I didn’t waste any time.
I didn’t know how long Cut would be, but it wouldn’t be long enough. I needed to switch off any sentiments or remaining hints of the girl I’d been and prepare to become a ruthless killer.
Snatching my suitcase, I hauled it to the bed and unzipped it. Every garment and item were in disarray. When Daniel ordered me to pack, folding wasn’t a top priority.
Tossing clothes that didn’t have weapons sewn inside to the floor, I hurriedly selected the fleece jacket with a scalpel hidden in the collar and the leggings with a pair of delicate scissors smuggled in the waistband.
Daniel wanted me to have a shower?
Fine. I would shower.
I would prepare.
And I would go to war when he returned.
Chapter Four
Jethro
ECONOMY CLASS.
Public airline.
Theworstpossible environment for a man like me.
I huddled in my seat, gritting my jaw; doing my best to remember the exercises I’d been taught.
Focus on my own thoughts.
Concentrate on inner pain. Pinch, slice, do whatever it takes to put that barrier up.
Fixate on mundane influences: reading, looking at nature.
I swallowed a groan.
None of it worked.
Glancing around the plane, my condition picked up on homesickness, regret, excitement, loss, and fear. Every person had their own thoughts and those thoughts flew kamikaze in the small space.
Squeezing my eyes, I focused on my ice. Cut had done one thing right raising me. He’d taught me how to focus on hatred and selfishness, shutting everyone out—even their pain.
The lesson hadn’t been easy. If I slipped or didn’t succeed, Jasmine bore the brunt. Cut understood that the pain of those I loved affected me triply hard. In a way, forcing me to listen to his emotions of discipline and control, while blocking out my sister’s agony and unhappiness, gave me the strength to combat the influx of paralyzing emotions from others.
Even while she was hurt right in front of me.
I could stomach my own pain, but when it came to hers...
Just like I can’t stand Nila’s now I love her.
Forcing those memories away, I did my best to relapse into the capsule of snow, but even as the tendrils of ice made their way around my heart, one person centred in my thoughts.
Jasmine.
Because of me, she would never walk again. And that was another reason why I couldn’t abandon her when Nila begged me to leave last night in the stables. Why I owed Kes and Jaz everything because, without them, I would’ve died years ago.
Maybe Ishould’vedied years ago.
Maybe Nila would’ve remained safe, and Kes wouldn’t be fighting for his life.
