2. Vesper #3
“You’re going to take your baby and you’re going to leave this district. I’d suggest you don’t stop until you reach district twelve at the very least. You get out fast. You get out now. Don’t go home to grab anything. You just take him and leave. If you don’t, you’ll die. Do you understand?”
She starts nodding frantically. “But . . . what about the Union?” she chokes out.
“Don’t worry about that. You just get far away from this section. One with a little more air maybe.”
She sniffs. “There’s no clean air in any of the districts.
We’re all destined to have black lung for our short lives.
” She gently takes her baby from me and cradles him in her arms. “I thought, briefly, that my baby would have a better life, but they didn’t tell me they would sell him to Luxe.
” She wipes at her tears. “Thank you for giving us a chance.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” I say, grabbing two of the oranges and putting them in her pockets. “You still have to survive.”
She nods and gently tucks her baby up under her clothing, hiding him away. He coos immediately to be so close to his mother. She touches her hand to my shoulder first and then to Dox’s.
“Good luck,” she rasps, before stepping out of the alley in the opposite direction and disappearing into the crowd quickly.
Good. She has strong survival instincts. I was worried about that considering how bad of a mistake she made selling her baby in the first place.
“They’re going to be pissed,” Dox says. “I give it an hour before they find out.”
“You knew what I was doing,” I reply, helping her pack up the last of the fruit. “But . . . you also know what this means.”
She nods. “Luckily, I don’t have anything I need to go back for.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her. “I know you liked that apartment.”
Her shoulders lift and drop quickly. “There will be other apartments. Let’s get out of here before they find us.” She grabs the few remaining fruit and wraps them up in a cloth so it looks vaguely baby shaped. “So they don’t suspect us,” she says as she puts it in my arms. “Let’s go.”
We step out of the alleyway and head in the direction of district four. The only problem is that I’ve forgotten how paranoid Orion is. The moment we step out of the alley and join the crowd, I realize we’re being watched.
“Fuck,” I groan under my breath.
“Apparently, I was wrong,” Dox sighs. “We didn’t even make it a few minutes.”
“They don’t know we don’t have him,” I remind her, cradling the bundled fruit.
We push through the crowd, forcing our way forward.
As we round the corner, I’m met with the sight of Orion standing in the street.
His legs are spread apart and his arms are crossed over his chest. He’s leveling me with the same look he’s always worn.
The sense of familiarity is gone. This is the same man that smacked me across the face for laughing at him, the one I left.
“I’m disappointed in you, V,” he says.
The crowd parts around him as if they can sense his malice.
“That sounds like a you problem,” I say. “What’s your issue? We’re trying to deliver the package.”
Orion’s lips quirk up. “This package?”
A guard appears with the baby in his arms. He’s crying, the sound grating in my ears. The mother is nowhere to be found.
I look down at the bundle in my arms and sigh before loosening my hold.
Instead of being afraid, knowing we’re in a shitty situation, I smirk.
I can’t help the child now. I can’t help the mother.
I’d tried, but this is Dross. We don’t get a choice on whether or not we’re good people here and I should have remembered that. Our souls are as black as our lungs.
“You should have known better,” I tell him, raising my brow.
He laughs, the sound warm. But when his eyes meet mine again, I know his amusement isn’t because he cares for me. It’s because he covets me. And I’ve just given him a reason to act on it.
“You ready?” I whisper to Dox.
“No,” she answers back. “Where we going?”
“Away,” I say. “As fast as possible. Take out whoever you have to.”
She gives an almost imperceptible nod.
“I’m going to enjoy punishing you for trying to betray me,” Orion says sweetly. “Just as I’m going to enjoy sinking into that sweet pussy again.”
My grin widens as I unwrap the fruit bundle and hold the orange up high in the air. The crowd around us shifts as they realize what I hold. No doubt, their mouths are watering just like mine did when I saw it. They want it. They’ll do anything to have it.
Even kill.
“You’ll never get this pussy again,” I say before I whistle and throw the orange into the air.
The crowd erupts into action, all of them lunging for the orange.
Fists fly as they desperately scramble to taste the orange, to get it before someone else.
A man bites into it, peel and all, before he screams and is sucked down into the mass of writing bodies, another man digging the bite from his mouth and popping it into his own.
“Get them!” I hear Orion scream, but I’m not worried about him anymore. My hand is on Dox’s as I jerk her through the crowd, tossing a few other fruits behind me to make sure the crowd closes ranks behind us.
“Run!” I scream.
We run like our lives depend on it.
Because they do . . .