More Than Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #2) (32 page)

I could see the worry in his eyes that I was going to hate it, but if I hadn’t been completely numb I probably would have really appreciated it. A nice, private, quiet place to be myself was exactly what I’d always wanted. Not to mention I had a major soft spot for the desert.

That thought made me think of the Grand Canyon, which made me think of Ryan. I got out of the car before I had another breakdown.

Teddy scrambled out of the car too and pulled a dirt-colored tarp from the trunk. When I realized he was trying to cover the car, I helped and then wordlessly followed him in the house.

“It’s entirely self-sustaining,” Teddy explained as he flipped on the lights. I admit I was a little surprised that the place had electricity. From the outside, I hadn’t known what to expect. “Solar power, our own well, a septic tank—we do have indoor plumbing. There’s even a greenhouse out back that we could grow our own food in if we wanted to. Not that I ever have.”

My eyes drifted around the house. It was small, but very clean with nice, tasteful furnishings and warm colors. It was surprisingly very
me
—a place I would love living if it were under different circumstances.

“Would you like a tour?”

I jumped at the sound of Teddy’s voice. I’d completely spaced out. I’m not even sure how long I’d been standing there.

Teddy was watching me as if he expected me to break at any moment. Every word he spoke was slow and calming. Every move he made was careful. I wanted to tell him he didn’t have to worry because I was already shattered, but somehow I didn’t think that would help the awkwardness.

He was still waiting for some kind of reaction from me—proof that I was still functioning. I snapped myself from my daze and shook my head. “Tomorrow. Right now I just want to sleep.”

My response seemed to make Teddy sad, but he managed a small smile and nodded. He made a gesture for me to follow him and brought me to a large bedroom.

As I walked in, I was again surprised by the place. It was so inviting. The bed was huge and looked amazingly fluffy. There were a ton of pillows just like the ones I had in my room. There was a TV mounted on the wall with a video game console sitting on the dresser beneath it, and there was an entire wall of shelves filled with books. A lot of the books were technical books that I imagine equated to a computer geek’s Mecca, but there were also a ton of regular novels and a huge comic book collection.

It reminded me a lot of my own room, but with a much bigger bed.

“What do you think?” Teddy asked nervously.

I just nodded.

“Um,” Teddy said, a blush creeping into his cheeks. “This is the only bedroom. You can have it. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

He waited, maybe hoping I might offer to share—the bed was certainly big enough for two. I didn’t offer, though, and after a minute he cleared his throat. “I’ll just grab a few things and let you go to sleep, then.” He hurried over to the dresser and scrounged up a pair of pajama pants, then plucked one of the pillows from the bed. “Bathroom is just across the hall. You’ll find extra toiletries under the sink and we can go shopping tomorrow for whatever you need. I’m sorry you didn’t get time to pack.”

“Doesn’t matter. I couldn’t have brought the only thing I wanted with me, anyway.”

Teddy stopped in the doorway and watched me for another minute. “Jamie, are—are you sure you should be alone tonight?”

“Probably not, but having you here instead of him would only make it worse.” I crawled onto the bed and collapsed. “Goodnight, Teddy.”

I heard the soft click of the door as he left. I was grateful he didn’t insist on staying with me tonight. It only took seconds for my tears to come back, and they didn’t stop until somewhere close to dawn.

. . . . .

I gave myself exactly one night to wallow in self-pity, but then woke up the next morning determined to take control of my life again. Not to sound like a supervillain or anything, but those Visticorp jerks were seriously going to rue the day they messed with Jamie Baker.

The clock on the bedside table said it was after one. I showered and then went to find Teddy. I didn’t have a plan yet, but I was determined to make one.

Teddy was sitting at the small dining table in nothing but a pair of pajama pants and a mess of bedhead, nursing a cup of coffee as if it were his breath of life. The entire scene was so adorable that it put the first smile on my face since I’d left home.

Feeling my stare, Teddy looked up at me, instantly alert. For a split second he looked nervous, but then he noticed my smile. Apparently it was so shocking that he jolted and sloshed a little coffee over the side of his cup. He tried to cover the blunder by flashing me a wide smile. “You look like you’re feeling much better.”

“You look like you’re in need of a hearty meal,” I deadpanned.

I blatantly eyed his bare chest. It was nothing compared to what I was used to looking at, but Teddy had a surprising amount of definition for such a scrawny guy.

“So, not a morning person, then?” Teddy chuckled as if my taunt hadn’t bothered him in the slightest. On the contrary, he seemed excited that I’d bothered to look.

I rolled my eyes and headed for the coffee maker. “Ugh!” I groaned after taking a deep breath and quickly washed the entire pot down the sink.

Teddy snorted. “It’s not that bad. Caffeine is caffeine, right?”

I sat down across the table from Teddy, leveling him with a serious look. “We haven’t had the Jamie’s Superpowers conversation yet. I will forgive you this once since you’re not aware that I suffer from a serious case of supertaste.”

“Super
taste
?”

“Yes. And it sucks. Caffeine is not ever just caffeine. I am the most high maintenance eater you will ever know in your life, and I simply cannot stomach low-quality garbage of any kind. It’s torture. Learn to deal with it.”

Teddy blinked. “Umm...okay?”

“On the bright side, I also have superspeed so if you would like a cup of
good
coffee, I’d be happy to run to Seattle quickly, providing you can tell me how to find my way back to here—wherever here is.”

It took Teddy a good minute of staring dumbfounded before he was able to grin at me. “I’ve never been to Seattle.”

“I’m not taking you to Seattle.”

“Why not? It’s as good a place as any to shop—which is really what I had planned to do today—and I’ll bet they have some great restaurants there. No low-quality garbage for Miss Fancy Pants.”

I groaned again to keep from smiling. “I really hate that you make me laugh when I just want to be annoyed with you.”

“So, Seattle, then? Or if we’re really able to go anywhere, I’d love to see Chicago. I’ve never been there, either. That’s where you’re from, right? You could show me around while we shop.”

“What makes you think I want to go and shop all day?”

“The fact that you’re wearing last nights pajamas still. Don’t get me wrong—I’m a fan of the yoga pants and tank top combo—but I thought you’d probably at least like to acquire a bra.”

Again. Should have been angry, but I couldn’t keep my lips from curving up. “Fine. We’ll shop. And while we’re out we can come up with a plan.”

Teddy seemed equal parts wary and intrigued. “Plan?”

“Yeah. We’ve successfully hidden ourselves from Visticorp, but we can’t just hide out in this house reading mystery novels and playing video games for the rest of our lives, so we need a plan.”

Teddy made a noise of agreement, downed the rest of his coffee, and then said, “Follow me.”

He took me into the closet in the bedroom and pushed his clothes aside. As I stared at what I thought was a regular wall, Teddy twisted the clothing rod, which acted as some sort of lever that opened a secret door. I sighed. It was so James Bond. Ryan and my father would have totally geeked out over it.

“Step into my office,” Teddy teased and then slipped through the secret door and descended a just-as-secret staircase.

At the bottom of the stairs there was another door—a big steel one that looked like a bank vault. I couldn’t hide my shock. “Are you
kidding
me? You have your own
lair
?”

“Awesome, right?” Teddy grinned at me over his shoulder as he pressed his thumb against a scanner to unlock the door. My jaw dropped even further and he laughed outright.

“It’s a bomb shelter. I’m pretty sure the guy I bought the house from was waiting for either the Russians or aliens to take over. We’ll get your thumbprint entered in here today so you can come and go when you want.”

I had no idea how to respond to any of this, so I just said “Are you freaking kidding me?” again.

“No, Jamie, I am not kidding you. From now on, what’s mine is yours. I’ll get you added to my bank accounts too as soon as we come up with an alias for you.”

“Bank accounts?” I asked. “As in
plural
?”

Teddy laughed again, but I couldn’t laugh with him this time. I was too suspicious. “Okay, who are you? For real? How can you afford all this?”

“I’m a computer hacker,” Teddy said as if that should explain everything. When it clearly didn’t satisfy me, he sighed. “I’ve been siphoning off funds from the people that raised me for years now. They have tons of money and I take so little at a time they never notice.”

I blinked as realization hit me. “You steal it?”

“Trust me, I’ve earned every penny I’ve taken and then some,” Teddy muttered.

His face had turned so dark he actually looked dangerous for once, and my suspicions were confirmed. Whoever those people were that raised him, they’d taken advantage of his skills. He was probably the reason they had that much money.

“Will you tell me about how you were raised?” I asked. My voice came out sounding softer than I’d planned, and Teddy’s anger melted in response.

“I’ll tell you about it someday. I promise,” he said. Then he forced a big smile on his face and pulled me into his bomb shelter/office.

When the door shut behind us, there was the sound of air rushing and then a click and a light on the wall went from red to green. I was pretty sure we were sealed in, but I didn’t ask because I didn’t really want to know.

The first thing I noticed was a large desk with a computer system that lived up to every expectation I’d had from Teddy. I think the term “base of operations” might be a more accurate description for his setup with its endless towers and multiple monitors.

Once I was finally able to look away from the command center, I checked out the rest of the room. The space was much larger than I’d expected. It was probably the same square footage as the house above us. There was a small kitchenette, dining table, couch, TV, CB radio, more book shelves, and a set of army-style bunk beds.

Teddy pointed to two doors. “Bathroom’s in there, and that one is the storage room. I think it’s stocked to get a man through a nuclear winter.”

“I’m sorry, Teddy, but this is
so
an evil lair.”

“Fortress of Solitude,” he argued.

“Evil lair. The Fortress of Solitude was for was meditating. This place screams Trying To Take Over The World.”

Teddy looked awfully proud of that. “I’m not trying to take over the world,” he said. “Come. Look.”

As Teddy’s computer booted up he walked over to a safe and pulled out an envelope full of stuff, including a passport. “The first thing we need to do is make you a new identity. Any ideas on what name you’d like?”

“Don’t know. What’d you pick for yours?” I snatched the passport from Teddy’s hands and was disappointed when I found it blank.

“That one’s for you,” he said and pulled out another passport, a wallet, and a billfold. “This one’s mine. Well, one of them.”

He handed me the passport and I automatically laughed. “Nice picture.”

Teddy frowned. “It had to be realistic. Passport photos always suck. Even yours will have to be bad.”

I studied the picture again until my eyes caught the name below it.

Antonio Stark.

“Tony Stark? Your secret identity is Iron Man?”

Teddy grinned and snatched the passport out of my hands. “Billionaire, playboy, genius, philanthropist? I thought it was quite fitting. Plus, it’s not Tony—it’s Antonio— which is Italian. I had to stick with an Italian name because I clearly look Italian.”

“Stark is not Italian.”

Teddy’s grin spread even wider. “So? I was adopted, but my American parents wanted me to keep some of my heritage.”

“Whatever. I’m not going to be Lara Croft or whatever Wonder Woman’s secret identity was, so forget that right now.”

“Actually, I was kind of thinking ‘April O’Neil.’”

It took me a second to get it, but then I laughed. “Okay, I can live with that.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
is awesome.”

Teddy smiled triumphantly. “I heard you have a weakness for Cartoon Network.”

Teddy turned back to his computer, which was now fully up and running, and I finally noticed what was on his desktop. Teddy noticed it too and swore under his breath. He tried to close out of it, but it didn’t matter because I’d already seen it.