He’s serious.She heard Hilary’s deep laughing voice.Trust you to find a hero in a parking lot.
Oh but it hurt to think of Hilary.
“All right,” she whispered.“All right.”
“Now I’vegotto get us out of here,” he said quietly, his fingers shackling her wrist.“Okay?”
“Okay.”
“I promise.”He let go of her, checked over his shoulder, and eased the car forward again.
Rowan wiped at her cheeks with a fresh tissue.“Why?”she asked again as he cut the car to the left a little and pulled onto the freeway.Traffic was light, so he had no trouble.
He didn’t answer.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Delgado stoppedat an outlet mall a hundred miles from the city.Then he had the exotic experience of suggesting clothes to a mostly-silent woman who nodded and tried on whatever he suggested.He sent her into the lingerie store alone with a couple hundred, however.His heart wouldn’t have been able to take it.Instead, he stood outside and waited, scanning the parking lot and holding three plastic bags full of clothes and assorted sundries.He had no idea what a woman would want beyond the usual extraction list, and did his best to guess.
The last stop was the shoe store.She chose a pair of boots and a pair of black sneakers, and he got a second pair of boots for her—stylish black ones, less functional than the combat boots but pretty.
Christ,he thought, seeing her scrub at her forehead with the heel of her hand,I’m really playing house, aren’t I?
She took one longing look at a bookstore and then glanced quickly down at the ground.He pressed a hundred-dollar bill into her palm.“I’m going to get a couple things.You get what you want from there.Stay in the store.I’ll come get you in a bit, okay?”
She nodded.He slid his cell phone out of his pocket and slipped it into her hands.“There.Now you’re ready for anything.Just get what you want, okay?”
She nodded again, a tendril of pale hair falling across her face.He had to forcibly repress the urge to brush it away.“Thanks.”The rough honey of her voice reminded him of her screaming.“Are you sure?”
“We have time,” he said firmly.“Go on.”
She went, and he watched her hips move for a few moments as she walked away.I am in so much trouble.
He waited half an hour, putting the bags in the car and then drifting through the mall, buying a few odds and ends, a sharp eye out for anything out of the ordinary.Then he ducked into the bookstore and found her standing by the cash register, paying for an abridged copy ofThe Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a copy ofLeaves of Grass, and a blank journal as well as a packet of pens.He waited by the door, his eyes moving over the entire store, marking two employees and a couple of other customers.No government presence.
Good.
She carried her bag up to the front door and tried to hand him the change, but he shook his head, only taking the cell phone back.“Come on.One last stop.”
He’d taken a spin through the luggage store and got a few pieces to store her clothes and toiletries in, but he took her back there.“They don’t have much,” he said, “but I think you need a new purse.”
She nodded and randomly picked out a small black number.He paid for it, and then shepherded her out to the car.“We can stop by a supermarket for anything else.”He took her elbow as they crossed into the parking lot.“But we need food first.What do you want for lunch?”
“I don’t think I could eat.”She looked stunned, far too pale, her eyes far too dark.“Justin—” She caught herself.“Delgado.”
“You can call me Justin.”The name felt strange on his lips.Nobody had called him that in years.“It’s okay.”
“All right.Where does all the money come from?”
“We have a couple psions who are really good with investments, and another couple that are really good with software,” he said.“We own a couple companies.”
That was a vast oversimplification, but he didn’t want to discuss the funding.Especially some of the less-than-legal aspects—the initial capital for the Society investments had to have come from somewhere.
“Oh,” she said.
“And every once in a while, someone goes to Vegas.Usually one of the telekinetics, but never the same one twice.There’re all sorts of things.”He checked the surroundings again.Nothing.Why was he nervous?“I think we should get out of here.Is fast food okay?”
She grimaced before she could stop herself, and then blinked at him.“I suppose.Look, I feel sick.I can’t eat.”
