I did not wake properly until mid morning. The sky was a pale blue through the tinted windows, tiny puffs of cloud smudging the perfect surface. Feeling numb, I cleaned my teeth with the hotel-supplied brush and paste and got dressed. It seemed odd to be wearing shorts in the middle of winter but the climate controlled environment of the hotel meant it was always summer inside. My stomach growled. I investigated the contents of the mini bar and helped myself to a chocolate biscuit and bottle of Coke, then sat down to wait. I was in the middle of a crisis but things were strangely calm. The eye of the storm.

I didn’t dare risk trying to contact Zed again. O’Halloran would probably be up and about and I didn’t know enough about shield-busting to give it a go. I just hoped Zed got my message not to come rushing in. We needed a plan to get me out, not a second hostage.

There was a knock at the door. Not behaviour I expected of my kidnappers. It opened to reveal Gator carrying a tray.

‘Rise and shine, cupcake. You slept well?’

‘Not really.’

Ignoring this, Gator dumped the tray on a table by the window. ‘Breakfast. Eat quickly. The boss wants to see you.’

I wasn’t sure I could manage anything. Deciding not to rile him by refusing co-operation over so small a thing, I lifted the lid. Nope, I couldn’t stomach those eggs. I sipped at the orange juice and nibbled a slice of toast instead. Gator didn’t leave. He stood at the window pretending to shoot at the birds flying over the buildings, giving me a good view of his ponytail which he’d secured back with a leather tie. He seemed in a cheerful mood, not at all on edge for someone who was part of a kidnapping. It struck me then that whoever was behind this must control this entire hotel or Gator would be less relaxed about holding me here.

‘I’ve had enough, thanks.’ I stood up. The fact that I was meeting the boss face to face did not bode well for what they had planned for me. I tried to think up a scenario where they didn’t kill me to protect their identities at the end of this and couldn’t imagine one.

‘OK, let’s go.’ He took a firm grip of my upper arm and marched me out into the hallway. We turned left, walked past the elevator and on into a waiting area. Through the frosted windows, I could see people sitting around a boardroom table. Gator knocked once, waited for the green light, then entered with me in tow.

Fear made the images sharp. I tried to absorb as much information as I could just in case by some miracle I did get free. Three people sat at the table. My eyes were drawn to the oldest: a man with dyed black hair and dodgy tan, punching away at his BlackBerry. His suit screamed designer, though his choice in ties did not: today’s a tangerine shade that clashed with his skin. He had the seat at the head. On either side sat a younger man and a woman. The family resemblance was strong enough for me to hazard a guess that these were his children or close relatives.

‘Here she is, Mr Kelly. I’ll wait outside.’ Gator gave me a little push towards the table and walked out.

Mr Kelly sat looking at me without speaking for a while, his fingers touching in an arch. The others were clearly waiting for him to make the first move, which left me stranded. I knew only that the Benedicts had helped in the conviction of two of the Kelly family. From the way he sat so confidently in the head chair, I guessed I was looking at the famous Daniel Kelly himself, head of the Kelly business empire, the man whose face appeared more regularly in the business pages than Donald Trump and Richard Branson combined.

‘Come here.’ Kelly beckoned me closer.

Reluctantly, I walked round the table.

‘O’Halloran said you are a savant?’

‘I don’t know.’ I tucked my hands in my pockets to disguise the fact that they were trembling.

‘You are. I can tell. It’s a shame really that you’ve been caught up in this.’ He flashed me an unapologetic grin, displaying improbably even teeth.

The man on his right stirred. ‘Dad, are you sure the Benedicts will trade themselves for her?’

‘Yes, they will try. They won’t be able to stop themselves trying to protect an innocent like her.’

The younger Kelly poured a cup of coffee. ‘And the police? They must be involved by now.’

‘They will never be able to trace it back to us. And she will tell them exactly what I tell her to say.’ Mr Kelly leaned back in his chair. ‘Fascinating. There are such dark spaces in her mind.’

I stepped back in alarm. He was reading my mind somehow. Zed had said I always gave too much away to another savant. I threw up walls as fast as I could.

He drummed his fingers lazily on the table. ‘Turquoise. Such a girlish colour, don’t you think?’

‘Not very strong though,’ commented the younger woman; she had the sleek looks of a wild cat, groomed but deadly. ‘I could break them for you, Daddy.’

‘Oh no, I don’t want her broken just yet.’

The bottom fell out of my world. The Benedicts had thought there was only one savant involved; what they had failed to anticipate was that the Kellys had powers like theirs. This had suddenly got a whole lot more complicated.

‘You’re wondering what we’re going to do with you, aren’t you, Sky?’ Kelly held out a hand to me, his face lined with dissatisfaction. He looked as if he was suffering from deep disappointment and wanted others to suffer with him.

I’d prefer to touch a snake so I kept my hands in my pockets.

‘We’re not going to kill you, if that is what you are thinking. You are not our enemy.’ He let his hand drop. ‘I’m a businessman, not a murderer.’

‘So what are you going to do with me?’

He stood up, tugging his jacket straight. Approaching me, he walked round, assessing me like an art critic at a showing of a new work. His presence grated on my nerves like a piece of discordant music.

‘You are going to become my very good friend, Sky. You are going to tell the policemen that neither I nor my family had anything to do with your kidnapping, that it was two of the Benedict boys who took you for their own disgusting and evil purposes.’ He smiled with evil relish. ‘You know how savants can so easily go wrong—too much power, too little to hold them sane. The fact that they died trying to stop you escaping is no tragedy but saves the American taxpayer the money for housing them for the rest of their natural life in jail.’

‘I like that,’ commented the young man. ‘I think disgracing them is better than just killing them.’

‘I thought you would, Sean. I told you that you could trust me to think up a suitable payback for your uncles.’

I gaped at them. ‘You’re mad! There’s nothing you can do or say to make me tell the police such a lie, even if you threaten me! And I won’t let you kill Zed or … or his brothers! I won’t!’

Kelly found my anger funny. ‘Such an amusing little foreigner, isn’t she? All hissing and spitting like a furious kitten and about as threatening.’ He laughed. ‘Of course you will say what I tell you, Sky. You see, it is my gift. You will remember what I want you to remember. People do, you know, like the prison guards who will very soon be letting my brothers out of prison, thinking they received word from the governor to release them. There’s no point resisting. Bending people to my will is what I am good at. I’ve built my fortune on it and you’ll be no different.’

Oh my God, he was like Victor. But could he really make me say and do something so out of character? I could see that making a couple of guards misinterpret their duty might be possible, but to fabricate a whole complicated lie that flew in the face of the evidence, surely I wouldn’t go along with that? Could I forget myself so far as to betray Zed? Betray my soulfinder?

I slammed that thought deep behind all my barriers. Kelly must not learn what Zed was to me—he’d exploit that weakness without mercy, knowing what savants would do for their other half.

Absolutely brilliant, Sky. I kicked myself. What a time to accept Zed is your soulfinder.

I’d been scared before; now I was terrified.

‘I see you are beginning to believe that I can do it.’ Kelly tucked his BlackBerry away in his breast pocket. ‘Don’t worry: you won’t suffer. You’ll think you’re telling the truth. I’ll have to keep you close by, of course, to make sure you carry on singing the same tune for a year or so until everyone forgets, but we can see to that can’t we, Maria?’

The younger woman nodded. ‘Yes, Daddy. I think we can make a place for her in housekeeping in one of the hotels when she drops out of high school to live in Vegas. Tragically, the memories of Wrickenridge will be too painful for her to return.’

‘But my parents …’ This was worse than a nightmare.

Kelly gave an insincere sigh. ‘They’ll feel they failed to protect you and I’ll persuade them that they want to give you the space our doctors say you need after your trauma. We know all about them and your adoption—how fragile your mental condition is. I’m sure they’ll be too busy with their careers to worry too much as long as you tell them you’re happy—and you will tell them so.’

How did he know so much? ‘You’re taking my life away from me.’

‘Better than killing you, and that’s the only other option.’

Sean came to join his father. He was a good head taller, but much fatter, his belly rolling over the top of his thin leather belt that kept up his sagging trousers. He had a Zorro-style moustache arching over his lip which looked ridiculous on someone who had only a few years on me, like someone had drawn it on him for a joke while he slept and he hadn’t yet noticed. ‘You say she has darkness inside her?’

Kelly frowned. ‘Can’t you sense it?’

Sean seized my hand and pulled it up to his nose, sniffing the palm, eyes closed as if reaching for a faint perfume. I tried to tug free but his grip pinched. ‘Yes, I can feel it now. Wonderful seams of pain and abandonment.’

As he touched me I could feel my panic heighten; the calm I’d struggled to maintain was being shredded away like paper ripped off a present.

‘Why not give her to me? I would enjoy draining her of her emotions—I can sense she would provide hours of entertainment.’

Daniel Kelly smiled indulgently at his son. ‘Is her emotional energy that strong?’

He nodded. ‘I’ve not felt anything like it.’

‘Then you can have her after she’s served her purpose with the Benedicts. Just keep her well enough to convince her family she’s here of her own free will.’

‘I’ll take care of it.’ Sean Kelly kissed the palm of my hand and let it go. I wiped it on my shorts with a shudder. ‘Hmm.’ He licked his lips. ‘You and I are going to get to know each other very well, my sweet.’

‘What are you?’ I hugged my arms to my sides and retreated to the window. I wanted to scream in his face but it would only show them how scared I was.

Maria Kelly rolled her eyes impatiently. ‘My brother’s an emotion miner—gets his kicks from drawing the stuff out of other people’s brains. I could’ve done with a new maid, Daddy: it’s not fair. Not even good business. She won’t be any use if Sean gets his hands on her—you know that. The last one only lasted a month before we had to get rid of her.’ Her voice rose in a whine.

‘I’ll make it up to you, darling.’ Daniel Kelly stamped his authority on the situation with a slice of his hand. ‘Now enough of this: I must get to work on our guest. The police search for her is well under way and our source has reported that the Benedicts have made their move from their base. It’s time the authorities were pointed in their direction. Come, Sky, I have something I want you to remember.’ Daniel Kelly looked round for me but I was already running. No way was I meekly going to succumb to his mind-manipulation.

‘Sean!’ he barked.

I was faster than that doughnut. I burst out of the doors and bolted for the elevators, hoping to find one waiting or at least a stairwell. But I’d forgotten who was outside. I got as far as the hallway before Gator tackled me. He took me down, forcing all the air from my lungs. My head cracked on the tiles but I continued to kick and bite as he hauled me up. He held me at arm’s length and shook me.

‘Stop it, cupcake. If you do what the boss says, you won’t get hurt.’

Blood dripped from a cut on the side of my head. My vision was greying at the edges.

‘Bring her back here,’ Kelly ordered.

Gator dragged me into the boardroom. ‘Don’t be too mad at her, Mr Kelly,’ he pleaded. ‘The girl’s just scared.’

‘On the contrary, I’m not angry; she’s playing into our hands.’ Kelly checked his flashy Cartier watch. ‘When we release her to the authorities covered in blood, they’ll believe her more readily. Now sit her down. I’ll start on her now.’ He was so cold, acting as if I were just another boring item on the meeting agenda to be got through.

I tried to scratch my way free. ‘No, leave me alone!’

Gator dumped me in a chair and tied me to it with some flexi-cuffs. I couldn’t even wipe the blood off my cheek and had to let it trickle down and drip on to my chest. I was shaking.

‘She’s in shock,’ Maria said in disgust. ‘You’ll not get much into her brain when she’s blank like this.’

Sean slithered up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders, inhaling deeply. ‘She’s not blank. Lovely—fear, outrage, and horrible anticipation—a wonderful combination.’

Maria knocked his hands away. ‘Don’t. You’re magnifying her emotions. We don’t want her going catatonic on us.’

‘Oh no, there’s too much fight in her to take that route so soon.’

Gator shifted awkwardly. ‘Are you going to do that mind stuff on her, Mr Kelly?’

The businessman glanced up. ‘Yes. Why?’

‘Just don’t seem right,’ Gator muttered.

Maria pushed him away. ‘Oh, you’re pathetic! We know you hate our powers but remember who pays your wage, Gator.’

‘You should’ve let me just shoot a couple of them Benedicts,’ grumbled Gator.

‘But you missed,’ Maria said tartly. ‘Oh, I’ve had enough of this. Daddy, can we get on? I’ve the linen inventory to oversee.’

Daniel Kelly seized my head and held it tightly. I could feel his presence pushing at me, trying to take control. Merger and acquisition. I threw up my walls, imagining piling the dressing table, bed and anything I could get my hands on to stop him getting past my shield. I couldn’t help but catch glimpses of what he was trying to plant in my brain. He was seeding pictures of Zed and Xav luring me off the street and imprisoning me in the boot of a battered old car. They’d kept me there while pretending to join the search for me, then driven off with me under the nose of the local police force. They’d held me in an abandoned warehouse, laughed at me for believing Zed loved me, tormented me …

No! I slammed the door on his suggestions. The Benedicts did not do that—would never do that to anyone. Remember the truth. Gator and O’Halloran. The plane. The hotel. Think where you are.

The Benedicts hate you. Zed’s too everything for you—too cool, too good looking—of course it had to be a set up. You suspected that. He’s been using you. He and Xav do this to girls all the time. They had to be stopped, officer. I had to shoot them. It was their gun I used.

No, no, no. I could feel my brain buckling under his assault. I’ve never shot anyone.

The image of the gun in my own hand was so strong, right down to the bitten nails.

That’s not me. Zed and Xav are still alive. I haven’t shot them. My eyes flew open. ‘You’re going to shoot Zed and his brother?’

Daniel Kelly couldn’t hide his flare of shock that I had slipped out of his control. His clunky signet ring dug into my cheek, making my eyes water. ‘You may not pull the trigger but you will think that you did.’

The images flooded back into my brain, bright reds, ink blacks, primary colours whirling. The heavy weight of a handgun in my palm. Zed dead by my hand. Xav too. I was a murderer, even though it had been in self-defence.

No.

Yes. That was how it happened. I was wrong about them. The Benedicts were a sick family. They just want to torment those who fall into their hands. All of them sick, sick, sick.

This was wrong. Wrong.

I blacked out.

Over the next few hours, whenever I regained consciousness, I felt as if I had glass splinters burrowing into my brain. I couldn’t think straight. I had the impression of several sessions with Daniel Kelly’s dark eyes burning into my mind, my head held rigid in his grip. Sometimes Sean was there too, drinking in the backwash of my distress, making everything much worse. Kelly seemed angry that I was still resisting but eventually I was so confused my mind was crying out for me to take the easy way out and agree with what he was insisting was the truth.

‘Tell me again what happened, Sky,’ he ordered me for what seemed like the hundredth time.

‘You … you saved me.’ Images of him sweeping into hospital to offer comfort after the bloodbath in the warehouse flickered before my eyes. He’d come to my parents’ rescue, found us a private room, paid for their accommodation. Been so generous to the poor English family he’d heard about on the news.

‘That’s right. And who took you from the street?’

‘The Benedicts. They’re sick and evil.’ No—yes. I didn’t know. ‘I want to go home.’

‘No, you don’t. You want to stay here in Vegas where you feel safe.’ An image forced its way into my head: a room with strong doors and barred windows where no one could reach me.

‘I feel safe.’

‘With the people who helped you. Sean has been so kind.’

‘Kind. Gator’s been kind. He brought me breakfast. Asked that I not be hurt.’

‘Not Gator. My son, Sean. He’s going to help you heal.’

‘He is?’

‘Yes, take all that nasty emotion away from you.’

I nodded. That sounded good. I didn’t want to feel.

Maria came into the room with O’Halloran and Gator behind her. ‘Is she ready? It’s taking too long. The Benedicts are already in town and that slimeball Victor Benedict has applied for a warrant to search our properties.’

Daniel Kelly pinched my chin. ‘Yes, I think she is. A little confusion will make it more convincing. Get her in position then send the message to the Benedicts that they can find her in the warehouse on the old airfield. The two boys have to come alone or the deal’s off.’

‘They won’t come alone—the rest won’t let them.’

‘They will try to make it look like they are alone and that will be enough. The others will be too far away to stop what’s going to happen. We’ll alert the police ourselves. A dash of interagency confusion into the mix always helps.’

I held my head. This didn’t make sense. It had already taken place, hadn’t it? I’d been in the warehouse—knew who got shot. There was blood on my hands.

Maria smiled. ‘Our little savant is having a hard time getting her facts straight.’

‘She’ll be all right. All she need do is sit there with the gun in her hand while the FBI and the police argue why it all went down so badly. O’Halloran, you’ve got a damper on telepathy?’ He nodded. ‘It’ll hold until she gets close to one of them.’

‘Make sure you take them out swiftly. Dump the gun in her hands and get away before the FBI and police arrive. I want them wondering what the hell happened.’

‘Sure, boss.’

Kelly cracked his knuckles. ‘After today, the Savant Net will know that no one who interferes with my people gets away unscathed. They’ll leave us alone in future. Now, Sky, this is goodbye until we meet again for the first time in hospital. When I say the word, you forget everything that happened since yesterday and remember only what I told you.’

Gator was apologetic as he tied my legs and left me sitting in the middle of the empty warehouse.

‘Just do as I tell you and then this will be over,’ he told me, tucking my hair behind my ear.

I was shivering, despite being dressed in my ski suit. My body was acting like it had a fever it was trying to throw off. Nothing felt right. Gator took up position a few feet further back, sheltering behind a barrier of crates. I could hear him checking the magazine in the gun.

Was he here to defend me? I couldn’t remember. I wasn’t even sure who he was. What was wrong with me? My brain felt like cotton wool.

After what seemed like an age, there was a scuffling sound at the far end. The sliding door edged back a few inches.

‘It’s us. We’ve come alone like you demanded.’ It was Xav Benedict. My enemy.

‘What have you done with Sky? Is she all right?’ His brother, Zed. I knew him, didn’t I? Of course, I knew him. He was my boyfriend. He said he loved me.

He doesn’t love you—he’s just playing with you. The words floated in my brain but I couldn’t remember why I thought that.

I kept quiet, drawing my knees up to my chest.

Sky? Please answer! I’m going crazy here. Tell me you’re OK.

Zed was in my head too. There was nowhere to hide. I couldn’t help myself—I let out a whimper.

‘Xav, that’s her! She’s hurt.’

Xav held him back. ‘It’s a trap, Zed. We do this as we agreed.’

They hadn’t yet come in sight.

‘Tell us what you want in exchange for Sky and it’s yours.’ Zed’s voice was unsteady.

None of this made sense. I’d shot them. Why were they here? Why did I have to relive the nightmare?

‘Just step out where I can see you and I’ll tell you,’ said Gator.

‘The thing is, we’re not stupid. You can tell us while we stay where we are.’

‘If you don’t come out with your hands up, I’ll put a bullet in your little girlfriend.’

This wasn’t how it was meant to be. I’d got the gun in the struggle with Zed and shot both the Benedicts. I’d seen it happen—it was there in my brain.

‘Zed?’ My voice was thin, quavering in the emptiness of the warehouse.

‘Sky? Hold on, baby, we’re going to get you out of this.’

Wrong—all wrong. My memory felt like a comic strip with the key frames ripped out. The Benedicts had hurt me—yes they had. Locked me in the boot of their car for hours.

‘Go a … way!’ I choked. I saw movement down the far end, the tips of someone’s fingers as they rose up from behind the container that they had been hiding behind. It was Zed.

My brain seemed to explode with conflicting emotions and images—hatred, love, laughter, torment. Colours in the warehouse went from flat to multi-toned and complex.

His eyes zeroed in on mine. ‘Don’t look at me like that, baby. I’m here now. Just let me talk to the man who’s got you and we’ll get you free.’

He took a step closer.

How many of them are there? Has he got a gun on me? Zed’s voice echoed in my head again.

I don’t shoot people. The images of my hands holding the gun flicked on and off like the neon signs.

What’s wrong with you, Sky? I can see what you’re seeing. Your mind feels different towards me.

‘He has a gun,’ I said aloud. ‘Gator, don’t shoot anyone. We mustn’t. I’ve killed them already but they don’t die—they just come back.’

‘Quiet, Sky,’ said Gator from behind me. ‘And you, come where I can see you. I’m sure you’d prefer me to have you in my sights than your girlfriend.’

Zed stepped into plain view. I couldn’t help but devour him with my gaze; it felt as if he was alternating between two masks, one where he was kind and tender, the other vicious and cruel. His face wavered in and out of focus.

‘Now your brother. I want both of you where I can see you. Come a bit closer to Sky. Don’t you want to see what we’ve done to her?’ Gator taunted.

I had to choose. Which did I believe? Kind Zed; cruel Zed.

Zed took two steps forward, hands rock steady in the air. ‘You don’t want her. The Kellys’ quarrel is with the Benedicts—not her. She’s nothing to do with this.’

What should I do? Who should I believe? Sky has got good instincts. My mum had said that, hadn’t she? Instincts. More than instincts. I could read people, know their guilt, tell good from bad. I’d buried it but it was there inside me under all the gibberish in my head ever since I was six. Locked it away. But now I had to reach out with my gift.

I closed my eyes, feeling inside for the door that would release my powers. I opened my mind.

My power of perception went through the roof. The sensations flowing in the room were formidable. I saw them as streams of colour. The red of excitement and a bit of black fear from behind me; the gold glitter of love and green tinge of guilt from Zed.

Soulfinder.

The knowledge was there, as deeply rooted in me as DNA. How had I not seen it? My body retuned to Zed’s note; perfect match, perfectly in harmony.

So why did he feel guilt? I probed the green: Zed felt terrible because he had let me be taken and that I had suffered instead of him. He’d wanted it to be him sitting there with blood on his face and clothes.

I didn’t know why my brain was so scrambled but I now knew where I stood.

‘Zed!’ I screamed. ‘Get down.’

The gun went off. Zed was already moving, alerted by his foreknowledge. A second crack. There was another shooter—O’Halloran—up in the rafter, trying to pick off Xav by the door. Instead of diving for cover, Zed ran for me. I screamed—my mind playing a version of this where he had attacked me and I had shot him. But my hands were empty. No gun.

Victor. Code Red! Code Red! Xav punched the message through O’Halloran’s shield with all the strength he could muster, broadcasting on a wide channel for any telepath to hear.

Zed threw himself over me as I sat curled up, clutching my knees. ‘Keep down, Sky.’

‘Don’t shoot!’ I pleaded. ‘Please, no!’

I sensed Gator’s aggression and determination to kill swell in a flood of red colour. Zed’s back presented a clear target, his only hesitation that the bullet might pass through and get me too.

‘No!’ With a burst of strength brought on by desperation, I used my legs to boost Zed clear. The bullet meant for his back hit the ground between us, ricocheting wildly off the concrete. Then everything went to hell. Gunshots rang out; agents burst through the door, screaming that they were FBI. Something hit my right arm. Pain lanced through me. Sirens and more shouting. Police. I curled up into a ball, sobbing.

In the confusion, someone crawled to my side and crouched over me. Zed. He was swearing, tears running down his face. He clamped his hand over the wound on my arm.

After several staccato explosions, the guns fell silent. I sensed that two presences had gone from the room—O’Halloran and Gator. Had they fled?

‘Get me a medic over here!’ yelled Zed. ‘Sky’s been hit.’

I lay quietly, biting down on the urge to cry out. No, they’d not fled. They’d been killed in the exchange of fire, their energy snuffed out.

A police paramedic rushed over.

‘I’ve got her,’ she told Zed.

He released his grip on my arm, my blood on his hands. The medic ripped my sleeve open.

‘From the looks of it, just a graze. Possibly she caught a ricochet.’

‘They’re dead,’ I murmured.

Zed caressed my hair. ‘Yeah.’

‘What happened to me?’

The medic looked up from her treatment of my arm. ‘You hit your head too?’ She saw the blood in my hair. ‘When did this happen.’

‘I don’t know.’ My eyes turned to Zed. ‘You locked me in the boot of your car. Why did you do that to me?’

Zed looked shocked.

‘No, I didn’t, Sky. Is that what they did to you? Oh God, baby, I’m sorry.’

‘We’d best get her checked for concussion,’ said the medic. ‘Keep talking to her.’ She signalled for a stretcher to be brought over. Zed untied my legs.

‘I shot you,’ I told him.

‘No, you didn’t, Sky. The men were shooting at us, remember?’

I gave up. ‘I don’t know what to think.’

‘Just think that you are safe now.’

I had an image of an orange-skinned man in a suit swooping into the hospital to save me. Who was that?

The two medics lifted me onto the stretcher. Zed kept hold of my uninjured hand as I was wheeled out to the ambulance.

‘I’m sorry I shot you,’ I told him. ‘But you were attacking me.’

Why would my soulfinder attack me?

I could see other Benedicts gathering around my stretcher. They were evil, weren’t they?

Zed wiped the blood from my cheek. ‘I wasn’t attacking you and you haven’t shot me.’

The last I saw of the rest of the Benedict family was a grim-looking Saul as I was loaded into the ambulance. Zed tried to get in but I shook my head.

‘I shot him,’ I told the medic seriously. ‘He can’t come with me; he hates me.’

‘I’m sorry,’ the woman told Zed. ‘Your presence is upsetting her. Where are her parents?’

‘They’re booked into a hotel off the Strip,’ said Saul. ‘I’ll let them know. Which hospital are you taking her to?’

‘The Cedars.’

‘OK, I’ll stay away, let her calm down if you think that best,’ said Zed reluctantly releasing my hand. ‘Sally and Simon will be there. You hear that, Sky?’

I didn’t reply. As far as I could remember one or other of us should be dead. Perhaps it was me. I closed my eyes, my mind so overloaded I had to check out for a moment. Then I was gone.