Rush (Phoenix Rising) (10 page)

Jessica patted Mitch’s hand with a smile. “Thanks for the warning.”

Her chat with Mitch had distracted her from her anxiety and she walked into the white marble foyer, feeling stronger.

The vastness of the apartment struck her first. But after a second glance, she realized the space was quite small, and the white furniture, carpet and walls along with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the rainy city gave the living space its airy feel.

“Wow,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at Mitch. “Your friend must not have kids.”

Mitch grinned and shook his head, closing and locking the door behind her.

“Jessica,” Alyssa’s voice called from somewhere around a corner and Jessica’s nerves eased a little. “Don’t make me pry this huge belly off the sofa.”

Mitch put a hand on her shoulder and guided her a few more steps into the apartment. “Make yourself at home.”

Then he started for the kitchen, where she could see Keira. Jessica turned the other way toward Alyssa, who had no trouble getting up and giving her a long, tight hug despite her big belly. A web of emotions spun inside Jessica and tears filled her eyes.

When she leaned back and looked down at Alyssa’s belly, Jessica had to wipe her eyes, and a fresh wave of concern hit her. “You’re so big. You really shouldn’t be here, Lys.”

“Two strikes right out of the gate,” she said and wiped at more of Jessica’s escaped tears. “Watch your step, Jess.”

When Alyssa moved aside, Jessica’s gaze fell on a man who could only have been Keira’s brother. He had the same black hair and striking blue eyes. Tall and fit, he was an attractive man, and he held an adorable little boy in his arms. His son hadn’t taken after the O’Shay side of the family. Olive skinned, with a headful of endless golden-tipped brown curls, he had brown eyes and a little toothy smile that made Jessica’s heart feel uncomfortably gooey.

“Jess,” Alyssa said, “this is Cash, Keira’s brother, and his son, Mateo.”

Cash smiled, but he seemed preoccupied and Jessica had the uncomfortable sensation of being studied. She was probably guilty of the same curiosity. This was a man who’d been rescued from a lab where they experimented on people. He had apparently been this mysterious Q’s friend for years. Q, who’d somehow gotten hold of a coin that should have been buried with her husband. And now Cash stood before her, one hundred percent real, which seemed to take the entire situation from an elaborate, twisted tale into the unbelievable-but-possible range. All the holes in her information lit up like floodlights, spurring a million questions. And even more fears.

She stepped forward and offered her hand to Cash. He took it, his grip firm, dry, steady and warm.

“Hi.” She released his hand and crossed her arms. “We’re not meeting under the best circumstances, but after what you’ve been through, maybe this doesn’t seem so bad.” She shrugged. “Welcome to our . . . highly dysfunctional little family.”

He gave her an easy, “Thanks.”

Her gaze shifted to Mateo. His big brown eyes seemed to absorb everything. “He’s five?”

“Yes.” Cash didn’t take those invasive blue eyes off her. “Six soon.”

“Cute.” So cute it hurt to look at him. “Is he always this happy?”

“So far.”

“Aunt Jessica!” Kat’s exuberance made Jessica gasp and jump.

She returned the girl’s hugs with her heart beating twice as fast as it should. The next few minutes passed in a blur of Kat’s excited chatter about Mateo, her almost-here baby brother and first grade.

Finally, Mitch shepherded both kids toward a corner of the living room stacked with Legos and Jessica settled on the loveseat beside Alyssa. While Teague and Mitch found places among the other sofas and overstuffed chairs, Cash and Keira held a private meeting near the windows. Jessica didn’t like the confirming nods from Cash or the way they both looked directly at her when they finished and started toward the group.

Jessica grabbed hold of her paranoia and her emotions and shoved them into a very dark corner. Logic—she needed logic now. Reasoning, decision making and risk assessment skills.

She curled her feet underneath her. “Where are Kai and Luke?”

“They’re picking up some supplies,” Keira said as she and Cash took chairs across from Jessica. “Okay, stay with me, Jess. This is going to get . . . convoluted to say the least.”

“I work with politicians. I can do convoluted.”

Keira flashed a grin before growing serious again. She settled back in her chair and met Jessica’s gaze. “Like I told you in the car, Mateo is the reason Cash and I found each other again. A member of DARPA, a Russian scientist who’d come to America to advance the DoD’s paranormal warfare program, was involved in our team’s case after the warehouse explosion. His name was Rostov. He was trying to recreate our abilities with test subjects, but having little success.

“He had a theory about how genetics could add to the success rate, but the DoD wanted a direct approach and Rostov wanted to go off on tangents. They came to an impasse and Rostov left the department to start up his own in-vivo testing site. He bought cheap land in the Nevada desert and covered his activities with the façade of a religious group.”

“This is the compound near Las Vegas that caught fire last week?” Jessica asked.

Keira nodded. “Because Rostov had worked on our team’s case, he had all our personal information. At that time, Teague and I were the only members of the group who had young relatives carrying our genes. For Teague it was Kat. For me it was Mateo, who I didn’t know about, of course. He lived with Cash and his wife, Zoya, in Greece, and Kat lived with Teague and Suzannah in Truckee.”

Alyssa, a physician, picked up the medical thread. “Suzannah’s suicide was depression induced. Depression has been known to run in families. We think Rostov chose not to take Kat because he wouldn’t have wanted the possibility of a genetic disadvantage tainting his experiments.”

“Which left Mateo,” Keira said. “And to get to him, Rostov . . .” She stopped, swallowed and darted a look toward Cash.

“Rostov,” Cash followed through where Keira stumbled, “killed my wife, Zoya, and kidnapped Mateo.”

Jessica gasped. “Oh, my God.” Horrified by the images popping up in her mind, she couldn’t find anything appropriate to say to Cash for his loss. “When?”

“Three years ago,” Cash said. “Either Rostov or someone from DARPA would have killed me, too, to keep me from searching for Mateo and uncovering Rostov’s history, but Dargan saw my background as a military chemist, and she and Schaeffer decided I was worth more alive. That’s how I ended up at the Castle.”

She closed her eyes and covered her face with both hands. “Can someone stop this ride? I want to get off.”

“I agree, this is getting boring. Let’s jump on another.” Mitch pushed himself from his chair and sauntered toward the kids. He dropped into a crouch next to Mateo, ruffling the boy’s curls. “Hey, little man. Let’s play find the hostage.”

“Mitch,” Alyssa reprimanded. “Sometimes you are so blatantly inappropriate, I don’t think you belong in mainstream society.”

“That’s a matter of opinion.” He picked up a few Legos and added a bridge over the moat in Kat’s castle. She grinned up at him. “My clients, my lady friends”—he tapped Kat on the nose—“and my niece like me fine.”

“Your niece is six, your lady friends want your—” Alyssa stopped abruptly and everyone looked at her.

Mitch grinned, both brows raised.

“Favors,” she improvised, making her brother laugh. “And your clients are desperate.”

“Your point?” Mitch took Mateo’s hand and led him toward the dining room table, an expanse of glass and chrome. Outside, the storm had settled into a gloomy sky and light mist.

“Her point is you need a real life,” Keira said.

“You mean one where I actually work for a living instead of covering all your asses? Novel idea.” Mitch stopped at the table, where a pile of maps sat in the center, a laptop off to the side with Google Earth already pulled up on the screen. “Then let’s find this Q character. The longer that takes, the less chance it will ever happen. And damn it, I’ve got a pathetic life to live and violent criminals to free. Ain’t that right, Creek?”

“Do you ever wonder why we don’t invite you up for dinner, Foster?” Teague asked.

Mitch just laughed.

But Jessica wasn’t feeling lighthearted. “What are you doing?”

Holding Mateo by the hands, Mitch swung him over the back of the chair and the boy squealed with glee. Once on his feet again, Mateo turned around, every little tooth showing, arms stretched up to Mitch. “’Gain! ’Gain!”

“
A
gain,” Mitch said, stressing the “a.” Then he turned to Jessica. “Can we have the coin?”

Her chest tightened.
No,
rang in her head. She reached up to find the chain to her locket and slid it through her fingers. It was stupid to feel so possessive of something that had meant nothing to Quaid. Still . . .

“
What
are you
doing
?” she asked again, pointedly pinning Mitch with her gaze.

His eyes, a mysterious but bright mix of amber and moss, darted toward Keira.

Frustration broke through her thinning patience and she dropped her arms and whirled toward Keira.

“Mateo . . .” Keira said, looking at the boy with soft eyes and a reassuring smile, then grew serious and addressed Jessica, “is a remote viewer—someone who can use their mind to see things happening in other places in real time. We just got him back, so we’re still learning the full scope of his abilities, but he has a talent for connecting with a location or person through a map. If he can gather enough . . .” she waved her hands as she tried to find the right word “personal energy from someone, he can find them.

“He located Cash at the Castle for us right down to his cell in the basement of the massive structure.”

Jessica’s breathing had picked up again. Her blood throbbed in her temples. She rubbed her face with both hands. “I feel like I fell down the rabbit hole.”

Alyssa grimaced and sucked air between her teeth. “How I hated the movie.”

“Wizard of Oz was worse,” Keira muttered, arms crossed over her chest. “Damn flying monkeys will haunt me ’til I die.”

Mitch heaved a frustrated breath and braced a hand against the chair Mateo stood in. “Shall we stop to take a poll of the most damaging children’s movie in history—
Alice in Wonderland
or
Wizard of Oz
? Or did you two want me to get a
real
life?”

“Don’t waste your time,” Cash said. “
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
wins hands down. Drowning in chocolate can’t be much better than getting sucked under by quicksand.”

“Second that,” Teague offered.

“Guys.” Jessica closed her eyes and pressed at the beat in her temples. “I’m going to snap soon.” She pulled the coin from her pocket but didn’t hand it over. “If he can use an item to find a person, why didn’t you just have him use the coin to find Q earlier and leave me out of it?”

“We did,” Keira said. “When he tried to read off the coin alone, he got nothing, like it was empty.”

Which was the same sensation Jessica had received when she’d searched for Quaid’s essence after his death. A thought that made gooseflesh slide over her arms.

“Then
what
are we doing?” She was growing unable to control her agitation.

“We’ve learned that we can combine our powers,” Keira said, “and we think by combining yours and Mateo’s, we could have a shot at finding Q.”

Jessica turned the gold metal over and over in her palm. “I don’t know what that episode was earlier. It could have been nothing but a hallucination.”

“And it could have been a clue to Q’s location,” Keira said. “We won’t know until we work on it some more.”

She didn’t want to work on anything and closed her hand tighter around the coin. But Teague’s concerns over the fate of a tortured man kept Jessica trapped in an impossible situation. “I can’t do that again. I can’t go back—”

Keira put a hand on her arm. “Mateo will view the location. All you have to do is hold his hand. We’re hoping that your previous vision of the property will guide him.”

Jessica remembered the joy and affection in Q’s eyes. Those beautiful eyes. If he was real, she wouldn’t be surprised to discover his eyes weren’t even brown. That she’d just superimposed her memory of Quaid’s eyes onto Q’s out of sheer desire.

She held the coin out to Mitch and he took it, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. But it didn’t help. She was scared. Scared of what they’d find. Scared of what they wouldn’t find.

And that’s when she realized, what she’d been fighting to avoid had already happened. By the team simply being who they were and believing what they believed, some part of Jessica had jumped on board, too.

The rain picked up outside and lightning sparked within the charcoal clouds. Jessica crossed her arms and pressed her lips together in determination. It was simply a game of the mind. She’d just have to find a way to adjust her mind to deal with that tiny sliver of herself that would always wish things could have turned out differently.

“That is really cool,” Mitch murmured, looking out at the flashing sky, “but in a really creepy sort of way.”

Mateo bounced on the chair, his dark eyes sparkling, his face alight with energy. Jessica’s polar opposite. He grabbed the coin from Mitch’s hand, held his other hand out to Jessica, grinning with the kind of enthusiasm only a child’s innocence could produce, and said, “Find Q!”

“I think this kid was born ready.” Mitch pried one of Jessica’s hands from the crook of her elbow and guided it to Mateo’s. “Just visualize the house, Jess. That’s all you need to do.”

Jessica took the boy’s tiny hand in hers. The fingers of her free hand curled into a fist and her lungs shrank, making it difficult to pull in a full breath. She closed her eyes—not because she needed to, but because she couldn’t stand seeing everyone stare at her. They all went silent, except for Mateo. He murmured something in Greek and held Jessica’s hand so tightly, sweat formed where their palms met.