Chapter Fifteen
Clove
The room felt too quiet after Ender left.
Just… off.
Ender had been called for church. He’d hesitated before leaving, like he wasn’t sure if he should go at all, but Wrecker’s voice hollering down the hallway hadn’t left room for argument. The guys needed to talk. About the men who took me. About what came next.
About vengeance.
The last two days had been a blur. A strange mix of exhaustion and comfort, fear and relief.
Ender had been the constant thread through all of it.
When my thoughts spiraled, he was there.
When my body shook, he grounded me. Yesterday, he’d taken me back to the house to grab some clothes, my toothbrush, things that made me feel human again.
I’d barely made it through the front door before the exhaustion slammed into me.
He’d said my body finally knew it was safe.
That it could rest now.
I believed him.
But I also knew something else.
My mind knew Ender was close, and because of that… I was safe.
“Oh, Clove!”
Adley’s voice cut through my thoughts as she breezed into the room without knocking, like she always had since we were kids.
“Are you coming out of your room today?” she asked, hands on her hips.
I rolled my eyes and held my arms out dramatically. “I think I’m officially fully rested. What craziness is happening in the common room?”
She clapped her hands together, grinning. “Nothing yet, but the day is still young.”
Before I could protest, she grabbed my hand and tugged me off the bed. “Come hang out with us.”
I hadn’t realized how much I needed to hear that.
It was nice being pulled instead of pushed. Nice to feel wanted instead of watched.
The hallway felt brighter than it had yesterday. Less like a tunnel, more like a place I belonged. As we stepped into the common room, I saw all the girls scattered around on couches, at the pool table, and near the kitchen.
They were all here because they had to be.
We weren’t locked down exactly, but after what happened to me, the rules had tightened. Every woman needed a club member with her at all times. Especially now.
I understood it, still didn’t love it, though.
“Clove!” Mom called from the kitchen. “Come help me.”
Adley smiled and squeezed my hand before letting go. “Duty calls.”
She headed for the pool table, where Alice and Nikki were mid-game, trash-talking like it was a competitive sport.
I drifted toward the kitchen.
The smell hit me before I even crossed the threshold.
Warm. Sweet. Familiar.
“Are you making gingersnaps?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Mom smiled over her shoulder, flour dusting her hands. “Everyone likes them.”
I snorted. “You make them because you like them.”
She didn’t deny it.
I grabbed a spoon and moved to the big bowl of dough, scooping and rolling like muscle memory took over. We’d done this a hundred times. A thousand.
“How did you sleep?” she asked casually.
“Good,” I said.
She paused. Just slightly. “Did you actually sleep? You slept most of the day yesterday.”
“Surprisingly, yeah.”
She hummed, sliding a tray toward the oven. “And Ender—”
I glanced at her. “He slept on the couch, Mom.”
She waved her hand. “I wasn’t asking that. I was just…”
I laughed softly. “Being nosy?”
She bumped my hip with hers. “I am your mother. I’m allowed to be nosy.”
Then she looked at me more carefully. “I just didn’t know there was an Ender and you.”
“There isn’t,” I said quickly. “You were there when Wrecker assigned him to keep an eye on me. All the girls have one of the guys with them.” I told myself that was the truth, but even as I said it, something inside me shifted.
Because I didn’t feel like I was an assignment to Ender. It felt like… something else.
I’d grown up with him. We all had. Cousins in everything but blood. Except I’d never thought of Ender like that. Never been able to. I’d crushed on him quietly for years, tucked it away where no one could see it, not even me, most days.
Now?
Now I didn’t know what to call what was happening.
Mom slid another tray into the oven and sighed. “Just… be careful.”
I laughed lightly. “I just escaped kidnappers, Mom. I think I can handle Ender.”
She groaned. “Ugh, don’t remind me.”
She shook her head, voice thick. “I told your dad until I was blue in the face that Wrecker should’ve had one of the guys on each girl weeks ago, right after Star was attacked.”
I sighed. “You can’t blame Dad or the club. How were they supposed to know those guys were stupid and lethal?”
Nobody had seen them as a threat until it was too late.
We kept scooping cookies in silence for a moment.
Mom slid another tray onto the counter. “I just want this all to be over,” she said quietly. “I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”
“Me too,” I whispered.
She wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
And for the first time since everything happened, I let myself lean into it.