Define Normal

Chapter Twenty-Eight Final

I gave a short laugh and shook my head, turning my gaze away from him to stare at the wall, knowing they were on the other side of it, needing them not to be.

There has to be a way out. Think, Jade. Think.

“Do you remember when I was training you in combat? We were sparring and you lost. I had you on the mat with your arm twisted behind you, incapacitating you. You looked up at me, defeated, and said, ‘You win, Reed. Let me go’.” His eyes darkened as they zeroed in on mine, his face turning into a mask of someone else, someone I didn’t know and never had. “Did I let you go?”

I shrugged even as panic gripped me from the inside out. I wasn’t going to win this time, either.

“I broke your arm. You screamed then, didn’t you Jaded?”

“Good times,” I said as lightly as I could, wishing that the knowledge in his eyes, that the certainty there, could be argued with.

He backhanded me, the blow somehow feeling good because it distracted from the burning in my arm while the stars in my eyes made me feel like I was somewhere else, if only for a second.

I laughed bitterly, knowing I was fighting a losing battle here. “What is this really about, Reed? You’re not hurting for assassins. Why do you want us so badly?”

He quirked a brow at me, considering his answer. “You’re as close to perfect as they come, Jade. You and the rest of them. If I had you all on my side...” his lips tilted in a cruel facsimile of a smile, “we’d be unstoppable.” His eyes narrowed on me and disappointment crossed his features. “You would’ve been my greatest ally. My secret weapon in recruiting them but instead, your mother convinced you to leave.” He shook his head. “I think you know the rest of the story.”

“Weapon,” I said through gritted teeth, hating the way the word felt on my tongue. “I’m a fucking teenager, Reed, not a gun.”

“You’ve taken lives, Jade.” Reed, motioned to someone behind him and I frowned as Broken Nose wheeled a piece of equipment closer to us. “Do you really still consider yourself something as bland as a teenager?”

“Well, I’m seventeen, so yeah, kind of.” I swallowed and I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “Besides, I’ve killed two men and neither of them were upstanding citizens.”

Reed tsked and gripped my chin with one hand while placing his scalpel down with the other. “You’re forgetting about the others, Jade.”

“I don’t―”

“How many missions did you go on with your mother?” I quirked a brow and gave a casual shrug, pretending not to care when really, I was cold inside. “Hundreds.” He let go of my chin and picked up a pair of thick gloves, carefully pulling them over his hands. “Hundreds of successful missions that you helped carry out. Maybe you didn’t pull the trigger, but there were many times that those missions wouldn’t have succeeded if it weren’t for you, Jaded.”

I gritted my teeth against the wave of disgust sweeping through me. He was right. More than he knew. I’d been a killer long before I’d pulled the trigger and the worst part of it was, I’d forgotten.

I forgot their names, their faces, their entire existence and yet, I’d played a part in their deaths.

“That’s why I wanted you, Jade,” Reed said, smiling down at me as he held something that looked a bit like a baton with prongs on the end in his hands. “You could separate yourself from it even at a young age. No remorse. I knew you’d make an excellent operative.” His grin widened. “You have that killer instinct.”