“What the hell kind of phone is that?”
“Multitasking,” he said shortly, waiting for her.
There were a few steps up into the house, and she stumbled slightly, but he was smart enough not to try to steady her. Maybe he knew she was at the very edge of self-control and if he touched her she might start screaming. Something she hadn’t done in a very long time.
He followed her in, closing the door behind them. “There’s food if you’re hungry,” he said. “The house is kept completely stocked.”
She looked around her. The scene before her looked like the set of a perfect television show, with everything safe and ordinary and in its place. Normal, and yet absolutely artificial.
“Where is the Brady Bunch?” she muttered.
“Who?”
She glanced at him. For once he was totally clueless—hardly a cause for rejoicing when the only thing she had over him was knowledge of odd TV shows. “Never mind,” she said. “Where do I sleep?”
“Any bedroom you want. Check the closets until you find clothes in your size. There should be a suitcase as well—pack enough clothes for a week.”
“A week? We aren’t staying here?”
“We aren’t staying anyplace for long.”
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
“Away.”
She wanted to throw something at him. “And I’m just supposed to trust you?”
“You don’t have much choice.”
He was right about that. She didn’t want to stay with him another hour, let alone a week. He confused and frightened and upset her. Not for the obvious reasons. Given the circumstances, it made perfect sense that she would be a basket case.
No, it was more than just the patently insane situation she’d found herself in. It was the man himself, dark, disturbing, eerily beautiful. Her stomach knotted every time he came near her. She’d never reacted to anyone as she reacted to Taka O’Brien, and her response was even more unsettling than the total upheaval of her life.
She didn’t think she could survive another week.
“Why are you doing this?” she finally asked. “Why have you made it your mission to save my life?”
“I haven’t. You’re an assignment.”
It was like a slap in the face, but she recovered quickly. “An assignment from whom?”
He hesitated a moment, the first time he’d ever seemed uncertain. “The Committee.”
“What committee?”
“That’s it. All you need to know. More than you need to know.”
“Then why did you tell me?”
He had no answer.
She needed food even more than she needed the answers he refused to give her. She went straight to the refrigerator, opening the freezer compartment. “Ben & Jerry’s ice cream,” she breathed, leaning against the open door. “I may cry.”
“You’d cry over ice cream and not over a friend being killed?”
He sounded no more than casually curious, and she shouldn’t have felt the need to defend herself. “Tears don’t help,” she said tightly.
“True enough.”