Contained (Evolution Series Book 5) (4 page)

Lying wrapped in Aiden’s arms, I looked up into his eyes expecting to see the love he had shown me only moments ago, but I saw worry instead.

“What’s going on?” he finally asked.

I pushed off him as I twisted into a sitting position, placing my feet firmly on the floor. “Geez. That’s a nice thing to say. Was I that bad?”

Sitting up, he edged closer and put his hand on my back. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

Yeah, I knew exactly what he was asking, but I didn’t want to go there.

When I didn’t say anything more he said, “Whatever it is, I’m not going to judge. You should know that by now.” He pressed a kiss on my bare shoulder. “We’re in this together.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Aiden sighed.
“Do you honestly think I don’t know when something is going on with you? You may be able to hide your thoughts from me but you can’t hide the connection we have. I know something’s wrong. And I know you’re scared. What I want to know is: what are you afraid of?”

I remained silent long enough that I thought he would’ve gotten off the bed in frustration and left me alone, or he would’ve asked me again, but neither of those things happened. He just sat there waiting for me to speak. The problem was I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t tell him that I thought I was… I sucked in a sharp breath as I remembered something Nathan had said to me: ‘the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.’ Was he telling me something? Had he planned what I was to become all those years ago?

“Jade,”
Aiden pleaded, making my heart break.

I rubbed my hand over my forehead. I didn’t have a headache but the motion gave me something to do other than look into Aiden’s eyes, and feel crappy as hell because he thought that I couldn’t confide in him after everything we’d been through.

Aiden grabbed my hand, stopping me from avoiding his gaze. He cupped my cheek with his other hand and forced me to look him in his eyes.
“I’m not going anywhere.”

I wiped away a tear just as it slipped out. “I…” I couldn’t put it into words, so I showed him instead. I sent him the visions I’d had over the last two days. My heart hammered in my chest as I watched his eyes widen in horror. No longer able to bear his stare, I transported back to our room on the boat.

Collapsing on the bed, I buried my head in the pillow and waited for the tears to come. But they never did. I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling, afraid that was another clue that I was changing and I was becoming the girl who could kill so mercilessly.

A moment later I felt Aiden’s energy in the room.

“Thought I’d find you here.” He climbed onto the bed, lay down on his side and propped himself up on his elbow. “And as usual, you ran before you hear what I’ve got to say.”

I glanced at him. “I saw the way you looked at me, and I also heard what you were thinking.”

“Of course, I was going to be a little shocked—”

“Pfft. A little?” He thought I was guilty as charged. And I was glad I hadn’t shown him the one of Chelsea.

He glared at me. “You just threw me a vision of you decapitating someone and you expect me not to have a reaction? Get a little freaked out?”

“And now?”

“See for yourself.” He nodded when I didn’t enter his mind straight away.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed into his mind and filtered through what had happened since I showed him. Yeah, he freaked, just as I knew he had, but then came the disbelief. He didn’t think I was capable of doing such a heinous crime. He believed in me and never imagined that I would turn into the monster my father was.

Pulling out of his mind, I stayed on my back, staring at the ceiling. Even though he had faith in me, I couldn’t look at him. “Then how do you explain what I saw?”

He draped his arm over the top of me and put his hand on my face, turning it so I had no choice but to look at him. “I don’t know. But I do know you aren’t capable of doing that to an innocent man. And for all we know, he may not be innocent at all.”

I sighed. “Except, I couldn’t even kill Nathan. And he was far from innocent.”

“Yeah, you had him locked away, to grow old and die like a normal human. To him that’s a punishment worse than death.”

“But—”

“No buts. And I think you have to ask yourself something. Would you have been able to kill Nathan if he wasn’t Lucas’s father?” When I didn’t respond he continued, “I think you would’ve. But it was because of Lucas that you couldn’t do what all of us would’ve done.
You
found a way to contain him
and
ease Lucas’s conscious about conspiring to kill his own father.”

I noticed he said eased, because, although I hadn’t killed Nathan yet, it was only a matter of time before Nathan died of natural causes. So in the end, I was already capable of murder.

Even though I didn’t believe in me as Aiden did, I couldn’t handle seeing him thinking of me hurting inside. I couldn’t do that to him. He deserved to come first for a change, and I would have to live with my burden on my own. Forcing a smile, I said, “Maybe you’re right.”

Aiden grinned. “I’m always right.” He kissed me, then quickly pulled away. “And I’m right about this. You’ll see.”

And if he was wrong, the world would have hell to pay trying to stop me. That, I knew for sure.

“Come on.” Aiden pulled me into a sitting position. “Enough moping around. We’ve got some fish to catch.”

I groaned.

“You see, Lucas thinks we’re full of shit that you can out-fish him. He’s even putting a wager on it.”

“What kind of wager?” I asked, cautiously.

He smirked. “The kind of wager where if Lucas loses he has to tell Chelsea he can hear her thoughts and admit how he really feels about her.”

My eyes widened. “Let’s do this.”

Aiden nudged me with his shoulder. “Thought you’d say that.”

We transported to the deck where Chelsea was still at the wheel trying to ‘learn’ how to steer. The biggest part of her problem was that she wasn’t even watching where she was going. Her eyes were fixed on Lucas’s hands guiding hers and the odd peek, or twenty, she shot in his direction thinking he didn’t notice. I bit down on a smile as I thought about the day when she would learn that he could hear every damn thought she had about him. I would love to be a fly on the wall. Then again I wouldn’t need to. I’d have an insiders view anytime I was game to delve into her thoughts.

“Time to put your money where your mouth is,” Aiden yelled at Lucas.

“You’re on.” Lucas twisted the seat to the side and dropped Chelsea to her feet as he stood. “First one to catch a shark wins.”

“Say what?” I turned to Aiden. “You didn’t say anything about a shark.”

He shrugged. “I guess the bet’s evolved to fit the consequences.”

I drew my eyebrows together. “Um. You haven’t told me what we have to do if we lose.”

He grinned. “You don’t want to know.”

An imaged flashed through his mind, making me cringe. I’d have to follow Georgia around for the day pretending I wanted to be friends.

“We are going to win, even if I have to jump in there and kill a shark myself.” I pointed to the water.

Aiden laughed. “I’d like to see that.”

Lucas and Chelsea joined us at the back of the boat. While they baited up, I went to see Gemma. “We’re having a little bit of a fish-off back there. Did you want to join us?”

She looked up at me from the towel she was lying on and scoffed. “I don’t fish. Never have, never will.”

“Fine. But how do you know you don’t like it if you’ve never tried it?”

“Have you ever tried eating pig’s balls?”

I almost choked on a laugh. “No. But that’s different.”

Grinning, she said, “How do you know if you haven’t tried it?”

Still chuckling I made my way back to the others and I found them all ready to throw their lines in.

Aiden held a baited rod out to me. “You ready?”

Taking the rod, I said, “As they say, tight lines.”

Lucas and Aiden laughed.

“What?” Chelsea and I said in unison.

“Maybe your mum used to say it,” Aiden said.

I waved him off. “Whatever. You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, bidding your enemy luck in catching a fish probably isn’t such a good idea with such high stakes.”

“Ooh. What’re the stakes?” Chelsea asked. “Run around the deck naked? A dash through a shopping centre naked? Being a streaker in a football game?”

I laughed. “Are you looking for and excuse to get naked, hey, Chels?”

“Pfft. You know I’m going to win. But I just want to know what you’ll be in for when I do.”

Lucas took his position at the side of the boat. “The winning team gets one thousand dollars.”

Her eyes lit up, completely forgetting what will happen to the loser. “Seriously?”

“Yep,” the three of us said, deciding to keep the truth from her.

“That money is so mine.”

***

Two hours later, I was ready to jump in and use myself as bait to catch a damned shark. We’d barely had a nibble and so far Chelsea was the winner when she almost hooked a seagull during one of her casts. I didn’t have a clue how I’d be, going up against a monster of the sea, but I was liking my chances more and more with every minute that ticked by.

“What is that thing that the fishing guys on TV throw in the water to get some fish?” Chelsea asked.

“Chum, Chels,” Aiden said.

“And we’ve already got a bucket feeding into the ocean and it’s still not bringing them in,” Lucas added. “It’s like they know to steer clear of the ship.”

“You mean, like how you see herds of animals fleeing an area minutes before you see what they somehow knew was coming?” Chelsea asked.

“Yes, Chels. But I was only joking. Fish or any type of animal haven’t run from us in the past.”

But I wasn’t like what I was in the past. And no matter how stupid it was, I couldn’t help but think there was truth to what Lucas had been joking about. Perhaps the fish somehow knew I was a predator.

“Quit thinking she’s onto something,”
Aiden said as if he knew what I was thinking.

I quickly did a check to make sure I hadn’t let my mind barrier down—it was still up.

Aiden chuckled internally.
“I know you. I know what you’re thinking even if I can’t hear your thoughts.”

I put down my rod, strode over to him and kissed his cheek.
“Have I told you lately how much I love you?”

He snaked his arm around my waist and drew me against him.
“Not nearly enough.”
Aiden leaned down and kissed me, letting his rod slip from his hands.

“Oh, my God!” Chelsea squealed. “I’ve caught one.”

Tearing my lips from Aiden’s, we turned around and looked overboard, trying to see the shark but quickly realised there was nothing there. There never was.

Chelsea was trying to hold a straight face. “My mistake. Please continue.”

I wanted to clip her across the head—in a friendly way of course

“Ow!” Chelsea rubbed the back of her head as she looked at Lucas, thinking he’d slapped her playfully.

I froze. Lucas hadn’t touched her and nobody else had either. It was me.

Aiden squeezed my hip.
“I guess telekinesis is now on your list, too.”

We hadn’t really talked much about Aiden’s ability to move things with his mind. It’d freaked him out a little, considering none of the other next gens had ever had the same ability. But as usual, it seemed that Aiden and I were two of a kind.

A low hum filled the air and I looked around, spotting a helicopter in the distance. Energy buzzed within me, starting from the top of my spine, flowing down my body. I was hyper aware of my surroundings and a sixth sense was telling me that what was in the chopper wasn’t something we should stick around for.

“We need to go,” I said, still watching the sky.

“What? Why?” Aiden asked.

Chelsea laughed. “You’re just scared we’re going to clean you out, aren’t you?”

I didn’t bother telling her that one thousand dollars would be a drop in the ocean of the money that both the Scotts and Lucas probably had. “Someone’s coming.”

Lucas and Aiden looked around, both unable to see what I saw. I cocked my head to the left. “There’s a chopper over there and I have a bad feeling about it.”

They looked in the direction I’d motioned. Chelsea couldn’t see a damned thing and I never expected her to. Lucas hadn’t been able to either. But Aiden caught a glimpse, just not in as much detail as I could. “She’s right.”

“It could just be a local tour operator,” Lucas suggested.

I shook my head. “No. It’s not.” I headed toward the stairs. “Get your things. We need to get off the boat now.” When no one moved I repeated, “Now!”

Somehow I was able to feel Gemma’s adrenalin kick in.
“Grab the towels Gemma and get your ass back here.”
I said. I didn’t want to leave anything of ours on the boat for whoever was on the chopper to find.

Lucas and Aiden phased out and I felt them a second later beneath the deck. They didn’t have a clue why I was panicking but neither questioned my instinct.

“What’s going on?” Chelsea asked, with a catch in her voice. She’d been through a heap of crap over the last few months and she was freaking out that Nathan had somehow gotten free and was coming after us with vengeance.

I mentally reached out and calmed her nerves. “It’s not Nathan. It’s…” I drifted off when Aiden, Lucas and Gemma appeared next to us.

“What are we going to do about the boat?” Gemma asked.

“Leave it,” Aiden and I said in unison.

Any other time Gemma would’ve commented about us saying the exact same thing but she was too scared to even consider digging us about our similarities. Like the others, she had no idea why I was freaking out, but she didn’t want to stick around to find out. She was a next gen, but she wasn’t capable of doing any of the cool tricks that we could. Her abilities were limited to being able to block her thoughts from others and heal. If shit hit the fan, she couldn’t get herself out of there. She was almost as vulnerable as Chelsea. But she trusted me and trusted that I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Which was exactly why I was insisting on getting them out of there. What was coming wasn’t something they were prepared for. What was coming
I
was afraid of. Not because I thought I couldn’t handle it, but because I wasn’t sure I would be able to stop myself from committing my first murder.