He drummed his fingers lazily on the table.
‘Turquoise. Such a girlish colour, don’t you think?’
‘Not very strong though,’ commented the younger woman; she had the sleek looks of a wild cat, groomed but deadly. ‘I could break them for you, Daddy.’
‘Oh no, I don’t want her broken just yet.’
The bottom fel out of my world. The Benedicts had thought there was only one savant involved; what they had failed to anticipate was that the Kel ys had powers like theirs. This had suddenly got a whole lot more complicated.
‘You’re wondering what we’re going to do with you, aren’t you, Sky?’ Kel y held out a hand to me, his face lined with dissatisfaction. He looked as if he was suffering from deep disappointment and wanted others to suffer with him.
I’d prefer to touch a snake so I kept my hands in my pockets.
‘We’re not going to kil you, if that is what you are thinking. You are not our enemy.’ He let his hand drop. ‘I’m a businessman, not a murderer.’
‘So what are you going to do with me?’
He stood up, tugging his jacket straight.
Approaching me, he walked round, assessing me like an art critic at a showing of a new work. His presence grated on my nerves like a piece of discordant music.
‘You are going to become my very good friend, Sky. You are going to tel the policemen that neither I nor my family had anything to do with your kidnapping, that it was two of the Benedict boys who took you for their own disgusting and evil purposes.’
He smiled with evil relish. ‘You know how savants can so easily go wrong—too much power, too little to hold them sane. The fact that they died trying to stop you escaping is no tragedy but saves the American taxpayer the money for housing them for the rest of their natural life in jail.’
‘I like that,’ commented the young man. ‘I think disgracing them is better than just kil ing them.’
‘I thought you would, Sean. I told you that you could trust me to think up a suitable payback for your uncles.’
I gaped at them. ‘You’re mad! There’s nothing you can do or say to make me tel the police such a lie, even if you threaten me! And I won’t let you kil Zed or
… or his brothers! I won’t!’
Kel y found my anger funny. ‘Such an amusing little foreigner, isn’t she? Al hissing and spitting like a furious kitten and about as threatening.’ He laughed.
‘Of course you wil say what I tel you, Sky. You see, it is my gift. You wil remember what I want you to remember. People do, you know, like the prison guards who wil very soon be letting my brothers out of prison, thinking they received word from the governor to release them. There’s no point resisting.
Bending people to my wil is what I am good at. I’ve built my fortune on it and you’l be no different.’
Oh my God, he was like Victor. But could he real y make me say and do something so out of character?
I could see that making a couple of guards misinterpret their duty might be possible, but to fabricate a whole complicated lie that flew in the face of the evidence, surely I wouldn’t go along with that?
Could I forget myself so far as to betray Zed? Betray my soulfinder?
I slammed that thought deep behind al my barriers. Kel y must not learn what Zed was to me—
he’d exploit that weakness without mercy, knowing what savants would do for their other half.
Absolutely brilliant, Sky. I kicked myself. What a time to accept Zed is your soulfinder.
I’d been scared before; now I was terrified.
‘I see you are beginning to believe that I can do it.’
Kel y tucked his BlackBerry away in his breast pocket. ‘Don’t worry: you won’t suffer. You’l think you’re tel ing the truth. I’l have to keep you close by, of course, to make sure you carry on singing the same tune for a year or so until everyone forgets, but we can see to that can’t we, Maria?’
The younger woman nodded. ‘Yes, Daddy. I think we can make a place for her in housekeeping in one of the hotels when she drops out of high school to live in Vegas. Tragical y, the memories of Wrickenridge wil be too painful for her to return.’
‘But my parents …’ This was worse than a nightmare.
Kel y gave an insincere sigh. ‘They’l feel they failed to protect you and I’l persuade them that they want to give you the space our doctors say you need after your trauma. We know al about them and your adoption—how fragile your mental condition is. I’m sure they’l be too busy with their careers to worry too much as long as you tel them you’re happy—and you wil tel them so.’
How did he know so much? ‘You’re taking my life away from me.’
‘Better than kil ing you, and that’s the only other option.’
Sean came to join his father. He was a good head tal er, but much fatter, his bel y rol ing over the top of his thin leather belt that kept up his sagging trousers.
He had a Zorro-style moustache arching over his lip which looked ridiculous on someone who had only a few years on me, like someone had drawn it on him for a joke while he slept and he hadn’t yet noticed.
‘You say she has darkness inside her?’
Kel y frowned. ‘Can’t you sense it?’
Sean seized my hand and pul ed it up to his nose, sniffing the palm, eyes closed as if reaching for a faint perfume. I tried to tug free but his grip pinched.
‘Yes, I can feel it now. Wonderful seams of pain and abandonment.’
As he touched me I could feel my panic heighten; the calm I’d struggled to maintain was being shredded away like paper ripped off a present.
‘Why not give her to me? I would enjoy draining her of her emotions—I can sense she would provide hours of entertainment.’
Daniel Kel y smiled indulgently at his son. ‘Is her emotional energy that strong?’
He nodded. ‘I’ve not felt anything like it.’
‘Then you can have her after she’s served her purpose with the Benedicts. Just keep her wel enough to convince her family she’s here of her own free wil .’
‘I’l take care of it.’ Sean Kel y kissed the palm of my hand and let it go. I wiped it on my shorts with a shudder. ‘Hmm.’ He licked his lips. ‘You and I are going to get to know each other very wel , my sweet.’
‘What are you?’ I hugged my arms to my sides and retreated to the window. I wanted to scream in his face but it would only show them how scared I was.
Maria Kel y rol ed her eyes impatiently. ‘My brother’s an emotion miner—gets his kicks from drawing the stuff out of other people’s brains. I could’ve done with a new maid, Daddy: it’s not fair.
Not even good business. She won’t be any use if Sean gets his hands on her—you know that. The last one only lasted a month before we had to get rid of her.’ Her voice rose in a whine.
‘I’l make it up to you, darling.’ Daniel Kel y stamped his authority on the situation with a slice of his hand. ‘Now enough of this: I must get to work on our guest. The police search for her is wel under way and our source has reported that the Benedicts have made their move from their base. It’s time the authorities were pointed in their direction. Come, Sky, I have something I want you to remember.’
Daniel Kel y looked round for me but I was already running. No way was I meekly going to succumb to his mind-manipulation.
‘Sean!’ he barked.
I was faster than that doughnut. I burst out of the doors and bolted for the elevators, hoping to find one waiting or at least a stairwel . But I’d forgotten who was outside. I got as far as the hal way before Gator tackled me. He took me down, forcing al the air from my lungs. My head cracked on the tiles but I continued to kick and bite as he hauled me up. He held me at arm’s length and shook me.
‘Stop it, cupcake. If you do what the boss says, you won’t get hurt.’
Blood dripped from a cut on the side of my head.
My vision was greying at the edges.
‘Bring her back here,’ Kel y ordered.
Gator dragged me into the boardroom. ‘Don’t be too mad at her, Mr Kel y,’ he pleaded. ‘The girl’s just scared.’