by Jody Klaire
BLIND TRUST
Jody Klaire
The Above & Beyond Series
Book 1: The Empath
Book 2: Blind Trust
Book 3: Untrained Eye
Book 4: Hindsight
Book 5: Noble Heart
Book 6: Black Ridge Falls
Book 7: Full Circle
© 2015 Jody Klaire
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any means,
electronic or mechanical, without permission in
writing from the publisher.
978-1-939562-38-8 paperback
978-1-939562-40-1 ebook
Cover Design
by
A Mindancer Book
BInk
a division of
Bedazzled Ink Publishing, LLC
Fairfield, California
http://www.bedazzledink.com
After six grueling months in CIG's boot camp, Aeron Lorelei is looking forward to spending some vacation time with her friend Commander Renee Black in Colorado. When mother nature puts an avalanche in their path, they're stranded in a small mountain town.
While walking downtown, Renee shoots a man for no apparent reason, and Aeron has until the roads are cleared to prove that Renee had justification for the shooting. During her investigation, Aeron is forced to use the burdens she loathes and hopes they're strong enough to vindicate Renee before the authorities arrive.
All my furry and furless friends near and in my heart who remind me what joy each day is.
For:
Mum and Em who go above and beyond.
And
For anyone who is that little bit different.
Acknowledgements
Where to start! There’re so many people that have inspired me, supported me and cheered, consoled, and made my life brighter. If there’re any names I’ve missed off, it’s not because I think any less of you. It’s puppy brain. (That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.)
First of all, I’d like to thank you for picking up the book and visiting Aeron. It’s been wonderful to see Aeron make friends and I hope that you enjoy her new adventure.
To my fellow writers, unpublished or published, I hope that you feel half as much enjoyment and love for writing as I do. There’s nothing like exploring a story.
To the many folks on FB, Twitter, and other social media that I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know. Jaynes Pehney, Kim Carlson-Johnson, and the Clubhouse ladies, the odd socks are for you. Thank you to M.C Henrichon.
To my fellow Cloudies: Katherine Hetzel (and a Binky!), John Taylor, and co. (there are so many of you that I could be here a while so I hope that you don’t mind the general shout out. Seeing you in York makes my year!) The Writers’ Workshop team, Laura, Nikki, and co. Who are happy to chat and help with a smile.
To the ladies in the GCLS, the mentoring program and the writing academy, the faculty and my fellow students in the academy! An extra smile for Liz McMullen too. It’s always such a pleasure to hear you, (and we’ll always have howdy, right?)
To D Jordan Redhawk, thank you very much for all your help and for working with me on painting in the café and scenes. It was great to have your expertise and gentle guidance when I started out writing Blind Trust. It means a lot that I could learn from you and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Thank you for taking the time out for me.
Georgia Beers, Gerri Hill, thank you for your kind words of support and inspiration. Karelia Stetz-Waters thank you for the sound advice and the reminder that it can be a massive amount of fun. (Oh and with wall charts and cards, and maps, I am so glad you love it all as much as me!)
To my fellow Binkies: Jeanne Barrett Magill, Baxter Clare Trautman, Bev Prescott, Salem West (High five paw to Lucy!), and Ann McMan. Candice Cain and all the others in the BInk fold. It’s a pleasure to be a part of the family. I am inspired by you, I am buoyed by your support and love and you are all incredible ladies! (PS I didn’t forget you SFH!) TOTS!
To Ian and Pat Griffiths. You really do brighten up my week and keep things moving, improving and your laughter and joy are a blessing.
To my Betas: Sarah Rickman, Moira, and Ian Spence. Thank you for taking the time to read my work and giving me your thoughts on Aeron. Sometimes, it’s hard to see how a book will impact a reader which makes your contribution and support so vital. Thank you!
To Team Truth: Dani Dixon, Gena Ratcliff, and Karen Kormelink. Who would have thought that a book could reach across the ocean and find me three awesome friends, fellow writers, betas, and generally amazing women? One of the blessings writing has given me is knowing you. Your chats, your love, your support, and patience mean so much. Thank you for the ’Merican lessons, and the gentle way in which you point out when my first floor is your second floor, my sauce is your ketchup, my cake is your pie . . .
To Sandra Moran (SFH). It means so much that I’ve been able to learn from you and call you friend. That one little Skype call changed so much. You don’t need neon to shine, it comes from inside.
Claudia (Dazz and GusGus!) Thank you for welcoming me aboard and for your faith and belief in my writing. To be a part of such an amazing family is wonderful and I am so very grateful for the faith that you showed and continue to show in me. I hope that the books bring a smile to your face.
To Casey (and Meka). Well, here we go again. It’s one of my favourite things, getting to learn from you. Who knew editing could be so much fun? Your faith, patience, support, and trust in me and my writing has been a blessing. Your calmness and wisdom always helps to bring out the best in my work. Thank you for answering my endless questions, the great Skype sessions, and long chats. It’s a pleasure to get to work with you.
To Brie Burkeman. I’ve said it before and I will restate that you probably need to be canonised for the patience you have had with me. Your guidance, your wisdom and your belief in my work has stayed with me. You are what all literary agents should be measured against. I’m very lucky to have benefited from your guidance. I hope that with each book, you see me grow into the writer you know is inside.
To Debi Alper, what a lady! I love learning from you and hearing your thoughts on where I can improve. Your wise words and support have lifted me when I most needed it and there’s nothing like sitting in a workshop and soaking up your knowledge. It takes something special to be the wonderful teacher and mentor that you are. Thank you.
Fr. Mike Komor, Revd. Jayne Shaw, and all in the CNB parish, your friendship, support, love, and affection for me is a testament to God at work. I am so very blessed to share the same spaces to worship in as you. Mr B & Revd. Sue Beverly, I was so very blessed to meet you and I am lucky to have been shown just how wonderful the Big Guy is through your lessons, friendship, welcome, and support. That first meeting with you gave me a path to a far better place and you stand as a light which shone during a bleak time. Thank you for opening your arms in welcome and sharing with me the good news. To Moira Spence, (bionic in more than just spiritual things!) It means so much that you are with me on my journey. I have learned so much, I hope I have grown a bit too. Aeron and her series feel very much rooted in the meditations you have led me through and I pray that light and joy shine from the pages. Thank you for guiding me, for your patience, and for the smile you greet me with everytime we meet.
My family, those here and those in the next room. Your lives and hearts touch mine. Your stories inspire me and your laughter echoes in my own.
Em, glutton for punishment as you are. Thank you for all you do every day, thank you for the small things that you don’t think I notice and the cake too! For the faith you have in me no matter what. And, as always, home just isn’t home without you.
Mum,
I love seeing the smile in your eyes when you love my stories. I love chatting to you about the characters close to my heart. From reminding me that you don’t talk with anyone to taking the time to explain the difference between past and passed, it means so much that I can share my writing with you. We’ve journeyed through so much together and there’s been a fair amount of scary moments. Writing Aeron’s story always makes me take stock and be thankful that you are the picture of what all mums should be. I’m proud to call you my Mum, you rock.
Em and Mum, there’s not really much I can say that sums up our wild and wacky every day. From sitting in fits of laughter, to holding tight when health throws me another curveball, and then came a Ferball . . .
It certainly isn’t dull and I doubt they’d believe us if I wrote it down! You both rally behind me in my books and everything else. Your smiles, your edits, your unfailing support and joy when others see the light in my work. It feels great to share it with you. I hope you feel the same.
You both are a blessing that no words could adequately describe. Thank you.
To THS, may my intentions, actions, and words always be acceptable in your sight. Thank you for bringing me to writing, thank you for blessing me with Aeron and her stories, thank you for your unfailing love, and thank you for the light. Through you, all things are possible and I really do believe.
Jody Klaire
July, 2015
“‘If you can?’ said Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for one who believes.’”—Mark 9:23 (NIV)
“Go forth and set the world on fire.”—St Ignatius of Loyola
Chapter 1
FAITH AND TRUST are funny things.
They are the kind of feelings that can make you believe in something or someone even when all logic and reason tells you that it ain’t possible. Now, I understand that it takes a leap of faith to believe my words when I explain that I see things beyond what most would think is normal.
My name is Aeron Lorelei and you could say that I’m a little different. I can tell a person’s life from their jewelry and I can read other people whether I like it or not. I also have the added bonus of displacing ailments, healing, and sometimes, I can even wound a person.
You see, when someone touches me, I learn more about them than I would ever wish to. I will state that it ain’t a voluntary thing but I was born with my burdens. I tried to block them out and to fit in but, well, that really didn’t work. From the age of sixteen I spent a decade locked up in a mental institution and I thought that was pretty bad. But, uh uh, nope, it all got worse when I was released. My hometown really didn’t appreciate my re-appearance and it took the faith of one particular person to help me through all the chaos that happened. Her name is Renee Black, or maybe I should use her full title, Commander Renee Black of the Criminal Investigations Group.
What’s weird, in a funny way, is that she didn’t like me one bit when we met and let me tell you, the feeling was entirely mutual. Yet, when all kinds of darkness was threatening to swallow not only me but the folks in town, Renee was the one who pulled me up, dusted me off, and got me to believe in myself. I trusted her faith in me.
To cut a novel to a nugget, I ended up being hailed some kind of hero for using my burdens to stop a killer. And, for my efforts, I ended up with my jaw wired up for what felt like forever.
It’s real strange to think that I left my hometown of Oppidum not long after to join up with the Criminal Investigations Group, or as we call it, CIG. I spent six months in a kinda boot camp with my boss, Ursula Frei, or, as I call her, Scary. Trying to turn someone like me into some kind of elite operative wasn’t an easy task and being that poor soul was a darn sight harder. I was still aching in places where there should not be muscles. Somehow, I’d managed to pass the requirement, as Frei called it, but I got the feeling that she just gave up on a bad job. It’s pretty impossible to be stealthy when you stand at well over six foot and wouldn’t look out of place in a WWE ring.
So, there I was on the next phase of my training. Renee was in charge of this part as it was all about being a protection officer. I was kinda hoping that she was going to be a little less brutal. I hoped.
Now, Renee and I hadn’t seen each other since Frei got her sadistic mitts on me. I’d had to live in barracks on the CIG base so I was pretty much over-excited about getting to see, not only a friendly face, but a person who got me . . . well, as much as anybody could.
For some unknown reason, Renee had complete faith and trust in me. They were sentiments that I sure-as-shoots returned. At least that’s what I’d figured. Little did I know that what followed would test every single bit of that theory.
So, as I said, faith and trust are funny things. They ain’t easy to come by and they can get destroyed faster than a tornado can twirl.
How deep was my trust in Renee? How strong was my faith in her? And would they still remain when everything in front of me told me I was wrong?
Chapter 2
THE CIG TEAM dropped me off at the side of the highway, with my pack, sometime around noon on a freezing January day. The reason I say sometime was that they’d placed a hood over my head to transport me and had dumped me at the side of the road without even taking the hood off.
As I fought with the sack-mask, I could hear a car approach and felt a familiar presence in that vehicle. I grinned. Renee. I released myself from darkness and squinted into the glaring winter sunshine.
The car stopped opposite and I grabbed for my pack, wondering if I should go and join her. Wait, no, was I meant to do some kind of military parade? I’d never quite got all the protocol in “boot camp,” and when you didn’t get protocol, you had to do a forfeit. I had two extra inches of muscle on my arms from all the push-ups.
Renee saved me from my deliberation by getting out of the car. Unlike the bodybuilding berets I’d spent the last few months with, she wasn’t in military fatigues. Nope, Renee was in jeans, a turtle-neck sweater, and bomber jacket. Her blonde hair was shorter than I remembered, kinda funky. She was wearing aviators. Man, she was cool. I looked down at myself still in fatigues. Of all the things to describe how I looked, cool wasn’t it.
“I didn’t get told to wear nothin’ different,” I blurted out as she strolled toward me. I had no idea why I felt so jittery.
Her frown dipped below the ridge of her sunglasses as she prowled up to me. “It’s just not good enough, Lorelei.”
I snapped to attention with her tone and she paraded around me.
“You have scuff marks on your boots, your shirt is hanging out on one side, and what do you call this?” Her hand ruffled through the back of my hair.
I tensed at the sound of her words. It was one thing for Ursula “Grouchy” Frei to give me a dressing-down but Renee doing it was painful. My throat got all dry and my skin sprung a leak. “I . . . Um . . . I—”
“You what?”
I wondered if I’d lost my burdens altogether. I mean, I had felt her coming and I was sure that she had been pleased to see me. Even her aura had started the little light show it performed whenever she was talking to me. Frei had broken my antennae, I was sure of it.
“You look like a mess, Lorelei,” Renee continued when I didn’t—couldn’t—answer. “You think this is a vacation?”
I shook my head.
“You think that the protection corps is the easy option?”
If I did, I sure didn’t now. “No.”
“No?” Renee walked around to stand in front of me. Her glasses bounced the sunlight up into my eyes as she leaned in. “No?” Her frown deepened. “No what, Lorelei?”
Oh, heck . . . what was she again? I shoved my hands in my pockets trying to think.
Renee yanked them back out again.
She folded her arms.
With her eyes hidden, it was like she was wearing a mask. Her stance said she meant business but her aura rippled with pinks and yellows which swirled from her like wispy fingers toward me. Frei had broken me. I was so confused.
>
“I asked you a question, Lorelei.”
Snapping my eyes to the distance, I bit my lip. “What did you ask again?”
“Drop and give me fifty.” Her voice was so curt, so mean.
I dropped to the ground ready to start push-ups when I heard it: Laughter. Warm, gentle laughter.
“What did she do to you?” she asked through soft chuckles. Her fingers curled around my bicep as she pulled me to my feet. “Where’s the bad-ass attitude I met way back when?”
She drew her aviators down with her finger. Her nose crinkled up with her laughter.
“You’re not mad?” Was she mad? Wasn’t she? Huh?
Her grey eyes gleamed with amusement. “I thought you figured that out when you were watching my light show.”
“But you were saying . . . you said . . . I mean . . . but . . . the push-ups?” My head hurt.
Her eyes filled with affection, with warmth. She opened her arms and launched herself into me for a hug. “As if I’d ever do such a thing to you, Dimwit.”
The sound of Nan, my grandmother’s, pet name hit like a wave of warmth, vaporizing the tension that had been in place. I’d not even realized how hunched my shoulders had been.
I squeezed Renee back, fighting the urge to cling to her. The pinks and purples filled my vision even as I closed my eyes. Relief palpitated through me. Heck, I’d missed her. “Never leave me with Franken-Frei ever again.”
I felt Renee rumble with laughter before she released me. “Franken-Frei?”
“Yup,” I said with a grin, hoping she wouldn’t notice how mushy I was. “I got everyone calling her it . . . behind her back.”
“I missed you,” Renee said, almost as if she were telling it to herself.