8 Was He Even Human?

Claire was still internally debating what to do but couldn't deny that Six had a point. Being out here for too long in the middle of the night was totally suspicious, especially since the two of them were wearing hoods.

"Fine," she said with a heavy sigh. "Let's go."

She had already let a hitman into her car and hadn't died. And according to him, he had been stalking her for over a week and hadn't done anything. She was probably as safe as she was going to get. Unfortunately.

The car ride home was completely silent, which only made Claire's anxiety rise. She couldn't handle this sort of tension!

When they finally made it back to her house, Six held up a hand to prevent her from going inside. "I need to conduct an inspection to be sure there aren't any surprises waiting for us. Stay behind me."

Well. That was a frightening prospect. Her house was supposed to be her safe place.

He nodded to give the all clear and Daisy came up and rubbed herself around both Claire's and Six's ankles. She narrowed her eyes at him. Her cat wasn't friendly to strangers. He had been inside her house before.

"Your security here is laughable," he deadpanned. "Anyone with the bare minimum of skills can break into your doors and windows. You don't even have a security system; you're practically asking to get killed."

She was a little embarrassed about being called out on her lack of security system. As a young woman living alone she really should have one but kept forgetting to get around to it.

Claire scowled at him and crossed her arms over her chest. "I didn't ask for any of this!"

Six rolled right over her, going on as if she hadn't spoken. "Get a security system first thing in the morning. A top of the line one with cameras, motion detectors, and professional monitoring. It won't deter everyone but it's better than nothing.

"Agents are cautious by trade; we can't allow ourselves to be seen or heard. The best ones are able to kill without the target ever knowing what hit them. They would be less likely to try your house so at least we could get some uninterrupted sleep."

"Excuse me, we?" she sputtered.

Six looked at her like she was stupid. "Yes. I have to stay here if I'm going to protect you. I have hardly slept in four days because of you so the least you could do is feed me. I don't require much to survive."

Claire blinked at him. He had hardly slept in four days and was still able to take down three hitmen on his own? Was he even human?

He looked about as lively as one of those wax figurines of celebrities in a museum her mom took her to once on vacation. There had been so little expression on his face this entire time—as well as speaking in monotone aside from the time he made her hit the dirt—that he seemed more like a puppet than a person.

Providing for him wouldn't be much of a problem if he truly 'didn't require much to survive' but… "I can't stay in the house forever. I have to go to work! Get groceries! Live my life!"

Claire would go completely stir crazy if she was stuck inside all day. She loved being outside in nature and going around Boston. But if it put an even bigger target on her back she wouldn't be able to get away with that.

"I will have to accompany you wherever you go for the foreseeable future," Six informed her. "Being out in public isn't safe as you saw today."

She buried her face in her hands and moaned. "Why is this happening to me?"

"If I knew that, I would be able to go straight to the source and end everything sooner. I suggest trying to figure it out. We are never given clients' information so I have no idea who is after you or why. All I was given was a name, age, address, and photo."

Ugh. Claire felt so violated. This creepy guy had been tasked to kill her but ended up deciding on a whim that he didn't want to instead.

"Forget that," she said impatiently. "Just go shower. There's blood all over you. I'll try to find you some clothes too."

In addition to getting a security system tomorrow she would have to go to a thrift store and pick up clothes for this guy. She would be lucky if she found anything that fit in this house because the only two people who had ever lived in it were women.

"Yes, ma'am," Six replied with a solemn salute.

He obviously wasn't joking around. Right now he appeared to view her as his superior since he had left his organization. He actually viewed her request as orders and followed them. What kind of crazy life had this guy lived?

A shudder went through Claire when she saw him grab a towel and head into the bathroom without being prompted. He was very familiar with the interior layout of her house. How terrifying.

To distract herself from that thought, she dug around her clothes drawers until she found what she was looking for. She owned one pair of small men's sweatpants that she bought with the intention of using them to exercise in but only wore them a few times before realizing she really did prefer leggings. It was a good thing she hadn't already donated this to Goodwill.

Now for a shirt…she wasn't sure she had one that would fit. She was 5'4" and wore women's medium shirts. Six towered over her. Anything she gave him would look like a crop top.

Claire sighed and grabbed the first unisex t-shirt she could find. It would be too small but at least it wasn't fitted like most of her clothes.

He came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and she squealed and averted her eyes while holding out the clothes to him. "Here, put these on! Don't walk around like that."

"Yes, ma'am. Sorry, ma'am."

"Don't 'ma'am' me either," she muttered.

"Yes, ma—I mean yes, Claire."

That was probably the best she was going to get out of him. She would take it. For now.