"I think he enjoyed causing us pain. He made me administer the drug to Jason and forced me to continue working on the project. He had me doing mostly data analysis. He didn't trust me to do anything hands on, which was smart of him. But he kept me close enough because he enjoyed needling me and I think he honestly is attracted to me. I think he fantasized that something might develop, that I would come to see things his way. I also don't think he wanted Jason dead. I think he was hoping at some point he might be able to use him, his knowledge anyway."
"So you just let him manipulate you two?"
"No, Paige. If that was the case we wouldn't be here now. Early on, I tried to replace the medication I was being forced to give Jason. Cameron discovered that and arranged for Jason to suffer an accident that broke his leg. I was told that was the only warning we would get."
Jason rubbed his leg absently. Paige frowned and wished she could take back her words.
"I've spent the last several years setting up this escape."
Paige looked down at her hands. "And we've screwed that up for you."
Julie nodded. "Not your fault, but yes."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why didn't you just keep going?"
Julie looked from Paige to Jason and a tight smile formed on her face.
"Because I know what you mean to him. You may not be the original Paige, but to him, you are his daughter. He insisted we help you."
"I'm responsible," Jason said softly. "For you, for what you are going through."
She wanted to argue with him, but she couldn't. Not because she didn't believe it, but because she honestly didn't know. Her head was swimming with everything she had learned in the last few hours.
"Wait. How did you even know how to contact us?" Nathan asked.
"Daniel Perry," Julie said.
"Paige's fiancee? But how? He..."
Julie reached into her purse and pulled out the old cell phone. "He'd called Jason. He called the number Jason had had when Paige died."
"What? That thing works?" Nathan asked.
She punched in a number and then handed the phone to Nathan.
"J...Jason. I don't know if this is still your number, if you'll ever get this message, or if you are even still alive, but I just had the most unbelievable visit..."
Nathan lowered the phone as the message continued.
"He gave us your number," Julie said.
"Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable."
Julie nodded her head in agreement.
"So where do you go from here?" Paige asked.
"We," Jason corrected. "Where do, we, go from here." He looked at Julie, his eyes pleading. After a moment she sighed and gave him a single nod.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
She sat quietly, sneaking glances at Cameron. He was tense, worried, angry. Hell, he might have been on the verge of panic. The plan had worked. They had picked up a new phone and contacted Jimmy. With his help they had been able to trace her phone that she'd hidden in Nathan's car. The problem was that when they had finally tracked it down, Paige and Nathan were no longer with it. They found it parked at a motel, but it looked abandoned.
Linda had gone to the front desk and played the part of a distraught and jealous wife. She had shown the man pictures of both Nathan and Paige and demanded to know if either of them had secured a room at the motel. The kid manning the desk couldn't have been more than twenty. He had looked at the pictures and then told her that he hadn't ever seen either of them.
Cameron had become extremely agitated at the news. His fear was that they had realized they were being tracked and had abandoned the car. If that were true, the odds of picking them up again any time soon were extremely slim, especially now that Dillinger had cut his legs out from under him.
"Fucking Dillinger," he muttered for the hundredth time. He squeezed the steering wheel, his knuckles going white. "Why? Why? Why? Why is he screwing me? Why does he hate this project? Jealousy?"
She glanced at him, unsure if he was actually looking for a response or not.
"Has to be. Simply, has to be. After all these years the bastard finally gets just how valuable this project can be and he wants to cut me out of it. The son of a bitch started the ball rolling on the thing and then abandoned it, he didn't have the vision to see its value. Well I will not have all these years wasted, just flushed down the drain. I am going to clean up this mess, liquidate this Paige and this Nathan character. Once that is done, I can return to the lab, we can restart once more, only this time I won't rush it. I'm going to miss my opportunity in California. I guess the governor gets lucky and gets to continue living. But I will find some other way to make a splash. I will make it so damn big that every top dog will be demanding to know who is responsible and how it was done. And most importantly, how they can get in on the action. And they will have to come to me."