Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“OK.”
“Why would you agree to that?” Amon asks, clearly not OK with this.
“Because, Amon, I like her. We were gettin’ to know each other. And I don’t like this.” I point to her, all hunched up and rocking in the corner. “She needs support, not abandonment. I don’t know what she’s been through, not the details, but it doesn’t take much imagination to fill them in.” Now I look at Collin. “This is a desperate hour. Maybe her most desperate. She needs someone who gives a fuck.”
“I give a fuck,” Collin growls at me. “But you were there. You saw what she did. The only reason I’m alive right now is because my gun misfired. Which is some kind of fuckin’ miracle because I clean that gun twice a week. It doesn’t misfire. So yeah, I give a fuck. That’s why she was in my house to begin with. What if Lowyn had stayed home with her today? What if something happened to Lowyn?”
Lowyn is his woman, I guess. I don’t know her, so I just don’t have the same feelings about it as he does. I would not say I know Olive, either, but I think I understand her. “I get it,” I tell Collin. “I’m not saying you don’t give a fuck, I’m simply saying that I might give a little more.”
“Why?” Amon asks. And he’s snarlin’ at me now. “You said you just met her.”
“I did. But…” I let out a breath and look right at Collin. “Look, we’ve been intimate. It’s been building up to it from the beginning. It hasn’t been a casual thing, OK? There’s a connection here.”
“Yeah, it’s some brainwashing thing,” Amon shoots back.
But again, this isn’t up to Amon. So I only look at Collin. “That’s sad,” I say, pointing to his baby sister. “That’s all I’ve got to say. It’s sad. And why leave her alone if someone is willing to stay with her?”
“Fine,” Collin says.
“It’s a mistake,” Amon objects.
Collin points to me. “You can go in.” His eyes narrow down into little slits. “But I’ve got eyes and ears on you, Shep. And these are the most advanced eyes and ears you could ever imagine. So let’s just be clear here, you will not be alone with my sister.”
“Agreed.”
Collin turns to Amon. “Open the door.”
Amon turns, walking down the aisle of cells towards what I imagine to be a guard room, but the whole time he’s muttering, “It’s a mistake. It’s a big fucking mistake.”
Collin doesn’t respond, instead he turns to me. “Don’t fuck me over, Shep.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Charlie Beaufort is pretty fuckin’ mad at me right now.”
“I told you, I don’t work for him.”
“Right. But I’m pretty sure Olive didn’t consciously try and kill me. Like you said, she was programmed. And to be honest, you being in that cell with her makes me feel a whole lot better. At least I can stop watching my back for a minute.”
Which isn’t a vote of confidence from him, but I can’t blame the guy for being suspicious.
“But if you try anything,” Collin threatens, “I will take you out and I will not blink.”
I let out a long exhale. “Noted.”
Amon’s voice booms out from hidden speakers. “Opening cell three.”
The glass in front of me shimmers for a moment, then it lights up. Lines of blue outline a door, and the next thing I know, a digital control panel appears, built into the glass.
It’s probably the most sci-fi thing I’ve ever seen with my own eyes in my life. I side-eye Collin, but he’s grinnin’ now.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
“I guess,” I say, which makes him laugh. “But why the hell do you guys need some futuristic spaceship jail?”
Collin shrugs. “I’ve learned, after many lessons, to embrace the future, Shep. And while I am not claiming to be prophetic in any way, I see the war that’s coming and I am ready for it.”
Which, I suppose, means he plans to take prisoners.
For the first time since I got here, I stop feeling grateful for the second chance and start to seriously wonder just what the hell I’ve signed up for.
But it’s too late to back out now, because Collin starts pressin’ those digital buttons on the glass, and the next thing I know, the glass pops open, creating a door where just seconds before there were just lines of light.
“Welcome home, Shep. You take care now.”
And then he waves me in.
Olive is still hunched in the corner on the floor, rocking back and forth. I look up at the ceiling, knowing that Collin and Amon are both watching and listening, and have a sudden wave of doubt that this is the right way forward.
It’s been a while since I had anything to lose, let alone a something as promising as a stable position with a company as good as Edge Security, and this is where the doubt comes from.