Finding Sky (17 page)

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 Kelly?’

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 Kelly 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 walls, 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’Halloran. The plane. The hotel. Think where you are.

The Benedicts hate you. Zed’s too everything for you—too cool, too
good looking—of course it had to be a set up. You suspected that. He’s
been using you. He and Xav do this to girls all the time. They had to be
stopped, officer. I had to shoot them. It was 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 still alive. I haven’t shot them. My eyes flew open. ‘You’re going to shoot Zed and his brother?’

Daniel Kelly 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 pull the trigger but you will 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 Kelly’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. Kelly seemed angry that I was still resisting but eventually 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.

‘Tell 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’Halloran and Gator behind her. ‘Is she ready? It’s taking too long. The Benedicts are already in town and that slimeball Victor Benedict has applied for a warrant to search our properties.’

Daniel Kelly pinched my chin. ‘Yes, I think she is. A little confusion will 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 will try to make it look like they are alone and that will be enough. The others will be too far away to stop what’s going to happen. We’ll 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’ll be all right. All she need do is sit there with the gun in her hand while the FBI and the police argue why it all went down so badly. O’Halloran, you’ve got a damper on telepathy?’ He nodded. ‘It’ll 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 hell happened.’

‘Sure, boss.’

Kelly cracked his knuckles. ‘After today, the Savant Net will know that no one who interferes with my people gets away unscathed. They’ll 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 yester
day 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 tell you and then this will 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 all 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.

‘Tell 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’ll tell you,’ said Gator.

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

‘If you don’t come out with your hands up, I’ll put a bullet 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—all 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’ll get you free.’

He took a step closer.

How many of them are there? Has he got a gun on 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 killed 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 Kellys’ 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, tell good from bad. I’d buried it but it was there inside me under all 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’Halloran—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’Halloran’s shield with all 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 kill swell in a flood of red colour. Zed’s back presented a clear target, his only hesitation that the bullet 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 bullet meant for his back hit the ground between us, ricocheting wildly off the concrete. Then everything went to hell. 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 ball, 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 fell silent. I sensed that two presences had gone from the room—O’Halloran and Gator. Had they fled?

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

I lay quietly, biting down on the urge to cry out. No, they’d not fled. They’d been killed 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.’