Free The Thrust by Shoshanna Evers Page A

families. But if you get out of line, there will be consequences.”
    “Okay.”
    Lanche frowned. “What?”
    “I mean . . . yes, sir.”
    Evan swallowed hard and tried to remember that he hadn’t just made a deal with the devil. It only felt like he had.
    At least now, he’d have more freedom to move around. To get intel. And when the time came, he could be Barker and his crew’s man on the inside.
    But where were they?
    Were they even coming back for him, for Annie? For everyone?
Letliv, Connecticut
    CLARISSA
    Clarissa and Jenna sat side by side, with matching stamps that had taken a day of painstaking labor to make by hand. But now, at least, the work of printing the pamphlets was quicker.
    Kids in the town had gathered up thousands of the pieces of paper dropped by the UN helicopter, and bushes of blueberries went toward making the valuable ink.
    “How’s it going at Trent’s place?” Jenna asked her, pressing the stamp carefully onto the back of one paper and setting it aside to dry.
    “Pretty good.” Clarissa focused her attention on stamping so Jenna couldn’t see the blush warming her cheeks, but her friend could tell by the tone in her voice.
    “You guys had sex!” Jenna exclaimed triumphantly. “Wheee! Was it good? Did he rock your world?”
    Clarissa laughed. “Yes, yes, and yes, thank you very much.”
    “I thought he was hot from the moment he put me on the pavement and frisked me,” Jenna said. “Absolutely doable. Tell me everything.”
    “I can’t!”
    “Oh come on, I tell you everything about Barker.”
    Clarissa set aside another paper to dry and shook her head. “I don’t ask you to, though. You just can’t keep details to yourself.”
    “Were you able to jump on him and take control, like I suggested?” Jenna asked. “Or is he the dominant type?”
    “Ummm . . .” Clarissa laughed and raised her eyebrows. “I’m not kissing and telling. Besides, he’s still not over his wife. And it’s not like I’m all there, either. I think about Roy a lot. And I worry about Evan, and Annie.”
    Jenna nodded sympathetically. “Okay, that’s to be expected. But you enjoyed it, right? Or was it just a repeat of how you felt when you were with Roy?”
    “Something about Trent just washes away my fears. I feel really . . . protected when I’m with him.”
    “That’s good,” Jenna said. “You deserve to feel safe.”
    “Thank you.” Clarissa quieted, pushing away bad memories. “We need to get all those women off the Tracks. Get them here, where they can be safe too.”
    “Hopefully these will work,” Jenna said, stamping another paper.
    “If we can get close enough to Grand Central to distribute these, then we’ll be close enough to get Annie and Evan out, don’t you think?”
    “We can’t get them out first,” Jenna said. “Without them on the inside, how will these papers get circulated?”
    Someone, Clarissa realized, was going to have to sneak back into Grand Central. After everything they’d gone through to escape that hell, someone would have to go back in.
    The soldiers were looking to kill Barker and Jenna. After the shootout where Roy got killed, surely Lanche had seen her firing on them. So they’d be looking for her, too.
    How would they get in?
    “Trent could do it,” Clarissa said. “They don’t know him there. If we gave him one of the uniforms, maybe he could get in.”
    “He’d need help,” Jenna said. “Trent wouldn’t know where to go, what to do. And he’d be so focused on getting Annie out he might be more of a hindrance than a help.”
    “I wish I could go with him.”
    “Not with that hair of yours,” Jenna said. “You stand out like a redheaded stepchild.”
    “Yeah, I actually am a redheaded stepchild, thanks.”
    “It’s not a safe idea, Clarissa. You could get killed.”
    “None of this is safe,” she said, gesturing to the men still out in the field, training, and the papers strewn around them. “We’re not doing