“We’ll hold him until we’ve gone in and checked the residences of the agents for anything that might tip us off to who’s behind all this. By now, Lily’s talked to the admiral, and he’ll know what we’re doing.”
She averted her face and stared out into the gathering darkness. She didn’t want to talk about Henderson. He had to have known of the GhostWalker program. He certainly knew Whitney, and he knew about her. If both Jesse and Max had been psychically enhanced, Henderson would have known. And he’d let her believe she was teetering on the brink of insanity, not confirming nor denying Lily and the other girls’ existence. What had been the point? What would it have hurt to tell her the truth?
“Why didn’t he tell me, Nicolas?” Did she want to know? She could feel her insides knotting, tensing, churning with a kind of fear she didn’t want to identify. Was she finally overloading?
He reached over and put his hand over hers. “Dahlia, whatever these people do, they think they’re doing it for their country. It’s never personal with them. Henderson has spent his life in service. He may have thought he was protecting everyone. You’re an unknown to them. If they watched your childhood unfold on those tapes, if they followed your training, they’d see one side of you only. All the times you couldn’t control the energy and accidents occurred are caught on tape. That’s what they’d see. Not the Dahlia who practices with amethyst spheres until she can use the energy up. Or the Dahlia who works at becoming a human superconductor and races up the walls.”
“Floats,” she corrected.
“What?”
“Technically I float, not race,” she explained.
Nicolas smiled. “And they don’t see the scientist in you. They’ve missed all that about you because they see one side. When people don’t understand what’s happening, they’re afraid. Whitney never figured out what was wrong. He didn’t factor in that you would draw energy in complete opposition to the laws of the universe. Because Whitney didn’t know about the energy and couldn’t explain what was wrong, Henderson and his people didn’t know.”
“You always seem to say the right thing to make me feel better.”
Nicolas didn’t think so. She wasn’t feeling any better, but she was making an attempt to make him feel better. He remained quiet until he found the condo and got her inside. Lily had promised there would be clothes for Dahlia and sure enough, the closet in the bedroom had several pairs of jeans, shirts, and a dress or two and the dresser had underwear. Dahlia stared down at it then looked at him inquiringly.
“Lily. Don’t ask me how. We give her a shopping list, tell her where we want the stuff, and she delivers. Anything from weapons to ladies’ underwear.”
“She’s very involved in what you all do, isn’t she?” She worked to keep the wistful note from her voice.
“Yes. She’s a tremendous asset to us. Whitney set up trust funds for all of us, but when we’re out on a mission or we’re working for the Whitney Trust, Lily uses the power and money behind her name.”
“Does that bother you?”
“No.” He shrugged. “Whatever works and smoothes the way.” He lifted the pair of silky pajamas from the drawer. “These are beautiful, but I’m fond of you in my shirt.”
Dahlia took the pajamas out of his hands. “You’ve never seen me in anything else. You might change your mind.” The pajamas were a soft pale blue. The top was a little sexier than she’d ever worn, but Nicolas had seen her without clothes so she didn’t mind trying it. “I’m going to take a shower. Would you mind trying to find something for my headache? It just refuses to go away.”
“I’ve got something in my pack.” He retrieved the pack from the entryway where he’d left it when he’d gone through the condo on a quick check for exits and fast escapes. The water was already running and the bathroom steamy when he stepped inside the tiled room. Dahlia was in a large square Jacuzzi, her body covered with churning bubbles and her head pillowed by a small rolled towel on the back of the tub. He could see her breasts floating enticingly, peeking through the curtain of bubbles. Steam drifted around her, giving her a mysterious, elusive appearance. Her mane of black hair was slicked back from her face and her incredible skin gleamed at him. Nicolas felt the sexual jolt all the way through his body. How could he look at her body, her incredible skin, and not feel the urgent demand of every cell in his own body? She opened her eyes to catch him staring at her.