Breaking Through by D. Nichole King

and then after? And last night with the storm cloud … I don’t know what else to think.”
    Kray lies silent for a few moments, peering up at me. “Have you considered that maybe the water is acting because of how you feel, instead of the other way around?”
    “Like it trusts because I trust? Feeding off my emotions?”
    “Something like that, yeah.”
    I lean back against the wall. “It’s possible, I guess, but why now? Why not two years ago? Look, either way, we need someone on the inside if we’re going to be able to crack into Navy security. Neither of us are computer geeks. We don’t know what we’re doing, and Riley could be useful.”
    “Or not useful and kill us,” he mumbles.
    “You’ve been watching too many conspiracy movies.”
    “And you’ve been watching too many Reese Witherspoon romance movies, so that makes us even.”
    “Uh, that’s so not even. Besides, Barton’s trying to help me control my abilities,” I say, yanking us back on track before he starts quoting Sweet Home Alabama like he did the last time he brought up Reese. And his female impersonations? Suck. “I’ve done stuff with him I never thought possible.”
    Kray’s brows shoot up. “We’re going there ?”
    “OMG, Kray. Don’t even.”
    He bypasses the sexual reference, thank God. “Give yourself some credit. That stuff you’re doing with him is still you, Nautia. Not Riley. You’re amazing…at least as long as you’re in control. When you lost it last night, Gibson had to save our asses.”
    “Gibson?” I ask, confused. “What did he do?”
    Kray grins. “Levitated it. It was crazy wicked.”
    “He levitated a waterspout?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Wow. That’s impressive.”
    “Yeah. You should thank him.”
    “I will.” I sit back up and sigh. “Can you at least give Barton a shot? I’ll be careful about what I share, I promise. He’ll get information only on a NTK basis, and you have my permission to keep reading his mind.”
    “The last part won’t be happening.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because he’s learned how to block me out.” Kray shrugs. “It was only a matter of time.”
    “See?” I say, grinning. “We need him now more than ever.”
    Kray’s eyebrow quirks in question.
    “Because now there’s no way you can access system passwords from his brain, even if he does think about them,” I answer.
    Kray glares at me with that expression he gets when I’ve just schooled him. I love these moments. They’re better than chocolate.
    “Fine,” he relents. “But I have some ground rules.”
    “What? No way.”
    “Number one,” he goes on, ignoring me, “no more passing out. Especially after you create rogue tornados.”
    “I can live with that one.”
    “Number two: keep your relationship with Barton professional.”
    “Um, no. You have no right to impose that rule.”
    “Safety reasons, deary,” he says, and I know he’s referring to me almost killing my ex. “We kind of need the captain if we’re going to succeed at this mission.”
    “Number three?” I ask, purposely not agreeing to number two.
    “Find out what he’s hiding.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Barton is hiding something, and I—we—need to know what that is.”
    I squint at him, confused. “How do you know he’s hiding something?”
    Kray sighs. “Because while you were passed out, he wasn’t blocking his thoughts as well as he should have been. I only caught the tail end before you started to convulse, but he knows something and he’s not sharing.”
    I hold his gaze, trying to determine if he’s being paranoid, or if he truly believes this about Riley. Five seconds later, Kray has yet to even blink, telling me it’s the latter. “I’ll see what I can do. Happy?”
    “Do or do not. There is no try,” he says, quoting Yoda before he cracks a smile.
    I point a finger at him, then back at myself. “Remind me: how are we friends?”
    He does a one-eighty and peers over his shoulder. “Because you like my