Cheating Time (39 page)

"I've been here"
—cough—
"for about a month. Simon's been staying in
a different cave with the Outcasts. They've been taking care of
him"
—cough—
"and he's been coming by
here periodically, making sure I knew he was okay."

As soon as Sean was finished answering
Jayden, he broke into a full-out fit of coughs. One was so bad that
his faced turned purple, the vein on his forehead bulged until I
was sure it would rupture, his eyes watered, and he pulled away a
palm full of bloody phlegm.

I couldn't take it another second. I stepped
around Jayden and asked, "Did you start getting sick about a week
and a half after you moved into this cave?"

All three men looked at me as if I'd just
grown three heads. Sean and Simon because I dared approach Sean
while he was dealing with his fit of coughing. Jayden because I
dared step around him and pretend as if his protection wasn't
absolutely necessary.

Simon didn't wait for Sean. "He's been here
for thirty days, and he's been sick at least twenty."

I smiled smugly. "Did you have to rid the
cave of bats?"

Again, the twins leveled identical stares of
disbelief my way.

Simon murmured, "How did you know?"

I shrugged. "I think you have
histoplasmosis… a fungus that grows in soil and material
contaminated with bat or bird droppings. Its spores become airborne
when the contaminated soil is disturbed. Breathing the airborne
spores causes infection. The good news is the treatment is as
simple as taking an antifungal medication."

"The treatment is simple. The treatment is
simple." Sean, laughing sardonically, waved his arms around the
cave. "Does it look like I have a pharmacy available to me,
princess?"

Princess. Jayden calls me
princess.

I shook my head. "No, but there's drugs at
the camp and a doctor I trust," I explained.

Again, Sean laughed his wet, wheezy laugh.
"Back at the camp. You don't say. You'd like me to go back with
you. Better yet, you'd like to go back by yourself so you can bring
people back to capture my brother and me. Kill us?"

I shook my head. "You don't have any reason
to trust us, but you don't have a lot of options right now either.
You're dying. The treatment might be simple, but your fate is
inevitable without it. If you die, who'll look after Simon?"

Jayden intervened. "If I wanted to kill
either of you, you'd already be dead. You're too weak to fight me
no matter what kind of delusional opinion you have to the contrary.
Same goes for your brother. I could've killed him long ago. That's
not who we are."

Sean nodded his head toward me. "She's a
Procreate."

Jayden bowed his chest. "Yes, she is, but
she's unlike any I've ever met. She doesn't consider herself better
than us. In her eyes, we are her equal." Jayden reached around and
intertwined his fingers with mine. "We're together, and I love her
more than I love anyone or anything. She'd never betray me or any
other Surrogate. I'll stake my life on that."

I love her.

I love her.

A Surrogate admitting
aloud he loves a Procreate.

As if his words were the catalyst that
opened the floodgates for a love-based hormone, warmth bloomed in
my chest and spread throughout my entire body. I stood stunned. I
was too surprised to do or say anything. When Jayden squeezed my
hand tight, I glanced up and saw he was waiting for something.
A response.

My face flushed and my smile was shy when I
squeezed his hand back. It wasn't the public declaration he'd made,
but he knew I'd at least partially forgiven him.

Snapping our attention back to him, Sean
began with a new round of coughing and ended up with another palm
of bloody sputum. I jumped into action.

"I'll go and get Thorne," I said to
Jayden.

I tried to pull my hand back so I could dash
back toward the camp without a second's delay. Jayden refused to
let go of my hand.

"No. I can't leave you wondering around the
forest by yourself. You've already almost died twice this week," he
said.

I wrinkled my brow and he answered my
unspoken question. "The snakes and the Outcasts. The forest isn't
safe. Sean and I are going to change clothes. We're all going back
toward the camp. Before we make it all the way into the perimeter,
Simon and I will take cover within the forest. You and Sean will
stroll back to the infirmary and pretend as if Sean is me and I
need my MicroPharm refilled." Jayden's glare turned toward Sean.
"I'm assuming you have a MicroPharm?"

Sean nodded. "Yeah, but it's been empty for
a while."

"You get Thorne to check him over good, give
him whatever he needs to get better, and refill the MicoPharm. If
he won't do that, tell him I won't help carry out his father's
plans to get the three of you—you, him,
and
Rorie
—away from Barone. Do you understand me?"

I focused on Jayden's every word, analyzing
his plan for holes. It was as solid as it got. I nodded.

With a wink, Jayden said, "I know you'd love
nothing more than to see me stripped naked, but you'd be forced to
see my doppelgänger in the nude if you stayed, so I'd like you to
go back out into the tunnel and keep your back to the cavern while
we change. As soon as we're finished, we'll meet you out
there."

Jayden gave me one last reassuring squeeze
before leaning down and kissing me thoroughly. He was taking full
advantage of my disadvantage and, I suspected, making sure Sean
understood just how close we really were.
That
I am a Procreate who can be trusted.

His motives were irrelevant. His kiss left
me breathless and dazed. I wanted to squeeze myself into him and
demand more, but Sean and Simon were standing slack-jawed staring
at us. The last thing I wanted or needed was an audience.

Jayden leaned into my ear and palmed my
cheek. "I've been trying to tell you I love you all day… that I'll
never do anything to put you in danger… and beg you to trust me no
matter what Barone says. I know more than you give me credit for. I
won't let him hurt you. I swear," he whispered before giving me one
last tight squeeze and releasing me to stumble my way to the cave's
tunnel. To wait for them to change and for me to enlist Thorne's
help.

What if he refuses? What
if he turns us in to Barone?

Without a doubt, he'd do whatever put Rorie
in the least amount of danger. What I didn't know was which of his
options that would be. Would it be the option where he pretended as
if Sean were Jayden, treating him and then letting him go before
anyone was the wiser, or would it be the option where he turned us
in and risked his father's plans for Jayden to get us to the secret
safe house Dr. Angleton and Gran built for us, one that no one—not
even my parents—knew about.

When the three men joined me in the tunnels,
I was shocked again at just how much Sean looked like Jayden. If I
hadn't known they were changing clothes, I'd have instantly sidled
up to the man dressed as Jayden had been earlier. Fortunately, I
knew better. I walked over to the real Jayden and slid my hand into
his.

For some reason, I naïvely thought touching
him would give me the comfort I needed to prove he was my Surrogate
Soldier. His touch was familiar and his squeeze reassuring as we
headed back to camp.

The only break we took was when Simon slowed
and ordered the panthers to heel, which they instantly did.

In a distant way, it occurred to me that
these panthers were the four-legged versions of a Dominant Soldier.
Fiercely loyal and unconditionally subservient.

Barone would love
them.

My heart was beating so fast, hard, and loud
that I was sure everyone walking through the forest with us could
hear it. Jayden kept me close and smoothed his thumb over the back
of my hand, doing everything in his power to calm my nerves.

Under normal circumstances, my MicroPharm
would have been doing the trick, and whatever nerve it wasn't able
to calm, Jayden's gentle kindness would have taken care of. I was
just too afraid of what we were walking into. I was too afraid of
getting caught.

About half a mile away from the camp, Jayden
came to a stop. He pulled me back into him.

"Don't be anxious. If you are, they'll
suspect something's wrong. Just treat him like he's the jerk you
know I can be. That's what Barone expects," Jayden said with a
knowing smirk.

Nervous, I smiled back. "I'll do my
best."

"You'll do fine. I've watched you for years
and I've never once been disappointed," Jayden said warmly.

"That's not what my mentor has said," I
countered.

Jayden shrugged. "Your mentor is an
asshole." He leaned over and kissed my head apologetically.
"Listen… all I ever wanted was for you to be with me. If I hadn't
pushed you, you'd have joined your mother in the lab and I'd have
never seen you. I think we've established the fact that I'm a
selfish ass who will do whatever he has to in order to get his way.
There's no sense rehashing old news."

I rolled my eyes at him. "You, my
dysfunctional friend, and I have lots of talking to do," I
scolded.

"We will. I promise. Let's get Sean taken
care of, and we'll talk about anything you want to talk about.
After I prove to you what a horrible person I am, I want to find
out why Sean looks just like me. I need to know if we are triplets
who were separated, or if all of my parents' children look exactly
alike."

I nodded. "I have to admit I'm curious
myself."

Based on the catcalls and whistles, there
was something going on in the camp. I had no idea what it was, but
it seemed like the perfect camouflage for sneaking Sean into the
camp without anyone noticing.

Jayden turned toward Sean with a malevolent
grin and said, "She's more important to me than you'll ever know.
Take care of her, and I'll take care of Simon for you."

Sean looked over at his brother, who was
watching the two men with obvious fascination. Gritting his jaw,
Sean nodded his acquiescence.

Without a word between us, I headed back
toward the camp and knew by the cracking of twigs behind
me—something Jayden would never do—that Sean was trailing.

It seemed like the entire camp was gathered
in a circle, hooting and hollering. It was at that moment I
realized it was Jayden's responsibility as Lead Surrogate to take
control of these situations. I needed him to do that sooner rather
than later since Barone was onsite.

"Sean, Jayden's the Lead Surrogate. He'd be
the one responsible for calming these people down," I
whispered.

"
Jiminy
Christmas!
Why couldn't my dear brother be a normal
Surrogate who wouldn't draw the attention of the entire camp to
me?"

His question was rhetorical so I made no
effort to answer him.

He grabbed my hand so we wouldn't be
separated and dragged me to the middle of the circle. There, I
found the last thing in the world I ever expected. Kali and Jenny
were rolling around on the ground, kicking, biting, and scratching
each other.

Under his breath, Sean said,
"
Holy shit!
"

Proof positive that he was at least some
relationship to Jayden, he took a few more seconds than necessary
to appreciate the battle before him. Then he put a finger in each
corner of his mouth and whistled so loudly my ears echoed.

"Everyone get back to your post. There's
nothing here to see," Sean ordered.

Like roaches running from light, the group
dispersed the instant they thought the Lead Surrogate was on the
scene. Everyone that is but Kali and Jenny. Jayden's whistle barely
registered. They were too focused on tearing the other's eyes
out.

Sean may have been sick, but he still had
enough strength to grab both girls by the back of their shirts and
hold them apart. As soon as it registered with them that the only
other man on the planet nearly as beautiful as Jayden was holding
them by the scruff of their necks like they were wayward dogs, they
both began composing themselves, smoothing down their hair and
tucking it behind their ears and straightening their clothes.

"What the hell is this all that about?" Sean
asked, making it clear neither was going anywhere until they
answered his question.

A rebellious Jenny took the lead. "This one
here"—she nodded her head toward Kali—"is claiming I've been
telling people she's sleeping with lots of the men here in camp.
She claims she's only slept with Dr. Angleton. In order to save her
virtue and convince Dr. Angleton he's the only person she's slept
with, she's blaming her big mouth and moral indiscretions on
me."