Redemption (Enigma Black Trilogy Book #3) by Sara Furlong-Burr

what was really going on in the world. I’d allowed my own emotions to blind me to the pain around me, not realizing that there were others who were suffering just as much—if not more—than I was. That’s the funny thing with insight, it makes you completely change the way you look at things. Pain turns to healing. Despair turns to compassion. Anger turns to determination.
    My feet hit the concrete of the garage, and the virtual fleet of vehicles was spread out before me. I knew I wanted something that was not only fast, but small and easily maneuverable. A motorcycle. That was my only choice. The lines of cars flew by me in a blur before I veered off to the right toward the line of motorcycles. It was hard to believe that I wouldn’t even have considered riding one of them almost a year ago, let alone sprinting to a cluster of them, trying to determine which one would make the fastest getaway.
    And then I saw it. The motorcycle I’d ridden on with Blake the night my life changed forever. If that wasn’t poetic justice, then I didn’t know what was. I grabbed the bike’s handles and pulled it out from its place in the line. In a hurry, I threw my leg over its seat, nearly toppling it and myself over in the process. When I’d regained my composure, I found the keypad and began typing in my passcode. The screen on the keypad glowed green as it processed my number.
    “Come on. Come on,” I urged it impatiently. Seconds later, a message appeared on the screen: Unauthorized. “What?” My fingers rushed to key in the numbers again. Perhaps I had hit a wrong number or missed one by mistake. But just as soon as I reentered my numbers, the same message appeared on the screen. “Shit,” I fumed, striking the exterior of the bike with the palms of my hands. “No, this can’t be. Why doesn’t my passcode work?” In an act of desperation, I began typing in the passcode again, only to be cut short by a hand forcefully tugging my arm away from the keypad.
    “The least you could have done was say goodbye,” Ian said, anger, frustration and hurt all evident in the tone of his voice.
    “Ian, I –Wait, how did you—” Anger rose from within me. I’d been betrayed by my sister. “Damn it, Kara.”
    “Maybe you weren’t going to give me the right to choose, but she had no qualms about it.”
    “You can’t go,” I said in desperation. The pain in his eyes was evident, which made my heart sink into the pit of my stomach. “If you go, you’ll be hunted down, if not by Victor, then by Brooks and his soldiers. Ian, your life from here on out will be nothing short of hell.”
    “Don’t you understand?” he said, a small laugh escaping his lips. “If I let you go without going with you, my life will be nothing short of hell. Either way, I’m condemned to damnation, but it would be a far more bearable fate if I could face it with you.”
    “Well, when you put it like that—”
    “I just don’t understand why you don’t see that.” He squatted down so that we were face to face, our masks raised, hiding nothing. My heart beat erratically from the combination of adrenaline and feelings my brain didn’t want to process quite yet. “We’re partners, Celaine. And even though I appreciate you looking out for me, I want to at least have a right to make my own choices.”
    “Okay,” I said, nodding. “Ian, I’m leaving. Do you want to come with me?”
    “Oh, wow, that’s—that’s quite a decision,” he said, standing up. “Can I have a little bit of time to think about it?”
    “We’ve been partners for far too long, I think I’m starting to rub off on you.”
    “There’s no such thing as too long with you.” He smiled, pulling his mask down over his face as he strode to the motorcycle next to where mine had been. “By the way,” he called back to me, “if I die, I’m totally holding you accountable.”
    “That’s crossing the line there, partner,” I said, trying not to laugh. Ian pulled the