With a Pull of a Trigger

Chapter Twenty-Four

Reini wasn’t happy with the decision Thatcher had made. She wasn’t happy with being forced to just remain in a safe place while Greg was out there, trying to figure out who killed Eena. She knew she was at risk—knew since The Alliance figured out she wasn’t dead—but she couldn’tjust let go of the things she had to do. She had a job, and she had puzzles to figure out.

“You should go to bed.”

Reini looked at the man leaning against the doorway to the balcony and sighed, looking back onto the vast night sky. “Stop it, Sam.”

“Stop what?” asked Samuel as he silently walked towards Reini, leaning against the brick wall once he was close to her.

“Pretending,” Reini said softly, looking straight ahead, “acting like nothing’s wrong. Samuel, the last time we really talked was during Eena’s birthday party.”

“I know,” Samuel breathed out, not glancing at Reini’s direction. “Believe me, I know.”

Reini closed her eyes, breathing in the smoky, polluted air of Los Angeles, and welcomed the darkness that surrounded her. She was glad to surrender to the darkness—at least this way, she couldn’t be darker than nothingness.

“I don’t get you,” Reini said softly, finally admitting defeat to the puzzle that was Samuel Milton. “I don’t understand you. All my life, I’d been taught to be logical, to make the puzzle pieces fit, to solve the questions before the others do, yet I can’t understand you.”

Samuel took a deep breath, staring out into the glimmer and fame the Los Angeles skyline seemed to radiate. “I’m not a puzzle, Reini. I’m not an object you have to figure out how to use. I’m a person, and you don’t need to profile me. You don’t need to understand me. You just need to know how to interact with me.”

“But that’s the point!” said Reini as her eyes opened sharply, frustration evident in the way her voice cracked in the last syllable. “I don’t know how to act around you anymore! I am constantly walking on eggshells because—”

“What, Reini?” asked Samuel, his voice louder than Reini’s. “You’re constantly walking on eggshells because of what?”

“Because I don’t get you anymore! You’ve become this man I don’t know, and I just don’t know if you’re angry or not! You have mood swings all the time and I hate it! I hate the fact that you’ve shaped into this person I can’t understand.”

Samuel faced Reini, his previously warm brown eyes dark with barely restrained anger. “Do you really think I still get you? No I don’t! I don’t understand what happened to the Reini I knew, but all I want is to get her back!”

Reini leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes, suddenly feeling weary and tired. She felt like the weight of the world was on her shoulders, and felt like there was nothing she could do to stop herself from crumbling under the weight. “I can’t do this anymore,” said Reini softly. “I can’t talk to you and pretend that we’ve moved past all our issues. I can’t talk, knowing that we just aren’t the same anymore. I’m too tired to pretend, Samuel, and I’m too tired to argue.”

The dark sky was still and lifeless, too dull against the bright lights and twinkling establishments of Hollywood. Somewhere out there, Reini knew, was the CIA headquarters, and agents would be exiting the building at about five minutes, when their shift would end. Other agents would enter the building, start their shift, and spill blood into the lifeless veins of the city. The city was poison for those with dreams, and it was nothing less than tiring. To live in the city, to wake up in the morning and face the two-faced people of Hollywood, and then to sleep in the evening, knowing that the city never changed, never improved, never became genuine, was harder than she had thought.