Mind Games - Page 208
“To the prison?”
“Yes, but … in my head. I wanted to see, and I let him see me. It was bad, like a cage. Not bars, a door, but a cage, and he was scared, and angry. I was glad of it. But I took that opening to satisfy myself, and I think that gave him one, too. It made more of a connection. I made a mistake.”
“You were, what, twelve? And grieving.”
“But I went back again, more than once. I shouldn’t have used what I’ve been given for that. I did.”
“He killed your parents.”
“He killed my parents, and others before them. He corrupted what he had long ago. And he used it. Used it to kill people, to steal, to hurt. He uses it to hurt me when he can. He always will.”
“There has to be a way to stop it.”
Weary, she just shook her head.
“It’s going on sixteen years now. It’s hurting him more. Physically. He gets nosebleeds, bleeds from the ears. Gets vicious headaches, but he won’t stop. I don’t think he can. I’m handling it.”
At his long, quiet look, her spine stiffened.
“Today—you called it overloaded, and that’s accurate. If that was a panic attack, it was my last. I know how to control things, how to block. My mother didn’t like it. It all made her anxious and unhappy. Grammie shut it down when Mom was here. I learned to do the same as a child. Grammie taught me more, a lot more. And after I made the mistake with the boy in college, I taught myself more. Riggs barely got in for years. Then…”
She got up. “I need some caffeine, something.”
“I’ll get it.”
“I need to move.” She walked back to the kitchen, got out a Coke, chugged some down. “You can have one if you want.”
“I do. And then what, Thea?”
“Musk and Howard, the detectives. It was the same day my professor called me in to talk about the game I’d designed for my final. The day I was beyond happy because he was going to send it to his cousin at Milken. I wanted that so much. I was going back to the dorm, get the rest of my things to head home on break. And they were waiting for me.”
“About Riggs?”
“No. They wanted my help, and I couldn’t say no. I wanted to—I kept all that away since I’d told that boy who turned out not to be worth it. But I couldn’t say no. A girl, abducted, the last of a series of them. Just fifteen. He’d hold them for four days, then kill them, dump their bodies, and she was running out of time.”
She drank more Coke. “They had her earrings, a pair of her earrings, so I took them, and I opened to her, and I saw her, so scared, so cold. And I saw him because she had, then the outside of the house and the house number because he had, his car, the plate.”
“You saved her life.”
“That’s what they said when they told me they’d gotten her out, and they’d arrested him. Opening so wide like that, it gave Riggs a bigger crack. But I can’t regret it. I don’t regret it.”
“Have you done anything like that again?”
“A few times, but … I wanted this place, not just for Grammie and Rem, though they’re the biggest part of it. The people around here, they know about my family, and it’s a natural sort of thing to them. I needed that. I wanted a life here, a quiet life here, a place I could do my work.
“I slipped, Tyler, with that damn truck, I just slipped. I wanted him to have what he wanted, and it was such a little thing. Just like Rem swearing because he can’t find his wallet—and he’s always misplacing it. I’ll say, or Grammie will, where he’d left it this time. Just a little thing. And with your scar, all the barriers were down. The only other time, and that was deliberate, way back in the summer, I was starting up the lane from your house and I wanted to see if you watched me. So I looked without turning around. Silly, indulgent, but I swear that’s it.”
“Was I?”
She gave a little nod. “Boosted my ego, that’s all. But I’m careful, and controlled. I don’t pry.”
“Understood. How’s the headache?”
“It’s gone. I was too emotional, too upset. I just lost the wheel for a while.”
“I’m going to be honest and tell you I wouldn’t have believed any of this, not without proof.”
She looked away from him, shrugged. “You’re hardly alone there.”
