Page 65 of Never Bound

And that was it. There was no hint to his location, no hint ofanything, really. I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t crushed. I’d offered my heart and said the words. And as much as I didn’t begrudge him his fear—I’d never met anyone so equally terrified of loveandbeing alone—it hadn’t been easy for me, either. And all he could think to write to me, as the last thing he might ever get to say, were four words about me getting old? Yeah. Getting old without him, it looked like.

I felt heat rush to my face. No wonder Erica and Milagros weren’t here. They had probably long since given up on getting any help from me and gone off on their own. And now, in Erica’s silent living room, with Millie’s tail swishing and the lacy drapes fluttering, here were the tears falling again. Right on cue.

Stupid fucking crybaby.What was I even doing here? His sister was stuck in some living hell and I’d promised him I would find her, and yet I’d done nothing but lie in bed and cry for the past two days. And I wassurprisedwhen he didn’t say he loved me? I was a joke. I was making thingsworse. I’d started fucking up his life pretty much right from the moment we’d met, and clearly, not much had changed.

Millie gracefully leaped from the top of the pillow-strewn sofa to the bookshelf as if trying to bring my attention to that spot. Another memory: his startled eyes tearing themselves away from the page, slamming the book shut, caught in the act of … reading poetry. As if that were somehow transgressive. Though for him, maybe it was.

Still, there was something aboutthatmemory in particular. Inspired, I ran my fingers along the spines of the old books, looking for poetry volumes, until I finally stopped at a thick one at the end. I grabbed and opened it, flipping through the pages until suddenly, I stopped dead and looked up. The air around me seemed to darken as if a cloud had passed over the sun, muting the birds and the distant street noises. The shadows of the room seemed to stretch and swirl as if a hidden figure stood just beyond the edge of my vision, watching my every move. And then the front door slammed shut.

HIM

After a month of trying, I was finally getting a glimpse inside the legendary 2481 Salt River Boulevard—and finding it a total bore. Lemaya had predictably been made the tour guide, her bouncy energy perfect for the job. At first, I followed her dutifully through the glass-paned doors of the lab—high-security and totally unmarked from the outside—where gleaming white countertops lined the walls and a collection of brand-new equipment hummed, more advanced than some of the stuff I’d used in Heidelberg, even. She moved swiftly around the room, pointing out each feature with care. But her words were predictably rehearsed, glossing over certain details, like where the other girls were who supposedly worked here and whether Resi was experimenting with microchips, the way Maeve—and later Erica—had suggested. And even though I hadn’t had time to charge the tablet or try any of the passwords, I already had a feeling the tour I was getting was very different from the “tour” Resi had given Corey.

In fact, all Lemaya would tell me was that “we all have different schedules” and that they were working on “cutting-edge technology” and that “it was all very exciting.” In other words, complete bullshit straight out of a marketing brochure. I tried every way I could think of to cajole her for more. Sure, I might be able to come up with an excuse to come back here in the next few days, but I couldn’t count on it, and I was fairly confident that the other address Erica had found—the one that used to belong to Max’s father—was not going to be on any tours Resi planned to give me. I had to do what I could right now. Half an hour later, though, Lemaya had had it. Even her bounce felt forced. It was almost as if she was telling me with her dark brown eyes:for both of our sakes, please, just shut up.

Langer, who’d been following along for the first five to ten minutes, had slipped out.Thatgave me an opportunity. Right now, I needed to get Lemaya acting—and talking—like a real person again. Luckily, that wasmyspecialty.

“What do I think? I think that’s the most beautiful pipette I have ever seen in my life,” I said, directing my eyes toward the glassware she was holding with a teasing smile.

After a second, she giggled. “Isn’t it, though?” she said, gesturing elegantly to it like a showroom model.

“No, but seriously, I do have a question Iknowyou can answer. So you know how it is when a light bulb just goes off in your head and it’s all you think about and you just have to get it down on paper before you forget? Is there maybe a quiet place nearby where I can go do that? Like, now?”

In a second, Lemaya’s smile went from charmed to slightly terrified. And it wasn’tjustbecause Resi was hiding something, orjustbecause I was Maeve’s brother.

It was both. And probably more.

Better throw some puppy-dog eyes in, too. “Ideas are sort of how I’m earning my keep here,” I said. “So if it slips away, Max’s not going to be happy.”

In a second, Lemaya’s smile faltered, her eyes flicking nervously around the room before settling back on me, the laughter gone. There was fear there, a subtle shift I almost missed. I wondered what instructions she’d been given and how often she’d been told the consequences for breaking them.

Or been shown them.

“I won’t let anything come back on you,” I murmured. It was a promise I might regret making, the kind I might not be able to keep but was always fucking making. And we both knew that was what it was, but we also came from the same place, so we knew that sometimes you had to make it anyway.

She chewed on her lip. “I disabled the cameras in here,” she explained, her voice low. “But still, you didn’t hear this from me. If Resi finds out I told you—“

“She won’t,” I said.

Reluctantly, she continued. “Down the hall, there’s a storeroom. It’s quiet, isolated. No one goes there much. You can work there, but be discreet, please.”

I nodded, keeping my voice even. “And Resi—“

Her eyes widened slightly, a silent plea. “Just … be careful around her. More than you think you need to be. I didn’t want to tell you anything, and I shouldn’t be telling you now, but I’m doing it for Maeve.”

“You taught her English.”

She nodded. “Tried. I—she was—is—my friend.” Her deep, dark brown eyes stayed fixed on mine. The eyes of someone that I could actually imagine my sister being friends with quite easily. No, I still didn’t fully trust Lemaya, but for a second, for Maeve’s sake, I was glad she existed.

“Do you know where she is?” I tried.

“I wish I did,” she said, slowly shaking her head. “Just like I betshewishes she knew where I was.“ But she lowered her voice even further. “I’ll try to find out more.”

I nodded and moved quickly down the bright-white hallway and toward an open door leading to a side room. Inside was a smaller laboratory, filled with buzzing machinery, and an even smaller room branching off from it. And in that smaller room were two figures. After a moment, I recognized Langer and Resi, standing close together, almost touching in a way that could have been friendly or supportive—but could have been any number of other things, too. I crept around the corner of a stainless steel lab bench, pressing my back against the cold metal surface. Peering cautiously around the side of the equipment, I could see them. I ducked back down behind the bench and strained to make out the words.

“Wow, this place is fairly humming with activity,” Langer remarked sarcastically. “It’s a thrill to be in such a fast-paced and productive environment.”

So I was right. They may have lived at another address, but the other girlsshouldbe here now. And in their absence, the place was dead.

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