Adam’s brow quirked with a flicker of his usual insouciance.“I’m not sure I find that comforting.”
“Neither am I,” Ellie admitted.
A little spark of humor crept back into Adam’s eyes.“What about Dawson?”
“I don’t think Dawson pays enough attention to anyone outside himself to know another person.He’s probably barely noticed that you’re American.”
“Oh, I think he’s got that part figured out well enough,” Adam drawled back.
Ellie frowned thoughtfully.“I’ve been wondering about him.”
“Dawson?”Adam filled in skeptically.
“No,” Ellie returned dryly, and then sobered.“Jacobs.”
Adam waited with wary curiosity as she elaborated.
“In my experience, most people who hurt others do it because it makes them feel powerful—in control.Wouldn’t you say that’s true?”
“Yeah.I’d say that’s right.”
Adam’s flat reply made Ellie think—uncomfortably—of someone who spoke from experience.
Ellie mentally filed through every threat she had experienced from the man they spoke of—every leveled gun or brandished blade.“But that’s not why Jacobs does it.Hurting us doesn’t make him feel bigger.He does it because it’s his job, and his job gets him closer to what he wants.”
“There are a whole lot of people out there with jobs who still draw the line at torture and murder,” Adam pointed out coldly.
“They do,” Ellie agreed.“But that just leaves me wondering why Jacobs is different.I’ve read of men who were incapable of remembering faces the way the rest of us can.There are people who lack the ability to see certain colors.What if Jacobs was born without… I don’t know.A moral code?”
“He has a code.It’s just not one that makes a hell of a lot of sense to the rest of us.”
“Maybe… empathy, then,” Ellie filled in.“The ability to care about how his actions impact other people.But if that’s true, would it make him more evil?Or less?”
“Why’s it matter?”
“Perhaps it just occurred to me that there might be a way all of this plays out where we find ourselves on the same side,” Ellie admitted uneasily.“And I suppose I’m trying to figure out how I would feel about that.If Jacobs wasn’t on this quest of his any longer—this search for justice—do you think he would still be dangerous?”
“I’m sure he’d be just fine… until someone got in his way again.”
Ellie put a hand to her head as her temple throbbed.“You’re right.”
Adam gazed down at her steadily.“I’m never going to trust the man, Ellie.He’s tried to hurt you, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s a line nobody gets to cross.”
“I would never ask you to trust him,” Ellie assured him.
The words rang oddly in her ears.
Adam’s tone shifted to one of quiet concern.“What about you?I’m not the only one here pretending to be someone I’m not…Mrs.Bates.”
Ellie was thrown by the question.“Oh!But that’s not the same thing at all.”
“Isn’t it?You never wanted to be married.You’ve got some pretty damned good reasons for that.And now you’re stuck masquerading as my wife.”
Ellie opened her mouth to respond—and the words died in her throat.
You’re going to have to become fake married.
She hadn’t yet found an opportunity to bring Constance’s breezy suggestion up to Adam.This seemed like an absolutely wretched time to try, when he’d just bared his soul to her about how much it was hurting him to have to pretend to be someone else with Borthwick.
