to know a little bit about everything, and everything about nothing.
I hated people like him. Even the sane ones.
He scooted closer then, coming onto his knees. From there, he leaned in so his face was practically touching mine. When he put a hand on my leg, I shuddered, imagining the worst.
“Do you want me to kill Darren for you?” he asked. “Because I will, you know.”
“I don’t want you to kill anyone,” I said. “Including Eve. Or me.”
He squinted and tilted his head, like he was trying to figure me out. When his hand slid farther up my thigh, I bucked, trying to shake him off.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I said.
He froze for an almost imperceptible moment. Then a smile hit his face and he rocked back to sit on his heels.
“You know, my one disappointment is that you’re not as good-looking in person,” he said. “You don’t have much of a body, either.”
It was bizarrely typical. Yes, he was probably insane, and definitely homicidal. But he was also like any number of other guys I’d known in my life. The ones who are all bluster until they get cornered and have to perform. Then suddenly, it’s nothing but fumbling, excuses, and, with the real assholes, blame.
He was back on his phone now, looking at something else, like our little exchange hadn’t even happened.
“Can I ask you a question?” he said. “When did you know you were a genius?”
That actually gave me pause. I’d been asked a million things about my IQ, my brain, and my academic chops over the years, but no one had ever put it that way. And since conversation was the least threatening thing I could hope for out there, I rolled with it.
“I guess it depends on what you mean by genius,” I said. “I’ve known I had a high IQ as long as I can remember.”
“But when did you know you were different?” he asked. “Special.”
“Fourth grade,” I said. “That’s when they started separating me out from kids my age.”
“Not until fourth?” He seemed genuinely surprised. He even looked up from his phone again. “Was your family supportive? Did you get special classes, or whatever?”
I nodded. “I took high school calculus that year.”
“And are your parents smart?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“But not like you.”
I had to pause, even though I knew the answer.
“That’s right,” I said. Instinct was driving me to be as honest as I could. It seemed obvious he had some history of his own with this kind of thing. Maybe it would help humanize me in his eyes. I’d heard somewhere that that’s the first thing you should do with a captor of any kind. Never let them forget you’re a person, as opposed to some object or plaything.
Meanwhile, the phone still had at least half of his attention. He wasn’t texting, though. It looked like he was watching something now. For what little time I’d been around him, I had yet to see him settle and focus on one thing.
“My parents didn’t know what to do with me,” he said, his eyes still on the screen. “But I sure knew what to do with them.”
“Did you—”
The question started out of my mouth before I thought better of it, but then I shut up just as quickly.
“I sure did,” he said anyway, and looked at me again. “You know, we can’t all grow up in perfect little suburban homes—”
“That’s not what I meant,” I said.
“—with just the right Mommy and Daddy—”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to—”
“—and two perfect little sisters,” he added.
“Wait … What?” I said.
The realization of what he’d been leading up to settled over me now, like a horrible, heavy weight.
“What did you just say?” I asked again as he tooled endlessly with that goddamn phone.
“What’s the matter, Angela?” he asked. “I thought you were proud of your family.”
“No,” I said, as it all fell into place, and I saw exactly where this was headed. “No … no …”
“We just want to meet them,” he said. “Don’t you think that’s sweet?”
CHAPTER 87
“NO, NO … NO …”
It was all I had, like some kind of infinite loop in my brain.
“Hey, Mikey!” the kid shouted.
Mikey? Mike? Michael? The name cut through my panic and registered, just in case. A second later, the older one got out of the van and came over.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“I just told her where we’re going,” he said.
“You can’t do this,” I said to them, focusing on the Engineer now. “Be reasonable. He’s