Break Free The Night (Book 2): Loss of Light by E.M. Fitch Page B

him.
     
                  "Why didn't they open the door?" Kaylee asked her father. He was already done and had placed his plate back on the tray in the center of the room.
     
                  "Well, they did, to give us the food," he hedged. Kaylee heard Jack snort behind her and she turned to give him a stern look. He went back to his food.
     
                  "It wasn't Marsden, it was that girl Maggie again," Andrew explained, lounging back on the bed next to his father's. "She said she had to check with him first. He's probably just not gotten around to getting up here yet."
     
                  Andrew seemed unconcerned, Nick too. The rest were finishing breakfast but in no particular hurry. Jack was the only one who was unsettled. But it made sense, he would be the one most worried about Quinton.
     
                  Kaylee moved to sit next to him. He was scraping his plate clean with the spoon. "Better?" she asked.
     
                  He frowned but didn't answer.
     
                  "At least they're feeding us," she offered, shrugging.
     
                  "I didn't ask them to feed me," he said, throwing her a look before staring back at the door. "I can feed myself, and you too, but I'd need to be out of this cage first."
     
                  Nobody argued with him, but they all looked indifferent, eying one another and then choosing to ignore Jack's sour mood.
     
                  Nobody was indifferent three hours later.
     
                  "Hey! Hey!" Andrew was shouting through the door. No one was answering though. No one had answered in the past hour. Jack wasn't even trying at the door. He had stalked about the room looking for a way out, for a flaw in the room's structure, checking and rechecking the window, the bathroom, examining the ceiling. There was nothing though, short of attempting to blow out the lock by shooting at it, but even Kaylee knew that was a terrible idea. They had no way of knowing how much fire power the rest of the occupants of The Mill had. They had no way of even knowing how many occupants there were.
     
                  "This is pointless," Andrew finally said, shoving away from the door and pacing the length of the room.
     
                  "So why bother?" Jack muttered. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, stroking the handle of the gun he had out and next to him. Andrew threw him a scathing look.
     
                  "Marsden's trying to make a point," Bill said from where he was propped up on his bed. He was completely back to normal now. Except for his hands. Kaylee hadn't noticed it before, but there were blackened marks from where Bill had grabbed the electric fence, they drew her eye every time he gestured with his hands, black streaks across his palms. "He's trying to tell us that he's boss."
     
                  "Pretty insecure, if you ask me," Anna mumbled from face down on her bed. "No one was challenging him."
     
                  "After this I might."
     
                  Kaylee huffed and threw a pillow at Jack's head. "Don't be a pain. If he's trying to rile us up, it's certainly working on you. We've been fed, you still have your gun, there's blankets and it's warm-"
     
                  "And a bathroom," Emma interrupted.
     
                  "The nicest prison is still a prison, Kay." He said it gently but Kaylee felt the reproach regardless.
     
                  "I know, but it's not permanent. It's a test, a stupid one, but fine. He wants to be the boss, he wants to show us he's in charge. Let him. Get all worked up and he wins."
     
                  Kaylee hated playing games with people. She always had. And that was what Marsden was doing, playing games. So fine. She wasn't going to let him get to her. Quinton was fine,