Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
“You were never gonna be able to save Eoin, were you?”
I shake my head. “No. It was a lie. They weren’t gonna use him to keep me in line, Irina. Not alive, anyway. They were gonna use him as a cautionary tale. ‘This could happen to anyone, Eason. Anyone at all.’ That’s what they wanted me to think. But there’s no one left that I give any fucks about, so it hasn’t worked out the way they planned.”
“What about Davis and Wade? Couldn’t they use them?”
“Nah. They aren’t a threat.”
“Because they were employees.”
“See? Ya are smarter than ya look.”
She turns away from me. Turns her whole body away from me. Laying her head on the couch cushion and staring out at the sea beyond the terrace.
I sink into the cushions a little more myself, worn out from the telling of this story.
After a few minutes Irina has one more question. “I don’t understand why you’re still here.” She turns to look at me. “Why didn’t they just kill you and take the envelope back?”
“We’ve made copies. And besides, as far as I know, I haven’t given them any children yet.”
Irina scoffs. “You’re not serious.”
“I’m dead fuckin’ serious. Ring of Fire-level fighters are a rare thing. They truly do see me as a racehorse. A stud. Genetics. And they don’t really think they’re in any danger from me. I could show people those tapes”—I nod to the envelope—“but other tapes have gotten out before. People can’t wrap their head around this shit, Irina. They find excuses to call it fake. It’s not fake. It’s real. But they’re never gonna accept that evil like this exists unless the fucking TV tells them to. And guess who controls the TV?”
“They do.”
“They do. If they want someone to go down, they make sure they go down. They let people see it. They validate it. But if they want to protect someone, suddenly this footage is fake. A scene from a movie. They hire people to play parts. To say, ‘Yes, that’s my… film-school final project,’ or whatever. They twist it up and write a new story. It’s really as simple as that. A story. One true, one not. One is fake news, one is verified. That’s how it works. So they’re not actually afraid of me. And they think I’m still worth something.”
Her blue eyes are locked on mine for a few seconds. Then she turns away, staring out at the sea again. That must be her safe place. The sea is what keeps her sane.
“I feel done here,” I tell her. “I feel over. I just want it all to go away now. I’m so tired of the lies I just want to crawl into bed and die of thirst.”
She doesn’t look at me, just gazes out to sea, and we spend another ten minutes chewing on these words. This truth. With just the sound of the AC to keep us company.
Suddenly, she says, “I know that feeling.”
“What feeling?”
“You, when you don’t want to get out of bed. I mean, I haven’t ever wanted to kill myself. I…” She sighs. “I don’t want to live, but I don’t feel like there’s a choice. I can’t give up. I don’t know how.”
I let out a defeated laugh. “Well, I find it pretty easy to give up, actually. You just… go to bed and stay there. That’s what I did after I saw what they did to Eoin. I really don’t know why Davis and Wade stuck around. They didn’t have to, so… maybe we’re actually friends?”
“You got better though. I mean, you came and tracked me down.”
I smile, just a little bit. “Yeah. I did do that. But I was gonna use you. For revenge on Cort for fuckin’ up my life and killing my little brother—” I stop and blow out a long breath of air. “I do understand that none of this has anything to do with Cort. Or you. So you don’t have to explain it to me.” I look at Irina and shrug. “You were just a bit of revenge, darlin’. That’s all. Just a bit of revenge.”
CHAPTER 14
He says that so easily. Casually. And if I hadn’t heard the story he just told, I might even believe him.
But I did hear that story, so I know this is a lie.
Before I can question him about this, he gets up and walks off.
“Where are you going?”
“To bed, Irina.” Then he disappears inside his bedroom.
I just sit there on the couch trying to wrap my head around what’s happening. I’ve been dismissed, that’s for certain. He wants to fall back into his depression. He wants to go to bed and die of thirst.
And it might work this time. Because Davis and Wade are thousands of miles away, so there won’t be an intervention.