Collide (22 page)

MAYA’S GAZE MEETS MINE
. Her hair is more wild than I remember, her skin less vibrant. Her eyes carry the biggest change. No longer filled with the joyful life I remember, Maya’s eyes are hard. Cold.

Dead.

“Get in,” she says again.

“Maya.” My eyes widen as I force the bones of her skull together with my mind. “You killed Mari.”

“Stop,” she says through gritted teeth. “I can help you.”

I continue to squeeze. The effort takes more energy than I posses and my mind begins to blur.

A fresh wave of gunshots rings out around the car. Blood, hot and sticky, trickles down my arm. “David . . .”

“You need help. Get in, quick.”

My focus leaves. More banging sounds surround me. Something crashes into my thoughts. My world blackens.

“Come on!”

My body floats away, and everything . . .

Ends.

White hot agony brings me conscious. Liquid fire burns through my shoulder and my stomach leaps into my throat.

“Stop.” The word comes in a garbled mess. “Stop,” I say again.

“Shh. Let me clean your wound.”

Events come back in a rush. Bullets whiz around us as we run through endless rows of corn. My shoulder explodes into a million pieces. Maya orders us into her car.

I shake my head, forcing a thin focus. My gaze meets Maya’s in the rearview mirror. David tends to my shoulder.

“Pour more alcohol over the wound. Wrap the bandage around her arm and shoulder. Not too tight, though, let the injury breathe.”

David pulls supplies from a first aid kit and complies with every instruction. Worry carves into his features.

I inhale my pain as more fire blazes through my shoulder. “I’m okay,” I say, more to myself than to him.

He covers the wound with gauze and ties it off, touching me like I’m a china doll.

“She’ll need antibiotics. I can get them for her.” Maya lifts her chin toward David. “Okay?”

He nods in agreement.

“Wait,” I say to David. “Why are we trusting her?”

“I know who killed Josh.”

“Don’t,” I mumble. “Don’t listen to her.”

A smile curls Maya’s lips. “A thank you would be nice. You’d both be dead without me.” Maya slams on the gas and the car screeches along the highway. The motion unnerves me, challenging my ability to focus again.

“Where are we going?” David asks before I can.

“The
lab
.”

Chills erupt over my body. “No!” My thoughts sharpen in an instant. “I’m not going back to that place with you. In fact, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Dakota—”

“No! She can’t be trusted, David.”

David furrows his brow.

“She was in my head. At the safe house. At the car. She was the one who attacked me.”

David has the gun to Maya’s head before she can blink. “Is that true? Did you get into her thoughts?”

“We don’t have time for this,” Maya says, her vision darting between us and the road. “Your mother’s in trouble. We all are.”

“My mother’s dead.”

“No. She’s alive. I’ll take you to her.”

My head swims with her words.
Mom’s still alive. Maya is willing to take me to Josh’s killer. The lab still exists
. “Why would you help us?”

“He asked me to find you.” My reactions reflect in Maya’s expression. “Dr. LeMercier.”

His name unleashes its own assault. Fresh memories flash across my vision. LeMercier lead the experiments. He is to blame.

“Why?”

“To kill you.”

I watch Maya as intently as she scrutinizes me. “The Solomon experiments, they still exist?”

“No. Your mother made sure that ended when she took us.”

“Us?”

Surprise passes through Maya’s eyes for a moment. “You don’t remember what happened, do you?”

“Enlighten us,” David says, pushing the barrel of his gun into her head with extra force.

Maya grinds her teeth “Fine,” she says. “Your mother got everyone out, all five of us. We were each placed with different families, former researchers with the group. A few months later, LeMercier found me. He killed those caring for me, threatened me. I was forced to join him, or die.”

“You couldn’t ask my mother to help you?”

“I tried. I couldn’t find her. I had no one left to turn to, no one I could trust.”

“So you turned to LeMercier,” David says.

“Yes. I never joined his organization though.”

“What organization?” David and I ask together.

“The Order, a group of investors committed to the development of psychic warfare.”

“Government sanctioned?” David asks.

“Not likely.”

“So there are more of . . . us.” I can barely say the words.

“Psychic assassins? Only one, I believe.” Maya pins me with a glare that strips me to my soul.

“And you’re with the Order?” I’m not certain what part of her story I believe.

“No. LeMercier took me in, trained me for the last ten years, but I am not in the Order.” A note of sadness fills her words.

“You wish you were though.” I sense her need for power, a craving that mirrors my own.

“Maybe once. When the Order targeted you a few weeks ago, I agreed to help. It was the only way I could think of to help you.”

I close my eyes, shutting away her lies.

“You have to believe me, Dakota. We were friends once. Best friends. I’d never hurt you or your family.”

I close my eyes, wanting to trust everything she says, and knowing I can’t. “How did you find me?”

“I was looking for Josh.” Water fills her eyes. “When his presence . . . stopped, I was scared. I went looking for him and found you.”

Her story is plausible.

“Where are you taking us now?” David asks.

“Me? You’re the one holding the gun. I think we should go to the lab and take care of Dakota’s shoulder. But you’re the one in charge. You tell me where we should go.”

A long silence fills the car as I consider my limited options.

“Search my thoughts, Dakota. You’ll see I’m telling you the truth.”

David and I both riffle through her mind, searching for the answers we need. Maya stiffens for a moment, her expression as hard and cold as her eyes.

“Anything?” David asks.

“Only what she’s already told us.”

Maya smiles.

I’m still not convinced. “Okay, fine. Let’s say I believe you, why should we go with you?”

“First, that shoulder is going to get infected if we don’t treat it soon. I can heal it, but I need supplies. Antibiotics and fresh bandages.”

“The other reason?” David’s voice ripples with anger.

Maya meets my gaze. “You want vengeance and I can help you get it.”

Maya’s plan makes sense. I can find nothing wrong with what she tells me, and yet every instinct I have warns me against her.

“You’re certain Mom’s at the lab with LeMercier?”

“Everything you’re looking for is there, I promise you.”

The sun dips low on the horizon when we reach the lab, painting the sky with crimson streaks. Maya turns the car down a well hidden road situated between cornfields and a forest of maples and evergreens.

She slows. “We should walk the rest of the way,” she says as she pulls the car into a small opening within the forest.

“Will they sense us?” I ask.

“Doubtful,” she says. “There aren’t too many with ‘gifts’ around here anymore. We’d feel it otherwise.”

I hope I can believe her.

I know I can’t
.

Maya takes point, leading us through the trees and underbrush. A large building rises in the distance. Resembling an Old World estate, the building is surrounded by carefully tended lawns and well-manicured gardens. Several buildings, all with the same Mediterranean architecture stretch out in the distance. In the center of it all stands a large mansion. Carefully arched windows and doors surround the stucco and stone exterior. The roof’s red clay tiles stand out against the backdrop of green.

“I’ve seen this place,” I say to David. “In my dreams.”

“The lab. We lived here for a time.” Maya stands in front of us. Her body stiffens as David draws his gun, his eyes glued to Maya. “You still don’t trust me? I brought us here, just like I promised.”

David’s stony expression gives nothing away. “Antibiotics?”

“They’re in that building, the one to the right.” Maya points to the farthest structure. “The hospital.”

He motions for Maya to start walking. We follow the forest around the edge of the property line until we reach the last structure. My shoulder screams with every step, every movement of my arm. I grunt as we continue to climb through the trees and underbrush.

“I’ll get it,” Maya says when we are behind the building. “Wait here.”

“No way,” I say, ignoring the pain now radiating down my arm. “You’re not going in there just to tell everyone about us.”

“Fine. But don’t blame me if you get yourself shot again.”

Maya walks ahead, leading us to a small door at the back of the building. She motions to the security cameras and David and I flatten ourselves against the wall.

“Stay there,” she says. “I’ll be right back.”

Before I can protest again, she’s opening the door and slipping inside the building.

Great.

David and I wait, afraid to be seen in the monitors. The sky turns from fuchsia to dusky rose and grey. Maya returns, walking with an air of confidence.

“Well,” David says.

Maya hands him the antibiotics without a word. She motions for us to follow her to the tree line, a finger to her mouth. Once clear of the property, she turns to face me. “I did what you asked. I got the stupid meds. Now, I need something from you.”

I cross my arms over my chest as David redresses my wound. “What?”

The air bites through my skin as David removes the soiled bandages. I growl as he spreads the antibiotics over the gash and rewraps my arm.

“LeMercier knows you’re here. You have to let me bring you in, let him think I’ve captured you.”

My mind seizes with anger. “He knows we’re here? How?” It’s everything I can do not to kill her where she stands.

“I told him. When I got your meds.”

“I should kill you,” I say under my breath.

“LeMercier left me no choice.”

“So what, you’ll take us in now? Turn us over and let them kill us?” David pulls his gun and aims it at Maya’s chest. “We aren’t going.”

She raises her hands. “Hold on and hear me out. I don’t want him to kill you. I want us to kill him. Take my vengeance for everything he’s done.”

“You lied to us already. Why trust you now?” I pace in front of Maya, unable to release my pent-up rage. Adrenaline surges through my veins, urging action.

“You have no reason to, I know. But I can get you in to LeMercier’s office. Get you to him. You and I both know that’s what you want.”