Remember Jamie Baker by Kelly Oram Read Free Book Online Page B

hands.”
    With a startled squeak, I pulled my hands back to my own lap, where I couldn’t hurt him anymore. I hadn’t even realized I’d been squeezing him. “I’m sorry.”
    Ryan laughed again. “It’s okay. No permanent damage.”
    “I’m sorry,” I repeated. “It’s just, the thought of finally getting some answers…” I shook my head, still in a state of disbelief. “I thought I had a few of the pieces, but nothing makes any sense anymore. My boyfriend has been lying to me for some reason. I think he was hiding information from me to keep me safe. But what he told me isn’t possible if I was really this Chelsea’s Angel person. But I am her, right? That’s why you guys keep calling me Angel, isn’t it?”
    I’d been so caught up in my thoughts that I didn’t notice how shocked Ryan was until he didn’t answer my question. He was staring at me, wide-eyed and completely frozen. “What?” I asked.
    He just blinked at me, still too stunned to move. I looked to Tyson for answers, but he was gaping at me too, with his mouth hanging wide open. In fact, everyone riding in the back of the truck with me was now staring at me with huge, surprised eyes.
    “What is it?” I demanded, speaking to the entire group.
    Ryan snapped out of it and focused his thoughts before speaking. “Boyfriend?” His face was completely blank of expression, and his tone of voice was perfectly innocent.
    “Tony,” I said slowly.
    I didn’t know what Ryan was trying to hide from me, but there was definitely something going on. He was putting every ounce of energy he had into keeping his real thoughts and emotions masked.
    “He’s not really my boyfriend,” I said, searching for some kind of clue as to what was wrong. “I mean he was, sort of, I guess, but we broke up. It’s complicated.”
    “We’re listening…” Tyson prompted.
    I sighed. “Complicated, as in I was engaged to him before the amnesia, but afterward I just never fell in love with him again, and now he hates me for it.”
    Tyson jerked back, and Ryan went positively rigid. He clenched his jaw and fisted his hands so tightly it hurt to look at them. His knuckles were completely white. When his whole body started to tremble, Tyson reached over me and flicked his arm. “Ryan,” he hissed, “keep it together. Let her explain.”
    Ryan sucked in a breath. He didn’t look like he would be ready to speak anytime soon. “Ignore him,” Tyson said to me. “He’ll pull it together in a minute. Tell us more about this guy.”
    “Why don’t you start from the beginning?” a large black man suggested. He spoke with a thick African accent and was using a low, steady voice, as if trying to keep things calm. I still had no idea what was going on. The tension in the truck felt ignitable—like one wrong word, one spark, and we’d all go up in flames.
    The man looked like he was the oldest of all the ACEs besides Major Wilks. He was most likely in his early forties, and as tall and big as a professional football player. He looked like the type of man people would cross the street to avoid, but when our eyes met his face softened, making him seem more like a giant teddy bear. “What happened after the explosion?” he asked. “What do you remember from before?”
    Ryan was still on the verge of going completely insane, so I tried to do as Tyson suggested and ignored him. They would explain in a minute. “I don’t remember anything.” This part of the story, at least, I knew how to tell. “As far as I’m concerned, my life began six months ago when I woke up in the bottom of a crater in Las Vegas. There is absolutely nothing before that.”
    Tyson’s eyes bulged, and he got this look on his face suggesting he was appalled by the thought. I pretty much agreed with him. “What’d you do?” he asked. “Wander around by yourself until the cops picked you up?”
    I shook my head. “Tony found me almost immediately. He was another one of Visticorp’s