Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
I wrapped the towel low around my hips and—
“I hope that’s true,” he said. Wait, what? “The extradition didn’t sit right with me. It seems stupid to leave loose ends.”
Was he just saying that to…what, come off as unbothered or stronger? As someone who was training him for a career at Hillcroft, I actually wanted to know. For several reasons. Doc would want to dig deeper too.
“Even though he didn’t do anything?” I questioned.
Leighton grabbed his laundry under his arm, his toiletry kit too, and shrugged. “He came to kill you. Whether he failed or not is irrelevant. As long as he’s alive, he’s a threat.” He nodded at the door. “Can we go eat now? I’m starving.”
I inclined my head on autopilot and followed him out of the shower room. Our units were a short walk past the rec room and down a hall, and my mind spun the whole way. His reasoning lined up with mine, and there was nothing wrong with it per se. But just like Doc had raised some concerns about how I compartmentalized things, he was gonna wanna do the same with Leighton. Death and pulling the trigger had never bothered me much. Granted, I had seen combat before leaving the service to join Hillcroft, so I’d been more prepared. I’d already developed coping mechanisms. Leighton hadn’t killed anyone yet, so whatever he said now was, at best, speculation about how he’d handle tough calls in the future.
We went our separate ways to get dressed, but as the seconds ticked by, I thought about sitting in the cafeteria now and…no. No. We started discussing the psychology of killing and torturing much later on in the training, when most of the recruits had already jumped ship. But I was ready to begin earlier with Leighton.
After pulling on a pair of sweats and a tee, I went over to the door only Alex had used so far, and I knocked twice.
I’d stared at the door plenty lately, though. Every time I woke up from a dream about Leighton, I cursed the fact that we had adjacent rooms as much as I wanted to rip the door open for easy access.
I heard him curse on the other side, just a second or two before he opened it. He jumped to steady himself, and he was clutching his foot.
“Are you okay?” I smirked.
He gritted his teeth. “Every fucking day, I ram my big toe into the sofa.”
I grinned. “You should stop doing that.”
He huffed and lowered his foot again, then walked over to pick up a pair of socks on his bed.
His room was tidy. I liked that. I kinda envied his having a couch, though. I’d had to make room for a second bed for Alex. Luckily for her, she was a good roommate.
“We’ll head down to grab food, and then we’ll come back here,” I said. “I wanna pick your brain about what we discussed earlier.”
He threw me a wary glance as he put on his sneakers. “All right, but… Um. Is there any way you don’t have to tell Doc about it? I’m just waiting for him to wanna screen me for psychopathy or something.”
Ah. So he was aware his reactions didn’t follow the norm.
Well, fuck that.
“First of all, ain’t no such screening,” I replied, leaning against the doorway. “He might want to assess you—I’m not gonna lie. But the odds of that destroying your future here are nonexistent. He’s assessed me three times, and I’m still here. I don’t tick enough of the wrong boxes.”
He knitted his brows. “I don’t get it. He assessed you for what?”
“He has a…a model of some sort,” I replied. “It includes about eight different tests, three interviews, and a search into your family history. He’ll basically go by extensive lists of behaviors and traits for various diagnoses—like ASPD, autism, bipolar, ADHD, you name it. Psychopathy and sociopathy are in there as well. But the thing is, Leighton, Doc knows what he’s doing, and he’s well aware that some of these traits can actually benefit us in this particular field.”
I could tell I had his attention. Poor kid had been afraid, hadn’t he?
“Let’s talk on the way downstairs.” I left the door between our rooms open and went out through the exit in his room instead. “The chief difference between our recruitment process and the one you’ll find in the military is that we don’t show you the door based on a letter combination.”
Leighton closed the door and sidled up next to me.
“I swear, half our Intel team is on the autism spectrum.” That was only partly a joke. “You wanna know how many traits I share with a so-called psychopath? This is in Doc’s files and everything.”
“Um, yeah.” He glanced up at me. “Let me guess, impairment in remorse and empathy.”