Seychelle very slowly turned her face toward him. There was real fear there. “I know he planted a suggestion for me to be afraid of being humiliated, but I also am fairly certain that’s how he plans to kill you. I think he put the hit out on you. Brandon would think he was so clever using a woman. You’ve established a pattern on these runs. You choose a woman, usually more than one, right? However many nights there are, you use that many women. You whip them and then they blow you. You’ve done it every run, right?”
He nodded wordlessly, keeping his gaze on her face, the hurt that was there, without her even knowing.
“What better way to kill you? He just needs to plant the suggestion in the right women, the women you’ll choose. He has to get me out of the way. I’m too innocent, too naïve. Too terrified to suck your cock. I don’t get the job done, you go to someone else. That someone starts out perfectly but then whips out a knife or a gun and you’re dead. She would be the last person you would expect to want to kill you because, truthfully, she would have no idea she was about to kill you. She wouldn’t remember she was given the command. After it was done, she wouldn’t remember either. She would have no idea why she killed you.”
“Shit, baby, you could be right about this,” Savage said. He noticed, now that they were talking about things she was more sure of, like psychic talent, she seemed much stronger and more self-confident. “Campbell definitely believes he can get women to do anything for him.”
She nodded. “That’s true, but he believes he’s superior to everyone. I have the feeling his half brothers’ talents aren’t nearly as strong as his. Mine is far stronger than his, yet he hasn’t for a moment considered that could be the case.”
“You said something about the possibility of him being able to find a pathway into your mind just as you could into his,” Savage said, “if you used your voice on him.”
She shook her head. “Not a pathway into my mind exactly. He could find a thread of sound to use. That’s what I did to him to stop him from using Doris. That enraged him. I took two of his women from him, and then when he came to my home with Doris, I was so upset over losing you, I didn’t recognize that he’d set a trap for me.”
He stayed silent, willing her to continue. She was shaking. He wanted to get up and get her a blanket, or at least his jacket again, but she was next to the fire, and it wasn’t cold. She was afraid. He couldn’t imagine her being afraid of Brandon Campbell, but he was going to hear her out. He knew psychic talent could even the playing field very fast.
“For me, the way people speak are notes in the air. They have color to them. Everyone’s do. Those notes are trails that are paths leading to that person’s mind. You actually have the same talent. Most people have more than one talent, but the talents are varied and small surrounding the vast one. The main talent is usually not developed. Your voice commands people. It soothes at times. You use it on me, and I let you because our notes create this beautiful, unbelievable, wild music together.”
She saw it, then. He wasn’t the only one. Her notes. His. He rarely saw others, but sometimes. More so when he was with her, as if he was seeing the beauty of musical notes through her eyes.
“The point I’m making is that my talent is quite significant in this area. I recognized Brandon’s ability when he asked me out and used his voice on me. I was angry that he would right away use his gift rather than just ask me out. At that point I didn’t let him see that I had any talent. It wasn’t worth it. At the time, I had no idea what he was doing to other women.”
Savage would like to hunt the bastard down and do a few things to him. He stayed silent, willing Seychelle to continue. He could feel she was trying to separate herself from him, so he reached over and took her hand, prying open her fingers to bring her palm to his thigh. She didn’t look at him, but she didn’t pull away.
“He knew immediately I didn’t react to his voice. Not everyone does. That must have intrigued him because he started watching me. I’d spot him sometimes on the headlands walking with a woman, kissing her even, but he would be looking at my cottage.”
Savage didn’t interrupt her to tell her Brandon wasn’t intrigued with her because she hadn’t succumbed to the persuasion of his voice. Savage had recognized certain traits in her the moment he was with her. Not only that she had a gorgeous, curvy body, but that she might be more likely to be open to his needs. Granted, he was the kind of man who was trained in spotting every type of characteristic in others, but that didn’t mean someone like Brandon might not see those things in her as well. Savage didn’t tell her because Seychelle still hadn’t quite come to terms with her nature, and it would embarrass her to think anyone else might see into her darker needs.
“When I thought I’d lost you, Savage, I lost a part of myself. I felt broken inside. It was silly, really, because we were just friends. You’d made that clear. We hadn’t been together intimately …”
“I have to stop you right there, baby,” he said. “We were more intimate than I’d ever been with anyone. Ever. You knew it. I knew it. Both of us felt broken, and that was on me. I should have just told you what I was, but I was afraid of losing you, so I blew it before we even got started.” He pressed her palm tighter into his thigh. He couldn’t let her think she was the only one damaged by his careless behavior.
She flicked him a quick look from under her thick, dark lashes, and his gut twisted. Those blue eyes of hers did him in every fucking time. The smallest beginnings of a smile flirted with her lips, and that dimple on the left side of her mouth flashed briefly, making his heart turn over.
“I wasn’t myself,” she corrected. “I didn’t pay attention like I should have. By that time, I knew he was upset with me. I’d gotten Sahara back to her parents and out of his reach. He came with Doris, and I thought it was to find where Sahara was so he could get her to come back. I also thought it was to show me he could control Doris, my friend, to subtly threaten me through her. That wasn’t his intent either. I opened myself up inadvertently because I wasn’t paying enough attention. By doing so, I put you in danger.”
Her palm rubbed back and forth on his thigh, and she looked down at his hand covering hers, unable to meet his eyes, as if she was ashamed.
“Baby, I still don’t understand.” He didn’t. His brothers had been watching over her at the time, since she wouldn’t let him into her life. They’d even recorded the encounter for him. Savage had watched the recording several times and he’d been angry with her, but only because she’d been listless and despondent, seemingly not interested in Doris’s visit until she suddenly turned her head to look Brandon straight in the eye at something he said. The camera caught her look of absolute challenge. She had a fuck you look on her face. There was no mistaking it. Brandon wouldn’t mistake it. She had issued a challenge, and no way was that man going to back down.
“He used his voice on Doris all the time, having her tell him when someone was visiting Sahara and then later Tessa. He asked her details about you and me, and she told him, all chatty and innocent, but always on his side because wasn’t he wonderful.” She sounded sarcastic. “I should have known he was being too heavy-handed.”