Nano Bytes

She pulled back, her heart racing as she neared the point of no return.

He turned back to frown at her, confusion crossing over his handsome face. «What’s wrong?»

She backed away from the door, ripping her hand away from his. He looked as sexy as ever, his broad shoulders concealed beneath a white shirt and his long legs encased in dark jeans. The crumped shirt seemed to glow beside his tanned skin. His short blond hair was a mussed mess, as always. In his eyes, there was that pain again. The same one she’d seen in on the day she’d been arrested.

Loathe to remind him of that moment again, she pressed her lips together, determined not to drag him into another one of her nightmares.

He frowned and walked toward her, taking her hands in his and staring into her eyes. «Talk to me, Thea. Please.»

She expelled a slow breath, the coldness of the room causing a momentary fog to appear between them. She only had two choices: Tell him the truth, or tell him to go.

If she told him the truth, he’d hate her forever because she’d drag him into her murky world. If she told him to go, she’d die.

Maybe I deserve to have my heart frozen. Maybe it already is.

He knew she’d been arrested for stealing files from his father’s company, but he didn’t know the full story.

«We need to go. You can’t ignore me again, not now!» He sounded desperate, and he was right. She needed to either face her demons or take them to her grave. She couldn’t run away this time.

«I can’t go anywhere,” she muttered, unsure of how to tell him the truth but determined to at least try. It might be her last chance to talk to him.

«Why not?»

She brushed her fair hair off her shoulder and pointed to the glowing implant beneath her skin.

His eyes widened. «Why do you have that?»

He knew she’d been sentenced, but the punishment had been delivered privately in the correctional facility.

«Manslaughter.» She turned away. It hadn’t been a fair ruling. It hadn’t been a fair trial, but the guilt she felt was real enough.

«Of who?» He gasped out the words.

She spun to face him. Wasn’t it obvious? «Your father.» She winced at the words. But inside, it was a relief. She’d needed to tell him the truth since that day in court. The promise she’d made his mother to keep it a secret and to stay away from him had been killing her. Judging by the pain in his expression, it had been killing him too.

«My father isn’t dead.» He narrowed his eyes.

She widened her eyes. «What?»

«What did you really do to get that?» He folded his arms.

«I told you!» A million questions tumbled through her mind. What did he mean his father wasn’t dead? She’d shot him. Okay, she hadn’t had a choice. He’d caught her helping some street kids escape from his human–testing laboratory, and he’d pulled a gun on her. But she’d wrestled the gun off him, and it had gone off. «I shot him. He couldn’t have survived.» She frowned.

«He’s alive and well. You must have shot one of his clones. Is Is that why you didn’t answer my calls?» he asked.

Of course he has clones! What the hell did I get arrested for then?

«What calls?» Thea snatched her phone off the side table, scanning the call log. There hadn’t been any calls or voice messages in days. Then her eyes fell upon the Devlin Corp logo on the top of the handset.

I’ve been played!

«Do you have a knife?» She ground out.

«What an earth for?»

She pointed to her shoulder. «I have two choices; home surgery, or being frozen to death.»

He swallowed, staring at her shoulder. «It’s a heart–stopper?»

She nodded. «That’s what they told me.»

«It sounds as if they told you a lot of things that aren’t true.»

«I get the feeling they weren’t lying about this.»

He nodded, looking somber as he reached back and pulled a penknife out of his back pocket. «We need to hurry.»

«You shouldn’t stay.» She didn’t want him to die here too. It might already be too late.

His expression darkened. «I’m not going anywhere without you.»

Chapter 4

Thea almost felt hopeful at the passion in his voice, but there were still so many lies between them that it seemed impossible for their relationship to survive.

Let’s sort out us both surviving the end of the world first.

«Okay, give me the knife.» She held out her hand.

«We need to sterilize it first.» He handed her the old–fashioned blade.

She pressed the button on the side and a sharp, three–inch blade shot out of it. «We don’t have time.»

Gritting her teeth, she leveled the knife at her shoulder.

This is going to hurt like a bitch.

Without pause, she sliced through her own skin. A searing pain shot through her shoulder as she slashed a line across the implant. Blood rolled down her arm as she nudged the gash open wider until she could see the blinking blue light embedded into her flesh.

The sensor appeared to be a small silver capsule with thin silver wires coming off it like spider’s legs.

She glanced at William. His face had paled at the sight of her cutting into her own shoulder.