Page 19 of Diagnosis Attraction (Soulmated #4)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Elizabeth looked at Matt, then back at the old woman who might be able to tell them what had really been going on at the Solomon Clinic.

But you want to tell us about the clinic. You worked there years ago. It’s all right to talk about it now.

Maven looked uncertain, and Matt repeated the suggestion and added, It’s all right to talk to us. We won’t tell anyone else.

Elizabeth waited with her heart pounding for the woman to speak.

Maven lowered her voice. “Their mothers had fertility treatments from Dr. Solomon.”

“That’s not so unusual,” Matt answered.

“Yes. But Dr. Solomon doesn’t like me to talk about that. Not since the clinic burned down.”

“It burned?”

“Why yes. It was at night, so nobody was hurt, thank the Lord.”

I guess she doesn’t know Solomon’s dead, Matt silently commented.

And from her tone of voice, it seems she was afraid of him.

“We won’t tell anyone,” Elizabeth repeated Matt’s earlier assurance. She gently put her hand on the old woman’s arm. What can you tell us?”

Matt soundlessly reinforced the question.

“Well, you know, the doctor ran it like a fertility clinic. That’s how he got the babies. But he was really doing experiments on those children before they were born. He thought we didn’t know, well all except Dorothy. She was his pet.”

“Experiments?” Elizabeth asked carefully. “What was he trying to do to them?”

“Make them super smart,” the old woman said as though she was confiding the nuclear-launch codes. “That’s why he had the children come back for tests. But he was disappointed because they didn’t seem any different from ordinary children.”

“He was doing brain experiments?” Matt asked.

“Didn’t I say that?”

“Not exactly.”

“He was so excited when he started. He was sure his techniques were going to produce something extraordinary. Then he couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working.” The woman’s expression suddenly closed. “I shouldn’t be talking to you about any of this.” She raised her head. “I should call Sarah.”

“No need,” Matt said. “We won’t ask you any more questions.”

She turned her head away, and Elizabeth looked up to see that some of the residents were staring at the scene.

We’re attracting attention.

We’d better go.

She and Matt got up and left the dayroom, then hurried down the hall, retracing their steps.

“I think we found out what we wanted to know about the clinic,” Matt said when they were back in the hall. I think he was working with fertilized eggs, operating on the blastocytes.”

“Back then? Isn’t that kind of advanced?”

“I guess you could say he was a genius.”

“An evil genius. He was using eggs he had no right to. He was playing with people’s lives.”

“Obviously he thought the ends justified the means. And he didn’t care who got hurt in the process.”

“But it didn’t work out the way he thought it would. He was fooling with the babies’ brains, but instead of making them smart, he created potential telepaths.”

She nodded. “And creating people who were doomed to lead miserable lives—unless they met someone else who was a product of the experiment.”

“How many more of us are there, do you think?” Elizabeth asked.

“That’s something we should try to find out.”

“And it sounds like we’re not the first couple that got together.”

They both stopped short as they considered the implications.

“Let’s say that the woman who was probing my thoughts is one of us.”

“That’s a stretch.”

“Who else?”

He shrugged.

“And let’s say that, for some reason, she and her partner blew up Dr. Solomon’s clinic.”

“An even bigger stretch,” Matt said. “But here’s an important question. Are the other people friendly to each other—or hostile?”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “Why would they be hostile?”

“I don’t know. I’m trying to consider every angle.”

“Okay, then who is it that was trying to get information about us—at your house? Some of the other adults who were born because of the project?”

“Or someone else.”

They had reached the front door, and Matt pulled it open.

She grabbed his arm, stopping him from walking out on the porch.

“What?” Matt asked.

“There’s a car next to ours.”

“Another visitor.”

“I don’t think so.”

As they watched, two men got out. Both of them were wearing sports shirts, casual slacks, and what looked like football helmets.

Football helmets?

I don’t like it.

When they saw Elizabeth and Matt they started rapidly up the walk toward the building, and the expressions on their faces weren’t particularly friendly.

“What are we going to do now?” she asked.

“Find the back exit.”

The receptionist looked up at them as they hurried down the hall in the direction they’d just come from.

“You can’t just go back there again,” she called.

Matt turned toward her.

Two men are headed this way. They’re thugs. Keep them from following us.

Praying that the mental suggestion was going to give them a little extra time, Elizabeth kept pace with Matt.

He took a side hallway, then dodged into one of the rooms. A woman was in a hospital bed watching television. She looked up in alarm as two strangers charged into her room.

“Who are you?”

We’re friends. Just keep calm. Don’t tell anyone we were here, Matt instructed as he crossed to the window.

It was of the casement variety, and he turned the crank, then used his foot to knock out the screen.

“Go on,” he said to Elizabeth. With no other choice, she swung one leg over the sill, then levered herself the rest of the way out, glad that it was only a few feet to the ground.

Come on, she called to Matt.

I wish I could close the window, but you can’t crank it from the outside.

Just get out of there. To her relief, Matt stuck his foot out the window, then his head and shoulder. He lowered himself to the lawn, and they looked around. The grounds of the nursing home were well kept, but beyond them was a scraggly area that bordered one of the bayous that cut across the town.

Can we make it to the car? Elizabeth asked.

Not directly. He looked toward the unkempt area beyond the grounds, where the trees and bushes would give them some cover. Maybe we can work our way around.

Do you think there are just the two guys?

I wish I knew.

Why are they after us? Elizabeth asked.

I’m guessing someone has a clue about the children from the Solomon Clinic, and they want more information. Or they are children from the clinic, and they know we could screw with their minds—so they rigged up some protective gear.

Unfortunately.

From inside the nursing home, they could hear running feet and knew they didn’t have much time to make a getaway.

Matt took the lead, moving along the side of the building until they were closer to the wooded area.

When the distance was as short as it was going to get, he looked back at Elizabeth

I’m going first. If I make it across without getting shot, you follow.

She hated putting it that way, but she didn’t see any alternative. With her heart in her throat, she watched Matt dash across the open space to the scrubby patch of land beyond the manicured lawn.

When he raised his hand and waved at her, she breathed out a little sigh of relief. In the next second, she saw his expression change to one of horror.

Before she could figure out what was wrong, a hand closed over her shoulder.

“Move, and I’ll shoot you in the kneecap,” a harsh voice said.

Rachel Harper stood frozen in the living room of her cottage at the Lafayette plantation. When the door burst open, she whirled as Stephanie Swift charged through the door. Craig Branson was right behind her. They were both products of Dr. Solomon’s illegal experiments. A few months earlier, Stephanie had been trapped into an engagement with a man named John Reynard, a criminal who’d insinuated himself into New Orleans society. Then she met Craig Branson and knew she was about to make a horrible mistake.

When Reynard had whisked Stephanie away to his heavily fortified plantation, Craig had followed.

Rachel and Jake had helped them escape from Reynard’s men—and from thugs sent by someone else. Now, they were all at the plantation owned by Gabriella Boudreaux, who was paired with Luke Buckley.

“It’s the same man who was after me and Craig,” Stephanie gasped as they rushed into Rachel’s cottage.

“You saw what just happened?”

“Yes.” She flushed. “I mean, I knew you were upset. You were broadcasting it like a television cop show.”

They were followed very quickly by Gabriella and Luke.

Rachel turned as her husband, Jake Harper, came into the room.

“What’s happening, exactly?” he asked.

“I wasn’t sure what was going on until now,” Rachel breathed. “That other couple—Elizabeth and Matt—are from Baltimore. It’s a long story, but they found a man burglarizing Elizabeth’s house and got from him that he was hired by someone in New Orleans. They’d already started doing research on the Solomon Clinic and went to Houma. They found the same nursing home we did and talked to Maven. But thugs were waiting for them when they came out.”

“They just grabbed Elizabeth,” Stephanie added. “And they’re wearing some kind of protective helmets.”

“Helmets?” Jake asked. “Why?”

“Because they know we have mental powers, and the helmets must have some kind of lining that blocks us,” Stephanie said.

Jake swore under his breath.

“We have to go there,” Stephanie said. “We have to help them.”

The men looked doubtful.

Rachel swung toward the other women, exchanging silent messages before focusing on Jake. “You guys may not be coming, but we have to go to Houma.”

“If you think we’re letting the three of you go there alone, you’re crazy,” Jake said.

“Is that a sexist opinion?” she asked.

“It’s the opinion of a man who loves his wife and doesn’t want to send her into danger.”

“But we have to go,” Stephanie answered.

Jake knew when he was outvoted. “We’ll take the van. And we’ll make plans on the way. It’s almost a two-hour drive.”

“Will we be in time?” Stephanie asked.

“We can only pray it will be,” Rachel answered.

Rachel’s gaze turned inward as she tuned in on the scene in Houma.

He heard her gasp.

What?

Maybe it’s already too late, she blurted.

Matt stared in horror as one of the helmeted men reached for Elizabeth and pulled her against his body in a parody of an embrace.

“We’ve got your girlfriend,” he called out. “If you don’t want to see her get shot, you’d better come back here.”

Stay away. Don’t do it, he heard Elizabeth shouting in his mind. But how could he leave her with the men?

We’ll think of something.

But what? He tried sending a mental suggestion to the man who held Elizabeth. Let her go. You don’t want to hold her. Let her go. But the silent order had no effect.

Matt wanted to spit out a string of curses, but that wouldn’t do him any good. He understood the problem. The man knew what he and Elizabeth could do, and he was wearing that football helmet thing to block any messages Matt and Elizabeth might try to send him.

But the two of them could still communicate with each other. And although they knew a mental command wasn’t going to make her captor turn her loose, there might be another way.

“Why do you want us?” he called out.

“It’s just a job for me.”

“Then let us go.”

“No way. Turn yourself in if you don’t want something bad to happen to her.”

I’m going to look like I’m giving up, he said to Elizabeth. When I get about ten feet from you, act like you’ll faint.

Okay.

Matt’s gaze flicked to the left and right. At any moment, the other thug could show up, creating a problem he might be unable to overcome.

His heart was pounding so hard that he could barely breathe as he started back the way he’d come.