Remember Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #3)(69)

“Everything all right?” Ryan asked.

Again, I had to collect my focus. I felt as if my brain were completely fogged over. Freaking radioactive isotopes and gamma rays. “I’m fine, I just…”

My voice trailed off. I wasn’t fine. I needed to leave. Now. Escape.

“Jamie?”

“It’s nothing…I…” I couldn’t breathe. I was starting to sweat. “I have to go.”

I stepped past Ryan and he grabbed my hand. “Babe, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” What was going on? Ryan’s hand gripping mine felt so good, so right. But when I looked at him, all I felt was panic and the need to run.

I was going to explode if I didn’t get out of here right now. Pulling my hand out of Ryan’s, I hurried for the exit. But not just any exit—the staff exit, out the back. I needed to get out of here without being seen.

“Jamie?”

“Sweetheart?”

“Miss Baker?”

I ignored everyone.

“Jamie!”

People scrambled to catch up with me. My instinct was to use my superspeed and run away to a place no one would ever find me. At first I did. In the blink of an eye, I burst out of the exit in the back of the hospital. But once I felt the sun on my face, I stopped and tried to calm my breathing. This just didn’t make sense. Why would I run from Ryan? From my parents and the life I’d been so desperate to discover?

“Miss Baker?”

The soft, gentle voice startled me so badly that I whirled around and nearly roasted the man standing just to the side of the exit, but the moment I saw him, my intense panic stilled. Something about him put me at ease. It was strange, but undeniable.

He was a slender man who looked like he had some Asian heritage in him. Naturally, I was wary—I hate doctors and strangers, and this man was both—but something told me I should trust him. He was familiar. He wanted to help me.

Again, this was insane. Why would I feel safe with a strange doctor, who could easily be the man we’d come here to find—Donovan’s partner—and need to run from the people helping me, the people who’d been earning my trust.

“Hello, Miss Baker.”

“Who are you?”

He didn’t answer my question. Instead, he frowned and reached out a hand toward me. “Are you feeling all right? You look unwell.”

“I—” I didn’t want to talk to this man, but he was right. I did feel unwell. “I don’t know what’s wrong. My head…everything seems so…strange…”

I stumbled, suddenly dizzy, and my new friend caught me before I fell.

My new friend? That wasn’t right. Was it?

I looked at the man and he smiled. His smile was nice. He was nice. I could trust him.

“Miss Baker, I’m Dr. Chen. Would you like to come with me? I can take you someplace safe and we can figure out what has you feeling so disoriented.”

I shook my head. Go with him? I didn’t want to go with him. That wasn’t right. But I did want to go with him at the same time. “I don’t know. This doesn’t make any sense.”

My emotions were all over the place. I started to lose control of my power, and when the energy rose up inside me it cleared some of the confusion in my head. The energy filled with comfort. This was familiar. This I knew. I had powers. Great powers. I wasn’t helpless. I didn’t need anyone’s help if I didn’t want it. Maybe this man was a friend and maybe not, but I had time to figure that out.

I stepped away from the doctor and let my energy flow enough that my eyes lit up. “Keep your distance. Something’s not right, and I don’t know you. I can’t trust you.”

Dr. Chen’s face flashed with surprise, as if he genuinely hadn’t expected me to refuse. He held up his hands. “Easy, Miss Baker. I’m not here to harm you. I just want to help. Come with me.”

My eyes narrowed. There was still the inexplicable urge to go with him and to trust him, but I was slowly coming to my senses. “Go with you where?”

He didn’t answer that question. “I can help you get your memories back. I can restore the damage done to your brain.”

Everything stopped—the urges in my head warring against my common sense, my internal attempts to figure out what was happening, my anxiety, my power—everything. I froze completely, focused solely on his claim. “How? Everyone in that hospital said it was impossible.”

He stepped closer, his smile softening. “For them, it is. But I can do it.”

That sounded too good to be true. And in my limited experience, if it seemed too good to be true, it probably was. Still, I couldn’t squelch the hope flaring in me. “How?”

“I work with a brilliant man who has pushed past normal human limitations with both medicine and technology.”

“Donovan?”

Dr. Chen nodded once. “Yes, Dr. James Donovan. His methods are revolutionary. He has developed a serum that has extraordinary regenerative capabilities. I’ve seen it do miraculous things. It could reverse the damage done to your brain.”

I sucked in a breath. Desire and desperation washed over me.

“Come with me. Meet Donovan. Hear his proposal, and we will heal you, Miss Baker. You will remember again. You have my word.”