The Decaying Empire (The Vanishing Girl Series Book 2) by Laura Thalassa Read Free Book Online Page A

spoke for him.
    I sighed. This was why I did things alone. I began to move, walking to the kitchen to collect the items that I’d need to cross the border.
    “Don’t push me out, Ember. Help me understand,” Caden said, following me. “I’ve had a lot of time to suspect a lot of things. At some point you become a conspiracy theorist, and I just couldn’t do it. Not on top of the grief.”
    “There’s nothing you couldn’t figure out on your own,” I continued, now thoroughly annoyed. “Clearly, you’ve chosen not to.” I pulled a package of rubber gloves out from under the sink, then a screwdriver and a small hammer from a junk drawer.
    Caden growled, “Fine—you’re right. But fuck, Ember, have some perspective. You died , and I was the one who couldn’t save you.”
    I turned in time to see him bow his head and run his hands through his hair. “I was the one who held you those last moments.” His voice cracked as he looked up.
    Our gazes met, and I could tell that he was barely holding it together. Barely.
    His red-rimmed eyes beseeched mine. “I’ve been trying to forget that night ever since.”
    I hesitated only for a moment, and then I walked into his arms. He crushed me to him. “I’ve missed you so Goddamn much,” he murmured into my hair.
    What do you say to something like that? I couldn’t feel the weight of the time spent apart. I couldn’t possibly understand.
    But I did understand that I’d been given a second chance at life, and I’d be damned if I wasted it.
    “I have to run, Caden,” I said into his chest.
    His arms tensed around me. “I can’t let you do that, angel.”
    I drew back from him only to realize that he wasn’t loosening his hold. “They sent you to capture me,” I stated.
    Pain flared in his eyes. “Yes,” he breathed.
    “And you’re going to follow orders, even after what they’ve done to me—what they will do to me?”
    He was shaking his head as I spoke, his eyes shining. “No. I’m going to help you, and this is the best way I know how.”
    This wasn’t happening. I squirmed against him; it didn’t do any good. “ Please, Caden, let me go. If you love me, then give me this one thing.”
    He squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m doing this because I love you.” He opened his eyes. “I can’t risk you gambling your life trying to escape. Not when you’re teleporting while awake.”
    I was starting to lose it. “I can’t go back, Caden.” My voice shook. “I’d rather die.”
    “Don’t say that,” he whispered.
    “It’s the truth.”
    Caden tensed his eyebrows, and I saw ferocity in his eyes. “You want to run, we do this together.”
    That drew me up short. I scoured his face.
    “I’m not asking you to go back to the facility to stay. You think I’d want you to continue to go on missions and face down certain death?” His eyes moved over my face, the look in them tender. “I’m asking you to go back so that we can do this properly.”
    I stared at him for a long time as I thought over his words. If I was being honest with myself, I knew that in my current situation, making it to Mexico would probably be impossible. Authorities already knew roughly where I was; they’d warn border patrols if they lost me. Not to mention that I likely had a GPS tracker embedded beneath my skin.
    But going back and facing the same people who betrayed me— depending on them—that seemed impossible.
    “Please, Ember. Trust me.”
    My eyes searched his. This was a man who’d protected my life numerous times. He’d do it again, of that I was sure. I also needed to admit to myself that I’d run out of options.
    I nodded reluctantly. “Okay.”
    Caden’s entire body relaxed. “Thank you, angel,” he repeated over and over again. Agreeing to stay with him, to subject myself to the Project, had meant more to Caden than he let on.
    All the while a cold, numbing dread took up residence inside me.
    Less than a minute later, I heard several cars pull up