by Abby Blake
A soft snore reached his ears, and he glanced down at the woman in his arms. Every extrasensory skill he possessed told him that this woman belonged to him and his brother, and just the simple act of lying here with her seemed somehow earth shattering.
“I need to get back to the flash drives,” Darrick said telepathically. “Do you need your gloves?”
Davin nodded. Obviously his brother had noticed what Sandra hadn’t. Darrick slid them onto Davin’s hands, gave him a curious look, and then left the room. Davin was expecting a telepathic grilling, but after a few minutes of silence he broached the subject himself. “I think I can control it.” It probably sounded defensive, and in a way he was, but he needed his brother to know that he hadn’t raided Sandra’s memories while the three of them had been in bed.
“That’s good,” Darrick said with a telepathic chuckle. “I’m sure Sandra would prefer it that way.”
“True,” Davin said, feeling like he needed to confess all. “But the other day when I accidentally downloaded her memories, I found some about an ex-husband.”
“So?” Darrick asked, obviously seeing no problem over Sandra having an ex-husband. It wouldn’t have been a concern to Davin either if the memory he’d found had been a happy one.
“The memory was of him beating her.”
“What? Like a Dom-sub type thing?” Darrick asked, sounding rather interested. Sandra had suggested earlier that she would probably enjoy a spanking, and Davin had sensed his brother’s happiness over her apparently slightly kinkier needs. But Davin needed to set things straight, even if Sandra hadn’t actually discussed any of this with them.
“No, more like an abusive husband type of thing.”
“Shit.” Davin could feel the rage swirling through his brother. He felt the same way, and if either of them ever ran into Sandra’s ex, the man would quickly understand what it felt like to be threatened by someone larger and more powerful. From the quick flash of memory Davin had seen, Sandra’s ex-husband had been rather ordinary—ordinary height, ordinary looks, ordinary build all wrapped together by a bully’s personality. How the guy had managed to even catch Sandra’s attention was a complete mystery. The woman was strikingly attractive, inside and out, even if she didn’t realize it.
Or maybe her not realizing it was the problem. Why else would she marry such a pathetic excuse for a man? And why would she stay with him even after the physical abuse had started?
Davin wanted to drag off his gloves and rampage through her memories until he found the answers. But he resisted the urge. Sandra would tell them in her own time. He already knew more about her at this stage in their relationship than he had the right to.
“Fuck.” The softly spoken curse reached Davin’s ears all the way from the main room.
“What is it?”
“It would seem that the children The Agency found weren’t the only ones dear old Dad had in his testing facilities. There’s a facility hidden in the Rockies.”
“Do you have directions? Floor plans? Security details?”
“Yes, yes, and maybe,” Darrick said telepathically. He seemed to be grinding his teeth, a sure sign that he was upset. “The security has probably been upgraded since the other facilities were raided.”
“True, but do you have enough information for The Agency to shut them down?”
“Not sure,” Darrick said slowly as if he were reading at the same time. “They already had some kickass security. It’s probably doubled now.”
“Could we get in?”
“You and me? Probably.” Darrick seemed to hesitate a moment before asking, “What are you thinking?”
“Maybe we can do some reconnaissance before The Agency gets involved.”
Darrick was silent for so long that Davin almost considered getting up to go speak to his brother face-to-face. If he hadn’t been so concerned about waking Sandra, he probably would have.
“Okay, I’ll do some more research. Get some sleep. You can take over in a couple of hours, and I’ll hold our woman.”
Davin smiled at the small sliver of jealousy he sensed in his link to his brother. It wasn’t anything serious—certainly nothing that would affect the relationship they hoped to build with Sandra—but it was nice to know that his brother cared for the woman as much as he did. Davin pressed a soft kiss to Sandra’s forehead and then closed his eyes and got comfortable. He doubted he would actually sleep, but there was no way he would miss the chance to hold his woman close.
* * * *
Sandra woke to a telepathic argument. Either her telepathy was getting stronger, or they were deliberately allowing her to hear every word. Considering that they stopped the silent communication when they realized she was awake, she had to wonder what would be boosting her skills now. Her friendship with Dana had enhanced her skills slightly—not as much as Dana and her siblings affected their partners’ skills—but she hadn’t really developed any major change in her abilities.
So why she was able to hear a telepathic conversation not specifically directed at her was a little confusing. She shifted in the bed so that she could sit up against the headboard.
“Good morning, honey,” Davin said as he walked into the room with two cups of coffee. Darrick sat up beside her and reached for one of the mugs.
“Why do I get the impression that neither of you went back to sleep after we…um…you know?”
Darrick grinned wickedly. “After what?” The expression on his face may have seemed innocent enough, but the images he sent to her mind were anything but.
“No, neither of us managed any sleep afterward,” Davin said in a serious-sounding voice. “But we did find some information on the flash drives that we need to talk to you about.”
“The parents?” Sandra asked, trying to tamp down her excitement. Considering what had happened to her young niece, she was very aware of how horrible it was to not know where a child you loved was being held. Just imagining what could be happening while they were absent was bad enough. No parent deserved to feel that sort of terror.
“No, babe,” Darrick said as he pulled her into his warm embrace. “I’m afraid we’re still coming up blank on that one, but we did find another facility that’s still up and running.”
“That’s great,” she said enthusiastically before she realized they didn’t share her excitement. “What’s wrong?”
“The problem is that the security was top notch before The Agency started raiding them all over the country. This seems to be the most heavily guarded facility we’ve ever seen. We didn’t even know about its existence.”
“Well, I’m sure Caleb will be able to figure out a strategy to get in and extract the captives.”
Davin was already shaking his head before she finished the sentence. “It would seem that the facility has a self-destruct mechanism. Whatever secrets they’re hiding in there, it would seem that the people in charge are willing to die to keep it.”
“Fuck.”
Darrick wagged his finger at her. “No swearing,” he said as he sent mental images of putting her over his knee. Davin frowned at him, and the images stopped. “But we agree with your assessment.”
“The thing is,” Davin said as he handed her a mug of coffee, “we think the two of us might be able to get in, have a look around and let Caleb know the best way to shut down their defenses.”
“I doubt Davies or Jenkins would go for that,” she said before giving their suggestion too much thought. Judging by the hurt emotions, she guessed that neither of them appreciated being treated like the enemy. Especially after the work they’d both put in trying to make things right.
She sifted through their shimmering emotions before she realized that she shouldn’t be able to sense either of them. She hadn’t sensed them yesterday, but just like the telepathic eavesdropping on their conversation earlier, it would seem that her empathic skills had also improved overnight.
But that was ridiculous because the only thing that had been any different yeste
rday was the lovemaking. As much as she’d enjoyed the sex—and that was all it could ever be, sex—there was no emotional connection. She couldn’t afford emotional connections. She had a job to do, and history had already taught her that falling in love messed everything up.
“Maybe,” Darrick said in a tight voice, “we can get Caleb to make that decision.”
“Um, sure,” she said as their emotions once more seemed closed to her senses. Maybe she’d just imagined their hurt feelings.
Sandra closed her eyes, trying to find a calm space in her head to sort out her conflicting observations. She sensed another telepathic argument between the two men, but this time she couldn’t make out any words.
Chapter Six
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Davin sent telepathically as they followed Sandra into her boss’s office.
“You’re probably right, but we have to try.”
Sandra looked relaxed and confident. Even the slight hint of nervousness was overlaid with excitement. But what concerned Davin the most was the telepathic argument he and Darrick could sense between their woman and her boss. It was very obvious that they were being deliberately excluded, especially when Sandra and Davies continued chatting out loud in a friendly manner about stuff that wasn’t important.
“What do you think? Should we let them know we can hear them?”
“Not yet,” Darrick replied in a grim telepathic voice. “I suspect if they knew they’d be even more suspicious of us than they are already.”
“That’s not entirely fair,” Davin said, feeling the need to defend the woman he was quickly falling for. “Sandra is arguing in our favor.”
“True,” Darrick sent as he joined the trivial conversation out loud. “But she hasn’t once said she trusts us.”
“That would be a foolish thing for her to admit to her boss, and you know it. Stop being so hard on her.”
“You’re right. You’re right. I’m just anxious to get going. Lord knows what’s happening to the children being held in that facility. Considering that it was a secret hidden from almost everyone except the professor, I don’t even want to contemplate the terror these children could be going through.”
“Did you get the schematics I sent you?” Sandra asked out loud.
“I did. I’ve already got a team headed there. We should hear something in the next twenty-four hours.”
“Team? Who?” Davin blurted out. This was what Sandra and Davies had been arguing about in their telepathic conversation, so he was a little surprised to hear them talk of it out loud. Unfortunately the reason for the fake conversation became abundantly clear when Sandra began nodding in agreement as Davies listed off the agents in his team.
“All good, experienced agents,” she said with a nod of her head. “Glad to know the assignment is in capable hands.” Davies smiled slightly and then stood up from his chair as if to hurry them from the room.
Davin wanted to rage at them, throw every overheard telepathic word in their faces, but instead he rose from his chair and held his hand out to shake. Davies glanced down at his hand—probably checking Davin wore his gloves—before touching him.
Overall, despite the friendly façade, it had been a frustrating ordeal, and suddenly Davin couldn’t wait to get back to Sandra’s home. But when he turned to leave the room, it was to find a couple of armed guards waiting for them.
“What the fuck?” Darrick exclaimed as one of them stepped forward and pressed a handcuff onto his wrist. He put up a small resistance, but the guard had obviously been prepared because he pulled Darrick off balance and slammed him face-first onto the desk.
Davin considered resisting, but a strange lethargy invaded his muscles, and he turned to the source. Sandra looked impassive as someone used a telekinetic ability in a way he hadn’t known about to hold him still while the agent cuffed him as well.
He could feel Darrick’s anger—actually feel his brother’s emotions for the first time since the professor’s “vitamin” injection—but it was unlikely to do them any good.
“Darrick, stay calm. Something’s not right.”
“What was your first clue?” he asked in a very sarcastic telepathic voice. “We’ve been played, Davin. They only wanted the information on the flash drives. Now that they have it, they have no reason to act nice anymore.”
That certainly seemed to be the way things were going, but in his heart Davin didn’t want to believe Sandra capable of such treachery. Surely fucking them both hadn’t been part of her assignment. He glanced at the woman. Her emotions were very clear and easy to sense. But when he found none of the feelings of shock or concern or love he’d been hoping for, he dropped his head forward in despair.
Had his father been right all along? So far The Agency seemed to live up to the old man’s assessment. Davin glanced one more time at the woman he’d thought himself falling in love with before the armed guards manhandled him and his brother from the room.
* * * *
“So what happens now?” Sandra asked, trying to stay calm. Nothing was happening the way she’d expected, and it took every ounce of self-control to hide the emotions coursing through her. She just hoped she was fooling her boss, because something definitely wasn’t right—not with him and not with what was happening. Over the past week Davin and Darrick had proven over and over that she could trust them. For them to be treated like common criminals made no sense.
At least not with the information she currently possessed.
“Now?” Davies asked with a wide grin on his face. “You get a couple of days off. Go home. Catch up on some sleep. You did a good job on this assignment and deserve some downtime.”
She nodded, trying to project enthusiasm as her mind raced with possible scenarios—none of them good. Why was she suddenly being excluded from the decision making?
“Okay, boss,” she said with what she hoped was her usual reaction to a few days off. She’d never enjoyed holidays, so she made a show of lingering and offering to fill in for other agents even as she tried to figure out how best to handle everything.
“Go,” Davies said with a wide grin. “That’s an order, agent.”
“Yes, Sir,” she said in an official-sounding voice. “See you in two days.”
“Make it three,” he said as she exited his office.
* * * *
Darrick found himself in a cell just like the one he was in less than a week ago. Hell, it was probably the same cell, but this time, instead of wondering if he was about to be held accountable for his father’s behavior, he worried for his own sanity.
How could he have gotten Sandra so wrong?
She’d seemed like everything he and his brother had ever wanted in a wife, yet in one brief meeting every illusion had been shattered. He tried to call telepathically to his brother but once again the cell air seemed ionized and disrupted his telepathic abilities. In some ways it felt like he was the last living being on the planet.
After a lifetime of learning to cope with telepathic and empathic skills, the complete absence of sensory stimulation was a little unnerving. After a while pacing the small cell, Darrick finally lowered onto the small cot and lay down. He doubted he’d get any sleep, but as he stared at the ceiling, despair overwhelmed the anger, and he closed his eyes.
He’d spent his life trying to undo the damage his father had done, yet in light of everything he’d learned in the past few days, it hadn’t been enough. Not nearly enough.
* * * *
Davin paced his cell, his agitation surprising even him. He didn’t believe for a second that Sandra had been involved in what had just happened. She may have stood by while they’d been arrested—again without charge—but he’d sensed her need to keep him safe.
Fuck. He ran his hands through his hair, growling in disgust as memories of everything he and his brother had shared with Sandra crowded into his brain. Had he really been so blind that she’d been able to fool him?
He flitted through the memories
, surprised to find that he’d retained a little more than he’d first thought. Not only did he have the memory he’d seen of Sandra’s ex-husband hurting her, he also had a few related memories. A couple of them were strange and seemed to be imagination rather than memories of actual events.
And suddenly nothing made sense. If he couldn’t figure out what memories were of real events and what memories were dreams or imaginings then his gift was as good as useless.
Hell.
He sat heavily on the narrow cot, almost surprised to find that he still knew which way was up. Everything else in his life had been knocked off kilter, why not the laws of gravity as well?
He sat up suddenly when the food tray he’d discarded lifted into the air. It took him nearly a whole minute to realize he was the one controlling it. But he’d never had telekinetic abilities before. Was it somehow related to his new ability? Or had something Jason done during Davin’s brain surgery enabled a latent ability?
He watched the tray float in midair, surprised at his ability to control the thing. It often took years for people to master telekinetic skills, but it would seem that he was a natural. He concentrated hard, managing to lift the spoon from the tray and make it dance across the room toward him.
He was so involved in what he was doing that the sudden opening of his door startled him. Darrick stood there grinning. “Looks like you discovered the same thing I did.” He kept his voice low, took a quick glance behind him, and beckoned Davin to follow. “Let’s get out of here.”
“And go where?” Davin whispered, frustrated that he still couldn’t seem to use his telepathy. It would seem that the ionized atmosphere made his telepathic skills as useless as a cell phone without a signal. Thank God it didn’t affect telekinesis or they may never have discovered their new skills.
“We’ll figure that out later. Let’s just concentrate on one thing at a time.”