Chapter 30

Sam reached out and brushed his thumb over corner of her lips. “I’m sorry but I don’t have an answer to your question, Zary. I really don’t know what that is about.” He replied without any change in his expression.

Silence reigned for a few moments before Zary could manage to say anything. “Really?” she looked at him with doubts still lingering in her eyes, not even bothering to hide it from his observant gaze. His response was too fast and too perfect for her to just accept it as the truth. “Are you really sure you do not know?”

He nodded, causing Zary to shake her head and rose from the bench, a little perplexed. She still could not fully believe that he knew nothing on why they were chasing him so desperately.

“I can’t find any answers in my system.” He said and she whipped around.

“And when did you ask your system that?” Zary arched her brows at his statement.

“When you were asleep earlier.”

A deep breath was drawn from her lips. “You know what, Sam? I still cannot help but doubt if you’re really a… shutdown, Sam.” She suddenly ordered while in mid-sentence.

His eyes closed. Then he became as still as a statue.

She took another deep breath and looked around. There were a few cars passing by at high speed but the car they were in currently was enough to cover whatever was happening inside. No one was nearby them as well.

When she returned her gaze on him again, Zary could only run her palms over her face. There were no signs of him being a living creature right now. Nothing at all. No matter how much she doubted him, there was just no explanation for this. Him becoming completely lifeless every time she shuts him down.

After looking around again and seeing that there was no one around, Zary bent over and thought of trying to tickle him. However, when she stretched out her hands, she felt that what she was about to do was ridiculous. But she brushed that thought away and went ahead and tried it anyway. Nothing happened. When she touched him, his warmth was completely gone as well. He felt no different than a mannequin that stood in one of those shopping malls that she went to.

Feeling silly at what she was doing, she drew another sigh and then commanded him to open his eyes. That was after she told herself that there was no way Sam could lie and that was why she must believe him. Because he might really be as clueless as her about what that company was trying to do.

“I’m sorry,” she slowly sat down next to him, “I’m just… I just wanted to figure out why they’re so hellbent on taking you back.”

He rose and squatted before her knees, looking up at her with those beautiful honey hued eyes of his. “Don’t worry, they can’t take me away from you as long as you –”

“No, Sam.” She slowly shook her head and averted her gaze away from him. “They have a tracker on you so sooner rather than later, they’ll catch up to us and...”

Standing, Zary held his hands and pulled him up. She realized that this was not the time for her to be wasting time talking and thinking about something that was completely out of her control. She could try to find a way to remove his tracker. But what if they had planted his tracker in a complicated part of him? Anything could go wrong, and he would break down and malfunction instead.

“Where were you planning to take me?” she asked, “I think it’s time for us to have another change of location?” Zary asked Sam with a smile.

He flashed her a gentle smile.

“Not yet. We still have a little time to stay here.” he told her then he pulled her along with him.

Zary’s eyes widened a little at the realization that he was leading her towards the beach.

“Wait Sam, are you sure about this? And by the way, why are you even so sure that we still have the time? Did you not see how fast those people caught up to us? We just left home late in the afternoon, and they had somehow managed to catch up to us that night itself. How sure are you they aren’t already almost arriving at our current position now?” She continued questioning him.

He only stopped when they were now stepping in the sand. A kind of cheeky smile had flashed across his face when he turned around to face her.

“They’re not tracking me right now. In fact, they have stopped tracking ever since two hours ago.” Sam informed her almost gleefully.

“Oh?!! How would you know if they either start or stop tracking you?”

“A warning will flash in my vision.”

“Oh, I see…” Zary did not expect that he had such advanced functions built into his system. But thinking about it, she guessed that it would be more convenient on their part if Sam did have a notification telling him that there are people who are tracking him.

Suddenly, he squatted before her. “Let me take off your shoes.” He asked but he was already untying the laces of her shoes before she could even say anything.

It made her speechless as she looked down at him. Another bout of warm feelings spread out in her chest. No one had ever done this to her like this before. It was… as if she did not know how to explain it but at that moment, but she just wanted to jump on him and hug him again and kiss him hard.

She no longer cared if he was not human or if she was the one who had gone crazy. She just wanted this man more and more now.

He placed her shoes to the side so neatly then placed his own next to hers.

“Come with me, sweetheart..” He said with that irresistible smile, and they ran together in the sand, hand-in-hand and laughing like little kids who were enjoying a day at the beach.