Page 9 of Dan

“Who did that to you? Who would do that to you?” he asked.

“The doctor my parents sent me to. They said my brain was overactive, and it could be shocked back to normality. They enjoyed doing that to me. They said it would help calm my mind, but it didn’t. It was painful and made me feel not myself. I won’t let you do that to me.”

“Finley, listen to me, sweetie,” said Bree. “ECT is not something we believe in here. I would never choose that course for a patient, and I damn sure would never do that to a brilliant mind such as yours. We’re going to try simple meditation therapy and diversion therapy to help your mind relax so you can sleep better.”

“Y-you won’t shock me?” she sniffed.

“No,” said Dan, tightening his hold on her hand. “No one will ever touch you like that again.”

“These are simple techniques,” said Ace. “I use them all the time to help settle the noise in my head. That’s what I call it. Noise. When I use these techniques, I can organize all the things swimming upstairs.”

“I know what you mean,” she said, nodding at him. “I see the numbers scrolling through my brain, but it’s usually all the other things. Things I hear on the news, on the radio or television, things I read in a newspaper or magazine that won’t leave my brain alone at night. Those are the things I struggle with.”

“We can help you with that,” said Bree. “No medication, no procedures, no surgeries. Just us talking and practicing the methods.”

“Your voice is truthful,” said Finley. “You can hear truth in people’s voices. Most people don’t know that, but I learned how to do it a long time ago. My parents never have truth in their voices.”

“It’s something we’re all pretty good at as well,” said Wilson. “It’s one of the reasons that we knew you were telling the truth.”

“Why would you doubt me?” she frowned. Dan laughed, shaking his head.

“Oh, I don’t know. We find tiny women floating on sinking boats in the middle of a bayou, who are trying to get on the property all the time.”

“Really?” she gasped. The others smiled at her. “Oh. That was joking.”

“Yes,” smiled Alexandra. “Don’t worry, I had trouble with humor once as well. You’ll learn to distinguish the sound of sarcasm and humor, anger and sadness, even happiness and joy.”

“Those men will come for me,” she said, looking at Dan. “I’m the only person who can give them what they want in the timeframe that they need it. I’m not sure, but I think I made them angry by escaping, but it wasn’t all that hard. They aren’t terribly smart.” There were soft chuckles, everyone nodding.

“They won’t find you here,” said Dan, squeezing her hand. She stared down at their connected hands, then looked up at him again.

“Your hand is very big and warm. It feels nice on mine. I don’t usually like someone holding my hand, but yours is different.” Wilson grinned at his grandson, nodding.

“I’m glad,” smirked Dan. Wilson cleared his throat, staring at the young woman looking adoringly at his grandson.

“Uh, Finley, how old are you?” Dan immediately jerked his head toward his grandfather, shaking his head.

“I’m twenty-seven,” she said. Wilson only nodded. “Why? Is my age important?”

“No. Oh, no,” he chuckled. “It’s not important. Just interesting.”

“Finley, are you still working at the Grouper Advanced Mathematics Laboratory?” asked Ace.

“I’m not sure. One of the reasons I took the vacation to Mexico was that GAM Lab asked that I take a leave of absence and think about my loyalties. They said I wasn’t showing as much promise as they hoped, which was absurd because I’ve been working on new methodologies for structural support systems and showing huge improvements and promise,” she frowned.

“Wait. What do you mean? Your loyalties?” asked Dan. “What did they mean when they were questioning your loyalties?”

“They asked me to work on something that I didn’t feel was my area of expertise.”

“What area was that?” frowned Ace.

“Drilling.”

CHAPTER SIX

“They asked her to work on drilling,” frowned Cam. “I’m going to bet that whoever took her and GAM Lab are in cahoots with one another. We need to find out if any of this is actually feasible.”

“It is,” said Remy and Robbie, walking into the room. Both engineers who once worked for Matthew in the oil fields. They understood drilling better than anyone.

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