Read Online Rebel Nation by Shaunta Grimes - Free Book Online Page A

back to the ranch, it’s going to be awkward for West. Uncomfortable for a while, you know?”
    â€œWest loves her,” Clover said.
    â€œI know he does.”
    Clover curled around a pillow, so that her head was near Jude’s hip, but not quite touching him. He brushed a piece of her dark hair from her forehead, then kept his hand on her head. She liked constant pressure. No light, moving touches. She exhaled and he felt her relax.
    He’d gone without any family at all since the Company took his brother, Oscar, when Jude was thirteen years old. And now he had her. He wasn’t even sure how that had happened, but he knew he couldn’t let Bennett get his hands on Clover again.
    She moved her head under his hand, so that her cheek was against his leg, and within a few minutes she was asleep. She never had a problem falling asleep, no matter what was going on. Half an hour later, he had finally spun through enough scenarios of how they would get out of the city and who would come with them that his brain screamed for sleep. He looked at the pallet he’d made on the floor out of the sofa cushions and started to ease away from Clover.
    â€œJust stay,” she murmured.
    He slipped down so he was lying next to her and she curled against him, her head on his chest. How was he ever going to keep her safe?
    â€”
    Are you sure?
    Jude looked over Clover’s shoulder at West’s question. The decision to leave the city again, for good this time, came the night before, but it still felt fragile to him.
    He couldn’t stop thinking about Tim and Wally and David. The three boys were fast asleep when he and Clover reached the Dinosaur again just after dawn.
    He couldn’t get Tim’s sister, Laura, out of his head either. He didn’t even know how she’d died. Their house parents were the worst in Foster City. Worse even than Jude’s house father had been, and that was saying something.
    â€œAre we sure?” Clover asked him.
    They sat side by side on the bed in Jude’s room, the computer between them. Jude nodded slowly. “I am. Are you?”
    Clover? Jude?
    â€œI miss him,” she said. “I miss all of them.”
    Jude watched the cursor blink behind his name. “So do I.”
    â€œThat’s not a good enough reason to go back,” she said, softly.
    â€œIt’s not the only reason, Clover. You know it’s not.”
    We’re sure
, Clover typed.
    Okay. What’s the plan.
    The plan was for West and Christopher to be at the place where the wall bridged the river—on the outside. They’d bring blankets and dry clothes and be there to help Jude, Clover, Tim, Wally, and David, plus whoever else they could save from Foster City, make it out.
    We’ll be at least a dozen
, Clover typed without looking at Jude. They’d gone rounds on the walk to the Dinosaur over whether to tell West ahead of time that there would be more kids than he expected. Clover finally won when she pointed out that they wouldn’t all fit in the van.
    We said six, including you and Jude and Bridget.
Jude could almost hear West sighing through the wireless connection.
    A dozen or so
, Clover typed.
    Jude pulled the computer toward him before West could respond to the “or so.”
Leanne knows about you. We don’t really know what that means. You guys have to be careful. For all we know, she’ll have the guard out there waiting for you.
    We will. Clover?
    She leaned over and typed,
Yes?
    I’m sorry things didn’t work out there the way you hoped they would.
    She hesitated, her fingers hovering over the keyboard for a minute, then typed,
What about Isaiah? Should we bring him?
    There was a long moment of silence, and Jude was sure that West and the others were talking.
    I don’t know
, West finally answered.
You guys will have to use your judgment. I just don’t know.
    After they logged off with West and put the computer and