“Hello?” Nole called from within the confines of the trapdoor. “Suri! Valerie! Burt!” He didn’t care how silly he sounded for calling the dog. Things had gone from bad, to very bad. He was down one brother and two comrades, and now he was imprisoned underneath the floor of the complex’s ground level. If the meticulous Enforcers couldn’t find him when he was right under their noses, his chances of being rescued were slim with anyone else.

Repositioning his arms, Nole managed to bang on the metal edges of the four walls surrounding him. With the landlord in custody, I wouldn’t be surprised if this place was shut down, he concluded. It would only be a matter of time before I’m found.

He hit the walls even when arms got sore. Despite the pain, Nole couldn’t allow anyone else to take the fall for him, even if he was innocent in the first place. His determination kept him going, but the lack of air caught up with him. The lightheadedness prevented him from hearing the approaching visitor, but before he knew it, the scraping sound of the desk being moved gave him new vigor.

As soon as the latch of the trapdoor was lifted, a hand snagged the collar of Nole’s shirt and pulled him out of the box. He didn’t initially see who his savior was, but he didn’t care. “Thank. You,” Nole wheezed.

“What were you doing in there?” the chilling voice demanded. Nole whipped his head toward the speaker, as if the voice wasn’t already a dead giveaway. Zane stared at him, his eyes unsympathetic. It wasn’t obvious at first, but upon further inspection, Nole realized that Zane was a mess. There was dirt all over his skin and a few scratches covered his face and hands. The jeans he wore had a few gaping tears near the knees; one had a red outline, which Nole assumed was blood.

“Betty told me to hide in there,” Nole defended, still regaining a steady breathing rate. By the looks of it, Zane narrowly avoided capture by the Enforcers while he was out with Olivia. Although he was dying to know the details from Zane’s end, Nole decided it wasn’t the best time to be swapping stories. “She was arrested.”

“So they’re coming for us one by one,” he concluded, “because of you.” The icy glare unnerved Nole, not so much out of intimidation, but due to the words that accompanied it. Zane turned his back to Nole, inspecting the disarray of the room. “Where’s Valerie?”

“She ran off with Suri before the Enforcers swarmed the place,” Nole informed him as he rose to his feet. When he prepared to lift himself up, he realized he was still gripping the bag full of newspaper pages; a reminder of Betty’s goodwill.

“Did you see them get away?” Zane asked, walking about the room.

“What do you mean?”  

“How do you know they got away? Did you actually see them escape? They could have been captured outside without you knowing it.” His words were cold and calculated. Zane wasn’t afraid to bring up the worse case scenario.

“They would have no reason to apprehend them,” Nole argued. For some reason, he felt as if Zane wasn’t asking for his comrade’s sake. Nole could sense an ulterior motive behind Zane’s inquiry.

“You’re right,” Zane agreed, surprising Nole. “They might if they recognized your sister, but Valerie would have been smart enough to conceal her.” What he was saying was logical, so Nole didn’t understand the point behind Zane’s bringing it up. “So like you said, they would have no reason to apprehend them.” His tone took a chilling turn and his menacing gaze met Nole. “So what was the reason behind Betty’s arrest?”

Nole had fallen into the conversational trap. Zane had suspected something the moment he’d found Nole in the hatch, and now everything would be out in the open. He didn’t want to tell Zane the truth until Valerie was there to mediate between them, but it appeared as though he wouldn’t have that chance.

“She took credit for owning something of mine,” Nole shared nervously. He was just getting over the fact that he should have given her the file in the first place, and now he was being reminded of it. When he say Zane eying him suspiciously, he went on. “I got some classified information, and the Enforcers found it.”

“What was it?”

“I hadn’t read it yet.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“I don’t know exactly, but,” Nole trailed off, unsure how to word his answer. Unfortunately, Zane’s patience had run out. Without warning, he grabbed the collar of Nole’s t-shirt and stared him down.

“I’m sick of your scripted answers,” he snarled. The deathly gaze of his gray eyes was enough to tell Nole what was coming. The situation had escalated exponentially, and though Nole didn’t feel it was appropriate to fight, a part of him wanted to deal with Zane once and for all. With all of his problems, an unwarranted rivalry was the last straw.

“You know what?” Nole murmured, balling his hands into fists. “You’re not the only one who knows how to fight.” He clenched his hands around Zane’s grasp and buckled his feet, letting his weight bring both he and Zane down. Mid fall, Zane released his hold on Nole’s shirt, but that didn’t prevent him from stumbling. Not letting the opportunity pass, Nole delivered a sharp elbow to the side of Zane’s torso.

Although Zane was quick to anticipate Nole’s attack, he still received a square blow to his side. Nole watched from the floor as his enemy staggered backwards from the attack. Not letting him recover, Nole jumped to his feet and lunged for his foe, but Zane was too fast. In an instant, Zane side stepped the hurdle and wrapped his arms around Nole’s neck in one fluid motion.

Nole writhed around trying to escape Zane’s chokehold. He found his defensive punches growing weaker and weaker, until he didn’t even have the stamina to form a fist. Instead, he dug his fingers between his neck and Zane’s arm, desperately trying to undo the hold without avail.

His breaths turned into gasps, but Zane didn’t let up. Just before losing consciousness, he was released abruptly, falling onto the floor into a defeated heap. Massaging his windpipe, Nole coughed until a steady amount of air entered his lungs.

“Nole!” Suri’s voice rang nearby. “Nole!” He winced when he turned his head in the direction of her voice. Sure enough, she was in the room and by his side in seconds. “Nole!” she kept repeating, the tears rimming her eyes.

Valerie stood motionless in the corner of the room. She was looking down, her hand covering her mouth, and her shoulders shaking. Something wasn’t right. Nole turned back to his sister and wrapped an arm around her. Seconds after he’d hugged her, the dam burst. It pained him to feel her shaking in his arms, and he desperately wanted to know what it was that brought out such a reaction from not just her, but Valerie as well.

Stepping past them, Zane approached Valerie and said nothing. He stood at arm’s length, not even bothering to console her or ask what was the matter. After minutes of silent sobbing, Valerie finally choked out the words that brought the entire room to a stand still.

“They’re going to execute Olivia.”

Upon hearing the words, Suri became more restless. Nole held her firmly from his position on the floor and listened intently to Valerie. Even though he was hoping she’d misspoken, a gut feeling told him it was true. His body grew rigid as he processed the words. Olivia’s dead. They killed her.

“What happened?” Zane asked stoically. Seeing him so calm, unflinching to the news, infuriated Nole. Why was it that he could get so riled up when fighting with Nole, but when it came to his comrades, it seemed like he couldn’t care less? What made his behavior even more inexcusable was that he was pressing Valerie for details while she was in a vulnerable state.

“We saw her in a stopped patrol car,” she sniffled, answering his question. Zane shot his head downward so that he was looking at his feet and, although it was only from the side, Nole thought he saw him wince.

That’s right, Betty said that she’d sent both Zane and Olivia out together. The Enforcers must have seen them and recognized Olivia, he reasoned, making sense of Zane’s grungy appearance. “When one of the Enforcers got out of the car, we heard his radio transmission,” she choked out. “It was Chief Caswell ordering all units to Central Station.”

“She’s alive then?” Nole interjected, relieved. “She’s just a prisoner.”

“Caswell said they were detaining her for execution tomorrow morning.”

“What?” Nole snapped. “He can’t order that. She didn’t do anything. And even if she had, she hasn’t even gotten a trial!” Despite his attempts of making sense of the situation, he knew that no amount logic would reverse the news. The damage had been done.

“What about Betty?” Nole blurted out.

“Betty was…” Valerie gasped incredulously. An expression of utter dismay masked her face. He knew that expression all too well, Suri had worn it more than her fair share of times.

“That’s enough,” Zane concluded, shoving his hands in his pockets. Nole grew nervous as he watched Zane quietly saunter to the other end of the lobby. His tousled black hair draped over his forehead while he kept his head down. Although Zane’s calm, yet unfitting demeanor was refreshing, all Nole could focus on was the overbearing guilt piling on top of him. To make matters worse, Valerie collapsed to her knees and bawled quietly.

“No way,” Nole whispered reassuringly to himself. “They have no reason to kill Olivia. It doesn’t make any sense.” He didn’t know what was worse, being in denial or hearing the painful cries of Suri and Valerie. Wrapping the other arm around Suri, he kissed the top of her head. Although she was safe, he couldn’t say the same for his allies.

“Nole,” Suri moaned, her tears subsiding. “When the Enforcer’s had Olivia, they kept calling her ‘Vale’s accomplice.’ Why are they saying that?” Her glassy hazel eyes rested on him, waiting for a response. The remnant tear streaks painted her reddened cheeks and stray locks of hair stuck to her forehead and neck.

“She was helping me look for Caden,” he replied, meeting her gaze. “They still think I killed Murphy, so when they saw her with me, they might have presumed she was an accomplice.” He wasn’t entirely sure if Suri was still skeptical of him, but he told her the truth regardless. At that point, there was no point in lying; not after all she’d witnessed. “It’s my fault,” he admitted to aloud. Actually saying the words out loud devastated him.

“Don’t say that,” Valerie whimpered, the core of her kindness still intact. Nole knew her enough to recognize that she was unceasingly polite. It would have been easy to blame Nole, just as Zane had moments before, but she wouldn’t do it. The fact that she was sparing his feelings at the sake of her own added to his guilt.

He shuddered at the thought of Olivia suffering the same fate as Murphy. It crossed his mind that Betty would probably be given the same verdict. What surprised him was that he actually cared. After meeting them, Nole told himself over and over that he couldn’t trust them. They coerced him into working for them and kept him in the dark about the errands. Not only that, but they shamelessly defended the only person Nole suspected as Murphy’s murderer. All of these things had been red flags that they were bad people, the kind of people that he would fight on the street if it came down to it. When had things changed? Or had they? Had he been blind to their kindness all along? Saving him and Suri after being surrounded by the Pents, taking him in as a wanted criminal, offering to help find Caden. He looked over at the bag beside him, filled to the brim with crumbled papers. Even Zane, whom he detested, helped in retrieving Caden’s notes before they were washed away in the rain.

When witnessing Zane and Valerie crumble in their own way, he saw himself and Suri. Being separated from Caden was devastating them, and now Zane and Valerie were sharing that same misery.

“No one else,” he murmured. “No one else is dying. Not as long as I’m here.” Suri tightened her grasp on Nole, realizing his intentions. Pulling away from her slowly, he walked over to where Valerie sat, her whimpers lessening. “Valerie, listen,” he said, kneeling beside her. The puffy, tear-soaked eyes gazed up at him, their blue color strikingly contrasted against the redness around them. “I’m tired of running and hiding. I’m sick of them going after my family and... friends.” Her eyebrows went up when he mentioned his friends, and he wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw Zane look up as well.

“W-where are you going?” she asked when he got to his feet.

Before he could answer her, footsteps from the hallway caught his ear. Instinctively, he rushed over to Suri and stood in front of her, anticipating another Enforcer. To their surprise, it was a tenant.

“Tom,” Valerie greeted with masked happiness, “I’m sorry, but Betty’s not here right now.”

It took Nole a few minutes to realize, but when he saw the man’s gloved hands, he remembered encountering him on the first day he was at the complex. That day seemed like it was months ago, but he had a vague memory of Betty acknowledging the tall, blonde man in passing.

Tom looked at them sternly, not uttering a word. Nole glanced at Valerie and Zane in response to the visitor’s suspicious behavior, but they were unfazed.

“Did they take her?” he asked abruptly. His lips formed a thin line, accentuating the jowls on his face. Nole couldn’t wrap his mind around how laid back both Valerie and Zane were being. It could’ve been his overhyped sense of suspicion, but something was off about the man before him.

“She’s, well she’s…” Valerie struggled to answer the question.

“She was arrested,” Zane cut in. “What do you want?”

Without warning, Tom turned his attention to Nole. He crossed his arms and looked seriously at him, like a father ready to lecture his misbehaved son.

“You gave them Asteria’s file?”

Although Nole had suspected that something was off with Tom, he was still left speechless at the question.

“Who?” Valerie asked, but no one answered. Both Zane and Suri were silent.

Who is this guy? Nole ran through all the possibilities in his head, but only one stuck out.

“You’re in Asteria’s gang,” Nole reasoned.

“What? You’re in a gang?” Valerie asked, shocked. She took a step back, and Zane took one forward.

A dirty look was thrown Nole’s way by Tom, seemingly for revealing his identity.

“Answer the question,” Zane ordered menacingly. Despite his wounded appearance, Zane readied himself as if he were in top condition. However formidable an opponent Zane was, Tom’s burly physique told them he was a force to be reckoned with.

“Zane, wait,” Nole advised.

“Are you in a gang?” Zane seethed, ignoring the warning. Nole could tell he was being both overly cautious and irrational. 

“By the city’s definition, I am,” Tom responded stoically.

“Which one?” Zane wouldn’t let up.

Tom glanced at Nole before answering. Unfolding his arms, Tom pulled off the glove covering his right hand, revealing a red Para tattoo.