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I quickly cover myself before opening the curtain.
“Thanks,” I say, combing my fingers through my hair.
“You okay?” Elijah asks.
“Yeah. Just jumpy, I guess.”
He nods. “So, how’d it go?”
How’d it go?
He says it so casually like I just ran an errand in town.
“It was...” I pause, unsure how to answer it without him thinking I’m crazy.
Am I crazy? Should it bother me more than it does that I just committed murder for a little money? But it wasn’t only for that. It was for us, so our family could stay together. Elijah understands that. He’d understand me if I just said what I was thinking out loud.
“Amazing,” I whisper. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.”
“That’s what Dante said, too,” he says, his eyes lacking any judgment whatsoever.
“Mercer said they’d have another mission for me in a few days.”
I pick up a second towel off the counter next to individually wrapped soaps and tiny bottles of generic shampoo. A Chicago hotel room tonight. Tomorrow night? We don’t know.
But that’s part of the job.
I begin patting my arms dry. “Have they assigned you to anything yet?” I ask.
Elijah shakes his head. “Not yet, but Dante told them I was good with a needle. Mercer said they’d be no shortage of nicks and cuts for me to practice on. Seems like they’ll make me a medic, or something.”
“That sounds cool.”
“Yeah, it’s...” He smiles. “It feels right.”
I nod. “It does.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asks. “With all of this?”
I take a breath to really think about it before answering. Am I really okay with this? Am I really okay with being a contract killer at seventeen?
Maybe. Maybe not. But the alternative was unacceptable.
“I have to be,” I answer. “Are you okay? With all of this?”
He hesitates. He knows he can say whatever he wants to me. My twin and I have agreed and disagreed plenty over our lifetime, but we’ve never been too scared to say what we’re thinking.
“I’m okay if you’re okay,” he finally answers.
“I’m okay,” I say.
“Then, I’m okay.” He stands a little taller. “And now we have Dante back, too. That’s all that matters to me.”
“Agreed.” I smile. “We always said we’d stick together. If this is how we do that, then I’m in. I don’t care what I have to do, what I have to... become. As long as you guys are there.”
“Agreed,” he says.
“I don’t know who I am without you, Eli.”
