by Maya Banks
barely had time to look up before Beau flattened him with a punch to his jaw.
Pandemonium ensued. Beau followed Caleb down, intending to yank him up by the shirt to look him in the eye. But Caleb connected with a roundhouse kick from a supine position, knocking Beau back several feet as he stumbled to maintain his footing.
It gave Caleb enough time to bolt to his feet and he glared at his younger brother, rubbing his jaw where Beau had landed the punch.
“That’s the only one you get,” Caleb warned.
“Says you,” Beau said in a menacing soft voice.
“That’s enough!” Ramie said sharply.
She shot across the room and stepped between the two men just as Beau advanced to close the distance between him and Caleb. Beau pulled up, not wanting his very petite, small-boned sister-in-law to take an inadvertent hit. If he accidentally hit her as hard as he’d punched his brother, he’d very likely break her jaw.
Instead he stood there, seething, fists down at his sides, his fingers flexing, curling and uncurling, itching to pound on his brother some more. He couldn’t even look at Caleb without unfettered rage overwhelming all else.
“He was wrong, Beau,” Ramie acknowledged quietly.
“The hell I was,” Caleb said, a stubborn set to his jaw.
Ramie rounded on him, but not before Beau got a good look at her expression and it was positively murderous. He watched in surprise as Ramie dressed him down and informed him that he did not make decisions for her and that if she wanted to help Ari then she damn well would.
“Swear to God, if you cause so much as one moment of pain to my wife, I will take you apart,” Caleb said, his face red, eyes blazing.
“You hypocritical son of a bitch,” Beau said softly.
Ramie started to speak up but Beau gently put his hand on her shoulder but let it slide away quickly before she picked up on his utter fury. It was a motion for her to stand down, one she acknowledged with a short nod, but she remained solidly between the two men.
“Did you not see what you did to Ari?” Beau demanded. “That woman is desperate, terrified and alone. The only family she has vanished without a trace and you attacked her. Worse, you made her feel unwanted. What is wrong with you? And that wasn’t enough for you. You kept poking at her, so that she felt completely defenseless and when she uses her powers it is debilitating for her. You ought to know all about psychic bleeds. Only yours weren’t nearly as bad as the ones she suffers. And if that’s not bad enough, the pain she suffers is horrific. She already had a brain bruise before you brutalized her tonight. I just put her to bed and she couldn’t even say more than two words because she was so weak and even the lightest sound sent shards of glass through her head. And I had to sit there and watch because there’s not a damn thing I can do to help her besides shove a pill down her throat and hope she gives in to oblivion quickly so she can escape her reality. Now, you fucking tell me, big brother. When did you become an asshole who verbally beats up on a fragile, vulnerable young woman? Oh wait. I remember. You’ve had plenty of experience given how you forced Ramie’s compliance when she quite plainly told you no.”
Ramie paled and the color leached from Caleb’s cheeks as pain shadowed his features, shadows collecting in his eyes. Beau wished like hell Ramie wasn’t in the middle of them. That his reminder to Caleb had to be stated in front of Ramie, who needed no reminder of the hell Caleb had unwittingly unleashed on her.
“Are you forgetting who her father is? That he was the last one to see our father alive?” Caleb asked hoarsely, though regret already simmered in his eyes. He cast a sorrowful look in his wife’s direction, abject apology etched on his features, and it just pissed Beau off all the more that he could feel that kind of remorse and be utterly appalled by what he’d put Ramie through, but he saw nothing wrong with brutalizing a complete innocent.
And in that instant, Beau knew he’d been right not to confide all the details of the phone call he’d received to his brother, because he would be completely ruthless and unstoppable when it came to Ari.
“So far as I can tell, Ari’s only sin was being born,” Beau said. “You’re a fucking hypocrite if you think she should be judged and held accountable for the actions of the man she calls father. Because you and I both know that our father was no saint. And if you’re going to make Ari answer for her father’s sins then you better be fucking ready to own up to ours.”
Caleb closed his eyes, but not before Beau saw that he’d scored a direct hit.
“God, I’m a dick,” Caleb said wearily. He reached for his wife as if needing to touch her, as if by touching her he’d be clean again. But it wasn’t Ramie he needed absolution from. She’d given him hers already by marrying the bastard.
“Yeah, you are. But that’s nothing new,” Beau said, a bite still to his voice.
He was still seeing Ari, hurt and then fear flashing in her eyes. Her hasty retreat from the heat of the words Caleb hurled at her like daggers. And worse . . . defeat. As though she had no one. No one who cared. No one to hold her. To tell her it would be okay.
And then her terror, fueling rage, the glasses and plates hurling through the air, lashing out because Caleb had hurt her and Beau hadn’t had time to intervene. She’d thought he was as much against her as the other occupants of the room who stood back, allowing Caleb’s words and actions to go unchecked.
Beau wanted to fucking fire every goddamn one of them in that moment. Where was Eliza’s fury? She’d damn sure taken Caleb to task when it came to Ramie. Only Zack had been gentle with her, anger simmering in his gaze when he’d briefly glanced at Caleb before preventing Ari’s escape.
Thank God for Zack. That someone in the room had some goddamn sense. He couldn’t bear to picture Ari out there alone, unprotected . . . rejected by the very people sworn to protect her . . . without rage consuming him all over again.
He shook with it, his entire body vibrating with the raging need for retribution.
And then a small, gentle hand slid over his arm, and he turned, instinctively reining in his seething mass of emotions, because he didn’t want to hurt Ramie. She didn’t deserve it. She’d been nice to Ari and Ari, sensing just that, had ensured that no harm came to Ramie even amid a torrent of bewilderment at the source of such animosity emanating from Caleb. It would have been easy to just say to hell with all of them, shake the house down and walk from the wreckage and wash her hands of the whole lot of them.
“Even while you were ripping Ari to shreds, piece by painful piece, she protected Ramie. Your wife. Because she’s good to her soul, and she doesn’t deserve any of what she received tonight.”
He turned, including Dane and Eliza in his condemnation.
“She didn’t deserve it from any of us, and yet that’s precisely what she got. And why? Because she’s desperate to find the only family she has in this world? I don’t give a flying fuck if the Rochesters are her blood relatives or not. To Ari, they’re her entire world. So that makes them important, and it’s not up to us to play judge and juror and condemn a man with evidence so flimsy even a fool could pick it apart.”
“You have strong feelings for her,” Ramie said in her sweet, gentle voice.
He stared at her in astonishment. “Why does a man have to have strong feelings for a woman in order to condemn the abuse of a woman by a man twice her size?”
He knew as soon as the words were out of his mouth that he sounded defensive. As though she’d struck a huge nerve. And hell, maybe she had. He was so fucked up over the entire situation that he didn’t know which end was up. He felt like this was his first rodeo, like he was the virgin Ari had been.
The reminder that just the night before she’d so sweetly offered him her innocence sent another wave of fury rolling through his veins. He should be holding her. Offering her comfort. Ensuring that she felt no pain. Instead he was out here, outside the sanctuary of his bedroom, defending her against inexcusable abuse at the hands of his own damn brother when
he should be with her so she didn’t wake alone and think the worst.
Caleb scowled at Beau’s response to Ramie but Beau sent him a withering look that challenged him to say one fucking word.
To Beau’s surprise, Ramie reached for his hand, sandwiching it between her palms, and she smiled, her eyes sparkling as she looked up at him.
“I was telling you what I sensed,” she said, seemingly battling laughter. Why the hell would she be laughing at a time like this?
She gave his hand a gentle squeeze and then leaned up on tiptoe, brushing her lips across his cheek. “You’re done for, Beau Devereaux,” she whispered as her lips dropped away.
Still grinning she stepped back, shooting her husband a look of warning. It amused Beau that Caleb immediately took a step back and relaxed his stance, automatically obeying his wife’s silent command. Caleb was as whipped as Ramie claimed Beau was. And it appeared neither brother gave one damn.
Then her expression became utterly serious, her smoky eyes somber and swirling with streaks of gray, reminding Beau of a summer thunderstorm.
“When Ari feels better, please tell her that I’ll help her. But I can’t guarantee anything.” She said the last with a grimace. “Typically I use an item from the area where the abduction—or other violent act—occurred. Obviously that’s not possible in this instance since Ari has no idea what time or where her parents disappeared.”
Ignoring Caleb’s instant protest, Beau turned to Ramie, focusing only on her as Zack took Ramie’s place between the two brothers.
“Can you even do it then?” Beau asked, realizing he was holding his breath when his lungs started to burn.
“It’s possible that I could if Ari could provide me with a favorite object or even a piece of clothing that they either touched or wore frequently. If she had something they shared, it would be even better,” Ramie said, rubbing one hand up her opposing arm in a gesture of agitation. She was obviously fretting over the idea of somehow failing Ari.
Caleb moved and Zack immediately stiffened, shooting his employer a warning look. Caleb might be the older brother, but it was clear whom Zack’s allegiance lined up with.
Beau got to Ramie first, wrapping his arm around her much smaller frame. And yet Ari was even smaller, though the two women shared very similar bone structure. Delicate features. They had a lot in common and not just their psychic abilities.
He brushed a kiss over the top of Ramie’s head and gave her a gentle squeeze.
“Ari will understand. She’s good and sweet to her very core. She’ll be overwhelmingly grateful to you for simply trying. Offering your help. It will mean the world to her. Despite Caleb’s ignorant assertion that Ari has no clue what you endure, how much your ability makes you suffer, she is very well aware and it’s why she was so hesitant in asking you. It’s why she didn’t immediately ask you for help the first moment she laid eyes on you.
“We spoke about you the day she came into the office. She knows precisely who you are. She later confided that she always felt a kinship to you and followed all the stories that made any mention of you whatsoever. I think it embarrassed her a little because she feels it’s presumptive of her to believe you and she are kindred spirits. You made her feel not quite as alone. You made her feel less of a freak, because she drew the conclusion that since the two of you possessed psychic ability it was a reasonable assertion that there were others out there as well.”
Ramie wrapped her arms around Beau’s waist and hugged him fiercely. “I know exactly how she feels. And it’s not silly or presumptive to believe we’re kindred souls. I quite like the idea that there are others out there like me as well. I’m not entirely certain why she or I find comfort in that knowledge, but it is reassuring on some level to think we aren’t some accident of nature. An abomination of sorts.”
“I once knew someone who could read minds,” Zack said quietly, surprising the rest of them by speaking up. He was typically a silent observer to the goings-on around him. “She felt much the same as you and Ari.”
Beau’s eyebrows went up at the uncharacteristic outburst from his usually reserved and extremely private partner. It only added to his belief that something in Zack’s past had shaped the man he was today. Now he wondered if Zack had endured the loss of someone who mattered to him. Mother? Sister? Woman he loved?
Caleb scowled and finally maneuvered past Zack when Zack’s attention was momentarily not on him, instead a distant, faraway look in the other man’s eyes. Caleb wrested his wife from Beau’s grasp. Then he cupped her chin and tilted it upward so he gazed down into her eyes.
“You are no freak. You’re a fucking miracle. My miracle. And I thank God for you every single day.”
He glanced up at Beau, sincere apology brimming in his eyes before he returned his gentle gaze to his wife.
“And neither is Ari. She—like you—is a beautiful, giving woman who has a tender, generous, selfless heart and is extremely loyal to the people she loves. Beau’s right. I’m a complete dick. And unlike you and Ari, I am selfish. I readily admit I’m a selfish bastard. But damn it, Ramie. I hate the idea of you experiencing something so horrific. Again. You’ve been through so much already. I just want to protect you. Can you understand that? I love you and I never want to see you hurt like that again,” he said gruffly.
Beau’s anger fled in that instant, and he too offered silent apology to his brother with a single look that was acknowledged by a flicker of a smile, though his eyes were still clouded with worry. And Beau couldn’t fault him for that. The brothers were doing the same exact thing. Protecting their women from the horrors of evil and agony.
Their women . . .
With that acknowledgment, Beau had sealed his fate and forever altered the course of his life—his future. Ari’s future. In actuality, he’d accepted what destiny had provided him the previous night in the most time-honored way a man proclaimed his possession. He’d marked her in the most primitive fashion a man could brand a woman.
She was his.
He’d even said those words to her an hour before, and yet it still hadn’t quite registered. He hadn’t openly acknowledged what his heart already knew.
The truth slammed into him with the force of a speeding train.
Did he love her? Because it sure as hell felt like love. Or at least what he perceived love to be. Surely something else couldn’t be this powerful and all consuming. But it wasn’t the time to make such a huge leap. There was too much to be resolved between them.
Ramie’s lips formed a smirk and her look was triumphant. “I’d say I was quite correct right now, but that would make me smug, right? Dooonne for, Beau Devereaux. Stick-a-fork-in-you done,” she said drawing out the last words for emphasis.
“That’s exactly what it makes you,” Beau grumbled.
Dane and Eliza, who’d discreetly backed away from the initial fracas, now stepped forward, both looking all business.
“This poses a huge security risk,” Dane said. “And it can’t be our only plan of action. Ramie herself isn’t certain of her ability to locate her parents so we have to operate under the assumption we don’t have her as our ace in the hole. And we can’t have Ari jaunting off to collect some personal item for Ramie to use. The danger is too extreme.”
Eliza nodded her agreement. “They’ll most assuredly have her residence staked out.”
Beau frowned. “She mentioned that her father has several residences and our records indicate when comparing the addresses Ari provided to the registered owner there’s a paper trail about a mile long and then begins repeating.”
“One does have to wonder why someone would go to such lengths to hide their whereabouts,” Caleb murmured.
“Makes perfect sense to me,” Zack said shortly. “If I had a daughter with powers like Ari, I’d do whatever it took to keep her out of the public eye and the risk factor to her low.”
“Very true,” Beau agreed. “However, I can’t help but think there’s more to it than that. B
etween the call from her supposed biological father to this mysterious faction who tortured a woman for information and then killed her when she finally caved.”
“I find it interesting that her biological father knows his wife or partner or whatever they were to each other was tortured and killed and that he also happens to know what they wanted and that they were successful in gaining it from Ari’s mother. That’s a hell of a lot of information to know in such exacting detail unless he was present and witness to the event,” Dane mused.
“And if he was present, how did he escape unscathed?” Eliza asked, tapping one blunt fingernail against her chin. “For that matter how the hell did he know where Ari is now and how did he get Beau’s private cell number?”
Beau hadn’t wanted to divulge all the gory details that had been provided him because he hadn’t wanted to scare the hell out of Caleb, and this might well be the nail in Ari’s coffin once Beau did reveal how Ari’s biological father knew what he purportedly knew.
“He told me they dumped her body where he would find her,” Beau said quietly. “It was bad. And they left him a message saying this was what happened to people who crossed him. Whether any of it is true is anyone’s guess. I’m not naïve enough to believe in the coincidence of receiving a ‘helpful’ call at a time we need it the most.”
Caleb’s features froze, and fear registered starkly in his eyes. He drew Ramie close into the shelter of his body as if protecting her from the unknown or the possible repercussions of her involving herself in helping Ari.
Beau sighed, rubbing a hand wearily through his hair. A glance at the grandfather clock in the corner told him he ought to be getting back to Ari before the meds wore off enough and she awakened. This was the perfect opportunity for Dane to inject the tracking device underneath Ari’s skin. With her already exhausted and under the influence of pain medication it would take mere seconds for Dane to make the insertion and then they had a way of finding her if the worst happened. And it would be the height of arrogance—and stupidity—to consider themselves invincible or impervious to such an attack. Beau certainly wasn’t taking chances when it came to Ari’s life.
He looked to Dane. “You have the chip ready? She’s out so let’s get it over with.”
Beau knew he was being edgy and impatient, but he wanted to be there when she opened her eyes. He wanted to be the very first thing she saw. He fidgeted with impatience, knowing none of this mattered if they weren’t able to locate Ari’s parents. Biological or not, she loved them dearly, and it was equally evident by the way she spoke of their affection for her that she was dearly loved in return. And well, if the information Zack had collected was true, then Ginger Rochester had experienced her share of heartache trying unsuccessfully to carry a child to full term.
It just seemed highly coincidental—too coincidental—that mere months after miscarrying a fourth baby late in the second trimester, a newborn baby had been simply left on Gavin Rochester’s doorstep right around the time his wife would have delivered her baby if she’d carried it to term.
More and more, Beau realized that the answer to everything was in discovering just where and who Ari came from. And what the hell his father had to do with the entire sordid affair.
TWENTY-TWO
ARI awoke to a dull throb at the base of her skull and her forehead, but the pain had lessened to a much more tolerable level. She was deliciously warm, and she tried to stretch, to work the kinks out of her sore muscles when her elbow collided with a hard chest. Which certainly explained the cozy warmth.
Their two bodies under the covers formed a seal and the air surrounding them was heated, mainly by Beau, because it seemed after using her powers, when she was utterly vulnerable and defenseless, that the strain on her brain made it so her body temperature wasn’t able to be regulated like normal. The result was that she always woke from the post-trauma, drug-induced fog with shivering cold permeating even her bones, and it seemed she was chilled on the inside, making it impossible for her to get warm.
Not so this time.
She instinctively snuggled deeper into Beau’s body, twining her legs through his so that his heat surrounded her completely. She nuzzled her cheek against his chest and then sighed in contentment as only a woman with the perfect man could do. The perfect man for her.
I chose you.
Those words, so powerful and heartrending, played over and over in her mind, soothing away the splintered fragments of pain, anger and violence.
Were there any three sweeter words to hear? She thought a moment and then acknowledged there was. Only one phrase that had more power than a man telling a woman that, out of the millions of women in the world, he chose only one. One! He chose her.
I love you.
Oh to hear those words from his lips, from his heart. To know that he meant them with every fiber of his being. She’d give anything in the world to have her heart’s desire. Her parents alive, safe, home. And Beau Devereaux’s love. If she ever were assured of those two things, she’d never ask for more.
By acknowledging the yearning from the deepest recesses of her soul, she was forced to acknowledge the depth of her own feelings. Her heart had literally been breaking apart, splintering, cracking. Piece by piece, chipped away as she’d walked—or rather tried to walk—away from him. To leave him the peace and strength of family that he deserved.
She knew how important family was. Her own family wasn’t as large as Beau’s, but it didn’t mean it was any less strong. And perhaps it was because it had always been only her, her mother, and her father, that their bond was so indestructible.
In a world where divorce was common. Where children left home at an early age. Where husbands beat wives. Spouses cheated on one another. Children were abused. Ari’s family had stood the test of time, and in fact, had strengthened—not weakened—with each passing year.
Her memories—so many wonderful, cherished memories—were so very dear to her and she prayed with all her heart that they would share many more memories to come. That she would one day give them grandchildren to protect and spoil every bit as much as they’d done with her.
Beau’s children.
The thought whispered enticingly through her damaged mind. She automatically lifted her head, seeking the reassurance that looking at his strong facial features always gave her. Her lips parted in surprise when she realized he was fully awake—had been awake for a while, because there were no cloudy remnants of sleep lingering lazily in his eyes. They were alert and aware. And they were solidly focused on her.
It was apparent she wasn’t the only one who’d been absorbed in a quiet moment of reflection. She only wished she was privy to his thoughts. She wanted so badly for her wants and desires, her hopes and dreams, to align with his. She wanted to share her life. With him. Only him.
Was she crazy to have fallen so hard and so inexplicably fast? Her brow
