Mindspeak (39 page)

“Jack, I’m not sure how much longer
I can keep Lexi in this state.” Kyle stepped lightly behind us. “I’m starting
to lose her. And my vision is getting weaker.”

“What do you mean?” Jack’s grip
tightened around my hand. “What will happen?”

“She’ll fall deeper into sleep. Uh…”
Kyle hesitated. “She’ll just collapse, I guess. And I’ll go blind.”

“Shit. Why didn’t you tell me this?”
Jack squeezed my hand. “Look at me, baby. We have to hurry, okay?” I nodded. “Step
only on grass and dirt. Avoid the wires. They’re live.”

I still couldn’t see the faces
behind the flashlights lighting our path to the other side.

I stepped on grass just like
instructed. I swayed slightly. My head started to go a little fuzzy. “Jack?”

He turned to me. “Hang on, Lexi.”
He steadied me and led me across the wires. “Five more steps.”

“I’m losing her,” Kyle yelled
behind me.

My vision became weaker. My legs
went numb. My equilibrium was off. I reached out my free hand, grabbing for
air.

“Jack, catch her.”

I stuck a leg forward. Leaned
closer to the other side. Two more steps. “Jack!” I screamed out. My feet were leaden;
my body was falling like a chopped down tree.

I felt a hand on my opposite arm.
Jack leaped in front of me, then took me with him. I soared through the air,
over the rest of the electrical fence.

We landed with a hard thud on the
other side of the fence. Jack’s body cushioned my fall. He coughed like the air
had been knocked out of him.

I lifted my head briefly. My
fingers grazed the outline of his jaw. His lips. His face came in and out of
focus. “You’re always there to catch me,” I whispered just before I drifted
away.

Chapter
Thirty-Five

Voices entered my consciousness in
hushed tones.

“She’s going to be fine,” a female
voice said.

“You don’t know that.” Jack’s voice
was a bit raspy. “Why won’t she wake up?”

“She will. It hasn’t been that
long.”

“It’s been almost two days.” His
voice sounded louder this time.

Two days?

“Why don’t you go take a shower? I’ll
stay with her.”

I recognized the voice. It was Georgia.
The African-American girl with crazy eye shadow from the bar where Jack’s band
played. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

“No. I’m not leaving.”

I felt a drop of warm moisture land
on my hand. Jack sniffled loudly.

“I’m going to help with dinner.
Everyone’s going to be hungry.” There was a long pause. Then, from further
away, Georgia said, “Does she know?”

Know what?

Jack must have given her a look
because she continued. “Does she know about Fred, Jonas, and me?”

“No. Never really got a chance to
tell her.”

I heard the sound of footsteps and a
door closing. I willed my eyelids up. They were so heavy.

Jack scooped my hand into his. “I
should have told you everything the minute I met you. Or when you figured out
we were part of the cloning project.” The weight of Jack’s head pressed down on
my hand. “I had so many chances to tell you everything. I thought running would
be better for you.”

I wiggled the fingers of my other
hand. Then I tried my toes. I wanted to reach for Jack, but failed at lifting
my hand. I wanted to tell him I forgave him. He was here now.

I would never let him push me away
again.

“How can I tell you the rest now?
After what you did for me?”
Please wake up.

I am awake.

Jack lifted his head away from the
hand he squeezed and gasped. “Open your eyes.”

I’m trying. I can’t. I’m so
tired.

How are you feeling?

I’ve been better.

“Why did you do it? Why did you
heal Addison?” he practically sobbed.

For you.

Jack sucked in a labored breath and
let it out slowly.
I thought you might die.

Is she okay?

“Seth is working on it,” he said. “Hopefully,
he’ll get her moved before Cathy and others figure out what you did.”

What do you mean?
If Seth
knew what I did, he’d be coming for me.

“Oh, Lexi. If they figure out that
you have the powers they hoped you would have, they will stop at nothing to
find you. I’m still not even completely sure who “they” is. But since Addison is
still in a coma…”

We’re safe for now?
I didn’t
believe that for one second.

“I have to go back to Wellington.”
He laid his head on my chest.

No.
I squeezed my eyes
tight. Slowly, I was able to lift my hand and place it on his head. I ran my
fingers through his hair.
You can’t
.

“I was never supposed to leave. But
I had to get you out.”

My eyes fluttered open and I found
his dark blue eyes with mine. I didn’t want to argue with him. Not now. Not
yet.

“Did I ever tell you my favorite
color?” He pressed his lips to my hand.

I shook my head.

“It’s the strange, beautiful color
of the ocean. A deep, emotional green. The color of your eyes. They change
color at times, you know?”

“What color are they right now?” My
voice sounded hoarse from no use.

He narrowed his gaze. “The color of
a raging sea.”

“You’re not going back to
Wellington.”

“Not tonight. But I have to
tomorrow.”

I pressed my head back, hard into
the pillow, and breathed deeply.

Jack pleaded his case. “Cathy will
take Addison off the feeding tube and coma-inducing drugs if I don’t. Then she’ll
know. All it takes is one MRI, and they’ll know what you did. But if I go back
alone…”

“They’ll leave her under and not
suspect,” I finished for him. “As long as you cooperate long enough to get her
moved.”

“And we’ll fake her death and hide
her away.”

He made it sound so easy for a
person to assume a new identity. “Oh, well, yeah. Just pretend to kill her. No
big deal. Then it’s happily-ever-after. Just like you were hoping for me.”

“Don’t do that. You know we don’t
have a choice. They’ll force you to heal Sandra… and next time… What you did
could have killed you. I won’t lose you.”

“We do have choices.” I could still
run.
We
could still run, before Seth comes after me like he promised.
Why did Jack not see that Seth would stop at nothing to have me heal his
sister, our creator? “You can choose not to shut me out again.”

“Can we talk about this later?
There’s something else I’d rather do now.” A sneaky grin crept up on his face.

Because I was too tired to argue
right then, I snaked my hand around his neck and brought his head closer. His
lips tapped mine, teasing at first. Once. Twice. Then they closed over my lips
with a need I had not felt from him before.

When he finally broke away, I
pulled back the covers and he crawled in and held me as we both slept.

~~~~

When I woke again, I realized I had
no idea where I was. I felt better. Not one-hundred percent, but better. Jack
was not in the room.

I slipped out of the bed and made
my way across the room. As soon as I opened the door, I heard voices. They got
louder as I walked down a hallway toward a light at the end. I was in some sort
of modest ranch house.

“You can’t be serious,” Georgia was
yelling. “I, for one, am not setting foot on Wellington’s campus. Not after
what you’ve just told me. Have you forgotten the state you brought your
girlfriend here in? You really think she’ll go back there?”

“No. I don’t want her anywhere near
that place.” Jack spoke with certain finality.

“Oh, but you’d subject your other
friends to their freakishly controlling ways? They had an electric fence put
around the school, Jack. What kind of non-prison facility does that?”

I padded lightly into the kitchen.
Georgia and Kyle turned toward me. Jack opened his mouth to say something, but
stopped himself. “Please, don’t let me interrupt,” I said. “You were telling
Georgia how you were planning to keep me away from Wellington.” I looked around
for something to drink.

Reading my mind, Jack walked to a
cabinet and pulled down a glass for me. After fixing me some ice water, he
stepped behind me and slid his arms around my waist as he kissed my neck. “How
are you feeling?”

“Better.” I eyed the others. “So,
real names?”

Georgia, Jonas and Fred looked back
and forth from each other. Jonas stepped forward. “We’re exactly who you think
we are. We go by Georgia, Fred, and I’m Jonas. Our real names are dead to us.”
They were the other three cloned from the original test group. They made up the
rest of the seven.

“And I see you’ve met Kyle.” I
nodded at him. “Thank you for your part in getting me out of there. Seeing
okay?”

“You’re welcome and yes, I am now.
Glad to see you up and around.”

“The only one missing is Briana.” I
sipped my water and eyed each of them before I turned to Jack. “What’s the
plan? When do we go get her? And Danielle? And expose Cathy and Dr. Wellington
for the monsters they are?”

The others all shifted. Georgia
crossed her arms. She looked different without all the dark makeup from the
first night I met her. As did Fred without the guyliner.

“It’s not that easy.” Jack
intertwined his fingers with mine and pulled me closer. He stretched an arm
around my shoulders and pulled me into a tight hug. “Seth called while you were
showering. Cathy wants to make a deal with us.”

I tried to pull away, but Jack held
on tight. “What kind of deal?” I mumbled into his chest.

“He didn’t say, but Seth and Cathy
both think that the IIA is behind your father’s death. And they think that if
the IIA killed Peter, there’s nothing stopping them from killing a clone that knows
more than he or she should. Especially if they think for one second that
someone has evidence to expose them.”

I pushed against Jack’s chest. This
time he let me, but his severe eyes locked onto mine. “Which is why they think
we’ll seek refuge at Wellington?” And they’d have me right where they had
wanted me all along—inside The Program.

Jack nodded.

The IIA did not try to drown me
in your pool.

I know. I thought of that.
Jack
ran his hand through his hair. From the looks of it, he’d done that quite a
bit.

I turned and eyed each of
them—Kyle, Georgia, Jonas, and Fred. The only one missing from the original
seven was Briana. According to Dad’s spreadsheet, there were more clones, but
they were all younger. There were only seven in the original test group.

Since I didn’t believe Briana had
tried to kill me the night I went to the bar with Jack… And I didn’t think she
was capable of drowning me… Someone in this room tried to send me to my grave
early. Quite possibly, someone in this room murdered my father.

Jack stepped behind me again and
slid his arms around my waist.

Georgia spoke first. “Look, I know
you both feel comfortable that Cathy isn’t trying to kill us, but come on…”

“She’s a controlling freak,” Fred
said. “If it weren’t for Seth, I’d have run long ago.”

Jonas laughed. A low rumble
vibrated in his throat as he shook his head. “Jack, if you think for one second
your mom and dad, not to mention Seth and Sandra Whitmeyer, are going to keep
us all safe from the IIA, you’ve lost your mind. They aren’t concerned for our
safety.”

“We’re all tired,” Georgia said. “Let’s
sleep on it. Nothing is going to be decided tonight. Fred, I’m sleeping in your
room. You can show Kyle the basement.” She turned to us and smiled warmly. “You
two can keep my room.”

I looked down at my hands, suddenly
embarrassed by what that suggested.

Everyone dispersed after that,
obviously exhausted and grumpy.

Jack gripped my hand tightly as he
led me back down the hallway. He pulled me into the room I had been sleeping in.
It was a very nondescript room. Nothing decorated the walls. The only color
came from the lavender down comforter on the bed. I was probably the only one who
wasn’t tired.

Jack turned, dropping my hand, and
reached his fingers to brush the sides of my face. “I don’t want to make you
uncomfortable. I also don’t want to leave you alone. Not while someone is
getting inside your head.”

I nodded, suddenly bashful.

“I’ll sleep on the floor. If someone
tries to lead you from this room, you’ll have to trip over me to get out.”

Jack grabbed a pillow off the bed
and tossed it on the floor.

I grabbed his arm, stopping him
from continuing. He stood close, looked down at me. His warm breath feathered across
my face. My knees went weak. “Will you hold me at least until I fall asleep?” I
asked.

He grabbed me in a hug and lifted
me off my feet. “I will hold you for as long as you’ll let me.”

“You think we’re okay here? You
trust those guys out there?”

“I know what you’re thinking. You
think one of them is inside your head. We don’t know that. But that’s why I’m
sleeping in here.”

I wrapped my hand around his neck
and into his hair, then leaned down and kissed the spot below his ear. “If I
had run, how would you have found me?”

Jack walked me over to the bed and
lowered me onto the mattress. He pulled back the covers allowing me to slip in.
He crawled in beside me and pulled me close—my back to his chest—and held me.
He kissed me softly on my neck and whispered, “I will always find you.”

~~~~

Jack slept soundly. Unfortunately,
I was not tired after sleeping the past two days. I rolled over in his arms and
watched him. I studied the lines of his eyes, his long eyelashes, his nose.
Listened to the even rhythm of his breathing. I wanted to run my fingers along
the smooth texture of his lips.