Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies

by Cynthia Cooke

  “Dad, he’s right,” Genie said. “It’s over.”

  Carlos finally reached the boat and hefted himself up onto the back, his lips and fingers a pale shade of blue. Kyle handed Genie a zip tie and she secured the man without the slightest bit of struggle.

  “We need to go now, before it gets any lighter,” Marsters said.

  “We don’t know how many men he has on his boat,” Kyle countered. “There are only the two of us.”

  Marsters cleared his throat.

  “Okay, three of us. But you are hardly trustworthy.”

  “I could say the same of you.”

  Kyle took out his phone, called Cameron, and told him everything that had happened.

  “What did he say?” Marsters demanded.

  “You’ll find out soon enough. We’re going back to the island to wait for Cameron’s men.”

  …

  “Maybe my dad’s right, Kyle. Maybe we should go after Becca on our own,” Genie suggested tentatively. Did they really want to wait any longer to go after Becca?

  They were headed toward the island, the sun rising in the sky. Kyle at the helm. Not answering.

  She continued, “Dad can wait for Cameron’s men on the docks and they can catch up when they get here. We might have a better chance with just the two of us approaching in Emerich’s own boat than a whole team of agents coming after them.”

  “Maybe.” Kyle eased up on the throttle as the dock came into view, looking much like it had when they’d left. No sign of Emerich’s men, or of Cameron’s. He pulled the boat up alongside the dock, turned off the engine, and swiveled in his chair. “But I don’t trust him.”

  Her father cleared his throat again. “I’m standing right here. I have no intention of leaving again. What’s important is that we end this.”

  Kyle looked unconvinced. “You think you can handle these two until Cameron gets here?”

  With an insulted grunt, Marsters stood, then yanked the fake UPS man up by a beefy bicep. “Let’s go,” he muttered. “Get in the other boat. And try not to bleed all over the place.”

  “I can’t wait to see Emerich eviscerate you, old man,” the blond thug growled.

  “Yeah, well, you’ll be waiting a while.”

  The three of them crossed the dock to her dad’s boat. Her dad turned back to her. “Kyle is right,” he said, halting by the side of the boat. “It’s time we accepted some help. I’ll stay here and wait for Cameron and the other two goons to get back from the cabin. All we can do now is salvage what’s left of this situation and try to save your sister.”

  In other words, make one last-ditch effort to try to protect their family secrets. Before everything exploded in their faces. Genie tried to push away the negative thoughts and believe him, but she was afraid that, like Kyle, she was no longer sure she could trust him.

  “Dad?” It wasn’t that she doubted him. It was just…well, that she doubted him.

  “I won’t run off again, I promise.”

  “And if Emerich’s men come back before Cameron gets here?”

  “There are only two of them. Do you really think I can’t handle myself against two, with the element of surprise?”

  Genie tried not to roll her eyes. Heaven save her from the male ego.

  “If you’re that worried, I can take my boat twenty feet or so off shore and wait.”

  “Just a minute.” Kyle took out his phone and called Cameron, asking his status. He hung up. “Fine. They’re not too far out. This way you can join the team heading out to Emerich’s boat. Tell them everything. And I mean everything.”

  “I will.”

  “Promise, Dad?” Genie asked, still not really believing him. Or even certain she would see him again anytime soon. Something about the dark energy she was reading off him was bothering her. Guilt? Fear? Dread? All three, mixing together?

  “They’ll be here in ten minutes,” Kyle said.

  Her father nodded. “Then we’ll be right behind you.”

  They cast off, and as they drove away from the dock, Genie stood in the boat watching her dad until he became too small to see.

  She and Kyle didn’t try to speak as they tore across the water toward the coordinates Cameron had given them for the yacht. They would have had to yell to be heard above the wind. Besides, Genie couldn’t decide if she was filled with expectation, or dread, or if the sensation moving through her was just a helpless, stomach-sinking certainty that her whole world was about to blow up in her face. The feeling only intensified as she spotted the white dot of Emerich’s yacht in the distance.

  What were they racing toward? They certainly wouldn’t have the element of surprise with the loud roar of the jet boat to give them away. All they could do was hope that whoever was on that yacht would expect her to be a captive of their men, and not show up armed and determined to do whatever it took to rescue Becca.

  Anxiety built in Genie’s chest as the white dot grew bigger and bigger. Kyle slowed their boat and pulled up to the stern of the large white yacht. She grabbed the platform, slipping the rope through the ties that would secure the two boats together. Becca appeared at the top of a short staircase, holding onto a railing, her blond hair blowing in the early morning wind. A welcoming smile was on her face.

  Genie caught her breath. It was really true. Becca was alive. A smile broke over her lips and joy filled her. Kyle turned off the boat, Genie jumped up onto the platform and bounded up the steps. She threw her arms around her sister, squeezing her tight.

  “Genie,” Becca said, laughing and hugging her back. Her gaze scanned the jet boat curiously. “What on earth did you do with John and the others?”

  Genie’s joy at seeing her sister, faltered. “Really? That’s the first thing you have to say to me after I thought you were dead for eight whole months?”

  “Oh, Genie, you are always so melodramatic. You should have known I wasn’t dead.”

  “I should have known? Seriously? That’s going to be your excuse? Not that there is an excuse for what you’ve done.” Genie swallowed her painful disappointment and turned away to watch Kyle finish securing the boat.

  “Where’s Daddy?” Becca asked.

  Genie’s fingers gripped the aluminum railing so tight they were beginning to ache. “He’s not here. You have a lot of explaining to do.”

  Becca smiled and gave her that annoyingly arrogant you-are-such-an-idiot look that only sisters could deliver with such strong impact. “Are you sure you want to get into all that now? Here?” Her eyebrows cocked toward Kyle to emphasize the question.

  Kyle climbed up the ladder toward them. “Any reason why we shouldn’t?”

  Genie’s eyes closed for the briefest of seconds. Becca was right. They couldn’t talk about everything in front of Kyle.

  “Where’s Emerich?” she asked instead, and peered through the doorway behind Becca into the interior salon. Surprisingly, she didn’t see anyone.

  That was when she knew the truth, and the real reason why her father hadn’t minded risking just the two of them to make this journey. There was no one else here. No guards. No thugs with guns. No one there to make sure Becca didn’t escape.

  No one holding her prisoner.

  And her father knew it. She wondered furiously what else he knew and hadn’t shared.

  Becca shrugged. “Who knows? I haven’t seen Sean in days.”

  “Dad thought . . .” Genie started then stopped.

  “Let me guess. That I’m being held captive? That you must come rescue me?”

  Genie took a deep breath. “Yes.”

  Becca laughed. “He’s so predictable, it hurts me.”

  Genie stiffened. “What are you saying?” The words, sounding no more than a squeak, came out on their own volition. Deep down, she had to hear the truth even if she wasn’t ready to accept it yet.

  “That you were always Daddy’s little gullible girl, and you still are.” She held up her wrists. “See no shackles. No ropes. I’m here of my own free w
ill.”

  “And that guy, John, and the others?” Genie gestured down at the boat.

  “They work for me.”

  Stunned, Genie stared at her. “Then why did you send those thugs after me? They came with guns and they— Well, they weren’t real nice.” The thoughts in the big one’s head still sent a quiver to her bones. And not in a good way.

  “I wanted to see you,” Becca said. “I wanted you to know the truth about me.”

  “Jesus, Becca, have you never heard of a telephone?”

  Becca shrugged. “Not my style.”

  “But nine men with high-powered rifles are?”

  “I’m going to check things out. You mind?” Kyle asked, and walked past them into the salon.

  “Not at all, handsome. My stateroom is on the lower deck. The big one at the end.” She gave him a quick wink as he disappeared inside, tweaking Genie’s ire.

  Don’t let her get to you, Genie warned herself. This was how Becca operated, keeping everyone off-balance and emotional.

  “That’s a hot one you’ve got there, Genie.”

  Genie took a deep breath and tried to swallow her fury. “What the hell is going on here, Becca?”

  “Easy. I set a trap for Daddy, and you walked into it.”

  “What?”

  “Come on, I need some tea.” Becca sauntered inside, then through to the galley where a teapot was already brewing on the stove. Genie was immediately reminded of Mary and their childhood. But it was a falsehood, something to make her feel at ease. It wasn’t real. Becca was orchestrating it. Just like she manipulated every situation and everybody.

  “I wanted you and Cat here when Daddy came,” Becca said as she poured hot tea into a mug and handed it to Genie.

  The warm mug felt good against her chilled fingers. Too bad the warmth couldn’t reach her heart. “Why?” she asked.

  “I wanted you to witness the truth when I confronted him. So I made him believe I was in trouble. I sent him a message to bring you, and to make sure you came alone.”

  “Becca, for God’s sake, what are you talking about?” Genie asked, her voice brittle as her patience wore thin.

  “It was Daddy all along, Genie. He did this to us. I wanted you and Cat to know the truth, once and for all.”

  Genie was disgusted. “I already know he did this to us! Did he also make you fake your death, Becca? I mourned you for eight months, and all you can say is Daddy did it?”

  “He messed with our DNA,” Becca snapped, and pointed to her forehead. “We weren’t born this way. He made us the freaks we are.”

  Genie took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves. She had truly gone over the edge. “That’s crazy—some nonsense Sean Emerich fed you to turn you against your family. I, for one, am not a freak.”

  Becca’s eyes narrowed into feline slits. “Oh, really?” She gave her that big-sister look again. But she wasn’t even her “big” sister. Genie didn’t know why she still let her get to her.

  “Embrace who you are, but never tell,” Becca mimicked. “Never let anyone know. It’s our little secret. Do you remember his words? He dictated them to us over and over, as if they were a bedtime story. He didn’t want anyone else to know because he didn’t want his precious CTA to know what he’d done to our mother as part of his top-secret program. That he’d drugged her, experimenting on her while she was pregnant! He did this to us!” She practically yelled the last accusation.

  Genie froze as something cold and paralyzing slid through her, leaving her feeling oddly numb. Becca’s words were too horrible to contemplate. “I don’t believe you,” she said, and took another drink of the hot tea, not so much tasting it as absorbing its warmth into her cold bones. Her hands were shaking. As was her soul.

  “How can you not? The CTA has always come first with him. Why do you think he separated us and sent us away? Because he knew if the others at the CTA met us, if they saw what we could do, then they would know what he’d done and he’d be out on his ass.”

  “But…I don’t understand. What exactly did he do to our mother?”

  “He was giving her heavy-duty drugs during her pregnancy. That couldn’t be good for anyone. Certainly not us.”

  Genie shook her head and backed away from her sister, clutching the warm mug between both hands. “You made me believe you were dead,” Genie said, her voice barely a whisper. “You sent Kyle into that explosion that was meant to kill me and almost killed him instead. And now you’re saying…” She couldn’t finish. It was all too horrifying.

  “It wasn’t me who did that. I wasn’t trying to kill you—”

  “These last eight months—” Genie couldn’t believe it. “You destroyed my life!”

  “I didn’t destroy your life. Daddy did. He’s the one who told you to run and hide. Isn’t that what he’s been telling us our whole lives? Haven’t you ever wondered what in the hell we were hiding from?”

  “Yes, as a matter of—” A sudden wave of dizziness washed over her. Genie braced herself against the table.

  “I knew you wouldn’t believe me. Here, read for yourself.” Becca picked up a large envelope, pulled out a fistful of papers, and dropped them onto the table.

  Genie picked them up to read, but the words wavered across the page. She focused, and what she saw chilled her through and through. They were lab reports for The Amelia Project. Subject: Amelia Marsters. It was a daily log of the drugs she’d been given and the effect they were having on her—the psychic advancements.

  Her mother had been a psychic lab rat in the CTA research labs!

  Genie’s hands began to tremble. Was Becca right? Had her father simply been hiding them from CTA all these years? Until they were grown? Until he made sure there was no one left there to remember? Was that what had happened to Tom Garrison?

  “Go ahead. Search the papers for the names of doctors, technicians, agents, anyone you would recognize. There is no one left. What do you suppose that means? Who was the only one who knew everyone involved? Who would make sure that no one was left to tell our dirty little secret—that the Marsters girls aren’t quite normal. We’re freaks, Genie, created by the CTA. Created by Daddy.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Tension constricted Genie’s chest and she was having a hard time drawing in a full breath. Dizziness swept through her as the pages shook in her hands. “Where did you get these?” She let them go and they scattered around the small room.

  Becca bent to pick them up. “Sean gave them to me.”

  “Emerich?” Instantly Genie felt better. For a minute she’d actually believed the lies. She snorted. “Like Sean Emerich can be trusted.”

  “He doesn’t treat me like I’m a freak. He’s shown me how I can use my unique abilities for the greater good.”

  “Yeah. His greater good.”

  Okay, maybe she didn’t feel better. Genie collapsed into one of the chairs as nausea rolled through her. She’d never been seasick before, but it was hitting her like a ton of bricks. She forced her mind back to the conversation.

  “You don’t understand.”

  “So enlighten me.”

  “I don’t just feel things, now. I can see things, Genie. I can project my sight out of my own body. It’s how I knew where you were, where Cat was. I just had to connect with your mind and I could see through your eyes, see what you see. Like a mini-cam on your shoulder.”

  Genie was certain she must be missing something. It was just as her dad had told her. But…it was still nuts. Impossible.

  “I know you felt me when I connected with you,” Becca continued. “If you’d just opened yourself up to me, you’d have known the truth a long time ago. But you kept shielding yourself, trying to block me.

  Her head spun. “That’s called grief, Becca. I was stupidly grieving for your death.”

  Becca smiled like the Cheshire cat at the Mad Hatter’s tea party. “Well, that is sweet, but really, there was no need. As you can see I’m alive and very well. I found you in that
sweet little house of yours in the middle of a vast desert wasteland. Me. Not Sean.”

  Genie put her hand to her forehead, definitely feeling like Alice. “But…how?”

  “Sean’s scientists helped me. They’ll help you reach your full potential, too. And by using both our powers together, we’ll be unstoppable. No one will ever be able to control our lives again. And I mean no one.”

  Genie blinked at her sister and, for the first time since she was twelve years old, she understood. Somehow Genie had always believed it had been the three sisters together against the world. That they were unique and special. That they had to look out for one another beyond all else. That after their mother’s death and the resulting separation, their bond was so deep, no one or nothing could destroy it.

  But she’d been so very wrong. Delusional.

  There was no bond. No family first. No connections. They were just three different people living three very different lives. They might share the same blood, but that was all they shared. Genie had no idea who this woman standing before her really was. She didn’t know what she believed in, or how she felt about herself—other than that she thought they were all freaks. They didn’t even share that many memories. And the ones they did share were gone now, scattered and stolen by time. The only things linking them were their secrets and lies.

  “Sean says he is going to help us get back what was lost, Genie. We will no longer have to hide who and what we are. We can be free. Don’t you want that?”

  “What I’ve lost no one can get back for me,” she said desolately. “And how will we be free if everyone thinks we’re dead? That is why you did it, isn’t it? Why you lured me to that warehouse? Why you planned the explosion?” Suddenly it all seemed so clear.

  “Why Sean planned the explosion,” Becca emphasized. “Right down to the decoy everyone was supposed to think was you. Don’t you see? Our deaths will be our biggest freedom of all. We will be able to start over in a new place, with new identities. No more hiding from Daddy’s enemies. No more CTA spies keeping tabs. No more worrying that if they found out the truth about us, they’d turn us into lab rats like our mother. That’s what this has always been about. CTA secrets and lies.”