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)
“You tell me. You’re the one who thinks he’s a nine point seven five.”
Clover smiles. “You’re a nine point seven five too.”
“Anyway. Collin is… I dunno. Fuckin’ talented, I guess. He just gets the job done. The point is, Hattie and I were sent up top to infiltrate Collin’s outfit.”
“All right. So… you did that, I guess? I mean, you were working for him.”
“Kind of. I did work with him. I was on his team that whole year I was running from Hattie.”
“Well, that’s not a ‘kind of’, Riggs, that’s a ‘yes’.”
“But it comes with a disclaimer. Because I wasn’t there as an infiltrator, I was approached and offered a defection package from the American government. Like the legit American government, not the shady one down below. You see, there’s a bit of a civil war going on between the underground and the surface.” Clover opens her mouth to start asking questions about this, but I’m not gonna answer those questions, so I put up a hand. “Let me finish.”
She sighs. “OK. Keep going.”
“I accepted this defection package and went to work for the American government. I didn’t infiltrate Collin’s outfit, I was placed there by my defection coordinator.”
Her eyes are darting back and forth, looking straight into mine. “And you left Hattie Miller behind without telling her?”
I nod. “Yep.”
“Wow.” She blinks at me. “First. How pissed was your father?”
“Six years, Clover. Six fucking years of darkness. That’s how pissed.”
Her mouth goes crooked just thinking about it. “Yeah. Pissed probably doesn’t even cover it. Second. How pissed was Hattie?”
“Pissed enough to set me up.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s the one who told Collin I was a spy. Which I wasn’t. And then he sold me out. She made a deal with him. He set me up to be captured by Hattie and… well, the rest is history.”
Clover shakes her head and makes a face. “What? But why would he believe her? I mean, Collin comes off as a pretty rational person.” I nearly guffaw, only just managing to hold it in. “He’s a thinker, Riggs. If you spent a year with him, you know that. He’s not impulsive.”
“No. I guess not. But you don’t know Hattie. She’s… formidable. And she got to him. I’m not sure how, but she got to him. And then she told him I was there to infiltrate—”
Clover points at me. “Because technically, you were.”
“Technically, I guess. It started that way. But I took a defection package, Clover. I wasn’t there to spy. I was on the team, for fuck’s sake. I didn’t have to risk my life for him for the whole year. If I was there to spy I could’ve delivered Collin Creed to my father per my original mission in the first week. He’d be dead now if I had done that, by the way.”
She presses her lips together, thinking. Does she believe me? Or is she suspicious? “How did you get away from her? Hattie, I mean. How did that happen?”
“Why do you wanna know this?”
“Because I need details, Riggs. And you’re not really giving me any.”
She doesn’t trust me. But I wouldn’t trust me either if I was her. I mean, I did just tell her I was sent to infiltrate her friend’s kill team. So why I might normally take offense at her lack of trust, I earned this one. So I say, “His name was Clayton Boseman. I poisoned Hattie—”
“What?” Clover sits up, laughing.
“I’m telling you, Clover. Hattie is no one to fuck with. She’s suspicious of everyone. She never let me out of her sight. We slept in the same hotel rooms, we ate every meal together. Hell, I’m lucky she let me use the fuckin’ bathroom alone, that’s how uptight and suspicious she is.”
Clover scoffs. “Couldn’t you just tell her off, or whatever? You’re the general’s son.”
“She’s the Sovereign’s daughter.”
“What the hell is a Sovereign?”
“The only person who has a higher rank than my father.”
Clover’s lips slide together into a delightful little pucker. “Ooooooo.”
“Yeah,” I laugh. “Kinda explains a lot, doesn’t it?”
Her face tightens up into a wince. “No wonder she’s so uptight. OK. I’m starting to get the picture. So you poisoned her so you could escape. What did you use?”
“To poison her? Just ipecac syrup. She was puking so hard, she didn’t even know I left.”
“Wow. She hates you.”
I laugh. “Ya think?”
“OK. So you got away. Then what happened?”
“You want to know about how I got away?”
“I’m still painting my picture. It’s not done yet. So yes.”
“Fine. The defection coordinator’s name was Clayton Boseman. At least, that’s what he was calling himself when we met. He gave me a new name—Raleigh Winston, and sent me in for an interview.”
“And Collin liked you.”
“I guess he did. I mean, he and I were never ‘friends’ per se. Not like he was friends with Amon. But I was on the team. And for the next year, I worked for him.”