Destruction - The Oasis Project Book 2 (Complete)

Fifty-Seven - Linkin

Maybe it was selfish and weak of me to pull away from the people who love me without telling them why, but it was safer that way. There were more important things which needed to be done than to worry about me. Ira lingered in the doorway with her brow raised as I wiped my eyes.

"Don't just stand there. Come in," I grumbled. I didn't want the door open for this.

Ira took a step into the room, not like she could do much more. The door shut and she sat on the edge of my bed. "You ready to stop acting like a child and tell me what's going on?"

My hand ran along my ribs, over the slowly healing wounds from the car accident. Even though my touch was dull, it was still trained enough to feel the unnatural lump between the eighth and ninth rib. "I never thought the price of freedom was so high."

"What?" Ira frowned at my seemingly random statement.

I shrugged and continued to palpate the inch-long prominence. "You don't see it?" She shook her head and I continued. "Your price of freedom is dealing with Four, owing her your life... At least you have the same goals."

"Linkin, what are you going on about?" I couldn't tell if Ira was concerned or annoyed by how cryptic I was.

A million thoughts ran through my mind. I knew I should lie, brush it off that it was nothing, but I could only put people in jeopardy for so long. "Asmar is my cost of freedom."

Ira shook her head. "Asmar?"

"He worked for a radical freedom group in Egypt. He was one of the people Thierry and I worked for when it was just Stuart and me." Ira slowly nodded along, following so far. "Asmar and his group crashed into the vehicle Emma and I were in. They brought me to Thierry." I didn't want to know how they knew how to find him, a thought which made me shudder. "The price of me being allowed to leave with Thierry was I had to promise to work for them." Ira started to seem annoyed and she opened her mouth, but I held up a finger to cut her off. "He called me."

"What?" This time I couldn't silence her.

My eyes stayed on the bed, my hand clenching to a fist around my shirt. "He has a job for me... They put a tracker in me."

Ira was quickly standing, her hands clenched just like mine. "Why? What the fuck do they want?"

It was my turn to shake my head. "I wish I knew..." My lie didn't even convince me.

"Linkin," she started, sighing, "but you got a call from him? He had to say something."

Asmar said a lot, nothing I wanted to share with Ira. I probably already said more than I should; who knew what would happen if I didn't help them. Whatever they planned for Nazem they might decide to make me do. I shouldn't have opened my mouth. "Just that he wanted something from the Alaska compound," I continued to be vague, curling up a bit more on the small bed.

"What does he want?" She raised her voice.

It would have been easier if Ira just gave up, but she was far too stubborn for that. "I don't know," I tried again meekly. Ira threw her hands up in the air was about to yell, so I started before she could, "Look, it doesn't matter anyways. I am not doing it so I am just putting you all in danger just sitting here! I can't help; I need to get out of here. The same fucking thing I told y'all yesterday that I needed to ripcord out."

The door pushed open and nearly hit Ira. "Linkin, Ira?" Yulian asked as he poked his head in. "What does ripcord out mean?"

Ira glanced to me and shrugged. I let out an exasperated, overly dramatic sigh. "Like why you're skydiving and playing chicken with the ground, that string you pull to get the parachute to go." I certainly wasn't a poet when I was flustered.

Ira shrugged and glanced back to Yulian, trying to explain it to him in Russian. Neither of them seemed to understand and I didn't have to speak Russian to know that Ira was badmouthing me to him. "She just won't tell me what," she switched back to English to throw shade my way.

"Because I'm not doing it, Ira," I finally said with my arms over my chest. "I am not stealing someone else's freedom for my own."

"Someone? They want a person?" Ira was suddenly a bit more tense, standing up straighter as she turned to Yuilian. I understood enough to know she told him to get Four. "Go to Thierry's room; you shouldn't be alone," Ira said with her hands on her hips, stepping back and motioning me out of the room. "You can't leave. We're done running, from everyone. We'll figure this out right after we deal with the Oasis Project."