Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Riggs sighs and drops down into a chair. “All right. Fine. Get it out of your system. Tell me I’m a piece of shit. What should I say back? That all my threats were true?”
“I can’t trust you.”
He stares at me for a moment. Glares at me for a moment. “That would be unfortunate, Clover. Because if you can’t trust me, then I can’t trust you. And if there’s no trust, then maybe I should kill you.”
“See?” I point at him. “There it is again.”
He scrubs both his hands up and down his face, mumbling things I can’t make out. When he’s done, and meets my gaze again, he looks worn out. His eyes, I now notice, are bloodshot. And his face is paler than I recall it being. Maybe it’s the light down here. Or maybe he’s just… weary. Which implies more than just being physically tired. This weariness comes out in his voice when he speaks. “If it were up to me, Clover, I’d stay with you.”
I make a face. “What?”
“In the bunker where I’m gonna leave you. I’d stay with you if I could. I’d never go back. And you know what? I kinda hate you right now for making me admit that, because it took a long time to give up on the dream. I don’t wanna live underground. Maybe, back before I understood what the up-top was, maybe it would’ve been fine to live this way. To never see the sun or stand in front of the ocean. But once you’ve seen it, it’s impossible to live down here. I’m never gonna be happy. Ever. So I’m mad at you for reminding me of what I’ve lost and making me admit it.”
“Well…” I pause here, not sure how to respond to that. I land on a classic third-grade rebuttal. “I didn’t make you do anything.”
“You did. Because you can’t trust me. That’s what you said. And that only leads to me not trusting you, so…” He lets out a long breath. “So then I had to admit to myself that I like you, OK?” He shrugs with his hands.
“I don’t even see the connection.”
“The connection is us.” He points to himself, then me, then back at himself. “We’ve started to feel like a team.”
Hmmm. I consider this. The mood between us has turned a bit collaborative.
“And if we’ve got a connection, then I can’t kill you.” He pauses here to press his hands at me again. “Not that I ever would. I’ve never killed anyone.”
“That’s got to be a lie. Your threats came off… professional.”
He shrugs while pulling out a charming smile. “It was an act.”
I scoff. I don’t think it was. I really, really don’t think it was. He had a look to him that first day. A reckless, kind of panicked look. A desperate look. He acted out of instinct when our eyes met that first time. He saw me, I saw him, and before I could even process the fact that there was a half-naked man in my house, he had me. Just like that, he had me.
My eyes narrow down because this charm he’s throwing at me right now is meant to be distracting. Disarming. “You’re lying.” I don’t say it with heat or anger. It’s just a fact.
The charm disappears. Like… instantly. Because he knows I know and that’s that. That part of the charade is over. “Fine. I’m lying. Is that what you want to hear?”
“It’s not supposed to be about what I want to hear, Riggs. I just want you to be honest with me. You have killed people. And if I didn’t worm my way into your head and make you see me as something other than an inconvenience, you would’ve killed me too.”
He shrugs this off. A one-shoulder shrug, implying indifference. “So what? That killing was done a long time ago. Will you give Collin Creed the same scrutiny when you get back? Because he’s killed a lot more people than I have.”
Now I’m frowning and there’s a crushing feeling inside my chest that I can’t describe. It’s not sadness, but something like it. A silence emerges. And then it continues for nearly a whole minute.
“Say something.”
“I’m disappointed in you.”
He laughs. “Is that so?”
“Yeah. Because we were becoming a team and now it’s not even in the realm of possibility. And… well, I was starting to like you too. You’re fun to banter with.”
“But? Now that you know I’m a killer, you’ve changed your mind?”
“That’s not it.”
“Right. See, this is why I didn’t tell you.”
“So you lied to protect me?” I scoff.
“No. I lied to protect me. You have all the power now, Clover.”
“How the hell do you figure that?”
“Because we’re in my world now and all you’d have to do to ruin me is admit who you are. I’m taking you to Ike Monroe’s home for dinner tonight. All you’d have to do is tell him you’re Lowyn’s best friend.”