Chapter 18
Her anxiety about his whereabouts has converted into agitation since they quit searching for him. The articles didn’t do him any favors. There is only so much a searing kiss can do.
Finally, she gives in and thinks the command: Call Jett. While she waits for him to answer, she rereads a particularly disturbing one:
Development Group Evicts Elderly Tenants.
“Not your best work,” she says, almost feeling guilty for waking him up. Almost. But the number of times she’s supported her FRIENDS as they’ve wallowed over a manupartner dissuades her.
“I’ve been reading the articles about him from his time,” she confesses.
“He hasn’t made it back, then?” Jett asks.
K8 sighs. “No.” She doesn’t want to put the thoughts to words, but she feels she must ask, “Do you think they’ve decommissioned him?”
“It is a little concerning that you haven’t heard anything from GROW. If they were holding him, I would think they’d be obliged to communicate that to you.”
This is why K8 likes Jett. Of their FRIENDS group, he matches her ability to be cynical logical the best. If she called Lessa, they would only assure her about how everything would be fine and tell her to go to bed and worry about her nonexistent wrinkles.
“I feel so useless. If something happens to him . . . if he’s gone, all I’ve done is drag my FRIENDS around on a fruitless manhunt.
” Unable to tolerate the silence, she breaks it after a few stagnant moments.
“He has to be alive. I’ll go to GROW when they open.
They’ll have to give me answers. Lessa said I still have rights to him. ”
The consumer rights board is one of the more powerful NHOS divisions.
She’ll bring Lessa so they can speak some legalese at them and get them to return James to her.
Who cares if he is from the past—he’s hers.
That’s not right exactly, but technically, if she still owns him, they can’t take him. That’s the point.
“Lessa’s right,” Jett says. “I don’t see why you care so much, either. Let the people at GROW deal with him. I read that article you sent. He wasn’t a good man.”
K8 knows this, but she isn’t sure it’s fair to judge the past by the standards of the present.
Clearly, some people had a problem with James, but nothing he did appeared to be illegal.
And people seemed willing to work with him, so that suggests trust, or ironclad contracts.
It’s just that everything she’s read seems to point to the same character flaws.
“But he’s still a human being. How can you not see the ethical dilemma I’m facing?
I’m morally obligated to help him. Besides, I promised. ”
“K8, darling. It is not your ethical dilemma. GROW should shoulder that weight. Not you.” Jett is only a decade older than her, but he affects a fatherly tone so well when he’s trying to impress a point.
K8 appreciates the sentiment. But he doesn’t understand. Even if it was her ethical dilemma, she imagines he’d dismiss it the same way. Such is the way of her FRIENDS. She must make him see.
“If they try to recycle him, he’ll admit he’s real.
Then they’ll have questions for me, and who knows what they’ll do with him?
He’ll become their experiment. Look at how they handled the runaway unit earlier.
They told the public it may be dangerous.
Do you think they’re going to let their mistakes live?
I imagine there’s a massive coverup being planned as we speak.
” She feels her argument is quite stable.
“I’m the only one who can do anything to save him. I have to try.”
As if Jett summoned it, her device, which has been sitting idly on her desk, flashes at the edge of her vision. “Oh!” she exclaims. “An email from GROW.”
“What does it say?!” Jett barks into her ear.
She snatches the glowing glass gadget and thinks the command: Open email.
When the message pops up, she furiously scans it.
Impossible! “It says my unit has passed the inspection and that nothing further is required. They released him hours ago.” Technically, the report says more than that, but that is the gist.
“Wait, he passed inspection? So where is he?”
“Great question,” she says, more than a little irritated.
Right then, the door handle rattles, followed by a pounding fist. The series of automatic pings that alert the resident to visitors sounds. K8 turns, dropping the device to the desk with a thwack. The sound reverberates in her mind, and she imagines it does in Jett’s too. “Sorry.”
“What happened?” he asks.
She thinks the command: System, unlock door. The lock hisses as it clicks open, and whoever is on the other side will have heard.
“K8, what is it?” Jett presses.
She wants to answer, but what she sees as the door cracks open effectively silences her. James steps through, looking as whole as he did when the inspectors escorted him away. He’s grinning like a madman.
“K8, what’s happening?” Jett barks in her ear.
“He’s back,” she whispers. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
She doesn’t take her eyes off James as he saunters toward her. She turns her chair to face him, crossing her arms. “Where have you been?”
“Nice to see you too, beautiful. I thought you’d be happy to see me.” His grin transforms into a lopsided smirk. In response, her heart catches in her throat despite her many misgivings. “Come here.”
Her body launches itself out of her chair.
He’s so handsome, and she’s so relieved.
And angry, but mostly relieved. She isn’t thinking as she throws her arms around him.
He returns her embrace, holding her almost too tight.
She doesn’t care, burying her face in his chest. Breathing in his delicious scent.
Feeling his firm body beneath her fingertips.
She still isn’t thinking as she runs her hands up the firm muscles of his back, tilting her head back to look at him.
“Oh, K8, you have no idea how happy I am you’re here.” He leans down to kiss her forehead. “I thought they were going to turn me into a lab rat and I’d never get to see you again. It made me panic. I just needed to see you.”
He nuzzles her neck, and she lets every word he says burrow into her psyche.
She’s so dangerously close to getting lost in the moment.
She could arch her neck in offer to him.
What would he do? Kiss her slowly and draw out this first time, teasing her until she’s overcome with desire, or would it be an explosive frenzy? The warm feelings make her dizzy.
James, however, is stroking her waist as if he’s content to keep holding her.
“James,” she prompts, curious about what he’s thinking. What he was doing for those several hours . . .
“Yes?” He pulls back and takes her jaw in his hands, tilting her head so she’s staring up at him. His eyes dip to her lips, causing her pulse to skip.
She steadies herself. Answers first, then kisses. “I got an email that said you were released hours ago. Where have you been?”
“Hmm?” he mutters, seeming more lost in the haze between them than she is.
But she’s been worrying all evening for his safety. “Where were you?”
“Oh,” he says, chuckling. “We only made it down to the SAT garage when they got called to hunt down some missing unit. They decided my defects weren’t worth the trouble after all.
I came back right after they released me.
Your door was locked, and you didn’t answer.
I waited around for a while, then I figured your unit number would work to get me a drink. ”
K8 blinks, hardly able to process what she’s hearing. His words confirm every article and everything she thinks of him. Of all the selfish people . . .
He must misinterpret her expression, because his eyes dip back and stay glued to her lips. “I’ve always been lucky.” He leans forward.
He’s going to kiss her. The part of her that craved another kiss moments before gives way to a chilling sensation. “Excuse me?”
He pauses. “Your unit number. I gave it to the bartender, and he gave me drinks.” He grins like he’s proud of his cleverness before leaning forward again.
She releases the back of his shirt, which she’s been gripping. “Get off me, you monster. Zorg, I can’t believe I almost let you kiss me again.”
He steps back as if she’s slapped him. Good. She might slap him if he doesn’t start talking. With her hands planted firmly on her hips, she levels him with a glare.
“You weren’t here. Did you want me to sit outside your door like a lost puppy? I figured after the day I’ve had, you wouldn’t mind.” He glowers down at her as if he’s the one being slighted.
Her skull might actually crack. “You figured I wouldn’t mind?
!” The walls between units are thick enough that surely her neighbors can’t hear her.
Even if they can, it doesn’t slow her down.
“I thought the Flash News article about a runaway unit claiming to be from the past was you! While you were having a relaxing drink, Jett and Lessa spent hours helping me search for you. I thought you were dead!” Her voice rattles precariously, but she refuses to shed a single tear on his behalf.
Her boiling anger is making her feel overheated and freezing at once.
How could he be so stupid? And inconsiderate?
How could she have even considered whatever ridiculous feelings that kiss tricked her into feeling?
James’s face becomes serious as her words seem to sober him.
Is he remorseful? Or at least questioning his actions?
She looks away. Back to the screens, where the articles remind her of who this man really is before sympathy can crowd out more appropriate emotions.
He comes to stand behind her, taking her hair in his hands.
He moves it to one side, exposing her bare shoulder.
She feels him lean down, feels his breath on her neck, and she thinks he’s going to kiss her skin again.
Like this is some move calculated to calm her down.
She doesn’t want him to, and she does because there is clearly something wrong with her.
The conflict and anticipation prickle her skin.
Didn’t she read that hate sex used to be a thing?
Before she can decide if she’ll allow this or tell him to stop, he sucks in a sharp breath.
She turns her head to the side. His face is so near she can feel the heat radiating off him.
Smell his heady scent. See the individual hairs of his stubble.
But he isn’t staring at her. He’s staring at the screen. At the article she sent to Jett. The one with the damning headline:
The Folly of Mourning Monstrous Men.
Beneath it is a photograph labeled James Alexander Fletcher.