“How the hell would I know something like that? I’ve never met two people more perfect for each other. Well…” she chuckled, “except for Jack and me.”
I was glad Lexi and Jack were finding some semblance of happiness in our messed-up lives. Maybe it would stick… eventually. “I’m returning to Palmyra soon.”
“So?”
“That island is no place for Bree. She deserves a chance to build a life somewhere. Go to college. Or whatever it is she wants to do.” She could do anything she put her mind to. She just needed to figure out who she was. I would only cloud her judgment, make it impossible for her to become who she was meant to be. “I would drag her down.” I stuffed my free hand into my pocket and faced the Willamette River. The water rippled beneath dark gray skies, completely symbolic of how I felt.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it,” Lexi said. “Look, Jonas. I didn’t agree to let you stay on Palmyra so you could use it against people trying to get close to you. As a matter of fact, you’re fired. I’ll find someone else to handle things here.”
“You can’t fire me.”
“Like hell I can’t,” Lexi fired back. “This is my island, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“You know there’s no one else.”
“Of course there is. Jack and I can stay here. This place is paradise.” I could practically hear her shrug. As if it would be no big deal for the two of them to pick up their lives and relocate to an isolated island.
“You and Jack are not staying on Palmyra. That’s my mess to clean up.”
“What are you talking about? Why is this your mess? You didn’t build a laboratory and clone dozens of humans.”
“No, but my mother did.”
“Wait a minute. You think because Sandra Whitmeyer, your surrogate mother, cloned these humans, that you’re somehow responsible for what happens to them?”
“Well… yeah.”
“You’re no more responsible for these clones than the rest of us. Hell, if that were the case, then I should shoulder a big chunk of the responsibility—which I don’t, even though I’m the nearly identical clone of Sandra. And if that’s how you feel, then I don’t want you here anyway. I want someone here who cares deeply for the clones—for the human beings that they are. I don’t want someone who sees them as science experiments—a mess to clean up.”
“You know I didn’t mean it like that.” The way Lexi talked about the clones reminded me of Bree. She had tried to convince me to let her stay on the island, to help care for the children until they were ready to transfer to Wellington, where Lexi and Jack would take over educating them.
“Look,” I said, “I shouldn’t stay on the phone much longer. IIA agents still have a mysterious knack for finding us. Just tell me: How are things going there?”
“Dr. Sallee fled before we arrived. Jack is interrogating the minds of everyone else on the island and has already discovered one other person who might have been helping Dr. Sallee. That person has been locked up until we can send them to the Los Angeles FBI office.”
“I have no idea how I missed those two when I did my inspection of everyone.”
“Sandra did a great job training people to resist our minds.”
“Any other clones showing signs of getting sick?”
“No, they’re all clear. We’ve got things under control here. Your job right now is to get Bree cleared of those murders and find out what Dr. Howard is doing inside that lab. If we have to take over that lab like we did this one, we will.”
She was right. Even if I did allow Bree to return to Palmyra, I had no intention of seeing her live a life on the run from murders she didn’t commit. “Well, just so you know, we’re staying in the nicest of hotels… and charging them to the card you gave me.” I smiled.
“I expect nothing less from either of you.”
chapter twenty-three
Briana
I woke to a room blanketed in dim lighting. It took several seconds to remember I was in a hotel room, sunk down into the vast expanse of the king-size bed, my head nestled in soft down pillows. As my eyes slowly adjusted, I turned my head to find Jonas sleeping in what looked like the most uncomfortable position possible in a small armchair. His legs were stretched out into in the chair’s twin.
I rolled from the bed and padded over to him. When I cupped his cheek, he stirred with a jolt. His bloodshot eyes focused on mine. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I whispered. I guessed I should have said: nothing new was wrong. “Get in bed.”
His eyes studied mine for several seconds before he stood and crawled into the large bed. I pulled the comforter over him, then turned around, searching the room for my bag.
His hand shot out from beneath the covers and grabbed my forearm. “What are you doing?”
I turned back and sat on the edge of the bed. I ran my fingers against the grooves between his brows. “Just going to wash my face and stuff.”
“How’s your head?”
“It’s fine. Stop worrying about me. Get some sleep.” I wanted to lean down and kiss the side of his head, but I couldn’t. It felt too intimate, and there was only one ending to what I was feeling: me with a broken heart.
Jonas was only here to do a job for Lexi—find the missing clones and decide if my dad was for or against us. But I was fighting for my life, my freedom. I’d be better off searching for evidence to prove my innocence alone, and let Jonas concentrate on the clones. If I could figure out what Vance was up to in the process, then all the better. It was time for Jonas and me to split up.
I had an idea of who could help me next: Vance’s personal assistant. She could help me get inside Boone Laboratories. I was sure of it.
Jonas’s breathing deepened into a light snore. He was finally getting much needed sleep. But I’d slept enough. It was four a.m. I slipped into the bathroom and took a quick shower. Clean and dressed, I quietly stuffed my belongings back into my small bag, then found my phone, sitting directly next to Jonas’s. I was about to check for messages when a piercing alarm sounded—the hotel’s fire alarm.
Jonas was on his feet in two seconds flat. Disoriented, he looked me up and down. “You were getting ready to leave,” he said, somehow ignoring the alarm going off. “Why?”
“You needed sleep. I didn’t want to disturb you.” I sucked in an exasperated breath, then blew it out. “That’s hardly what we should be discussing.” I pointed up as if the alarm was right above our heads.
“Were you going to come back?” He didn’t give me a chance to answer before he slipped inside my head and invaded my mind. His face fell when he discovered that I was, in fact, about to leave without him.
“Look, Jonas, you’ve told me how Palmyra is your mess. Well, these murders—my dad’s company—this is my mess. My life. I think you should go back to Palmyra. I’ll move around much more easily if I’m not constantly trying to disguise us both.” It was total crap. I knew it.
Apparently he knew it, too. He grabbed my arm and pulled me close. The alarm seemed to grow louder. “How do I convince you that I’m here to stay? You…” he slid a hand to the small of my back, pinning me next to him, “… are my mess.” He smiled then.
I did not.
“I am no one’s mess,” I nearly spat while struggling in his arms.
“What are you afraid of?” he asked, his amber eyes darkened by furrowed brows.
“Afraid?” I scoffed. “If I were afraid, I would have run already. Left Portland. I’m facing this head on.”
“I don’t mean the murder charges, the IIA agents looking for you, or even what experiments your father might be doing to human clones. I mean us.”
I trembled, and there was no disguising it beneath his touch. “There is no us.” I could hear the shakiness in my voice, feel the thumping of my own heart.
“There’s an us, all right,” he said as if he’d just discovered the truth. “Neither of us knows what it means, but at least I’m not afraid o
f finding out.”
“Is that why you made me feel so welcome on Palmyra?” I asked sarcastically. “Because you weren’t afraid to find out why I might have been there? Is that what the whole ‘pretending’ game was all about?” I tried to pull away from him, but couldn’t. “I kissed you yesterday and all but admitted how deep my feelings were for you, and you said… what? Oh yeah, that’s right. You said nothing!”
When his grip tightened, I didn’t fight it. Instead, I rolled my shoulders and angled my head so that our faces were close. Our breathing blended between us, his breath warm against my lips.
“Why do you think I came to Palmyra?” I asked him finally.
“To get some rest and relaxation? Work on your suntan?”
Did he think it was wise to joke with me right now? He was backpedaling, and I decided to lay down the gauntlet. “I traveled to Palmyra to see if you and I had any kind of future together. I was willing to start the next segment of my life with you on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I was willing to discover if our feelings were worth pursuing. But now…”
Jonas was staring at me now with fear in his eyes. The alarm continued to ring overhead. The strobe light reflected in his eyes. “Now…?” he asked, his voice surprisingly even.
“Now, my freedom is at stake. And that has nothing to do with you. I will not—”
“The hell it doesn’t! Your freedom—your future—has everything to do with me.” He let go of me and ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t you get it?” he yelled.
“Get what?” I said calmly back.
“I pushed you away on purpose. I thought it would be better for you.”
“Better for me.” I bit my lip, biting back a frustrated growl.
“But then I followed you here. I gave you space when I first arrived, but I went after you when I thought you were in trouble. And I stayed. All because I—” He turned and went to the window. The alarm continued its piercing cry.
“Because you what, Jonas?” I asked, my voice calm.
He turned and came at me, slipping his hand to the back of my neck. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you moving on with your life without me in it. I couldn’t let you fight your battles without me. And if that’s not what you want… that’s fine. Just let me help you get out of this mess. Let’s clear your name. Let’s find the children that were stolen from Palmyra. Then I’ll leave you alone.”
Before I could answer him, there was a thumping at the door. “Hotel security. We need everyone to exit.”
Jonas let go of me and ran to the door. He peered through the peephole, then turned to me. Two IIA agents. They resisted my commands.
They’re emptying an entire hotel just to find me?
Jonas angled his head as if to say, “Seriously? You’d question the lengths the IIA would go to find any one of us?”
We heard the sound of a key card deactivating the lock, and I started to panic. I grabbed Jonas’s hand and pulled him next to me. Don’t even breathe, I ordered. I have no idea if I can do this. If they’re capable of shutting you out… I stared into Jonas’s eyes.
The door opened. I entered the minds of both agents, controlling what they saw. Specifically, I forced their thoughts to register a room void of people. Jonas smiled at me, but I was unable to return the smile. I can’t hold it long, I mindspoke.
One of the agents, a woman, looked into the bathroom while the other, a man, walked further into the bedroom. Let’s go, I mindspoke. Jonas and I headed for the door, dodging past the woman exiting the bathroom.
“Nothing?” she asked. The man shook his head in answer.
But just as Jonas had his hand on the doorknob, I lost control of the invisibility. The woman pulled a gun and yelled, “Briana Howard, stop right there!”
Jonas flung the door open, and we ran. Shots rang out and shattered wood and drywall sprayed all around us. The alarm was even louder in the hallway. The agents yelled behind us. We entered the emergency stairwell and ran down the concrete steps along with other hotel guests, who presumably thought they were fleeing a real fire.
We heard shouts from above. “Briana. Stop. We will shoot.”
“Keep going,” Jonas ordered. “They won’t shoot with other people all around.”
“We have your father,” the woman yelled.
I stopped. Jonas, two steps in front of me, also stopped. I searched his eyes, frantic, and then I saw something unexpected.
“Bree, don’t listen to them. We have to go.”
“You already knew this. How?” I’d been with him the whole time.
“I’ll explain, but we won’t be able to help your father if they catch you.”
He was right about that. So we kept going, racing past other hotel guests. When we reached the ground floor, we exited onto a side street where the hotel guests were congregating, waiting for the okay to return to their rooms. The lights of three fire trucks blinked up ahead. I quickly changed our appearances, and Jonas and I huddled with the others before the pursuing agents could spot us.
How did you know? I asked him again.
Your mother called while you were sleeping. Left a message.
You didn’t wake me? I mindspoke through gritted teeth.
Stop, he commanded. I am not the enemy. That’s why I was in the chair. I was trying to stay awake so that as soon as you’d slept a little, I could tell you. But I drifted off.
You didn’t think this was important enough to wake me?
He grabbed my arms. Stop fighting me. We’ll go to your mom. Now.
chapter twenty-four
Jonas
During the twenty-minute Uber ride, I roused Kyle in Kentucky from bed and got him to send an encrypted message to Bree’s mother that wouldn’t be intercepted by the police or the IIA.
Next, I called Coach Williams, an ex-FBI agent, and filled him in on what was going on. I asked if he would talk with some of his contacts at the bureau about Dr. Howard. I stopped short of telling Bree that I didn’t trust her mother to tell us the complete truth.
As the Uber driver pulled into the parking lot of a diner on the west side of town, Bree asked, “You think my mom got our message?”
I scanned the windows of the diner and spotted Mrs. Howard. I lifted my head in her direction, prompting Bree to turn and see her, too. “Looks like it,” I said.
We crossed the parking lot and entered the restaurant. The scent of maple syrup and bacon accosted me when we walked in, and my stomach growled. It was still early, and apart from Mrs. Howard, the place was empty except for a few businessmen sitting at one booth. They looked relaxed and laughed like this was an everyday meeting place for them.
Mrs. Howard was dressed in a tailored suit that stuck out like a sore thumb in the casual diner. Her hair was pulled into a low bun. Her lips lifted into a tight smile when she saw us.
“Mom,” Bree said. She leaned in and hugged her mom, then sat down across from her. “What happened? Where’s Dad?”
“The IIA stopped him outside the entrance to the BioTech property yesterday. He refused to turn you in, so they took him into custody.”
“How do you know this?” Bree asked.
A woman in a royal blue polo with a small pig logo approached our table with a pot of coffee. Bree quickly turned her cup over on the saucer and accepted a pour, as did I. I also made sure the waitress didn’t look at us, giving her no chance to recognize our faces from the news, while also giving Bree’s mind a break from keeping us disguised.
When the waitress was gone, Bree’s mother took a sip of coffee. Her hands shook as she clinked the cup against its saucer. She made no attempt to answer Bree’s question.
“Mom? You said he was taken into custody outside the labs. Who told you that?”
I slid a quick glance at Bree. Was she interrogating her mother on purpose?
Her mother pursed her lips. “Janice called and told me. Said they arrived and threatened to close down the entire lab if he didn’t hand you
over. When he refused, they took him into custody. Later I got a message that if I didn’t turn you in, they’d come for me next.”
Bree stiffened beside me, but didn’t remove her stare from her mother. I’d noted the tension between the two of them when we had dinner that first night, but now, I couldn’t cut the tension between them with a butcher knife.
Mrs. Howard’s gaze slid to me. “Don’t worry. I’m not here to turn you in.”
That thought hadn’t entered my mind… until now.
She looked back to her daughter. Her face softened. “I need your help. The IIA says that your father has something they need. That Vance was supposed to give it to them the morning he was killed. You know I’ve no clue what your father does down there.” She reached across the table and grabbed Bree’s hand. “But you do. You know your way around the lab. If I can get you inside, will you find something for me?”
“What?” Bree asked.
“Something Vance and Lora were working on.”
The oracle, Bree mindspoke to me. “Do you know what this thing was?” Bree asked her mom.
“It was some sort of optical learning tool or something. Your dad tried to tell me about it.” She waved a hand. “But I never listen.” She took another sip of coffee. “I’m just so worried. What will they do to him?” Her voice cracked slightly. Her line of sight drifted to the main entrance.
“Mom, the whole place was crawling with agents and police yesterday. They want nothing more than to pin these two murders on me. In other words, I can’t return to BioTech for you and look for something you can’t even describe.”
Mrs. Howard squeezed her daughter’s hand. “I know. I’m sorry. We’re going to find a way to get you and your father out of this mess.” She looked down at her coffee and back up at Bree. “You don’t know anything about this optical thing they’re talking about, do you?”
Bree pulled her hand back. “Why would I know anything? I’ve been inside BioTech twice since I returned.”
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