Page 91 of Trapped

Jonah also stood and led the way down the hall to another wing of the building. Opening a door, he ushered Cash inside where he saw two beds, with a wide gap between them and a comfortable chair beside each bed.

Jonah crossed to one of the chairs and sat down. “We might as well get to it,” he said.

Cash took the other chair.

“What happened when Sophia hypnotized you?” Jonah asked.

“I thought she was one of the bad guys, and I attacked her.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Just relax and think about Afghanistan.”

Cash managed a bitter laugh. “Those two things are pretty mutually exclusive.”

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Down the hall, Kathryn Kelley came over to Sophia. “Why don’t you and I go have something to drink while we’re waiting.”

Sophia gave her a grateful look. “Thanks.”

The two women walked to the urns of coffee and hot water. Both selected tea bags—cranberry spice for Kathryn and Earl Grey for Sophia. They took them to a room with huge windows and skylights. It had a warm, earthy scent, coming from the pots of plants that filled the room. Color came from orchids, bright tuberous begonias, and cyclamens. But there were also large ficus and dracaena trees, many sparkling with tiny lights in the darkness. They gave the setting an ambiance that Sophia would have appreciated if she hadn’t been so strung out.

She sat down in a wicker chair, staring out onto the grounds—where spotlights illuminated the well-tended gardens.

“It looks like someone put a lot of money into keeping this place up,” she remarked.

“We sometimes use it as a retreat house.”

Sophia nodded. “I guess you could see I’m tense,” she said as she set down her mug on a side table.

“It would be hard to miss.”

“I hypnotized Cash,” she blurted. “And it didn’t go so well.”

“What happened?”

“He got me mixed up with someone on the mission team—and was going to shoot me.”

“But he didn’t.”

“I finally got through to him that I wasn’t the guy he thought I was.”

“But it wouldn’t have worked unless he really didn’t want to hurt Sophia Rhodes.”

She dragged in a breath and let it out. “Yes. And now he thinks he’s too dangerous to . . . to be with me.”

Kathryn gave her an understanding look. “I know this is hard for you.”

She nodded.

They sat in the darkness for several minutes until Kathryn gently suggested, “Why don’t you tell me what’s been going on.”

Sophia laughed. “Two women with PhD’s in psychology dancing around a problem.”

“So, we both know the techniques,” Kathryn conceded.

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