The Girl Who Dared to Stand (The Girl Who Dared #2)(8)

Tian bit back a cry, and Maddox seemed to realize what she was saying. She wrapped her arm around the small girl and pulled her close. I watched the two rock back and forth, and knew Maddox hadn’t meant it that way. She was angry, and hurting, and needed our sympathy and empathy more than anything.

“Liana’s right,” Quess said tiredly. “We have to get that paint up as soon as possible.” “Oh, Liana’s right?” Maddox said, stopping whatever she was saying to Tian to look up at Quess, her eyes flat and hard. “Liana’s the reason we’re down here! She’s the reason my mother isn’t here. Why Roark isn’t here. Why are you even listening to her, Quess?”

Quess raised his hand, his eyes and face placating. “Doxy… Liana didn’t mean it. She didn’t even know that Devon had tricks like that. We can’t hold her responsible!”

“We can!” she snarled, rising to her feet. “We should throw her skinny butt out of here—her and her friends. We’re better off without them.”

Guilt ate at me the more Maddox spoke. She was right. They were better off without me.

“I’ll go,” I said abruptly, looking up. “Maddox is right—I screwed all of this up for you. If I leave now, I can draw some of the Knights away. Give you time to make this place secure. Just… let everyone else stay here, okay?”

“That’s preposterous!” Quess said, his eyes growing large. “Maddox doesn’t speak for me!”

The statuesque woman shot him an angry look, and he gave her a little shrug. “I’m sorry, but you don’t. Liana did a good thing for her friends, and it turned out badly. And I’m sorry, Maddox, but you were ready to forgive her right then and there because, and I quote, you ‘finally had a girl like you to hang out with!’ The only thing that’s changed between then and now is Devon, and what Devon did to your mother. That is not Liana’s fault. She even stayed behind to help.”

Surprise fluttered through me, and I looked at Maddox. I had always thought she hated me—she’d never once given any indication to the contrary. She was hostile, aggressive, and terrifying, but…

“Yeah, well, maybe if I had stayed behind, my mother would still be alive!” the young woman shouted bitterly, and then her face cracked and she began sobbing, raw, ragged sobs that brought her to her knees, as if her heart were being ripped from her chest. I realized then that Maddox wasn’t really angry with me (although she had every right to be), but with herself—for choosing to run, instead of staying behind.

We all stood around, watching her cry, uncertain of what to do.





3





Zoe moved to her and knelt to wrap her arms around the statuesque girl, resting her head on Maddox’s shoulder and soothing her. I was immediately grateful that Zoe was there; she always seemed to know the right thing to do in uncomfortable and emotional situations.

Quess followed Zoe’s move a heartbeat later, kneeling on the other side of Maddox’s sobbing form. He looked up at me, one hand stroking her hair.

“The paint is behind that panel,” he said softly, nodding at a section of wall tucked into a corner. Grey turned and moved over to it, slipping his fingers into the grated walling and pulling. It came out easily, revealing a stack of crates and boxes, with several sealed paint cans lining the floor in front of them.

Grey immediately started to pull them out, and Eric moved in next to him so that they formed a little chain as they pulled the supplies out. “We need to start painting immediately,” Grey announced, just loud enough to be heard over Maddox’s cries.

They were dwindling now, and it seemed that whatever Zoe was whispering to her was helping. I wanted to help too, especially considering I knew that her father had killed her mother, but I couldn’t—not with danger still lurking.

“Why?” Eric asked, and I answered.

“It won’t be long before they start pinging our”—I pointed at Eric, Zoe, Grey, and myself—“nets to try to get a read on where we are. We need to make sure they can’t find us.”

“We don’t know that he knows about Eric or myself,” Zoe said softly, and I looked over at her, surprised to see she was paying attention while calming Maddox down.

“Devon had to have seen you both,” I pointed out. “I… I’m sorry, Zo. But, whether it was before, at the Medica, or even at the Sanctum, there was no way he missed you. Even then, when you show up missing, he’ll put it together. He’s going to start pinging your nets as well as mine and Grey’s.”

“Yes, but it will take some time for them to get the order to all the department heads to comply,” Grey pointed out.

I realized he was right. The scanners in the common area and within the Core were controlled by IT, but the scanners within the other departments ran on their own independent systems, to prevent giving any one department too much power within the Tower itself. While all the scanners were set to sweep for any ones that showed up, it took time and communication to ping individual nets. We had some time—but not a lot.

“Yes, but you can bet he’ll start with the greeneries, specifically this one, seeing as this is where he last saw us. We need to start painting.”

“Agreed,” Grey said, handing the last of the paint buckets to Eric. “Quess, what’s the rest of this stuff?”