Secret Minds: Forbidden Minds, #4

By R.A. Rock

For a Circle of Wild Minds, even Christmas can be a time for enemies…

Hiding out from The Agency has put everybody on edge. When Yumi learns that one of their mortal enemies, Merrywell, has contacted Chad for help, she accidentally takes a tumble into a nearby lake. Her stumble does more than give her a chill. It throws her mental powers completely off, which could have deadly consequences for the rest of the team.

When their enemy's pleas for help appear genuine, Yumi and Chad consider their options. They could abandon her to her deadly fate or help her and leave themselves open to betrayal. But can they possibly turn away someone who needs their help on Christmas?

Secret Minds is the fourth book in the Forbidden Minds series, a collection of sci-fi romance novels. If you like steamy chemistry, incredible superpowers, and Christmas science fiction, then you'll love R.A. Roque's standalone adventure.

Buy Secret Minds today! 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Windy Point Publishing Inc.
• Release date: Nov 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781540159687

Book preview

For a Circle of Wild Minds, even Christmas can be a time for enemies…

Hiding out from The Agency has put everybody on edge. When Yumi learns that one of their mortal enemies, Merrywell, has contacted Chad for help, she accidentally takes a tumble into a nearby lake. Her stumble does more than give her a chill. It throws her mental powers completely off, which could have deadly consequences for the rest of the team.

When their enemy’s pleas for help appear genuine, Yumi and Chad consider their options. They could abandon her to her deadly fate or help her and leave themselves open to betrayal. But can they possibly turn away someone who needs their help on Christmas?

Secret Minds is the fourth story in the Forbidden Minds sci-fi romance collection. If you like steamy chemistry, incredible superpowers, and Christmas science fiction, then you’ll love R.A. Roque’s exciting adventure.

Read Secret Minds today!

Table of Contents

Title Page

About Secret Minds

Dedication

1 - Icy Waters

2 - Making Camp

3 - The After Drop

4 - She Didn’t Die

5 - The Best Water I Ever Tasted

6 - Contacted

7 - Home Safe

8 - Christmas Cheer

9 - Coming Clean

10 - What to do

11 - Merrywell

12 - The Punching Bag

13 - Waiting

14 - A Marriage Fight

15 - The Shooting Range

16 - Worries

17 - The Precog

18 - A Clear Mind

19 - A Very Merrywell Christmas

20 - What She Wants

21 - Protection

22 - Size Doesn’t Matter

23 - Second Chances

24 - Trapped

25 - Not-Friends

26 - Dog Collars

27 - To Trust or not to Trust?

28 - A Present

29 - 100 Percent Guaranteed

30 - Christmas At Home

Epilogue

Frantic Minds

Sneak Peak (Frantic Minds)

Gotta find out what happens!

Author's Note

Other Books by the Author

About the Author

Fun Fact

Copyright Page

for all of us who conceal our true selves, may we find the strength to finally let go of our secrets

Ifell, breaking the thin ice with my body weight. And when my head went under the freezing water, my only thought was that I didn’t want to leave Chad alone. He was smart and strong, but his heart was fragile. He had given me the job of protecting it, and I was not willing to give up that post yet.

Dying itself didn’t worry me.

Not really.

I had woken up too many mornings wondering if each one would be my last for the thought of death to scare me. But my recent brush with death on the ice planet Lood had made me realize that I didn’t really want to die.

I was ready, if I had to. But I knew after that experience that I still had a lot of living to do and too many people counting on me to die. The thought of how much it would hurt my Circle was what really gave me energy and made me fight for my life. I struggled out of my backpack, then tried to get back to the surface but it was a losing battle as the drag of my heavy clothes pulled me deeper under the ice.

I scooped my hands above my head and tried to kick as hard as I could, swimming toward the light. Suddenly, I felt my hand clutched tightly.

Chad.

I felt myself being yanked up until my head broke the surface and I took an enormous breath, gasping over and over, trying to get air into my oxygen-starved cells. The feeling of relief washing over me made me wonder if I was really as ready to face death as I thought.

And in addition to not being dead, getting to look into Chad’s clear blue eyes again was a definite bonus of being pulled out of the frozen lake.

Jesus Christ, Yumi, he said, his voice shaking. He pulled me into his arms once I was back on the snowy shore, and that was nice, too. I couldn’t move much because my clothes were starting to freeze up already, but it did feel good to still be alive. He released me immediately and tore his backpack off, dropping it on the ground and beginning to pull stuff out of it.

Get your clothes off, he said, his voice curt.

By now, I couldn’t answer because the shivering had set in, and my teeth were chattering so hard I knew I wouldn’t be able to say anything. I got my mitts off and tried to grab the zipper to my coat, but already my fingers weren’t working.

He pushed my fumbling hands out of the way and stripped my top half until I was naked. He had undressed me many times since I had become his almost-wife but this was by far the fastest.

In about three seconds, he had a warm, dry long underwear shirt on me and a sweater on over that — his of course, since I had taken my bag off as soon as I fell in, in order to prevent it from drowning me.

He ripped my hat off and replaced it with his extra one, covering my hair that was hard and stiff. Then he pulled off my boots and snow pants, tossing them aside. In no time, he had my bottom half changed, and I was wrapped up in his sleeping bag wearing long underwear, sweat pants, and his extra pair of thick socks on my feet. I was still shivering violently, but I had hopes of warming up someday now that I was dry.

I closed my eyes, but he shook me.

"Yumi, open your eyes. You are not allowed to fall asleep. He gave me a glare. You know that it’s dangerous to fall asleep when there’s a chance of hypothermia."

I knew. I had already almost killed myself once falling asleep in the cold. And I had no intention of ever doing it again.

You scared me, Yumi, he said, digging more stuff out of his backpack.

I didn’t answer that because I had scared myself. Then I felt my body wracked with violent shivers and saw his worried gaze travel over me. I needed to say something so he would know that I was all right.

I hate to point it out, wilderness boy, I managed to get out between the chattering of my teeth. But I’m not exactly out of danger yet. It’d be nice if we had a fucking fire.

The snark made him smile again. A real one this time that lit up his pale face, which had been a few shades whiter than usual since I had slipped on that ice and nearly drowned. Funny how me berating him makes him happy. He held up the matches and fire starter we always carried with us when we were travelling out in the bush.

He stuck the fire starting stuff in his pockets and picked me up, carrying me into the bush where he had obviously already scoped out the best spot for shelter. He really did know how to survive in the wilderness; I was just bugging him because that’s what I do.

Under normal circumstances I would never let him pick me up — for many reasons, not the least of which is that I’m a hundred and twenty-five pounds of solid muscle. I hadn’t even known he could pick me up, though I think maybe he had once before.

I’m also fiercely independent and don’t like depending on anyone, even Chad, to help me with stuff — not always a good thing, I know, but I’m working on it. Until recently, I also had this weird trauma that made it so that it was painful for me to touch people. I was kind of screwed up, I’ll admit it. But like I said, I was working on it, and slowly things were changing for me.

So, yeah, under normal circumstances I wouldn’t let him pick me up, but these were not normal circumstances, and I drew in a deep breath and laid my head on his strong chest, enjoying the unaccustomed feeling of being taken care of.

I’m going to make the fire. Did you tell Gracie and Shiv what’s going on?

I hadn’t thought of it, I said, kicking myself for not doing it before. I’m a little busy freezing to death here.

You’re not going to freeze to death, Yumi, he said, glowering at me, but I sensed his fear underneath the anger. I had worried him. Again. I sighed. Why was I always getting myself into trouble? Tell them now. And remind Gracie to come on the skis — they’ll be faster — and bring the sled. The deep one.

He was telling me what to do. That meant I had really scared him. He never told me what to do anymore since our disastrous experience on Lood a couple months ago.

Why the sled? I said, feeling suspicious.

You’re not going to walk back home, Yumi, he said, his tone leaving no room for argument. But I argued anyway.

Why not? I said, scowling.

He rolled his eyes and huffed out his breath, setting me down in the snow in a sheltered spot.

Just tell her, okay? Stop being so tough.

Stop being so tough? Who was I if I wasn’t tough? I didn’t even know anymore who was inside me under the rough exterior I hid behind, it had been so long since I had seen that part me.

He went back to get the rest of the stuff from the lake shore while I closed my eyes and contacted Gracie telepathically.

Grace, you there?

Yumi? What’s wrong? she sent, picking up on my exhaustion and residual fear, I guess.

I felt stupid telling her.

I fell in the lake. Chad got me out, and I’m changed into dry clothes now, and he’s building a fire, so don’t worry. I’m fine.

Holy crap. Are you sure? Should I bring you here right away?

No, no. I’ll be fine if we go home the old-fashioned way. No need for teleportation. That’s all we need is to leave a big mental trail for The Agency to follow.

The Agency is a powerful organization that started out with the mission to provide every person with mental abilities a safe place to learn and develop their talents. They’ve kind of strayed pretty far from that first noble purpose, though. The bastards.

Now they provide a place for people with mental abilities to develop their talents all right, so that The Agency can use them and — more importantly — profit from them.

The Agency’s biggest money maker is using us Protectors — that’s what people with mental abilities are called — to stabilize wormholes, charging an astronomical fee to the planet or star system that hires them to do it.

We had recently discovered the dark side of The Agency that we had always thought had our best interests at heart, when they had attempted to split the four of us up. We had convinced them that we were dead — all part of the ice planet debacle that had eventually turned out extremely well for us. And we were now hiding out indefinitely at Chad and Gracie’s parents’ house in the forest, hoping that The goddamned Agency didn’t find us ever again.

Okay, we’ll be there as soon as we can. Probably by midmorning.

Thanks, Grace. Oh, and Chad said to come on the skis because it’ll be faster — and to bring the big sled. I think he senses a storm. You know how he is.

Yeah, I know. I’ll see you, then, Yumi.

Okay, Gracie.

I opened my eyes.

Did you talk to Gracie?

Shiv has almost no useful telepathic ability at all, so I certainly couldn’t contact him.

No, I sent to Shiv, I said, sarcasm oozing from my voice.

Yumi, stop being such a jerk, he said, showing his don’t-mess-with-me side that’s usually hidden under all the cheerfulness and compassion. He stared down at me, his blue eyes stern and his curls standing out a bright fiery red against his white forehead. He looked like one of those Viking warriors or something, except leaner, and I had to admit he was turning me on. Still, I wasn’t going to let him know that.

Oh. Sorry, I said, feeling it all starting to catch up to me. I guess after almost dying, I should be more polite.

It wouldn’t kill you to use your manners, he said, a righteous expression on his face as he sorted the kindling he had brought, getting ready to make a fire.

You’re right, if being beaten on a regular basis as a slave, getting severe hypothermia, and draining my life energy to dangerously low levels to save your sorry ass hasn’t killed me yet, I suppose a little politeness won’t.

I could be polite.

When I wanted to.

I didn’t want to right now because I was upset and scared and so damned cold, I could hardly think straight.

Warm me up and I’ll consider pulling out my manners for the occasion, I said, my muscles squeezing tight as the violent shivers started again.

Ipulled the sleeping bag closer around me and noticed that the sun was down now, a slash of bright orange lit the sky above the trees on the other side of the lake.

Chad was across from me, building the fire carefully the way his father had taught him and I caught the sharp, clean scent of spruce.

"I guess we could keep risking your life, if it meant that you were going to be a nicer person," he said, appearing to contemplate that as he crumpled some fire starter in the circle of dirt he had created by digging down through the snow to find the ground. I frowned.

He really thought that?

…Though, you’ve almost died so many times, if dying hasn’t reformed you yet, I don’t have much hope at this point.

If he had been closer, I would have hit his grinning face.

And it would have hurt.

A lot.

But he wasn’t close enough — probably on purpose — so I settled for scowling at him and answering his question.

They’re on their way. And she’s bringing the sled, I said. Though we won’t need it, I added.

Good, he said, not looking at me as he carefully made a tent of kindling over the fire starter he had crumpled. I watched as he went off to get some bigger sticks. He came back a minute later with what looked like a small dead tree that he had broken into pieces.

Without speaking, he lit a match and touched it to the fire starter. It caught, and he watched it lick upward, his whole being focused