Tap. Tap.Yes. Then he reached to the corner of my eye and tapped again, gently before drawing a question mark on my cheek.
“I know,” I sighed against his fingertips. “It will be hard with the dark and my bad eye, but we have to try. You need to be able to understand the drills, Rafe.”
He made the sign forOkay, and I was grateful he’d at least picked up on some of Florence’s instruction. He scooted over on his cot, the bed creaking lightly, and patted the space next to him. He remained lying down, so I decided to, as well, facing him. We shared his pillow, his face close enough that I was able to see him better. He adjusted his hands on my face.
“We’ll run through the signs for the drills first. Tomorrow, those are the most important,” I said, keeping my voice as soft as possible.
Rafe ran his thumb over my cheek. Then he tapped twice.
It took several minutes to figure it out, how I’d be able to show him the proper signs in the dark. My hands came up around his when he copied me, and I moved his fingers to the correct positions, tapping the inside of his wrist twice when he had it right.
Hours later, exhausted and my eyes drooping, he combed his fingers up through my hair, shifting it over my shoulder. I smiled softly at the touch, letting myself drift toward sleep. I only meant to rest for a few minutes, but lying next to Rafe, I felt so safe. I slept deeper than I had…ever. So deep I didn’t recall curling into him or his arms going around me in the middle of the night. It must’ve been the same for him, because we still didn’t wake in the morning, even when the alarms blared and the white lights bloomed through the cell. It wasn’t until someone shook my shoulder that I finally budged.
Thorne was above me, a grin on his face as he looked down at us twisted together. Rafe was still sound asleep, his face so relaxed, he almost didn’t even look like him.
“Mornin’, little flame,” Thorne muttered. “Don’t you look well rested.”
Kane hopped down from his bunk and scowled when he saw us. “Unfair.” He looked at his brother. “Will you cuddlemetonight? They look so cozy.”
Thorne snorted, the two of them shoving at each other playfully as I gently peeled myself from Rafe. Unfortunately, my leg was wedged between his.
Grimacing, I curved my hand around Rafe’s shoulder and shook it a bit. The soldiers would arrive soon to take us to the Yard. I shook Rafe harder, and his lashes finally peeled apart, his arms tightening around me. A lazy grin spread over his mouth when he saw me, and heat flushed my cheeks as he tugged me closer.
The deadbolt to the door slid unlocked.
I jerked back, yanking my leg free and stumbling out of his grasp. I straightened my grey uniform, falling into line behind Thorne as the door swung open. I was stiff, unable to look behind me, even as I felt Rafe take the place at my heels.
Kane glanced over his shoulder from the front, eyeing us, before he followed the guards toward the Yard.
“Did you have some fun last night, Miss Creed?” Thorne asked without turning back to look at me. He didn’t need to. I could hear his shit-eating grin in the words.
“I’d also like to know,” Kane admitted up front.
Fortunately, they kept their voices low enough that the soldiers marching ahead and at the rear didn’t hear them.
“No,” I growled. “I was teaching him the signs for the drills and fell asleep.”
“Sure.Teaching him signs. Where were your hands, Arden? Maybe around the waist area?” Kane suggested.
My nostrils flared, my cheeks red as hell. I clenched my fists at my sides. “Cowards. Hiding your mouths so Rafe doesn’t know what you’re saying. Just shut up. I don’t have it in me to run extra laps.”
“Because you went so hard last night?” Kane asked, turning the question over his shoulder. He laughed around the words, his eyes directed behind me at Rafe. “Finally get some from the girl of your dreams, buddy?”
Jesus Christ. You would think after all we’d been through that Kane would’ve learned how to shut up a little better.
Thorne kicked his brother in the back of the leg, and Kane hobbled a step. “Knock it off. You always take it too far,” Thorne said.
Kane hissed in pain but kept himself upright, all four of us halting with the guards as they opened the double doors to the Yard.
A step inside and I was instantly alert, my shoulders pushing back at the sight of a glassed in balcony revealed where there used to always be curtains draped. My blood ran cold, seeing Halden. He sat in a chair beside what could only be Buyers, the eight of them sharing cigars and liquor. Halden stood as we entered the Yard, the rest of Creed locking down into the hollow, hard things we needed to be in his presence.
“As you can see, we have visitors, and theywon’tbe disappointed,” one of the commanders growled. “Give them a good show, and maybe you’ll get bought for your first mission.”
My stomach tightened. All the training, I knew it was leading somewhere, I just didn’t know where. I had two paths before me. I could purposefully fuck up and make myself less valuable in the eyes of the Buyers, or I couldmake my price nearly unattainable. I eyed each slightly shadowed face above.
I’d been faced with that decision before, unintentionally making myself a wealthier asset by stealing those fucking cars. If I hadn’t, then I’d likely still be Viktor’s backup Doll. After everything I’d gone through in that compound, being a Doll sounded like heaven. I hated myself for not seeing it as the mercy it was, and I knew the others were thinking it as the commander directed us toward the mock village.
“We have to be terrible,” I said under my breath, hunching my shoulders and hanging my head as I grabbed a gun from the rack outside the first building. “If we follow orders and leave Rafe in the dust, then Halden will execute him and sell us.”
