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He turned to look at her and Kay shivered There was nothing of the aze He looked like he was awhatever it was he saw in his head And whatever he saas bleak

"We did thisinto cri their s and weapons We were likefro"

Despite his strong words, Kay could sense his fear and his shalanced over at her then, and she leaned forward, worried that he’d stop talking

"What happened then?"

"It was about six roup that I discovered the truth We were living in this hovel on the south side of DC I hadn’t seen anyone in es you fro in contact with anyone you knew before The Circle becoether, and play together It was hard, but ere doing important work The police couldn’t help people the e did We weren’t bound by the rules of law If a wo to do, call the cops? She’d end up getting arrested But we could help I regret a lot of things fro the hell out of anyI’ll never feel guilty about"

Kay agreed She wrapped her ar his story, but this was the side of Eli she was used to The protector The one who took care of her and would never let her come to har to protect people"

He cringed and ran his hands over his head "Yeah, I’ is while ere playing Robin Hood, we had no idea as going on behind the scenes The girls we liberated? They were sis we stole? They weren’t destroyed the way I thought That was how the group leaders ht I was taking fro for criminals I was a foot soldier in a war that I wasn’t even aware of When I think of the girls I delivered to them…"

His voice broke and he pressed his palms over his eyes He turned in the opposite direction and wouldn’t look at her for a minute Tears welled in Kay’s own eyes, but she dashed them aith the back of her hand, afraid that if he saw them he’d interpret it as horror at what he’d been a part of

Or worse Pity

He cleared his throat and glanced at her before continuing "We were busted by the FBI and I was picked up in the raid Most of the guys I’d lived with and trained ere killed fighting back I was captured alive and held for weeks while they tried to ferret out the head of the group Once they realized they’d captured a lower-leveltheation, I was able to avoid jail I’ theation sometimes"

"That sounds miserable Isn’t there a time limit that you can be held accountable?"

"There is no statute of lies," Eli stated