Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies

by Cynthia Cooke

  “Were you serious in there about Becca?” he asked. “You honestly think she’s really alive?”

  “Yes.” He hadn’t believed her earlier, but she could sense him coming around. She was fairly amazed by his open mind. Maybe she hadn’t been giving him enough credit.

  His voice grew quiet. “You think your dad knew all along?”

  “It looks like it.”

  “And that’s why he sent you away to hide in the desert?”

  She nodded. “I think perhaps Emerich has been after me for a long time.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  She shook her head wishing she could let it all out and tell him everything, but knowing it would only cause more problems between them. “Just a feeling.”

  “Then pay attention. You have pretty amazing instincts.” He came close, slipping his hand around her waist, resting his forehead against hers. “I have to call Cameron. I have to let him know about all this before he gets here.”

  She sucked in a breath, wanting to fight him on it, but realizing she shouldn’t. Becca was alive, her father had just unknowingly confirmed that. They needed to find her, and stop Emerich. To do that, they were going to have to work together. “Yeah. I understand.”

  “Hopefully he’s found something out about Tom Garrison, or those text messages. I’ll be right outside if you need me.”

  He gave her a squeeze and started to walk away, but turned back to her. “By the way, I like what you said back there.”

  “What did I say?”

  “That you trusted me. Is it true?”

  She smiled and closed the distance between them, then kissed him again. With a wink, he broke away and walked out the door. Taking a fortifying breath, she strode back to the kitchen. “All right, Dad. You got your way. We’re alone. Now spill. Everything.”

  He took a moment to finish frying the fish, put them on a paper towel-lined dish, and set them on the table. He took three plates out of the cupboard and placed them in front of her before finally sitting.

  Genie took one from the stack and helped herself to a fish, but didn’t touch it.

  Her dad’s eyes locked on hers. “Nothing we say here can leave this room.”

  She stared at him. Waiting. Not promising anything. “How could you not tell me, Dad? You let me believe Becca was dead. You let me mourn my sister. What in the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Because if I had told you, you would have gone charging after her, not caring about your safety or anything else.”

  “So it was better to let me think my sister was dead?”

  He hesitated a long moment before simply saying, “Yes. I’m sorry.”

  I’m sorry? “No, you’re not. You did what you thought was right and to hell with everyone else. Nothing new there.”

  “Genie,” he warned.

  “Where is she?” she demanded, though she had a fairly good idea.

  “Emerich has her.”

  Her thoughts flashed to her vision of a room with guns and bars on the windows. “He has her? Or she’s with him? There’s a big difference.”

  “He has her.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do.”

  She wanted to laugh. “Not good enough, Dad. Your obsessive need to control every aspect of our lives, hell, every aspect of everything—it has destroyed my life. All our lives. No more. I want to know—”

  “You can’t possibly blame me—”

  “I can and I do.” She clutched the edge of the table. “I want to know everything, Dad. And if I have to go into that warped mind of yours and ransack it—”

  “Fine!” He stood abruptly, pacing in front of her, scrubbing his hand through his grizzled hair. “Emerich has Becca, and now he wants you and Cat. Is that enough for you?”

  “You still haven’t said why. What does he want us for?” Though she had a sneaking suspicion about that, too. Why she hadn’t realized before…

  “He wants to control your empathic abilities, Genie. Yours and Cat’s.”

  She stared at him, trying to absorb what she hadn’t wanted to believe. But she needed to hear the whole twisted plot. “Why?”

  “Why do you think? Money. And power.”

  “But Emerich can’t control our abilities. Hell, I can’t even control it. Becca must have told him that. Besides, she would never have—”

  He made a deprecating noise. “Told him that you girls are different? That you’re special, with incredible gifts? That’s why you had to be—” He halted, obviously chagrined.

  He’d said too much. Genie’s anger flared. “Separated? Sent away? Told not to use our abilities anymore? Not to let anyone know our big secret? Well, we didn’t, Dad. Not ever.”

  “You mean you and Cat didn’t.”

  At the not-so-subtle accusation, Genie’s fury coalesced into something else…fear? “What the hell are you saying?”

  “I’m saying Becca wasn’t willing to follow orders. Emerich has known about what she can do, what you all can do, for a long time. Probably since their school days. Now he’s gotten the bright idea to exploit it, to use it for his own power and profit.”

  “Exploit how? All Becca can do, all any of us can do, is sense how others are feeling. And believe me, that’s not always a gift.”

  Her father leaned forward bracing his hands on the table. “For Becca, it’s more than just a gift.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Becca told me Emerich’s scientists have come up with a drug cocktail that enhances her abilities, so not only can she sense what people were feeling, she can manipulate those emotions, as well. More than that, sometimes she can actually connect with people and even see through their eyes.”

  Seriously? She regarded him, stunned. “That’s just crazy. Why would you even believe that?”

  He let out a long breath, almost deflating before her eyes. “Becca showed me. They’ve been experimenting, giving her different drugs, working on her brainwaves and synapses to the point that she can literally see their thoughts. She demonstrated for me how she can get images of schematics, buildings, weapons systems, just by becoming close to the subject.”

  She frowned. “Wait. By touching them?” He shook his head and a sense of horror swept through her. “You mean… How close does she have to get?”

  “As close as it takes.”

  “And that’s why Emerich wants me and Cat? So he can experiment on us, too?”

  “I can only imagine the worst.”

  “But Becca… She wouldn’t let Emerich hurt us.”

  He shrugged. “Who knows what Becca’s capable of these days? I don’t.”

  “Surely you don’t think she’s gone over to his side?”

  His expression turned bleak. “Not voluntarily. Because she was not the one who texted you to meet her that day at the warehouse. She called me, afraid of what Emerich was planning. I gave her the number to Kyle’s company cell phone to make sure he got to the warehouse in time. She’s the one who sent him that text pretending to be you.”

  “So she wasn’t at the warehouse herself that day?”

  “No.”

  “But what about the body? Who was it, and why did you say it was Becca?”

  He flinched, and remained silent for a long moment. Then he exploded her world. “Genie, that body was found wearing your clothes, carrying your weapon and a cell phone programmed with all your numbers.”

  “Mine?”

  The impact of his words sucked the air from her chest. “Emerich was planning to grab me and fake my death?”

  “It would have worked, too, if you hadn’t gotten out. Everyone would have believed you were dead. No one would have looked for you. It’s why I had the truth covered up by identifying the body as Becca instead. And why I wanted you secure in the desert where no one could find you. Until I could get to the bottom of this.”

  Genie stood, her chair falling to the ground behind her, but she barely noticed. She paced the small room, trying t
o get a handle on everything he was and wasn’t saying. “And have you gotten to the bottom of it?”

  To his credit, he looked miserable. “I thought I had, I thought it was just a straightforward play for power. But then today…”

  “But why? And what about trying to grab Cat in broad daylight in front of half of Reno. That was crazy in the extreme. Not at all like Emerich’s usual careful planning.”

  “Exactly. Something’s changed. He’s acting desperate.”

  They gazed at each other for a moment. She could clearly feel his fear, and she sure as hell could feel her own growing panic. “What does that mean for Becca?”

  “That’s what worries me. I haven’t heard from her since the day of the explosion.”

  “You think Emerich found out that she warned you and Kyle?”

  “I’m almost sure of it.”

  “What are we going to do?” she asked, feeling totally blindsided.

  “First and foremost, we need to keep you and Cat safe. Figure out how he found out where you both were.”

  “No, first we need to rescue Becca,” she corrected anxiously.

  He closed his eyes. A wave of desperation rolled off him. “We might be too late for that.”

  No! “As long as she’s breathing, it’s not too late. The three of us can—”

  “You can’t tell Kyle any of this.”

  Genie stiffened. “I have to. He can help us.”

  “He’ll tell Cameron. It’s his job and he won’t have a choice. I don’t want the CTA involved. If that’s where the leak came from…”

  “We can’t do this alone, Dad.”

  “How will you explain Emerich’s motives? You’ll have to tell Kyle about your abilities. Is that what you want?”

  “If I have to,” she said, determined.

  “Look, I know where Emerich is keeping Becca. I need you to help me get her back. But only you. No one else. It’s the only way we can be sure there are no leaks to warn him.”

  She understood what he was saying. And she agreed with him that Kyle would report everything to Cameron. But if she didn’t tell him, just up and disappeared again with no explanation… She sighed as an ache squeezed her chest—her heart was already breaking.

  “You’re being unreasonable and stubborn,” she muttered.

  He didn’t say anything. He knew he’d won. But she wanted him to know exactly the consequences she’d pay.

  “If I go without him, Kyle’s not going to forgive me. Not again. Not for this.”

  Still nothing.

  “He was nearly crushed and could have died in that explosion trying to save Becca. He deserves to be included.”

  Her dad just stared at her, unmoving, refusing to budge.

  Genie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, opening herself up to him, but saw nothing but her mother, her smile, the cornflower blue of her eyes, the wind blowing her blond curls behind her. She almost pulled away, but then the vision shifted to an older man with sandy brown hair and a full beard. He was raising his hand over his head, his eyes wide with terror, his mouth opened in a scream. Just as quickly as it came, the image was gone.

  What in the hell else was her dad hiding?

  Chapter Ten

  Kyle paced back and forth in the darkness behind the small cabin, peering into the lighted windows. He’d wanted to show Genie that he trusted her. That he respected her need to talk to her father alone. He was trying, but it wasn’t easy. There would always be secrets with that woman. She just couldn’t let herself believe that he was on her side, no matter what she and her father were hiding.

  He’d done a quick perimeter check of the cabin, and now he walked down the trail that led beyond the front of the house, making sure no one had followed Marsters, making sure no one was out there waiting to surprise them. He focused on doing his job and on stopping himself from storming back into the cabin and demanding to be a part of the conversation. This was his case. He was there to help, not to be shut out. But demanding anything from Genie or her father would get him nowhere. He had to play it cool. To give her the chance to bring the information to him. If she brought the information to him. With her track record, he could never be sure.

  He played his flashlight over the ground, following a set of footprints that had originated from the path he and Genie had taken from the dock. It appeared that instead of walking through the front door, Marsters had gone around back, circling the cabin. Kyle followed the tracks. Scuffmarks in the dirt showed that he had loitered outside the bedroom window—the room where Kyle and Genie had been making love earlier.

  Kyle stiffened. Had the man been spying on them?

  And yet, even knowing full well that he and Genie were there, Marsters had come through the back door without announcing himself. He’d even managed to look surprised and none-too-pleased to see Kyle. Why the primo acting job? Whatever the reason, Kyle didn’t like it. He didn’t trust the man farther than he could spit.

  Grinding his jaw, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Cameron’s personal number.

  “Marsters is up to his old tricks again,” he said when his boss answered.

  “You found him, then?” Cameron asked, sounding relieved.

  “At a cabin on the far side of the island. But he’s refusing to talk with me there, so I’m outside right now. What about Cat and her family? How are they?”

  “They arrived safely. Though she’s having a hard time explaining to her family.”

  Kyle chuckled. “I can imagine. So, did you find out anything on those text messages?”

  “Nothing on the one sent to Genie, but the one sent to you came from a phone registered to Becca Marsters.”

  Which would imply that she was not a willing participant in what was happening to Genie now. “Then it would stand to reason that Becca wasn’t the one who sent Genie the text to meet her at the warehouse in the first place.”

  “Not unless she used a different phone.”

  “Well, that’s interesting, because apparently Becca’s not dead.”

  In the silence that followed that little bombshell Kyle could hear the squirrels shuffling in the branches of the trees above him, and the lonely hoot of an owl.

  Cameron pushed out a long breath. “Proof?”

  “I’m sure a second look at the autopsy results will be all the proof you need. Anyway, both Marsters and Genie seemed to know she’s alive.”

  Cameron swore softly. “Any clue what Becca has been up to?”

  “That’s the million dollar question. I’ll ask when I’m allowed back inside.” Kyle didn’t quite succeed in masking the sarcasm. “I don’t know if it will help, but Becca met Emerich at boarding school. They’ve known each other for a long time.”

  He heard papers shuffling. “What? We don’t have any record of his going to a boarding school.”

  “Must have gone under a different name? Apparently he’s an orphan and very wealthy.”

  “I’ll check into that right away. This could be a real break.” He sounded excited.

  “Before you do, what did you find out on the Tom Garrison clipping?”

  “Ah. That one is very interesting. Mr. Garrison was a scientist working on a top-secret program for the CTA back before my time.”

  “You’re kidding.” Kyle certainly hadn’t expected that.

  “Yes. The research was headed by Marsters himself.”

  “What kind of research?”

  “That’s where it get’s fuzzy. Almost all of the records have somehow been deleted or destroyed. I did manage to find out the program was called The Amelia Project.”

  “As in Genie’s mother Amelia?”

  “Quite a coincidence, eh?”

  “You think Marsters deleted those files?”

  “Even though the CTA is a top-secret agency, it’s really hard to hide an entire program from Oversight. But somehow it was done. No one else seems to know anything about it, either.”

  Kyle’s head was spinning as he tried to puzzle o
ut the implications. “The date that Garrison went missing, according to the clipping? I noticed it was the same weekend Genie’s mother died in that car accident.”

  There was more paper shuffling. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “Neither do I. But I just don’t see what any of this has to do with Sean Emerich.”

  “Well, I just might have the answer to that.”

  Kyle was beginning to get that feeling, that little itch on the back of his neck that he got whenever a case was about to come together.

  “The missing scientist’s full name was Tom Emerich Garrison.”

  …

  Genie waited in the bedroom for Kyle to come back into the house. She hated that she had to leave him, hated that her father wouldn’t bring him into the plan. But he was right, Becca came first, and they couldn’t take the chance of anything going wrong. Becca needed them.

  Kyle slipped into the dark room and eased the door shut behind him. In the dim light from the moon shining on the bedcovers, she lifted them, inviting him into the bed next to her. He stripped out of his clothes, and snuggled next to her, his cool skin, shocking her as he held onto her warm body.

  “Good news,” he said and gave her a gentle squeeze. “Cat and her family made it to the safe house in D.C.”

  “That is good news.” Her fingertips trailed along his back, moving over his shoulders as his skin warmed.

  “It’s almost over,” he said with a kiss on her hair.

  ”I hope so,” she said, knowing it would be, one way or another. She just wished it didn’t mean the end of their relationship, too.

  She pressed her cheek against his chest, knowing this would probably be the last time she’d be able to hold him. This was the hardest decision she’d ever had to make in her life. Even harder than leaving him the first time. This time, she had all the facts right and knew exactly what she was sacrificing. Tomorrow morning when he woke up alone and discovered she’d left him again without warning, he would be furious. She’d be lucky if he ever forgave her.

  “Cameron discovered the origin of the text messages,” he said.