by Marie Harte
Keegan stood and crossed to her. He hugged and kissed her, then rocked her against his chest, dancing to a tune only he could hear, but one that soothed her all the same. “Darlin’, I don’t want to lose you. James and I have a life in Bend. We’re with folks who understand us, who know what it’s like to be different. People like you.” He tilted her chin up so he could see into her eyes. “There are a few places downtown where a jewelry shop run by a woman who knows her stuff would do right well. And you know, James and I have houses big enough to fit all three of us.” She stilled, and he did as well. Rory pulled back. “What are you saying?” But she could see it in his eyes. The notion both thrilled and scared her.
“Rory. Sunshine, I think I love you.” When she would have spoken, he put a finger over her lips. “Hush. I know I’m rushing you, and James will have me by the balls if he thinks I scared you away, so you can’t say nothin’.” His accent thickened, betraying his worry. The sight of this huge, dangerous man afraid of losing Rory astonished her. “I know this is all sudden. We just met and all, but I know you, Rory. I feel you.” He held her hand against his heart, looking so earnest, her eyes welled.
“Shit. No, no. Don’t cry.” He raised the hem of his shirt to wipe away her tears.
“Rory, baby, don’t. I’m sorry.”
“No.” She wouldn’t let him step away. Instead she held tight, afraid to let go, afraid to move away. She hadn’t felt so connected to anyone since she’d lost her parents. The fear of going through such a loss again was enough to make her want to run, but she knew the minute she did, she’d know that sadness once more. This big hunk of cowboy holding her had already captured her heart.
The fact that her locket, the very item that had protected her through thick and thin for so long, was missing and she hadn’t yet had a nervous breakdown should have told her what she suspected to be true. But she had a hard time finding the courage to say it.
Instead, she hugged him tighter.
“Shh, it’s okay, Rory. You never have to worry with me and James around. I promise.”
She didn’t know how long they stood together, her head against his chest, his hand stroking her hair, when his cell phone rang.
“Damn. I have to get it. It might be James.”
He stepped away to the table and answered it. After a few terse comments, he hung up and grabbed his hat. Keegan turned back to her. “Time to get your locket, Rory. No matter what, you remember I’m here for you. And so is James. You can always count on us. Okay?”
“Okay.” She didn’t have to think twice about trusting him. Rory put her hand in his and followed him out the door.
When they found James half an hour later, he sat hunkered under a large pine some two hundred feet from her uncles’ property line. He had a pair of binoculars trained on the guards patrolling the grounds.
Situated far enough away from the other houses in the posh neighborhood, any uprising that occurred would take a while to report. And given the distance from the nearest law enforcement agency, Rory figured her uncles could clean up any mess and hide the evidence before the authorities set foot on their property.
Terrific.
“Hey you two.” James waved at them to join him. “So I’ve watched Fred and Bobby Landers for over two hours now. They’ve been fighting more over that damned locket than the stash of illegal arms in the back of that covered pickup.” He handed his binoculars to Keegan and pointed to a dark blue truck in the drive.
“Shit.” Keegan shook his head. “Looks like the guards are carrying semiautomatics. Rory, just what are your uncles into?” She shrugged. “Last I saw them, a whopping ten years ago, they’d been up to scamming old people out of their retirements and stealing the rich blind. They’re usually much more subtle than guns. Larceny and the big con, yeah. But the guns don’t make sense.”
James’s phone buzzed, and he glanced down at it. He brought the device closer to his face and swore up a blue streak, though in a hushed voice. This far away, they wouldn’t be detected, but it never hurt to be cautious.
“What’s wrong?” Keegan leaned in close to him.
The three of them had their heads together when James told them the big news.
“Your uncles are not only in trouble up to their stupid necks, they’re trying to pull the ultimate scam. That house belongs to Joe Laponte. Laponte is one of the leaders of organized crime here in Denver. And he’s not going to be happy when he makes bail tonight and finds his house, and his men, have been conned by your uncles, who, by the way, are not his business partners. Somehow, Bobby and Fred convinced Laponte’s second-in-command that they’re Laponte’s cousins from out East.”
“Shit.” Keegan shook his head. “Are we sure they aren’t really working for him?”
“Laponte’s real cousins are holed up in Boulder and singing like nobody’s business right now. A friend of mine hooked me up with the intel, so I know it’s good.”
Rory couldn’t believe this. Her uncles weren’t that insane, were they?
“But why hit Laponte?” she asked while she put out her psychic feelers. She understood instantly. “They’re there for the diamonds.” James sighed in disgust. “Laponte supposedly stole over ten million in antique jewels from the Hastings Museum last month.”
“That was in all the papers,” Rory murmured, doing the math. “So my uncles want the gems, but they need a way to get them. And no crime boss is going to set the cops on them without getting in trouble himself.”
“They should be afraid of Laponte.” Keegan looked angry.
“They won’t be. Not with my locket in hand.” She nervously scooted back from them, aware the time had come to tell them what she really knew about it. “Ah, guys? There are a few things about the locket I should tell you.” Keegan sat back on his butt next to James, their expressions mirror images of suspicion.
“Ya think?” he asked.
“Spill it,” James ordered. “Now.”
Chapter Twelve
Keegan swore as he inched closer to the house with Rory hot on his heels. The woman was going to drive him to an early grave, he could feel it. Nice time to tell them that the locket, in the wrong hands, could do fucking mind control.
Apparently, a few people in Rory’s bloodline could bond with the locket in such a way that it enhanced and, in some cases, like Rory’s, added a bonus psychic ability to its user. Rory knew gems. She could find them anywhere, said they called to her, and the locket enhanced her sensitivity to them. But when wearing the locket, she could also protect herself from outside threats by calling on her inner energy and directing it out, like her psychic blast back in that cave in Jackson Heights.
Her Uncle Bobby could manipulate minds, and with the locket, he’d taken over Laponte’s friggin’ household. Fred, according to Rory, couldn’t do much more than see visions of the past. But with the locket, who knew what else he might be capable of?
So now he, James, and Rory had to drag her uncles out of the house, grab the locket, and run like hell.
A simple grab-and-go, Jack had said. Simple my ass.
Still, Keegan had to admit he preferred this danger over helping Monica Salazar with her repetitions. He grinned, wondering how Rory would handle other women coming on to him. Then his grin faded as he wondered if he’d done the right thing by being so open with her in the hotel. He’d admitted how he felt, and from what he knew, honesty was usually the worst policy.
He stopped and crouched behind one of the cars that was positioned close to the back door of the garage.
“Where the hell is Laponte?” one of the guards asked the other. “I don’t trust his cousins.”
“Me neither. Then again, I don’t trust Laponte.”
Keegan glanced over his shoulder at Rory, who nodded. Then he called on his telekinesis and easily slammed the guards into each other, knocking them out. He did the same as he moved through the house, his stealthy entry too easy for his peace of mind. He heard several small explosions outside and
knew James was doing his thing. He’d already burned up the security feeds, snowing the cameras.
The pickup holding the guns should now be on fire, in addition to the pool house and garage. No way for anyone to drive off and alert more help.
Rory remained right behind him, his sexy shadow.
“Can you do it?” he asked, prepared to set himself up as bait as they climbed to the second floor.
“Yeah, but you have to make it quick.”
He nodded. They continued down the hallway and stopped when they heard her uncles arguing. Keegan peeked around another corner to see Bobby and Fred Landers in a luxurious bedroom done in golds, reds, and browns.
“Dammit, Bobby! Let me have that locket! I can tell you if he’s got anything else in here. I’ll be able to see it.”
“Yeah, and take off with my share of the loot. Forget it.” Bobby scrunched his face, but nothing happened.
“I told you the locket’s power won’t work on me. I’m blood, asshole.” Bobby pulled back and coldcocked his brother in the face. Fred dropped like a stone, cupping his nose and moaning. “How’s that for blood.” He snickered. Bobby moved toward a painting on the wall, presumably the hidden safe, then stopped. He gripped the locket when it jumped under Keegan’s telekinetic tug. The damn thing should have flown off Landers’s neck, but it didn’t.
Bobby yelled, “I can feel you thinking. Come on out, and no shooting. You can’t hurt me.”
Shit. Keegan had no choice as his muscles involuntarily moved to follow Bobby’s orders. He left Rory hiding behind the half-open door and entered the bedroom.
“You alone?”
Keegan nodded. “I’m alone in the house. My partner is setting off bombs outside.” Another shook the house.
“Dickhead. Do you know who you’re fucking with?” Bobby sneered.
“Do you? Laponte made bail. He’s on his way home as we speak.” Bobby paled. “Yeah? Well, so what? I’ll be out of here before he comes back.
Now where’s my niece?”
Keegan scoffed. “You think we’d bring her with us here?” Bobby relaxed. “That would be remarkably stupid, and you don’t strike me as stupid.”
“She’s hot, I’ll give you that. A pretty little piece of ass, but she was a means to that.” Keegan pointed to the locket around Bobby’s throat. To his surprise, the stone in the locket had turned a dark red. “My client wants that back.”
“Who? Stallbridge?” Bobby shrugged. “He can have it back. For twenty million.”
“What?”
“Owen Stallbridge can well afford it. If he wants his precious locket back, he has to deal with me.” Bobby squinted at him, and Keegan’s mind hazed. “You’ll tell him that, won’t you? And you’ll report back to me everything that happens upon your return. After you kill Rory Taylor. Do that mind thing I can see in your head.
Tear her apart, and feel free to make it hurt.”
No way in hell would Keegan hurt Rory, but he found himself saying yes all the same. He fought the tendril of icy control wrapping around his brain to no avail.
James, Rory, his family and friends, everything faded but obeying Bobby Landers.
He could see what mattered to him in the distance, but he couldn’t grasp it enough to focus. And knowing it made everything so much worse.
“Good.” Bobby beamed. “Now hold my brother down and open that safe.” Keegan exerted his will on Fred easily enough. With his mind, he tore the painting from the wall and saw the steel box behind it. Because he fought the compulsion to obey, it took every ounce of strength he had to break the safe. His brain hurt, and a trickle of blood ran from his nose.
“The door?” Bobby said and pushed hard at Keegan.
With a flick of Keegan’s wrist, the steel door flew off the safe.
“Finally.” Bobby removed a velvet bag from the dark interior. “Now help me leave. You’re my protection, Keegan Price. Yeah, Ed Jackson ran you the minute you took off with Rory. I know your name, and I know the asshole you’re working for. So don’t let anything harm me.”
“No problem.” Keegan followed his feet in the opposite direction of where he wanted to go. He trembled as he put one foot in front of the other, and he prayed Rory would remain hidden.
But when Bobby moved to leave the room, Rory stepped forward, and Keegan watched himself go for her throat.
Rory watched in horror as Keegan’s eyes watered, his nose bled, and he reached for her. He was struggling, she could see it, but he couldn’t combat the locket. Not like she could.
In a calm voice, just as she felt his whisper hands close around her neck, she said, “Keegan, I won’t harm my uncle; I swear on my mother’s grave.” He let her go and sagged to the ground. “Thank God.” “Wait!” Bobby screeched. Before he could say anything more, a ball of fire exploded in front of his face, and James rushed through the door.
Rory silently thanked him as she tore the locket from her uncle’s neck. In her hands, the chain simply unfastened. The stone became a bright bold blue once more, and the tainted energy of her selfish relative rushed out of the locket as she directed a surge of power at Bobby and tossed him across the room.
He hit the wall hard and slid to the ground, ironically right next to Fred.
Conscious of the screams and sirens growing louder outside, Rory rushed to Keegan. James took the other side of the large Texan, and together they helped muscle him outside and away from the compound.
Keegan looked totally done in, though he did his best to help them escape.
They came to a ten-foot wall at the south end of the compound. Earlier, Keegan had lifted them over it.
Rory closed her hand around the locket, relieved to hold it once more. “I’ll get us over, but hold on. My aim isn’t that good.” She felt the echo of her mother’s love deep in the stone and, to her surprise, a wash of masculine lust and affection that felt like Keegan.
When he’d held the locket around his wrist, he’d left an impression the locket apparently liked.
James grabbed on to her while still managing to hold Keegan upright, and her focus fell once more to the task at hand. Using the power the locket lent her, she boosted the three of them over the wall, where they landed hard on the other side.
“Let’s get to the SUV. Hurry.” James dragged Keegan with him, swearing the whole way to the vehicle. “For once, I get to drive without an argument.” He winked at Rory. “Maybe we should knock him out all the time.” She smiled, but to her horror, tears started to come.
“Oh, baby, it’s okay.” James wiped a tear and gently sat her on the backseat next to Keegan. “Don’t worry. He has a head like a rock. He’ll be just fine.” James jumped into the driver’s side and took off. Away from the mess her uncles had made, away from danger and trouble. And onto a path that would bring her closer to a place she wasn’t sure she could ever really call hers, no matter how much she wanted to.
As James drove, he tried to get over the fear he’d felt when Keegan had been forced to obey Rory’s uncle. The plan to retrieve the locket had been risky, knowing what Bobby Landers might do to Keegan and Rory if they failed. Using Keegan to kill Rory would be Keegan’s ultimate nightmare.
James knew his friend had made huge mistakes when they’d joined the PWP.
The drugs given to them to increase their abilities had also made it harder to control them. Sadly, a few scientists had died because they hadn’t stopped pushing when Keegan had begged them to.
James should have felt worse about their deaths, but he didn’t. Those men had been all about the bottom dollar, wanting proof that their pharmaceuticals could make gods out of men, with no regard to their test subjects. Hell, he’d burned a few to make his point, but he’d at least been able to scale back enough to leave them alive. Keegan hadn’t been so fortunate.
But at least this time, all had ended well. He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Rory lying against Keegan, his arm wrapped around her, holding her tight.
A perfect p
icture. His lovers together, at peace. Happily ever after.
He inwardly denied the fantasy, blaming his cousins for making him into such a romantic. He’d be lucky if Keegan still acknowledged him when they returned.
And it wouldn’t surprise him if Rory fled the moment they made their next rest stop and never came back.
Just because James loved the hell out of both of his partners didn’t mean they loved him back. He knew Keegan liked him, but love for a man, from his cowboy, was asking a lot. And for Rory, a woman betrayed by her own family and left to fend for herself for so long, trust would be something she might never know. Tired and heartsick at the thought of losing these two people who meant so much to him, James drove deep into the night. But as fast as he drove, he couldn’t outrun tomorrow.
He kept behind the wheel for fifteen hours straight. Keegan slept most of the way, reviving only once at a rest stop to use the bathroom. Rory asked for little, content, it seemed, to keep watch over the slumbering giant.
When he couldn’t drive anymore without fear of falling asleep at the wheel, James pulled into a small hotel a few hours from Bend and booked a room for the three of them. After checking in with Jack, he fell into bed beside Keegan and Rory and closed his eyes. Sleep claimed him in an instant.
He had no idea how long he’d been out of it when warmth and lust filled him with the need to touch. Still exhausted, he gave himself up to sensation and let the dream carry him.
James moaned and thrashed in torturous ecstasy. He couldn’t see, but he could feel wet suction around his cock and a prodding at his ass. Something thick and hot pushed inside him, and he gave himself up to the intensity of it, going with the pleasure as he surged inside the heated perfection of a wet mouth.
The fuck was intense and unforgiving. Relentless. It didn’t take much before James woke, exploding into Rory’s mouth. A low groan behind him, as well as a fierce grip on his hips, told him where to find Keegan.