Chapter 20 #2
Veronica gives me a look of pure innocence that doesn’t fool me for a second. “Did what?”
Delilah sighs. “Vee…”
“What? You agreed to get me to follow you into this insanity, and now we’re here. Might as well take advantage of it.”
Then she turns to Maverick. For once, there isn’t anything flirty or teasing about her expression. No. The rogue-turned-rebel leader is one hundred percent serious as she reaches up, grabs the front of his shirt, and kisses him.
It’s not quite a peck, I decide. Neither is it the kind of kiss that requires me to avert my eyes, either, though I do because that’s Mav and I’ve already accidentally seen enough of his naked ass during our travels to last a lifetime.
As though Chase thinks I could’ve ever been attracted to him.
Watching Veronica and Maverick share a kiss…
it’s like when I was twelve and I came home to find Rory and Lauren Ferguson making out on the couch because Mom was still at work.
That’s the embarrassment that floods through me.
Remembering too late that your older brother is a sexual creature.
When we first met Veronica, I could’ve sworn the two older travelers had hit it off, snuck out to the woods, and had wild sex up against a tree to burn off some of the edge you get, living in a post-apocalyptic world.
I mean, me and Chase did something similar, and I was still pretending to be my twin then.
I know how much Maverick loved his wife before the Turning stole her from him, but we’re doing this right now because we all want to believe that there just might be a future for us all one day.
Maybe… maybe Mav’s will include Veronica.
When she releases him, she gives his chest a pat. “Good luck, cutie.”
Maverick looks stunned for about half a second, almost as though he’s surprised that she made such a bold move on him. Then he grins. “You’re sure about this? We can go with you first—”
“And give up on your chance to face that monster when you’ve got the edge?
You know you’ll never forgive yourself. And, hey, odds are none of us are getting out of here alive.
” And we have already agreed that, if it came to it, if it seemed as though one of them won’t survive, the last thing they’ll do is trigger the explosives and blow up the NRI so that we at least take the remnants of Project Phoenix with us.
“But I’m hoping we do. Come find us when you’re done. ”
And then, before Maverick can respond, she grabs her twin by the arm and the two sisters start running down the empty hall.
I watch them disappear before looking at Mav. “You know, I—”
“Don’t.”
“But I told—”
“Kid.”
I grin. “Fine. But now I just have to make sure we survive this because I can not wait to tell Chase ‘I told you so’.”
Maverick rolls his eyes, then looks at the door again. Suddenly, he’s completely serious as his smile disappears. “What do you say, Holden? You want to go see the Doctor?”
Because that’s who is sitting behind that door. That’s who the office belongs to. That’s where Delilah brought us to because Veronica knew Maverick needed closure after what happened the last time we were here… and you know what?
So do I.
I nod at Maverick.
He firms his jaw. Folding his fingers into a tight fist, he knocks politely at the door.
We both hold our breath.
And then—
“Enter.”
The Doctor is an arrogant bastard.
I knew that already, but the fact that he’s sitting behind his desk as though we’re expected patients instead of two people who escaped his torture chamber confirms it for me all over again.
“Ah.” He folds his hands in front of him. “Did you have an appointment? Because I’m quite sure the both of you missed your last one.”
He looks exactly the same. Same pale skin. Same dark hair. Same lab coat the says Doctor embroidered in script over the pocket of his lab coat. He has a pen sticking out of the top, plus an injection, but no scalpel this time.
Shame.
Before anyone can see us entering the Doctor’s office, Maverick steps inside.
I quickly follow, kicking the door closed behind me with my boot.
We have to be quick. I don’t see cameras in here—not like the ones they had back in the cell they kept us in—but I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole damn space was bugged.
It’s so depressing in here. Just a folded table serving as a desk, plus two plastic chairs sitting opposite of each other. No sign of the polygraph machine (or the shock collar). It’s just the Doctor and his creepy black eyes that go from Maverick to me before he smiles and my poor belly squirms.
“James. Hallie. Welcome back to the NRI.”
Damn it to fucking hell. Just the way he says my birth name in that flat, emotionless voice of his… shit. My name. He says that name and, suddenly, I’m sitting in that chair again, the shock collar around my neck as he asks question after question with the intent to break me.
And he did.
I don’t realize I’ve gone frozen in place until Maverick steps back, sticking to me like glue, hiding how I break out of my stunned shock with a violent tremor.
The Doctor notices, though. Of course he does.
“You remembered.” His cruel smile widens, though when he speaks again his flat tone makes it clear that the curve of his lips has nothing to do with any sort of emotion.
He’s just a fucking psycho, smiling because he knows it will unnerve us—and it does.
“I was curious whether the breakthrough would hold once you were removed from a controlled environment.”
Thanks to my long ago online classes, I know that’s psych babble for the Doctor wondering if I would return to being nuts and tell the world I was still Xandra once we broke out of the NRI.
“Fuck you,” I spit out at him when I finally find my voice.
He ignores the anger. Hell, if he remembers me—and he obviously does—he’s used to it.
Sure, I was leaning into Xandra’s personality when I cursed the Doctor out, but I’ve learned something in the time since.
Sweet and kind and nice just made me a pushover.
I can still be me, love Chase, curse like a sailor, and glare at the Doctor while imagining him sparking and lighting up once we leave the NRI and set off the bombs.
If I have to press the button on Maverick’s trigger myself, I will. Anything to make this monster pay for his crimes.