HARD Series Box Set: Bad boys with powers

by Chloe Fischer

  “Really?” he scoffed. “Are you playing the possessive girlfriend card?”

  Humiliation colored her cheeks and she shook her head, lowering her eyes.

  “I’m rambling,” she murmured. “Lack of sleep. Someone kept me up all night.”

  Xave grunted, his heart squeezing for some reason.

  “Just wait here,” he relented, speaking softly while he gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m going to drop off the keys and I’ll be right back.”

  Her head jerked up as relief flooded through her.

  She couldn’t understand why, but she was beyond trying to make sense of the rollercoaster of emotions she was feeling.

  All she knew was that Xave Sinclair was somehow meant to be in her life and she would do almost anything to ensure he remained there.

  Twila leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling of the AV room.

  She had stricken the charge from Clark Jameson’s credit card but she had a bad feeling that they had unlocked a world of bad in doing so.

  Twila could not fathom why Danica had brought home the stray or where she had found him but she had known the dark-haired beauty long enough to know that there was always a method to Danica’s madness.

  He’s the same weirdo who was staring at the house, Twila knew. She had recognized him as soon as she had spied him rolling around on the living room floor with Danica the previous night. She had watched the almost violent sexual act with both arousal and anger, unnoticed by the couple lost in their own lust.

  Obviously Danica is using him as a mark, but for what? He doesn’t look like he has any money and he comes with baggage; a frickin’ body no less.

  She considered the fact that Danica might use him for blackmail, but again, it was clear by his clothes that he did not have any large influxes of cash.

  I shouldn’t doubt Danica, Twila told herself. She has always protected us, ever since that day at the market. She has killed for you and would do it again.

  Twila sat up, a twist in her chest.

  But what if he’s not a mark? she thought. What if he’s more than that to her?

  The idea made her stomach flip dangerously.

  Twila would be lying to herself if she said that she was not in love with her roommate, a fact she had tried desperately to hide.

  At first, she had thought the feelings for her roommate were born from gratefulness and would subside as she grew to know Danica better.

  After all, Danica had taken her from a meager existence on the street to a series of charming houses and apartments.

  She was never cruel, and as the years went by, it was obvious that Danica would always protect her.

  But her feelings never dissipated and no matter how much Twila tried to stifle the mounting love she felt, she could not help but feel waves of jealousy whenever Danica brought home a lover.

  Of course, the men never lasted; how could they? None of them knew the real Danica, not like Twila did.

  But this one could be different, she thought with dread. Now that Danica knows his secrets, she might tell him ours.

  The silent cell rang, causing Twila to jump slightly.

  It was the Oculus phone and she begrudgingly answered it. She was not in the mood to hack anything again that day.

  “Did you access Visa a few moments ago?”

  The demand was sharp, with no hello or standard greeting.

  The hairs on Twila’s arms prickled.

  “Yes,” she said slowly. “Is that a problem?”

  “Why?”

  “I had to strike a charge…for a friend,” she faltered.

  “What friend?”

  Twila gulped.

  “It was a friend of Danica’s,” Twila answered quickly. “I think his name is Xavier.”

  There was a long pause.

  “Xavier?” he echoed. “Xavier what?”

  Twila wracked her brain for a last name but nothing immediately came to mind.

  “I don’t know,” she replied honestly. “I only met him today.”

  “Do you have footage of him?”

  Confusion flooded her.

  “Yes,” she answered slowly.

  “Send it to me.”

  The line went dead and Twila stared at the cell phone in her palm.

  What the hell? Who was this guy that Danica had brought home?

  Fear trickled through her but she knew that her contact would be waiting. She desperately wished that Danica was there to speak to about it, but there was no time to second guess her orders. And what if Xavier was dangerous? Maybe they knew something about him that Danica didn’t.

  Gulping back the lump in her throat, she turned to the security cameras and downloaded the images she had of Danica’s stray, emailing them to the dark net server.

  She waited, beads of sweat forming on her brow.

  It’s probably nothing, she reassured herself, her blue eyes fixated on the cell phone. They are just doing their due diligence.

  But Twila could not shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen and when the phone rang again, her fears were confirmed.

  “Yes?”

  “Where is he?”

  The sinister note in his tone was unmistakable.

  “I don’t know,” she replied, swallowing her nervousness. “With Danica.”

  “Find out where they are and call me. Do not tell Danica we are looking for her.”

  Again, the phone call ended abruptly in her ear and Twila realized she was shaking.

  She didn’t give a damn what happened to Xavier but he had said “find them” which could only mean that Danica was in trouble too, especially if Danica was not warned that Oculus was seeking her.

  There was no way that Twila would let anything happen to her friend.

  She picked up her own phone and fired off a text to Danica.

 

  Twila had no way of knowing that that single message would be the seal on her death warrant.

  Chapter Nine

  Harlem, New York

  He couldn’t reconcile what he had been told with what he was staring at, as he stood outside the abandoned residential complex.

  It was inhabited by squatters now. Needles and the stale smell of meth assaulted Drake’s senses.

  No, he thought desperately. No, this can’t be! This is not where Xavier grew up. Vance would not have left him to rot with a crackhead.

  But the evidence was overwhelming; the city records did not lie. Vance’s coordinates had led him to the building which had been condemned in the late nineties but Sonia Sinclair had already been dead for years by then.

  Sonia had been a secretary to the Assistant Secretary of Health in the Department of Defense in 1989.

  Abruptly, she had left her job without an explanation to anyone but no one had thought anything of it.

  After some digging, Drake was able to learn that she received monthly payments but she never held a steady job after that.

  Drake had a good sense what she had done with her generous allowance after leaving Virginia with Xavier and it filled him with dread, knowing what kind of childhood his second born must have had. Drake felt his heart crumble further, a great yawning hole opening up where his heart was. The feelings of guilt he had lived with for decades grew tenfold. It was bad enough living with the fact that he had given his own children up. Even if it was for their own safety, Drake would never forgive himself for putting his family in the position where his children had been forced to flee to survive. But to find out that Xavier had been forced to struggle to survive, likely without any love or support, it was almost too much for Drake’s tenuous hold on his sanity. The waves of crushing guilt nearly took him under.

  It had taken a great deal of research but with Goetz’s help the two men realized that Sonia was the only office personnel connected to the military in the late 80s and it jived with the information he had been given.

  It had to be Sonia Sinclair. S 40.811550/-73.946477. S
is for Sinclair. The coordinates lead here. This is Sonia’s last known address and she is the only link I can find between the Department and my son.

  He looked around helplessly, vaguely aware of Goetz standing behind him.

  “Sir, obviously no one lives here anymore.”

  Drake eyed him through his reflective glasses, scowling slightly.

  “Thank you for pointing out the blatantly obvious,” he snarled. “I am thinking.”

  “If Sonia Sinclair died in 1995, there’s a good chance that her son went into foster care,” Special Agent Goetz volunteered. “We can start checking records for April of ’95.”

  Drake nodded curtly. He had no way of knowing if Sonia had kept Xavier’s name or changed it for security reasons. But it was a start.

  “Do it,” Drake said gruffly. “Something tells me we’re running short on time.”

  Goetz nodded and turned back toward the car, leaving Drake to gaze at the flop house apartments, a combination of sick anger filling his bones.

  How could he have simply left my child with such a person? Why would Vance have done such a thing?

  Drake knew that Vance would not have intentionally given his son to a drug addict, but time had not been on Vance’s side back then. He had had to relocate the children before Oculus learned where they had been taken.

  What choice did Vance have but to give them to the first people who would take them? They were Department employees. They were subject to background checks and psychological assessments, but how can anyone really know? And where were you? You were lying in a hospital bed, clinging to life. You were of no use to anyone. Vance did what he had to do without any guidance or counsel.

  There was no way to ask Vance any longer of course. Any secrets Vance had had, were now buried with the man.

  Elise would certainly not help anymore.

  If I showed up there, she would likely shoot me dead, just as she had promised. Not that she had anything useful to contribute anyway.

  Drake couldn’t understand any of it.

  His mind did not want to accept that Xavier had been reared by a woman who didn’t care for him. The idea was intolerable.

  If he had been with me, we would have spent our lives dodging Oculus but we would have been together and he would have been loved. Drake’s heart broke a little more at the thought.

  A glimmer of hope coursed through him suddenly as he considered something else; maybe he had been wrong and he wasn’t on Xavier’s trail after all. Maybe Xavier had been given to completely different people. Loving and caring people. But the hope died in the next instant. Drake was a realist at his core – always had been. He’d just have to learn to deal with this as he had everything else.

  As he spun to leave the offensive sight, stepping on an empty baggie, he knew that he was on the right path.

  There was no other connection to the Department of Defense. Goetz had been thorough as always.

  Vance had left the information in plain view for him to find, knowing that once Drake saw what was etched on the desk, he would comprehend its meaning.

  It had always been there for him to find.

  It had just taken Drake too long to find it.

  Slipping into the backseat of the black SUV, he found himself trembling with rage.

  Except Drake was no longer angry at his former second-in-command; now he was furious with himself.

  Part III

  Chapter Ten

  Lubbock, Texas

  How the hell did we get here? Xave asked himself, staring at Danica almost accusingly as she paced around the hotel room, pausing to peer into the night as if expecting visitors.

  Xavier could imagine the type of visitors she was expecting.

  Only hours before, Xave had bequeathed the car keys to Sasha, who had been in a state of hysteria when he appeared at her door.

  “Oh my God! What took you so long?!” she accused, throwing herself into his arms. “I thought you had been arrested! I’ve been so scared!”

  It had taken every ounce of resolve in Xavier’s body not to lose his mind on the girl as she clung and sobbed like a small child.

  He could not wait to be rid of both Sasha and the umbra of Clark Jameson which seemed to be breathing down his neck.

  I should get out of Amarillo, he thought. Xave had had a good run, but he had no ties, no reason to stay…except perhaps Danica.

  The thought was insane and he couldn’t believe he was entertaining continuing his involvement with the enigmatic woman, especially in light of how they had met.

  Yet as Xave disentangled himself from Sasha’s clutches, he was glad that Danica would be waiting for him downstairs.

  A half smile crept onto his face as he thought of her, fighting for dominance against him. How long had it been since any woman had challenged him, especially one so sultry?

  Boarding the elevator, Xave felt himself growing hard again.

  I want to take her home and forget this insane day ever existed, he told himself. He wondered if Danica would invite him back inside.

  You’re delirious. You shouldn’t be thinking about banging a psychic right now. You should be putting space between yourself and Lady Katrine’s, just in case anything comes to light.

  But by the time the doors opened on the lobby level, Xave knew he was not going to leave Danica’s side. She seemed to have cast a spell on him somehow.

  Maybe she does have some sort of magical talent, he thought, grinning to himself. In light of his own ability, it wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility. Most of the population wouldn’t believe that Xave could do what he could do either.

  He didn’t see her immediately and felt his heart sink as he walked into the summer heat.

  She left me. She finally realized what she had taken on by helping me, he thought morosely, recalling how upset she had appeared when she believed he and Sasha were involved.

  Maybe she’s toying with me?

  Since hearing the name Oculus, Xave had been filled with a sense of trepidation. He didn’t know exactly why, but he knew Oculus was dangerous. And he couldn’t understand how Danica could be connected to a group from his past. What were the chances?

  If that memory was even real, he warned himself. You don’t know if you dreamed up the entire thing. Don’t you have enough problems without making up more in your mind?

  Again, he glanced about, trying to tell himself that he didn’t really care that she had left. Then his eyes landed on Danica, slumped against a pine tree, her olive complexion waxen as she stared at the phone in her hand.

  “I thought you left,” he said dryly, trying to mask the relief he was feeling as he stared at her.

  Oddly, he felt his heart twinge in a way that he had never before as he watched her.

  She’s hauntingly beautiful, he thought, looking at her profile. Almost ethereal.

  Her ashy irises met his and she shook her head, unsmiling.

  “We have to get back to my place,” she murmured, fear choking her tone. “Twila is in trouble.”

  Xave stared at her, his head cocked slightly to the side, measuring her seriousness.

  Fuck. She’s not kidding, he realized, and again he wondered what kind of mess they had gotten themselves into.

  “What happened?” he asked. “What kind of trouble?”

  The last thing that Xavier could afford to do was spend the night listening to Danica’s roommate cry about boy problems.

  Besides, his plans for the night involved getting Danica naked and bringing her to several screaming orgasms before he took his own release. His cock got hard as steel just at the thought of sinking into her warmth again.

  But as he studied her face more, he could see that Danica was truly scared.

  “We have to go!” she insisted, grabbing his arm and dragging him forward. Xave nodded.

  “We’ll find a cab,” he said, wondering if he had enough cash on him to cover the fare.

  They didn’t speak on the way back although Xave was
filled with a million questions.

  It was not until they pulled onto South Mirror that the gravity of the situation hit him full force.

  The street was blocked off but even from where they sat in the back of the cab, they could see the intensity of the blaze.

  “I can’t go up there,” the cabbie grumbled. “I’ll go around.”

  “No,” Danica breathed as emergency vehicles squealed through. “Oh God – no!” she moaned. She squeezed his hand so hard, he felt the bones rub together.

  “Just drive,” Xave told the cabbie.

  That had been ten hours earlier and the taxi had eventually brought them to the bus depot in Lubbock, eighty-four dollars later.

  “I don’t have the cash to cover this ride,” Xave muttered in humiliation. The last thing Danica needed to hear after losing her house and livelihood was that she was paying for the fare.

  “We’re going to have to run,” she mumbled back. “I left my purse at home.”

  At first he thought she was kidding but the expression on her face belied that thought. Her expression was the same as when they had driven away from the home she had created for herself and her best friend. Shock and desolation.

  “It’s okay,” he assured her quietly. “I’ve got this.”

  “How?” she hissed. “You just said – “

  “Don’t worry,” he said, putting his hand on her arm as the driver stared at them suspiciously.

  “Did you say you ain’t got money?” he called and Xave scoffed.

  “Are you trying to listen in on our conversation?” he snapped.

  “I better get paid!” the cabbie retorted, pulling over to the curb, just outside the bus station. “You owe me almost a hundred bucks!”

  Suddenly, a pistol appeared and Danica cursed under her breath.

  She tried to smile alluringly.

  “Hey! There’s no need for that,” she said coyly. “We’ve got your money, don’t we, Johnny?”

  But the driver was unmoved by her sensual look, cocking the gun with a loud click.

  Xave closed his eyes, freezing the moment. When he opened them again, he opened his door, throwing himself out and pulling a silent Danica with him.