The waitress came back with her coffee and my tea, and I dipped the bag slowly while I watched her face grow more and more frustrated by the second.
“What the hell? Is this like a work phone or something? Do you keep a personal one at home?”
“Nope,” I replied, taking a sip of my drink.
“You have like, ten photos on here, and they’re all of cats and birds… and me, creepily enough.”
The waitress came back to take our orders, and Sage’s minute was up. She gave a frustrated groan as she handed my phone back. “I’d like the garden omelet, thank you.”
“And I’ll have the blue moon burger with a side salad instead of fries, please.”
As soon as she disappeared, Sage gave me a pitying look. “Do you even have a life outside of work? Any friends?”
“Not really. I’d like to, trust me. It’s just hard when I’m barely around.”
“Hm,” she said, her voice melodic as she thought. “I guess I can’t judge too much. I spent a lot of my days either working or studying in the ‘before-times.’”
“Before-times?” I asked.
She wrapped both her hands around her cup of coffee, and I frowned when I considered that she might be cold. I started to shrug off my jacket to pass to her when she held out her hand to stop me. “Yes, that’s how I refer to my life before the Premier found me.”
Her hurt and despair were palpable, consuming me from the inside out. It was like every negative emotion compounded inside me, and I wanted nothing more than to wrap my arms around her, telling her everything would be alright.
But that would be a pointless lie.
Instead, I reached over, taking her hand in mine. She startled from my touch, but didn’t pull away. “Why can’t you tell me what happened? Or why it happened?”
She shook her head, her curls swaying. “Because it doesn’t matter. I mean, the way I see it, there are only three options—I tell you, and you help me, leading to your death. I tell you and you return me anyway, living with the guilt for the rest of your life. Or I don’t tell you, and you can ease your sufferingby pretending I really am the thief the Premier convinced you I was, and you did the right thing by delivering me to justice. And personally, if I can get out of this without another person’s life being taken or ruined, I can at least count that as a win. It’ll help me get through what’s to come.”
She withdrew her hands and placed them in her lap, and I now hated this table between us. My mind was a storm of doubt and anger, and maddeningly, it only promised to calm if I was touching her.
But maybe it was for the best, because she was right—no good would likely come of me knowing the truth at this point.
“I meant what I said at the bar, though. About having friends.” She looked up and smiled. “Without them, I would have truly had no life. One helped me cut loose and have fun, while the other helped me explore my nerdier interests in group settings. Interests that I’d always been too shy to pursue.”
I stopped myself from asking if she meant Nellie and Kaleb.
“What kind of interests are those?” I asked instead.
“Games, mostly,” she laughed. “I love board games and tabletop RPGs.”
“Oh, likeStarlight Dominion?”
Her eyes lit up, and my heart skipped a beat. Sure, I’d only pretended to guess, but I’d still heard of it before I’d ever taken this contract. “Yeah, exactly! Have you played?”
“Nope,” I replied with a sad chuckle. “I don’t have any friends, remember?”
Her smile faltered. “I’d offer to teach you, but… Well, maybe with all the money you’re getting from this job, you’ll finally be able to take a break.” Her eyes misted over. She didn’t say anything for a minute, and then turned to look out the window with a small laugh. “Isn’t that funny? Your freedom comes at the cost of mine.”
I looked down at my hands, still stretched and seeking hers. “Sage, I’m so—”
“Please stop,” she interrupted. “I’m trying my hardest to hate you right now, but everything you’re saying just makes me like you more, and it hurts too much.”
I really did feel like the biggest piece of shit to have ever existed. After doing this job for so long, I thought I’d had a pretty good radar for scumbags, which most of my bounties were.
Sage was just a nice, normal woman, though. And beautiful—so beautiful she made my chest ache with need whenever I looked at her. Her scent also drove me nuts, and all I wanted to do was lay her down, kiss every scar on her body and make sure she never got another mark on her. Besides my own, besides a…
I didn’t have a chance to think more deeply on it due to a loud, ear-splitting roar of half a dozen motorcycles ripping through the air, drowning out the retro rock and roll music playing from the jukebox.
