In His Keeping (Slow Burn 2)

Ignoring Caleb’s instant protest, Beau turned to Ramie, focusing only on her as Zack took Ramie’s place between the two brothers.

“Can you even do it then?” Beau asked, realizing he was holding his breath when his lungs started to burn.

“It’s possible that I could if Ari could provide me with a favorite object or even a piece of clothing that they either touched or wore frequently. If she had something they shared, it would be even better,” Ramie said, rubbing one hand up her opposing arm in a gesture of agitation. She was obviously fretting over the idea of somehow failing Ari.

Caleb moved and Zack immediately stiffened, shooting his employer a warning look. Caleb might be the older brother, but it was clear whom Zack’s allegiance lined up with.

Beau got to Ramie first, wrapping his arm around her much smaller frame. And yet Ari was even smaller, though the two women shared very similar bone structure. Delicate features. They had a lot in common and not just their psychic abilities.

He brushed a kiss over the top of Ramie’s head and gave her a gentle squeeze.

“Ari will understand. She’s good and sweet to her very core. She’ll be overwhelmingly grateful to you for simply trying. Offering your help. It will mean the world to her. Despite Caleb’s ignorant assertion that Ari has no clue what you endure, how much your ability makes you suffer, she is very well aware and it’s why she was so hesitant in asking you. It’s why she didn’t immediately ask you for help the first moment she laid eyes on you.

“We spoke about you the day she came into the office. She knows precisely who you are. She later confided that she always felt a kinship to you and followed all the stories that made any mention of you whatsoever. I think it embarrassed her a little because she feels it’s presumptive of her to believe you and she are kindred spirits. You made her feel not quite as alone. You made her feel less of a freak, because she drew the conclusion that since the two of you possessed psychic ability it was a reasonable assertion that there were others out there as well.”

Ramie wrapped her arms around Beau’s waist and hugged him fiercely. “I know exactly how she feels. And it’s not silly or presumptive to believe we’re kindred souls. I quite like the idea that there are others out there like me as well. I’m not entirely certain why she or I find comfort in that knowledge, but it is reassuring on some level to think we aren’t some accident of nature. An abomination of sorts.”

“I once knew someone who could read minds,” Zack said quietly, surprising the rest of them by speaking up. He was typically a silent observer to the goings-on around him. “She felt much the same as you and Ari.”

Beau’s eyebrows went up at the uncharacteristic outburst from his usually reserved and extremely private partner. It only added to his belief that something in Zack’s past had shaped the man he was today. Now he wondered if Zack had endured the loss of someone who mattered to him. Mother? Sister? Woman he loved?

Caleb scowled and finally maneuvered past Zack when Zack’s attention was momentarily not on him, instead a distant, faraway look in the other man’s eyes. Caleb wrested his wife from Beau’s grasp. Then he cupped her chin and tilted it upward so he gazed down into her eyes.

“You are no freak. You’re a fucking miracle. My miracle. And I thank God for you every single day.”

He glanced up at Beau, sincere apology brimming in his eyes before he returned his gentle gaze to his wife.

“And neither is Ari. She—like you—is a beautiful, giving woman who has a tender, generous, selfless heart and is extremely loyal to the people she loves. Beau’s right. I’m a complete dick. And unlike you and Ari, I am selfish. I readily admit I’m a selfish bastard. But damn it, Ramie. I hate the idea of you experiencing something so horrific. Again. You’ve been through so much already. I just want to protect you. Can you understand that? I love you and I never want to see you hurt like that again,” he said gruffly.

Beau’s anger fled in that instant, and he too offered silent apology to his brother with a single look that was acknowledged by a flicker of a smile, though his eyes were still clouded with worry. And Beau couldn’t fault him for that. The brothers were doing the same exact thing. Protecting their women from the horrors of evil and agony.

Their women . . .

With that acknowledgment, Beau had sealed his fate and forever altered the course of his life—his future. Ari’s future. In actuality, he’d accepted what destiny had provided him the previous night in the most time-honored way a man proclaimed his possession. He’d marked her in the most primitive fashion a man could brand a woman.

She was his.

He’d even said those words to her an hour before, and yet it still hadn’t quite registered. He hadn’t openly acknowledged what his heart already knew.

The truth slammed into him with the force of a speeding train.

Did he love her? Because it sure as hell felt like love. Or at least what he perceived love to be. Surely something else couldn’t be this powerful and all consuming. But it wasn’t the time to make such a huge leap. There was too much to be resolved between them.

Ramie’s lips formed a smirk and her look was triumphant. “I’d say I was quite correct right now, but that would make me smug, right? Dooonne for, Beau Devereaux. Stick-a-fork-in-you done,” she said drawing out the last words for emphasis.

“That’s exactly what it makes you,” Beau grumbled.