The Girl Who Dared to Think by Bella Forrest (best novels of all time TXT) 📗

me pick out a good place for my hammock? I’m guessing you know all the best and worst places in the room.”

Tian gave an excited cry as I drew away from them, and I followed Roark’s path around one of the bulky machines. The area behind it was empty, but I saw a narrow gap between two machines, and pushed through it.

Sure enough, Roark was inside, kneeling on the grated floor and unraveling his hammock on the far side of the room. He glanced up at me as I entered the small space, then continued to work.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, skipping the pleasantries.

He grunted as he whipped a length of rope around some of the fabric, working to untangle the lines so he could hang the hammock. “It’s not what you think.”

“You can’t possibly know what I—”

“You think I saw something that made me suspicious, right?” he said gruffly, peering up at me with sharp eyes. “I’m not stupid; I know you’re entertaining doubts. It’s too serendipitous, too coincidental.” He stopped and sighed. Shook his head and frowned. “You kids don’t know how to hope, not really. And it’s the damn Tower’s fault. Distrust and suspicion are ingrained in all of us. People willing to drop their own family members, kill unborn children in an attempt to cull the population. Sheep—and the shepherds are all wolves. These people aren’t like that, Liana. They’re like us—outsiders and dreamers. People who dare to think and question and defy the very system that would regulate us all to death, reduce us to a statistic, a number. They have every bit as much to lose as we do in this relationship. More, even, as this is their home. It has been for many years.”

I listened to his speech, and didn’t find myself disagreeing. Truthfully, the same thing had been playing in the back of my mind, my instincts warring with my more logical side. I wanted to believe in this place, because it meant that the group of people I could rely on was getting bigger. I just wanted it to include the rest of my extended family, too.

As I considered this, I looked up at him to see he was now threading his hammock’s main line over and around a pipe, stringing one end up, and a question occurred to me. “Well, I’m glad to hear that, but it doesn’t exactly answer my question. Why are you acting so weird? Are you okay?”

Roark looked up at me, a hard edge coming to his face. Then he turned away and said, “I didn’t get a chance to grab a picture of Selka before we ran.”

He said it evenly, but I could feel his pain and loss in spite of that. He had nothing left to connect him with his wife. “I’m sorry,” I offered, but he shook his head.

“Don’t be—it’s not your fault. You fought like a banshee with that mentor of yours, and were quick on your feet in the aftermath. I’m glad you were there. And... I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said you were being followed.”

Huh. An apology from Roark was the last thing I’d ever expected. “Color me paranoid, but who is this man and what has he done with Roark?”

Roark smiled as he crossed over to the other side of the hammock, taking care not to step on the fabric. “Anyone ever tell you that you’ve got a smart mouth?”

“Not recently,” I replied. “But then again, I’ve been a bit cautious about letting it free, so to speak. Didn’t want to draw any attention to myself.”

“Doesn’t seem like it’ll be a problem here—unless of course that Maddox girl and you get into it. Still, I don’t see it being anything more than you two finding out who’s top dog.”

“I don’t think I’m going to stay here long enough to find out.” Besides, I was fairly confident Maddox could rip me in half if she wanted to. The girl was intimidating.

Roark gave me a pitying glance. “You know you can’t leave for a while, right?”

I frowned. “What do you mean? Cali said we could talk about it soon.”

“‘Soon’ is a vague concept, Liana. It doesn’t mean tomorrow, and it doesn’t necessarily mean the day after that, either. Cali’s going to want to put it off for a while to keep you here.”

“But...” I frowned. Looked at him. “You know I have to go to Zoe. She’s up there, and she needs us. You said you would help.”

“I have every intention of helping, my dear. But Gerome is out there, and he’s going to have Knights watching the people you care about, waiting for you to surface. You can’t bring them here and expect this place to remain a secret.”

I hated what he was saying, but he was right. I was a guest here; these people were giving us shelter, and it was hard justifying any sort of rash action. I could play it cool for a day or two, be nice, be patient, and hope that Cali would help me figure out a way to leave here without drawing any attention to myself. And I needed Roark’s help to do that.

“Zoe’s a four, Roark. It won’t be long until she’s a three, and by then it’ll be too late. Cali said the system is rigged, and she’s right. And Zoe’s going to pay the price of it because of what I exposed her to. Because of what we needed her to do in order to save Grey’s life.”

He stopped pulling the rope around the pipe, the hammock still slack on the floor, and sighed. “I’ll talk to Cali about it, and I’ll do what I can to bring her around.”

“You’d do that for me?” That made me feel so much better—Roark and Cali seemed evenly matched in terms of their connection, so maybe his word would carry more weight. After all, he was the reason so much of this plan, this idea, was coming together. Was bringing us