Page 108 of CHOICE Lover
Sable chuckles. “The one with the freckles. We know about her.” He must pale, because she takes whatever she sees as confirmation. “I’m not here to judge. I only want to see if we might find an opportunity in our common ground.”
She holds up her device, sending a request to share contacts. Reluctantly, he thinks the command to accept.
She grins. “I’ll be in touch.”
36 – Sour Milk
Res6
Inspector Wanda takes another half hour to wrap up the inspection and meet him at the SAT garage lobby. By then, his mind is oscillating between Sable’s barely veiled threat, his devolving relationship with Electra, and the realization that he fucked up that’s getting harder and harder to deny.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Wanda says, breezing past him.
“I’m fine.” He follows her into the next available SAT.
When the vehicle finally zips out of the garage, he’s awash with self-doubt and feeling all too aware of a string of regrettable life choices. He braces for the inevitable. “What did you want to discuss with me?”
He hoped to be done with his role in the reincarnate case after the inspection. In an ideal world, his actions would have swayed the inspector’s favor toward him and lifted any scrutiny aimed atCHOICElover—and Electra. But he clearly isn’t living in an ideal world.
“See how that works? Imply that you know someone is guilty and the guilty people start fidgeting and give themselves away! That was the manupartner James, was it not?” she asks.
Yes, that is the man running an identity replacement company. Yes, that man knows I have a reincarnate. Yes, that man has the uncanny ability to make threats with his eyes.All he verbally says is, “Yes, I believe it was.”
“That’s what I thought. Looks like we’ve got ourselves another reincarnate and an identity theft situation going on. I’m still not convinced they’re behind the reincarnates though, but they may be able to lead us to the people who are. That’s why I’m going to let them think they got away for now and keep tabs on them. I’m after the bigger fish.” She grins, seeming pleased with herself. “I’d like your continued involvement with the case. I just need to decide how I want to use you. How do you feel about espionage?”
Res6 swallows the lump in his throat, trying not to look too guilty. “Whatever I can do to help.”
By the time he enters his unit that evening, he’s so rattled by Sable’s and Inspector Wanda’s propositions, he’s ready to fall to his knees and beg for Electra’s forgiveness. There’s no caring about who’s right or wrong. Zorg, he’ll happily be wrong if she’ll forgive him. He needs her. Somehow, after nearly a hundred years of sufficiently operating alone, it only took a few months with a chaotic woman from the past to wreck the insulating facade he built to shield himself from the world’s cruel ways.
She’s become his air. His respirator, helping him filter the outside world.
“Electra!” he calls, glancing around.
Her door is still shut.
He doesn’t even want sex, though it was comforting to lose himself in her arms after two of the last few remaining Jerme samples failed. Her touch—that is what he needs. He wants to feel her soothing hands on him, softly reassuring him that she’s there and everything is going to be okay.
He knocks on her door. When she doesn’t answer, he cracks it open just enough that she’ll be able to hear him. “Please, Electra. I’m so sorry. I’m such an idiot.”
When she doesn’t answer, he realizes his weak apology isn’t enough. Nothing he ever does is enough.
No, he can’t think that way. She said the wordloveand that must mean she’s thinking it regarding him. He can fix this. Be what she needs. While he still has her, he has to.
“Electra, please. I know that trying to bring back Jerme is wrong. I’ve been stubborn and unwilling to let go of my grief for entirely selfish reasons. It felt easier to cling to it, and I see now that I used the loss of Jerme as a shield to keep others out. It was cruel of me to say I’d trade anything for him. It isn’t even true. I didn’t mean it. I’d never trade you. I never thought I’d laugh again the way I did with Jerme, but you make me laugh all the time. And you’re such a talented writer. It’s no wonder everyone loves your column. Your advice is brilliant. And you’re so incredibly sexy. There isn’t a manupartner in existence that can outshine you.”
Saying all of that aloud, it sounds a lot like . . . “Oh, Zorg. Electra, Ithink I—”
He stops just short of saying the words. Saying something so potent through a cracked door would not make him a very good romantic hero. “Electra?”
Silence is the only thing that greets him. For a long moment, he stares at the handle. She wouldn’t have—would she? No, Electra isn’t Jerme. Finally, he works up the nerve to push the door open. The neatly made bed causes his stomach to drop.
He glances around the room, his throat tightening as the room’s vacancy becomes apparent. This can’t be happening to him. He’s jumping to conclusions. She’s probably out somewhere—
The thought abruptly dies as he pushes the closet open. All her things are gone.
Reality strikes him with the weight of a SAT. She left. Even he isn’t delusional enough to think the authorities came for her. She left him.
She left him like their mother did. Just as 3Zeez left Jerme and Jerme left him. Everyone leaves.Because you’re not worth staying for.
