The Benders by Katie French Read Free Book Online Page B

anger and I hate that. Anger means we’re still fighting. Sadness means…it means we’re giving up. “I won’t let them take you.”
    “You don’t have a choice,” Nessa says, her voice flat.
    “Let her go and I won’t fight you,” Clay says, his shoulders sagging. “Ethan, too.” Nessa smiles, removing the gun from my temple and holstering it. “I have no intention of doing anything to them.” She walks over to Clay and takes him by the arm. “Into the Jeep.”
    He nods. She takes his wrists and snaps on cuffs.
    It’s all so awful I can’t even speak. Kimber holds my arms tight, but I writhe against him. “Clay!”
    He lifts his eyes to me. “I’ll go with Nessa for a while. If it’ll mean you’re safe, there’s no harm in being apart for now.” He smiles sadly. “You’ll be okay until I can get to you.”
    “No!” I shout. “Don’t leave. There has to be another way.” I turn to Nessa. “What’re you gonna do with him?”
    She smiles again, but says nothing. Instead she leads Clay into the Jeep and straps him in. He sits forlornly, looking at us as she walks around to the driver’s side.
    Kimber tugs me back sharply. Beside me, someone’s yanking Ethan away. A man stands with burlap sacks and handcuffs. They begin cuffing Ethan.
    “Stop!” I scream, fighting, kicking. Someone backhands me in the ear, dizzying my vision, but I keep struggling. “Leave him alone.”
    “Hey!” Clay calls, pulling against the seat straps. “You said you’d let them go.” He looks at his mother with hurt and disbelief.
    Nessa smirks, arching an eyebrow. “I did. The warden has other plans.” She starts the Jeep with a deep rumble. Clay’s screaming and tugging against his handcuffs, but I can’t hear what he’s saying. I look between him and Auntie and Ethan, who’s being dragged away from me. How could this have happened?
    A rough burlap bag slides over my face, plunging me into a stuffy, muffled darkness. I thrash and kick and get two solid punches to my kidneys.
    I scream and scream and scream.
    Arms drag me forward and I’m shoved into a hard surface and up into what seems like a truck bed. It’s even darker here and the air feels thick and stale. A van? A hand shoves me in. I collide with something soft. A body. It grunts and shoves back. The van doors slam shut. An engine starts.
    This cannot be happening. I push up to standing, but the van takes off and I fall, landing on another body that kicks at me until I roll away. Panic blaring in my head, I push up to my knees and scoot to where I think the van doors are. When I find them, I bang my shoulder into the solid metal over and over. They took everyone—Clay, Ethan, Auntie. They’re gone. I slam my knee into the door with a dull thunk . The pain seems right somehow, like it’s the only thing keeping me sane. How could I have let them split us up? How could I have been so weak?
    Ethan. Where is he? Does the warden have him? And Clay’s with his insane mother who’ll take him back to the Breeders’ hospital. I still don’t know if Auntie is alive. Oh God, it all happened so fast. Now they’re gone.
    The van bumps over a pothole and slams me sideways into the wall and another body. Who are these people? My first thought is girls being taken to the Breeders. I shiver, returning to that awful nightmare. At least I’d be near Clay, but it won’t do me much good if I’m unconscious in the Plan B room with a mutant baby in my belly.
    I fold up into a ball, my head blaring. It’s hard to breathe inside the burlap bag and crying makes the air thicker, but I can’t help it. I sob for Ethan, for Clay, for Auntie, for my mama who died so that Ethan could live. What would she say if she could see me now?

CHAPTER FOUR
Riley
    I wake with an urge to pee that’s so strong I think I’ll wet myself if we hit another bump. Slowly I uncurl, but in the dark it’s hard to know which end is up. Every inch of me aches from sleeping on the rough