Green: The Beginning and the End by Ted Dekker Page B

last summer.”
    Billy held her in his green-eyed gaze. He’d been places, this one. For a few seconds she felt as though she was the lesser here, that he’d come to seduce her, to win his way into whatever prize he sought.
    Was he really reading her mind? It seemed preposterous. She couldn’t feel anything that suggested his mind was probing hers, peeling back the layers of her thoughts, her deepest secrets.
    “No, not yet,” he said. “Those I’ll save until later.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Your secrets.”
    So it was true, then.
    “Of course it is.”
    Janae turned back to the ottoman and lifted one of the glasses. And now can you?
    No response.
    No, not when my eyes are averted or covered. How fascinating .
    She drilled him with a long stare and slowly brought her glass to her lips, allowing him to crawl as deep as he wanted into her mind.
    She sipped at the cool liquid, felt it slip down her throat. “And what do you see now, hmm? Anything you like?”
    “I see evil,” he said.
    “Oh?” She suppressed a stab of alarm. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
    “Depends.”
    “On whom, me or you?”
    “On us,” he said. “It depends on us.”
    She knew then that she liked this redheaded man named Billy. She liked him very much.
    “Sit with me, Billy. Eat with me. Tell me why you’ve come into my world.”
    THEY TALKED for an hour, and with each passing minute Janae’s anticipation for the next grew. From the moment Billy had climbed inside of her mind and found this so-called evil in her, she knew there would be no hiding from him.
    More to the point, she didn’t want to hide from him.
    They talked about a host of topics, taking their time to slowly unravel each other’s lives. He’d spent his childhood in Colorado, though he didn’t share many details, before becoming a defense attorney in Atlantic City. He then went on to Washington with an old flame of his named Darcy Lange.
    “Darcy Lange, huh? You serious?”
    “You know her?”
    “She was all over the news a few years back,” Janae said, curling her legs back on the Queen Anne chair. She took a teaspoon of caviar and brought it to her mouth. “Stunning creature.”
    “Yes. Can’t deny that. We were . . . you have to understand about Darcy and me. We both started young, in the . . . the . . . you know, the libraries below the monastery.”
    “Monastery? You met her in a monastery?”
    “In a manner of speaking.” He was hiding something. “We were kids, and we drifted apart until this whole Tolerance Act thing, when these gifts of ours came out. We had a thing, but it’s different now. Our interests have . . . aren’t exactly in line.”
    “Look, my beloved little redhead, if you expect me to open up my mind to you, I expect you to quit hiding yours.”
    “I’m not.”
    “You’re lying with every other word.” She stood up and moved away from the chairs. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. Honestly, I have enough on my plate. The last thing I need is some guy playing games with me.”
    “No, it’s not like that.”
    “Whatever. Are you finished? I’ll send a maid to collect the tray.”
    “What?” He stood, spilling some crumbs off the napkin on his lap. “No, that’s not what—”
    “Why, Mr. Rediger, should I give you even an ounce of my attention?” She knew why, but they had to find a way onto a level field of play.
    “It’s worth it, trust me.”
    “I’m not in the mood to trust a man who can glance into my eyes and see things I can’t even see myself. You’ll have to do better.”
    “How?”
    “For starters, come clean. Tell me how you came to read people’s minds.”
    “I will.”
    She walked back toward him. “Tell me about Thomas’s blood.” Even as the words left her mouth, she could taste her desire for whatever Billy might bring her.
    She didn’t understand the desire herself. As a child she’d always been fascinated by red blood, whether in a movie or from a cut or