Page 42 of Forever: The Companion

EPILOGUE

Two months later …

“Ren, what has you calling me? I thought you were taking a year sabbatical from—”

“I am,” Ren interjected before Dare could continue speaking, “and maybe even longer, but we’ll see how it goes.”

“Hmm, I hear people around here might actually miss your special brand of arrogance, but who am I to say?”

And they could keep missing him.

For now.

“Anyway, why the call?” Dare asked.

Ren dragged in a quick breath, settling the sudden nerves he felt making themselves known. It wasn’t like him to get nervous, but here he was. It also wasn’t like him to give a shit about some stranger—a kid from an island that he barely spoke more than a handful of words to—but here he was doing that fucking nonsense, too.

Maybe the kid reminded him of his brother.

Maybe it was something else …

Shit, maybe Ren just cared.

“The kid—Taman—from the Bali job a couple months back. Uh, how is he?”

Dare quieted for a minute.

Longer than Ren thought was normal.

“All things considered; he’s adapted well to training. Bit of an attitude, but we’re used to that here, and even you learned to tamper it after a while.”

“Is he out of phase one?”

The dark room.

The fucking tank.

“As of three weeks ago, yes,” Dare replied. “Something you want to tell me, or …?”

“No, I just—”

“Felt the need to check in. It happens.”

“Does it?”

Dare let out a slow breath. “Sometimes. You know, a long time ago, I thought I could raise men and women in this organization to be … individuals without feelings. It would be for the best, considering the work you all do.”

“And?”

“You’re all still very human.”

Dare almost sounded proud of that fact.

For whatever reason …

“I’ll probably check in on him again,” Renzo said.

“Feel free, and you’re always welcome to come to Vegas to check in directly, you know?”