Page 103 of Tell Me Why
“I can’t negotiate on my father’s behalf,” Isabella said.
Tell nodded grimly.
“I know,” he said.
She pressed her lips and stood.
“I haven’t sent word to him, the entire time I’ve been here,” she said. “I will tonight.”
He walked with her to the window, and she waited with her hand resting on it for a moment.
“She is worth this much to you?” she asked, and Tell nodded.
“She is.”
Isabella reached across to take his hand, squeezing it.
“Good luck, then,” she said.
Tell sighed.
“Thank you.”
Tell wasn’t coming back.She was certain of it, now.
They were working on her every day. Mostly at night, but sometimes during the daytime hours as well. Sometimes she wasjust… there… barely aware of anything that was going on, and other times she watched. The pain was all she could think about, sometimes, and other times… other times she was dangerous.
More dangerous than they knew.
She was getting weaker and stronger at the same time, paradoxically, and she had no idea what she was going to do, but she wasn’t going tonotdo anything.
She was going to fight.
When the moment came, she was going to fight. She just had to find it.
And hope that she was there when it came.
Everything was for show.
He was pretending to run the lab.
He was pretending to scout for spies.
He was pretending to be a part of the pretend team of vampires remaining at Daryll’s house.
He went back the next night and found Leonard sitting outside of the lab.
The vampire looked up at him as he approached.
“They try to process you?” Tell asked, and Leonard nodded.
“They did.”
“How did you get away?” Tell asked.
Leonard shook his head.
“They got sloppy for a half a second, and I made a break for it,” Leonard said. More likely, Tell though, his patron had intervened as part of a gentlemen’s agreement and he’d been set loose, but not before they’d started in.
