I rise between them, acting as a human barrier. My eyes burn into Liberty's. "Stop it," I hiss. "Leave him alone. Right now."
"No! Joanna, you don't know the absolute hell that psychopath's put us through. The beatings, the shootings, the burns. I-I've held children in my arms as they died because of him."
"He's a fucking monster, you get no debate from me on that, okay? I'm just saying, right now, if you continue this, you are letting him win. This is what he wants, can't you see that? That's his endgame: The World versus Jem Ambrose."
"What do you mean?" Tempest asks.
"Think about it. He made those bombs damn easy to find. There were no stipulations about how or who could defuse them. The only one that went off was right outside Jem's work, the rest he all but left a damn map to. Cain went on national television saying he was only killing people because of you. People are already screaming for you to leave town. Now that tape for only you to see. It's Uma all over again. He's trying to take away the one thing he feels is keeping their reconciliation from happening, the one thing brings him happiness. Saving people. This. You." I turn to Nightingale. "Right?"
"Yes," he says quietly.
I spin back around to the others. "See? So stop dwelling on the past and concentrate on how we're going to stop him this time."
"She's right," Tempest says, placing his hands on his wife's shoulders. "We need to start working on strategy. Cain--"
"Not here," Jem cuts in as he steps around me. "This is the last time any of us sets foot in this house in uniform until he's found. She has nothing more to do with this, with us."
"What?" I ask. "No."
"We have to assume he'll have people following me, if he doesn't already," he says to the other two. "If Joanna's not already in his sights, I don't want to put her there now."
"You two have been playing kissy face all over town," Liberty says. "There's already gossip."
"We were never publicly affectionate, and I've been telling people they've just been business meetings, in part for this very contingency." His gaze whips back to me. "Call board members and begin asking about investing in my drug company now you have enough information about it. Maybe start…publicly dating someone to quell the rumors, someone who won't mind lying to the press about when you started the relationship." I'm about to open my mouth to protest, but he turns away. "If you have to come over here, come as yourselves. In case her phones and e-mails are being surveiled, no shop talk. Regardless, she's no longer part of this."
"Excuse me, I am right her--"
He spins around again, grabbing me hard by the arm and dragging me toward the couch. "This is not up for debate. One of those bombs was in your office building. If we didn't need it so badly, I'd smash that computer so you wouldn't be tempted to use it. You're done. Finished. This is not your fight. You are to have nothing more to do with this. With us. In any capacity. What happened today between us, all of it, was a mistake," he says, lowering his voice. "I shouldn't have…" He shakes his head. He can't even say it. "I'm sorry."
"No. No way you're benching me. I--"
He squeezes my arms even harder. "He'll kill you!" he says desperately through gritted teeth. "He. Will. Kill. You. No." He releases me, literally casts me aside and looks at the others. "I have the old communicator, we'll keep in touch that way." He pauses. "I am sorry for this. All of it. I…bye."
Without a glance my way, he walks out the way he came, then flies down the dark tunnel to the beach. I think I've just been sucker punched in the gut, it sure feels like that. I've lost him before I ever had him.
"Someone should go after him," Tempest says to his wife.
She scowls. "Fine," she says before lifting off the ground to fly away.
"Are you okay?" Tempest asks me.
"Um, fine," I say, clearing my throat.
"He's right, you know," he says, stepping toward me. "If Cain even suspected--"
"I know!" I shout, voice echoing through the cavern. Tempest is taken aback as I am. "Sorry. I'm just going to…" I point to the exit, bow my head, and start up the ramp to the living room in a daze. I've shut down again. Everything's gone one degree fuzzier than before. It's damn stuffy in the living room, so I walk outside to the patio in case that helps. It doesn't. I sit in the chair and unclip my cell phone before I even realize it. I still have work to do. If Cain has tapped my phones, he knows I'm in this game already. I'll risk the call. He picks up on the fifth ring.