Remember Jamie Baker (22 page)

Dr. Chen’s face flashed with surprise, as if he genuinely hadn’t expected me to refuse. He held up his hands. “Easy, Miss Baker. I’m not here to harm you. I just want to help. Come with me.”

My eyes narrowed. There was still the inexplicable urge to go with him and to trust him, but I was slowly coming to my senses. “Go with you where?”

He didn’t answer that question. “I can help you get your memories back. I can restore the damage done to your brain.”

Everything stopped—the urges in my head warring against my common sense, my internal attempts to figure out what was happening, my anxiety, my power—
everything
. I froze completely, focused solely on his claim. “How? Everyone in that hospital said it was impossible.”

He stepped closer, his smile softening. “For them, it is. But
I
can do it.”

That sounded too good to be true. And in my limited experience, if it seemed too good to be true, it probably was. Still, I couldn’t squelch the hope flaring in me. “How?”

“I work with a brilliant man who has pushed past normal human limitations with both medicine and technology.”

“Donovan?”

Dr. Chen nodded once. “Yes, Dr. James Donovan. His methods are revolutionary. He has developed a serum that has extraordinary regenerative capabilities. I’ve seen it do miraculous things. It could reverse the damage done to your brain.”

I sucked in a breath. Desire and desperation washed over me.

“Come with me. Meet Donovan. Hear his proposal, and we will heal you, Miss Baker. You will remember again. You have my word.”

The urge to go with him rose up in me again, as if he had some sort of physical compulsion over me. It wasn’t as strong as before, but it was harder to resist now that he was offering me exactly what I wanted. I knew there would be strings attached, dangerous strings. But Donovan had created superthugs. He’d given people powers similar to mine. That should have been impossible. It was impossible for the rest of the world. If he could accomplish that, then what’s to say he couldn’t do the impossible where I was concerned?

“Would you like to come with me, Miss Baker?” Dr. Chen asked again. “Would you like to be safe and have your memories back?”

My heart started pounding. I did want that. Those words…there was something about them. They were compelling. I wanted nothing more in the world than to be safe and have my memories back.

I took a step toward him. His face lit up with pleasure and he gave me a gentle, friendly smile. There was nothing dangerous about this man. He was my friend. I could trust him.

He held out his hand and I started to slip my fingers into his grip, but stopped again. “Wait.” There was still something unsettling about all of this. “Everyone knows how badly I want my memories back. What’s to say you aren’t lying to me? You could just be telling me what I want to hear so that I’ll come with you. I know Donovan wants my power. How do I know there’s really a miracle cure waiting for me if I come with you? For all my abilities, I’m not a human lie detector, Doctor. How can I trust you?”

The man’s smile turned sympathetic. “I understand your hesitancy. You have, no doubt, been fed many lies about Donovan from your military friends, but it is
them
you cannot trust. They fear Donovan’s progress and want to keep such powerful discoveries as his to themselves.”

I frowned. That didn’t seem right, and yet it did. I’d felt so panicked in the hospital, and it had been Major Wilks and his team of ACEs that I’d been afraid of. In fact, just thinking of them now made my pulse spike. I didn’t want to be under their control. But I didn’t want to be under Donovan’s control, either.

At my reluctance, Dr. Chen pulled a small glass vial from his pocket that was filled with a light-pink liquid. “I can offer you proof. This is a small dose of the serum we would use to heal your brain. It won’t be enough to repair all the damage, but if you take it, it will be able to do enough that you will see what it is capable of.”

He held out the vial of liquid to me in an open palm. “Take it, completely free of any obligation, as a token of good faith from me. Then, once you see the effects of the serum for yourself, call this number if you’d like to make a deal with us.”

He pulled a business card from the breast pocket of his lab coat and held it out to me, along with the vial of serum.

Was there a downside to this? What could it hurt to just try it? If he wasn’t going to make me come with him right now…

After a moment’s thought, I took both the card and the miracle cure sample. I examined the tube closely and inhaled deeply. It smelled bitter and had the faintest hint of…blood. I looked sharply at him. “What’s in this?”

He gave me a rueful smile. “That’s a secret I cannot divulge, I’m afraid.”

I didn’t like that answer, but if it was such a special formula, I could understand the secrecy, I guess. “How do I take it?”

“It must be injected into the bloodstream. I can do that for you right here and now if you’d like, or you can wait and do it yourself, or have someone you trust do it.”

That last option sounded like a good plan. Though, I doubted anyone I trusted would let me pump a mysterious foreign substance given to me by James Donovan’s partner into my body. And I wasn’t sure at the moment if there even was anyone I trusted. No, it had to be him. I needed my memories. My memories held the answers I needed. They would tell me whom I could trust.

I handed the serum back to him with a curt nod. “Okay. Do it.”

It was as Dr. Chen
pushed the serum into my arm and I felt the cold sting run up my vein that the ACEs walked around the corner of the building. Ryan called out to me, surprise and relief thick in his voice, while the others slowly approached me, guns drawn. “Back away from the girl,” Major Wilks shouted.

Though their rifles were pointed at Dr. Chen, my heart still jumped in my chest and I gasped. Something about the sight of the soldiers had me stepping closer to Dr. Chen instead of backing away. The need to flee was back.

Ryan took a step forward. “Jamie, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” I cut Dr. Chen a severe glance over my shoulder. “What did you do to me?”

“You’re all right, Miss Baker,” he said calmly. “Everything’s going to be okay. Come with me. Let’s leave right now, and I’ll make sure you stay safe.”

“Why do I feel this way? Something’s wrong with my head.”

“That’s just the serum,” Dr. Chen assured me. “That foggy feeling means it’s working.”

My adrenaline spiked again. It was
working
. I was going to have some memories back. I would settle for even one small glimpse of my past to confirm that I’d actually experienced the things Ryan had talked about. Not that I didn’t believe him, but a deep-rooted part of me needed that validation. I felt as if I’d never be complete without it.

“You can trust me, Miss Baker. We need to go see James Donovan. You do trust me, don’t you?”

At the mention of Donovan, the ACEs all stiffened. The tension kicked my anxiety up another notch. I nodded again, but the action was hesitant. I felt like I should answer yes, only I wasn’t sure that was the right answer. Just in case, I stood up straight, lifting my chin defiantly. “Stay behind me. They won’t hurt me.”

Ryan frowned. “Jamie, why are you protecting him?”

I blinked. I
was
protecting him. Why was I protecting the man I’d come here to capture? Chen was in league with the man responsible for my memory loss, but my brain was telling me to keep him safe. It didn’t make any sense.

When I didn’t answer right away, Ryan held out his hand to me. “Babe? Please? You’re starting to worry me.”

Looking at his hand stretched in my direction, my heart longed for me to go to him. I was so confused. My head and my heart were pulling me in half. I took a step toward him, and Dr. Chen grabbed me. “No, Miss Baker. Get me out of here, or you will never get more serum. You’ll never get all of your memories back.”

I froze.

“Angel, he’s manipulating you,” Major Wilks said. “He can’t give you your memories back.”

“I can,” Chen promised. “I’ve already begun the process. You will see soon enough. But I can’t help you anymore if these men capture me. You must leave with me now.”

I was being pulled in so many directions that I got upset. What made sense logically was to trust Major Wilks. The only person I
wanted
to trust was Ryan. But I was desperate for my memories, and my head was shouting at me to go with Dr. Chen. To believe him, and to protect him.

I released my frustration in the form of a roaring scream. And okay, maybe I stomped my foot, but hey, possibly a drama queen, remember? “Enough!”

My energy rose to the surface of my skin, clearing my head a little as it had before. I grabbed Dr. Chen’s hand, making him gasp when I pushed energy into his body. “Go. Just run. As fast as you can. They won’t be able to catch you.”

“Jamie, no!”

All of the ACEs echoed Ryan’s protest. Major Wilks even added a few curses and threats. I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was getting Dr. Chen to safety. As much of a pull as he had over me, though, I wasn’t affected enough to leave with him. That was asking too much of my nonexistent trust.

Dr. Chen’s eyes widened when he realized I’d given him power. He didn’t hesitate to take advantage of my gift. “Call me when you’re ready, Miss Baker,” he said, and disappeared.

Amidst all the angry questions, Tyson muttered, “I hope the superspeed makes the jerk puke.”

The joke was enough to snap me from my daze. My overwhelming need to protect and trust Dr. Chen faded when he left. But with him gone, I only had the soldiers to focus on, and my anxiety spiked all over again. The safety Dr. Chen had made me feel was gone, too. I felt alone now. When Ryan ran toward me, I panicked. “Don’t come near me!”

Ryan stumbled to a stop a few feet in front of me when he saw my hands thrust forward and my glowing eyes. “Jamie, what is it? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t
know
.” His worry confused me. “Just get away. All of you!”

None of the soldiers moved. They were trusting Ryan to handle me. It was a smart plan because he was the only one at this point that I could even consider listening to. The rest of them were nothing more than enemies holding weapons. People who wanted to capture me and control me. I couldn’t trust them. I needed to escape.

“Jamie, please,” Ryan pleaded. “Something is wrong. This isn’t you. Let us help you.”

My eyes scanned the group again and I shook my head. “You don’t want to help me. You want to use me. I can’t trust you. I’m sorry. I have to go…”

As I backed up a step, Ryan whispered three words that made me freeze. “That’s not true, Jamie.
I love you
.” When I paused, Ryan shook his head. “I could never hurt you. You know I couldn’t. Somewhere deep inside, you
know
that.”

My heart reacted, fighting against the urges in my head. I didn’t want to leave him. I needed to, though I didn’t understand why. But I didn’t want to. Tears of frustration burned my eyes. This was all too much. My head was a jumbled mess that was only getting worse by the second. “I don’t
know
anything.”

My energy kicked up into high gear, reaching the point where my hair started whipping around my head and electricity crackled along my skin. I was full of inexplicable anxiety and seeing yellow, but I still caught the major’s small nod to Johnny G.

The ACE team leader tried to subtly lift a tranq gun in my direction. Rational Jamie would have understood his actions, but I wasn’t feeling or thinking rationally at the moment. All I saw was a weapon. A threat. And I acted. “I don’t
think
so.”

I had the gun out of his hands and smashed into an unusable ball of metal, and was back in my spot facing them in my standoff before Johnny G hit the ground. Which he did hard, because I’d disarmed his tranq gun and jabbed him in the neck with his own dart.

“Anyone else want to try and take me out?” I growled. Before, I’d just been frustrated, but now I was pissed. I didn’t respond well to attacks of any kind, even if they were meant for my own protection.

Ryan lifted his hands in surrender, and as he tried to talk me down from my temper tantrum, several of the ACEs used the distraction to fire tranquilizers at me.

And this is why superreflexes
rock
.

I heard the guns fire and was more than able to move faster than the darts. I not only dodged them: I caught them and made every man who’d fired at me join their team leader in dreamland. Their guns all ended up in tranq gun heaven, too.

“Stop shooting at me!” I roared. “You guys are seriously starting to piss me off, and bad things happen when I get really angry.”

“Calm down, Angel,” Major Wilks said. He, Ryan, Abiodun, Tex, and Eyes were the only men still standing. “We don’t want to hurt you. We just need to figure out what that man did to you.”

“By
shooting
me with tranquilizers? I should roast you! You can forget about me working with you. I’m done. Out. You got that? I’m leaving. You guys are never going to see me again. And if you manage to track me down someday, good luck to you. This is your one pass. I won’t be so nice next time.”

A small sting hit my neck. I knew what that meant; it meant I was the biggest idiot on the planet. It looked like I needed to add that word to my personality traits list after all. I couldn’t believe I’d been caught monologueing. Well, sort of. I’d been delivering threats instead of divulging evil plans, but, you know, still wasting time when I should have been running, so, same difference. Curse my freaking temper! At least Teddy wasn’t here to witness my stupidity. Ryan was, though, and as I gasped and blinked slowly, he gave me a sorrowful smile. “It’s going to be okay, babe. You’re just going to sleep it off.”

“Sorry, Angel,” Tyson whispered as my head fogged over.

I’d been so distracted I never heard him approach. I’d forgotten about him because I couldn’t see him, and when he popped back into sight right behind me, I reacted instinctively, blasting him with a full dose of electricity. It may have even been an actual lightning bolt, because I was more amped up than I’d ever been. I barely had time to watch him fly backward from the force of my blow before the lights went out and I joined the unconscious ACEs on the ground.

. . . . .

When I woke up, I figured I’d have a raging headache, but I felt surprisingly relaxed. I wasn’t locked in a cage or strapped to a gurney, either. I was lying on a beautiful sandy-white beach backed by a thick tropical rainforest, and I was looking at the most amazing crystal-clear ocean I’d ever seen. The sun was hot on my skin, and a slight breeze was keeping me just cool enough to feel absolutely perfect.

I couldn’t remember the last time I felt so at peace. There wasn’t a soul on this beach with me except for the one person I’d want to share this moment with. I smiled, trying to decide what was more gorgeous: this private exotic beach, or my companion.

Ryan lay sprawled next to me on a large blanket in a pair of swim shorts. He was propped up on his elbow, staring out at the waves as they crashed on the shore just a few yards in front of us. He seemed lost in thought, but a small smile played on his lips.

Sucking in a huge breath of fresh ocean air, I pushed my body into a stretch and moaned with pleasure. The sound startled Ryan from his thoughts. When he grinned, my heart fluttered. “Feel better?” he asked.

I didn’t question how we got here or why. I didn’t care. “So much better. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“Me?” Ryan quirked a brow at me. “I’m not the one with superspeed.”

“You know what I mean.” After rolling my eyes, I shook my head and let out a soft sigh. “Do you always know exactly what I need?”

Ryan shook his head, chuckling. “Not always. Today was easy, though. A little peace and quiet always calms you down.”

I lifted myself up onto my elbows and gazed out at the view around me. It was definitely peaceful and quiet, but I suspected that’s not what had calmed me down. Feeling bold, I told Ryan as much. “I don’t think it’s the place so much as the company.”

Surprise flashed in Ryan’s eyes, but he quickly flashed me a cocky grin. “I thought I had the opposite effect on you.”

To prove his point, he dragged a finger over my shoulder and down my arm. His soft touch on my sun-baked skin sent a chill through me. My heart started pounding in my chest and my breath quickened.

Ryan only smiled in response to my physical reaction. There was no need for him to point out the obvious. He started trailing his finger along the strap of my swimsuit. It was a cute white one-piece with pink polka dots that had been sitting in my closet in the desert, untouched since the moment my memory began. I’d always loved it, but I’d never had occasion to wear it until now. It was questionably low-cut and only held in place by a thin strap that tied behind my neck. This was the strap Ryan was fiddling with. He was concentrating very hard on the thin material, as if he were contemplating untying the bow on the back of my neck. The thought thrilled me unlike anything ever had before.

Ryan, guessing the direction of my thoughts, scooted closer to me, closing the small gap between us. His hands continued their heavenly torture, moving slowly over every part of exposed skin they could find.
Well
, I thought,
if he can do it, so can I.

Dozens of times I’d imagined what it would feel like to run my fingers up his rippled stomach, and finally I turned that fantasy to reality. Shyly, I reached out to feel his smooth skin and soft baby-fine blond hair. He sucked in a sharp breath when my fingers made contact. His hand clasped over mine, stilling my exploration of his body, and his eyes flashed to mine, searing me with heat. “Jamie,” he rasped, voice huskier than it had ever been.

He brought my hand to his lips, and his eyes fell shut as he kissed me softly on my inner wrist. “I
need
you.”

It was a desperate plea, an irresistible plea. I couldn’t deny him any more than I could deny I wanted him. I was still nervous. “I want to…but…I’ve never…”

“I know, Sunshine.” He leaned forward, giving me a tender kiss. “We don’t have to, if you’re not ready…I just…”

He took a deep breath and leaned back. The feeling of him pulling away was what drove me to grab his wrist and say, “I’m ready.”

With a hard swallow, I lay back, placing myself in his care, never breaking eye contact. “Are you sure?” he whispered.

My body was sure, if nothing else, so I nodded again.

Ryan needed no other prompt. “I love you, Jamielynn Baker. I always have, and always will.” He leaned over me, kissing me deeply. His body, warm and solid pressed against me, ignited a fire inside me that might just have been hot enough to melt the sand around us. I gasped…

…and shot to a sitting position, in a bed, groggy from sleep and yet flushed from the heat coursing my body.

“Jamie?”

Ryan was there, but the beach was gone. He was back in his army green and my swimsuit was probably still tucked in my dresser in the desert safe house where it had always been. Though, the heat I’d been consumed with was lingering inside me. Placing the back of my hand to my cheek, I took a breath, shook myself, and rubbed my neck as I slowly released the air from my lungs. Man, it was hot in here.

“Jamie? Are you okay?”

Blinking in the dimly lit room, I looked at Ryan, perched in a chair beside the head of my bed—I was back in my room at ACE headquarters—and realized what had happened. “I dreamed!”