved, but it was too late to change that. “Why wouldn’t they have put a camera there after two escapes that way?”
“I don’t think they know,” Zane said. “The first time, the girls didn’t get caught until they were in the gardens. The second time, they never got caught.”
“Still, after losing the entire harem, you don’t think they’d investigate, see how the women had escaped?”
“The power was out. It was chaos. By the time they thought to look, the women were gone without a trace. They likely assumed the women had gone out the front doors.”
“It’ll be fine, Levi,” Jemma said. “I’ll be beside you the whole way.”
Which made him useless. How could he be alert and watching for enforcers when he’d have his eyes on his wife? “How many men do we have?”
“All five from Jack’s Peak, plus you and Jordan, and Farran and Nash.”
“And we’re looking to free how many women? Ten?”
“Eleven,” Beshup said.
So that was fairly even. Still, that Jemma was leading the way, that his wife would be in danger . . . He couldn’t imagine any of these other men allowing their wives to come along.
The whole scenario was completely unfair. Levi had raged about it for the past week, but God had offered no alternative. His instincts told him that he’d rather have Jemma home and resentful he was keeping her away than with him and happy that she’d tried to help. But he had made his choice, and he couldn’t go back on it now.
That night in the library, after Zane and Levi gave instructions to the group, Levi gave one more. “If anyone is captured” — he looked at his wife — “do whatever you can to stay out of prison. Pretend to switch sides, offer false information about the rebels, make the best of living your life as a good Safe Lands national, whatever it takes. We’ll come for you when things calm down.”
“What false information can we give?” Beshup asked. “Anything we say will be tested.”
“Theater nine still hasn’t been discovered,” Zane said. “I could take some supplies over there and set up a fake rebel headquarters. I could even set up a spot that looks like where we film the Owl. And Omar had a mask that didn’t turn out well. I can leave it there as a clue.”
“Good,” Levi said. “Do that. But if you’re caught, don’t give up the theater right away.” Again he looked to Jemma. “Hold out for a day or two, like it’s important information. Delay long enough for Zane to get the theater set up. Don’t let them torture you, though. Just let them ask a few times first. Understand?”
Jemma smiled and nodded along with the others. She wouldn’t get caught, though. Because Zane had reassured him that this would be easy.
Ten rebels entered the Safe Lands through a storm drain in Champion Park. They walked in pairs out to Gothic Road, spaced out a few yards from each other. Levi walked hand in hand with Jemma, following Nash and Farran. Behind him were the men from Jack’s Peak: Beshup, Mukwiv, Tupi and the teenaged boys Nodin and Yivan.
They followed Gothic Road into the downtown Highlands. Zane and his father were watching through the street cameras, though Levi couldn’t speak to Zane since he’d never gotten a SimSpeak implant. Zane had offered to take Levi to get one, but Levi didn’t want any Safe Lands technology in his body. But that put him at Nash’s mercy.
Levi’s senses screamed at him to turn back. He felt like he was walking into a den of mountain lions with no weapon. They were carrying stunners, but for some reason he still felt on edge.
It was Jemma’s presence that had him mad wild, he knew. What kind of man would risk his wife in such a way? He should have insisted she stay behind, no matter what. He hoped she knew how much this was killing him.
As per the plans, Dayle should have parked a Department of Public Tasks truck beside the Green Cactus Grill. Farran and Jordan split off to walk that way — they would drive around to the back of the harem. The other men continued to walk.
Nash stayed at Levi’s side, repeating to Levi everything Zane said. Beshup walked on Nash’s other side. Levi knew his friend from Jack’s Peak wanted to be in charge of this operation as much as Levi did. Working with so many leaders was more difficult than Levi would have ever imagined.
When Zane agreed the roads were clear, Jemma led them to the loading dock and into a warehouse of sorts. They moved quickly, through the warehouse and to the stairwell, then up they went — all but Jordan and Farran, who were hopefully parking the truck to wait for their exit. Levi wanted to tell Jemma that he could find the way from here, make her go back and wait with Jordan, but he knew where that would get him.
They climbed to the fifth floor and Jemma stopped at a door. Locked, of course. While Nash and Zane talked about reprogramming Nash’s SimTag to get the door open, Levi grabbed hold of his wife, slid his arms around her waist and pulled her close.
“I’ll be fine,” she said.
But Levi didn’t want to hear her reassurance again. He just wanted to hold her. He buried his nose into her neck and hair and prayed that God would keep her safe.
Papa Eli would have said that God would do what he would do and no amount of begging would change that. But Levi also knew that God heard his prayers, so he begged anyway, pleading that God would grant this request, then put an end to all their misery and let them escape this place so they could be free to liv
e their lives the way they wanted to.
The door clicked open. “We’re in,” Nash said. “Jemma?”
Levi fought back a sigh and released his wife, took hold of her hand.
She pulled him through the door and into a dead-end hallway. She motioned to another locked door on the right.
“This door leads into the back of the kitchen.”
Another chance for Levi to hold his wife while Nash and Zane worked on the lock. He reached for her, but whatever magic Zane had worked on the last lock was still in Nash’s SimTag. He set his fist against the SimPad and the door clicked open.
And into a kitchen they went.
The room was dark, lit only by the glowing green exit sign over the door they’d entered through as well as a white light over the stove. Jemma pulled Levi across a tile floor to a set of two-way swinging doors. She pushed them open enough to peek through, then she and Levi slipped inside the harem.
It too was dark, though street and city lights from outside cast their glow through a wall of windows on the left that stretched three stories high. Even in the dim light, Levi could see the extravagance. The place looked like a palace. Thick white carpeting, draping crystal chandeliers, gold sconces, elaborate paintings, fancy furniture.
Jemma pulled him toward a staircase that ran along the wall opposite the kitchen doors. Nash remained in the large living room to act as a scout. The rest followed Jemma. Up they went, the stairs creaking underfoot. Jemma had said the matron lived in the suite under the stairs, on the fifth level, so he hoped the creaking stairs wouldn’t wake her.
Since they didn’t know who was where, the plan called for Jemma to go to the top of the stairs, hoping to avoid Mia’s room the longest since Mia had been on the sixth level before.
The seventh floor was a long hallway with two doors on each side. The doors had nameplates: Black Sapphire, Citrus Blossom, Fire Opal, and Imperial Topaz. Jemma knocked softly on the door that said Fire Opal.
“Beshup,” she whispered, “you knock on one of these other doors, but be ready with your stunner just in case it’s someone you don’t recognize.”
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