Touch (Denazen #1)(10)

That was new and made me feel a little tingly—which was totally unwelcomed. I’d been taking care of myself for a long time. I didn’t need anyone watching my back—except maybe Brandt. Still, I didn’t pull away.

“And she can’t leave, right? He won’t let her?”

He frowned and nodded.

What kind of man does that to people? To his own wife? The same kind of man who doesn’t think twice about using a teenager to kill, that’s who. The kind of man who couldn’t be trusted. Kale was right. Going home wasn’t an option.

Kale had been through hell at Dad’s hands—I couldn’t walk away from him. A part of me felt responsible while another part felt… something else. Something I couldn’t quite explain. Something that, like his concern for me, made me uneasy while at the same time caused my blood to pump a bit faster.

“Tell me about her.” My chest ached. Did she know my name or what I looked like? Did she know her own husband was the one responsible for keeping her there? “Tell me what she’s like.”

“A lot like you—kind, but strong. She taught me to survive.” He tilted his head to the side, examining me. My hands still in his, he turned them over. With his thumb, he traced circles across my palms. A shiver ran down my spine. “You have the same hands.”

“Is she—” I swallowed the lump lodged in my throat. “Can she do what you do?”

He shook his head. “She can become someone else.”

“Become someone else?” A shiver of excitement raced through my body.

“Change her appearance. They use us as a team sometimes. She becomes someone the target knows, leading them someplace quiet so I can punish them.”

I got to my feet and turned away. I didn’t want Kale—or anyone for that matter—to see the tears trailing down my cheeks.

“How could he do this to her? To me?” I whirled around, voice uneven. Forget the tears—bring on the anger. “How could he lock her away and tell me she was dead! She’s been there this whole time?”

Kale didn’t answer. When I turned back, he was staring up at the sky, fascinated. “Sue used to tell me of the outside world. Late at night when sleep wouldn’t come, she would come into my room and tell me stories about the things I could do and see—the people I could meet. She cries sometimes, in the middle of the night, when she thinks no one is listening. But I hear her. I’m always listening.”

The tears came harder now. I’d had it easy. This whole time Mom was nothing more than a ghost to me. A voiceless, bodiless figment of my imagination. How hard must it have been for her to know I was out here, living with the man who kept her locked away like an animal?“I asked her once, not long ago, why, if the outside world held so much wonder, she didn’t go back to it. Why she did not go to her child.”

“What did she say?”

His hands fell away and he turned to the football field. A deer and her two fawns were frolicking in the moonlight. He watched them for a moment, mesmerized. “They tell us normal people would not understand. That they’d hurt us if we left. Sue said that’s a lie. She told me we were really prisoners—that Denazen would never allow us to leave.” Fists tight, his voice darkened. “Denazen has always been my home. It’s all I’ve ever known. I didn’t know anything about the outside world or the people in it, but I knew what the word prisoner meant.”

His voice was so sad. I wanted to reach out and hold him. We made a great pair. The universe had seen fit to screw us both over—big time. “That’s why you ran away?”

He shook his head. “It wasn’t something I planned. After that conversation with Sue, I started thinking. Started to question things. Prisoner. A single word changed everything. I looked at things more carefully. They gave me an assignment yesterday. It started out like every other. I was given my target’s name and driven to the kill location. I was escorted to the scene and left to enter, do my job, and return. No questions asked.”

“What happened?”

He turned back to me, and the muscles in his jaw tightened. “When I entered the house, she was alone. Asleep in her bed. I was confused at first—she wasn’t what I expected. I hesitated. It must have taken too long, because they sent someone in to check on me. When he confirmed that she was the target, I ran.”

“What made you hesitate?”

His eyes squeezed closed. Shaking his head, he said, “She was a child—no more than seven or eight. Helpless.” He opened his eyes. “Innocent. There was no crime someone that young could commit to be deserving of punishment.”

“Jesus.”

“I ran. Then I found you.” He looked away. “Sue told me once, if I should ever find myself on the outside with no place to go, I should find the Reaper.”

“The Reaper?”

“Yes. She said he would be able to help.”

“Who is he? How can he help?”

Kale shrugged. “I only know he is like us—like Sue and me. A Six. She said he was revered among our kind. Powerful.”

I was about to ask him if he’d thought further then running away from Denazen, but a high pitched, alien-themed hum sounded from my back pocket. Kale tensed, backing away. “It’s okay. It’s only my cell.” I pulled it out, expecting to see Dad’s number.