Free Poisoned Pearls by Leah Cutter Page B

tables. Pizza boxes and a few empty cans of PBR beer
completed the decorations.
    Hunter took hold of my arm again. I tensed, but he merely
led me to the couch and let me go.
    I settled down uneasily on the lumpy furniture, while Josh
sat in a chair and Hunter stayed standing, pacing.
    “So,” I said, when no one started talking. “Someone want to
illuminate me why we’re all meeting here today?”
    Hunter stopped pacing. It was weird how he did that, went
from all raw, restless energy that seemed as though it would never stop, to
sudden, total stillness.
    “I did not kidnap you,” Hunter reassured me. “You were in
grave danger. The police in this town are too easily corrupted by the
government. I had to get you away. Get you to safety.”
    I could tell he totally meant to be reassuring. He had the
body language and the kind eyes down pat.
    But there was a disconnect between his words and how he said
them. It was like he didn’t really believe them himself.
    “Sure,” I said, nodding. “So when the nice police officer
comes to my apartment and breaks down my door and accuses me of resisting
arrest and running away, what should I tell him?”
    “Josh will warn us if any police officers are on their way.
Correct?” Hunter said, his eyes boring into Josh’s.
    Uh oh. Trouble in paradise. Josh still seemed to be fawning
all over Hunter, but Hunter didn’t trust Josh.
    Then again, I doubted that Hunter trusted anyone.
    “So what did you not kidnap me for?” These two had to want
something. And Hunter had mentioned something about a true blood brother.
    “When I was in Afghanistan, the government gave us an
experimental drug. PHS-370. Psychic enHancement and
Stimulant. It enhanced my pre-cog abilities,” Hunter said seriously.
    Wow. I hadn’t thought Hunter could pull it together enough
to express himself so clearly.
    “The drug worked, but it had…side effects,” Hunter said. “I
couldn’t fight the government on my own,” he continued. He sounded eager. “I was
alone. I hadn’t found my blood brother yet.”
    Hunter trembled slightly and took a deep breath. He mouthed
some words.
    That was when I realized that this was a rehearsed speech
that Hunter had in the can for whenever he met a “blood brother.” He was barely
holding it together.
    “Now, together, with your abilities and mine, we’ll be able
to stop the government from experimenting on more of our brothers. Stop them
from wasting more lives. Turn them away—”
    “I don’t have any abilities,” I told Hunter.
    The silence that spread through the room was deafening. Shit . Maybe I should have eased him into
it, or pretended or something.
    “What do you mean, you don’t have any abilities?” Hunter
asked, continuing to hold himself completely still, as if he were a statue or
something.
    “Zip. Nada. Not a lick. One-hundred-percent mundane,” I
assured him.
    “What was your PADT score?” Josh asked. He seemed concerned.
    Did he also think I was a blood brother? Had he been with Hunter
in the Army? That didn’t seem right. Josh was much younger and softer.
    “I don’t remember,” I lied. I’d actually never taken the
Psychic Ability and Distribution Test. I’d already been thrown out of the house
by the time I was eighteen. Though the testing was free, I’d just never
bothered to get myself to a facility to see.
    I already knew I didn’t have any talent.
    “The test must have been wrong,” Hunter insisted.
    “Sorry,” I said, shrugging and standing up. “Don’t think I’m
your blood brother.”
    “No,” Hunter said. “I’ve seen it. And you will, too.”
    That made me pause. “I was warned—twice
tonight—about being careful what I see. What if I don’t want to see?”
    “You must,” Hunter insisted.
    “I think the young woman has a choice like everyone about
the type of training she should have,” Josh interrupted.
    Hunter looked at Josh, then back at me. He shrugged. “It
doesn’t matter what she