Remember Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #3)(10)

“There was one more,” I croaked, my throat burning from the effort to speak.

“Your friend outside? Nah, I got him first. You made it easy for me, though. He was still out cold on the front sidewalk when we drove up. Nice job.” He glanced over his shoulder and shouted, “We’re clear!”

Before I could ask any questions, a whole team of soldiers in full body armor carrying assault rifles flooded the motel. Even though these guys had just helped me, they looked like military. I didn’t want to be captured by the government any more than I wanted to be taken by Visticorp. I needed to get out of here.

I started to sit up, fighting against the raging headache of my first superconcussion, and was gently pushed back down by one of the soldiers. I would have fought him, but there was no point. The second I moved, my stomach rolled with a wave of nausea, and my vision clouded over with dark spots. I groaned and let my eyes fall shut. I was either going to throw up or pass out or both.

“Hang on, Sunshine. The medic’s coming.”

Startled by the intimate way the stranger spoke to me, I forced my eyes back open to get a look at the guy helping me. Move over Chris Evans, I’d just found my new poster child for gorgeous. The guy was about my own age, and well built with broad shoulders. He had golden blond hair and big, beautiful blue eyes that I instantly found myself lost in. It wasn’t just that they were the color of a clear sky; it was the way they drank in the sight of me, as if they’d never seen anything more beautiful.

“Who are you?”

The younger boy popped into my vision over Mr. Beautiful’s shoulder. “We’re the ACEs,” he chirped. “This guy with the dopey smile on his face is Ryan Miller.”

Ryan Miller. My gaze snapped back to Ryan, and when we made eye contact, the look on his face changed from concern to one that turned my stomach inside out. He stared at me as if I were the goddess Aphrodite and I had just magically enslaved his heart for all eternity. The longing in his expression was truly startling. “Hi,” he breathed. He sounded as if he’d had the air knocked out of his lungs.

“Um…hi?” This guy was seriously throwing me off with his intensity. It was hard to think with him looking at me like that.

“He also answers to Loverboy, Romeo, or Goldilocks,” the teenage boy continued to explain as Ryan and I stared at one another. “And I’m Tyson, a.k.a. Invisidude.”

That pulled my gaze from Ryan’s beautiful baby blues back to the boy. “Invisidude? Seriously?”

“Yeah, as in ‘now you see me…’” He vanished right before my eyes and called out from the open air, “And now you don’t.”

That’s when I realized how he’d simply appeared before; he’d been invisible. He was like me. He had powers. “What?” I gasped. “You’re… How…?”

Before they could explain, another man knelt down in front of me and shined a flashlight into my eyes. “Are you dizzy?” he asked while another guy began probing my head.

I’d have rolled my eyes at the idiotic question if my head didn’t hurt so badly. “I just got slammed through a concrete floor. What do you think?”

I glared at the other guy, who kept pushing on my head. “There’s a thing called personal space, buddy, and you’re totally abusing it. Touch me again, and you’ll learn what a microwave dinner feels like.”

Both medics immediately backed off, and rightfully so. I am one scary woman when I’m really pissed off. I wasn’t bluffing, either. If that guy pushed on one more bruise, I’d have fried him.

Ryan didn’t move, though. He didn’t touch me, but he didn’t back away. He wasn’t scared of me at all. In fact, he chuckled at my threat. It was annoying, and considering my current mood, I was tempted to zap the grin off his face no matter how nice his smile was. He grinned at my scowl. “They’re paramedics, Angel. They’re just trying to make sure you’re okay.”

Ryan moved toward me again and I thrust my hand out, ready to use my electricity if I needed to. “I don’t care who any of you are. Don’t come any closer.”

Unexplainable hurt flashed across Ryan’s face that was so genuine I actually felt guilty, but I didn’t have time to try and figure out what his deal was. I scanned the room and turned my attention to the man I deemed the leader. The harsh-looking guy had dark eyes and sharp features, with salt-and-pepper hair cropped close to his head. He stood in front of me with his arms folded tightly across his chest, in a crisply-pressed highly-decorated uniform. Definitely the man in charge. He appraised me warily, but there was a glint of excitement in his eyes that made me nervous. “If you think I’m going to let you take me away to study or experiment on, then you’re not as smart as you look. Visticorp didn’t get me, and you won’t, either.”

I let my energy take over completely until it was crackling on the surface of my skin. Several of the soldiers in the room gasped and a few stepped back, raising their weapons as if they considered me a threat—a much more appropriate response to my anger than Ryan’s laughter had been.

Neither Ryan nor his boss flinched. “We only want to help you,” Ryan said quietly. “Please trust us.”

You know what word you won’t see in my personality notebook? Idiot. I barked out a harsh laugh and shook my head. “You’re military.”