Love Among The Ruins-Chapter 116

NADINE’S P.O.V

There was complete silence from Solomon and Sam the next day and I wasn’t sure if that worried me or not.

I tried to focus on other things, tried to keep my attention on training and just having a quiet day, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, that we were just waiting for the next shoe to drop.

There was a knock on the door sometime around noon. I’d just stepped out of the shower after training and was in the process of braiding my hair down my back when it came. I knew it wasn’t Rowan. He was out with some other people.

I grabbed my dagger, holding it firmly in one hand before slowly making my way over to the door.

The knocking got more intense and I exhaled deeply before pulling the door open. I held out my dagger, keeping distance between me and the person at the door when I heard a high-pitched yelp.

"What the fuck, Nadine?" Joshua hissed.

It took me a second to register that the voice belonged to him. I hadn’t seen him properly in days. He spent most of his time holed up with the other tech people. Most times, I only saw him at dinner, and even then, he’d be too involved in his work to have a decent conversation.

I let my hand with the knife drop as I took him in carefully. "What are you doing here? And why the hell were you knocking on my door like I’d stolen something from you?"

"Is anyone inside?’

"No, but-" He pushed past me, not even bothering to listen to what I had to say. "Joshua!"

"Something is wrong."

It wasn’t what he said, rather, it was the way he said it. He didn’t sound confused or suspicious, no, he sounded scared and worried, and that in turn worried me.

All complaints I had bled away and I dragged him over to the couch.

"Speak."

"I was going over the files again and the system we’d use to send out the message to the bunkers and I realized something."

"What?"

"Haven’t you ever wondered how they have such sophisticated equipment here?"

I hesitated for a moment before shrugging. "I hear Solomon’s family owned this entire community. They must be loaded."

"Yes, but where did they’re money come from."

He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and slid it over to me. I glanced at him with a raised brow, but he only gestured for me to open it.

I hesitated before doing so, unfolding the paper slowly. There wasn’t anything written inside of it. In fact, it looked like it was torn out of a book or something. It had a little logo on it. It was a snake curved into the number 8.

"Should I recognize this?"

"No, but I do. I’ve seen it before. This logo was on the tanks that Trent used when we were exiting the first bunker. It was on the inside, it was etched on one of the walls."

I looked at the logo again. It seemed so unassuming. It was very unlike anything I’d ever seen before, so for Joshua to say he’d seen it before, chances were that he knew what he was talking about.

"You think Solomon is working with Trent?" I asked and he shrugged.

"It would explain why this place is never attacked. What if they have some kind of deal?"

"Where did you find it?"

"In a drawer. It was just lying there."

"And you’re sure it’s Solomon’s?"

He opened his mouth to speak but fell silent almost immediately. "I don’t know. It could belong to anyone. It was just lying there. Fuck, I don’t know. I didn’t know who else to come to. What do we do?"

"For now? Nothing."

I folded the paper and shoved it into my pocket.

"He could be leading people to their deaths."

"Yes, but we don’t have proof, Joshua. They could say that either you or me planted it. For now, we just act like we don’t know anything."

"Do we tell Caine and Amy?"

"Not Amy. She loves it here. The last thing I want to do is ruin something good that she has going for her."

He pursed his lips, but nodded

I watched him run his fingers through his hair with a deep sigh of frustration and honestly, I didn’t blame him. I felt the same way.

"We should-"

Another knock on the door cut me off and I turned to Joshua, silently asking if he was expecting someone, but the pure confusion on his face told me that this wasn’t for him.

I started to rise but he stopped me. With one hand wrapped around the weapon he strapped to his side, he slowly made his way over to the door.

He opened the door a little and for a moment, I couldn’t hear a thing. I heard whispering but that was it. His body blocked the door as well so I couldn’t see who was behind it.

I kept a firm grip on my own weapon, ready to spring into action if need be when Joshua turned to me and pulled the door wide open.

"We’ve been summoned," he explained to me. "They’re waiting for us at the fountain."

"Just us?"

He shrugged.

I rose to my feet and followed.

It wasn’t like there was much I could do. They’d sent three men to get us. If that wasn’t a show of strength, I had no idea what was.

As we got closer, I realized that Rowan was already waiting there. He sat in a chair, his hands crossed over his chest as he stared down Solomon who stood opposite him.

I’d expected more people around, but excluding Rowan, Caine and I, the only other people there were Jennifer, Amy and two males I’d never seen before.

"What’s going on?" I asked as we got closer. "You didn’t need to send your guards to drag us here like prisoners."

"No, I didn’t, but it was effective, wasn’t it?"

"Why are we here?"

"You got your wish. You’ll be going back to the bunkers like you wanted."

"We?" Rowan asked and Solomon smiled.

"You get the chance to create your own team of guards. You get two people each."

"You expect six people to save an entire bunker filled with people?"

He shrugged. "You wanted the quest so badly. You’ve got it. You leave in two hours."