Page 102 of Too Many Beds

“Should I, uh, shut the door?” I ask, blinking to regain my composure.

“Why?”

Heat rushes to my face. One of those types, then. I take a deep breath and start unzipping my own suit. Dutifully, with no pretence of seduction. He knows why I’m here.

“What are you doing?”

Maybe he doesn’t.

“I, uh …” Shit, stuttering again. I cough. “Didn’t you hear? Peace … offering?”

“Why doesn’t O’Connor come himself?”

“People tend to prefer me.”

Okay,thatmight have been seductive.

“Yes. I can see why.”

He’s silent for a moment, watching me as intently as I had observed him. His tongue fiddles with the bar through his lip, twirling it clockwise. I stand there awkwardly until he gestures I take a seat, which I do on the floor opposite him. The wall is cold against my back.

“I thought I told you to keep your head down,” he says.

My pulse spikes. It’s him—the man from the Plunge. Heat fills my veins. The voice I’d heard through the wall seemed so kind, so gentle; Heron Kim is anything but. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.

“I’m here for Tarrant,” I say. “He protects me, and I help him. Tarrant doesn’t like to hurt people.”

“Doesn’t he?” Kim leans forward, muscles rippling across his chest. “Let me tell you something—Eden Walsh, was it? There are two types of people in this prison: those who hurt the Authority and those who hurt each other. Ergo, you’re either with the Authority or against it. You sure you know which side you’re on?”

Indignation bubbles inside me. How dare he? Everyone left on Earth is against the Authority. You don’t grow up dirty and powerless in the slums like Tarrant and me without seeking a little rebellion against those who have it better. How could Kim think we’re with them?

“Tarrant’s a drug runner,” I hiss. “Everything he does is in defiance of Authority law.”

“And where do you think he gets the synths needed to make his phets so addictive? Steals them? Hardly. The Authority lets them circulate. Lets them get into the hands of runners so the vulnerable fall prey to the temporary solace they offer. Then the Authority punishes us. And you know why? To keep us in the dirt. Their cities are full. Their off-world colonies—full. They need reason to keep the masses out. To control thequalityof human on their new world. So they make us criminals. Make us undeserving. And that is how the Authority wins. That is how people like Tarrant O’Connor let them.”

I sit quietly with my thoughts. Anger at his accusations spreads through my body quickly followed by … shame? Shame,because I know he’s right? Shame, because of how easily I’ve been led?

No. I know Tarrant. IloveTarrant. This is Kim trying to weaken us.

“I have no interest in dethroning O’Connor,” he says, voice softening. “There are bigger targets on my radar. I’m not a threat to you. So don’t become one to me.”

I keep my gaze down, fixed on my hands. I can’t look at him right now. I’m too worried I’ll betray the doubt currently boring through my conviction like a drill. “Tarrant won’t give up. He’ll keep sending me here until you fuck me—until you join his pack.”

A genuine smile blooms on Kim’s lips. “I look forward to it.”

I’ve been to H Block six times now and all we do is talk. And flirt. There’s been plenty of that. None of the other recruits ever bother. It’s all ‘pants down, knees up’ with that lot. As cold and impersonal as a transfer of credits.

But it’s not like that with Kim. His room has become the one place where I don’t have to worry about being touched. Where I can just … sit. Maybe that just means he isn’t interested. I know not every man in here is. Not really. Doesn’t stop them from pawing at me in lust and loneliness.

“Who did that to you?” Kim asks as I enter his cell, a purple bruise encircling my neck.

“It’s nothing,” I mumble, taking my usual seat on the floor across the room. “Workplace hazard.”

Kim frowns. “No one should work under those conditions.”

No, they shouldn’t.I want to agree, but instead I say nothing. I raise my hand to gingerly rub my neck, sliding inside the opencollar of my jumpsuit. Kim’s gaze is on me, eyes tracing the movement of my fingers. I feel the heat of it. A shiver whispers across my skin.

“How can you think O’Connor loves you when he subjects you tothat?” Kim mutters and drags his gaze away.

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