her head. “No. Never.”
“And what about Perimeter? Do you want to destroy it?”
“No.”
“Do you want to hurt anyone?”
“Yes.”
“Who do you want to hurt?”
“I want to hurt Adonis Zenner. I want to kill him.”
“Okay, shh. That’s fine. What about Johnny? Do you want to kill him?”
“I don’t know.”
“You told me you hate him. But you don’t want to hurt him?”
“I want to find him,” she explained carefully. “And I want to pay him back for taking my sister. But I don’t want to kill him unless he makes me do it.”
“Okay, I understand,” Zack said, his tone soothing. “You hate him and you want to find him.”
“Yes.”
“Do you trust him?”
“I don’t trust anyone but myself. And Shelby.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“No.”
“You let me hypnotize you. That means you trust me a little, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You trust Uncle Theo, don’t you?”
“Sometimes.”
“Okay, Sabrina.” Zack’s voice was steady and inspiring. “You did great. I’m going to wake you up now. Okay?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll count to five, and when you hear me say ‘five,’ you’ll wake up. Is that clear?”
“Yes.”
“When you wake up, you’ll remember everything we’ve said. But it won’t upset you. You’ll feel refreshed. Rested. Is that clear?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m going to count now. On five, you’ll wake up. One, two, three, four, five.”
Sabrina stirred and opened her eyes, then smiled sheepishly. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Zack’s green eyes were twinkling. “You did great.”
“I didn’t remember anything Johnny said.”
“He made you forget the session. But it seems like that’s all he managed to accomplish. Your subconscious must have really resisted him.”
Sabrina sighed. “You were right about Dad. He really did hypnotize me when I was a kid. I don’t know why that bothers me, but it does.”
“Seems pretty harmless. He just wanted you to look out for your baby sister.” Zack’s smile widened. “You must’ve been a cute kid. Calling it your mission.”
“That’s how it was with Dad. He made everything so much fun and dramatic. Life and death. But still just a game. I loved it. Then everything changed.”
“When Adonis killed him.”
She nodded. “And now Shelby’s in danger because of her connection to Dad’s past. It’s so creepy to think of Johnny alone with her, hypnotizing her at will. Making her do things. Reveal things. Forget things.” She cocked her head to the side. “If you could use DT3 on me, could you make me remember what Johnny was searching for in my head?”
“Theoretically,” Zack admitted. “He gave you a post-trance suggestion to forget the whole session. With DT3, I could counteract that, unless he password-protected it. Then it would take more time and some serious hacking.”
Sabrina winced at the harsh term, even though she realized he only meant it in the computer sense. “So if Dad did that—hid information in our heads and protected it with a password—Johnny could be trying to hack into that? That would explain why it’s taking him so long, right?”
“It’s a possibility,” Zack confirmed. “But it doesn’t seem like Sully did anything like that to you. And since you’re the oldest, it’s logical he would have hidden it in your head, not Shelby’s.”
“That makes sense.”
Zack nodded. “My guess is, John’s after a simple memory. But it’s taking time—not because it’s password-protected, but because he’s fishing for it. Maybe he doesn’t know exactly when the event happened, for example. So he’s regressing her, probing, that sort of thing. Zeroing in on it, but it’s taking some time.”
“I like that better than the hacking scenario,” Sabrina admitted. “Do you think he’ll let her go once he gets what he wants?”
Zack hesitated. “I guess that depends on his ultimate agenda. And what shape she’s in by then, mentally and otherwise. I just hope she still believes it’s a romantic getaway. If she figures out what’s going on, or if he stops pretending to care about her, she’ll be scared.”
“If she figures out what’s going on, she’ll try to escape,” Sabrina countered. When Zack gave a skeptical shrug, she smiled. “I hope Derringer underestimates her the same way you do. That gives her a strategic advantage.”
“The only strategic advantage we have is time. He doesn’t know about the second message she left you, so he thinks he has three more days before you get suspicious. We need to use every minute, so I’m outta here.” He handed Sabrina the stack of reports from Connor. “Find me the picture that looks the most like Shelby. I want to circulate it to my crew.”
“I brought a great photo of her with me, just in case. It’s in the trunk of my car.”
“Good. You two girls change hair color so often, it’s tough to keep track.”
She bristled at the implied criticism. “We went brunette at RAP’s suggestion. But over the years, we gradually phased back to blond.” Fingering a lock of her own hair, she explained, “This is our natural color. Shelby’s is the same, only longer, and with some added highlights, so it’s a little blonder.”
He pulled out a notebook and pen. “Height? Weight? You’re taller, right?”
“Yes. She’s five-five. Probably one hundred twenty pounds. She packed for a tropical island, which means lots of pink sundresses and strappy sandals. If any witnesses saw her, they’ll remember her.” She swallowed a lump of affection and concern. “I’ll get that photo. Wait here.”
She was glad for an excuse to head outside for a gulp of fresh air. All this talk about Shelby was getting to her. Too much talk, not enough action. And all the while, Johnny was invading Shelby’s mind. Endangering her sanity. All for some nefarious, unfathomable purpose.
If only you hadn’t been
