She straightened her shoulders and her chest rose in a deep intake of breath that she let out slowly. “I thought you said you and your brother were not close?”
He shrugged. “I should warn you that he can hear us.”
She looked toward the cabin. Joshua waved his hand, indicating he could indeed hear them. “Does he have some kind of super hearing or something?”
“No, he has the cabin wired. He’s a spy, what do you expect?”
“Should I not ask about your relationship with him while he’s listening?”
Kane watched his brother’s shoulders. He thought he detected some stiffness in them and maybe sensed a bit of trepidation from the older Lakeland. “It’s okay with me. He knows what our relationship is.”
When he didn’t go on, she said, “Well.”
“I barely remember him from the orphanage. He was gone by the time I was five years old. The people that ran the place talked about how happy they were to have gotten rid of him and at a great price.”
“Price? They sold him?”
“Of course.” He’d worked for years to suppress the anger he had for the people from the orphanage. He almost managed it. Almost. “They profit from the company taking on a gifted child.”
“So you grew up apart. Does he remember?”
The word, yes, rang loudly in Kane’s head. He looked at the cockpit. “He was older, and as they said, gifted. He remembers.”
“How did you reconnect?”
“He found me when I was finishing my training.”
“Have you spent a lot of time together?”
“When we can or if there’s a need, we see each other.”
“Like today.” She sounded sad.
“There have been other times that were not quite so rushed.”
There was a long pause. He could feel her reluctance to say what was on her mind and he was sure Joshua could feel it too. “If he’s a spy, what makes you think we can trust him?”
“He’s my brother.”
She looked toward the cockpit. “Brothers betray each other. It happens all the time.”
“You’re right, it does, but not with Joshua and me.”
“Okay.” She didn’t question the matter further. Instead, she curled her feet up under her firm, round ass and leaned her head over onto his shoulder.
He really had no idea what the tightness in his chest was from. When he looked down at her creamy skin resting against his shoulder and her dark eyelashes soft against her cheek, he thought his body might burst.
He looked toward the cockpit door and Joshua had turned around in the pilot’s seat. He looked back at them with an expression on his face Kane couldn’t place. Then his older brother smiled and turned back toward the clouds ahead.
* * * * *
They didn’t talk much once Joshua landed the plane. A car was waiting at the private airport. There was no driver, just the car with the keys in it. Kane opened the front door on the passenger side and held it for Lena.
He felt her trepidation, but she got in the car next to his brother and didn’t say a word. Once he was in the backseat, Joshua drove them from the airport to a small waterfront house twenty minutes away.
The place was Spartan. A couch, a chair and a very small coffee table. The galley kitchen was completely empty except for coffee and a coffeepot. The bedroom had a twin bed, but no sheets, pillows or blankets.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“Safe house,” Joshua said.
“It could use a woman’s touch.” Her voice was full of sarcasm.
Joshua closed the door and locked it. He waited until she sat down on the couch before he put his hands on his hips and faced her. “Lena, tell me about these stones that everyone is looking for.”
Kane wasn’t surprised the government knew about Lena and the stones. In a way, it was good news. If they knew about the stones, then they probably also knew she hadn’t taken the money.
Lena stood up as if she was ready to bolt for the door. “What do you know about them?”
“Sit down,” Joshua ordered.
She ignored him.
“It’s okay, Lena,” Kane said, taking a seat next to her on the couch. “Ease up, Josh.”
Joshua sat down in the chair and faced them. “You’re going to have to tell me something if you want my help.”
Kane watched her. He didn’t say anything. This was her decision. She looked at him and he felt her fear. He couldn’t tell if she was afraid of Joshua putting her grandmother in danger or losing the stones, but she was definitely afraid. “I’m not going to end up in some government lab predicting war moves of the enemy. I’ll kill myself first and the stones are useless without me.”
Kane’s stomach clenched and he remembered the vision of her being zipped into a body bag. Had she killed herself in the vision to protect the stones?
“That’s a bit melodramatic, isn’t it?” Joshua said.
“Maybe, but I mean it.”
“The government doesn’t want you or the stones. We just want to make certain that Oscar Thorn doesn’t get them.”
“So you sent Shamus Wade. Isn’t he a ridiculous choice?” Kane said.
“I didn’t send anyone. I didn’t even know about this until you went missing and my superiors told me to find my brother.”
“And now that you’ve found me, Josh?”
“You tell me.”
He could sense from his brother that he would stand behind him. He knew it, but it was nice to feel the bond they had, as if there was an invisible thread binding them. Kane turned to Lena. “It’s up to you, but if you ask me, I say we have to trust Josh. We need his help.”
She sighed. “Give them to me, then.”
Kane dug into his duffle, pulled out his swim trunks and dug the five little stones from the pocket before handing them to her. She held them tightly in her fist and closed her eyes. When she opened her palm, the beam of light appeared as if there was a floodlight pointing up. In the beam, they saw the vision of Lena’s dead body followed by the happy family vision in the future.
The beam flashed away and Lena closed her hand around the stones.
“That’s incredible. What does it mean?” Joshua asked.
Kane felt awe from his brother and nothing awed Josh. He was above surprise. He knew more than most people. His senses allowed him to understand more about the past and future. The fact that he was impressed said a lot about Lena’s gift.
“The stones never mislead or give a false vision.”
“Clearly one of those two futures is not true.”
“That’s why we need to see my grandmother. She’s the only person who may know what it means. I sent her away so Oscar wouldn’t find her and use her as leverage. If we go see her, she’ll be in danger.”
Joshua turned to him. “You want me to babysit an old woman?”
Kane smiled.
He turned back to Lena. “What does my brother have to do with any of this? You just met. Though it’s obvious something is going on. He never gets involved with a fugitive. How do I know you didn’t show him some made-up vision so you could manipulate him into helping you?”
Anger flared in Kane’s gut. “I triggered the vision the first time.”
Utter shock not only resonated against Kane’s senses, but it also registered on his brother’s face. “You did? The file said only a woman with the mark of Adeline can trigger the stones.”
“That’s true,” Lena said. “Another question for Gran.”
He was silent for a long time. “You could be a very good liar.”
“I’m not lying.”
Joshua’s eyes narrowed. “Prove it.”
“How?” Lena asked.
“No,” Kane said.
Joshua said, “You want my help, I want access to her mind. I want to know she’s not lying.”
“She’s not. You’re not probing her mind.”
Joshua cocked his head to one side. They knew enough about
each other for him to know Kane would not be swayed. “Then you do it.”
The air thickened. Kane thought the room had become smaller. “I don’t do that.”
“But you can.”
“It’s not right.”
“Only if she resists.”
Kane got up. His brother’s suggestions infuriated him. He would not harm Lena. He would never do that to anyone. She touched his arm.
He looked down into her doe eyes.
“It’s okay, Kane. I will let you in. You said it wouldn’t hurt me if I was willing.”
His cock pressed against his zipper. He had no idea why the idea of being in Lena’s head aroused him, but it definitely did. “Are you sure? It’s very…intimate.”
“I’m sure.”
“More intimate than sex, Lena.”
“Are you trying to talk me out of this?”
He dug his hands in his pockets. “Maybe.”
Joshua cleared his throat. “That’s my condition. Oh and I hold the stones while I’m granny-sitting. If you get caught, it’s better if the stones and Lena are not in the same place.”
Kane narrowed his eyes at his brother. “We are going in the bedroom and you are staying out here.”
A bright smile lit his handsome face. “I wouldn’t think of intruding. Once you know everything that’s going on in her pretty head, I’ll be on board or we’ll both be out. Of that, you have my word, little brother.”
He reached his hand down and she put her small one in it. She trusted him. God, that was a turn-on too. They walked into the bedroom. She sat on the bed and waited for him. Kane paced back and forth. His palms were sweating.
“Kane?”
He stopped and turned to see her watching him with wide eyes. He laughed. “I’m a little nervous.”
She patted the bed next to her, and he sat down. “Are you afraid of what you’ll find in my mind? Do you think I’m lying to you?”
“I believe you, Lena.”
“Then what?”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “In training, they made us probe the minds of people who resisted. I hated it, but I did it. It’s the only experience I have with probing and it was not at all pleasant. I don’t want to hurt you.”
She smiled. “You won’t hurt me, Kane. I know you won’t.” She smoothed the crease between his brows. “Let’s do this step by step. What’s first?”
He faced her and lifted his hands to the sides of her head. He touched his forehead to hers. “Relax and open your mind, Lena.”
He searched his telepathic sense for the ill-used muscles that would allow him to probe her mind and found them eager to comply. Again, his cock jumped and pressed tightly against his zipper.
“Should I touch you?”
“You can if you want.”
Her hands traced even paths up and down his ribs in a gentle caress. It was at once arousing and soothing. His mind nudged at her consciousness. She let down the first barrier. He heard her gasp as his thought trickled through hers. Her hands slid to his hips.
He pressed further with his mind. He hit a wall. Relax, Lena. Let me in.
As if a flower blooming for the sun, she opened up her thoughts to him. He milled through her childhood memories, quickly skipping to the recent past. He saw Thorn beating her, saw the guard who helped her and even saw the first time she had gazed at him in the bar in Savannah. Each memory was fresh and alive with innocence. She only protected, never harmed. Everything she had done was to protect her grandmother or the stones. She fiercely fought to keep her ex-husband’s hands off the power her gifts could bring him.
The memory of their lovemaking flashed as though it was lightning through their minds. He felt her fingers at his fly, but was caught up in how pure her memories flowed. She wanted him as desperately as he’d wanted her. She gripped his cock, working it up and down. The gasps he heard were his own. In the memory, he was fucking her up against the wall of the hotel room. Her climax was close.
Feel me, Lena. He opened his mind up to her. He allowed his memory of the same event to rush into her. Her breath came in short gasps and she tugged harder and faster on his shaft. He probably could have come from just the vivid memories, but her fingers sliding over his cock pushed him over the edge at the same moment the memory of her pussy clenching around him in Mexico flooded his senses.
Kane released her head and pulled her body tight to his. She trembled in his arm. Her own rapture spread from her clit and he felt it too through their connection. It was as if four orgasms combined. He experienced both his and hers in the memory and in reality.
“Kane?” she said in a small voice.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m…that was… I don’t even know what that was. Intense, wonderful, overwhelming.”
He pulled away so he could look at her face. He found a satisfied smile on her lips. “Then I didn’t hurt you.”
“It was extraordinary, and no, you didn’t hurt me.”
He kissed her forehead, went to the bathroom and cleaned up. There was one towel. He dampened it and brought it to her. She wiped her hands.
“I didn’t realize it would be so sensual,” she said.
“Neither did I.”
They left the bedroom. Joshua was stretched out on the couch. He didn’t say anything out loud, but Kane could hear the questions.
Kane nodded. “Let’s go to Jersey.”
“All right.” Joshua stood up and walked to the door without asking a single thing about the mind probe.
When they were at the car and Lena was safely seated inside with all the doors closed, he turned to Kane and smiled wickedly. “You can thank me another time.”
“Did you know?”
He shrugged. “Not for sure. I suspected if Lena had told you the truth and everything was as she said, you would find something mutual to remember.”
“You could have said something.”
“And ruin it for you? I wouldn’t do that. Your first time?”
Kane felt his cheeks flush. He couldn’t remember a time he’d blushed in his life. “Yeah. Other than training.”
Joshua winced. “I hated that shit. Brutal.”
“I never wanted to do it again.”
They were probably talking too long. Lena would start to wonder. Kane went to open the back door. Joshua’s hand gripped his arm. “Are you in love with her?”
Kane shrugged. “What does love feel like?”
Joshua frowned and he thought he detected sorrow in his brother’s eyes and mind. “I’d go through hell to protect you. I consider that love, little brother.”
Kane thought about it for a second. “Then maybe I love her. I’d die to protect her. I died a little watching the vision of her tagged and bagged.”
Kane didn’t wait for a response. He pulled open the car door and got inside.
Chapter Six
Hopewell, New Jersey, hosted rolling hills and beautiful country homes. Cows and horses munched happily on rich green grasses and children rode bicycles down Route 518. It was bucolic in its serenity. The small, white farmhouse was set back off Sunnydale Road. The sign at the road said Wilmar Farms and had the outline of a horse burned into the wood.
“Your grandmother runs a horse farm?” Joshua asked.
She smiled. It was not entirely out of the question. Gran probably could run this farm if she wanted to. “It belongs to some old friends of the family.”
The sedan worked the dirt drive into a cloud of dust as they approached the house. Two figures waited near the porch. When the car pulled to a stop, Lena opened the door, ignoring the warnings from both men.
They were both out of the car an instant after her. Bill and Peggy Flack waited with big smiles on their faces as soon as they saw Lena get out of the strange car. She flew into the waiting arms of the tall woman and felt the comforting pat on the back from the stocky man beside her.
Peggy was lean and muscular from a lifetime of training horses. Bill was several
inches shorter than his wife, but he was as solid as he’d been forty years earlier. They were both past seventy and as sharp and strong as most people half their age.
“Lena, we didn’t know what to think when we heard the car. No one we know has a car like that. Uncle Bill has his revolver tucked in his belt and I stashed the shotgun on the porch.”
“Do you want me to shoot these two, Lena, honey? I’d be happy to do it,” Bill said.
She broke away from the comfort of the hug. “No, Uncle Bill. They look shady, but they’re with me. Uncle Bill, Aunt Peggy, this is Kane and Joshua Lakeland.”
Joshua shook Bill’s hand and nodded to Peggy. “You have a pistol, sir?”
Bill pulled the Colt revolver from the back of his pants, removed the clip and pulled the slide to remove the round in the chamber. He handed it to Joshua. “Just my service pistol, but I keep it clean and fire it regular.”
Joshua examined the weapon. He held out his hand. “May I?”
Bill thought a moment and then handed him the magazine. Joshua snapped the cartridge into the butt of the gun. “Best to keep this loaded, sir. You never know when you might need it.”
He handed the gun back and Bill nodded.
“We’ve been worried sick about you, Lena. Your granny’s beside herself with no word in months.”
“I know, Aunt Peggy, and I’m sorry. I couldn’t risk contacting you.”
“Best if you go see her now. She’s up at the barn,” Bill said.
“Are these two here to protect you?” Peggy asked.
Lena looked from Kane to Joshua. They did look as if they were bodyguards the way they were hovering around her and searching the area. “They’re…involved,” she said, for lack of a better explanation.
Peggy nodded. “I’ll put some coffee on.”
Coffee was the answer to most of life’s problems. As a child, Lena could never remember being at the farm when there wasn’t the smell of coffee warming the air. She smiled and started toward the barn.
The long white building brought back a flood of happy memories.
“Are they related to you?” Kane asked.
She shook her head. “No. Gran’s best friends. I’ve always called them aunt and uncle. Oscar doesn’t know about them. He didn’t ask much about my family and I never mentioned the Flacks. It seemed as if it would be a good place for her to hide out.”
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