Page 33 of Longing for Liberty
More quickening.
I lowered my voice to a whisper as we passed the garden. “He had a work meeting on the computer today.”
Jeremy watched the dried grass at his feet as he walked slowly. “Were you listening from another room?”
“Partly,” I told him, “but I was also sweeping in the same room where he was.”
He gave a minute shake of his head. “He talked about stuff openly, right in front of you?”
“Yeah.” He made ahmsound, and I asked, “So, have you heard of it?”
Jeremy stopped to face me, taking my hands and giving me a fake smile as he moved stray strands of hair behind my ears. “You need to be careful.”
I fake-smiled in return, wondering how he’d heard of it. “What is Community Five?”
He pressed his lips together, his eyes slipping to the garden once more. “I don’t…” He shrugged and shook his head, and wow. Jeremy was a terrible liar. At least with me. And knowing he was hiding something had my insides twisting tightly.
“Tell me,” I hissed.
He uttered a curse and cleared his throat. “It’s where they took every surviving able-bodied person who wasn’t white. They’re in Florida, lower Georgia, lower Alabama.”
“I thought…” Oh, God, I wanted to burst into tears. His words sizzled over me as complete shock rocked my system, followed by the most immense sense of joy I’d had since the war. I closed my eyes and struggled to suck in air. I wanted to fall to the ground. “I thought…”
“I know. Stay calm, Lib.” He grasped both of my hands.
Breathe, breathe, breathe.
I really thought everyone had been killed.
Paola and Denari…could they be alive with their children in Community Five?
In the midst of my heightened emotions, my heart still beat erratically over one thought.
“How do you know this?” I watched his eyes carefully. I watched the two lines that formed between his eyebrows when he had to deliver bad news.
But again, he shrugged. “People talk. They shouldn’t, but they do.”
I shook my head. Literally nobody talked anymore. Why was he bullshitting me? His eyes held hope that I would believe him and let it go, but I didn’t and I couldn’t. Something was going on.
“Jeremy, tell me right now, I’m not kidding. I’m about to lose it.”
His jaw clenched, and he turned, tugging gently to get us walking side by side.
“Who told you all of that?” I whispered.
His pause was so long I didn’t think he was going to answer. And then, “Rebecca.”
I nearly tripped over my own feet as my steps halted and restarted. “Explain. Right now.”
He cursed quietly again, and his voice was shaky when he finally answered. “There’s a resistance, Lib.”
My heartbeat was strong enough to hear inside my ears and feel at every pulse point.
“And she’s in it?” I asked.
He gave a nod, and then I stopped abruptly, my eyes feeling too wide as we looked at each other. He rubbed up and down my arms. I thought back to the look they’d given one another when she found out I’d be working for Fitzhugh.
“Andyou’rein it,” I whispered.
