Page 10 of Covert Affections (Shadow Agents/PSI-Ops #5)

Chapter Ten

Lindy

Fourteen years later, just outside of Denver, Colorado…

Lindy Delgado kept her head down, letting her long, dark, straight hair fall partially into her face as she entered the grocery store.

It wasn’t a big and fancy chain store like she saw on television.

Most of the shelves were unlevel after years of heavy use, and the linoleum flooring once had a pattern, but it was mostly worn away, marking the path most shoppers took.

It was locally owned and small, showing signs of age, but it served its purpose, and it was within walking distance of her home, which was the most important part since she had no means of transportation.

She pushed her glasses up on her nose, but they slid down again quickly.

She needed a new pair, but that wasn’t in the budget.

Not much was. That included a new coat since she’d outgrown her other.

That wasn’t in the cards either, so she was making the old one work.

Sadly, its snug fit only served to draw more unwanted attention her way.

At nearly seventeen, she was tall for her age and had developed womanly curves early, which had made junior high and high school difficult for her.

Kids could be cruel, and it was sad that most of the cruelty had come from other girls.

They mocked her ruthlessly for having large breasts and wide hips.

Instead of women supporting women, it had been a case of the girls ganging up on her. Of them taunting her, calling her a slut and a whore when she’d not even made out with a boy, let alone had sex with one. They didn’t care. The truth was irrelevant to them.

Lindy’s aunt had been sympathetic through it all, even though she had no real understanding of what it was like to be the butt of every joke.

Her aunt was the perfect size, and while she tended to keep to herself, she could charm anyone she put her mind to charming.

Lindy often wondered how they could be related since they looked nothing alike.

Her aunt swore Lindy took after her mother.

That her sister looked like Lindy too, but there were no pictures to prove as much.

Lindy knew very little about her parents other than they’d died in a car accident when she was two and a half.

At least that’s what her aunt told her. None of it lined up with the memories Lindy had of her early childhood.

Memories of men in white lab coats and men dressed head to toe in black carrying weapons.

Memories of metal cribs and endless, painful tests.

When Lindy had said as much to her aunt, she was told it was just nightmares, that it never happened.

Lindy had wanted to believe her aunt, but something deep inside wasn’t so sure her aunt was being truthful.

The woman had never once been able to produce a single picture of Lindy’s mother or father.

Nothing to show what they’d looked like.

It was hard to believe not one photo existed of them, separate or together.

Lindy stopped pushing to know more about her birth parents when her aunt began showing signs of something being off.

Looking back, a piece of Lindy knew her aunt was seriously ill.

It had started with a smell Lindy couldn’t place, but that was out of the ordinary—like rot.

She’d just been too young and too wrapped up in her own problems in life to see anyone else’s.

The curse of youth—that’s what she’d once heard someone call it.

Now, with a few more years under her belt, Lindy liked to think she’d wised up.

Life hadn’t left her much of a choice.

Whatever her aunt had eluded the medical profession.

She’d seen doctor after doctor with no success.

Each only managed to make her worse. Her aunt had lost her job as a nurse at the local hospital a year and a half ago when she’d been too sick to show up for work and had exhausted her medical leave—what little there had been of it.

Ironic since she worked as a medical professional.

When the job went, so did the health insurance.

Lindy worked odd jobs here and there, trying to bring in money to help them get by, but it never seemed to be enough.

It was hard to find work while going to high school full-time.

She’d considered dropping out and getting her GED, but her aunt wouldn’t hear of it.

Soon, Lindy would be left with no choice.

Their situation would soon demand that she leave school and find full-time employment.

For example, they needed bread, milk, and eggs.

Luxury items, it seemed, since the money had dried up.

As much as Lindy wished she could afford to get fresh produce and meat to give her aunt healthier food choices, the money simply wasn’t there.

She’d tried to talk her aunt into seeing what resources were available through local programs, but her aunt wouldn’t hear of it.

Pride would be their downfall.

The resources were there to help those in need until they were able to help themselves. And Lindy and her aunt were certainly in need. But there was no point in having the conversation with her aunt again. It wouldn’t do anything other than upset her and end in an argument—like always.

Maybe if Lindy had recognized the signs that something was seriously wrong with her aunt back in junior high, her aunt would be better now, not sick and unable to get out of bed.

Lindy was hardly what anyone would label a qualified caregiver, yet the position fell to her, leaving her balancing caring for her aunt, going to high school full-time, and working odd jobs.

She didn’t have a network of people or friends to fall back on.

Lindy was something of a loner. She’d never really fit in with the other kids at school.

Sometimes, late at night when the weight of the loneliness was too heavy to bear, she’d think about Charley—a little girl she’d met at the doctor’s office years ago, before she started kindergarten.

They’d clicked instantly, and although she’d only known Charley a short while, she’d felt like a true friend.

One day, without warning or a goodbye, Charley and her father vanished. Even now, Lindy occasionally thought of Charley, wondering where she was and if she was doing well.

Dwelling on the past wouldn’t help her current situation. And these days, Lindy couldn’t afford the luxury of nostalgia. Especially when memories wouldn’t pay the mounting bills or put food on the table. Her aunt’s prescriptions were pricey, and their income barely covered their expenses.

Lindy sighed as she came to a stop in front of the dairy case.

She’d wanted to buy a gallon of milk, but the price was higher than it had been two weeks ago when she’d last got one.

She reached into the pocket of her jeans and fished out a handful of wadded-up dollar bills, spare change, and lint.

Getting the full gallon would leave her short on cash for bread and eggs.

She grabbed a half gallon of milk and turned down a side aisle, her goal the egg section.

A woman with a cart full of groceries walked by, talking on her cell phone as she propped her elbows on the cart.

She picked grapes out of the open bag in the front basket of the cart and popped one in her mouth, chewing obnoxiously as she laughed at something over the phone.

There was a closed bottle of sparkling flavored water next to the grapes, along with a magazine dedicated to celebrity gossip.

“Oh, I know, right? Hey, what cheese do you think would pair well with the wine you’re bringing? ”

Lindy could only dream of having a life that left her being able to pair cheese and wine. She couldn’t even afford a full gallon of milk and eggs. Having enough excess for luxuries like cheese and wine seemed far-fetched and like a fantasy to her.

The store had narrow aisles, which left Lindy having to stand sideways for the woman, who hadn’t bothered moving to the side at all, to get past. The cart pressed against Lindy on its way by.

The woman looked her dead in the eyes and curled her lip. “What? Yeah, I’m here. Just trying to get my cart around some fat chick standing in the middle of the damn aisle. Maybe if she learned to move a bit more, her ass wouldn’t be so big.”

Lindy wasn’t super thin, nor was she overweight.

She was curvy. More than the popular trend that women’s magazines had been pushing.

Even if she’d had more weight to her than she did, the woman was out of line.

Lindy thought of all the things she wished she were brave enough to say but held her tongue, letting the woman grin triumphantly on her way by.

Anger welled in Lindy, but she kept her thoughts to herself as she shoved the money back into her pocket. A small flutter of something cool and dark shot through Lindy.

One second, the woman was smirking and turning her head to focus on something down the aisle, and the next, sparkling water was spraying all over the front of the woman while grapes shot at her like tiny ping-pong balls being lobbed at her by an Olympic player.

The woman lifted her arms, dropping her phone and stepping on it before slipping and landing flat on her backside.

Her phone came to a skidding halt by Lindy’s foot. Without thinking, Lindy bent quickly and picked it up. The woman screamed as if she were being murdered and then broke into hysterical sobs. She turned her head, her gaze colliding with Lindy’s.

“What are you staring at? Give me my phone back,” the woman demanded.

Lindy lifted the phone higher and spoke into it.

“Hi, the person you’re trying to reach is no longer available…

karma came calling and gave them no choice but to answer.

” With that, Lindy tossed the phone at the woman and pivoted, walking away with her head held a little taller.

At the end of the aisle, she paused as a woman she’d seen working behind the customer service desk at the store on occasion came rushing by.

“W-what happened?” The employee paused and paled. “Was there water on the floor?”

Lindy wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, yet didn’t confess as much. She found herself grinning slightly. “The lady was fine one second, and then she just started throwing water and grapes everywhere. Honestly, you should probably make her pay for anything she ruined.”

Lindy hurried away, doing her best to restrain the laugh wanting to come.

It was so rare a feeling—wanting to laugh—that it caught her off guard and made her stop in her tracks.

The sight of the bitchy woman flailing around as water and grapes went everywhere burned into Lindy’s brain for use later when she needed something funny to think about, however bizarre it had been.

Had the woman jostled the sparkling water to the point that pressure left it exploding, sending grapes and water everywhere?

That has to be it , Lindy thought, only to have another voice, one that sounded like hers, yet not reply in her head, Or karma really did bite her in the ass.

Lindy glanced around, wondering if someone had gotten close to her without her realizing it. If maybe her mental replay of the incident had consumed her thoughts to the point she hadn’t noticed anyone else.

No one was there.

Weird.