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“Just out of curiosity, how many more times will you expect me to risk my life before you let me leave?”
Elizabeth didn’t seem offended or surprised by her question. She did, however, look disappointed. Had she expected her to want to do these things out of the goodness of her heart? This wasn’t her fight, and it was starting to look like a battle they were unlikely to win. She didn’t want to be stuck here until the rebels won. She would die of old age before that happened.
“I don’t have an answer for you. As soon as I am sent off to get more women, I will take you with me. But as long as you are here and your connection to Altair makes you useful, then I will continue to need your help.”
* * *
Elizabeth had given her a fake double of the SecuLock passkey to exchange with the real one. She’d have to get the key off Altair long enough to exchange it with the fake one, break into the prison, and exchange the fake key back for the real one before he went to the prison on the day of the execution.
She snuck into his room that night while he slept but couldn’t find the key in any of the accessible places. A quick peek at his sleeping form on the bed revealed that he wore a cord around his neck. She didn’t dare touch him while he slept, not wanting to risk waking him up.
She spent the next day racking her brain for ways to get the necklace off him while attending to her deliveries. Unfortunately, she could only think of one way to get a man naked.
She made dinner and very nervously waited for Altair to come home. She’d promised herself after Connor that she wouldn’t do this again, she wouldn’t flirt and get a man’s hopes up for a job anymore, but she didn’t see any other way out of this situation. Her only other option was knocking Altair over the head unconscious and blaming it on a break-in. But that was silly. And besides, why would someone break in, there was nothing to steal in their house.
“You made dinner?” he asked when he stepped through the door. She wasn’t sure he sounded very happy about it. Her cooking skills had gotten better but still left a lot to be desired.
She went to stand in front of him.
“I want to apologize.”
He seemed surprised by her nearness and took a small step back. “For what?”
“For what happened with Mak. I embarrassed myself… and you… and I’m sorry. I was angry when I first got here, and I thought I’d found a friend, someone who understood how I felt because like me he was stuck in a situation he didn’t want to be in, forced to be single because of the Mudden algorithm. But you were right, he just wanted to use me to get to you.”
“It’s alright,” he said, raising one hand to pat her on the shoulder awkwardly. “I already told you that I forgive you.”
“In the end, you were the better friend to me.”
He squeezed her shoulder a little too tightly.
“I will always be here for you, Meghan.”
She smiled up at him. “Good. And I made you dinner to make it up to you.”
“Not necessary.”
“Well, then let’s say that with this dinner, we can start over.”
“Alright,” he said, smiling back shyly.
They sat down at the table, and Nova talked about her day and the people she saw.
She noticed Altair’s mind drifting off, which was the whole point of having boring small talk. The less he paid attention to what she was saying, the more anxious he looked.
“You seem tense,” she said, taking a break from her ceaseless chatter.
They were done eating so she picked up his plate, touching his hand in the process.
He sucked in a small breath. “Just work stuff.”
“Gary again?” she asked, transferring the unfinished contents of his plate onto hers and sticking her tongue out in concentration. She saw his eyes narrowing in on the gesture from the corner of her eyes.
He grunted in agreement.
“Is there any way I can help?” she asked, playing innocent.
“With Gary?”
