Page 26

Joey

“Zookeeper, have you got some explaining to do,” Erin snarled as soon as she entered the room, before whirling on Callum. “And you! Why the fuck are you with George?” She paused to take a breath, then narrowed her eyes at the scene in front of her. “What’s going on?”

At this point, I was standing up from my seat, clawing at Kiddo’s fingers to get them to loosen, with Callum scooting around me to get Kiddo to detach from the other side. “Help! He won’t let go!”

“Fuck.” Marcy darted around and down the other side of the table before she slid over the tabletop and slapped Kiddo hard across the cheek. “Sorry, Kiddo, but you need to snap out of it.”

It took one more firm slap before Kiddo heaved a gasp, his eyes swinging wildly at everyone in the room before he looked down at his hand, still gripping mine. Like he’d touched a live wire, his fingers spasmed and loosened enough to let me go. He pushed back from the table and fled towards the door, his fingers tangling in his hair as he tried to tear it out. He nearly ran into Boomerang as she re-entered the room before rearing back from her as he passed. “Sorry. Sorry. Too much. All too much. So sorry.”

Cradling my hand to my chest, I felt my fingers throb as blood flow resumed. As memories of my first meeting with Callum ran through my head, I turned towards Callum and said, “This is feeling awfully familiar. What did I do this time?”

Folding me into his embrace, he wrapped his arms around me even as I held my hand close. “You didn’t do anything, mo lus na gréine.” He rubbed circles against my back to calm me. “I think you just activated another power.”

“Yeah, that was a classic activation,” came Marcy’s muffled voice from nearby. “What I’d like to know is how it happened. Kiddo is sixteen. He’s too old for new power. And as far as anyone knows, there were no powered individuals in the compound where he was found. Right, George?”

Lifting my head enough to look in George’s direction, his eyes had returned to normal. He grimaced at Marcy’s words. “Code names, Locksmith.”

Still perched on the tabletop, she swung around to cross her legs in the middle of the table and waved a hand in the air. “It’s too late for code names, old man. We need answers.”

“I agree,” Erin said, crossing her arms and staring George down. “What the fuck just happened? Who was that young man?”

Gritting his teeth, George growled and hauled the nearest seat out from under the table and flopped into it. “Fine. Sit your asses down. If you want answers, answers are what you’re going to get.”

Erin scowled at him, but headed to the chairs opposite Callum and me, and carefully sat down, guiding Dad to take the seat next to her. She then pointed at us to sit, so we did.

Marcy remained where she was, preferring the hard tabletop to a plush leather seat, although she scooted back a little to avoid being in anyone’s eyeline.

Boomerang remained standing, watching everything unfold with abject curiosity. “I feel like I should get popcorn.”

George rolled his eyes at her. “You too, Pippa. Shut the door and sit down.”

Boomerang shut the door and sat. “I still feel like I should have a tub of popcorn to pass around.”

Okay, Boomerang’s name was Pippa. Had Callum told me that before? I couldn’t remember. I added it to the long list of new information rolling around in my head, absently wondering if there was an upper limit I’d eventually hit before my brain would decide it was done and explode in protest.

“What I’m about to say stays within this room, got it?” George asked, ignoring Pippa. Once he’d confirmed everyone’s nods, he went on. “Let’s get introductions out of the way first.” He went around the table, stating everybody’s actual name and code name, but refraining from calling either Callum or me anything other than our given names. “Right. We have two very different scenarios playing out right now. First, Boogeyman and Hellhound, or Tama and Bailey, are out on a call to apprehend someone extremely dangerous. I’m waiting to hear from them to see if their hunt has been successful.” He looked at Erin, who had opened her mouth to ask a question. “We’ll circle back to this in a minute, Erin. Wait until I get the other point out.”

Remaining unconvinced, she narrowed her eyes at him, but nodded anyway.

“Second, we discovered tonight that Joey is a boost.”

At this, Erin’s eyes widened and swung wildly between me and George. “What?”

Dad looked understandably confused. “Honey, what’s a boost? What is George talking about?”

Her eyes settled on me, as she explained without looking away, “A boost is someone with the ability to boost other people’s powers, but they’re incredibly rare. The only way to find them is by touching them when a powered person tries to use their ability. If their power becomes easier to use, or they’re suddenly able to do things they couldn’t before, the person they’re touching is confirmed to be a boost. If their powers don’t change, then they’re not.”

From my periphery, I saw Callum nod in agreement, his hand soothing mine that was still smarting from Kiddo’s grip.

“That’s why…” Erin murmured as she looked down at our joined hands, before she shook her head and frowned at George. “But we know all the boost lines. How could we have missed one?”

George tilted his head in my direction. “Joey tells me that his dad was adopted as a baby.” He thumbed at Dad, who startled when George brought him into the discussion.

“I was, that’s correct,” Dad said, his eyes slightly wider than normal. “It was a closed adoption. Full rights were handed over.”

“And that Joey’s mom disappeared soon after giving birth?” George continued.

“That’s right.” Dad nodded, even though he was still confused. “Why do you ask?”

Erin slid her hand over to Dad’s and squeezed it gently. “Because powers don’t usually spontaneously occur. They’re hereditary. If Joey has the boost ability, he must have gotten it from one of his parents.”

“Oh.”

I could tell Dad wasn’t truly getting it until George said, “What I need to know is if you’ve ever felt your power boosted, Erin. By Joey or Barry.”

“What?” Dad asked, swinging his head around to look at George in astonishment. “Me?”

“Dad,” I said more calmly than I felt. “I had to get it from either you or my egg donor. George is trying to figure out which.”

George nodded.

Erin tilted her head to the side as she thought. “I’ve always found Joey incredibly easy to read. Even that first time.” She blinked and stared at her husband in wonder. “Just like his father…”

George nodded again, sitting back in his chair. “We’ll test it again with someone else, but I’d say that’s reasonably definitive.”

“But how did I never pick up on it?” Erin asked, leaning forward to look past Dad at George. “Shouldn’t I have seen it?”

George shrugged. “Like you said, they’re rare, and we know the lines. Even knowing Barry was adopted, you wouldn’t have thought he’d be powered, especially as a boost.” He swapped focus from Erin to Dad. “Barry, I’d like to run some bloodwork on both you and Joey and see if we can match you to a definitive family. We need to know who your parents are or were and see why you were given up for adoption. It’s unheard of for a powered individual to give up their baby, because this sort of thing can happen if they do. If a person discovers they have powers with no knowledge of how they got them, it can cause untold issues. My guess is that you flew under the radar until you met Erin, because boosting only affects other powered people. If you hadn’t run into Erin, you could easily have lived your entire life and never known you had the ability.”

I watched my dad sit back in his chair in astonishment and absorb his new reality, much like I had only an hour or so earlier. Judging by his pale, poleaxed expression, I figured he might need as much time as possible to get his head around everything, so I took up the conversational thread, and asked George, “Do you think that’s what’s happened to Kiddo? He was adopted, and I boosted him enough to kick-start his power?”

As he looked at me, George scratched his chin and frowned. “Not exactly. He was raised in a cult, and we know his parents were killed in the attack that freed him. It’s been confirmed that no-one who was at the compound had any power. By all rights, Kiddo shouldn’t have had a power to activate.”

“And yet, we all saw it,” Marcy said, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. “He’ll have an easier time of accepting it, because he’s so used to being around us and how we use ours, but that begs the question of what his power is.” She aimed a targeted look at George. “Do you know, old man?”

Grimacing, George nodded. “He’s an empath.”

Marcy reared back in shock and anger. “Are you fucking kidding me right now? And you let him leave? What the fuck is wrong with you?” She scrambled off the table and darted out the door, presumably to find Kiddo, the door swinging shut behind her.

Frowning, I looked to Callum. “I feel like I’ve missed something here.”

Rubbing his temples, Callum grimaced and gave George a withering look. “When empaths first get their power, their mind struggles to cope with the extra input they’re feeling from other people. Empath families are extremely tight-knit so they can look after their children to help prevent them from getting too overwhelmed and train them in how to modulate not only their own emotions, but how other people’s emotions affect them. If they’re really powerful empaths, they also need training on how to not go overboard in pushing emotions onto others.”

“And all that usually happens before they turn ten,” Erin continued. “How old is this Kiddo?”

“Sixteen,” Pippa answered, narrowing her eyes at George. This was the first sign of annoyance I’d seen from the affable Australian. “George, you’re a fool for letting him go without sending someone to help him.”

Sighing, George wiped his hand over his forehead. “He needed time. Things are progressing as they should.”

“As they should, or because you saw a vision that this is the way it happened, so you let it play out because that’s how you saw it?” I asked, aghast at what he was saying and the flippant attitude he had about it. “Did you even stop to consider that if you’d sent someone to Kiddo earlier that it would have been kinder to him, even though it’s not technically what you saw in your vision?”

He was saved from answering when a loud voice screeched from outside the room, “Get out of my head, you fucking freak!”

We all looked up to stare at the glass wall where the voice was coming from. A scruffy man that looked like he was in his late twenties walked past, wearing black jeans and a black leather jacket that was draped over a baggy white t-shirt that had something of an image on it, but I couldn’t tell what it was from this angle. His five o’clock shadow had well and truly ventured into stubble territory, and I couldn’t tell if his well-overdue-for-a-cut hair was artfully tousled or unkempt because he simply didn’t give a shit.

Behind him, Leland Buckner, the man who wanted me to call him the Agent , was being pushed forward by the biggest, most ferocious looking man I’d ever seen in my life. His height and width were both enormous, but what was truly frightening were the many tribal tattoos all over his face. His hair was buzzed short, which, along with his pale brown skin, seemed to make his tattoos pop even more, and a necklace made of small bones hung loosely around his thick neck.

His clothes softened his brutal look by being fuzzy and just as messy as his colleague’s clothes. Loose and grease-stained light blue jeans were matched with a long-sleeved black undershirt and what looked to be a hand-knitted, and rather frayed, brown and cream sweater with a hood that rested on his broad shoulders and upper back.

“That’s Boogeyman and Hellhound. Tama and Bailey, our heavy hitters.” Callum relaxed next to me, letting out a sigh of relief that seemed to come from his soul. “They caught the son of a bitch. They actually got him.”

As I watched the tattooed giant manhandle Leland down the corridor, I murmured, “What are their powers?”

“Bailey, the first guy? He’s a normie,” Callum said, leaning into me and resting his chin on my shoulder and watched them walk by. “Tama, the second guy, he’s the one with the power. He’s incredible. His is an illusionary power, the type that can warp reality for whoever he’s touching. He can manipulate people’s minds to make them see whatever he wants them to see.”

A shiver went down my spine at the thought of what he could do. No wonder he looked so terrifying. He was terrifying.

“His power comes in handy when you need to take someone down quickly,” Callum continued. “All he needs to do is touch someone, and they’re toast. I wish we had more like him. Don’t let his size or the tatt’s fool you. He’s a giant teddy bear.”

With Leland continuing to holler and curse, I kept my eyes on all three until they disappeared beyond the limit of the glass windows before I turned around to face Callum. “But how does he get close? He’s huge.”

Leaning back slightly to let me move, Callum chuckled. “That’s Bailey’s skill. He might be a normie, but he’s been trained in a variety of martial arts since he was a kid. There’s a very good reason why his code name is Hellhound.” He grinned evilly. “Tama might be a giant teddy bear, but Bailey’s earned his code name. He might not look nasty, but in some ways, Bailey’s more frightening than Tama. When he arrives on a scene, Hell always comes with him.”

I shivered. No wonder Callum had called them their heavy hitters. They sounded like they were the perfect working couple for this line of work.

“That was our first issue,” George said plainly to the quiet room. “That was Boogeyman and Hellhound bringing in the man that has recently put most of the lives in this room in danger.”

Erin quickly spun in her seat to stare at George with suspicious eyes. “Explain.”

George pressed his lips together in thought, but before he answered Erin, he focused on Pippa. “Pippa, can you check on Bailey and Tama? See if they have everything that they need to keep our guest… comfortable?” A distinct edge of malice entered his voice that I hadn’t heard before. “Leave your maps. We may still need your services before the night is through.”

Pippa glanced around the room, nodded once, then pushed back from the table and left, softly closing the door behind her.

It wasn’t lost on me that the only people left in this room were my family and George. Getting the distinct impression that now was the time the shit was likely to hit the fan, I tensed and squeezed Callum’s hand.

He squeezed back, just as ready for battle as I was. We both looked at George, assuming, or rather hoping, that he wanted to explain. Everything would probably sound better coming from him than either of us. Right?

George looked at us before rolling his eyes and sighing, resigned to his fate. “Six weeks ago, Callum was the victim of a home invasion.”

Erin gasped and stared at her son, aghast, while Dad frowned and chewed his bottom lip in thought. He’d been mostly quiet up to this point, likely still lost in his own thoughts about his new reality, but he was quicker than Erin on the timing. “Is that why you came home?”

Callum nodded. “We thought it might be the best way to get whoever it was off my trail.”

It was Erin’s turn to frown. “What do you mean, off your trail?” She swung her focus back and forth between Callum and George. “It wasn’t a random attack?”

“No,” George admitted. “The perpetrator, who we now believe to be the man you just saw being brought into custody, left something for Callum. The way it was left led us to believe that he knew what Callum’s powers were.”

“What do you mean, the way it was left?” she asked, her eyes narrowing further. “What did he leave?”

“He left a polaroid of Callum sleeping,” George said, this time to the alarm of Dad, who reached across the table to take Callum’s other hand while Erin’s focus remained on George. “Callum couldn’t get any sort of read on it at all. It was entirely void of human contact.”

“That’d do it,” Erin murmured, mostly to herself before she rallied. “Well, obviously, you found him. Do you know why he was targeting my son?”

Both George and Callum winced and looked down at the table. Slightly amused at how similar they were in mannerisms, I coughed, which brought everyone’s focus to me. “We think he was using Callum to get to George.”

Erin’s eyes narrowed further while she tried to put the pieces together. It was Dad that asked, “Why would he think targeting Callum was a good idea? Why not go after George directly?”

Figuring this was something Callum needed to answer, I looked at my boyfriend and gave his hand a quick squeeze. He glanced at me, his eyes pleading with me to answer for him, but I just nodded towards Erin. “Go on. They deserve to know everything.”

Resigned, he huffed a sigh before he pulled his ID tags and placed them slowly on the table in front of us. “Because I was a new agent. He thought I was an easier target.”

He ignored Erin’s furious squawks and promptly threw me under the proverbial bus with him. “Until he followed me out here, discovered I was dating Joey, and figured he was a better target.”

Thanks for that, asshole. I glared at him while Dad joined in on Erin’s theatrics.

He simply smiled angelically, like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

“I’ll get you back for that,” I murmured low enough that only he would hear.

He grinned evilly. “I look forward to it.”

Returning the same look made his falter. “I’ll remind you that you said that when I’m edging your ass later.”

A slight flush appeared on his cheeks before he swallowed audibly and looked away.

Oh, I was going to have fun getting my revenge.

“How long?” Erin demanded, finally gaining some control over her outrage. “How long has my son been working for you, George?”

George took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Six months.”

Slowly pushing her chair back from the table, Erin stood up and clenched her jaw so hard that I thought she was going to crack her teeth. “When exactly did you approach Callum, George?”

He ran his trembling hand through his hair, then looked up at her as she approached him. “The night of your wedding.”

She slapped him so hard across the cheek, his head snapped from one side to the other. “You bastard.”

Curling his hands into fists, George swallowed heavily and tried to rally, but everyone in the room knew it was a lost cause. “Erin—”

“No.” She stood over him, her hands on his hips as she glared venomously at him. “How fucking dare you! They’re my boys.” She pointed towards us, her focus still entirely trained on George. “You know how dangerous this life is, and you approached my son at my wedding? Why? Because you’d lost me, so you thought you’d go after my fucking son? Are our powers that fucking necessary when you have people like Tama and Marcy?”

“Mam—”

She swung her ferocious rage on her son, shifting her finger slightly to aim it directly at Callum. “No. Don’t you dare. I’ll get to you in a goddamn minute.”

Callum wilted under her ire and closed his mouth.

I snuck a glance at Dad, who was taking all of this in quietly. Looking grim, he stared at the table while he let his wife ream strips off George. This was dangerous, because I didn’t know which way he was going to lean when she’d finished saying her piece. Dad had always absorbed all points of view before coming to a decision on something serious, even before he’d met Erin. In this instance, most people would assume that he’d side with his wife, but the odds were even that he could just as much side with George.

“Erin,” George started, then paused as she targeted her enraged eyes back on him. He chewed his lip as he thought about how to proceed. “Callum’s abilities are unique,” he said steadily, never wavering from her eyes. “He doesn’t only have your powers, he’s also a seer.” He paused again before straightening his shoulders and going on. “And with Joey boosting him—”

“No.” Quick as a viper, she smacked him hard across his other cheek, the sound echoing around the room. “I won’t have you take my other son. I won’t allow it.” She grabbed the top of his shirt and twisted it until it bunched under his chin. “How fucking dare you even think about putting both of my boys in danger!”

Having kept my eyes on Dad, I noticed when he slowly raised his head and stared steadily at me with very little expression on his face. As Erin railed against George, he nodded once, his decision seemingly made. “Joey, do you want to work with Callum?”

“What?” Erin stopped and spun on her husband. “No!”

I kept my eyes on my dad’s and nodded once. “I do.”

The color dropped from Erin’s face. “But—”

“Honey, it’s not our decision to make,” Dad said, his eyes still unflinchingly focused on mine. “They’re both adults. If working for George is a mistake, then they’ve earned the right to make that mistake.”

Erin fell desperately to her knees next to Dad. “Barry, you don’t understand. This work… It’s beyond dangerous. They could end up dead…”

Only now did Dad drag his eyes from mine and focus on his wife, grabbing Erin’s hands and holding on tight. “They could work in a corporate office in the city and one day walk outside to grab lunch and get struck and killed by a drunk driver.” He brought their clasped hands up to his mouth and pressed his lips to her knuckles. “We can’t protect them from everything. Living a life in fear is not living, it’s surviving. Let them live, Erin.”

Letting out a breath I didn’t even know that I was holding, I tightened my grip on Callum’s hand in victory. Dad was on our side. I turned my head to glance at Callum, only to find him already staring at me in astonishment. So many of my worries melted away as I felt a tiny smile tease at my lips.

“I do have one demand, however,” Dad continued warily.

The beginnings of my smile disappeared into the ether. Nothing could ever be that easy, could it?

“I heard Callum talk earlier about someone being a normie .”

I frowned and tore my eyes from Callum’s confused ones to look at my dad. He was already watching me, deep in thought.

“I assume normie means someone without a power, and yet, they still work with people with powers. Is that correct?”

I nodded warily.

Dad nodded in return before he turned to gaze steadily at George. “Then I want in.”

My eyes widened. “Dad—”

He returned his determined focus to me. “Joey, if it’s safe enough for you to work here, then it’s safe enough for me to work here.” He wiped his hands down his cheeks, suddenly looking tired. “I’m bored, son. I’ve been working in the same place for a decade, and I need a change. A challenge. If I work here, I’ll get that, and I’ll be able to keep an eye on you.” He glanced down at Erin, who was staring at him in stunned silence. “If you come back with me, we could work together. If you and George are right, and I am a boost like Joey, I could help you, just like Joey would help Callum. If I’m not, and I’m just a normie, then I can still be of use here. Either way, we could be part of what helps keep our boys safe.”

Blinking in astonishment, I watched Erin reach up and gently cup Dad’s face. This wasn’t going at all the way I thought it would.

“Are you sure?” Erin asked softly, her previous rage at George vanishing instantly as her love for Dad poured out of her. “We’re both in our mid-forties. It won’t be easy.”

“I’m not expecting that it would be.” Dad straightened his shoulders in determination. “It wouldn’t be a challenge otherwise.”

Erin choked back a laugh. “Okay, sweetheart. Let’s do it.” She spun on her knees so she could face George. “That’s our condition. If you want our boys, you get us as well. This is non-negotiable.” She narrowed her eyes. “And I want back in at the same clearance level that I left. Which I believe would remain the same as yours, correct? Top level?”

George grit his teeth but begrudgingly agreed with a nod.

“Excellent.” A slightly evil smile lit up her face as she clapped her hands and rose from the floor. “Then let’s get started interrogating this person who’s been giving everyone so much grief.”

Alarmed, I turned to face Callum. “What just happened?”

Wiping his hand over his mouth, Callum groaned and slumped in his seat until he nearly disappeared under the table. “We just witnessed the birth of our impending doom.”