Power Up 3: Whispered Words (16 page)

Jack sighed. “I’m trying. Believe me. Wait one.” Jack grabbed a file from his desk and handed it to Josh. “While you three have been fending off some bullies in the mountains, my guys have done some digging into Psycho Stan. Read up on him.

We’ve got a serious problem that needs to be handled. I’m giving you, your brother, and Chloe the benefit of the doubt on this. But don’t think for a minute my team won’t be with you when we take him down.”

Josh gripped the file in hand, frustrated he’d have to wait to read it until he got home. God forbid he see something vital without Chloe present. She’d probably gut him like a fish. “Thanks, Jack. I’ll let you know what we plan as soon as we work out the details.”

Jack nodded and walked him out of the office and back upstairs. The other staffers watched him with caution while Josh shared the story of Chloe berating his brother for nearly getting himself killed, when she’d been in just as much danger.

“That’s our Chloe. She gets annoyed when the people she loves are in danger.” Josh brightened at the thought. “That she does.” They paused at the front desk, where Ian and Nathan pretended to be heavily occupied with something on the computer.

“Tell her I’ll see her first thing after New Year’s.” Jack grew serious. “There’s just one other thing to take care of before she comes back.”

“It’s being handled.”

“You don’t need any help with that?”

Josh glanced over to see Ian and Nathan no longer pretending not to eavesdrop. The pair looked fierce, no doubt aware he and Jack discussed Chloe’s stalker. “Nope. Xavier and I have it covered. Chloe’s voices don’t fuck around when it comes to her safety.”

Jack nodded, looking more than satisfied. “That’s what I thought.

Outstanding.” To Nathan, he barked, “Set him and his brother up. Waive the application fee. First month is on us as well.” Nathan blinked at Josh and grinned. “Sure thing, boss.” He turned to Josh. “So you and your brother are twins, hmm?”

Ian chuckled. Jack grumbled and left.

Josh explained in no uncertain terms, “We’re Chloe’s. Both of us.”

“That lucky, lucky girl.” Nathan winked, purposely baiting him.

Then Avery returned. “Hey, anybody here have a sudden hankering for gum?” Chloe tapped her foot as Xavier tried to wriggle out of another excuse. Hanging around in his parents’ house wasn’t going to save him from an argument.

“I want to know where he went, Xavier.”

“Baby, we’re just trying to protect you.”

“Dammit. I don’t need protection. I keep telling you that, but—” His father passed through the dining room, whistling. She waited until he left before she yelled at Xavier again. This time without making a sound.

“Enough is enough. No one has seen this guy anywhere. We need to draw him
out, and you know I’m right.”

“But you in danger… I can’t do it. On the job, I get. But knowingly setting you
up when we’ve seen him hurt you?”
Xavier drew her close for a hug and laid his forehead against hers.
“Honey, I’m in love with you. I can’t lose you now.”

“You won’t.”

Mike passed through again. Whistling even louder.

“Why does he keep doing that?”

Xavier grinned.
“He’s trying to save my ass from doing something stupid and
scaring you away for good.”

She grinned with him. “Well, he’s not very subtle,” she said aloud.

The whistling ceased.

“Xavier, I promise. We’ll take every precaution, but I can’t sit around while the
major holidays and the rest of life bypass us. Hell, Christmas is in two days, and I
still haven’t gotten anyone anything.”

“Now that’s just not true. What about that gift you gave me this morning?”
She blushed and glanced around her, recalling the stellar blowjob that had him crying out her name.
“You don’t have any mind readers in the family, do you?”

“Just Dana, but she’s not here tonight.”

“Thank God.”

He chuckled and kissed her.

She pushed his chest and broke the kiss.
“Don’t start. I want to sit down and
plan this out. Your Christmas present to me is catching this creep. He’s waiting for
me. You know it, and I know it. Now let’s nail him down and take him out.

Permanently.”

“Hell.”

“Yeah, of my making. Now where is Josh?”

When Josh returned two hours later, she gave him a piece of her mind. He took it in stride, even managing to look repentant when his parents pretended to scowl at him. His other brothers gathered with them around the large dining room table. Kyle and Justin, the twins. And Sam, their middle brother.

Then Josh handed them the file Jack had given him. The lighthearted warmth previously lingering in the room turned cold as the family and Chloe pored through the pages her team had gathered.

After going through all of it, Chloe didn’t know what to say.

“He’s bad news.” Julia shook her head. “Steward Hopkins, age thirty-two, no wife, no kids. A middle manager at the local grocery store. He looks so average, doesn’t he?”

“I’ve seen him at the gym.” Chloe had a hard time swallowing. This man,
this
monster
, had smiled at her and made small talk whenever he’d come in to work out.

How could she not have seen how evil he was?

Xavier stood up and left the room. He returned a minute later with a glass of water. “Drink.”

“Thanks.” She swallowed the whole glass without pause. “God. This guy is a freak of the first order.” She took a closer look at the papers. “Nathan is a genius.”

“Nathan?” Josh asked. “He didn’t look all that smart to me.”

“Be nice.” Xavier chuckled. “Tell us, Chloe.”

She explained. “Nathan’s gift is psychometry, the ability to tell certain things by touching an object. He didn’t get anything from a scrap of cloth I snagged off Psycho Stan. Or should I call him Psycho Stew?” She sighed and pointed to the information in the file. “But when he touched the shirt I’d been wearing when I’d been attacked, the part the stalker had gripped at the collar, he caught a lot of detail.”

Mike Cannon leaned over her and grimaced at the pictures on the table. “At least ten bodies that they know of? All petite women with dark hair, from what it looks like. Sorry to say you fit his type.”

“Yeah.” Chloe made a face. “But the other info the guys dug up shows him moving all over the place. He’s only been in town a year, but Ian dug up some files of local missing persons he thinks might be linked to Hopkins. And from what Nathan has already seen, he’s apparently linked several other names to Hopkins, places where the grocery chain has major stores and unsolved murders involving young, single women.”

She paused and stared at the picture of a smiling woman, one who might have been her twin except for her dark eyes. “Looks like when his engagement with Susan Rikers went south five years ago, he lost his marbles.”

“Makes you wonder what’s really going on in his mind.” Xavier put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed.

Josh frowned. “Jack didn’t mention any police involvement yet, but we’ll pass this on to the proper authorities once we deal with him.”

“Right.” Chloe made up her mind. “There’s no way we can give this to the cops yet. I know how the system works. He’ll leave again, but not before killing more before he’s locked up.
If
he’s locked up. Hopkins is smart. He’s gone this long without anyone knowing. And the fact that he’s able to shield himself scares the hell out of me.”

Josh agreed. “This guy is tight. I’ve tried to see into Chloe’s future, and it’s getting better, but about the stalker, it’s touch and go. When I look into him, one minute he’s like quicksand and the next he’s crystal clear. Leaving him alive is like inviting people to die. Prison won’t stop him. I can see that much at least.”

“What? What do you mean?” Chloe asked. Josh hadn’t been able to envision much about her or Hopkins, that she knew of.

“I looked in the truck before I came inside. I can see some.” He closed his eyes, and she felt a huge blanket of energy. He opened his eyes, his expression bleak. “I can see enough to know you’ll just be another number, Chloe. If we do nothing, he’ll kill you, and he’ll kill after you. But this time, he’ll stray from his pattern. The next woman will look like you, except for the baby in her belly.” Everyone tensed. “And what he’ll do to her…” Josh looked away, pale and unnerved.

“So we stop him. Now how do we do it?” Chloe and the others finished their evening together by putting a plan into motion, one even his family—most of them—agreed with.

Kyle and Justin thought the idea a good one. Justin nodded at Xavier and Josh. “You two are so lucky. We never had the whole identical swap thing going for us.” He looked sad.

Kyle sighed, and the oppressive atmosphere that had worn on Chloe since she’d seen that folder of Jack’s eased.

“Like I could use another pair of identical twins. Please.” Julia groaned. “Bad enough Xavier and Joshua could get away with it. At least you two aren’t identical.” Kyle glared at Justin as if their being born fraternal was his fault.

Chloe bit back a grin. “Right. Well, I still think Hopkins will go ape-shi—” She stopped when she realized she couldn’t say
ape-shit
in front of Xavier and Joshua’s
mother
. “He’ll go crazy when he sees me with Josh. We’ll hide Xavier under the bed, like in the vision. Then when Hopkins attacks, we have the advantage over him.”

“Really? So are we making out in your bedroom before or after your stalker stabs you?” Josh asked with enough sarcasm to choke a horse.

“Josh, we talked about this.”

“I don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to like it. You just have to do it,” she said in a hard voice.

“Dammit, Josh.” Xavier seethed. “None of us likes this. But we can’t start until we finish this.”

“Start what?”

Julia shook her head. “I swear, they’re smarter than this, Chloe.” She turned to Josh. “A life, sweetie. Chloe and you two need to put an end to this man before he kills more people.”

Chloe looked at their mother. Had the woman she’d been afraid to swear in front of just told her sons to end a man, as in, his life? “You mean put him in jail, right?”

“I mean end him. Period. My boys know what to do.” Chloe blinked. “I thought doctors were all about saving lives.”

“We are. This man isn’t human.” Julia frowned. “From what that file has shown us, Hopkins has already killed at least ten women.” Mike nodded. “We’ve seen this before, and I know you have.” While with the police department in Florida, Chloe had seen a lot of bad people. But she’d come into contact with only a few true crazies. Most criminals tended to be folks who made bad decisions. Then again, that psycho killer from two months ago had tried to kill her and her friends. Him she wouldn’t have minded gutting. “Okay. You make a good point. So who’s with me?” She locked gazes with Josh and refused to look away. “I’m going. So you’re either with me, or you’re staying home. Your choice.”

Josh fumed. She could practically see the steam coming from his ears. “I’ll be in the damn car.”

“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.”