Allegiance by Shawn Chesser Read Free Book Online Page B

and in less than
twenty-four hours—if Mister Murphy didn’t intervene—she would be getting her
wish. For better or for worse, she and her family would be together without
extraneous forces poking their noses in where they didn’t belong. In a
nutshell, the whole wide world awaited them outside the wire.
    Finished with her breakfast ,
Raven dropped the spoon and looked up at her mom.
    With a coffee mug
clutched in a two-handed death grip, Brook stared blankly into space.
    Wearing a devilish grin,
the bored twelve-year-old waved a hand in front of her mom’s slack face.
“Hellooo... anyone home?”
    The words had no effect.
Pulling out all the stops, Raven conjured up her best hypnotic-sounding voice,
regal and high in tone, and said, “When I snap my fingers, you will let me eat
as much candy as I want.” Raven tried her best to snap her fingers but it was
one of the many grown up abilities she had yet to master.
    Brook snapped out of the
daydream on her own, directed a quizzical look at Raven, and then slowly and
methodically glanced over her left shoulder and then her right.
    “Why were you staring at
me?” Brook whispered.
    Suppressing a smile,
Raven answered coyly, “No reason, Mom.”
    Brook cocked her head,
thought about something for a second, and then let it slide. “Let’s go then.
We’ve got family business to attend to.”
    She extricated her legs
from under the low-slung cafeteria table. After all the meals she had taken
here, the place still reminded her of elementary school—minus the sloppy Joes
of course. What she wouldn’t give for a steaming, greasy, tangy tomato sauce
and ground beef slathered hamburger bun. And a cold chocolate milk—real—not
powdered. Salivary glands kicking in, she rose and shouldered her M4.
    With Raven in tow, Brook
arrived at the door at the same time a pair of civilians entered. A redheaded
girl, who was talking a mile a minute, came through two steps—and a mouthful of
uninterrupted words—ahead of the twenty-something male. He wore a military-style
boonie hat jammed low over a shock of bright red hair.
    Brook recognized Wilson
immediately—he was the kid who had driven the Dakota truck during their
foraging mission south of Colorado Springs. And because she was still
embarrassed at how poorly she had treated him that day, she tried her best to
avoid eye contact. Don’t look over here, do not look over here, she
chanted in her head.
    Seemingly heeding her
telepathic command, Wilson glanced at her weapon and kept his eyes downcast.
Meanwhile, like a monkey on Red Bull, the teenager chattered on.
    Raven stepped aside to
make way for the redheads.
    Home free , Brook thought as the pair passed by on her
right. Then, as if in slow motion, his gaze flicked up and met her brown eyes.
    Her stomach clenched.
    He stopped abruptly, and
like he had run into an old, long lost friend blurted out, “ Brooklyn Grayson ...?”
    She nodded and felt the
blood drain from her face.
    Raven scrunched her brow
and shot her mom the universal look that said, Who in the hell is he?
    “It’s me... Wilson! ”
he exclaimed. With an explosion of scarlet hair, he took off the boonie hat and
repeated himself. “ Wilson ... and how have you been, Missus Grayson?”
    “I’m fine...” she lied.
“This is my daughter, Raven.”
    Silence.
    “Where are your manners, Raven ?” Brook uttered through clenched teeth.
    Raven faced the tall
young man and answered shyly with a forced, “Hi.”
    “Hi Raven, I’m Wilson.”
    “You said that
already... three times.”
    He winked at Raven, then
motioned towards the redhead girl on his left. She was half a foot shorter than
he and trying her best to avoid the introduction. “This is my little sister, Sasha,” he said.
    “ Wilson ,” she
cried. “Did you have to say it that way?”
    “Hi,” replied Raven, who
by now was warming up to the idea of meeting the strangers.
    Brook smiled and offered
her hand. “I’m pleased to meet you