The Whole Truth (The Supercharged Files Book 1) (34 page)

“There can be more than one,” he
said mildly. “It’s less complicated than most governments.”

“We’re not running a country,” I
pointed out. “We’re running businesses.”

“But we do have secrets. Do you
think it’s easy making sure nobody finds out about us? Do you think all people
with suprasenses are content to remain hidden, that everything Lou Lampey
worried about is exaggerated?”

Although his tones were
dispassionate, he did seem to believe his statements. “You’re starting to sound
like Lou yourself,” I commented uneasily. Not that the same things hadn’t
crossed my mind.

 “I’m no vigilante,” Beau said.
“I just have no interest in coming out of the closet. Do you really think a
bunch of people out to make a buck, especially at the expense of others like
themselves, could maintain the cover up of the eon?”

I thought about Yuri and Al, the
other big companies, the little companies, the Registry. How they operated, how
they handled themselves and their employees—how they located and handled new
supras. How quickly they’d converged to sort through the Lampey incident. How
it was the computer age, the Twitter age, the cell phone camera age.

Yet suprasensors were the
opposite of public domain. There were more rumors about captive aliens at Area
51, Bigfoot, and NSA-style government agencies than thousands of humans with
paranormal powers coexisting peacefully with the masses and helping them sort
through their corporate restructuring issues. For a large fee, of course.

“Actually, yes I do.”

“Good,” he said. “You’re supposed
to have faith in the current system. If Lou had taken a moment to consider how many
crimes occur but suprasensors never quite go over the line, we might have
avoided a lot of unpleasantness.”

He called it unpleasantness, but
he was the one who’d bounced back after his brain wash like Fruit of the Loom
underpants. “Is your real name Duncan MacLeod?”

“Do I look Scottish?”

How should I know? He could be as
much of a mutt as I was. “Do you call yourself Watchers, and are you a Council?
Do you all wear special rings?”

“Cleo, this is not a game.”

I’d had it up to my hairline with
secrets and lies. I’d agreed to Yuri’s plan when I’d hired on in return that I
be off the hook when it was over. It was over. Or it should have been over, but
here was Beau Walker offering it back to me on an ambiguous platter.

Did I want my life to be defined
by espionage plots? Sneaking around? Lying to my friends? Maybe if Beau got fed
up with me, he’d stomp off and leave me with no choice but normalcy.

“Order of the Phoenix?” I
suggested. “The Trust No Ones? The League of Extraordinary Suprasensors?”

“Sometimes I want to muzzle you.”

Since he didn’t look like he was
going to try it, I said, “Get in line.”

“I’ve been in line a while.” Beau
uncrossed his arms, shifting toward me. He took me by the shoulders. “Quit
wasting time. Tell me yes so we can get on with it.”

“Um.” We were going to do it now?
His palms heated my skin through my stained up T-shirt. “No.”

His brow furrowed. “You’re saying
no?”

“I can’t, Beau.” I wriggled
backwards, and he dropped his hands. Something warm and fuzzy and feline twined
around my ankles. The cats must have finished the pizza crust. “Getting into
another situation where I have to spy on people—well, look how it worked out
the first time. You said yourself I’m not internal affairs material. Don’t you
understand?”

“Sometimes there really is a
greater good, Cleo.”

It was hard to imagine Mr. Surly
as a do-gooder. Not that I viewed him as evil, but he was no angel of mercy.
“That may be true, but face it, I stink at this stuff. I’m better off normal.”

“Change your mind,” he said.

“Isn’t that supposed to be,
if
I change my mind?”

“No, I want you to change it now
so I can heal you.”

“Hey,” I said, “you and I are the
only ones who realize I’ll never get better. Heal me anyway. I won’t stop you.”
I swept out my arms in a grand gesture that whacked the ice cream box to the
floor, where Boris started lapping up the melted vanilla.

Beau narrowed his eyes and
watched me. “What happened to you isn’t fair.”

“Life,” I said, watching the cat
instead of the man, “isn’t fair.”

Never had been, never would be. But
now that I was normal, now that I’d never know when people were lying, maybe my
contentment meter would rise.

Or bottom out.

When Beau didn’t respond, I
glanced up at him. His speculative expression unnerved me, so I said, “Nobody’s
comfortable with a person they can’t lie to. Isn’t it a relief that I lost that
skill?” Samantha seemed to revel in it. I suspected half the stuff she told me
now was lies.

Which wasn’t anything new, come
to think of it.

“Not really,” he said.

“Only because you Watchers want
to use me.”

“Not really,” he said again.
“They don’t think you’re very good at it, either.”

“Is that true?” Blast my missing
pieces! Norm conversations sucked the bag even more than when I’d been able to
see lies.

He barked out a sudden laugh.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Yes. Yes, I would. But how bad
would I like to know? How bad did I want all my pieces back?

Bad.

“I want to be myself again. My
version of normal. My head is a wasteland, and my heart... This sounds stupid,
but my heart is broken. But I don’t want to be a spy. It’s not worth it.”

He closed his eyes. “Oh, Cleo.
The things I do.”

“You don’t do anything,” I said,
though obviously it wasn’t true.

“They owe me,” he mused. “But can
I trust them?”

“I could tell you that if I were
myself,” I grumbled.

He opened his eyes and held out a
hand. This time, I took it. “Let’s do something about that, then. I’d hate to
lose you.”

I had no idea how he meant that,
but when he told me to get cleaned up, that we were going to see a man about a
dog, I trusted him.

Even though I was a cat person.

~ * ~

“They” were a bunch of
suprasensors with unknown abilities, but who, combined, could repair the damage
Herman’s machine had done. I think “they” might have been triplets. I had no
suprasenses—at the time—but I did have ears, and even norms can overhear loud
stage whispers.

I mean, really, who were they
trying to fool, a child? I wasn’t a child, I was an adult with many years of
experience finding out things nobody wanted me to know.

There was a long drive, a dark
room to protect everyone’s privacy and a lot of hands involved, but not like
that, thank you very much. Then I passed out, but it was more like a wave of
exhaustion, not a wave of brain zapping pain caused by some evil, amped up pest
control device.

I woke up in my apartment. I
wasn’t alone.

“How many fingers am I holding
up?” Beau asked. He sat in a chair beside my bed, reading a book. He wasn’t
holding up his hand, much less any fingers.

“None.” I rubbed my eyes. “What
happened?”

“Nothing,” he lied, his mask as
dark as his nubby dreadlocks. “Nothing you’re going to tell anybody about,
anyway.”

And then we both smiled.

~ * ~

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About the Author

Jody Wallace grew up in the
South in a very rural area. She went to school a long time and ended up with a
Master's Degree in Creative Writing. Her resume includes college English
instructor, technical documents editor, market analyst, web designer, and
general, all around pain in the butt. She resides in Tennessee with one husband,
two children, two cats, and a lot of junk. In fact, she has always lived with
cats, and they have always been mean.

To discover other books by Ms.
Wallace, visit her website at
http://www.jodywallace.com
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can also find her at Twitter:
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and Facebook:
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To discover meankitties, visit the cat’s website at
http://www.meankitty.com
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About Meankitty Publishing (MKP)

Meankitty Publishing is the self-publishing “arm” of author
Jody Wallace. MKP is not taking submissions, and it is not a formal company. It
is merely a label that amuses the author, and Meankitty, very much. The list of
all MKP releases and version information is at
www.meankittypublishing.com
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Look for these other ebook titles from Jody Wallace:

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Secrets 17
(w/a Ellie Marvel)

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What She Deserves
(w/a Ellie Marvel)

Fantasy, SF and Paranormal Romance

Angeli
(coming 2014)

“Cooley’s Panther” (Felidae series 1)

“Heat” in
Secrets 22
(w/a Ellie Marvel)

Liam’s Gold

Megan’s Choice
(w/a Ellie Marvel)

One Thousand Kisses
(Realm series 2)

Pack and Coven

A Spell for Susannah

Stalking Evan
(Felidae series 2)

Survival of the Fairest
(Realm series 1)

Tangible

Witch Interrupted
(coming 2014)

“A Wintertide Spell”

Light SF/F and Urban Fantasy

“Field Trip”

A Mage by Any Other Name

The Whole Truth

YA

“The Worst Christmas”

WTF

“Whatsoever He Might Kind of Want or Desire”