Blind Trust

by Jody Klaire

“Tequila for Doctor Llys,” one of the men called out.

  The instant I heard his voice, my hackles rose. I turned to look at him. He was the kinda guy that normally came in packs complete with pool cue, plaid shirt, and trucker cap. His grin made me want to insert the beer nuts up his nose and there ain’t many people that provoked that reaction.

  “It’s fine,” Renee whispered my way. “One thing with being a doctor, I can drink my weight in alcohol.”

  “I’d be happier if you kept your brain cells, Doc.”

  Renee raised her eyebrows at me, studying me like she always did when trying to figure out what was going on inside my head.

  “He’s a creep,” I told her, not really sure why my need to throw things at the guy was growing.

  He swaggered over to us like some cowboy in a movie and Renee’s hand on my arm did nothing to ease the tension rippling through me.

  “I’ve had experience with them,” she said, amusement in her eyes. “It’s okay.”

  “Let’s just go get Zack and head back to the cabin.” I hoped she would leave before the guy got to us but Renee stood her ground.

  His pearly whites were on show as he held out his hand to her. I got the urge to remove them.

  “Brad Jewel,” he stated. “I heard a lot about you Miss Llys . . . is it?”

  Renee nodded and I folded my arms. He lifted his eyes up and up until he reached mine.

  I gave him the look that said, “Do anything dumb and I’ll put your head through the bar.”

  He gave me a confident smile but his aura said, “Hell, you’re huge.”

  I flexed a bicep just to confirm his suspicions.

  “Yes,” Renee said, casting a thoughtful glance at me. “This is Aeron. It’s nice to meet you Mr. Jewel.”

  “Oh, call me Brad.” There was that grin again. “You like tequila?”

  “I’m more of a Bordeaux lover,” Renee answered and I was surprised it was the truth. “But I don’t mind a shot every now and again.”

  Brad laughed. I clenched my fists. Renee nudged my hip with her shoulder as she took up a stool. Never in my life had I gotten the urge to pummel another human being just by looking at them.

  The guy was a bit creepy, sure, but he wasn’t doing anything wrong by offering Renee a drink. What the heck was wrong with me?

  “I heard that you were quite the heroine this afternoon,” he continued, ignoring my glaring at him. “Did you get hurt?”

  His eyebrows furrowed as though he were deeply concerned. If it had been sincere, it would still have bugged me but the fact that his energy was saying that he was anything but concerned, prickled at my senses.

  “She’s just fine,” I snapped, flexing my fingers to stop from making a fist.

  “I didn’t ask you,” he shot back.

  I scowled. I was just about to drag his butt outside when Renee touched my arm.

  “Don’t mind Aeron,” she said, looking at him. “We’ve been through a lot the last couple of days and she likes to make sure that I’m okay.” She squeezed my arm gently. “Habit from where we work.”

  “And where is that?” he asked, leaning in closer. “She looks like prison material.”

  Another squeeze on my arm. She could squeeze all she liked. If he kept this up I was going to wipe the smug grin off his face.

  “Aeron is the head guard in the institution we work in.”

  Head guard? I looked at her in a way I knew said “huh?” because she almost laughed.

  “She’s wonderful at her job too.” Her eyes lingered on mine for a moment.

  She was finding this way too funny. I didn’t get why I was mad and knowing she found it amusing made me madder.

  “So you’re a doctor?” he purred as Renee took the tequila and knocked it back in one. She didn’t even wince or nothing. “What kind?”

  “Psychiatry,” she answered. “And what do you do?”

  “I own the local truck company,” he said, looking very pleased with himself. “And I own the best hotel in town, not to mention this place.”

  “Best hotel?” I spat out my words, starting to feel my legs shake. Maybe my ribs were making me mad? “Don’t see yours putting up a hospital.”

  He glared at me and Renee’s brow dipped. No doubt she was confused with my mood. Her and me both.

  “Why don’t you go find somebody to arm wrestle with.” Brad said with a sneer. “Let me and the doctor here talk?”

  Another tequila was placed on the bar as he raised his hand to signal. I knew I was close to smacking him clean off the stool, too close.

  Mark wandered over, saving him. His grin was wide and welcoming as he slapped me on the shoulder.

  “You met Brad?” His eyes twinkled as he looked at me, then he turned to Brad while thumbing in my direction. “She’s a damn fine woman. Couldn’t have gotten that couple out if it wasn’t for her.”

  “Isn’t that wonderful,” Brad muttered.

  It sure as heck wasn’t genuine and the glint in his eyes made me think he was going to stick Renee over his shoulder and beat his chest.

  I looked at Renee for support and caught that dark thought process rumbling on. If she pretended to entertain this chump and not stick up for me then I would never speak to her again and whatever was lurking in her past couldn’t hurt me. So that’s what she was up to.

  “If you do that, I’ll be mad,” I whispered. “But I ain’t buying it for a second.”

  Her lips twitched at the edges and her aura rippled like it did when she laughed. She didn’t need to say the words out loud ’cause the twinkle in her eyes said it for her. “Freaky, that’s what you are, Freaky.”

  “What is all the whispering about, ladies?” Brad muscled in further, trying to draw attention back to himself. “To heroes?” he said, lifting up the second tequila.

  I stared at the glass then looked away, knowing that no matter how adrenaline fuelled I felt, Renee was capable of making her own choices. Who was I to tell her what to do?

  Renee placed two fingers over the top of the glass and shook her head, flashing me smiley eyes. “We’re going to have a seat over there for Aeron to have her drink.” She stood up. “Two sodas please.”

  The bartender nodded and set about his task while Brad’s smile slid from his face. A frown deeper than the snowdrifts outside appeared.

  “Come on, Doctor.” He looked like he was attempting to contort his face into a puppy dog look. Shame it looked more like he was chewing on a rattlesnake. “You’ll have a much better time with me.”

  Renee took the offered sodas and nodded to me. “Corner booth,” she said as she walked past me. I looked at Brad and managed to resist the urge to poke my tongue out at him. Hah, take that, you creep.

  He looked like he wanted to ram my head through the bar now but I didn’t care. In fact, I half wanted him to try it.

  “Well,” Renee said as we took up a seat opposite each other. “I’ve seen a lot of your moods but that was a new one.”

  I shrugged, staring down at my glass. “It’s new on me too.” Goodness knew what she thought of my behavior. I weren’t like that, ever.

  “The guy bugged me,” I mumbled, watching the fizzy bubbles popping at me. I rubbed the back of my neck. “Maybe I’m getting cranky?”

  Renee chuckled and I looked up. She gazed at me delighted. I had no idea why. Delighted certainly wasn’t what I deserved.

  “He was a creep,” she said, leaning across and taking my hand. “You were getting protective.”

  I looked down at her hand on mine. The flashes of her pain subsided enough for me to push them away. “So I wasn’t out of line?”

  Renee rubbed the top of my hand. She had deep grazes on her knuckles. “Not out of line at all. It saved me having to listen to his life’s accomplishments.”

  “But you could have wanted to,” I said, wanting to heal those cuts, wanting to take away the pain in her past. “Who am I to just assume—”

  “You know I didn’t want to. W
e’ve had that conversation.” She squeezed my hand and let go. “You were looking out for me and I appreciate it, so quit brooding.” Her smile warmed her face, her cheeks rosy now we’d come in from the cold. “Now, how are those ribs? You look a bit more human.”

  I rubbed my side. “I need a shower.”

  Her smile faded. “Aeron, if you think I’m letting you heal—”

  I shook my head. “That doesn’t heal me.”

  “How do you know?”

  Renee sipped her soda as I recounted my weird life to her. “When I first got to the institution. Doctor Bison, the guy you replaced, hated me.”

  That was putting it lightly and Renee’s wry smile showed she knew that. “So I recall.”

  “Yeah. Well, he locked me in the showers with a fury-fiend called Eva.” I rubbed my hand over my thigh, a scar was still there. “She had a shiv.”

  Renee’s eyes widened and the panic in them made me smile.

  “Relax, Doc,” I said. “I’m still here.”

  She gripped her glass. “But now I know why you have a four-inch scar on your leg.”

  I took a sip of my soda, trying to avoid the concerned look. “Ended up in a heap in the showers. I sure as shoots didn’t heal then.”

  “How did you survive it?” she asked. I didn’t know why she was still worried but it made me feel better. “You could have bled to death.”

  “Dumb luck.”

  Renee raised her eyebrows. “Explain.”

  “Eva slipped on my blood and impaled herself on her own shiv.”

  Renee lifted her eyebrows.

  I nodded. “Don’t forget I was a weed back then and half the height I am now.” I sipped on my Coke. It felt like a whole other life now but somehow it still rubbed me raw. “So the fact I walked out of there and she didn’t, made me look all kinds of scary to the others.”

  Renee nodded but the question danced in her eyes. “I’m still not sure how you survived the wound to your thigh.”

  “Tied my drawstring from my pants around it, and before you say it, Bison was hoping that I would use it.” I smiled. “Should have seen the ol’ loser’s face when I was the one still breathing.”

  “He should be facing justice for what he did,” Renee stated. “That man did terrible things to you all.”

  “Don’t forget that you once locked me in the yard with the fury-fiends as punishment,” I reminded her. “First session too.”

  “That was through fear,” Renee said, her guilt circling her. “I thought you were . . .” She stopped and that dark cloud started to roll over her aura. “You didn’t realize what you said.”

  I took her hand this time. “Why don’t you stay here with me?”

  Renee frowned and I knew she was trying to follow my thread.

  “Stay here in St. Jude’s.” I squeezed her hand. “You, me, and Zack. You don’t have to face your past if you hide out here with me.” I leaned forward, hoping that she would at least consider it. “No one knows where we are.”

  Renee held my gaze, a million thoughts seemed to whirl around her. They rolled across her eyes like thunderclouds. Her aura swayed, filled, then dimmed as she sighed.

  “It’s tempting, Aeron.” With her free hand, she ran a slender finger along the rim of her glass. “But my past will find me wherever I go and the CIG is even more astute.”

  “Then quit and stay here.” If she did, it would solve all her problems. No one would need to know and we could forge a happier life, a peaceful one.

  “Aeron, Zack can’t stay here with you either.” She tried to smile but the sadness poured through her eyes toward me like cold river water. “There are procedures to adopting children and with your record—”

  “Which got wiped.” At least it would when Sam was officially convicted. The wonderful state of Missouri wanted to be sure I had no part in any of it first.

  “Even so,” Renee whispered. I didn’t know why she was bothering, in here it was noisier than the avalanche. “They are not going to let a child live with a woman who spent a decade inside a mental institution.”

  That reality stung. “But I weren’t meant to be there.”

  Renee, I knew, felt my pain. She was trying to be gentle. “But you still are institutionalized.”

  I couldn’t argue with that.

  I went to pull my hand away but she held on. “How will you explain how you communicate with him, hmm?”

  She had a point. If I wandered into an adoption place and said Zack should stay with me ’cause I could read him, I’d be back in the institution before I could finish the sentence.

  “But I promised him.” Zack needed me to make sure he was okay. What would happen to him? “He ain’t gonna be able to cope on his own.”

  “And neither are you,” Renee said. She took my hand in both of hers and traced a finger over the mark where the drip had been. “You’ve got to know that. You don’t use technology, you’ve no bank account.” She looked up into my eyes. “Do you even know how to use a card?”

  I shook my head. What was the issue? I could work around it. I had in Oppidum. “I got money though.”

  “Yes, you do.” She sighed. “It’s all tied up by your mother. You can’t access it unless she allows you to.”

  My mother sucked, that much I was now sure of. I stared at the buzzing bar. The locals here had made me more welcome than any place else had.

  Renee was trying to get me to meet her eyes but I kept staring at the patrons in the bar. Most of them had risked their lives today. They were good people.

  “Aeron, it’s to protect you.”

  What was money anyway? I’d had none when I left the institution. All I needed was a roof, warmth, and some way to feed myself. “I survived long enough without protection.”

  Renee squeezed my hand. I did meet her eyes this time. “Yes you did.” She smiled. “But you don’t have to anymore.”

  “So stay with me then.” I didn’t get why this was a problem. Neither of us owed my mother nothing. She could find somebody else to do her bidding. “Zack will get to live with us if you’re around.”

  Renee leaned on her fist. The look on her face was that I had said something naïve . . . again.

  “They wouldn’t allow that either,” she said with a lost smile then stared off into some dream world. “No matter how nice it would be.”

  “Can’t I just bribe them or somethin’?”

  Renee chuckled. “I’m not sure that’s the best—”

  “Ladies,” Brad broke in.

  I glared at him. He was way past drunk now, which made me wonder how the heck he’d gotten that way so quickly.

  “You coming to join me?” He stared at Renee who leaned backward, I guess to avoid his toxic breath.

  “We’re just leaving,” Renee said, flashing me a warning look. “Come on, Aeron.”

  I got to my feet but Brad put his hand on Renee’s arm.

  “You know you want to.” His smile looked like he was a wolf at dinner. I reached out ready to drag him away. His eyes widened. He yelped and dropped to his knees. Renee was up on her feet and his wrist was at a painful angle.

  “I am just fine, thank you.” Her voice was more cutting than I’d ever heard it. Even I flinched.

  A couple of guys sniggered somewhere off to my left. Brad glared up at us both. Drink clearly made him think more of his ego than his health. He went to grab for her.

  Smack.

  Our soda glasses toppled and rolled as Renee smashed his head into the table. Ouch.

  “One more attempt and I’ll aim lower,” she said so that only me and him could hear.

  Mark strode over. He went to step in, to protect Renee but I stood in front.

  “Just a misunderstanding,” I said, not knowing why I was bothering. “We’re leaving.”

  “Don’t bother coming back,” Brad snapped.

  He shrugged off Mark as he tried to help him to his feet. Renee was already dragging me through the bar. I couldn’t believe she’d
just done what I had wanted to . . . and publicly.

  Everybody was looking at us as she pulled me through the crowd. Most of them gave us a nod of approval as we bumped our way through. They clearly liked Brad as much as we did.

  The cold night air swept around us as we burst from the bar. Renee pulled me down the sidewalk, sliding on the icy surface.

  “You lost it?” I asked, not quite sure how to compute what had just happened.

  She turned, then stopped and leaned against the illuminated street light–its bobble head casting a gentle orange glow over Renee’s face. She looked as shocked as I felt.

  “I think I have.” She bit her lip and stifled a giggle. “God, Ursula would have my hide for that.”

  I looked back at the bar and back to a grinning Renee. She’d kicked his butt. I shook my head at her, unable to hide my smile. “Took you a while to come out of that shell but boy, am I glad you’re back.”

  Renee’s eyes twinkled with the washed orange glow and something else, something like hope.

  “Come on, Dimwit,” she teased, punching my bicep. “Let’s get you some food before you get grumpy.”

  “Yes, ma’am!” I saluted.

  She stopped and scowled. I tensed, thinking she was about to kick my butt for daring to address her in that way in public. She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes.

  Then she crinkled her nose, and her laughter rang out into the bitter air.

  “For that, you get to wash the dishes.”

  Chapter 15

  GETTING OUT OF bed the next morning was a challenge in itself. My rib cage was purple, black, and some weird bluish color. I’m not one for bruising so I guessed that I must have hit myself pretty hard on that cliff face. By the time I’d managed to pull on my t-shirt and make my way down to breakfast both Zack and Renee sat on the sofa reading a book.

  The picture made me smile. The fire cricked and crackled away, spraying light over the polished wood floor. Zack was curled up in the crook of Renee’s arm as his blond head rested against her shoulder.

  “Deep, deep into the forest he travelled, over mulch and mush and all things brown; then behold he came upon the city, where the new king would be crowned.”

  Renee’s voice was soft but full of expression, her love of books shining like the weak sunlight through the windows.