by Jaime Rush
Her eyes teared up. “I’m so confused. I’m angry at my father, but I still love him. And…I have these crazy feelings for you, and anger is one of them. Why? You saved my life.”
He ducked his head and ran his fingers through his mussed hair. “I’m the person who made you see your father in the harsh light of reality. And you’ll probably never forgive me for that. I’m sorry as hell, but I didn’t make him the bad guy. He was already that. As for anything you feel for me, anger is the safest. Leaving is probably the best thing you can do. But we’ve still got Sayre to deal with.”
Her stomach churned at the thought of him. “He can only get me in my dreams. I’ll leave my car keys at the hotel desk where I’m staying and I’ll take sleeping pills. They interfere with my dream state.” Her eyes widened. “The Rogues will let me go, won’t they?”
“I won’t let them keep you prisoner.” He looked as though he was going to argue further, but he let out a breath instead. “I don’t like it.”
“I need access to a computer to find their address. I know where the key to one of my grandfather’s cars is. He doesn’t drive much anymore, and the car is just sitting there.”
“What about money? Your father could be monitoring your accounts, your credit cards.”
“I’m a fugitive.” That hit her. A fugitive from her father. Would he hunt her as he’d been hunting the Rogues? Use the government’s power to freeze her accounts? “I need to make him think I’m coming to talk to him, so he won’t do anything yet. I’ll withdraw money from my account, get the car, and leave.”
“I’m with you until you’re ready to go on your own. I won’t take no for an answer on that. And if you change your mind about my coming with you, I’m there. Got it?”
She nodded. “But if my father or his men find me, they’ll hurt you.”
His brown eyes gleamed with determination and something she dared not identify. “That’s the chance I’m willing to take.”
“Why is it better if I’m angry at you?”
He gave her mixed messages, further muddling her emotions. He was devoted, but he wanted to keep her at an emotional distance.
“Don’t you think it’s better, given our situation?” He went to his dresser and pulled out clothes. “I’ll go ask one of the girls if she has some clothes you can borrow.”
She nodded, hating to need anything from them. He opened the door and stopped, then knelt to pick up something on the floor. He turned and held up a stack of folded clothing.
“They’re ahead of me. Here’s a note: We figured she’d need something to wear. Not sure of the sizes. Olivia’s about Amy’s size, so this should work.” He closed the door and walked over, holding the clothing out like an offering. “That’s the way these people are.”
She chewed her lower lip, touched despite herself. “Well, I suppose they don’t want me running around naked.” She went into the bathroom and changed, reluctantly reliving the moments she and Nicholas had shared in that shower. She used a washcloth to wash her face and toothpaste to brush her teeth the best she could. She returned to the room, where Nicholas was waiting for her.
She was grateful he hadn’t gone up without her. The thought of going upstairs was intimidating enough.
She walked to the door. “Let’s get this over with.”
He paused before turning the knob. “I wish I could take all this away from you.”
She nodded, thinking, So do I, but unable to voice it.
Eric and Lucas were working out in the gym. She avoided their gazes. When Eric let out a loud groan, she stiffened, prepared for a verbal onslaught. The weights clanged down, but he said nothing.
Zoe and Rand, on the couch looking over a notepad, glanced up and gave them a civil nod but nothing more.
When Olivia and Nicholas were in the middle of the stairs, she stopped, forcing him to stop, too. In a quiet voice she said, “I’ve made you their enemy because you brought me here.”
“They’ll get over it. I don’t regret my decision.”
A ghost of a smile lit her face, and her heart. She moved on, walking out into the main living room, glad she didn’t have to deal with all of them at once. Amy and Petra were talking in the kitchen, and by the low tones, Olivia guessed she was the topic. A cockatoo was standing on a PVC perch. His crown feathers flattened at the sight of her, and he bent low and let out a growling sound as he rocked back and forth. Great, even the parrot didn’t like her.
“Orn’ry! Stop that.”
Must be Amy’s parrot, because it stopped and stood upright, but it still eyed Olivia with as much suspicion as Eric did.
Olivia walked over to the counter that opened into the kitchen. “Thanks for the clothes.”
“Yeah, that was nice.” Nicholas walked to the refrigerator. “What do you want to eat?”
Olivia put her hand on her stomach. “Oh, the thought of food doesn’t sit well.”
“You’ve got to eat. I’ll fix you some toast with peanut butter.”
He was taking control again. But he wasn’t fighting her on the bigger issue of leaving on her own, so she acquiesced.
She looked at the two women, who were both compulsively stirring their coffee. “Can I use your computer?”
They gave each other a questioning look that clearly said, Dare we trust her? She might send an e-mail to her father.
“You can stay in the room with me if you’re worried,” Olivia added.
“I guess,” Amy said, nodding for her to follow. The parrot rushed to the end of its perch as though it were going to attack Olivia as she walked past.
Amy shook her finger at it. “Stop it, brat.”
It leaned away and made clucking noises.
Amy waved all that away. “It’s nothing personal. He doesn’t like strangers. Or, really, anyone but me.” She led Olivia down the hall to a small room with a desk, computer, and a rack of car batteries. Aiming for the power button with her bare toe, Amy booted up the PC, dropped into the seat, and a few seconds later opened an Internet page.
True to Olivia’s offer, she remained standing nearby. Olivia typed in the few facts she knew about her mother, Mary Thompkins Darkwell. Her family came from Spartan, West Virginia, a wretched town, according to her father. If he could be believed.
She wrote down several addresses and phone numbers and closed the page. “Thank—”
Amy was gone. Nicholas walked in bearing a plate with peanut butter toast topped with banana slices. It actually smelled good. He was right; she would need her strength. It was going to be a rough day.
Nicholas left Olivia alone for a few minutes to eat her toast while he went downstairs. Eric and Lucas were working out with a fevered intensity that spoke to their fear of needing to be in shape if Olivia gave her father clues as to their whereabouts.
Nicholas sat on one of the unused benches and leaned against the preacher curl piece. “Olivia and I are heading out this morning. Family’s important to her. Now that she’s lost the only family she ever had, she’s got this idea about connecting with her mother’s side of the family. She wants to go alone, but I’m going to get her to her grandfather’s car. I’m blindfolding her all the way out.”
Eric threw his towel on the floor. “I don’t like it.”
Lucas tilted his head. “What are we going to do, hold her hostage?”
Nicholas looked at both men. “She’s not going to tell her father anything. She understands what kind of monster he is.”
Eric scowled. “And we’re supposed to believe that?”
“Yes.” He shifted his gaze to Lucas. “I’ve tried to locate the eye piece, but it’s as though it disappeared. I’m going to three of the crash sites I worked on, see if I can find anything that might have been left behind. I figure they probably scoured it pretty good, but you never know. I need a car for a few days.”
Lucas said, “I’ll get you the keys to the Camry and some cash.” He nodded toward Olivia, who was standing in the stairwell opening. “You go
ing alone?”
“Yeah. That’s the way I like it.” Normally he did. As he looked at her, though, the last thing he wanted was to be alone. Or even more importantly, for her to be alone. “I’ll keep in touch. Do you have an extra phone? I want her to have one in case she needs to get hold of me.”
Eric rolled his eyes, but Lucas said, “We’ve got a few extras.”
“Just make sure she only has your number.” Eric turned back to his machine and continued to work out.
Lucas went upstairs to the desk, programmed Nicholas’s number into the extra phone, and handed it to Olivia. He held on to it for a second as she took hold of it. “Our lives are in your hands. You understand?”
She nodded. “You won’t see my father or his thugs because of me. I want nothing to do with this war.” She walked to the door, her anxiousness to get out of there clear in the tension of her body.
Nicholas knew she also meant she wanted nothing to do with them. And probably him. She wanted to escape the whole mess, her father, everything that reminded her of the betrayal she’d suffered. Unfortunately, he was afraid it wasn’t going to be that easy.
CHAPTER 30
Once they were on the road, and Olivia could remove her blindfold, she said, “I need to call my father. This is going to be the hardest call I’ve ever made. I’ve lied to him a few times, covered for you. But this is different.”
He reached over and squeezed her hand but quickly let it go. She was amazed he was there, taking care of her. It made it easier, and harder.
See how confused you are.
He pulled into a service station and parked near the pay phone. He got out with her and handed her some change. “Do you want me there?”
“I’ll do it alone, thanks.”
She waited through three agonizing rings. He answered with a gruff, “Darkwell.”
“It’s me.”
“Olivia, where the hell are you? Have you gone mad?”
She felt herself shrink at his ire. Then she stiffened her shoulders. “I’m thinking more clearly than I ever have.”
“Obviously not. You’re with them.”
“Them?”
“Don’t play coy with me. The Rogues, dammit. You’re with the Rogues.”
“I am not with the Rogues.”
“You’re with Nicholas, and he’s one of them.”
She pressed her hand against the glass. “How did you know?”
“I still have someone who can check on things.”
Her body stiffened. “Sayre? Don’t you dare—”
“Fonda saw you in a car with Nicholas.”
“Fonda saw me?” Would she ever get used to this? “I thought this pendant was supposed to protect me from remote viewing.”
“Yes, but that’s not what Fonda can do. Olivia, you’re letting this infatuation get the best of your common sense.”
“This has nothing to do with infatuation.” She glanced at Nicholas, who was leaning against the car watching her. “It’s about you not believing me. Have you asked Sayre about last night?”
“He would laugh his head off. He was here, Olivia. It was Lucas, plain and simple.”
She knew Lucas wasn’t the type to attack her, but she couldn’t tell her father that. Or that she’d talked to them, much less been to their hideaway. “I want to talk to you about all this. Meet me at my condo in an hour.”
He paused for a moment. “I’ll see you there.”
She hung up and walked to the car.
Nicholas met her halfway. “How did it go?”
“I think he bought it. He knows I’m with you.”
“How?”
“Fonda saw us in the car.” Her fingers curled around her pendant. “Which means this thing doesn’t do a damned bit of good protecting me from spying eyes. Or creeps who can get into dreams.” She twisted the chain and flung it into the trash can. “Take me to a bank, please.”
Nicholas walked her back to the car. “I thought I saw something in the backseat, but when I glanced back, nothing was there.” His eyes widened. “When I was at the estate, I saw Fonda in my room. But…not Fonda. She was like a ghost. Somehow she can project her consciousness to other places. Technically not remote viewing.”
She slouched in her seat. “That’s what my father said.”
An hour later, while her father was waiting at the condo for her, she pulled her grandfather’s old Cadillac out of the garage near the back of his property. She’d left a note in case he noticed it gone.
“This was my grandmother’s car. When she died, he couldn’t bear to drive it or sell it. He had his staff drive it periodically.”
Nicholas sat in the passenger seat, ducked down in case anyone saw them driving out. “My mother was so heart-broken when my father was killed that she became a hermit for years.”
She pulled out of the driveway but glanced over at him. “My father was responsible for your father’s death, wasn’t he?”
He slowly nodded. “But that has nothing to do with you. Did you know your father had our blood taken when we started working for him? Mine, Fonda’s, and Jerryl’s.”
Alarm shot through her. “He wasn’t giving you anything? Like what Amy was asking me about?”
Nicholas sat up and snapped on his seat belt. “No. But now I wonder why he was doing it.”
“You said the substance the original subjects got was passed down to their Offspring. Maybe my father was checking to see if it was in your blood.”
“He could have isolated it and given it to Lucas when he was a prisoner at the asylum.”
Her head spun momentarily. What was her father really capable of? She pulled into the shopping center’s parking lot where they’d left the Camry.
She nodded toward the store. “I’m going to buy maps and clothes and toiletries. Then I’m going to Spartan, West Virginia.”
“You’re sure—”
“Yes.” She didn’t want him to offer again and weaken her. She wanted him with her. “But tell me something: You said it was better to be angry with you, you’ve warned me before that you don’t get involved, that you’re leaving. Why do you want to come with me?”
“To make sure you’re all right. I care about you…too much. I don’t want you to make the same mistake.”
Too late.
He continued. “If your family is decent people, stay with them. Stay away from your father.”
“And you?”
“Yes, and me. But if you need me—”
She put her finger on his mouth. “You’re making me crazy. I’m going to do this by myself. I’ll stay a couple of days, then I’ll figure out my next step.”
He pressed a piece of paper into her hand. “This is your cousin’s address. Go there next.”
“How…?”
“I looked up Audrey Darkwell on the Internet and found her MySpace page. With her picture, I could find her location.”
She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll be doing some investigating on my own for a few days.” He leaned down and kissed her, softly and quickly, before moving back. “Bye.”
She leaned forward and hugged him.
“Bye,” she whispered, and hurried into the store. She felt his gaze on her the whole time, but she never looked back.
Amy woke up, immediately sensing Lucas wasn’t in bed. It was four in the morning. She didn’t see the bathroom light. She hated worrying, but she didn’t like the feeling she’d had lately that something was going on, and that, as usual, he was protecting her by not telling her.
She walked out into the hallway. The light under Eric’s door illuminated the floor. She was about to walk into the living area, hoping she’d find Lucas getting something to drink, when she came face-to-face with him.
He was holding one of the rifles.
“Lucas! What’s going on?”
She turned on the light, and her heart plunged. His eyes were vacant. Eric flew out of his room. Petra’s do
or opened, too. Lucas began to lift the gun.
“He’s sleepwalking!” Amy held his arm with one hand and tapped his cheek with the other.
Eric grabbed the gun and tugged, but Lucas wasn’t letting go or waking up.
“Lucas!” Eric shook him, and only then did he blink and look at them in confusion.
Then he looked down and his face paled in horror. “It’s happening again, isn’t it?”
Eric pulled away the gun without resistance. “No.”
“Denial is dangerous.” Lucas took them in, his gaze zipping from one to the other and finally settling on her. “It’s not Jerryl. I’m going crazy.”
Petra said, “It could be Sayre. Olivia said he can possess people.”
Amy rubbed her arms. “And you looked possessed.”
Lucas looked at Eric. “Either way, I can’t take that chance.”
Amy took in the look they exchanged. “You are not killing Lucas.”
Petra waved her hands in anxious little movements. “Kill Lucas? My God, that’s crazy.”
Lucas took Amy’s hands in his. “I will not let myself hurt you, whether it’s Sayre or me.”
Fear bloomed inside Amy. Lucas would do anything, anything, to keep her and the others safe. And Eric, well, she couldn’t be sure what he’d do. He looked haggard, as though he hadn’t slept in days.
She knew it was no use arguing. “Let’s get back to bed. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
An hour later, as Lucas breathed evenly, she was wide-awake. She crept out to the living area, glad to find it empty. The light was still on beneath Eric’s door, though; she had to be quiet. She took her cell phone and went into the storage area. This was one time she had to risk making a call from the shelter.
Nicholas’s sleepy voice answered. “Livvie?”
“No, it’s Amy. We agreed to find Richard Wallace. Find him. Please. He holds the key to whatever is tearing Lucas apart.”
“Give me a few minutes.”