Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 124341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
The hopeless ones were the worst, yet he wasn’t sure why.
Sam thought of Amon, of the look on his face as he raised his hand and shot at Sam. His eyes had held anger, but he’d seen the hopelessness there too. And the resolve.
What Sam still couldn’t understand was what the job had been and why Amon had seemingly shot at random children. Had he fouled up the job on purpose? Because what he’d done could not have been a mistake. Get out of my way.
Sam had been sent to kill too, but not like that. His targets had always been singular and precise. And never young children.
It’s not for you to understand. Follow orders, and do not question.
How often had those instructions been reiterated?
The program would send someone to kill him now. He’d questioned. He’d failed to follow orders. But most unacceptable, he’d intervened in an operation, whether it was one the program member had botched or not.
They don’t know where you are.
Even if his description was being broadcast on the news, he was only here by total happenstance.
No one else on earth would have helped him. Only her.
She’d followed him. She’d recognized him. Remembered him.
Only because she was there, at that schoolyard, was he safe.
There was something…astonishing about that. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. But Sam wasn’t good at wrapping his mind around things anyway. He hadn’t been taught to be a thinker. He’d been taught to be a doer. He’d been taught to follow orders.
He shut the water off, stepping from the shower and using the towel hung on the bar to dry himself off.
“Are you okay?”
His gaze went to the door, and his lips tugged again. She was attentive, he’d give her that. Because it’s her job.
No, it’s not. She did this willingly.
She’d put herself at great risk. He wasn’t worth it, so he’d leave as soon as he was able to travel and allow her to go back to her life. Away from the mess she unwittingly fell into because she followed you.
Out of habit, Sam had parked on a side street unlikely to have cameras and tried his best to travel down the streets in a way that would avoid most public surveillance on the way to the location of Amon’s job, Deercroft Academy. But for obvious reasons, he hadn’t been able to be as mindful on the way back. He had to hope, though, that if they’d been caught on camera, it was only briefly, and there was no way for the authorities to identify either of them.
Do you trust her? Do you trust her not to turn you in? He paused, thinking about that for a moment, because it was an important consideration. If the police captured him, he’d go to prison. Not only because of the shooting he’d run from but because he’d done terrible things…yes, at the direction of other people, but that wouldn’t matter to the authorities. They’d convict him. They’d study him, which he could not allow. That would be even worse than being killed by the program. Because “studying him” meant hospitals. It meant doctors and labs. Maybe surgeries against his wishes. Sam would rather die.
He’d enjoyed his first taste of freedom working on the apple farm, and he wasn’t sure that he’d found happiness…exactly…but whatever it was, it was as close as he’d ever known. As far as Autumn though…yes, yes, he did trust her. Not only because she’d also been involved in helping him escape the scene of a crime but because he’d lived in her mind almost half of his life. He’d breathed her thoughts. He’d used the words from her journal to ease his suffering. He’d pondered the gentleness of her heart perhaps even more than she had. She was wrapped around every beautiful thing he’d ever noticed in the world. And for a man who’d been trained to commit ugly, gruesome acts and who’d seen so much depravity, that was magic to him. She was magic. And if it turned out he was wrong about trusting her, then he wouldn’t need to kill himself, nor would the program. That realization would do it for him.
He wrapped the towel around his hips. It was too small, and he tugged it as best he could, tucking the small available portion of corner into the waist before exiting the bathroom.
She was standing a few feet from the door, and she rushed forward, obviously meaning to help him. But he raised his arm to let her know he was capable of walking back to the bed. However, the movement caused the corner of his towel to come untucked, the too-small piece of terry cloth falling to the floor.
Autumn came up short, and for several beats, they stared at each other across the very small distance before her eyes drifted downward, her gaze halted between his legs before Sam had even thought to cover himself.