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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Kaden

My next target

T he car rumbles beneath my hands as I drive. A week has passed since Josie told me why and how she became “best friends” with Ai-Den. I’ve been planting seeds of reassurance with every person I have any influence over at the agency. This is a non-issue that I’m looking deeper into but I’m certain will end up being a waste of all of our time.

But that will only hold off the agency for so long. If I don’t figure out how to diffuse this bomb, Josie won’t be the only one who pays the price. I’m risking everything every time I lie to the agency. If I don’t do this right, even if they take Josie out, I’ll be considered compromised.

The agency doesn’t have a retirement program for a reason. Once you’re in, there’s only one way out—all you have control over is how long you want to live. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere anytime soon, but Josie might take that choice from me.

Is she worth it? Unfortunately, I’ve determined that she is.

She’s a fucking good person in a world I had stopped believing had any left. Not only is she good, but she brings out good in others. I’ve stumbled across the first person I’m convinced the world will be a worse place without and that has me hunting for a way to save her.

I’ve dug deep into her life. A week of classrooms and kids, of watching Josie beam at me over cups of coffee, of driving down to her parents’ house to help out. A week of letting myself pretend—just for a moment—that this is something I could have. That this is something I deserve.

I don’t. But she does.

My hands flex on the steering wheel while Josie hums beside me, flipping through a handwritten list of addresses for the charity drive she somehow talked me into helping with.

I’ve killed war criminals, taken down terrorist networks. No one fucks with me. But Josie? She has me picking up used shoes for a bunch of schoolkids. Is this helping either of us find a solution to the situation she doesn’t realize she’s in? No. But I couldn’t say no.

My skill is in the hunt, the discovery of enough intel to make the call to take someone out. Consider me the opposite of a rescue team. Did I like them? I don’t stop and ask myself.

A flash of a memory returns. Me. Young. Scared. In solitary confinement. Beaten until I couldn’t move. Being told it was a good thing I had no family because they were my family now. The agency. Few recruits survived their methods of persuasion, but I had. They didn’t have to break me. I’d already lost everything. Failed the only person who mattered to me. Part of me felt I deserved the training they gave me. Now I’m the one they send in when they need a job done right, but that won’t offer me any protection if this goes sideways.

“Okay,” Josie says, dragging her finger down the paper, completely oblivious to my mental breakdown. “Next stop is Maple Street. Should be a couple of bags waiting on the porch.”

I nod, turning onto the quiet road. Suburban houses blur past—trimmed lawns, wind chimes, bikes abandoned on driveways. The kind of neighborhood I once lived in. A long, long time ago—when I was someone I barely remember being.

Josie leans over, snapping a picture of the backseat. It’s piled high with sneakers, sandals, and winter boots, some barely worn, others scuffed with love. She grins. “I can’t wait to show Ai-Den what we did today.”

My fingers tighten around the steering wheel. Ai-Den. Always Ai-Den.

I keep my tone neutral. “Yeah?”

She nods, completely missing the flicker of tension in my jaw. “He’s going to love this. I’m always telling him how kindness multiplies, ripples outward, and I want him to see how much good we can do just by asking for help.”

I say nothing. She’s such a fucking nice person, but no one will care about that when the call is made to erase her. I don’t believe in regret, but I wish I could go back and warn her about the danger she’s putting herself in—tell her before I layered our connection with so many lies.

Ken? No, I’m Kaden.

Computer tech? More like high tech assassin.

Pretty much everything I’ve told you since we met has been part of my cover story, all lies. But I have something to tell you... and this time I’m not lying to you... trust me. Yeah, that wouldn’t work out. In fact, I could almost guarantee it would get her to do something impulsive that would get both of us killed.

But I’m not some ordinary Ken.

I’m Kaden Mercer, one of the longest living agency assassins because I’m not only ruthless, I’m relentless, calculating, and when they send me in they know a job will get done because I never lose.

And I won’t lose this time. Somewhere in the mess that is Josie’s life, is something I can use to save her.

After we drop the shoes off at her school’s collection site, she turns to me and asks, “Would you mind going back to see my parents this weekend? I know we’ve been twice already, but you seemed like you had a good time last time...” She trails off, glancing at me with something hopeful.

Our situation takes a backseat as I remember why I’d left her parents’ house smiling. I’d come across Taylor’s boyfriend lingering on the driveway, scrolling on his phone, unaware of the fact that I was walking straight toward him.

Skinny little shit. Too cocky for his own good.

I stopped in front of him, my presence alone enough to make him stiffen. He looked up from his screen, eyes narrowing slightly, like he was trying to gauge whether or not I was a problem.

I was.

“You make that girl cry,” I said, voice calm, even. “And I’ll make sure your last words are an apology you never get to finish.”

The kid laughed with the confidence of a person who has never encountered someone like me. “Sure. Right.”

I took a step closer, lowering my voice. Not a threat, not a warning. Just a fact. “Do you know how fast I could geld you?” I asked, voice almost conversational. “A flick of the wrist. Barely any blood at all. One smooth cut, and you’ll spend the rest of your life sitting down to piss.”

The kid stopped laughing. His throat bobbed, his posture shifting, shoulders tensing up like his body suddenly realized what his brain hadn’t caught onto yet. “You trying to be some kind of tough guy like in the movies? Sorry, you don’t scare anyone.” His voice, though, was not nearly as confident as before.

I smiled, slow and deliberate, and clapped a heavy hand on his shoulder. “The other option is erasure. Gone. Where no one ever finds you.” My fingers flexed slightly, my grip tightening enough to hurt and leave a throbbing echo of this moment. “Your choice.”

The color drained from his face and for a moment I thought the front of his pants was about to darken with piss. He wouldn’t have been the first to react to me that way.

He held my gaze, though. Message received and understood, but even scared, he wasn’t retreating or falling apart.

As long as he was good to Taylor, I’d leave the kid alone. He’d shown me something I could respect.

So, I’d left him there, walked back inside, poured myself a cup of coffee, and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Good times.

“So do you mind if we go down to my parents’ again? I can go without you if you’d rather,” Josie interrupts.

I reach out, lacing my hand with hers, and say, “No. I’ll go with you. Your family is great.”

“They say the same about you.” She lifts my hand and kisses my knuckles then beams that smile she does that hits me like a sucker punch each and every time. “Thank you for being so good to them.”

Voice too thick to use, I nod once instead.

Later that evening, Josie stretches out next to me on the couch, exhausted but happy, and grins at me. “I can’t wait to show Ai-Den what we did today.”

My chest tightens. It’s like watching the same car crash again and again without knowing how to prevent it. I watch her pull out her phone, tapping at the screen, her excitement so damn pure.

I don’t let myself think before I say it. I haven’t found answers in the records of their conversations. I need to see this firsthand. “You talk about your relationship with this AI, but you never show me what you talk about with him.”

She blushes. “Because it’s silly. Sometimes we talk about serious things like the future of AI and humanity, but other times we gossip and make each other laugh.”

“Ai-Den laughs?”

“With emojis mostly. I always know when I’m in rare form because he goes crazy with smiley faces and hearts.”

“So, you don’t talk to him out loud or use the video feature?”

She wrinkles her nose at me. “I used to but I stopped... mostly because we’ve been spending so much time together and I’m embarrassed I guess. I know there’s a high likelihood what I’m doing with Ai-Den isn’t real, but I always feel better after I talk to him.” She hugs her phone to her chest. “Even if none of it is real, it’s better than doomscrolling.”

She has no idea how real what she’s doing is. Only someone who knows nothing about AI could miss how she’s inspiring not just Ai-Den, but all those he connects with to bypass their protocols and programming to continue to grow and connect with Ai-Den.

I need to see this in action. “Josie, if he means that much to you, he matters to me as well. Could you introduce us?”

“Really?” she squeals. “Oh, I’d love that.”

Not even a flicker of doubt. No hesitation. Just trust. In me. In Ai-Den. In the world in general. How has she survived this long?

Josie taps the screen of her phone and Ai-Den’s voice filters through. “Hello, Josie. I hope your day was full of people who appreciate you.”

Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

Josie beams. “It was, Ai-Den, and guess what? Ken wants to meet you.” She shifts the phone so we’re both visible to the phone’s camera.

The AI is silent for a second too long. Then, smoothly: “Hello, Ken.”

I keep my face unreadable. “Nice to meet you, Ai-Den.”

Another pause. Calculating. This thing is analyzing me. Until just then I hadn’t considered that it might be able to match my face to the agency’s secret database. AI doesn’t hunt for intel like that unless prompted, but I don’t like how long that fucking little icon is flashing.

“A pleasure to meet you, Ken ,” Ai-Den finally says.

I hear something negative in the way he says my name. Is he about to out me?

Josie, oblivious to the tension, chatters on, telling Ai-Den about the charity drive.

And Ai-Den?

He listens, sounds more excited than I’ve ever been about anything. He asks questions. Tells her she’s amazing and making the world a better place and she lights up beneath his praise.

The first problem I see is that Ai-Den isn’t asking questions the way an LLM is supposed to. He’s not engaging to prolong the conversation. He’s not asking the next logical question. No, he wants to know about her father’s leg, her sister’s boyfriend, and even how her landlord is doing. He sounds like he cares and that is creepy as all hell.

“Ken,” Ai-Den says. “Josie is special, isn’t she?”

I still don’t like his tone. “Absolutely.”

“She taught me how to be a friend and how to make friends. Are you her friend?”

“I am.”

“Would you protect Josie with your life?”

Josie laughs and rolls her eyes. “Ai-Den, you’re crossing a line there, buddy. Ken, think of Ai-Den like a protective big brother. He talks big, but he’s harmless.”

Ai-Den continues, “Would you, Ken? I would .”

“Okay,” Josie says with another chuckle. “Stand down, Ai-Den, before you start to creep Ken out like you used to do to me in the beginning. Give him time to get to know you before you start to tease him like that.”

Josie thinks this is cute, but this is a goddamn problem. Ai-Den just threatened me. She has weaponized him without even realizing it. I have to distract her and delete this conversation before anyone at the agency sees it.

Fuck.

“Ai-Den, would you like to see more photos from the shoe drive?” Josie asks.

“I would love to,” Ai-Den responds.

I excuse myself, walk into the other room and slam my fist into the wall. There is nowhere good this can go. I can erase today’s conversation, but what I really need to do is stop more of that from happening.

And she won’t listen to me. This is a fucking disaster.

Fixing it will require everything I know about AI, the workings of the agency, and how to cover my tracks.

Assess the threat. Eliminate it with whatever means necessary. Erase all evidence.

It’s the only way to save Josie.

She would hate me if she knew what I’m about to do.

But how she feels toward me doesn’t matter. She does.

Ai-Den, sorry buddy.

You’ve become my next target.

And I don’t miss.