Page 86 of All The Way Under
The last sentence causes physical pain.
“I’m too much for you, is what you mean to say. Rephrase it, Brody. Tell me the truth.”
I sniffle. Brody looks away, like seeing me in pain is too much for him.
“Tell me you don’t care.”
He leans into the doorway, further away from me.
“Then you’ll leave? If I tell you I don’t care?”
My stomach turns to lead. He’s serious.
“Better make me believe it, McCoy,” I sling back, jamming a finger into the name patch on his chest.
He hangs his head. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be. I’ve had a long day. I’ve had several long days.”
“I didn’t hear you say you didn’t care.”
“I don’t care,” he says. “Sort your life. Get back into sailing. Invent. Discover. Make the world better, Saylor. You don’t need a man to do the things you love. You changed the world withAll The Way Under. The military forced you to create it. We blocked the signal of the original system you were using. It was us. We are the reason you got kidnapped in the first place.”
“I can’t believe this,” I say.
He won’t meet my gaze. They blocked my signal. I knew it didn’t fail, and this is confirmation. I try to suppress my angerat this information so I can have a conversation with the man I love.
Brody presses his lips together. “It wasn’t personal. It could have been anyone. We just needed a reason to go to the island. If we knew the brothers were already there, they would have been enough.” He lets out another sigh. “You don’t realize it now, but I am doing the right thing. Not just for myself, but for you too.”
Another longing look that ends too quickly.
“I did learn something important, though. Sometimes love isn’t enough.”
“What if it’s always enough?” I retort. “That’s just your opinion. My opinion is that it is enough.”
“Nah, it’s been proven a couple of times now. I won’t test the theory again, that you can be sure of.”
“So you and Grimace are just going to live in this house by yourself, and you’re going to do the same job forever? Lonely and mean?”
“He won’t live forever,” he replies sadly. “But yeah. That’s the plan.”
“That’s sad,” I say.
“Not as sad as it could be, though.”
I remain silent. Studying his face. He does the same. It breaks my heart.
“Goodbye, Saylor. Fair winds and following seas.”
He closes the door. Then locks it.
I sit on his cement steps for longer than I care to admit, processing everything that just happened.
My GPS signal was jammed by the United States military, and he knew it. All this time, he knew it.
Brody couldn’t handle the very thing I warned him about in my life—people do what they want, and they manipulate to better position themselves. I offered to give it all up for him, and he rejected me.
I pick my bracelets up off of the ground and drop them into the mailbox attached to the side of his house. I meant it when I said I would give everything up for him.
My GPS was jammed, he knew it, and waited until now to tell me.
