Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(40)
That doesn’t explain why you would warn me. Whose side are you on?
I’m on the side that gets this tracker out of the back of my head and lets me live my own life. But I’m also on the side that will allow me to use my abilities without bowing down to a bunch of ruthless scientists. That’s what Dia was trying to tell you. Those of us who know Sandra know that we cannot cross her. But we also know there has to be a way out of the hold Sandra and the IIA have on us.
I walked two more steps and stared straight into Sandra’s green eyes. I stood close enough to hear her breathing, her pulse just slightly higher than normal. “What’s stopping me from killing you right now?” For a split second, a tiny bit of fear flashed over her face—her cheeks fell a fraction and the lines of her forehead twitched.
Her lips quirked. “You don’t have it in you. You and your friends need me. I have the cure for your ailments—which will only get worse, by the way. Why do you think you get those nosebleeds, Lexi? Because you’ve used some special power?” A laugh escaped her throat. “Those nosebleeds are a sign of a bigger… problem. Your dad knew this. We’d struck a deal just before his death.”
I narrowed my eyes. My nosebleeds had been worse recently, but I had assumed it was because I had used my mindspeaking ability more often. “You’re lying. My father would never negotiate with you.”
The turning of the lock on the door sounded behind me. In walked Jack, Bree, and Cathy.
Lexi, don’t give up control of my mind, Jonas thought. If you do, the IIA will just take control of me again. I’ve been trying to tell you that I’m on your side. That I wasn’t the one who tried to kill you.
I’m starting to believe you.
“What is going on here?” Cathy asked, interrupting Jonas and me.
Jack strode past Cathy and me. He grabbed Jonas by the shirt, then punched him. “What did you do to her?”
Jonas pressed his fingers against his now-bloody lip. Chuckling, he said, “I guess I deserved that. But you’re making a mistake. I didn’t do the things you think I did.”
“You didn’t kiss her?”
That was the thing he chose to punch him over?
“Well… I did do that,” he laughed. Jack lunged at him again, forcing him to take a step backward with his hands raised. “But I haven’t been controlling her. Not completely, and not alone, anyway.”
Cathy stood between the two adolescents and held Jack back. “Would you two stop it? Lexi, where’s Sandra? Did you bring her out of that coma?”
I turned a complete circle. Sandra had vanished. Still, only one door was open. “Where’s Bree?” My heart began beating at an uncontrollable rate. Something wasn’t right.
“Bree was here?” Jack asked.
The laughter from Jonas started out as a low chuckle from deep within his chest, but erupted into a hysterical fit. He braced himself against Sandra’s hospital bed.
I stared at Jonas, then turned quickly to Jack. I could barely get in a breath. “She came in with you,” I said in a barely audible whisper.
“No she didn’t. It was always just me, Kyle and Ca—”
I lunged at Jonas, punched him in the chest, and growled, “Why are you laughing? Tell me what just happened.” Although I was pretty sure I knew.
Jonas swallowed his laughter. He looked down into my eyes. “That wasn’t Bree. That was Dia. That was Sandra’s rescue party.”
Chapter Eighteen
“If that was Sandra’s rescue party, why are you still here?” I asked, noticing only then that all humor had vanished from Jonas’s face.
He walked across the room to the sink and grabbed a couple of paper towels from a dispenser, running water over them. His lip was starting to swell.
Cathy and Jack stared at the two of us, their mouths slightly agape.
Jonas leaned against the counter. He crossed one arm while dabbing his lip with paper towels in the other hand. I raised my brows at him in a will-you-freaking-answer-me way.
“It would appear they left me,” he said.
“They left you. Your own mother,”—I put air quotes around the word “mother”— “the crazy scientist who has toyed with our lives—the same mother who I’m feeling some severe feelings of hatred for right now—left you inside the school with people who no longer trust you and could easily justify killing you in self-defense for just standing there and breathing the same air we breathe. You’re telling me she left you?”
“Yes. Something tells me my lovely mother no longer believes I’m on her side. Or doesn’t care.” Jonas touched his lips gently. “Did you have to hit me?” he asked Jack, ignoring me.
Jack ran a hand through his hair. “You’re lucky I only hit you once. I should have—” He stopped himself mid-sentence, letting out a frustrated breath. He approached me and grabbed my elbow gently. “Did you bring Sandra out of her coma?”
“It would appear so.”
“Are you okay? You don’t feel sick?” Jack asked, studying me.
I shook my head. Should I tell him that Jonas actually helped me? Would he be happy about that, or would he punch Jonas again?
“This is a disaster. How could you let her leave?” Cathy asked. Her voice had an angry edge.