The Lost Locket

by Marie Harte

  Keegan held up his hands in surrender. “Just wanted to solidify our deal, Rory.

  No harm, no foul. And I promise. No more whisper hands from now on out unless you ask for them. Now before you two get to rolling on the floor, how about we figure out a way to grab the SUV and ditch this place.” She gave Keegan the finger.

  James fought his grin and ignored the urge to finish what he and Rory had started. But he couldn’t help admitting how good she felt with him, and how good she’d looked in Keegan’s arms. He had a sense that this woman would be able to handle them both, and something about her hinted at more than a one-night stand.

  He wondered what she’d make of him and Keegan fucking and couldn’t wait to find out.

  “Why don’t we rest up here and plan a way to distract the guards in town?” Keegan suggested.

  “Yeah.” Rory let out a long breath. “And I need to swing by my place to pick up my stuff.”

  “There’s a bag you can use.” Keegan walked to the corner of the room and held up a large red sack.

  “Wow. She really did put my things together.” Rory crossed to take the bag from Keegan, peered inside, and nodded. “That’s most of what I need. Now for some clothes.”

  Keegan glanced at the corner again. “There’s a suitcase.” Rory blinked. “Becky thought of everything.”

  “That’s odd. How would Becky know what you needed?” James had a feeling this was all too easy, and tension pricked the back of his neck.

  “Becky’s psychic. Has odd visions of the future. She’s beloved around town, which is probably why Ed and his cronies didn’t give her a hard time when she stopped by my place to pack that stuff up.” At James’s questioning look, she explained. “Ed has someone keeping an eye on me all the time. Started a week ago, then a few days later, he asked about my locket. He’s always been creepy, but lately it’s gotten worse.”

  Keegan frowned. “I’ll say. Our timing couldn’t be better, huh, James?” James agreed. “You have your things. And I have an idea of how to grab our SUV.”

  Several hours later, just as most folks settled down to sleep, James and Rory watched Ed Jackson’s Mercedes catch on fire and burn in his driveway. While Ed shouted for help and the sirens sounded in the distance, James and Rory drove off in the car they’d borrowed and met Keegan on the outskirts of town at a small mom-and-pop gas station. Rory parked the car in the lot, and she and James joined Keegan in the SUV.

  “Any problems?” James asked.

  “Nope.” Keegan pulled away, and they started the long journey back to Oregon.

  “Two of Jackson’s men left the minute his car blew. I heard it from where I was waiting. Nice job.”

  “Thanks.”

  “What about the other two who were hanging by the vehicle?” Rory asked from the backseat.

  “They tripped into each other and somehow knocked themselves unconscious.” James turned around to see Rory’s expression. Curious yet approving.

  “Not bad. You’re as dangerous as you look, slick.” She sighed and settled back into the seat. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to get some shut-eye. Wake me when we hit the hotel.”

  They’d agreed to drive west immediately, taking the fastest route back, and I40 seemed to be ideal. James spent the time catching up on his reading, leaving Keegan to his annoying music that the bastard had the nerve to program into all the channels of the radio.

  Two hours later, outside of Knoxville, Keegan pulled over. “I’m tired, hungry, and if I don’t get a workout pretty soon, I’m going to explode.” Without asking James, he left the vehicle in front of a hotel and checked them in. He returned and tossed James a key card.

  “You wake her. I’m going for a run.” The hotel was in a rural area, and James had noted several dirt roads that they’d passed.

  “No problem. Just don’t leave me alone for too long. I need to stretch out myself.” He’d expended a bit of energy earlier, but being in the close confines of the car with two people he lusted after and who vibrated with psychic power left him buzzing and hungry.

  “Understood.” Keegan grabbed a bag from the back, plunked his hat on his head, and left them behind, his long strides eating up the short distance to the hotel. As usual, the tall Texan garnered more than his share of attention as he moved.

  So damn sexy. James sighed and moved into the driver’s seat. He drove the vehicle into the lot and parked. He turned to Rory, taken again by her loveliness.

  The woman was stunning, no two ways about it. Thick lashes dusted her almond-shaped eyes. A pert nose, stubborn chin, and patrician cheekbones graced a face too beautiful to be called merely pretty. Her plump lips parted with each slow breath she took. In sleep, she looked so vulnerable and trusting, a definite contrast to the tough-as-nails woman he’d met earlier today.

  God, had it only been today they’d met? Oddly enough, James felt as if he’d known Rory much longer.

  “Rory, honey. We’re here.”

  She frowned, the pull of her light brows marring her angelic appearance. He snorted. He’d seen her attack Keegan and had felt her power nail him into a wall.

  Angelic she wasn’t.

  “Rory?”

  Silver-green eyes blinked at him, and Rory licked her lips. “We there yet?” He chuckled. “You could say that. We’re just outside Knoxville and down for the night.”

  Sitting up, she looked around her.

  James followed her gaze. The night started to descend, pushing the late-summer sun past the horizon. To their right, fields of grass stretched far, cut off by a thick wall of trees. Beyond them, a diner and two gas stations squared off on either side of the road, competing for business. She turned back to him. “What now?”

  “Now we bunk down. I’m sick of driving. And I need to stretch out my legs.

  Come on.”

  He left the SUV, took a few things from his large suitcase, and threw them into his overnight bag, then waited while she did the same. She threw all her things into that red sack.

  James wanted to know what she carried in there, but the protective way she handled the bag told him to exercise caution. He didn’t want to scare her off.

  “Where’s Keegan?”

  “He checked in already.”

  “Huh.” She walked with James into the hotel and down a corridor to their room. They entered, and she paused. “One room, huh?”

  “With two beds and a pull-out couch.” At her wary look, he sighed. “Rory, we’re serious about not forcing you into anything. Trust me; the last thing we want is you afraid of us.”

  A stubborn expression appeared on her face. “I’m not afraid of you.”

  “Good. Then there’s nothing to worry about, right?”

  “But I’m not stupid. You’re both bigger and stronger than me.” Her hand went to her throat and as quickly dropped away.

  “And you don’t have your locket,” James murmured.

  “So what? That doesn’t mean I can’t hurt you if I want to.”

  “Maybe if I told you a little something about us, you’d find it easier to accept we don’t mean you any harm.” James decided to trust his instincts and tell her some of the truth. Maybe it would help her trust them with her secrets. “Keegan and I met in the FBI. We went through the academy and worked a few cases before joining a special team, one made up entirely of psychics.” Rory sat in one of two chairs in the room, on the other side of the queen-size beds, and stared. “Really?” “Yeah. Turns out the government isn’t as opposed to science fiction as people think. Anyway, Keegan and I partnered for a few years before the project closed down. We hunted bad guys; we didn’t rob, rape, and pillage for fun.” She flushed, and he had the feeling she might have done some robbing of her own.

  “When the program shut down, we left and joined with a few friends in Bend.

  We currently work in a gym.”

  “That I can believe.” She eyed his build with appreciation. “You guys are seriously built. Weight lifters or steroid user
s, I wasn’t sure which.”

  “Thanks,” he said drily.

  “But why are psychics hanging out in a gym?”

  Jack was going to kill him for telling her this, but James wanted her to know.

  He had a feeling if she wanted, she’d fit in right at home in Bend. And for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why that mattered. “When we worked for the government, we were given a steady routine of exercise, both mental and physical, and drugs.”

  Her eyes widened into silver pools edged with moss. “Drugs?”

  “They made us stronger, but they did something to us that we’re still paying for. I could always call forth fire. But not to the degree I can now. And because I don’t have the drugs to keep it under control, I need a lot of physical and mental exercise to command the flames.”

  “That makes a weird kind of sense, I guess. So that’s why Keegan is out running at night?”

  He nodded. “And why when he gets back, I need to go out.”

  “There’s no possibility of you accidentally setting the room on fire or anything, right?” she teased, but he could read the fear in her eyes.

  “Not at all. I know when I’m hitting my limit. I’m more tired than anything right now, but it’s there inside me. It’s why working at a gym really helps. Lifting weights, using those endorphins, it eases the power inside us.” He wanted to tell her that sex helped them as well, but didn’t want to push her more than he already had.

  “So the two beds, one room thing,” she said when he kept silent.

  “Yes?”

  “Is this so I won’t bolt?”

  James grinned. “Sweetheart, you want to run, no one’s stopping you. We have the locket we came for. I just thought there was safety in numbers. We still haven’t talked about who might be after that locket. Because it’s not any of our guys.

  Keegan and I were the only ones assigned to come and get it. And frankly, we were looking at this as a cush assignment. A pickup at the most. We had no idea there would be any danger involved.”

  She sighed. “Danger seems to follow me around. Not your fault.” James sat back on one of the beds. “You have no idea why Ed’s friend wants that locket?”

  “No.” Her hand went to her neck again, and she frowned. “The only people interested in this locket, besides you guys, are my uncles. I haven’t seen them in ten years, after our last big fight about it.”

  “Why’d they want it?”

  “I don’t know.” Rory shrugged. “My mother’s brothers were a real pain, if you want the truth. My parents died when I was twelve, and I spent the next four years being shuttled around to a ton of relatives. I wasn’t a bad kid, but my relatives are beyond what you’d call wacky.”

  He felt for her but didn’t allow the emotion to show. She didn’t seem the type to welcome pity, a lot like Keegan with that hardheaded attitude.

  “The last place I ended up was with my uncles Bobby and Fred. They saw the locket I always wear—wore,” she corrected, glaring at him.

  “Blame Keegan.” “I do. Anyhow, my uncles saw it and recognized it. Had a real thing for it, but it was my mother’s. I wasn’t lying when I said it was the only thing I had left of hers.”

  James wondered. “Do you know the name Stallbridge?”

  “No. Why?”

  “No reason. I just thought, maybe… So you were saying you were with your uncles who wanted the locket.”

  “They turned out to be real snakes. I didn’t wait to be told to leave. I left.”

  “They didn’t hurt you or anything, did they?” he asked softly.

  “They weren’t perverts, no. They didn’t hit me or hurt me, but it was only a matter of time, I think. They wanted my locket like crazy. And I never knew why.” Her look of puzzlement was to her credit, because James felt with every fiber in his being that she knew exactly why they wanted that antique jewelry. He played along with her, though, and before long, he’d charmed her into sharing stories of Jackson Heights with him. But every tale showed her on the outside looking in. An interesting facet to Rory, that she didn’t seem to live with her few friends, but around them.

  “Becky seems to really like you.”

  She smiled, a genuine grin that made his heart stop. “Becky’s stranger than strange. She and I really get along. She sees through the crap, you know?”

  “I got that.”

  “She seemed to like you and Keegan well enough. So what did she mean by calling you a foreman? You said you worked for the FBI and a gym, not construction?”

  He debated whether to tell her, then thought why not. “James Foreman is my name.”

  Rory stared at him and flushed. “Oh.” Curious, he started to ask what that look meant when someone pounded on the door.

  James looked through the peephole before opening it to admit a sweating Keegan. He still wore the locket wrapped around his wrist like a bracelet.

  “Your turn,” he said in an even breath. His gaze sought Rory’s, and he smiled.

  “Hey, darlin’. You’re lookin’ good.” He slicked his hair back, his muscles bunching in that way that made James instantly hard.

  Heat swirled between them, and he knew he needed to get moving.

  “Gee, my heart’s all aflutter.” Rory’s eyes narrowed on his wrist. “This is probably stupid to be asking, but you aren’t planning to give that back to me anytime soon, are you?”

  Keegan shook his head. “Nope. Not till we get to Bend. Then, once you and the client are together, you two can hash it out. But you have to promise not to blast him into the next state. If the guy is who I think he is, he’s a real pain in the ass.”

  “You don’t even know who you’re working for?”

  “We work for our boss. Our client demanded anonymity. So taking you back to meet him isn’t going to be pretty. But we said we’d do it, so we will.” Keegan appeared to have done something James hadn’t. He’d gotten Rory to soften.

  “Oh. Well, um, thanks, I guess.”

  Keegan snorted. “You really want to thank me, you could get on your knees and—”

  “Keegan.”

  The cowboy snickered at him. “Come on, James. I was just gonna say she could kiss my feet. Worship me, you know.”

  Rory grinned. “You’re such an ass. It’s almost cute.”

  “See? I knew she liked me.” James rolled his eyes and left for the bathroom to change. “Now I really need a run. If I don’t get out of here soon, I might be sick. All this sugary-sweet flattery is making me ill.”

  “This is a small room,” he heard Rory say to Keegan through the door. “So don’t even think about taking your clothes off in front of me, Texas. You wait until Prince Charming is finished. Then you can shower. Because with all that sweat, I’m thinking you need it.”

  Seemed like their new roommate had a touch of bossiness in her. James laughed to himself at the thought of the three of them, all control freaks, trying to get along for the rest of the drive. Should make for one hell of an interesting trip home.

  Keegan waited until James left before dropping to the floor. Though he and James didn’t mind nudity anymore, Keegan didn’t want to risk a hard-on with Rory so close. His run had helped a lot. But he wasn’t quite there yet. At home he’d have lifted until muscle exhaustion. But the dingy, tiny workout room in this place sucked, and the run had been the best he could do.

  “What are you doing?” Rory asked.

  He didn’t look at her as he started doing pushups. “Finishing my workout.” She didn’t say anything more until he counted past fifty and kept going.

  “Wow. How many are you going to do?”

  “As many as I can.”

  “Why? I thought the run would pull the energy out of you. That’s what James said.”

  James and his big mouth. “James and I are different. The run will do him good, but I need more. I usually lift until I can’t move my arms, but there’s nothing here for me. And I can’t chance using my telekinesis without some yokel pointing
it out.” “Explain that.”

  “What did James tell you?” he asked, not even out of breath.

  “That you guys worked for the FBI, then some psychic group. The project broke up, and you have to work hard because you don’t have those drugs they gave you anymore.”

  “Great. You know the important parts. What he didn’t tell you is that we have a few government lackeys that keep a distant eye on us. Anything weird or dangerous happening, they’ll be there to put out the fires, literally. We don’t want anything more to do with them, so we’re keeping a low profile.”

  “Huh.”

  “Yeah, huh.” Having had enough pushups, Keegan turned onto his back and started doing crunches.

  “Holy crap. No wonder you’re so buff. You work out like a madman.” Keegan laughed and pushed through another set of ten on his way to a few hundred. “Hey, you want me to stop, all you have to do is—” He could almost hear James in his mind shouting at him to watch what he said. Keegan wasn’t stupid. He knew Rory was attracted to him, just as she feared him. Only natural, considering he’d caged her with his mind. And hell, he weighed at least twice as much a she did, if not more.

  “Yes? All I have to do is what?” she goaded.

  Keegan stopped and lay flat on the floor. To his relief, he wasn’t yet hard. But the thought of what she could do for him certainly put him there.

  “Oh.” She noticed.

  “Yeah, oh.” He stood and stripped off everything but his shorts, pleased she hadn’t yet blinked. “Thing is, Rory, sex is a way we can relieve our psychic buildup.

  It’s something we’ve only just learned, but it works like you wouldn’t believe.

  Knowing James, he didn’t say anything about it. He’s a real gentleman.” “Right.” She stared at his body, centering on his groin, and he nearly asked her to blow him.

  So much for his ability to treat a woman like a lady. Fuck, where had his manners gone? His momma would strap him for sure for acting like this. That is, if she ever woke up from the fainting spell at the thought of her little boy having s-e-x.