Page 140 of The Masks She Wore

?I nodded, sliding my hand over her knee. “I know. You have to exercise patience with yourself, okay?”

?She nodded, moving her knee slightly, telling me nonverbally that she wasn’t ready for anymore touching just yet.

?So, I removed my hand and folded them together, studying her carefully to see how much her physical reaction had changed. “What kind of fruit do you like?”

?“Str…” she ground her teeth together, swallowing, her body tensing, her hands flexing. “Fuck,” she muttered. “Straw…b-berries. St-st-straaawb-berries.”

?“Good. Your thoughts on social media?”

?“Poison,” she answered, meeting my eyes. “A death sentence. They wanted me online because it goes against our beliefs.”

?They had to be ghosts, being online would take away the anonymity, especially posting your face. It was probably why Charles forced her into loving it. She lost her power by being online. “Okay, good, there was no hesitation in that. Jewels?”

?Her fingers found the metal collar around her neck, her amber eyes shining. “Sapphires. I love sapphires.”

?That’s good to know. “And how do you feel about coffee?”

?She glanced towards the kitchen and found my eyes again. “B-b-black. Do you have any?”

?I chuckled. I couldn’t blame her for that one. “We can make some.” She was doing really well. Her body was relaxing, although she still picked at the skin around her nails a bit. It was a good sign. “Now, locker 447? You mentioned your mother putting your gifts there. Benji worked there.”

?She nodded, rolling her shoulders, reaching up to rub her shoulder only to freeze before she could hurt herself. “That was wrong, but it followed an old rule of ours,” she explained finding Zo’s eyes. “It wasn’t 447, it was 228. If ever we’re caught, tortured for information, the easiest thing to do is shift the information in a way that is almost truthful. 22, easy numbers, double them, but subtract one from 8, don’t divide. Too easy for people to crack if you follow the same pattern.”

?Zo nodded. “What’s in the storage locker?”

?“In LA?” she shook her head, her face twisting. “You guys never went to look?”

?“Busy, Princess.” Malachi had said he would do it. I should have done it myself. Fucking bullshit.

?She released a breath. “I don’t know, I can’t…it’s not there. Gifts, that’s what I said. Mom brought art back for me? So…she brought something. Something important. Maybe from our other assignments?”

?I could see the exhaustion in her eyes. She needed to rest, let her body heal. “Okay, we’ll look into what you’ve told us,” I told her easily. “You need to heal, rest.”

?“I’ll be okay in a week,” she assured me as I stood. “One week, good as new. I can help.”

?“I plan on taking you wherever I go,” I assured her. “You’re one of us, Princess, you need to get back in the game.”

?Light filled her eyes, excitement, relief, as if she thought I would have said no. Fuck that, I had already planned on taking her on my assignments, now that I knew she was truly one of us, there was no way in Hell I was going anywhere without her. Never again. We would take this world together or not at all. From now until death finds us.

31

Rae

January 30th, 2020

Jack finally had to use the bathroom, leaving me on the couch watching my movies alone while Zo stood on the far side of the wall of windows on the phone.

?I wondered if she had finally gotten a hold of Malachi. It’s all they had been doing for the last few hours. Trying to call their master. Trying to put together puzzle pieces that might never get put together. I felt the whole idea of trying to get him to answer questions was useless. My Mom was closer to me than Malachi was to them, and she never told me anything. She keptso muchfrom me. Everything.

?I had trusted her with my life, trusted her to know that anything she put me through, it was for my own good.

?Now what? She wasn’t even dead. She was just…gone. Maybe I was wrong though. Maybe Malachi would tell them everything. Confess to them like a sinner to a priest. But I highly doubted it. There was something about him that set my teeth on edge. But I suppose Azrael set my teeth on edge too.

?The sun had finally set, and the rain wasn’t easing up. The woods surrounding us looked almost haunted. I felt more comfortable now then I had a few hours ago.

?It’s what I loved most about spending that year in Seattle in that building. The rain, the trees, the fresh air. Our jobs took us everywhere, but mostly we found ourselves staying in larger cities, it made it easier to disappear.

?But that year in those woods outside of Seattle? God, I had never known such peace. Going through the worst training of my entire life, and yet I had been happier there than I had been anywhere else in the world.

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