Page 46 of Enemy of the State

I would do anything for her.

She has me wrapped around her finger like a ring that she wears every damn day, yet doesn’t seem to realize it. She may be locked away from the world, but it’s as if her blazing mysterious fire burned like a distress signal that only I seemed to answer.

Yesterday, I had her cell cleaned again, and it’s a good thing because once I finish, she stretches out on the floor, like a housecat waking up from a nap, her shoulder-length onyx hair shifting with the movement. I don’t know how someone can seem soat homein a maximum security, torture facility in the middle of the ocean on an unknown island, but she does.

With a content sigh, her bright, mischievous gaze drops to my hip, making me swallow hard as I’m slammed with the realization of how vulnerable—and reckless—this position is for both of us. Especially with my Glock so close to her hand and my tactical knife at my thigh. She could gut me or send a couple of rounds into my chest without a second thought but, for some reason, I don’t think she will.

Sean

Subject: L. KOSKINEN

Status: TERMINATION, TO BE COMPLETED BY JAN14

I stare at the two lines of the encrypted memo.

Time has ceased to exist, my vision going fuzzy the longer I focus on the screen. My heart sank to my feet the first time I read it before that dread morphed into disbelief. Now I’m so angry that I can’t even read the words anymore. Hands balled into fists, I lean over the shitty computer screen. Did Thompson not hear me? I’m convinced that sheisn’ta terrorist. And now I’m expected tokillher?

Termination doesn’t seem right. I don’t understand. Jace is right; there’s no way she’s squeaky clean, but I’d stake my own life on her innocence of most of the charges that landed her here.

I’m not capable of killing her. I won’t be able to go through with that, and there’s zero fucking chance that I could stand there and watch Jace do it. She’s someone’ssister. I have a sister, for Christ’s sake, and if someone simply shut a door in her face, I’d disembowel them. The idea of snuffing out her light fills me with an unholy amount of rage. Fuck, I’m such a hypocrite.

The slender predator isn’t giving me the knowledge Ineedtokeep her alive. If only there was a way to siphon information from her, even if it meant breaking a few more rules in the process.

I’ve never struggled to follow orders before, but I don’t know what other option I have.

What the army wants, the army gets. And right now, they want Lou’s head.

Bile races up my throat, but I shut it down by leaning into my ire. Clutching the first thing I can lay my hands on, I chuck the small, empty trashcan into the wall across the room, the plastic splitting in half with the force.

“Whoa, fuck. You good?”

My gaze shifts from the broken plastic shards to meet Jace’s wide-eyed gaze in the doorway, and I shake my head. Wheeling the office chair aside so Jace can look at the screen, he moves toward the computer, tugging off his mask. I know the second he’s read the words because his jaw tightens, the muscle ticking.

“What do we do?” he asks in a quiet voice, still staring at the screen.

“Let’s go to the roof,” I declare instead. I can’t sit in this room anymore. Besides, I want to go somewhere that Big fucking Brother can’t watch me lose my shit more than I already have.

On the roof, I stare up at the emerging twinkling stars speckled across the night sky while Jace begins chain smoking. The sun has just disappeared, so there’s still a streak of light peeking through. If I were superstitious or believed in omens, I’d probably find the dash of light in the dark sky encouraging, but I’m not and I don’t.

I’m fucked. Jace is fucked. Lou’s fucked.

“I can’t believe that’s what they decided to do with her,” he mumbles.

“They must think she’s a loose end and we know how much the government hates those,” I explain. I should’ve seen this coming. Would Lou have had more time if I had never said anything?Did I doom her to an early death?It’s true that no good deed goes unpunished.

I should’ve had longer—at least another month—before the hourglass officially ran out. However, I thought I’d found a way to turn the timer back over with the revelation that I suspect she isn’t the criminal we thought she was.

“Is there anything we can do?” he asks, halfway through his second cigarette.

“Fuck, I don’t know. We could try talking to her, telling her what’s going on. Maybe she’d be more willing to talk.”

“That’d only postpone the inevitable, though, right? What would be the point?”

I sit up in my seat, running a hand over my buzzed hair, thinking about tossing the mask in my hand into the damn wind, before leaning forward on my elbows. “It could possibly buy us some time.”

He falls silent, contemplating my words. We don’t have the luxury of time or options. The hourglass only has a few grains of sand left.

Louhi

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