Page 50 of Sunflower

Groaning in annoyance, he settled me with a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. He’s just doing his thing. All the seers in George’s family do this when they’re looking ahead.”

“You’re really going to need to explain how all of this works to me some day,” I muttered, still staring with horrified, wide eyes at Georgedoing his thing.

Slowly, the unnerving blackness of George’s eyes faded, and he shook his head somewhat apologetically to both Callum and me. “My vision hasn’t changed at all; it’s only become firmer. He’s one of us. He was always meant to be one of us.” Reaching around me, he ignored the way I flinched back even further, and placed his hand on Callum’s elbow, before saying quietly and full of sorrow at the haunted look on Callum’s face, “Look for yourself if you still have doubt.”

Callum grabbed George’s bare hand, and his eyes hazed out. They flicked from side to side as he read George, then slumped in his seat, defeated. “But, I’d thought…” He let go of George and swivelled to look at me with such sadness, it nearly broke my heart. “I’m so sorry, Joey. I wanted to protect you from all of this.”

I swallowed a smile because I knew if he saw it, Callum would get pissed at me, before I raised my palms to rest on his cheeks so he couldn’t look away from me. “It’s okay, Callum. I want this.” I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his in a light kiss, my eyelids fluttering closed at the gentle sensation. My tongue tentatively teased at his lips, and he opened immediately, letting me softly glide and explore his open mouth. I pulled back before things got too heated and rested my forehead against his. “I wantyou.And if working in this team means that I get to spend more time with you, then I’m happy to be a part of it. Read me, and you’ll see.”

Visibly torn about what to say to that, Callum whined as his eyes glazed over again to take a peek into my mind.

I held perfectly still and waited until his focus returned, then smiled gently at him, swiping my thumbs softly against his cheeks. “Believe me now?”

Swallowing hard, he nodded shakily. His eyes became all puppy-like, and he held my wrists to keep my hands in place.“Mo lus na gréine…I don’t like this…”

“I know, sweetheart.” I drew away from him enough to kiss him on the forehead. There was one last thing I could say to convince him that George was doing the right thing, and it seemed the right time to drop it. “But you did say on our date that the more I knew about what you do for your job, the better this will all go. If George says I need to know this, then let’s get on with the knowledge sharing and get this done, okay?”

He shuddered in my hands, then sighed in resignation. “Okay.”

Thankful that he agreed relatively easily, I tucked his head against mine to give him one more kiss on the forehead. Then, without letting him go, I turned around to face George. “Read me in, sir.”

George’s lips lifted ever so slightly in a soft smile, nodded once, then leaned forward. “I’ve already explained all of this to Callum, but over the past few years, we’ve been having a not insignificant number of operations go awry, or even fail entirely. Most of the time, our operatives encountered delaying tactics in completing their missions, sometimes even getting arrested when they were getting too close to their targets. In rarer cases, targets have died after we’d already saved them via our initial intel.”

Alarmed, I looked at Callum, who simply shrugged.

“I told you it was a dangerous field to work in,” he said quietly. “Although I haven’t encountered any issue so far.”

George nodded, then looked pointedly at me. “I suspect that Callum would have on Wednesday night had you not been there.”

“Me?” My brows furrowed in confusion. “Why would I change things?”

“Because you were an unknown,” Callum mused before he looked at George, who nodded in agreement. “The guy was there, but I lost track of him after I sat down with you. He mustn’t have known what to make of you, so he withdrew from the situation.” He looked at me and shrugged. “It’s what I would’ve done, especially if I’m playing a long game. That’s how we’re trained.”

I frowned at this and filed it away to think about in the background. There was something to what Callum just said, but I couldn’t place my finger on it just yet. “You think that’s why he approached me today? He’d researched me?”

“That’s our guess,” George said, nodding slowly. He scratched at his chin through his thick beard. “He’d likely contacted the mole on Wednesday night and figured it out from there who you were and how you’re related to Callum.”

Raising an eyebrow at George, I asked, “I’m in your system, then?”

“Surface level only,” George admitted somewhat begrudgingly. “You’re listed as family to Callum, as are Erin and your father.”

“Hmm,” I murmured, adding this information to the deluge I’d received over the last few days. God, had it only been a few days? It already felt like a lifetime. “I wonder if that’s why this guy didn’t seem to know all that much about me and who I am exactly to Callum.” I shifted in my seat, regretting the fact that I couldn’t get up and pace to think things through better. “Callum, how many people know about your vision of us? Or even that you get visions at all?”

He stared at me. “Just you, our folks, and George. No-one else.” He flicked his eyes to George nervously. “We agreed it was safer that way. It’s not listed in the system, right?”

George shook his head. “Your reading ability is the only thing listed, but everyone in the agency expected that because of your mother, so it’s never been a secret there. Knowledge of your seer ability, though… That would be catastrophic in the wrong hands.Family powers mixing...” He trailed off nervously with a loud swallow.

Feeling my eyes widen at the first sign of George being unnerved, I filed that interesting comment under themust ask Callum about this laterportion of my brain, figuring that it was better to keep us all on track. “Okay, so both the mole and the dude that’s been stalking Callum and hassling me only know the fact that we’re stepbrothers because that info is in the system, and that we were on a date at The Majestic because he saw us there that night.” I wondered if that threw him for a loop as much as it did me.

Callum and George both nodded in silent agreement, waiting to see where I was going.

“So…” I continued, thinking out loud. “Neither he nor the mole expect me to know about your reading ability, let alone your seer ability, or for me to know that you’re working with George.” I tilted my head from side to side as I analyzed this from every angle I could think of. “Or for me to know about George and your group at all, really. That’s probably why he thinks I’m an easier target than you, Callum. But what he expects me to get for him, I’m fucked if I can see.” I scratched behind my ear. “I don’t understand what benefit approaching me would do.”

Callum hummed, following my train of thought. “Unless he wants to make sure we’re together long enough to ensure that we’re rock solid, then use you as bait or a hostage to get me to do something for him?”

“That could be it entirely,” I said, pointing at him in agreement. “He doesn’t know that we’re already further along than we should be after a single date, because he doesn’t know about your seer ability, or that you’ve told me about our future.” Turning to face George again, I said, “Both he and your mole are working under the assumption that we’re basically strangers,only thrown together because of our parents. That’s his blind spot. We need to exploit that, but how?”

“If that’s the case,” George said. “They’re playing the long game and only laying the groundwork now. He’s using your love of your family, your dad especially, to force you to report back to him, but he can’t be expecting anything of any substance until you’ve shown that you can be relied upon, that he can trust what you’re telling him, especially in these early days. Getting you to report back on your dates with Callum is about all he could rightly expect for now until you’re comfortable enough that he can push you just that little bit further.”

---