Sloane Read Online Free PDF Page A

was easy to want to confide in her.
    She looked up from her desk as I entered the room,
smiling widely as if I was her long lost relative or something. She
seemed so happy that I was there.
    “You wanted to see me?”
    “Yes.” She got up from her desk in one fluid
movement. She wore a dark blue pants suit with a white blouse
beneath. Her makeup was flawless, and she looked too perfect to be
real. She crossed in front of the desk to warmly shake my hand. “So
happy you could make it, Sloane.”
    I hadn’t really had a choice, but hearing her say
that made me feel good regardless. I smoothed the front of my gray
jumpsuit. We were required to wear them all the time in
headquarters. The only time we got actual clothes was when we went
on missions. Wearing the jumpsuit always made me feel like a
prisoner, but that might have been the point. After all, if it
hadn’t been for Op Wraith, Silas and I would have been in jail for
what we’d done. The thing was, being in French’s presence always
made me want to look my best, and the jumpsuit made it hard.
    She gestured to the couch. “Why don’t you have a
seat?”
    I nodded and did as she said.
    She settled down opposite me on her easy chair. “How
are you?”
    “Fine,” I said automatically.
    She raised her eyebrows. “Really?” she said
gently.
    I nodded, trying to look as sure of myself as I
could. This was what she did. She poked and prodded. She wanted to
know the things that made you uncomfortable or unhappy. The more
she knew, the better she could use them to manipulate you.
    “You know, Sloane, if there’s anything you want to
tell me, I’m always here. I want to help you.”
    “No,” I said. “There’s nothing.”
    “Do you miss your brother?”
    Silas had been gone on missions a lot lately.
Sometimes he was gone overnight. He wouldn’t talk about them, but
then he never talked much about that kind of stuff. It was a little
worrisome, however, because Silas and I were usually a team. They
didn’t send us out individually. If they had a target for us to
take out, they sent both of us. I wasn’t sure why he was working
without me, but he promised me that what he was doing wasn’t
dangerous. “I see him often enough.”
    She regarded me for several minutes, and I felt like
she was reading all my secret feelings from my expression, even
though I was working hard to keep my face blank. Eventually, she
nodded. “All right, then. Even so, with Silas busy, you haven’t had
anything of your own to do.”
    “I’ve been training,” I said. “I’ve been working on
my hand-to-hand stuff.”
    “I see,” she said. “Well, I have something else to
occupy you, but I don’t think it will involve any hand-to-hand
combat.”
    I sat up a little straighter. She was sending me on a
mission on my own? I was flooded with dread and terror. This was no
good. I didn’t go on missions alone. When Silas found out, he was
going to flip his lid. Besides, what if I froze up? I always needed
Silas there. I couldn’t do it alone. But if Op Wraith found that
out… found out I was useless, well they might have me killed. They
didn’t keep anyone alive who wasn’t useful.
    But then I felt something else.
    Excitement. I realized that I liked the idea of being
trusted to do something on my own, to prove myself, to not need
Silas.
    And that disgusted me. Even if I completed a mission
on my own, I couldn’t allow myself to feel… proud of killing
people. I was being forced to do this against my will. It wasn’t
something that I enjoyed.
    I was appalled at the thought that I might someday
grow to enjoy it. I gulped.
    French had been watching me closely.
    Shit. Had she seen my emotions flit across my face? I
hadn’t said anything, but French had taken pains to know me—and all
of the assassins—very well. She might have been able to guess what
I was thinking.
    “You’re pleased,” said French.
    “I’m… I’ll do what I have to do.”
    French smiled again, but this