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Sophia halted Max when he would’ve gotten out of the car at the Duncan building "I want to tell you about the reason for the hack" She couldn’t hide anymore, not after the raw honesty of the memories he’d shared, of the family he’d shared Her heart was so full it was hard to breathe, hard to speak

"Whatever it is," Max said, his hand along the back of her seat, "you know it doesn’t matter Not between us"

"I can alter memories" She made no effort to dress it up

"I know"

She jerked up her head "What?"

"I’m a cop, Sophie" A wry reminder "I hadn’t been in the job two years before I realized what Js could do"

"Then why don’t you hate us?"

"I always figured you had no choice in the ot the evidence Not every major case is won or lost on the evidence of a J"

She should’ve ended it then, but now that she’d begun, she couldn’t stop She would not steal his affection, his loyalty, through fraud It would violate the trust between theh the terror of rejection was a chill hand around her throat, she ss and said, "Do you renant wife in cold blood, then sliced her up into neat little pieces and duone out for a Sunday fishing trip There was even speculation that he’d used some pieces as bait

"Not a case I could ever forget"

"The Council planned to transfer hi work" The callous murder of an innocent woman and her unborn child had been considered a mere inconvenience "All the Js knew"

"Pity then," Max said in a hard voice, "that he had a sudden, violent embolism that stopped his heart on his first day in prison, died before the uessed he understood what Js were capable of, had wanted to drive home the point so that there would be absolute honesty between them, but from the way he spoke"Have you always known?"

"Cops call it the J-penalty" A grim look "You weren’t in the vicinity I’ve seen your record You weren’t anywhere near Henley’s prison when he died"

"No" Then, "Not me Not that tiot out to walk beside hiht, hopeful knot "I know you’ve accepted me"--and that reht you’d be more"

"Hard-assed?" A snort "I’ve seen rich es, politicians bury abuse clairee with vigilante justice, but Js aren’t exactly vigilantes are they? They know the exact nature of a particular criive out punishments perfectly calibrated to that crime--and only in cases where justice would otherwise be defiled"

"We aren’t judge and jury" She’d never talked openly about this Even a Js, it wasn’t ever actually discussed But they all knew the parameters, understood what the Corps would overlook as the cost of having Js in the system "We’re the last resort when the tools of justice fail the victi to a stop in front of the elevators, his body angled to hide her from the surveillance cameras, "is the impact on a J who acts as that last resortas an executioner if necessary"

" ‘Every action has an opposite and equal reaction,’ " she said, quoting the well-kno of physics "That maxim holds true on the psychic plane"

White lines bracketed Max’s ed by the event?"

"Not exactly da, still pause "You can’t do it anymore," he finally said very, very quietly "Do you understand me, Sophia?"

Her lips quivered for the barest fraction of ato fix me?" It was impossible, and she couldn’t bear for hi to save you" An implacable, absolute answer "It’s about choices I need you to ive in, it eats away a little bit of your psyche"

The otherness in her--twined with those dark threads that tasted of the Net--stirred, considered, bowed its head "I can do that" For Max, only for Max He was a cop He’d accepted her past with open eyes and an open heart, but what she did from now on, even if only a few individuals realized the depth of the connection between them, would reflect on him, stain his career--and she was too proud of him to chance that "It’s a small price to pay to be with you"

"No price, Sophie, no ultimatums" An unqualified reassurance that made her want to pull hiain and again "You belong toyou noto me, too" It caht had ever shoneuntil this man looked at her with eyes that said she wasn’t a piece of trash to be discarded because she’d proved imperfect For the first time in her life, she had started to feel whole, the scars, the fractures, si in his cheek "I’ in her--even the once scared, lonely girl who’d only ever spoken through the hand of cold justice before--determined to stake its claim loud and clear, "if I find a business card froue"

Max felt a laugh build in his chest, had to fight the urge to tug Sophia into his aresture of open possession "No one will dare hit on me after I mention my wife is a J with a jealous streak"

Wife Her composure splintered "Max, no matter what, we could never--"