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"She should’ve just killed herself," Sarai says "If it was h all the trouble"

"You would if you couldn’t bring yourself to take your own life There are many people like that out there, Sarai Ready to die, but afraid to do it themselves"

She doesn’t respond

"Do you think they’ll coet out and then ht now, no He would’ve done it before we left if that was the case" I reach out ers intothe door I add, "Ha has far too much to lose But that’s not to say he won’t devise soe on me in some way that he believes he can’t be linked to it"

"Or me," she says and looks at e ontwice and the car beeps, echoing loudly through the parking garage

This time I don’t respond

I ith her to the elevator and up to our room on the top floor I don’t thinkor ent down tonight Mostly I think about Sarai and what she went through with me She didn’t die, but I feel like another part of her did And it’s one hundred percent my fault I knew I shouldn’t have taken her there I am fully aware of my own actions and how inexcusable they are I came to terms with it the ave her It should’ve beenmore to do with it

I chose a different path

And I don’t regret it

There are a few s that Sarai and I need to talk about and I fully expect the way I touched her in Ha the first I prepare myself for it, but alk into the room and she kicks off her heels, she stuns me when she says, "I want to kill him" She sits down on the end of the bed and turns her head to look up at me, resolve at home in her eyes "That man needs to die, Victor He needs to pay for what he’s done He needs to pay with his life Just like she did"

There is my proof Sarai has the blood of a killer; there’s noit anymore I know I didn’t make her that way Life did that, not me But I know I’m the one who ultimately pulled the shroud from her eyes to make her see it

"It’s only a matter of time before a hit is ordered on hi them over the back of a chair

"We should’ve done it e had the chance," she says

Breaking apart the buttons ofoff at the wall, and I wonder in ay she’s ieful I’m sure of it

I lay my shirt over the chair without ofdown on the end of the bed beside her, "ouldn’t have made it out of there alive It wasn’t part of the mission Every mission must be planned precisely Stray fro yourself or getting yourself killed"

We sit in stillness, both looking out ahead, both hts I wonder if hers are about me I can’t help but for mine to be about her

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Sarai

I never want Victor to leave ht of it before, but no things are so much different Our souls have become intimate, whether he wants to admit it to hiine being on my oithout him Ever

"Sarai, I’m sorry for what I did"

I look over I knohat he means, but I’m not sure yet what to say in return

"I hope you believeout of it It was merely for show I hope you understand that"

I do believe him I know I couldn’t look a normal person in the eye and tell the I’ve lost my mind, or that I’ve succumbed to Stockholm syndrome But Victor could’ve had his ith iven in to me the few times I’ve shown an attraction to him But he never did and he always pushed o when I slipped into his bed He didn’t push me away then, but I know deep down that he wasin thatat him, I ask in a quiet voice, "If he hadn’t of put in the access code to the roolance over but I don’t meet his eyes

"No," he answers in a quiet voice to hs "Sarai, I couldn’t force hiht’ve punched in a panic code and alerted the guards in the house, or--"

I look at hi my eyes with his "But would you have wanted to?"