Chloe had heard the bastard leave the closet the moment the door had shifted, its squeak no longer noisy. No doubt the psycho had oiled it to be quiet. Oddly enough, she didn’t think Josh had sensed him. Hopkins had done something to her man, and she didn’t like it. Oh, she loved the orgasm, but it didn’t seem right. That and Xavier’s mental shouts to beware had done more to help her than anything.
The moment Josh withdrew, she readied for action, though she kept her body intentionally loose.
“Josh? Can I turn around now?” she asked in a purr, completely aware of the much smaller hand now gripping her shoulder.
“No, baby. Let me do it again. I’m so hungry for you.” Another man’s voice, another man’s hand touching her ass, and she’d had enough. “You fucking whore.”
“Chloe, move now!” Xavier’s warning came just in time.
She twisted to the right, and the blade that would have stabbed her between her shoulder blades hit her shoulder instead. She staggered away as Xavier shot her stalker’s ankles from beneath the bed. Then another four shots hit the bastard one right after the other in the heart. Kill shots, dead center.
From the bed, Josh stared up with a dazed expression, aiming the gun that had been hidden under her pillow at her would-be attacker before Josh slid off the bed onto the hardwood floor.
“That was oddly anticlimactic.” Relieved it was over, she pulled the knife out of her shoulder, swore at the pain, and bent down to help Xavier out from under the bed. Once he was out, she moved to Josh.
But Xavier shoved her aside.
She quickly rolled to her back and saw, to her shock, her attacker stand on bloodied ankles. He didn’t seem to feel his wounds, and the blank expression on his face freaked her the hell out. What the hell were they dealing with here?
“No pain, no gain,” he sang, that creepy voice forever etched into her brain.
“You’re mine, Chloe. Until I’m done with you. And I’m not done with you yet, you bitch.”
The doors downstairs slammed open, the gunshots obviously penetrating the psychic bubble that seemed to prevent others from sensing the man.
Like she remembered, Hopkins had even features and an average frame. But the sheen of crazy glittered in his eyes like emeralds. He smiled down at Josh. “Felt good, didn’t it, pretty boy? Coming inside that hot snatch? Bet it tastes even better now with us inside her.”
Josh shook his head, obviously trying to shake free of his confusion as he tried to get to his feet. Chloe wanted him to stay down. They didn’t need an unstable hero in the mix.
Hopkins reached into his pocket and withdrew a switchblade. One he pointed at Xavier. “Your turn.”
Xavier stood tall and strong in front of Chloe. “Josh, bar the door.” Josh rolled away faster than she would have thought him able and slammed the door right as Ian appeared. With a raised hand, Josh turned the antique lock and sealed them inside. “We got this,” he slurred.
Not exactly the heartening cry of support she’d hoped might calm her rescuers.
But at least this way she knew that Hopkins wouldn’t evade justice. Not now.
“Chloe!” She heard Ian, Nathan, and Keegan calling her name. And she knew there were others outside as well.
“Not yet,” she shouted. “I got this. Keegan, don’t you dare tear down the door!” The telekinetic could easily rip it away, but she had to handle this. Josh had seen her and Xavier and no others. Who knew what might happen if anyone else became involved? “My voices said it’s just me and them and Hopkins. Don’t fuck with me on this.” She hoped like hell she didn’t sound as shrill as she thought she did. But she couldn’t stomach the thought of anyone else dying at the hands of this psycho. And certainly not her friends.
“Oh goodie. You know my name.” Instead of sounding worried, Hopkins laughed with delight. “We’ll put it on our wedding invitations in blue and gold.
Whore takes Hopkins as wife.”
Chloe was really getting tired of being called a whore. The anger helped stave off the fear inside her.
“We got this,” Xavier yelled as he ducked the blade aimed at his throat.
Hopkins had an uncanny ability at hand-to-hand combat.
What surprised her even more—so did Xavier. She’d seen him and Josh in the woods and knew the pair could hunt. But his skill at bare-knuckle brawling astounded her.
Despite sharing the dizziness Josh must have felt, Xavier met her stalker blow for blow, avoiding the knife while backing the bastard into the corner. Chloe used the distraction to grab the pistol Josh had dropped.
Hopkins slashed at Xavier. He managed to draw blood before Xavier reassessed the situation enough to avoid more than that wound to his forearm.
She fired twice at Hopkins’s legs, but nothing happened. The gun must have jammed. She worked to free the bullets and reload the magazine. “Fuck.” Then she saw Xavier’s pistol near their enemy’s feet. Josh recognized the danger at the same instant. As if reading her mind, he rolled for it at the same time Hopkins threw the knife at him.
Xavier intercepted the psycho, and Josh and caught the blade in the meat of his arm. He fell just as Hopkins picked up the gun.
But Chloe was two steps ahead of him. She’d cleared the rounds and reinserted the magazine, never more glad of her time served as a cop who lived and breathed her pistol. She fired a bullet right between Hopkins’s eyes. And if that wouldn’t stop him, she’d keep shooting until the fucker flat-out died.
The single bullet did the trick. As he fell, she noticed the protrusion of what looked like a protective vest underneath his shirt, explaining his ability to resist four bullets to the chest earlier. The ankles, though, those wounds should have incapacitated him.
Banging on the door alerted her to hurry up before they broke it down. “I’m good. We’re fine. Hold on,” she yelled.
Thankfully, they didn’t bust down her door. She buttoned up the shirt she wore while Xavier helped Josh tuck himself back into his jeans and button up. All she needed was for her friends to see her and Josh half naked.
“With cum dripping down your leg,” Xavier added and tossed a T-shirt at her.
She realized she’d been thinking out loud.
She cleaned up, blushing like crazy, and threw on a pair of sweatpants as Xavier unlocked and opened the door.
Five men tried to bust through the opening at the same time. It would have been comical had she not been so keyed up on adrenaline and worried about what Hopkins had done to Josh.
“There’s a car waiting downstairs,” Ian said quickly.
“Good,” Xavier growled. “We need to get Josh to a hospital. The idiot got himself drugged.” “After he got to come inside you. Next time I’m playing bait while he hides under the bed.”
Xavier sounded cranky and out of sorts but otherwise healthy. The blood dripping down his arm didn’t bother her as much as Josh’s near-comatose state.
Xavier saw the direction of her worry and swore.
“And again I’m bleeding, and he gets all the concern. You owe me, Chloe,” he started whining as Ian prodded him out the door. “I’m wounded, and she goes to him. Again.”
“I know. Women. Why do you think I prefer men?” she heard Ian say as he escorted Xavier downstairs.
“I love you, Xavier. I’m worried about you too. I swear.”
“Well, okay, then.” He sounded sulky until he laughed. “Had you going, didn’t I?”
“Jerk.”
“Witch.” He paused. “Don’t worry. I can feel what my bonehead brother feels.