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at him. For the life
of me, I couldn’t figure out why he was risking his own neck to
help me escape.
    “I have a truck outside the walls,” he
finally said. “Hidden in the woods about a mile and a half from
here. Got food and water, a few gallons of gas stored inside. We
just need to get there.”
    I gaped up at him. With the entire town on
our heels, a mile and a half away might as well have been in
China!
    I shook my head. “We’ll never make it.”
    Alex dropped to his knees, his dark eyes
burning holes through my thoughts. There was a spark there, alit
with a fever I’d never noticed in him before. But I had never
noticed much, always consumed with my own problems, my own
pain.
    “I don’t care,” he gritted out through
clenched teeth. “I’ve been outside the walls, Leisel. Many, many
times. It’s not pretty out there, but it’s not pretty in here
either, is it? I’d rather be free.”
    Free . The word sang through me like one too many
cocktails, blinding me, drugging me with all its hazy, yet glorious
possibilities.
    His hand found my shoulder as he bent down to
speak with me face-to-face, and it took everything I had not to
flinch away from his touch. Being touched by a man, thanks to
Lawrence, was not something I associated with tenderness or
comfort. Not in a very long time.
    “Don’t you want to be free?” It was more a
statement than a question. A proclamation. A declaration.
    I shrugged his hand away. “We need to get
Eve,” I said. “I won’t leave without her.”
    He frowned and his brow furrowed, causing
delicate lines to appear on his otherwise smooth forehead, but he
said nothing in response.
    “I won’t leave without her,” I repeated,
unable to imagine myself in life anywhere without Evelyn. I
couldn’t stomach the thought of leaving her behind in this awful
place.
    “You won’t have to.”
    Both Alex and I jerked at the sound of
another voice. As I shrank back in fear, Alex leaped to his feet
and quickly whipped his gun free from the holster on his hip.
    Jami stood outside my cell, a ski cap hiding
his unruly hair, his normally impish expression now serious. Seeing
Alex’s gun, Jami’s hands went up in the air, including the one
holding his own weapon.
    “I come in peace,” he said, giving us a half
smile. “And I’m glad I don’t have to kill you too.” He nodded at
Alex.
    “Too?” I whispered, fear slithering down my
spine and chilling my blood.
    “Michaels and Davidson?” Alex cocked an
eyebrow in question, and Jami gave him a single nod in
response.
    “And Hamilton?” Alex asked, gesturing toward
the door that led out into the hub of the station.
    Jami shook his head. “There’s too many out
front,” he said quietly. “I could only clear the back.”
    “Never thought I’d be so goddamn happy to not
have electricity,” Alex muttered, but he looked and sounded
anything but happy. He turned back to me and unexpectedly held out
his hand, the one currently holding his gun, and gestured for me to
take it.
    My lips opened and closed, and for a moment I
could only stutter through several puffs of air. Finally finding my
voice, I cleared my throat and tried again. “I don’t know how,” I
whispered.
    Panic was beginning to well inside of me.
Both Alex and Jami were here, attempting to rescue me. And if Jami
was here, that meant Evelyn was as well. Three people, three good
people, all who could end up killed alongside me if we were caught.
And two men were already dead?
    True, there was no love lost between me and
the majority of the men who policed Fredericksville. Most were
self-centered, self-serving, violent men who were more than happy
to adhere to the tyrannical rules of this place. But dead? I’d only
ever wished one man dead before, and that wish had been granted by
my own hand last night.
    “This is the safety. Make sure it’s off
before you pull the trigger. Hold it like this. Leisel…Leisel, are
you listening to me?”
    I nodded dumbly at Alex,