Zero Days

by Ruth Ware

It wasn’t just the sexiness of watching someone doing something they were very, very good at. It was the camaraderie, the sense that it was him and me against the world.

If you react, the person you’re talking to reacts back. First rule of social engineering: stay pleasant and others are much more likely to do the same.

It was only when I came out into the chilly night air of the street that I felt it—the cold, wet patches under my arms, the sweat of pure panic. I was still afraid of Jeff Leadbetter. And maybe I always would be.

I had never understood substance abuse until that moment; even in the worst moments of my life before—the jackknifing lorry that had crushed my parents’ car when I was seventeen, the grueling breakdown of my relationship with Jeff just a few years later—even in the middle of complete despair, I had never experienced the urge to opt out of feeling.

“There are two kinds of people who hire contract killers. People mixed up in organized crime—and spouses.

I wasn’t waiting here to get arrested for a crime I hadn’t committed. I was getting out.

It was like I’d always said: sometimes, often, to do nothing was to run a risk in itself.

I’ll make you regret this, you stupid cunt. If I can’t have you, no one can.

Eros was lonely, that was the legend, or so Gabe had recounted it to me. And so the gods created him a twin—Anteros, counterlove. Because what does love need, except someone to love back?

If you didn’t kill him, who did? Who are you working for?”

“I don’t know!” He was crying now as he searched through his drawers, pulling out a laptop and a bundle of cash. “They came to me—I’d only just started at Cerberus, I was working on some crappy app that never even launched, and they said they were government agents, they had this whole spiel about doing my bit for my country and getting paid for my service. It was small stuff at first. Not much more than what we tell advertisers. But then later…”

“Later they came to you about Watchdog, and Puppydog, and you were in too deep,” I said, feigning a sympathy I didn’t feel. I just needed him to ke...

Christ on a bike, Jack, I was so worried. I was so, so worried. I can’t—I couldn’t lose you too. Not after Mum and Dad. You’re all I’ve got!”

Love this saying! It makes me giggle when she says it throughout the book!