The Shift: Book II of the Wildfire Saga (56 page)

Chad felt his cheeks flush, but he wasn't sure if it was embarrassment or anger.
 
"Look, nobody said I was falling in love with you or anything—"

A crooked smile lit her face despite the fact she was covered in dirt and blood.
 
She still looked beautiful to Chad.
 
“Aren’t you?" she asked quietly.

Chad looked down at his feet and clenched his jaw, feeling the back of his neck grow warm.
 
"What I mean, is…" He stretched his back and looked at the ceiling.
 
"Dammit…look, I haven't had the easiest time lately—”

"I know—more than anyone on this planet, I know."
 
Her voice was soft.
 
"That's why I’m trying to do this now—before things go any further.
 
We’ve both seen enough pain in this life.”

“I don’t understand…the way you’ve talked to me and—”

“I told you,” she sighed.
 
She looked up at the ceiling.
 
“I’m
not
who you think I am.”
 
When she turned back to him, her blue eyes were hard, cold.
 
The eyes of a stranger—a killer, maybe.
 

“I speak five languages fluently.
 
I can kill a man with my bare hands in less time than it takes you to tie your shoes.
 
I can shoot anything with bullets—”

Chad stared at her.
 
Anger fought affection.
 
“All right, forget all that for a minute—can you give me one good reason why what I feel is wrong?"

13 stared at him for a moment, then opened her mouth, as if she were unsure of what to say.
 
A frown wrinkled her brow as she paused, then tried again.
 
"For starters, my last relationship was with a woman from Montreal.”

Chad blinked and stood there for a few seconds, staring.
   
The image of her wrapped in the arms of another woman caused a short-circuit somewhere in his mind.
 
The shy smile on her face grew.
 

"What?" Chad asked at last.
 
“I mean…whoa.
 
Really?”
 
His face flushed. “Wait—you’re—”

13 laughed.
 
"Oh, that felt good, thank you.
 
The look on your face—”
 
She laughed again, a light, pleasant sound, not mocking at all.

Chad frowned.
 
"I mean, that's fine, that's… I don’t mean…
wow
…but, I’m not judging—” he said quickly.

13 laughed harder and wrapped her arms across her chest.
 
"Please, stop—it hurts to laugh…"

Chad folded his arms across his chest.
 
"I don't see how this is funny.
 
I’m trying to explain my feelings to you, then you drop
that
on me and laugh when—”

"You asked for good reason why we can't be together.”
 
The smile faded from 13’s face.
 
“I gave you one—I’d say that's pretty good one, actually," she said.
 
The smile returned.
 

Despite his anger, Chad’s stomach suddenly filled with butterflies.
 
That smile of hers was a weapon.
 
He
stuffed his hands in his jeans and leaned against the workstation countertop, hoping it didn’t come off as sulking.
 
"Okay, okay—I
got
it.
 
You bat for the other team.
 
You could've tried to give me a hint before now, you know?"

13 looked away.
 
“It’s more than that.”

Chad looked at his feet, then glanced at her.
 
“What do you mean?”

13 still didn't face him.
 
"It's a little more complicated than just ‘batting for the other team’.
 
We’re like a family now, remember?”

Confusion clouded Chad's mind.
 
He had no idea what to make of this strangely beautiful woman, who seemed—up till now—to have been mirroring his own feelings.
 
Now, out of the blue, she had just announced that she was—

“Not to mention the people I work—worked—with.
 
Like the CIA agent—Clifford Mosby.
 
He’s a very bad man.”

Chad blinked again, his train of thought derailed at the station.
 
“What?
 
How do you know that?
 
You said you’d never heard of him when Captain Alston asked…”

“I lied,” she said and stared at him.
 
“I told you, I’m not a good person.
 
I trained with Mosby.
 
We worked for the same man,” she said quietly.

Chad saw the pain on her face as she confessed.
 
"
Mosby’s
the one who attacked the church?”
 
Anger flared inside him.
 
"You mean to tell me that you knew that son of a bitch?"

Tears began to form at the corners of her eyes.
 
"He may be a bad man, but he is nothing compared to Reginald."

“
Reginald
—the guy Captain Alston asked you about.”
 
Chad ran a hand through his hair.
 
"Who the hell is
he?
 
How do you know him?”

13 closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest again, an awkward gesture in the bulky suit.
 
“He is my employer—was my employer.”
 
She sighed.
 
“It doesn't matter…I've already sealed my own fate."

"What are you talking about?" asked Chad.
 
He didn’t even know where to start.
 
He leaned against a workstation and crossed his arms again.

Whoever this Reginald person was, he scared her, that much was obvious.
 
Knowing what 13 was capable of, that made Reginald a pretty scare dude in Chad’s mind.
 
Chad sighed.

At the end of the day, she was right—13 was the closest thing to family he was ever going to have for the rest of his life.
 
Right now, she looked scared, hurt, and worried.
 
If he truly cared for her, he needed to start acting like it.
 
He stepped forward and took her hand in his.
 
It reminded him of holding his baby sister’s hand.
 
Before The Pandemic.

"What is it about Reginald?”
 
Chad swallowed.
 
“Did he do something to you?"

13 choked off a bitter laugh and tried to smile.
 
"Nothing like that—he has others for…”
 
She cleared her throat.
 
“Well, not him…but the people he employs…they…" She screwed her eyes shut.
 
"He’s the
enemy
.
 
He’s trying to destroy America.
 
He's trying to control you.”
 
Her intense blue eyes found his.
 
“Reginald’s sent men to find you, take your blood, and kill you.”

It was Chad's turn to laugh.
 
“Who is this guy, Dr. Evil?
 
We’re sitting who knows how deep under Denver International, smack-dab in the middle of America.
 
We’re surrounded by more military hardware than most countries in the world even own.
 
And it's just a fraction of what President Harris has at his disposal.
 
Why in the world should I worry about this one guy out there?”

She gripped his hand and squeezed, insistent.
 
“Because I worked for him.
 
Because there are more like me—better than me—that still work for him.
 
I know Reginald—I’ve seen what he does to others who’ve failed him.
 
I’ve seen what he does to those who try to leave, who try to abort their missions.
 
You don’t want to retire.”

He tried to pull away from her but her grip was like steel.
 
He looked down, surprised at the strength in her hand.
 
The realization of what her words meant—that 13 might actually be dangerous to
him
—crashed on Chad's shoulders like a surprise wave that flattens someone walking along the beach.
 

She finally released his hand and he stepped back.
 
Her eyes were hard and surprisingly empty.
 
There was no warmth there—it was like she was looking at a paper target at a gun range.
 
She held his gaze until he backed into the workstation.
   

He didn’t bother looking for a weapon—after watching her take down Officer Perkins in Brikston, Chad knew he wouldn’t have much of a chance.

She sat up suddenly, the biohazard suit squeaking like a rubber duck.
 
She raised a hand, palm up.
 
"Relax—I’m not going to hurt you.
 
That was my mission, I don’t deny it—but I'm not going to complete it even though they’ll kill me.
 
I can’t hurt you—you’re family.
 
You’re all I’ve got left.”

Chad didn't relax.
 
She shook her head inside the helmet.
 
"You and I are special—I could no more kill you than I could kill my own sister or father or mother."
 
Tears welled in 13’s eyes and spilled over her cheeks, creating new tracks of pale skin through the grime on her face.
 
“I never realized that until I met you.
 
You were just a name before—a target.
 
Now…”

Chad wanted nothing more than to reach forward and wrap his arms around her, but fear and anger kept him planted by the workstation.
 
He gripped the edge of the countertop and struggled to contain his swirling emotions.
 
"So, you’ve been lying to me this whole time?”

"No!” she blurted.
 
"Everything I told you is the truth.
 
My family was killed in the Pandemic, I was saved and trained by the military.
 
I was kidnapped by the Russians and I was…" she looked away.
 
"Reginald found me, and…"
 
Her shoulders slumped.
 
She raised a hand to wave him off.
 
“It doesn’t matter.
 
Get out of here while you can—it’s not safe for you here anymore.”

“
How do I know you’re not lying right now?”
 
He shook his head.
 
Lies upon lies.
 
Who are you?

“I suppose you don’t.
 
You just have to trust me…”

Chad grunted.
 
“
So you work for the bad guys—is that it?
 
Other than the fact that you were sent to kill me and you know who’s trying to destroy my country, everything else you’ve told me is true?”

She nodded her head slowly.
 
When he saw her eyes, Chad realized she was telling the truth.
 
His anger faded like smoke in the wind.
 
“Look…Dr. Boatner—” Chad took a step forward.

"Don’t tell them,” she reached out both hands imploringly.
 
"If they find out I work for Reginald, they’ll take me—the scientists will do things—I can't go through that again.
 
I won't!"
 
She braced herself on the table as if she were going to make a break for the door.
 
She looked like a cornered animal.

Chad threw caution to the wind and stepped forward to wrap her in his arms.
 
She stiffened at his touch but eventually relaxed, the embrace made awkward by her bulbous biohazard suit.
 

He instinctively reached up to smooth her hair and his hand froze as he touched the plastic dome of her helmet.
 
He closed his eyes and sighed.
 
"I'm not going to tell anybody.
 
Don't worry about it.
 
You and I have been through too much shit to have to deal with the experiments all over again.
 
It’ll be just between you and me."

"But… I’m one of the bad guys…" she whispered.
 
“You trust me?”

"Just because you worked for them in the past doesn't make you one of them now," Chad said.
 
“Besides, I think you’ve had more than enough chances to kill me—and you didn’t.
 
That tells me a lot, right there.”
 
He pulled away from her and tried to look into the bio-suit.
 

Her face was hidden in shadow, but he could hear her sniffle.
 
Chad put a hard edge on his voice.
 
“We need to set something straight, right here, right now.
 
No matter my feelings for you—no matter what happened to you in the past—”
 

He knew he was blushing, but he moved on through what he had to say anyway.
 
“You’re right—the bond that we have is like family—I realize that now.
 
From now on, it's just you and me against the world."

13 stared at him as if trying to tell if he was telling the truth.
 
Apparently not yet satisfied, she raised an eyebrow.

“Let’s just take this one step at a time, okay?” Chad said, only slightly defensive.
 
“I just got over the idea that you were sent to kill me.
 
Thinking about you and another woman…”
 
Chad blushed.
 

13 laughed.

C
HAPTER
28