She reaches out and gently touches my cheek. Tears rim her lower lashes. Her fingers slide down to my lips, where one cut runs deeper than the rest. Her touch is velvet, barely there at all, but it’s all I can feel, all I can think about. I don’t deserve it, but I want more, more of Raine.

“Would it hurt too much if I sat close to you, Locke? Just for a few minutes?”

I lean back and pull her close, my arm around her so she’s tucked in close to my left side, the one with intact ribs. She molds to me, like we’ve done this a hundred times, no awkward movements, just her and me, staring ahead at nothing at all. She tells me what brought her here in the first place, why she dared to skip tonight’s meeting, something she’s never done before, knowing the consequences she will have to pay if her father finds out. But as she speaks, I begin to grasp exactly what those consequences are. He was still furious with her about her inappropriate dress at our first meeting, so today he had technicians come. They strapped her down and scanned her, searching for what was wrong with her, trying to find the reasons, the damage, the deficits, anything at all that might explain her unacceptable behavior. And when they were finished, they scanned her again.

He’s searching for numbers, Raine. Not damage. He’s desperate for the missing half of the bank account numbers. Consequences have nothing to do with it. That’s all your scans have ever been about. Nothing you’ve ever done.

She continues to tell me the details of the humiliating procedure. I wonder what the Secretary thinks, that she could be embedded with a time-sensitive biochip programmed to one day reveal itself? Would Karden have done that to his own baby daughter in the interest of safeguarding eighty billion duros? If he would, he’s not a man I want to save. It’s hard for me to listen. I want to react. I want to break something. Throw a chair against the wall. Do something.

“I cried,” she continues. “I said I was sorry. He told me crying was unacceptable. He never has allowed it. Usually, for him, I can become that person he wants me to be, the one detached from my circumstances. After Mother died I tried even harder to be his perfect daughter. Proper. Unaffected. Prepared. The only time I ever strayed from his ideal was when I was alone up on my rooftop, or on one of my nighttime escapades.” She lifts her eyes to look into mine. “I was good, Locke. For so long I was good for him. Somehow, it all worked, at least for a while. Now I feel like I’m walking a tightrope between two lives and I’m not sure exactly where I belong.…”

She looks at me, waiting, her last words more of a question than a statement.

She wants to know if my world is her world, but I don’t know if it can be or if it even should be. I want to tell her that my world is so far from hers. I want to confess that I’m not who or even what she thinks I am—and she isn’t who she thinks she is either. Xavier’s words tear through me: What would I be condemning her to? She’d be caught between two worlds, not fitting in anywhere anymore, not to mention what the Secretary might do with her. What the Secretary might do. It makes my blood run cold. Maybe if I had kept my distance in the first place like I should have …

I look at the nugget-head. “Hap, privacy. Close your eyes.”

He closes them. I knew he was still listening.

But now, being right is not as important as having a private moment with Raine. It’s all I can do to keep from pressing my lips to hers. I want to erase the questions I can’t answer, the worry, the doubt, but I know a kiss isn’t the way to do it. I bring my forehead to hers, my eyes closed, feeling the warmth of her skin, the warmth of her breath on my face. I can’t give her the answer she wants. “You have to go,” I whisper. “It’s not too late to make it to the meeting at Cece’s. You can’t risk it.”

She pulls back to look at me, searching my eyes. “Locke, what are you afraid of? Tell me the truth. I’ve trusted you. Why can’t you trust—”

“You should go, Raine. It’s getting late.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

“That’s all.”

She stares at me, her jaw clenching. It’s not the answer she wanted. It’s an empty answer that holds no warmth, no future, and especially no trust. “You’re right. I should go. I’ve risked far too much already.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

“Of course. At the meeting.” Her voice is flat.

“Raine, don’t tell anyone about my accident. I don’t want it to get back to my father.”

“Right. The stairs and the cats.” She stands, suddenly in a hurry to leave. “I understand too well. I won’t say a word.”

I stand to walk her out. “No, don’t get up,” she says. “Don’t bother.”

“It’s no bother, Raine.” I grab her hand so she can’t leave without me walking her to the door.

Hap is already out and walking down the stairs ahead of her. She pulls her hand away from mine and pauses in the doorway. “It was nice of your mother to let me in. Tell her I said good-bye.”

My mother? “Oh. Sure.” I realize she means Jenna.

“She’s very young looking.”

My mind races, wondering how she could mistake Jenna for my mom, but I try to find a reasonable explanation for it. “Yeah, a lot of people say that. She’s had some work done.”

“I figured as much. But I can tell she’s a good mother. I always notice things like that. She has that air about her.”