Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies (19 page)

She’d been surprised by his question, too, but was glad he’d had the presence of mind to ask it.

When her father kept stubbornly silent, frustration pulsed through her.

“Dad, the secrecy has got to stop!”

He pulled a frying pan out of the cupboard next to the stove.

“We found that article in your memento box next to your pictures of Mom. Why was it in there? Who was that man? Did he have something to do with her accident?”

Her father grabbed a knife from the block and chopped off the head and tail of one fish after another. The pounding thud of the knife hitting the cutting board
—chop, chop, chop—
grated on Genie’s nerves. She wanted to scream at him to stop. To sit down. To tell her the truth. She pushed back from the table and stood.

“Please Dad, if it’s important, tell me! Because if you had told me the truth about Becca and Emerich, maybe I could have done something to—”

He spun toward her, knife in one hand, fish in the other. “Could have what? Saved Becca? Blaming yourself never does any good for anyone. Haven’t I always taught you that?”

“I’m not blaming myself. Why would I blame myself for Becca’s death when she’s not even dead!”

Her father stared at her with cold fury in his eyes. But not shock.
He already knew.
The truth had been there, just waiting for her to feel it. And maybe that’s why he had sent her away to be sequestered alone in the desert instead of coming here to live with him.

“For eight months you led me to believe that Becca was dead. Why?”

“Like I said before, Genie. If you want to discuss Becca, if you want to talk about our private family issues, then we will have to be alone.” His cold gaze shifted to Kyle. “There are some things I won’t talk about with outsiders present. Ever.”

Hell, no.

Genie reached for Kyle’s hand and pulled him closer to her. “I want him here,” she said, surprising even herself.

“Anything that’s said will not leave this room,” Kyle assured him, stepping behind her. His hands on her shoulders felt good. He was on her side. She felt it to her bones.

Her father looked at Kyle long and hard, then placed the last cleaned fish on a plate. He pulled down a plastic container of flour from the cupboard along with a bottle of oil that he poured into the pan. He flipped on the fan above the stove. He wasn’t going to budge on this.

Genie turned to Kyle, frustrated to the max. They exchanged a look. “What do we do now?”

He jerked his chin toward the other room, and they walked out of the kitchen toward the bedroom, picking up the clothes they’d strewn along the way. Genie quickly dressed and gave Kyle his shirt. He put it on, buttoning it up.

“Were you serious in there about Becca?” he asked. “You honestly think she’s really alive?”

“Yes.” He hadn’t believed her earlier, but she could sense him coming around. She was fairly amazed by his open mind. Maybe she hadn’t been giving him enough credit.

His voice grew quiet. “You think your dad knew all along?”

“It looks like it.”

“And that’s why he sent you away to hide in the desert?”

She nodded. “I think perhaps Emerich has been after me for a long time.”

“What makes you think that?”

She shook her head wishing she could let it all out and tell him everything, but knowing it would only cause more problems between them. “Just a feeling.”

“Then pay attention. You have pretty amazing instincts.” He came close, slipping his hand around her waist, resting his forehead against hers. “I have to call Cameron. I have to let him know about all this before he gets here.”

She sucked in a breath, wanting to fight him on it, but realizing she shouldn’t. Becca was alive, her father had just unknowingly confirmed that. They needed to find her, and stop Emerich. To do that, they were going to have to work together. “Yeah. I understand.”

“Hopefully he’s found something out about Tom Garrison, or those text messages. I’ll be right outside if you need me.”

He gave her a squeeze and started to walk away, but turned back to her. “By the way, I like what you said back there.”

“What did I say?”

“That you trusted me. Is it true?”

She smiled and closed the distance between them, then kissed him again. With a wink, he broke away and walked out the door. Taking a fortifying breath, she strode back to the kitchen. “All right, Dad. You got your way. We’re alone. Now spill.
Everything.”

He took a moment to finish frying the fish, put them on a paper towel-lined dish, and set them on the table. He took three plates out of the cupboard and placed them in front of her before finally sitting.

Genie took one from the stack and helped herself to a fish, but didn’t touch it.

Her dad’s eyes locked on hers. “Nothing we say here can leave this room.”

She stared at him. Waiting. Not promising anything. “How could you not tell me, Dad? You let me believe Becca was dead. You let me mourn my sister. What in the hell is wrong with you?”

“Because if I had told you, you would have gone charging after her, not caring about your safety or anything else.”

“So it was better to let me think my sister was dead?”

He hesitated a long moment before simply saying, “Yes. I’m sorry.”

I’m sorry
? “No, you’re not. You did what you thought was right and to hell with everyone else. Nothing new there.”

“Genie,” he warned.

“Where is she?” she demanded, though she had a fairly good idea.

“Emerich has her.”

Her thoughts flashed to her vision of a room with guns and bars on the windows. “He
has
her? Or she’s
with
him? There’s a big difference.”

“He has her.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do.”

She wanted to laugh. “Not good enough, Dad. Your obsessive need to control every aspect of our lives, hell, every aspect of
everything
—it has destroyed my life.
All
our lives. No more. I want to know—”

“You can’t possibly blame me
—
”

“I can and I do.” She clutched the edge of the table. “I want to know everything, Dad. And if I have to go into that warped mind of yours and ransack it—”

“Fine!” He stood abruptly, pacing in front of her, scrubbing his hand through his grizzled hair. “Emerich has Becca, and now he wants you and Cat. Is that enough for you?”

“You still haven’t said why. What does he want us for?” Though she had a sneaking suspicion about that, too. Why she hadn’t realized before…

“He wants to control your empathic abilities, Genie. Yours and Cat’s.”

She stared at him, trying to absorb what she hadn’t wanted to believe. But she needed to hear the whole twisted plot. “Why?”

“Why do you think? Money. And power.”

“But Emerich can’t
control
our abilities. Hell,
I
can’t even control it. Becca must have told him that. Besides, she would never have—”

He made a deprecating noise. “Told him that you girls are different? That you’re special, with incredible gifts? That’s why you had to be—” He halted, obviously chagrined.

He’d said too much. Genie’s anger flared. “Separated? Sent away? Told not to use our abilities anymore? Not to let anyone know our big secret? Well, we didn’t, Dad. Not ever.”

“You mean you and Cat didn’t.”

At the not-so-subtle accusation, Genie’s fury coalesced into something else…
fear
? “What the hell are you saying?”

“I’m saying Becca wasn’t willing to follow orders. Emerich has known about what she can do, what you all can do, for a long time. Probably since their school days. Now he’s gotten the bright idea to exploit it, to use it for his own power and profit.”

“Exploit how? All Becca can do, all any of us can do, is sense how others are feeling. And believe me, that’s not always a gift.”

Her father leaned forward bracing his hands on the table. “For Becca, it’s more than just a gift.”

“What do you mean?”

“Becca told me Emerich’s scientists have come up with a drug cocktail that enhances her abilities, so not only can she sense what people were feeling, she can manipulate those emotions, as well. More than that, sometimes she can actually connect with people and even see through their eyes.”

Seriously? She regarded him, stunned. “That’s just crazy. Why would you even believe that?”

He let out a long breath, almost deflating before her eyes. “Becca showed me. They’ve been experimenting, giving her different drugs, working on her brainwaves and synapses to the point that she can literally see their thoughts. She demonstrated for me how she can get images of schematics, buildings, weapons systems, just by becoming close to the subject.”

She frowned. “Wait. By touching them?” He shook his head and a sense of horror swept through her. “You mean… How close does she have to get?”

“As close as it takes.”

“And that’s why Emerich wants me and Cat? So he can experiment on us, too?”

“I can only imagine the worst.”

“But Becca… She wouldn’t let Emerich hurt us.”

He shrugged. “Who knows what Becca’s capable of these days? I don’t.”

“Surely you don’t think she’s gone over to his side?”

His expression turned bleak. “Not voluntarily. Because she was not the one who texted you to meet her that day at the warehouse. She called me, afraid of what Emerich was planning. I gave her the number to Kyle’s company cell phone to make sure he got to the warehouse in time. She’s the one who sent him that text pretending to be you.”

“So she wasn’t at the warehouse herself that day?”

“No.”

“But what about the body? Who was it, and why did you say it was Becca?”

He flinched, and remained silent for a long moment. Then he exploded her world. “Genie, that body was found wearing your clothes, carrying your weapon and a cell phone programmed with all your numbers.”

“Mine?”

The impact of his words sucked the air from her chest. “Emerich was planning to grab me and fake my death?”

“It would have worked, too, if you hadn’t gotten out. Everyone would have believed you were dead. No one would have looked for you. It’s why I had the truth covered up by identifying the body as Becca instead. And why I wanted you secure in the desert where no one could find you. Until I could get to the bottom of this.”

Genie stood, her chair falling to the ground behind her, but she barely noticed. She paced the small room, trying to get a handle on everything he was and wasn’t saying. “And have you gotten to the bottom of it?”

To his credit, he looked miserable. “I thought I had, I thought it was just a straightforward play for power. But then today…”

“But why? And what about trying to grab Cat in broad daylight in front of half of Reno. That was crazy in the extreme. Not at all like Emerich’s usual careful planning.”

“Exactly. Something’s changed. He’s acting desperate.”

They gazed at each other for a moment. She could clearly feel his fear, and she sure as hell could feel her own growing panic. “What does that mean for Becca?”

“That’s what worries me. I haven’t heard from her since the day of the explosion.”

“You think Emerich found out that she warned you and Kyle?”

“I’m almost sure of it.”

“What are we going to do?” she asked, feeling totally blindsided.

“First and foremost, we need to keep you and Cat safe. Figure out how he found out where you both were.”

“No, first we need to rescue Becca,” she corrected anxiously.

He closed his eyes. A wave of desperation rolled off him. “We might be too late for that.”

No!
“As long as she’s breathing, it’s not too late. The three of us can—”

“You can’t tell Kyle any of this.”

Genie stiffened. “I have to. He can help us.”

“He’ll tell Cameron. It’s his job and he won’t have a choice. I don’t want the CTA involved. If that’s where the leak came from…”

“We can’t do this alone, Dad.”

“How will you explain Emerich’s motives? You’ll have to tell Kyle about your abilities. Is that what you want?”

“If I have to,” she said, determined.

“Look, I know where Emerich is keeping Becca. I need you to help me get her back. But
only
you. No one else. It’s the only way we can be sure there are no leaks to warn him.”

She understood what he was saying. And she agreed with him that Kyle would report everything to Cameron. But if she didn’t tell him, just up and disappeared again with no explanation… She sighed as an ache squeezed her chest—her heart was already breaking.