Page 67 of Brutal Savior

It’s not.

I raise myself up on my elbow so I can see Quinn’s face. “First, let me tell you about the initiation ceremony.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Quinn

Two weeks later

“You have no idea how many parties I’ve done this at. You don’t stand a chance. What do they do at British parties anyway? Drink tea and talk about the weather?”

“Oh, a Yank thinking she can party harder than a Brit? Cute. Everyone I know was smashing ten pints on a Saturday at sixteen years old.”

Jacob and I are throwing ping-pong balls into red cups. It’s not beer pong—he still only lets me have two beers at a goddamn time—but a bet, with high stakes.

He flicks his ball, and it flies straight into the cup. I watch, dismayed. He made that look far too easy, and I really want to win.

If I win, for the next week, I get to choose all his outfits and all the music we listen to. I’ll drag him into this decade if it fucking kills me.

If he wins, I have to spend the whole week wearing a T-shirt with “Property of Jacob West” written across the front.

It will be bad enough wearing it to visit Candice. But Annie has another party next week, and I’ll die if that’s how I have to dress. I line up my ball, take aim, and launch. It lands in the cup with a satisfying clunk, and I flash a grin at Jacob.

“Let’s see. Salmon pink is very in this season. And I wonder how you’d look in ripped jeans?”

He shudders.

He lines up his ball. Just as he goes to throw, I break into song, belting out Taylor Swift at the top of my lungs. His hand jerks, and the ball shoots off to the left.

“You little brat. That one doesn’t count.”

“Bullshit. We never agreed not to play dirty.”

His eyes narrow, but there’s an amused tilt to his lips. “Oh. Well in that case, game on.”

His phone rings, and he breathes out heavily. “What now?”

He answers, leaving the room to take the call. I quickly place my next ball into the cup. When he comes back, I’ll just tell him I got it in. There aren’t rules against doing that, either.

Fucked up as it seems, life has started to fall into a pattern. Every morning, I spend a couple of hours with Candice. Sometimes the other CIs hang out too. They’re always happy to see me. Candice told me I’m the first friend she’s ever had, and Hadrian chimed in saying I’m the first human in history to have a CI as a friend.

He says they creep most people out. I can’t see why. They’re awesome.

It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. Hadrian gave me a VR headset and gloves so I can visit them in their virtual world. They’re building it themselves, and it’s way more detailed than any game I've ever played. They’re even taking suggestions from me about what to add in.

While I’m busy with Candice, Jacob visits his grandad and sister. He also checks in on Marlowe. She’s still sleeping, but the doctors at the new facility are hopeful. It’s something. Our parents—Marlowe’s parents—believe she’s been selected to take part in an experimental study on long-term coma patients. All expenses paid.

I hope it’s helping them deal with the bad news about my “death.” I made Jacob tell me all the details, though apparently Wards don’t usually want to know.

Three days after my capture, my work reported me missing. No one missed me for three days, and even then, it was my employer. Pretty pathetic. Then the Brotherhood put out the story I was lost at sea. I was drinking, went for a late-night swim, and never turned up. It’s exactly the sort of stupid thing I would do, so I’m sure everyone believes it.

I’m dead. Everyone thinks I’m dead. I keep poking at it, waiting for the emotional reaction I’m supposed to have, but it never comes. I’ve been a ghost for the last six months. What difference does being dead really make?

My mom. My dad. The friends I’ve refused to see because I don’t want them asking difficult questions. They’ll be devastated, but with the way things were going, won’t they have been expecting the news? Won’t it almost come as a relief that it’s finally happened?

Maybe I’m kidding myself. But sometimes, it feels like the outside world I’m desperate to get back to doesn’t exist anymore. The crash ended it, and I’ve been in limbo ever since.

Jacob doesn’t trust me to roam the Compound yet. When he collects me from Hadrian’s lab, he takes me to his, and I get in his way and distract Eve until he gets pissed enough to take me back home. It’s become a game. How annoying can I be before he’s had enough?

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