Finding Sky (16 page)

 

I did not wake properly until mid morning. The sky was a pale blue through the tinted windows, tiny puffs of cloud smudging the perfect surface. Feeling numb, I cleaned my teeth with the hotel-supplied brush and paste and got dressed. It seemed odd to be wearing shorts in the middle of winter but the climate controlled environment of the hotel meant it was always summer inside. My stomach growled. I investigated the contents of the mini bar and helped myself to a chocolate biscuit and bottle of Coke, then sat down to wait. I was in the middle of a crisis but things were strangely calm. The eye of the storm.

I didn’t dare risk trying to contact Zed again. O’Halloran would probably be up and about and I didn’t know enough about shield-busting to give it a go. I just hoped Zed got my message not to come rushing in. We needed a plan to get me out, not a second hostage.

There was a knock at the door. Not behaviour I expected of my kidnappers. It opened to reveal Gator carrying a tray.

‘Rise and shine, cupcake. You slept well?’

‘Not really.’

Ignoring this, Gator dumped the tray on a table by the window. ‘Breakfast. Eat quickly. The boss wants to see you.’

I wasn’t sure I could manage anything. Deciding not to rile him by refusing co-operation over so small a thing, I lifted the lid. Nope, I couldn’t stomach those eggs. I sipped at the orange juice and nibbled a slice of toast instead. Gator didn’t leave. He stood at the window pretending to shoot at the birds flying over the buildings, giving me a good view of his ponytail which he’d secured back with a leather tie. He seemed in a cheerful mood, not at all on edge for someone who was part of a kidnapping. It struck me then that whoever was behind this must control this entire hotel or Gator would be less relaxed about holding me here.

‘I’ve had enough, thanks.’ I stood up. The fact that I was meeting the boss face to face did not bode well for what they had planned for me. I tried to think up a scenario where they didn’t kill me to protect their identities at the end of this and couldn’t imagine one.

‘OK, let’s go.’ He took a firm grip of my upper arm and marched me out into the hallway. We turned left, walked past the elevator and on into a waiting area. Through the frosted windows, I could see people sitting around a boardroom table. Gator knocked once, waited for the green light, then entered with me in tow.

Fear made the images sharp. I tried to absorb as much information as I could just in case by some miracle I did get free. Three people sat at the table. My eyes were drawn to the oldest: a man with dyed black hair and dodgy tan, punching away at his BlackBerry. His suit screamed designer, though his choice in ties did not: today’s a tangerine shade that clashed with his skin. He had the seat at the head. On either side sat a younger man and a woman. The family resemblance was strong enough for me to hazard a guess that these were his children or close relatives.

‘Here she is, Mr Kelly. I’ll wait outside.’ Gator gave me a little push towards the table and walked out.

Mr Kelly sat looking at me without speaking for a while, his fingers touching in an arch. The others were clearly waiting for him to make the first move, which left me stranded. I knew only that the Benedicts had helped in the conviction of two of the Kelly family. From the way he sat so confidently in the head chair, I guessed I was looking at the famous Daniel Kelly himself, head of the Kelly business empire, the man whose face appeared more regularly in the business pages than Donald Trump and Richard Branson combined.

‘Come here.’ Kelly beckoned me closer.

Reluctantly, I walked round the table.

‘O’Halloran said you are a savant?’

‘I don’t know.’ I tucked my hands in my pockets to disguise the fact that they were trembling.

‘You are. I can tell. It’s a shame really that you’ve been caught up in this.’ He flashed me an unapologetic grin, displaying improbably even teeth.

The man on his right stirred. ‘Dad, are you sure the Benedicts will trade themselves for her?’

‘Yes, they will try. They won’t be able to stop themselves trying to protect an innocent like her.’

The younger Kelly poured a cup of coffee. ‘And the police? They must be involved by now.’

‘They will never be able to trace it back to us. And she will tell them exactly what I tell her to say.’ Mr Kelly leaned back in his chair. ‘Fascinating. There are such dark spaces in her mind.’

I stepped back in alarm. He was reading my mind somehow. Zed had said I always gave too much away to another savant. I threw up walls as fast as I could.

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 fell out of my world. The Benedicts had thought there was only one savant involved; what they had failed to anticipate was that the Kellys 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?’ Kelly 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 kill 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 tell 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 killing 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 tell the police such a lie, even if you threaten me! And I won’t let you kill Zed or … or his brothers! I won’t!’

Kelly found my anger funny. ‘Such an amusing little foreigner, isn’t she? All hissing and spitting like a furious kitten and about as threatening.’ He laughed. ‘Of course you will say what I tell you, Sky. You see, it is my gift. You will remember what I want you to remember. People do, you know, like the prison guards who will 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 will is what I am good at. I’ve built my fortune on it and you’ll be no different.’

Oh my God, he was like Victor. But could he really 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 all my barriers. Kelly 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.’ Kelly tucked his BlackBerry away in his breast pocket. ‘Don’t worry: you won’t suffer. You’ll think you’re telling the truth. I’ll 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. Tragically, the memories of Wrickenridge will be too painful for her to return.’

‘But my parents …’ This was worse than a nightmare.

Kelly gave an insincere sigh. ‘They’ll feel they failed to protect you and I’ll persuade them that they want to give you the space our doctors say you need after your trauma. We know all about them and your adoption—how fragile your mental condition is. I’m sure they’ll be too busy with their careers to worry too much as long as you tell them you’re happy—and you will tell them so.’

How did he know so much? ‘You’re taking my life away from me.’

‘Better than killing you, and that’s the only other option.’

Sean came to join his father. He was a good head taller, but much fatter, his belly rolling 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?’

Kelly frowned. ‘Can’t you sense it?’

Sean seized my hand and pulled 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 Kelly 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 well enough to convince her family she’s here of her own free will.’

‘I’ll take care of it.’ Sean Kelly 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 well, 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 Kelly rolled 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’ll make it up to you, darling.’ Daniel Kelly 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 well 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 Kelly 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 stairwell. But I’d forgotten who was outside. I got as far as the hallway before Gator tackled me. He took me down, forcing all 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,’ Kelly ordered.

Gator dragged me into the boardroom. ‘Don’t be too mad at her, Mr Kelly,’ he pleaded. ‘The girl’s just scared.’

‘On the contrary, I’m not angry; she’s playing into our hands.’ Kelly checked his flashy Cartier watch. ‘When we release her to the authorities covered in blood, they’ll believe her more readily. Now sit her down. I’ll 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’ll 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.’