Page 17

Joey

For the second time in less than twelve hours, I found myself in a darkened cinema. This time, however, I was in an empty theatre with a film that had been out for ages playing in the background while I met George for the first time.

On Callum’s advice, I’d left my phone at our parent’s place and packed a bag to stay at his apartment overnight. As he’d said, if I was being followed, I wasn’t doing anything more than what I’d been requested to do. The bag remained in his car as we both sat in the cinema talking to George.

While Callum told George about what had transpired today and my subsequent theory, I took in the older man sitting beside me. Dressed entirely in black, he blended well with the darkened theatre. A long beard that had been neatly trimmed into a squarish box cut matched his well styled gray hair, even if the fact that it was almost eleven at night meant that it should have been messy from the day’s travails. Modern rectangular tortoiseshell glasses sat well on his slightly larger than normal nose, and the entire package made me think vaguely of Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings movies if he wore modern day clothing instead of a long gray robe.

When Callum finished his summary, George stroked his beard in deep thought and said in a slightly British accent, “Hmm. That might be why we didn’t have a casualty on Wednesday night.”

From the other side of me, Callum raised an eyebrow. “You think this guy is mixed up in all of that?” He flashed a quick nervous look over to me, before swallowing loudly and looking back at George.

“It feels too coincidental otherwise,” George admitted, narrowing his eyes at the way Callum was fidgeting. “Have you not told Joey everything?”

“Not that. We can keep this from him,” Callum said, frowning at George. “It’s level twelve knowledge, George. I’m not fucking authorized to read him in on something that sensitive. You know that! I shouldn’t even know it!”

Caught in the middle of them, I slowly put my hand up like I was in school. “Um, if this is some confidential government stuff, I can sit over there until you sort things out.” I pointed to the other side of the theatre.

“There’s a mole in the department,” George stated plainly, obviously not giving two shits about protocol.

“Dude! What the actual fuck!” Callum’s jaw dropped in some odd mix of astonishment, disbelief, and annoyance. “Level twelve! He didn’t need to know that!”

George simply waved his hand like he wasn’t breaking however many governmental laws. Federal laws? I didn’t know. I suspected I didn’t want to know.

“He’s going to be your partner, Callum,” George explained patiently, like he was talking to a child. “He has a right to be read in properly.”

Callum threw his hands up in the air before pointing a stern finger at George’s chest. “After what happened today, I thought your vision was wrong,” he hissed angrily, poking his finger against George’s sternum. “Yes, he got approached by someone, but it wasn’t to work with us. It was a rogue trying to get him to spy on us. That changed things from your vision. With that new information, I thought we could keep him out of the in-house shit. You know my thoughts about bringing him into the fold. It’s too dangerous! If we could’ve just protected him from the rogue and got him through this situation, then he wouldn’t need to be brought in long term with us at all.”

With a flat stare, George sat back, crossed his arms, and watched Callum huff in annoyance.

“Telling him about the mole just ensured he’ll never be free of us,” Callum complained, running his fingers through his hair in agitation. “Jesus fucking Christ, George. Why? You know how much I wanted to protect him from all of this.” He waved his hands between the two of them before plonking them onto his thighs and rubbing his thighs in an agitated manner.

George pressed his lips together tight and cocked an eyebrow at Callum. “Are you done?”

Callum glared at George with venom in his eyes. “I mean, I could go on…”

Very obviously, George rolled his eyes, and as I watched, they slowly turned black. The whites of his eyes, the blueish gray of his iris, everything. Everything behind his glasses turned to ink. If I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve thought a demon sat next to me.

Beyond startled, I scrambled back in my seat to get away from George and press into Callum over the armrest between us.

Groaning in annoyance, he settled me with a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. He’s just doing his thing. All the seers in George’s family do this when they’re looking ahead.”

“You’re really going to need to explain how all of this works to me some day,” I muttered, still staring with horrified, wide eyes at George doing his thing.

Slowly, the unnerving blackness of George’s eyes faded, and he shook his head somewhat apologetically to both Callum and me. “My vision hasn’t changed at all; it’s only become firmer. He’s one of us. He was always meant to be one of us.” Reaching around me, he ignored the way I flinched back even further, and placed his hand on Callum’s elbow, before saying quietly and full of sorrow at the haunted look on Callum’s face, “Look for yourself if you still have doubt.”

Callum grabbed George’s bare hand, and his eyes hazed out. They flicked from side to side as he read George, then slumped in his seat, defeated. “But, I’d thought…” He let go of George and swivelled to look at me with such sadness, it nearly broke my heart. “I’m so sorry, Joey. I wanted to protect you from all of this.”

I swallowed a smile because I knew if he saw it, Callum would get pissed at me, before I raised my palms to rest on his cheeks so he couldn’t look away from me. “It’s okay, Callum. I want this.” I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his in a light kiss, my eyelids fluttering closed at the gentle sensation. My tongue tentatively teased at his lips, and he opened immediately, letting me softly glide and explore his open mouth. I pulled back before things got too heated and rested my forehead against his. “I want you. And if working in this team means that I get to spend more time with you, then I’m happy to be a part of it. Read me, and you’ll see.”

Visibly torn about what to say to that, Callum whined as his eyes glazed over again to take a peek into my mind.

I held perfectly still and waited until his focus returned, then smiled gently at him, swiping my thumbs softly against his cheeks. “Believe me now?”

Swallowing hard, he nodded shakily. His eyes became all puppy-like, and he held my wrists to keep my hands in place. “Mo lus na gréine… I don’t like this…”

“I know, sweetheart.” I drew away from him enough to kiss him on the forehead. There was one last thing I could say to convince him that George was doing the right thing, and it seemed the right time to drop it. “But you did say on our date that the more I knew about what you do for your job, the better this will all go. If George says I need to know this, then let’s get on with the knowledge sharing and get this done, okay?”

He shuddered in my hands, then sighed in resignation. “Okay.”

Thankful that he agreed relatively easily, I tucked his head against mine to give him one more kiss on the forehead. Then, without letting him go, I turned around to face George. “Read me in, sir.”

George’s lips lifted ever so slightly in a soft smile, nodded once, then leaned forward. “I’ve already explained all of this to Callum, but over the past few years, we’ve been having a not insignificant number of operations go awry, or even fail entirely. Most of the time, our operatives encountered delaying tactics in completing their missions, sometimes even getting arrested when they were getting too close to their targets. In rarer cases, targets have died after we’d already saved them via our initial intel.”

Alarmed, I looked at Callum, who simply shrugged.

“I told you it was a dangerous field to work in,” he said quietly. “Although I haven’t encountered any issue so far.”

George nodded, then looked pointedly at me. “I suspect that Callum would have on Wednesday night had you not been there.”

“Me?” My brows furrowed in confusion. “Why would I change things?”

“Because you were an unknown,” Callum mused before he looked at George, who nodded in agreement. “The guy was there, but I lost track of him after I sat down with you. He mustn’t have known what to make of you, so he withdrew from the situation.” He looked at me and shrugged. “It’s what I would’ve done, especially if I’m playing a long game. That’s how we’re trained.”

I frowned at this and filed it away to think about in the background. There was something to what Callum just said, but I couldn’t place my finger on it just yet. “You think that’s why he approached me today? He’d researched me?”

“That’s our guess,” George said, nodding slowly. He scratched at his chin through his thick beard. “He’d likely contacted the mole on Wednesday night and figured it out from there who you were and how you’re related to Callum.”

Raising an eyebrow at George, I asked, “I’m in your system, then?”

“Surface level only,” George admitted somewhat begrudgingly. “You’re listed as family to Callum, as are Erin and your father.”

“Hmm,” I murmured, adding this information to the deluge I’d received over the last few days. God, had it only been a few days? It already felt like a lifetime. “I wonder if that’s why this guy didn’t seem to know all that much about me and who I am exactly to Callum.” I shifted in my seat, regretting the fact that I couldn’t get up and pace to think things through better. “Callum, how many people know about your vision of us? Or even that you get visions at all?”

He stared at me. “Just you, our folks, and George. No-one else.” He flicked his eyes to George nervously. “We agreed it was safer that way. It’s not listed in the system, right?”

George shook his head. “Your reading ability is the only thing listed, but everyone in the agency expected that because of your mother, so it’s never been a secret there. Knowledge of your seer ability, though… That would be catastrophic in the wrong hands. Family powers mixing...” He trailed off nervously with a loud swallow.

Feeling my eyes widen at the first sign of George being unnerved, I filed that interesting comment under the must ask Callum about this later portion of my brain, figuring that it was better to keep us all on track. “Okay, so both the mole and the dude that’s been stalking Callum and hassling me only know the fact that we’re stepbrothers because that info is in the system, and that we were on a date at The Majestic because he saw us there that night.” I wondered if that threw him for a loop as much as it did me.

Callum and George both nodded in silent agreement, waiting to see where I was going.

“So…” I continued, thinking out loud. “Neither he nor the mole expect me to know about your reading ability, let alone your seer ability, or for me to know that you’re working with George.” I tilted my head from side to side as I analyzed this from every angle I could think of. “Or for me to know about George and your group at all, really. That’s probably why he thinks I’m an easier target than you, Callum. But what he expects me to get for him, I’m fucked if I can see.” I scratched behind my ear. “I don’t understand what benefit approaching me would do.”

Callum hummed, following my train of thought. “Unless he wants to make sure we’re together long enough to ensure that we’re rock solid, then use you as bait or a hostage to get me to do something for him?”

“That could be it entirely,” I said, pointing at him in agreement. “He doesn’t know that we’re already further along than we should be after a single date, because he doesn’t know about your seer ability, or that you’ve told me about our future.” Turning to face George again, I said, “Both he and your mole are working under the assumption that we’re basically strangers, only thrown together because of our parents. That’s his blind spot. We need to exploit that, but how?”

“If that’s the case,” George said. “They’re playing the long game and only laying the groundwork now. He’s using your love of your family, your dad especially, to force you to report back to him, but he can’t be expecting anything of any substance until you’ve shown that you can be relied upon, that he can trust what you’re telling him, especially in these early days. Getting you to report back on your dates with Callum is about all he could rightly expect for now until you’re comfortable enough that he can push you just that little bit further.”

Nodding along with what he was saying, I let my eyes focus on the action filling the movie screen. “So, you’re basically telling me to do exactly what he’s asking me to do until we can start feeding him our own lies. Prove my worth.”

“Precisely.”

Callum shifted uneasily beside me, drawing my attention back to him. “I don’t like this, mo lus na gréine . It’s too dangerous for you. We’ve been trained, you haven’t.”

“That’s exactly why it’ll work,” George said confidently.

As much as I wanted to disagree, I had to admit George had a point. I interlaced my fingers with Callum’s and squeezed gently. “My inexperience is what he’ll be expecting. If I go in there like I’ve been trained, he’ll know something’s off.” I turned back to George. “That’s why you can’t put me in the system, either. I can’t exist there other than being Callum’s stepbrother and Erin’s stepson.”

“That’s going to make discussing what we need to at work difficult,” Callum said to George, eyeing him in concern. “There’s a lot of moving parts on this that we’ll need to keep on top of and it’ll be easier to do that at work.”

“True.” George stroked his beard lazily, his eyes narrowed in thought. “I’ve got a few code names that I need to enter into the system. I can enter Joey’s as a confidential informant at the same time I enter theirs. It’ll look less suspicious if I do them all at the same time.”

To say that I had to stop myself from wiggling in my seat was the understatement of the ages. I was going to get a code name? How cool was that? As much as meeting with this guy again was freaking me the hell out, a small childlike part of me that had never vanished like so much else had whilst growing up was jumping up and down with innocent glee.

“Which word for Joey are you thinking?” Callum asked George, drawing me out of my thoughts.

George grinned cheekily. “What about Sunflower? You already call him that, anyway. It’ll make it easier for you to remember.”

Blushing, Callum chuckled to himself and shook his head whilst I looked from one to the other with wide eyes.

“You know Irish?” I asked George, probably more surprised than I should be.

He laughed, a deep rumble that warmed me in its affection. “I was born in England and spent a fair amount of time in Ireland in my late teens. Plus, after working with Erin for the past few decades, and now this one—” He poked his thumb at Callum with a cheeky grin. “—you tend to pick up some things.”

Oh, shit. I’d forgotten that Erin had worked with George before Callum had. My amusement at Callum’s embarrassment faded into the background. “Um, guys?”

They both settled immediately and looked at me in apprehension. It hadn’t dawned on me until then how much alike they were in mannerisms. It was obvious they’d spent a ton of time together.

“If these two guys have access to your system, they know about Erin and her reading abilities. Should we be worried about her, too? Bring her in on this?”

Nibbling at his bottom lip, Callum looked at George. “It’s your call, old man. I’ve kept her ignorant of everything because I didn’t want her throwing a fit. She only found out I was back in town yesterday and that was an unpleasant conversation all on its own.”

“It probably would be wise to at least give her a heads up that someone might approach her,” George said, leaning back in his seat and frowning in thought. “Let me think about it. I’ll talk to her if I need to and let you know if I do.”

The sweeping sounds of the end credits of the movie swept through the theatre, making all of us lift our heads to stare at the screen, surprised that the movie was already over.

“Tomorrow, meet the guy and tell him whatever he wants to know, but do it begrudgingly,” George said to me once we realized we were almost out of time and he needed to give me some sort of guidance about the upcoming meeting. “Don’t make things too easy for him, otherwise he’ll get suspicious. My guess is that he’ll only want to see if you’ll talk relatively honestly with him. He told you to go to the movies with Callum tonight, and you did. He’ll expect you to be skittish, especially after the way he threatened your family, so play up on that.”

Letting out a controlled breath, I nodded; my delight in gaining a code name vanishing instantly only to be replaced by nerves making themselves known again. It wouldn’t be difficult to act skittish as I was terrified about meeting this guy again. It was easy enough to talk a big game when sitting with people you knew and trusted, but another thing entirely with someone that scared the absolute shit out of you.

Standing, George patted me on the shoulder and straightened his clothes after sitting for so long in the same seat. “You’ll be fine. Callum has my number if you need to reach out to me. We’ll chat again soon, I’m sure.” He nodded to Callum before he turned around and walked out of the cinema, leaving Callum and me staring blankly at the end credits.

Was I really going to do this? Was I really going to trust the word of a man I barely knew because of visions he had?

I knew Callum trusted George and saw him as a father figure. Was I ready to do the same?

“Hey, Callum?” I asked absently, my hand resting lightly on his thigh as I let my thoughts swirl.

“Yeah?”

“What’s your code name?”

He chuckled. “Honeycomb.”

I turned to look at him askance. “What on earth for?”

Grinning cheekily at me, he explained, “Because I’m good at filling in the gaps.”

Tilting my head to stare at him some more, I frowned. “That doesn’t explain nearly as much as you think it does.”

He laughed. “I’m kind of like a general dogsbody. I assist a lot of people because I’m still so new to the agency, and by the time George was ready to give me a code name, I’d started getting a reputation as someone who could fill in whenever we were short somewhere, regardless of what they normally did. George played on that and named me Honeycomb.” He shrugged. “Most of our operative code names are in-jokes of some sort or another. You’ll understand it more when you’re brought in properly.” His face fell as the seriousness of what was happening came over him again. “I’m scared for you, mo lus na gréine . This is dangerous work, and George is throwing you in the deep end with nothing more than a few encouraging words.”

Leaning over the armrest, I leaned my forehead against his and let us breathe each other’s air for a moment. Hooking my palm around his nape, I brought our lips together and tentatively teased my tongue against his before pulling back, Callum following me eagerly as I withdrew. “I’ll be okay.”

He closed his eyes tight as though he was in pain. “How can you be so sure?”

I pressed my lips to his again before I nibbled my way up his jawline to reach his ear. “Because I believe in what you saw for our future, Callum. No static, full color, high-definition, IMAX quality. That’s what you said, right?”

His eyes popped open in surprise before he turned his head enough to look me in the eye. “You remembered what I said? Aw, mo lus na gréine. Now you’re just playing dirty.”

I grinned at him with as much affection as I had for him. “You said we’re going to get married one day. If you can’t trust me enough to get through tomorrow, trust in your vision.”

As the end credit music swelled to his crescendo, I leaned in and firmly kissed him, relishing in the way he eagerly responded to my every movement.

We’d be fine.