Blood Echo (Burning Girl #2)(22)

She wants to argue with him, but all things considered, he’s being charitable. If he wanted to, he could put Richard Davies’s death squarely on her shoulders. Instead, he’s sort of loosely tying it to her left ankle. And his.

“Speaking of next time,” she finally says.

“I’m listening.”

“I knew too much. About the operation. That’s why I had to stick my foot in the trap. I couldn’t get triggered.”

“OK. Next time we’ll keep you in the dark.”

“No. Next time there needs to be actual dark. I need to know that I’m . . . not safe.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“It isn’t going to work any other way, Cole. You can’t take the fear away and expect me to be afraid.”

“Fear is in the mind. We’ll find a way to train your mind to be afraid again.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“Well, it didn’t take much for Davies to send you running straight into a trap. Maybe you’re equally suggestible in other ways.”

His patience is thinning. She can hear it. And so can he, apparently, because his shoulders sag and he takes a deep breath that might just be for show. But she wouldn’t be surprised if he actually needs it.

“Besides, we don’t have trouble triggering you in the lab,” he says.

“We can’t count on every serial killer we target to play with my phobias the way you do in a completely controlled environment. And that’ll probably stop working after a while, too.”

“Why?”

“Because when we started lab testing I was afraid of you, too.”

“And now you’re not?”

She smiles.

He smiles back, brow raised. “Between the lab testing and last night, we’ve got a lot to work through. A lot to process, both in terms of data and . . . procedure. I’m not going to rush you into the field again until we do a full accounting of everything.”

“Fair enough. How much longer do I have to stay here?”

“Another twenty-four hours at least. If you show any signs of infection, longer.”

“OK. And what about Luke?”

Cole just stares at her. “What about Luke?”

“Has anyone been in touch with him? Just to let him know I’m OK.”

“Your boyfriend is not our priority right now.”

“I told him I’d be gone three weeks. It’s been five.”

“Then stop giving your boyfriend arbitrary timelines about our top-secret operations.”

“A condition of our deal was that you would allow me to have my life when I wasn’t working for you. Luke is part of my life. I’m not kidding myself that we’re not under constant surveillance every minute I’m in Altamira; I’m just saying that after what I’ve done for you in the past twenty-four hours, maybe somebody in this billion-dollar fortress of I don’t know what in the middle of I don’t know where can send a text message to my boyfriend telling him I’m alive.”

Cole approaches the bed. In his expression, she sees the same man who ushered her into his own private helicopter five months earlier and issued a series of proclamations that changed her life forever.

“You can act like the hapless victim of my big, bad, terrible, heartless company as much as you want, Charley. But let’s not forget that what we’ve built here, together, is a system that allows you to systematically execute human monsters like the ones who killed your mother.”

“It’s not my plan to execute them.”

“Fine. Torture them, then.”

“Stop them. And if we built this system together, then tell me how you found him.”

“What?”

“Tell me how you found Richard Davies.”

“Get some rest, Charley. We’ll talk about this when you’re more . . . together.”

Cole’s almost to the door to the viewing area when she says, “It’s Bailey, isn’t it?”

Cole goes still before his hand can reach the doorknob.

A few years earlier, Luke’s younger brother, one of the most wanted cybercriminals in the United States, went into foreign exile, severing all ties with his brother after using his considerable skills to track down a slimeball who’d defrauded Bailey and his fellow classmates out of the tuition they’d paid to a small community college.

To find the bastard, Bailey hacked a satellite.

An actual satellite that circled somewhere above the earth.

His only mistake?

Believing the FBI would be grateful for his assistance.

When Luke and Charley reconnected after her return to Altamira, Bailey, who had apparently been monitoring his big brother’s conversations for months, decided to make his presence known to them. Digitally, of course. The help he offered led Charlotte and Luke right to the front door of a madman. Meanwhile, Graydon Pharmaceuticals had been impressed by his work. When all was said and done, they offered to use their powerful connections so that Bailey could return home without the FBI on his back.

But Bailey had refused, and Luke’s feelings had been hurt all over again.

Now Charlotte can’t help but wonder what will happen to Luke’s feelings if he finds out that Cole made a different offer to Bailey than the one he conveyed to them.