Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(5)

That stung. I didn’t know how to get in touch with the three that lived here. Then it dawned on me. “You guys don’t trust me.” Georgia stood tall, shoulders squared. Fred refused to make eye contact with me. Jonas smirked.

Kyle looked offended and ready to fight. At least I had one friend besides Jack.

I pulled my hand from Jack’s grip, turned, and exited the kitchen without another word. I didn’t have to explain myself to my fellow freak club. They didn’t want me around? Well, the feeling was mutual.

In the bedroom where I had slept, I searched for the very few things I had managed to bring from Wellington.

“They hoped you would heal Sandra.” Jack’s voice startled me from the doorway. “Seth led them to believe that she’d figured out a way to cure the side effects they all suffer from after using their abilities.”

“They would trust her?”

“No,” Jack laughed. “They were hoping Seth would restrain her and make her do what they wanted.”

Seth, neurosurgeon and brother to Sandra Whitmeyer, seemed to be the one person everyone trusted to be honest about the history of our origin. He helped me tap into my ability to assess brain disease and injury, and ultimately heal. But I’d only done that once. And I still wasn’t so sure about Seth.

“Don't they know how ridiculous that sounds? It’s his sister we’re talking about.”

Jack shrugged. “Maybe. Cathy had intended to subdue her Friday night. Remember the syringe she filled?”

“What? I thought that was meant for me.” Cathy had ordered me to use my healing abilities to bring Sandra out of the coma. She had held a filled syringe like a weapon the entire time. But rather than follow her wishes, I flushed some sort of drug from Jack’s body and healed Addison’s brain injury instead.

“No, the sedation was meant for Sandra, not you. She would have drugged Sandra if you had pulled her out of the coma.”

“When I didn’t bring Sandra out, Cathy tried to use it on me.”

“Yes, but I was faster and turned it on her. I don’t think she meant to harm you.”

Not harm, maybe, but punish and control, for sure.

Jack knew I wasn’t about to heal Sandra without knowing more information. I picked up my backpack from the floor and sorted through it. I had my small computer, a few clothing items, and my cell phone, which I stuffed into the back pocket of my jeans. I also had the large envelope Jack had given me buried in the bottom of my pack. Not the safest place for it, but I felt a little safer knowing I had the means and credentials to run if I needed to.

Jack sat on the bed beside my bag. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

Tears welled up in my eyes at the image of me holding a knife high above him.

“Hey.” He stood and reached his fingers to my face, brushing hair off my forehead and tucking the strands behind my ear. “We’re going to figure this out.”

I swiped at my cheek where a tear escaped. “Yes, we are. But you need to get to Wellington and fix things with your mom, and check on Addison.”

“I can’t leave you.”

“Yes, you can. I’ll be fine.” I had my own agenda—which included identifying Smoking Man.

“What do you mean? Where will you go?”

“I’ll call Marci. Dad obviously trusted her. And I’m fairly certain she knows a lot more than she’s been telling me.” I also needed time to read Dad’s journals. “You can message me through the link I gave you. If my dad set it up, it’s safe.”

“I’m going to go talk to Jonas. He can go with you until I can get back to you.” He turned to go.

“Wait!” I grabbed his arm. “Why Jonas? Why not Kyle?” I trusted Kyle way more than I trusted Jonas. “You looked like you could have punched Jonas in there.”

“Jonas has a similar mind ability to yours, and he tends to get himself in trouble when he uses it. And his panic attacks can be bad. He told me he wouldn’t use his ability until we knew more about the side effects. I was irritated. That’s all.”

“An ability similar to mine,” I repeated. “As in, he can manipulate people’s actions?”

“I said similar, not exactly like yours. Look, don’t worry about it. You concentrate on you for now.”

“Why would you send him with me if he has these issues?”

“Jonas can be a jerk, but he’s loyal. He’ll protect you better than anyone else out there. And Kyle needs to get back to Wellington. He and I have to play nice until we know more.”

“What if all the security measures they put in place were actually to imprison everyone there? Isn’t that why we ran? Why Georgia drove a bulldozer through the fence?” My lip quivered and my voice lowered to a whisper. “What if you get there and can’t get back out?”

Jack slid his hand behind my neck. He leaned in and kissed me. “We ran because I wasn't willing to take a chance with you. Kyle and I won’t be locked away at Wellington. I will not let that happen. Something tells me we’ve misjudged dear ol’ Mom’s motivations to keep us under lock and key.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Whatever dear ol’ Mom’s motivations were, they had inspired our escape.

Nonetheless, I let Jack go talk to Jonas. But something wasn’t right. I could feel it.