She nodded, crossing her arms and cupping her elbows in her hands.It was a defensive gesture, he realized, closing herself off from the world.She retreated a few steps from the dresser, glanced at him again.She was looking to him for reassurance.
Why?All I’ve done is destroy her life.He stared at her.Against the velvet and burnished wood, she outright glowed.
He had to get her out of here.Sigma was infiltrating the city, setting up search grids.Focus, Delgado,he reminded himself, with a sharp mental slap.Focus.
His hands hadn’t even paused in packing the bag.He carried it to the dresser, extracting a leather harness from the drawer underneath it.He shrugged the harness on, began holstering his guns.His hands moved smoothly, automatically.The knives came next, including the little hidden stilettos.She watched all this, her eyes growing wider and wider.
When he had the ammo cartridges locked into place on the harness and more ammo in the bag, he slid the bag over his head, the strap diagonally across his chest.“Next stop, Yoshi’s room, then the petty cash.Then we’ll blow this joint and get you to safety.Just keep taking deep breaths, Rowan.I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Don’t people notice you’re wearing that?”she blurted, as if unable to contain herself.
“It’s part of shielding.Deadheads can’t see it—and if a psionic looks, Iknow.”
She stared at him, her eyes huge as dinner plates.Delgado froze.Don’t let her be scared of me, please, please.
“I want to do something,” she said.“Please.”
“Okay.Sure.”Jesus Christ.Did I just say that?What is wrong with me?
She blinked, apparently as shocked by his quick acquiescence as he was.
A new and painful silence bloomed between them.“I can do things.”Her ruined voice made the admission hoarse and scratchy.“It doesn’t hurt, but it… I need to…”
She’s just tacitly admitted to being a psion.He wondered why the thought should make him so uneasy.“Go ahead.”He put his hands behind his back, standing almost in parade rest too.Something about her just brought that out in a military man.“Do what you have to, but we don’t have much time.”
She nodded, strands of pale hair falling into her face.“I’ve never told anyone.Ever.Well, except my parents.”
A number of things suddenly fell into place.“Oh,” he said.
She took a step closer to him, her eyes going dark.The prickles of electricity running over his skin intensified.“So you can’t tell anyone.Please.”
“Silent as the grave,” he promised.
She took another step forward and looked up, into his face.Delgado discovered that he was shaking—and she looked as if she was trembling too.
“I won’t hurt you,” she repeated, softly.
“It’s all right.”Hurt me if you want to.A shiver slid through him.I don’t care.
She waited for a few excruciating seconds, lifted her hand, and pressed her fingertips to his unshaven cheek.
Fire roared through his veins, coated his skin.Hefelther, slipping through the surface of his mind, but it wasn’t the agony of his own gift.Instead, it was as if every thought, every sin, every bloodstained moment of his life was washed clean.As if she had taken all the pain away, replacing it with something suspiciously like calm.
When she pulled back, her fingers sliding from his skin, it took every ounce of his control not to catch her wrist and clamp her fingers back down on his face.She slipped out of his mind like water slipping under sand, gone, but leaving something changed and smooth, unruffled.
“You’re not like any of them.”Slow and dazed.“And you’re telling the truth.”
He found himself unable to speak.Tried twice and failed, his throat closed.Then he took a deep breath.“I wouldn’t lie to you,” he managed.
“Everyone else, but not me?”Now one corner of her mouth quirked up slightly.He couldn’t believe what was happening.
“I suppose so.”He shook himself.Got to get her out of here.
Her eyes were still dark and depthless, her pupils dilated, the dark circles underneath them almost bruised.“All right.I trust you, I’ll go with you.”
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
Delgado tookthe freeway going north.Rowan sank into the leather bucket seat and watched the miles slip by.He drove carefully, obeying the speed limit, and a sudden sense of absurdity swam over her.
