Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(42)

"I don't want to recruit you," I said, "and I sure as hell don't want to experiment on you. And I know beyond any doubt that I'll never be able to fix you."

Outside the room, someone rapped on the window.

All three of us turned, but we couldn't see who it was. Probably John, issuing a warning, I thought. With him, it was always business first, the people that business affected second. I flipped him off and turned back to Elaine.

"Like I was saying, I don't want to recruit you," I assured her. "Other people might, but I don't. If you don't want to be an agent, no one should force you to be one." Once again surprise lit her eyes, turning the dark brown to a bright amber.

"Look," Tanner said. "You deserve to be free. No one can deny that." Another knock.

"Stop that," I shouted. "We're not going to lie to her or tell her only what you want us to. You left me in charge of interviews, so I'm doing this my way."

Bang, bang, bang.

Well, this was getting us nowhere. "Since you're here, uncuff her," I called without looking back at the window. "I want her to finish the interview unfettered."

Now her mouth fell open.

"Do it!" I shouted. "Or I'll walk out of here and - "

"Me, too," Tanner interjected.

"And we can guarantee she won't talk to anyone else. Right?"

"R-right," she said, clearly confused. Most likely, no one had ever trusted her not to use her superior abilities and attack. Because all it would take was a single brush of her hand to send us to our knees.

Finally, the door swung open. I expected John's short, stocky legs to stomp inside. Expected John's dark eyes to bore into me. Instead, it was Rome. He strode to Elaine, bent down and carefully unlatched the metal bands. They fell to the floor with a clank.

She drew her arms into her lap and rubbed at her wrists.

Rome straightened, looked me up and down and said, "That is not appropriate," in a tight voice.

Whether he meant freeing Elaine or my outrageous clothes, I didn't know.

"If you hurt them," he told Elaine, "I will personally kill you." He left then, slamming the door shut behind him - but his gaze remained on me until the last possible second. I could only stare at the door in wonder.

He'd been watching me...protecting me? My heart began an erratic drum in my chest. Or was this part of his monitoring duties? My heart now slowed.

"Your boyfriend?" Elaine asked. No longer was there even a hint of disdain or unhappiness. Perhaps I'd finally earned her trust.

"No," I said for Rome's benefit. Let him take that as he would: that I no longer wanted him, that we were over forever, or that we were over right now but there was hope for the future. Whatever. Right now, it didn't matter. It couldn't. But later..."Maybe once." Tanner patted my shoulder, forcing my attention from the door, from Rome. "How long had you been locked in this last prison?" he asked Elaine.

Once more, her gaze dropped to her feet, and she shrugged. "I realize you're being nice to get the information you want, but I don't like it. We already came to terms. So you can stop the act. Okay? All right?" She didn't give us time to reply. "I was in that particular prison for a few months."

"Months!" Tanner shouted, clearly outraged on her behalf. "That's barbaric. And just so you know, we aren't just being nice to get what we want. Time will prove that." She gave another of those falsely negligent shrugs, though there was a spark of hope in her eyes. "I'd started resisting Vincent's commands - he's the guy who took over after his dad died. I knew he would never help me, so I even tried to escape. Again. He'd warned me what would happen." I eased into the chair across from her. "You were incarcerated with a man named Tobin McAldrin. Do you know who I'm talking about?"

"Yes," she said with a nod. "The meathead."

That was the guy. "He told me he had a friend, someone who wanted to talk with me."

"That would be Candace Bright."

Tanner wrote the name in his notebook. If Elaine was telling the truth - and I thought that she was, since Tanner hadn't called her a liar - we now had a lead. I wanted to grin.

"Tell me about her," I said.

"She's pretty, a redhead, but the color isn't natural. It's just too red. She brought us food and water, made sure our cages were cleaned. For the most part, she wasn't bad, as far as jailers go. I don't know a lot about her, just her name really. And I only know that because she used to work for Vincent."

"Maybe she worked for him because her family was being threatened, too," Tanner speculated.

Elaine shook her head. "I doubt that. She talked about Desert Gall like the woman was God. And trust me, that kind of affection has nothing to do with force. Anyway, Tobin, a.k.a. Brick, and a prisoner called Memory Man were her favorites and the only ones she spoke to. Me, she stayed away from. I think she was afraid of me."

Memory Man. Or M-Squared. This was the first time one of our interviewees had brought him up.

Now, he was verified. Rather than excitement, I experienced a wave of anger. Enough to cause little tendrils of steam to waft from my nostrils. He had been one of Desert Gal's favorites? Did that mean he had willingly aided her and hadn't been forced as we'd begun to think? Oops. There went more steam.