Page 10 of To Keep

She was determined to talk even though he didn’t want to listen.

He glared at her.

She held her hands up in surrender. “Fine. I get it. You want silence, but bear in mind I’m a nanny. I’m used to kids talking all the time. I love talking. I love the sound of their laughter.”

“You’re paid to hear the sound of their laughter. It doesn’t count.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re truly cynical, aren’t you?”

“I’m just saying what it is.” He finished off his burger in three bites. When he was on a job, he often ignored his hunger.

He didn’t believe in giving in to the basic needs his body demanded. Galen was used to pushing himself to the limit. That was why he worked for the Circle of Monsters. There was nothing in life that appealed to him. Nothing.

He’d always been like this. Even as a child. While other kids were screaming, laughing, enjoying life, he found it all rather empty. Some of the foster parents had been so concerned with his lack of empathy, they’d tried to get him tested. That was when he learned his way to bullshit, hiding who he truly was.

A killer.

A hunter.

He had no feelings.

He didn’t care.

There was nothing out there in the world for him.

And that was the way he liked it.

“I wish I could be like you,” she said. “Not caring. I mean, I bet it didn’t even bother you seeing all that blood.”

“No, it didn’t.”

“How?”

He shrugged. “I just don’t care. People die. It’s a part of life.”

She frowned at him. “Ugh! I don’t know how you can be so cruel.”

“Cruel because I accept the world for the way it is? I’m not living in a fantasy.”

“The world is not like that.”

He raised a brow. “Are you being stupid on purpose? It’s a dog-eat-dog world.”

She grabbed her burger and took a bite. “I like to think there is good in all people.”

“So you think there is good in Petrov?” he asked.

“There must be. He has children. They have the best of everything.”

He snorted. “What if I were to tell you that Petrov had children and women killed in the past? There’s a rumor that he likes to rape women.”

Galen wasn’t sure if that was true, but he had a suspicion it was.

The more he spoke, the more horrified she became.

“That’s … oh God, I think I’m going to be sick.”

“You better do it in the sink,” he said, pointing toward it.

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