Resistance (The Institute Series Book 2) Read Free Page B

which direction he goes.
    I grin, relaxing my stance. “Oh Chad. I’m so disappointed in you.”
    “Not as disappointed as I am in you,” he says.
    “What? What did I do wrong this time?”
    “You weren’t ready for me. I should never have been able to get you on the ground. You’re lucky I didn’t knock you unconscious.” He steps forward, touching his hand to the back of my head where it slammed onto the ground. “How’s the head?” he says with a slight smile on his lips.
    I sigh, and move away from him. He’s right. I wasn’t ready for him. I was too distracted by the playground, reminiscing about my childhood, and unarming myself by putting my hands in my pockets. My head hurts from my fall but I’m not going to admit that.
    “I still had you.” I smirk.
    “You got lucky,” Chad replies in his serious, ‘I am your trainer’ voice. “So how did today go anyway?”
    “Funny thing happened. The Johns family have seemed to have disappeared.”
    “Well, that’s a shame. I wonder what could’ve happened to them,” Chad says, a knowing smirk crossing his face.

Chapter Two
     
    “So, they arrived safely?” I ask.
    “Setting up house at the compound, as we speak,” Chad replies with a triumphant smile. I can’t help but return it. I saved them, we saved them.
    “I wish I could’ve taken a photo of everyone’s faces when they realised Licia and her family were gone.” I laugh.
    “I would’ve paid to see that.”
    “Well it’s not like you didn’t have the opportunity. You could have, had you stayed working as an agent for the Institute,” I say, trying to hide my annoyance with him.
    “And leave you, with him ? That wasn’t going to happen,” Chad says, sitting down at the base of the oak tree next to us. Anyone from the outside would misconstrue what Chad just said as jealousy. It’s not. Anytime he’s come close to admitting any sort of feelings for me, he covers it up by blaming it on his cousin. “I promised Tate I’d protect you.” Yup, right on cue.
    I don’t want to have this conversation again . Chad decided to disappear from the Institute and is annoyed that I chose to stay.
    When Chad turned himself over to them after Tate was arrested, his plan was to get Tate out. They were going to train as agents and then disappear together to the Resistance compound out west, but Tate wasn’t okay with that plan. He decided to stay where he was. After all, he found me in the Crypt, maybe there would be others he could find. Others he could help escape.
    From what I’ve learnt over the last three months, the Resistance is an activist group fighting for equal rights and the disbanding of the Institute. Chad and Tate were recruiters for them, that was, until Tate was arrested. Chad successfully recruited my best friend Ebbodine, not long before I was sent to the Institute. Everyone thought she was dead. She’d disappeared without a trace and no one had any idea where she could’ve gone. I didn’t know she was Defective. Then again, I didn’t even know I was Defective. I’ve only seen her once since I joined the cause. Actually, I’ve only seen everyone who was there that night once, except Chad.
    That whole night is still a bit of a blur, starting from when I first woke up on the hard ground in the middle of a forest.
    Trees surrounded me, only giving partial view to the stars and sky above me. Cicadas chirped loudly in my ears.
    My mother leaned down, gently brushing my cheek with her hand. She said… something, but I couldn’t make it out.
    “What?” I croaked, my voice hoarse.
    “Welcome to the Resistance,” she said, her voice calm and soothing.
    “The what?” I said, confused.
    I tried to stand, pushing my mother out of my way, but I was wobbly on my feet.
    Chad was suddenly at my side. “Sorry about that. I didn’t want to drug you but we knew you’d put up a fight, scream, and probably wake up Drew,” he said, wrapping his arm around my waist and holding me