More Than Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #2)

by Kelly Oram

  My throat closed up. Of course the decision was already made, and I could even admit that it would be nice to have someone in my life who understood me. I needed that connection Teddy and I shared as much as he did.

  But still…

  Would my heart continue to beat after I left Ryan? I met his tortured eyes and knew that it wouldn’t, at least not inside my chest. If I left Ryan today, my heart would stay with him. I’d never be whole again.

  Outside, the sound of several vehicles coming up my street at once caught my attention, and then I heard an unfamiliar voice say, “The front door of the home is in the middle of the street. It’s possible the girl is here. Or, at least she was.”

  “Approach with caution and shoot on sight. We need her unconscious as quickly as possible.”

  I wanted to say a very bad word. “Looks like I don’t get time to pack my stuff.”

  Everyone in the room went stiff. “You have to go, Jamie,” my dad said. “Now.”

  “You can do this, honey,” my mom blubbered behind me. “You’re strong. You’ll get through it, and you’ll have a good life. I know you will.”

  “Your mother and I will always love you, Jamielynn. Always.”

  My eyes found Ryan’s again. They couldn’t help it.

  “Jamie,” Teddy whispered urgently. He was peeking through the curtains. “There are an awful lot of people heading our way. Now would be a good time to do what you did before with the whole super-running thing.”

  He was right. I had to leave. “Give me your hand.”

  “Jamie, we don’t have time to mess around. Just kiss me.”

  “No. I promised.”

  Teddy groaned and crossed the room to me. “What does it matter? You’re never going to see him again! We need to get out of here!”

  I felt as if I’d been slapped. My entire body froze from the shock of his statement.

  “I’m sorry,” Teddy said in a much quieter voice when he realized how much he’d hurt me. “But Jamie, we’ve got to leave.”

  It was Ryan who finally spurred me into motion. “Give me your hand,” he ordered Teddy. When Teddy hesitated, Ryan reached out and wrapped his fingers tightly around Teddy’s scrawny arm. “One last superkiss,” he whispered to me.

  I understood what he was trying to do and crashed my lips onto his, hating that this was going to be our last kiss. I tried to memorize everything about him. How he tasted, how he smelled. How his lips moved with mine as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  As my energy passed to him and we were pulled together by that invisible force that has connected us from the day we met, it felt like our hearts were fused together as one. We were two people who shared one soul. We belonged to each other forever. No matter what. When I left him that soul was going to shatter. I was going to be irreparably broken.

  I ripped myself away from him when I heard quiet footsteps crunch the soft grass in my front yard. One glance at Teddy confirmed that Ryan’s plan to transfer my energy through him had worked. He was shaking and his hair was standing on end.

  Ryan rested his forehead against mine and inhaled a deep breath as if he were trying to commit the smell of me to memory. “You’ll come back to me,” he whispered.

  I wanted to say something, but I was crying too hard. I cursed my tears. They were making it hard to see his eyes, and I needed to see them clearly.

  “You will,” Ryan insisted. “And if you take too long I will come looking for you. I’m not letting you go forever, Jamie. I am not saying good-bye.”

  I didn’t argue. I needed the lie as much as he did. I needed that shred of hope, no matter how small it was. “Talk to Becky for me. Tell her I’m so sorry about Mike. Explain everything to her—about his accident, about me, my powers, Visticorp. Don’t let her believe I just betrayed her and disappeared. She deserves the truth.”

  “I promise.” He gave me a pain-filled smile. “Love you, Sunshine.”

  “Love you too, Ry. Forever.”

  I sent one last glance to my parents, who were holding each other and would probably never let go again, and then I grabbed Teddy’s hand and disappeared to who knows where.

  We made it as far as Las Vegas before Teddy ran out of energy. He threw himself down on the curb in front of the Bellagio, gasping for breath.

  “I don’t even know how to describe that experience.” He was smiling hugely, but then had to stick his head between his knees. “Does it always make you this sick?”

  I shrugged. “It was really disorienting for the first few months, but I didn’t realize what was happening for the longest time and then I had to figure out how to control it. It’s as natural as breathing now.”

  “That’s funny, because I felt like I couldn’t breathe at all the entire time.”

  I just shrugged again. I wasn’t really in the mood to talk. Hugging my arms to me, though it did nothing to squash the pain in my chest, I turned around and stared up at the casino behind me. The fountains were dancing in the night so cheerfully it felt as if they were mocking me.

  A hand came down on my shoulder. “Jamie,” Teddy said softly.

  “Don’t.” The run had dried my tears, but I still hiccuped. “Just don’t.”

  Teddy didn’t say anything else. He laced his fingers in mine and began pulling me down the street. I didn’t have the energy to argue. I just let him lead the way.

  We caught a taxi to the airport where Teddy kept a car parked in a long-term parking lot near the airport. Then he drove us south for about an hour, using roads that I wasn’t even sure were real roads. At one point I think he was just driving across a random bit of desert using the digital compass on the car’s dash as his guide.

  Eventually we came to a stop in front of an adobe-style mud house that rested at the base of a small mountain. Had it not been for the bright beams of the car’s headlights, I would have mistaken the house for just part of the landscape. It blended so well into its surroundings.

  “Home sweet home,” Teddy muttered anxiously.

  I could see the worry in his eyes that I was going to hate it, but if I hadn’t been completely numb I probably would have really appreciated it. A nice, private, quiet place to be myself was exactly what I’d always wanted. Not to mention I had a major soft spot for the desert.

  That thought made me think of the Grand Canyon, which made me think of Ryan. I got out of the car before I had another breakdown.

  Teddy scrambled out of the car too and pulled a dirt-colored tarp from the trunk. When I realized he was trying to cover the car, I helped and then wordlessly followed him in the house.

  “It’s entirely self-sustaining,” Teddy explained as he flipped on the lights. I admit I was a little surprised that the place had electricity. From the outside, I hadn’t known what to expect. “Solar power, our own well, a septic tank—we do have indoor plumbing. There’s even a greenhouse out back that we could grow our own food in if we wanted to. Not that I ever have.”

  My eyes drifted around the house. It was small, but very clean with nice, tasteful furnishings and warm colors. It was surprisingly very me—a place I would love living if it were under different circumstances.

  “Would you like a tour?”

  I jumped at the sound of Teddy’s voice. I’d completely spaced out. I’m not even sure how long I’d been standing there.

  Teddy was watching me as if he expected me to break at any moment. Every word he spoke was slow and calming. Every move he made was careful. I wanted to tell him he didn’t have to worry because I was already shattered, but somehow I didn’t think that would help the awkwardness.

  He was still waiting for some kind of reaction from me—proof that I was still functioning. I snapped myself from my daze and shook my head. “Tomorrow. Right now I just want to sleep.”

  My response seemed to make Teddy sad, but he managed a small smile and nodded. He made a gesture for me to follow him and brought me to a large bedroom.

  As I walked in, I was again
surprised by the place. It was so inviting. The bed was huge and looked amazingly fluffy. There were a ton of pillows just like the ones I had in my room. There was a TV mounted on the wall with a video game console sitting on the dresser beneath it, and there was an entire wall of shelves filled with books. A lot of the books were technical books that I imagine equated to a computer geek’s Mecca, but there were also a ton of regular novels and a huge comic book collection.

  It reminded me a lot of my own room, but with a much bigger bed.

  “What do you think?” Teddy asked nervously.

  I just nodded.

  “Um,” Teddy said, a blush creeping into his cheeks. “This is the only bedroom. You can have it. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

  He waited, maybe hoping I might offer to share—the bed was certainly big enough for two. I didn’t offer, though, and after a minute he cleared his throat. “I’ll just grab a few things and let you go to sleep, then.” He hurried over to the dresser and scrounged up a pair of pajama pants, then plucked one of the pillows from the bed. “Bathroom is just across the hall. You’ll find extra toiletries under the sink and we can go shopping tomorrow for whatever you need. I’m sorry you didn’t get time to pack.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I couldn’t have brought the only thing I wanted with me, anyway.”

  Teddy stopped in the doorway and watched me for another minute. “Jamie, are—are you sure you should be alone tonight?”

  “Probably not, but having you here instead of him would only make it worse.” I crawled onto the bed and collapsed. “Goodnight, Teddy.”

  I heard the soft click of the door as he left. I was grateful he didn’t insist on staying with me tonight. It only took seconds for my tears to come back, and they didn’t stop until somewhere close to dawn.

  . . . . .

  I gave myself exactly one night to wallow in self-pity, but then woke up the next morning determined to take control of my life again. Not to sound like a supervillain or anything, but those Visticorp jerks were seriously going to rue the day they messed with Jamie Baker.

  The clock on the bedside table said it was after one. I showered and then went to find Teddy. I didn’t have a plan yet, but I was determined to make one.

  Teddy was sitting at the small dining table in nothing but a pair of pajama pants and a mess of bedhead, nursing a cup of coffee as if it were his breath of life. The entire scene was so adorable that it put the first smile on my face since I’d left home.

  Feeling my stare, Teddy looked up at me, instantly alert. For a split second he looked nervous, but then he noticed my smile. Apparently it was so shocking that he jolted and sloshed a little coffee over the side of his cup. He tried to cover the blunder by flashing me a wide smile. “You look like you’re feeling much better.”

  “You look like you’re in need of a hearty meal,” I deadpanned.

  I blatantly eyed his bare chest. It was nothing compared to what I was used to looking at, but Teddy had a surprising amount of definition for such a scrawny guy.

  “So, not a morning person, then?” Teddy chuckled as if my taunt hadn’t bothered him in the slightest. On the contrary, he seemed excited that I’d bothered to look.

  I rolled my eyes and headed for the coffee maker. “Ugh!” I groaned after taking a deep breath and quickly washed the entire pot down the sink.

  Teddy snorted. “It’s not that bad. Caffeine is caffeine, right?”

  I sat down across the table from Teddy, leveling him with a serious look. “We haven’t had the Jamie’s Superpowers conversation yet. I will forgive you this once since you’re not aware that I suffer from a serious case of supertaste.”

  “Super taste?”

  “Yes. And it sucks. Caffeine is not ever just caffeine. I am the most high maintenance eater you will ever know in your life, and I simply cannot stomach low-quality garbage of any kind. It’s torture. Learn to deal with it.”

  Teddy blinked. “Umm...okay?”

  “On the bright side, I also have superspeed so if you would like a cup of good coffee, I’d be happy to run to Seattle quickly, providing you can tell me how to find my way back to here—wherever here is.”

  It took Teddy a good minute of staring dumbfounded before he was able to grin at me. “I’ve never been to Seattle.”

  “I’m not taking you to Seattle.”

  “Why not? It’s as good a place as any to shop—which is really what I had planned to do today—and I’ll bet they have some great restaurants there. No low-quality garbage for Miss Fancy Pants.”

  I groaned again to keep from smiling. “I really hate that you make me laugh when I just want to be annoyed with you.”

  “So, Seattle, then? Or if we’re really able to go anywhere, I’d love to see Chicago. I’ve never been there, either. That’s where you’re from, right? You could show me around while we shop.”

  “What makes you think I want to go and shop all day?”

  “The fact that you’re wearing last nights pajamas still. Don’t get me wrong—I’m a fan of the yoga pants and tank top combo—but I thought you’d probably at least like to acquire a bra.”

  Again. Should have been angry, but I couldn’t keep my lips from curving up. “Fine. We’ll shop. And while we’re out we can come up with a plan.”

  Teddy seemed equal parts wary and intrigued. “Plan?”

  “Yeah. We’ve successfully hidden ourselves from Visticorp, but we can’t just hide out in this house reading mystery novels and playing video games for the rest of our lives, so we need a plan.”

  Teddy made a noise of agreement, downed the rest of his coffee, and then said, “Follow me.”

  He took me into the closet in the bedroom and pushed his clothes aside. As I stared at what I thought was a regular wall, Teddy twisted the clothing rod, which acted as some sort of lever that opened a secret door. I sighed. It was so James Bond. Ryan and my father would have totally geeked out over it.

  “Step into my office,” Teddy teased and then slipped through the secret door and descended a just-as-secret staircase.

  At the bottom of the stairs there was another door—a big steel one that looked like a bank vault. I couldn’t hide my shock. “Are you kidding me? You have your own lair?”

  “Awesome, right?” Teddy grinned at me over his shoulder as he pressed his thumb against a scanner to unlock the door. My jaw dropped even further and he laughed outright.

  “It’s a bomb shelter. I’m pretty sure the guy I bought the house from was waiting for either the Russians or aliens to take over. We’ll get your thumbprint entered in here today so you can come and go when you want.”

  I had no idea how to respond to any of this, so I just said “Are you freaking kidding me?” again.

  “No, Jamie, I am not kidding you. From now on, what’s mine is yours. I’ll get you added to my bank accounts too as soon as we come up with an alias for you.”

  “Bank accounts?” I asked. “As in plural?”

  Teddy laughed again, but I couldn’t laugh with him this time. I was too suspicious. “Okay, who are you? For real? How can you afford all this?”

  “I’m a computer hacker,” Teddy said as if that should explain everything. When it clearly didn’t satisfy me, he sighed. “I’ve been siphoning off funds from the people that raised me for years now. They have tons of money and I take so little at a time they never notice.”

  I blinked as realization hit me. “You steal it?”

  “Trust me, I’ve earned every penny I’ve taken and then some,” Teddy muttered.

  His face had turned so dark he actually looked dangerous for once, and my suspicions were confirmed. Whoever those people were that raised him, they’d taken advantage of his skills. He was probably the reason they had that much money.

  “Will you tell me about how you were raised?” I asked. My voice came out sounding softer than I’d planned, and Teddy’s anger melted in response.

  “I’ll tell you about it someday. I promise,” he said. Then he fo
rced a big smile on his face and pulled me into his bomb shelter/office.

  When the door shut behind us, there was the sound of air rushing and then a click and a light on the wall went from red to green. I was pretty sure we were sealed in, but I didn’t ask because I didn’t really want to know.

  The first thing I noticed was a large desk with a computer system that lived up to every expectation I’d had from Teddy. I think the term “base of operations” might be a more accurate description for his setup with its endless towers and multiple monitors.

  Once I was finally able to look away from the command center, I checked out the rest of the room. The space was much larger than I’d expected. It was probably the same square footage as the house above us. There was a small kitchenette, dining table, couch, TV, CB radio, more book shelves, and a set of army-style bunk beds.

  Teddy pointed to two doors. “Bathroom’s in there, and that one is the storage room. I think it’s stocked to get a man through a nuclear winter.”

  “I’m sorry, Teddy, but this is so an evil lair.”

  “Fortress of Solitude,” he argued.

  “Evil lair. The Fortress of Solitude was for was meditating. This place screams Trying To Take Over The World.”

  Teddy looked awfully proud of that. “I’m not trying to take over the world,” he said. “Come. Look.”

  As Teddy’s computer booted up he walked over to a safe and pulled out an envelope full of stuff, including a passport. “The first thing we need to do is make you a new identity. Any ideas on what name you’d like?”

  “Don’t know. What’d you pick for yours?” I snatched the passport from Teddy’s hands and was disappointed when I found it blank.

  “That one’s for you,” he said and pulled out another passport, a wallet, and a billfold. “This one’s mine. Well, one of them.”