CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - THOMAS
We hold her for a little bit, our eyes closing, ready for this day to be done.
“I’m glad you’re back,” Sadie says. “I mean that.”
I open one eye so I can look at her. She’s pretty fucking adorable. I mean, really… she’s completely adorable. Her face is so sweet. And I don’t know what she was like before we met at the hospital—I can take a good guess, knowing Prodigy—but I really love this version of her. “You mean you’re not gonna play favorites?”
She opens one eye too. Smiles at me. “There’s no way in hell I could choose, Thomas. I like both of you. Besides, you really are the same person.”
At least she knows it’s me and not Sullivan right now. I’m not even sure Case and Lincoln could be that sure about it. They know about Sullivan. Have known for a long time. But they don’t know as much as Sadie does.
I filled them in some when you started going crazy after Case shot you, Sullivan says inside my head.
I figured.
I saw you struggling and, yeah, I was all about taking over again. It was a good opportunity for me. Couldn’t pass it up. But… I need you, Thomas. I think we’re better as a team than we are alone.
I have to agree. I never thought I’d feel that way, but he’s right. We’re better as one. Maybe one day we’ll even merge? Who knows. But this is OK with me.
He relaxes inside my head, content to let me lead for now.
“I’m so tired,” Sadie says.
I stroke her hair and close my eyes again. “Me too.”
“Well, snap out of it.” Sheila’s voice comes from the pile of clothes on the floor. My phone in my jeans. “Uzi is pissed off right now and I need you downstairs to help mitigate things immediately.”
“Fuck him,” I say back.
“No,” Sheila says. “I’m telling you, this is going to be a huge problem in a matter of minutes if you don’t show up down there. I’ve been feeding him video of Sadie from when she was under in the lab. But I’m out of footage. Someone needs to talk him down and he wants nothing to do with Lincoln or Case. So that someone is you. Get up.”
“Did you find out anything from the tests you ran?” Sadie asks Sheila.
Sheila is silent for a few seconds.
“Sheila?” I ask. “Did you?”
“We need to talk about that.”
“Well, talk.” More hesitation from Sheila. “What the hell is going on?”
“We need to take care of Uzi first—”
“No,” Sadie says. “This is my private business. If you know something you need to tell me. Like right now.”
“Come on, Sheila. Tell us what’s going on.”
She sighs. God, sometimes she’s so damn real with her voice inflection. “In the interest of getting Thomas to take his ass downstairs and help his Alpha brothers, I will. But you’re not going to like it. How much do you remember about the last two years, Sadie?”
“Nothing,” she says. “It’s like… I have a memory of escaping with Cyan and Uzi. I have a memory of Iziah getting caught. Then me. But after that it’s… me standing in the asylum looking straight at Thomas. That’s it. Just a huge black hole of emptiness.”
“Well, the human mind is a very interesting specimen. It’s like a recorder. You never really forget things. Your brain just files your memories away. That’s how they erase people. They find the right file, tuck it somewhere unexpected, and presto, you forget things.”
“Who does that?” I ask. “I mean, there’s some crazy fucked-up people in this world, but for real. Who has that kind of power over a brain?”
“Well…” Sheila says. “You do, Thomas. This whole mentalist thing? I don’t understand it. But that’s something you can do. If you knew how, that is. I found memories inside Sadie. Memories of her being… altered in this way.”
“By who?” Sadie asks. “When?”
“Those two years you thought you were with Prodigy?”
Oh, shit. Here it comes.
“You weren’t, Sadie. You were with Cyan and Uzi the whole time.”
“What?” she gasps, sitting up in bed. “What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know,” Sheila says.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” I snap. “You’re a goddamned know-it-all.”
“I don’t see a school in her memories, Thomas. I see underground bunkers or something.”
“Wait,” Sadie whispers. “I remember that now. I was in a room. But I wasn’t with Cyan and Uzi.” She stops to massage her head, like it’s painful to think about these things. “I was with Iziah.”
“They had both of you, Sadie. They were using you. Training you to be a weapon.”
“Good God,” she says. “I knew there was something between them. I knew it. They were acting all funny.”
“Well, they’re acting funny again right now. And I don’t think we fully understand just how dangerous these two are. They’re like you and Sadie, Thomas. Mentalist and illusionist. Except they know what the fuck they’re doing.”
“Shit. Get Case and Linc right now.”
“Well, I could do that,” Sheila says. “But… I’m telling you, Uzi is raging downstairs right now. He can’t be left alone. There’s no telling what kind of damage those two could do. I don’t know if Case or Lincoln could fight an attack like that. They’ve never been exposed to that kind of thing.”
“So what do we do?” Sadie asks. I’m only half surprised that she’s ready to jump ship so easily. Sheila is right. Somewhere deep inside her, she knows everything Sheila said is true. Those memories they stole are still in there, filed away for secret-keeping. But they’re still there. “I don’t want them to get a hold of me again, Thomas. Ever. I want to stay with you.”
I pull her close to me and hug her. “I have no intention of letting them get you, don’t worry. Uzi needs to sever that link to have any control over you, Sadie. I’m your link and I won’t let him cut it. I promise.”
“OK,” Sheila says. “Now that all that stupid emotional stuff is over… can we please come up with a plan to get these freaks out of Lincoln’s house? All we need is for them to find the lab and things will get really ugly, really fast.”
“We need to tell Lincoln, Sheila. Send him a message now.”
“I can’t. Uzi and Cyan are right there. I can’t even ask him to leave the room. You don’t understand the level of tension down there right now.”
“You know what I want to know?” I say.
“What?” Sheila replies.
“Why the fuck can’t you talk to Lincoln in his head? You really need to work on that.”
Sheila huffs. “I’ll take your upgrade suggestion into consideration, Mr. Brooks. Now stop being so… not-Thomas. I need that cold motherfucker back, pronto. Get dressed and get your ass down there. Now!”