Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 132437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 441(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 441(@300wpm)
That knife he’d deep-sixed, she thought. God, he’d saved her ass, hadn’t he.
“Just office work. I’m the manager, I guess you’d call it. Pay the bills, settle the accounts, approve the staff schedule. That kind of stuff.”
“That’s a nice job.”
“Yeah, I guess. So do you work on computers, like fixing them when they’re broken, or going inside of them?”
“I’ve never heard it put like that.” His laugh was soft, and she pictured him smiling in the moonlight even though he was indoors. “And I work inside them. I guess you could call me a hacker. AI hasn’t taken over all of the jobs, especially not with the systems I work with.”
“What systems are those?” Jesus, add a basket of bread and two beers and they were doing the date thing. “Do I even know what a system is?”
And t’On was worried about her having too much contact with the outside world? Fuck no, she had no clue what she was saying here. But it didn’t matter. She just liked hearing Al talk.
“I work with private networks, doing security and data analysis. It’s not a big deal.”
“You’re an expert, aren’t you.” She laughed when he didn’t respond. “And I’m guessing you’re really smart.”
The next pause that followed made her think she’d offended him somehow. Hard to imagine how that was possible with a compliment, though.
“I used to think I was,” he said roughly. “There was a time when I thought I was the smartest male on the planet.”
“Not anymore?”
There was another stretch of quiet. “I grew out of that fallacy. Just because I can break into any network and get AI systems to mine for data patterns more efficiently than everybody else around me doesn’t mean I’m super intelligent. It just means that I’m a machine, in a way. A machine surrounded by people who are actually living their lives.”
She thought of what she’d agreed to do for her parents. For the s’Hisbe.
“I know exactly what that feels like,” she whispered.
“You do?”
“Yeah. I do.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t want that for you.”
The image of him staring out over the river to that glass house came back to her. She could picture every detail of his profile, the set of his body, the focus that stilled his breath and likely even his heart. There had been great pain etched into his features, and it was clear that he would do anything to protect his sister, to the point of laying down his own life for her.
She felt the same way about her parents.
“You’re a male of worth, you know that.”
His voice cracked. “God, I wish that were true.”
“It is.”
“Well, I’ll say this, Denne. If there is ever anything I can do for you, just tell me what you need. Anything.”
The vow was both earnest and powerful, and it unlocked something inside of her: Even though Allhan was all but a stranger, he was different because… he made her feel different.
“Else,” she tacked on.
“I’m sorry?”
“Anything else. You’ve already helped me, haven’t you.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” he said softly. “Not for that knife stuff.”
She shook her head even though he couldn’t see her. “I really do—”
“Oh, God,” he blurted. “I can’t get you out of my mind. I think about you even when the world feels like it’s falling down around me. I close my eyes and I’m back in that forest, staring into your eyes, seeing your face in the moonlight, watching the cold breeze move your hair. I smell your scent, I hear your voice, I feel your presence. And it’s the very best part of my night, my day, my hour, my minute—”
As the rush was cut off abruptly, Denne swallowed a curse and sat up. Then wondered if the connection had ended.
“Al? Hello?”
“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment. “I shouldn’t have said all that—”
“Yes,” she interrupted. “You should have.”
Fates save them both, but… she felt the same way about him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Look, I just don’t want you to think that I go around killing humans.”
As Denne’s voice percolated through the phone under his ear, Allhan couldn’t tell whether his eyes were open or not. He didn’t know how long they’d been on together. He wasn’t sure whether he had much battery left. But if his phone died, he was going to call her on the burner, and to hell with keeping that number on the down-low.
“I know that there’s plenty of those rats without tails to spare,” she continued. “But he was hurting her, and you just have to step in, you know? Like, I couldn’t let that happen. That’s not the kind of person I am—sometimes, you have to be karma.”
Allhan started nodding. Then remembered she couldn’t see him. “Yeah. Totally.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to add: I so get it. I totally don’t kill people other than my father.