Chapter 47 #2
Jordan nods. “Zac gets to see the vast majority of what they transport. And where.”
“And as you already know, I work in the supermarket,” Claudia says before shrugging. “Sometimes I’m able to get my hands on some extra food. It’s not the most helpful of places, but I see so many Enforcers, I’ve been able to memorise a lot of their faces.”
“You’re very useful.” Jordan grins, reaching out and tugging her into his lap. Her brows lift in surprise, but she smiles, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. I guess his anger at her for showing me this place is forgotten. For now, at least.
“And you... you meet…” I trail off, unsure what to say. “And just… plan?”
“Most of what we get our hands on is here. It’s where we bring it first. Then we decide whether it’s worth taking it to the others,” Bridget explains. “This house is my home. Not that piece of shit terrace they gave Danny and I.”
“Danny?” I echo.
She smirks. “My husband.”
“Oh.”
“I never see him apart from at State inspections or food pickup days.” She shrugs.
“I’m sorry you don’t get on,” I say honestly.
She scoffs. “Danny’s fine. I just wish he had a pussy.”
“Oh!”
Kieran smirks. “The sooner we take the State down, the happier Bridget will be.”
Bridget curses at him, snatching a notepad from the table and chucking it at his head. He lunges to the side, narrowly missing it.
“Danny isn’t in the Resistance?”
Bridget shrugs. “No. He’s too busy trying to find some single ass.”
My eyes widen, a flicker of clarity sparking in my mind. “Wait… you. Do you make sourdough?”
A smile tugs across her lips, as though she knows what I’m asking. “When Claudia’s able to steal the ingredients from the store, yeah.”
Without meaning to, my shoulders loosen, chest expanding. He was telling the truth. “Zac… he told me,” I say.
Bridget crosses her arms and grins at the group. “It is pretty legendary.”
“We wouldn’t know. You and Zac ate the entire loaf before any of us got home,” Kieran says.
She shrugs. “Not my fault.”
“So… you just spend all your time here?”
“Not as much as we’d like,” Kieran says. “We have to be where the Enforcers expect us to be, whenever they’re around. Anna has access to all their inspection schedules.”
I nod, mind reeling as I try to absorb the information they’ve thrown at me. “And what are you working on right now?”
“Honestly, it’s all kind of dried up since Zac’s been gone,” Jordan admits, his hand drawing small circles on Claudia’s thigh. “He normally gets us a lot of information when he’s out on the road, but…”
“Why didn’t he want me to know?”
“I already told you; he doesn’t want you,” Anna snipes. My hands curl into fists, and I struggle to keep myself from launching over the back of the sofa as I whirl to face her, opening my mouth, but Jordan beats me to it.
“That’s not true,” he snaps. “He just wanted to keep you out of trouble. To keep you safe.”
Slowly, I turn back to look at them.
Claudia nods, eyes brimming with shadow. “He didn’t want anything to happen to you because of him,” she says quietly.
I exhale, shaking my hair behind my shoulders. “It’s a bit late for that.”
“She’s right,” Kieran says before spinning on his heel and disappearing into the kitchen.
“So, now what?” Anna snaps. “She’s allowed to join us?”
“If Em wants to, she can—”
“We don’t know what Zac is going to say,” Jordan cuts Claudia off, and she frowns at him.
“It’s not up to Zac how I live my life,” I say sharply, crossing my arms and pursing my lips.
“I know it isn’t,” Jordan replies. “But we’re a team. So he has as much of a say in this as the rest of us.”
“And I don’t want her here.”
Bridget rolls her eyes, leaning over the table towards Anna. “Your bias, jealousy-fuelled opinion isn’t noted.”
Anna’s lips twist, but before she can reply, Kieran reappears.
“Beer?” he offers, holding a bottle out to her. Bridget smiles, taking it and lifting towards the bitchy brunette in a cheers.
“Emilia?” Kieran holds one out to me, and before Claudia can stop me, I take it; I need something to take the edge off, to distract me from the chaos spinning in my head as I try to process what I’ve been told.
“Thanks.” I smile before taking a sip. The fizz of the bubbles dance down my windpipe, a few drifting up towards my nose.
“I’m going to the Armoury,” Princess Petty mutters, tone deathly calm. She spins on her heel, and the door slams a heartbeat later.
“I’m sorry about her—” Claudia starts.
“The Armoury?” I cut in, glancing between them.
“I like you already!” Bridget jumps over the back of the sofa and lands beside me. “Thanks for driving the vermin out. Tell us more about yourself, Em.”
“Me?”
She smirks. “I see no other Ems in the room. You know more about us than we know about you.”
“True,” Kieran says. Claudia’s grin widens, her arms winding tighter around Jordan.
“Tell us all your secrets.”
“Secrets?”
“The stuff we can use against you if you rat us out to the State,” Bridget replies teasingly. “We want to know everything there is to know about our new friend.”
Friend.
The word lingers, soft and unexpected. My chest warms, and I tighten my grip on the cold beer, hugging it close, as though the chill might ground me. I like the sound of it, of being here, with them… but Zac’s frown, his glare, his tensed jaw, they all flicker through my mind.
He won’t be impressed. Not at all.