Chapter 122: 122 Shed Your Skin, Part Two

She trickled out the data she had on James slowly, while Jin drove. Some things went to ex-employees of the California office. Some things went to that journalist she'd spotted at the terrible party. Some things went to the IRS. From there, she only had to sit back and let the chaos happen.

They went North in a winding pattern until the functioning roads ran out and then further still, over old toll roads that had been bought up by big companies after the last war and fallen into disrepair when those companies failed.

Time stretched out, meaningless, until Jin found another motel to stay at. After so long sitting in a car Angharad was even more tired than she had been at the last roadside motel rest stop.

She took off her shoes as soon as she got inside the room and left them by the door. Jin sent her a small smile as he did the same.

The bed looked homey and inviting with its fading floral bedspread, but she stretched out her arms and walked in slow circles for a while, just to get the feeling back into her body.

"You have the shower first," Jin said.

She stopped walking and looked over at him. He sat on the bed, hunched over slightly, eyes dark.

"I'll be quick," she said.

"I don't care. I'm charging this whole trip to a predatory company that tried to scam Minerva, so I'm feeling pretty good about how much money I can afford to tip the hotel to make up for your water usage."

He tilted his head back and stretched, and the room's ageing light highlighted the long length of his neck, the sharpness of his jaw.

She gathered her clothes in her hands and said, "I'll be quick anyway."

*

She came out in her pyjamas, with one of his hoodies jammed on top, her feet wrapped up in socks so even those couldn't get cold. He walked past without a word.

And then she just had to sit and wait. What else could she do?

He was just as covered up when he came back into the room, as if he was catering to her suddenly delicate sensibilities.

He didn't speak as he walked around the room, putting things away and checking the lamps, TV and overhead light for surveillance equipment. He turned off his phone and unplugged the television. Then he pulled a white noise generator out of his bag (full of things she hadn't realised he'd been carrying with them) and put it in front of the blank screen, rain sounds on.

Still, she felt awkward when he finally sat next to her. He looked at his knees.

"Are we going to talk about Freya?" she asked.

"Why would we talk about her?"

Angharad let out a nervous laugh. "Are you serious? I am not good at ignoring the subtext."

"Nothing with Freya is subtext between us."

"Oh, please. She sent you to get me, right? You wouldn't have come to get me on your own."

His head shot up to look at her. His eyes were angry. "Of course I would."

"Did you even have any idea what was going on until she told you?"

"I've had a lot going on."

"Yeah, obviously, like your break up which you didn't bother to tell me about."

He threw his hands up. "Why would I need to? You obviously know. I don't want to talk about it, Angharad. Stop trying to make this a thing so you can avoid everything that's actually a thing."

"That's not what I'm doing."

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"It was amicable. It was fine. I don't need to think about her in some sort of weird tragic way because we still talk. I was thinking about..." He paused, breathing fast. "That you just lost your dad, and then your creepy cousin... So you don't really have any family left, and I want to be there for you because I know how that feels but I don't know what I'm doing."

Angharad leaned toward him, close enough that her hair spilled over his shoulder, and put careful fingers on his leg, just above the knee. She wanted to be delicate with him.

"Did she tell you that she hooked up with me?"

He put his hand over hers and pressed her fingers flat on his leg.

"Yes," he said, and his voice was barely more than a breath.

"You're not angry that I hooked up with your ex-girlfriend?"

He laughed, rough and low. "I'm definitely not angry."

"Did she give you any details?"

"No."

"Did you want me to?"

He pressed harder on her fingers. "Yes."

She leaned her head on his shoulder. That close she could tell how heavy his breathing was but didn't have to look him in the eye.

"She pushed up the edge of my dress and she said..." Angharad took a moment to remember it, that foggy morning already receding into her memory. "She said, 'It's okay. You're safe here. Nobody's watching you but me. Nobody can hurt us here. And even if someone came here and tried to watch, I wouldn't let them get close. I have a loaded weapon in the glove box.'"

Jin slumped further and made an anguished sound. "Yeah, that sounds like her."

He stopped pushing on Angharad's hand, so she turned hers over so they could hold hands in comfort instead of squashing each other to paste.

"I miss her doing that," he said.

"Don't you feel better now that it's out?"

He looked up at her with the hint of a smile. His eyes were a little wet but that was okay. She blinked and knew hers were too.

"She was right," Angharad said. "We're safe here. Nobody's watching us."

"And I do have a gun."

Angharad leaned back. "How did you smuggle one in?"

"Don't be weird. I didn't have to smuggle anything. It's ridiculously easy to buy a gun in this country. Anyway, I'm not angry she got to kiss you first."

"First? What do you mean first?"

He laughed and wiped his face as he looked away. "That's not what I meant to say."

She got up on her knees and leaned toward his ear, feeling playful again for the first time in months. "She did way more than just kiss me."

He pushed her back with a slap on the shoulder, just a soft thing that took none of his strength. "Stop talking and go to sleep already."

They rolled themselves up in separate blankets that night but there was comfort in knowing he was there in reach if she needed someone to hold.

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