Ultimate Passage: New Beginnings: Box Set ( Books 1-4) by Elle Thorne Page A

was going through, about what she was thinking. She put the tributes beside his headstone and traced his name with her finger, the stone rough and yet warm against her fingertips. Just like Dad. Rough on the outside, but always warm.
    She sat by the stone—no way could she sit on the gravesite. That seemed just... wrong.
    “Dad.” She bit her lip, unsure where to start. “So, Dad, it’s not looking so good at Two West Two. I don’t think I can keep the restaurant much longer.”
    Marissa picked at a blade of grass, folding its symmetry in half lengthwise. “I know you said I should pursue my dreams. I guess that makes me a loser. I thought I was. I thought pursuing your dream would be mine.”
    She hugged her knees to her body. “I know you said not to. You said to do what made me happy. But I don’t know what the hell that is. I wish I did. I wish I knew what I was meant to do.”
    A rustle came from behind her.
    Marissa jumped up, not sure whether she should fight or flee.
    “Marissa?”
    “Joey. What the hell. You could have given me a heart attack.” She put her hand over her chest. Her heart was beating faster than her pet rabbit’s had the day a dog had chased it. Marissa had held it in her hands, trying to comfort it while the rabbit’s heartbeat raced against her palm. “What the—what are you doing here?”
    “I came to talk to you.”
    “You followed me?” She would have been nervous, but Joey wasn’t the kind who ever made her doubt her safety when he was around.
    He had the decency to look sheepish, and cast his eyes away. “I guess.”
    “Why?” Hostility cast an abruptness on the word.
    “I wanted to tell you that I meant it. That I meant every word I said last night. Have you given my options any thought?”
    “Yes. And I’ve given a lot of other things a thought. You were right. We don’t belong together. Not even to save Two West Two . ”
    “Wait a minute.” His expression was caring. His golf shirt was immaculate, and his khaki pants perfectly creased. Nothing was out of place. “I never said that. Never said it at all.”
    Everything about him was perfect. And at the same time perfectly fake.
    “You didn’t have to say it. You showed it when you cheated on me. You didn’t even have the integrity to break up with me before you slept with someone else. And then you thought you’d keep it from me.”
    “How long are you going to punish me for that? To keep us apart?”
    “Is that what you think I’m doing? I’m not apart from you because I’m punishing you. I’m apart from you because—” She took a deep breath. “We. Are. Not. Together. That’s it. Period.”
    He opened his mouth.
    She intercepted his statement, protest, whatever it was going to be. “Just go. Please. I’m trying to visit with my father. To sort out my thoughts.”
    “I just hope you make one of the things that you’re sorting out my proposal. I want you to give it some serious thought. I’m in a position to help you.”
    A sigh was pushed out of her body, almost as if it wasn’t her own doing. It flowed along with the words that came out. “I know, Joey.”

Chapter 12
    F inn didn’t know how to reply to Kal’s email that the Installment team had returned Number 42. Anything he said would confirm that he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to be doing. That he was going maverick on them.
    Another message came in from Kal.
    Why do you ask that? Are you compromising the mission? Are you compromised?
    He wasn’t going to reply.
    He only had one choice: return to the hillside and see what the Installment team really did with the human women when they were done with them.
    He drove to their temporary Earth compound under the hill, went past it a short distance and parked the car behind a barrier of mesquite trees. Then he worked his way back toward the compound, roaming through pastures and fields, avoiding the highways and unpaved country roads.
    His phone buzzed in his pocket.
    Another