“What are we going to do then, Kaylee?” Elijah shouted. “Why don’t you just hire some sharpshooters to go to the Res and pick these people off?”
“It is extremely difficult to get rid of a body,” Kaylee said. “Extremely difficult.”
Elijah got the distinct and unnerving impression that Kaylee had some experience with this.
“People start talking,” she said. “The Res doesn’t want to attract attention. And I don’t want bad PR. If customers are scared to come into our casino because they think it’s run by murderers or witches, we’ve all lost our ability to make a living in a safe environment.”
“I don’t care about that shit,” Elijah insisted. “We can’t leave her out there. That’s not an option. I can’t let Rob put his hands on her.”
“I guarantee you that is going to happen before we get back to Vegas,” Kaylee said.
Elijah felt like murder. “Consensually?” His voice broke.
Kaylee swallowed and took a long breath. “With mind changers thrown into the mix, it’s so hard to say where consent ends and force begins.”
“And you’re abandoning her to that because of PR?” Elijah demanded. “Why, Kaylee, why? What is so important about PR, more important than Holly?”
And suddenly it flashed into Kaylee’s mind, so it flashed into his. “You found Mr. Diamond dead, and you’re afraid the whole casino will fall apart without him.”
“Don’t you dare!” she shrieked. “Get out of my mind and don’t you dare tell anybody what you know. The casino can’t show weakness. The Res will take us over in a heartbeat!”
Elijah let Kaylee’s words pass over him like the dust over the Pontiac. He concentrated on her mind. The louder she shouted, and the more flustered she got, the more the blinds she’d pulled down over her thoughts inched upward.
“Just try me,” she dared him.
Elijah relaxed against the seat and let the headlight beams blur in front of him. He tugged at the blind. It didn’t budge. But it was still a millimeter up. He peeked underneath. He saw her struggling. She should let go and change his mind now. Change his mind about reading hers. That would protect her. But if she did that, she’d have to abandon the blind keeping him out, and in that moment he might see something he could use against her, such as—
“Holly is your half sister,” he said.
As her body jerked in astonishment, he stomped the brake and hauled the steering wheel to the right. The tires screamed in protest and a cloud of dust filled the car. He opened the door and dove out. The car was still moving. The heels of his hands hit sharp rocks and he tumbled into the dirt.
He got up and ran for his life and Holly’s. He knew he wouldn’t get far. He was wearing flip-flops, and the dark landscape was littered with scrub. He only hoped to stay far enough away from Kaylee that she couldn’t control him. But even that was futile. Before he’d gotten more than a few yards away, he changed his mind about running.
The headlights cut his legs in half and stretched his shadow all the way to the distant barren mountains. The car stopped beside him, engine rumbling. Kaylee left the driver’s seat and scooted back into the passenger side.
He put his hand on her door and leaned down to talk to her. “You’re scared to go back to the Res,” he said gently. “You would do anything to save Holly except go there yourself.”
She looked down at her hands. “No, you’re right.” She sniffled. “They’ll probably catch us both, but I couldn’t live with myself if I left her out there without even trying to save her. Let’s go.”
Elijah bounded around the car and slipped behind the wheel. He stomped the accelerator and sped back toward Holly.
Kaylee muttered, “I hate mind readers.” She took something out of the pocket of her suit jacket and handed it to him. “Here.”
He peered at the object in his palm and then the road and then the object by turns in the dim glow from the headlights and the stars. It appeared to be a jawbreaker covered in powdered diamonds, with TWO MILE HIGH CANDY CO. stamped on it.
“Uh-oh,” he said. “What’s this?”
“A very high dose of Mentafixol,” she said. “Take that and your power will be erased permanently.”
“Why are you giving it to me?” He tossed it back into her lap like a live grenade. Then he realized he’d rudely thrown it at her crotch, but damn. “Kaylee, don’t change my mind and make me take this pill. That’s morally wrong on so many levels. You can’t do that to me.”
She handed it back to him. “I’m not going to make you take it, Elijah. I want you to take it on your own. Your life and Holly’s will be hell from now on. The Res will sic you on each other and use you against your own parents, everybody at the casino. If you take this pill, they won’t be able to use you at all, and they won’t have nearly as much fun manipulating Holly.”
“Talk about hell!” he exclaimed. “Why would I want to live my life without power?”
She shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad before, was it?”
He looked over at her. He couldn’t see her face clearly in the night, but he could feel her thoughts. She knew the answer to his question. A wave of guilt washed over her, and she looked away.
He peered at the pill in his hand again. He rolled it along the lifeline in his palm. “It’s like a spy movie. You’re giving me arsenic in case I’m captured.”
“I’ve lived at the Res, Elijah. You haven’t.” For a split second, she opened up her mind to him and let him see what had happened to her. A split second of violation in the hot dark.
19
Holly didn’t wait to find out whether Violet and Nate were hurt. As soon as the SUV stopped tumbling and crunched to a stop upright, she broke open the hatchback with her mind, jumped out on her high heels, and ran. She tripped over a low bush. Stumbling, she wondered whether she could fly? She could, propelling herself forward with her toes inches from the ground, but her mind was even more tired and sore than her body. She set herself down and ran again.
As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she realized she was on a dirt road. Rounding a curve between cliffs, she saw a weathered sign for a subdivision.
Meadgate
The Gate to Lake Mead
Civilization, thank God! And just beyond the sign was a two-story rock house of recent design with perhaps ten cars parked in the yard, dust trembling underfoot from the cranked-up bass beat of a rock song.