Текст книги "Finding Sky"

Автор книги: Joss Stirling

Соавторы: Joss Stirling
сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

‘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.’

‘On the contrary, I’m not angry; she’s playing into our hands.’ Kel y checked his flashy Cartier watch.

‘When we release her to the authorities covered in blood, they’l believe her more readily. Now sit her down. I’l start on her now.’ He was so cold, acting as if I were just another boring item on the meeting agenda to be got through.

I tried to scratch my way free. ‘No, leave me alone!’

Gator dumped me in a chair and tied me to it with some flexi-cuffs. I couldn’t even wipe the blood off my cheek and had to let it trickle down and drip on to my chest. I was shaking.

‘She’s in shock,’ Maria said in disgust. ‘You’l not get much into her brain when she’s blank like this.’

Sean slithered up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders, inhaling deeply. ‘She’s not blank.

Lovely—fear, outrage, and horrible anticipation—a wonderful combination.’

Maria knocked his hands away. ‘Don’t. You’re magnifying her emotions. We don’t want her going catatonic on us.’

‘Oh no, there’s too much fight in her to take that route so soon.’

Gator shifted awkwardly. ‘Are you going to do that mind stuff on her, Mr Kel y?’

The businessman glanced up. ‘Yes. Why?’

‘Just don’t seem right,’ Gator muttered.

Maria pushed him away. ‘Oh, you’re pathetic! We know you hate our powers but remember who pays your wage, Gator.’

‘You should’ve let me just shoot a couple of them Benedicts,’ grumbled Gator.

‘But you missed,’ Maria said tartly. ‘Oh, I’ve had enough of this. Daddy, can we get on? I’ve the linen inventory to oversee.’

Daniel Kel y seized my head and held it tightly. I could feel his presence pushing at me, trying to take control. Merger and acquisition. I threw up my wal s, imagining piling the dressing table, bed and anything I could get my hands on to stop him getting past my shield. I couldn’t help but catch glimpses of what he was trying to plant in my brain. He was seeding pictures of Zed and Xav luring me off the street and imprisoning me in the boot of a battered old car.

They’d kept me there while pretending to join the search for me, then driven off with me under the nose of the local police force. They’d held me in an abandoned warehouse, laughed at me for believing Zed loved me, tormented me …

No! I slammed the door on his suggestions. The Benedicts did not do that—would never do that to anyone. Remember the truth. Gator and O’Hal oran.

The plane. The hotel. Think where you are.

The Benedicts hate you. Zed’s too everything foryou—too cool, too good looking—of course it hadto be a set up. You suspected that. He’s been usingyou. He and Xav do this to girls all the time. Theyhad to be stopped, officer. I had to shoot them. Itwas their gun I used.

No, no, no. I could feel my brain buckling under his assault. I’ve never shot anyone.

The image of the gun in my own hand was so strong, right down to the bitten nails.

That’s not me. Zed and Xav are stil alive. I haven’t shot them. My eyes flew open. ‘You’re going to shoot Zed and his brother?’

Daniel Kel y couldn’t hide his flare of shock that I had slipped out of his control. His clunky signet ring dug into my cheek, making my eyes water. ‘You may not pul the trigger but you wil think that you did.’

The images flooded back into my brain, bright reds, ink blacks, primary colours whirling. The heavy weight of a handgun in my palm. Zed dead by my hand. Xav too. I was a murderer, even though it had been in self-defence.

No.

Yes. That was how it happened. I was wrong about them. The Benedicts were a sick family.

They just want to torment those who fall into their hands. All of them sick, sick, sick.

This was wrong. Wrong.

I blacked out.

Over the next few hours, whenever I regained consciousness, I felt as if I had glass splinters burrowing into my brain. I couldn’t think straight. I had the impression of several sessions with Daniel Kel y’s dark eyes burning into my mind, my head held rigid in his grip. Sometimes Sean was there too, drinking in the backwash of my distress, making everything much worse. Kel y seemed angry that I was stil resisting but eventual y I was so confused my mind was crying out for me to take the easy way out and agree with what he was insisting was the truth.

‘Tel me again what happened, Sky,’ he ordered me for what seemed like the hundredth time.

‘You … you saved me.’ Images of him sweeping into hospital to offer comfort after the bloodbath in the warehouse flickered before my eyes. He’d come to my parents’ rescue, found us a private room, paid for their accommodation. Been so generous to the poor English family he’d heard about on the news.

‘That’s right. And who took you from the street?’

‘The Benedicts. They’re sick and evil.’ No—yes. I didn’t know. ‘I want to go home.’

‘ No, you don’t. You want to stay here in Vegas where you feel safe.’ An image forced its way into my head: a room with strong doors and barred windows where no one could reach me.

‘I feel safe.’

‘With the people who helped you. Sean has been so kind.’

‘Kind. Gator’s been kind. He brought me breakfast. Asked that I not be hurt.’

‘Not Gator. My son, Sean. He’s going to help you heal.’

‘He is?’

‘Yes, take all that nasty emotion away from you.’

I nodded. That sounded good. I didn’t want to feel.

Maria came into the room with O’Hal oran and Gator behind her. ‘Is she ready? It’s taking too long.

The Benedicts are already in town and that slimebal Victor Benedict has applied for a warrant to search our properties.’

Daniel Kel y pinched my chin. ‘Yes, I think she is. A little confusion wil make it more convincing. Get her in position then send the message to the Benedicts that they can find her in the warehouse on the old airfield. The two boys have to come alone or the deal’s off.’

‘They won’t come alone—the rest won’t let them.’

‘They wil try to make it look like they are alone and that wil be enough. The others wil be too far away to stop what’s going to happen. We’l alert the police ourselves. A dash of interagency confusion into the mix always helps.’

I held my head. This didn’t make sense. It had already taken place, hadn’t it? I’d been in the warehouse—knew who got shot. There was blood on my hands.

Maria smiled. ‘Our little savant is having a hard time getting her facts straight.’

‘She’l be al right. Al she need do is sit there with the gun in her hand while the FBI and the police argue why it al went down so badly. O’Hal oran, you’ve got a damper on telepathy?’ He nodded. ‘It’l hold until she gets close to one of them.’

‘Make sure you take them out swiftly. Dump the gun in her hands and get away before the FBI and police arrive. I want them wondering what the hel happened.’

‘Sure, boss.’

Kel y cracked his knuckles. ‘After today, the Savant Net wil know that no one who interferes with my people gets away unscathed. They’l leave us alone in future. Now, Sky, this is goodbye until we meet again for the first time in hospital. When I say the word, you forget everything that happened since yesterday and remember only what I told you.’

Gator was apologetic as he tied my legs and left me sitting in the middle of the empty warehouse.

‘Just do as I tel you and then this wil be over,’ he told me, tucking my hair behind my ear.

I was shivering, despite being dressed in my ski suit. My body was acting like it had a fever it was trying to throw off. Nothing felt right. Gator took up position a few feet further back, sheltering behind a barrier of crates. I could hear him checking the magazine in the gun.

Was he here to defend me? I couldn’t remember. I wasn’t even sure who he was. What was wrong with me? My brain felt like cotton wool.

After what seemed like an age, there was a scuffling sound at the far end. The sliding door edged back a few inches.

‘It’s us. We’ve come alone like you demanded.’ It was Xav Benedict. My enemy.

‘What have you done with Sky? Is she al right?’

His brother, Zed. I knew him, didn’t I? Of course, I knew him. He was my boyfriend. He said he loved me.

He doesn’t love you—he’s just playing with you.

The words floated in my brain but I couldn’t remember why I thought that.

I kept quiet, drawing my knees up to my chest.

Sky? Please answer! I’m going crazy here. Tell me you’re OK.

Zed was in my head too. There was nowhere to hide. I couldn’t help myself—I let out a whimper.

‘Xav, that’s her! She’s hurt.’

Xav held him back. ‘It’s a trap, Zed. We do this as we agreed.’

They hadn’t yet come in sight.

‘Tel us what you want in exchange for Sky and it’s yours.’ Zed’s voice was unsteady.

None of this made sense. I’d shot them. Why were they here? Why did I have to relive the nightmare?

‘Just step out where I can see you and I’l tel you,’

said Gator.

‘The thing is, we’re not stupid. You can tel us while we stay where we are.’

‘If you don’t come out with your hands up, I’l put a bul et in your little girlfriend.’

This wasn’t how it was meant to be. I’d got the gun in the struggle with Zed and shot both the Benedicts.

I’d seen it happen—it was there in my brain.

‘Zed?’ My voice was thin, quavering in the emptiness of the warehouse.

‘Sky? Hold on, baby, we’re going to get you out of this.’

Wrong—al wrong. My memory felt like a comic strip with the key frames ripped out. The Benedicts had hurt me—yes they had. Locked me in the boot of their car for hours.

‘Go a … way!’ I choked. I saw movement down the far end, the tips of someone’s fingers as they rose up from behind the container that they had been hiding behind. It was Zed.

My brain seemed to explode with conflicting emotions and images—hatred, love, laughter, torment. Colours in the warehouse went from flat to multi-toned and complex.

His eyes zeroed in on mine. ‘Don’t look at me like that, baby. I’m here now. Just let me talk to the man who’s got you and we’l get you free.’

He took a step closer.

How many of them are there? Has he got a gunon me? Zed’s voice echoed in my head again.

I don’t shoot people. The images of my hands holding the gun flicked on and off like the neon signs.

What’s wrong with you, Sky? I can see what you’re seeing. Your mind feels different towards me.

‘He has a gun,’ I said aloud. ‘Gator, don’t shoot anyone. We mustn’t. I’ve kil ed them already but they don’t die—they just come back.’

‘Quiet, Sky,’ said Gator from behind me. ‘And you, come where I can see you. I’m sure you’d prefer me to have you in my sights than your girlfriend.’

Zed stepped into plain view. I couldn’t help but devour him with my gaze; it felt as if he was alternating between two masks, one where he was kind and tender, the other vicious and cruel. His face wavered in and out of focus.

‘Now your brother. I want both of you where I can see you. Come a bit closer to Sky. Don’t you want to see what we’ve done to her?’ Gator taunted.

I had to choose. Which did I believe? Kind Zed; cruel Zed.

Zed took two steps forward, hands rock steady in the air. ‘You don’t want her. The Kel ys’ quarrel is with the Benedicts—not her. She’s nothing to do with this.’

What should I do? Who should I believe? Sky has got good instincts. My mum had said that, hadn’t she? Instincts. More than instincts. I could read people, know their guilt, tel good from bad. I’d buried it but it was there inside me under al the gibberish in my head ever since I was six. Locked it away. But now I had to reach out with my gift.

I closed my eyes, feeling inside for the door that would release my powers. I opened my mind.

My power of perception went through the roof. The sensations flowing in the room were formidable. I saw them as streams of colour. The red of excitement and a bit of black fear from behind me; the gold glitter of love and green tinge of guilt from Zed.

Soulfinder.

The knowledge was there, as deeply rooted in me as DNA. How had I not seen it? My body retuned to Zed’s note; perfect match, perfectly in harmony.

So why did he feel guilt? I probed the green: Zed felt terrible because he had let me be taken and that I had suffered instead of him. He’d wanted it to be him sitting there with blood on his face and clothes.

I didn’t know why my brain was so scrambled but I now knew where I stood.

‘Zed!’ I screamed. ‘Get down.’

The gun went off. Zed was already moving, alerted by his foreknowledge. A second crack. There was another shooter—O’Hal oran—up in the rafter, trying to pick off Xav by the door. Instead of diving for cover, Zed ran for me. I screamed—my mind playing a version of this where he had attacked me and I had shot him. But my hands were empty. No gun.

Victor. Code Red! Code Red! Xav punched the message through O’Hal oran’s shield with al the strength he could muster, broadcasting on a wide channel for any telepath to hear.

Zed threw himself over me as I sat curled up, clutching my knees. ‘Keep down, Sky.’

‘Don’t shoot!’ I pleaded. ‘Please, no!’

I sensed Gator’s aggression and determination to kil swel in a flood of red colour. Zed’s back presented a clear target, his only hesitation that the bul et might pass through and get me too.

‘No!’ With a burst of strength brought on by desperation, I used my legs to boost Zed clear. The bul et meant for his back hit the ground between us, ricocheting wildly off the concrete. Then everything went to hel . Gunshots rang out; agents burst through the door, screaming that they were FBI. Something hit my right arm. Pain lanced through me. Sirens and more shouting. Police. I curled up into a bal , sobbing.

In the confusion, someone crawled to my side and crouched over me. Zed. He was swearing, tears running down his face. He clamped his hand over the wound on my arm.

After several staccato explosions, the guns fel silent. I sensed that two presences had gone from the room—O’Hal oran and Gator. Had they fled?

‘Get me a medic over here!’ yel ed Zed. ‘Sky’s been hit.’

I lay quietly, biting down on the urge to cry out. No, they’d not fled. They’d been kil ed in the exchange of fire, their energy snuffed out.

A police paramedic rushed over.

‘I’ve got her,’ she told Zed.

He released his grip on my arm, my blood on his hands. The medic ripped my sleeve open.

‘From the looks of it, just a graze. Possibly she caught a ricochet.’

‘They’re dead,’ I murmured.

Zed caressed my hair. ‘Yeah.’

‘What happened to me?’

The medic looked up from her treatment of my arm. ‘You hit your head too?’ She saw the blood in my hair. ‘When did this happen.’

‘I don’t know.’ My eyes turned to Zed. ‘You locked me in the boot of your car. Why did you do that to me?’

Zed looked shocked.

‘No, I didn’t, Sky. Is that what they did to you? Oh God, baby, I’m sorry.’

‘We’d best get her checked for concussion,’ said the medic. ‘Keep talking to her.’ She signal ed for a stretcher to be brought over. Zed untied my legs.

‘I shot you,’ I told him.

‘No, you didn’t, Sky. The men were shooting at us, remember?’

I gave up. ‘I don’t know what to think.’

‘Just think that you are safe now.’

I had an image of an orange-skinned man in a suit swooping into the hospital to save me. Who was that?

The two medics lifted me onto the stretcher. Zed kept hold of my uninjured hand as I was wheeled out to the ambulance.

‘I’m sorry I shot you,’ I told him. ‘But you were attacking me.’

Why would my soulfinder attack me?

I could see other Benedicts gathering around my stretcher. They were evil, weren’t they?

Zed wiped the blood from my cheek. ‘I wasn’t attacking you and you haven’t shot me.’

The last I saw of the rest of the Benedict family was a grim-looking Saul as I was loaded into the ambulance. Zed tried to get in but I shook my head.

‘I shot him,’ I told the medic seriously. ‘He can’t come with me; he hates me.’

‘I’m sorry,’ the woman told Zed. ‘Your presence is upsetting her. Where are her parents?’

‘They’re booked into a hotel off the Strip,’ said Saul. ‘I’l let them know. Which hospital are you taking her to?’

‘The Cedars.’

‘OK, I’l stay away, let her calm down if you think that best,’ said Zed reluctantly releasing my hand.

‘Sal y and Simon wil be there. You hear that, Sky?’

I didn’t reply. As far as I could remember one or other of us should be dead. Perhaps it was me. I closed my eyes, my mind so overloaded I had to check out for a moment. Then I was gone.

It was the sounds that first alerted me to the fact that I was in hospital. I didn’t open my eyes but I could hear the hushed noise in the room—a machine humming, people murmuring. And the smel s—

antiseptic, unfamiliar sheets, flowers. Surfacing a little more, I could feel the pain, dul ed by drugs but stil lurking. My arm was bandaged and I could feel the pul of a dressing in my hair and the itch of stitches. Slowly, I let my eyes flutter open. The light was too bright.

‘Sky?’ Sal y was at my side in an instant. ‘Are you thirsty? The doctors said you must drink.’ She held a beaker out, her hand shaking.

‘Give her a moment, love,’ Simon said, coming to stand behind her. ‘Are you al right?’

I nodded. I didn’t want to speak. My head was stil messed up, ful of conflicting images. I couldn’t work out what was real and what was imagined.

Supporting the back of my head, Sal y held the water to my lips and I took a sip.

‘Better now? Can you use your voice?’ she asked.

There were too many voices—mine, Zed’s, a man saying he was my friend. I closed my eyes and turned my face to the pil ow.

‘Simon!’ Sal y sounded distressed.

I didn’t want to upset her. Perhaps if I pretended I wasn’t there, she would be happy again. That sometimes worked.

‘She’s in shock, Sal y,’ Simon said soothingly.

‘Give her a chance.’

‘But she’s not been like this since we first had her.

I can see it in her eyes.’

‘Shh, Sal y. Don’t jump to conclusions. Sky, you take al the time you need, you hear? No one’s going to rush you.’

Sal y sat down on the bed and took my hand. ‘We love you, Sky. Hold on to that.’

But I didn’t want love. It hurt.

Simon switched on the radio and tuned in to a station playing soft classical music. It flowed over me like a caress. I’d listened to music al the time during the years in a succession of foster and care homes.

I’d only spoken by singing strange little half-mad songs I’d made up myself, which had led the carers to assume I was crazy. I suppose I had been. But then Sal y and Simon had met me and seen that they could do something for me. They’d been so patient, waiting for me to emerge, and gradual y I had. I’d not sung a note since. I couldn’t put them through that again.

‘I’m al right,’ I rasped. I wasn’t. My brain was a junkyard of bits and pieces.

‘Thank you, darling.’ Sal y squeezed my hand. ‘I needed to hear it.’

Simon fiddled with an arrangement of flowers, clearing his throat several times. ‘We’re not the only ones who want to know you’re OK. Zed Benedict and his family have been camping out in the visitors’

lounge.’

Zed. My confusion increased. Panic zapped through me like an electric shock. I’d realized something important about him, but I’d slammed the door closed again.

‘I can’t.’

‘It’s al right. I’l just go and tel them you’ve woken up and explain you aren’t up to visitors right now. But I’m afraid the police are waiting to talk to you. We have to let them in.’

‘I don’t know what to say.’

‘Just tel them the truth.’

Simon went out to give the Benedicts the news. I gestured to Sal y that I wanted to sit up. I now noticed that her face looked strained and tired.

‘How long have I been here?’

‘You’ve been out for twelve hours, Sky. The doctors couldn’t explain why. We were very worried.’

Something made me glance up. The Benedicts were leaving the hospital. Zed slowed by the window in the corridor that looked into my room and our eyes met. I had a horrible sensation in the pit of my stomach. Fear. He stopped, placing his hand on the glass as if to reach for me. I clenched my fists on the cover. Deep inside I could hear a ringing note, discordant, violent. The water jug on the bedside table began to judder; the overhead light stuttered; the buzzer to summon the nurse jumped off the rail and crashed to the floor. Zed’s expression became darker, the sound harsher. Then Saul came up alongside and said something softly in his ear. Zed nodded, gave me a last look and walked on. The note stopped, snapped off; the vibrations ceased.

Sal y rubbed her arms. ‘Strange. Must have been a tremor.’ She returned the buzzer to its original position. ‘I didn’t know Vegas was in an earthquake zone.’

I couldn’t tel if it had been me or Zed. Was he so angry at me he wanted to shake me? Or had that been my fear trying to push him away?

Feeling numb, I let Sal y brush and plait my hair for me.

‘I won’t ask you what happened, darling,’ she said, taking care not to pul the hair around my cut, ‘as you’l have to go through it for the police and FBI, but I just want you to know that whatever happened wasn’t your fault. No one wil blame you.’

‘Two men died, didn’t they?’ My voice sounded distant. I felt I was watching myself go through the motions of talking to Sal y while real y I was hidden deep inside, hiding behind so many doors and locks that no one could reach me. It was the only place I felt safe.

‘Yes. The police and FBI arrived at the same time acting on separate tip-offs—it was a massive mix-up in communications, the left hand not knowing what the right was doing. The two men were kil ed in the exchange of fire.’

‘One of them was cal ed Gator. He had a curly ponytail. He was nice to me.’ I couldn’t remember why I thought that.

‘Then I’m sorry he is dead.’

There was a cough at the door. Victor Benedict stood in the entrance with an unfamiliar man in a dark suit.

‘May we come in?’ Victor was looking at me with particular intent. The tremor had not gone unnoticed and he looked, wel , wary of me, as if I was an unexploded bomb or something.

‘Please.’ Sal y got up from the bed and made space for them.

‘Sky, this is Lieutenant Farstein of the Las Vegas police department. He’s got a few questions for you.

Is that OK?’

I nodded. Farstein, a sun-bronzed, middle-aged man with thinning hair, pul ed up a seat.

‘Miss Bright, how are you?’ he asked.

I took a sip of water. I liked him—my instinct was that he was genuinely concerned. ‘A bit confused.’

‘Yeah, I know the feeling.’ He pul ed out a notebook to check his facts. ‘You’ve got the police departments of two states and the FBI in a spin, but we’re glad we found you safe and wel .’ He tapped the page thoughtful y. ‘Maybe you’d best start from the top—tel us how you were snatched.’

I strained to remember. ‘It was getting dark. I’d been skiing—wel , fal ing over on skis real y.’

Victor smiled, his face reminding me so much of Zed when it took on a softer expression. ‘Yeah, I’d heard you were taking lessons.’

‘Tina’s car had a problem.’

Farstein checked his notes. ‘The mechanic discovered that someone messed with the leads to the battery.’

‘Oh.’ I rubbed my forehead. The next steps were shaky. ‘Then Zed and Xav persuaded me to get in a car. They locked me in the boot. No, no, they didn’t.’ I pinched the bridge of my nose. ‘I can see them doing it but it doesn’t feel right.’

‘Sky.’ Victor’s tone was low and insistent. ‘What is it you’re seeing?’

Farstein cut across him. ‘Are you saying, Sky, that two of the Benedict brothers were responsible for your abduction?’

Something clicked in my head. The pictures flowing easily, smoothly, without pain.

‘They pretended to be my friend, wanted to hurt me.’

‘You know that’s not true, Sky.’ Victor was furious, his lips compressed.

Farstein shot him a quel ing look. ‘Agent Benedict, you should not interrupt the witness. And bearing in mind your relationship to those she’s accusing, I suggest you step outside and send in a col eague who can listen impartial y.’

Victor stalked to the door, his back to the room, but didn’t leave. ‘What she’s saying is impossible. I was with my brothers, lieutenant; they had nothing to do with her kidnapping.’ Sky, why are you saying this?

I looked frantical y to Sal y. ‘He’s talking to me in my head—tel him to stop.’ I pressed my fists to my temples. ‘It hurts.’

Sal y took my hand, standing between me and Victor. ‘Mr Benedict, I think you’d best go: you’re upsetting Sky.’

I turned tear-fil ed eyes to Farstein. ‘I shot them, didn’t I?’

‘No, Sky, you weren’t responsible for the deaths of those men.’

‘Zed and Xav are dead?’

Farstein threw Sal y an anxious look. ‘No,’ he said careful y, ‘the two men who staked out the warehouse are dead.’

‘Gator and O’Hal oran,’ I repeated, remembering them. ‘The savant.’

‘The what?’ asked Farstein.

Which one, Sky? asked Victor urgently.

‘Go away from me!’ I pul ed the covers over my head. ‘Get out of my head.’

Farstein sighed and closed his notebook. ‘I can see we are doing more harm than good here, Mrs Bright. We’l leave Sky to get some rest. Agent Benedict, I want a word with you.’

Victor nodded. ‘Down the hal . Take it easy, Sky.

It’l come back.’

The two men left. I lowered the covers to find Sal y watching me with fear in her eyes.

‘I’m going mad, aren’t I?’ I asked her. ‘I can’t remember—and what I remember feels wrong.’

She brushed her thumb over my knuckles. ‘You’re not mad. You’re recovering from trauma. It takes time. We think the people who did this to you are probably dead, kil ed in the shootout. The police are just trying to tie up the loose ends.’

I wish someone would tie up the loose ends in my brain. My thoughts were like ragged bunting from some abandoned party whipping about in the wind—

no purpose, no anchor.

‘If Zed and Xav didn’t kidnap me, then why do I think they did?’

Thanksgiving came and went, the only sign the turkey dinner in hospital. My mind was no clearer. I felt like a beach after the passing of a tidal wave—

odds and ends thrown up on the shore, al out of place, smashed to pieces. I was aware of the passage of great emotion through me but I couldn’t sort it out, what had been real, what had been false.

I’d let something loose inside and not control ed it—

the result had been devastating.

Zed and his brother were cleared of al suspicion by the Las Vegas police department. So why had I accused them? I was racked with guilt that I had involved them in this, too embarrassed to see any of the Benedicts. I made my parents promise that they wouldn’t let them in—I couldn’t face them. I wasn’t able to keep Victor out though; he came several times with Farstein to see if I remembered any more.

I apologized to him, and the policeman, for getting it wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Victor hated me now.

‘Nightmares, Miss Bright—that’s what they are,’

Farstein said in a practical tone of voice. ‘You’ve gone through a terrifying experience and your mind got muddled.’

He was being kind but I could tel he dismissed me as next to useless in his enquiries. Everyone agreed that I’d been kidnapped, but no one could prove that anyone beyond the two men in the warehouse had been involved. I was the key but I wasn’t opening any doors for them.

Farstein brought me a pack of cards and a bunch of flowers on his last visit. ‘Here you are, Miss Bright, I hope these help you feel better.’ He split open the packet and shuffled. ‘I imagine you must be bored stuck in here. My city is a good place to visit for most folks; I’m sorry you had such a bad time with us.’ He cut the cards and dealt me a hand.

Victor was hanging back, watching us from the doorway. ‘You’re not corrupting the girl, are you, Farstein?’

‘Can’t leave Vegas without taking one gamble.’

‘I don’t know many games,’ I admitted.

‘Let’s keep it to Snap then.’

‘If I win?’

‘You get the flowers.’

‘If I lose?’

‘You stil get the flowers, but you have to give me one for my buttonhole.’

Farstein left with a carnation pinned to his lapel.

Victor stayed behind. He stood looking out of the window for a moment, his disquiet clear.

‘Sky, why don’t you want to see Zed?’

I closed my eyes.

‘He’s real y cut up. I’ve never seen him like this. I know he blames himself for what happened to you, but it’s knocked him off his stride in a major way.’

I said nothing.

‘I’m worried about him.’

Victor was not one to confide in someone outside the family. He real y must be concerned. But what could I do? I could barely find the courage to get up in the morning.

‘He got in a fight last night.’

A fight? ‘Is he al right?’

‘From the brawl? Yeah, it was more words than fists.’

‘Who did he fight?’

‘A couple of guys from Aspen. He went looking for it, Sky. And in answer to your other question, he isn’t al right. He’s hurting. It’s like he’s bleeding inside, somewhere he thinks no one can see.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘But you’re not going to do anything about it?’

Tears pricked the back of my eyes. ‘What do you want me to do?’

He held out a hand to me. ‘Stop shutting him out.

Help him.’

I swal owed. There was a streak of ruthlessness to Victor that wouldn’t let me duck behind the excuse of my confusion—it was both scary and chal enging. ‘I’l

… I’l try.’

His hand curled into a fist before he let it drop. ‘I hope you do, because if something bad happens to my brother, I’m not going to be pleased.’

‘Is that a … a threat?’

‘No, just the truth.’ He shook his head, his irritation clear. ‘You can get through this, Sky. Start looking outside yourself—that’l help you heal.’

At the end of November, I was released from hospital but my parents had decided on the advice of the doctors not to take me straight home.

‘Too

many

distressing

associations

in

Wrickenridge,’ Dr Peters, my consultant psychiatrist, told them. ‘Sky needs absolute rest and no stress.’

She gave them a recommendation for a convalescent home in Aspen and I was duly registered and assigned my own room, something we could only afford thanks to the generosity of an anonymous benefactor from Vegas who had heard about my case on the news.

‘This is a loony bin, isn’t it?’ I asked Simon bluntly as Sal y unpacked my few belongings into the chest of drawers. My room had a view of the snowy gardens. I could see a girl walking round and round the pond, lost in her own world, until a nurse came out to fetch her in.