I thought I didn't have any tears left, but my eyes filled. He was only forty miles away, but Dad might as well have been on the other side of the ocean. "That your father?"

Deeps strode toward me.

"Yeah."

He picked up the remote, and activated the Paternal Controls, then clicked off the screen. "Hard to watch, I bet."

I tilted my face toward him before wiping my eyes with my sleeve. I needed Deeps to see the tears I wouldn't show Hawkins, so he'd want to protect me. "So, if I asked to call my dad, I guess the answer would be no, right?"

"Until Mr. Hawkins gets your status amended, it's too dangerous." He ambled around the treadmill, and my heartbeat quickened.

"I gotcha."

Deeps reached under the treadmill and fished out my phone. "You know that the last thing you should do right now is to try an escape."

My thoughts raced. Hawkins could not get his hands on that phone. "I know that. I'm not trying to escape, I mean what's the point?"

"Good."

The phone disappeared into Deeps' pocket, and I got up slowly, making sure he saw me wince as I put weight on my hurt ankle.

"Those men who want to kill me are probably looking for some of the files I've got on that phone. Could you do me a favor and keep it safe?"

Deeps studied my face. "I should turn this in to my boss."

Please don't. "It could put him in danger. Why don't you lock it up where no one can find it? I promise not to even ask where you put it."

In Deeps' eyes, I saw rooms of secrets, sealed away, never to be opened. But somehow his secrets didn't scare me, not the way Streicker's had.

"All right," Deeps said. "For the time being, the phone stays with me."

I nodded. "Thanks."

"No problem."

I turned to go.

"Seminoles are on," he said. "I'm watching the game in the theater. You can join me."

I conjured up a small smile for him. I wasn't a huge football fan, but if cheering for the Seminoles could keep me safe and keep the phone away from Hawkins, I'd be happy to park my b.u.t.t in Hawkins' cushy lounger for an entire season.

By the time the fourth quarter was over, I'd persuaded Deeps to give me the access code for the Sportswall that opened three, not exactly approved, news channels. I might be caged, but I refused to be ignorant.

When we left the theater, Deeps walked me out. Hawkins was running on the treadmill. His shirt was soaked through, but he was still going strong.

I heard Ajax's voice echo in my head. Know your captor. Observe him.

What does it matter? I wanted to snap back. I'm not getting away.

Situations change. Every day you survive is another day you might escape.

"Does Hawkins run every night?" I asked Deeps as we entered the elevator.

"Mr. Hawkins? I couldn't tell you. I just got here two days ago."

"Yeah? Where did you work before?"

"Confidential, Hummingbird."

"Hummingbird?"

"That's your code name since you're small and fast and a flight risk."

"I guess that's better than a lot of other things you could call me."

Deeps grinned. "Yeah, you don't want to know some of the other names I've heard people called."

He saw me to my room. "I'm not going to lock you in. There are sensors in the hall that will alert me if you leave your room. Go get a gla.s.s of milk. Fine. Open an outside door. Not fine. Are we good?"

"Yeah, we're good."

The door closed silently behind me. I couldn't lock it and there was nothing like a chair to prop against it. I picked up the remote and drew the curtains closed on the window facing Hawkins' room. It was stupid, but it was the only thing I could do to keep him out.

23.

I barely slept. I'd drift almost to sleep, and then my mind would replay the interview with Dad and Dayla. I'd hear Dad begging me to give myself up, and I'd snap awake and kick off the sheets.

And no sooner would I begin to relax than I'd see Dayla acting her heart out, trying to kill the lies the media had spread about me, while her fingers couldn't stop twisting the strand of her hair.

They'd both betrayed me, but seeing their pain made me ache. "I don't blame you, Day," I whispered into the dark, wishing she could hear me. "Hawkins took advantage of you. That's what he does."

Deeps woke me the next morning telling me Ho was waiting downstairs. The skin under my eyes was the color of raisins. I pulled on the same workout clothes I'd worn the day before and didn't bother with a comb. What was the point?

Ho sat at the long, poured-cement table in the gla.s.s box of a dining area. I shoved my hands in the pockets of my warm-up jacket and slumped down across from him. He looked up from his ever-present tablet.

You don't scare me anymore. I've met way scarier guys than you. I know the only thing you care about is if I'm useful to your boss.

"The chef left some breakfast for you on the counter," Ho said.

I eyed the yogurt and blueberry parfait the chef had layered so prettily, but I didn't get up. "What are we here for?"

"We are here to reframe your story. Senator Fletcher's on his way from D.C. In order to get the government to drop its case against you, we need to convince him that you were an innocent victim of circ.u.mstances beyond your control." Ho sniffed as he said the last part.

"So what do you need from me?"

"Let's start with Father Gabriel, the man who lured you into Exodus."

My stomach twisted, and I shoved my fists deeper in my pockets. "Father Gabriel's a good man."

"Father Gabriel is a lawbreaker awaiting trial on kidnapping charges. There's evidence linking him to over one hundred cases of girls who were Contracted to be married before he pulled them into Exodus."

"I won't testify against him."

Ho pursed his thin lips. "We won't let anyone put you on the stand."

Not because Ho cared what happened to me. "Because it would hurt the campaign, right?"

"Obviously."

"Father Gabriel didn't lure me into Exodus."

Hawkins strode in. "That's unfortunate, because someone did, and that leaves only Yates Sandell. But it's not surprising that your boyfriend enticed you to run."

I raised my face to Hawkins. Go to h.e.l.l.

Yates had pushed me to join Exodus, but I would not give him up. "My friend Sparrow was planning to run, and she convinced me I should do it, too. She introduced me to Father Gabriel."

Ho tapped on his tablet. "Sparrow Currie, your cla.s.smate whose video accusing the vice president of federal crimes you broadcast nationwide."

All that was true. "Yes."

"But someone else must have helped you get away, because the day you Tasered your bodyguard, Father Gabriel was in jail and Sparrow had already left Los Angeles."

Yates had picked me up. Dr. Prandip had loaned us her car and Ruby had flown me to Vegas. The only way to protect them was to blame people who'd died.

"Sparrow had arranged a ride for me in the back of a pickup under a camper sh.e.l.l with two guys I'd never met before."

"You're a terrible liar," Hawkins said. "What color was the truck?"

"I don't know. Blue, maybe. It was dark."

Hawkins picked up the yogurt and set it down in front of me. "You need to eat."

"I'm not hungry."

"Starving yourself won't prove anything."

"I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm not hungry."

Ho c.o.c.ked his head. "So, Sparrow Currie arranged for you to be delivered to Las Vegas, where Margaret Stanton forced you to become a hostess in her escort service."

"I wasn't forced. She manipulated me, but she didn't force me to do anything."

"For G.o.d's sake," Hawkins said. "Don't you want to live?"

My stomach hardened into a rock. I got up and stood by the window. I didn't know if I wanted to live like this, but I didn't want to die. "Yes, I was forced."

Ho and I worked through my story. How I'd briefly entertained clients, playing pool and getting them drinks.

"Margaret Stanton arranged for Sparrow to entertain the vice president during his visit. Is it possible Sparrow asked for that a.s.signment?"

I rested my head on the gla.s.s. I had no idea, but I wouldn't have been surprised if she had. "I don't know."

"Ms. Stanton has been accused by the government of stealing defense secrets. She was a spy, wasn't she?"

She called herself a geisha. Maggie wasn't interested in defense secrets, she was only interested in how and why the Paternalists were limiting women's rights.

But if this was the lie I needed to tell to stay alive, then that was what I had to say. "Yes, she was a spy."

"Sparrow Currie manipulated you once more when she got you to forward her video accusing the vice president of wrongdoing. She shocked you into thinking she'd set herself on fire on the Capitol steps."

"She did set herself on fire!"

"The news footage shows a homeless man."

"The news footage is a lie!"

Hawkins shook his head. "Keep this up and you're going to get hurt."

"Really?" I said. "Are you going to hit me again?"

"I am the least of your worries."

I swallowed and looked away, before returning my gaze to Ho. "What else do you need me to tell you?"

"Margaret Stanton forced you to leave Las Vegas with her when the federal agents arrived. What happened to the other girls?"

"They fled the country."

"Do you think they'll come back?"

"I doubt it. They've got a good idea of what will happen to them if they do."

I began to pace along the windows. Through the gla.s.s by my feet, I saw waves crashing onto the jagged, black rocks below, and spray shooting high in the air.

"Ms. Stanton took you to Salvation, because she believed her lover, the man who died with her, would help her."

It was time to blame yet another innocent person who wasn't here to defend himself. "Yes, Barnabas."

"The father of her son, Luke?"

My throat tightened hearing Ho say his name. "I don't know anything about that. I barely met him."