Chapter Six

Aiden

She’s offering me a choice. One I don’t deserve.

Agreeing to help Elena with her car feels like a small price to pay in exchange for a ride. I can locate the doctor friend Melanie told me about, Zoe Miller. If she already agreed to help me in the future, chances are good that she won’t turn me away—and hopefully won’t turn me in.

As she continues to drive, I can’t tear my eyes away from her long, angular face and the hardened resolve burning fiercely in her eyes. The undeniable terror I’d been seeing all day—lab coat guy, the guards, and then Elena—it’s gone, and I don’t understand why. Earlier, she’d been pleading with me to let her go like I was some roadside monster, and fuck, maybe I am.

“I’m sorry I did this, it’s just, I didn’t exactly think this through, and—”

“You’re not carrying a gun, are you?”

“Ah, no.”

“Any other weapons?” When I say no again, she frowns. “That’s not as comforting as I’d hoped it’d be.” Her voice is firm and determined, matching the intensity in her gaze. She shakes her head once, winding her fingers around the steering wheel. “You could easily be lying.”

“You can pull over and search me if you want.”

She eyes me, seeming to consider it. “If you had a weapon, you’d have probably pulled it out by now.”

“I’ve only held a gun once,” I say, remembering the slick, hard metal and the way I threatened the guards with it. Hell, I even held the barrel against the guy’s head. “I’m good with never holding one again. That kind of machine doesn’t interest me the way cars and transmissions do.”

Aiden is not a machine…

Remembering Dr. Niels’ words sends a shiver down my spine. “I don’t want to hurt you. I only want to get away from the death threats.”

“By the time we get to Todd’s garage, we’ll be an hour away from where I picked you up. It’s not much, but it’s a start. Do you know where you want me to take you?”

I’m still surprised she’s actually offering me help, regardless of what I can help her with. I scared her, demanding she get in the car and drive, then started yammering about people wanting me dead. She probably thinks I’m delusional. “Yes and no.”

“What kind of answer is that?”

“I might have a safe place to go, but I don’t know where that is exactly. Not yet.”

Elena gives me a sideways glance. Her lips twitch into something that’s almost a smile. “You can use my ComPad if you need to find an address or something. I’m not good with directions, but the GPS never steers me wrong. Well, at least almost never.” She lifts the small device and extends her hand for me to take it. “Look, those were some seriously jackass moves you pulled back there. But I believe you, believe your story. And I did hit you with my car. I’ll take you wherever you need to go.”

I take the ComPad from her, not entirely sure what to do with it—search the internet, I suppose, hoping that Zoe is an easy person to find. I tap on the screen, and even though I know how phones work, I’ve never held one before.

“None of what I did was okay—the escaping to save my own life part, yes, but kidnapping a completely innocent bystander? Hell no.” I rub the back of my neck, shutting my eyes for a moment. Someone may as well have dropped a crane on my head. “I shouldn’t—”

“You shouldn’t have run into the middle of the road. But you did, and here we are.” We veer off the exit ramp, the car slowing down. When we stop at a red light, she angles her head, hazel eyes staring unwaveringly at me.

Something inside me cracks wide open. I focus on the traffic light glowing red, the cables swaying in the air. “You don’t know me.”

Elena laughs once, but the sound lacks humor. “And you don’t know me.”

“I don’t understand why you’re not terrified of me.”

She tucks hair behind her ear and exhales a shaky breath. “I’m still scared, but…I’m more terrified for you than I am of you. Plus, Todd having to bail totally destroyed my plans. I can’t afford to have a mechanic shop fix this thing even if I wanted to. I’m afraid I’ll damage it more if I ignore the problem for another week, waiting for Todd to be free again. Looks like you’re my hijacker turned knight in shining armor.”

I laugh. There’s gravel in my voice, and it tears at my throat.

“What?” she says, sounding offended. My laughter dies. “If I don’t make light of stressful situations, my anxiety will eat me alive.”

With a sharp twist of the wheel, the car veers toward an empty parking lot. She throws the gear into park, then turns in the seat. Her chest rises with a deep breath, and she blows it out, squeezing her eyes shut. Without warning, she unbuckles her seat belt and gets out of the car.

Confused, I do the same, and she meets me in front of the bumper. Elena stares at the car, her mouth hanging half open.

“Holy hell,” she says and runs a hand through her long hair. In the sunlight, the faintest hint of red glints off the dark-brown hue. “There’s a person-sized dent in my car.”

I inspect her face, trying to read her like I’ve always been able to read other people. But her expressions are so new to me, I can’t make sense of them. My gaze travels down her slender form slowly, then back up, taking all of her in: her slight curves, porcelain skin, straight nose, angular chin. She’s inches shorter than me, and her teal tank top brings out the green in her eyes. I swallow, my nerve endings stirring and tingling, and I force myself to stop gawking.

“Dent or not, at least it’s still running. Hopefully, the damage is only exterior.” She pauses. “How do you know so much about car transmissions but not know how to drive one?”

While she waits for my answer, wind blows strands of hair across her forehead, and she squints against the falling sunlight. I scan the empty parking lot, the long-abandoned building that, according to the faded letters, was a discount shopping center once upon a time. My gaze lands on the car, then I finally look at her. “Even though I understand the mechanics of what to do, I’ve never been behind the wheel.” Or if I have, it’s not something I remember. “There’s a good chance I’d crash into something the way you crashed into me.”

“Fair assumption.” She looks from the bumper to me, her face falling. “If you did all this to the front end of the car, you must be injured. At least a little bit. Are you bleeding?”

I scan my arms, though I don’t expect to see any blood. “Everything looks good to me.”

“Not even a scratch? What about your legs? Your knees?”

After lifting each pant leg up to my scratch-free knees, I shake my head. “Guess I got lucky.”

“Lucky might be an understatement. Come on.” She starts for the driver’s side door. “I’ll investigate the bumper damage later. Right now, we should focus on our next step. Heading to the garage. My sister, Jamie, is expecting me to show up later, so we need to at least make a pit stop there. Or she might send someone out to find me.”

“Okay.”

A minute later, we’re back on the road. I stare out the window, taking in the scenery for the first time since I left AIR. The breeze tosses the colorful leaves about, and bursts of fiery orange and burning red blow across the golden grass. Some float through the air. This is the first time I’ve ever seen so much of the real world, and we haven’t even reached a city yet. To say it’s beautiful wouldn’t do it justice.

The inside of the car is quiet, and after I’ve appraised the stretch of highway for a while, Elena breaks the silence.

“You must be at least eighteen, right? Hard to believe you’ve never had an opportunity to drive a car,” she says.

“Technically, I might have at some point in my life. Not in the past year, though, and that’s as far back as my memories go.” When she gives me a questioning look, I add, “I got amnesia after a car wreck nearly killed me.”

She makes a sound of confirmation, chewing on her bottom lip. After tapping her finger on top of the steering wheel, she turns her head. “Where did you even come from?”

“A facility close to where you hit me.”

“A hospital?”

“Kind of,” I say.

“Do you know why this facility—or this guy in charge—wants to kill you?”

I run a hand through my hair and rub the spot at the base of my neck. “I failed my last test.”

Her forehead pinches together. “He wants to kill you because you failed a test?”

I consider her question for a long, uncomfortable moment. “I don’t really know what the tests were for. Or what they measured exactly. I overheard a conversation talking about my termination. That’s when I ran. I wasn’t sticking around to bother asking why. All I do know is that they want me dead.” I rub the back of my neck again, stomach clenching as I try to stop the replay of that conversation running on repeat in my head.

Elena wrinkles her nose—something she’s done at least ten times since her car knocked me on my ass. “I’m sorry.”

“What’re you sorry for?”

“Everything.” She motions with her hand. “I mean, I nearly ran you over. Don’t you think an apology is necessary? But aside from that, I’m sorry for what they want to do to you. I can’t begin to imagine what you’re feeling.”

The car falls silent again, and I do what I apparently do best: stare out the window like a caged bird. But I’m not in a cage. I’m in a car with a girl who, for whatever reason, doesn’t assume I’m lying.

I attempt to ignore my chaotic thoughts, focus on the scenery, and take in the different views we pass. Too bad I don’t get to experience the world in a better situation. I’ve dreamed about what it might be like if they ever let me leave that godforsaken building. Now I’m out, but it doesn’t exactly feel like freedom. I’ve gone from being a prisoner on death row to a fugitive on the run.

And all because of some inane test—a test I’ve come to realize wasn’t a test at all. Carter despised me long before I stepped foot inside his office. I’ve got no idea why, though.

Am I simply a mistake? Is this a mistake, too, being here with Elena? She sure as shit doesn’t owe me anything. If I get caught, it’ll undoubtedly be the end for me, but what about her? If she ends up in jail, or worse…

If I destroy her life, too, the regret will swallow me whole.