Jack turned, dropping my hand, and reached his fingers to brush the sides of my face. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. 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 this 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.
I’m grateful to my children for understanding when I sometimes choose an hour of writing over watching a movie or playing Wii.
Thank you, Jessica Patch and Laura Pauling, for reading my manuscript and giving me that honest feedback every writer needs. I don’t know if I would have finally published this manuscript if it hadn’t been for endless texts of encouragement from Jessica or the numerous back and forth emails and phone calls about formatting and publishing from Laura.
Thank you, Stephanie Lott, for excellent copy editing. Every writer needs editing, and Stephanie’s service was money well-spent.
I want to thank the members of my book club who volunteered to read my manuscript for typos, and provided me additional encouragement to “Get that book out there already!”
Finally, I’m thankful for the many writers and bloggers who have encouraged me along the way. Without the support of others on this journey, the writing life would be unbearable at times.
About the Author
Heather Sunseri was raised on a tiny farm in one of the smallest towns in thoroughbred horse country near Lexington, Kentucky. After high school, she attended Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and later graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in accounting. Always torn between a passion for fantasy and a mind for the rational, it only made sense to combine her career in accounting with a novel-writing dream.
Heather now lives in a different small town on the other side of Lexington with her two children and her husband, Mike, the biggest Oregon Duck fan in the universe. When she’s not writing or working as a CPA, she spends her time tormenting her daughter’s cat, Olivia, and loving on her son’s Golden Retriever, Jenny. MINDSPEAK is her first published novel.
Heather would like to thank readers for joining her on Lexi’s and Jack’s journey as they search for purpose and ways to turn unfortunate circumstances into good. She is working feverishly on the next novel in the Mindspeak series. She would love to hear from you. You can connect with her in several ways:
Heather Sunseri
P.O. Box 1264
Versailles, KY 40383
Web site: https://heathersunseri.com
Blog: https://heathersunseri.com/blog/
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathersunseri.writer
Twitter: @HeatherSunseri
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