Training Rain (16 page)

“Jon has gone to find you some.” Adianca sat next to him.

Jess stood and started to clear the table so Rain followed
suit and helped him.

Troy asked, “Who is Jon?”

“Jon is a friend who lives here on the reservation.”

“I’m on a reservation?”

“You are on the Shoshone Reservation. You are safe here for
the time being.”

“What do you want from me?”

“There is much you need to know, son. These people can help
you.”

“Why would they want to help me? They don’t even know me.
Who are you? How did I get here?”

Adianca smiled. “It would be better if they explained. You
should listen very carefully. They will tell you things that you will not want
to hear, but it is information you will need so you can decide the course of
the rest of your life.”

“Let me see if I’ve got this right, you are all psychic and
work as a law enforcement agency. You are some of the same people my father has
been having me locate for the last year. Some of your friends have died because
of the information I provided. Yet you came to the hospital and rescued me out
of the goodness of your hearts.”

The team sat around the living room. Rain and Jess explained
everything to Troy and he had remained silent while they told the full story.
Joshua and Tessa walked in halfway through the telling and took seats. Kane
continued to stand guard. Jon showed up with the clothes for Troy and now
waited next to Kane.

Rain smiled. “I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“Um, I think you’re all nuts.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t my father tell you what I am?” His eyes narrowed on
a point somewhere over her left shoulder. She heard a crack and turned.

Adianca had tourist shop souvenir nesting dolls lining a
shelf. They had been painted to resemble squaws. The largest one crumbled into
a dozen pieces.

Rain couldn’t help smiling, she’d always hated those dolls.
Other than her smile, none of the team reacted. “He told us.”

“I’m a monster.”

“No. You’re a man who had the bad luck to have a father with
a narrow mind and a cold heart. We’re not afraid of you, Troy, because most of
us have been called monsters too. You can use your ability any way you want.
You are free to walk out of here and start a new life. You can try to kill all
of us, go back to your father and the hospital or stay here and maybe do some
good.”

His expression changed from doubt to something that looked
similar to hope. “You want me to help you?”

Rain turned to Joshua who stood and began pacing before he
spoke. “Look, if you were interested in joining the Psi Alliance, you’d need
training and you’d have to go through a probe. I’m not just letting anyone have
access to my people.”

It was not exactly the warm invitation Rain had been hoping
Troy would get, but it didn’t seem to faze him. If anything, he seemed
comforted by the lack of enthusiasm. “I’ll give it some thought.”

“We understand. You’d have to fight a battle where the enemy
is your father. It’s totally understandable to shy away from that.” Joshua
faced Troy with his hands on his hips.

“It’s not him. I’d like nothing better than to see him
ruined. If you knew half the things he’s done to me… Just for my mother’s sake,
I want to see him pay.”

“What is it then?”

Troy stood up and everyone tensed. He opened his arms wide as
he spoke. “Look. I’ve been in one hospital after another since I was eight
years old. I don’t even know who I am. I’ve been doped up, beaten down, and it
all started with my mother’s death. I’m not willing to enter another prison in
a trade for the old one.”

The lights in the house shimmered. Joshua was getting angry.
“This is not a prison.”

Troy looked at his surroundings. His gaze lingered on
Adianca who sat at the long kitchen table watching and listening. “No, I know
it’s not. I appreciate you bringing me here and getting me away from my father.
I want to help you. I just need some time.”

Kane, Jess, Joshua and Tessa all started talking. Kane said
the boy was ungrateful. Jess said to give him a break. Tessa and Joshua were
arguing about the fact that they didn’t have any time and now what where they
going to do. They had to find Will.

Again the lights flickered and the one over the kitchen sink
blinked out.

Adianca’s voice was soft yet somehow she cut through the
din. “Lakeland, calm yourself. He has not said he wouldn’t help, only that he
cannot right now. It is a sensible response. Did you only save him for your own
gain?”

Joshua’s face reddened. “No, shaman. We did it because it
was the right thing to do. I only hoped to gain an advantage.”

“And so you have, he no longer tracks for those who want you
dead.”

Rain tried to hide her smile. It was amazing how powerful
men were quelled in the presence of one old woman.

“So what are we going to do now?” Rain and Jess walked along
a dirt path that twisted through the desert scrub. The sun was setting and the
desert glowed a hundred shades of orange and red. She loved the evening here.

“We’ll wait for word from Piper and go find Will. In the
meantime you and I will work on improving your psychic control until you enter
the police academy.”

“Do you really think Will is still alive?” Her gut
tightened. She liked the sharpshooter. He was a puzzle, but there was something
about him she trusted.

They were making their way back toward the house and Jess
pulled her behind the shed where an ATV and other equipment were stored. His
arms banded around her and his lips pressed against her neck. For a long minute
he just held her close and she breathed in his warm, masculine scent.

“I think he’s still alive.”

“I agree.” Troy stepped around the corner. He had changed
into the jeans and button-down flannel that Jon had brought him. He looked as
if he was a normal guy in his early twenties, though his eyes still had a
haunted quality that made Rain’s heart ache.

Jess instantly put himself between her and the intruder.

Troy put his hands up in surrender. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to
startle you. I have a habit of doing that. It may even be a psi gift. People
rarely hear me approach.” He shrugged as if it didn’t amount to anything.

Rain forced her way around Jess. “What makes you think our
friend is still alive?”

“I heard Joshua say he’s not psi. The only reason my father
would have taken a non-psychic is to lure some of you out into the open.”

“And?”

“I was thinking that it was a bit too easy for you to get to
me.”

“We’re pretty good at what we do.” Jess sounded defensive,
but Rain could see his mind working. There was merit in what Troy said. It had
been particularly easy to get in and out of the hospital.

“Maybe, but I think my father might have let you take me, so
he could attack and claim I was the reason. Who would blame a father for trying
to protect his son?” Bitterness dripped from every word.

Rain didn’t like the sound of this. “But he’d be putting you
in danger. You could get killed in the crossfire.”

If a smile could be filled with rage, that was the
expression spreading across Troy Breckenridge’s face. “My father would consider
that a bonus.”

“How would they find you? We checked you for hardware before
we brought you here.”

Jess groaned. “Have you had any surgeries? Deep cuts that
required stitches, anything like that?”

Troy cast his eyes at the ground. She could practically see
his mind trying to remember something. “I’ve been pretty well drugged up for
the past few months, even more than usual.”

Rain had a really bad feeling.

“Maybe we should go inside and check. They could have put a
homing device under your skin and you might not even know it.”

“There is this.” Troy pulled up the back of his shirt and
exposed a section of his lower back. There was a space about the size of a pea
that was scarred.

Rain moved closer and ran her hand over the slightly raised
scar. “How long have you had this?”

His expression twisted while he tried to remember. “I guess
around six months. I remember it hurt and the nurses told me I fell and the cut
got infected. They kept it bandaged for a while.”

“Troy, I know you are going to think this is crazy, but I
want to cut that scar open and see if there’s anything in there.” Rain’s heart
pounded and she found herself searching the sky.

“You really think I’ve got a bug inside me?”

Jess shrugged. “Only one way to find out, kid.”

Rain and Jess worked quickly to remove a small homing device
from just beneath Troy’s skin. It only took one stitch to close up the wound
and a bandage for the speck of blood. Rain placed her hand over the wound and
called forth his natural ability to heal. The skin started to knit immediately.

Jess put the transmitter on the tile floor and crushed it
under the heel of his shoe.

Rain couldn’t believe just how insane Bradly Breckenridge
actually was. He would risk his own son to get his way. How far would he go?
Would he kill his family? “I know this is really personal, Troy, but what
exactly happened to your mother?”

She didn’t believe he’d tell them. He barely knew them and
yet he didn’t get mad or walk away. He leaned against the wall and studied his
fingers for a long while. He was big, maybe six and a half feet tall. He
resembled an NFL linebacker. His light-brown hair had been shorn in a military
style and the beginning of a beard reminded her that he was not a boy in spite
of his limited exposure to the outside world. He could kill with a thought, yet
she had been inside his pain and found only sorrow. Even toward his father, she
only sensed disappointment.

It was a surprise when he finally spoke. “They were arguing
about me. They did that a lot. My father wanted to send me away and she refused
to let him. I could hear them from my bedroom and the voices were getting
louder. I remember sneaking out of my bed and down the stairs to my father’s
study. She was screaming that he had passed the abilities on to me and should
be more understanding. That made him even angrier and books started to fly
across the room. One of them hit my mother in the shoulder. He rushed at her
and she screamed and threw up her hands to protect herself.”

Troy stopped speaking. His face twisted with the pain of the
memory.

Jess put his hand on his shoulder. His Cajun accent was
thick. “It’s all right. You don’t need to tell everything in one breath.”

Rain knew Jess had used his mind bending. Yet she also knew
he was only easing the pain for Troy. How had she known that? Were they that
connected? She knew the answer before she asked. Yes. She could sense him in a
way she never had with anyone else. It should have terrified her. If she was in
his head, that meant he was in hers too.

Jess turned and smiled and she knew he’d heard the thought,
and it was strangely comforting.

Troy’s shoulders relaxed. “I didn’t know what to do. I was
only eight, but I couldn’t let my father hurt her. I stepped in the room,
yelled something. I felt the bone in his arm snap. It was the most sickening
sensation I’ve ever felt. He grabbed his broken arm and started yelling that he
was right all along. I was a monster. My mother ran toward me and picked me up.
We got in the car and drove away. The rest is kind of a blur, but we didn’t get
far and the car overturned. There was a fire. Someone pulled me free. I think
it was just a man who’d seen the accident. We were only a block from the
house.”

Rain’s heart broke for him. “Do you think your father caused
the accident?”

He stood up straight and shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe my mother
was just so upset she took the turn too fast. I was eight years old. He had me
put away after that.”

“I think you’re right. I’m betting we’re going to have
company and we’ve given him time to get organized.” Jess headed for the living
room and they followed.

Joshua and Tessa were both on separate phone calls. Jess waited
and Joshua hung up his phone. “We’ve got trouble. I think we’ve been set up,”
Josh said.

Looking from Jess to Troy, Joshua sighed. “That was Blake
telling me he thought we were going to have unwelcome company. I don’t know how
you knew that.”

Jess looked at Troy. “He had a subdermal tracking device. I
destroyed it. Maybe they’ll think we killed him, but they know we’re here.”

Rain was impressed that Jess didn’t give anything else away.
It was another man’s story and if Troy wanted to tell it again or not it was
his business.

“I’m going to take Adianca out of here,” Jon said.

Adianca crossed the room, touched Joshua’s cheek in a very
motherly fashion and turned toward Rain. For a moment she thought her mentor
would say something, but she only smiled. Rain had chosen her path. She would
not go with Adianca and Jon to find safety with their people. She would stay
with Jess and the Psi Alliance and fight for what she believed in. She had not
uttered a single word, but Rain heard her all the same before she followed Jon
out of the cabin. The people and the Great Spirit would keep her safe, Rain had
no doubt. Her place was here with Jess.

For the first time in her life, she belonged somewhere. No
one thought her more or less than the rest. She was a part of something.

The moment had come when Rain would make her choice. Jess
was careful to guard his feelings. He wanted to broadcast that she should stay
with them. His instinct was to grab her in his arms and hold on until she
realized they were meant for each other and no amount of space or time would
change that. He knew she’d felt the connection between them growing. She sensed
him just as he did her.

It was selfish to want her to stay. She would be safer with
Jon and Adianca, but she would not be with him. If she walked away from the Psi
Alliance now, he knew she would never come back. He couldn’t blame her. His
life was a constant roller coaster of life-and-death situations. Why would she
want to be part of it? He suppressed his desires and watched some kind of
silent communication between the shaman and Rain. Time seemed to stop in that
moment while he waited to see if she was truly his or if it had all been just a
dream.

Adianca turned without a word and walked out of the house.
Rain didn’t move for a long time.

Joshua’s voice broke the silence. “Troy, you could go with
them. You’d be safer.”

“No. If he’s coming he’ll have to face me without drugs to
protect him.”

Only half listening to the conversation, Jess’ attention
focused on Rain. She pulled her long black hair back and tied it with a band.
She turned and stepped closer to him, threading her fingers though his. “Try to
stay alive. I have plans for us.”