Read Destiny: The Girl in the Box #9 for Free Online

it. We’re staring at the end of the world as we know it here, Scott.” I glanced back at him and caught him looking at me, face all filled with concern. “Whatever baggage I might try to leave behind, I have to pick right back up when I reach my destination.”
    “You got the weight of the world on you right now, Sienna.” He leaned closer again, and I caught the light scent of his cologne. It wasn’t bad anymore; just enough to give me a pleasant whiff. “It wouldn’t hurt to let all that go for one night. Just one night. And then—like you said—you can just pick it right back up tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe a night of rest will make it feel a little lighter, or give you an idea for a new way to carry it—” He broke off. “My metaphor is falling apart.”
    I arched my eyebrows, but I know my face kept its regular grimness. I lightly chewed on my bottom lip. “What if it’s heavier when I pick it back up? You know, like when you’ve had a good workout, and you max yourself out and—”
    “I told you, the metaphor didn’t work,” he said. “You need distance. You need perspective. You need a mental break. It’s been months of grinding up against jagged edges—”
    “That sounds like something dirty that you’d do to a metal band,” I said with a frown.
    “Just … trust me?” Scott said. “A little break. Something to get your mind off things. Refocus, recharge.”
    “I’ll … think about it,” I said as we started to taxi. A voice came on after a dinging sound, the flight attendant starting to announce our departure. The safety instructions started on a video screen overhead as I stared at the back of the seat in front of me.
    “That’s all I ask,” Scott said. “Just some thought.”
    We settled into silence as the safety instructions went on and I tuned them out. They passed in both an eyeblink and yet torturously slowly, somehow simultaneously. Once they were finished, I felt the plane throttle up to high speed and the nose came up, pushing me lightly against the back of the seat.
    A few seconds later I felt us leave the ground, a weightless sensation that felt like it applied only to me. And for that moment, it almost seemed like I could leave all those problems that had been weighing me down behind me on the ground.

 
     
Chapter 8
     
    The morgue smelled like death. The air was freezing cold as it poured out of the overhead ducts, the interior ceiling of the place looking like one of those warehouse-chic restaurants with the exposed vents and whatnot. The rest of the morgue was done in cool colors, mostly blue tones with stainless steel.
    The medical examiner was a woman, and she was bored. I could tell by way she was playing a game on her iPhone, popping her gum like one of those annoying secretaries in an eighties movie. She stopped when we walked in, and I noticed as the pink bubble deflated between her lips that she had a little stud just above her chin and a couple of piercings in each eyebrow. Her hair was a wicked red that clashed with the gum.
    “Can I help you?” She put on a smile for us, and it wasn’t blatantly fake. More cool, professional. She looked like she might have been my age, actually.
    “Yeah,” I said, and flashed her my badge. The best thing about it was that I was cleared to carry my gun on airplanes, so I hadn’t had to worry about picking up my pistol and reloading it after the flight at the baggage claim; I just grabbed my carry-on and went. “I’m here to identify a body.”
    “Hmmm, I’m gonna guess Charlene Nealon,” she said, and the gum disappeared into the back of her mouth. “Did you sign in at the front desk?”
    “Yeah,” I said, and glanced at the double doors leading into the next room.
    She stood and revealed a band t-shirt under her white lab coat, which was immaculate. “I’m Lauren, by the way. Follow me.”
    Scott gave me a look that showed his surprise at the slightly unconventional medical examiner we were dealing with,