Secrets (15 page)

She stumbled slightly, feeling a wave of dizziness.

“Are you sure you should be up?” Anthony stood, too, and studied her. “You look a little wobbly.” He grabbed the
pitcher of water off the table next to Jackie’s bed, poured her a cup, then pressed it into her hand. /GOTTA DO

SOMETHING/SHE’S OKAY/WATER/PALE/

Anthony’s fear mixed with the fading fear Rae already had going on, and his relief joined hers. She took a sip of the
water, even though she didn’t really want it, because it would make him feel better. She couldn’t help feeling a
strange sense of dйjа vu, recalling that time at Oakvale after the pipe bomb when she’d gotten those same thoughts
off a cup of water Anthony had given her. He was always there somehow when she needed him most. In fact, he
must have caught her when she passed out, or else she’d probably be dealing with one major headache right now.

“Sorry I dragged you into this,” Anthony said. “I didn’t know-”

“It’s okay,” Rae interrupted him. “Stuff like this is what I should be doing with my… whatever. God, if I had done
something after I did that sweep at school, Jackie might not even be in the hospital. I could have-”

“Just because you have this thing, this gift,”

Anthony interrupted, “it doesn’t mean you’re supposed to take responsibility for the whole world.” Rae smiled.

“Oh, right. I forgot. That’s your job.” Anthony glanced over at Jackie. Rae followed his gaze. “Let’s come back
tomorrow,” she said. “I’m not going to be able to get anything from her that’ll help. Not until she’s conscious.”

And until I can stop shaking,
Rae thought, although there was no way she’d let Anthony know just how much that
connection with Jackie had taken out of her. She didn’t really want to think about it too much herself.

The phone rang. It sounded louder than usual, shriller. Rae rolled over in bed and snatched up the receiver,
ignoring the old thoughts that tumbled through her mind.
Who’s calling in the middle of the night?
she wondered as
she mumbled hello. Then she realized sunlight was pouring in her bedroom windows. It was already Saturday
morning. Obviously yesterday had taken even more out of her than she’d realized.

“Hello,” Rae said again, her sleepy brain taking in the fact that there had been no reply to her first greeting.

“Rae. I’m calling for Aiden Matthews.”

Rae sat straight up, heart jittering in her chest. Itwas a woman’s voice. Why was this woman calling about Aiden?

“You met Aiden-” she began to continue.

“At the Wilton Center. I remember,” Rae interrupted.

“Yes. You had a lot of questions. He wanted to answer them. But he couldn’t. Not there.”

“Can he answer them now?” Rae asked, her voice coming out way too squeaky to sound human.

“Aiden would like to meet you face-to-face,” she replied. “He didn’t even feel it was a good idea to call you himself,
which is why I’m doing it for him. He’ll be waiting for you at the Motel 6 on Sherman. Room 212. No one will see you
there.”

Before Rae could ask another question, the dial tone began to hum in her ear.

It could happen today,
she thought, hanging up the phone.
I could find out everything today.

Or Aiden, your good friend Aiden, who you talked to for, like, half a minute, could have a whole other agenda

planned,
a little voice in her head warned.
I mean, we’re talking Motel 6.
And so what if it was a woman who’d called
her? Maybe she was in on it-Rae had heard of some crazy couples like that.

Rae grabbed the phone, getting her old thoughts again, and punched Yana’s speed dial number. “I donot take calls
before noon on Saturday,” Yana mumbled when she picked up.

“Some woman just called and said she was calling for Aiden Matthews,” Rae explained. “He wants a meeting. He-”

“I’m picking you up. I’m already there,” Yana answered, then slammed down the phone.

Clothes. Need clothes,
Rae thought. She climbed out of bed and had to grab the edge of her nightstand to keep
from landing on the floor. Her right foot-it was numb. Completely. Toe to heel.

“It’s never been this bad before,” Rae whispered, every muscle in her body tightening.
Maybe it’s because Jackie

was unconscious,
she thought.
Or maybe, maybe whatever it is that’s happening to me is speeding up.

Stop,
Rae ordered herself.
Just stop until you hear what Aiden has to say. He could know exactly what ’s going on.

He could even know the cure.

She walked to the closet, keeping her eyes on her feet. Watching her right foot seemed to make it work, even
though she couldn’t feel it.

Rae pulled out the first sweater and pair of pants her fingers touched, then yanked them on. She jammed on her
sneakers, not bothering with socks, and rushed out of her room, still watching her right foot, willing it to move.

In the hall she made herself try to walk with her head up, and it worked okay.
See, you’re doing fine,
she told
herself. “Dad, I’m going out with Yana,” she called.

“Okay, have fun,” he answered from the bathroom. Rae knew he’d be in there at least an hour. He never left until
he’d finished the crossword puzzle-in red pen-and given himself a grade based on how many squares he’d
messed up.

She started to swing by the kitchen, then decided if she ate, she’d probably puke the food back up. Her stomach
seemed to think it was riding a roller coaster.

Aiden better explain everything about the experi ments,
Rae thought as she rushed out of the house. That
word-
experiments-
had been popping up in her mind ever since she’d pulled it out of his thoughts.

Had her mother and the other people in the group been experimented on? That was going to be her first question.

Rae peered down the street in the direction Yana would be coming from. No sign of her.

Of course not,
she thought.
It takes at least twenty minutes to get here from her house. Okay, maybe twelve the

way Yana drives. And she had to get dressed and everything, too.

I’ll count to a thousand,
she told herself.
By thetime I get there, she’ll be here.
Rae hadn’t done the count-to-a-thousand thing since she was a kid. But it had gotten her through some hard stretches of time-like the hours
between when she woke up and when it was okay to wake her dad up on Christmas morning.

“One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi,” she began.

At six hundred Mississippi she heard the squeal of tires. A moment later she saw Yana’s yellow Bug slamming
around the corner. Three seconds later Rae was in the passenger seat. “Motel 6 on Sherman,” Rae instructed. A
second later they were off.

“Finally we actually get a
Charlie’s Angels
assignment,” Yana said with a grin. “None of this looking at old
yearbooks. Or talking to sad little girls. Meeting a mysterious man in a hotel-that’s more my style.” Yana gave her
short hair a little flip. “I get to be the Drew Barrymore angel ’cause she was the coolest. You should be the Lucy Liu
one ’cause she was the rich, spoiled, prep school one.”

“I’m not spoiled,” Rae protested. She wanted to add that she and her dad weren’t that rich. But to Yana they were,
so Rae kept her mouth shut.

“You know, he might just be waiting there to get ahold of your young, ripe, jailbait flesh,” Yana warned.

“Yeah, I thought of that,” Rae said. “I’m not an imbecile. That’s why you’re here.”

“We can kick his butt if he gets out of line,” Yana answered, sounding like she kind of hoped he would. She
started humming the
Charlie’s Angels
theme song and didn’t stop until they pulled into the motel parking lot.

“Park near the stairs. He’s in room 212,” Rae said.

Yana quickly found a space, and they climbed out. Yana started up the stairs with much hair flipping and posing
with a pretend gun. “Come on, Rae. Show me your stuff.”

Rae gave her hair a little toss, then trotted up the stairs, passing Yana. She was way too eager to find out what
Aiden had to say to fool around playing games.

Yana caught up to Rae in the hall, and they walked down the faded green carpet side by side. When they got to
room 212, the door was slightly ajar.

“Aiden,” Rae called. “It’s me.”

No answer.

“Hello?” Rae gave the door a little push. A hand grabbed her by the wrist and jerked her inside. Immediately a
blindfold was wrapped around her eyes. “You scream, you die right here,” a rough voice told her.

Rae clamped her teeth together, but she couldn’t keep a high, long whimper from escaping as her hands were
tightly bound together. Whoever was doing this to her-Aiden? It didn’t sound like him-was wearing gloves, so she
couldn’t pick up any information.

“On the floor, blondie,” another voice ordered from the back of the room.

Oh God, they have Yana, too,
Rae thought. The gloved hands pushed her down on a bed, and her feet were tied
together. “Now, be a good girl and keep quiet. We’ll know if you don’t.”

Rae heard footsteps move toward the door, then the sound of it opening and closing. She shivered as the door
was locked from the outside.

Anthony pulled into Rae’s driveway, parked, and got out of the car. Rae wasn’t one of those girls you could honk
for. At least not in front of her house, when her dad was home and everything. He headed to the front door and rang
the bell.
Hope her dad doesn’t answer,
Anthony thought. The guy was decent. Anthony even liked him. But he was a
professor, for chrissake. What did Anthony have to say to a guy like that?

The door swung open, and there stood-you got it-Rae’s dad. He held a book in one hand, with his finger holding
the place. Reading on the weekend. How disturbed was that?

Mr. Voight smiled. “Anthony, hi.”

“Hi,” Anthony said back. Was he supposed tomake some chitchat before he asked for Rae? “Uh, what are you
reading there?”

“The new Stephen King,” Mr. Voight answered. “The other professors in my department like to pretend they don’t
even know who he is. Even Rae doesn’t know I read King. She’d say if I got to read junk like that, she should be able
to watch TV. But I like his style. It’s so immediate. His narrators, it really does feel like they’re talking right to you. Are
you a fan?”

“Not really,” Anthony said, not bothering to mention that he hadn’t even read one of the guy’s books, even though
he’d seen a bunch of the movies and thought some of them were cool.
Maybe in a few months I could try one of

them,
he thought, surprising himself.
I mean, I
am
getting better at the reading stuff.

“I guess you’re here for Rae and not for a book club meeting,” Mr. Voight joked. “Yana picked her up a few hours
ago. I don’t know when they’re due back, but you’re welcome to wait if you want to.” He gestured inside with his
book.

“She didn’t leave a message for me or anything?” Anthony asked. He knew the answer before Mr. Voight shook his
head. If Rae’d left a message, her dad would have already given it to Anthony.

Well, great. Yesterday he’d thought-it wasalmost like how things used to be between him and Rae. But now Rae
was ditching him after making plans to go see Jackie-Anthony realized Mr. Voight was still standing there, watching
him. “Thanks, but I gotta get going,” he said. He turned around and hurried back to his car, got in, and slammed the
door so hard, the Hyundai shimmied.

So, I’ll go by myself,
Anthony thought as he backed out of the driveway and pulled onto the street. He and Rae had
talked to a nurse on the way out of the hospital yesterday, and she was almost positive Jackie would be conscious
by now. Which didn’t mean she’d be happy to see him. He’d be willing to place a large bet that he wasn’t anywhere
on her list of approved visitors, even way at the bottom.

He slowed down a little until he was heading toward the hospital at about five miles under the speed limit.
If she