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They tried to kill me. What the fuck did they think was going to happen?
“They see you as a loose end.”
So they sent you to finish what they started?
“No.” The response was immediate. Gareth’s eyes held a sincerity that made Pierce’s hand pause over the notepad. “I’m not here for that. Yes, I worked for Halston. Worked, past tense.”
Why were you searching for me?
Gareth swallowed, looking uncomfortable for the first time. His gaze flicked to the scars on Pierce’s neck, then back to his face again.
“I assume you know Halston’s closing in on you,” he said after a moment. “And not just Halston, but a lot of people. Some more fanatical than others.”
Pierce’s stomach twisted, but outwardly, he remained still. He’d always known this day would come—when the past would catch up with him—but it had always just been a vague sense of paranoia until now. To hear it confirmed sent a wave of cold reality crashing over him.
Why now?
Gareth lifted a shoulder in a shrug that made him hiss in pain.
Frustration clawed through Pierce. Getting a straight answer from this guy was like trying to draw blood from a stone. He scribbled on the pad again:
You still haven’t told me who you really are.
Gareth sighed heavily. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just a guy trying to survive.”
Bullshit.
“You think I’m lying?” He pushed himself off the ground, wincing as he used his arm to brace himself. He glared, and the muscles in his jaw twitched against the strain. “You think I wanted any part of this?”
Pierce glared back at him.What do you want then?
Gareth grimaced and relaxed back against the wall with a heavy sigh.
“I want out,” he admitted after several beats of silence, his gaze distant. “I want… a life away from all this. But when I gave them my resignation, they…” He trailed off and swore under his breath. “I found out I couldn’t leave because they fucking own me. I’m not a human being to them. They consider me their property. A broken tool to be repaired, repurposed, or thrown away. So, yeah, I came looking for you because you’re the only person I know who has hidden from them.”
It felt like the walls were closing in on Pierce, the room growing smaller, the air thinner. He had to get a grip before the panic overwhelmed him and made him useless.
Do they think you’re their property because you’re one of their soldiers or because of something else?
Gareth hesitated. “Something else.” His voice was quiet, strained. “I don’t know why you ran, Pierce. I don’t know anything about Project Iron Horizon beyond its name, and I don’t want to know. But I’ll tell you this—when Halston thinks they own you, they don’t let go.” As he spoke, his gaze drifted to something over Pierce’s shoulder.
Pierce turned and saw Rhiannon nearby, talking to the Japanese family. He scowled and snapped his fingers to get Gareth’s attention.
How did you find me?
As he wrote the words, an icy shiver ran down his spine, a prickling sensation at the nape of his neck. The thought that he had been found—that he could’ve been found at any moment in the last few years—sent a wave of cold dread washing over him. He felt vulnerable, exposed, and dangerously close to losing the hard-won control he clung to.
“I’m good at what I do.” Gareth smiled faintly. “But if it makes you feel any better, it wasn’t easy.”
It doesn’t. What do you want from me?
“I don’t know what I expected,” he said under his breath, and his expression shifted from that of a hardened soldier to something else, something vulnerable.
It was disconcerting, seeing this man who could almost certainly kill with his bare hands look so… exhausted, so desperate.
He shook his head and gave a bitter laugh. “Help, maybe? Advice. You’ve managed to stay off their radar for a long time now. I need to know how.”
The simplicity of Gareth’s plea struck hard. What was he supposed to say? That even though he’d managed to stay hidden this long, he’d lived in constant fear, always looking over his shoulder? That his paranoia and panic attacks had become so crippling he’d had to turn to drugs and alcohol to dull them? That any semblance of a normal life had long since been destroyed, and without his dog by his side, he was closer to the edge than he cared to admit?
