Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(26)

“What about Georgia? Will she be okay?” We had just left her there with Jonas.

“Georgia can take care of herself. She refused to come with us. She thinks Jonas is being controlled by a stronger power and is convinced she can help him.”

Yeah, that’s what he kept telling me, but that didn’t change the fact that every time I was controlled I saw Jonas inside my head. “How did you and Kyle know you’d be able to get me out of there last night?” Jonas had said he would stay out of my head while I was with Jack, but I wasn’t sure I believed that.

“Kyle seemed to think I’d be able to monitor Jonas’s invasion into your mind as long as I was touching you. I could sense Jonas there until you fell asleep. Soon after, Jonas went to bed, and Kyle came. We thought that as long as we kept you unconscious, we’d buy ourselves enough time to get out of there. Also… we tranqed Jonas.”

I laughed. Served Jonas right. “How does Kyle know so much?” Until last Friday, I didn’t even know Kyle knew we were both cloned.

“Kyle has actually studied supernatural abilities of the mind ever since he began entering people’s dreams. And when you were able to prevent me from getting sick the other day when I healed his burns, he thought maybe our connection was stronger when touching.”

Made sense, I guessed. I nuzzled my face into his chest and snaked my hands around to his back, careful not to spill the tea. Our connection was strong, especially when touching. “Why didn’t you just tell me what you were planning? I might have gone willingly.” Probably, anyway. “You took quite a chance that Kyle would be able to direct my body to leap onto that moving train.”

The muscles in Jack’s back stiffened. “I know. But I couldn’t have you knowing or thinking about any of it. If Jonas knew what we were planning… I just couldn’t take the chance that he’d stop us or hurt you.” He slipped a finger under my chin and lifted my face to his. Leaning down, he brushed his lips across mine. “I do want to know one thing. Why did you give Jonas a black eye?”

I tried to look away, but Jack held my chin tighter. I swallowed hard. “He kissed me.”

Jack closed his eyes. That’s all, though, right? He didn’t touch you in any other way?

“No, caveman. Jonas kissed me, and I took care of it by punching him in the face.”

“Why did he kiss you?”

“IIA agents were following us.” I backed away from him, breaking contact, and took a drink of the chai tea. “He wanted to throw them off. And there’s some—” I started to tell Jack about the other clones and The Farm, but I couldn’t form the words. Something stopped me.

Or someone.

Jonas.

Hi, Lexi. You can’t tell him, yet.

~~~~~

“Are you ready for this?” Jack framed my face with his palms.

Gripping the starfish hanging on a chain just beneath my collarbone, I nodded and said, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Just remember. You hold the power. Cathy knows what you can do. She’s seen it firsthand, but obviously needs you—needs us—or she and Seth wouldn’t have moved The Program from UK Hospital to Wellington.”

“And she doesn’t know how much we know.” Especially how much I know.

“That’s right. For now, we’ll keep it that way. Once we’ve read more of your dad’s journals, we’ll confront who we need to.”

“So we’ll play dumb.”

“And nice.” There was a warning behind those two words.

“Why, Jack DeWeese, whatever do you mean?”

After a lingering kiss on the forehead, Jack opened the door to the school’s large boardroom, down the hall from Dean Fisher’s office.

Stopping just inside, I surveyed the people sitting at the table. President Wellington sat at the far end of the table. Beside him, Dean Fisher smiled, his expression warm and inviting. I had always gotten good vibes from that man. But today, everybody was the enemy.

Kyle sat beside President Wellington, his uncle and only family member that I knew of. His lips curved into a smirk as soon as our eyes met. I’d deal with him and his crazy train-hopping later.

To the other side of Dr. Wellington was his sister, Jack’s mother for all intents and purposes, Cathy DeWeese. Just seeing her made a chill skip down my spine.

Where’s your father? I asked Jack.

Still out of town, according to Cathy.

As we walked closer and stood at the head of the large table, Cathy pushed back from the table and rose.

“Sit down, Mother,” Jack said. He leaned into the table, his fingers spread wide against the dark wood. “I told you yesterday that Lexi would probably never set foot on Wellington’s campus again.”

“I believe you said you wouldn’t either.” Cathy sat back down and crossed her arms.

I glanced sideways at Jack. He shrugged. He hadn’t shared with me that he’d told his mom he wouldn’t return to Wellington.

“Well,” he started again. “Things have changed. Lexi changed my mind.”

I suppressed the urge to look at him wide-eyed again, for fear of undermining whatever it was he was doing.

“Lexi changed your mind?” Dr. Wellington asked. “Was this before or after you bulldozed through my school’s new fence?”