“I dunno. I woke up in my cage one day, and they seemed to have removed it while I’d been unconscious. I assumed it was interfering with whatever else it was they were implanting in me to make the manipulator work.”
The blood drained from my face at this.
“They were just…implantingshit into you?”
Jay shrugged again as he led me through the kitchen to what looked like the front door.
“I’m pretty sure, yeah. It’s hard to know what they did to me and what was a result of their screwing around in my head. But I woke up several times with shit embedded in my temples. I’m pretty sure those memories are real. It’s hard to know for sure during times when NOVA wasn’t around to confirm.”
“So you don’t… You have a hard time knowing what’s real?”
He glanced back over his shoulder at me as he yanked open the front door, his Adam’s apple rolling as he swallowed.
“Yeah. It’s… It’s a mess up there.”
I stared into those gorgeous copper eyes that I once knew better than my own, and found myself reaching for his face again.
He froze, allowing me to brush my thumbs over both his cheeks and tug him down toward me.
I rested his forehead against mine and took a slow, shaky breath in through my nose.
Oak and birch.
Seeing this gorgeous cabin, his woodsy scent suddenly made so much more sense than it had in the pristine, high-tech campus he’s been trapped in.
“I’m going to make it better,” I promised.
“Yeah?” he choked, his own voice trembling, as if he were afraid to believe me.
“Yes, Jay. I’ll fix it.”
“I don’t know if evenyoucan fix what they did to me, Milo.”
My fingers tightened on his face, and I kissed him firmly, nipping at his lips until they were swollen and he was nearly panting in my mouth again.
“I’m telling you I can, and I will. You can trust that this is real. I promise.”
He pulled back, meeting my gaze, and the sadness I saw there broke my heart.
“I don’t know if Icantrust you… not after you… forgot me.”
It felt like he’d just shot me in the chest with one of his fancy new handguns.
“Wait… what?!”I rasped, and Jay just looked at me, his face devoid of any emotion.
“I know you said you were scared, but I never thought you would abandon me like that.” His voice was flat and deadpan. As if he really thought I’d done what I’d done to… what?Save my freaking self?
Did he not understand…whyI’d done what I’d done?
“Jay, I?—”
“Shh…” he hummed, pressing a finger to my lips to shush me.
“We can talk about why you did it later. Right now, there’s someone you need to see.”
Jay pulled back and led me through the front door and out into the crisp mountain air.
There was a small vegetable patch here with an attached greenhouse that was lush with fresh produce, just ripe for picking.
