Code of Honor

Small flowers bloomed. In the cracks of the road, up the sides of buildings and across the bloodstained battlefields. Even through the thin layer of ice and snow left behind by winter. I had never seen anything like it. I never thought I would. I found it endlessly fascinating. A fascination no one else shared.

“How do they even grow up there?” I mumbled as we walked past a three story building. A set of small red flowers bloomed from beneath the top floor.

“It’s one of the mysteries of the world. Like why on earth your parents called you Grace since you lack it so much,” Billy replied with a smirk back at me.

“Hey,” I complained making him laugh. Dimitri laughed along.

I stepped up my pace to catch up with them. Being careful not to slip on the remaining ice. “What is it? Pick on Grace Day or something?” I grumbled.

“It’s always pick on Grace Day if you hadn’t realized,” Billy yawned. “You’re just making it extremely easy today.”

“You both suck.”

Billy rolled his eyes but smiled back at me. I always felt like the little sister around the two of them. It was annoying and unavoidable. Being the youngest sucked. It was worse when they got together and picked on me. It felt like the old days when my brothers and his friends would pick on me and treat me like a kid. Strangely. I liked the familiarity of it. Today it had been worse than usual.

I wasn’t sure what it was. All three of us had woken with an excess of energy and hyperactivity. Maybe there had been something suspicious in our water supply this morning. It had only taken a couple of hours for my father to find us a meaningless errand to run to get us out from underfoot and to spare what was left of their sanity.
He had sent us out in search of kindling to make our cooking fire. It didn’t seem to matter that we’d already had a stockpile it was decided that we needed more. We weren’t going to argue the point. We wanted to go outside instead of being cooped up inside with all this energy.

The second we had hit the ground outside the hideout we were off. We’d started a snowball fight with the ice we could scrape up off the ground. During which we attracted the attention of some patrolling soldiers. At first we all froze and got ready to run thinking we were in serious trouble. But instead they just smiled at us and walked off. I guess they just seen us as kids playing around.
We weren’t really doing anything wrong. We weren’t out after curfew and last time I checked snowball fights weren’t prohibited, yet. They weren’t going to pick on us either since we were in a group. had I been alone there would be no doubt in my mind they would have played with me. Instead they kept walking. At first we had been on edge but too quickly we settled into a false sense of security.

Again I started to fall behind. I was a lot slower than the boys since their legs were longer and also because I was trying not to slip on the icy roads. I didn’t want to graze my knees anymore than I already had. But being behind them gave me some advantages. While they were busy laughing, at my expense I assumed, I scooped up another snowball from a small pile of snow hidden amongst some of the rubble of the remaining road.
During our last fight Billy had hit me square in the side of the head. It was an accident but it still hurt even if we did laugh it off. I planned on getting him back. So while he was looking away I took aim and fired.

“Ah, you bitch!” he screeched as it hit the back of his neck. Since slowly melting down the back of his shirt.

I had to fight not to fall the ground in laughter. He turned around to shoot me a cheeky smirk and I knew I was in for it. Dimitri was wiping the shrapnel off his arm and on some unknown signal they both advanced on me. I thought about running but soon dismissed the thought. I wouldn’t make it far before falling on my face.

So I stood there laughing, not sure how to fend them off until they were on me. Billy grabbed me playfully and shook the snow out from his hair all over me. I tried to fight him off only to slip on the ice and have him catch me. Ultimately tightening his hold on me. Swiftly he turned me in his hold so my back was to his chest and held me tight against me.

“Quick Dimitri shove some down her back.”

“No,” I cried through my laughter. Struggling against Billy’s strong hold.

Billy held me tight as Dimitri gathered another snowball and advanced on me.

“I’ll kick you,” I threatened; though I think the laughter sort of dimmed my threat.

I did try to kick him as he came closer but it did nothing. Billy held me tight around the waist so I couldn’t escape as Dimitri pulled the back of my shirt away from me. Ice cold water started slipping down my spine making me squeal.
I struggled as best I could but between the two boys it was pointless and before I could help it I had several handfuls of snow melting in my shirt and slowly sliding down into my jeans. Unexpectedly Billy let me go and ran a few precautionary feet back laughing. As did Dimitri. I squirmed trying to get the snow out of my shirt.

“You both suck...so bad,” I groaned shaking out my shirt and feeling more snow fall out. Right into my shoes. Great, wet socks.

Without warning a loud crack echoed around us. I’d grown so used to the sound I didn’t even question it anymore. A gunshot. Danger. Forgetting the snow between my toes I flung around in time to see a group of men standing at the end of the street. Long barreled guns pointed in our direction. Thanks to the adrenaline everything seemed to slow down and my minds eyes assessed everything in seconds. At first I didn’t register the danger we were confronted with.

The men weren’t army. They weren’t any sort of uniform or distinguishing clothing. For a fleeting second I wondered if it was actually us they were shooting at or maybe there was something else I hadn’t noticed. That thought was quickly shut down when another bullet shot between us. Billy was the first to react. He shoved Dimitri in the back and grabbed my arm pulling me away.

We stumbled for the cover of a car as the shots picked up in cadence. Billy pulled me to the ground with him. The sudden force caused me to slip on the icy road. I slipped, losing my footing for a moment but quickly gathered myself. Not before smacking my head on something in the process. Neither of the boys noticed. They were carefully peeking over the side and the hood of the car.

“What the fuck is going on?” Dimitri asked crouching down as a shot broke the last remaining window in the car.

“I have no idea,” Billy replied quickly pulling his rifle off his back.

“What do we do,” I whispered jumping at the sound of the bullet entering the metal of the car.

Billy looked at me. A deep look in his eyes. “We kill them, or we run.”

Without another word he crouched forward and stabilized his gun on the hood of the car, instantly opening fire in the direction of those firing upon us. There was a break in there bullets. Maybe they hadn’t expected us to fire back, maybe they too were ducking for cover. Then within seconds the gunfire picked back up. This time Dimitri handgun added to the fray beside me.

I looked at him and the determined look in his eyes. None of us wanted to be here but we had to do something weather we liked it or not. I knew I had to help but my fingers were frozen at my sides and it had nothing to do with the cold. The gun strapped to my hip felt like it weighed a tonne. I’d fired a gun plenty of times but never at another human being. I didn’t know if I could do it. I didn’t know if I could even sit up. I was too much of a coward. I just wanted the others to keep me safe.

The from my right side came a cry that made my heart drop into the depths of my stomach. Apart of me didn’t want to look but I did anyway. Billy had fallen back from the force of the bullet that had entered hid body. He was quickly picking himself back up and pushed himself against the car. A stream of profanity escaping his mouth. My concern for him cut through my fear and I moved over to kneel low in front of him. I pried his hand off his shoulder where the blood flow seemed to be the worst.

As far as bullet wounds went it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The entry was clean and there didn’t seem to be an exit wound. It was also in his upper arm, cornering his shoulder. There was nothing vital there. But it did render him useless in our defense. He seemed to realize this and pushed me to his other side. Forcing the gun into my chest with his good arm. He didn’t need words to make his wish apparent.

I swallowed the hard lump in my throat, I couldn’t be a coward now. Carefully I positioned myself the same way he had by the hood of the car. Careful not to poke any part of my body to far over the hood of the car and into their line of sight I looked over. There was four of them. Two on the right, one taking cover in the middle and one of the left.
I could barely see the two on the right. The one in the middle was too well covered but the one of the left, the biggest one of them all looked a little exposed. I took a basic aim and pulled the trigger. Bracing myself for the recoil. I took the fact that I didn’t fall flat on my back as a good sign and fired again.

“Good shoot,” Dimitri grunted, sweat slipping down his brow.

At first I was confused until I realized the large man on the left, the one I had been aiming towards, was out of the picture. I didn’t know if he was dead or just injured. To be honest I didn’t want to know. I turned my attention to the two on the far right. I noted in the back of my mind the one in the middle only had a pistol, while the other two had rifles.
They were the bigger threat. The second I opened fire on them they ducked for cover. The guy in the middle also took cover as one of Dimitri bullets narrowly missed him. I took the few seconds to glance down at Billy and make sure he was still with us. Without missing a beat he pushed me with his good arm.

“Don’t stop shooting!”

I pulled the trigger again only to have nothing happen.

“Fuck,” I cussed under my breath. Reaching down for Billy’s discarded magazine.

I had a basic understanding of guns. Thanks to growing up on hunting trips so it didn’t take me much more than a few seconds to figure out how to eject the empty mag and reload the next. It all clicked into place and within a few seconds I had my gun aimed and ready.

I spotted movement was about to pull the trigger when I realized something wasn’t right. The men were gone. I couldn’t see them. But replacing them was a group of five soldiers advancing on us with high powered rifles aimed directly at me. They were wearing uniforms, Black as smoke, but they didn’t look army. Something about them made me refrain from firing.

“Put your weapons down.”

I glanced at Billy and Dimitri. Both Dimitri and I had looked to Billy. He was the oldest I guessed. We were looking to him for guidance. Billy glanced over the side of the car, swore and rubbed the sweat off his forehead. He formulated a plan for us in seconds. He reached for my arm first ripping the red band off my wrist and throwing it under the car. Hidden from view. Dimitri followed suit taking Billy’s with his own.

“We’re about to play the hopeless kids card real bad alright,” He said. His breathing heavy. “Hopefully if they fall for it we walk away. We have no one, and they started the fight. We were defending ourselves. We still have that right.”

“Last warning, Drop the weapons!”

I jumped and looked ahead. Three of the men had advanced around our side of the car. Pointing guns right at us. Watching the guns in our hands carefully. I glanced at Billy who nodded and carefully I dropped the gun and let it slide away from me. Leaving me defenseless.

The men watched us with calculating eyes and when we had nothing left to fight them with moved forward. Another two stepped forward, keeping guns trained on us while the rest advanced even closer. I was closest so they grabbed me first. I was forced onto my knees. Snow soaked into my jeans making the skin on my knees itch and irritate the scrapes there. The boys were given the same treatment.

“Hands behind your head,” One ordered.

Carefully I did what I was told. Reaching up to place my hands on the back of my head. Maybe if we co-operated we’d walk away. It was at this point they noticed Billy’s injury. I watched him wearily from the corner of my eye. He was hurting, badly. A fine sheen of sweat covered his face and blood streamed down his arm. When the first solider noticed this I had expect him to be cruel but instead his eyes softened in the slightest and he called another man over.

The second man kneeled before him and carefully started to study his arm. I watched intently begging inside myself for him to be gentle until a strong presence rounding the front of the car tore my attention away. He looked like the other men, in thick black uniform, but there was something about him. The way the others re-acted I assumed he was the leader here. He stood before us staring down at us lined up before him.

“Children,” He muttered under his breath.

His tone wasn’t condescending, surprised or confused. He said it like he was stating a fact. He lent down in front of me and picked up Billy’s rifle. He studied it raising an eyebrow.

“How do children get their hands on something like this?”

I couldn’t help myself. “Not like anyone’s trying to stop us,” I replied simply. And winced when I was struck from behind.

I expected more conflict but instead he smiled at me. “True,” he said and studied me for a moment. Whatever he saw there he seemed to like, or take as something important. Because he suddenly directed all the questions at me. “What are you kids doing out here?”

“Looking for food,” I replied quietly. “We aren’t doing anything wrong.”

“Grace,” Billy scolded through baited breath.

I ignored him. So did the soldier. “No I believe not,” He replied simply. “What we have a problem with is this fighting,” he kneeled down to my level. “You see, were here to promote some law and order.”

“What laws?”

“Grace!” Billy scolded again more forceful this time.

The soldier smirked at me. “The very few we have left to enforce, like the curfew and such. Also such a public gun-fight tends to attract our attention.”

“They attacked us,” I replied. “We weren’t doing anything wrong they just started shooting at us. It’s not against the law to defend ourselves”

“And hit him,” Dimitri added.

The solider started between us. I wondered exactly what it was he saw in us. Just a bunch of lost kids trying to survive. Or maybe he seen us for the renegades we really were. There was no doubt in my mind had Billy not thought ahead to remove our bands we would have been shot on sight. Without that sign we stood a chance. If we played our cards right.

“No it’s not,” he agreed. “But it’s my job to get to the bottom of this, see they say you started it and I also have someone hit on the other side...why exactly would these men want to hurt you kids?”

I heard the condemnation in his voice and knew exactly where this was headed. “I don’t know maybe they have some male territorial issue going on...we were just walking past. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

Before he could reply another voice spoke from behind him. A figure I hadn’t noticed. I had been to pre-occupied watching the man working on Billy’s wound and the man before me. Waiting for them to attack us without warning.

“I thought Cameron would have smacked that attitude outta you already Gracie.”

“Good god,” I sighed. “What did I do to deserve this?”

“Plenty by the looks of it,” Aiden smirked at me.

I looked up at him. Taking my eyes off the other soldiers for the first time. His hair was cut shorter than I’d ever seen it. He was wearing the same uniform the rest of the men were wearing. Task Force. I realized. I should have picked it before. He was smirking at me like he found this whole situation more amusing than worrisome. Against my better judgment I felt myself relax a little. Aiden wouldn’t let them kill me.

“Burns,” The leader said getting to his feet and glancing at Aiden. “You know her?”

Aiden nodded. “Sure do Sir. Old family friend and troublemaker,” He joked. I rolled my eyes. “Can I talk to you,” he asked.

The leader studied him for a moment and nodded as the speaker on his shoulder crackled. We sat in silence for a moment while he had a coded conversation with the crackle on the other end.

“Sure, one minute Burns.” Then he turned back to me. His face more serious than it had been.

“One last question for you, show me your wrist.”

“Why?” I questioned. Realizing exactly how lucky we really were.

He rolled his eyes with a smirk. “Precautions. Those men you were fighting seemed to think you were part of a troublesome group we’ve had issues with.” He glanced over us. “But I doubt it.”

I wasn’t going to correct him. So I let him pull the sleeve of my jacket up and check me for any signs of red. He didn’t seem surprised to find nothing on me or either of the boys. He went to turn around and walk away, but I quickly jumped in.

“What’s going to happen to us?” I questioned.

Waiting was the worst part. My mind was worse than any punishment they could think up. I needed to know exactly what they were going to do to us. I wondered if we’d be locked up or even killed. I doubted they’d torture us since they didn’t seem to think we were of any value.
He shook his head dismissively. “I talk to my superiors and we find out.”

I swallowed the hard lump in my throat and shot Aiden a pleading look. I wasn’t sure if he even seen it or not before he turned his back and walked away with the other man. We were left with the small group behind us. Making sure we didn’t move or break position. Every time my fingers even flinched I felt his presence behind me, watching that my hands didn’t leave me head and reach for a weapon.

I glanced beside me and watched the smaller man work on Billy’s shoulder. I didn’t know if this was a good thing or not. Why would they help him just to kill us? Maybe they just didn’t want us to bleed in their trucks and make a mess. This had been my first run in with a Task Force. I was yet to find out how they treated civilians. Or what they thought were civilians. I guess they had their good and bad like the rest of the soldiers.

I turned my attention back to Aiden when I could have sworn I heard my own name whispered. He was talking in hushed tones with the taller man. Occasionally they’d glance in our direction. Aiden was a charmer and could talk his way out of anything. I had faith that he could talk us out of this. But it wasn’t all on his shoulders liked I was hoping. It would all come down to the other mans choice.

Hopefully Aiden had some pull. I watched intently as the other man turned to look at us, glance back at Aiden once and walk over. Aiden trailing behind him, shooting me one of those trademark smiles. I took it as a good sign. The leader of the group, nodded over my shoulder and I felt the presence behind me leave. Slowly, cautiously I let my arms drop. No one stopped me. I didn’t even attempt to get to my feet just yet. I wasn’t willing to risk it that far.

“Consider yourselves lucky and get out of here,” He said firmly. I could hear the hesitance in his voice. “And don’t...get into anymore trouble because next time you won’t be.”

I nodded obediently and slowly rose to my feet as did the other boys. Dimitri lending his arm to Billy to help him up. The soldier had been able to stop the bleeding on Billy’s shoulder but it was still hurting him.

“Escort them out Burns,” The leader ordered. “Back here in Five to help me deal with the others.”

With that the rest of the group slowly turned their backs on us and walked away. Like we had never existed. I turned to Aiden.

“Thank you,” I breathed.

He smirked. “Lucky you got me hey.”

I wasn’t going to boost his ego anymore, I just shook my head. And glanced over at my injured friend. We had to get him back soon so he could rest. Slowly we started to walk away. Aiden’s eyes stayed on me.

“You just so lucky Grace,” He said seriously.

“Tell me about it,” I sighed. “Luckily Billy thought to dump the bands and you were there to talk us outta trouble.”

He nodded. “We know those other guys for starting trouble so that kinda helped me plead your case. There always picking fights with other groups. I just had to convince Dave you weren’t one of said groups.” He shook his head. “Wasn’t hard since he thought you were just a bunch of kids.”

I shrugged. I guessed we still were.

“Can I talk to you for a sec, Grace,” Aiden asked as we hit the end of the street.

The tone of his voice said, alone. I think we all picked up on that. I glanced at the boys. “You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up.”

Billy shot me a look but walked on. Dimitri trailing behind. Watching back over his shoulder. I caught the big brother feel all over again. I nodded them on. Telling them it was okay. They walked off slowly. But didn’t go far. I turned to face Aiden. He didn’t say anything, so I did.

“Those guys that attacked us,” I said. “You said they attack other groups?”

He nodded. “Happening a lot lately. Haven’t you guys had issues with them?”

“This is a first,” I replied. “Why?” I questioned more to myself than anyone else.

“Territorial,” He shrugged. “Lack of supplies is usually an excuse they give. Or...bounties.”

“Bounties?”

“There are good rewards for those who can prove they took out someone from a rebellion group Grace,” He explained. “Hell, you guys are at the top of the list. That’s what I mean Grace. You guys have to watch your back.”

I guess we should have expected this. Still it came as a surprise. I glanced over my shoulder to see the boys waiting for me. They didn’t go far, they were keeping a close eye on me and Aiden.

“Look Grace,” Aiden said bringing my attention back to him. He rubbed the back of his neck with the palm of his hand. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

It slipped out before I could help it. “Are you hitting on me?”

He choked on the air he was breathing. I smirked. “No...I just wanted to see if you wanted to catch up,” He laughed. “It’s been a long time.”

“I don’t know Aid,” I sighed. I’d promised Riley. “Dad might not let me.”

“Not even for me,” He said with that charming smile.

“Doubtful, you know what his like...it’s a thousand times worse now.”

He frowned. I felt sort of bad for letting him down. He used to be good friend even if he could be a pain in the ass. Not to mention I owed him something. Had it not been for him we wouldn’t have walked away so easily from the Task Force soldiers. I sighed.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I told him. “But don’t count on tomorrow.”

The smiled returned. “But I’ll count on you.” With that he nodded and turned his back on me.

Walking back to his men with a bounce in his step.

~ ~ ~

Jamison met us in the doorway. He had been on his way out the door as we entered the hideout. His eyes landed on me first. His eyes traveled over the bloodstains on my shirt. All from where I was helping support Billy on the walk home. He noted the grazes on my hands form the kickback from the gun. Then he seemed to note where the blood was coming from and the serious injury we were faced with.

“Jesus Christ,” He breathed. “What happened?”

“We were attacked,” Dimitri said.

I walked past and slumped down in the first place I could find. Suddenly feeling exhausted. Every limb and every movement felt too heavy. My shoulder felt like it had been ripped apart. I left my arm dangling at my side and my hand resting in my pocket. Dimitri and Jamison guided Billy over who was holding himself together nicely. He grunted as they sat him down. Jamison eyed over him for a moment before moving off the other room with quick feet. When he came back he was carrying his makeshift first aid kit and my father shadowing him.

“What happened?” My father questioned firmly. “What do you mean attacked?”

“We were shot at,” I stated as it were obvious. His eyes flickered to me for the moment.

“Army?” Jamison asked as he carefully pulled Billy shirt down to reach the already bandaged wound.

“No,” Dimitri answered. But was cut off.

“Who did this?” Jamison asked very carefully peeling back the bandage.

“Army,” I repeated.

They both looked at me with disbelieving eyes.

“Start from the start, what happened?” dad asked.

Slowly I started to run them throughout afternoon. From the distraction of snowball fights to suddenly being fired upon by a group of unknown men. Dimitri occasionally chipping in bits of detail that I missed. By the time I had finished telling them of our almost arrest by the Task force and Aiden talking us outta trouble. I could not pick a single emotion in my father’s eyes. He was staring straight through me.

“Well you walked away, that’s all that matters,” Jamison said tightly. Reapplying a clean bandage to Billy’s arm, Who he then ordered to go rest.

There was nothing more he could do for him now but keep the healing wound clean. I watched Billy walk away towards his bed slowly. I felt for him. He was in serious pain and I knew from experience. It wasn’t going to get any better anytime soon.

“Now give me a look at your arm Grace.”

“What?” I questioned stupidly glancing up to see Jamison kneeling before me.

“Your favoring your left side Grace, I can see your hurt.”

He smiled lightly at me and carefully took my right arm in his hands. I winced as my shoulder stretched out. Carefully so not to aggravate it any more he pulled the shoulder of my shirt down my arm to reveal the skin on my shoulder. I could already spot where the blood cells had burst, creating a large bruise. Already red and blue in colour. I could only assume it had been the butt of the gun smashing into me with the kickback. I hadn’t even felt it thanks to the adrenaline.

“Ouch,” Dimitri frowned.

“Not much I can do unfortunately Grace. Unless you want to go out and get some snow, we can bag it up and use it as an icepack of sorts. It might help take down the swelling and some of the bruising.”

I would have done anything to stop the ache. It was starting to hurt more and more. Carefully I slipped my hand back into my pocket and let my arm stay limp. No movement in my shoulder.

“I’ll do it for you,” Dimitri offered noting my useless right arm. I smiled lightly at him.

“No.”

We all turned to look at my father. His was finally looking at us instead of through us. That hard look still deep in his eyes. I knew we were in for it now. I had only ever rarely seen that look in him. It was protective, it was anger, it was a hatred for being rendered useless when it came to his child’s safety. The last time I had seen him like this had been a camping trip. We had been camping up in the Northeast Pennsylvania Mountains, in a small area called Big Pocono. We had been familiar to the area. Dad liked it so we often came here during the season.

One day dad, due to lame visibility, dad decided not to go hunting and so we all sat around the campsite. It didn’t take long for us to get bored, Leigh and I decided to take a hike. Our little sister, Kimmy, in tow as always. Knowing the area could well be teeming with hunters this time of the season Leigh grabbed the fluoro vests. It was practice amongst most hunters, not to mention just plain common sense, that if you were knowingly going to be in a hunting area to wear these sorts of things. Bright orange isn’t a natural colour. Especially not while predator hunting. So we stayed to the paths and considered ourselves pretty safe.

Still someone managed to mistake us as prey, even while wearing fluoro orange, and take a shot at us. It had been easy to tell this guy was an amateur hunter and had pretty much just shot at the first thing he seen move. What I hadn’t known at the time that dad had been following us. He had decided to tag along at the last second and caught up with us in time to find this man arguing with Leigh over who was in the wrong. That had been the first time I had ever seen my father like this.

The thought that someone had shot at his children and couldn’t even admit he was doing something wrong. I don’t think he would have cared if he had hit one of us. That hard look in my father’s eyes had been enough to scare the man off without further agreements. Needless to say he admitted his wrongdoing and took off before my father could even say a word. That day was all I could think about suddenly as I watched him in present time.

I could have sworn I felt the cold breeze coming off the lake on the back of my neck.

“No one goes out there,” He said. A fierce tone escaping with his orders. “Only when extremely necessary, and even then they’ll be heavily armed and in a group.”

Though I seen the flash of conflict in their eyes. No one wanted to argue the point with him. Not with the way he looked now. His left fist was wound tightly inside itself, it was shaking. Both familiar signs of frustration. My eyes flickered to Jamison, expecting him to be the one to diffuse the situation and tell him how stupid he was being.
What was the point of keeping us alive if he wasn’t going to let us live? Instead Jamison gave him a hard look, and looked away. He wasn’t going to fight him. I sighed to myself knowing I would be the only person who could get away with fighting this for everyone.

“Dad,” I sighed. Knowing full and well and well what I was getting myself into.

“No Grace,” He snapped instantly. “There is no arguing this.”

“You can’t keep everyone locked up inside dad,” I replied keeping my voice calm. One of us had to stay calm or this would go nowhere fast.

“And I won’t let anyone else get hurt,” he motioned towards Billy, who had fallen asleep already. “Or killed.”

“And you don’t think your being slightly unreasonable,” I argued. “We all know the risk’s that are out there. People just have to make that choice for themselves. There’s so many of us, we can’t all stay stuck in here all the time.”

“I will not risk the lives of these people Grace.”

“You seem to forget that’s their choice dad,” I said quickly, then stupidly added. “Technically I’m the only one you really has to listen to you.”

I seen a flicker in his eyes and realized the mistake I’d made. I swallowed, hard.

“Not that you do,” He muttered. “And you’re the one I worry most about. With all this sneaking out at night...you don’t think I’ve noticed?”

Honestly, he’d never brought it up so I thought I was getting away with it. Looks like I was wrong. I had done it again last night and thought I’d seen him move as I was sneaking back in. I’d written it off thinking he’d rolled over in his sleep. I kept my mouth shut not willing to bury myself in the hole I’d just dug.

“Not to mention you’re going to see a soldier! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”

I couldn’t help but defend him. No matter the consequence. “Riley wouldn’t hurt me.”

His fist tightened around itself. “You don’t know that.”

“I do. He hasn’t done anything yet, I don’t see why he would suddenly change his mind.”

“Do you have any idea what those people are capable of?”

“You don’t know him. He won’t hurt me.”

“I don’t need to. I’ve seen people like him pull girls younger than you off the street to rape and slaughter them!”

“His not like that!” I argued.

He took a step forward so he was standing over me. Typical of my father when he argued with anyone. It intimidated most people. But I knew better. There was nothing that would make him actually hit me. I knew I could trust him that much. One thing my father would never do was lay a hand on his children.

“You haven’t known him long enough to make those assumptions Grace.”

“I know him well enough,” I muttered loudly. More than my father wanted to know.

“Times are different Grace, you can’t just trust some boy....”

I interrupted. “Exactly, Times are different dad. It goes both ways.”

He fell silent for the moment. His eyes sharp and drilling into me. I didn’t back down. I returned his hard stare. I wasn’t going to give up seeing Riley for anyone. He’d become a comfort. A friend and maybe something more. And a lot of the time, the reason I stopped feeling so lonely. When he spoke again his voice was dangerously quiet. Enough so that the others on the side of the room, who I knew were watching, couldn’t hear. Only Dimitri and Jamison who sat beside us became witness to my scolding.

“If I catch you sneaking out ever again, there will be a serious price to pay...I won’t have you wandering the streets alone, especially that late at night. It’s not safe....”

I went to argue that we were safer at night than we were during the day but he cut me off.

“Do not interrupt me,” He snapped. “I don’t care what you say you don’t know the boy or what his capable of, even if he wouldn’t hurt you there’s nothing to say his army buddies won’t if they ever find you together. I mean it this time Grace...no more.”

I prickled. So badly I wanted to argue my point but I knew it was hopeless. There would be no arguing with him over this. But it wouldn’t stop me. Riley’s company meant too much to me. There was no punishment he could come up with that would stop me.

He waited for my retaliation and when none came he stared me down a while longer before turning his back and disappearing back into the room. The one Penny was resting in. He was spending a lot more time with her lately. I wasn’t all that pleased about it but there was not really anything I could do about it. I knew my dad. He’d keep his responsibilities to that baby, like he would for me.

I glared at the wall, the one he was on the other side of, while everyone slowly went back to their business. The show was over. I huffed and stood up heading straight for my bed and curled up inside it. I didn’t like getting in trouble as it was but to be told off in front of everyone like that was downright humiliating. I rolled onto my good shoulder and pulled the blanket up over my head.

My little sanctuary.