Page 49 of Trust

“How to fight. How to shoot. How to get away. I don’t want to be a sitting target. Not again.”

He leans in, forearms braced on his knees. “You’re serious.”

I nod. “I don’t want to freak out or freeze next time. I need to know what to do.”

He watches me, weighing every word.

“You think a few lessons in self-defense are going to make you bulletproof?”

“No,” I admit. “But it’s a start.”

He reaches for the whiskey and downs it, then glances back up at me. “You’re asking me to turn you into someone who can survive people like me.”

“I’m asking you to help me become someone who never ends up in the back of a van again.”

That lands. I can tell. His jaw tightens. There’s a trace of emotion in his expression. Shame, or regret. He holds my gaze.

“It wasn’t your fault, Sara,” he says finally. “It would have been impossible for you to stop me.”

“Please don’t tell me I should just sit here and wait.”

A long pause settles between us without awkwardness. We’re both sitting with the truth and figuring out what to do with it.

He runs a hand through his hair. “Okay,” he says at last. “One condition.”

My confidence falters.

“When you were in the tech booth at the rally site. You planted something. How did you hack the system?”

I huff. “It’s not that deep. We’ve always had the same tech guy. I feigned interest and watched him type his password.”

He suppresses a smile and shakes his head. “What did you plant?”

Heat blooms in my cheeks as I play with my fingers.

“Porn,” I mumble. “I don’t have anything on Richard to take him down. But this would’ve been scandalous enough to cost him votes, and the embarrassment would’ve been a bonus. I replaced the intro clip with mine so no one would notice. Used the same file name.”

I try to gather the courage to raise my head.

“It didn’t work though, did it?”

Another headshake. Although I saw it coming, I’m disappointed.

Satisfied with my answers, he finally relents. “If you’re committed, we start training tomorrow. Early. I’m not going easy on you.”

“I wouldn’t want you to,” I say almost before he finishes.

A short laugh slips out of him. Disbelief, I guess.

We don’t say anything after that. Tiny bursts of sound rise from the fire.

For the first time since this whole nightmare began, I want to do more than just survive.

Even if I learn from the man who put me here, tomorrow I start taking back control.

WORKOUT

Chris