Lucas stared wide-eyed at the screen. “Do I always look at you like that?”
“Usually,” I admitted.
Onscreen, Lucas reached me in a few steps, and his hands cupped my face. He murmured comforting words in a soft voice. The angle changed, and my face came into view as I stared at him, panicked and trusting.
“Damn!” I said. “Do I always look atyoulike that?”
“Why the fuck do you think I’ve been obsessed with your safety?” He pointed at the screen. “That is blind trust right there.”
“It’s notblind. I’ve obviously placed it appropriately.”
The fear washed from my expression as Lucas coaxed me out of the panic, though the tears remained. Lucas’s hand dropped to my waist and curved around my back, fisting my shirt with greedy fingers. My own hands did the same to him.
“You’ll stay with me?” my voice hummed.
He kissed my temple, and his whisper answered, “Until I die.”
The whole thing was an exercise in hopeless longing, like holding sand underwater, each grain slipping away no matter how tight the grasp. There was no heat or eroticism. Nothing remotely sexy. At least, not in my eyes. Just…desperation.
To me, we were two broken people clinging to the only thing they had left, but for the narrative, the story accentuated my brokenness and slapped a redeeming prince vibe on Lucas—exactly what Williams wanted. The story embodied the universal struggles of humanity—hope versus heartbreak, love versus duty. The stakes of life or death turned the tragedy of it all into something unforgettable.
People wanted to believe that love conquers all, and if the Defiance won, then Lucas and I could have our happy ending. With our story, Williams had given the world a concrete reason to fight for us. When she followed this up with the interviews of the NAO’s prisoners, people of all walks would react.
I touched Lucas’s hand. “Do you see what they did?”
“Yeah.” He hadn’t torn his gaze from the screen, but the dazed look morphed into one of horror. “Fuck!”
Williams startled at the volume of his voice. Theo whipped his head around.
“They filmed the hallway!” Lucas said, standing. “The interview room was covered, but they followed her into the hallway. The architecture…”
Williams and Theo also stood, their gazes on the screen. “They might not see?—”
“They definitely fucking saw it,” Lucas said. “You need to sound the alarm. They’ve been looking for your headquarters for years. They’ll know exactly where you are now. They won’t hesitate. You have minutes at most.”
Theo leapt into action, marching from the room.
Lucas snatched my hand and dragged me after Theo. “Where are your weapons?”
“Cache is on the second floor.” Theo stopped at a fire alarm on the wall and pulled the lever. A piercing bell squealed through the halls. He snapped a radio off his belt, but Lucas grabbed my arms, distracting me before I could hear his orders.
“Stay by my side,” Lucas said. “We need to get weapons. Show me where the cache is.”
Nodding, I tried to organize my scattered thoughts. We left Theo and sprinted toward the stairs. The hallways had come alive, soldiers darting to and fro, arming themselves, falling into line. No one paid us any attention.
The weapons cache was highly guarded, and with the alarm sounding, the soldiers on duty had their hands full. They issued weapons per protocol for every frazzled soldier. When Lucas arrived, both men’s faces paled.
“You aren’t cleared for weapons,” one said while the other handed a rifle to an officer.
“Clear me,” Lucas said calmly, “or I’ll kill you.”
“Give him a goddamn weapon,” Theo yelled from the end of the hall. Behind him, a team of six escorted Nia Williams down the stairs.
Hands shaking, they hurried to issue Lucas a combat knife and a handgun. They did the same for me.
The building rumbled.
Beneath my feet, the floor vibrated.
