What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance Read Online Free Page A

it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that one day androids might be able to reproduce.”
    “I guess, if there was ever that technology then those future humans would make that decision,” Jack shrugged his hands.
    “Alright, so we have these machines who have organic parts that are living their lives as humans, but they don’t get any rights to choose how their lives will go?”
    “I just don’t know,” Jack said. “I’m not the speaker for the conservative party, so I guess you don’t have to worry about arguing your case to me.” He smiled, one of his disarmingly wide smiles.
    Olivia laughed at him and tossed her napkin at him, barely missing the candle flame.
    “I see…you can’t win your argument with me, so you’re launching flaming projectiles at me?”
    “Guilty as charged. Just wanted to turn up the heat a little,” Olivia said.
    “You do that every time I look at you,” Jack said, leaning over the table. Olivia met him halfway and gave him a quick kiss.
    “Dinner was good Cass, thank you,” Olivia said with a smile. She gathered her plate and stood.
    “Olivia, I can do that!” Cass protested. “You’ve been working all day.”
    “And so have you,” Jack said, as he stood with his plate too. “You need a break just as much as us.”
    “SEE! She earned the right to have a break, didn’t she?”
    “Oh gosh, let it go.” Jack smiled at Olivia and snapped her butt with the end of his napkin.
    Her answering yelp chased Cass up into consciousness.
    The memory faded and the sterile room came into focus around her once more. She was staring up at a white ceiling covered in black dots. She felt the panel on her side shut.
    “I don’t see anything wrong with her,” Doctor Gerard said, leaning away from the side of the table. Cass straightened her shirt and sat up.
    “The way she’s acting differently, that’s not something going wrong?” Brandon asked from where he leaned against the wall.
    “Nope, her programming is running just as it’s supposed to.”
    “As it’s supposed to…” Brandon was staring at Cass, but he seemed to be looking at something much farther away than the office.
    “Is there a problem with that?” the doctor asked.
    Brandon shook himself out of his thoughts and looked up. “No, nothing wrong with that at all. I just wonder what this might mean for her home life.”
    “You anticipate more unexplainable bumps to the head?” the doctor pried.
    Brandon frowned.
    “Don’t worry. The activists haven’t made it where we need to start reporting every transgression against automatons. God, if I had to do that I’d be out of business.”
    Brandon’s frown deepened. “Is this visit covered?”
    “Yes, it’s covered in her plan. Have a good day.” Doctor Gerard huffed to his feet and left the room.
    “Clean bill of health?” Cass asked after several moments where Brandon had lost himself in thoughts once more.
    “It’s because you’re an automaton,” he said, coming to himself. He took her hand and helped her off the table and down the hall. It wasn’t until he was opening the door for her and helping her into her seat that he said something else. “What if you became an android?”
    “What?”
    Brandon was shutting the door and jogging around to his side of the car. He slid into the seat and fired up the engines.
    “Well, safety measures don’t extend to automatons yet,” he told her, lifting up out of the parking lot. “But they extend to androids. You can’t be harmed by a human without the law getting involved if you’re an android.”
    It was Cass’s turn to frown.
    “I don’t want to take you back to Natalia’s yet. She doesn’t have to know how long the visit took. Let’s take a trip.”
    Cass shrugged. Her eyebrows knitted together. “Okay, I guess.”
    The hover car didn’t merge with the regular city traffic this time, and instead took them out over the roofs of smaller apartment buildings and then houses. Soon