Page 70 of Tell Me Why
It wasn’t a terrible place to be.
If you could get over that it was fundamentally a high-end coffin.
And Tina had alongtime to think about it.
Tell came to open the lid at dusk, just leaving her there to get up as she was ready to, and it was infuriating how much the lid had been doing to help her; she’d been a lot closer to ready, before he opened it, and yet, she was immensely grateful he’d done it.
She listened to him go get a yogurt out of the fridge and then go sit by the windows, just waiting for her, and she willed herself to be stronger and more ready, but she wasn’t.
That was just reality.
Finally, she got up and went to sit with him, pulling her fingers through her hair and wondering what she was going to discover when she actually went through her new wardrobe.
“They lie,” Tell said softly after a time. “They say that if the box is comfortable enough, it isn’t what it is. But none of uslikethem.”
She nodded.
“Thank you.”
“I’m not going to let this take forever,” he said. “I want to go back as much as you do, or more. But I need you to be patient while I get things… going.”
“What am I supposed todowhile you set up a torture lab and root out traitors?” Tina asked. He smiled into his coffee - how had she missed that he’d madecoffee? - and nodded.
“What you always do,” he said. “See the things that I’m missing.”
Always.
There was suchpromisein that word.
He looked at her, then twitched his head, giving her a moment to go get her own mug of coffee before he went on.
She came back and sat down across from him and he nodded, recollecting his thoughts.
“If they take you,” he said after another moment, pausing again almost so long that she thought he wasn’t going to finish the second half of that, like it washopeless, but he finally did. “You will have about three weeks until the process becomes irreversible.”
Gut punch.
Okay.
She drew a steadying breath.
“Okay,” she said. He nodded.
“It won’t be here. They’ll know better than to trythat. So a few days of transit, whatever delay between arrival and beginning. Three weeks, twenty-two days to be exact, and after that…” He shook his head. “Don’t worry aboutafter that. That’s your timeline for getting away. If you have a glimmer of opportunity, take it. Don’t wait for me. But know that…” He nodded, looking out the window then back at her again. “This isn’t like when they took you because of the Kaija. I have leads. And no residual interest in being quiet about it. If they decide that you are worth it…” The corner of his eye tensed. Deep loathing. “I will prove to them that it was the final miscalculation they will have the opportunity to make.”
Tina pursed her lips.
“Forgive me, but I don’t believe you,” she said. “You’re great, but these are men with means and a willingness to kill. You shouldn’t promise that it’s going to be okay when it might notbe. I want you to know that I’m doing thisknowingthat it could happen. And knowing that you’re going to do everything youcando. I don’t doubt you. I’ll know, Tell. That you didn’t forget me. That you didn’t make a cynical calculation and let it go. But… Don’t lie to me.”
His head dropped and he looked down into his coffee for a moment, then nodded, lifting his eyes.
“What I said to Isabella,” he said. “It was for her benefit, but it was also true. I don’tlikebeing this close to everything that’s going on with Keon. It gives me the idea that I…” He looked down, searching for a word, then looked up again. “That I can step into this and be significant. Isabella really does have feelings for Daryll. She’ll betray him, in the end, because she’s ultimately loyal to Keon above all others, and she’d betray me the same. Mayhave, last time. But she does… love him… I think. I don’t need eventhat, to come in and pick him apart. Keon plays games, plays politics, but he isn’tcleverin the small, the way I am. He’s sat up on his throne for too many decades to know how to read the way veins run. To know how the different kinds of fear smell. This is going to befun. Andeasy, in a way. You’re here to see the things that I miss, andamongthose things are why thismatters. Even if we can’t fix it.” He shook his head, then straightened, like he’d offloaded a burden. “Keon is going to come for me, in the end, and he’s going to try to seduce me by any means necessary. You are my anchor to home.”
“I’ve never been flattered to be called an anchor before,” Tina teased, and he smiled.
“I could do this by myself,” he said, and Tina shrugged.
“You could do all of it by yourself,” she said. “I could go back to the office and track down someone’s old car from when they were a teenager and then go get the photos to prove he’s cheating on her. But I take one trip to London and you turn yourself into a bag of Tell-scented goo. I’m staying.”
