Betrayed (13 page)

Not the time for the truth, Rae thought. If she told this woman the truth, maybe someday the people in the van
would come back to this house, break in, and kill the woman in her own bed. The thought made her shudder. "There
were these guys, these older guys, like in college, in a convertible. They were following us, driving really slow, you
know. They started yelling stuff at us. Then one of them threw a bottle. We started to run, and Jesse-" Rae
swallowed the salty egg lump that kept reforming in her throat. "Jesse, he collapsed."

Rae reached out and stroked Jesse's cheek with the back of her knuckles. Then she moved her hand over a little,
wanting to feel his breath, wanting proof that Jesse coughed, and Rae let out a little squeak. His eyelids fluttered,
then opened. He can see me, Rae realized. It was impossible to miss the awareness in his blue eyes. "What
happened?" he mumbled.

A sound that was half laugh, half sob came out of Rae. "I'll go stand out front and flag down the paramedics," the
woman said. Rae nodded. She didn't think she could speak right now.

"What happened?" Jesse asked again after the woman left.

Rae cleared her throat. "Tranquilizer dart from our friends in the van," she told him, trying to keepher voice steady.

A siren began to wail, coming closer every second. Quickly Rae told Jesse the cover story she'd given to the
woman. Jesse sat up. "Let's get out of here."

The siren grew louder and then stopped. "Too late," Rae told him. "And I want them to look at you. Make sure
you're okay."

"I'm fine," Jesse protested, but Rae had caught the little wince as he raised his head all the way. "My arm's kind of
messed up, but I'm fine."

"You don't know that," Rae shot back. Before he could answer, the paramedics dashed into the room. Rae stood
up and backed away from the couch to give them room. They asked Jesse what happened, and he parroted back
the cover story. Then they listened to his heart, took his blood pressure, checked his pupils.

"Pressure's a little low," one of the paramedics said. "So's the heart rate. Low, but okay." "Then can I go?" Jesse
demanded.

"He said his arm hurt," Rae jumped in. Jesse scowled at her, but she didn't care. She wanted the paramedics to
check him out completely.

"Can you move your fingers?" the paramedic who'd taken his blood pressure asked.

"Yeah." Jesse wiggled his fingers, and Rae could see he was struggling not to grimace.

"Bend your elbow for me," the same paramedic said, running his fingers up and down Jesse's arm. "Looks like
you got off with some scrapes and bruises," the paramedic told Jesse.

"Like I said, I'm fine. Now can I go home?" Jesse snapped.

The paramedic glanced over at the woman whose house they were in. "I think it would be-"

"I'm not related to him," the woman interrupted. "I don't want to make any decisions."

"Is one of your parents at home now?" the paramedic asked Jesse. "My mom should be," Jesse answered.

"I think you're in good shape. But I want to take you home, talk to your mom," the paramedic told Jesse. "She
should bring you in to your own doctor so you can find out what could have caused the collapse."

"If you drive up to my house in an ambulance, you're going to have to take my mom away in it. She'll freak," Jesse
said in a rush.

"We won't use the siren. We'll be low-key," the paramedic promised. "I'm coming, too," Rae announced.

A couple of minutes later they were on the road. Rae couldn't stop staring at Jesse. She needed to keep
reassuring herself that he was really okay.

"Would you stop it?" he complained. "You're creeping me out."

"Sorry," Rae mumbled. She folded her hands and stared down at them, only sneaking peeks at Jesse when she
absolutely had to to keep her sanity.

"You're going to have to help me calm down my mom," Jesse told Rae as they turned onto his street. "Siren or not,
she's going to lose it."

Rae nodded. The ambulance pulled to a stop. Rae could hear Mrs. Beven screaming before the paramedics got the
back doors open. The high sound penetrated Rae's bones, chilling them.

"Mom, I'm okay. I'm fine. Look at me. I'm fine," Jesse said as soon as the back doors opened and he could see his
mother.

Mrs. Beven scrambled into the ambulance and wrapped her arms around Jesse. She started rocking him like he
was a little baby. And Jesse let her.

She could have lost Jesse today, Rae thought. And it would have been my fault. She climbed out of the ambulance.

It wasn't her place to be there. What Mrs. Beven was going through was too intimate for someone who was
practically a stranger to see.

I'm not going to put him at risk again, Rae vowed. I'm going after the killer myself. My life is the only one I'm going
to put in danger.

I'm the one the killer is after. I'm not putting anybody else in his path. Not again. Absently she rubbed her side
where the most recent numb spot had been. And anyway, there's not as much the killer can do to me. I could be
dying already.

Rae heard the driver's-side door of Aiden Matthews's car open. She pressed herself tighter against the floor of the
backseat.

"I know you're there," Aiden said, sounding perfectly calm. "I figured you'd be the type to come back instead of
using the system I came up with for you to contact me. That's why I left the pillow and blanket back there. God
knows what you would have done if I'd decided to be smart and locked the car." He slammed the door and started
the engine. "Stay down. I'll find us a place to talk."

Rae didn't want to stay down. She wanted to hurl herself into the front seat and scream at Aiden until her face
turned purple. She wanted to hit him until he was black and blue. He knew who had shot that tranquilizer dart at
Jesse. Rae was sure of that. He knew everything. The truth about her mother. The truth about whoever was trying to
kill Rae. And today he was going to tell it to her.

She closed her eyes and relaxed her fisted hands. Wait until we get… wherever, she told herself.

Don't be stupid. The car could be being watched right now.

After what felt like forever, Aiden pulled the car to a stop. He got out without a word. Rae scrambled out after him
and followed him into a run-down coffee shop. He took a seat in the back booth. Rae slid onto the padded bench
across from him, her muscles tight after hiding in the car for so long.

Aiden put a quarter in the little jukebox. He didn't speak until some ancient tune began to play. "Do you know how
dangerous it is for you to get as close to the center as you did? The parking lot is-"

"You want to know what dangerous is?" Rae interrupted, her voice as low as his had been. Rae slammed the
tranquilizer dart down onto the table in front of him. "Dangerous is getting shot in the neck with one of these darts,
like some kind of freaking animal. Which is what happened to my friend Jesse today because he, unlike you, was
willing to help me." She pulled in a long, jagged breath. "I want you to tell me everything you know."

Aiden carefully picked up the dart, turned it over in his fingers, then wrapped it in a napkin from the metal
dispenser and pushed it back toward Rae. "I want to help you. But telling you anything is not-" Aiden began. "Are
you willing to be responsible for mydeath?" Rae demanded. "Because if you're not, you should start talking."

Aiden gave his ridiculous little ponytail a tug. He closed his eyes for a long moment, then opened them, reached
into his jacket pocket, and pulled out a fistful of change. He fed every quarter he had into the jukebox. "Here's what I
know," he said. "I'll start at the beginning."

Rae nodded. "You know your mother was in a group at the Wilton Center before you were born." Rae nodded
again. "The purpose of the group was to enhance the psychic powers of people who had already shown an above-average amount of intuitive ability."

"Shown how?" Rae asked. A waitress brought over two glasses of water, and Rae gulped hers down. "What can I
get you?" the waitress asked. "Coffee," Aiden answered.

"Me, too," Rae said. All she wanted was for the waitress to get away.

"Be right back." The waitress walked off, her pink sneakers squeaking on the linoleum floor.

"Go on," Rae urged, gripping the edge of the table-
starving
no one will see/got to/love that song/ -to keep herself
from reaching over and shakingAiden. "You were going to explain the intuitive-ability thing."

"The scientist who ran the group did some tests. Basic things," Aiden told her. "Having the prospective members
predict which card would be the next one to come up in the deck. Pairing them up and having one person draw an
object while the other one tried to guess what it was."

"I get it," Rae said, not wanting to waste a second. "And my mom was good at this stuff?"

"Above average. Like everyone who was let into the group," Aiden answered. The waitress squeaked over with
their coffee, then squeaked away.

"And the enhancing part. What exactly does that mean? What did the scientist do to them?" Rae asked.

Aiden ripped open a packet of sugar and put it in his coffee. Then he ripped open another. And another. Does he
even realize what he's doing? Rae wondered when he'd emptied five of the packets into his cup. She reached over
and grabbed his wrist. "Enough. Keep talking."

"There were various methods." Aiden took a long sip on his coffee, then grimaced, as if he was surprised by the
taste. "Various drugs, electric stimulation, radiation. At the time I wasn't kept completely informed. I was just out of
college and-"

"I'm not interested in your life story," Rae snapped, her mind stuck on the phrase electric stimulation. Had her
mother gotten electric shock? Had she been tied down and "The response in some of the group members,
including your mother, was astonishing. The psychic powers that some of them developed were tremendous. The
group was shut down until the results could be fully evaluated. There was a fear-" Aiden put another packet of
sugar into his coffee. "There was a fear that some of the members had developed powers that were too strong to be
controlled. You have to understand, if these powers were used irresponsibly or for personal gain, it could be a
threat to our society. On the scale of a nuclear weapon in some cases."

Aiden hesitated. Rae noticed that there were dark smudges under his eyes. He looked exhausted. But she didn't
care. "Keep going," she ordered.

"The scientist who ran the group disappeared. There was speculation that he felt tremendous guilt for having
designed the enhancement techniques. Especially when the murders began."

"Murders?" Rae's coffee cup clattered against the saucer as she picked it up. She ended up pretending to take a
sip. Her hands were shaking too much for her to be sure that she'd get the liquid into her mouth.

"Murders of members of the group. The administrators of the program believed that the scientist was responsible.

That he wanted to eliminate any possible danger to-" "By killing," Rae interrupted. "Yes," Aiden said, meeting her
gaze straight on.

"Who are the administrators?" Rae asked. "I want to meet them."

"No," Aiden told her, his voice filled with determination. "That's impossible. You have to leave this alone, Rae. I
won't be able to protect you if you don't."

"You have to answer one more question," Rae told him.

"No. I've said too much already. Everything you hear puts you in more danger." Aiden stood up.

"The disease my mom died of-the wasting disease. I'm afraid maybe I have it," Rae blurted. "Maybe what they did
to her screwed up her genes."

Aiden sank back down in the booth. He reached out to her, as if he was going to take both her hands in his, then
he grabbed his coffee cup with both his hands instead. "No, Rae, you don't have to worry about that. Believe me."

"Why should I?" she asked, hating the way her voice had begun to tremble.

"Because your mother didn't die of a disease. Steve Mercer-" He stopped abruptly.

He didn't mean to say that name, Rae realized. "Steve Mercer? Who's Steve Mercer?" she demanded.

Aiden let out a sigh. "He's the man who killed her," Aiden answered. He pushed the napkin holder closer to her,
using the back of his hand. She shoved it away. She felt like she'd been hit on the head by a baseball bat. Little dots
of light were exploding in front of her eyes.

"Steve Mercer? Steve Mercer?" All she could do was say the name.

"The scientist," Aiden explained. "The administrators believe that he got into her hospital room and injected her
with a compound that turned her body against itself. I know… I can imagine how horrible it is for you to hear this.

But it was murder, Rae. It's nothing that you've inherited."

"Except that someone has tried to kill me more than once," Rae said. She squeezed the edge of the table until her
fingers ached. "It's him, isn't it? It's Steve Mercer?"

"Very likely," Aiden admitted. His eyes darted around the restaurant, and Rae noticed that droplets of sweat had
broken out on his upper lip. She pushed the napkin holder back toward him.