Isolation , Jones, Nathan [top 20 books to read TXT] 📗

be too much for her, after everything she'd been through already.

Sure, he was angry, but the guilt for how he'd failed her was crushing every other emotion. So yeah, he was seriously considering taking Gorstrom's offer. Not only that, but being a model prisoner or worker or whatever so he could maybe reduce his time served.

A commotion of soldiers, accompanied by medics carrying a stretcher, passed by their cage. It turned out to be Larry, pale and weak from the wound Jay had given him, but apparently even so not exempt from arrest; the medics carried him into the cage next to the one Chet and Ben had been shoved in, carefully laying him down.

For a minute or two they fussed over the wounded man, checking his vitals and making sure he was comfortable. All the while Chet did his best not to glare at the soldiers, while for their part they kept a wary eye on the prisoners in the cages around them.

Then the soldiers and medics strode away, to whatever had them so busy, leaving Larry to look around at his new prison with a slightly dazed expression. Then his eyes fell on Chet and Ben through the chain-link between them. “So you guys got scooped up too, huh?” he said with a bitter twist of his mouth.

“Yeah, for complete BS,” Chet growled. “They can't prove we did anything, but we're still here.”

“What about you?” Ben asked. “I'd ask what you did to end up here, but it's not exactly a mystery.”

“Says the guy who lit houses full of sleeping people on fire,” Larry snapped, then grit his teeth around an apparent surge of pain.

“Hey, we didn't know you had-” Ben started to reply furiously.

Chet cut in before they could start a pointless argument. “Come on, we've put this behind us.” He didn't think he'd ever like Larry, or trust him, but the big man had taken a bullet helping them. That had to be acknowledged. “How you doing? The move cause you any trouble with your wound?”

Larry grunted. “Nah, not too bad. You saw how careful they were.” He scowled. “I'm more worried about the fact that they arrested Liza too, but she's not here.”

“I'm sure she's fine,” Chet said, feeling a sudden spike of concern for Aimee; there was no reason she would've been arrested, but she still must be worried sick about him.

“Yeah,” Ben said, grudgingly getting over his sudden pique. “They probably have rules about separating male and female prisoners. I bet she's here somewhere.”

Larry clenched his fists angrily. “They shouldn't have taken her in the first place.” He looked away. “I'll admit my part in what happened, and I'm willing to do what it takes to make it right. But she never did anything but try to convince Jay to leave you guys alone. She doesn't deserve this, especially not after everything she's been through.”

Chet believed the big man, but he knew a lot of people in Stanberry and the camp wouldn't make that distinction. Many had never forgiven the two Wensbrook defectors for being with Jay, and the guard Starr had continued to keep on the pair was as much for their own protection as to make sure they didn't cause trouble.

No doubt plenty of people would be happy to make sure Gorstrom thought Larry and Liza were just as bad as Jay himself, and deserved the harshest punishment possible.

Things didn't look good for the two.

“So they gave you your deal?” Ben asked, apparently thinking along the same lines.

Larry snorted bitterly. “Ten years, with reduced time for good behavior. Beats the multiple lifetime sentences they were hanging over my head if I refused.” He grimaced and motioned weakly to his side. “Although I'll probably spend the first few months sitting in some cell recuperating before I'm strong enough for them to put me to work.”

“Well, you're in good company,” Chet said, sinking down onto one of the two cots in the cage. “We were on the right side of the fight, and we still got five years.”

The wounded man's expression tightened slightly at that, but he let it pass. “Maybe we'll end up working in the same place,” he said wryly, then sagged back on his cot, obviously exhausted.

They fell into glum silence after that. It was probably a good five minutes later when Ben abruptly nudged Chet sharply in the side, and he looked up to see Aimee making her way down the row of cages, accompanied by a soldier.

For a moment his heart dropped and he feared the worst, that she'd been arrested too. Then he remembered that none of the cages in sight had female prisoners, and she was making her way directly towards his cage. From her posture, and the soldier's, he was escorting her, not guarding her.

Aimee caught sight of him a moment later and cried out, then rushed the rest of the way to the cage as he quickly stood and stepped over to meet her at the fence, clutching the chain-links between them.

“Thank God, honey,” she said, doing her best to grip his fingers through the fence. “I had no idea what was going on when they took you. I was afraid I'd never see you again.”

Chet winced, thinking of the five year sentence hanging over his head. “I'm okay, they just brought us here and shoved us in this cage, then left us alone.”

Aimee glanced back at the nearby soldier, now lounging nearby looking bored, then lowered her voice. “This is about that trip you took to Wensbrook, isn't it?” Anger had joined worry in her tone as she said that; she'd never approved of him going down there and starting those fires. In fact, it had probably put more strain on their relationship than anything he could think of.

Chet hung his head, unable to meet her eyes. “Yeah.”

“I'm guessing you don't think it was such a good idea now?” she pressed.

Off to one side he noticed Ben fidgeting uncomfortably. “No,” Chet said glumly.