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“Let them go, Connor.” Dad, unguarded, stepped up. “In exactly eight hours, all the evidence Sam stole will be released to every major media outlet. Do you know how much money that will cost you? More than Sam’s worth. The government will be forced to cut off funding, and then what? I don’t think it’s so far-fetched to believe they’ll turn their back on you entirely. Make you the scapegoat in the public’s eye.”

Connor’s nostrils flared. A lock of his too-blond hair fell out of place. “Don’t pretend for one second that you’re exempt from any of this.”

“I’m not. But I also don’t want to be a part of the program anymore.”

Dad had always seemed so small and insignificant next to
Connor and Riley, but at that moment, I could see the strength and the wisdom of a man I’d scarcely met. I liked this Dad. I admired this Dad. “Let Anna go, for starters, and we’ll talk terms.”

Connor, his mouth set in a grimace, flicked a finger. Riley muttered something before letting me go. I immediately went to Sam’s side. He was still breathing and his eyes were still open, but his gaze was unfocused. He looked close to passing out. His skin had taken on an ashen color, making the bruises on his face stand out even more.

He needed medical attention. I shot a glance over at Cas. He stood straight as a totem pole, not one sign of his wounds visible in his demeanor. But if we had to fight, I wasn’t sure he’d stand a chance.

And Nick… he might be able to power through, but he was weak, too. If it came down to it, I knew I couldn’t fight all these men on my own.

Connor clasped his hands in front of him. “All right, then, let’s negotiate.”

“We need to talk first about the conditions,” Dad said.

Connor cocked his head to the side. “Please, regale me.”

“Grant them freedom.”

“Freedom?” Connor paced, the expertly pressed line of his pants in sharp silhouette. “And who’s to say they won’t leak the information later?”

“We won’t. As long as you leave us alone,” I said.

“I have another idea.” He spread out his hands. “I will agree to let you all go if you cooperate with a memory alteration.”

A knot formed in my gut. I couldn’t let them mess with Sam’s memories. “No.”

Connor looked over at me. “Anna.” He made my name sound like a sigh. “So surly and determined. Tell you what—you agree to work for the Branch, and I’ll spare your memory. The others will be wiped and let go.”

That wasn’t a counteroffer. That was worse. Even if Sam survived another wipe, how could I let him go? He’d disappear, because he was good at that, and I’d be stuck with Connor for the rest of my life, knowing that Sam was out there somewhere with no memory of me at all.

Besides, if the control alterations were permanent, then Connor could use me against the boys any time he wanted, whether they had their memories or not.

“I won’t agree to that, either.”

Connor sniffed. “Then none of you leave. How about that?”

“Eight hours and counting,” Dad reminded him, not the least bit dissuaded by Connor’s rising agitation. “Stalemate, Connor.”

The men behind Riley fidgeted with their guns. Riley shifted his weight around, jaw clenched against the pain he must have felt in that damaged knee. Served him right.

“You can’t keep us forever,” I said. I rose to my feet, but stuck
close to Sam. “We’re human beings. We deserve free will, the right to our own lives, without some clandestine company directing our every move, stealing our memories and—”

“I’ll do it.”

I drew back.

“I’ll stay,” Sam said, straining to swallow, as if even that small act took considerable effort. “Let everyone else go.”

“No.” I ducked down. “No, Sam. We’re all leaving here….”

“They won’t allow it, and I’m in no shape to fight.” He coughed again and had to roll to spit blood from his mouth.

“We have a plan, and—”

“Fuck the plan.” His eyelids hung heavy. I could barely make out the iris of his left eye under the red stain of the broken blood vessels.

Tears pricked my eyes. I’d just learned the truth about everything in my life, and I didn’t want to lose it. I didn’t want to lose Sam. I
couldn’t
lose him.

My voice came out a desperate plea, but I didn’t care. “You’re all I have left.” The only constant, the only person from my old life, the one I couldn’t remember.

He sliced me through with that unflinching look of his. “Then let me do what’s right.”

I closed my eyes. His fingers found mine. I buried my face in his chest, my vision hazy. “I won’t remember you.”

“You will,” he whispered into my hair. “Someday. I’ll find you.”

I wrapped my arms around him, careful not to squeeze too hard. He still smelled like Ivory soap and late-autumn air. Would I forget that? Would I forget his name? The way he felt. The way he looked at me.

I didn’t know what Sam and I had, if we had anything at all, but the void opening in my chest told me that it was enough, that maybe the connection between us was real, and not something scientific, and manufactured, and fake.

It was something worth fighting for.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. As I stood, he gave me a look that said,
Whatever you’re about to do, don’t.

But I had to, and the reassuring pressure of Riley’s stolen gun against my back told me I could. I had a chance, no matter how small it was.

I stumbled to Riley’s side.
Be weak.
I held my hands out as if I meant to let him cuff me.
Be vulnerable.
He frowned but pulled a zip tie from inside his jacket. And when the thin plastic raked at the skin on the undersides of my wrists, I kicked Riley’s bad knee and pulled the gun out from beneath my shirt. I shot one of Connor’s nameless men and suddenly everyone was moving.

Nick head-butted one guy. Cas punched another. Someone tackled me to the ground and I kicked, flailed, pressed the barrel of the gun up and shot at close range. Blood washed over me and I pushed the man off, scrambling to my feet.

Nick took out a skinny guy. A gorilla of a man landed an uppercut to Cas’s jaw, but Cas was still standing, smashing the man’s foot with the heel of his shoe.

“Stop!” Connor yelled. He held Sam at his side, a gun pressed to Sam’s temple.

“Do what he says, Anna.” A vein swelled in Sam’s forehead. “Goddamn it. Just listen to him and you can all go.”

“Put down your weapons,” Connor ordered.

I did as instructed and held up my hands. “Don’t hurt him.”

“Anna,” Sam growled.

“I’m not leaving you,” I said matter-of-factly.

Connor chuckled, but it almost sounded sad and regretful. “At least I know the program worked. Look at you two—you can’t stand to be apart. If we worked together, we could make the program so much better.”

I let my hands fall to my sides, determination filtering to the top. “I would rather die here than work for you.”

Connor pitched Sam to the floor. The gun was now trained, unwavering, on me. “And do you know what, little Anna? You’ve been far more trouble than you’re worth. You’re just a cog in the machine. You aren’t irreplaceable. Eventually it’ll run fine without you.” He narrowed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

Time seemed to falter. I was tensed, waiting for the blow, when Dad dove in front of me. The bullet hit him, and he took me down,
too. I slammed against the concrete floor, the wind knocked from my lungs as Dad’s weight landed on top of me. In his hands was a gun.

“Take it,” he said in barely a whisper.

A crammed, crunched sensation filled the spaces between my ribs, but I ignored it and grabbed the gun. Dad rolled away. I sighted Connor and took the shot, not a second’s worth of hesitation robbing me of the one chance I had to finally be rid of him.

The bullet hit Connor in the chest.

I squeezed out another and it tore through his shoulder.

He lurched.

I shot again.

For one single second, we stared at each other. Then a trickle of blood ran down his shirt and time sped up again. I took one last shot—one more, to make sure he never came after me again.

It tore a hole through his head and his eyes went vacant as he teetered to the side.

The entire room went still. Connor toppled over.

I let out the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. The boys stood around me in a loose half circle, Cas with a gun in his hand and a generous bruise blooming on his face, Nick with a smug smile lighting his eyes.

The other men littered the floor around us. Riley was noticeably absent.

I spotted Sam a few feet away from Connor. I dropped the gun,
scrabbled to Sam’s side, and gave him a shake. He tensed, groaned. “Sorry,” I said. “Are you okay?”

His eyes fluttered open. “Goddamn it, Anna, you could have been killed.” He coughed. “You can’t be so damn reckless—”

I kissed him. When I pulled back, I said, “Shut up, all right? You need your energy.”

A genuine smile played across his face and I fell for him all over again.

“I think he’s delirious,” Cas said.

“Don’t die on me,” I ordered.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said right before he passed out.

We managed to reach floor B1 by taking the stairs. Nick carried Sam slung over one shoulder. Cas held on to Dad the same way. Nick had tried to check Dad for a pulse earlier, rationalizing that leaving him would be easier for all of us, especially if he was dead. But I wouldn’t let him. Because I didn’t want to know if he was okay or not. Because I wasn’t going to leave him there, anyway.

We’d just started for the ground floor when the door on B1 pulled open.

Cas had a gun trained on the person before whoever it was even made it over the threshold.

Trev stared back at us.

Nick deposited Sam on the floor and slammed Trev up against
the wall. “You try to stop us from walking out of here and I’ll kill you.”

Trev held up his hands. “I won’t, but you should know that Riley is waiting in the lobby for you, and he’s summoned more men. I can help you get out.”

“And we should trust you?” I asked.

“You’re a traitor, dude,” Cas added.

Trev looked crestfallen. “I was never one of you. I was always undercover.”

Cas readjusted Dad on his shoulder. “You conned us.”

“I thought I was doing my job. I thought…” He blinked, regret pinching the corners of his eyes. “I hacked into the files here, and I think you were right. I started out like the rest of you, but somewhere along the line they made me think I was on their side. I thought I was working to save someone I loved. That’s what they told me. Being undercover was never supposed to last this long. I was as much a prisoner in that lab as you were.”

“Whose side are you on now?” I asked.

“No one’s. But I can help you get out of here.”

Nick released Trev and gave him a shove. “I’m not following you anywhere.”

“You’ll be stopped the second you enter the lobby.” He took a step, then paused. “Through this door”—he motioned behind him—“is a hallway that will lead to a parking garage. There’s a car there you can take.”

The boys looked doubtful.

I tugged at the hem of my shirt, the urge to move overwhelming. I wanted to get out of there. I wanted to look every inch of Sam over to make sure he was all right. And the longer I stood there listening to them argue, the longer it’d take me to get to Sam.

“We don’t have anything to lose at this point,” I said. “And for what it’s worth, I believe him.”

Nick snorted, but he hefted Sam over his shoulder again. “Fine, we’ll go. But if you screw us over again, I swear to God…”

Trev raised his eyebrows. “Let me guess: You’ll kill me?”

“Consider that a promise,” I answered and meant it. Trev shot me a look threaded with dejection, and I did the best I could to ignore it. “Show us the way.”

The car Trev led us to was a nondescript, smoky-gray sedan with tinted windows. The keys hung in the ignition, waiting.

With Trev’s help, we put Dad in the backseat and placed Sam next to him. Nick got behind the wheel and I went around to the other side, Cas on my heels.

“Wait.” Trev dug in his pants pocket and pulled out a black flash drive. “I don’t know if you want the information or not, but everyone’s files are on that drive. From start to finish. It might shed some light on the blank spots in your memories. I figure you deserve that much.”