Page 13 of Peace Under Fire

“I haven’t seen her.”

If she’d followed him back to Virginia Beach, she wasn’t just avoiding him, she was avoiding all her old haunts as well. None of the places she’d volunteered at, shopped at, or eaten at had seen her in weeks.

“No surprise,” Tex murmured as a girlish voice chattered indistinctly in the background. “Hope, fasten your seatbelt,” Tex said before continuing. “I’ll be in touch again when I find her.”

“Find who, Daddy?” Hope asked just before the line went dead.

With a tired sigh, Squish dropped the phone on his chest and settled back against the recliner. The squirrely feeling of a headache was itching at his brain. Again. Time to pop a couple of Cokes and down a dose of Excedrin.

Another fucking headache. Second day in a row. He was tired of these damn things.

Tex was right.

He was in no condition to join a security detail. But hell, there was no way he was leaving Mandy in Gray’s care either. No fucking way. Which left him with one choice—he needed to man up and get control over his brain before they found Mandy.

* * *

Someone’s looking for you.

Giulia’s warning pierced Mandy’s sense of security with the unexpectedness of a knife strike. She tensed, her heart pounding, fear squirming through her. She could suddenly feel the bruising tightness of leather cuffs restraining her to a table, feel the sharp pricks of needles. Could see the sterile isolation of a locked room with its hard, narrow bed and open toilet. The shimmer of stainless steel flashed across the corners of her eyes. Crisp white lab coats fluttered against white tiled halls.

There was a lot she didn’t remember about her childhood, but those disturbing impressions were always there, lurking in the back of her mind.

As logic set in, she stepped outside of the fear, burying the fleeting images. Giulia’s voice gave her something else to concentrate on, something besides ancient memories and terror.

“Kaylee hasn’t identified who’s looking for you yet. But there’s no question someone is conducting multiple searches on your current name.”

Mandy frowned. “What kind of searches are we talking about?”

“Everything. DMV records, property records, bank records, credit history, Social Security, telephone records. Anything and everything having to do with Amanda Wilde. You need to come home, Mandy. You aren’t safe out there.”

Mandy’s throat tightened at the worry in Giulia’s voice. She forced herself to take an emotional step back and think.

“When were the protocols triggered?” she asked.

“This morning. Kaylee tried to trace the hacker back to their point of origin, but the trace was ineffective. She says whoever they are, they’re good. The best hacker she’s run across. She’s launched one of her new programs to track them down. But you need to come home. If they find you…”

Mandy heard the resurgence of fear in her sister’s voice and flinched.

Of all of them, Giulia remembered the most of what had happened during their childhood. She’d also been one of the cockroaches’ most valued test subjects. Mandy had been of no value to them. There had been nothing extraordinary about her. No talent had manifested when they pushed and prodded her.

While they’d been aware of her dreams of Jacob, they’d believed he’d been an imaginary friend. Since she’d never physically manifested that imaginary friend she was of little interest to them. Sure, she’d been experimented on like the others, but the roaches had been visibly and vocally disappointed in her ‘talents.’

Giulia, on the other hand, had been one of their top prizes and they’d experimented on her extensively. The years of abuse had left her sister permanently traumatized and terrified of being captured and helpless again.

Mandy understood that, and while she commiserated with her sister, the pull toward Jacob had been even stronger than the urge to assuage Giulia’s fear.

“Since this person is looking for Amanda Wilde and that name was never in use before you moved to Virginia Beach, the person trying to track you down has to be someone you met in the past year.’’ Giulia continued tightly, “Do you know who it is and why they’re looking for you?”

Mandy swallowed nervously. She was pretty sure she knew the who and why. While there were plenty of people in Virginia Beach who knew her as Amanda Wilde, only one had reason to track her down.

It was a good thing Giulia wasn’t within touching distance. Otherwise, she’d know instantly that Mandy had broken her promise and exposed her secret to Jacob.

Man, she didn’t want to explain what she’d done. Not to Giulia. Her sister would neither understand nor condone Mandy’s decision.

“I’ve been careful,” she said, stalling. “I’ve paid everything in cash. I’ve introduced myself as Amanda Wilde to everyone. I’ve only used the burner phones with the pre-paid minutes.” She paused to reemphasize. “Everyone knows me as Amanda Wilde over here. All my identification is under that name. No one will track me back to you.”

“It doesn’t matter what name they’re looking into. The search itself could arouse interest from those we’re hiding from. Kaylee is certain those white-coated bastards are still looking for us. This search into your new name could trigger an alarm—point them toward you, which points them toward all of us,” Giulia said. “This search on your new identity is dangerous no matter where it's coming from. Do you know who is looking for you and why?”

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