Page 18 of His Asset
Mimi gaped, flipping her long hair before spinning to face Reuben.“Is she serious?”
He shrugged.“You started it.”
“And I’m about to finish it,” she snapped.“I’m happy to take myself and my clothes out of here.I’m beginning to think yourfriendwould happily watch you fight wearing nothing but her birthday suit.”
I frowned.Why was a conversation about me happening like I wasn’t even there?I cleared my throat.“You couldn’t be more wrong.”
She swung back around, her bottom lip curling.“And yet you were found in nothing but your underwear.”
“Not by choice,” I said, lifting my chin.
She blinked, her stare softening ever so slightly.“If you’re in some kind of trouble—“
“If she is, it’s none of our business,” Reuben cut in.
Her stare didn’t leave mine as she asked him, “So it doesn’t bother you that someone is looking for her?That helicopter sweeping our neighborhood wasn’t a coincidence.”
Reuben snorted.“Clearly not.But you once told me trouble follows me around.”
“So you’ll invitemoreinto your life?”
I sighed.“If either of you actually asked, I’d tell you—I don’t intend sticking around.I’ll be gone by the morning.”I held Reuben’s gaze.“That is...if you’ll allow me to stay here one more night?”
“You need to even ask?”He pushed a hand through his already spiked hair.“Stay a week and you’ve got yourself a deal.”
I was tempted, so very tempted.But my freedom was everything to me and I couldn’t risk getting caught just because I’d grown comfortable.“I—“
“A week!”Mimi interrupted.“Youneverlet women stay here.Not for longer than a night.Your motto is fuck ‘em and forget ‘em, remember?”
He flinched as though the truth bothered him now.“I never made a secret of it,” he said quietly.“Not to any of the women I’ve been with.”He shook his head.“Why this sudden interest in my sex life?”He looked between us.“Bella and I are nothing but platonic.”
“So far,” Mimi said, her gaze bouncing between us.“But a blind man could see there is more than friendship brewing between the two of you.”She huffed out a breath.“Whatever.Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Reuben crossed his arms, something sharp building in his stare.“Warn me about what?”he asked.
“About her breaking your heart.”She lifted her chin, her eyes flashing.“She’s not who you think she is.”
Tossing the canvas bag of clothes onto the two-seater sofa, she flounced to the door, unlocked it, then saw herself out.
Reuben shut it behind her and leaned against it, holding my gaze.“Well, that was...unexpected.”
I raised an eyebrow.“Is she always so judgmental?”
He grimaced.“Only when she listens to her intuition.”
“Intuition?”
He nodded.“Mimi has extraordinary psychic abilities.I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a vision about you and me the second I asked her to bring clothes.”
I blinked.“Humans have this...ability?”
I supposed they must.Even in the facility, not all of us assets were created the same.Some had wings.Some didn’t.Some were stronger than normal, some weaker.Some of us had instincts that reached beyond ordinary, while others were barely awake to theirs.
The one thing we all shared was a high mortality rate.
I’d dodged every bullet.And my health, my power, only kept growing.No wonder the scientists had been reluctant to let me go.And they hadn’t even been aware of my echolocation ability.Good thing I’d kept that to myself or not even Adam would have been able to acquire me.
“Humans?”he queried, catching my odd phrasing.“I believe we all have intuition in some shape or form, though most of us ignore it until it withers away.”