Why Are You Telling Me This?

The wheels in Six's head were obviously turning though his expression hadn't changed. It was his eyes. Those were the eyes of someone deep in thought.

"I was under the impression that families consisted of those one is biologically related to. Who is your father?" he asked suddenly.

Claire frowned. He really had no concept of etiquette at all. The normal response to finding out someone was raised by a single mom was to let it go and not ask further questions. But Six was the farthest thing from normal she had ever encountered.

"I don't know. Mom said she wanted a baby so she went to a sperm bank," she said flatly. "Do you know what those are?"

"No."

She sighed heavily, not quite believing that she was actually having this conversation with someone, especially a man. At least Six didn't actually seem like a man. If anything, he was like a dangerous, overgrown child.

"Women go there to conceive children using donated sperm so they don't have to have a male partner. It's all done anonymously so she never knew who my father was. The only information she was given was from the health forms he filled out to prove he didn't have any heritable medical conditions."

Six shrugged this information off, unaffected by how awkward the conversation was. "I wanted to know because I was wondering if someone from your father's family might have ordered the hit. These things happen more often than you might think."

So he didn't understand the concept of love or family because his only exposure to them was people offing their relatives for greedy purposes like in the crime shows she used to watch. What a horribly depressing way to live.

He probably didn't have a single person in this world that genuinely cared about him. It was no surprise he was so odd and difficult to talk to if no one had ever bothered trying to get through to him on an emotional level.

Claire's earlier slight stirrings of pity returned more strongly this time. Six might be a killer but it was only because of the way he was raised. If he had a normal family growing up, things might have been entirely different for him.

"Most families aren't like that," she felt the need to inform him. "Most families love each other and would do anything for each other. What you've been exposed to is the minority."

Six tilted his head at her. "Why are you telling me this?"

"You wanted to understand what things are like outside of your agency, right? So I'm telling you. Families aren't only built on bonds of blood; they're built on bonds of love. You don't have to be biologically related to someone for them to be your family.

"A lot of families are blended with stepchildren or adopted children that aren't related to one or both parents at all. There are friends so close they consider each other as siblings. Then there are people like me, who make animals a part of their family. More than anything, family is about love," Claire said firmly.

He probably wouldn't understand but she wanted to tell him anyway. Families were not all about money and murder. If he was going to survive in the real world, he would need to know that.

"I don't understand but I will take your word for it," Six said eventually. "Those I was raised with are not like the family you have described."

Claire hadn't realized there were others like him who had been raised inside the hitman organization. She had been under the impression that he was the only one. How could he say he didn't have friends or family if there were others like him?

Right. Because he was an emotionless programmed killer robot.

"How many of you are there?" she asked hesitantly.

It was a bit terrifying to think about more people like Six being out there. But if he was the sixth one there had to at least be One through Five. Had any of them been among the agents he killed while protecting her?

He hadn't seemed the slightest bit affected by what he did but there was a good chance that at the very least he knew them as a part of the same organization. If they truly were his foster siblings and he didn't care at all that made him even more horrifying than he already was.

"Two died before I was old enough to really remember them. Fifteen are left," Six said nonchalantly. "I hardly saw the ones too young to participate in combat training with me. I am not close to any of them."

Claire bit her lip. "Did…any of them come after me?"

"Not yet. I am willing to bet they will soon though. Numbers are superior in skill to regular agents. But I am the most powerful among them so you will be fine if you follow my instructions."

That hadn't been what she was concerned about but she supposed it was a slight comfort to know that she was being guarded by the best of the best. So he hadn't killed any of his foster siblings of sorts yet…but didn't seem bothered by the prospect of doing so.

What must it be like to be surrounded by people and not experience love from a single one of them? How had Six survived this long without going completely insane?

Although, it was fair to say that he had since he went against a lifetime of indoctrination to protect her. That couldn't have been an easy thing to do. She had heard about brainwashing victims and how serious they were about their delusions.

Six was anything but normal but he didn't seem to be as deeply indoctrinated as she would have thought. He was open to other points of view even if he didn't quite understand them.

Claire was still wary of him but he hadn't done anything to hurt her yet. The problem was that he was a ticking time bomb. She felt sorry for him and the life he had led but that didn't mean she wasn't afraid of him and what he could do if he decided she wasn't interesting anymore.