I woke to a room blanketed in dim lighting. It took several seconds to remember I was in a hotel room, sunk down into the vast expanse of the king-size bed, my head nestled in soft down pillows. As my eyes slowly adjusted, I turned my head to find Jonas sleeping in what looked like the most uncomfortable position possible in a small armchair. His legs were stretched out into in the chair’s twin.
I rolled from the bed and padded over to him. When I cupped his cheek, he stirred with a jolt. His bloodshot eyes focused on mine. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I whispered. I guessed I should have said: nothing new was wrong. “Get in bed.”
His eyes studied mine for several seconds before he stood and crawled into the large bed. I pulled the comforter over him, then turned around, searching the room for my bag.
His hand shot out from beneath the covers and grabbed my forearm. “What are you doing?”
I turned back and sat on the edge of the bed. I ran my fingers against the grooves between his brows. “Just going to wash my face and stuff.”
“How’s your head?”
“It’s fine. Stop worrying about me. Get some sleep.” I wanted to lean down and kiss the side of his head, but I couldn’t. It felt too intimate, and there was only one ending to what I was feeling: me with a broken heart.
Jonas was only here to do a job for Lexi—find the missing clones and decide if my dad was for or against us. But I was fighting for my life, my freedom. I’d be better off searching for evidence to prove my innocence alone, and let Jonas concentrate on the clones. If I could figure out what Vance was up to in the process, then all the better. It was time for Jonas and me to split up.
I had an idea of who could help me next: Vance’s personal assistant. She could help me get inside Boone Laboratories. I was sure of it.
Jonas’s breathing deepened into a light snore. He was finally getting much needed sleep. But I’d slept enough. It was four a.m. I slipped into the bathroom and took a quick shower. Clean and dressed, I quietly stuffed my belongings back into my small bag, then found my phone, sitting directly next to Jonas’s. I was about to check for messages when a piercing alarm sounded—the hotel’s fire alarm.
Jonas was on his feet in two seconds flat. Disoriented, he looked me up and down. “You were getting ready to leave,” he said, somehow ignoring the alarm going off. “Why?”
“You needed sleep. I didn’t want to disturb you.” I sucked in an exasperated breath, then blew it out. “That’s hardly what we should be discussing.” I pointed up as if the alarm was right above our heads.
“Were you going to come back?” He didn’t give me a chance to answer before he slipped inside my head and invaded my mind. His face fell when he discovered that I was, in fact, about to leave without him.
“Look, Jonas, you’ve told me how Palmyra is your mess. Well, these murders—my dad’s company—this is my mess. My life. I think you should go back to Palmyra. I’ll move around much more easily if I’m not constantly trying to disguise us both.” It was total crap. I knew it.
Apparently he knew it, too. He grabbed my arm and pulled me close. The alarm seemed to grow louder. “How do I convince you that I’m here to stay? You…” he slid a hand to the small of my back, pinning me next to him, “… are my mess.” He smiled then.
I did not.
“I am no one’s mess,” I nearly spat while struggling in his arms.
“What are you afraid of?” he asked, his amber eyes darkened by furrowed brows.
“Afraid?” I scoffed. “If I were afraid, I would have run already. Left Portland. I’m facing this head on.”
“I don’t mean the murder charges, the IIA agents looking for you, or even what experiments your father might be doing to human clones. I mean us.”
I trembled, and there was no disguising it beneath his touch. “There is no us.” I could hear the shakiness in my voice, feel the thumping of my own heart.
“There’s an us, all right,” he said as if he’d just discovered the truth. “Neither of us knows what it means, but at least I’m not afraid of finding out.”
“Is that why you made me feel so welcome on Palmyra?” I asked sarcastically. “Because you weren’t afraid to find out why I might have been there? Is that what the whole ‘pretending’ game was all about?” I tried to pull away from him, but couldn’t. “I kissed you yesterday and all but admitted how deep my feelings were for you, and you said… what? Oh yeah, that’s right. You said nothing!”
When his grip tightened, I didn’t fight it. Instead, I rolled my shoulders and angled my head so that our faces were close. Our breathing blended between us, his breath warm against my lips.
“Why do you think I came to Palmyra?” I asked him finally.
“To get some rest and relaxation? Work on your suntan?”
Did he think it was wise to joke with me right now? He was backpedaling, and I decided to lay down the gauntlet. “I traveled to Palmyra to see if you and I had any kind of future together. I was willing to start the next segment of my life with you on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I was willing to discover if our feelings were worth pursuing. But now…”
Jonas was staring at me now with fear in his eyes. The alarm continued to ring overhead. The strobe light reflected in his eyes. “Now…?” he asked, his voice surprisingly even.
“Now, my freedom is at stake. And that has nothing to do with you. I will not—”
“The hell it doesn’t! Your freedom—your future—has everything to do with me.” He let go of me and ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t you get it?” he yelled.
“Get what?” I said calmly back.
“I pushed you away on purpose. I thought it would be better for you.”
“Better for me.” I bit my lip, biting back a frustrated growl.
“But then I followed you here. I gave you space when I first arrived, but I went after you when I thought you were in trouble. And I stayed. All because I—” He turned and went to the window. The alarm continued its piercing cry.
“Because you what, Jonas?” I asked, my voice calm.
He turned and came at me, slipping his hand to the back of my neck. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you moving on with your life without me in it. I couldn’t let you fight your battles without me. And if that’s not what you want… that’s fine. Just let me help you get out of this mess. Let’s clear your name. Let’s find the children that were stolen from Palmyra. Then I’ll leave you alone.”
Before I could answer him, there was a thumping at the door. “Hotel security. We need everyone to exit.”
Jonas let go of me and ran to the door. He peered through the peephole, then turned to me. Two IIA agents. They resisted my commands.
They’re emptying an entire hotel just to find me?
Jonas angled his head as if to say, “Seriously? You’d question the lengths the IIA would go to find any one of us?”
We heard the sound of a key card deactivating the lock, and I started to panic. I grabbed Jonas’s hand and pulled him next to me. Don’t even breathe, I ordered. I have no idea if I can do this. If they’re capable of shutting you out… I stared into Jonas’s eyes.
The door opened. I entered the minds of both agents, controlling what they saw. Specifically, I forced their thoughts to register a room void of people. Jonas smiled at me, but I was unable to return the smile. I can’t hold it long, I mindspoke.
One of the agents, a woman, looked into the bathroom while the other, a man, walked further into the bedroom. Let’s go, I mindspoke. Jonas and I headed for the door, dodging past the woman exiting the bathroom.
“Nothing?” she asked. The man shook his head in answer.
But just as Jonas had his hand on the doorknob, I lost control of the invisibility. The woman pulled a gun and yelled, “Briana Howard, stop right there!”
Jonas flung the door open, and we ran. Shots rang out and shattered wood and drywall sprayed all around us. The alarm was even louder in the hallway. The agents yelled behind us. We entered the emergency stairwell and ran down the concrete steps along with other hotel guests, who presumably thought they were fleeing a real fire.
We heard shouts from above. “Briana. Stop. We will shoot.”
“Keep going,” Jonas ordered. “They won’t shoot with other people all around.”
“We have your father,” the woman yelled.
I stopped. Jonas, two steps in front of me, also stopped. I searched his eyes, frantic, and then I saw something unexpected.
“Bree, don’t listen to them. We have to go.”
“You already knew this. How?” I’d been with him the whole time.
“I’ll explain, but we won’t be able to help your father if they catch you.”
He was right about that. So we kept going, racing past other hotel guests. When we reached the ground floor, we exited onto a side street where the hotel guests were congregating, waiting for the okay to return to their rooms. The lights of three fire trucks blinked up ahead. I quickly changed our appearances, and Jonas and I huddled with the others before the pursuing agents could spot us.
How did you know? I asked him again.
Your mother called while you were sleeping. Left a message.
You didn’t wake me? I mindspoke through gritted teeth.
Stop, he commanded. I am not the enemy. That’s why I was in the chair. I was trying to stay awake so that as soon as you’d slept a little, I could tell you. But I drifted off.
You didn’t think this was important enough to wake me?
He grabbed my arms. Stop fighting me. We’ll go to your mom. Now.