Mindsiege (17 page)

“It’s not breaking in that’s the problem. It’s getting back out.” A chill danced down my arms at Jonas’s words. His fingers circled my wrist, stopping my forward motion. “You and I have unfinished business.”

I looked down at his hold, then at his face. “Let me go, Jonas.”

“Not until you hear everything I need to tell you. Besides, he can’t go tonight. He knows that. Let him cool off.”

~~~~~

“What do you want me to do with that?” I stared at the gun lying on a table between Jonas and me.

“I want you to learn to use it.” He backed up against the wall of Coach Williams’s apartment, crossed his arms, and studied me. Coach had said Jonas could sleep on his couch. I figured an ex-FBI agent was the perfect person to watch over the boy who
kind of
tried to kill me.

I raised my hand very slowly. My fingers hovered just over the metal before making contact. The texture was partly rough, partly smooth. The steel was cool to the touch.

Pick it up, Lexi.
His voice moved through my mind like an old friend looking for a place to relax for a while. It was confusing. I didn’t trust him, yet he seemed to want to help me. Jack was off dealing with his own issues. I needed someone.

I slid my fingers under the handle and lifted. “It’s so heavy.”

“That one’s pretty light. It’s perfect for a girl.”

I glared at Jonas. “What? Because I’m a girl I’m weak?” I held the gun in front of me, getting used to the feel of it in my hand.

He chuckled. “Uh… no. ‘Weak’ is not a word I would use to describe you. But you are small, and you’ve never used a gun before. This is a good start.”

I set the gun back down and moved away from the table. “Why do I need to learn to use a gun?”

“Because, although I was trying to get your attention by getting inside your head, I did not drug you, I did not run you off the road, and I did not put those marks on your neck. I also am not the one who murdered your father or his friend. I couldn’t hurt you, Lexi.”

Not that a gun would have stopped some freak inside my head from hurting me. “What do you know about my father’s death?”

Jonas stared down at the floor before looking at me again. “I saw your father in person for the first time the night of the talk he gave last month to that group of physicians.”

“You were there?”

“Mom… Sandra attended the event.”

I thought back to that night. I would have remembered seeing an older woman that looked just like me. That was the first night I saw Seth.

“I followed her there,” Jonas continued. “I remember thinking how strange it was that she wore black pants and a white button down shirt, until I watched her go through the employees’ entrance. She hid among the workers, making sure to keep her distance from your father. But I knew immediately that she was watching him. She was acting so strange.”

Unable to stand still, I circled the apartment, wringing my hands. “Didn’t you already know Jack? How did you spy on Sandra without Jack seeing you?”

Jonas cocked his head. “I can hear her thoughts. See what she’s seeing. Just like I can hear and see what you’re seeing.”

“How is that possible?” I asked. “I thought the only reason we have these strange supernatural abilities is—” I stopped myself. How
can
I speak to someone’s mind? Force them to do what I want? I turned away from Jonas. I had refused to learn this information. Seth wanted to tell me. Jack had tried to convince me to attend The Program lessons with him. I whipped back around. “Unlike me, she has no idea that you’re inside her head. Am I right?”

“Until now, maybe.” Jonas’s voice took on a regretful tone.

“Because of whatever it was she injected herself with?”

He nodded. “She has watched, studied, and manipulated human clones for the past eighteen years.”

“But she’s your mother? She raised you? What does having her as a mother even mean?” Absentmindedly, I touched my fingers to my lips, remembering Jonas’s lips on mine. I bowed my head so that he couldn’t see my face. As mad as I had been at Jonas for kissing me, it had never felt like kissing my brother or anything.

Jonas pushed away from the wall that he’d been leaning against since we started our conversation. He hooked a finger under my chin and lifted my face so that I had no choice but to meet his probing gaze. “We are not related in any way. My DNA is of some doctor I’ve never met. I share no relation to Sandra Whitmeyer, or to you.” His brown eyes looked almost black as his pupils dilated. One could get lost in the darkness and danger he emanated.

I blinked twice, three times. If I hadn’t been completely in love with Jack, I wondered what kind of pull the boy in front of me would’ve had on me.

When I pulled my face from his grasp, a grin spread across his face. He walked to the table where the gun lay, picked it up, and rested it against his palm. Never really closing his fingers around the handle, he stepped to me.

My pulse quickened. I stared at the dark metal, then up at Jonas. He watched me expectantly. I was sure he could hear the beating of my heart, feel the shaking of my limbs.

My eyes returned to the gun. Jonas let the gun slip and turn until he held it by the barrel, pointing the handle toward me.

Take it!

I shook my head and backed away a step.

He followed. He reached out with his empty hand and grabbed my arm, giving me no choice but to stand close. I followed the line of tattoos running up his arm until they disappeared beneath the sleeve of his shirt. He breathed heavily, like me.

Hold it, Lexi. Now!

I jumped at the boom of his voice inside my head. Slowly, I took the object from him, lifting it with extreme caution. I squeezed the handle without putting my finger anywhere near the trigger.

“I can smell your fear,” he whispered. His hand slid down and circled my wrist. Goosebumps spread up my arms. “I can feel your pulse racing underneath my fingers. And I can hear your short breaths like you’ve just finished a sprint.” He leaned closer to my ear, and I was sure I would pass out from his closeness and the fear of him I still felt. “The way you feel right now… that’s what having Sandra Whitmeyer as a mother meant. Being poked and prodded. Being observed, studied, and held prisoner in a life that you can’t escape.” Jonas’s eyes glassed over.

“Why didn’t you run when you had the chance?” I asked.

The corners of his lips lifted slightly. “Naïveté really isn’t attractive on you, Lexi.”

That’s how I knew.
You couldn’t run. Just like I can’t, now.
I pulled away, backed up, and sat on Coach’s sofa. I lay the gun gently on my knees and rested my hand across it. As easily as I could have sunk to my knees and cried myself senseless, I knew that was not the answer.

“When I led you into The Farm, then helped you escape, I pretty much signed my death warrant.”

I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”

“I showed you the most top secret government experiments in the world. I showed you into the devil’s lair and provided you with all the ammunition you needed to expose the government for playing with human life. How do you think the public will react if they discover just how many human lives are lost for each cloned human they’ve produced? Even worse, how do you think Americans will react when they learn that the government had discovered a way to control minds?”

I stared at him; my heart practically stopped. “You think they’ll murder you for showing me the facility and the other clones?”

“No. They’ll kill me for showing you the exit.”

“I thought their goal was to cure disease.” My breath got caught in my throat.
I thought Jack and I were created to help people. Cure illnesses. Fix fatal injuries.

“That’s what they’ll want the public to believe. Think about it. If the government tells the mother of a child born with a brain defect that they can now make that child normal? Or what about someone who’s in an accident and wakes up paralyzed from the neck down? You think they’ll fault a government who’s discovered a way for that person to walk again? Even if they have to overlook the fact that the government uses that same technology in other ways.”

I stared at the gun in my lap. The heat of anger spread up my arms, across my neck, and to my face. Would the government truly do something that deceptive? And where did I fit into this?

Jonas knelt in front of me and covered my hand with his. “You get tonight to mentally prepare,” he said, his voice taking on a harshness that contradicted the gentle touch of his palm.

I lifted my eyes to study him. “Prepare?”

“Tomorrow, you’ll learn to shoot that gun, and you’ll learn to protect yourself. Both physically and mentally.”
That’s where we’ll start, anyway.

Chapter Nineteen

Saturday morning’s swim competition came way too quickly.

Somehow I managed to win each of my races and put up times good enough to qualify for the next meet, but I didn’t score a single personal-best time. Not surprising, since I had spent so little time in the pool the past week.

The meet finished around lunchtime. I stuffed my goggles and swim cap inside my bag, grabbed my water bottle, then threw my bag over my shoulder. When I turned toward the locker room, I ran into a wall of a body.

Every muscle in my stomach tightened. “Jack, hey.” Feeling naked in my swimsuit, I crossed my arms across my chest.

“Hi.” His voice was so quiet I barely heard him.

“I’m surprised you’re here.” His stormy eyes sent a chill down my arms. I was shocked to see him after what had happened the night before.

“Jonas made me see the risks of barging in on the IIA before we’re ready with a plan.” He turned his head toward the crowd that was thinning behind him. Jonas stood near the door—waiting for Jack, maybe. Or possibly he was waiting to show me how to use a gun. I suppressed a roll of the eyes just before Jack turned back. Keeping his voice low, he said, “We need to talk.”

“Okay.” I shifted on my feet. Why was I so nervous in front of him? “I need a shower.”

“Meet me behind the stables?”

I nodded. The stables were always fairly deserted on Saturdays and a perfect place to relax with Jack. I first started to fall for Jack when he introduced me to his passion for horses and to Cheriana, his cloned quarter horse. I craved alone time with him. Time to tell him how sorry I was. About Addison. About our recent argument. Would he ever look at me like he had the night of the gala? Like I was the only woman left on this earth and made especially for him? Did we even have time for that?

We also needed to discuss everything I’d learned about The Farm and what Jonas had shared. “Give me thirty minutes.”

“I’ll get you something to eat.” He slipped his hand behind my neck and leaned in, kissed my forehead. “Hurry, okay?” He turned and left me staring at the back of his concert tee and admiring the well-sculpted muscles underneath. Wellington really should get rid of uniforms during the school week. I smiled, but it only lasted a moment before someone knocked into my back.

“Oh, sorry,” Briana said, but I knew she wasn’t. “Who is that?” She nodded toward Jonas. Jack spoke to him for a second, then pushed through the door, leaving Jonas alone.

Jonas had been watching me during my entire conversation with Jack, and he continued to stare now.

“That’s no one,” I said, my gaze still directed at him.

Briana moved to stand directly in front of me. “Why is ‘no one’ practically eating you for lunch with his eyes?”

I peeked around Briana. Sure enough, Jonas was smirking. His eyes pointed at me like a missile locked onto its target. He could hear Briana through my mind, and see what I was seeing. “Don’t be ridiculous. And by ‘no one,’ I meant no one you need to concern yourself with.” In other words, none of her business. “I have to shower.”

I moved to get around her, but Briana cut me off. “What are you not telling me? Who is he?”

I sighed. “He’s a friend of Jack’s.”

Briana moved beside me again, not bothering to hide the fact that she was openly staring down Jonas. “Introduce me.”

“What? No.” I lifted my water bottle and took a huge gulp.

Yes, Lexi, introduce us.
Jonas’s words filled my head. I had enjoyed an entire morning without him there.
I’m thinking this Briana is much prettier than Dia.

They’re identical, you idiot.
I took another drink as I glanced sideways at Briana. When I saw her, this time I spit my water all over her.

“What the…” Briana brushed the water off of her chest. “What is
wrong
with you?” she screamed at me.

“Me? What is wrong with
you
?” I looked directly at her chest. She had always been well-endowed. Compared to me, any girl was. But looking at her now, I practically burst out laughing.

She followed my gaze. Looked down at her chest, then back at me. She gasped. Her cheeks turned red. “You can see, can’t you?”

Briana had obviously discovered her ability to alter what others saw. Dia had used the same trick when I’d first met her at The Farm. “If you mean the 34DD breasts you suddenly have packed inside that tiny piece of lycra, then yes, I can see.”

Briana didn’t say another word. She spun on her heels and sped away from me.

Jonas no longer contained his laughter. Instead, he bent over holding his stomach. When he lifted his chest again, he thought,
Well, that was interesting. I guess we don’t have to wonder anymore whether she knows she has some sort of supernatural ability.

Shit, Jonas! Are you kidding me? Did you see her face? She was scared to death.
Briana may have discovered enough of her ability to play around with the power, but confusion and panic were evident in the way she fled.

All traces of laughter left his face.
First of all, don’t curse at me. It’s not attractive. And secondly, I know Dia well enough to know that Briana doesn’t have an ounce of DNA lending itself to fear. That was a girl that was well aware of her ability to enhance her looks. She’s just shocked that you saw through the charade.