“Won’t you have some?” I ask.
“Will that make you more comfortable?” She’s on to me.
“Yes, I would like you to drink first.” No sense hiding what I feel.
“Hanging with Jax would make anyone wary,” Dell says. She pours another cup.
I screw up my courage and ask, “Did you and he…date?”
Dell laughs with a low throaty sound. “I wouldn’t call it that.”
I imagine the two of them entwined in bed.
I don’t want to know any more. I pick up the cup, almost take a drink, then set it down again. Dell hasn’t touched hers.
A small panel near the floor opens across the room, and a silver object rolls out like a metal bowling ball.
I resist the urge to pull my feet up on the sofa as it travels across the carpet to rest by Dell’s ankles.
“Ah, good,” Dell says. She presses her palm to the surface of the ball. It glows green, and with a strange hiss, the top section pops up and twists open. Inside is a lovely bracelet with a line of clear crystals and a large gold clasp.
Dell picks it up. “Thank you,” she says to the object, which responds by sealing itself closed and rolling back to the open panel.
Weird.
Dell turns to me. “This is a very important accessory for you,” she says and slides closer to me. “It acts as a key to all the rooms in this building. You are free to move about this living space as well as a kitchen, bedroom, spa, and gym.”
She snaps the bracelet on my wrist. “You are not a prisoner here, Mia. We want to get you home and back to your normal life. It’s just not simple once you’re brought to a facility as high security as this one.”
I shake my wrist. The crystals tinkle together like any normal bracelet. “How does it work?”
“When the scanners get to it, the doors will just open for you.”
“They don’t know who I am, like the other people?”
Dell hesitates, as if weighing her words. “You are not in our system.”
That makes sense. Everyone was so surprised that only my name popped up on those glass screens.
I glance around, realizing there are multiple identical door panels in the circular room. I’m no longer sure which one I came in.
“How do you get back aboveground?” I ask.
“Now that’s another thing entirely,” she says. “There are limited entry points. You’ll be escorted for that.”
“Will Jax do it?”
I see her patience is wearing thin on this subject. “I don’t think you’ll be seeing Mr. De Luca today.”
Or ever again, if I understand her tone. I arrange my face into a simplistic smile and repeat my earlier question as though I’m not terribly sharp. “How long until I get to go?”
“As soon as we can arrange it.”
Or, I think, as soon as I can get myself out of here and find Jax.
17: Jax
Two guards come through a side door to stand on either side of me.
