Read Online The Last Girl by Joe Hart - Free Book Online Page B

takes out the window and chews a piece of gum to quell the hunger that’s built upon itself over the last hours. She should’ve eaten something. Simon was right. Again. She chews until the flavor is completely gone before swallowing the stringy lump that is slowly dissolving on her tongue. She applies the last of the ointment to her bruised neck and face before lying back on her bed with the copy of Monte Cristo , reading in the dim light cast by the bulb built into the wall beside the headboard. The book seems to breathe the word that’s been floating through her mind for years now. At first it was insubstantial and fluttering, like the wings of a moth disappearing into the night. But now it is a pounding insistence that won’t disperse no matter what she tries to focus on.
    Escape.
    She comes awake to a sound, only then realizing that she had fallen asleep. The book is splayed on her chest, open to the page she stopped reading on. The light still glows beside her, the calendar minutes away from a new day.
    Someone is standing at the foot of her bed.

4
    Zoey inhales, a shriek building in her lungs, but the person steps forward, letting the light wash over his smiling features.
    “Lee,” she hisses.
    “Hey.”
    “Don’t hey me, you ass,” she says, flinging her pillow at him before standing up. He catches it, flinching in a mockingly hurt way.
    “You think I’d get a warmer welcome being in here for what, the fifth time ever?”
    “I knew you were going to try to get in, I just thought I’d hear you.” She eyes him. “How do you get in? Do you pick the lock?” The brightness of Lee’s smile is only rivaled by his intelligence. Already he’s found solutions for several issues regarding the ARC’s mechanical maintenance that had baffled some of the best workers. It’s rumored he’ll be the head of the department before he’s twenty-two.
    He shakes his head, coming closer. His true grin is back, and she can see he’s pleased with himself. “Told you before, I gotta keep some secrets from you.” Lee stops inches away and gazes at her. His hand runs down her arm, leaving a trail of tingling warmth in its wake, before he grasps her fingers gently. The urge to lean fully into him, to press herself against him, is powerful, though the thought both thrills and frightens her in equal measure. Lee seems to sense what she’s thinking and tips his head down toward her. His eyes flit to the book she holds in her free hand, and she glances at it before returning his gaze. “Where did you get that?”
    “I . . .” I found it. Someone must have dropped it. “I don’t know,” she says. “It was left for me.”
    Lee steps back. “Left for you? By who?”
    “I don’t know, it was just in my room one day.”
    “Zoey, you can’t have that, it’s too dangerous.”
    “Why?”
    “Because that’s contraband. And whoever left it is probably trying to set you up, get you punished.”
    “My room’s been inspected and they’ve never found it. Besides, you’re telling me you haven’t seen a book before outside of the NOA texts?”
    He falters. “Well, no. But . . .”
    “So you’re saying you’ve seen them but never read any?”
    His jaw works. “No, I’ve read a few, but—”
    “So they’re available to the men?”
    “Yes, there’s quite a few in a room attached to the guards’ dorms.”
    “But I’m not supposed to have one, is that it?”
    “I’m just worried that you’ll get caught, that’s all.”
    “Don’t worry about me,” she says. She sets the book on the covers. “I can take care of myself.” She strides to the window and looks out at the wall. Lee sidles past her bed, careful to keep out of the sniper’s view.
    “Zoey, I’m sorry. You know they’re not my rules. If I could choose, you’d have as many books as you want. You wouldn’t be locked up in here, either. But I’m not in charge, not yet anyway.” She watches his reflection in the window. He’s fidgeting