My face scrunched in confusion. “At the club?”
“No.” He shook his head. “At school.”
I laughed, surprised that I was able. “You didn’t even know I was alive until today.”
“We already covered this. I did notice you.”
That’s right. He had. Slowly I lost my grin. “Why did you ignore me, then?”
“My first day at school, I was shown around the building. Do you remember?”
“That doesn’t answer—”
“Hear me out.”
“Fine. Yes. I remember.” I’d been at my locker, talking with Shanel, and he’d passed me. First I’d caught a glimpse of pale hair and then my gaze had dropped to his jean-clad butt. As if he’d sensed my scrutiny, he’d turned and our eyes had locked. I’d felt the air seep right out of my lungs.
“You were with your friend and you were laughing about something,” he said. “A laugh that was uninhibited and completely free. Made me turn around. And when I saw you, your cheeks were rosy, like now, and your hair had come undone from its pins, framing your pretty face.”
Pretty? Me?
He smiled wryly. “I wanted to be the one to make you laugh like that, to put that color in your cheeks. But I had a mission and I couldn’t lose sight of that. You would have been a distraction I couldn’t afford so I pretended you didn’t exist.”
“I—” Didn’t know what to say. I tore my gaze from his, staring down at his chest. Where his shirt gaped, I could see the black cat tattoo. He’d noticed me that day. He’d really noticed me. Not just the necklace, but me.
All this time, I’d thought I was invisible to him.
“I don’t want to die,” I whispered. I needed to experience more of his kisses.
“I know. I don’t want you to die, either.”
“What are we going to do?”
A long sigh slipped from him, fanning my nose. He leaned toward me and placed a soft, lingering kiss on my left cheek, then a soft lingering kiss on my right. “We’re going to escape,” he whispered. “We’re going to escape.”
9
There were no windows, no doors that I could see. Not even a visible seam in the wall, where the agents had come and gone so freely. Yet I knew the door was there. I just didn’t know how we were going to get it open.
Erik must have read the confusion on my face because he smiled and whispered, “Trust me.”
I did, I realized. I’d come to trust him. Everything he’d said about A.I.R. had been true. “I do.” He’d worked here. He knew the ins and outs, knew the players we were up against. Escape, though, wouldn’t prove easy. We were under intense scrutiny, our every move monitored.
“Thank you.” He kissed me again, a swift meshing of our lips that rocked me to the core. When he pulled back, he was grinning and I was breathless.
I watched as he straightened and paced in front of me, left, right, left, right. The cell was small with nothing that could be used as a weapon. The only piece of furniture was the chair I sat upon and it was made of steel and anchored to the floor.
We needed a miracle.
I recalled how Shanel had once wanted to be an alien—no, not once, I realized. Earlier today. Wow. Seemed like a full year had passed since we’d driven to the Ship and my entire life had changed. She’d wanted superpowers, mind-control powers, something, anything.
For once, I wished to be an Outer, too. Who cared if you were taunted? Who cared if you were considered ugly? As long as you could protect yourself, as well as those around you, nothing else mattered.
“You able to walk?” Erik asked me. He scratched his ear and flattened one hand against the wall.
“I—think so.” I hurt everywhere now and weakness beat through me with heavy fists. But I’d force myself to walk to the end of the Earth if needed. Erik trusted me to do my part, and it was time I proved I was strong.
“Good.” He paced to the other side of the cell, scratched his other ear, and once again flattened his palms against the wall. “What about running? Think you can run?”
If he’d given me time to respond, I would have asked why he was speaking so loudly since A.I.R. was listening. But he didn’t. He dove on top of me, knocking me out of the chair and onto the cold, hard ground. I lost my breath, struggling to suck in air as his weight pinned me.
Boom!
A loud, screaming explosion rocked the cramped space. Metal chips and chunks of debris rained all around us. Even on top of us. A large piece slammed into Erik’s back and he hissed through his teeth.
Seconds later, an alarm screeched to life.
The air grew thick and black with plumes of smoke. I coughed.
“Stay low to the ground,” Erik said. He rolled off me, grabbed the wrist of my injured arm, and jerked me into a crouch.
I winced, instinctively trying to pull away.
He eyed me in confusion, realized what he’d done, and gave me a quick smile. “Sorry.” He wrapped his fingers around my other arm and tugged me forward. “This way. We don’t have much time.”
Somehow he’d managed to blow up an entire wall, presenting us with a wide opening. We crawled over metal and rock and into an empty, smoking hallway. Again, I coughed.
Erik stood and helped me do the same. I swayed and he wrapped an arm around my waist. The floor was cold on my bare feet.
“There should be agents out here,” he muttered.
We trudged forward and rounded a corner. “Where’d you get the explosives?” I asked as we moved. Bits of debris dug into my heels, but I didn’t let it slow me down.
“The man I work for demands that all of his employees wear flesh-colored explosive tape behind their ears. It’s virtually undetectable. Until it’s too late,” he added with a grin.
My mouth fell open in horror. “What if you’d blown yourself up?” If I had the tape, I would have been terrified of such an occurrence. And I might not have approached him or even gotten within a hundred yards of him if I’d known he wore it. I certainly would not have kissed him!
“Couldn’t have blown myself up. The tape is made of a chemical that doesn’t become active until it comes into contract with a certain metal—the very metal A.I.R. is comprised of.”
Okay, wow. Ingenious.
“What I want to know is where all the agents are,” he said.
Yeah. Me, too. He was right. It was weird that they weren’t here. Phoenix, Mia, and Cara hadn’t seemed like the type to let us waltz out of here without a battle royale. “Do they want us to escape?”