What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance Read Online Free PDF Page A

the car. Cass turned to the passenger side door to get in. “Now, how about you take us home?” he asked.
    “Me?” Cass pointed to herself. “I don’t have a license, and I’ve never flown before.” Her hand was starting to shake again.
    “Yes, you, and I will be right there with you, showing you the ropes. Don’t worry about it, you can do this I’m sure. And how do you know you’ve never flown before? You don’t remember your life before coming to Natalia’s. There could be all kinds of things you’ve done that are secret to you.”
    Cass looked to the clouds billowing out of the smoke stacks. “Maybe. Someday they might start coming back.”
    “If Natalia keeps knocking you around they might,” Brandon said. There wasn’t any humor in his voice. “Come on, let’s get you home. Or rather, let’s have you fly us home.”
    Brandon rounded the end of the vehicle and steered Cass toward the driver side with his hands firmly on her shoulders. “Alright, I can’t make you sit in the seat, so you’ll have to do that on your own,” he told her.
    Her stomach in turmoil, so to speak, Cass slipped in behind the wheel. Brandon closed the door, sealing her inside.
    He adjusted himself in the passenger seat and closed the door. Cass thought she flinched at the noise, as if it were a tomb sealing her fate.
    “Alright, seatbelt,” he told her, buckling his own.
    “Afraid I’m going to get injured?” Cass shot a smile at him, despite the nervousness she felt.
    “No, I’m afraid that a cop might see that you don’t have your seatbelt on and pull us over, and then he will find out that you aren’t a human with a license, and I’m being an irresponsible adult. And then there is the robot graveyard for you, and I will have my home taken away and I will be put in prison where I will become the girlfriend of a very beefy man named Javier.”
    “All that, huh?” Cass looked at him sidelong. She buckled her belt.
    “Well, I’m not sure if my prison boyfriend will be Javier or Bruce. I think if I was going to be the man bitch for a prisoner I would like the name Bruce more.”
    Cass smiled. “I hope he treats you right.”
    “Oh yea, Bruce is a generous lover,” Brandon said.
    “Lucky you. Sounds like you might enjoy prison,” Cass said.
    Brandon smiled and shrugged. “If it takes a little man love to teach you to fly, I will take my lumps. Alright, start the car,” he told her, clapping his hands together.
    Cass knew she’d flown before because the moment he told her to start the car, she entered the correct button sequence on the steering wheel. The hover car rumbled to life.
    “Look at that,” he said. “I bet you were a captain in your past robotic life. Let’s see what else you remember. Take us home, Cass.”
    Cass pushed down on the steering wheel as she’d seen Brandon do, but the way she pushed down on it, how she eased into the launch sequence was too familiar. The car shivered a couple times, but the engines engaged. The grass rippled away from their hover ports and the car listed up into the air.
    “Not as gentle as the fake clouds, but pretty good,” Brandon told her.
    Cass saw the green dotted path on her visual overlay that pointed the direction home. She flipped the lever up beside the steering column, and the hover car pushed forward.
    “Wow, I don’t have to teach you anything,” Brandon said. “Maybe I will take a nap.”
    “I’d rather you tell me what this surprise is tomorrow,” she said.
    “I’m going to take you to meet Bruce,” Brandon told her.
    “Oh, perfect, I’d love to meet him. Is he as beefy as you enjoy your prisoners?”
    “Nah, Bruce is thinner, not so muscular. Javier can’t figure out why I prefer Bruce over him. He calls Bruce a wannabe man,” Brandon shrugged.
    “Poor Bruce,” Cass said. “I hope you make it up to him.”
    “Yea, I make him feel like a man,” Brandon said.
    “So either you’re really nice, or you aren’t very