came toward me. Her brown eyes searched over me—the cuts and blood—then she handed me a tissue.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I glared. I fucking glared at the bitch. But then I saw something shift in her eyes. It wasn’t pity. She wasn’t gloating.
It looked like understanding.
Adelita started walking away. I looked out of the window nearby. At the darkening sky. “You ever feel like your life isn’t your own?”
In my peripheral, I saw Adelita turn. When I met her eyes, the tears in them made my heart fucking stop. “Yes,” she whispered, that whisper slicing right through my fucking chest. “I know exactly how that feels.”
I stared at her. She stared at me. Bumps started breaking out along my skin, and I turned away. I forced myself off the wall and stormed back into the room. I slammed the door, then stood against the wood.
I ignored the pounding of my heart.
I pushed her tears out of my mind.
I refused to move until I had.
The sun came up, “I know exactly how that feels” still running through my mind, her tissue still in my hand.
Chapter Four
Adelita
Two years ago . . .
The air in the car was so thick I found it hard to breathe.
I was too aware of Tanner. Too attuned to every move he was making. Before seeing him last night, hate toward him governed my every thought. My every movement. Yesterday’s confrontation played on a loop in my mind. Him hovering above me. The taste of him in my mouth: tobacco and smoke. But seeing his father attack him last night in the hallway . . . seeing Tanner standing there, refusing to fight back, had done something to that hate. It had dulled it somehow. Started twisting it into something that felt like sympathy.
Sympathy for the Nazi prince.
But it clearly had done nothing to dilute Tanner’s hatred for me. From the minute I had seen him this morning, more contempt than usual seemed to radiate off him toward me. His eyes were glacial as they met mine. His body was more rigid when he was close to where I stood. And his lips were tighter, like he was fighting back wicked words he wanted to throw my way.
And now I was trapped in this car with him, thanks to my father . . .
“Take Tanner with you tomorrow, Adela. Show him the people we provide for, who have jobs because of us. The local people who make us who we are.” My heart beat a staccato rhythm as my father and William Ayers nodded to one another like it was a good idea. The factory workers. I was to meet with the factory workers tomorrow, and the children in the village’s school.
I didn’t look at Tanner, even though he was right across from me. I hadn’t looked at him once since our presence had been requested at dinner. We’d been left alone for most of the weeks they’d been here. It was pure bad luck that tonight, after what had happened beside the pool and then in the hallway, had been the night my papa wanted us all together. Everyone was simply ignoring the state of Tanner’s face. Like he wasn’t sat with a bruised and wounded face and bandaged hands. It seemed Papa and Governor Ayers’s deal was almost complete, so there was no need to acknowledge anything that would put the deal in jeopardy.
But they’d be back. And they’d be back soon. The deal was going to take a lot longer to hash out.
I opened my mouth to speak, but Tanner spoke first. “I think it’s time I sat in with you, Father. I want in on the meetings. I should be. Enough of leaving me out.”
Governor Ayers’s jaw clenched at Tanner’s request. I was surprised Tanner was being so confrontational, especially since his bust lip and nose were only a couple of hours old. “Nonsense,” he said curtly. “The deal is almost done.” He glared at Tanner for a few awkward seconds, as if he was giving his son a warning with his eyes. “Go with Adelita tomorrow. See the workers.” I could tell by his tone that it wasn’t a request.
Tanner’s eyes dropped from his father to the chicken on his plate, but anger seeped from his taut muscles . . . muscles that, only hours ago, had kept me trapped beneath him.
“Then it’s settled,” Papa said. “Tanner will accompany you tomorrow before he and his father leave. It will be good for you