Remember Jamie Baker (5 page)

I guessed their ages ranged from their mid-twenties to early forties. Besides Tyson, in all his teenager glory, Ryan was clearly the baby of the group. He was also by far the best looking of the bunch. Seriously, how could one guy be so hot?

Ryan caught me staring and smirked as if he knew exactly what I’d been thinking. I tore my eyes away from him and continued my study of the other men. They all met my eyes as I swept my gaze around the truck—checking me out as much as I was checking them out. Their expressions were a mix of curiosity and awe. A few of their smiles were even flirtatious, though none of them said a word.

Finally, the soldier who’d given me the medicine braved breaking the silence. “It’s an honor to finally meet you, Angel.” His tentative smile was nice, and made me realize that he was a really good-looking guy. He had wavy brown hair, brown eyes, and smooth brown skin. My guess was that he was part Polynesian, or something of the sort. He was older than Ryan, but only by a few years at most. “We’ve been looking for you for a long time.”

“How did you find me?”

“We were keeping tabs on a group of people we believe could be involved with a man named James Donovan. He’s—”

“The CEO of Visticorp. I know.”

Everyone seemed so surprised that I knew who Donovan was. Ryan and Tyson both frowned at me, and Tyson asked, “How do you know about Visticorp?”

“I was raised in their labs like some kind of testing rat. I escaped after the explosion. They were supposed to think I was dead, but those men who attacked me were working for them. I have no idea how they found me.”

Tyson’s frown got even bigger. He shook his head and opened his mouth to say something, but Ryan caught his attention and shut him up with a look. I waited for them to explain the strange interaction, but Ryan just smiled at me and said, “Donovan found you the same way we did. You went to see a doctor about your amnesia.”

I knew they were keeping something from me, but I was too distracted by what Ryan said to make them tell me what it was. “You found me because of Dr. Rajeet?”

Ryan nodded. “Donovan disappeared after the Visticorp explosion. We can’t find him, but we believe he’s teamed up with a doctor or scientist to continue one of the experiments he was working on in the Vegas lab. This afternoon, your doctor e-mailed your medical files to a number of his colleagues and asked them to come visit him to study your test results. Several of those men were on our list of possible suspects. One of them had to have been Donovan’s partner. He must have realized you were Rajeet’s amnesia patient and sent Donovan’s superthugs after you.”

Unbelievable. Tony had been right. He’d warned me a million times over never to go to a doctor. All this time, I’d just thought he was crazy paranoid. But it had only taken them hours to find me. “I gave Dr. Rajeet permission to share my test results, but he swore he’d keep my identity confidential. How did Donovan know where to find me?”

“Someone broke into Rajeet’s office,” Tyson said. “They ripped doors right off of hinges to get inside, and moved so fast the security tapes couldn’t catch more than a blurred image here and there. The only thing they took was your file.”

It was easy to put the pieces together. “The superthugs.” I frowned as another problem occurred to me. “But the address I gave the doctor’s office was a fake.”

“The address was,” Ryan agreed, “but the phone number was accurate. And the address attached to your phone number was a PO box here in Las Vegas. We came here instead of going to Boston to see Dr. Rajeet, knowing how fast you travel and hoping the PO box was closer to where you were actually living.”

“And that PO box led you to the motel I was at…how?”

Tyson grinned. “We tracked your cell phone and had people watching for the alias you used at Dr. Rajeet’s office. You used your credit card to check into the motel. We were already almost there when you turned on your cell phone. It’s the only reason we were able to get there so soon after Donovan’s supersoldiers.”

Aside from the disturbing idea of how easy it was for the government to stalk people, something still didn’t add up. “How did any of you even know it was me in the first place? Obviously
April O’Neil
is not my real name.”

Ryan snorted softly. “
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
. I should have known.”

I loved that he knew the reference without me needing to explain. Before I could mention as much, Tyson answered my original question. “They knew it was you because your records mentioned green hair and yellow eyes. It was sort of a dead giveaway.”

My eyebrows hit the ceiling. “You mean I’ve
always
had green hair?” I pulled some of my hair into my hand and stared at it. “This isn’t a side effect from the explosion?”

“Not the Visticorp one,” Ryan said. “The hair and eyes came in the accident that gave you your superpowers.”

Now I was so confused I thought I’d never be able to catch up. “There was another explosion?”

“A toxic waste thing. Very Alex Mack of you.”

“Alex who? Toxic waste? Another explosion?” My head was going to have an explosion of its own if I put much more strain on it. I reached up to rub it. “I’m so lost,” I whined. “How do you know so much about me?”

Ryan did that staring-with-crazy-intensity thing again. Slowly, his mouth lifted into a soft smile. “Well now, that’s the question of the hour, isn’t it, Sunshine?”

My hand went to my neck and the little sun-shaped charm that hung there. That was the second time he’d called me Sunshine, and he said it as if it were more than a generic term of endearment. He said it with meaning. As if it were a personal nickname. And then it hit me. This guy knew who I was. Who I
really
was. My eyes bugged open, and Ryan’s smirk morphed into a deliriously happy grin. “That’s right, Jamie. You and I go way back.”

I sat there, frozen in
utter shock. I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. All the air left my lungs, and my heart hammered in my chest. He’d said a word—one word—that had just changed my life. “Jamie,” I echoed in a whisper.

I had a name. It was so simple, kind of plain even, but it was mine. Me. The
real
me. It was so overwhelming to finally know it that my eyes glossed over. Ryan’s anxiety shot into overdrive at the sight of my tears. “Jamie? What is it? What’s wrong?”

I felt a thrill at being called by that name, even if it didn’t spark any recognition. Just the way it rolled off his tongue so naturally made it feel right to me. “I have a name,” I whispered. “A
real
one. You have no idea how horrible it’s been not knowing who I am.”

My tears evaporated, and my heart burst with excitement as I realized he could probably tell me a lot more than just my name. I grabbed his hands. “What else do you know about me? Where am I from? Do I have a family? How did I end up at Visticorp? How do I know you? Tell me everything!”

Ryan laughed and grimaced at the same time. “Easy there, Angel. I don’t have your superstrength. Let’s not break the hands.”

With a startled squeak, I pulled my hands back to my own lap, where I couldn’t hurt him anymore. I hadn’t even realized I’d been squeezing him. “I’m sorry.”

Ryan laughed again. “It’s okay. No permanent damage.”

“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “It’s just, the thought of finally getting some answers…” I shook my head, still in a state of disbelief. “I
thought
I had a few of the pieces, but nothing makes any sense anymore. My boyfriend has been lying to me for some reason. I think he was hiding information from me to keep me safe. But what he told me isn’t possible if I was really this Chelsea’s Angel person. But I
am
her, right? That’s why you guys keep calling me Angel, isn’t it?”

I’d been so caught up in my thoughts that I didn’t notice how shocked Ryan was until he didn’t answer my question. He was staring at me, wide-eyed and completely frozen. “What?” I asked.

He just blinked at me, still too stunned to move. I looked to Tyson for answers, but he was gaping at me too, with his mouth hanging wide open. In fact, everyone riding in the back of the truck with me was now staring at me with huge, surprised eyes.

“What is it?” I demanded, speaking to the entire group.

Ryan snapped out of it and focused his thoughts before speaking. “Boyfriend?” His face was completely blank of expression, and his tone of voice was perfectly innocent.

“Tony,” I said slowly.

I didn’t know what Ryan was trying to hide from me, but there was definitely something going on. He was putting every ounce of energy he had into keeping his real thoughts and emotions masked.

“He’s not really my boyfriend,” I said, searching for some kind of clue as to what was wrong. “I mean he was, sort of, I guess, but we broke up. It’s complicated.”

“We’re listening…” Tyson prompted.

I sighed. “Complicated, as in I was engaged to him before the amnesia, but afterward I just never fell in love with him again, and now he hates me for it.”

Tyson jerked back, and Ryan went positively rigid. He clenched his jaw and fisted his hands so tightly it hurt to look at them. His knuckles were completely white. When his whole body started to tremble, Tyson reached over me and flicked his arm. “Ryan,” he hissed, “keep it together. Let her explain.”

Ryan sucked in a breath. He didn’t look like he would be ready to speak anytime soon. “Ignore him,” Tyson said to me. “He’ll pull it together in a minute. Tell us more about this guy.”

“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” a large black man suggested. He spoke with a thick African accent and was using a low, steady voice, as if trying to keep things calm. I still had no idea what was going on. The tension in the truck felt ignitable—like one wrong word, one spark, and we’d all go up in flames.

The man looked like he was the oldest of all the ACEs besides Major Wilks. He was most likely in his early forties, and as tall and big as a professional football player. He looked like the type of man people would cross the street to avoid, but when our eyes met his face softened, making him seem more like a giant teddy bear. “What happened after the explosion?” he asked. “What do you remember from before?”

Ryan was still on the verge of going completely insane, so I tried to do as Tyson suggested and ignored him. They would explain in a minute. “I don’t remember anything.” This part of the story, at least, I knew how to tell. “As far as I’m concerned, my life began six months ago when I woke up in the bottom of a crater in Las Vegas. There is absolutely nothing before that.”

Tyson’s eyes bulged, and he got this look on his face suggesting he was appalled by the thought. I pretty much agreed with him. “What’d you do?” he asked. “Wander around by yourself until the cops picked you up?”

I shook my head. “Tony found me almost immediately. He was another one of Visticorp’s subjects.”

“Another PAC?” one of the ACEs asked. They all shot each other excited glances.

I nodded. “He’d gotten out before the building exploded but hadn’t gotten far, and he came back to see what was left. I was it. Everything else had just been…vaporized. I don’t know what I would have done without him. Donovan probably would have found me. Or the police would have. We ran off just as the emergency vehicles started to show up.

“Tony had a place already set up for us that his friend had been helping him with. They’d been making plans to escape for a long time. Tony said the explosion was that escape attempt gone wrong, but it worked out okay, and we had this safe house out in the desert that—”

“Teddy?”
Ryan asked suddenly. “You’ve been living with
Teddy
this entire time? And he told you that you were raised in the Visticorp labs together, and that you were
engaged?
”

For reasons unbeknownst to me, blind rage overtook Ryan. In desperate need of something to hit, he jumped up and threw his fist into the metal wall in the front of the truck. His knuckles had to be fractured, but he acted as if he didn’t feel any pain.

“Ryan, chill!” Tyson yelled as the truck pulled over and came to a stop. They must have heard the racket from the front of the truck.

As soon as the truck stopped, Ryan jumped out and went stomping off into the desert. The soldiers all exchanged worried looks, and Tyson went running off after Ryan. Major Wilks yelled after Ryan, but it was Tyson who answered him. “Sorry, Major; Ryan needs a minute to cool off. We’ll be right back.”

Mystified, I could do nothing but sit there. “What was that?” I asked no one in particular.

“You’ll have to forgive him, Angel,” the large, calm ACE said quietly. “This is very hard for him.”

“
What
is?” I asked. “What on earth is going on?”

The man struggled to come up with an answer and finally grimaced. “I think it would be best if Ryan explained…once he’s settled down a little.”

“A
little
?
”

He cringed again.

I was just about to get out of the truck when I heard Tyson catch up to Ryan. “Ryan! Come on, mate, you’ve got to settle down. It’s not as bad as it could be.”

Ryan was still too out-of-his-mind-angry to think straight. “She was with
Teddy
this whole time!
TEDDY!
”

“At least she said she didn’t love him.”

“I’m going to
kill
him!”

“Look, we’ve got her back now. We’ll get it all straightened out.”

“That lying little jerk kidnapped her for six months and never told her who she was. She called him her boyfriend. She thinks they’re
engaged!
”

“Ryan!” Tyson shouted. “Get it together!”

“HE STOLE MY FIANC
É
E!
”

I gasped. I was
Ryan’s
fiancée? So many things fell into place. The strange looks and reactions from Ryan. Why he was so upset right now. Even a lot of Tony’s behavior over the last six months, and why I could never make myself love him again. I didn’t love him now, because I never had.

“She had no memory!” Ryan shouted. “He didn’t just lie to her; he took advantage of her.”

All the blood drained from my face, and my eyes started to burn as the horrible truth of what really happened settled over me. How could Tony do that to me? He claimed he loved me, but then he lied to me about everything. He manipulated me. He took advantage of my memory loss. The betrayal was so severe I didn’t even feel angry. I was too hurt to be mad.

“If he touched her…if they…if he laid a single finger on her, I’m going to…AGHHH!”

“Ryan, you have
got
to keep it together right now,” Tyson said again in a much calmer voice. “For Jamie’s sake.”

The stomping and crunching sounds stopped, as if Ryan had quit pacing and was at least standing still now.

“That girl back there has to be so confused, and when she learns how much she’s been lied to by the only person she knows, she’s going to
freak
. It’s messed up—majorly messed up—but you can’t fall apart. She’s going to need you. She’s going to need all of us, but you’re the one who knows her.”

“Angel?”

I jumped, startled by the voice so close to me, when I’d been concentrating on the conversation far away. Major Wilks was standing at the back of the truck, looking for answers, but it was the cute Hawaiian guy sitting across from me that had spoken. He was frowning in concern. “Are you all right?”

“I…” I realized I was shaking, and couldn’t make myself stop. “I—superhearing,” I whispered. “I know what Tony did.”

I stared at my lap, not wanting to see whatever looks of pity were on all of their faces. I heard my new friend’s soft “I’m sorry,” and my eyes finally brimmed over with tears. Everyone stayed silent after that. There was nothing but the sound of my occasional sniffles.

“Would someone care to explain what is going on?” Major Wilks asked.

A redheaded man cleared his throat and braved answering the annoyed major. “Sir, the Angel just informed us she’s been living with another Visticorp subject since the explosion—Teodoro Vivenzio. He’s been less than truthful with her about who she is, where she came from, and…” The soldier’s eyes flicked to me, and he gulped. “…who she was engaged to prior to the explosion.”

“Romeo didn’t take that news very well,” another soldier muttered.

They were all staring at me, but I couldn’t meet any of their gazes. I may as well have been sitting there naked in front of all of them. I felt humiliated—
violated
—by what Tony had done. And what was worse, I couldn’t stop the tears from spilling down my cheeks. Now they were all witness to my insecurity, too.

“Angel,” Major Wilks began quietly.

I stopped him before he could say anything. “Don’t.”

Everyone stayed silent after that. When Ryan and Tyson reappeared a few minutes later, my heart stopped. They both took one look at me and froze. Ryan glanced over his shoulder out the back of the truck and turned a sickly green, realizing I’d heard every word. Tyson quickly came to the same conclusion, and cursed under his breath.

“Jamie, I’m so sorry,” Ryan said. “I didn’t want you to find out like that.”

He reached his hand out toward me, and I was so freaked out that I flinched away from him. As a result, I watched his heart break. He tried to bury his pain before I could see it, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. There was a second there where I saw everything he wouldn’t say written on his face.

Ryan loved me. This stranger who I’d only met maybe half an hour ago was in love with me—and not the kind of love Tony claimed to be in, either. With that one devastated look, I knew Ryan’s pain was a million times greater than anything Tony had ever expressed on the many occasions I’d rejected him over the last six months. Tony may have wanted me, he may have been infatuated with me, but Ryan was truly in
love
with me. Desperately, painfully, tragically in love.

I hadn’t felt more vulnerable since the moment my memory began. Seeing Ryan’s pain, and knowing that he knew so much about me, had a million memories of me that I didn’t have, felt things for me that I couldn’t reciprocate, and had expectations that I could never fill, was all too much. The walls started to close in on me. I was going to burst—explode the way I should have half a year ago.

“We can fix this,” Ryan whispered. “We’ll get it sorted out.”

He sat back down next to me and offered his hand, but I couldn’t take it. I shook my head. I had to stop him before he asked me to live the life Tony had asked me to live six months ago. Before he told me he loved me and asked me to give him a chance even though I couldn’t remember him. I couldn’t do that again. I couldn’t get into another relationship on such unequal footing. I couldn’t give a stranger that kind of power over me again. I
wouldn’t
.

“Please, don’t.” My voice quivered as I fought the urge to cry again. “I…I…”

I wanted to run. I wanted to get out of the truck and run back to my desert house, where I would never see him again. But he held the keys to my past, and I couldn’t walk away from that. I wiped my face again, frustrated and embarrassed that they were all watching me cry. Unfortunately,
emotional
is on my personality traits list. Actually, it’s on there twice. “Can we please just go?”

Everyone looked at Major Wilks. He stood there quietly for a moment, and then said, “Angel, we need to go get him. Do you know where he is now?”

I shook my head. “No. I mean, yeah, I know where he is, but he’s not like me. He’ll never agree to come with you. Not in a million years. He’s
beyond
paranoid.”

The tension increased again, and I knew from the grim expression in Major Wilks’s eyes that I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. “We don’t want him to join us, Angel; we need to detain him.”

I hadn’t quite figured out what he was trying to tell me, but already denial was taking over. I may have been so angry at Tony, maybe even hated him for what he’d done to me, but he was still the person who’d helped me after the explosion. He’d taken care of me for six months, was the only person I knew—my family. “Detain him?” I shook my head. “No, that can’t be right. Why would you need to do that?”