Page 68 of Remade

“Well, unlike you, I don’t have a Valentine’s date,” he huffed.

I rolled my eyes.

I was glad Bo and I cared the same amount about this “holiday.” As in, “just enough.” I’d woken him up with a blow job and a donut with red icing, and he’d fingered me and eaten me out in the shower until I’d sprayed the tiles with my load. Actually, he’d also made me breakfast. Bacon in the shape of a heart.

I fucking loved that man.

I yawned again, and Tanner and I went our separate ways. He was having dinner with his brother, and I guessed I’d wait for Bo’s arrival.

Alex prepared her own tray, and I assumed we were sitting where she’d parked her favorite toy in the whole world. Sometimes, we had to remind her that her legs still worked.

My stomach snarled when I noticed they were serving pizza today, so fuck waiting for Bo. I needed to eat, stat.

“Lemon, where’s your uncle?” I asked, loading my plate.

“He’s getting my new frame in his locker. It arrived today.” She was happy about that, and I felt for her.

She’d accidentally knocked over the picture of her parents in her sleep the other day, and she’d been devastated to wake up with glass on the floor. Luckily, the picture hadn’t been damaged, and Bo had ordered her a new frame. She was gonna decorate it, of course.

Alex and I took our seats at our usual table, and she stared longingly at her little ATV, followed by a pout my way. But I stood firm. She was allowed to drive the thing in the hallways after school, when we didn’t have countless operators wandering the building, and she couldnoteat her dinner in it. She’d tried to demonstrate once how easy it would be by balancing her plate on the handles, and that was the day her spaghetti was dumped in her lap.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I told her.

She scowled instead. “I won’t drop my food again. It’s pizza!”

I didn’t care. “You gotta ask Bo, honey. He created the rule, and we’ll follow it.”

Alex wasn’t anything like I’d expected children to be. She didn’t fuss a whole lot, she could get cranky when she was tired just like anyone in the world, and she did get sad every now and then when she missed her dad. But nine times out of ten, she was so easy to be around. That said, ever since we’d moved across the street to the Towers—when things between Bo and me became more official—Alex had started testing her limits. Or our limits, I should say.

Bo’s sister said it was normal, so we were just going with it.

More often than not, I was the one who texted with Kat—at least when it came to Alex—because Kat and Bo had aninteresting dynamic. Right now, for instance, she was on Bo’s shit list for being smug about “calling it” with his sexuality. She’d apparently hinted that he might not be straight.

She was very nice to me, and that was all that mattered.

Bo arrived soon after, and he looked as tired as I felt. He dismissed Alex’s plea with a yawn and went to grab food, so Alex tossed her half-eaten slice on the plate and sat back with a huff.

This was fun.

March 25th, 2025

I wasn’t going to lie. I was fucking nervous about this part of our training. We’d known it was coming; instructors had given us hints, some reading material, several warnings, and a list to prepare us. And now, the day was here. Our resistance-to-interrogation training was officially starting.

It was the first time we’d been shown to one of the larger classrooms in the schoolhouse, and we weren’t alone. Aside from us nine recruits, twelve government officials were here for the same training.

Tanner and I sat together at one desk, and we looked around the room as Beckett, Rose, and Coach got ready for the introduction.

“Some of the guys here are really old,” Tanner whispered.

“Yeah.” I wondered which agencies they all came from. Were they really as new as we were? Because this wasn’t Tanner and me being ageist or anything, but to start fresh when you were in your forties…? Inthisfield?

“Listen up, everyone!” Coach hollered. “Welcome to your RTI training! We expect two-thirds of you will pass.”

Tanner and I exchanged a glance.

Operator Rose took over. “Over the next six weeks, we will put you through some of the roughest training you’ll ever experience, and it still won’t compare to an actual hostage situation. Most of the techniques are either illegal, condemned, or both, and frequent check-ins with our on-staff psychiatrist are mandatory.”

Aw, man. Doc. As if I didn’t talk to him enough.

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