Remember Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #3)(107)

He flinched when none of them agreed or moved to take his side. “You guys, what’s the matter? We’ve always talked about escaping.” The confidence bled out of his voice. “You want to go with them?”

“Teodoro,” Abiodun said softly. “These people are not your enemy. You can release your control of Jamie and come with us.”

“Into the hands of the government?” Teddy scoffed. “Are you crazy?”

“The ACEs are awesome,” Tyson promised. “You can trust them.”

“We can’t trust anyone but ourselves!” Teddy shouted. “They’re collecting us, aren’t they? The same as Donovan did!”

Tyson frowned. “But they don’t hurt us or experiment on us. They don’t keep us locked up.”

“Wake up, Tyson. They’re just using you. Same as Abiodun and Jamie. They only want us for our power. That’s all anyone will ever want us for. We are better than that. We belong with each other. We’re the same. Family. We’re the only people we can really trust. We deserve more than to just be used as tools. Or married to them.” His glare shifted to Ryan. “You are so ordinary,” he said. “Inferior to Jamie in every way.”

I rolled my eyes at the insult, but Ryan couldn’t shake it off. His face flushed red and his hands clenched. His knuckles were swollen and bleeding, but I had no doubt he’d happily pound Teddy again if he could.

I felt terrible for him. The ACEs had told me that he struggled with feeling inferior to everyone around him. It couldn’t be easy to be so helpless when your girlfriend was so powerful. But he didn’t realize that he was powerful in other ways. So he didn’t have the training the ACEs had, or the superpowers that the PACs had. But he had determination, optimism, and love on his side. Those things were just as—if not more—important than any powers I had. I needed them. And seeing his insecurity, I wished I’d done better at letting him know exactly how much I needed him.

Teddy smirked, excited to see that he’d gotten under Ryan’s skin. “You don’t deserve her. And now you don’t have her. She’s mine. I win.”

That pulled Ryan out of his funk and he laughed. “Please. There was never a competition. Jamie will never love you.”

Teddy grinned so wide he cracked his split lip further open, causing it to bleed again. He didn’t seem to care. “That’s not true, is it Jamie? Tell Ryan that you love me.”

When I spoke the forced words, I rolled my eyes and used the most sarcastic voice I was capable of. “I love you, Teddy.”

There was no questioning the lack of sincerity. Still, Ryan’s jaw clenched. Not because he believed me; probably just because I was being strung along like a marionette.

Teddy liked that he was getting to Ryan, though, and it spurred him on. “I’m not sure he believes you, Jamie. Why don’t you show him? Kiss me again. Like you did before, but without the zapping this time.”

My jaw clenched as I turned to face him. If I ever got free of his control, I was going to rip his stupid, smart, technopathic brain right out of his head. Or kick him in the balls. It could go either way. Maybe I would do both.

“I hate you,” I hissed as I closed the distance between our faces.

“You won’t forever,” Teddy whispered as our lips met.

It took all of half a second of me kissing Teddy for Ryan to lose it. With a roaring scream, he charged us, tackling Teddy to the ground. He didn’t even get in another punch before I lifted him off of Teddy, but Teddy had hit his head on the floor hard enough to ring his bell, and that was the last of his patience. “I’ve had enough of this. Jamie, kill him and let’s get out of here. If the others don’t want to come, fine; they can go play good little soldiers. You and I have bigger things in our future.”

When he finally stopped talking, he raised an eyebrow at me. “That wasn’t a request, Jamie. It was an order.”

I’d known that the first time. And I knew it was only a matter of seconds before I complied. I was just so horrified that I was stunned completely frozen.

“Jamie!”

I snapped out of my shock and my hand wrapped around Ryan’s throat. “No!” I cried.

My fingers slowly began to squeeze. Blocking Ryan’s airway. His eyes bulged and he grabbed my wrist, but he was no match for my superstrength. This was it. I was going to kill him. I was trying to fight it, but the only thing I was managing to do was drag it out. One way or another, Ryan was about to die at my hand. “Teddy,” I sobbed, “please don’t make me do this. I’ll go with you, I swear. Just please, let me stop. Don’t make me hurt him.”

“It’s for your own good, Jamie. You’ll never let him go if he’s still alive. I gave you all of your memories except of him. You can’t even remember him and you still chose him over me.”

Surprise flicked in Ryan’s pain-filled eyes, and then his panic softened into a look of love. I was choking him—going to strangle him to death—and he was still smitten.

Ryan’s face started to turn red and I burst into sobs. I could have snapped his neck, electrocuted him, or made the death quick in a number of other ways, but I forced myself not to. I hated to make him suffer, but the longer it took me to kill him, the more chance I had of someone stopping me. “Somebody, please!” I screamed, becoming frantic. “Do something! Shoot me! I don’t care! Just don’t let me do this!”