She came over to the bed and held the straw to my mouth. I wanted to refuse it, but I was so thirsty. And hungry. It flowed cold and sweet down my throat.
“Easy,” she said. “Not too much at once or you’ll choke.”
Emma looked a lot like her grandmother, up close. Helena must have looked like this when she was younger. That stately face, high cheekbones. Of course, Emma’s nose had been reduced at Prime.
She pulled back the smoothie cup while I swallowed.
“Why did you do it?” I asked.
“What?”
“Act as the bait. You were the lure … for them.”
She looked down at the cup and fiddled with the straw. “I didn’t have a choice,” she said in a lowered voice. “They made me.”
“How?” I kept my voice low as well.
I wondered if she was being jacked right now. Could I trust what she said?
“They said they would hurt my grandmother if I didn’t do what they said,” she whispered.
“Your grandmother? Helena?”
“That’s right.” She winced, as if she couldn’t bear to think of Helena being hurt.
She pulled up a chair and sat with her legs crossed. I noticed she was wearing a large anklet, the latest style, her name in gold script around her ankle:
Emma.
“That’s pretty,” I said, pointing to the anklet.
“Thank you. It was a gift from Grandma.”
I took a deep breath. Emma didn’t seem to know anything about me. She had no idea that her grandmother rented me to assassinate the senator. And when that didn’t work, her grandmother had come up with another plan: to find out what happened to her granddaughter. This seemed like a lot to unload on Emma. But she had to know the bottom line about Helena, especially since she was operating on the misconception that she could still save her.
This was, of course, if she was telling the truth.
“That must be your favorite piece of jewelry, that anklet,” I said. “What other kind of jewelry do you like?”
“Other jewelry?”
“Yeah, what do you wear, collect?”
“Lots of stuff. Pins. Things my mother gave me. Things my grandmother gave me. A charm bracelet that Doris gave me.”
I nodded. She wasn’t being jacked. This was the real Emma I was talking to. I’d seen the bracelet in her bedroom when I first went to Helena’s house, when I was a donor.
“I had one just like it,” I said. “From Doris too.”
“It was pretty.” A wistful look came over her face. “Wish I still had it.”
Her expression and the way she spoke made me aware something was wrong. She seemed off, the way people do when they’ve been kept captive for a long time. I’d seen that look in some of the institution girls—even in my friend Sara. Emma was submissive and dreamy, not fully present.
“Emma, when did these men get to you?”
“When?”
“You did the body bank rental; then what happened?”
“I couldn’t go home. Grandma would have been so angry. I couldn’t lie. She would have seen my makeover.”
“So you ran away?”
“With my friend Kevin.”
My focus sharpened. Kevin. That was the name of Lauren’s missing grandson.
“Did Kevin also go to Prime?
“Yes. He said he wanted the makeover, but I think he went there because I did. He liked me, but he wasn’t my boyfriend. We pooled our money from Prime. We were going to get an apartment.”
“But the man with the leopard tattoo found you?”
She nodded. “Dawson. He was the man who said he owned the apartment.”
“I see.”
“Kevin was supposed to meet me there, but he never showed up.”
I wondered if Brockman’s men found him. But she wasn’t ready to hear any of that.
“How long have you been with these people?” I asked. “Dawson’s people?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “What day is it?”
She was really out of it. She could have been here a week or a month.
“Emma, these ties are so tight. They hurt,” I whispered. “Could you just loosen them?”
The guard opened the door wider to let us know we weren’t alone. Emma glanced in the woman’s direction. She straightened.
“Callie, they need to perform some important tests on you.” Her voice was louder now.
She sounded like she’d rehearsed a speech. I let her go on.
“They are required of all of us. I went through them,” she said. “They’re fine.”
I could see in her eyes she was lying.
“Maybe for you,” I said. “But I’m not doing them.”
Her shoulders dropped. “Callie, please, listen to me. You have to; you really don’t have a choice.”