Minder

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  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

  2932 Ross Clark Circle, #384

  Dothan, AL 36301

  Minder

  Copyright © 2006 by Joely Skye

  Cover by Vanessa Hawthorne

  ISBN: 1-59998-333-8

  www.samhainpublishing.com

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: February 2007

  Minder

  Joely Skye

  Dedication

  To critique partners, past and present.

  Chapter One

  The first time Trey Walters found him, Josh Mackay tried to put an ax through Trey’s chest. He didn’t quite succeed. The ensuing wrestling match lasted long enough to do damage on both sides. In the end, Trey’s height and bulk forced Josh down, face in the dirt, knee to his back. Josh waited for Trey to break his arm. Instead Trey said, rather hoarsely, “I am not bringing you in.”

  It took months for Josh to believe that. By then the agency had not come after him and Trey had tracked him down again, bringing a few key items necessary for Josh’s winter survival.

  “How did you find me?”

  Trey’s smile was tight. “My special skill.”

  “What the fuck are you doing?” asked Josh when Trey threw down army rations and propane canisters for his stove.

  “No sense you starving to death now.”

  “That’s what I think. Why do you give a shit?” After all Trey, with Horton, had imprisoned Josh in the agency’s compound for two very long years. He’d just recently been freed. By Kir. “Does your boss also approve of my new survivalist lifestyle?”

  “Horton doesn’t know.” Trey dug out a few bags of coffee.

  Josh’s mouth ran dry. Months ago, right after he’d killed Brad, coffee had become a luxury he couldn’t afford to carry with him.

  “I didn’t mention your lifestyle to Horton,” Trey added. “Or to anyone else for that matter.”

  “Why not?”

  “I have my own agenda.” Trey was an agent, a good one, and Josh couldn’t fathom why he was handing out coffee and food to someone the agency wanted brought in.

  He scratched his jaw in confusion. “Yeah? That includes bribing me with coffee?”

  “And what would I bribe you for? I’m just doing you a good turn. Guilt works in strange ways.”

  Josh didn’t bother to hide his astonishment. Hard to believe stone-faced Trey felt guilty.

  Trey waved away Josh’s disbelief. “You haven’t asked about your Minder boyfriend Kir.”

  Josh stilled, wondering if Trey would try to control him through his ex-lover.

  “Can we make some coffee?” asked Trey.

  “What about Kir?”

  “The agency can’t find him. Or his sister, or the rest of the psis. I thought you’d like to know he’s free.”

  Josh hid his relief, though he didn’t think he was fooling Trey.

  “They found Brad though,” said Trey.

  Brad. Josh’s dead Minder. Josh forced himself to meet Trey’s gaze.

  “You didn’t tell me you killed Brad.”

  “No.” Josh hadn’t exactly been in a talking mood last time he’d seen Trey. Worry for his own survival had topped his list. Giving the agency information hadn’t fit his plans.

  “It took the agency a while to realize who Brad was. They think another Minder killed him. Internal power struggle is their theory. They suspect you’re dead. However.” Trey held up his hand. “You’re not home free. They keep an eye out for you. Especially Horton who thinks you belong to him.”

  “How do you know I killed Brad?”

  Trey turned his hand over, palm up, his kind of shrug. “Kir and you stayed at that cabin. Kir isn’t much of a killer.”

  “Two and a half years ago, I was hired to bring Kir in because he was a killer.”

  Trey looked irritated. “No, because he was a Minder. You and I both know that Kir’s a softy. You kill more easily.”

  Josh went cold at the thought. Brad’s final vicious instructions to his then-Zombie Josh had been to kill Kir. Brad’s words were potent. Nevertheless Josh had killed Brad and walked away from Kir.

  Trey frowned. “Did I hit a nerve?”

  “Why are you here?”

  Trey walked over to the makeshift wooden table and picked up a cup.

  “I was hoping for an explanation,” said Josh.

  “I am going to destroy the agency from within.” Trey turned to Josh. “And you are going to help me.”

  Josh had to laugh. He was hiding out, avoiding the world, terrified the compulsion to murder his ex-lover would lead him back to Kir. “How the hell am I going to help you?”

  “Just survive the winter. You’ve become a cause célèbre. Missing ex-marine, fought for his country, disappeared while in government custody. Some powerful people are very unhappy.”

  “No.” Josh couldn’t believe that. He had no connections.

  Trey nodded. “It’s true. At some point, when the agency is weak enough, your story can be the final nail in its coffin.”

  “I don’t want to tell my story,” Josh said through gritted teeth. Ex-marine, okay. Government custody he could deal with. Being Brad’s mindless Zombie and fuckboy was not something he intended to make public. “I want to be left alone.”

  “Kir will be safer if the agency self-destructs,” Trey pointed out. “But you have to appear at the right time. Now is not the right time.”

  Kir, thought Josh with an ache that never quite went away. He longed for Kir to be safe. From the agency. From himself.

  The water boiled and Josh made the coffee. Trey left before Josh could get his head together to ask more questions.

  * * *

  Josh made it through the winter. Trey’s supplies helped but, truth was, Josh had Brad to thank for his survival. After Josh had knifed his Minder through the heart, he’d found Brad’s car keys which had opened Brad’s car and in that car had lain Brad’s laptop with enough information for Josh to access Brad’s money.

  Josh had bought a canoe, winter camping gear, supplies. He’d dumped the car for fear they’d find Brad’s body and trace the license. Two stolen cars and several hundred miles later, he’d arrived at the state park with his gear and gone as far into the interior as possible.

  For someone whose thinking had not been the clearest last summer—being Brad’s Zombie had messed badly with his head—Josh was surprised he’d done so well. The low point was breaking into the park’s resort in January to stock up. He didn’t enjoy his new role as thief and fugitive. This life was not a long-term solution, but he took a certain grim pride in staying free for nine months.

  Josh wiped his brow. The snow had melted, the trees had buds and today he chopped wood in short sleeves. Spring had been a long time coming. He didn’t know how he was going to survive the camping season with its swarms of people, but he was grateful the freezing weather had ended. He’d grown weary of fighting the cold.

  His ax hit wood and the sound echoed around the lake. The noise didn’t yet matter. The park opened in another couple of weeks, the tenth of May. Then park rangers and casual campers might notice Josh. They didn’t belong to the agency trying
to track him down, but they could report his odd presence to authorities.

  If Trey already hadn’t. During these last few weeks, Josh often thought of the agent, mostly because Trey had promised to return in April. Trey’s interest made Josh suspicious, but he was also starved of companionship. So a couple of days later, when he observed Trey paddling across the lake, Josh’s spirits actually lifted.

  Trey was an attractive man. Large in every way, eyes an unusual light shade of blue, and a harsh expression that suited his chiseled good looks. In another time and place, Josh might have flirted with him. But not now, after Brad and Kir and the agency. Josh had found a certain peace of mind while spending his winter alone, but he was still not comfortable with company. And he missed Kir.

  Dark-eyed, haunted Kir, who was too young and too old for Josh, who had rescued Josh from Brad and whom Josh was primed to kill. God knows that Josh, no matter how he loathed Brad’s orders, had done everything Brad had ever asked of him. Including taking it up the ass.

  Josh pinned his gaze on Trey, who was not a Minder or a rapist or a lover. Just a turncoat agent Josh didn’t trust.

  “Hi, Josh.” Trey stepped onto the island.

  Not used to talking, Josh simply nodded as he watched Trey tie up the canoe and lift his pack.

  “Glad to see you’re still in one piece.” Trey looked him up and down. “You didn’t starve.”

  “No.” Last summer, Josh had been too thin, what with being the agency’s prisoner and Brad’s Zombie, but over the winter he’d worked to keep on weight. He tended towards skinny and couldn’t afford it in the wilderness.

  Josh swallowed. His voice was rusty. “So, how’s the agency?”

  Trey shrugged. “A little worse for wear. They haven’t met with much success of late.”

  “They haven’t found Kir?” Josh’s pulse quickened as he waited for an answer.

  Trey walked up the steep incline and his serious gaze met Josh’s. “Not yet.”

  “Yet?”

  Trey passed Josh and made his way to the wood table Josh had constructed so many months ago. Trey pointed at the Coleman stove. “I’d like some coffee. I brought some along in case you’ve run out.”

  Josh eyed Trey for a moment, then reached for the pot. He walked down to the lake, dipped the pot in the water and carried it back to the stove.

  As Josh lit a match, Trey said, “The agency has sent Ed Harding in. He’s made contact with Kir over the internet and I believe they’ve met once in person.”

  Josh didn’t recognize the name, but inside he shook, fearing for Kir. He didn’t think Kir could survive another intimate encounter with anyone in the agency.

  Agent Trey would know agent Ed Harding. He was one of them. Josh, on the other hand, had been freelance, signing on almost three years ago for one apparently small job. He didn’t know the personnel, apart from the few who had been his captors.

  Trey waited until Josh set out the cups. Then he spoke in a flat tone that indicated he meant it. “Ed’s a killer.”

  Josh pulled in a long breath and looked away.

  “Ed looks like you.”

  “Fuck,” said Josh in despair. Kir had a weak spot for Josh who, nine months ago, had left without a word. “Is he supposed to seduce Kir?”

  “No, at least not sexually. After the story got out about Kir’s mistreatment, as they named it—”

  “Abuse. Rape.”

  “—the agency decided no agent should have sex with a Minder. For the agent’s sake, also. I actually don’t think it’s in Ed to seduce another man. Though he has his own kind of charm.”

  Josh poured the boiling water into the two cups. His hands didn’t shake, but he splashed some water on the ground. He passed Trey his coffee. “I don’t have milk.”

  “I remember.” Trey pulled out a packet of Coffee-mate, ripped it open and poured it into his plastic cup.

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “So you can warn Kir off.”

  Josh turned abruptly away. “I can’t.”

  “Can’t? Or won’t.”

  “I might kill Kir.” Josh forced out the words. “Which is no better than Ed killing him.”

  He could feel Trey watching him. “Why would you kill him?”

  Josh focused on the water, too blue under the bright spring sky. “Brad told me to.”

  Trey took a long drink from his cup. “You haven’t done a very good job of killing Kir so far.”

  “Because I haven’t seen him. I ran.”

  “You might kill Kir. Ed will. I promise you. He likes to execute freaks. His specialty.”

  For a moment, Josh couldn’t move.

  “You really care for this Kiran Brunner.” Trey’s softly spoken observation felt like a threat. People would use his feelings against him. Or against Kir. “One Minder you loved and one you loathed.”

  “They’re not all the same,” Josh rasped, finding his voice and barely keeping it under control. “They didn’t all come out of the same mold. They just have a fucking gene in common.”

  “I don’t think they’re all the same, either.” Trey spoke as if he had observed not all redheads were the same. “But the agency does.”

  “You are the agency.”

  Trey smiled, a rarity. “No. They think I am.”

  “I don’t trust you,” Josh muttered.

  “I figured that out when you tried to slice open my chest last fall.” Trey paused. “Look, if you don’t want to do anything about Kir, I wash my hands of him. I just thought I’d tip you off.”

  “You tell Kir to steer clear of this Ed Harding.”

  Trey sipped his coffee. “He’ll believe you, not me.”

  “I’ll kill him, Trey.”

  Trey’s face softened slightly. Unusual, but Josh hadn’t been able to keep the anguish out of his voice. Trey cradled his cup in his hands. “Listen to me, Josh. You won’t kill Kir now. These spells don’t last nine months.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “These orders or primes or whatever don’t last forever,” Trey insisted.

  Josh’s mouth twisted in disgust. “I’ve done everything Brad Carlisle ever asked me to do.”

  “And more.” Trey met Josh’s defiant gaze. “You killed Brad.”

  “Yes.” Josh flung his lukewarm coffee into the bushes. He’d lost the taste for it. This conversation made him feel restless. Trapped. Thinking about Brad did that.

  “Do you think Kir would take advice from me?” demanded Trey.

  Again, Josh stared out at the lake. Kir wouldn’t let Trey get within speaking range. Trey had agent written all over him.

  “Do you believe Ed Harding is a killer who has befriended Kir? Maybe you don’t.”

  Josh jerked his head back to Trey. “I don’t know what to think of you and your betrayal of the agency.”

  “The agency has betrayed itself and its purpose.” The bitterness in Trey’s voice arrested Josh’s attention. “It only goes after those freaks not strong enough to protect themselves. These are not the people most dangerous to society. We need some kind of police force for freaks, not a witch-hunt agency.”

  “Kir isn’t a freak,” Josh protested. Trey lifted an eyebrow, as if he didn’t understand the risk to Kir of involving Josh. “If I try to get to Kir, the agency will nab us both.”

  “I’ll help you.”

  “Why?” Josh’s voice rang out across the lake. He could not understand Trey’s offer.

  “Because I am a freak.”

  Josh’s blood ran cold. It had never occurred to him that an agent could be a Minder. Brad had managed to infiltrate an agency compound, but the process through which one became an agent was much more rigorous.

  “I’m not a Minder,” added Trey. “I’m not going to tell you what I am. Outside of this conversation, I’ll deny I ever said such a thing. But my work is to undermine the agency. To protect my kind. There are innocents just trying to live their lives and raise their children. I will not let the
agency institutionalize my people.”

  Josh looked around the camp that had been his home for nine long months. Well, he couldn’t say no. If Trey had just laid a trap, Josh would pay the price. But he couldn’t leave Kir to be killed by the agency.

  “I’m just getting Kir away from Ed. Then I’m disappearing again,” said Josh.

  “Sure.”

  Josh rubbed his damp hands on his jeans. “I’ve forgotten what life is like outside this park.”

  “You’ll remember. Your instincts were always good.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your file says your instincts were always good. That’s one of the reasons you rose so quickly through the ranks in the marines. That’s why you caught Horton’s eye and he hired you to bring in Kir.”

  “This Minder business has messed with my instincts.”

  “I’m no Minder,” said Trey.

  “So you say. Yet you’ve convinced me to leave this park.”

  “Only because I speak the truth.”

  Chapter Two

  Kir glanced around Starbucks, feeling nervous. He shouldn’t have met up with Ted again. If nothing else, the man was straight. But Kir found Ted’s frank interest irresistible. They’d crossed paths on a couple of internet sites and, last month, Ted had been so enthusiastic about Kir’s code that he’d given in. Kir had trusted Ted enough to meet in person. With precautions, because Kir recognized when he did something for the wrong reasons.

  Ted’s superficial resemblance to Josh lured Kir back for a second meeting. Like Josh, Ted loved his coffee. Between Ted’s freckles, build and breezy confidence, Kir had been almost speechless the first time they met. Only when they sat down and Ted spoke—his voice deep and slightly mechanical, his face far less expressive—did Kir find he could think again.

  They had stumbled through their first meeting, Ted oblivious to Kir’s inner turmoil because Ted liked to control the conversation.

  Josh had cared enough to let Kir talk. And Josh had been warmly attractive in a way Ted was not. But still, Ted lived nearby and Kir was lonely. So, a couple of weeks later, he agreed to discuss his latest debugging code in person, even though email exchanges were more effective and safer. Ted’s one-track mind—and his focus on computers and codes—convinced Kir he was safe. And if Ted was agency, then Kir would find out soon enough to disappear. He could even “ask” Ted about Josh’s fate first.