Whispered Words

Chapter Five

Chloe stretched but didn’t touch anything except cool, crisp sheets. Wondering where the heck she was, she glanced around and saw sunlight streaming through the window. Obviously morning, and she lay in the large bed in the bedroom. One of them must have carried her in. The thought made her warm all over.

Then she remembered what they’d shared, and she didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or exhilarated. She felt a little of both as she cleaned up in the shower and dressed in warm jeans, a fresh T-shirt, and her sweater from yesterday. She’d actually had sex with two men at once. Call her naive, but wow, she’d never in her life imagined it might be like that. Tremors of arousal whispered through her, and she could only be thankful neither Cannon had empathic abilities. Just a forecaster and a telepath.

Oh God.

That somehow made it all worse, because she realized the full impact of what she’d done. She’d had sex with her voice. The part of her she’d always considered special, what set her apart in a good way for once. But it was nothing more than an odd connection between herself and two very human, if not exactly normal, men. In a sense, it was a letdown, because her ability to stay one step ahead of danger, to bring down the bad guys, came not from her innate psychic senses but from Josh, apparently. He was the one having the visions. She was merely his conduit to voice them. A mouthpiece for his talent.

But the sex…

Her stupid body wouldn’t let her forget how they’d felt against her, how right the joining of all three of them had been. But the seedy part of her brain made it more like a gangbang. Something dirty and whorish. She’d let two virtual strangers come inside her. Not just stupid, but insane. Sure, she took birth control, but who knew if they practiced safe sex. Just because they said they did didn’t mean shit.

Men lied all the time to get in a woman’s pants. And they hadn’t even had to try very hard. She’d come on to Josh, after all.

Mortified, she stood there wondering what to do. Where to go. Because where could she go? A glance out the window showed the snow several inches thick on the ground while more came down from the sky. Beautiful, desolate, and cold.

“Chloe? You awake yet?”

With those words, Xavier broke the spell of her pity party and forced her to come to some decisions. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she’d learn as much as she could about Josh and Xavier. Maybe there would be some way to salvage her part at work. If Josh continued to see things she needed, and Xavier passed them to her, she could still help Jack and the guys solve cases and track down their client’s missing artifacts. She could still matter and be useful to the living instead of taking care of the dead’s petty needs.

“You okay, honey?”

The concern relieved her, because Xavier sounded like he cared. He probably wouldn’t turn out to be a complete asshole if he cared. Then again, he might want a few more rounds with her between the sheets before the snow let up. Why spoil the mood and ruin his chance at fun?

She sighed and joined Xavier in the living room. That nonstop fire blazed.

“Where do you guys get all the wood?” She saw a new stack by the side of the fireplace.

“There’s a covered box outside we stack all year long.” Xavier crossed the room to greet her. He wore jeans and a flannel shirt, and he’d never looked sexier. His hair was tousled, as if he’d been running his fingers through it. But the look in his eyes as he moved toward her took her aback.

He didn’t look smug. He didn’t leer. He seemed possessive but in a good way.

As if he liked what he saw in her and wanted more.

“Morning, sexy.”

She wished she could control the heat staining her cheeks. Chloe was used to appreciation from men, but the minute they realized she didn’t put out, they turned nasty. She wondered how Xavier would act when she told him no.

His smiling eyes turned sober. “You okay?”

She nodded and forced a smile. “Fine. Thanks.” She glanced around her again.

“Where’s Josh?”

“He went out for morning exercise. Yeah, in this snow. Not me. I need the break.” He reached for her hand and held it as he looked down into her eyes. “About last night…”

Here it came. The other shoe about to drop. He’d be snide about it. No, not Xavier. He’d be über charming and wheedle his way for more.

“Thank you.”

Two simple words and a wealth of meaning behind them. Had he professed undying love or hinted about another go-round, she would have responded with something obnoxious. But his thanks stole the antagonism right out from under her.

“Um, thanks. You too.”

His smile, when it came, had such genuine pleasure she couldn’t help smiling back. And somehow her upset about last night disappeared. She enjoyed her breakfast with Xavier, who regaled her with amusing stories about growing up as a telepathic twin.

“So of course they split us up in school. We caused so much trouble together…

I remember one time when Josh was in gym class. And he got hit in the head playing dodgeball. Stunned him big time. And there I am in the middle of English class reading Charlotte’s Web in front of everybody when I dropped like a sack of potatoes. Bam.”

She blinked. “So you weren’t kidding. You guys really feel everything the other feels.”

“Oh yeah. But how do you explain that to normal people?” A good question. “I got sent to the principal’s office for fooling around while Josh was fussed over. Not a great tradeoff.”

She grinned.

“And then puberty hit. We noticed girls. Dating was a nightmare.” He shook his head and laughed. “What happened with you on the bed a few days ago is nothing. I’d be out with friends and have to hustle to the bathroom to hide a hard-on while my brother got busy without me. Do you know how hard it is to try explaining away a wet spot on the front of your pants when you’re on your own date? Man, I spilled more crap in my lap in those first awkward years… Josh too.

Until we found a rhythm that worked for us, we were known as the clumsy Cannons.”

She laughed. “That’s so sad.”

“Yeah, I’m feeling your compassion,” he grumbled while trying to hide his smile. “You sound like you’re really empathizing with me.”

“You had problems, but at least you had each other.”

“True. We both went through the same things. Oddly enough, we get along pretty well. Don’t get me wrong. We are different people, but we’re so much a part of each other’s lives.” The searing look he gave her unnerved her. “We’ll always be together, Chloe. He and I. I know it, even if he doesn’t yet.” Would make for an awkward life, trying to explain to a wife why the brother was always in the bedroom.

“My family is great. You met my mom.”

She nodded. “You’re lucky.”

“I know it. There’s so much weirdness in my family, it makes it easy to fit in.

We’re all gifted in one way or another. It’s a genetic thing, I think. Because we can trace our psychic skills through generations on my dad’s side. Every single woman married into the family had some form of mind magic. It’s like we unconsciously seek it out.”

“Huh. Interesting.”

“What about you, Chloe? I’ve talked your ear off. What’s your family like?”

“Not like yours, that’s for sure.” She didn’t like talking about her private life much, but he’d shared so much with her. The personal exchange made her feel better about having slept with him. Call her crazy, but when a man expressed interest in anything other than her body, she took it as a good sign. “I told you about my dad. He was involved with gang life and gone more than he was home. My mom was great. But she took a lot of flak for moving in with my dad. Yeah, never married. Had my brother and me and did the best she could to raise us right. She worked two jobs to put food on the table and never cut corners, never cheated at anything.” She swallowed hard, still amazed at how much it hurt to talk about her.

“My mom died years ago, right after I joined the Miami PD.” Xavier poured her a cup of coffee and nodded with sympathy. “That had to be hard for you, but I bet she was so proud.”

She blinked away stupid tears and smiled. “Yeah. Dad was in jail, my older brother had died a few years before trying to take after the old man. I think he did it more for Dad’s approval than anything else. Me? I wanted Mom to be happy. And it gave me satisfaction to put the bad guys away.” She stared at him, bemused.

“Especially when I had so much help making my busts. I know Josh saw the visions, but you reached out to me. Why, Xavier? Why me?” He opened his mouth to answer when the door opened. Josh tromped inside and quickly shut the door behind him. A waft of cold snaked past her, and she shivered. He was covered in snow, his cheeks flushed with cold, his eyes bright, hard, and wary.

“’Bout time you got back.” Xavier nodded to the counter. “Coffee’s hot.”

Josh nodded. He barely looked at Chloe before he closed himself in the bedroom and shut the door.

Xavier sighed. “Don’t mind him. You think you have issues; he’s full of them.” Somehow that didn’t make her feel any better. She decided to just get it over with. “I’m not sleeping with you guys again.”

Xavier froze, the coffee cup in his hand resting at his mouth. He set it back down.

She forged ahead. “Look, let’s be real. I barely know you guys. Hearing you for years is one thing and strange all by itself. But having sex with both of you? A threesome? With me in it?” She scoffed. The minute they got back to civilization, she doubted the relationship would continue. The Cannons were odd but hot. As pretty as she was, they’d move on to greener pastures. Hell, everyone did eventually.

“Why can’t you be a part of us?” he asked quietly.

“We don’t fit.” She looked at him, really looked at him. “Xavier, the psychic stuff is weird enough. I don’t know why I can hear you, why I’ve heard you for years.

But aside from that, Josh doesn’t want me here. I’m an intrusion. And I’m not into casual sex.” She blushed; she couldn’t help it. As if anything they’d done the night before had been remotely casual.

“Chloe, we don’t want a one-night stand from you.” A part of her was glad to hear that. But the admission also scared her. “You have a family that loves and supports you. My dad’s in jail for killing someone during a robbery. And where you can go back generations, I barely know more than that my parents weren’t married, my mother and father and grandparents are all colors under the rainbow, and I grew up in the ghetto.” She hadn’t expected his grin. It annoyed her. “Why is that funny?” she snapped.

“You’re scared. Of us.”

She scowled. “How is being scared funny? And I’m not scared. I’m just a realist.”

He moved faster than she’d anticipated. Before she knew it, he’d muscled her onto his lap and into his arms. He kissed her, and her resistance melted as if it had never been. In seconds, an inferno of lust built between them. His erection prodded her, his hands somehow came between them to caress her breasts, and she had a stranglehold around his shoulders, plastering him to her.

He kissed his way down her cheek to her chin, then trailed to her ear where he whispered, “Don’t be scared, honey. I’m yours. Deep down, you know it.” Then he added without speaking, “You make everything right, Chloe King. Now I need you to help Josh. Because my brother’s lost without you. And for the record, I could a give a rat’s ass if your dad is white, black, Hispanic, in jail, or president of the United States. You’re ours. You know it. I know it. Josh knows it.” He pulled back from her and smiled—and it wasn’t a nice grin but a mean one.

Her pussy flooded at the sight. “So what are you going to do about it? You going to roll over and hide from the truth? Or are you going to fight for what’s yours, the way you have since I first spoke to you on your thirteenth birthday all those years ago?” Josh gritted his teeth and called his brother all kinds of names as he stood under the spray of hot water turning lukewarm. He let a few drops of cold reach him before he turned off the shower and cursed a blue streak while he dried off.

What the fuck did Xavier think he was doing? They’d talked about Chloe long after she’d dropped off to sleep last night. Josh knew they’d made a mistake having sex with her so soon.

He cared about her, a lot.

He didn’t understand it, couldn’t explain it, but he didn’t want to face her scorn the way he had Karen’s. They’d rushed Chloe. Fucking her together after just meeting her had ruined their chances for permanence, and he knew it. But damn if Xavier would listen. And now his idiot twin was out there kissing her again, pushing her once more.

Fuck it all to hell.

Josh took his time dressing. He combed his hair and chose jeans and a sweater that he’d been told more than once complemented his “sturdy frame and dark good looks.” Not for any particular reason. He refused to acknowledge his need to appeal to the firebrand in the kitchen. Instead he tried to ignore the emotional dam building inside him as he sought out the coffeepot.

He found his brother and Chloe sitting next to each other, not touching, in the kitchen. “Xavier?”

To his surprise, his brother didn’t respond. But he could tell Xavier and Chloe communicated, because her concentration remained on his brother and her nose scrunched up, the way it had when they’d talked telepathically before. She looked adorable, and he wanted to kick himself for noticing. Especially when he couldn’t stop remembering how good she’d felt under his hands. How her body had clasped him, accepted him. How she’d swallowed his cum, every fucking drop…

“Morning, brother.” Xavier finally glanced his way and winked.

Asshole. “Yeah.” He poured himself a cup of steaming coffee and drank.

“Hi, Josh.”

Chloe’s husky voice affected him in spite of his efforts to remain unmoved.

“Hey.”

The more he saw her, the more he wanted to see her. Karen was tall and blonde. Model-thin and beautiful. His type, or so he’d thought until he’d seen Chloe.

Short, stacked, with tan skin a shade or two darker than his own. She looked so exotic, so fucking sexy. Those plump lips, the slim, stubborn nose, and those eyes that glittered with erotic promise. Their light blue-gray color entranced him.

His erection returned full force.

“What are we going to do today?” Xavier asked and chuckled at the responses he got.

“Not what you’re thinking, I’m sure.” Josh glanced at Chloe, dying to know what she’d said to him. Even though he’d told Xavier last night to keep him out of their connection with Chloe, Josh didn’t like feeling out of the loop.

“Right. Games it is.”

To his surprise, Josh spent the morning and late afternoon playing card games and board games with his brother and Chloe. The woman hated to lose, and he’d had fun trying to best her at Monopoly, Rummy, and an ugly game of Sorry.

Xavier grinned at him. “I think you two are more alike than we are.” The satisfaction on his face bothered Josh, but before he could say anything, Chloe spoke.

“Well, anyone who plays a game but doesn’t play to win is a moron. Why the hell else sit around for hours on end with dice if you’re not going for victory? Or money?” she added with a cute grin that struck him straight through the heart.

What was it about this woman that got to him in a way Karen never had? Was it the fact she seemed to like both him and Xavier, or that she treated him and his brother like different people? Karen had never seen Xavier as anything but an annoying extension of Josh. Most people they met treated them like the same person. As if because they’d been born identical, they were the same in every other way. Or was it memories of how Chloe had pleased both of them sexually? Because he’d never come so hard or so well before her.

“Bad thoughts to have if you don’t want a repeat of last night,” Xavier reminded him.

“Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. Trust me, I understand.” Josh frowned and out loud said, “You two seemed pretty cozy this morning.”

“It’s called talking. You should try it sometime.” Chloe’s smart-ass comment had Xavier laughing.

“I think I liked you better when you were scared of me.” She snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. “Please. I was never scared of you.” He wondered about the nasty look she shot Xavier as well.

“Oh?” Josh leaned back, now enjoying himself. “When I had my gun at the back of your head, you sure weren’t jumping for joy.”

“Really? Because as I remember it, I kicked your ass and your brother’s and almost escaped a few minutes later.”

He had to smile. “Okay, I’ll give you that one. But who won in the end, sweetheart?”

She blinked innocently. “I’d say I did.” She glanced at the game board, where all of her red pieces sat in the end zone.

“I still say you cheated,” he grumbled, wanting the last word.

“You wish. It’s not my fault you can’t stop staring at my breasts when you should be concentrating on the cards. Talk about a lack of discipline.” Xavier choked on a laugh.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to take a nap. I’m still adjusting to being awake during the day.” Chloe stood and stretched. But when she noticed him and Xavier staring at her, she quickly lowered her arms and muttered to herself as she left the room.

“Awake during the day? What, is she a vampire?” he asked his twin.

“No, dumb-ass. She works nights at PowerUp! Remember Mom talking about signing up at that new gym in town? When we get back, I think we should look into it.”

“Maybe.” If they lived long enough to try. It still bothered Josh no one had heard or seen Werlin in the past week. He’d kept track of Otis and his two brothers, the only ones not currently incarcerated or dead, and the ones to worry about when it came to a vendetta.

“So…”

“So.” Josh waited for Xavier to say what was on his mind. He found it interesting his brother had resorted to verbal communication, when for so long they’d passed mental messages back and forth. To make it easier for Chloe to join their thoughts, maybe?

Xavier swore. “Hell, Josh. Quit being so damn difficult. Have you looked lately?”

“No.”

“Well, do it. I want to see if Chloe’s in danger.”

“And I don’t?”

Xavier shook his head. “You’re in that self-denial thing you’re so good at. You want her, but you’re afraid. So you pretend you can ignore her, when we both know you can’t stop thinking about her. It’s a classic Josh move.”

“Yeah, and you don’t think before you do. A classic Xavier move,” he snapped back. “I’m not afraid of shit.”

Xavier laughed at him.

“What’s so funny?”

“Bro, you sound exactly like Chloe. It’s almost eerie how alike you two are.” And why that pleased him, Josh couldn’t say. “I’m not—”

“Yeah, you are. So alike, it’s scary. Now quit stalling and take a look.” Josh gritted his teeth. But the thought of Chloe in danger worried him. He cleared his thoughts and relaxed, pleased when the cloudy residue of time settled over his concerns. The return of his gift was a welcome relief, like regaining his vision or hearing. Finally right with himself, he allowed the future to unfold.

And that was when he saw Xavier hidden under a bed. A knife sticking out from Chloe’s shoulder. Watched as an average-looking man with crazed brown eyes stabbed him in the neck, then went after Xavier. A glance around them showed an unfamiliar bedroom. What might have been gray or green walls around a large bed.

Scattered clothing. Chloe’s clothing. A few pictures on the dresser, but the room was otherwise draped in chaos.

And then he saw himself slouched against her bedroom door, keeping something out while Chloe shouted something. The vision went dark as the sound of bullets impacted, but he had the impression of Chloe smiling down at him. He blinked into the present once again.

“Tell me.” Xavier looked worried.

As well he should be. Josh shared the vision, and they both quieted, lost in thoughts of how to save the woman who meant more to them than she should.

“We tell her.” Xavier rose from his seat at the table.

“What? No. We need to protect her.”

“Oh? I was under the assumption you wanted her out of here and out of our lives as soon as possible.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Dammit.” Josh cut Xavier off before he could reach the bedroom door. “Don’t.

You’ll influence her future. She’ll leave us too early.”

“Move. She needs to know.” When Josh refused to budge, Xavier shook his head. “This is stupid. I could just tell her without speaking, Josh.”

“But you won’t. Because it still freaks her out, knowing you’re the voice she’s been hearing.”

“Well, yeah. But I’m surprised you knew that.” Xavier gave him an appraising look. “You’re paying more attention to her than I’d thought.” A wide smile spread over his face. “Good to know.”

Seconds passed. “Oh, fuck it. Fine. We’ll tell her.” Josh followed Xavier into the bedroom and stopped at the sight of Chloe wearing one of his flannel shirts and nothing else. She knelt in the middle of the bed, as if waiting for them. His shirt covered her from her shoulders to her knees, but she hadn’t buttoned it. And the hint of her flesh as she shifted turned him on big time.

“Well?”

Josh took a step forward before he could stop himself. And then Chloe took charge.