The Cross (Alliance Book 2) by Inna Hardison

wants for nothing while she is here.”

    She looked at her, and handed her a small metal circle, that was moving slightly on her hand, “This is a comm. You just have to press your finger, any finger to it, and say anything you want to say to me, and I’ll hear it, but only I. It is my job to make sure you are taken care of here, Trina. I’ll be checking up on you at least once a day unless I hear from you through this device,” and she left her standing in the midst of all these people all staring at her like she was indeed some strange animal. They were smiling at her strangely, and suddenly the small cage they had her in before didn’t seem so bad.

T HE E XCHANGE

    Riley
    [May 8, 2236, Woods Outside of Reston]

    He saw Brody making the fire outside when he ran out to pee, the sun just starting to come up. It was far too early to be making breakfast, so he felt something was up, but he needed more sleep to process anything important, and this seemed important. He said good morning to his friend and raced back towards the cave.
    “Riley, I know it’s early, but I have to tell you something, before the others wake up,” Brody’s voice caught him, sounding far too awake for how early it was. He needed some of that stuff they called coffee that Stan gave them. Tea just wasn’t going to cut it. He ran into the cave, found a pouch of the stuff by touch and went back to the fire, showing the pouch to Brody, letting him know he needed this before he could hear anything he had to tell him. It only took a few minutes for the little bit of water to boil in the small kettle, and he poured himself a steaming cup, and took a few tiny sips, still hating the taste of it. Brody let him do all of it, tending to the kettle of tea for the others, not saying a word.

    “All right, I am up enough now, damn you. What is it?” Brody sat next to him then and told him what he did last night about Hassinger, and that he also got to his crew and he’d have a dozen of the best trained of them waiting for them when they get there, just in case. He was listening to him talk, getting more and more angry with every word, and finally he lunged at him and dropped him on the grass, throwing punches at him, not holding anything back either. His friend just put everyone here in danger without so much as asking him first. He pummeled him, as hard as he could until his arms got tired. Brody didn’t even try to defend himself, just lay there, not even covering his face, letting him do it, watching him. It seemed pointless to keep going, so he got up and walked away from him, to the other side of the fire, trying to get his breathing back to normal.

    “Never thought I’d get you to throw a punch at me, or a hundred,” Brody grinned at him. “If you had let me finish, I’d have told you that I had a plan, and I wasn’t going to put anyone here in danger, but me, and Laurel, but only if she was okay with it, and only if we knew for sure she’d be safe. None of you are coming, just me and Laurel, if she wants to. The rest of you will be safe here until we get back with Hassinger and hopefully, Trina.”

    He walked over to him, looking at him with a smirk on his quickly bruising face, “Want to hit me some more, before the rest of them wake up?”
    He didn’t. He let him fill in the other details of the plan, and he knew he’d be going with him, whether Brody wanted him to or not, but he didn’t want to argue with him over it just yet. He was still far too angry at him to want to talk. He went back into the cave, packed a small bag with everything he thought he’d need, stashed it under his blanket and waited for Laurel to wake up.

    Brody was letting him be, staying by the fire. He knew him well enough still to give him space when he needed it, just not well enough to know that his friends were off limits, and he had no right to make any decisions that could put any of them at risk. He didn’t feel the least bit guilty for pounding on