Thomas, heartbreak written all over his face.
The rushing sound slowed, and I curled up into a ball. Freezing, I shoved my hands into the pocket of my jacket to wrap it around me. I heard Michael begging quietly, the sound more painful than if he’d been screaming directly in my ear. Bits and pieces, pictures of my life, kept coming at me. I had no hope of deflecting them.
Two caskets. A long black hearse. An endless array of pills, the clinical smell of a hospital. Staring at the same spot on the ceiling for days on end. Dru crying. Shock treatment. The feeling of hundreds of tiny needles grafting skin onto my back as the medication haze failed to cover the pain. Staring into the face of a counselor as he talked to me about survivor’s guilt. My screaming morphed into helpless whimpers.
“Stop.” Michael’s voice grew louder. “I’ll give you whatever you want. Please don’t do this to her. Please.”
The pictures disappeared. Except for the pounding in my head, the room went quiet.
Before the memories could take root, Jack’s face loomed over me, his expression charitable. I closed my eyes to block him out. The sound of air rushing past my eardrums returned, this time in a vacuum. I could feel the memories slipping away again, leaving nothing but static. I lay there shaking, my muscles as fatigued as if I’d been running for days.
“See, love,” I heard Jack say in a tender voice. “I can give. Or I can take away. The choice is yours.” His next words were a whisper. “Don’t ever forget what you owe me.”
My cheek lay flat against the wooden floor, tears the only thing between. My head felt too heavy to lift, my eyes too tired to keep open. Jack’s invasion of my mind left me wrecked in a ball on the ground. Broken.
“Now,” Cat said. “Tell us where the computer disk is.”
I shifted slightly and something dug into my ribs.
Cat wanted the disk. And I had it.
“No.” I pushed myself into a sitting position as my strength returned in a hopeful rush.
“Emerson, tell them,” Michael pleaded. “Tell them where it is. Don’t let him hurt you again.”
“I say we kill you both where you stand,” Cat offered, all the ugliness in her soul manifested in her face. “We can find it without you. There can’t be too many places to look.”
I found it almost impossible to think over the pounding in my head. “If I tell you … where it is … what’s going to keep you from killing me?”
Cat raised her eyebrows and turned to Jack, now standing beside her.
“Why would I throw away a useful tool, even if there are other options?” Jack said, fingering the chain of the pocket watch. His hair seemed silver in the moonlight shining in through the window. “She’s learned her lesson. If we need her again, I’m quite sure she’ll comply.”
Cat shook her head. “But—”
“Enough.” It was one word, but it had the effect of one thousand. Cat might be in control of the gun, but Jack was clearly the one who controlled the partnership. “We have things to do. We don’t need any more complications in the way.”
He turned away from her and put his hand on the back of the love seat. It appeared he was using it to hold himself upright.
“Emerson. Where is it?”
I worried my bottom lip against my teeth, hesitating, even though my mind was already made up. The adoration that had taken up residence on Jack’s face gave me pause.
“Understand. I’m not doing this for you,” I said in the strongest voice I could muster as I stood up. “I’m doing this for me.”
He smiled.
I zipped and unzipped my jacket nervously. “What are you going to do with it?”
Cat started laughing. Jack silenced her with a glance.
“I have plans.”
Drawing down my zipper and sliding my hand into my inside pocket, I pulled out the computer disk. I held it up, praying it was the right one.
“Right here, the whole time?” Jack asked, now resting most of his weight on the back of the love seat.
I nodded.