Page 40 of Secret Weapon

Or so she said.

What if she was lying?

What if they were both lying?

Isure lied a lot.

Was Emmy joking?Should I laugh?

Fuck, civilian life was hard to navigate.Being Nine of Ten had been far from easy, and calling Base 13 home offered many drawbacks, but at least I hadn’t had to second-guess the true meaning of every damn conversation.I’d been able to walk around in comfortable clothes, carrying as many weapons as I wanted, and if General Zacharov told us we had a couple of hours to kill, there’d only been one appropriate response: who’s the target?

“I see.Da, messy.”

“So, Eugene?”

Fuck it—at least I could act like my true self for an evening.

“I’ll make my own way there.”

“Suit yourself.Bradley?”she called, and he appeared beside us a moment later with a basket full of craft materials.The moment everything was tidy, he’d picked up where he left off pre-Shauna and begun shopping again.Still, I couldn’t complain—with the amount of shit he was buying, I’d be able to afford that new rifle.“Can you book a table for dinner in Eugene?”

“What does everyone want to eat?Felipe took me to a darling little Italian place earlier in the week.”

I shrugged.Ana shrugged.Hallie shrugged.

Emmy grinned.“Guess we’re eating Italian, then.”

“Excellent.I’ll make the booking and reroute Alex.”

Who?“Alex?”

“Our personal trainer,” Emmy said.

They had a personal trainer?Actually, scratch that question.Of course they had a personal fucking trainer.When Ana fell from grace, she sure had landed on her feet.Was I bitter?No, that was the wrong word for it.I was happy that two of us had managed to escape from Zacharov’s clutches.But I couldn’t help being slightly envious of her life compared to mine.

“Seven o’clock?”Bradley asked.

That would give me enough time to go home, wash the blood off, change my clothes, and load up with a suitable amount of hardware.Emmy still had my knife and my gun, and I wanted those back, but I’d leave it until after dinner to push for their return.No point in making things awkward.

But as I locked the door behind us, she slipped everything she’d confiscated back into my pocket.

“I’m sure you’ll need these at some point.”

“Do you want your bear spray?”

Offering was polite, yes?

“Nah, keep it.I’ve got plenty more.”

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