Silence engulfed them again.
“How does a waitress end up with Lucy?” Seeley asked.
“Bad luck,” Zoe replied. She felt him glance at her, waiting for an actual answer. “She showed up at the diner I was working at and clearly needed help.”
“And you just helped her?”
“I didn’t know she was being chased by a band of tactical enforcers. I just thought she was a lost kid with no memory. She seemed so vulnerable, and I know what the world does to vulnerable.”
“That sounds like experience talking.”
Zoe turned to him. “If you think we’re going to sit around a campfire and share our feelings, you’re mistaken. I still don’t like you, remember?”
His face twisted in a grin he couldn’t hide, and he nodded. “I just think it’s weird that someone with obvious trust issues would help a stranger.”
“Well, I’m a good person.”
“Right, and I’ve never met a person who claimed to be good and wasn’t,” he said. He was using her words against her, but with a teasing, sexy glance that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
She huffed and shook her head, suddenly self-conscious about the large men’s clothes she was wearing and her makeup-free face. She tucked her hair behind her ear and hoped it hadn’t dried wonky. Then she internally scolded herself for caring at all.
“Sounds like you don’t trust me either,” she finally managed.
“You’re not the only one with trust issues,” he said.
She looked at him with curiosity, and he shook his head. “No way. I’ll share when you share.”
The look in his eyes was one she recognized. She’d seen it in her own expression many times. Life had shaped them through pain. Through loss. And for a brief moment it united them. Made them the same. Until her brain reminded her that she didn’t trust him. That he represented the enemy she’d been running from her whole life.
The one that had taken Stephen from her.
She looked away from Seeley and, with the last gulp of her coffee, swallowed the cruel reminder of the little boy she’d failed. She was finished with this moment. She stood to go back inside when the door opened and Lucy emerged.
“Hey,” Zoe said, glad to see the girl was still with them. “Did you get some sleep?”
Lucy smiled and nodded. “Some.”
Seeley stood as well, and Lucy shared a small smile with him. The three just stood there for a moment.
Lucy broke the silence first. “What now?”
“You decide what you want,” Seeley said. “You keep running and I’ll help you get as far away as possible. But that road will never end. Run now and you will be running forever.”
“Or?” Lucy asked.
“We try to recover your memories, find the files Olivia left behind, and—”
“Burn it all down,” Lucy finished.
Seeley nodded and waited as Lucy glanced at Zoe for guidance. For once she agreed with Seeley that it needed to be Lucy’s choice. “Whatever you want, I’m with you.”
Lucy considered what had been laid before her, then she looked up at Seeley. “How do we burn it down?”
SEELEY WATCHED OUT the bus window as the plains of Arkansas whizzed by. They were about a half an hour from their destination in the Ozarks. The girls had followed his lead, but he knew Zoe was watching him carefully. She didn’t trust him, and he knew she wouldn’t leave Lucy alone with him for one second. It was clear to Seeley that for this plan to work he was going to need Zoe on his side. She could easily sway Lucy to abandon the whole thing.
Their bond was stronger than he’d anticipated but hopefully not infallible. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that Zoe was sleeping, her head resting against the bus window, Lucy sitting beside her.
He was struck by the power Zoe carried in her tiny frame. She was fiery, a quality he found himself drawn to. Her brown eyes pulled him in and warmed a place in his chest that had been cold for years. It was alarming. But it was a by-product of the ruse he was playing. Nothing more.
Seeley had decided to mold his character after Krum since the man couldn’t rise from the dead and complicate things. Bits and pieces of fiction mixed with his own truths had been convincing enough to keep the girls following him. For now.
He squirmed in his seat. The large lady beside him shot him a wicked side eye and adjusted herself to take up more of his seat than she already was. He could have sworn it was intentional, because she knew there was nothing he could do about it.
He fought off the urge to smack her plump face with the back of his hand and turned his attention back to the window. Sitting still was toying with his self-control. It gave him too much time to ponder things that were better left ignored.
Like the fact that Lucy had remembered him. An unforeseen development that made him more vulnerable. He racked his brain for memories that could incriminate him. Had she seen him during the pursuit of her and Olivia? Did she know he was the leading supervisor on the disestablishment of the Grantham Project? Had she ever overheard him speaking with Hammon in such a way that would make her suspicious?
He needed to play his cards smart. Recover the memories they needed while keeping her from discovering more than he wanted her to know. Could they even do that? Was the pursuit of his goal worth the risk of her stumbling onto something else?
It had to be.
Seeley cleared his throat, ignored another glare from his seat partner, and ran through the plan again. Over and over, writing it onto his brain, so that the man he was pretending to be felt real because the disguise was so ingrained.
It wasn’t that much of a departure. It was the man he used to be, the one he’d hidden after losing Steph. After Cami had been taken from him. It was painful to bring him back out. It made him susceptible to emotions that led him back to the places he’d long abandoned. But he was a soldier, committed and loyal. He’d do what was needed for the job at hand. Failure wasn’t an acceptable outcome.
The bus rolled into their final spot, and with a sigh of relief the fat woman beside him stood, freeing his body from her captivity. He waited as people stood to leave, until Zoe and Lucy had passed his bench, and then he stood and followed them off.
The air was crisp, as the early morning had gradually given way to evening. Seeley took a deep breath and focused his mind. He enjoyed the Ozark air. It tasted and smelled different here than in other parts of Arkansas. He wouldn’t call it home—that entailed feeling a certain way about life—but he preferred it to other places.
“Seems like a strange place for a world-renowned psychologist,” Zoe said. She tucked her black hair behind her ear, her eyes wandering the area. Seeley ignored the way her hair fell like silk to her collarbone and tried not to wonder if her cheek was as soft as it appeared.
“That’s the point,” he lied. “Who would suspect we were here?”
The truth was that Xerox sat deep in the wooded mountains an hour’s drive from where they stood. But they couldn’t know that. Unless Lucy remembered. Then he’d have to maneuver that carefully.
He looked around for anyone suspicious.
Zoe stepped up next to him, Lucy tucked closely behind her. “And someone is just coming to us?”
“She said someone would meet us here.”