But before Xavier could move, James shook his head. “You’re hurt and bleeding. Keegan and I’ll check. Chloe, you keep an eye on these two.”
“Right.”
Josh and Xavier exchanged a look.
“What?” she said. “I’m uninjured and in charge. Deal with it.”
“Oh, we’re going to deal with it, all right.” Xavier gritted his teeth.
Josh waited. It didn’t take long.
“What the hell did you think you were doing, firing like that? You nearly got killed. Twice!”
He and Chloe argued like cats and dogs.
Josh didn’t know if the pain had sapped his will to argue or if the situation really was as funny as it sounded, but he started to laugh.
Chloe and Xavier set him down on a large rock by the truck. Their puzzled looks set him off again, and he laughed so hard, he cried.
The other guys returned. “Nothing out there,” the Texan said. “Too bad, really.”
James snorted. “You need better things to occupy your time.”
“You offerin’?”
“Dick.”
“Promises, promises.”
James laughed. “Keep it up, and I’m telling Rory.” Josh liked their interaction, so at ease with one another. They reminded him of himself and Xavier, except they exuded something more intimate than anything he’d shared with his brother. In fact, they looked at one another the way he and Xavier looked at Chloe.
“Oh, uh, just one thing, Chloe.” Keegan cleared his throat and said, “We were never here, you got me?”
She rolled her eyes. “I knew Jack hadn’t okayed you two being here.” Keegan had the grace to flush. “He’s not the boss of me.”
“Oh please. He is so.” James sighed with disgust then turned his attention back to Josh. “So can one of you tell me what was so funny?” Josh shook his head. “My brother and Chloe are arguing about who was in more danger out there, him or her. My money’s on…” He felt dizzy and realized he’d lost more blood than he’d thought. “Shit. Man, help me out before I…” He didn’t see anymore.
Chloe seriously freaked. One minute Josh was sitting there laughing it up, and the next he lay slumped on the ground. She hovered over him, trying to see if he’d been shot or stabbed somewhere she’d missed. What if he lay dying because she’d been so busy arguing with Xavier? To lose him now, when she’d just found him, scared the hell out of her.
She didn’t realize she’d been crying until Xavier wiped her tears and carried her away from Josh. “He’s okay, honey. Just some blood loss. He’ll be fine.” Keegan lifted Josh up with ease, thanks to a steady regimen of weightlifting and a massive frame, and walked down the drive. “Come on. We’ll take our SUV and get him to a doctor. The road’s not too bad, not with four-wheel drive and chains.” He gave Chloe a reassuring smile. “He’ll be fine. I’m guessin’ that man will do everything in his power not to disappoint you.” Xavier nodded.
“I wish we had a healer on staff.” Chloe couldn’t look away from Josh’s pale face.
Xavier hugged her to him and grinned. “We do.”
Three hours later, after the Feds had been called in to take the Werlins and their henchmen away, quietly—apparently the Cannons had connections—Josh complained as his mother finished stitching him up. A hunting accident, so the paperwork at the clinic said.
“It’s embarrassing,” Josh whined.
“Suck it up, son.” His father, a mountain of a man, glared at him. “I can’t believe you let yourself get taken. Really, Josh. Is this the impression you’re trying to make?”
Chloe could easily believe Josh and Xavier came from Michael Cannon. They shared his good looks but had their mother’s eyes. Though they had less height and bulk than their father, their attitudes seemed just as aggressive.
“Don’t mind them, Chloe,” Julia Cannon said with a smile as she finished sewing up Josh’s leg. Protocol about keeping the room’s occupants to a minimum had gone out the window when Dr. Cannon took over. “Just throwing around a lot of nonsense to cover their worry.”
“Really, Mom. Don’t give away all our secrets.” Xavier smiled, the same grin his mother wore.
Chloe would have felt out of place if Xavier had left her side. But he’d introduced her as his and Josh’s Chloe, and she’d experienced pride, embarrassment, and a welling of love so intense it brought tears to her eyes.
Confusion filled her, the emotional and physical toll finally wearing her down.
Mike pushed Xavier aside and took Chloe away. “Julia, see to the boy, would you? Chloe looks ready to keel over. I’m going to take her home to freshen up.” Considering Keegan and James had dumped her here and taken off, she had no other way to get home. “Thanks, Mr. Cannon.”
“Mike, sweetie. Call me Mike.” He grinned down at her. “Or Dad, if you prefer.”
Shit. She’d known he was going to make a comment.
At her look, he burst out laughing. “If you could see your face. Come on.” They entered his enormous truck—did any of the men she knew drive regular cars?—and he drove in the opposite direction of her place.
“Uh, Mike. I live off Sixth.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
He glanced at her before returning his attention to the road. Night had fallen, so she wasn’t surprised to see the streets all but deserted. Between the snow and the time, not many ventured out. “I don’t know how much the boys have told you about the business, but we have a lot of information at our fingertips. I know all about you and your organization, the gym, the voices. Everything.” She didn’t like the look he gave her. Was he berating her for loving both his sons? Oh hell, loving them? She did, and she didn’t know what to do about it.
Should she accept all the affection they’d given her, throw caution to the wind and just…what? Move in with them? Marry them? She couldn’t marry two men, and it wasn’t like they’d asked.
“Chloe, the thing you need to know, and I’m sure you already do, is that my boys are different. They aren’t like anyone you’ve ever met. And considering what you do and who you work for, I’m sure you’ve met a lot of interesting people.”
“You can say that again.”
He chuckled. “Josh and Xavier are connected and always have been. There’s no shame in loving them, honey.” His expression softened. “When I met my Julia, I just knew. My family’s full of psychics, but love is a magic all its own. When you know, you know. I’ve been hearing about their special friend for years now. They’ve been connected to you for a reason. Not so they could tell you about your future, but so they could make it easier for you to accept them. Their gifts are tied to one another.
Josh sees what he needs to see to keep him alive.”
“But he saw my future.”
Mike gave her a minute.
“My future…because he needs me?”
“And Xavier can only talk to his brother—and you—with that funny mind of his. For a telepath, he’s awfully limited, don’t you think?”
Xavier had said as much, but she hadn’t thought about it. “I know people who can do what he does. But they’re not limited to one person or two. He really can only talk to Josh and me?”
“Yep. Not even his mother and father. For all that he loves his family, he’s connected to Josh and you in a special way. And that makes you a part of us, the Cannons, whether you want to be or not.” They drove for a bit before he continued.
“No matter what happens with you and my boys, if you need us, you only have to call. You helped them today, and we won’t forget it.” Mike patted her on the shoulder, his big hand making her feel tiny. “They need you, Chloe. Probably more than you need them, but Cannons take care of the people we love. And that’s a fact.” He pulled in front of a solitary house in the middle of nowhere.