With Dauntless Abandon

Chapter 9

He laces his fingers with hers. "You brave, stupid girl," he says, his voice somewhere between exasperated and enamored, harsh and gentle. "Someday, I want to be like you."

~~~

"Hey Uri, can I ask you something?"

He smiles at her as she finishes wrapping up the tattoo on his arm that she just cleaned.

"Who is Zeke?" She points to his tattoo, and the smile falls from his face.

"Zeke is my brother."

"I didn't know you had a brother."

"Yeah well... he ran away from home a long time ago, when he was sixteen and I was fourteen."

"Why?"

He shrugs. "I don't know. I mean... we weren't exactly well off, but mom and Zeke and me, we had everything we needed, you know? After dad... died... he and I got really close. He used to tell me everything, you know? But then, one day he was just gone. I didn't see him again for a long time, and when I did, he smiled at me like he didn't leave us wondering whether he was even alive. I was so mad... but I love my brother more than anybody."

"I know the feeling," Tris tells him with a small smile.

"So you do," he says thoughtfully. "Then you know how I felt when I found out he was running with Dauntless."

"You asked him to quit."

"He grinned at me," Uriah responds, rubbing the bandage after Tris finishes with it. "He said 'just you wait, baby bro' you know... like I hadn't been waiting... he said that he was coming into some big money soon, and that he would pay to get out of Dauntless and that then he would buy mom and me a house anywhere we wanted.

"I saw the news three days later. My brother, busted in a robbery gone bad. Ezekiel—Zeke 'Rock' Pedrad, Dauntless gangbanger, and one of only about five people from Dauntless that has ever been convicted of a crime—including Four, naturally."

She raises an eyebrow. "You brother went to prison?!"

"Where do you think I go every Wednesday that makes me close up shop?"

"But visiting is..."

"Yeah. Well. Visiting is whenever you want if you make the right arrangements, as well you know." She flushes bright red, and he laughs. "Don't get all shy, Short Stuff."

"Is that why you didn't want me to be with Four?"

He nods, frowning. "I... I know I was sort of a jerk about it when you told me, but I really... I mean, it ruined my family. He left us to join them, and it was just... I didn't want them to ruin you, too. I didn't mean to be an ass, I swear. I just don't want you to end up as fucked up as my family is now. I don't want you to be worse off than you were before."

Tris smiles. "I'm going to be even better than I was before. I promise."

"I'll hold you to that, Short Stuff."

~~~

"So he says what exactly?" Will asks.

"He told me the whole story. You might have to clarify stuff with him but he told me everything, from the very beginning."

"Talk," Will says with a smirk.

Tris draws a breath and begins to speak.

~~~

"I met Lynn at a party I crashed because I needed the food. She was, uh, working, though, so we didn't really talk much. But she introduced me to Eric and Rock and all of them, and they all welcomed me like they'd known me all my life. We talked and laughed and I ate well that day, and I even got my first taste of beer and stuff. I didn't see it back then, but I know it now. Eric was testing me, watching me like a piece of meat, to see how I would fit in, to see how I would respond to their dares, to their jokes, to their drugs... their drugs never appealed to me. But their friends did. I went with them everywhere, because they had freedom and joy I had never experienced before in my life.