What if they’d druggedher?
What if, what if,whatif!
At the sound of more footsteps, Jo stumbled to a halt, heart in her throat and mind buzzing with paranoid over-stimulation. They were approaching from her left, but she’d been coming from the right, which gave her very little option. She chose an adjoining hall and peeked around the corner, hurrying past once she deemed it safe. The footsteps persisted, but they didn’t seem rushed, like they hadn’t realized her presence yet. Another stroke of luck; luck that might not last long the deeper she went into thecompound.
She had to find a computer, a phone or tablet left out on a desk, something she could use to hack into the Ranger main server from within their firewalls and look at the building’s layout. She’d worry about her own sanity and possibly repressed trauma once she was out of their clutches and safely back home. Or as safe as she could be, considering the self-imposed WITSEC she’d probably have to endure for awhile.
Her luck sneaking around had to run out sooner or later, but she wasn’t ready when itdid.
At almost the same time as she turned the corner, a man in a suit decided to come out of his office. Jo swallowed a sound of panic and turned back the way she’d come. Only that hallway was now inhabited by multiple men and women leaving what looked to be a conferenceroom.
She’d rather take her chance with the lone man than theswarm.
At least that was the plan, till they all looked herway.
Jo bolted down the other hallway at once, sprinting past the man in the suit. She’d been spotted. Shouts would turn into alarm bells that would become dogs barking and the click of disengaged gun safeties. But all Jo heard was the ringing in her ears. All she knew was that the lone man hadn’t grabbed her; she hadn’t been captured yet. She was alive for now, but if she didn’t find a way out, that would surelychange.
Jo bolted for the first open door she saw, thanking any gods that might possibly exist when she saw a computer inside. It was a bigger office, no glass on the walls—again, thanks to all possible gods—with pictures of some man’s family on the desk. It looked to be the office of someone higher up, but not too high. Still, better to hurry andavoid—
She made it a few strides towards the desk before a man and a woman in full Ranger attire walked right in behindher.
Jo’s vision seemed to dim in fear even as it heightened in desperation, looking at every corner of the room for somewhere, anywhere decent to hide. But even she wasn’t desperate enough to think they hadn’t already seenher.
“Don’t shoot!” she said out of reflex instead, holding up her hands and willing them not to shake. She thought of Yuusuke, full of holes and bleeding out on a dusty server room floor. She wasn’t ready to die then, and she still wasn’t now. “Please, don’tshoot!”
Theydidn’t.
Instead, they didn’t seem to notice her at all, talking amongst themselves like she wasn’t even in the room. Like there wasn’t some sweaty-palmed girl pleading for her life literally two feet in front ofthem.
The man whom the office seemed to belong to walked right up to her, looking just past her shoulder, and grabbed something off his desk. If he’d been any closer, he would have skimmed her hip in theprocess.
Panting loud and harsh, Jo watched the two agents have a civil and almost flirtatious conversation in front of her before exchanging the file and walking away, closing the office door behindthem.
It wasn’t until she heard the click of lock on the door that Jo even thought to put her handsdown.
What. . .? What justhappened?
“Do you see now?” An already terrifyingly familiar voice spoke without warning from the edge of her periphery. Jo jumped, nearly knocking the computer off the desk as she whipped around to facehim.
The man who every instinct told her was Snow leaned against the office’s side wall, arms crossed over his chest and silver hair hanging casually over one eye. Jo wanted to ask what he was doing there. She wanted to ask a lot of things really, like how they hadn’t seen her, how she’d ended up in the compound at all, whether or not she was actually dead this time. But no words would come out, like the neuron-pathways from brain to mouth had fractured; too much data or not enough, she couldn’t besure.
Either way, Error404.
“Jo,” Snow said her name, soft and low but with impossible depth. Despite the fact that she was looking right at him, despite the fact that he’d obviously meant it to be nonthreatening, she still started. “Do youunderstand?”
No. No she didn’t. How could she? So much had happened, too much, too quickly. There was no way for someone to take it all in and stay sane. She wanted to understand, she wanted more than anything to figure out just onetinybit of what was going on, but a part of her already felt broken. All she wanted to do was go home. . . Was that so much toask?
Why couldn’t she just gohome?
Something on Jo’s face must have compelled Snow to walk towards her, and even though Jo felt wound up tight, about ready to snap, somehow his presence didn’t make her feel cornered. It didn’t soothe her either, but not being outright panicked was something. Without a word, he reached towards her face and, with pale, elegant hands that seemed almost too still, carefully tucked a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear. Then, with the pad of his thumb, he gently wiped away a tear from beneath hereye.
Oh. She’d started crying after all. Damnit.
This close to Snow, it was impossible to ignore just how excruciatingly beautiful he was. He didn’t smile, and his eyes remained guarded even as he scanned her face. But somehow, that cold, quiet distance only added to his allure. Like a statue in a museum—untouchable, and all the more breathtaking forit.
He said her name again, and this time she didn’t jump. Instead, she soaked it in, reveled in the way it rumbled past her ears and echoed deep in her chest. When Snow finally dropped his hand from her face, turning away, it took everything she had not to feel disappointed. With a gesture over his shoulder that almost seemed bored, he motioned for her tofollow.
Chapter 5
