UnDivided Read Online Free Page A

that it wasn’t so secret after all. The memory of the Graveyard takedown is still a fresh wound in his soul. He had fought tooth and nail—valiantly, some might say—but in the end, the Juvenile authority won and sent hundreds of kids to harvest camp.
    Kids just like the ones who now occupy Sonia’s basement.
    Connor knows it’s crazy, but he feels he somehow let these kids down too, that day in the Graveyard. As he descends behind Risa, he feels apprehension and a vague kind of shame that just makes him angry. He’s got nothing to be ashamed of. What happened at the Graveyard was beyond his control. And then there was Starkey, who double-crossed him and flew off with his storks in the only means of escape. No, Connor has nothing to be ashamed of . . . so why, as kids begin coming out of the basement shadows, can’t he look any of them in the eye?
    â€œDéjà vu?” asks Risa, when she hears him take a deep, shuddering breath.
    â€œSomething like that.”
    Risa, who has already spent a few weeks helping Sonia, knows all the players down here. She tries to smooth the way for Connor. The kids are either starstruck or threatened by his presence. The resident alpha—a tall meatless kid named Beau—is quick to urinate on his territory by saying, “So you’re the Akron AWOL? I thought you’d look . . . healthier.”
    Connor’s not quite sure what that means, and the kid probably isn’t either. While Connor could make an enjoyable pastime of challenging Beau’s bogus sense of testosterone supremacy, he decides it’s not worth the effort.
    â€œWhat’s that you’re holding?” asks an innocent-looking thirteen-year-old who reminds Connor a little bit of Lev, backin the days before Lev grew his hair long and got jaded.
    â€œJust an old printer,” says Connor. Grace chuckles at that, but doesn’t speak of what she knows. Instead she goes around introducing herself and shaking hands, even with kids who would prefer not to shake hands with anyone.
    â€œAn old printer?” says Beau. “Like we need more junk down here.”
    â€œYeah, well, it has sentimental value.”
    Beau hmmph s dismissively and saunters off. Connor suppresses the urge to stick out his foot and trip him.
    Connor sets the printer down on a shelf, knowing if he treats it with too much care and attention, the smarter kids will figure something out. Right now, the fewer people who know about it, the better. At least until they can figure out a way to let everyone know about it.
    â€œThey’re good kids,” Risa tells Connor. “Of course, they’ve got issues, or they wouldn’t be here.”
    Regardless of how much he loves Risa, he can’t help but bristle a little. “I know how to deal with AWOLs. I’ve been doing it for a long time now.”
    Risa takes a moment to take an all-too-invasive look at him. “What’s bothering you?” she asks.
    And although he still hasn’t gotten a handle on it himself, he finds that his gaze immediately goes to the shark tattooed on his arm. The last time he was in this basement, that arm was part of Roland. Risa catches that gaze and, as always, reads him better than he reads himself.
    â€œBeing down here might feel like we’re back where we started—but we’re not.”
    â€œI know,” Connor admits. “But knowing that and feeling it are two different things. And there’s a lot of . . . stuff . . . that being here brings back.”
    â€œBeing here?” she asks. “Or being home?”
    â€œAkron isn’t home,” he reminds her. “They might call me the Akron AWOL because it all went down here, but it’s not home.”
    She smiles at him gently, and it melts at least some of his frustration. “You know, you never actually told me where home is for you.”
    He hesitates, as if