Page 28 of Silver Lining (The Diamond Trilogy 3)
He says this, and then he waits.
And waits.
The coffee trembles in the cup, though I could swear I’m staying still. There’s nothing else to do. I’m chained to a table. Pulling at the chain isn’t going to do anything but give away how much each passing second weighs on me.
It’s a stupid weight, too. I shot one guy. That doesn’t mean I can topple the U.S. government. The military. Especially with no weapons and lacking even the ability to stand up.
In the silence I can stay still, and I can listen for Elijah, and I can be afraid of what I might hear.
It goes on forever.
I clear my throat.
What does he want me to say? Yes, we were close. When he burst into the basement I wasn’t wearing any pants, and I can still feel the fullness from when Elijah was inside me. Clearly we were close, but I don’t know what the right answer is.
I’m going to burst out of my skin. That would put a wrench in his plans. The energy making itself at home in my nerves feels dangerous and raw and completely at odds with the fact that my options are down to two: answer or don’t.
I stay silent. I’m listening for Elijah with so much focus that it feels like a knife through my temples. Like a bullet through my brain.
A sigh. “I want to help you, Holly, but you have to understand, this is a very serious charge. Whatever he told you, you need to let go of that. He was lying, probably.”
“He’s not a traitor.” My voice sounds flat and contrary and as soon as the words are out in the air a new fear strikes. “And neither am I.”
Maybe I don’t understand what’s really happening here.
Maybe the choices aren’t what I think they are.
There’s not enough time to think it through, because the man across from me straightens. The movement is so deliberate that I know he’s relieved. He’s been waiting for me to say something so he can continue with his job. “Do you know what treason is, Holly?”
“He didn’t try to overthrow the government.”
“That’s a big word, overthrow.” He’s trying to look sincere, this guy. Trying to look like he means what he says, with the corners of his mouth turned down and his eyes on me like I’m a difficult student and not literally chained to the table. “I’m not sure that’s what Elijah North did. But did he take money from the wrong people? Yes. Did he trust the wrong people? Yes.”
He trusted me. “I don’t believe you.”
He folds his hands in front of him. “Evidence doesn’t lie.”
“I explained to you what happened with the colonel.” I didn’t break my promise to Elijah, not really. I did say that he shot the colonel, but I also explained that it was self defense. That the colonel was hounding him through France and Italy, that he refused to let him go. That he was going to use me as a pawn to get Elijah to obey him.
“If a foreign agency paid him to assassinate the colonel—”
That’s the word they’ve been using. Assassinate. As if the colonel was some high-ranking political leader who was targeted by extremists. I can’t prove that there wasn’t a political agenda unless I admit that I shot the colonel, and that would break my promise. “It was self defense.”
“He didn’t only betray his country.”
It takes effort not to crush the styrofoam cup. I know what he’s going to say. I should have known this whole time. I should have stayed silent.
“He betrayed you, too. He’s doing it as we speak.”
“Really?” I’ve already given enough of myself to this man and all the others who took me away from Elijah. “Is that true? Tell me how. Give me every last detail.”
“He told us that you were the one behind the plot. That you shot the colonel.”
A weird, high laugh escapes me. He’s trying to scare me, and the strange part is, it’s working. Not because I believe him. I don’t. My faith in Elijah has never been more sure, but it’s terrifying to realize how easily the U.S. government can lie. “I don’t believe you. You won’t give me the details, you won’t show me where he is. You won’t take me to him.”
He barely manages to keep himself from rolling his eyes.
For a heartbeat he looks like a bug, staring at me so he won’t slump down in his seat and groan at how tedious this all is. It would be a relief, in a way, for this situation to be boring and commonplace and not an enormous victory for them.
Well, they already got Elijah. They got me, and I couldn’t stop them. I’m not going to give them anything else.
I don’t let myself think about the ways they might take it from me. My teeth ache from clenching them together. I want to repeat myself. Damn those old, people-pleasing instincts. I don’t do it.
