Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27799 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 139(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27799 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 139(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
“I’m not falling for a honey pot.”
“The thing is, Finnick, you’ve made her on four occasions, too, and she’s still alive. I know you’re not recruiting her because you work alone. So, what is going on?”
“Plane’s boarding,” I say.
Mercy yells something, but I click the remote receiver off, and her voice falls silent. I fish out my paper ticket and get in line. There are eight people in front of me, including a family of four. The oldest child looks to be about ten. His head is buried in his video game. The younger one, a girl, has a doll clutched in her arms. She’s nervous about flying. It must be her first trip.
The blonde gets processed. I fall in line behind the family as if I’m part of it. The older uncle, not a single guy traveling alone to Paris.
When I arrive in the first-class cabin, I spot her in the front middle. That’s another oddity. She’ll have a seatmate. Contract workers usually book a single seat in the front, near an exit. Again, the less contact, the better. Although I can’t hear her, I can see her mouth move. She’s talking to her seatmate. Weird but maybe this is her cover.
I prefer anonymity, non-descriptiveness. No one should remember me ever. Hence the gray pants and black coat. Nothing too rich and nothing too flashy. She’s the opposite of all I’ve ever done. Why haven’t I killed her yet? Because she fascinates the hell out of me.
Chapter
Two
GEORGIA
“I’m Ryan, by the way.” The man next to me introduces himself. The smell of his cologne is strong, and I know it’s going to give me a headache by the time we land.
He’s dressed up in a fancy suit. I wonder if this is a business trip for him. If I had to guess, he's at least ten years older than me. He’s not terrible looking but a bit too flashy for my taste. Not that I really have a type.
“I’m Georgia.” He takes my hand.
“I would have taken you for a Sophia, Ava, or even Isabella.” He’s not far off the mark. My birth name is Olivia, but my middle name belongs to my grandma. Since she passed, I’ve adopted it. She is, after all, why I’m on this adventure to begin with. I thought if I was going to have a new start why not go with a new name?
“It was my grandma’s name.”
“Was? I’m sorry.” I remove my hand from his. He still hadn’t let it go.
“It’s been almost a year now.” Has it really been that long since I lost her? Sometimes it feels like she passed just yesterday, and others like I haven’t seen or talked to her in forever.
A sadness tries to bubble up inside of me, but I paste a smile on my lips. There’s no need to be sad. She wouldn’t want that for me. Plus, I’m doing what she wanted me to do. I am getting a chance to see the world and go to places she only dreamed of. It wasn’t in the cards for her. My family might have money, but the men keep very tight controlling strings on it.
My parents aren’t too happy about any of this, but for once, they have no choice in the matter. Grams left me a small nest egg along with a ring and necklace that she made me promise I would sell. I refused at first. I didn’t want to get rid of something so sentimental. She wore that ring every day, but like Grams always said, Life isn’t about things. It’s about the experience. So, I finally agreed to her wishes.
That last thing she wanted was for me to get stuck under my family’s thumb for the rest of my life. It happened to her.
One time when I was about ten, we worked on this massive puzzle together. It took us days to complete it. When we were done, the result was a map of the world. Grams started pointing at places and telling me about them like she’d been to them all. She got to go to a few she’d read about, but she never got a chance to experience any of the others. Her eyes would light up when she was talking about them.
I remember each place she pointed to. Wrote them all down so I would never forget. When I sold that ring and necklace, I vowed to her silently that I would go to all of them. What I hadn’t expected was that for some reason, others wanted to come with me.
Not physically but online. I started my Instagram and TikTok as a way to document my journey along with my journals. Before I knew what was happening, my accounts were blowing up. It freaked me out at first, but then I thought Why not show them too? Others might not get a chance to go on a journey like this one day. The least I could do was let them see the world from my lens. It made it even more purposeful for me.