Page 36 of Amethyst Flame
I slid my gaze to the side. “What about your team? Why aren’ttheygoing with you to hack this place?”
Maybe because they don’t exist?
“I need your special skills for this, Imogen.”
Flattery? Ordinarily I’d be open it, but since I knew he was lying to me, I rolled my eyes. I was half a breath from telling him to fuck off, to force him to admit he didn’t have anyone else, but…whatever. “Just stop at the first fast food place you see.”
“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.”
“About what?”
“I think you should consider a diet that will support your body’s unique needs.”
My lip curled at the worddiet.
“I’m not telling you to lose weight,” he added with a glance my way. “I’m saying that when you need your body to take those extra steps, to hold on an extra minute, or push a little harder to save your life—or, for example, your mother’s—then your diet might provide the necessary fuel.”
Pretty low of him to mention my mother.
Except, fine, I’d had to save us both before, and yeah, I’d left the scene on a stretcher while the baddies helicoptered away above me. “So are you going to provide all that food, because I need a lot of calories, and the personal chef to make it tasty?”
“I’ve had a meal plan prepared.”
“Oh god,” I muttered. “Just kill me now.”
“Imogen, I’m trying to keep you alive.”
His answer tickled my fear and sent a shiver down my spine, but he paid for the four hamburgers I ordered, and he said nothing else about dieting while I ate them. Meanwhile, he had the nerve to guzzle some thick, green ooze from a bottle.
To avoid any other helpful suggestions about my life, I texted my mom that I was going to Swann’s then put in my earphones and selected a crime podcast for a little inspiration on painful ways to kill him and hide his body…his likely very fit and healthy body. Maybe I should just drown him in a vat of that green stuff.
The sun went down over the desert, and darkness blanketed the scraggly, snake-infested landscape. With nothing to see—except the inside of a rest stop bathroom—and my belly happily contented, I got sucked into grisly stories of what happened to trusting young women when a predator hunted them. At the climax of episode three, a hand reached toward me.
I screamed as I made a fast [shield] with my fingers, moths blazing into formation to protect me.
But…turned out it wasn’t the serial strangler. It was Dane. Who looked about as close to laughing as I’d ever seen him. He pulled his hand back, showing me his empty palm.Yeah, yeah—no danger.He’d only been trying to get my attention. Then he tapped his ear.
Ugh.Fine.I yanked out my earbuds.
“We need to prep for the mission.”
My shield moths had begun to dissipate in the air, but his words made the ones inside me buzz in response to a fresh surge of adrenaline.
“Yeah, okay.” I sat up a little straighter. It was spy time.
“It so happens that I’ve visited this facility in an official capacity before, and I have mid-level clearance to their systems.”
I arched a brow. “I’m guessing you need high-level clearance.”
“Yes.”
“How are you going to explain bringing along an intern from BantaMatrix?” I was still wearing their t-shirt.
“If anyone asks, you’re a team member on a contract assignment, and because you don’t have clearance, you will wait patiently in the lobby while I do what I need to do.”
“Can’t promise anything.”
He sighed heavily. “I went through your closet and found the closest thing to appropriate attire to make you look like less of a…teenager and more of an operator on assignment.”
