I started with our first meeting in March and glossed over all that had happened since then. It was such a relief to finally say it out loud, to unburden myself of these secrets I’d held so close. They remained quiet, though at times, one or another of them opened their mouth as if to ask a question, then closed it again.
By the end, my gaze was frozen on my knees. “I’d appreciate if none of you repeated that story.”
Slowly, they nodded.
“So, it’s…real?” Devon asked.
“Very real. And now he’s imprisoned for saving me.”
“You knowsaving youis not why he’s in the stockade,” Isaac said. Dev smacked his arm.
“We have a plan,” Adam said. “Right, Johnson?”
Isaac cleared his throat. “Right. Ambrose and I are assigned the early morning shift to guard the stockade. We may be able to sneak you in to see the prisoner.”
I gaped at him. “Really? Why would you do that for me?”
Isaac made a face likeI don’t know, but Adam laughed as if I were silly. “That’s what friends do, Sophia.”
“Are we friends?” I asked. “If so, I haven’t been a good one.”
Face a mask of sympathy, Devon dropped to his knees in front of me. “You lost your entire squad and both your parents, and you still found it in you to hold my hand every time this one—” he hooked a thumb at Isaac “—was sent on a mission.”
“And you shared my cleaning detail even though you could have thrown me under the bus every time I tried to get out of it,” Adam said with a laugh.
“And you saved my life,” Isaac said, referring to the gunshot wound I’d treated months ago.
“That wouldn’t have killed you,” I argued.
“You’ve been grieving,” Adam said. “We understand. That’s all we’re saying.”
I couldn’t hold his gaze. “We’ve all lost people. There’s no place for grief in war.”
“War is nothing but grief, Sophia,” Zara said, covering my hand with hers.
My throat grew thick, but I looked her in the eye when I said, “I can’t lose him too.”
Her expression fractured.
“We can get you a few minutes with him,” Adam said. “That will have to be enough for now.”
I nodded, unable to speak, hoping my gratefulness was clear when I mouthedThank you.
According to Adam’s plan,I was to sneak away from the sleeping wing at four the next morning, but that was a more arduous task than I originally imagined. The night guards patrolled the hallways every few minutes, and unlike Lucas, I’d never been a quiet walker.
Dressed in head-to-toe black, I smiled at Zara as she sleepily wished me luck, then slipped from the room just as one guard turned the corner. I hugged the wall, tiptoeing as silently as possible. Another guard’s flashlight bounced along the marble floor around the next corner, so I ducked into an alcove, hiding behind the statue of a naked woman. When he passed, I hurried to the next alcove, heart thudding.
One by one, I bypassed the guards with strategic sprints and stops, but when I reached the last stretch before the main stairs, I ran into two guards chatting in low voices.
I squeezed into a small space behind a column and waited for them to disband.
“Do you believe this shit about the Blood Colonel?” one of them asked. “Why aren’t we just chopping the fucker’s head off?”
“Right? We could send it to Haynes in a gift box.”
The first guy laughed, then sobered. “Do you really think he helped rescue those prisoners?”
“I don’t know, man.”
