Page 136 of For the Birds

“Don’t be stupid,” Merv said, moving over and squatting in front of me. “Her weakness is she’s soft with other people. She knows she got Scooter’s girlfriend killed.” He looked into my face. “Am I right?”

He was expecting a response, but I wasn’t about to give it to him. I sucked in a breath, willing myself to stop crying.

His hand rested on my left knee and slowly began to slide up, fractions of an inch at a time. Slow enough to make James rabid as he watched, even though he said nothing. I didn’t dare look athim.

I held my breath as a wicked smile spread across Merv’s face. He slid his hands higher, then shoved my dress up to my lap, revealing mygun.

“What do we have here?” He laughed. “I knew you had it on you. I saw it while you were passed out in the back of the car. I left it there to see what you would do. I was just waiting for Skeeter to snatch it so I could have a good excuse to shootyou.”

Terror filled my head and I tasted metal on my tongue.

Surprisingly, Merv left the gun on my thigh. Probably to torment me . . . knowing it was there yet having no way to reach it. “I want you to have a vision.”

Merv knew about my visions? But of course he did. He’d been there in the very beginning. When I’d gone to meet James last November. How had I forgotten?

I swallowed, forcing myself to calm down. “Ofwhat?”

“Don’t play stupid.” He put both hands on my exposed thighs, his right hand just below the gun strapped to my left leg. “You have to be touching me—am I right? Will thiswork?”

I shot a glance at James, but he was so rigid he looked like a statue.

“Hey!” Merv’s fingers dug into my thighs. “I don’t want you to have a vision of him. I want one ofme.”

The knife was still in my hand. If I cut myself loose, maybe I could use it to get Merv to let James and his brother go. But Merv would feel the jerky movements of me cutting through the tape if I tried itnow.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I’ve always been the one purposefully touchin’ the other person.”

“Try it,” he grunted.

“What do you want to know?” I asked, feeling like I was going to throw up. What if I couldn’t see anything? What if I didn’t see what he wanted? What if Idid?

“I want to know if the transition from Skeeter to me goes as smoothly as planned.”

I closed my eyes, terrified of what I’d see, no matter what the result would be. I found it hard to concentrate, and twenty or so seconds later, I still hadn’t had a vision.

“Well?” he asked.

I opened my eyes. “I’m tryin’.”

He pointed his gun at my chest. “Try harder.”

“You stupid son of a bitch,” James shouted. “If you’d paid any attention at all last winter, you’d know she doesn’t work well under duress.”

“And yet she had plenty of visions of your enemies.”

“Stop,” I said. “Stop shoutin’ at him and let me concentrate.”

“Do you need me to cut your hands loose?” Merv asked.

Under any other circumstances, I would have said yes. But I didn’t dare risk him seeing the knife. “Just be still. Give me a second to calmdown.”

Come up with a plan, Rose. Save James.

But first I had to sign my death warrant by giving Merv his vision. I’d blurt out whatever I saw, whether he wanted to hear it ornot.

Will Merv succeed James?

I saw nothing butgray.

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