Firestorm by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online Page B

have him cross-examine her. She had told him the nightmares that had plagued her childhood were a thing of the past. Wishful thinking.
    She got her glass of milk and went outside and sat down on the back-porch steps. The wood was cool against her bare legs, and she drew a deep breath of the honeysuckle-scented air. This was normalcy. This was real. That shadowy figure of her dream was only a monster figment of her imagination.
    But it wasn't imagination. He was out there. He'd done that horrible thing and was still free to destroy more lives. Her fault. Her fault.
    Forget him. She had to live her own life. She couldn't keep punishing herself. She was no martyr. Her mother wouldn't have wanted her to blame herself. She lifted her glass and took a swallow of milk.
    The gazebo gleamed white in the moonlight. She'd have to give it another coat of paint tomorrow, but it looked pretty good right now. Laura had done a good job on the—
    “Is there room on that step for me?”
    She went rigid, her gaze flying to the man standing a few yards away.
    Brad Silver. Anger flared through her. “No, there's no room. Not on this step. Not in my life.” Her grip tightened on the glass of milk. “And what the hell are you doing here in the middle of the night? This is private property.”
    “You woke me up.” He sat down on the step beside her. “Entirely your fault. If you weren't so messed up, I'd have a much easier time of it.”
    “What do you mean, I woke you up?”
    “How often do you have dreams like that? I don't remember more than one or two in the last six months.”
    “Why should you—” She drew a deep breath. “What
are
you, and what have you been doing to me for the last six months?”
    “I haven't been doing anything but monitoring. I had to become familiar with you once I decided that you'd be the best choice. Travis told me that you were the one in the beginning, but I like to make my own choices.”
    “Monitoring?” She moistened her lips. “You've been prying in my mind. You're one of Michael's freak friends, aren't you?”
    He made a face. “I think he probably told you that I wasn't exactly normal when you called him. What did he say?”
    “Controller. He called you a controller.” She tried to keep her voice steady. “You were controlling my thoughts when Charlie was dying. How did you do it?”
    “Experience. I wasn't sure that I could shut down your connection and replace it with a false image. You're very strong.”
    “But you did it, damn you.”
    “Because you couldn't do it yourself. If you'd let Travis train you, it might not have been necessary for you to huddle in that closet like an animal in pain.”
    “I don't want to hear this.”
    She started to get up, but he reached out and jerked her back down. “I don't care if you want to hear it. I've been cooling my heels patiently in the background waiting for you to recover from all this trauma over your friend's death. Now I'm going to have my say and you'll listen.”
    “The hell I will.” She glared at him. “Keep your hands off me.”
    “I will. I've no desire to touch you.” He glared back at her. “But you will listen or I'll wake your brother and discuss both your nightmares and how I know about them. I don't think you want him to worry about having a nutcase for a sister.”
    “You bastard.”
    “Actually, I am. But that doesn't alter anything. It should only convince you that I'll do what I say.”
    He meant it. She glanced away from him. “Talk.”
    “I want you to do a job for me.”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    She said through her teeth, “Because you're a freak and you want to make me one too. I don't want anything to do with you. I told Michael Travis that five years ago.”
    “I don't have to make you a freak. You're already one. When you came out of that coma, you brought something back with you. You know it but you don't want to deal with it.”
    “I did deal with it,” she said fiercely. “I
use
it. That