Free Erased by Jennifer Rush Page B

find.”
    The fact that I was stealing clothing off dead people was too ludicrous for me to process. I tried not to even think about it as I tore off my soaked jacket and slipped into the leather one. It was fleece-lined right down to the sleeve cuffs, and cropped at the waist. A thick, oversized hood hung down my back. The overwhelming scent of leather mixed with the sweet, crisp scent of perfume, and I wonderedwhat kind of woman had worn this coat, had spritzed herself with perfume today not realizing that she’d lie dead in a basement by sunrise.
    The red-haired boy stepped forward. “What about Thomas?”
    It took us a second to realize he was referring to the handler. After opening Dani’s cell, Thomas had made himself as small and inconspicuous as he could. He was pressed into the far corner, hands up.
    “He nice to you?” Sam asked.
    The boy shrugged. “I guess. He didn’t hurt us, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    Sam gestured to Cas. “Put him in one of the cells.”
    Thomas, the handler, willingly entered the fourth cell. “Thank you for sparing me,” he said as Sam hit the button to lock him inside.
    “Don’t thank us yet,” Sam said. “Hard telling what Riley will do to you once he finds out you lost the
units
.”
    Thomas deflated as the realization settled in. Riley wasn’t the forgiving type.
    “Let’s go,” Sam said.
    I looked over my shoulder at the woman whose coat I now wore. I’d come to terms with taking the life of anyone associated with the Branch. They knew what they were getting into when they signed up for the job. But that didn’t mean I didn’t feel remorse.
    Before we escaped Branch headquarters, I’d killed the man in charge. Connor. Killing him at the time had been easy. It was what came after that tormented me the most.
    I still saw his face in my head almost every day. I wondered how long I would see that woman’s face, too.
    Maybe forever.
    I thought about saying a prayer, or some final words to send the woman’s spirit off or whatever it was you were supposed to do to respect the dead. But all I could come up with was
Thanks for the jacket
, and I whispered it as I filed out the door.

12
    I’D GOTTEN USED TO STAYING IN AN actual house, so I wasn’t exactly thrilled about having to rent a motel room. The décor was garish. The sheets were stained. And the windows were painted shut. When I’d pointed this out to Sam, that we had zero alternate exits, he’d grumbled something about it only being temporary.
    He split us between two rooms, with him, Dani, the red-haired boy, and me in the first room. Cas, Nick, and the other two boys, Jimmy and Matt, were in the second.
    The red-haired boy, whose name was Greg, sat in the chair in the corner. Dani sat on the edge of the bed, across from Sam and me.
    “Tell us everything,” Sam said.
    Dani worried at her lower lip. “I thought you were dead. Both ofyou. For a very long time, that’s what I believed.” She inhaled, leveled her shoulders. “I’ve been in hiding ever since you were captured,” she said to Sam. “I was shot, and the Branch left me in a field, probably assuming I’d bleed out. But I survived. And Anna…” She blinked, and several tears escaped her eyes. She swiped them away quickly with delicate finger. “I thought you were killed with our parents. And then I heard a couple of months ago, from one of my old contacts in the Branch, that you two had popped back up, that you’d escaped some top secret facility in New York.
    “So I did some digging into a few old Branch contacts and got a couple of leads. I went looking for you, but Riley found me first. I think they were planning to use me as bait.”
    “Makes sense,” Sam said.
    She nodded and smiled. “Thankfully you found me before they could set their plan in motion.”
    I scooted closer to Sam. I desperately wanted to take his hand in mine, if only for the comfort, but I knew it wasn’t the right time. If Dani didn’t know about Sam