PRIME by Samantha Boyette Read Free Book Online Page B

like she should check on him, and the doctors wouldn’t be in for another hour or so. She was as alone as she could get. She let her mind wander toward Simon. The mention of Haven had brought him screaming up from the far corners of her mind.
    Simon was really the only family she had. Their dad had been useless after their mom died. He hired a nanny for the first three years of Simon’s life, but after that he was Alice’s responsibility when he wasn’t in day care. She made dinner, she made sure he had a bath, and she tucked him into bed. Their dad wanted nothing to do with him. Back then, Alice didn’t understand why. As she grew older, she realized their dad blamed Simon for their mom’s death. They moved to Haven base when Simon was three, and for the next ten years their dad buried himself in work, and booze. It never got too bad. He never hit Simon or anything, most of the time he only ignored him.
    Sometimes though, after a night of heavy drinking, their dad would say the nastiest things to Simon. ‘You’re worthless’ that was his favorite, always said in a slur. Alice did her best to keep Simon out of their dad’s way when she knew he’d been drinking, but sometimes it was impossible. The worst part was Simon worshiped their dad. It seemed like the more mean their dad was, the harder Simon worked to please him. Alice knew it was a bad situation, but for a long time there had been no way out of it.
    As Simon grew older, he and Alice became closer. She was like a mom to him, and Simon adored her. She happily let him follow her and her friends around. Year after year, Simon grew into a fun, intelligent boy. Alice liked to think he got a lot of his personality from her.
    Her clearest memory of Simon was the heartbroken look on his face when she told him she was leaving for an internship. He’d been happy for her of course and knew it was best for her career, but he was not happy she was leaving. If he’d been younger, she wouldn’t have left. It was only supposed to be for three months though. If it turned into a full time position, she planned to move Simon to live with her. Their dad probably wouldn’t have even noticed.
    Then Prime hit. The world went crazy overnight and the bases were shut down, no one in or out without prior approval. When her dad told her Simon was sick, she’d broken down, crying for over an hour. Right then, she’d known that she’d lost Simon.
    Alice became aware of the tears on her face only as she heard the door open. She wiped quickly at the tears; she didn’t want Grace or the others to see her cry. She turned to face whoever it was, ready to smile widely, but faltered when she saw Cale step into the room. He gave her a half smile. She was sure he had used the same smile to get more than one girl into bed with him. He had a good ten years on her, but wore it well. Cale nodded toward Zero.
    “Friend of yours?”
    “That’s Zero,” Alice answered, turning back to the window. “Keep your voice down. He needs to sleep.”
    “You been crying?” Cale stood beside her, leaning on the window. He cocked his head and peered at her.
    “No.” She waved him away, but could feel the tears coming again because of the concern in his eyes. It seemed so honest. She wiped again at her eyes, willing herself not to cry.
    “Hey, it’s okay.” He put a gentle hand to her back. “We all got plenty to cry about.”
    That did it; the tears began to flow silently. Alice wiped at them almost as fast as they fell. “I’m sorry for acting like this,” she choked out. “I usually have more self-control.”
    “Oh, hell.” Cale shook his head. “Come here.” She tried to hold back, but couldn’t resist being pulled into his arms. They were warm around her, and as he began to stroke her hair she wrapped her arms around him in return. She hadn’t realized how much she missed the touch of another person. “See, it’s not so bad.” He soothed. Alice began to laugh through her