Chapter One #2
We walked up to the building, and he got keys from the superintendent, who seemed way too happy to see me, considering I had no idea who he was.
Robert opened the door and handed me the keys. “Stay here. Call Nick, and if you leave with him, make sure you come back. If anyone comes to check in on you, you need to be here. Got it?”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
He took some bags to the little kitchen and then went to the door. “Good luck, Ryan. I’ll come back tomorrow around 4:00 p.m.”
“Wait. Do you think I did it? Killed all those people?”
A slow smile spread across his face as he tilted his head. “Absolutely not.”
I watched him leave, relieved to know I wasn’t such a horrible person. Well, I hoped Robert was right.
I was so hungry that I ate a few slices of plain bread right out of the bag.
Moving deeper into the apartment to unpack the rest of the food, I scanned the space.
The front door opened straight into the living room, with the kitchen sitting at the opposite end.
There wasn’t a dining room, but a large island made up for it.
The whole place was styled in a mix of black and gray shades. I really liked it.
I was afraid to leave the kitchen, though. I felt a sense of comfort here. I took the burner phone and dialed the number on the paper. Nothing. I got a voice message, but it was an automated greeting. I hung up.
I put the phone down and went to the bedroom, only to be greeted by a mess.
There was an explosion of clothes on the bed, opened drawers, and scattered shoes everywhere.
I cringed. Was I a slob? Who lives like this?
I picked everything up and packed it away.
I noticed the few items in the closet and drawers were neatly folded and color-coded. I smiled. That’s more like it.
After a long, warm shower, I changed into some of my own clothes.
They looked strange but fit perfectly. I chose jeans and a T-shirt and some fuzzy house slippers I saw near the shoe closet.
I couldn’t believe I had a shoe closet, but my collection of matching underwear was very satisfying, to say the least. It made me feel all kinds of better about not embarrassing myself at any hospital. Ever.
I went to the kitchen, rummaging for more food. In the middle of stuffing everything I could into my mouth, the phone rang. I looked at it and backed away, then decided to act like a big girl and picked it up.
“Hello? Is this Nick?”
“Who is— Wait . . . Ryan?”
“Yes, Alexa Ryan.”
“You’re alive?”
“Uh—yes?”
“Shit. Ryan is alive,” he said, but clearly it wasn’t to me. “No, Kevin. Stop! Annie, can you just hold him down? Ryan, you still there?”
“Yes?”
“Sorry about that. Where are you?”
“In my apartment.”
“Her apartment. I’ll be there soo—”
I screamed.
In a matter of seconds, a couple of guys walked out of a hole that ripped in the space right in the middle of my living room. The rift looked like a misty, jagged line pulsing with life, dying instantly as they stepped foot on my rug.
“Ryan!” A tall guy with dark hazel eyes hung up the phone, and my end went silent. He had a scar on his face, which I had to say added to his intimidating look. The other guy was much taller and had way more muscles than should be legal, but his big smile was warm and friendly.
“Get off me!” I yelled as the scarred guy held me in a tight hug. “Who the hell are you?”
“What the hell, Ry? I’m Nick!”
I paced around and looked at the men. They were staring at me like I was a freak. “How did you get here?”
“Andrew used his portal,” Nick said with a frown. “Why do you look scared of us?”
“Because I am! I— I don’t know who I am. I woke up in a hospital, and then Robert . . . I’m not sure you know him. Agent Robert Pine?”
He shared a puzzled look with the other man, then turned back to me. “Yes, of course I know Robert.”
“He took me to the FBI, where they interrogated me. They think I killed a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell they were talking about. Robert brought me here and gave me this phone to call someone named Nick.”
“Damn.” He stared at me for a few seconds. “Well, I’m Nick Logan. This is Andrew Cole. And we’re all friends.”
“Ryan, I’ll use my portal, and we’ll go back to Nick’s house. Everyone is waiting for us.”
“Is the portal going to hurt? ’Cause it looked painful enough for my living room.” I took a peek around him, and everything seemed to be okay. Even so, I had to ask.
“No. I promise it will be fast, and you won’t feel a thing.” He looked at Nick. “Kevin’s going to flip. Best hope Annie is still holding him down!”
I watched as Andrew tore the air apart, revealing a hole from nowhere, and stepped inside.
Then, with his hand lightly touching my shoulder, Nick walked me slowly to the swirling mist. I hesitated to go in, but he pushed me forward lightly.
It was a foggy tunnel that felt peaceful somehow.
Nick came in behind me, and as soon as the rift closed, it opened again.
Nick walked out, and I followed, with Andrew behind me.
I looked around at the expectant faces. There were nine of them: five in their late twenties to early thirties, two guys around my age, and two kids. One of the guys came running toward me with both arms reaching out.
“Kevin, don’t!”
I punched him in the nose.
“What the hell, Ry?” the guy said.
“Sorry! Sorry! I panicked.” I ran to stand behind Andrew for protection.
Everyone in the room stared at me while a baby cried in the background.
“GUYS!” Nick got everyone’s attention while the Kevin guy held his bloody nose. “Ryan has amnesia. She doesn’t know who we are or who she is. Take it easy.”
The other guy around my age was laughing and said, “Kevin, you had that coming.”
“You don’t remember me?” Kevin asked. He was staring at me with a set of adorable hazel eyes. He looked like Nick, though a bit taller. Slim, athletic, and he wore a black beanie hat like the one I had at the hospital with me. He looked hurt, but not because of the nose situation.
“I have a beanie like that.”
“I gave it to you. They’re a matching pair.”
“You’re not my boyfriend, are you?” I stared at him and tried not to smile. He was . . . I mean, he looked nice. Really cute, actually. Not that rating attractive people was the crucial thing right now.
“No. We’re— You’re my best friend.” He walked up to me. “I’m Kevin. I thought you were dead. You don’t remember anything?”
I shook my head. Kevin stood only a few inches away from me. He stared into my eyes. Gosh, I really hope he’s not in love with me or something. That would be awkward if we’re friends. But I did like his eyes.
Nick put a hand on my shoulder. “I can help you remember if you want.”
“How?”
“I can hypnotize you, get into your mind, and help you regain your memory.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t know you . . . and it’s all too weird. Maybe I’ll remember on my own?”
He nodded. “Yes, maybe.”
“Leave her be,” a woman said. She was tiny and looked friendly. “I’m Annie, Nick’s wife. Why don’t you sit and let us answer any questions you have?”
I learned that the quiet blonde was Jenny, a healer and sensor.
She fixed Kevin’s nose right in front of me, and holy crap .
. . it was like magic! Apparently, her husband—my old boss, Derek Lake—had just died in the explosions, of which I was currently the only suspect.
She didn’t seem to hate me, so I took that as a good sign.
Andrew, the one with the illegal muscles, could travel through a portal, and his wife Beth was cheetah-fast. Her dark skin contrasting with her green eyes and short hair made her look fierce.
One kid—the five-year-old blonde with matching green eyes—was her adopted niece Elisa.
The other guy around my age was Chris, a hypnotist and telepath.
Along with Kevin and me, he made up our team of three.
“So you can read my mind?”
“Not really,” Chris said. “Mostly, I use it to communicate telepathically when we’re on missions.”
“Got it.” I was relieved. The last thing I needed was him knowing all that was going on in my mind, especially as I kept thinking about Kevin’s eyes.
Annie and Nick were married and had baby, Jack.
Nick could hypnotize, shoot laser beams, and blast fireballs.
Annie was a kinetic energy carrier. She was super strong and could make energy as fast as she used it.
She could boost everyone’s personal energy and their powers, which made her similar to me.
She had a scar along her neck that kind of matched Nick’s.
I silently hoped that wasn’t a strange symbol of a romantic pact they’d made with each other.
Learning about myself was the most interesting thing.
As an amplifier, I could magnify each of their powers.
Annie could only help to make their strength last longer.
I was also a sensor like Jenny, so I could tell when people were lying.
Not that it helped me at the moment, since I wasn’t sure how any of it worked.
Kevin, on the other hand, said he was a normal human being with no power whatsoever. He seemed rather bitter about it.
“How come you don’t have powers if you’re part of the Org?
” I asked after they filled me in. They had thrown a lot of information at me, but I didn’t feel as overwhelmed as I did with the FBI.
Some part of me accepted it as true, and I felt at peace understanding what was going on.
It was different hearing it from people who weren’t coming after me with an ax.
“Someone took it away from me,” Kevin said. “I was a teleporter and was starting to manipulate electricity.”
“So what happened? Who took it away?”
He smiled. “You did.”