“Not as glad as I am.”
“Your mom took it hard.”
“I heard. I’m sorry she treated you so badly.”
“Hardly your fault.” I moved to slide from under the covers, but then realized I was wearing only a T-shirt and panties. When I paused and looked at Jack, he raised a single brow. “Close your eyes,” I said.
The corners of his lips lifted in a sly grin. “What if I said ‘No’?” He shifted and climbed up to lie beside me. With his arm, he guided me back down to my pillow, then rolled so that the weight of half his body lay across me. He traced my hairline until it met my neck, then his fingers lingered across my jaw on their way to my lips. “Why didn’t we run months ago?”
I only stared into his eyes. His irises were bright blue in the dim lighting.
“Is it possible to already know what you want more than anything else in life by the time you’re eighteen?”
“It has to be.” I raised my head and brushed my lips across his.
He slid his hand under my neck and supported my head as he kissed me deeper. When he released me, he rested his forehead against mine. “I know that I’m sometimes overprotective of you, but it’s only because I don’t think I would survive if something happened to you.”
I rested my head back on my pillow and studied the worried trenches of his forehead. “I’m not completely incapable of taking care of myself. And you can’t guard me against all harm.”
“I’m trying.”
“That you are.”
A smirk reached all the way to his eyes. “Why, Miss Matthews, did you just make a funny?”
I giggled. “Now close your eyes and turn your head.”
“What are you wearing under here?” He picked up my comforter between his forefinger and his thumb and proceeded to pretend to peek under the blanket. I slapped his hand away.
He huffed out a breath. “Fine.” He lay back on the pillow and placed an arm over his eyes.
I laughed as I slipped from under the covers, grabbed my sweatpants, and scurried off to the bathroom.
When I returned, Jack was on my computer.
“What are you looking at?”
“Your latest searches. I think you might be on to something with the military bases.”
I should have been angry that he was snooping around my computer, but I wasn’t. I was ready to let him in on everything. As long as Sandra was still around, manipulating our lives, we wouldn’t have the full ability to make our own life choices. We would need to work together if we had any chance of putting her out of business.
“What do you make of it?” he asked.
“I can’t decide if the military is requiring Sandra to work close to a base, or if she’s calling the shots with the help of the military. If she is, in fact, selling experimental cloned spies to the military to fund her operation, like she showed me that day inside The Farm, then—”
“The government knows and is covering it up.”
“Exactly. But probably not all of the government. I’d say the IIA is fully capable of covering this up all on their own.” Jack’s phone rang in his back pocket. I reached down and pulled it out. “It’s Seth.”
“Answer it.”
Before I even got the word “hello” completely out, an angry Seth asked, “Where’s Jack?”
“He’s right here. What’s wrong?”
“Cathy is demanding to see the body. We told her it was not a pretty sight, but she’s insisting. Does Jack have any markings she’ll be looking for?”
I handed the phone to Jack. “Seth needs to know what markings you have on your body that will be different from your clone. Your mom’s insisting on viewing the body.” I shrugged when he furrowed his brow. We still didn’t know if Cathy was aware of Dr. Wellington’s plans to kill me in order to take over Wellington and inherit Dad’s money—but could we really let Cathy go on thinking her only son was dead? What if she was innocent?
“Hey, man. Did the FBI question her?” Jack stared at me as he listened to Seth. “I’ll be right there. It’s time I confront dear ol’ mom.”
After he hung up, I touched his cheek. “Do what you have to do.”
And while Jack went off to slay his demon, I had my own to draw out and smite.
~~~~~
I opened my mind and directed thoughts to Maya as I weaved in and around headstones in the school’s old cemetery.
During the two weeks after I left The Farm, Jonas had taught me how to open my mind to one person but close it off to others. I had practiced the technique with him and Addison, since I wasn’t speaking to Jack at the time.
I also sucked at it, but I was getting better.
The air felt damp and had the smell of impending rain. I hugged my heavy sweater closer, having refused to dig out my winter coat so early in the season.
Birds chirped, and I jumped when a squirrel dropped an acorn from a tree and it cracked against a tombstone. Maya had told me she would find me again. I suspected Sandra would grow tired of waiting and would soon send someone for me. Two more clones were dead. How many more people had to die before we regained control of our own lives?
The desire to hurt Sandra burned like a raging inferno inside my heart.
“Well, well, well… look who’s off wandering alone.”
My back stiffened at the sound of Maya’s voice behind me. My plan had worked. Now I just needed to get inside her head without her sensing it.
“Is that smart? I’m surprised Jack and Jonas let you out of their sight.”
I turned slowly, facing my twin. She was dressed in a denim jacket, black skirt, and boots. A stylish scarf was wrapped around her neck, and her red-streaked hair was piled high on her head in a jumbled mess.
“How do you know they’re not close by watching us? I mean, look how predictable you are.” She stood just a little straighter at the word “predictable.” “I call out, and you come running. I hope Sandra treats you well for being her little errand girl.” Did Maya even realize that she was just a pawn in Sandra’s little game? That we all were?
Her eyes narrowed. She looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn’t. She opened her mouth and took a breath, then closed it and looked away. Did the tracker in the back of her neck have so much control that she couldn’t even speak her own original thoughts?
I tried a different angle. “How are you getting in and out of Wellington?”
Her eyes met mine again. A smirk lifted at the corners of her lips. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Hoping she was irritated and distracted enough, I slipped inside her head while trying to keep the conversation going. “Yes, actually, I would.” Her neurons were crazy bright red, like the paint in her hair, and similar to Jonas’s. I wondered if that had anything to do with the tracker. “Obviously, some security person needs to be fired, and since this is my school now, I plan to keep the people in it safe.”
“Is that what you told Dia and Lin?”
A slow fire erupted in my veins and began to spread. “You really are a perfect clone of Sandra, aren’t you?” Pure evil.
Her neurons were firing chemical signals, or messages, across thousands of synapses. Yet all of these “messages” seemed to both originate from and return to a central location—the tracker at the base of her skull. It was as if the tracker had some sort of magnetic force on one side, but repelled fiery neurons from the other. Or maybe it was that the information traveling inside her head circulated through the tracker. If that was the case, Sandra would know everything a tracker clone did and thought.
“I’m not like Sandra.”
For the first time, Maya said something that made me see her a little differently. I had always thought that any clone under the control of Sandra was a victim, but when one tried to drown me in a swimming pool just for fun, I had no choice but to put up a wall until I could decide whether the person was worth saving.
Keeping distance between us, Maya began walking through the cemetery like a s
hark circling her prey. “I told you someone wanted you dead. Why didn’t you listen?”
“Do you know why Roger Wellington wants to kill me?” Did Sandra know the kind of money I stood to inherit?
“No. Only that he does. And it must be for a very good reason, because he was willing to pay a shitload of money to see that it happens. Of course, he hired two idiots who couldn’t even tell the difference between Jack and Lin.”
I cocked my head. “Jack and Lin are identical. So tell me, Miss Smarty Pants, how should they have been able to tell?” I could tell the difference because I knew the exact cut of Jack’s hair, recognized every sun-created freckle on his nose, and sensed each firing neuron of his mind when he was near.
“Because he’s always one step away from you.” She looked around. “Except now, I suppose. You’ve told his mother that it was Jack in the forest, not Lin.” She made a clucking noise with her tongue. “That wasn’t very nice, now was it? And it leaves you vulnerable out here.”
I was growing tired of this conversation. “Where is Sandra hiding?” I asked. “If she wants me to come to her so badly, why is it she hasn’t revealed where she is?
“All you have to do is say the word, Lexi, and I’ll have you to Sandra by tomorrow morning.”
“Why not today?”
Maya broke eye contact with me for a couple of beats. “Because today doesn’t work for me.”
Uh-huh. Could it be that the new lab was more than a day’s travel? “I’m surprised Sandra hasn’t set a deadline for me to join her, like she did last time.”
“Oh, she will. To be honest, Sandra hasn’t been ready for you quite yet. But once she decides she’s ready, you won’t have a choice but to comply.”
Which was why I needed to find her first.
“She’s worried you’ll get yourself killed before you realize that joining her is your destiny.”
I slid inside Maya’s head again and focused harder on the tracker that controlled her thoughts and words. It was very much like the tracker Sandra almost placed inside my head. Looking closer, I saw the micro-sized wires snaking in and around the network of veins. I had proven that I could extract the tracker from Addison by using telekinetic powers similar to Georgia’s, so I now used that ability to shift Maya’s tracker over a bit. As the tracker began to move, the wires, which had been flowing freely from the base, stopped as if on alert. When nothing further happened, I moved the tracker a little more. That was when the wires suddenly clamped down tightly around the veins and muscles within reach.
Maya’s hand flew to the back of her neck, and she cried out. “What the—”
I stopped. “What’s wrong?” I backed up slightly.
Her face reddened and the muscles around her eyes tightened. “What are you doing?”
“What are you talking about? Nothing.” I held both hands out in front of me as I took another step back.
She straightened her posture and took a few steps toward me. The vein in her neck pulsated. “I’ve been nice to you, and this is how you repay me? By messing with my tracker?” She took another step. The neurons in her head fired in an unbalanced firestorm.
Nice to me? She really was delusional. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“You didn’t mean to what?” Maya was on me quick, clamping a hand around my throat and cutting off my air supply. “Hurt me? Manipulate me? You don’t get it, do you? Sandra will kill me if she thinks you can remove my tracker and get the upper hand.”
My hands flew to my neck, clawing at her hand. I couldn’t get a breath in. Maya was abnormally strong, and I couldn’t pry her fingers away.
How was this clone of me so strong? Her face was inches from mine. I could see my reflection in her eyes, and I was sure my face was turning blue.
“Let her go, Maya,” Jonas said as he entered the cemetery.
“Stay out of this, Jonas.” Maya loosened her grip for a second, allowing me to get a breath in, then squeezed tightly again. Gagging sounds escaped my throat. I was losing my grip on consciousness, and my vision was starting to go fuzzy.
I heard the clicking sound of a gun being cocked. “Maya, I will kill you.”
“How did she get under your skin so fast? You were Sandra’s pride and joy. What happened?”
As Maya spoke, I felt her grasp slip ever so slightly, but it was enough of an opening for me to raise my arms through hers and break her hold on me. I had just enough strength left to slam a knee into her stomach, knocking the air from her lungs. When her head went forward, I grabbed the messy bun on her head and pulled her back up, holding her in place by her hair.
Breathing hard, she met my glare. “I’ve given you two chances to kill me. Now you’re going to wish you had.”
Without letting her go, I pulled my phone from my back pocket and called Coach. “I’ve got Maya… In the cemetery… Yes, Jonas is here. We’ll wait for you.” I hung up and returned the phone to my back pocket.
Jonas raised an eyebrow. “What was that about?”
“Alyson thinks we can extract information from Maya’s tracker. But we needed Maya to do it. Coach and Seth have a room ready for her inside The Program.”
“You came out here alone on purpose? To trap Maya?” I wasn’t sure if that was disappointment or admiration in his voice.
“Yes. And mission accomplished. Now we can lock her up until Alyson figures out how to get what we need from her.”
Jonas made no move to help me with a struggling Maya.
“You won’t get away with this!” Maya screamed. “Sandra will kill me if you even try to mess with my tracker.”
“I’m willing to take my chances.”
Chapter Sixteen
Kidnapping an eighteen-year-old girl and holding her hostage was probably wrong. Although, in my defense, she had tried to kill me. Twice.
I studied Maya through the one-way observation window. Coach and Seth had locked her in the same exam room where I’d healed Sandra. She stood like a statue on the other side of the window, staring back at me. I knew in my head she couldn’t see me, but that didn’t stop her cold glare from chilling the blood that ran through my veins.
Have you lost your mind? Jack mindspoke.
I cringed, and my eyes slammed shut. You heard already?
How do you think Sandra will react when she hears?
Sandra isn’t calling all the shots here. This is my school. And this girl trespassed, impersonated me, and tried to kill me.
Seriously? She stands accused of impersonating you? What? Of kissing your boyfriend?
Well, when he put it like that, it seemed petty. And she tried to kill me.
Okay, well hang her up by her feet and flog her.
I chuckled. We both knew we had no intention of hurting Maya. She was only following orders being fed to her through her tracker. If anything, I wanted to save her—to remove that tracker from her skull. She was just another victim of Sandra.
She knows where Sandra’s lab is, I mindspoke. I need to know.
What exactly do you plan to do if you find out where this lab is?
Good question. Why do you ask?
Don’t be coy, Lexi.
Sorry. We can talk about it later. I turned away from the window. What happened with your mother? Did you see her?
Yeah, he mindspoke slowly.
I guess she was pretty emotional?
Understatement of a lifetime.
It seemed Jack wasn’t going to offer much of an explanation where his mother was concerned. Well, did she know about her brother’s plan to kill me?
She knew you had to have inherited a lot of money. She couldn’t tell me how much. But she seemed genuinely shocked that her own brother would put her son at risk by shooting at the group of us.
I nodded in understanding, knowing Jack couldn’t see me. I was surprised he didn’t ask me about the inheritance. So, what do we do? If you tell me to trust that your mother doesn’t want me dead, I will. Because I love you.
Jack went silent.
Jack?
I asked her to leave campus.
Okay.
She was so angry at you for lying to her about my death. She wouldn’t see reason or believe that it had been a group decision.
I’m sorry. I closed my eyes and imagined his tousled blond hair.
I know. I am, too.
Meet me later on the roof?
I’ll be there.
I was so busy concentrating on Jack that I had forgotten about Maya. When I turned around, I found her her standing with her face just inches from the glass. She cocked her head and appeared to see directly into my eyes. She intimidated the hell out of me.
“What information do you have locked inside that tracker?” I asked. She couldn’t hear me, of course. I fiddled with the tracker inside my jacket pocket. I carried it around as a reminder of how close Sandra had gotten to controlling me.
Maya’s chest rose and fell in large breaths. Her face was red. She began banging on the window and, though I couldn’t hear her, I could see her mouth move. She was screaming like a mad woman and shaking her head. She was losing it. She turned, grabbed a chair, and flung it at the glass. The glass didn’t break.
The door to my left opened, and in walked Coach. He stood beside me and observed our guest. “She’s a little upset.”
“Ya think?”
“What do we do about her?” he asked, as if it were my decision, and I guessed, in a way, it was.
“I need Alyson to come here. I have a plan.”
~~~~~
Jack wasn’t going to like my plan.
I had the cooks prepare Jack’s favorite meal of pizza and hot wings. Briana helped me move a table and chairs to the roof. We found a white tablecloth and some candles in the cafeteria—supplies from the many parties they’d put on for us over the years. We strung twinkle lights along the railing around this corner of the roof, providing the perfect lighting and transforming the rooftop into a tranquil oasis.
I brought a blanket and some throw pillows. I spread them out for us to lie under the stars after dinner.
Mindsurge (Mindspeak Book 3) Page 15