More Than Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #2) (17 page)

“I was there.”

“At the scene of the accident?” Mr. E. thought about that and then gasped. “But… Mike was hit. And you…”

My stomach clenched into a tight ball. I glared at Mr. E. as I answered him. “I didn’t try to save him.”

I closed my eyes to make it look like I was trying to control my temper, but really I just didn’t want to see the look on Mr. E.’s face. I didn’t think I could handle him passing judgments on me. Not when I’d been the one to put him in prison for his mistakes, and especially when I still wasn’t ready to forgive those mistakes—didn’t think I would ever be able to forgive them.

Mr. E. was quiet for a minute. When he spoke, his reaction wasn’t what I expected. His voice was so soft and understanding it made me angry. “Oh, Jamie. I am so sorry. That must have been an incredibly difficult decision for you to make. I hope you don’t blame yourself for his condition. You did the right thing.”

I swallowed the familiar lump that always formed in my throat when I thought about the accident. “No, I didn’t—but that’s not the point.”

“That
is
the point. You didn’t use your powers. If you witnessed the accident, then you had to talk to the police, right?” I nodded. “I’m sure Murphy was sent to get the full story when your name came up in the police reports. He would have recognized your connection to Mike. He would have assumed if you had powers that you would have helped him.”

I tried not to flinch. “You mean they would have assumed I wasn’t able to save Mike, because any other decent human being would have if they could.”

Ryan’s arm came around me and I almost cried from relief. I was so glad he was here. His presence—his warmth, his love, and his calm confidence—was the only thing keeping me together, and I did not want to fall apart in front of Mr. Edwards. I’d rather join a bowling league with Carter and Mike than let Mr. E. see me vulnerable.

Ryan squeezed me to his side and put his lips to my ear. “You saved Chelsea, Sunshine. Remember that.”

The ridiculous nickname made me crack a smile. I’d turned my head away from Ryan to hide it, but he noticed anyway and elbowed me lightly in the side. I gave him a look that he only met with that stupid, cocky smirk he’s so famous for. “You know you love it.”

I groaned, but his ego was exactly the thing I’d needed to bring me back to myself. For once, I resisted the urge to kiss him and looked back at Mr. E., finally ready to do what I came for.

“So this guy
is
with Visticorp?” I asked, relieved that the confidence had returned to my voice.

Mr. E. shifted his gaze back and forth between Ryan and me. I swear, if I had to have picked out one emotion from his face right then, it would have been disappointment.

“Answer her question,” Ryan said, his voice suddenly so hard that I jerked back in surprise. He must have noticed the longing in Mr. E.’s eyes, too.

With a sigh, Mr. E. nodded. “He is, and that means that Visticorp has been keeping tabs on you—at least loosely since I got arrested. I am so sorry.” Mr. E. sunk his face in his hands. “They were watching you because of me.” He took a deep breath and then shook his head. “But they didn’t find anything. I’m sure they don’t believe it.”

He sounded as if he were trying to convince himself more than me. My cynical self wouldn’t be fooled. “Then why are they still stalking me?”

“What?”

I gave Mr. E. the condensed version of what was going on with me. He was every bit as mad about the superhero bit as my father was, but at the same time he couldn’t hide his fascination. When I mentioned the surveillance team that was constantly following me now and how they were even following my friends, he completely freaked out.

“I caught the names Demakis and Reynolds. There was at least one other guy with them, and then of course we have the Good Doctor.”

Mr. E.’s eyes flickered back down to the photo on the table. “That’s Charlie Murphy. He’s like me—a scientist sent to observe a possible candidate for study.”

I shivered at that thought, but didn’t have much time to dwell on it.

“The couple you saw at school doesn’t sound familiar to me. They were probably the same, but Jamie—Demakis and Reynolds are part of Visticorp’s retrieval team. They’re not sent out to observe. They’re sent to acquire.”

“Acquire?” Ryan hissed. His entire body had gone rigid.

Mr. E.’s voice turned urgent, almost panicky. “You’re in danger, Jamie. You have to disappear.”

“How?” Ryan asked without a single thought of protest.

I glared at him first and then sneered at Mr. E. “I’m not going to run away! That’s why I’m here. I came so that you could tell me everything you know about Visticorp. How can I get them to back off?”

“You can’t,” Mr. E. said. “You don’t understand. I don’t know why they haven’t tried anything yet. Maybe they aren’t sure what you’re capable of, or most likely haven’t figured out a way to capture or contain you yet, but they will. They’ll figure it out, Jamie, and they’ll come for you. You have to leave. Go into hiding.”

Ryan gasped again but I shook my head. “Be real. I can’t just disappear off the face of the earth for the rest of my life.”

“Then you’ll spend it locked up in a lab.”

“Jamie,” Ryan whispered. He sounded terrified. “I think he’s telling the truth. You’re in trouble.”

My instinct was to be insulted, but Ryan was right. Mr. E. was scared. Scared enough that I believed him. No one could fake that kind of worry. He was sure that Visticorp would come for me.

“I know,” I admitted. I have a lot of faith in my own abilities, but even I am able to put my pride aside when my safety and that of my family and friends are involved. I didn’t like the sudden coldness that filled my body as fear crept into my heart. “Carter knew everything I was capable of too, and he was always every bit as sure that I couldn’t handle Visticorp on my own.”

“You can’t,” Mr. E. said simply.

Great. But what was I supposed to do, then? Hide for the rest of my life? Not an option. “What would happen if they caught me?”

The question was out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying. It startled Mr. E. and his face crumpled. “They would lock you up. Run tests. Study you.”

All the worst images from every sci-fi B-flick I’d ever seen ran through my head. In a small voice I asked, “Would they be cruel about it?”

Mr. E. looked away. I didn’t think he was going to answer the question, though I suppose that in itself was answer enough. But then Mr. E. sighed and said, “You would be a test subject to them, and nothing more. They would be humane to keep you complacent, and if they could manipulate you, they would use your skills to whatever ends they desired. But if you weren’t cooperative, things would be very difficult for you.”

Ryan’s arm was now trembling. I would have said something to reassure him, except I remembered the cold voices of my stalkers and shuddered. “Subject 4281,” I whispered.

Mr. E. gasped. “What did you say?”

“That’s what that Reynolds guy called me when he found me in the café talking to my friend. He said he had a confirmed sighting of Subject 4281. You’re right. It’s like I wasn’t a person to them at all.”

Mr. E. zoned out for a minute, lost in his own thoughts. When he snapped out of it, he looked at me with wide, crazed eyes. “You have to get me out of here,” he whispered.

“Excuse me?”

Ryan was just as incredulous. “Get you out?”

“I’ve seen what you can do. It would be so easy for you. The next time I go out for yard activity I’ll go to the southeast corner of the yard. You just jump the fence and piggyback me out of there. As fast as you are, they won’t even see it. They wouldn’t even know I was missing until it was time to go back inside, and we could be clear across the country by then.”

“Are you
crazy
? I’m not going to—”

Several guards came over to our table when I raised my voice. I gave them a sheepish smile and my best apology, then hissed at Mr. E. once we were left alone again. “I’m not going to break you out of prison!”

“You can’t take them on by yourself. We could go somewhere safe and make a plan. You need me.”

“Absolutely not!” Ryan said while I nearly combusted in my chair.

Ryan had to let me go again and scooted a safe few inches from my electrically charged body. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Ever! The only thing I need from you is everything you know about Visticorp. Tell me what you know!”

Mr. E. matched my attitude. “They’re powerful, they’re dangerous, and they won’t stop until they get everything they want from you. You can’t take them on alone. Please, Jamie! If you try, you’ll only make them angry. Bad things happen to people who make them angry.”

“That’s it? That’s all you’ve got for me? What a waste of a trip.”

“Anything I know won’t help you unless you get me out of here. You need to disappear. Jamie, we still have time. You need to get me out.”

This was useless. He had that frantic, desperate quality about him again. But even if what he said were true, and I really was in danger, there was no way I was going to break him out of prison. And what, run away with him? Disappear and go into hiding? Shack up in some cabin in Canada with him? Right.

I was on my feet somehow, leaning over the table toward my ex-English teacher with my hands clenched into tight fists. My palms were on fire and I could only assume my eyes were starting to glow.

“I’ve got some bad news for you, Mr. E. You’re still delusional.”

“Jamie,” Ryan whispered urgently, confirming my suspicions about my Danger Mode status.

The guards had come over now to see what was going on again. They didn’t look happy. I took a deep breath and then looked at the waiting guards. “I’m sorry. I’m ready to leave now.”

The guard smiled, surprisingly sympathetic. “I think that would be wise, miss.”

He escorted Ryan and me to the door while Mr. E. continued to call out to me the entire way.

“No! Jamie, wait! Please! I know you’re angry with me, but there’s more to this than you know! You need to trust me!”

I stopped at the door and gave Mr. E. one last, hard look. “Trust you?
Trust you
? Everything about you has been a lie since the day we met. I will never trust you.”

“Come on, miss,” the guard said, gently tugging my elbow.

I sighed and let the guard escort us back to the parking lot. Once we were alone Ryan scooped me into his arms and upheld his philosophy of kiss first, talk later. When he could finally allow himself to release my lips, he looked me over from head to toe as if he expected there to be blood and missing limbs. “Are you okay?”

“That was a complete waste!” I yelled. Not at Ryan, just in general. I was angry. “We accomplished nothing except to confirm that my stalkers are from Visticorp, and I’d already guessed that much! Mr. E. was never going to be of any help to us!”

Once again I was overwhelmed with the feeling of being totally screwed.

“Jamie, we’ll figure something out, but you have got to calm down. I refuse to let go of you right now and I really don’t want to get fried.”

I sighed and indulged Ryan when he tried to kiss me again. Once I was good and calm, Ryan ran his hands through my hair and smiled. “Why don’t you go out on the town for a few hours and then meet me for dinner?”

I raised my eyebrows at him. “Out on the town” was Ryan-speak for putting on my mask and playing hero. “That’s what you think I should do right now?”

Ryan met my look with a grin from his arsenal of irresistible smiles. “You know you want to. You need to get some of this reckless energy out. It’ll make you feel better.”

I placed my hands on my hips. Defiance was always my first reaction to his ego. “So you’re an expert on what I need now?”

Ryan flicked the tip of my nose. “You’re not nearly as complicated as you pretend to be.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah? Well you’re wrong, Mr. Think-You-Know-Everything.”

“Sure I am.”

I decided to kiss the smirk right off Ryan’s face. In no time, I had his brain completely scrambled without using any electricity. Well, not the literal kind, anyway.

“I do need to blow off some steam, but being Chelsea’s Angel is definitely not how I want to get rid of all my reckless energy right now.”

I gave Ryan a lust-filled look and he caught my drift. Within seconds he was behind the wheel of his truck, honking the horn at me to join him. I started to walk toward him and he rolled down his window. “Come on, Sunshine. I know you can move a lot faster than that!”

I burst into laughter and was buckled in the cab next to him before he could even blink. I batted my eyes at him with a big smile. “Better?”

He answered me with a kiss that made me shiver. Just for fun, I relaxed and turned the kiss into a superkiss so strong it made the hairs on his arms crackle with static electricity.

“I did promise we’d experiment with Super Ryan more often,” I explained when we pulled apart.

Ryan’s smile turned wicked. “I should really try to be wrong more often.”