In His Keeping (Slow Burn #2)

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.

Dane and Eliza, who’d discreetly backed away from the initial fracas, now stepped forward, both looking all business.

“This poses a huge security risk,” Dane said. “And it can’t be our only plan of action. Ramie herself isn’t certain of her ability to locate her parents so we have to operate under the assumption we don’t have her as our ace in the hole. And we can’t have Ari jaunting off to collect some personal item for Ramie to use. The danger is too extreme.”

Eliza nodded her agreement. “They’ll most assuredly have her residence staked out.”

Beau frowned. “She mentioned that her father has several residences and our records indicate when comparing the addresses Ari provided to the registered owner there’s a paper trail about a mile long and then begins repeating.”

“One does have to wonder why someone would go to such lengths to hide their whereabouts,” Caleb murmured.

“Makes perfect sense to me,” Zack said shortly. “If I had a daughter with powers like Ari, I’d do whatever it took to keep her out of the public eye and the risk factor to her low.”

“Very true,” Beau agreed. “However, I can’t help but think there’s more to it than that. Between the call from her supposed biological father to this mysterious faction who tortured a woman for information and then killed her when she finally caved.”

“I find it interesting that her biological father knows his wife or partner or whatever they were to each other was tortured and killed and that he also happens to know what they wanted and that they were successful in gaining it from Ari’s mother. That’s a hell of a lot of information to know in such exacting detail unless he was present and witness to the event,” Dane mused.

“And if he was present, how did he escape unscathed?” Eliza asked, tapping one blunt fingernail against her chin. “For that matter how the hell did he know where Ari is now and how did he get Beau’s private cell number?”

Beau hadn’t wanted to divulge all the gory details that had been provided him because he hadn’t wanted to scare the hell out of Caleb, and this might well be the nail in Ari’s coffin once Beau did reveal how Ari’s biological father knew what he purportedly knew.

“He told me they dumped her body where he would find her,” Beau said quietly. “It was bad. And they left him a message saying this was what happened to people who crossed him. Whether any of it is true is anyone’s guess. I’m not na?ve enough to believe in the coincidence of receiving a ‘helpful’ call at a time we need it the most.”

Caleb’s features froze, and fear registered starkly in his eyes. He drew Ramie close into the shelter of his body as if protecting her from the unknown or the possible repercussions of her involving herself in helping Ari.

Beau sighed, rubbing a hand wearily through his hair. A glance at the grandfather clock in the corner told him he ought to be getting back to Ari before the meds wore off enough and she awakened. This was the perfect opportunity for Dane to inject the tracking device underneath Ari’s skin. With her already exhausted and under the influence of pain medication it would take mere seconds for Dane to make the insertion and then they had a way of finding her if the worst happened. And it would be the height of arrogance—and stupidity—to consider themselves invincible or impervious to such an attack. Beau certainly wasn’t taking chances when it came to Ari’s life.