Secret Love

by Tabatha Drake

  It’s him.

  I look up into his silver eyes, the only bit of his face visible behind the black mask, and scream. I spin onto my knees to crawl away, but he’s on me fast, grabbing me by my wet hair and yanking me back. He twists me around and slams me down to the floor. My head smacks the hard tile and pain crashes through my spine as he mounts me and wraps his hands around my neck.

  I expect to feel my lungs gasping for air, but he doesn’t choke me. He sits there with wide eyes, staring down into mine as if to memorize my fear. It won’t last. Any moment now he’ll flex his fingers and my trachea will crush beneath the weight.

  This is it. This is how I die.

  “Mercer…” I say.

  His grip loosens. “How do you know my name?” he asks, tilting his head.

  There’s confusion in his bright eyes, but I detect playful amusement dancing behind it all.

  “He told me—”

  “Who told you?” He leans in close enough for me to smell his stale breath behind the mask. “Who?” he repeats.

  I quiver in his tight grasp. “Fox Fitzpatrick,” I answer.

  His eyes twitch with pleasure — even more so than they were before choking the life out of me. “So, he is here?”

  I nod.

  “Oh…” His laughter, dark and cold, rattles my core. He draws me closer to his wild eyes. “I knew it… I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist this…” He grabs me and raises me off the floor, standing me in front of him like a human shield. “Fox! Take the shot! I dare you!”

  I furrow my brow in confusion as Mercer pushes me forward toward the windows. He reaches up and rips the blinds open to look outside, keeping me in front of him. I scan the buildings across the street, spotting nothing in the darkness.

  “Fox!” he shouts again, laughter shaking his throat. Mercer grips the back of my neck even tighter and pulls me backward as he steps to the door. “You can end this now, Fox! Just shoot her through the heart and you’ll hit me, too!”

  I cringe, fear stalling my movement. Mercer tugs me along with him into the hallway, slowing down before we reach the living room.

  Smith. I see him there, lying face down on the floor of the kitchen next to his toppled chair.

  Mercer keeps me close, refusing to let me run away as he pushes us toward the windows.

  “Fox!” Mercer shouts even louder as he reaches out and rips off a few more window blinds. “Come on, Fox. Don’t be a coward! Just one bullet.” He taps my chest hard enough to leave a bruise over my heart. “Right here.”

  I stiffen, fearing the crack of a bullet.

  Mercer growls in amusement as he keeps me pressed against him. “Guess the killer’s gone soft…” he whispers in my ear. He moves his hand down my chest and slips it into my robe to palm my bare breast. “But I can’t see why—”

  The window shatters. The vase of flowers on the end table beside us cracks wide open, spilling roses and water all over the floor.

  “Ooo!” Mercer jerks me with excitement. “He really didn’t like me doing that…” He tugs me backward with him toward the door. “Now that you’ve given yourself away… I’ll give you a choice, old friend. You can follow me down the stairs and shoot me once I reach the street… or you can take out the other guys just begging to run in here and have fun with your little sister. It’s up to you!”

  Mercer shoves me forward and launches himself out the front door, hiding from the windows as he charges toward the elevator.

  I rush into the kitchen and fall onto my knees next to Smith. “Oh, god — get up.” I push him over onto his back and wince at his blood-covered face. His skin is warm, alive. I check his neck for a pulse and feel the faint thumping against my fingers — although, I can’t be entirely sure it’s not just my own heart pounding.

  “Wake up, Smith!” I tap his face with my palm, hard enough to open his eyes. He grunts and I breathe a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank god, you’re alive!”

  The door flies open behind me. I turn to see a man standing there. He’s dressed all in black, wearing the same mask and tactical vest as Mercer. He slides a knife from his belt and lunges at me.

  I scream.

  A bullet pierces his head. He falls to the floor and drops his knife while a red pool spills out beneath him.

  I stare at him with wide eyes, terrified to even move.

  My cell phone rings. I jolt at the sound singing through my purse on the counter above my head. I reach for it with shaking hands and answer it without looking. “Hello?”

  “Dani, I need you to run.”

  My jaw sags. “Fox?”

  “Stand up and move to the window.”

  I push off the floor with quaking knees. “Are you actually out there?”

  A small light flashes at me from the window across the way.

  “What the hell is going on?” I ask.

  “Right now, there’s two more of them running up the stairwells — one on the north side, the other south. Take the north stairs down. Do it now.”

  “Fox—”

  “Now, Dani.”

  I move to the door and my foot slips in blood. “Which way is north?” I ask, wiping my toes on the carpet in the hall.

  “Go left.”

  “Should I take the elevator?” I ask, my phone trembling against my cheek.

  “No,” he answers quickly. “The stairwells have windows. I can’t see in the elevators. Go, Dani! Move!”

  I enter the stairwell. Boots echo toward me, charging fast. I look down to see a black mass bolting up just a few floors down.

  “Just keep going, Dani,” Fox says. “I have a shot.”

  “You have a what?”

  The window cracks beside me and the man falls off-balance. Blood sprays my face as he tumbles to his knees and crumples back down the stairs. I look up through the broken window, too shocked and scared to move.

  “Run all the way down,” Fox says in my ear, his voice sounding more distant than before. “Don’t stop. I’ll meet you there.”

  My lungs jolt from lack of air. They force me to take a breath and my knees lock beneath me. I can’t stop staring at the body. Red blood rolls down the stairs, dripping softly against the linoleum.

  There’s so much blood.

  “Dani, listen to me. Okay. Listen to my voice.” He’s so calm and steady. It’s almost unreal. “Tell me you can hear me. I want you to say it.”

  “I can hear you, Fox,” I whisper.

  “I know you’re scared, but you have to keep moving.”

  “I… I can’t—”

  “I’ll be with you the whole time. I’m right here. I won’t let anything happen to you. Say it.”

  His voice crawls over my nerves, melting into me like an ice cube in a glass of warm water. “You won’t let anything happen to me,” I repeat.

  “That’s my girl.” I hear the smile on his lips. “Now, run.”

  I do as he says, racing down so quickly I can barely stay upright. My heart pounds in my chest, fear blinding my vision. I’ve filmed a dozen sequences like this before, but it’s done nothing to prepare me for the real thing. I flinch as my bare toes slam against the floor and I lean into the railing to support myself until I reach the bottom.

  As I step outside, a black car swerves to the curb and stops a few feet away from me. Pedestrians do a quick double-take, many of them likely recognizing my face.

  “Get in!”

  Fox. He throws the passenger side door open and I don’t hesitate to lower myself into it. “What the hell is going on?!” I ask him again as we speed off into traffic.

  “Keep your head down.”

  “Why?”

  He forces my head down between my knees as a blaze of bullets pierces my window. I scream and cover my head with my arms.

  “That’s why.” He turns back in his seat and grabs a pistol from the duffel bag on the floor.

  I glance out my window, hearing the roar of a motorbike flooring toward us. A third man in black points a gun at me
and I gasp. “Fox—!”

  Fox pulls the trigger, clipping the third man on the cheek with a single bullet. The bike lurches to the side, sending him across the pavement in a red, bloody heap. My jaw drops, but I can’t make myself look away.

  “Dani, you okay?”

  I turn to him, taking slow, deep breaths that do nothing to calm me. He looks straight ahead, weaving in and out of traffic with extreme focus. My skin feels cold and the slightest wind gives me chills. I realize I’m still wearing my robe… and nothing else.

  “I’m naked,” I murmur.

  His eyes wander down my legs but retreat forward again just as quickly. “We’ll find you some clothes. Just relax and keep your head down.”

  I grip my robe tighter around me and slide down in the seat.

  Chapter 11

  Fox

  I pause outside the motel room door to check for the sliver of paper I left pinched in the frame. It’s still there, barely visible unless you know to look for it. No one’s been here since I left. Good.

  I unlock the door and hold it open for Dani. She quickly walks in with her head still down, just like I told her to, though I wonder if it did any good at all. How am I supposed to keep her hidden when everyone in the world knows her face? Even the old man at the front desk looked twice. I suppose it’s not every day a pretty girl in nothing but a bathrobe sneaks into a hotel room with a mysterious man who paid in cash.

  Then again, this is Los Angeles.

  I lock the door behind us. Dani sits down on the edge of the bed, her fingers still clutched around the neck of her short robe. Her thighs stick out the bottom, attached to long, perfect legs and blood-covered toes. She’s still pale from shock. Her eyes are cold, devoid of that spark she usually had before.

  I grab a disposable cup off the bathroom counter and fill it with water from the sink. “Dani, you okay?” I ask, offering her the cup.

  She looks at me with trembling eyes as she takes it. “Yeah.”

  “It’s okay to say no.”

  “Oh.” She sighs and takes a slow sip. “I might change my answer then...”

  A pop song pierces the silence. Dani lurches and water spills over the side of her cup before she deflates and reaches into the pocket of her robe.

  “Just my phone,” she says.

  I snatch it from her hand before she can answer it.

  “Wait—”

  “No phone,” I say.

  “No phone?!” she repeats. “I have to answer that, Fox. It’s my Dad. My building’s security would have called him by now.”

  “He’ll live.”

  “Fox.” She stares up at me with narrow eyes. “If I don’t answer that, he’s going to freak out. Do you want Bennett Roberts to freak out?”

  I bite my inner cheek. “I will call him. From a different phone. This one can be traced, and we don’t want that.”

  “Fine,” she says, obviously too exhausted to argue.

  She slowly peels the bandage off her face and tosses it into the trash can by her feet. My cheek tingles, reminded of the same scar I have on my own face.

  Dani Roberts. It’s finally sinking in. I’m in her presence again. Now that the adrenaline has worn off, I feel that electrical charge radiating my nerves. I haven’t felt it since the last time I saw her. Since the night we…

  Blood pumps in my ears. My skin tickles. Saliva gathers beneath my tongue. She’s here. In my motel room.

  She’s sitting on my bed.

  I clear my throat and step toward the closet for my duffel bag. “It’s not much,” I say, grabbing one of my white dress shirts and a pair of black boxers, “but they’ll fit until we can get you something else.”

  Dani takes them from me and nods without speaking, nor does she show any telling emotions as to whether she’s appalled by the thought of wearing them. I watch her movements in my peripheral vision, completely losing myself in her again. She slides her fingers through her damp hair. It falls on her face and the locks stick to her cheeks. She pushes them behind her shoulders to bare her neck. Her tongue wets her cherry lips and my manhood strains against my pants.

  I spin toward the door. “Stay here.”

  Dani stands up. “Where are you going?”

  I hold up a hand to stop her. “I just need to pick up a few things,” I explain. “Wait here. I’ll only be a few minutes. Put the chain on until I get back.”

  I don’t wait for a response. I close the door and lock it behind me, pausing for a few moments until I hear the metal chain sliding into place. It’s not much — and won’t slow Mercer down more than a few seconds — but it’s all I have right now.

  Dani’s a problem, in more ways than one. I have to get her out of the city. This is Los Angeles. Hollywood. Every person down to the street vendors knows who she is. If I plan on getting her out undetected, then I’ll have to improvise… and she isn’t going to like it.

  But first…

  I pull out my burner phone and quickly scan through Dani’s phone for his number while I head down the street toward the pharmacy a few blocks down. It rings for longer than necessary and I grit my teeth with impatience.

  “Hello?”

  There’s a shake to his tone, like a man expecting a ransom call.

  “Bennett, she’s fine,” I say.

  “You little piece of shit,” he seethes, raising his voice. “I knew you were behind this.”

  “I’m not behind anything. Like I told you earlier, she was attacked. I saved her life tonight.”

  “Well, isn’t that convenient for you? You get to swoop in and be the hero. You know what I think, kid? I think you made up a bogeyman to blame it on. How do I know you’re not the one who killed Lamb in the first place, eh? Buy any black masks lately?”

  “It’s a good theory, but you’re wrong.”

  “How much you want to bet the second Smith recovers your name is the first thing to come out of his mouth?”

  I pause. I shouldn’t implicate myself anymore. Hiding from Mercer is its own game completely. I don’t want to deal with the entirety of the LAPD tracking us down, too.

  “All you have to know is that she’s fine, she’s safe, and she will be as long as she stays with me,” I say.

  “And all you have to know is that if you so much as lay a finger on my daughter again, I will kill you with my bare hands.”

  As far as threats go, it’s about as menacing to me as a newborn baby wielding a plastic spork, but I understand where he’s coming from. He’s her father. She’s his daughter. I’m the punk kid who took her virginity. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard him pull the protective dad routine and actually mean it.

  “I’ll keep in touch.”

  I end the call and toss both phones into the nearest trash can on the street.

  I enter the pharmacy and buy a pair of scissors, a comb, and a box of black hair dye.

  Chapter 12

  Fox

  I turn the paper bag over and everything spills out on the bed beside her.

  Dani stares at them for a moment with curiosity before her eyes go wide. “Oh, hell no…”

  “Dani…”

  “I am not chopping my hair off!”

  Firm, defiant. It takes everything in me not to lean over and kiss her right now. Just looking at her swimming in my too-big-for-her shirt is hard enough as it is.

  “Yes, you are,” I say.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Since we can’t go anywhere without someone recognizing you, we’re going to have to drastically change your appearance.”

  “I’ll wear a hat.” She nudges the box of dye away with her toes. “Do you have any idea how long it took for me to grow my hair out like this?”

  “Dani.” I take a deep breath to stay calm. After all these years, I’d forgotten how stubborn she can be. It still doesn’t stop my dick from throbbing. “You can either have long, pretty hair, or you can be dead.”

  “I choose death.”

  “If you don’t do it y
ourself, I will.”

  She stares up at me, believing every word. “I thought the army was supposed to teach you patience.”

  “I’m not in the army anymore. I was discharged.”

  “Honorably?”

  “For the most part.”

  She crinkles her nose. “What does that even mean?”

  “It means…” I lean down, “go cut your damn hair off or I’ll tie you down and do it myself.”

  She stands up off the bed, challenging me. “If you want me to do this, then you have to tell me what the hell is really going on.”

  I hesitate. “It’s a long story, Dani. We don’t have time.”

  “You broke into my apartment today, didn’t you?” she asks, crossing her arms.

  Shit.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Tell me the truth, Fox, because I sure as hell didn’t open those blinds.”

  I sigh. “Okay. Yes. I did.” She opens her mouth to shout, but I talk over her. “I had to make sure I could watch you from across the street, so I broke in and opened your blinds after I left the house earlier.”

  She frowns. “How long exactly were you watching me from across the street?”

  “Since the moment you came home.”

  “Even when I was—?”

  “No.” My eyes fall to the floor. “I looked away while you were… undressing.”

  “You little pervert!”

  “Dani, come on. I looked away.”

  “You expect me to believe that?”

  “I wouldn’t lie to you.”

  “You just told me you didn’t break in—”

  “I know. Dammit, Dani, can we just…”

  I hold her eyes, hoping that she’ll believe me. If I can’t get her to believe me about this then she’ll never trust me at all.

  Finally, she sighs. “Who are these snake people?”

  “Snake Eyes,” I correct. “They’re an elite group of highly-trained agents,” I say, choosing my words carefully. “Snipers, like me. Soldiers, hackers, you name it — pretty much the best there is. They work in squads. Each agent performs a different task to finish a job.”