We Set the Dark on Fire (We Set the Dark on Fire, #1)(16)
Every second was a year. Mama and Se?ora Garcia’s papers came back in minutes, but all new residents were being double-checked. The air was growing thinner in the car. It had to be. Dani took slow, even breaths to keep anyone from noticing the lungfuls of remaining oxygen she wanted to gulp in. Our restraint is our strength, she told herself again and again.
Carmen’s papers came back next. She didn’t even look up as she took them.
The officer outside the car wrinkled his brow at Dani’s ID. “It’ll just be one more minute.” Another officer joined the first, and together they held Dani’s hummingbird heart in their hands. If the papers didn’t work . . .
But there was no time for thoughts like that. Steel heart. Stone face. Dani shook herself mentally. She wasn’t a little girl hiding in her mother’s skirts when the scary men passed through the village. Not anymore.
In this moment, she was a girl who deserved deference, not the type of scowl usually reserved for dogs. How dare he.
Her voice was as steady as her hands when she rolled her window down and said in her most imperious voice: “Is there some kind of problem?”
The first officer’s eyes went wide. “I’m sorry, se?orita—” he began, but Dani interrupted.
“It’s se?ora,” she said. “Se?ora Garcia. And my husband is waiting very far up that hill for my safe arrival. We wouldn’t want to make him impatient.”
For anyone else, clenched fingers would have given it away. Trembling knees. Fear set deep in the eyes. But Dani was immune to it all. She was slick and smooth and impenetrable.
She was a Primera.
“Of course, se?ora, my sincere apologies, only we have a new verification system in place and . . .”
The glare Dani leveled him with cut him off midsentence. The irritation on her face was a tool, and it worked.
“But you all must be very busy?” the officer said, asking her for permission.
“We are,” said Dani with a withering smile. “And if you consider my husband’s position with the military, and the rigorous vetting process we’ve already been through, I’m sure you’ll understand that this silly song and dance you’re doing is really quite redundant.”
The officer’s face actually went red at this. “Of course, se?ora,” he said, passing her papers back inside.
“We certainly appreciate you keeping us all safe,” Dani said. “You can’t be too careful these days.”
“Yes, well,” said the officer, waving at the car before turning toward the next. “Have a good day, ladies. And we’re so sorry again for the inconvenience.”
“About time!” said Mama Garcia. “Somebody had to put them in their place!” Dani settled back into her seat, resisting the urge to smirk.
Mama Garcia continued to fan herself with her oversized hat until the window was up and the car had been restored to its precise sixty-eight-degree temperature, but Se?ora Garcia gave Dani a small, approving nod.
The gate in front of them groaned loudly as two more officers pulled it open before them, the white stone drive almost blinding beneath the late-morning sun. The thrill of accomplishment made Dani feel giddy as the gate closed again behind them. Outside, there were still people under suspicion, but in here, she was safe.
Bold, she chanced a look at Carmen, expecting a look of irritation for the way Dani had impressed Mateo’s madres. If this drive had been a competition, she’d just made herself the clear victor, and Carmen had never liked to be bested. Especially not by Dani.
She wasn’t disappointed; Carmen was looking at her. But her expression was far from envious. There was something sharp and appraising in it that Dani had never seen before.
In the face of that look, Dani realized: she enjoyed the power of being a Primera. The way it changed the posture of the people around her. The way it could make even an enemy admire her.
Outside the car, the complex proper was in full midmorning swing. House staff walked along the wide, tree-lined streets with harried expressions, while in the manicured grassy areas young Segundas played with children who would never know the feeling of hunger in their bellies.
Dani had expected this place to be sparse. Utilitarian. A place that would hold up to an attack from outside. The government of Medio was run from inside these walls, wasn’t it? But while the complex might have been those things in practice, to the untrained eye it was nothing short of the most luxurious community Dani had ever seen.
Of course, she mused. The most influential people in the country lived and dined and socialized and raised their families within these walls. It wasn’t as though the upper class of the upper class was going to live in windowless concrete bunkers.
“Here we are,” said Mama Garcia, with the tone of someone unwrapping a rather impressive gift. All eyes swiveled toward the house as the car pulled into the circular drive.
Dani commanded her jaw not to drop. The house was an oasis of rose-colored stone rising from the expansive tropical garden that surrounded it. On its front alone, Dani counted twenty windows. Even Carmen had the good grace to look impressed.
“It’s not quite as far up the hill as ours,” Se?ora Garcia said. “But it’s in a respectable up-and-coming neighborhood, and if Mateo continues on his current trajectory, you won’t be living here for long.”
“If Mateo continues on his current trajectory,” echoed Mama Garcia, pulling open the door, “you’ll be waving down at us and the rest of the island from your breakfast patio.”