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“Thanks. I’m sorry, too. Sorry that you’re going through this. Sorry that I was a party to it.”
He dropped his gaze to his book. “Let’s try to get some sleep.”
Folding her legs on the bed, she rolled to her side and closed her eyes. If Max thought he was leaving her here when he went to Dr. Arnoff’s, he had another think coming.
This agent, this damaged man, was her only hope of returning to a life with any semblance of normalcy—not that she’d ever had that before.
* * *
THIS TIME SHE woke up first. She scooted to the edge of the mattress and peered through the gloom at Max fast asleep on the other bed, the tablet rising and falling on his chest with every deep breath.
Even in repose, sleeping on his back, he looked primed and ready. Could he ever really relax?
She rolled to the other side of the bed and slipped off the edge. Tiptoeing around the room, she gathered a few of her new purchases and retreated to the bathroom.
She peeled off the clothes she’d dressed in yesterday morning, never dreaming she was heading into a nightmare, one worse than the previous nightmare she’d already lived through.
Did the nightmares ever end?
She brushed her teeth and washed her face. She dabbed on some moisturizer and added a little makeup. She didn’t want to scare Mrs. Arnoff before she could talk her way into the house.
She padded on bare feet back into the room, her dirty clothes tucked under one arm, her shoes hanging from her fingertips.
“I was getting used to those slacks and blouse.”
She jumped and dropped a shoe.
In the darkness of the room, Max was watching her from the bed, a pillow wedged beneath his neck.
She swept the shoe from the floor and stacked the armful of clothes on top of the suitcase Max had bought, still believing she would hop on a plane to somewhere.
“If I never see these slacks again, it will be too soon. I could toss them down the trash chute and be perfectly happy.” She scraped at a spot on the navy blue pant leg. “Th-there are spots of blood on them that I never noticed before.”
“You can send them to the dry cleaner while you wait for me.” He swung his legs from the bed, raising his arms above his head in a long stretch.
“Yeah, about that.” She busied her hands folding the clothes. “I’m going with you.”
“No.” He dropped his arms and shoved off the bed. “I have no idea what I’m going to find at Arnoff’s house.”
“You’re probably going to find Mrs. Arnoff.” She wedged her hands on her hips. “She knows me. She’ll let me in the house. She’ll let me go through her husband’s things if I tell her he sent me. She’ll give me his computer.”
“Unless she knows he’s dead somehow.”
“I don’t think she will. You said yourself that news of the lab won’t leak out until everything’s cleaned up. And if she does—” she shrugged “—I’ll make up another story to get us inside based on what she thinks she knows.”
“Why are you so hell-bent on coming along? You don’t owe me anything. I believe you that you knew nothing about the T-101 and Tempest’s true mission.”
“I’m not volunteering out of a sense of guilt.” Clearly, she needed to use a new justification. “I don’t want you to leave me here alone. You’re the only person who can help me now, the only one I can turn to.”
His nostrils flared. “Are you really afraid to stay here by yourself?”
“I’d feel better if I came along with you.” She waved a hand at the window. “I don’t know what’s out there. I don’t know who’s out there, and I’m certainly not prepared to meet them if they come after me.”
He crossed to the window and pressed his forehead against the glass as if assessing the danger below. “I think you’d be fine here, but if you’re not comfortable, you can come with me.”
Ava released a measured breath, not quite a sigh. “I would feel more comfortable, and I think I can get us into the house.”
He held up his hand. “We’ll see when we get there. I’m going to brush my teeth and get some gear together.”
