Okay, kiddo, lets get this show on the road. Locke sounded so much like herself, so normal, that it was hard to remember she was holding a gun. Ive got a present for you. Im going to go get it. If you move while Im gone, if you so much as blink, Ill put a bullet in your knee, beat you within an inch of your life, and put a matching bullet in lover boys head.
She gestured toward Dean. He was unconscious, but alive. And Michael
I couldnt even look at Michaels body, lying prone on the floor.
I wont move.
She was only gone for seconds. I took a single step toward Michaels abandoned gun and froze, because I knew our captor was telling the truth. Shed kill Dean. Shed hurt me.
Even a moments hesitation was too long, and an instant later, Locke was backand she wasnt alone.
Please dont hurt me. Please. My dad has money. Hell give you whatever you want, just please dont
It took me a moment to recognize Genevieve Ridgerton. There were ugly cuts on her neck and shoulders. Her face was swollen beyond recognition, and there was blood crusted on her scalp. The skin around her mouth was pink, like someone had just ripped off a strip of tape. She made a mewling sound, halfway between a gargle of water and a moan.
I told you once, Agent Locke said to me, knife in hand and a wide smile growing on her face, that I was only ever a Natural at one thing.
I struggled to remember the exchange, one of the first things shed ever said to me, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. Id assumed she was referring to sexbut the helpless, hopeless expression in Genevieves eyes left very little doubt what Lockes so-called gift was.
Torture.
Mutilation.
Death.
She considered herself a Natural killer, and she was waiting for me to say something. Waiting for me to compliment her work.
You knew my mother. You hit me, you hurt me, you told me it was my fault. You were almost certainly abused as a child. You called me kiddo. Im not like your other victims. You sent me presents. You groomed me .
The first day we met, I said, hoping the expression on my face looked earnest enough, innocent enough to please her, when you said you were a Natural at only one thing, you also said that you couldnt tell me about it until I was twenty-one.
Locke looked genuinely pleased that I remembered. That was before I knew you, she said. Before I realized how very like me you were. I knew you were Lorelais daughter. Of course I knewI was the one who flagged you in the system. I spoon-fed you to Briggs. I brought you here, because you were Lorelais, but once I started working with you Her eyes were alight with a strange glow, like a blushing brides or a pregnant ladys, brimming with happiness from the inside out. You were mine, Cassie. You belonged with me. I thought I could wait until you were older, until you were ready, but youre ready now .
She pushed Genevieve roughly down to her knees. The girl collapsed, her body shaking, the taste of her terror potent in the air. Locke saw me looking at Genevieve, and she smiled.
I got her for you.
Gun still in her right hand, Locke held her knife out to me with her left, hilt first. The look in her eyes was hopeful, vulnerable, hungry .
You want something from me .
Locke didnt want to kill meor
maybe she did, but she wanted this more. She wanted me to take the knife. She wanted me to slit Genevieves throat. She wanted me to be her protégé in more ways than one.
Take the knife.
I took the knife. I eyed the gun, still in her hands, trained on my forehead.
Is that really necessary? I asked, trying to act as though the thought of turning this knife against the sobbing girl on the floor didnt make me want to throw up. If Im going to do this, I want it to be mine .
I was speaking her language, telling her what she wanted to hear: that I was like her , that we were the same , that I understood that this was about anger and control and having the power to decide who lived and who died. Slowly, Locke lowered the gun, but she didnt put it down. I measured the distance between us, wondering if I could sink the knife into her before she could get a shot off at me.
She was stronger than I was. She was better trained. She was a killer.
Stalling for time, I knelt next to Genevieve. I bent down, bringing my lips to her ear, letting the expression on my face take on a hint of the madness I saw in Lockes. Then, my voice so low that only Genevieve could hear me, I whispered to the girl, Im not going to hurt you. Im going to get you out of here.
Genevieve looked up, her body still crumpled into a ball on the floor. She reached out and grabbed me by the front of my shirt.
Kill me, she pleaded, the words escaping cracked and bleeding lips. You kill me, before she does.
I knelt there, frozen, and Locke lost it. She morphed from a teacher observing her star pupil into an angry, animal creature. She pounced on Genevieve, turning the girl on her back, pinning her to the floor, her hands encircling her neck.
You dont touch Cassie, she said, her voice rising to a yell, her face so close to Genevieves that the younger girl had nowhere to go. You. Dont. Get. To. Decide.