‘You say she has darkness inside her?’

Kel y frowned. ‘Can’t you sense it?’

Sean seized my hand and pul ed it up to his nose, sniffing the palm, eyes closed as if reaching for a faint perfume. I tried to tug free but his grip pinched.

‘Yes, I can feel it now. Wonderful seams of pain and abandonment.’

As he touched me I could feel my panic heighten; the calm I’d struggled to maintain was being shredded away like paper ripped off a present.

‘Why not give her to me? I would enjoy draining her of her emotions—I can sense she would provide hours of entertainment.’

Daniel Kel y smiled indulgently at his son. ‘Is her emotional energy that strong?’

He nodded. ‘I’ve not felt anything like it.’

‘Then you can have her after she’s served her purpose with the Benedicts. Just keep her wel enough to convince her family she’s here of her own free wil .’

‘I’l take care of it.’ Sean Kel y kissed the palm of my hand and let it go. I wiped it on my shorts with a shudder. ‘Hmm.’ He licked his lips. ‘You and I are going to get to know each other very wel , my sweet.’

‘What are you?’ I hugged my arms to my sides and retreated to the window. I wanted to scream in his face but it would only show them how scared I was.

Maria Kel y rol ed her eyes impatiently. ‘My brother’s an emotion miner—gets his kicks from drawing the stuff out of other people’s brains. I could’ve done with a new maid, Daddy: it’s not fair.

Not even good business. She won’t be any use if Sean gets his hands on her—you know that. The last one only lasted a month before we had to get rid of her.’ Her voice rose in a whine.

‘I’l make it up to you, darling.’ Daniel Kel y stamped his authority on the situation with a slice of his hand. ‘Now enough of this: I must get to work on our guest. The police search for her is wel under way and our source has reported that the Benedicts have made their move from their base. It’s time the authorities were pointed in their direction. Come, Sky, I have something I want you to remember.’

Daniel Kel y looked round for me but I was already running. No way was I meekly going to succumb to his mind-manipulation.

‘Sean!’ he barked.

I was faster than that doughnut. I burst out of the doors and bolted for the elevators, hoping to find one waiting or at least a stairwel . But I’d forgotten who was outside. I got as far as the hal way before Gator tackled me. He took me down, forcing al the air from my lungs. My head cracked on the tiles but I continued to kick and bite as he hauled me up. He held me at arm’s length and shook me.

‘Stop it, cupcake. If you do what the boss says, you won’t get hurt.’

Blood dripped from a cut on the side of my head.

My vision was greying at the edges.

‘Bring her back here,’ Kel y ordered.

Gator dragged me into the boardroom. ‘Don’t be too mad at her, Mr Kel y,’ he pleaded. ‘The girl’s just scared.’

‘On the contrary, I’m not angry; she’s playing into our hands.’ Kel y checked his flashy Cartier watch.

‘When we release her to the authorities covered in blood, they’l believe her more readily. Now sit her down. I’l start on her now.’ He was so cold, acting as if I were just another boring item on the meeting agenda to be got through.

I tried to scratch my way free. ‘No, leave me alone!’

Gator dumped me in a chair and tied me to it with some flexi-cuffs. I couldn’t even wipe the blood off my cheek and had to let it trickle down and drip on to my chest. I was shaking.

‘She’s in shock,’ Maria said in disgust. ‘You’l not get much into her brain when she’s blank like this.’

Sean slithered up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders, inhaling deeply. ‘She’s not blank.

Lovely—fear, outrage, and horrible anticipation—a wonderful combination.’

Maria knocked his hands away. ‘Don’t. You’re magnifying her emotions. We don’t want her going catatonic on us.’

‘Oh no, there’s too much fight in her to take that route so soon.’

Gator shifted awkwardly. ‘Are you going to do that mind stuff on her, Mr Kel y?’

The businessman glanced up. ‘Yes. Why?’

‘Just don’t seem right,’ Gator muttered.

Maria pushed him away. ‘Oh, you’re pathetic! We know you hate our powers but remember who pays your wage, Gator.’

‘You should’ve let me just shoot a couple of them Benedicts,’ grumbled Gator.

‘But you missed,’ Maria said tartly. ‘Oh, I’ve had enough of this. Daddy, can we get on? I’ve the linen inventory to oversee.’

Daniel Kel y seized my head and held it tightly. I could feel his presence pushing at me, trying to take control. Merger and acquisition. I threw up my wal s, imagining piling the dressing table, bed and anything I could get my hands on to stop him getting past my shield. I couldn’t help but catch glimpses of what he was trying to plant in my brain. He was seeding pictures of Zed and Xav luring me off the street and imprisoning me in the boot of a battered old car.

They’d kept me there while pretending to join the search for me, then driven off with me under the nose of the local police force. They’d held me in an abandoned warehouse, laughed at me for believing Zed loved me, tormented me …

No! I slammed the door on his suggestions. The Benedicts did not do that—would never do that to anyone. Remember the truth. Gator and O’Hal oran.

The plane. The hotel. Think where you are.

The Benedicts hate you. Zed’s too everything foryou—too cool, too good looking—of course it hadto be a set up. You suspected that. He’s been usingyou. He and Xav do this to girls all the time. Theyhad to be stopped, officer. I had to shoot them. Itwas their gun I used.

No, no, no. I could feel my brain buckling under his assault. I’ve never shot anyone.

The image of the gun in my own hand was so strong, right down to the bitten nails.

That’s not me. Zed and Xav are stil alive. I haven’t shot them. My eyes flew open. ‘You’re going to shoot Zed and his brother?’

Daniel Kel y couldn’t hide his flare of shock that I had slipped out of his control. His clunky signet ring dug into my cheek, making my eyes water. ‘You may not pul the trigger but you wil think that you did.’

The images flooded back into my brain, bright reds, ink blacks, primary colours whirling. The heavy weight of a handgun in my palm. Zed dead by my hand. Xav too. I was a murderer, even though it had been in self-defence.

No.

Yes. That was how it happened. I was wrong about them. The Benedicts were a sick family.

They just want to torment those who fall into their hands. All of them sick, sick, sick.

This was wrong. Wrong.

I blacked out.

Over the next few hours, whenever I regained consciousness, I felt as if I had glass splinters burrowing into my brain. I couldn’t think straight. I had the impression of several sessions with Daniel Kel y’s dark eyes burning into my mind, my head held rigid in his grip. Sometimes Sean was there too, drinking in the backwash of my distress, making everything much worse. Kel y seemed angry that I was stil resisting but eventual y I was so confused my mind was crying out for me to take the easy way out and agree with what he was insisting was the truth.

‘Tel me again what happened, Sky,’ he ordered me for what seemed like the hundredth time.

‘You … you saved me.’ Images of him sweeping into hospital to offer comfort after the bloodbath in the warehouse flickered before my eyes. He’d come to my parents’ rescue, found us a private room, paid for their accommodation. Been so generous to the poor English family he’d heard about on the news.

‘That’s right. And who took you from the street?’