“Why am I so important to Jack?”
“I told you what I promised. Now, tell me who this resembles and I’ll tell you why you’re so important to Jack now.” He held up the picture that looked too much like Briana Howard.
I stared at the picture again. A cocktail of feelings erupted inside me. Anger at the girl who tormented me at every turn but protective at the same time of my classmate who might well have as many family issues and secrets as I do. And devastated that someone else I knew just might be the result of mad scientists.
Bree was lucky Seth didn’t spot her earlier that night.
In the end, girl power and lack of trust for Seth won out. “No deal. I want you to take me back to school.”
I’d figure out why Jack “needed” me another way.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I heard the screaming from down the hall. “Dani,” I whispered.
I ran. Out of breath, I tried to get the key in the lock. Dropped the keys.
Finally on the other side of the door, I darted to Danielle’s bedside and gently shook her shoulders. “Dani. Wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”
Her eyes sprung open. Sweat poured down her forehead into her hair. “Lexi?”
“Yeah. It’s me. You were having a nightmare.” I reached behind me and grabbed a T-shirt off the floor. I blotted at the moisture across her forehead.
She laid her forearm across her eyes. “Oh, Lexi,” she panted. “I was so scared.”
I crossed to the bathroom that separated our room from our neighbors’ and wet a washcloth.
Pressing the cool cloth to her forehead, I asked, “Wanna tell me about it?”
“I couldn’t find you. I was searching and searching through the halls. It was so dark. And I was terrified.” Dani took the cloth from me and placed it behind her neck.
I brushed strands of wet hair off her face and tucked it behind her ears.
She closed her eyes. “What a weird dream. The other person running with me was the strangest part.”
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know, but he kept telling me that I needed to find you. That you were in trouble.” Dani breathed hard.
My back tightened. “I’m not in trouble. I’m right here, and I’m just fine.” Was it possible for Dani to have the same faceless man in her dreams?
“It was dark. You know how I feel about the dark.” Her body shuddered.
“I do.” I continued brushing my fingers along her hairline.
“But as afraid as I was of the dark and that I couldn’t find you, I don’t think the guy in my dream meant me harm.”
What a strange night. The image of Gram’s brain popped into my head, and then I wondered what a phobia would look like inside a brain. I pressed my fingers to Dani’s forehead and imagined her brain.
It looked nothing like Gram’s; it was more… normal, I guessed. I lifted my hand and wiggled my fingers.
What did I think I was going to do? Heal her phobia forever?
With Gram’s brain, I knew what to look for. I had seen pictures of a brain afflicted with Alzheimer’s. Was I really capable of healing her? Was I meant to? It just seemed wrong. But wasn’t that what doctors did every single day with medicine and surgery?
Was this different?
Most definitely.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Danielle whispered. She grabbed my arm, then turned over, hugging my arm like a teddy bear.
“Go to sleep,” I whispered.
I stayed like that until she drifted off—kneeling by her bed with my arm tucked inside hers. I was alone with my frantic thoughts. Was Smoking Man in her dreams? Looking for me? Did he want to finish the job he’d started inside the DeWeese’s swimming pool?
A chill moved through me. Later, I slipped my arm out of her hold and pushed away from her bed. I crawled into mine fully clothed. The events of the night haunted me, and with Smoking Man now looking for me in my roommate’s nightmares, I was terrified to fall asleep.
You up? Could Jack even hear me this far away? He’d heard me the night of the fire alarm. Had that been Smoking Man? I had smelled smoke that night.
What’s wrong? You alright?
What if I told him I wasn’t? Would he come rescue me? Probably. Yeah. Just having trouble sleeping.
Can I help?
I don’t know. Can you?
That depends. What are you wearing?
Just like that, a smile spread across my face. Stop it.
You started it.
Will you sing to me until I fall asleep? I asked.
Yes. Will you tell me what’s wrong, first?
Tomorrow.
His perfect, soothing baritone lulled me into sweet dreams.
~~~~
“You did what?” Jack barked into his cell phone. I winced. He had to be talking to Seth.
Shrugging at Dani, I spooned a bite of Cap’n Crunch into my mouth.
“How do you stay so fit and healthy?” Danielle asked. Her nose twitched in disgust. “That’s gotta be the worst thing you could eat first thing in the morning.”
“It’s got berries,” I mumbled through a mouthful of cereal.
Kyle arrived and sat his tray down by Dani. Two donuts and a pile of bacon covered his plate.
Dani and I traded glances. A smile reached all the way to her eyes. No permanent damage done from last night’s adventure through dark dreams.
“No. She didn’t tell me.” Jack turned his head toward me. His face glowed with seven shades of crimson.
I shrunk where I sat. Must be Seth.
Yes, Seth. His brow drooped over his eyes. “Hold on.” Leaving a plate of eggs and toast, Jack scooted from the table and slid out of his chair, accidentally knocking my arm.
He exited a door behind me. Shifting in my seat, I watched him through the cafeteria window. He ran a hand through his hair.
Don’t freak out.
His eyes found mine through the glass.
Oh, how I wished I could read lips because he had definitely closed off his thoughts.
I directed my attention back to my high-sugar nourishment. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Jack should have told me everything. I deserved to know how those nutball scientists altered my mind.
“Hey, Lexi,” Kyle said. “Wanna go see your grandmother today?”
“You guys can’t leave campus,” Danielle said, waving a spoonful of oatmeal in the air. “Lockdown, remember?”
I wrinkled up my face at the reminder. “Yeah. I just need to clear it with my new guardian.” Or bend someone’s mind in my favor.
“You need to clear what with your new guardian?” I jumped at the sound of Jack’s voice behind me. He placed his hand on my shoulders and rubbed. We need to talk.
Briana rounded the corner with a tray of food. She sat beside Kyle. “What happened to you last night, Lexi? You missed a fun pool tournament.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. Jack and I make an awesome team.” She winked at Jack behind me.
I tilted my head backwards, peering at him. He shrugged.
Was Briana cloned like Jack and me? Could she read my mind and I didn’t know about it? Hey, Bree. Keep your stupid paws off my man. Can you hear me? Do you know you’re a cloned freak?
Nothing. Except Jack’s fingers digging into my shoulders.
“Ouch.” I wiggled under his grasp.
“Sorry.” We really need to talk.
~~~~
“What were you thinking?” Jack ran both fingers through his hair.
I followed him on the sidewalk away from the student center. “What was I thinking?” I asked in a calm-before-the-storm-sort-of-way. I took two steps for every one of his. “Are you kidding me, Mr. There-Will-Be-No-More-Secrets-Between-Us?”
He stopped. He rubbed his hands up and down his face making a primal sound that made me back away. We stared at each other for over a minute. Neither of us spoke. Our minds shut off from the other.
“So, Briana?”
I finally asked.
He nodded. “She doesn’t know.”
“Is that why you’ve been spending so much time with her?” A wad of nerves in my belly tightened into an uncomfortable ball.
He nodded again.
Can you hear her thoughts?
“No.” His eyes warmed to mine. You don’t still think I’m interested in her, do you? Surely by now—
I took a step toward him. Grabbed one of his hands and brought it to my chest, just above my heart. You’ve got to start trusting me.
Ditto. He flattened his hand, his fingers grazing my neck.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Jack.” Not exactly.
“Then why did you sneak away last night without telling anyone? Without telling me?”
“I wanted to know the truth, why someone is trying to kill me, and the truth of who I am.”
“And? Did Seth answer all your burning questions?” he asked, contempt behind each word.
“I thought you trusted Seth. Thought you wanted me to trust Seth.”
“Not over me.” He pulled my hand. We were walking again. “I knew you had left campus. I couldn’t even find a hint of your mind anywhere. It scared me. I was so tempted to report it to the dean, and let the consequences fall.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I don’t know who our friends are here. Your father died trying to protect you from something. I think he knew that the threat had already infiltrated Wellington.”
Which was why he was coming to Wellington to move me, I supposed. “You don’t trust Dean Fisher?”
“I don’t know.” I think we should run.
I shook my head. Can’t. Too much I still need to know. If the information becomes unbearable, I’ll think about it then.
He stopped again. “Your life is in danger,” he said, his voice low. “And I don’t know who the threat is.”
I squeezed the bridge of my nose. Jack’s mind bumped up against the shield I erected.
“What is it?” He reached up and touched my cheek. “Is this about what Seth showed you? Tell me.”
Partly.
“Seth should never have taken you to the nursing home. We don’t know if you could even heal your grandmother. She’s been very sick for so long.” Damn it! He had no right to tell you like that. Especially without me there.
I stared into his eyes. “That’s not all. It’s Dani.”
“What do you mean?”
I told him how I had found Dani in the throes of a nightmare, and how she had been searching for me with Smoking Man. At least, I thought it was Smoking Man.
“Why didn’t you tell me last night? I would have come over.”
I cocked my head. “I know you would have.”
“You didn’t want me to.”
I leaned my forehead into his chest. “You can’t save me from my friend’s dreams, Jack.”
“These are not dreams.” Jack’s voice escalated. His eyes darted around before he continued in a softer voice. “Someone’s getting inside your head. Someone like us is using some ability to harm you. And I’m so afraid I won’t be able to stop them.”
“Someone like us? Briana?”
“No. She knows something’s different about her, and that scares her. She’s not getting inside your head though. Not with any special power, anyway,” he joked. “I almost told her the truth several times. I just couldn’t. Not without more information. She’s not strong like you. I can’t explain it.”
I thought about that for a second. Briana and I were friends once upon a time. Something had changed the summer before our sophomore year. She came back to school bitter. She lashed out at me every chance she got. I’d never considered her weak in any way.
“Come on.” Jack tugged at me again and led me up the walk toward the athletic center.
I followed him down the hall toward Coach Williams’ office. The smell of chlorine reached all the way out into the hallway as we passed the entrance to the pool.
Coach looked up from a laptop when we entered his small office. Familiar images covered the screen. I dropped Jack’s hand.
Images of my artwork. Images I’d sent Dad over the years. He had created a website for the art—his way of keeping me “his baby girl.” Like I was a kindergartener bringing home that day’s craft.
Sometimes I wished I could lose myself in art. My art teacher even encouraged it. But she and I both knew that was not my life’s purpose.
How did Coach know about the site? I wiped my sweating palms on my uniform skirt.
“Lexi. Jack,” Coach said, flustered. He shut his laptop and stood. A whistle dangled with his Wellington credentials around his neck. “What are you two up to?”
“Hey, Coach,” Jack said as if they were long-time friends, which I knew they weren’t. “I’m afraid Lexi needs a reminder of what will happen if she leaves campus without permission from her new guardian.”
“Lexi, did you leave campus?” He held out a hand to stop me. “Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know. You will not swim next week if I catch you leaving campus without permission.”
Are you serious? You brought me here to be lectured by my coach? Do you truly think I give a flying crap about the swim meet?
I was afraid that’s what you would say. Jack closed the door behind him, then turned slowly back to face the coach. “Private Detective Williams, please tell Miss Matthews what else will happen if she were to disobey the rules that have been set forth for her protection.”
“I don’t understand. Detective?”
A look passed between Coach and Jack, before Coach said, “That’s right, Lexi. We tried to keep this quiet, but I always knew the time might come when I’d have to share with you my identity. Especially with your dad gone.”
“But you’ve been here since before I arrived.”
“Yes.”
“And my best coach ever.”
“My credentials as a swimmer are real. I was an NCAA champion swimmer, nine times over, and a certified coach before I…” Coach stopped. Took a breath.
I glanced from Coach to Jack and back to coach. “Before you what?”
“Lexi, no one at this school knows what I’m about to reveal.” He crossed his arms and leaned against his desk. “I’m ex-FBI.”
“You’re an FBI agent?”
“Was. After twelve years in the field, I needed… let’s just say, a change of scenery. Your father hired me to look after you. And keep an eye on Wellington.”
I raised a brow. “Wellington the person, or Wellington the institution?”
“Is there a difference?” Coach chuckled.
I didn’t crack a smile.
“Show her.” Jack leaned against the door, crossed his arms.
Show me what?
“Right,” Coach clasped his hands together. He was nervous, excited. He approached a cabinet, unlocked it, and pulled out a cuff of some sort.
“What is that?”
“Dean Fisher has authorized me to place this on anyone who decides they simply can’t obey the lockdown rules.” When I raised a brow, he continued. “This is similar to house arrest bracelets—”
I held up a hand to stop him. An image of Lindsay Lohan popped into my head. “I… I got it.” Then, I glared at Jack. “Are we done here?”
A satisfied grin passed over Jack’s face.
“Great. Fantastic.” I eyed Coach’s laptop like it might combust. Then I turned to him, his face expressionless. Part of his FBI training, maybe. “I’m positive I have more questions for you, but it will have to wait. I’m late for class. And quite frankly, I can’t look at either of you at the moment.”
Jack grimaced. Don’t be mad.
I placed my hand on the knob. Before I opened the door I thought to Jack, Don’t even think about following me out of here.
I stormed out, and headed straight to the library computer lab.
Chapter Twenty-Five
With the exception of a student worker, I was al
one in the computer lab. Everyone else was in class. I pulled up the website, named for the starfish—a site I thought was Dad’s and my secret.
A collage of drawings and pictures flashed across the screen. I clicked on the one in the middle. A black and white charcoal of a woman.
“Gram,” I whispered. Her eyes stared back at me. I teared up.
It barely looked like her, but I knew the love I felt when I drew it.
I pushed the back button. My dad had apparently added pictures since I last visited. Some I didn’t remember sending him. I looked at the last icon. My current work-in-process.
That’s strange? How did he get a hold of that?
Almost instantly, Jack responded. What’s strange? Where are you?
Get out of my head Jack! I closed him off.
I had to learn better control and become more aware of someone slipping into my subconscious. It frightened me to know there were others like Jack and me, and even someone like me who might want to hurt me. Briana might not know her mind was altered, but what about someone else?
The lab worker on the other side of the room giggled as she texted away on her phone.
Wouldn’t it be easier to run? Maybe Jack was right.
I gave my head a shake. I couldn’t think about that right now.
What was Coach… Detective Williams doing on this website? He’d been watching over me? Did anything in my life make sense anymore?
In addition to the portfolio of my artwork, there was a separate page detailing my swim times. The entire site amounted to an online scrapbook of my activities and hobbies. Evidence of a father’s love for a daughter he never saw, maybe.
My stomach twisted and churned. I missed Dad so much. Despite all the secrets.
I clicked on “home” one last time. There were no pictures of me, no personal information. “Why were you so interested in my amateur artwork, Coach?” Maybe he was just clicking through to the swim times. That could be it. Maybe he actually entered the times for Dad. That made sense, too.
Who was I kidding? Nothing made sense.
My pointer hovered over the “x” in the upper right hand corner.
Then, I noticed it. In the sidebar, at the bottom of the screen. A tiny starfish. I ran the pointer over it. There didn’t appear to be a link attached to the small icon.
“That’s strange,” I whispered. Then I remembered some of the computer security tricks Dad taught me over Christmas break one year. I thought of one in particular. Maybe there was a link hidden below this picture after all. I just needed to know the string of key strokes to push before the link would appear.