A young doctor unexpectedly finds herself forced to indoctrinate into a paramilitary organization, where a stoic hero silently falls in love. Slowly, he earns her trust. The love between them burns away the darkness of the past and acts as a beacon...
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I filled my lungs with fresh air, happy to be in the sun and away from her hateful eyes.
That's it, though.
That is the last of the bad news I need to deliver to her—at least for now, and hopefully ever.
Who fucking knows, but at least the bad news is over for now.
I can't take any more of this shit.
Ryn can't, either.
I rubbed viciously at my heart, that ached painfully in my chest at the thought of her malnourishment.
She lost so much weight.
Anger towards Wes punched through my heartache. The urge to put him through a wall simmered in my blood, as it often does.
Hostilities between us are old news, but these past five weeks set a new benchmark.
Wes is the meanest son of a bitch I know, and he brings my blood to a boil regularly, but he has my sincere respect.
Wes is a strong leader with a work ethic few can match and none can rival. He is smart, both on and off the battlefield. His sword is drowned in the blood of our enemies, and it has only known victory. Wes is no stranger to self-sacrifice, and he is intimidated by nothing. All his decisions are carefully calculated and made with both finality and conviction. Every decision Wes makes is for the success and safety of the Troops beneath his charge. Wes will always do what he believes is right.
In these ways, Wes and I are similar.
The challenge is that we rarely see eye to eye on what the "right" thing is.
But, since he is my boss, he has the authority to tell me to shut the fuck up or suffer the brutal consequences of insubordination.
Openly defying Wes is ill business and will never lead me closer to my objective. But, with nearly a decade of working under him, I've perfected the art of secret insubordination. I've created many masterpieces over the years. Of course, no one has ever seen my art, and they never will. That's part of what makes it all so fucking beautiful.
But, with Ryn, there was no room for silent insubordination. The nature of what happened was high profile. The politics and government officials were involved by the end of Day 1, which pulled us into the public eye and locked me into all the stupid fucked up rules of the game.
Death or Indoctrination.
I mean, I get it. I get why the law exists, but in this particular scenario, it's bullshit.
Ryn was doing her job—a damn good one at that.
I did what I was obligated to do by bringing her here, but I fought fiercely to have her released.
Ryn did nothing wrong, and her willingness to help Arthur and surrender to our "death or indoctrination" law was evidence enough of her loyalty.
