Gifted Connections [Book 2]

by SM Olivier

  “Sorry we’re late,” I said awkwardly as I started to make my way up front. “We…umm had a meeting.”

  The professor acted like we didn’t even affect him as he continued to teach class with a slight twist of his mouth in displeasure.

  My eyes widened as Noah stood up from a seat in the back. “I’m a TA for this class,” he stated with a smile. He held his hand out and I handed him my slip. Gavin handed him his as well.

  Noah looked at the slips with a raised eyebrow. He looked at Gavin, then me. “Pops barely ever deals with disciplinary issues. What did you do?” he murmured with a teasing grin.

  I cleared my throat. “What can I say? I like pushing the limits,” I said with a flirting tone.

  “Interesting,” he said with a husky tone. “Is this the infamous Gavin?” he murmured in my ear as I began to walk to a seat.

  “Just a friend,” I whispered urgently back.

  “With benefits?” he asked as he caressed the inside of my arm.

  Operation Make the Connection was in full effect as I leaned into his ear. “I’m hoping someone else might want to apply for that position.”

  I knew I had stunned him, so I took my seat next to Gavin, glad that he found two empty seats close to each other. Gavin turned and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I held up two fingers, and I knew he knew exactly what I meant as his jaw dropped open.

  Noah called Gavin and I over to a desk tucked in the back corner of the room as we were getting ready to leave. He was very professional as he handed us each slips of paper.

  “Mr. Kincaid, why did you choose to drop your speech class? You were doing very well in it,” Noah asked conversationally.

  Gavin looked at him with seriousness. “I spent the last seven years with a gift. At first, I thought I should fly under the radar, but after meeting Blake I realized how important it might be to learn about my gift.”

  I was shocked that he revealed so much so quickly. He gave me a reassuring nod, like he had it handled.

  “Are you gifted?” Noah turned interested eyes towards me.

  I looked at him with narrowed eyes. Then I finally said. “I may be but it…comes and goes. Can you help us figure out what he may have?” I said trying to push the attention back on Gavin.

  Noah was shrewd, too shrewd. “Why won’t you ask Collin?”

  “Ask me what?” Collin came through the classroom door. “Hey babe,” he kissed my temple, before looking suspiciously at Gavin and Noah. “I heard you got into a little trouble today, you naughty girl,” he tapped the tip of my nose playfully, but I could see anger in his eyes. I assumed he got his butt chewed out by Zach for not watching me closer. “I think you need to reconsider this audition. You have plenty going on as it is. Now, back to this question, hit me.”

  I bristled under his stare. I was willing to play the game, but not by their rules. “We can talk about this later,” I replied coolly.

  “I was just telling them if they have any issues figuring out how to log onto the school website to pull up any of the past assignments, they could come ask you. Well, Blake.” Noah lied glibly.

  I sighed internally, relieved.

  “Yeah, no problem, you can even use my laptop, at home,” Collin said pointedly. “Gavin, you can swing by as well, if you’d like.” He said with a welcoming smile, that never reached his eyes.

  I looked at Collin suspiciously. Realization slowly dawned. Zach wanted Collin to spy on him as well.

  Gavin smiled warmly. “Thanks man,” he held out his hand for a shake. Collin took it and shook it. “Maybe another day,” I almost sighed aloud once more. “I promised my mom I would stop by the store for her tonight and we have a big family dinner planned.”

  “Great, another day then,” I said cheerily. “We have our own shopping to do tonight, so I can cook us some real food,” I playfully winked at Collin. “Are you skipping your last class?” I asked him innocently.

  He shook his head, clearly irritated. “No, I gotta run now.” he looked down at his watch. “Meet you at my car at 3?”

  I nodded.

  He didn’t look like he wanted to leave us alone, but he left reluctantly. “Make sure you get his number, if you haven’t already,” he called over his shoulder, his voice casual.

  Gavin and I looked at each other pointedly.

  “So, as I was saying,” Noah stood up and walked towards the door. “Just enter your student id number under the performance arts tab and everything we’ve covered thus far will pop up. In addition to any assistance Collin may give, I’ll give you my number as well,” Noah peered into the hallway, he seemed to be satisfied and then he closed the door.

  “What the hell is going on?” Noah asked with rare seriousness.

  “When I shook his hand, I felt a…void,” Gavin whispered fervently.

  “You would,” Noah said quietly. “He has a gift that allows him to…take someone’s gift away.”

  I gasped and looked at Gavin once more, understanding dawning once more. “How does that work? Does he touch…anyone and it leaves? Can you project it to certain individuals? And what about Gavin? He can see when someone’s gifted, and earlier he was able to… stop someone from using theirs.”

  Noah looked at both of us and finally said. “He can project it to whomever he wants, within reason and distance. Now,” he turned to Gavin and looked at him, his brows furrowed. “When you say you stopped someone, how? And what do you see?”

  We looked at each other once more, and I nodded to Gavin to go ahead.

  “Someone was trying to prevent another person from talking and moving. It…angered me and I could feel their energy in them, so I pushed them out,” Gavin told him.

  “Hmm.” Noah seemed to know Gavin was talking about me, but he must have realized there was a reason we weren’t telling him everything.

  I longed to. I wished I could tell him everything, but I knew how skittish he had been before. I didn’t want him to run if I revealed to him the whole truth. I needed to handle him with kid gloves.

  “I assume you know I’m gifted?” Noah asked Gavin hypothetically. “Unfortunately, my gift is only used through touch and not projection. It’s hard for me to pin point what gift you may have by using my gift. Honestly, even being a TA, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a case like this.”

  “Why do I keep hearing that?” I muttered peevishly. I was an anomaly. Gavin was an anomaly. We were different. But unlike me, Gavin needed help now. The sooner he began working on his gift, the sooner he could protect himself from people like Collin and Zach.

  I put him in danger by association. I needed to help get him out.

  I looked over at the desk and saw a pair of scissors on Noah’s desk. I calmly removed my jacket as the guys looked at me with puzzlement. Slowly, meticulously I opened them up and took the sharp edge, slicing it across my forearm. Immediately my skin opened and blood came out.

  “Blake!” they called out in concern.

  Noah went to place his hand on it, but I stopped him. Instinctively I knew what needed to be done, although my understanding of the gifts was limited at best. Something Noah had said about Collin had made the wheels in my head turn.

  “No, Noah, not you,” I said insistently. “Gavin, can you try to tap into Noah and then place your hand on my cut?” I hissed because it was starting to sting now that my adrenaline was wearing off.

  Gavin looked hesitant but grabbed Noah’s shoulder with the one hand, while he placed his hand on my forearm. Within moments I felt the warmth spread through his hands onto my skin. The stinging went away, and I felt normal once more.

  “Holy crap you’re an imitator!” Noah exclaimed. “How did you—” he began before students started coming in for the next class.

  “Let’s go, we have to clean up,” I explained, holding up the dried blood on my forearm, with an apologetic smile towards Noah. As an afterthought, I leaned in and whispered, “Thanks for keeping our secret.”

  He grudgingly nodded
, his eyes full of questions.

  Chapter 6

  Just as predicted, the next few weeks were filled with playing catch up. Collin was even more clingy. I couldn’t even go on my runs without him tagging along. Any sense of solitude was taken from me. The only time I had to myself was in class and on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I had to wait for Collin to get out of his classes.

  Any attempt at suggesting getting a job was shot down. I had hoped to find employment for Tuesday, Thursdays, and the weekends, but Collin had argued I had no time to devote to a job, since I was so busy with my school work. He promptly opened a bank account for me and gave me a debit card, so I could have money for food when he wasn’t around—not that that happened very often.

  The only silver lining was that Gavin had run out and got me another phone that I had to carefully keep hidden; with it, I was able to communicate with him and Noah secretively. Gavin had purposely avoided me when Collin was around, much to Collin’s displeasure. He was still trying very hard to ingratiate himself to Gavin so he could further study him.

  Noah seemed to realize the importance of keeping us a secret. He hadn’t pushed us any further about a bigger explanation about our strange arrangements. If Collin and I ran into him at Stacey’s apartment, he was friendly, but not overly so. He even arranged for Gavin to work on his gift, in secret, with our family.

  It was the perfect irony. He got to meet Jemmy, Remy, Jaxson, and Drake. He made sure to give me blow by blow details about his training, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of him. I wished there was a way for me to go with him, but with Collin’s constant hovering I couldn’t trust him.

  Gavin and I had come up with an in-depth game plan to get my life back. He even went as far as to show me how to track and record all of Collin’s conversations without him being none the wiser, although I hadn’t had the opportunity to install them on his phone yet. That was my first assignment.

  His first assignment was to continue watching and finding an opportunity to help Alex, my little brother, and meet with Rachel. I hadn’t figured out how Rachel was going to help us in the long run, but I knew she was the key to part of our plan.

  It was a Thursday when Gavin and I headed to the gym, which was thankfully empty at this time of day. At first, Gavin came to keep me company so we could talk freely outside of class and away from listening ears. It was the only time I was able to stash my phone in the locker without causing Collin to be to suspicious. Gavin had already found out he had planted a mic in my phone recently.

  We were so careful keeping our conversations free of my drama. We couldn’t give Collin a reason not to believe I was as oblivious as everyone else. Gavin and I laughed every Tuesday and Thursday when we decided what our next topic of conversations were, future cover stories for Collin’s spying. One morning before class we talked about eggs. Yes, eggs. Cage free eggs versus caged hens’ eggs. We talked about how we remembered the colors of the rainbow, the order of the planets, and other inane things we were forced to remember in school. We found that we both loved watching this reality show and weighed in on our favorite characters. So, in short, our conversations were purposely lame.

  I could tell Gavin was dying to ask me something by the time I exited the locker room in my biker shorts and racer back tank top. It was cold outside, but in here it was a sauna. He held up his thumb to his ear and pinky to his mouth. Miming a phone.

  “In my locker,” I reassured him.

  “So, if I didn’t find my connection right away, then what harm could it be to…date?” he asked hesitantly.

  “Well theoretically, none,” I frowned. “But I would advise you from being too serious with them, honestly. After all, that’s why I was in a mess with Jaxson, Jace, Noah, and Drake. They all had someone they hadn’t been…too careful with,” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why? Have you met someone at the shelter?”

  He shook his head and blushed, running fingers through his short blond hair. “No, but she is in high school, so I feel kinda pervy. But she’s so beautiful and funny and flirts with me allll the time.”

  I stopped mid step and started giggling, instinctively knowing who he was talking about. When we weren’t at school together, he was at the shelter or working on his gift. I suddenly stopped. “Promise me you won’t be mad,” I said scrunching up my nose and squinting my eyes. “In all fairness, I felt like I didn’t want to overload you with more than I already told you about me.”

  He sat on the machine that worked our upper legs. He looked thoroughly confused. “I won’t be mad…what is it?”

  “Let’s just say,” I said hesitantly. “If you chose to pursue a relationship with Jemmy, it won’t be a big deal.”

  “Who said it was Jemmy?” He instantly started to look down, then his eyes and head snapped up with such force, I was surprised he didn’t give himself whip lash. “She’s my connection, isn’t she,” he said in disbelief and awe.

  I nodded with a smile. “She is.”

  He crossed his arms across his chest, making me realize his workouts were already given him definition in his chest and arms. “I should be mad at you,” he tried to look stern, but then a huge goofy grin crossed his face. “But I can’t be. She invited me to a party tomorrow night. I guess Jaxson has a big game tomorrow night and they’re throwing a huge bash.”

  Instantly I felt sad. “All the guys will be there except Jace,” I said sadly as I used the leg press machine, silently counting my reps. “You’ll finally get to meet Troy.”

  Gavin looked slightly uncomfortable. “I heard he owns a security firm and he already did a background check on me.”

  I giggled. “It doesn’t surprise me one iota, he’s protective of his siblings, although he has reasons to be. When he was in foster-” I stopped suddenly, my heart lunging to my throat. How had I forgotten? I felt nauseous suddenly, remembering what would happen tonight. The same guy that tried to victimize Troy, would victimize another child tomorrow tonight.

  I dropped my weights and took off running. I needed to figure out a way to figure out as much information as I could about Troy’s foster family. It wasn’t like I could go directly to him and tell him what I knew about him. I needed to help that poor defenseless boy.

  “Where are you going?” Gavin caught up to me. “It’s cold out here!”

  “I need to hit up the library,” I explained. “I need to get some vital information.”

  “How?” he asked stupefied. “Why?”

  I reached the top of the library stairs. “I just remembered something I was once told in confidence. I need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” I said out of breath.

  I went to the public library and immediately put in my name and student id.

  “Blake, no,” Gavin said urgently.

  “I have to,” I said just as urgent.

  “No,” he logged me out of my computer. “Come over here and log onto this one, someone left it open.”

  Understanding dawned in my eyes. “Oh yeah, I wouldn’t want anyone checking out my internet searches.”

  I flopped my head down in frustration. “Dammit. Nothing. I can’t find out anything about where he was fostered at.”

  Gavin sighed. “It’s too bad we don’t know anyone who could open up these records.”

  Gavin was electronically and computer savvy. He knew so much more that I could ever dream of, about them and even he couldn’t help me right now.

  I sat back, feeling tears threaten once more, and he reached out and gripped my shoulder, in comfort.

  “I think I do,” I finally said as it began to dawn on me. “I need a phone.”

  We ran back to the gym and pulled out the phone Gavin gave me. I found my fingers punching in the numbers for Judge Myers.

  On the third ring, Judge Myers finally picked it up. “Hello, Judge Myron Myers.”

  “Hello, your honor,” I stated with my heart beating with nerves. “You don’t know me, but I know you. I was wondering if-”

&nbs
p; “Look, Little Miss,” he cut me off. “I don’t know how you got my personal number, but I suggest you call my secretary for any appointments.”

  “You gave me your number Your Honor,” I found myself blurting out. “I know you don’t remember me, but I am a friend of William Bell, and you guys made sure I would have your number in a case of an emergency. You wanted me to tell you ‘good will prevail’.”

  He cleared his throat. “What’s your location?”

  “Knightstown Academy,” I said promptly.

  “Will is there,” he said in confusion.

  “Yes, sir,” I said softly, “But since giving me your name and number, things have become…complicated.”

  “I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” he said brusquely. “Meet me by the swings at the elementary school.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, Your Honor. Thank you so much!”

  For appearances sake, Gavin and I decided to run the two miles to the school. Luckily, Gavin had an extra sweatshirt for me to wear. We didn’t waste any time running down to the elementary school. I knew I was going to be late getting back to meet Collin, but without my phone, he wouldn’t be able to track me, and I could claim I wanted to run instead of strength train today.

  As we ran up to the playground, I saw Judge Myers was already waiting for me. I remembered how I thought he reminded me of a kindly grandfather. He had a way about him that made you feel comfortable.

  “It’s good to see you again, Amanda,” he said immediately, the moment I stopped within feet of him. Gavin looked at me in confusion. I never told him I was born with a different name.

  My jaw dropped, “You remember me,” I gasped.

  He looked over at Gavin. “Gavin, it’s nice to meet you as well.” Holding out his hand.

  Gavin looked a little discomfited but took his hand. He gasped immediately. “You see everything.”