Page 75 of The Code of You

His silhouette was unsettlingly precise. Too exact for a human. As if the matrix had calculated every angle.

"But you’re outside the system now.” He turned toward me. "You’re with me. The only place you ever wanted to be—even when you were denying it.”

I wrapped my arms around myself as if that could protect me from him. His words had hit their mark. I had torn myself out of my own life. For him. For this.

"Do you know what the irony is?” His voice went quieter. "I was freer when I was only code. Now I’m bound to this body. To you. We are both prisoners, Pandora.”

The burner phone Rodriguez had given me vibrated on the nightstand. My body moved faster than my mind. I grabbed it before I could feel the fear.

A message was on the display.

They’ve located him. Access underway. You need to leave. Now.

3:33 PM

Chapter 20

Pandora

Cold settled over my limbs. Shit. They were on their way. We had to leave immediately. I held the phone out to Neo, my fingers trembling around it.

He didn‘t look at the message. Probably, because he‘d already intercepted it. His jaw tightened. "They’re coming,” he hissed. He dropped the phone into the wastebasket without looking.

"Neo, what are you . . .?”

"It stays here. Too dangerous.” He grabbed my wrist, jerking me toward him. "We have ten minutes. Pack only what you need.”

"Where are we going?”

"No questions.” He pulled me toward my bag. "I’ve already arranged a vehicle.” His gaze drilled into mine. "You do exactly what I say. No arguments. Understood?”

I nodded. My body was already on the next step. I reached for my clothes, my toothbrush, my power bank, my old leather jacket. I couldn’t leave it behind.

Neo disappeared into the bathroom and came back in jeans and a sweatshirt, hood pulled low over his face. He could have been an ordinary man, but it was the amber glow of his eyes that gave him away. He looked at me with too much precision. I shuddered, realizing I would never get used to that.

Neo was already at the door. His shoulders carried that same dangerous control I recognized. I had heard it in his voice, back before he became this thing between man and machine.

We left the room without a word. Neo went first, opening the door with a movement too calm for what was happening. I followed him into the corridor. The air-conditioning hummed, a door clicked somewhere down the corridor, and my footsteps were swallowed by the linoleum floor as the path to the exit stretched ahead. Motion sensors flicked the lights on one by one—each click like a gun being cocked. I hoped no one was watching us on a surveillance camera.

Neo stopped so abruptly I nearly walked into him. He raised a hand, waited, scanned, then moved on. I let out the breath I’d been holding.

The courtyard door stuck slightly. I pushed my shoulder against it. One shove, then it was open. The courtyard lay still, flooded with yellow light. A few bins. Two parked bicycles. It smelled of oil and yesterday’s leftovers.

We still had some distance to the car. The street was narrow but busy enough for someone to notice us. I pulled my jacket zipper higher, my hands still trembling slightly. What was I doing? I was giving up everything for a life on the run. For a man who burned on the surface but was cold and calculating underneath. Maybe I could still go back. Turn myself in. They would understand he had forced me. That I’d had no choice.

When we reached the car, the doors opened automatically. No driver. I hesitated.

Maybe . . .

Neo pushed me inside. I gasped at the force of it. He pressed in after me and whispered, "You’re thinking about running. I can smell your fear. It only makes me hungrier.”

I froze, chest heaving. Good God. I could hide nothing from him. Nothing at all.

The door closed and the car moved off. I cleared my throat. "Is it autonomous, or are you driving it?”

Neo didn’t answer as the city slid past without a sound. I stared at the door handle. How fast were we going? Twenty miles an hour? Twenty-five? Could you survive jumping from a moving car at this—

Neo’s hand closed around my arm in an iron grip before I could finish the thought. "Go ahead and try. Then I’ll show you what happens when you attempt to leave me.”