Away From the Dark (The Light #2)(40)

“I’m sorry, Jacob. I’m sorry that I’ve messed up all your hard work and that now we’re in this situation.”

Dark eyes overflowing with remorse settled briefly on me before turning back to the road. “Don’t be.”

Apparently our time for heart-to-heart talks was over. Since we’d spoken to his handler, I had been lucky to get more than a couple of words strung together. Though I wanted more, I knew the man beside me. I knew that when he was thinking and worrying, he was quiet. He was the one currently devising a plan for our future, not necessarily one where we were together, but one where we were both alive.

“Something you must remember,” he began, “is that since you didn’t leave the Northern Light, you can’t be on the plane. All of our planes have what is essentially a black box. It records everything. Once you’re on the plane you can’t speak, and I can’t speak to you.”

“All right. Hopefully I won’t snore,” I said, trying to break the tension.

A corner of his lips moved upward. “If you do, I’ll throw something in your direction.”

“Hey, are you saying I snore?”

His shoulders moved up and down.

“If we can’t talk on the plane, please, fill me in on our cover story.”

“I’ve spoken to Benjamin and promised I’d be at Assembly this morning. Thankfully, since it’s Saturday, you don’t have work at the lab today. I told Benjamin that you spoke to Thomas, which you shouldn’t have done, and he took you against your will. I told him that after Raquel’s call, I flew to Thomas’s hangar and found you before anything happened, other than your blackened eye. I also asked him to keep the truth a secret. We both know what happens to people who leave The Light.”

His words sent a chill down my spine.

“He won’t even tell Raquel. The fewer people who know the better. But since Raquel was so worried, I said she could come check on you later today. And you’d be back to work after our trip to the Eastern Light.”

“That scares me.”

He simply nodded.

Was he scared too, or simply acknowledging my concern? I didn’t want to think about Jacob being scared. Instead my hand fluttered to my darkened eye. “And this?”

He shook his head. “Isn’t it obvious? I did it.”

“You?”

“I corrected you, probably for questioning too much.” He added the last part with a smirk.

I shook my head. “I thought you said that I could now—”

“When we’re alone, but the point is, correction is my right. No one will question it. I’ve also decided it’s the reason you didn’t go to work yesterday.”

Yesterday? Has it only been twenty hours since I left the Northern Light?

“Sara, we can’t utter one word, or even think in terms of Stella and Jacoby. No one, and I mean no one, not Benjamin, not Raquel, no one can know what we’ve discussed. Brother Benjamin believes what I told him. I also told him that you hadn’t remembered your past. When I found you, you were mostly scared and afraid I’d be upset.”

Well, some of that was accurate. “Other people have their memories,” I protested. “Why can’t I?”

“Because other people weren’t investigating The Light when their memories were suppressed.”

I turned in his direction. “Do you really believe that’s why I was taken?”

“You said you Google Earthed the mansion in Bloomfield Hills?”

“Yes, but no one knew that. The thing is, I went there too.”

His head snapped in my direction. “You did what?”

“I went there. I went to the front gate and pushed the button and asked for Uriel Harris.”

“Jesus, Sara!”

“The voice from the box said I had the wrong address and asked me to leave.”

“So you did, right?”

“No.”

Jacob struck the steering wheel with the palm of his hand. “Of course f*cking not. What did you do?”

I sat taller. “I’m an investigative journalist. It’s what I do, did, whatever. I walked around the front fence and tried to take pictures.” I shrugged and looked back out the window. “When I left I saw a surveillance camera. Unfortunately, it probably recorded everything I did.” Thinking about the timeline, I added, “That was a few days before we went to that festival in Dearborn.” The realization made my stomach turn. That was the day Jacob had seen me for the first time. “Oh, God, my future was already set by then. Wasn’t it?”

With his jaw clenched, Jacob nodded. “Yes, do you see why you cannot get your memory back?”

“What about my medicine? Raquel and Benjamin know I’m off it.”

“Medicines work differently on different people. Just because you quit taking it, doesn’t guarantee that your memories will return. Beginning at the Eastern Light, acquired wives are given high doses of the medication intravenously. Brother Raphael has hypothesized that in some individuals that initial regimen is all that’s needed. The idea being that the receptors become permanently blocked. He’s said that the daily boosters in many women are merely an insurance policy. Not everyone’s brain responds exactly the same way. As soon as you have your period, you’re going back on the medicine.”