Talent to Burn (Hidden Talent #1)

by Laura Welling

  Jamie moved behind the rock, commando crawling toward the Quonset hut. I did not see who was shooting at us. Moments later, a few more shots rang out, ricocheting with a zing off the outer metal wall.

  Jamie vaulted over the sill of the open window, and fell to the ground beside me.

  “Are you all right?” he said, running his hands roughly over my limbs, not waiting for an answer.

  “I’m fine,” I breathed. “You?”

  “The same.” He sneaked a glance out of the window, and then ducked down again. “This isn’t the police. Even if Miller gives the game away at the hospital, this is too soon. Besides, I expect the cops to declare themselves.”

  “The Institute?”

  “I’ll bet you any amount of money Ryder’s behind this.”

  “How did he find us?”

  “We can answer that later. Right now we have to get out of here.”

  “We can’t leave Eric and Justine behind.”

  Our conversation was cut short by feedback from a megaphone, and an anonymous male voice blared, “Come out with your hands up.”

  “They’ve got to be kidding,” Jamie said. The whites of his eyes glared all around his irises. His usual bravado had deserted him.

  “What’s wrong?” I said.

  He shook his head. “They will not take us prisoner,” he said, his voice taut with rage.

  A nearby window shattered, showering us with glass. I shook myself off and gritted my teeth while I pulled a fragment from my forearm. Jamie was not as lucky. He had a slice over one eye that was bleeding freely down his face. He mopped at it with his arm.

  “Let’s go,” I said. “We can go out the back and run over behind Eric’s cabin, help them get away through the bathroom window.”

  Jamie shook his head and blood sprayed. “We’ll never make it. There’s at least fifty yards out in the open to cover.”

  “We can’t leave them behind. I haven’t gone through all of this to give up on Eric now.”

  He looked me in the eye, something unknowable ticking over in his mind as he watched my face, and then his jaw set, the muscles locked. “All right.” He looked at me for another long moment.

  Leaning forward, he brushed a kiss across my lips, leaving a bitter tang of blood behind. “I’ll see you when I see you,” he said, and sprang to his feet.

  “What…”

  Jamie took off and was out a window on the opposite side of the hut before I could gather my thoughts. The crack of gunfire brought me to my senses. He was giving us a diversion and I needed to act fast.

  Shouts and more shots moved away in the opposite direction from Eric’s hut. Bouncing to my feet, I moved to the window closest to Eric and Justine, opened it and stuck my head out, cautiously. When there was no answering gunfire, I climbed out the window and covered that deadly fifty yards in a time better than anything I’d ever done on the track.

  When I arrived and banged on the window, Eric and Justine were engaged in a heated conversation, but it cut off as I slid the sash open. “We have to go right now,” I said.

  “I should turn myself in,” Eric said, his face still white.

  “Listen,” I said, biting each word off. “Jamie has led them off on a wild goose chase. You’ll excuse me for not wanting him to get shot at for nothing.”

  The life drained from Eric’s eyes “More blood on my hands,” he said.

  “Don’t waste it.” I held out my hand and he took it. “Come on.”

  Justine said nothing, but she followed us over to the window. I helped first Eric and then Justine over the window ledge, and then we were running faster than I could think back into the woods.

  “How do we get out of here?” I asked.

  “There’s only one road in, but we can hike out to the main road,” Eric said. “I’ve walked out there a few times. It’s a couple of miles. We’re not far from town, either.”

  “All right.” I turned. “Are you okay, Justine?”

  She nodded. “I’m not dressed for hiking, but I’ll survive.”

  That was an understatement. She still wore the high-heeled boots she’d had on every time I’d seen her. Hopefully she wouldn’t slow us down too much.

  “Lead the way,” I said, and Eric took off at a solid march through the woods. Shots rang out in the distance, making my heart drop. I hoped Jamie had gotten away safely. Fear for him left a sour taste in my mouth. How and where would we meet up after this?

  As we got deeper into the woods, the pace slowed. Justine picked her way through the leaves, and Eric kept stopping to help her. I wondered what he saw in her. She never said much, but it was clear my brother adored her from the gentle way he assisted her through the brush.

  The hike must only have taken an hour but it felt like months. I waited for shots, the sound of feet behind us, but there was nothing.

  When we broke through to the edge of the road, there were cornfields on the other side. Looking along the road in both directions, I could see an intersection one way and a small cluster of stores the other.

  “Where are we?” I said.

  “West Virginia,” Eric answered. “The town is Littlefield.”

  I didn’t have the vaguest idea of where in West Virginia that was, but it looked like we were out in the sticks. What would Jamie have done?

  Taking a deep breath, I decided it was time to woman up. I’d already bribed someone, broken into an apartment, burned down a building. What was one more transgression at this point? “Unless you know something I don’t, we’re going to have to steal a car to get out of here,” I said.

  “How are we going to do that?”

  “That’s the easy part. The hard part is where we go from here,” I said.

  “I have money,” Justine said.

  “That’s one good thing, at least.” I looked down at the stores. There were a few cars parked here and there. “You guys wait here. I’ll be back.”

  I walked casually down the edge of the road, checking out the town. There was a diner, a grocery store, a post office and a gas station. Not a bad little town. I headed around to the back of the diner, and found three older cars parked in the back lot. These would be the employees’ cars, and there was less chance of being spotted back here.

  I made a silent promise to leave the car somewhere with a full tank of gas, and started checking doors. None of them were locked, a side effect of being in the middle of nowhere. I had planned on hot wiring one of the vehicles, one of the useful skills Dad had taught me, but the old red truck had keys hanging in the ignition. People were far too trusting.

  I started the truck and quietly backed it out, checking my clearance on both sides. It wouldn’t do to run into something while trying to sneak away. Jamie would have been proud of me for thinking of it.

  Moments later, I pulled over by the woods. Eric and Justine had dropped out of sight, but they popped out of the bushes when I pulled up. The three of us crammed into the front seat, and I headed to the intersection, turned out and we were off, away down the highway.

  “Got any ideas about where we might go?”

  “I was thinking Mexico,” Eric said.

  “What about that place Jamie was talking about?” said Justine.

  I nodded. “We can go there,” I said. “It’s close. But I don’t know if they’ll help you if you’re on the run from the law. Jamie would know.” I pressed my lips together. “I hope he got away okay. When we get down the road a little, I’ll give him a call. I also want to switch cars before we go into DC. The other question,” I said, “is who those men were. They didn’t act like police.”

  “I’m sure they were from the Institute,” Eric said.

  “If you were going to get caught, would you rather it was by the police or by the Institute?”

  Eric sighed, and stared through the windshield. “I know I deserve to go to jail. I don’t want to go back to the Institute.”

  “I think you should go back,” Justine piped up suddenly from the far side o
f the cab. “This is insane. We’re on the run and you could accidentally kill someone at any time. The Institute is the best chance you have of getting yourself under control.”

  “I said I don’t want to go back,” Eric said.

  “All right,” I said. “Let’s go to the Order. Dorian can help us figure this out, and hopefully Jamie will show up there soon.”

  We used Justine’s money to buy a four-hundred-dollar junker parked out front of a farm, and left the truck in a supermarket parking lot. I didn’t want to drive a stolen car across state lines, although I don’t even know why that concerned me after the events of the last few days.

  After a couple miles, I pulled into a gas station and while Eric put gas into the old Buick, I walked to a corner of the parking lot and called Jamie.

  His phone rang twice and then went to voice mail. “I’m calling to see how you are,” I said, wary of who might hear the message. “Everything’s great here. Give me a call when you get the chance.”

  We continued the drive toward DC, and within a couple of hours I pulled into the tree-lined driveway at the Order. We were safe, at last. Relief washed over me. I wondered if Jamie had found his way back here yet. It could only be a matter of time.I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that Dorian was waiting for us on the front steps. She did, after all, have an entire mansion full of psychic Talents at her disposal.

  “Good afternoon,” she said. “Please come into my office.” Her expression was neutral. She turned and clicked away across the marble tiles.

  I glanced at Eric. His skin had turned gray and he had huge shadows under his eyes. He followed Dorian, and Justine, with her arms tightly folded, followed him. I brought up the rear.

  Dorian held the door to her office open for us, and as I entered she swung it shut behind me.

  “Please sit,” she said, moving behind her desk, and we all complied quietly. “Catrina,” she said, “I assume this is your brother, Eric?”

  I nodded. “And this is his friend Justine.”

  Dorian inclined her head in their direction. “I’m pleased to meet you at last.” She closed her eyes, and sighed. “I’m sorry I don’t have better news for you.”

  My stomach squeezed itself into a tight little ball as I waited for her next words.

  “I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “As you are possibly aware,” she continued, “We have, in the past, brokered deals with law enforcement for Talents to keep them out of jail.” She paused, and then made grim eye contact with each one of us in turn. “In this case, that has not been possible, although I have tried.”

  “Are you going to turn me in?” Eric said.

  Dorian sighed. “You may be surprised to learn the answer is no. In my meetings with various parties, it has emerged that, given how dangerous you are perceived as being, you are not desired as a prisoner, either.”

  “What does that mean?” I said bluntly, leaning forward. Her political double talk frustrated me.

  “What it means is that if Eric encounters law enforcement officials, they will shoot him on sight, and shoot to kill.”

  I fell back in my chair, trying to absorb the news.

  “What options does that leave us?” Justine said, her usually squeaky voice controlled.

  “Not many,” Dorian said matter-of-factly. “Adopt a new identity. Flee the country—although that will be difficult, I imagine, as Eric’s details have been circulated as a possible terrorist. Try turning yourself in and hope they don’t actually shoot you.”

  The room lay quiet. Eric said nothing, but his pupils were huge, making his eyes look black. I slumped down, pushing my hands into my pockets so I could think. My fingers brushed the edge of a piece of card, triggering memories, and an idea.

  “We could talk to the Institute,” I said. “Broker a deal with them somehow.”

  “I won’t go back,” Eric said.

  “They won’t kill you,” I shot back.

  My brother stared into space, and I was reminded yet again of his hints that he might take his own life. In this case, perhaps he was considering suicide by cop. I couldn’t let him die. I couldn’t let him kill anyone else. I didn’t know what to do.

  “You’re too valuable to them,” Justine chimed in. “Cat’s right. You’d be safe.”

  He gave the barest shake of his head. “I won’t go back,” he repeated.

  “Can you help us at all?” I asked Dorian, desperation creeping into my voice.

  She nodded, as if it were a perfectly everyday question. “While I can’t offer you a permanent home, I am quite comfortable offering you sanctuary for twenty-four hours or so. I’m more interested in justice than the letter of the law.”

  I guess she had to be to work with Jamie.

  “You will need to be careful when you leave here. I’ll get my assistant to show you to some rooms. Catrina, you may use the one you had before.”

  We stood and Dorian walked us to the door. As I went to follow Eric and Justine out, she put a hand on my arm.

  “Just a moment,” she said.

  I waited as she closed the door, and then returned to my side.

  “Where is James?”

  Hope sunk even further. “I hoped you might know. We got into…a tight spot, you might say, and we lost him. I assumed he’d come back here. He’s probably on his way.”

  “Let me try calling him,” she said, and dialed the number. Not many people could remember phone numbers these days, but she clearly knew it by heart. She pressed a button to put the call on speakerphone, but it went straight to voicemail, without even a ring at the other end. She shrugged. “He’ll probably turn up soon. He’s done this kind of thing before.”

  I nodded my farewell and headed for my room. I passed Jamie’s room and paused, placing my hand on the doorknob.

  When he came back he’d probably come here first. Logically then, this was the best place to wait for him. I could sync up with Eric and Justine in the morning. I turned the handle and let myself in.

  Jamie’s room made me hungry for him. His scent hung on the air, as people’s essences do in their private rooms, the scent of leather, soap and spice. The bed was unmade, as we had left it.

  I closed the door behind me and went to the bed. I lay down on it and buried my face in his pillow. With my eyes shut, it was almost as if he were there.

  “Come back soon, Jamie,” I said, muffled, into the pillow. “Come back soon.”

  I waited there for him through the afternoon and evening, and it wasn’t until after midnight that I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten. Dozing off and on—in the bed, on the chair, and even on the floor at one point—made the hours pass like treacle.

  I began to wonder if Jamie had decided he’d had enough. I felt sick, thinking about the conversation we’d had about our relationship. By his words, we were nothing but friends, and he owed me no information about his whereabouts.

  Finally, I fell asleep properly, in the bed this time. When I woke, it was dawn. My first act was to grab my cell phone, and I realized I’d gotten a text while I was sleeping.

  Got sidetracked by another project. I won’t be back for a while. Good luck! – J

  I stared at the small screen, my eyes scanning the words over and over, trying to find something that wasn’t there. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t accept this was just…it. Could it be code? If so, for what? Surely, he’d have found a way to give me a hint if he was in trouble.

  Despite what he’d said, I thought we’d had something, started to form a bond. Looked like he didn’t care enough to help finish off this “project”. This was precisely the type of thing everyone had warned me about. I wanted to scream, to punch someone. I’ll see you when I see you. Indeed.

  As seductive as it was to feel sorry for myself, I assumed he would return Dorian’s calls and we would find out where he was sooner or later. Right now, I had to find another option for Eric, an
d I had to do it without his help. Rage and pain at his rejection would drive me on. I would use it as fuel.

  I got up and splashed my face with cold water, trying to clear out the cobwebs and wash away the hurt I felt at Jamie’s text. He’d promised me nothing. I had to move on. Eric. I had to focus on Eric.

  If Eric died in a police gun battle, or took his own life, I couldn’t help him. And time was running out.

  The idea of calling Ryder floated into my mind, talking to him about getting help for Eric. I shook my head to get rid of the idea, and began pacing around.

  Even if I could convince Eric to move on, leave the country, or adopt a new identity, he was still out of control. Any solution would be limited by the fact that he could kill people at any time without any intent to harm. I didn’t care about the risk to myself, but there was Justine to think about, and a world of innocent bystanders.

  The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced talking to Ryder was the right thing to do. He’d made reference to methods for controlling Talent. If he couldn’t help, then no one could. I’d talk to him. What could it hurt?

  As the sun rose over the gardens, I slipped out of the house and walked over the lawn toward the front gate, looking over my shoulder to check that no one followed me.

  After leaving the property, I headed down the road, past mansion after mansion. I began to jog. The burn in my chest and legs began earlier than usual, but it felt good. I left the subdivision and turned onto the main road, continuing my run until I arrived at a strip mall. Only then did I pull out my cell phone and Ryder’s business card, now creased and grimy from living in my pocket.

  I dialed the number, fumbling at the screen.

  Despite the earliness of the hour, the voice that answered was crisp and awake. “Ryder,” he said.

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “Catrina?” He sounded surprised. “I didn’t think you were going to call me again, after you stood me up last time.”