“Oh, Lexi. If they figure out that you have the powers they hoped you would have, they will stop at nothing to find you. I’m still not even completely sure who “they” is. But since Addison is still in a coma…”
We’re safe for now? I didn’t believe that for one second.
“I have to go back to Wellington.” He laid his head on my chest.
No. I squeezed my eyes tight. Slowly, I was able to lift my hand and place it on his head. I ran my fingers through his hair. You can’t.
“I was never supposed to leave. But I had to get you out.”
My eyes fluttered open and I found his dark blue eyes with mine. I didn’t want to argue with him. Not now. Not yet.
“Did I ever tell you my favorite color?” He pressed his lips to my hand.
I shook my head.
“It’s the strange, beautiful color of the ocean. A deep, emotional green. The color of your eyes. They change color at times, you know?”
“What color are they right now?” My voice sounded hoarse from no use.
He narrowed his gaze. “The color of a raging sea.”
“You’re not going back to Wellington.”
“Not tonight. But I have to tomorrow.”
I pressed my head back, hard into the pillow, and breathed deeply.
Jack pleaded his case. “Cathy will take Addison off the feeding tube and coma-inducing drugs if I don’t. Then she’ll know. All it takes is one MRI, and they’ll know what you did. But if I go back alone…”
“They’ll leave her under and not suspect,” I finished for him. “As long as you cooperate long enough to get her moved.”
“And we’ll fake her death and hide her away.”
He made it sound so easy for a person to assume a new identity. “Oh, well, yeah. Just pretend to kill her. No big deal. Then it’s happily-ever-after. Just like you were hoping for me.”
“Don’t do that. You know we don’t have a choice. They’ll force you to heal Sandra… and next time… What you did could have killed you. I won’t lose you.”
“We do have choices.” I could still run. We could still run, before Seth comes after me like he promised. Why did Jack not see that Seth would stop at nothing to have me heal his sister, our creator? “You can choose not to shut me out again.”
“Can we talk about this later? There’s something else I’d rather do now.” A sneaky grin crept up on his face.
Because I was too tired to argue right then, I snaked my hand around his neck and brought his head closer. His lips tapped mine, teasing at first. Once. Twice. Then they closed over my lips with a need I had not felt from him before.
When he finally broke away, I pulled back the covers and he crawled in and held me as we both slept.
~~~~
When I woke again, I realized I had no idea where I was. I felt better. Not one-hundred percent, but better. Jack was not in the room.
I slipped out of the bed and made my way across the room. As soon as I opened the door, I heard voices. They got louder as I walked down a hallway toward a light at the end. I was in some sort of modest ranch house.
“You can’t be serious,” Georgia was yelling. “I, for one, am not setting foot on Wellington’s campus. Not after what you’ve just told me. Have you forgotten the state you brought your girlfriend here in? You really think she’ll go back there?”
“No. I don’t want her anywhere near that place.” Jack spoke with certain finality.
“Oh, but you’d subject your other friends to their freakishly controlling ways? They had an electric fence put around the school, Jack. What kind of non-prison facility does that?”
I padded lightly into the kitchen. Georgia and Kyle turned toward me. Jack opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself. “Please, don’t let me interrupt,” I said. “You were telling Georgia how you were planning to keep me away from Wellington.” I looked around for something to drink.
Reading my mind, Jack walked to a cabinet and pulled down a glass for me. After fixing me some ice water, he stepped behind me and slid his arms around my waist as he kissed my neck. “How are you feeling?”
“Better.” I eyed the others. “So, real names?”
Georgia, Jonas and Fred looked back and forth from each other. Jonas stepped forward. “We’re exactly who you think we are. We go by Georgia, Fred, and I’m Jonas. Our real names are dead to us.” They were the other three cloned from the original test group. They made up the rest of the seven.
“And I see you’ve met Kyle.” I nodded at him. “Thank you for your part in getting me out of there. Seeing okay?”
“You’re welcome and yes, I am now. Glad to see you up and around.”
“The only one missing is Briana.” I sipped my water and eyed each of them before I turned to Jack. “What’s the plan? When do we go get her? And Danielle? And expose Cathy and Dr. Wellington for the monsters they are?”
The others all shifted. Georgia crossed her arms. She looked different without all the dark makeup from the first night I met her. As did Fred without the guyliner.
“It’s not that easy.” Jack intertwined his fingers with mine and pulled me closer. He stretched an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into a tight hug. “Seth called while you were showering. Cathy wants to make a deal with us.”
I tried to pull away, but Jack held on tight. “What kind of deal?” I mumbled into his chest.
“He didn’t say, but Seth and Cathy both think that the IIA is behind your father’s death. And they think that if the IIA killed Peter, there’s nothing stopping them from killing a clone that knows more than he or she should. Especially if they think for one second that someone has evidence to expose them.”
I pushed against Jack’s chest. This time he let me, but his severe eyes locked onto mine. “Which is why they think we’ll seek refuge at Wellington?” And they’d have me right where they had wanted me all along—inside The Program.
Jack nodded.
The IIA did not try to drown me in your pool.
I know. I thought of that. Jack ran his hand through his hair. From the looks of it, he’d done that quite a bit.
I turned and eyed each of them—Kyle, Georgia, Jonas, and Fred. The only one missing from the original seven was Briana. According to Dad’s spreadsheet, there were more clones, but they were all younger. There were only seven in the original test group.
Since I didn’t believe Briana had tried to kill me the night I went to the bar with Jack… And I didn’t think she was capable of drowning me… Someone in this room tried to send me to my grave early. Quite possibly, someone in this room murdered my father.
Jack stepped behind me again and slid his arms around my waist.
Georgia spoke first. “Look, I know you both feel comfortable that Cathy isn’t trying to kill us, but come on…”
“She’s a controlling freak,” Fred said. “If it weren’t for Seth, I’d have run long ago.”
Jonas laughed. A low rumble vibrated in his throat as he shook his head. “Jack, if you think for one second your mom and dad, not to mention Seth and Sandra Whitmeyer, are going to keep us all safe from the IIA, you’ve lost your mind. They aren’t concerned for our safety.”
“We’re all tired,” Georgia said. “Let’s sleep on it. Nothing is going to be decided tonight. Fred, I’m sleeping in your room. You can show Kyle the basement.” She turned to us and smiled warmly. “You two can keep my room.”
I looked down at my hands, suddenly embarrassed by what that suggested.
Everyone dispersed after that, obviously exhausted and grumpy.
Jack gripped my hand tightly as he led me back down the hallway. He pulled me into the room I had been sleeping in. It was a very nondescript room. Nothing decorated the walls. The only color came from the lavender down comforter on the bed. I was probably the only one who wasn’t tired.
Jack turned, dropping my hand, and reached his fingers to brush the sides of my face. “I don’t want to make you uncom
fortable. I also don’t want to leave you alone. Not while someone is getting inside your head.”
I nodded, suddenly bashful.
“I’ll sleep on the floor. If someone tries to lead you from this room, you’ll have to trip over me to get out.”
Jack grabbed a pillow off the bed and tossed it on the floor.
I grabbed his arm, stopping him from continuing. He stood close, looked down at me. His warm breath feathered across my face. My knees went weak. “Will you hold me at least until I fall asleep?” I asked.
He grabbed me in a hug and lifted me off my feet. “I will hold you for as long as you’ll let me.”
“You think we’re okay here? You trust those guys out there?”
“I know what you’re thinking. You think one of them is inside your head. We don’t know that. But that’s why I’m sleeping in here.”
I wrapped my hand around his neck and into his hair, then leaned down and kissed the spot below his ear. “If I had run, how would you have found me?”
Jack walked me over to the bed and lowered me onto the mattress. He pulled back the covers allowing me to slip in. He crawled in beside me and pulled me close—my back to his chest—and held me. He kissed me softly on my neck and whispered, “I will always find you.”
~~~~
Jack slept soundly. Unfortunately, I was not tired after sleeping the past two days. I rolled over in his arms and watched him. I studied the lines of his eyes, his long eyelashes, his nose. Listened to the even rhythm of his breathing. I wanted to run my fingers along the smooth texture of his lips.
The night of the gala did not go as I expected. Even now, I knew deep down something could still separate us if he was to return to Wellington and I didn’t.
I couldn’t help but wonder what Danielle and Briana knew about what had happened after the gala. It had been a Friday night. Danielle was used to me disappearing for the weekend. But did she know something had happened? That there was more to the extra security around Wellington? I’d text her tomorrow. And tell her what?
After I breathed in the scent of Jack’s shampoo one more time, I decided I needed a drink of water or something. I slipped from under Jack’s arm, gently replacing the comforter up around his neck. He rolled over and burrowed further into sleep.
The hallway creaked as I walked toward the kitchen of the unfamiliar house. I wondered where everyone else slept. Georgia said she was sleeping in Fred’s room. Or was it Jonas’? Maybe the guys were sleeping in the basement.
I entered the kitchen. A small light was on over the stove in an otherwise dark room. Everything seemed calm. Normal. Eerily so. An uncomfortable chill crept across the back of my neck.
I heard the distant sound of music—the faint sound of a guitar or two. I padded slowly over to a door. Mini-blinds hung on a window. I peered through them and saw a small fire on what looked like a patio or deck.
The metal blinds rattled when I turned the knob and pulled. I stepped outside where Fred was playing guitar and singing. Kyle sat in an Adirondack chair, listening.
Jonas simply held his guitar, his arms draped over the instrument.
All three sat around a fire pit. The temperature was chillier than it had been just last week.
In his hand, Jonas held a cigarette. Slowly, he lifted it to his mouth and took a drag. The fire at the end brightened, and I flinched as if a firecracker had exploded in my face.
Kyle looked over at me. “Lex, trouble sleeping?”
I jerked my head toward Kyle, ignored his question, then looked back at Jonas. At the cigarette in his hand.
A slow grin stretched across his face. “Have a seat, Lexi. Join us.”
I stepped slowly and deliberately around the fire pit and stood next to Kyle. My heart raced. The breeze carried the stench of cigarette smoke to me, and memories of jumping in the freezing swimming pool flooded back.
After pulling another long drag, Jonas flicked the butt in a high arc to land at my feet. He stood and stepped toward me. After grinding the last of the burning stick into the ground, he looked up at me with a grin that made the tiny hairs on the back of my neck crawl. “I should be more careful. These things can be deadly.”
His dark stare seized hold of my body and mind. Sparks from the fire only inches away reflected off of his brown eyes in glints of amber.
Suddenly, I felt his presence inside my head. I could not erect a wall quickly enough. It was as if I was inside a memory. A dream.
I was back inside the girls’ locker room at Wellington. Lockers opened and closed. Lights magically shut off. My pulse sped up as I ran into Jack, and pain shot through my arm.
The scenery shifted, and I was running through the grass toward Jack’s home and into Jack’s arms. I turned, but the figure I ran from had vanished.
“It was you,” I whispered, searching his cold eyes. “Were you there?”
The pool. It was so cold. The water covered my head. I floated in darkness. I couldn’t breathe. Even now, I tried to inhale and failed.
I fell to the ground, coughing on my hands and knees. I gasped for air.
Jonas held out a hand, and having no control over my own body, I slid my hand into his and allowed him to help me up. He turned me around to face Kyle. Sliding a hand around my waist, he pulled me close, my back to his chest in an intimate hold I was not comfortable with but could not stop.
“Kyle,” he said softly. “Stand up and stick your hand in the fire.”
I jerked, but Jonas’s grip on my body was tight. I tried to speak, but I was somehow silenced.
Kyle stood and walked zombie-like to the fire. I wanted to stop him. Scream out to him. I was powerless. I tried to speak to him with my mind. Nothing. I jerked again and tried to wiggle from Jonas’s hold.
“Shhh,” Jonas whispered in my ear. “You can’t stop it. But you have to see.”
A tear leaked slowly out the corner of one of my eyes as Kyle got closer. He lifted an arm and reached his hand slowly toward the flames. His fingers reached through the flames. His face reddened from the heat. Beads of sweat formed along his hairline. But he did not flinch from the burn.
“Kyle, man, what are you doing?” Fred screamed behind us.
Jonas whipped around, taking me with him. “Fred, go back to playing. You did not see Kyle stick his hand in the fire.” He turned me again. I watched Kyle in fear. “Kyle, go sit down. Tomorrow, you will share how you clumsily threw a log on the fire and accidentally burned your hand.”
Kyle sank back into his chair like nothing had happened.
I thought about the fire alarm at the dorms. How Gram had morphed into Smoking Man, and how the figure had pointed a gun at my face.
I thought about how I had practically drowned. “You want to kill me?”
Jonas released me. I turned and backed away. He lowered his chin, peering down on me. “You will know my intentions when the time is right.”
“Did you kill my father?”
A low rumble of laughter rumbled in his throat. Ignoring my question and rocking back on his heels, he said, “You’re the key to our future. All I want is to prevent our creators from controlling us—starting with you.” Stepping closer, he reached a hand and traced the line of my cheekbone.
I tried to recoil from his touch, but it was futile. Part of my brain was convinced I enjoyed the brush of his fingers. The other part busied itself with constructing barriers to block him out. But his presence was too deeply imbedded. I couldn’t even call out to Jack.
“Did you run Jack and me off the road?”
He shook his head. Finally, an answered question. So, I tried again. “Did you kill my father.”
“No, Lexi, I did not kill your father.”
“But you want to kill me?”
“I want to control you.”
A chill moved down my spine as the muscles in my back tightened at his words. “I don’t understand. What do you want from me?”
“I want you to go back to bed. Forget that we had th
is talk tonight.” He placed a hand on my waist and pulled me closer, not all that gently. “Tomorrow, you will look at me differently. You’ll have a need for me you won’t be able to explain.”
I tried to push Jonas away with my mind. Then with my hands.
He leaned in close. His breath on my face. His voice next to my ear. “Go back to bed, Lexi. Curl up next to Jack and forget that I’m the one that’s inside your head.”
~~~~
Jack was warm. I slid between the sheets and curled up against his back.
I had lost so much. But here I was next to the man who kept me safe. Home.
Jack shifted. He rolled over, facing me. His arm snaked around my waist. His breathing changed; his eyes fluttered open.
“You okay?” he whispered.
I nodded, feebly.
“Can’t sleep?”
I hadn’t been sleeping, had I? My thoughts were scattered like I had lost time. Maybe I had drifted in and out of consciousness. Confusion clouded my memory of the last hour.
My future seemed so uncertain. I’m nervous about tomorrow, I admitted. And something else disturbed the back of my mind, but I couldn’t bring it to the front.
Some sort of danger teetered on the edge of comfort and restlessness.
Jack feathered his fingers along my hairline. Release that worry for now. You’re safe.
Staring into Jack’s warm gaze, my body relaxed. My mind followed. Whatever it was that hovered there in my psyche, causing immeasurable anxiety, dissipated.
He leaned in and kissed my forehead, his lips lingering against my skin. You’re home. Wherever I am, you’re home.
Acknowledgments
First, thank you, God, for allowing me to wake every day with renewed hope, peace, and purpose.
Second, I want to thank my husband for not laughing at me when I told him I wanted to write a book and for not laughing at me when I told him I wanted to write a second book after I wrote that horrible first book. Mike is my biggest cheerleader and my biggest fan. I thank him for his undying, unwavering support and for encouraging me to pursue my dreams no matter how long it takes. Also, he did most of the work on that killer cover.
Mindspeak Page 30
