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in close. So close he could smell Aaron's sour
breath – the smell of a man held tight by fear. "Or maybe for the time I
gave you the money to get her treated."
    For the time I gave you a good
life, right before you shafted me out of mine .
    Aaron didn't answer. Rob moved in
closer. Right beside the kid's ear. Whispered, "Okay, how about one last
job or I'll go and finish what the cancer started."
    Aaron froze. Went so rigid it
felt like the air around him grew cold. He drew back. Looked at Rob and Rob
could tell he found no mercy there.
    He shook his head. But it wasn't
a "no" to Rob, it was a sad plea to the universe.
    The universe doesn't care, kid.
And the faster you learn that the better off you'll be.
    "Promise me," he
finally managed. "Promise me this is the last."
    Gotcha .
    Rob didn't move away from his
prey. But he smiled good-naturedly and raised his hand. "Scout's
honor."
    "Like you were ever a
Scout." It was a last gasp. At dignity, at the man Aaron would never quite
manage to be.
    Rob shrugged.
    "What if I can't get it
open?" Aaron whispered. "Safe like this… it's a real
possibility."
    "Then we'll use alternate
methods to get the combination."
    Aaron knew what that meant.
Another shake of the head, another gesture that lacked both strength and
conviction. "No. Promise me no one gets hurt. Not again. I… I can't take
that again."
    "Scout's honor," said
Rob.
    And then he saw what he expected
to be the second-best payout of the night.
    Aaron wept.
    Rob let him.
    Then Aaron left.
    Rob let him.
    Because he knew the kid would be
back. And that he'd do whatever Rob told him to do.
    He watched the door slam behind
the kid.
    Then he turned to the back
bedroom. Waited.
    Of course now she doesn't stick her
fool head out, when I could actually use her.
    He moved toward the closed
bedroom door. Cracked his knuckles.
    Aaron wasn't the only one who
needed a life lesson tonight.
    "Oh, Donna!"

12

    Aaron sat in the car with the
others, and tried to cast his mind as far away as possible.
    The task was beyond him. He tried
to picture her – dark eyes that always seemed a bit sad, like she knew
your most secret sorrows and felt them with you. A smile so bright it pushed
away that sadness, tempered it into something stronger than it had any right to
be.
    He was hers, completely and
utterly.
    Liar. Not completely, because if
she owned you like that you wouldn't be under Rob's thumb.
    I'm doing it for us. For her .
    The last thought – he wasn't sure
if it was true or not.
    What if I just killed myself?
Then she'd be okay. Rob wouldn't come for her – why would he bother?
    There would be no reason for Rob
to do anything to Dee if Aaron was gone. But then, he had no trouble picturing
Rob hurting his wife – or worse – just for the sheer spite of it.
    No. For us.
    He tried again to push himself
away; to place his mind somewhere so far and so safe he wouldn't be able to see
what was right beside him and all around him.
    He failed. Every time he tried to
capture Dee's face in his mind, it was replaced by Rob's angry expression.
Every time he tried to fall into the memory of her eyes, he saw Tommy's quietly
homicidal rage, the sociopathic stare Kayla turned on everyone and everything.
    Every time he tried to escape …
he just found himself right back where he started. In a dark car in a dark
night surrounded by people whose thoughts and goals were blacker than either.
    Tommy and Kayla sat in the back
of the car, the rustle of their black clothes and the occasional clink of the
tools they each had stuffed in the many pockets they wore the only sounds they
made in the night. Rob made even less noise. Aaron knew if he looked over he'd
see the man driving, face illuminated to ghost-tones by the dash lights.
    The houses outside might have
helped ease his spirits, if it were only daytime. They were driving through
Spurwing Green, the richest area in a part of the world famous for riches. The
houses weren't houses in the way that