The Secret (23 page)

Luth closed his eyes and sucked in air, doubled over. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked at Jake, his face pinched into a toss between anger and disgust. “Let’s just say that a change of heart doesn’t come without a cost. Blood’s thicker than water.”

Sam turned guilty eyes toward me and grabbed Luth by the lapel of his long jacket. He gave Reed a threatening look. “Let him go. He’s right. Lanie’s the only one who can get in her mother’s head—Nicholi needs her to get the last coin. We have to go if we’re going to catch him. And he’s going to tell me why Nicholi didn’t hand over my sister. Or he will die.”

Sudden clarity pulsed through my mind and another layer of betrayal washed over me. “That’s been it this whole time. Why you played me. Why you pretended to like me. Coz you couldn’t go in without me.”

Sam pushed away from Luth and got in my face. “Yes, Lanie. I was using you to help my sister.” He gently touched my hand. “But I didn’t want to.”

His breath felt like fire on my face and his green eyes were deep with emotion. I slapped his hand away and realized any connection or attraction to him was a complete farce. Anger pulsed through me.

Reed let go and pushed both Sam and Luth out of the door and into the hall. “If no one will make the decision—I will. Let’s go.”

Sam gave him a pissed off look, but kept walking next to Luth.

Reed stomped after them, pointing at Sam. “You’re so not on my good side, Sam. You should have told us about your sister.”

Marsha stepped next to Reed, taking his hand and lifting a brow. “Trust is all that counts. Some people don’t get that.”

Mr. Drake didn’t move, turning the gold ball in his hand and looking unconvinced. “I don’t think we should trust him. Something about this feels so wrong.”

Rob put a hand on my shoulder and whispered to me. “What do you think, Lanie? What do you think we should do?”

I tried to block the images of my mother being hauled off somewhere with Luth, and Alana, trapped against her will. I stared into Rob’s wary face. “I don’t know, but we have to do something.”

Jake waited at the door, his eyes uncertain. “Lanie, I didn’t betray you.” He gave Rob and Karen a glance and then offered me his hand. “I changed the code before I handed over the computer. It’s all messed up. I don’t know a lot about computers, but I know how to mess them up.”

Rob looked dumbfounded. “How?”

Jake nodded to the rest of the group already turning down the hall. “C’mon, I’ll explain on the way.”

I stepped out of the room and ignored Jake’s offered hand.

He fell into step beside me. “Lanie, I didn’t want to involve you. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

Rob and Karen hurried next to us on the other side of me. Rob’s jaw clenched and he glared at Jake. “You have no idea what she’s been through, Jake. We need to know what we’re up against at all times, and you kept us out of the loop.”

Jake pushed his hand through his hair. “I was going to tell you.”

“Wait.” The head facility doctor, Mr. Boon, called out to us from the front desk, a large box in his hands.

Jake, Rob, Karen, and I all stopped.

Mr. Boon’s eyes were wide and his hair stuck up in that greasy, frazzled way only doctors that worked long shifts could manage. “I’m so sorry about all this, we are looking for your mother and the police are on their way. But this box was just dropped off for your mother’s room. I was going to give it to the police, but it’s addressed to you, Lanie.”

My heart skipped a beat and I knew this was a message…from him.

Rob looked at my face and then plucked the white, cake-looking box out of Mr. Boon’s hands.

Two words were written on the top: Delanie Hart.

Reed ran back through the swooshing front doors into the facility. “Light a fire under it, people!”

My hands shook as I pulled the lid off the box. The insides of my stomach turned and I immediately gagged into my hand. Black and red oozed through me in sickening torrential waves.

Karen gasped. “Oh my gosh.”

Jake moved next to me, peering down. “This has crossed a line.”

I felt another wave of nausea wash over me and tears spring into my eyes. I looked back into the box and stared down at a girl’s severed, bloody head.

Reed punched his fist into his hand. “Alana!”

Episode 26: Sending a Message

The limo sped down the freeway, Marsha’s wails blaring—shrill and painful.

Reed held her in his arms and stroked her hair, rocking her against him. “Shh…it’s okay, babe. We’ll find him. We’ll find him and tear him apart.”

“She was just a baby.” Marsha cried into his chest. “She was just a baby.”

My mind flicked to the setting that it would go to when I was locked in The Foundation. The setting that muted the world around me and numbed my whole body in a rubbery, nonsensical way.

Sam sat blankly with the box on his lap, his eyes set in shock and horror. “I failed. I failed.”

Luth leaned over and pulled out a bottle of scotch from the small liquor cabinet at his feet. “Don’t blame yourself. He’s an impulsive man. He could never just—wait for a minute.”

Mr. Drake looked out the window. “When he finds out you’ve double crossed him, you’re dead. We all are.”

I studied Mr. Drake’s face and my muted setting turned to a trickling cold starting down my back and spreading out to my legs. I didn’t like to think of the powers I possessed being used to kill people—even someone like Nicholi—but this made everything different. “I won’t let him kill any of us.”

Marsha’s wails reduced to a whimper.

Jake looked out the window. “He killed her because the computer codes were messed up. He did this to send a message.”

Mechanically turning in his seat, Sam looked at Jake. “What do you mean, the codes were messed up?”

Jake didn’t respond to him, his gaze fixed on the box in Sam’s lap.

Luth let out a breath and rolled his eyes, sucking down a drink and putting up a hand in the air between them. “You didn’t deliver all of the coins, Sam. That’s what Nicholi needs right now. That was his original deal with you. He knew that once he had all the coins, he could get the codes unlocked. Getting the computer was just a bonus for him.” He lifted the bottle and took another sip.

Mr. Drake kept his gaze on the freeway and I noticed the limo was in the HOV lane, going faster than what should be legal. “We should just leave. We should pack everyone up and leave.”

Rob took the bottle out of Luth’s hand and slammed it to the floor. I noticed he had his intense face on. The intense face that meant he would die before he let anyone he loved get hurt. “What’s his end game, Luth? Tell us what we need to know to deal with him.”

Luth exhaled and kept his voice steady. “I needed that right now. You have no idea how much I needed that.”

Jake turned next to Luth, his face contorting into rage, and he pinned Luth against the seat with his elbow. His jaw flexed. “You haven’t given us answers, Dear Old Dad. And we need some.”

Luth grabbed at Jake’s elbow, trying to push him back.

Jake pushed harder for a second longer, then pulled his elbow back. “Talk. Start with where we are going. And what was all that 72-hour talk?”

Luth hunched over and growled at Jake. “We’re going to a building right outside of Denver International Airport. It’s used for shipping cargo and supplies.” He glanced at the box on Sam’s lap and then back to Jake. “The problem is—I thought he needed all of the children from the original seven. He can’t get your powers in his nice little orb until the moon is in its full phase. See—that was the part you were all missing with your clever equinox theory. It’s all connected to the phases of the moon. And the phase we need to unlock the spells starts in three days. But he needs the coins because the coins are conductors. I didn’t think he would kill Alana, yet.” He stared at the bottle on the floor. “He’s been lying to me too.”

Reed held Marsha against him. “You’re speaking in riddles, Dog. And I’m about tired of riddles. Tell us something useful before I tear you apart.”

Luth leaned back into his seat and exhaled loudly. “Do any of you know the power Nicholi’s daughter possessed?”

I felt my heart start to pick up in my chest. The girl. The portrait of the little girl I had to draw over and over again. Her straight, black hair. Her big, almond-shaped eyes. “No.”

Mr. Drake leaned forward, his eyes pulling into slits. “He wouldn’t divulge that to us.”

Luth nodded. “Yes. He wasn’t proud of it. You see,” he swiped the air in a gesture at me, “Thomas got the daughter that brought things to life. She touched a picture and it materialized. She drew a butterfly, a bird, a tree; they all came to life for seconds in miniature. It was delightful. But…his daughter’s power was quite the opposite.”

Sam let out a breath and I turned to him. He held his hands protectively over the box and tears streamed down his face. “Death. Her power was death.”

Luth tilted his head forward in acquiescence. “Yes. Molly had the gift to kill things. Isn’t it funny that the thing Nicholi wished for—to control people—was magnified in his daughter to bring death…the greatest control of all? She killed things. And this enraged him. I had been on with The Foundation for a few years at this point. It was a marvelous time; we were trying to figure out how all your powers would change the world and make it a place of plenty. Make it a place with the New Order that would be utopic.”

Drake scoffed. “Yes. Utopic.”

Karen’s voice was soft. “But a real utopia is impossible.”

Luth let out a sigh and his face sobered. “Nicholi walked in on her having a tantrum one day. She was only four and Jasmine, Nicholi’s wife, was trying to calm her down. But—Molly already had her hand firmly in place against her mother, turning her to stone. It was something we had talked about—how to control this little girl that could simply touch something and it would die. Sometimes it wouldn’t, but if she was angry or sad or upset…” Luth breathed a sad sigh. “And by the time Nicholi could stop her, using his own mind sway to break the connection—Jasmine was dead.”

Rob pulled his arm back from around me and stared at Luth. “And what happened to Molly?”

Luth turned a sinister look to Rob. “Nicholi had used too much mind control to try to break the connection between her and her mother. You see, if Nicholi focuses his power for too long, it scrambles the brain. It was a fine line between making people agreeable, and taking away their will.”

I shook my head as realization set it. “He fried her brain. He fried her brain and she couldn’t function any longer.”

Luth picked up the scotch bottle, put it to his lips and lifted it back. Then he wiped his face and threw the bottle back on the floor. “She died three days later. Now everything is about the resurrection—everything is about getting his daughter and wife back. He’ll do anything, sacrifice everyone else, and ignore all signs that everything will be destroyed if he goes through with it.”

Reed kicked the scotch bottle on the floor. “So he wants to bring back his dead daughter and he needs a coin stuck in their mom’s head. I get that. But, you still haven’t told us why you’re on our team now. I mean, I know Jake’s your blood, but you haven’t seemed to care up ‘til now.”

Jake flinched. “It’s true.” He looked at Luth. “Why now? What’s this whole new world order crap? What does that even mean?”

Mr. Drake turned away from the window and cleared his throat. “It means Luth’s realized Nicholi can actually do it. If he gets the power of all the coins, and Lanie, and channels them through the orb, he’ll have God-like power. He’ll have the power to do what he wants—create his version of the perfect world.”

Chills went through me and my body started to shake. “You’re not making sense.”

Luth nodded. “Bring
anyone
back.”

Rob made a choking sound. “So we’re bringing him Lanie, the orb, Mr. Drake—we’re giving him everything he needs to finish us off. Luth…”

The limo turned off the freeway, heading for the airport. A large building with vans pulling in and out of it came into my view. The limo turned toward the building.

Mr. Drake pounded the car door with the orb. “I couldn’t see through the sway because it’s all true—isn’t it? That’s why I couldn’t see that this is a trap.”

Luth held Drake’s eyes in a serious look. “I need to save her.”

Drake started in his seat, turning his whole body to Luth. “But do you want to save Lanie’s mother?”

Fear breathed to life inside of me.

Luth closed his eyes.

Drake pulled the lock up on the door and flung it open. “That’s what I thought.”

He dove out the door, rolling down the hill.

“No!” Luth reached out, grabbing at air. “Stop! We need him! Stop!”

The limo driver pulled to the side of the road. Cars whizzed by and I could barely see Mr. Drake’s form running toward the other side of the freeway.

“Stop him!” Luth looked at Reed. “You’re faster, stop him and bring him back.”

Reed crossed his arms. “Tell us the whole truth.”

Luth reached over and shut the door. “Go, keep going.” He turned to Reed. “Don’t you get it? If we don’t show up, it’s all lost. Our chance is lost.” He pulled his hair with one hand and a crazed look came across his face.

The swirling colors in my mind came to a stop. Luth couldn’t lie with Drake around, so the plan had been to bring us here all along…to save someone. But that person was not my mother. And if not her, then who? “You
have
betrayed us. Why?”

Emotion surfaced on his face and he laughed back into the seat, a crazed, psychotic laugh. “You’re ruining it all!”

The limo pulled into a stop in front of one of the warehouse doors. The door began opening.

Luth focused on Jake. “I want Ruthie back, that’s all I want. And he isn’t going to give her to me now.”

Jake’s face opened in surprise. “What?”

Men in black suits started moving toward the limo from the warehouse. Their expressions were blank and their mouths were set in a straight line.

A loud scream of pain came out of Luth and blood spurted from his mouth. “He knows I’ve...failed. I’m sorry.” He turned pained eyes on Jake. “Save her, Jake. Tell her...I love her.”