Page 38 of Shattered Home

Vex was nearly out the door when he turned to look at me one more time, a malicious glint in his eyes. “Tomorrow night should be lots of fun.”

With the ominous statement, he left the room, and I knew the guards would be in soon to dump me outside the building. My body ached, tremors running through me, but they weren’t my main focus. No, my only focus right now was why Vex wanted to know about Emmanuel.

***

“We need to leave as soon as possible.” I stood against the fence, my arms folded over my chest, staring the two men down.

“Lessy, we already know that. But this takes planning.”

“I don’t care. We’re taking too long and it's not an option anymore. We have a plan, let’s use it.”

Aiden glanced to Warner, the two of them suddenly in cahoots, and I hated it. Almost as much as I hated the pity in their eyes each night when I showed up with some new bruise.

“Your brother is right. This needs to be perfect.”

Throwing my hands up in the air, I groaned silently, still having my wits about me to not draw attention to us. “What more do we need?”

It was a genuine question. Over the past week, we had figured nearly everything out. Aiden and Warner had been pulling the gap in the fence wider by inches each night, testing that they were capable of getting it completely open when the escape came.

Every day, Warner strolled the camp, keeping track of when the guards came and went. Apparently, at five o’clock each night, the guards swapped posts so that others could watch over dinner. There were barely thirty seconds in between, but during that time, they were too focused on joking with each other to truly pay attention.

“We need more than thirty seconds. If it was one of us, sure. But five? And with two kids? That’s not possible.”

I knew Aiden’s words were stemming from a place of worry, but I didn’t want to hear them. I wanted a solution. And tonight, the mention of the twins only spurred me on. If Vex found out who they were, found out they were Emmanuel’s kids, I didn’t dare think what would happen to them.

“A distraction,” I said, the idea popping into my head.

“What kind of distraction?” Warner asked, leaning forward into my space. The twinkle in his eyes told me he liked the idea, even though it barely had any traction.

But as I spoke, the idea blossomed. “We need something big, something that will pull the guards' attention in the other direction for at least five minutes. That will give us plenty of time to run across the street and sneak behind a building.”

Warner ran a hand through his dark hair as he thought. “And what kind of distraction do you propose? We can’t ask anyone to help. If we bring anyone else into this, someone is bound to slip up.”

The three of us thought over ideas for several minutes, the only sound the tents flapping in the wind. Suddenly, the idea sparked in my head and I knew this could work.

“We set a fire. A big fire. I’d say one that engulfs several of the tents.”

Warner’s lips slid into a sly grin as I spoke, happy with the idea, but my ever practical brother had to be the one to ruin it.

“Great idea if we could start a fire. Last time I checked, we don’t have the supplies.”

True, we didn’t have supplies. The people running this camp kept us reliant on them as much as they could. Besides two meals a day and the tents, we didn’t receive anything else. Hell, they didn’t even give us water bottles.

But thanks to a man with brown hair and light blue eyes, I knew how to start a fire without anything but a few sticks. Sure, I had only actually lit a spark once or twice, but these were dire circumstances. Quite literally, our lives depended on it.

“Leave it to me. I can start a fire. But the second it's lit, we need to get out of here. We won’t have much time.”

Both of the men nodded in agreement, Warner excitedly and Aiden reluctantly. However, it didn’t matter how they felt as long as this was happening. And soon.

“Two days. Give me two days to prepare, and then we’re leaving.”

Again, both men agreed, and I knew we had nothing more to talk about. Aiden and I started walking back toward our tent, leaving Warner to do whatever he did at night, when he called my name.

I told Aiden to go ahead, not wanting to leave the twins alone for much longer, before spinning on my heel and walking back toward Warner. His arms hung lazily at his sides, as if he didn’t have a care in the world, as if escaping was just another thing added to his schedule.

Pausing when I was a few feet from him, Warner closed the distance, his long legs closing the gap in one step. A shiver ran up my spine from his nearness, an aura of riskiness constantly surrounding him.

“I’d like to make one thing clear about this plan,” he whispered, lowering his head until our eyes clashed.

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