Mindspeak (28 page)

What a strange night. The image of
Gram’s brain popped into my head, and then I wondered what a phobia would look
like inside a brain. I pressed my fingers to Dani’s forehead and imagined her
brain.

It looked nothing like Gram’s; it
was more… normal, I guessed. I lifted my hand and wiggled my fingers.

What did I think I was going to do?
Heal her phobia forever?

With Gram’s brain, I knew what to look
for. I had seen pictures of a brain afflicted with Alzheimer’s. Was I really
capable of healing her? Was I meant to? It just seemed wrong. But wasn’t that
what doctors did every single day with medicine and surgery?

Was this different?

Most definitely.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Danielle
whispered. She grabbed my arm, then turned over, hugging my arm like a teddy
bear.

“Go to sleep,” I whispered.

I stayed like that until she
drifted off—kneeling by her bed with my arm tucked inside hers. I was alone
with my frantic thoughts. Was Smoking Man in her dreams? Looking for me? Did he
want to finish the job he’d started inside the DeWeese’s swimming pool?

A chill moved through me. Later, I
slipped my arm out of her hold and pushed away from her bed. I crawled into
mine fully clothed. The events of the night haunted me, and with Smoking Man
now looking for me in my roommate’s nightmares, I was terrified to fall asleep.

You up?
Could Jack even hear
me this far away? He’d heard me the night of the fire alarm. Had that been
Smoking Man? I had smelled smoke that night.

What’s wrong? You alright?

What if I told him I wasn’t? Would
he come rescue me? Probably
. Yeah. Just having trouble sleeping.

Can I help?

I don’t know. Can you?

That depends. What are you
wearing?

Just like that, a smile spread
across my face.
Stop it.

You started it.

Will you sing to me until I fall
asleep?
I asked.

Yes. Will you tell me what’s
wrong, first?

Tomorrow.

His perfect, soothing baritone lulled
me into sweet dreams.

~~~~

“You did what?” Jack barked into
his cell phone. I winced. He had to be talking to Seth.

Shrugging at Dani, I spooned a bite
of Cap’n Crunch into my mouth.

“How do you stay so fit and
healthy?” Danielle asked. Her nose twitched in disgust. “That’s gotta be the
worst thing you could eat first thing in the morning.”

“It’s got berries,” I mumbled
through a mouthful of cereal.

Kyle arrived and sat his tray down
by Dani. Two donuts and a pile of bacon covered his plate.

Dani and I traded glances. A smile
reached all the way to her eyes. No permanent damage done from last night’s
adventure through dark dreams.

“No. She didn’t tell me.” Jack turned
his head toward me. His face glowed with seven shades of crimson.

I shrunk where I sat.
Must be
Seth
.

Yes, Seth.
His brow drooped
over his eyes.
“Hold on.” Leaving a plate of eggs and toast, Jack
scooted from the table and slid out of his chair, accidentally knocking my arm.

He exited a door behind me.
Shifting in my seat, I watched him through the cafeteria window. He ran a hand
through his hair.

Don’t freak out
.

His eyes found mine through the
glass.

Oh, how I wished I could read lips
because he had definitely closed off his thoughts.

I directed my attention back to my
high-sugar nourishment. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Jack should have told me
everything. I deserved to know how those nutball scientists altered my mind.

“Hey, Lexi,” Kyle said. “Wanna go
see your grandmother today?”

“You guys can’t leave campus,”
Danielle said, waving a spoonful of oatmeal in the air. “Lockdown, remember?”

I wrinkled up my face at the
reminder. “Yeah. I just need to clear it with my new guardian.” Or bend someone’s
mind in my favor.

“You need to clear what with your
new guardian?” I jumped at the sound of Jack’s voice behind me. He placed his
hand on my shoulders and rubbed.
We need to talk
.

Briana rounded the corner with a
tray of food. She sat beside Kyle. “What happened to you last night, Lexi? You
missed a fun pool tournament.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. Jack and I make an awesome
team.” She winked at Jack behind me.

I tilted my head backwards, peering
at him. He shrugged.

Was Briana cloned like Jack and me?
Could she read my mind and I didn’t know about it?
Hey, Bree. Keep your
stupid paws off my man. Can you hear me? Do you know you’re a cloned freak?

Nothing. Except Jack’s fingers
digging into my shoulders.

“Ouch.” I wiggled under his grasp.

“Sorry.”
We really need to talk
.

~~~~

“What were you thinking?” Jack ran
both fingers through his hair.

I followed him on the sidewalk away
from the student center. “What was I thinking?” I asked in a
calm-before-the-storm-sort-of-way. I took two steps for every one of his. “Are
you kidding me, Mr. There-Will-Be-No-More-Secrets-Between-Us?”

He stopped. He rubbed his hands up
and down his face making a primal sound that made me back away. We stared at
each other for over a minute. Neither of us spoke. Our minds shut off from the
other.

“So, Briana?” I finally asked.

He nodded. “She doesn’t know.”

“Is that why you’ve been spending
so much time with her?” A wad of nerves in my belly tightened into an
uncomfortable ball.

He nodded again.

Can you hear her thoughts?

“No.”
His eyes warmed to
mine.
You don’t still think I’m interested in her, do you? Surely by now—

I took a step toward him. Grabbed
one of his hands and brought it to my chest, just above my heart.
You’ve got
to start trusting me
.

Ditto
. He flattened his
hand, his fingers grazing my neck.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you,
Jack.” Not exactly.

“Then why did you sneak away last
night without telling anyone? Without telling me?”

“I wanted to know the truth, why
someone is trying to kill me, and the truth of who I am.”

“And? Did Seth answer all your
burning questions?” he asked, contempt behind each word.

“I thought you trusted Seth.
Thought you wanted
me
to trust Seth.”

“Not over me.” He pulled my hand.
We were walking again. “I knew you had left campus. I couldn’t even find a hint
of your mind anywhere. It scared me. I was so tempted to report it to the dean,
and let the consequences fall.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I don’t know who our
friends are here. Your father died trying to protect you from something. I
think he knew that the threat had already infiltrated Wellington.”

Which was why he was coming to
Wellington to move me, I supposed. “You don’t trust Dean Fisher?”

“I don’t know.”
I think we
should run.

I shook my head.
Can’t. Too much
I still need to know. If the information becomes unbearable, I’ll think about
it then.

He stopped again. “Your life is in
danger,” he said, his voice low. “And I don’t know who the threat is.”

I squeezed the bridge of my nose.
Jack’s mind bumped up against the shield I erected.

“What is it?” He reached up and
touched my cheek. “Is this about what Seth showed you? Tell me.”

Partly
.

“Seth should never have taken you
to the nursing home. We don’t know if you could even heal your grandmother. She’s
been very sick for so long.”
Damn it! He had no right to tell you like that.
Especially without me there.

I stared into his eyes. “That’s not
all. It’s Dani.”

“What do you mean?”

I told him how I had found Dani in
the throes of a nightmare, and how she had been searching for me with Smoking
Man. At least, I thought it was Smoking Man.

“Why didn’t you tell me last night?
I would have come over.”

I cocked my head. “I know you would
have.”

“You didn’t want me to.”

I leaned my forehead into his
chest. “You can’t save me from my friend’s dreams, Jack.”

“These are not dreams.” Jack’s
voice escalated. His eyes darted around before he continued in a softer voice. “Someone’s
getting inside your head. Someone like us is using some ability to harm you.
And I’m so afraid I won’t be able to stop them.”

“Someone like us? Briana?”

“No. She knows something’s
different about her, and that scares her. She’s not getting inside your head
though. Not with any special power, anyway,” he joked. “I almost told her the
truth several times. I just couldn’t. Not without more information. She’s not
strong like you. I can’t explain it.”

I thought about that for a second.
Briana and I were friends once upon a time. Something had changed the summer
before our sophomore year. She came back to school bitter. She lashed out at me
every chance she got. I’d never considered her weak in any way.

“Come on.” Jack tugged at me again
and led me up the walk toward the athletic center.

I followed him down the hall toward
Coach Williams’ office. The smell of chlorine reached all the way out into the
hallway as we passed the entrance to the pool.

Coach looked up from a laptop when
we entered his small office. Familiar images covered the screen. I dropped Jack’s
hand.

Images of my artwork. Images I’d
sent Dad over the years. He had created a website for the art—his way of
keeping me “his baby girl.” Like I was a kindergartener bringing home that day’s
craft.

Sometimes I wished I could lose
myself in art. My art teacher even encouraged it. But she and I both knew that
was not my life’s purpose.

How did Coach know about the site?
I wiped my sweating palms on my uniform skirt.

“Lexi. Jack,” Coach said, flustered.
He shut his laptop and stood. A whistle dangled with his Wellington credentials
around his neck. “What are you two up to?”

“Hey, Coach,” Jack said as if they
were long-time friends, which I knew they weren’t. “I’m afraid Lexi needs a
reminder of what will happen if she leaves campus without permission from her
new guardian.”

“Lexi, did you leave campus?” He held
out a hand to stop me. “Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know. You will not
swim next week if I catch you leaving campus without permission.”

Are you serious? You brought me
here to be lectured by my coach? Do you truly think I give a flying crap about
the swim meet?

I was afraid that’s what you
would say
. Jack closed the door behind him, then turned slowly back to face
the coach. “Private Detective Williams, please tell Miss Matthews what else
will happen if she were to disobey the rules that have been set forth for her
protection.”

“I don’t understand. Detective?”

A look passed between Coach and
Jack, before Coach said, “That’s right, Lexi. We tried to keep this quiet, but
I always knew the time might come when I’d have to share with you my identity.
Especially with your dad gone.”

“But you’ve been here since before
I arrived.”

“Yes.”

“And my best coach ever.”

“My credentials as a swimmer are
real. I was an NCAA champion swimmer, nine times over, and a certified coach
before I…” Coach stopped. Took a breath.

I glanced from Coach to Jack and
back to coach. “Before you what?”

“Lexi, no one at this school knows
what I’m about to reveal.” He crossed his arms and leaned against his desk. “I’m
ex-FBI.”

“You’re an FBI agent?”

“Was. After twelve years in the
field, I needed… let’s just say, a change of scenery. Your father hired me to look
after you. And keep an eye on Wellington.”

I raised a brow. “Wellington the
person, or Wellington the institution?”

“Is there a difference?” Coach
chuckled.

I didn’t crack a smile.

“Show her.” Jack leaned against the
door, crossed his arms.

Show me what?

“Right,” Coach clasped his hands
together. He was nervous, excited. He approached a cabinet, unlocked it, and
pulled out a cuff of some sort.

“What is that?”

“Dean Fisher has authorized me to place
this on anyone who decides they simply can’t obey the lockdown rules.” When I
raised a brow, he continued. “This is similar to house arrest bracelets—”

I held up a hand to stop him. An
image of Lindsay Lohan popped into my head. “I… I got it.” Then, I glared at
Jack. “Are we done here?”

A satisfied grin passed over Jack’s
face.

“Great. Fantastic.” I eyed Coach’s
laptop like it might combust. Then I turned to him, his face expressionless.
Part of his FBI training, maybe. “I’m positive I have more questions for you,
but it will have to wait. I’m late for class. And quite frankly, I can’t look
at either of you at the moment.”

Jack grimaced.
Don’t be mad
.

I placed my hand on the knob. Before
I opened the door I thought to Jack,
Don’t even think about following me out
of here
.

I stormed out, and headed straight
to the library computer lab.

Chapter
Twenty-Five

With the exception of a student
worker, I was alone in the computer lab. Everyone else was in class. I pulled
up the website, named for the starfish—a site I thought was Dad’s and my secret.

A collage of drawings and pictures
flashed across the screen. I clicked on the one in the middle. A black and
white charcoal of a woman.

“Gram,” I whispered. Her eyes
stared back at me. I teared up.