Remember Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #3)(95)

It was nearing 9:00 p.m., but I didn’t waste any time waiting till morning to contact Donovan. I was sure Major Wilks would come crash the party as soon as he had his attack planned. The ACEs were very efficient. I’d be lucky if I even got a whole day.

I made the call from a payphone in Florida, so it could have been anyone, but the voice on the other end of the line still knew it was me before I said anything. “Hello, Miss Baker. I’m glad you finally called.”

This was not the voice of the man I’d met in Boston. This man sounded slightly older, and more regal. Or maybe pompous was a more accurate term. “Donovan?”

“Very good, Miss Baker.” There was a smile in his reply. “It’s good to hear from you. It’s been a while.”

“If you say so.”

He chuckled. “I take it the serum worked?”

Donovan was all polite and friendly, but short and curt was all I could manage in reply. “I dreamed.”

“That’s wonderful. So, you believe that I can help you now?”

“You know I do, or I wouldn’t have called.”

He sighed over the receiver, as if disappointed by my lack of friendliness. “I’m not an evil man, you know.”

I snorted. “Skip the platitudes, doc. You know I want my memories, and I know you won’t give them to me unless I come to you alone, so just tell me where to go.”

He sighed again. “Very well. Are you familiar with the Santa Monica Pier in California?”

I’d never been, but I’d at least heard of it. “I’ll find it.”

“Good. Walk to the very end of the pier and take a seat. My retrieval team will find you once they’ve deemed you are truly alone.”

I was relieved that he’d picked a public place to meet. Still, I shivered, remembering my last encounter with his superthugs. “Is this retrieval team going to try to kill me like that last one you sent? Because that would be very unfortunate. For your men, I mean.”

“Yes, I suppose it would be unfortunate, considering my last team has failed to check in since I sent them to collect you…?”

He was fishing for information on his team. May as well give it to him. “Kind of hard to call the boss when they’re dead.”

Okay, so only one of his soldiers was dead, and it hadn’t been my doing, but he didn’t need to know that.

Donovan’s reaction was exactly what I’d hoped for. “Dead?”

I smiled at the shock in his tone. “Unfortunately. Obviously I didn’t mean for things to get so out of hand—I’m not a murderer—but accidents do happen, doc. I’m not always one hundred percent in control of my power, especially when I’m upset, and I don’t take kindly to people trying to kill me.”

There was a pause, and then Donovan slowly said, “No. I imagine not.” The cheerful politeness in his voice was gone. I took a sick amount of pleasure in the fact that I’d upset him. Lorenz had to be one of his favorite minions. He had to be feeling that loss.

When he spoke again, he voice was smoothed out, but I heard his teeth grind together for those few seconds it took him to gain composure. “There will be no need for violence this time. I assure you, you will not be harmed. Unfortunately, I can’t promise the same for any of your friends, should you try to bring them with you. And my men will have to scan you for any tracking devices. You understand.”

“Of course.” I dropped the sickly sweet act and let all of my danger creep back into my voice. “So long as you understand that I’m coming willingly. I don’t need to be dragged in. If any of your men so much as touch me, I can’t promise they won’t end up as fried as your last crew. I come in as a guest, not a prisoner or a lab rat. Or I come in as an enemy. If anyone tries to lock me up or knock me out, we’ll have another Las Vegas on our hands. Get what I’m saying?”

“I understand.”

I snickered when I heard a faint hint of his pulse. For me to hear it over the phones like that, it had to be thumping in his ears. Pissing him off felt so good I was almost looking forward to the next twenty-four hours. “Great. Then I’ll see you soon.”

I hung up the phone without waiting for a reply, cherishing the thought that he was annoyed to be hung up on. He probably wasn’t the kind of man who got that very often.

Before I headed for California, I pulled my Me Notebook from my purse. I had a new word I needed to add to my personalities list: aggravating. I grinned as I scribbled the trait beneath all of Ryan’s add-ins. He would probably see this last one as another pessimistic quality, but I couldn’t help feeling my ability to be annoying was one of my greatest talents.

. . . . .

The pickup at the pier went smoother than I’d expected. As promised, Donovan’s men hadn’t tried to manhandle me at all. They’d even come in regular street clothes—no Jamie-proof electricity suits this time. They used some kind of device they stole from a Star Trek episode to determine that there wasn’t any kind of tracking device anywhere on my person and then simply asked me to come with them. It was kind of boring, actually—not that I was complaining about a lack of them trying to kill me.

We ran so far north that, despite the superspeed, I was nearly frostbitten by the time we reached the small group of buildings making up the research compound. We were in Canada. That was all I knew. Unless we’d gone past Canada and were officially in Santa Claus’s territory. Seriously, it was a possibility.