Chapter 43 Press Conference #2
Williams wanted me, the picture of marred innocence, at her side. No amount of dispute would release me from this prison.
Resigned to my fate, I stripped down to my underwear. To their credit, the women skipped barely a beat at the scars on my back and leg as they zipped me into the dress, then set a pair of matching heels on my feet.
Fully costumed, I was handed back to Erica, who eyed me with approval.
“We’ll be using the Rose Garden,” she said, as if I was supposed to know what that meant. “You are third from her right beside General Harrison, okay?”
“Got it.”
She led me through another series of hallways, and then she was opening the door to a familiar oval room I’d seen dozens of times on TV screens. The room was filled with men and women in suits and professional dresses.
Before I could process it, Theo took my arm. “I told you to wait for me,” he whispered.
I shrugged. “She said I needed to get ready.”
“I was going to—”
“Alright, everyone,” Erica called to the room, and the crowd quieted. “We present a united front. Positive faces. This is our first chance to show the world what the United States really stands for.”
With a flurry of motion, she arranged us how she wanted, and then she was leading us outside single file, the spring air swirling around my bare arms and lifting the hairs there.
Dozens of chairs had been set in rows on the lawn, all filled, and reporters spilled into the space behind them.
Cameras clicked and questions volleyed our way.
As instructed, I stood three down from the podium in the middle, right beside Theo, and once we were arranged, Williams took center stage.
The audience shushed to an eerie quiet.
“Good afternoon,” she said into the mic.
“Today, I can confirm to the world that the terrorist organization known as the New American Order has fallen. Several days ago, the Defiance conducted a covert operation that killed Richard Haynes, leader of the NAO, a terrorist who was responsible for the murder and torture of thousands of innocent people. It was nearly three years ago when American blood was shed on our own soil, in our nation’s very capital.
The Capitol Hill Massacre will live in our collective memory forever… ”
She continued on, but I tuned her out while I wondered where I’d be taken after this show. Would I stay with Theo?
Could I run away?
Then Williams began to explain how she reached Haynes.
“A year ago, I was briefed on a possible route to Haynes. It was far from certain, and it took many months to fine-tune a plan to reach him, protected as he was by his zealots. I worked closely with a member of his own organization to perfect this strategy, and finally, last week, our plan came to fruition.”
Unbeknownst to me, tears spilled from my eyes.
This was Lucas’s plan. His contribution had outlived him, and it occurred to me that his story would never get told. He’d lived and fought and died, and no one would ever know the truth.
Not unless I told them.
“A small team of Defiants carried out the operation with extraordinary courage,” Williams said.
“They killed Richard Haynes and those officials closest to him and took custody of his body. The death of Richard Haynes marks the most significant achievement in this country’s effort to defeat the NAO.
His death should be welcomed by all who believe in equality and human dignity.
“I have been in talks with Prime Minister Campari of Canada, and he agrees that this was a historic day for both our nations, and going forward, it is essential that we all continue to fight against the New American Order.
As a people, we will not tolerate our security being threatened, and we will not stand idly by while our citizens are tortured and killed.
“Today, we will honor the men and women who carried out this extraordinary achievement, for they exemplify the patriotism and courage of those who serve their country: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
“Please stand in their honor.”
The crowd of reporters and journalists rose, and cameras clicked while a train of four individuals marched into the Rose Garden. Each of them wore identical Army Service Uniforms, so blue they were almost black.
My gaze dropped to the grass. I couldn’t look upon the soldiers who had taken Lucas’s spot, who had used his strategy. The men who were alive when he wasn’t.
The crowd spurred into a frenzy of applause, but I was captured by a single word.
“Sophia?”
His voice sliced through me like a scalpel, fine-edged and precise. My head whipped up, heart storming in my chest, and there he was, first in the line of soldiers…
Staring at me with incredulous eyes.
He pushed the cap from his head, and it plopped to the grass just beginning to wake for spring. Orderly raven waves fell over his scarred forehead, and that ocean blue, a color so bright I couldn’t understand how I’d already nearly forgotten it, gleamed in the sun.
A sob caught in my throat, and I took one step toward him. “Lucas?”
I had to be dreaming. Had I fainted? Was this a fantasy I’d manifested to avoid listening to any more of Williams’s speech?
“You’re alive?” I asked.
He started toward me. Williams made no move to stop us, so I lurched away from my place in her tidy line.
I crashed into him at the base of the stairs to the Rose Garden, wrapping my arms tight around his neck while he circled my waist, lifting me from the ground.
Our mouths collided with all the violence of a thunderstorm.
He smelled the same. Somehow, he still smelled the same. Peppermint and incense.
One heel slipped off my foot.
“How are you alive?” I asked at the same time he muttered, “How could they bring you here?”
Neither of us answered as we gave in to another devouring kiss.
In the background, the new president’s voice said something about us, but I barely registered anything until she said, “…like fire and powder, Which as they kiss consume…”
I hated her.
I hated her so much.
But I couldn’t think about that.
Lucas was in my arms, his heartbeat against mine, his breath in my lungs.
“I love you,” I said over and over again, smothering him in kisses.
After several agonizing heartbeats, I became aware of the camera clicks. They inundated us, so numerous that they sounded like a horde of invading insects. Still, I couldn’t release him.
“Please tell me you’re real,” I said when the kiss finally broke. “Tell me you’re here.”
He set me back on my feet, his forehead pressed to mine. “I’m here. God, you feel good.”
“I thought you died.”
“I almost did.”
My fingers scraped hungrily through his hair, but it was Williams’s voice that broke through my haze, spoken away from the mic so only those nearest her could hear.
“Enjoy your reward, you two. You fulfilled your end of the bargain.”
I turned to her, brow raised.
“A full pardon,” she said. “Exoneration is his.”
Theo’s voice floated back to me.
Williams needs to show them what our government will be.
Merciful…
Compassionate…
Loathing scalded every inch of my skin. She’d done this on purpose. She’d waited to reunite us until we could perform for a crowd of cameras.
She was still using us.
I gripped Lucas’s face, my starving gaze roving over every feature, snagging on the rainbow blue in his eyes. “Tell me you’ll stay.”
“I’ll stay,” he whispered. “Forever.”