“If they’d kidnapped me then, would my father still be alive?”
“Unless he made trouble,” Delgado replied.
Rowan absorbed this.
“Rowan—” He was about to apologize again, she could tell.
“No,” she said.“Don’t.It’s not your fault.”She took a deep breath and reached up, touched her fingertips to his shoulder.
If she’d thought he was still before, he was absolutely motionless now.He stared at her from under half-lowered eyelids, his dark eyes no longer flat and shuttered but raw and open, begging to betouched.Soothed, just like the patients at the hospital.
But if she did that, they would know she was a freak.And they would… what?
What would happen then?
He was telling the truth.Sheknewhe was; that deep, undeniable knowledge rising from that calm instinctive place that had never let her down.And he was in pain.Just like the patients she worked with.“Justin.”She licked her lips, nervous.“What else did they do to you?”
“We should go find Henderson.”He stepped away; her hand slid from his shoulder.“We’re leaving here in less than twelve hours, so there’s probably chaos down in the comm room.Just stick close to me, okay?”
Rowan nodded.“Okay.”He doesn’t want to be helped.Just like Benny.
The thought of her patients made her heart hurt even more.If he was right, she would never see them again.And she’d been so close to a breakthrough with Siegfried.
I can’t go home.I can’t go to work.I can’t do anything.Rowan’s throat closed.“Justin?”
He froze again, looking down the hall instead of at her.
“Thank you,” she said.“For saving me.”
That earned her a genuine, if somewhat shocked, smile.The smile transformed his face from a harsh mystery into… Well, she found herself smiling back.The expression felt odd on her face, her cheeks aching from crying so much.
“Anytime, Rowan,” he said.“Let’s go.I want you to meet the others.Maybe you’ll find out we’re not all so scary.”
“I don’t think you’re scary.”She followed him down the hall again.He walked a little more slowly, frequently glancing back to see if she was still there.
“Well, then,” he said, and nothing else.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
The comm room was,as Delgado had predicted, in chaos.
Henderson leaned over Yoshitsugu Yoshio’s shoulder.The thin bespectacled Japanese man hunched over his keyboard, fingers flying.“See?Right here, the flux turns into a recognizable pattern.”
Zeke crossed the room, trailing a sheaf of paper printout.“Comin’ through!”He deposited the paper on Brew’s worktable.Brew, a muscled man who looked carved out of ebony, checked the action on a 9mm.“The ballistics are out, Brew.Got the packing done?”
“Almost,” Brewster said absently, pushing sunglasses to the top of his bald head.“If you want to help, there’s plenty of work.”
“Don’t you go stealing my slave labor.”Cath wore an acid-green T-shirt and ripped jeans today.Her feet were encased in clodhopping boots.She was packing another computer in Styrofoam and a cardboard box.
They were all armed, except for Delgado—he hadn’t wanted to frighten Rowan—and they were a little too busy to pay attention.But Rowan’s entry into the room made Henderson straighten and glance around, and Catherine jerked, her eyes widening.
She feels like a thunderstorm.By now he was used to the prickling of Rowan’s power touching his skin.He wondered if it felt the same for any of them.
“Everyone,” he said into the thick silence, “this is Rowan Price.She’s had a rough couple of days, so play nice.Rowan, the tall one over there with the white patch on is Daniel Henderson.The one on the computer is Yoshitsugu Yoshio, Yoshi for short.Miss Punk is Catherine White, that’s Deacon Brewster, and the human Mack truck is Ezekiel Summers, goes by Zeke.There would be more of us, but we’re shorthanded right now.”He stole a quick look at her face.She was so pale.
“Hello,” Rowan said, in her tear-ravaged husky voice.“Nice to meet you.”
Henderson crossed the room.He wore a casually elegant gray Armani suit, and his shoes were mirror-shined.“Miss Price.Daniel Henderson.”He offered his hand; Delgado watched carefully.“I suspect you must have many questions, all of which will be answered.For right now, let me say I am exceedingly sorry about your father.None of us wanted this to happen.”
