Free Escape (Alliance Book 1) by Inna Hardison

there, in that look. Recognition. But she didn't know her. She didn't know any fair headed fair eyed people but Brody, and Brody was gone.
    She picked up the key and pointed it at the door, as good a sign as any that she needed to leave, but the girl didn't move. Instead, she ran up to the desk she was standing behind, and said, "Riley... That's the name of my friend," and then she ran with her kit through the door, too fast for someone without a voice to stop her.
    She plunked down in the chair. She wanted to run after the girl and ask her, ask her everything. The girl knew her Riley. He could be here somewhere, hiding in this giant compound, injured. She could help him. She was trained in this sort of thing. Nothing scared her anymore, not even someone's insides spilling out of their belly. She could certainly take anything that just called for some pain meds and a tube of HealX.
    But the girl was long gone, and she was still wearing her slave-band, so she couldn't get very far within the compound without them knowing where she was. Even if she were lucky enough to find the girl again, to recognize her amidst so many girls that looked just like her, she'd never get away with it. And if she was his friend, and he was actually here, she might put him in danger. The girl. She will tell him. She looked around her desk, just now realizing that the pad she wrote her name on was gone. She took a bit of her with her, her handwriting. But Riley wouldn't know her handwriting now, if he ever knew it at all. He was far too young to worry about those things then. Far too young to worry about anything. But worry he did.
    The day Brody's parents were gone, he insisted they walk every block of every street in Waller, looking for them. He'd walk into the shops and the pubs and abandoned apartment buildings. He'd ask total strangers if they'd seen his friend's parents, just like that, "Excuse me, but have you seen my friend's parents anywhere? We are looking for them now. So if you see them, please tell them to come home. My friend's name is Brody. Thank you. Thank you so much." He did it for days, and she tagged along. She had to. It was too heartbreaking for him to do it alone, and Brody wouldn't talk to anybody then. He stayed locked up in his room, letting nobody in, not even Riley. He knew they were gone. At the age of six, that kid just knew. And it damn near killed him.
    Nobody could get him out of that room, until that uncle of his showed up and didn't ask him anything. He just packed up his stuff and moved him, just like that. And then Brody was Brody again, only his wisecracks had malice in them at times. She'd hear him say something truly mean and cringe, but she couldn't chide him. The kind of mean she thought he was when he made Riley cry like that when he brought him that bug he killed...
    She'd heard rumors a few years ago that he went to some big city on one of the few X-planes that still flew. He saved and then sold everything he could to get on it, and when he got to where he was going, he rented a room, and shot himself through the head. She never believed it. She didn't think Riley ever believed it either, but that's what they said about Brody. And if he had done that thing, with Riley hurting so bad, she'd never forgive him.
    The girl brought all her Riley memories flooding in. But she also brought hope, hope that Riley was still alive and close by, close enough for the girl to know him. And these girls didn't get to know boys until after the selection, which was still 62 days away. Those boys, too, wouldn't be Zorin-born. They'd be fair-headed, light-eyed boys that never quite seemed to grow enough hair on their chests to turn into men. And then it hit her, the thing that she should have thought of so much earlier... Drake. Drake was guarding the damned compound. He'd know. He was a mute too now, if he was here, but it didn't matter. If her Riley was here, Drake would know.
    She put what little dust she collected off the