The Mind Keepers (The Mind Readers) (16 page)

Maddox followed, I could sense
him. “You okay?”

No. Of course not. My hands
fisted against the cold porcelain sink. I was barely aware of the stench of
moldy dishes. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“I couldn’t.”

Feeling oddly numb, I turned to
face him. “Because you didn’t trust me.”

“No.” The bruises along his jaw
and under his left eye had turned yellow. He looked like he had gone through
hell. And now, I realized, he had. For us, for me. “Because I didn’t want to
put that pressure on you.”

I crossed my arms over my chest.
“What are you talking about?”

He stepped closer, his warmth
calling to me. “If you knew what I was really doing, you would have insisted on
helping. You would have probably even stayed behind at the compound instead of
escaping.”

I flushed. Maybe he was right,
but I wasn’t about to admit it. “I wouldn’t. Haven’t you heard? I’m a selfish
witch.”

He wrapped his uninjured arm
around my waist and drew me up against his body. I wouldn’t give in. I
wouldn’t. “You are the least selfish person I know. You always put others
before you, even if you won’t admit it.” He reached up, brushing a lock of hair
behind my ear and cupping the side of my face. “I didn’t expect it to take this
long, and I sure as hell didn’t expect to be captured.”

“Because of me. You were
captured because of me.”

He shook his head. “No. No more
blame. I wanted you to leave the compound because I couldn’t work, not when I
couldn’t stop worrying about you. And I knew if I didn’t get these bastards,
then we could never have a life. And I’ve got everything, Nora. I have every
one of their files.”

But suddenly those files didn’t
matter so much. I released a wry laugh. “A life? After the way I treated you,
you still thought we could have a life?”

“Hoped.” He leaned down and
pressed his lips to mine in a soft, gentle kiss. “Yeah, I believed.”

“So, what do we do with this information?”

He shrugged. “It’s up to you.”
 

He was giving me total control,
handing over the reins. Bemused, I moved away from him, pacing the small
kitchen. All of their files in our hands, total power, complete truth. But what
the hell did we do with it? Did we use it to attack more compounds? Did we use
it as collateral or bribery?

Frustrated, I spun around to
face him. “What can—”

Run!

I stiffened. Where the hell had
that message come from?
Cameron?

Nora, S.P.I. is here! Run!

Chapter 11

“All the information is here,”
Henry said. “With the click of a button, it’s out in the world.”

“My God,” Aunt Lyndsey replied. “What
the hell do you mean, it’s out there with one click?”

I managed to avoid knocking over
a pile of boxes as I maneuvered my way through the living room, frantic to get
their attention. “Um, guys.”

“I didn’t mean I’d push the
button,” Henry muttered. “Just that—”

“They’re here,” I rushed out, interrupting.
“S.P.I. is here.”

Startled, Henry glanced at me,
his face pale and his eyes terrified through the scraggle of hair that fell
around his face. Yeah, you could say he didn’t handle stress well. Aunt Lyndsey
started toward the windows, peeking behind the dingy sheet.

“How do you know?” Henry asked, his
trembling fingers hovering over the keyboard. Hadn’t he said with one click the
information would be sent out into the world?

“Maybe you should step away from
the computer.” I pushed at the back of his chair, wheeling him a few feet away.
“Cameron sent a mental message.”

“Hello?” someone called from the
front stoop.
 

Hide,
Aunt Lyndsey said, moving behind a stack of boxes. I didn’t
miss the pistol she pulled from her waistband. She wasn’t even going to bother using
her powers; she was going to take them out the good, old-fashioned way.
Use your energy to block Maddox in case they
sense you.

Concerned, I frowned.
I’ve only made a force field with your help.

You can do it on your own.

Henry had gone white as snow,
and we were going to have to rely on him to keep the S.P.I. agents occupied? Maddox
wasn’t healthy enough to fight, so we had no choice. Frustrated, I grabbed Maddox’s
hand and pulled him toward the back of the house. “We need to hide until we
figure out how many there are.”

“Or we could just fight.”

I gave him a look of pure
annoyance. We seriously didn’t need his ego getting in the way right now.

“Fine, this way.” He moved in
front of me, taking the lead down a small hall to a back room.

The bedroom was as bad as the
front of the house. A mattress lay on the floor, piles of clothes like a
mountain range littered the area. “Closet.”

I realized he’d been here before,
as he headed directly toward a door that was hidden behind a pile of boxes. That
wasn’t the worst of it. The closet was full of trash bags. Ignoring the stench,
I squeezed myself inside. Maddox followed, closing the door behind him. Unable
to take the scent of garbage and stale cigarettes, I pressed my face into his
shoulder, breathing in his familiar scent and closed my eyes, concentrating. Where
the hell was Cameron? Delving deeply into the energy that lay dormant, I brought
my power field up around us. A current of energy tingled and shivered through
my body. If they had a mind reader with them, hopefully they wouldn’t sense us.
 

“You are Mr. Henry McDowell?” a
voice rolled in through the living room.

Definitely an S.P.I. agent. I
swore they all had the same, dead monotone.

“No,” Henry lied. “That’s my
roommate. Guy’s out, but you can leave a message.”

Oh God, he didn’t lie well at
all. We were majorly screwed. At that point I was just waiting for Aunt Lyndsey
to call the cry to arms.

“What happened to your door?”

I heard the chair shift, the
legs scratching against the wooden floorboards as he probably stood. “Robbery.”

“I see.”

Yeah, I bet he did see…how badly
Henry lied. I took my lower lip between my teeth, wondering how many agents
were out there. I had to resist the urge to mentally call Aunt Lyndsey. Damn, I
hated waiting. I’d rather be out there fighting than hiding in a closet. What
the heck did she think the agents would do, anyway? Give up and walk away?
Right, that would happen.
 

“Can you sense Cameron and
Lewis?” Maddox whispered, his breath warm and distracting across my face.

I knew what he was thinking: he
wanted to fight, too, and wondered if we’d have backup. Neither of us were used
to sitting around and waiting. We had more in common than I wanted to admit. “No,
no word.”

“Is there something I can help
you with?” Henry asked.

I could tell by the quiver in
his voice he wouldn’t last much longer. The guy was going to have a panic
attack. We had to do something, anything, to help the poor idiot.

“We work for the FBI,” the man lied.
“We have reason to believe that Henry McDowell has been selling restricted information
to other countries.”

I bit back my laugh. Nice story,
and I’m sure the media would eat it up if this attack was questioned. Too bad
it wasn’t true. What was Aunt Lyndsey waiting for? They were obviously suspicious;
at the least they knew Henry was lying. We had to react now. I shifted,
reaching for the doorknob.

Maddox wrapped a steel arm
around my waist, pulling me closer. “Just wait.”

Wait for what? He apparently
trusted his friend’s ability to handle S.P.I. better than I did.

“Don’t know what that has to do
with me,” Henry muttered.

“Don’t you?”

Crap.

Maddox stiffened, his muscles
growing taut under my touch. Finally he understood the direness of the
situation. I tilted my head back, meeting his gaze. It was an unspoken question…can
we attack now? He didn’t respond, but I could feel the quickening of his heart.

“We have reason to believe you
are Mr. Henry McDowell.”

He released a wry laugh. “Is
this a joke?” Silence. Apparently, they didn’t find it funny. “Don’t you think
I’d know if I was this guy?”

I cringed. Yikes, Henry really
needed to work on his lying skills. That high-pitched squeal wasn’t helping his
cause.

“Mr. McDowell, we’d like to ask
you a few questions.”

“They aren’t going to leave without
him,” Maddox whispered in my ear.

I knew what he was saying; it was
time to act. Problem was, how many were there? I reached out with my mind,
attempting to sense their energy. Nothing. They had chips in their brains. Yeah,
I might be able to break through, but then they would obviously know we were
here, and if I failed we’d be totally screwed.
 

My hands fisted against Maddox’s
chest.
How many?
I sent the thought
to Cameron, hoping she heard. For a brief moment she didn’t respond, and my
fear spiked. Had she been caught?

Two inside, four outside.

The relief I felt at the sound
of her message almost did me in. Cameron was still alive. But just as quickly
as my emotions kicked in, my rational mind took over. Two inside, four outside.
We could do this. We’d fought more at those tracks, even at the farmhouse
without Aunt Lyndsey’s help.
 

Can you keep the four outside occupied while we take care of the two in
here?

We’ll try.

“You’re staying in this back
room,” I whispered to Maddox.

“Bull.”

Frustrated, I pounded my fists
against his chest. “Listen to me, just once. I can’t worry about you while I’m
fighting.”

He gripped my wrists in a tight
grasp. “I’m not letting you go out there alone.”

“I’ve been alone my entire
life,” I hissed. Double crap, I hadn’t meant to say that.
Weakness
, my mind screamed,
show no weakness
. Yeah, too late.

“You aren’t alone anymore.”

He was right. I didn’t really
want to admit it, and I sure as heck didn’t want to admit that I needed anyone,
but Maddox was right. Cameron had my back. My aunt was ready to protect me. And
Maddox, well, he had never betrayed me after all. I swallowed hard, dampening
down the urge to ignore the warm tightness that was slowly spreading through my
chest. Pure and disgusting emotion. I was falling for Maddox all over again.

Better to face my known enemies
outside that door than my confusing emotions here with Maddox. “Ok, let’s go.”

He slowly turned the door knob.

“Mr. McDowell, you need to come
with us,” one of the agents said.

Maddox pulled a pistol from his
waistband, and I wondered who had given him the weapon and when. No way had the
gun gotten past Aunt Lyndsey’s watchful eye, which meant she must have actually
trusted him. Quietly, we made our way around the piles of boxes. Every step closer
sent the energy pulsing toward the surface.
 

“Ready?” he whispered in the
hall outside the living room.

I nodded. Maddox surged into the
room, pistol drawn. I followed, immediately throwing my energy toward the two
agents standing near Henry. It didn’t work. They went stumbling back, but their
chips held.
 

“Hell,” I muttered. The surge of
energy through my body left me dazed. Through the haze in my mind I saw them
reaching for the pistols strapped to their shoulders and knew I had only seconds.

Aunt Lyndsey stepped out from
behind the boxes, and flung her energy. Their pistols went flying from their
hands toward us. Maddox dropped to the floor, scooping up the weapons. Henry
was no help, merely stumbling back into a pile of trash that toppled to the
ground.

“Get down! On the floor!” Maddox
demanded, his pistol pointed at them. The two men knelt hesitantly, slowly,
upon the dusty floorboards, their hands clasped behind their heads. They knew
what to do; this world wasn’t new to them.

We have two down in the back alley,
Cameron sent me the mental
message.
The other two are headed your
way.

“Crap,” I muttered. “Two more
coming.”

“Shoot them,” Henry growled.

Maddox slid him a glance. “Shut
up, Henry.” He looked my way. “Bindings?”

But I didn’t have time to find
rope. The two agents Cameron warned us about raced into the room, pistols
drawn. They were prepared, which meant they’d known we were here.

“God,” Aunt Lyndsey sighed.
“They’re like cockroaches.”

They didn’t even pause as they pointed
their guns at Maddox.

“No!” I didn’t have time to
think. The power surged through me, a heated pulse of energy that came from nowhere
and everywhere at once. Instinct had me jumping in front of Maddox and throwing
my powers forward. This time the resistance gave way as their chips failed
under the strength of the source. Both men cried out, collapsing to the ground.
They were still, so damn still. I pulled back the energy, shocked once again at
what I had been able to do.

“Damn you, Nora,” Maddox
growled. “You could’ve been killed.”

“A thank you would do,” I
muttered back.

“Well done,” Aunt Lyndsey said,
strolling toward the motionless bodies and kicking their guns toward Maddox.

I wasn’t so sure if I should be
proud. The source, this new energy, made me feel wild, uncontrolled. I liked
control. Disconcerted, I crossed my arms over my chest. My body felt buzzed,
not my own.

Maddox tightened his hold on his
pistol, glaring at the two men who were still conscious. “Don’t move!”

“Why are you here?” Aunt Lyndsey
asked.

They didn’t say a word. I felt
the shift in the air a moment before the two men cried out, arching their backs
and squeezing their eyes shut in pain. I wasn’t sure what my aunt was doing,
but she wasn’t playing nice. For the first time, their pain made me uneasy.
Maybe I’d grown a conscience, or maybe I was starting to realize that if I wasn’t
careful, I could end up just as cold and indifferent to the suffering of others
as my aunt.