Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(73)

And I knew what Jonas had meant when he’d said, “Addison was the one that got away.”





Chapter Twenty-Nine


“She lived here, didn’t she?”

“Well, not here,” Jonas said. “But she was born in one of the previous research centers.”

Did you know this? I asked Jack. I had pretty much left my mind open to him since he had left me to find Georgia.

No, but it makes sense. I didn’t meet Addison until the summer she came to live with us. I had been told she lived with her father before that. I never questioned it.

Interesting. So, Addison probably didn’t have memories of the research facility where she was born. “Who’s her father?” I asked Jonas.

“None of us really have fathers, Lexi. You and Jack are two of the lucky ones who feel as if you were raised by a father, and in Jack’s case, a mother, too. Most of us simply have the one person our DNA originated from, and a surrogate.”

“I have parents,” Briana said.

Kyle looked over from his spot by the door. “My upbringing is definitely… complicated.”

Complicated, I stifled a chuckle. That was too nice of a word to describe how each of us was raised. I was raised by an absentee father and by my grandmother, who was the mother of the woman who carried me for nine months then disappeared soon after I was born. It would be a disgrace to give her the title of Mom.

Jonas closed the laptop and stood. “I’ve got what we need. Let’s go.”

“Go where, exactly?” There was a heaviness in my chest. So far, our adventure into the building had been uneventful. Way too easy.

Jonas grabbed a piece of paper off of his printer and crossed the room to the door. He taped the paper onto the back of the door and pointed to a square at the bottom left corner. “We are here.” He stuck the end of a red ink pen in his mouth and pulled, leaving the lid between his teeth. After placing an “X” over his room, he traced a line down what appeared to be a hallway, made one left turn, and then placed an “A” over a square on the right. “This is where Addison is. That’s where Lexi and I are going.”

“What? They’re not coming?” I lifted my head toward Briana and Kyle.

“No. Too many people. Too dangerous.” He placed his hands on Briana’s shoulders and stared straight into her eyes, pausing a moment before he spoke. “If I give you the word, you and Kyle leave. Georgia and Jack are at this door.” He pointed. “You knock three times slowly. Georgia knows how to open it from the outside.”

“What if you need help?” she asked, her eyes searching his.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “What if we need help?”

“Then we’ll mindspeak to them.” Jonas replied. I can control Briana. She doesn’t know it. And Kyle can hear me, he just can’t answer back for some reason. To any of us.

Please promise me that I’m around when you tell Briana that you can control her mind. If you thought I was upset… I laughed.

“Let’s go,” he said, ignoring me.

Briana looked from Jonas to me and back. “Be careful.” She pulled me aside and lowered her voice. “I promised Jack I wouldn’t leave you.” She wrung her hands and glanced nervously toward Jonas.

I grabbed one of her hands and squeezed. “I’ll be fine. We’ll alert you guys if there’s trouble.” I didn’t believe we’d be fine. Not for a second.

Is Georgia ready? I asked Jack.

She’s ready. We’re ready. Use your ring if you need to and run like hell if something goes wrong, okay? Promise me.

I didn’t.

~~~~~

Jonas and I crept down a hallway farther away from the door through which we entered, and farther away from Jack. All was quiet: nothing other than the light sound of the rubber soles of our shoes.

We just have to round the next corner, Jonas said. Addison is the second door on the right.

Lexi, something’s wrong. Jack was in my head. Three government cars just pulled up to the curb at the back of the building. Strange for the middle of the night, don’t you think?

I rubbed my chest. My heart beat so loudly I was sure Jonas could hear it in the middle of this silent hallway. I began concentrating on pocketing information, attempting to keep him out of my head—even though my previous efforts to do this had been mostly unsuccessful.

I watched the back of his head. He didn’t react. I could only assume I’d been able to shut him out. For now. I simply couldn’t risk Jonas aborting our mission when we were this close to Addison.

Anyone getting out of the cars?

Not yet. We’re tucked behind some bushes.

Jonas and I continued around the corner and stopped in front of a dark blue door. I heard distant sounds of a horn or something. An alarm, maybe. What is that?

Don’t worry about it. Let’s keep going. The look on Jonas’s face didn’t comfort me.

We slipped inside the room. Addison still sat in the middle of her bed, staring straight at the TV—but the TV wasn’t turned on. I looked from the TV back to her. “Addison?” I whispered.

She didn’t move. What had they done to her? This was not the little girl I met last week.

Lexi! You’ve got to get out of there, Jack yelled. They know you’re there. An agent just rushed by us saying your name into his wrist microphone.