by Jen Talty
“This has to be killing Willow,” Alexis said. “Anything clues on the fourth brother?”
“Not a single one.” Hunter tapped his finger over the papers on her lap.
“Can’t you jump back in time and see where all of you went when Riley gave you up?” Alexis understood that not all psychic powers could be drawn upon at any time like the ability to remote view, heal, or project one’s thoughts. Some talents, like visions, came to a person because the cosmos decided it needed to channel a message of some kind, and now would be a good time for the cosmos to speak up.
“You know I have very little control.” His fingers brushed the back of her neck as he raised his arm, resting it on the sofa again. “Besides, I’ve tried a few times.”
“I’ve remote viewed both Mallard’s quarters and Riley’s house. Nothing,” Brett said.
“It doesn’t make sense that Mallard would go on vacation, but why would the military lie to us?” Hazel tucked her feet under her butt, making more room for the love of her life to lean against the chair. They made the perfect couple in the sense that when you looked at them together, you instinctively knew they had the love that spanned a lifetime.
Savanah waved her finger. “According to the base, he’d had this vacation planned for months, and based on the letter Riley wrote, I’m thinking he did just that, knowing what would happen next.”
“I need to be able to contact my mom soon.” Hunter rubbed his temples. “The more I roam this city, the more likely someone who knows me will recognize me.”
“I’m working on that,” Brett said. “Perception Project has connections in high places, so we’re trying to get someone other than Mallard that we trust who can put a spin on this so you can move about freely.”
Alexis took in a deep, calming breath. She had no valid reason to be jealous. “What about the people I saw coming? The ones that Kim warned us about?” Alexis shivered.
Hunter must have noticed because he let his arm fall from the sofa to her arms, tugging her close to his chest.
Brett shrugged. “There was no sign of anyone in the house or foul play that I could tell. Until we know more about the other documents found on the laptop, the whereabouts of both Mallard and Riley, and Willow gets us a name on the vehicle in Alexis’ premonition, we’re in a holding pattern. I suggest we all get a good night’s sleep, and in the morning, head over to the Perception Project.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Savanah jumped to her feet. “We’re going back to Chad’s place. Meet up here at eight in the morning?”
“Perfect,” Brett said as he helped Hazel to her feet. “I’ve got a few more things to grab from my apartment. I’m officially out next week, so I think Hazel and I will stay there tonight.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Alexis cringed at the sound of her pleading voice. “Everyone can just stay here. Seems easier,” she added, hoping her voice had settled into a more relaxed tone.
“I have to get my stuff out. Tomorrow we’ll stay here,” Brett said.
“We won’t be.” Savanah looped her arm around Chad’s waist. “We’d like some privacy.”
“We’ll be fine here.” Hunter stood, shaking both his brothers’ hands. “If something changes, I’ll reach out.”
“You do that,” Brett said.
Alexis sat on the sofa and watched her sisters leave the comforts of their home with the men they loved, leaving her with the man who had haunted her dreams for thirteen years.
5
Hunter stood in the office of the Raven sisters by the front door and stared out the picture window into the street. A couple scurried across the road, walking their dog and holding hands. If he were being completely honest with himself, he’d taken the job Mallard offered with a new SEAL team because he knew it would require a long-term deployment.
Ellen had been busting his ass to leave the Navy, a constant fight with them. She’d wanted him to take a job that wasn’t dangerous and would keep him home. He could understand her wanting him around more, but leaving the Navy would be like cutting off both his legs. That’s when he realized he loved the military more than he loved Ellen.
But he’d leave it for Alexis, a woman he barely knew.
“What’s got you so deep in thought?” Alexis asked.
Hunter jumped, turning around.
Alexis leaned against the staircase that led up to the sisters’ main quarters.
“Truth?”
“Always,” she said.
“I was thinking about what a coward I am for not breaking up with Ellen. I kept telling myself I needed to do it in person, only I knew the second I signed those deployment papers with Mallard, that I could be gone for a very long time.”
“I don’t know about being coward. I mean, I’d prefer someone to dump me in person rather than text or email or even a video phone call.”
“But I knew when I left that I didn’t love her like I should, and I was hoping she’d break up with me.”
Alexis sat on the bottom step, twirling her hair between her longer fingers. “I’d say she didn’t really love you based on the fact she got engaged without ending things with you.”
“I was thinking about that.” He moseyed across the room, closing the gap. “For the last four months, I’ve been basically unreachable. I’ve only made it a habit of contacting my mother regularly. I have a stack of letters I haven’t opened, so I wonder if my Dear John note is buried in one of those.”
“Where is the mail?”
“I’m not sure. Brett told me that Mallard was going to have all my stuff shipped here, but with Mallard MIA, who knows.” Hunter joined Alexis, leaning back, resting his elbows on the step. He raised his fingers, taking some of her silky hair. “The only thing I want to do is tell Ellen she has my blessing to marry whoever she wants. She deserves that from me.”
“So, you’re not upset at all that she moved on?”
“I might sound like an asshole, but I’m happy she has.”
Alexis’ smile lifted her cheeks. Her dark eyes caught the light, sending his heart into an erratic beat, much like when he’d first met her. Only back then, his pounding pulse had been out of concern she’d been hurt.
Not out of any kind of attraction.
“What about you? Any boyfriends I need to know about?” he asked.
She laughed. “I’ve been sort of seeing this guy in one of my study groups. It’s more friends with benefits.”
“I see.” He swallowed. It didn’t matter that he barely knew her, the idea that another man had touched her recently made his skin blister. “Do you care for him?”
“Of course I do.” She squinted. “I don’t just sleep with anyone.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.” Not only did he sound like a moron, he insulted the woman he knew in the deep recesses of his soul he belonged with. He’d known Alexis was something special when he’d met her thirteen years ago. It bothered him at the time that a young girl, barely a teenager, would have such a profound impact on him. She constantly came to him in past visions. He’d seen random snippets into her life, and he always wanted to know more. “The pull I feel toward you has always been there, but I don’t want to stand in the way—”
“But you believe we’re part of the Collective Order,” she said more as a statement than a question.
“I do. But we barely know each other.” He waved his hand toward the door. “Your sisters and my new brothers, they all have a history.”
“They do, but I have just the thing that will jump-start getting to know each other.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“Twenty questions.” She leapt to her feet, grabbing his hand. “Let’s go upstairs, crack open a bottle of wine, and play.”
He jogged to the second floor with butterflies swarming in the pit of his stomach. The entire thing sounded childish, but it excited him, sending goosebumps across his flesh. He took the bottle of red wine and poured two tall glasses before following her down the hallway. “
Where are we going?”
“My room.”
“Are we going to play strip twenty questions?”
She stopped at a door and glared over her shoulder. “Willow should be home soon, and I just thought if we were in here, she wouldn’t bother us for a bit.”
“I was kidding.” He took a large gulp of the rich cab, letting the warm liquid ease down his throat with a slight burn.
She waved her hand, and he stepped into the bedroom, keeping his head down, avoiding her seething gaze. He might have deserved it for his tasteless joke, but he didn’t want to look it in the eyes.
He glanced around the room, surprised by its size. A white desk stood under one of two windows. Next to the desk was an oversized white chair with an ottoman. A queen-sized bed with its fluffy white and purple pillows was pushed against the other wall.
“You can take the chair.” She set the bottle on the nightstand. Fluffing the pillows, she sat with her legs crisscrossed on the bed. She took the glass of wine he offered and sipped. Her plump rosy lips curved over the rim of the glass.
Heat rushed to places he needed to squelch. “Are there rules to this game?” He plopped himself into the chair and stared at the beauty across from him. Her long hair flowed well over her shoulders, dangling on top of her small, but not tiny, breasts. He rubbed his hand over his thigh. The longer he stayed in her presence, the more he wanted her. Riley had mentioned in her book that the attraction between the sisters and their quadruplet counterparts would be intense. The lure to be together too strong to control.
He had to agree.
“Just be honest and don’t ask stupid questions.”
“What constitutes stupid?” he asked.
She cocked her head and let out a short laugh. “Do I really need to be more specific than that?”
“I guess not. You start.” He’d always been more reserved when it came to women. Ellen had been the one to pursue him, and she’d done so with a vengeance. He had to admit, he enjoyed her attention, but soon the affection turned into a battle of wills, and he lost because Ellen had to be in charge.
Alexis exemplified a quiet confidence, but he doubted she had dictated the outcome of everything. She was the kind of person that would want to be in a relationship where the power was evenly distributed.
“Smart man,” Alexis said as she raised her glass and took another dainty sip. “When did you start to believe you were one of the quadruplet brothers?”
“I had hoped I might be when I first read Riley’s book. I had a couple of past views that showed me as a baby in the hospital with my brothers. I also saw a nurse hand me off to my mother, who glanced into the nursery and apologized for not being able to take all of us.” Only two other people had been told that story. His mother and Mallard.
Mallard had agreed that it was a possibility he could be one of the quads, but not once did he mention being the quads’ biological father, a point that got under Hunter’s skin like a bad case of poison ivy.
“My turn.” He swirled his wine, letting the dark liquid hug the sides of the glass. He watched it slosh as if the perfect question would jump out. “When did you know I was one of the brothers?”
“When I started to feel your pain when you were captured.”
“I’m sorry you had to endure that torture.” He shivered, clutching his chest, remembering the cold, sharp, metal blade ripping through his skin.
“If I hadn’t, you’d be dead, so I’m far from sorry. How often did you have past views of me?”
“At least once a year,” he admitted. He’d promised to be honest and at this point, he saw no reason to lie, even if it made him look like a whack job. “It was never a distant vision. I always guessed them to be no more than a year based on the fact that the first one I had was about six months after I met you, and it was of you scratching our initials in the bench.”
“I was a silly little girl with a wild crush on an older man.”
“I was barely eighteen, but I was so flattered.” He raised his glass in a gesture of cheers. “What’s your favorite book?”
“Redeeming the Falls by Sissy Alberton.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. My mother loves that book. I think she’s read it a dozen times. Got me so curious, I had to read it.”
“And what did you think?” she asked.
“Gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. I never want to read anything like that again,” he said with a light laugh.
“It made you cry, didn’t it?”
He waggled his finger, leaning forward. “That’s two questions.”
“What?” She downed the rest of her drink, setting the glass on the nightstand. “I hadn’t even asked a single…oh, you’re a tricky man.”
The way she smiled made her chocolate eyes swirl as if they were melting under the heat of an oven.
He shrugged, trying desperately to keep his wild thoughts of pulling her into his arms and making wild love to her in the recesses of his mind. “What are you thinking and feeling right now?” So much for defusing the sudden rush of sexual energy that surged through his body.
She tilted her head, running a finger through her hair, pushing a strand behind her ear. “You tell me.”
“You want me to kiss you again.” He closed his eyes, concentrating on her aura as he’d been taught by Mallard. Her psychic energy wrapped him in a warm blanket.
“You’re trying to block your thoughts from me,” he projected.
“Damn straight.”
“Stop.” He let his own strength punch through the medium she’d created. Her powers were stronger than his, but that wouldn’t stop him from finding a way into her mind.
“Make me stop,” she projected with a strained, but playful voice.
He fixated on the kiss they shared earlier. The vision formed in his mind, but when he blinked his eyes open, the retrocognition appeared in the space between him and Alexis. “Do you see that?”
“Yes.”
“That’s what you were thinking about.”
She stood, brushing down her slacks as she slinked across the room, the cloudy vision evaporating. Raising her hand, the residual fog glided across her skin, sending a sheen across her body. “I was actually thinking about what it would be like to do that again.”
He chugged his wine, finishing it off in two hard gulps. If he stood and took her into his arms, he wouldn’t be leaving this room tonight.
His eyes grew wide as she straddled him on the chair. He gripped her muscled thighs. Not a woman he’d want to spar with, that’s for sure.
“What are you doing?” he asked, heaving in a harsh breath. His lungs burned as they filled with air. He let it out in one big whoosh.
She rested her hand on the center of his chest. “Your heart is beating really fast.”
“I bet yours is too.” He swallowed.
“You’re scared,” she whispered.
“Terrified,” he managed with a dry mouth.
“Of what…whoa, look at that.” She pointed to the ceiling.
He tipped his head back and stared at her image that appeared above him. She carried notebooks down a hallway. “Is that you in high school?”
“Oh God.” She waved her hands over her head. “Let’s skip this one.”
Adjusting himself carefully, he sat up a little taller, his fingers curling around her hips as he twisted her body, easing her butt onto his lap. “Why…oh.”
In the past vision, Alexis opened up her school locker. The words Alexis loves Hunter were scribbled on a red piece of construction paper taped to the metal door. Right under that was a picture of him.
“Where did you get that?”
“I Googled you.” She buried her face in his neck. “I can’t watch anymore.”
“Senior year? That makes you seventeen or eighteen?” he asked with a chuckle.
“Something like that.”
He dropped his head back on the chair, circling his arms around her body, smoothing her long, silky hair down her
back. A couple of her friends walked by, smiling and laughing. Alexis kissed her fingers and pressed them against the picture.
His heart swelled with a profound sense of belonging. He’d never felt alone in the world, but he often felt misunderstood. His adoptive parents had been spectacular. The only negative in his childhood had been the passing of his father when he’d been merely sixteen. But even so, he’d always believed something had been missing from his life.
Then he met Alexis and that feeling disappeared, only to come back the longer he went without seeing her. He lived for the moments when a retrocognition vision came to him so he could see the pretty girl who saved his life more than once.
“Holy shit.” He tugged gently at her hair. “It’s Riley.”
“What?”
The view shifted to the front of the school, where Riley sat on a bench, reading a book. A bell rang out, and teenagers pushed through the doors; Alexis and Willow were in a second group of kids. Alexis hugged a notebook and scurried down the sidewalk. A man dressed in jeans and a dark T-shirt fell in line behind her and Riley two steps behind that.
“Does this look at all familiar?”
“Actually, it does.” She squirmed on his lap, sending a reminder to his brain that the most beautiful woman in the world was in his arms.
“Who’s that man?”
“I don’t know, but in two minutes a police car is going to come around the corner, and two cops are going to jump out and take him down for having a concealed weapon.”
“Riley has a phone to her ear,” he said.
“And her free hand is in her purse. I bet there was a gun in there.”
“I wish I could rewind that and get a better look at the guy.”
Alexis cupped his face. “He made the local news. I don’t remember his name, but I do remember hearing about it. The entire thing freaked me out because no one could ever find out what his intentions had been. I never thought I could be the target.”
“I suspect you and Willow.” Not wanting to let her go just yet, he tugged her closer, brushing his lips against her soft cheek. “For the record, I think it’s sweet you had my picture in your locker.”
