Sinner (15 page)

Ben Manning, the black senator from Nevada, was frowning. “I am, and I'm not sure I like them. What about her?” Nodding at Darcy.

She glanced at Billy. Compared to him, her ability was virtually untested. Apart from the kiss, of course. She wasn't about to seduce anyone in this room.

Again, Billy came to the rescue. “Darcy can . . . what shall we say . . .help people do what they want to do. Or know they should do. Or what is logical to do. Or something like that.”

“So you don't actually know what you can do?” Annie said.

“Well, evidently I can be persuasive. You'll have to ask Billy. He kissed me this morning.” She dropped the admission in his lap and sat back to see how he would deal with it.

“Not exactly what I'd call a miracle,” Lawhead said.

Billy's face had reddened a shade. “Trust me, sir, her ability to persuade isn't tied to any adolescent fantasies. Her words can be quite influential.”

“You can persuade people to do what they're predisposed to do,”Annie said. “As Newton said, that's not exactly a miracle.”

“What do you want me to do, fly around the room for you? I'm not some freak on the Net. Please, take your glasses off. Just for one second.”

The president's chief of staff plucked her dark lenses off and stared Darcy down with baby blues.

“Surely there's at least one person in this room you'd love to slap for the way they've conducted themselves lately. This is, after all,Washington. Slap them now.”

At first there was no change in Annie's demeanor.“Don't be ridiculous.”

“Just one slap, honey. He deserves it, you know he does.”

Sweat beaded on Annie's forehead. She tapped a French manicured nail on a glass half filled with amber liquor. “This is ludicrous.What a juvenile suggestion.”Her lips were trembling, just barely, but enough to betray her struggle. “The fact that you would even
think
of this shows just how immature you are. Yes, this
is
Washington—not some sorority house!”

Darcy leaned forward, speaking low, enunciating each word clearly. “He deserves it, you know he does. And you know he would slap you if I asked him to. Under the plastic smiles in Washington, everyone wants to slap his neighbor. Do it now, Annie.”

The war being waged in Annie's mind was now not only unmistakable but a bit frightening. No one rose to her position in this town without having extraordinary control of her faculties.

“This is ridiculous . . .”

But that control was slipping.

“Okay, I think you've made your point,” Ben Manning said.

“Slap him, Annie. Do it now.”

“I can't! Don't . . .” She stopped, closed her eyes, trying to maintain the last threads of control. When her eyes snapped open, Darcy knew something had changed.

Annie reached over and struck Ben Manning on his shoulder with an open hand.“No!” She struck him again, unleashing a fit of anger directed at the Nevada senator. “No, no, no! How dare you threaten to expose the president's university binges over his stand on the health-care bill? He was just a kid!”

Annie stopped, stared at Darcy with wide eyes, slipped her glasses back on, and then lowered her head into her hands.

Okay. Awkward.

“Please tell me I didn't just do that,” Annie mumbled, face red.

Ben Manning had paled. The rest didn't know how to react except to look between Darcy and Annie.

“Forgive me, Ben,”Annie said, turning to the man. “I . . . I don't know what came over me. I didn't mean any of it . . .” She swallowed. “Well, yes, I did mean it, actually. Every word. But I had no right to act so unprofessionally. I'm sorry.”

Lyndsay Nadeau smiled. “Well, well, well . . .” The attorney general looked like she was enjoying herself. “My deepest apologies, Brian. I'm impressed.” She addressed Darcy. “Can you make people do things they don't want to?”

She was about to say no when Billy spoke. “It's too early to know.”

“You may find all of this amusing, Miss Nadeau,” Ben Manning said, “but I find it troubling. Setting these two loose in our nation's capital would be incredibly irresponsible!”

“Which is why we are here,” Kinnard said.

“Ben's right,”Annie said, arms crossed now. “This could be dangerous.”

“Unless they work for us,” the overweight senator from New York, Fred Hopkins, said.

“We're not guns for hire,” Darcy snapped.

None of them seemed too interested in her comment.

“Imagine these two on the Senate floor,” someone said.

“Heaven help us all.”

“Whatever the advantage, two minds with these abilities would destroy Washington,”Manning said. “We can't allow it.”

The attorney general faced him. “What are you suggesting?”

For the first time, the full extent of their predicament settled over Darcy. She and Billy presented a real danger to the men and women in this room. One that might push them to extreme measures.

She turned to Billy and saw that a trail of sweat marked his temple.

“Yes, Ben, what are you suggesting?” he demanded. “That we should be suppressed somehow, knocked off?”

The senator just stared at them.

“Why don't you bolster my trust in you by removing your glasses so that I can see what you're really thinking?”

But Manning made no move to remove his glasses.

“Don't be foolish,” Lawhead snapped. “We're looking at what might be this country's most valuable asset. I suggest we put our minds to protecting that asset!”

“Agreed,” the attorney general said. Lyndsay Nadeau watched Darcy with a smile.“Don't you worry, dear. Argument is just part of the whole process.”

“You're right,” Annie said. “This could be good.”

Manning shook his head. “If you're thinking we should use them to manipulate discussions made on the hill . . .”

“Come on, Ben, no one's suggesting we waltz Darcy into the White House to seduce the president,” Lawhead said. “There are other ways to test the waters, so to speak.”

“Assuming our two guests are in favor of working with us,” Lyndsay said. “This is more about them than us.”

They looked at Darcy and Billy.

“Yes, assuming,” Lawhead said. “Brian?”

Kinnard had worn a perpetual grin. He might not hold the most power in this room, but he was clearly the mastermind.

“Our proposal is simple,”Kinnard said to Darcy and Billy. “Commit to this council. Change Washington with us. Change the world. In exchange, we will provide for you without limitation. More importantly, we will guarantee your security. You are already in the crosshairs.”

“That simple, huh?” Billy said.

“If you choose to go it alone, you're free to leave after this meeting.”

“And if we stay? What would we do? Besides sit tight up in our glass box?”

Both Lyndsay and Lawhead spoke at once, then stopped. No shortage of ideas, naturally. The other members still sat in shock, trying to figure out if what they'd just witnessed was somehow rigged. But they were also reeling over the implications of the power, assuming it was real.

Lawhead looked around the table. “If I may?”

Lyndsay Nadeau nodded. She was the top authority here,Darcy thought. They would argue, but she would cast the final vote.

“I admit, this could . . . There's no telling what the repercussions of . . .” Lawhead shook his head. “It's hard to believe.”He stood and walked to the bar.“We have to be cautious. See what we really have here.You've probably heard of these lynchings in Missouri. Homicide motivated by both race and religion with an intent to elicit revenge.”

Darcy had heard it on the news just last night. Disturbing.

Lawhead poured himself a drink. “Two persons of color have been hanged in the last week, in and around Kansas City, one on Kansas soil, one on Missouri soil, making the case a federal one. Both victims were abducted immediately following the religious services they'd attended and found hung behind the church. Someone clearly has a beef with black Christians.”

He faced Billy and Darcy, drink in hand. “What would you think about helping the FBI stop the killer?”

“No,” Ben Manning snapped. “Not before we know more about these abilities.”

Lyndsay Nadeau came to their defense. “Please, Mr.Manning, the suggestion seems reasonable to me.”

“They should be locked up, not escorted around the country by the FBI.”

They all turned to the senator from Nevada.

“Some respect for our guests,” Kinnard demanded. “I don't think you appreciate—”

“I appreciate the fact that I was just slapped by Miss Ruling because of this woman. I appreciate that she has no business out in public. Even less business mixing with anyone who has any power in this country.”

Darcy felt the blood drain from her face. She didn't know quite what to say.

Lawhead set his glass down. “You're overreacting,Mr.Manning.”

But Manning wasn't easing up. “I insist you put them both under armed guard.”

“They are,” Kinnard said.

“And kept there.”

“So now you want to incarcerate us?” Billy demanded. He faced Kinnard. “This is what you bring us to?”

“Actually . . .” Fred Hopkins, short and plump, wiped his beaded brow with a hankie. “Ben has a point. I realize this is awkward for all of us, but if the wrong party got their hands on Darcy in particular . . .” He didn't bother finishing the thought. “And she could do some major damage on her own.”

The room fell silent. Darcy suspected that Billy was as taken aback as she over this assault.

Lyndsay Nadeau was the one who settled the issue.

“I appreciate your concern, and I'm sure that the FBI will take it under advisement. For the time being, let's keep you two under tabs, shall we? If you're not with Kinnard it would be best to stay in secure quarters.”

“You're actually imprisoning us?”

“We are protecting you, just until we can figure this out.”

“Nonsense!” Darcy cried.

Billy's hand on her arm immediately settled her.

“She's right, Darcy. It's for our protection.”

But Senator Ben Manning's stern scowl spoke nothing of protection, she thought. He looked like a man who wanted their heads on a platter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE AUTOMATIC weapon trembled in Katrina Kivi's hands as she walked down the hall toward the living room where Johnny and Kelly waited for her.

Jumbled thoughts pounded through her mind. Wrong,
wrong
, she was a fool to even think she could . . .

. . . do
what
? What did she think she would do?

. . . force them, force him, force anyone to just listen!

. . . she'd never aimed a gun at anyone. This wasn't her, not her, not Katrina Kivi, so why?

Because she had to do something, anything. She was only doing what he would do—pretend—because whoever Father Johnny was, he wasn't a priest.

Her hands felt slimy on the steel of the automatic. She nearly turned and ran back to the closet. She could still get back there and dump the weapons before they had any clue she'd gone this far.

But she kept on walking, ignoring her mother's voice in the back of her head mumbling that mantra about how her stubbornness would get her into real trouble one day. That one day was here. It was now.

Her eyes stung, blurring her vision, and she knew, she just knew this was a bad, bad idea.

But she'd done it. It was too late.

A strange concoction of fear and rage screamed through Kat's head, and then she was around the corner, facing the back of Kelly's head on the couch. She stood behind Kelly, momentarily affixed to the carpet, gun extended.

“. . . never know how it could turn out,” Johnny was saying from the kitchen.

Again Kat nearly fled.

Again she forced her feet forward.

And then the gun was only three feet from the back of Kelly's head and Johnny was exiting the kitchen. “I think we . . .”

He saw her and stopped, bottle of water half raised to his mouth.

Kat stared at his black glasses. “Don't move, or she dies.” Her words weren't hers, they couldn't be, because she wouldn't really say that, not really. She was a sixteen-year-old girl who had run into some bad luck with the Muslims; she was not a killer!

But she had said that. And now that she'd said it, her fear gave way to all the rage holed up for years.

Kelly turned her head.

“Don't move!” Kat screamed, gripping the gun more firmly. “Neither of you, don't—”

Kelly moved fast, whipping around, knocking the weapon aside with a brutal chop. The weapon flew from Kat's hands.

Kat may have been stalled by her lack of experience when it came to guns, but she'd been in her share of fights, and now on the defensive, her instincts returned.

She had the second gun out of her waistband before the automatic weapon hit the carpet. Fired one shot into the wall, surprised by the noise. The tremendous recoil forced her to take a step backward.

“I said don't move!”

Kelly now faced her, standing just beyond the couch with her hands half raised. Johnny still hadn't moved.

“Don't think I won't shoot,” Kat cried. Her hands were still shaking, but now due to the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

Johnny slowly lowered the bottle in his right hand. She swiveled the gun to cover him, but then thought better of it and trained the barrel back on Kelly. Oddly enough, neither of them seemed too put off by her show of force, and this angered her more.

“I swear, I'll shoot.”

“What do you want, Katrina?” Johnny asked in a soft voice.

Yes, what do you want, Katrina?

“Sit down. I want you to sit down.”

“Why?”