I ignore the change, grab my sandwich, leave the store, and answer the call. It’s from a number I don’t recognize, not that I’m going to recognize a lot of numbers.
“If you’re calling for Vince, I—”
“Tox?”
“Sophia?”
"The name is Emma Rose," she says, but I would recognize that voice anywhere. Besides, I don't know an Emma Rose.
"Where are you, Emma Rose?" I ask.
“You don’t need to know where I am.”
“No?”
“You don’t need to worry.”
“Why not?”
A car pulls up, and I glance over and do a double-take. There's a blonde sitting behind the wheel, but that smile on her face…
I almost drop the phone, and I rush over to her.
“How did you come to be here?” she asks. “I thought I saw you on the highway, saw you get off the exit.”
“I took a guess that you were heading to Wildwood.”
“How did… The picture?” She stares at me with appreciation. “Nice bit of detective work, but if you can figure that out… I can head to South Jersey instead. From there, maybe I can go through the somewhat legal channels to get to Maryland. Should’ve headed south from the beginning.”
I walk around and enter her car. It’s a car, not a centuricar. I shut the door, open my sandwich, and rip off a little more than half, and offer it to her.
She seems a bit preoccupied as she accepts it, and she doesn’t take a bite, her gaze focused off in the distance.
“I don’t want you to leave,” I say around a mouthful. “Sorry. I know it’s rude to talk with your mouth full, but I’m starving.”
Her lips curl upward for a slight smile, and she turns to eye me.
“Don’t run. Be a fighter. Let’s go after the guy who wants you dead.”
“It’s possible more than one guy wants me dead,” she says.
“He might’ve hired other mercenaries or bounty hunters, but if we take him out, there won’t be anyone to pay the bounty.” I grin and take another bite.
“There might be more than one person who wants me dead and would be willing to pay for that,” she says.
“Do you know that for certain? Or are you running away for some other reason?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.” I hesitate. “Because of me.”
“Tox, this has nothing to do with you,” she protests.
“No? Are you sure about that?”
“Are you always so frustrating? Do you think Kuria revolves around you? That the Earth does?”
“No,” I say hotly. “Excuse me if I want you to be able to live your life the way you want to. Is that such a crime?”
“You accepted a job to kill me,” she says dryly.
“I—”
“You thought about it.”
“I—”
“You did research on me to find out if I was a good person or not. That we had a fun time together, that we were friends… that didn’t stop you. There are others I’ve interacted with who would have no issue at all being willing to kill me, to strike me down, to accept that bounty.”
“Sophia—”
“All I wanted was to help. I wanted to make the world a safer place.”
“You already have.”
“Are you so sure about that considering someone wants to pay someone else to kill me?”
“You can’t control what other people do,” I protest.
“No, but I can control what I do, and I’m making the choices.”
“You’re making the wrong choices.”
She laughs. “Tox, you don’t know me.”
“I think I know how to make you curl your toes and squirm and moan and come.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“Last night it was.”
"It's the morning after." She glances at the sun. "Well, the afternoon after."
“I didn’t buy a centuricar and drive for hours for you to just tell me—Wait. You were behind me.”
“I had some errands to do before I could hit the road.”
“Like what?”
“Like I had to create Emma Rose.”
“You really want to just run away. You don’t want to stand up to the guy? Because, Emma Rose, if we nail this guy, anyone else who wants to come after you will think twice and opt not to.”
“Or they’ll raise the bounty because they think I’m that much more of a threat.”
I gnash my teeth. “You should want to take out anyone who is willing to put out a bounty to have an innocent woman’s life cut short.”
“I don’t prefer to kill.”
“I understand that but—”
“Fine. I’ll go after the guy,” she says with a soft sigh.
“Why the change in heart?”
She makes a face, but she doesn’t explain herself.
“We’ll team up and—”
“We?” Sophia eyes me. “No. There’s no need for you—”
“I’m involved,” I argue. “I’m not going to let you—”
Her eyes darken. “You’re not going to let me do anything,” she says hotly. “I do what I want. If I want to go after the guy—”
“Don’t you want to know what I know about him?”
“What do you know?”
“I don’t remember.” I rub my chin.
She glowers at me.
“I’m sorry for trying to insinuate that I can tell you what to do,” I tell her.
“I accept your apology. Now, tell me about the guy. What’s his name?”
“About that…”
14
Sophia
It’s infuriating.
Frustrating.
Incredible.
Annoying.
When I saw a Kurian driving around, heading eastbound, I couldn’t believe it. I managed to pull up alongside him.
Tox.
Had he found me? Was he going after me? How did he know to head east?
So I followed him to the gas station but parked in the back and risked turning on my cell phone to see a bunch of missed calls from a strange number.
Then, I shut off that phone, got out my burner phone, and called the number.
A risk, yes, but then Tox answered.
And now, he’s in my car telling me what exactly?
“What do you mean you don’t know his name?” I grumble.
“All I know is that he has silver hair.”
The guy with Ali Khan. He’s the one who wants me dead.
Of course. I should’ve suspected that all along.
I nod slowly. “All right. We can find out who he is.”
“How? Hair color is unusual, right? But still,
