“He means truck,” Xavier said absently as he stared after his twin. “I’ll be out there with him.”
He left Chloe with his parents and his younger brothers.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t really want to do this. But I have to,” she told the others. She wouldn’t be human if she weren’t afraid. But she knew that with Xavier and Josh by her side, she could fix this. Could make sure Hopkins didn’t kill anymore. She’d been given a gift, and it was time for her to use it again.
Kyle and Justin nodded. “We get it,” Kyle said. “But Josh… This isn’t sitting well with him.”
“Xavier either,” Justin said. “Good luck. You’re going to need it.” The twins rose and left together, arguing about something. She’d noticed the two tended to do that a lot. Sam remained behind with his parents.
“You’ll be fine, honey.” Julia hugged her. Another of those signs of affection Chloe couldn’t get enough of. She’d missed her mom so much for so long. And Julia acted genuinely happy to have her in the family. So interested in her, as if she cared about her as a person and not just the woman her sons intended to marry. Chloe still wasn’t sure how she could legally wed both of them, but his parents insisted they could make it work.
Mike and Julia walked her to the door. “Don’t you worry. We’ll be hanging around when it goes down to make sure you’re all right.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. This guy is smart, and we think he’s psychically gifted. We can’t get a bead on him.”
“Sure you can,” Sam said from behind her. “Give me another day, and I’ll tell you exactly where he is.”
“Sam, I don’t think—”
Sam cut his father off, and the two started arguing.
“Go on.” Julia pushed her out the door. “Don’t worry about them. It’s an ongoing thing.”
Chloe left with a kiss on her cheek, comforted to be part of a loving family.
They squabbled, but they didn’t shoot at one another. And no one seemed to be running from the law on charges of murder or grand larceny. So far so good.
She saw Josh and Xavier frowning at one another and sighed. After opening the door, she climbed over Xavier and sat between him and Josh. A funny thing, she thought as they drove away in silence. Ever since Xavier had first communicated with her, she’d been able to tell the two apart. Yet even his parents and siblings still got them confused.
That more than anything seemed to seal the deal for their parents about her.
“I love you guys, you know that?” Their frowns lightened but didn’t completely disappear, and she continued. “I want a life with you two. I can’t stop thinking about one day having babies.”
The frowns turned to sly grins.
“Yeah, I know how much you two like to practice making them. But I’m serious. I can’t let this guy, or any others we meet in the future, run our lives. If we don’t take control, we’ll always be at the mercy of someone or something else. I’ve done that, lived most of my young life in the shadow of thugs and my father. I’m done with that. That’s why I became a cop, why I joined the PWP.” She put her hands on their knees and squeezed. “It’s why you two gave me the information I’ve needed to put the bad guys away and protect myself. Josh, I trust you’ll see what you need to to keep me safe. And Xavier, I trust you’ll be there to protect me when I need it. Together, all three of us will take this bastard down.” She grinned. “Like your mom said. We need to end him.”
“Man, she’s good,” Xavier said to Josh.
“I know.” Josh still sounded glum. “But if you want to really draw this bastard in, we do it my way.”
“As long as it involves elements from your vision, I’m good with it.” She paused. “Sam said he’d help too.” When Josh and Xavier looked at one another, she raised a brow. “Okay, out with it. Your dad didn’t seem too happy about his interference either.”
Josh tightened his hands on the wheel. “Sam has a special ability.”
“We all do, but Sam’s is more dangerous when he uses it.” Xavier explained,
“He can astral project. He leaves his body and sees whatever he needs to. Not sure how he does it, but a few times he’s had a problem getting back—to his body. It’s kind of scary, let me tell you.”
“Hell.”
“Yeah.” Josh sighed. “But if he volunteered, I’m not going to turn him down.”
“Me neither.” Xavier nodded. “The boy gets more and more control the more he uses his ability. But my father’s a huge worrier. He’s more a mother hen than Mom.”
“Yeah. I get that. She was all Dirty Harry about ending Psycho Stan. She’s a little scary.”
They grinned at her.
Xavier lowered his voice. “Yeah. So treat her sons right or suffer the wrath of Doctor Death.”
Chloe paused. “You do mean Doctor Death in an alliterative way and not literally, right?”
The silence made her think hard about joining this most unusual family. For all of two seconds. “Damn. I think I love you guys even more.”
Chapter Ten
Josh felt much better about things now that they knew what the bastard looked like. Sam had done well. They’d had enough of a head start to wave Chloe and Josh—her new boyfriend—under Hopkins’s nose before the asshole managed to disappear once more. But now that they had his scent, Josh knew they’d catch the guy.
To say it was an odd way to spend a Christmas Eve was an understatement, but if it got rid of the asshole, he was all in. Well, now that they were doing things his way.
He and Xavier had gone round and round about his vision, and Josh thought it now made sense. Even Chloe had agreed.
She wore the same shirt he’d seen in his vision, one of his overlarge flannel shirts, and a pair of panties. That was it. Xavier had been hiding in her house all day, getting ready for the big moment. The poor bastard had to be uncomfortable, but he’d endured it without protest. Well, without audible protest. He’d bitched like a motherfucker to Josh about it all damn day long.
Josh had spent Christmas Eve walking around town with Chloe, now a veritable winter wonderland with all the accumulated snow. He’d kissed her in public, patted her ass enough that he’d annoyed her and successfully staked his claim, and still managed to buy her a few things she’d hemmed and hawed over without her knowing.
“The guy’s off his rocker with jealousy. He was frothing at the mouth with it,” Sam had told them earlier in the day.
So now Josh and Chloe stood in her bedroom, laying it on thick, or at least trying to. They needed to make their loving look real, but Josh’s attention remained splintered between her and her stalker.
“I felt him enter the house an hour before you got here, but he threw some weird kind of psychic blanket over me. He’s here in the bedroom, but I don’t know where.
It’s weird. I couldn’t see him, but I heard him,” Xavier sent them both. “I just wish I knew exactly what more he can do than shield himself. Damn. Never mind me. The floor’s hard, and you get to make out with Chloe. Well, bro, make it look real.” Chloe frowned at Josh, glaring at him to make his move. But he couldn’t. Not with that bastard watching. How could he expose Chloe to that kind of sickness?
He’d swear he could feel the fucker getting excited. Sexually aroused just from the sight of her.
Or was that just him sexually aroused?
He buzzed inside, awkward and needy and just plain weirded out.
“I don’t know if I want to change my name.”
He frowned at Chloe. “Huh?” Talk about an out-of-the-blue comment.
“When we get married.”