by Carla Cassidy, Evelyn Vaughn, Harper Allen, Ruth Wind, Cindy Dees
“But what does this have to do with you and me being sisters? I’ve never heard of Rainy or Athena Academy or Lab 33 before,” Lynn said. “This has to be a big mistake. What makes you think we could be sisters?”
“I don’t think. I know,” Dawn replied with certainty. “When Rainy was a student at Athena Academy, she underwent what she thought was an emergency appendectomy. What really happened was that eggs were taken from her. You see, Aldrich Peters, one of the men in charge of Lab 33, wanted to see if he could create genetically enhanced females…superfemales.”
Lynn thought of her tremendous strength and agility and her enhanced senses, which Jonas had always told her were gifts from nature. Her heartbeat quickened and she shoved the last of her hamburger and fries aside, her appetite gone.
“What happened next?” She felt as if she were hearing a fantastic, science-fiction kind of story, one that had nothing to do with her.
“Ads were placed in newspapers to look for suitable surrogate mothers, and the embryos were implanted in these women.”
“What about Rainy? What happened to her?” Lynn asked, her mind reeling with each new bit of information that was exposed.
Dawn’s eyes darkened and her lips compressed into a grim line. “She died almost a year ago. Initially it was thought she fell asleep at the wheel of her car, but we now know she was murdered. Her death began all this. Rainy had several close schoolmates from Athena, and when she died, these women became determined to find out the truth.”
“And the truth is?”
“You and I are the products of a genetic experiment.”
Even though Lynn knew where the conversation had been headed, to hear these words spoken aloud shook her. “But I don’t understand. If that’s true, then how did I end up with Uncle Jonas? Is he part of Lab 33?”
Dawn took a sip of her soda, then carefully folded up the empty wrapper from her burger and placed it back into the sack. “One of the surrogates was a woman named Cleo Patra.”
Lynn looked at her dubiously. “Cleo Patra?”
“I’m not lying, that’s her name. She was a Vegas showgirl. Anyway she agreed to be a surrogate and was implanted. When she went into labor and was being taken to the hospital, she and her doctor were waylaid by a man and taken to a warehouse. Cleo gave birth to a little girl, but the baby was stolen from her that night. Cleo’s life was threatened and the man and the baby disappeared.”
“The man was Jonas?” Lynn felt sick as she thought of the man she loved, the man who had raised her.
“No. From the description Cleo gave me of the man, I believe it was Richard Dunst who stole the baby and gave her to Jonas White. Dunst was a drinking buddy of a Lab 33 scientist, the man who infiltrated Athena Academy and handpicked our biological mother to be the egg donor. His name is—was—Carl Bradford. Dunst’s connections to Bradford and Jonas are what led me to you.”
Lynn leaned back in her chair as the final nail in Jonas’s coffin was pounded in. “And that baby was me,” she said flatly.
Dawn nodded. “We believe Dunst told Jonas about the secret genetic experiments that Lab 33 was conducting, and Jonas decided he wanted one of the superbabies.”
“I became the perfect tool for him,” Lynn said bitterly. “I stole for him.” She felt sick as the full ramifications of it all filled her head. “He raised me solely for the purpose of being a thief for him.” Nick had been right. There wouldn’t have been a phone call to help her out of her jam with the FBI.
She looked at Dawn once again. “It was you who tried to break into Jonas’s house, wasn’t it? It was you I chased across the lawn.”
“Yeah. I’d been watching you for a couple of weeks. I wanted to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake. The night that I tried to break in I was going to talk to you, but the glass made more noise than I anticipated and I was afraid of getting caught by your security, so I freaked and ran.”
At least Lynn knew now she wasn’t crazy, that somebody had been watching her.
Dawn took another sip of her soda, then frowned at Lynn. Lynn steeled herself, knowing there was more to come.
“Like you, I have unusual strength and agility, but I also got another ability. I have superhealing genes.” Lynn stared at her skeptically. “It’s true,” Dawn exclaimed.
As Lynn watched, Dawn withdrew a small penknife from her pocket. She opened the knife then drew the blade across her wrist. Lynn gasped as blood welled up in the wound.
“Are you crazy?” Lynn said, and fumbled on the table looking for napkins or something to use to stanch the flow of blood.
However, before she could find anything, the bleeding stopped and the wound began to close itself. Lynn grabbed Dawn’s hand and pulled it closer to her, staring down at the place where Dawn had cut herself. It was completely healed with no sign of the wound she’d just seen.
If she’d needed any proof of the incredible story Dawn had just told her, she had that proof now. She closed her hand over Dawn’s. A sister. She had a sister. “When I was little I used to fantasize about having a sister,” she said, surprised by the emotion that suddenly clogged her throat.
Dawn squeezed her hand. “It isn’t a fantasy anymore, Lynn. We’re sisters, and we have a lot of catching up to do. I want you to come with me, to meet the Athenas—the women who were closest to our mother.” Dawn squeezed her hand once again, then released it and stood. “I know I’ve hit you with a lot. I understand you need some time.”
She looked at her wristwatch. “I’ve got some things to take care of and will be gone for several hours. There’s food in the mini refrigerator, and the microwave works. You’re welcome to anything you can find.”
She walked over to the dresser and grabbed a small notepad and pen. “I’m giving you my cell phone number. Call me if you need me for anything, otherwise I’ll be back later this afternoon.”
Lynn stood and followed her to the door. “I just need some time to digest all this.”
“I understand, but Lynn, don’t take too long. We need to get you out of here and I’m eager to introduce you to Rainy’s friends.” Dawn wrapped Lynn in an embrace. “I didn’t find my sister just to lose her,” she said fiercely.
Lynn returned the embrace, her heart welcoming in the warmth of this new connection, this family bond she’d never known existed.
Dawn slipped out the door, and Lynn closed and locked it behind her. For a moment she leaned against the door, completely overwhelmed by everything that had happened.
The few hours of sleep she’d gotten seemed long ago and not nearly enough to sustain her as she worked to make sense of everything that had happened.
Maybe after a few hours of sleep her head would be clearer, she thought. She crawled into one of the two beds the room held and closed her eyes.
If she believed Dawn, she was the result of an experiment, and she had no parents who had drowned at sea. Jonas had been responsible for her being kidnapped from the woman who had given birth to her. Round and round it all whirled in her head until finally she fell into an exhausted sleep.
She dreamed that she was back in Sensations, drinking Alabama Slammers with her friends, but every time she tried to take a drink her cell phone rang and Jonas yelled at her to get home. Then Dawn burst in and threw Lynn over her shoulder and carried her toward the exit. As they went out the door, she saw Nick calling after them, his eyes filled with regret and pity.
She awakened with a gasp and sat up, for a moment disoriented as to her surroundings. Then she remembered. She was a fugitive from the law, hiding out in a motel room rented by a sister she’d never known she had.
The clock on the nightstand told her it was almost four in the afternoon. She raked her fingers through her hair and got out of the bed. What she needed now was a shower to wash away the stink of the jail. Hopefully a hot shower would also clear her mind.
A satchel with some clothes sat on the dresser. Lynn assumed they belonged to Dawn. She hoped her sister wouldn’t mind if she borro
wed some items. The two women were about the same size, and Lynn couldn’t stand the idea of showering, then putting on the same clothes.
She found a T-shirt and a pair of jeans and she carried them with her into the bathroom. Minutes later, clean and rested, she looked in the mini refrigerator for something to eat. She grabbed a store-prepared chicken sandwich and a soda, then sat at the table to eat and to think.
She was a fugitive. The police, the FBI, they would all be looking for her. New charges would certainly be added to the ones she already faced. From here on out, she would forever live her life looking over her shoulder, waiting to be rearrested for the crimes she had committed.
Crimes she had committed. Her heart constricted as she thought of all the precious items she had stolen, then handed to Jonas. She’d believed she was helping the government. She’d believed she was doing something good. It killed her to recognize there had been nothing good in any of it.
She’d not only been incredibly naive, she must have been positively comatose. She’d had questions. She’d had concerns, but she’d shoved them aside, listening to Jonas when she should have been listening to her instincts.
Her entire life with Jonas had been nothing more than a pack of lies. If she believed what Dawn told her, then Jonas and Richard Dunst had stolen her when she’d been a baby, specifically in order to exploit her unusual abilities.
Jonas had kept her isolated and filled with fears from the time she’d been a small child. Of course he hadn’t wanted her to get close to anyone. He’d been afraid of questions, afraid that somebody else’s involvement with her might complicate his manipulation of her.
Then there was Dawn. The story she’d told Lynn had been truly incredible…an evil lab and human experiments. It would have been easy for Lynn to reject the entire thing had she not seen with her own eyes the immediate healing of the wound on Dawn’s wrist.
Besides, as crazy as it sounded, when she’d looked into Dawn’s eyes—eyes that were so much like her own—she’d felt a strange connection. She wasn’t sure if it was because she so wanted to believe that Dawn was her sister, or if there was truly a kind of mystical link between siblings.
In any case, she believed Dawn, and she wanted to learn more about Lorraine Miller Carrington and the Athena Academy.
Finally there was Nick, who had used her to gain information about Jonas. Who had told her he hadn’t meant to hurt her with his deception, that getting close to her had been more than a job.
She finished the sandwich and got up from the table. Thoughts of Nick hurt. She walked over to the window and pulled the thick curtain aside.
She had no idea where this particular motel was located. She’d never been to this area of Miami before. She let the curtain fall back into place and sat on the edge of the bed, her thoughts still consumed with Nick.
He’d made her feel so special when he’d gazed at her with those soulful dark eyes of his. His kisses had been filled with desire, or at least that’s what she’d thought. She’d believed everything he’d shared with her. She’d believed he’d cared about her. She’d cared about him.
But how could she believe him now? How could she believe him when he told her it had been more than a job, that he did care about her? He still wanted something from her. He wanted her to help put Jonas behind bars for the rest of his life.
And she wasn’t at all sure she could do that. She needed to talk to Jonas. Even though the evidence she’d been shown and had been told pointed to him being a man who had lived outside the law for many years, she couldn’t forget all that he’d done for her.
She knew another man, one who had been a philanthropist, who had given money to all kinds of charitable organizations. She knew a man who had hugged her when she’d been frightened, made her laugh when she’d been sad. He’d given her the best education money could buy and a life of luxury that many would envy.
She realized she couldn’t make a decision to help Nick until she spoke with Jonas. She certainly couldn’t leave here to go with Dawn until she spoke with him. Somehow she needed to make contact with him.
There was only one person she knew who could get her in contact with her godfather. Richard Dunst…the man who had kidnapped her as a baby and threatened the woman who had given birth to her.
The sound of a key at the door forced her off the bed and into a defensive stance. She relaxed as Dawn stepped in. “I borrowed some of your clothes. I hope you don’t mind.”
Dawn flashed her a smile. “No, I don’t mind.” Her smile faded, and she eyed Lynn with obvious concern. “Are you okay?”
Lynn sank back down on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know. I got a couple hours of sleep, but my head is still reeling with everything that’s happened.”
“Have you made a decision? Will you come with me?”
“Yes, I’ll go with you. But there are some things I have to take care of first.” Lynn explained to Dawn about the FBI wanting her to help them put Jonas behind bars. “I need to talk to Jonas,” she said. “And in order to do that I need to borrow your car.”
“All right, but what are you going to do? How are you going to get in contact with Jonas?” Dawn asked.
“I’m going to call Richard Dunst and meet him someplace.”
Dawn’s eyes darkened, turning more green than gold. “That man is evil, Lynn.”
“He won’t hurt me,” Lynn said with a certainty she didn’t feel. “This is something I have to do. I feel like I’ve spent all my life being manipulated and used by everyone around me.”
She stood up and paced the carpet. “Now I intend to take control of my own life. I need answers and I’m not going to stop until I get them.” Lynn felt the strength flowing through her, a strength she’d never felt before. A swell of excitement welled up inside Lynn as she realized she was about to take her destiny into her own hands.
Dawn gazed at her for a long moment. “Okay. Tell me what I can do to help you.”
Chapter 12
It had taken a single phone call to Richard Dunst to arrange a meeting between Lynn and the bald, expressionless man who had always given her the creeps.
It was impossible to set up a meeting in a public place because Lynn had no idea what news stories had broken about the explosions at the police station and her subsequent escape. There was no way she wanted to chance being seen in a public place, so she and Dunst agreed to meet at a warehouse Jonas owned near the docks.
Dawn wanted to go with her, but Lynn insisted she had to go alone. For too long Lynn had been dependent on others. She’d allowed herself to be led without standing on her own two feet. She needed to do this alone.
The meeting time was set for nine that evening. At eight-thirty Lynn left the motel room. She wore a baseball cap covering her hair and pulled down low to shield her features, and she was armed with a knife that Dawn insisted she take with her in case of trouble.
Lynn wasn’t expecting trouble. There was no reason for Dunst to want to harm her. All she wanted from him was to find out where Jonas was and how she could get in touch with him. She had to talk to Jonas one last time before she made a decision about betraying him.
She’d been to the warehouse where she was meeting Dunst several times in the past. The warehouse was one of several that contained Jonas’s overstock from his import/export business.
Dusk fell in deep purple shadows as she pulled up to the warehouse. Dunst’s car was already parked in front of the building.
She sat in the car for a moment, gathering her strength, her thoughts. She was about to face the man who, according to Dawn, had stolen her and presented her like a gift to Jonas.
She got out of the car, her hand tracing the length of the knife in her pocket. The burgeoning strength she’d felt at the motel with Dawn had only grown stronger with each passing minute.
Lynn had always been confident of her physical skills, but this was the first time she felt empowered by her own mental and emotional strength. For years Jonas had called he
r his baby, but she wasn’t a baby. She was a woman with special gifts, a woman who was just beginning to understand the magnitude of her abilities and choices.
The warehouse was unlocked and she walked in and went directly to the office, where Richard Dunst sat at the desk in the small, airless room.
As she walked in he rose and came around the front of the desk. “Lynn, thank God you called me when you did.” To her surprise he reached out and took her hand in his. “Jonas and I have been worried sick about you.”
Lynn pulled her hand from his. “I called Jonas from jail twice last night. Why didn’t he call me back?” She realized that what she wanted more than anything was a logical explanation, a reason to believe that all the things Nick had told her about her godfather were lies.
She wanted to believe that Dawn was mistaken about where Lynn had come from, how she had come to be a part of Jonas’s family. She wanted to believe in the man who had been her surrogate parent. She desperately wanted to believe that Jonas was the man she had thought he was.
“I’m afraid it’s a difficult matter,” Richard said and returned to his seat behind the desk.
A difficult matter. A complicated situation. Those were the same kinds of words Jonas had always used to explain what they’d been doing for the government. They were words that answered nothing.
“I don’t understand what’s difficult about it,” she replied as she sank into the chair opposite the desk. “He told me all he had to do was make a phone call to his government contact and I would be released.”
“How did you manage to escape?” Richard asked, obviously ignoring what she’d just said.
“That isn’t important. Why didn’t Uncle Jonas get me out of jail last night? He had plenty of time to arrange for my release.”
Richard’s shaved head shone in the harsh artificial light overhead, and his hazel eyes glittered brightly. She thought of what Dawn had said about him, that he was an evil man. For the first time she felt his evil, smelled it in the air emanating from him, saw it in the cold, brittle shine of his eyes.