More Than Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #2) (30 page)

“Wait. The kiss. That’s why it felt so—”

Teddy decided not to elaborate when Ryan glared at him again.

“Electric? Energetic?” I supplied.

Teddy nodded. “Amazing,” he agreed with a dreamy sigh. His smile quickly dropped into a frown. “Wait, is that the only way you can transfer your power?”

“It’s the only way I can for sure be successful at it. I’ve accidentally done it before through touch, but I haven’t figured out how to control it that way yet. Most of the times I’ve tried it, people ended up getting zapped.”

My dad grimaced. He’d been the recipient of most of those zaps.

“So…” Teddy’s voice was suddenly small. “Is that the only reason you kissed me?”

I sighed, feeling awful about getting the guy’s hopes up. Ryan wasn’t nearly as sympathetic. “Why else would she kiss you?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Teddy sneered. “Maybe because she finally realized we belong together.”

Ryan scoffed at that.

“What’s the matter? Can’t handle a little competition?”

“You? Competition?” Ryan actually laughed.

“Jamie and I are the same!” Teddy snapped. “She deserves to be with someone special, like her! You are so average, it’s disgusting!”

“You think just because you have powers that makes you worthy of Jamie?”

“You guys!” I yelled. “We don’t have time to fight about this right now!”

“What are you all talking about?” my father asked.

“I’m like your daughter, Mr. Baker.” Teddy beamed at him proudly. “I have powers, too. Telekinesis.”

“You what?” Mom gasped.

Teddy flashed his dimples at my mother and mentally pulled a flower out of the vase in the window and sent it across the room into her hands. “I can move things with my mind.”

Neither of my parents looked like they knew what to do with this information. I took advantage of the momentary silence. “Look, I’m going to go back to the school and see if I can figure out their next move.”

“Wait, Jamie. I don’t think—”

I didn’t let Ryan finish his sentence. There was no point. No one was going to stop me. “I also have to check on Becky. I need to make sure those psychos haven’t bothered her. Would you guys please fill my parents in on everything while I’m gone?” I glared at both Ryan and Teddy before I walked out the door. “Do not kill each other. I’ll be right back.”

My dorm building had been evacuated by the time I got back. I scanned the crowd for Becky, but she wasn’t there. The problem was, I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad one. Had she gone over to see her cheer friends, or home to her parents? Or had Visticorp found her and taken her in an attempt to get to me? Would I be receiving a ransom soon?

The local police had closed off the building with yellow caution tape, and two guys that looked like they came straight out of a G.I. Joe movie stood blocking the front door with guns in their hands.

Making sure to stay blended in the crowd, I turned to the girl next to me. She looked vaguely familiar. I think she lived on my floor. “What happened?”

“It’s the FBI or something.”

The FBI. Right. Sure, it was.

“There was some dangerous criminal running through our building. I was in my room on the third floor and a gun went off. When the police came to make us evacuate, I saw
blood
in the hallway.” The girl shivered. I did, too. That blood was Ryan’s. “They didn’t catch the guy. They’re searching all the rooms right now.”

“Crazy.”

The girl just nodded and trained her eyes back on the swarm of police. From what I could tell, the local cops all looked just as confused and frustrated as the students. I focused on the two guys guarding the door, but they weren’t saying anything. I closed my eyes and tried to hear past the chatter into the building. It was almost impossible, but I could just barely hear the angry voices inside.

“Third floor clear!”

“This one, too.”

“Laundry room and lounge both empty.”

“I’m telling you, they’re long gone.”

I recognized that voice. It was Reynolds. His voice sounded a little gravelly, but he was alive. I wasn’t so sure about Demakis.

“We’ll never find them now,” Reynolds grumbled. “They’ll go underground.”

“They’ll have to resurface sometime,” Lorenz argued. “The device worked well enough on the girl, but the electricity is a problem. We’ll have to find a way to neutralize it before we have a chance at recovering her. She’s incredibly strong. Much stronger than we originally thought.”

“We’ll figure it out,” said a cold, calm voice that I’d never heard before. I could tell simply from the steadiness of it that it belonged to the man in charge. My blood turned icy as I committed it to memory. Part of me wanted to sneak in and get a look at the guy while another part of me itched to run far and fast in the opposite direction.

“The girl’s strength is a good thing. She will be an amazing asset.”

“If she can be controlled, sir. She’s a spitfire, that one.”

“Anyone can be controlled when given the right incentive, Lorenz.”

“The roommate?” Reynolds asked.

Just the mention of Becky made my cold-as-ice blood flash to a boil. Forget being an angel—if they tried to lay a single finger on my best friend, they would all go down in a blaze of hellfire.

“You’re sure she knows nothing?” Boss Man said.

“Positive, sir. The only one in on it besides the parents is the boyfriend.”

Well. At least they didn’t know about Mike.

“Then forget the roommate. The less people involved in this the better. Right now the parents are our main priority.”

Energy surged through me again. I was angry enough that I almost wanted them to try it. That would be the only excuse I’d need.

Someone cleared his throat, and then Lorenz spoke. “With all due respect, sir, I don’t believe strong-arming the girl is the best approach. Making her angry this evening only made her stronger.”

Darn right, it did. Nice of Lorenz to recognize that.

“What do you suggest?”

“The girl values her privacy, yet she can’t help using her powers. I say we leak her identity as Chelsea’s Angel and then offer her protection once the media and the government have destroyed her life. The girl is smart, but I believe we can still exploit her weaknesses to our advantage.”

“I agree,” Reynolds said. “She’s unstable and not afraid of violence. If we push her, there’s no telling what she’ll do.”

There was a pause as the mystery boss thought it over. He must not have looked convinced because Lorenz said, “We can’t physically touch her, sir. And she’s too strong.”

I heard the wariness in Lorenz’s voice and cringed. I’d been panicked when I defended myself against him and I’d kicked him using superstrength. Whatever his condition was, it wasn’t pretty.

“Yes,” Boss Man said. “Fascinating.”

“Fascinating?” Reynolds gasped, horror in his voice. “Sir, she practically
liquefied
his knee!”

I cringed again.

“Yes.” The boss still sounded in awe. “The amount of force the girl must have used to inflict an injury like yours is particularly curious. I believe we must add inhuman strength to her other assets. We’ll have to take a new approach with our recovery efforts.”

“What about Demakis? You saw yourself what she did to him. How can we protect ourselves against that?”

“You leave that to the scientists. You just keep focused on your goal. I
want
that girl.”

Someone sighed. I couldn’t tell who.

“What would you like us to do?” Lorenz asked.

“
You
will go back to the facility and have that leg taken care of. Reynolds, after you’re cleared by medical, I want you to assemble a new team and find her. Find her and then we’ll go from there. Start with her parents’ house and the hospitals. Every single one in the country, if you have to. The girl’s boyfriend was shot. He needs medical assistance.”

“How can you be sure she’ll go with him?”

The boss man chuckled. “Oh, she’ll go. That boy is her biggest weakness. She won’t be able to leave his side.”

I wanted to kill the man. I even drifted a few feet closer to the building. I had to get out of there before I did something stupid. I’d heard enough, anyway. I knew what I needed to do now. I just didn’t know if I was strong enough to do it.

The second I got back
, my dad attacked me with one of his bear hugs. “I’m fine, Dad,” I promised. “It sounds like Becky is safe and now I know they’re not planning to do anything to anyone until they find me.”

“Well, that settles it, then,” Ryan said. “It’s time. We have to run. We’ve got to disappear. We can go into hiding.”

“You?” Teddy scoffed. “You’re an idiot if you think you’ll be able to keep her safe from them.”

“Teddy!” I yelled. “What is your problem?”

When I screamed, Teddy shouted right back at me. “You can’t just hide from them, Jamie! Not unless you disappear! If you don’t want them to find you, then you need to
stop existing
. You need to become someone else. That’s almost impossible to do, but
I
can make it happen.
I
can help you.
He
will only put you in more danger.”

My mom, knowing me too well, stepped in front of me before I zapped the crap out of Teddy. I already knew Ryan wouldn’t be coming with me, but I still didn’t appreciate Teddy’s attitude.

Ryan looked ready to jump to his feet, even though I’m not sure he could. His whole body shook with anger. He stared at Teddy with murder in his eyes. It was a look I’d only ever seen on him once—right before he broke Carter’s nose. I couldn’t blame him for being angry.

Teddy was being a jerk, but he was still right. “Ryan, he has a point. I have to disappear and…” I swallowed back bile and tried to keep tears at bay. My attempt didn’t work. “I can’t take you with me.”

A thick silence settled in the room, and that’s when I finally broke. “I’m sorry.”

“Jamie, what are you talking about? Of course you can take me with you!” Ryan sounded panicked. He started to sit up, so I rushed over to his side and forced him to lie back down. He pinched his eyes shut when I began running my fingers through his hair.

A tear dripped off my chin and splashed onto his cheek. Ryan touched the wet spot with his finger and then his eyes began to leak as well.

“Don’t you even think about it,” he croaked in a strangled voice. He brought my hand to his lips. “You are not leaving me.”

“Babe,” I said, trying to smile even though the tears wouldn’t stop flowing. “You have to go to the hospital right now. I can’t go there. Reynolds is already waiting for me to show up with you. He’s going to monitor every hospital in the country. I heard him say so.”

“So come get me after I’m better,” Ryan insisted.

“I can’t. They’ll be watching you. They know you’re my biggest weakness. They’ll do anything to get me, including hurt you. As long as you’re with me, you’re in danger.”

“We’ll disappear forever. We’ll explain the truth to my parents. Gene will help us. He’ll give us enough cash to buy our own island or something.”

“I can’t ask you to do that. You can’t give up your life for me.”

“Jamie.” Ryan’s voice was suddenly low and steady. He sat up so that he could look straight into my eyes. “How many times do I have to tell you, you
are
my life. College, playing football, my friends, my future…I’ll gladly give it all up. I don’t even have to think about it because none of it would matter if I didn’t have you. I’m going with you. I won’t let you go through this alone.”

“She won’t be alone.”

Ryan and I both glared at Teddy hard enough that he shut his mouth and went back to pouting in my father’s chair.

“But Ryan—”

“I have a bullet in my throwing arm, Jamie. My football career is over. My life has already changed, so don’t worry about it.”