Brain Storm by Cat Gilbert (ebook reader computer .txt) 📕

the horses out for exercise and training, but I’d never actually attended. Funny how things like that happen. You think you have all the time in the world, but then opportunity passes, and you realize you missed half the stuff you planned to do.

Morose. I was becoming morose. First I was tearing up, and now I was bemoaning not going to the horse races. I didn’t even really like horse racing. I caught Mac watching me in the rearview mirror again, and I made a face at him, which I admit was childish, but it sent his eyes back to the road where they belonged. I really needed to talk to him and get some things straightened out. I highly suspected that the Watchers weren’t without their own form of psychic power. Why would you send an unarmed man into a gunfight, right?

Within minutes, we had arrived at the Hot Springs Mall. It wasn’t big, as malls go, but it had a Sears, a JCPenny’s and most importantly, a Dillards. Trinity, Mama D, and Jonas had instructions to pick up clothes and any other necessities for the road. Trinity had changed her hair, left off her makeup and was in jeans and a shirt, the tails hanging loose. The difference from her normal appearance of tailored professional was amazing. I barely recognized her.

“Try to stay out of Dillards,” I cautioned as she hopped out of the van, knowing full well that would be the first place she’d head for. Full of designer clothing, it was her favorite store. She threw an evil smile at me as she swung her $800 hobo bag up on her shoulder and walked off with Mama D in tow.

I was much more worried about Jonas. With his size and looks, he really stood out, even with the dark glasses and hat Mac had given him. If anything, they made him stand out even more, only now he looked like some large scary hoodlum instead of a large scary cop. Mac had given him instructions on what to buy to blend in more. I had doubts Jonas would ever blend in, but I was curious to see what he came up with.

We arranged to meet them back at the entrance in two hours. Not much shopping time for Trinity, but then Mac had only given her a couple thousand to outfit the three of them, so I figured she’d be cooling her heels by the time we got back.

“Don’t worry,” Mac said, as I watched them walk away. “They’ll be fine. Jonas can take care of them.”

He was right, I was worried. This was the first time we had been separated since the attack and they were walking around in the open in a mall. For whatever reason, his assurance rubbed me the wrong way, serving to remind me of my intent to talk to him. As Mac turned onto Central, heading to meet his contact, I decided it was the perfect time.

“You have something else you need to tell me, Mac?” I asked, the irritation I felt evident in my voice. “Because I’m thinking maybe you left out a few things.”

I saw his hands tighten on the wheel and when he didn’t immediately answer, I felt my anger start to build. Apparently, he felt it too.

“Hold on, hold on. Let me get off the road so we can talk.” He swerved the van into a Sonic drive-in at the last minute and pulled into a space between two other cars. Putting the van into park, he left it running, the windows up for privacy.

“What do you want to know?” he asked calmly.

“Don’t play games with me, Mac. You know perfectly well what I’m talking about. Why did you lie to me?”

“I didn’t. I didn’t lie to you.”

“You didn’t tell me the truth, though, did you? You’re keeping things from me, and I’m not working like that.”

He blew out a breath of air in frustration and turned away to stare at the menu, which really ticked me off. I didn’t consider myself a violent person, but right then, I had an almost overwhelming desire to smack his head into the window and knock him around a bit. Here we had trusted him with our lives, and he’d been holding out on us.

“Stop!” he hissed at me, grabbing my arm. I felt the tremble from him clear to my shoulder. “Stop, please. I’ll explain, but you need to calm down. Please.”

My emotion switched almost instantly from anger to fear, at the pain I heard in his voice. Sweat began to run down his face, and he snatched his hand from my arm like it was a hot skillet. Sure he was having a heart attack, I quickly undid my seat belt and moved to help him.

“Stop! Taylor, don’t touch me.” He was backing up against the driver’s door in an effort to avoid my hands. I froze in the seat, inches from him as the truth hit me. I was doing this to him. I was hurting him. I didn’t know how, but I knew, without a doubt, it was me.

Suddenly, I had a desperate need to get out of there. I threw the van door open so fast it hit the menu board and bounced back on me, knocking me sideways as I ran from the van. I had no idea where to go, but I knew I needed to get away from Mac. I headed up the road, back in the direction of the mall, my mind a mass of confusion.

I looked back over my shoulder and seeing a break in the traffic, sprinted across the four lanes and hopped the divider into the mall parking lot. Out of breath and overheated from the run, I slowed to a walk just as Mac cut in front of me, the van rocking as he slammed on the brakes and rammed it into park. I turned to head the other way but hadn’t gone more than two feet before he grabbed me.

“Taylor, stop. It’s okay. I’m okay.” He turned me around to face him, but I couldn’t bear to look at him, remembering the pain that was etched into his face because of me.

“Let me go, Mac.” I swatted at him as he tried to stop me leaving again. “Don’t touch me! Stay away.” I was trapped. He dropped his hands but blocked every attempt I made to get away from him.

“Please Mac,” I begged. exhausted. “Let me go. Just let me leave.”

“Where would you go?” he asked softly.

I didn’t know, didn’t care. Just away. I couldn’t take this anymore. Couldn’t live with the thought that I could hurt someone without knowing it, trying to put the realization that I already had, out of my mind.

“Taylor, you aren’t going anywhere without me. You can leave, but I’ll find you.” He reached over and wrapped his hand firmly around mine. I tensed waiting for him to draw back in pain, but it didn’t happen. “Don’t ever run from me again.”

He pulled on my arm and led me around the van to the passenger side. Opening the door, he sat me down on the seat, and I was too tired to resist. My arms and legs heavy, my mind numb, I slumped against the closed door while Mac rounded the front and climbed in next to me.

“You’re in shock,” he told me as I began to shiver in the relative coolness of the van. He pulled back out into traffic and headed across the road, back to the Sonic. Parking the van on the opposite side of the drive-in from before, he ordered two Route 44’s and some chili fries. The next thing I knew he was pressing the huge styrofoam cup into my hand and ordering me to drink. He helped guide the cup up, and I managed a couple of sips. After a while, the smell of the fries permeated my deadened senses, and I roused myself enough to look over and find the source. He smiled as he waved the steaming tray under my nose and I snagged a fry dripping with chili and melted cheese.

“I can’t believe all the food I’m eating.” I popped a second fry in my mouth against my better judgment. The way things were going, I was going to need a new wardrobe myself. A bigger one. The thought was thoroughly depressing. “I’m always hungry.”

“It’s the stress. And your abilities. Your system is revved up, burning more calories. You’ll settle into it in time, but right now, you need food. It will help.”

He was right. By the time we had polished off the fries and I was half way through my Diet Coke, I was feeling halfway human again. Not back to my old self, but good enough to talk.

“Okay, so what happened back there, Mac?” My voice broke, and I realized I wasn’t doing quite as good as I thought. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I tried again. “What’s going on?”

“I’m an Empath,” he said, looking at the steering wheel instead of me. “All Watchers are. It’s one of the requirements for the job.”

I was confused. This psychic stuff was still new to me. “So what? You can read my thoughts?”

“No. Taylor. Never. Empaths sense emotions. It makes them ideal for watching over the Clients.”

So that’s what happened. He was picking up on my emotions. That’s why he always seemed one step ahead of me. That explained a lot and wasn’t far off from what I had expected him to admit to, but it still didn’t explain the past few minutes.

“Seems kind of dangerous to me, considering what just happened.”

“This isn’t normal.”

Not normal. Now why didn’t that surprise me? I knew nothing about Empaths except what he had told me so far, and even I had figured out this couldn’t be normal. Mac was still focused on the steering wheel or something close behind it. He seemed as confused as I was, and I could tell he was trying to sort things out in his head before trying to explain them to me.

“Maybe you should start at the beginning, Mac. When did you start being a Watcher?”

“Right after I got out of Special Ops.” He looked up and shrugged. “I’d always been