She wanted to reach out and strike and strike and strike and strike!

“Easy. It’s me.” Gilroy was holding her wrists against his chest. “I don’t mind a little punishment, but I won’t take Masenak’s.”

She had been hitting out at him with all her strength, she realized dazedly.

Another scream.

“Or maybe I will.” He pulled her closer and covered her ears with his hands so that she couldn’t hear. “Take deep breaths. Stay still for a little while and we’ll get through this.”

“No we won’t,” she said hoarsely. “We’ll never get through it. I hear it even when he stops.” She was clutching him desperately, and she could feel the tears running down her cheeks. “And there’s nothing I can do about it. I kept telling Alisa I had to do something about it, but she—”

“Shh. And now we’ll do what needs to be done.” He was rocking her gently back and forth, his hands cupping her ears. “Just ride this one out with me. I’ll make sure he pays, I promise. Just listen to my voice and nothing else, okay?”

“I told you, it’s not okay. What are you doing? Stop treating me like a kid.”

But he was still talking, and she stopped listening to the words and blocked out everything but the comforting rumble of his voice.

And several minutes later he was taking his hands away from her ears and gently pushing her away from him. “I think the worst part is over now. I don’t hear her. She seems…better.”

“She’s not better. She won’t be better until I can get her and the rest of them away from Masenak.” She pulled away from him and tried to steady her voice. “You should leave now. It would be a good time to slip out of camp before the guards come back to get her. He’ll keep her with him for a little while longer and then send her back to the prisoner tent.”

He nodded grimly. “You appear to know the schedule. This happens a lot?”

“Of course it does. He knows it hurts me. I think the reason he stopped sending for Baldwin and using him was that he wanted to show me what could happen to me if I didn’t cooperate. It’s his way of training me.” She shook her head. “It works very well. Because I usually don’t have anyone covering my ears so that I don’t hear the lesson he’s trying to drum into me.” Her lips curved in a bitter smile. “And I don’t even know what you were saying. I was trying to block everything out.”

“Good. Because I was just making noise and mumbling bullshit to help you do that. I think I ended up telling you the plot of the first episode of the Indiana Jones movies.”

She shook her head in bewilderment. “What? Indiana…I remember Alisa said something…” Then she said flatly, “You must be totally weird.”