“Tell her!” he said, exultant.

“Cooper… he did it like we… planned,” Vale got out between huffs, managing a faint smile. “He walked up. They came out… with guns…”

Clarke waited for her to catch her breath, trying to be patient.

“But they saw that he was unarmed… so they lowered them,” Vale said.

Clarke exhaled.

Vale glanced at Paul. “I wasn’t close enough to hear what they said, but they listened to him and they opened the door and walked with him into the building. No cuffs, no violence. So far, so good. Now I guess we wait to see what they say.”

Clarke felt her whole body tingle in a waterfall of relief. She drew a breath to thank Vale, but before she could get the words out, Paul lunged for her and wrapped Clarke up in a hug so tight, it lifted her heels off the ground.

“It’s working,” he said into her ear, then planted a kiss on her cheek. “We’re gonna get them back.”

As Paul turned away to clap a hand on Vale’s back and lead her toward the heart of the campsite, Clarke wiped her cheek dry, fighting a shudder that was partly nerves, partly something new.

He’s just an enthusiastic guy, she told herself. He got caught up in the moment.

She felt eyes on her back and turned to see Bellamy watching her with an inscrutable expression.

There came that stabbing feeling again, a sharp pain that started between her ribs and bloomed into something that would destroy her if she let it.

She wouldn’t let it.

She blinked back at Bellamy, chin high, and walked away.

 

 

CHAPTER 22

Bellamy

Bellamy’s body felt as if it was full of glass shards. His arms were aching, his wrists raw meat, his spine wrenched crookedly against the metal beam that held him. But none of that compared to the pain he felt watching Clarke turn her back on him again.

Bellamy had been watching Paul this whole time. He wasn’t the cheerful team player he pretended to be. He was a manipulative snake who had his eyes on Clarke.

I need to warn her, he thought, before remembering that Clarke was no longer his responsibility. She’d made that much clear.

He longed to watch her as she walked away, but Bellamy forced his eyes into the forest instead, holding them open so everything became painfully sharp and bright, his emotions taking a backseat to the stark realities before him.

In the forest, something moved—a person. Bellamy tensed; then he released a breath. Luke stepped out from behind a tree, lifting his hand in greeting.

Bellamy nodded, then glanced over at Jessa. She was meant to be guarding him, but instead the two of them had been trying to figure out a way to enact his plan. Jessa gave the area a quick scan, listening for voices—Paul, Clarke, or Vale—approaching. Satisfied they were alone, she beckoned toward Luke, who tiptoed over and crouched next to Bellamy.

“How you bearing up?” Luke whispered.

“Oh, I’m just great.” Bellamy tried for a shrug, but his arms wouldn’t move that far. “This is how I spend all my Saturdays.”

Luke grinned briefly before his face fell serious again.

Bellamy swallowed. “Did you find it?”

“I did,” Luke said, his eyes flashing bright.

Bellamy sat up a little, wincing from the pain in his back. Luke reached out to help adjust him, but Bellamy shook his head, handling it himself.

“I left just after Cooper and Vale,” Luke went on in a whisper. “Felix relieved me at my post and told Paul I’d gone to rest in the campsite. Cooper and Vale didn’t notice me trailing them. I waited until Cooper caught the raiders’ attention and then I went to where you told me. I found the ammunitions store quickly… maybe too quickly. Bellamy, they’re bound to notice it’s caved open soon.”

“I know,” Bellamy said darkly. “Did you go in?”

“I thought I’d wait for you,” Luke said with a smirk. “I’d hate for you to miss all the fun.”

“Okay,” Bellamy said, the gears in his mind finally starting to whir back to life. “Who’s guarding me tonight?”

“If it’s not Jessa, we’ll make sure it’s Jessa,” Luke said.

At the mention of her name, Jessa glanced casually over her shoulder, flashing a quick blink of acknowledgment. Bellamy smiled grimly back.

“We’d let you go now, man, if we didn’t think it would sabotage the rest of our plans.” Luke sighed.

“I know,” Bellamy said quickly. “I wouldn’t want you to. And anyway, free range of arm motion is hugely overrated.”

“You’ll need to limber up fast once we spring you tonight, though,” Luke said dryly. “We’ll need every set of arms we can get.”

“Who have we got?”

“Me, you, and Felix,” Luke said. “Jessa’s going to stay behind to keep them from stopping us.”

“Why would they care?” Bellamy asked. “We’re not going to interfere with the negotiations. This is just a… backup plan.”

He heard low voices behind them again, over the wall in the campsite. Paul was offering Clarke food, cracking jokes about his foraging skills, and she kept trying to change the subject back to next steps.

Next steps. Diplomacy.

Bellamy swallowed around a pit in his throat.

They weren’t doing nothing, exactly, were they? Plan A was moving forward. Clarke still held out hope for a peaceful resolution. Was she right? Was he being reckless, after all?

Sensing him waver, Luke leaned forward. “We’ve got a good shot here. And a really short window for it.”

Bellamy shook his head, thinking. “Cooper got inside, though, unharmed. Vale said so.”

Luke snorted. “That just means these bastards have one more of us locked inside their compound.”

“But what if it means more than that? What if ”—Bellamy nodded behind him, unable to say her name—“their plan is working?”

“Then we’ll still have taken away all the munitions in the meantime. We’ll have an even greater advantage… a bargaining chip. Win-win, right?”

“Right.” Bellamy frowned. It was strange. The whole journey here, he’d pictured Octavia’s and Wells’s faces as clearly as if they were standing right in front of him, begging him for help. But now that he had a plan, all he could see was Clarke, the hurt in her eyes last night, the expression on her face when he drove her away.