“Then leave my family alone. They didn’t do anything. Theycan’tdo anything. And my mom, for your information, is totally in the dark.”
“Jacob already has a bot posting and re-posting a video of your experiments in the Arbolito Springs Mall online.”
Jen raised her hand. “Not anymore.”
I gulped. Oh God, how permanent wasnot anymore? “He was just trying to help me, to be a good guy, and now he’s screwed thanks to me.”
“There’s a lesson there, if you’d just stop to think for a moment.” Dane turned his back on me to walk away, and I launched. Right at him.
Dove into his midsection with all the strength my rubbery legs had in them. Dane struck the edge of the table, went down cock-eyed, me with him. His head hit the floor—the old carpet had only dust for padding—so I had a sec to search first the left inside pocket of his coat—nothing there—then the right. Yes!
My fingers snagged the fabric of the glove as I was dragged back.
I could be an EldWitch in real life. I had to be.
A hard jerk whipped me off my feet as I slipped it on, but Carlo winched my arm back and peeled the glove from my hand.
Dane was just rising from the floor.
“Damn it, Imogen, I told you if I can help you, I will. But this situation must be fully contained…for your safety, and the safety of your mother, your friends, and even your little hacker buddy. Brayden Price lost his life because of that technology, and if you don’t work with us to get rid of the moths, then you can never,everreturn to the life you had. Have you thought of that? Is that what you want?”
I twisted against Carlo’s hold but he just cranked my arm higher until my elbow creaked and I gasped. “If you want me to trust you, then give me my glove back.” Then I wouldn’t feel so weak. So fucking helpless.
“I can’t do that.” Dane leaned down a little to meet my glower where I was hunched under Carlo’s grip. “You can’t control it. Too often, you act on your emotions. Maybe with a little discipline and maturity—”
“Fuck your discipline and maturity.” My naked hand burned to fry him, but I couldn’t.
The bastard had me right where he wanted me.
In the great scheme of things, how important was I? Either I was not important at all, and therefore disposable, or I was extremely important, which raised the very obvious question: Why would he ever let me go?
Had I really thought he was going to find a way to cure me, give me a million dollars, and then let me go back to my old life, minus job? Talk about TSTL. Too stupid to live. In my defense—and yeah, it was a weak one—I’d been really tired and freaked out when I’d agreed to cooperate.
Carlo muscled me into a chair and zip-tied my wrists behind me.
Dane pulled up a chair opposite me. “Shall we try this again?”
“How about you blow me?”
“Jesus, your mouth,” Dane muttered as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Finally, he looked me dead in the eyes. “Shall we start again?”
“You mean by drugging me?”
“We had to do some tests.”
“Against my will. My hands hurt, by the way.”
“They’ll go numb soon,” he answered. “I know from experience.”
“You never did tell me what agency you work for,” I said. Who was I really dealing with? If it was only these three, did I have a chance at escaping?
He narrowed his eyes at me. “No, I didn’t. What did you tell Swann Singh?”
“She can’tdoanything. She doesn’t have the videos.”
“What did you tell her?”
I was a shit friend. “Just about my glove exploding on me. That’s it, and thousands of people saw it online, so if you go after her, you have to go after all of them.”
