Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“Oh, we’ll just play that for real. I’ll get your ass in the air, put it right in front of my face and then—”
“My truth is…” she interrupts, propping her upper body up on both elbows so she can see me. “I’m… gonna miss you.”
I let out a long sigh. “Yeah. I think the feeling is gonna be mutual.”
“All right, I’m in it to win it now. So you want truth. But I get to ask the question.”
“That’s not how it works.”
“I’m rewriting the rules. My question is what is going on with you and Collin? I mean, why do you hate him so much?”
“This is your question? Isn’t there something more pressing on your mind than why I hate Collin Creed?”
She closes her legs and crawls back up the bed towards me, settling right down in front of my chest so when she turns her head up to see me, her eyes are big and close. “There are a lot of things about you that I don’t understand, Riggs. Most of them I’m probably not capable of understanding. But if you tell me about this, it will make sense. I know it.”
“I’m not sure it will, Clover. Because it hardly makes sense to me.”
“Just tell me.”
“He’s a traitor, that’s all.”
“To who, though?”
I scoff. “To me.”
“You were friends? And he betrayed you?”
“Yeah. I mean, there’s a lot more to it than that, but yeah.” I haven’t thought about the actual reason I hate Collin Creed since my father offered me this job as a sort of salvation. While I was standing there in his office I did conjure up several ways in which I might pay Collin back for what he did to me. But then I let it go. Rage is a powerful motivator and has carried many a man across the finish line of whatever mission he was on, but it comes at the expense of precision and I wasn’t in a place where I could afford to be sloppy.
A huff comes out of my mouth and along with it, a laugh. Because there is nothing neat and tidy about the naked woman in bed with me.
“What?” Clover asks. “What are you thinking that you’re not telling me?”
“It’s nothing.”
“But I want to know about you and Collin. How did you meet him?”
“It doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that he betrayed me. And I was fuckin’ loyal, too. Collin Creed was on our list. I could’ve—”
“Wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. Collin Creed was on what list?”
“Our list. Hattie’s and mine.”
“Hattie’s and yours? What, were you two partners, or something?”
“Oh, fuck. I guess I left that part out.”
Clover sits all the way up in bed now, pulling the comforter around herself to cover her breasts.
I point at her. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t look at me like that and don’t act like you’re all shocked, or whatever.”
“You gave me a few hand-picked details, but you never mentioned you were hunting partners. So you were a bounty hunter for the Colonies?”
I shrug with my hands. “Is that a big deal?”
“Well, it implies a certain level of loyalty to your government, doesn’t it?”
“I am the general’s son, Clover. I was twenty years old when I got sent up top with Hattie. Why wouldn’t I be loyal to my own father when I had been force-fed a menu of lies my entire life?”
She draws in a long breath, then slowly lets it out. “OK. I guess that makes sense.” Then she settles back down into the pillow, but our little Truth or Fantasy game is over because she doesn’t uncover herself. “Keep going. Collin Creed was on your list and you could’ve… what? What could you have done to him?”
“Well, handed him over, of course.”
“This implies that you had access to him.”
“I did. I worked with him the entire year I was on the run from Hattie.”
“This doesn’t make sense. Why did you run and how did you get involved with Collin in the first place?”
I hesitate here and Clover sees it. “Don’t.” She’s pointing her finger at me now.
“Don’t what?”
“Lie to me.”
“I wasn’t gonna lie.”
“You were gonna find a way around the truth, Riggs. I saw it in your eyes. How did you get involved with Collin in the first place?”
I need to make a choice here. Because Clover is way too smart for her own good. She’s like a little lie detector, this woman. Which means I need to tell her the truth.
At least a little bit of it.
“OK. I’ll tell you. But you need to give me the benefit of the doubt.”
She squints her eyes a little. “Okaaaay. I will.”
“I was sent…” I can’t believe I’m gonna admit to this.
She rolls her hand at me. “Keep going.”
“I was sent to infiltrate Collin’s outfit.”
“Why though? What is so damn special about Collin Creed?”