The Innocent

He picked up Julie at the appointed time and drove her back to an apartment the Feds had temporarily gotten for her. It came complete with a housekeeper who packed a gun and could kick the crap out of most intruders.

Before Julie got out of the car she turned back to Robie.

“Is this goodbye like forever?”

“Do you want it to be?”

“Do you want it to be?”

“No, not really.”

“But you’re not sure.”

“I don’t want you to ever be hurt again because of me.”

“Life is what it is, Will. You take it as it comes.”

“That’s always been my philosophy.”

“Where do you think I learned it from?” She playfully punched him in the arm. “Thanks. I mean it. For everything.”

“I think I owe you more than you owe me.”

“How about we split it down the middle?”

She reached over and hugged him. He was tentative at first, but finally Robie hugged her back.

She got out of the car and slowly walked up to her apartment. She turned back, waved at him, and then, despite her still-gimpy leg, Julie skipped up the last few steps.

Like a kid.

Robie smiled and watched until he could no longer see her.

Her injuries would fully heal. At least her physical ones. And her emotional ones might too, given her age.

Robie could not say the same for himself.

The image of Annie Lambert came bursting into his mind like it had been fired there with a rocket launcher. Every moment they had spent together. Everything they had said to each other. Every possibility he might have given thought to about what could have been between them.

And she had been a killer.

Just like he was a killer.

His had been by choice.

She had had no real choice in the matter.

So who was the guiltier one?

It was like Julie had said. You had to take life as it came. It gave no quarter, spared no feelings. Limited no pain. Put no ceiling on happiness.

This was his world.

He was who he was.

He could not change that.

He was not an innocent.

And the people he hunted certainly weren’t innocent.

Maybe the best Robie could do was protect those who actually were.