Mindsurge (Mindspeak Book 3) (16 page)

She needed space to run. They wouldn’t turn her out in the fields at school for very long.

And you clearly had a long enough conversation with Alyson that she invited you to board Cheriana here?

Jack’s brows knitted together.
Your mother made it clear to me that this house was as much yours as it was hers. I didn’t want to take Cheriana to my father’s farm. Alyson and I didn’t think you’d mind.

First-name basis, even.
 

Stop it. I’ll support your decision if you never want to see your mother again after today. But I think you owe it to yourself to give her a chance.

I dropped the subject and glanced back out the window at Cheriana.
She’s beautiful.

Fred stopped the SUV in front of the house. He quickly looked toward Georgia in the passenger seat. She had been very quiet on the road trip. We’d all been quiet. Not surprising since two of our friends had been shot and killed.

Kyle, Jonas, and Briana pulled up behind us in the second vehicle.

It suddenly dawned on me. According to the notes in Dad’s journals, we were the original seven.

Slowly, I pulled my hand from Jack’s grasp and reached for the door handle. He touched my arm. When I turned back, he said nothing, but his expression was the reassurance I needed to face the woman I had put so much energy into hating.

I gave him a small smile. “Let’s do this.”
 

I approached the front door. Jack stayed behind me, and everyone else stayed in the vehicles. I reached my hand up, pausing before letting my fist make contact with the wood.

As I waited, it occurred to me: I was knocking on my own door. I owned half this house, and yet it felt as foreign to me as a stranger’s home. Which is exactly what it was: a stranger’s home. And that stranger was my own mother.

My house. My mother. And I didn’t know the first thing about either one of them.

The door swung open, and my mother greeted us with a smile. Her warm expression confused me. She wore casual yet stylish knit pants and a sweater that draped elegantly around her neck and shoulders.

I glanced at Jack and then back to her. “Hi.”

“Hi, Lexi.” She started to lift her hand, but then thought better of it, I guessed, and crossed her arms across her chest instead. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“We need your help,” I said.

She stood back, opened the door wider, and allowed us to pass. “Of course.”

Jack motioned for everyone else to follow, and they piled out of the vehicles.

Alyson said nothing as we filed into the living room. All of the blinds were closed, and very little light got through. A fire burned in the gas fireplace.
 

“Roger Wellington tried to have me killed.” I turned and stared at her. “Any idea why?”

My mother looked around the room at my friends. “Can you give Lexi and me a moment alone?” They all traded glances. “There are towels and anything you might need to shower and freshen up in the guest bathrooms upstairs.”

“I could definitely use a shower,” Georgia said.

Jack slid his hand into mine.
I’m staying.

I nodded.

They headed back out to the trucks to grab a change of clothes, then proceeded up the grand staircase toward hot showers. With one foot on the first step, Jonas glanced at me.
You okay with this?

I think so.

Yell like a maniac if you need me.
He grinned.

Jack looked from Jonas to me. Squeezing my hand tighter and rotating his shoulders back, he moved closer to me, if that was possible. When I looked to my mother again, I caught her examining Jack and me. She was looking at our clasped hands, and at the way my other hand crossed my body and rested on his elbow. Her eyes drifted upward until they found my eyes. “I’m glad you found each other.”

“Really? Why’s that?” My defensive tone came out involuntarily.

“Because the odds of your survival, or of either of you having a normal life, have always been grim. You’re stronger together.”

I cocked my head. Jack moved to stand just slightly in front of me, part of his body shielding mine. “She would have been stronger had a parent warned her about this life. What kind of mother deserts her newborn baby?”

My mother’s jaw hardened, but then her cheeks relaxed again, and her voice came out as softly as before. “I’m the kind of mother who gave up her daughter in order to protect her,” she said.

I narrowed my eyes. “To protect me? Right,” I scoffed. “And just how did disappearing from my life
protect
me?”

She turned a bracelet round and round on her wrist. “I’ve been working with Sandra for the past twelve years. In doing so, I made sure she didn’t find you.”

An audible gasp escaped my lips. Surely I had heard her wrong. “You’ve been working with
Sandra
? Doing what?”

“I’ve been pretending to be pissed that your father ran off with you and hid you from me. I agreed to work with Sandra to find you and your father for her. I made her believe that my anger ran so deep that I would do anything. I also convinced her that what she was doing to further science was important and necessary work. Because I’m an electrophysiologist and a neurolinguist, I was helpful to her. I study the way—”

I held up a hand. “I know what the words mean.”

She opened her mouth, then shut it with a smile. “Of course you do. I’m sorry. You have grown into a beautiful and intelligent woman, Lexi.” Her hands fidgeted with the draped material of her sweater.

“That doesn’t explain how you protected me.”

“I continuously threw Sandra off her search for you, Lexi. In addition to giving my medical and electrophysiology knowledge to Sandra’s cause, I worked tirelessly to create evidence that you were in places that you weren’t. That you were in Europe and Asia with your dad, or with nannies and bodyguards he’d hired. And every time we seemed to get close to either of you, you would be gone—or at least that’s what I led Sandra to believe. Your father would sometimes even make sure he was spotted by IIA in these places to make the whole thing believable.”

I swallowed hard. If what my mother was saying was true, she’d given up her life for me.
 

“Where does Maya fit into all of this?” Jack asked, still standing in such a way that made it clear he would never allow this woman to touch me. “She claimed to be Lexi’s sister.”

“Ah, yes. Maya.” She looked at me. “Maya and the other beta clones were created at the same time you were.”

“We’re the alpha clones?” Jack asked.

Alyson nodded. “I didn’t know about her for a long time, of course. We didn’t know a lot of what Sandra had done until well after you were born. She set everything into motion, implanting the two of you and the other original clones into surrogates. I had no idea that you weren’t my biological daughter from my own eggs until Sandra found us again.” Her lips tugged downward and lines formed across her forehead, her sadness apparent.

“That doesn’t explain why Maya claimed to be my sister.”

“I don’t know why she said that. Maya was just another way for Sandra to play with life, to clone her own DNA.”

“That’s what Sandra does,” I said. “She uses people and things to manipulate everyone around her.”

“You know Sandra well.” My mother smiled. She really was beautiful. Her hair hung in loose, blond waves that ended at her shoulders and framed her face. She wore minimal makeup, just enough to highlight her high cheekbones and her cat-like eyes. “I want to tell you everything, but I’m sure you and your friends are hungry. I have a lasagna I can put into the oven.” She turned slightly and gestured toward what I assumed must be the kitchen.

I nodded. “We’ll graciously accept.” My mother turned and walked toward the kitchen.

Jack raised a brow.
We will?

“We’ll be right there,” I said to my mother. When she was gone and presumably out of earshot, I said to Jack, “You don’t think we should stay and hear what she has to say?”

“
I
do. I was just surprised to hear
you
say we should. You’re the one who stormed off the first time you saw her.”

“My mother may well know more about Sandra’s operation than anyone else. Maybe she can tell us where this new laboratory is.”

“So we can do what?” he countered. “Let’s say we find out where this lab is. Then what?”

“We destroy it.”

“And how do you propose we do that?”

“I’m working on it.”

“You’re working on it.” Jack squinted at me. “I’m not going to like your plan, am I?”

I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Of course you will.”

I started to head toward the kitchen, but Jack grabbed my elbow and stopped me. Bringing me back, he leaned in and brushed his lips across mine. I closed my eyes and savored the warmth of his touch. When I opened my eyes, his face was close. He smiled. “You seem… I don’t know… less affected by all this than I expected you would.”

“Maybe I’m getting good at life on the run. And investigating the mysteries of our creation.”

“I’m still ready to live permanently on the run. Just say the word.”

The delicious smells of garlic and basil had brought everyone to the kitchen, and we’d all squeezed in around a large farm table. I played with the salad on my plate, and hardly touched my lasagna. Jonas mopped up every last bit of tomato sauce and cheese with his garlic bread.

Briana’s nose scrunched up in disgust as she watched him. “You’re disgusting, you know that?”

“I am not. I was starving. We hardly ate on our little camping trip.”
 

I snickered. For the past forty-eight hours I’d watched how Jonas and Bree had grown closer, more so than they ever had in the past few weeks. He still made eye contact with me from time to time, but the look in his eye when he did was changing. It was less… intense. Our relationship had always been confusing. It had been difficult to decide how much of what he felt for me stemmed from the tracker Sandra had placed at the base of his brain, and how much was real.

Jonas wiped his mouth on a cloth napkin, then folded it neatly beside his plate. He looked up at me.
My feelings are only changing because you’re in love with my best friend.

I straightened.
Dammit, Jonas, stay out of my head.

I can’t help it. It’s a lovely place to be.
He smiled, then reached for his water glass.
You’re the one who left it open to me that time.

Alyson stood and began clearing things from the table. She hadn’t spoken much while everyone ate. I had a gazillion questions for her, but I wanted everyone to eat first. She stopped by my chair. “Did you not like the lasagna?”

“I’m sure it was fine.” I pushed away from the table and gathered up my dishes. “Just not hungry.” I didn’t have to look at Jack to know he was following me with his eyes as I walked to the sink.

“I’d be happy to eat your portion,” Jonas announced.

I glared at Jonas. Nothing seemed to bother him for long. Or perhaps he was just better able to hide it than I was.

After the dishes were cleared, at Alyson’s instructions, we all moved toward the living room. I stopped just inside the room and leaned against the doorjamb. Georgia and Fred squeezed into a large chair-and-a-half, and Kyle spread out on a pillow on the floor, the soft glow from the fireplace lighting their faces. Jonas motioned for Briana to join him on the sofa, and Jack stood with his back to the fire, his hands stuffed into his front pockets. Alyson picked up a remote control and began pushing buttons. From the ceiling on the wall adjacent to the fireplace, some sort of long, skinny compartment opened, and a white screen lowered.

“Are we watching a movie?” Fred asked.

Kyle threw a small pillow at Fred’s head.

When the screen was in place, Alyson opened up a laptop on a desk on the opposite side of the room from the fireplace. A ray of light shone on the big screen. I followed the line to a small projector coming out of the ceiling on the other side of the room. White in color, it was nicely camouflaged into the decor.

“Jack, will you get the light, please?” Alyson asked, pointing to a switch on the wall.

I looked from the blank screen, to my mother, and back to the screen, not knowing what to expect. She pushed a pair of glasses up on her nose, then typed away on the computer.

After Jack dimmed the light, he returned to the fireplace. The silence in the room was deafening. What was my mother about to show us? Could I actually trust her to help us take down Sandra?

I almost laughed hysterically just considering the magnitude of that thought—the idea that I had any idea how to take down a division of the IIA, a powerful government organization that had protected Sandra and her secret medical experiments all these years.

Alyson continued to type as a large map popped up on the screen. “Seth called to tell me you were coming.” That explained why she didn’t seem surprised to see us, and how she knew to have enough dinner ready to feed a small army of clones. “He said you’d been asking where Sandra could possibly have located the lab in the video she sent you.”

“Did you watch the video?” I asked. “Did you know she was growing human clones outside of a human body?”

She typed for a few more seconds, then stood, grabbed a small item off the desk, and walked toward me. Several inches taller than me, she faced me, demanding that I look at her.

“I knew as far back as my early twenties that Sandra Whitmeyer was capable of doing anything she wanted. She used and hurt everyone around her to further the medical research that she finds more important than human life. I knew she was capable of cloning a human outside of a surrogate, but I had no idea she had begun cloning en masse like this.”

“Is it about money?”

Alyson leaned against a wall beside me and stared at the blank screen. “For some, medical research is about money…”

I thought of Cathy and Roger. They wouldn’t hesitate to hang a sign saying “The Doctor Is In” if we agreed to cure the many things we were cloned to do. And they would pocket every bit of the profit in doing so, without giving a second thought to how sick the supernatural powers made us. The consequences of Georgia’s power might even kill her.