"What could I do?” Her question was almost a plea. For an instant she was very much a confused and frightened teenager, not a twenty-five-year-old woman. “I was sixteen years old and had no one I could turn to for help. Not that Tommy would have let me run. He knew my thoughts, and he could stop me, make me do things...” She paused, and a tear ran down her cheek. The first crack in the wall, Michael thought, resisting the urge to wipe the drop away. It wasn't over yet. She had to face up to the destruction she'd unwillingly caused.
"What sort of things?"
She wouldn't look at him. He placed a finger under her chin and gently tilted her face upwards. “What did you do, Nikki?” he said, closing his heart to the pain in her eyes and her thoughts.
"Tommy pulled a bank robbery, but it went wrong.” She jerked away from his touch and dashed the tears from her eyes. “I'd refused to take part, and for some reason, Tommy hadn't been able to make me. Instead, I waited a block away with a getaway car. But the police had received a tip and were waiting."
Which didn't explain the pain he could almost taste. “What happened, Nikki?"
"Tommy escaped, and the police and security guards chased him. He came straight back to me. He used my gifts to ... to..."
She hesitated again, and more tears glimmered on her cheeks. He made no move, though he ached to hold her.
She took a deep breath. “He used my kinetic abilities to destroy several police cars. One of the security guards he threw through a store window. The falling glass cut the guard's throat. Another was thrown into a wall and now lives in a wheelchair. I couldn't stop him, Michael. I fought so hard, but I just couldn't stop him."
That was why she'd made him vow never to make her do anything against her will. A sob escaped her control, and he drew her into his arms and let her cry. At least she was finally letting go of the pain she'd held in check for so long. But it wasn't over yet. “How did you escape the police?" She laughed, a bitter, brittle sound that made him wince. “I didn't. Tommy escaped. They told me later that I'd been lucky he hadn't grabbed me as a hostage. They never knew it was me who killed that guard..."
"If one man uses a gun to kill another, you blame the man who pulled the trigger, not the weapon, Nikki.” And that's all she'd been, a weapon. She sniffed, but wasn't ready to let go of the past just yet.
“How did he die?"
"The streets caught up with him. His violence had made him a lot of enemies, and in the end, it came back to him."
Then why did she feel so guilty about his death?
She shifted in his arms, resting her cheek against his shoulder. The warmth of her skin burned into him. He fleetingly wished they could just stay here, on this bed, and forget about everything but each other.
"Because I dreamed it was going to happen,” she whispered. “And I didn't tell him." She was reading his thoughts as clearly as he was reading hers. Link or not, she shouldn't have been able to. “Why not?” he asked, knowing that in the same situation, he would have wished the fiend to hell and laughed as he died.