Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 110757 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110757 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“Then why?” The question comes out soft, breathless.
“We still have things to talk about. When I was on the sub coming back here, I promised you something.” He takes a deep breath, grinding into me again. “Fuck.”
“What?” I say dreamily. “Tell me the promise and then fuck me into the ground.”
He kisses my forehead. “I will always love you, Briar Hollis. Even if you hate me. Even if you kill me. I’m going to be insanely in love with you until the day I die.”
My heart races nervously at the same time his words build a heady, uncontrollable need for him to be inside me. “Marcus, you’re scaring me.”
“There’s one more thing you don’t know. Something I should have told you a long time ago.”
He steps back and sighs heavily, my body immediately missing his closeness. At the same time, my mind is reeling. What the hell else could there be?
I look at him expectantly. “So tell me.”
A tortured worry pools in the depths of his dark eyes. “I knew your mom. You probably know that already. She was brilliant and warm and stronger than I’ll ever be.”
My arousal vanishes at his mention of my mom. I’ve wanted to ask him about her since we reconciled, but we’ve hardly had any time alone and even after all these years, her loss still feels raw.
“She questioned the ethics of what we were doing. She was right to. I was there when she did it.” His shoulders sink and he looks at the ground, hands on his hips. “I could’ve spoken up and agreed with her. I knew—I fucking knew she was right. But I didn’t say a goddamn word. I just stood there when they took her away.”
Tears trail down my cheeks. Imagining that happening to my mom makes my heart crack into pieces.
“I deserve to live in this hell,” Marcus says, his voice thick with emotion. “I fucked Lucy over and now I’m in love with her daughter.”
It hurts. McClain confirmed that my parents are gone, but it was easier when it was abstract. I had hoped they were taken out quickly, not even aware of what was coming.
But she knew.
“I’m so sorry.” Marcus swipes a thumb beneath one of his eyes, looking away.
He walks away, getting himself together. The second he’s gone, a bullet hits the rock in the spot he just occupied, right where his head would have been.
42
“4D11 died today. We knew slowing the aging process would be more challenging than speeding it up, but the team is feeling defeated.” – Excerpt from the journal of Island Three Head Scientist Arvin Maxwell
Marcus
I throw myself at Briar, shielding her body with mine.
Her chest moves up and down against mine, her breathing fast. The rock wall protects her back. I want to turn and see if it’s safe to run, but I’m immobilized.
Thick ropes quickly wrap themselves around our waists, lifting our feet from the ground. Briar lets out a little cry of alarm as we whoosh through thick, humid air. A man screams below.
“Holy shit, the vines,” I say.
We’re both entrapped, our arms pinned at our sides. Still midair and at least forty feet above the ground, a new set of vines wraps itself around us, just tight enough to hold us securely. My adrenaline is pumping so hard I think I might pass out.
“We’re okay,” she says softly.
We’re being passed from one set of vines to another. It’s wild, our lives depending on sentient vines coordinating our rescue.
They’re fast. It only takes them about five minutes to pass us off several times and gently deposit us on the ground outside the cave. One of the vines caresses Briar’s shoulder with its ragged tip.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“Thank you,” I echo.
This whole place is a mindfuck, but it still feels unhinged to be talking to a plant.
“What the hell?”
Amira is gaping at us, a canteen in hand. “Did you guys just get a ride here from vines?”
“Long story,” Briar says. Her expression is unreadable as she looks at me. “Let’s talk.”
“It might not be safe,” I say, looking around as I fall into step beside her. “Ingrid’s probably got guys with guns scouring this jungle for us.”
“Won’t take long.”
Fuck. She’s pissed. I knew she would be, but I still dread her telling me what a selfish piece of shit I am. The truth hurts more when it comes from someone who means everything to you.
We’re almost to the small waterfall where we fill our canteens when she spins around to face me.
“Did anyone else speak up for my mom that day?”
Shame engulfs me as I shake my head, Lucy’s resigned expression permanently etched into my mind.
“So there were twenty-six of you, and no one said anything?”
“Not everyone was there that day, but no one who was there said anything.”
She nods slightly. “Was Ellison there?”