Twice as Hot (19 page)

“Seriously?”

Yeah,
seriously? And I’d thought Homicidal Tendencies Wench was bad.

“Yes”
was the sniffed and clearly offended reply.

“Sorry,”
Tanner said, “but that name sucks a big juicy one. You need something new.”

Not
exactly the way to win the girl to our side. Actually, at this rate, Tanner
would guarantee Elaine joined the other team. If she wasn’t already part of it.
Time for me to take over and at least pretend I knew how to conduct an
interview. “Listen, we’re getting off track. What I was starting to say before
Mr. Sensitive here interrupted is that a few months ago this doctor came
rushing into the café where I worked and spiked my drink with a formula that
gave me power over the four elements. Earth, wind, fire and water.”

Her
eyes swung back to me, the anger returning. “So?”

“So,”
Tanner piped up before I could say anything else, “she’s trying to prove to you
that she’s been where you are, just like she said. Two agencies marked her for
extermination, one of them being the group that was keeping you prisoner in
that warehouse, and began chasing her. I helped her get away. It could even be
said that I saved her from certain death, but I’m not one to brag so I’ll leave
that part out.”

Elaine
looked between us, a spark of jealousy stealing over her features. Jealousy she
couldn’t hide, even when she cast her gaze to the gray tiled floor.

“He’s
like my brother,” I explained, palms up. Did I ever understand what she was
feeling. “Swear to God.”

“Like
I care,” she said, but slowly she relaxed, her body seeming to melt into that
slatted wood. “If I’m going to talk to you, I need proof that your intentions
are good. Something more than just your word. I’ve learned to be cautious.”

“All
right. How?”

“First
up is proving you can do what you say you can do. You have control over the
elements? Well, make it rain inside this room. Here, now.”

Uh,
not just no but hell, no. “I’m afraid not.” I shook my head to emphasize my
refusal. “Sometimes I can’t stop it once it starts.”

“Then
you’re a danger and need to be neutralized.”

For
a moment, her comment returned me to the good old days. Rome might have been
trying to kill me back then, but at least he’d known exactly who I was. “Same
could be said of you.”

“Yes,
and that’s why I’m tied down.”

I
sighed. For her to trust me, I had to be willing to trust her. So I said,
“Would you feel better if I told you pollutants are my downfall? I can’t work
my magic around them. I become too weak.” OASS already knew my weakness, so I
wasn’t revealing so much John would have an aneurysm.

Her
eyes locked on me and for a moment I thought I’d reached her. Then she
shrugged. “Nope, I wouldn’t feel better. You could be lying about that, too.”

“True.
You don’t know us. But think about what we’re asking from you, what we’re not.
How we’re treating you, how we’re not.” Tanner and I hadn’t hurt her in any
way. We hadn’t degraded her, or demanded world-crumbling secrets.

There
was a long pause. Then, “So what happened to you? After you drank the formula?”
There was a twinge in her voice, as if she were finally softening.

“Well,
I got sick. So sick I almost died. And for several weeks, my new powers were
unstable. More unstable than they are now. Remember the freak ice that covered
several buildings?”

“When?”

“About
a month ago.” Or was it two months ago? I really was bad with time.

“I
was in those cells your agents ‘rescued’ me from, so no.”

Poor
thing. “Well, that was me.” I gave her a moment to digest that. “So what about
you? Were you born with your ability or was it thrust upon you?”

She
shifted in the chair again, grimaced when the cuffs pushed into her bones, and
glanced between me and Tanner. Little angel couldn’t get comfortable. “The
information isn’t going to do you any good.”

“Tell
us anyway. We’re curious about you.”

“Why?”

Still
so distrustful. Had the situation been reversed, I wasn’t sure I would have
believed anything my captors said, either. She was alone, vulnerable, helpless,
her wits her only weapon. “Because I see a lot of myself in you.”

Elaine
snorted. “You look like a hooker and I look like a nun. I doubt we’re similar.”

Sherridan
and her damn outfit choice! “I didn’t mean in appearance, smart-ass.”

Tanner
laughed. “Well, I can see the similarities now.”

I
punched him in the shoulder. “Funny.”

Elaine
watched the byplay with something akin to longing. “Just forget it,” she said.
“None of it matters, anyway. You can’t help me, and I can’t help you.”

“Give
us a chance,” Tanner said, expression growing serious.

“Look,”
I added. “We’re all you’ve got right now. We know that. And you know we need to
pick your brain. So what will it take to get some answers? You want a lobster
dinner brought to your cell? Done. You want an iPod? Done. Anything you want is
yours. Except freedom.”

“What
about a pony?” she asked sarcastically, but the pessimism didn’t quite reach
her eyes, and she was having trouble controlling her breathing.

“If
you’re willing to clean up after it, why not?”

She
licked her lips, and then words were suddenly tumbling from them without pause.
“I want a meat loaf. With mashed potatoes and gravy. White. Homemade rolls and
dressing. And broccoli and rice casserole. Do you know what that is? I also
want a chocolate cake. Do
not
scrimp on the icing. And I do want that
iPod. I’ll make you a playlist.”

She
paused to inhale and Tanner whipped out a tiny notebook from his back pocket to
write everything down.

“We’ll
get it to you as fast as we can,” I said. If John complained—or flat-out
refused—to meet these demands, I’d see to them myself. Again with Rome’s credit
card. He owed us all. “That it?”

There
was another round of silence before her shoulders slumped. “You asked how I
came to be in that warehouse. Well, a bastard named Gordon Jones read a
newspaper article about a mother and father who weakened every time they held
their little girl. Parents who were looking to give said girl up for adoption
because they couldn’t deal with her.” Her chin rose defiantly, probably in an
attempt to hide its trembling. “He bought me from them, experimented on me, and
suddenly I didn’t just weaken people, I killed them. Gordon used me to keep his
agents in line. ‘Refuse me, and watch Draino work her way through your family,’
that kind of thing.”

“Truth,”
Tanner whispered, and the single word possessed an edge of…fury? Affront?

My
hand fluttered over my heart. “I’m so sorry, Elaine. Truly sorry.” Gordon
Jones. Father to Vincent Jones, no doubt.

Surprise
filled those beautiful brown eyes. But that surprise soon morphed into anger.
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re real sorry. Here I am, another agent to recruit, huh?
Another subject for your agency to experiment on. Maybe you’ll even control me
the way he did, huh? Promise to fix me if I just
do one more thing
for
you.”

“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 Gal 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.

It
would probably be best for everyone to keep him out of the conversation for
now.

“Where
did Vincent—who we not-so-affectionately call ‘Pretty Boy,’ by the way—keep
you?” Tanner asked. “Before the escape attempt? And did you do any jobs with
Ms. Bright? Can you tell us her fighting style?”