“Look, you did your best. No reason to feel sorry.”
“Really? Then why is it that in the last week since I failed with Mae, I’ve done nothing except sit around the house? Adam’s off to do fancy research, Sarah’s in and out, Rafael’s gone, you’re not here most of the time. Everyone else is busy, and I’m lucky if I get to make a grocery run.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Help!”
“Annie, no one would have recognized that man as being from Keane. If anyone else had been sent to contact Mae, they would have been caught. Probably killed. If you hadn’t been paying attention, you would have been snatched. And Fia would have been in trouble, too, for lying about killing you. It’s not worth risking that.”
“Fia would be fine,” I mutter, putting my feet up on the dash. “She always figures it out.”
“I don’t blame you for what happened with Mae.”
“Really? Because I blame me.”
“She had a choice, and she made the wrong one. But you gave her options. No one did that for you.”
“That’s not true. Fia told me not to go to the school, and I didn’t listen.”
“Again, not your fault.”
I rub my forehead, the beginnings of a headache pulsing behind my eyes. I haven’t had so much as a hint of a vision since the one with Mae. Maybe my own brain has decided I’m worthless, too.
“I was thinking,” he says. “If you wanted to learn some self-defense, I’d be happy to teach you.”
“What good will that do?”
“More than you think. We’d play to your strengths.”
“In case you haven’t been paying attention, I’m a scrawny blind girl.”
“Exactly. Let other people underestimate you, and then use that to your advantage.”
“So basically you’re saying my strength is that I have no strengths.”
His staccato laugh rings through the car and I smile in spite of myself.
“Okay, fine,” I say. “You can teach me some things. After tea. I need some tea like nobody’s business.”
He pulls to a stop. I get out of the car and try to decide what kind of tea day today is while he gets the bags.
“Looks like Rafael is here,” Cole says, not sounding particularly enthused. I, on the other hand, have missed the sexy sounds of Rafael’s voice. Nobody reads a menu like him. I can’t help but feel a little giddy knowing I’ll get to hang out with him. It’s just mindless flirting—curse his not-right hands—but a little mindless flirting makes me feel real and normal in the most comforting way.
“I hope he brought Sarah!” I hurry up the stairs and throw open the door. “Hey,” I call. “Who’s back?”
I take a few steps, then the groceries drop to the floor with a shattering of glass jars as Cole grabs me and shoves me to the closed door. His back presses against me, blocking my whole body. “What the—”
That’s when the unfamiliar but instantly recognizable sound of a gun being cocked fills the air. “Well now,” says a voice I never expected to hear again. The phantom smell of mustard and the memory of a thousand times walking past him overcomes me. Hallway Darren. “You look good for being dead, Annie. Come on in.”
Cole takes my arm, keeping me behind him as we walk forward slowly. Then Cole is roughly pulled away. I hear him pushed to the floor, a low grunt his only protest.
“Don’t bother with this one.” Hallway Darren shoves me onto the couch. “She’s not any trouble without her sister. Finish tying him up and put him next to the other guy.” He must be talking about Rafael.
“I got it,” another man says.
“Anyone else in the house? I’l
l know if you’re lying.” A woman, speaking from across the room. I don’t know if she’s a Reader or a Feeler, but either way, we’re screwed.