He looked around the room. Blood had splattered on the carpet. The gun was still on the floor. Hawk walked over and cleaned the gun butt with his shirt. That was his own blood he was cleaning off, she thought.
“Is this new ability to control the healing related to your getting pain and pleasure all mixed up? Or was that always there?”
She asked in a quiet voice, not wanting to anger him. But he needed to talk about it. Hell, she needed to talk about it.
“I’m sure it was always partly there. It got stronger recently. I know it’s not normal.”
“Well, hell, not much about all of this is normal, Hawk.” She ran a hand through her hair to smooth it back. “We can chuck normal out the window for good.”
He stared at her for a second and nodded. “Now what, Lily?”
Her real name sounded so perfect in his voice. “People still want me and my kid.”
“I’ll take care of that.”
“Oh, no, we’ll take care of it.” She didn’t need to kill them but she needed to find some way to keep them the hell away from her son. “I want these bastards too.” She put her hand out, asking for the gun. Hawk handed it to her.
“First thing I want to do is talk to this Dr. Cheshire myself.”
“You don’t have to expose yourself to him.” Hawk frowned.
“I want to make him squirm. I want to make him look me in the eye and say he didn’t hurt me. I want him to know what he’s done.”
Chapter Sixteen
Del was tougher than he would ever be.
All the shocks in the last twenty-four hours and yet Del had pulled herself together and wanted to confront Dr. Cheshire, the man responsible for her rape.
“We’ll have to get you a holster for that gun first,” Philip said to her. “Tucking it into the waistband of the pants isn’t a safe way to carry it.”
“I had it in the pocket of this.” She picked up her bloody sweater and dropped it again, wrinkling her nose. “I guess you’re right.”
“I’ll get you a new sweater too.”
I’ll get you whatever you want.
Someone pounded on the door. “Drake! It’s been hours. What the hell’s happening in there?”
He and Del looked at each other. She smiled. He smiled. If he could have reached up and grabbed the sun for her in that instant, he would have.
Instead, he shrugged and went to open the door.
Alec practically fell into the room.
“Good, you’re here. You can get Dr. Cheshire for us,” Philip said.
Alec straightened. His eyes widened as he realized that Philip’s shirt was soaked with blood. He looked around and saw Del’s bloodstained sweater and the rust-colored splatter on the carpet.
“What the fuck, Drake?” Alec grabbed the front of Philip’s shirt and slammed him into the wall. Philip made no protest.
“What did you do to her?”
Philip felt the temperature rise in the room, a sure sign of Alec’s power. The firestarter was truly angry on Del’s behalf. Philip’s estimation of him went up another notch.
Del pulled at Alec’s arm. “Let him go!”
Alec let him go and backed up, obviously confused. He looked again at the blood splatter. “I don’t understand.”
“Haw—Philip never hurt me. But we had some stuff to work out.”
“So whose blood is that?” Alec asked.
“Mine,” Philip said.
“And this happened because…?”
“We had things to work out between us in private,” Del said.
Philip was pleased but surprised Del was closing ranks on Alec but he supposed he shouldn’t have been. They’d both learned when young to reveal as little as possible. They owed no one an explanation of what had happened between them. Not Alec and, not, he mused, even Beth. Though he would have to think of something to tell her.
“We need to speak to Dr. Cheshire,” Philip repeated.
“Uh, not in this room. Damn, what a mess.”
“Send me the cleaning bill,” Philip said.
Alec shook his head. “I will never get what the hell you’re about, Drake, not in a million years.”
“It’s okay. I do.” Del laughed. “It’s fine, Alec. Get us another room to talk to Dr. Cheshire, we’ll change, and I promise no blood will be spilled this time.”
She sounded certain of that. He wasn’t. Because he certainly wanted to kill Cheshire. But this was Del’s show now, and she’d said she didn’t want him to kill anyone. She had the most at stake. He’d follow her lead. Whatever she wanted, whatever she asked, he’d see that it was done.
“I still want an explanation for this.” Alec looked at Del. He knew better than to expect answers from Philip.
Del sighed. “It’s too raw right now, Alec. Another time. And given that we’re all connected now, we’ll have plenty of that.”
“Drake’s not a danger to you?”
“Never.”
The conviction in that single word choked Philip’s throat. He couldn’t have spoken even if he wanted. He didn’t know what he’d done to earn Del’s trust so completely in the last few hours. His confession shouldn’t have been enough. And while he knew why the passion had flared on his end, he could only guess about Del.
It didn’t matter.
He’d loved Lily the child as his best friend, his confidante and his glimpse of what people could mean to each other. As an adult, he knew he loved Delilah Sefton in a way that was the same, yet entirely different.
He would not fail her, ever again.
Alec insisted on escorting Del upstairs to change clothes while Philip went to scrounge clothing from the supply closet with T-shirts and jackets that F-Team sometimes used. As Philip was pulling on a new shirt, Gabe arrived to tell him Dr. Cheshire was eager to talk with Del in one of the conference rooms.
Of course Cheshire was eager. It’d been exactly what he’d asked for yesterday. Philip hadn’t intended to give it to him but this wasn’t his call.
Gabe picked up the discarded bloody shirt from the floor. He frowned. “Drake?”
“Yes?”
“Does this have anything to do with why you smashed the mirror last night?”
“Yes.”
Gabe waited, expecting Philip to elaborate. People always seemed to expect him to do that and they were always annoyed when he never did.
“Are you all right?”
Gabe’s question wasn’t an accusation, as Alec’s had been. There was genuine worry in it. Philip had no idea Gabe had taken a liking to him. It certainly wasn’t the usual response people had concerning him.
“I’m better than I have been in a long time,” he said.
It didn’t even matter if what had happened with Del was never repeated, though he was fervently wishing it would be. Her forgiveness had freed something in him.
“Were you watching this on your cameras?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“If I had, I think you’d kill me.” Gabe put up his hands. “No, I just…look, there was this guy I was involved with, years back. A gunnery sergeant, wound pretty tight. Of course, he’d have to be, given he had to stay hidden in the Marines for so long. But he’d been injured badly at least twice in the line of duty. That didn’t bother him but it changed him. He liked it rough. Very rough.” Gabe stuffed his hands in his pockets. “It was hard for him to feel, save for pain. It took me time to get comfortable with that.”
Philip nearly snapped that this was none of Gabe’s business but instead defaulted to a question. “What happened to him?”
“He took a bullet for someone in his unit just before he rotated out. Got a posthumous award for bravery. It’s the way he would’ve wanted to go, he was near the end of his twenty-five years in. I don’t think he had any plan for what he’d do when he got out.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” Message received. Would Philip take that bullet under those circumstances? Damn straight.
Gabe nodded. “Thanks. I still miss him
. I’d offered to help him after he got out. There was a whole world out there he never knew existed. Tough military vet, still in good shape. God, my friends would have eaten him up. In a good way, I mean.” Gabe cleared his throat. “Your Beth worries about you, Drake.”
“I know.”
“Seems to me that someone who can heal injuries might get numb to pain, like my friend. Might even get off on it.”
Philip checked the small caliber handgun nestled in the holster at his ankle. “Is there a point in there?”
“Yeah.” Gabe frowned. “I’d kinda miss you if you jumped in front of a bullet.”
“That’s why I shoot first.”
“Good to know.” Gabe tapped his phone and looked at the display. “Text says Alec’s got Cheshire ready for you. Are you sure it’s a good idea for Del Sefton to be in the same room with him?”
“No, but it’s what Del wants.”
Alec thought Drake had hurt her. For some reason, the assumption angered Del. She dug into her suitcase for a change of clothes. Her jeans wouldn’t button. Argh. She pulled out a pair of slacks that were too big. She’d been saving them for later in the pregnancy but had stuffed them into her duffel when she was packing in a hurry yesterday. She put them on. They were still too loose.
She put on a belt, which at least made the slacks wearable, and called out from the bedroom and asked for a sweatshirt. Alec returned with a plain black cotton sweatshirt that was far too big for her. It did, however, hide the gun she stuffed into the back waistband.
Alec frowned. “Let me get you a holster with a reinforced belt for that. It’s not safe that way.”
“Funny, Philip said the same thing to me.”
Alec scowled, which she didn’t know how to interpret, and returned quickly. She put on the belt—a thicker material than the one she had—and buckled the holster to it. He helped her fit the gun snugly into place. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Keep moving forward, that was the trick. Try not to focus on how she’d almost killed Hawk with the gun. Or on their lovemaking, which had freed something long coiled inside her.
Today, now, protect her son. That meant being calm while talking to Dr. Cheshire.
“Maybe you should rest,” Alec said.
“I’m pregnant, not sick.” Though there were different kinds of sick. She thought of how she’d dug her nails into Hawk’s shoulders. Some might think she was sick. They’d definitely think Hawk was.
She didn’t care.
“Alec, why did you scowl when I mentioned Philip a minute ago?”
“He’s keeping secrets again. I don’t understand why he does that.” He hooked his thumbs in the belt loops of his jeans, looking like a male model in a magazine ad. She wondered if he knew how good-looking he was. “Lansing kept secrets from me all the time. I don’t like them.”
“I can understand that. But in this case, Philip’s doing it for me. They’re my secrets, Alec, as much as his. So if you’re going to be angry with anyone, be angry with me.”
“You don’t get it. You’ve only known him two days and you don’t know anything about him.”
“I’ve known him since he was a child,” she snapped.
That froze Alec. It was a few seconds before he spoke. “You’re kidding.”
“We grew up together, under lousy circumstances, but for most of that time, we were close.”
“Only most of the time? What’d he do?”
“That’s enough,” she snapped again. “Why do you keep thinking the worst of him? What’s he ever done to you?”
Alec backed up. “You’re right. Drake’s done nothing but help me. But he’s made clear he doesn’t like me. No, more like he disapproves of the fact I exist. I never did anything to him.”
“Except put the only person he loves in danger.”
“Yeah, I guess there’s that.” Alec nodded. “I’m trying to understand him but he doesn’t make it easy.”
“No, I bet he doesn’t, but you’re young, you’re in love and you’re practically oozing with power. You can afford to give Hawk the benefit of the doubt.”
Alec nodded. “You called him ‘Hawk’. Is that his real name?”
“A nickname from when we were kids but the only one that stuck. Like I said, our childhood was a mess.”
“Worse than mine?” Alec led her back out of the penthouse and out to the elevator to go back down to meet Cheshire.
“Did you always have a roof over your head and know where your next meal was coming from? Ever worry if those things didn’t happen that someone would beat you senseless?”
Alec slowly shook his head.
“Then, yeah, our childhood was worse than yours.”
The elevator doors closed behind them and they started downward. “I’m not sure what to say. You win?”
She snorted. “It’s not about winning. Just keep it in mind when you’re dealing with Hawk, all right?”
The doors opened and they stepped back into the lobby of bonsai plants and open windows.
“Did your growing up together have anything to do with why Lansing picked you for this, um—”
“Experiment? I don’t know. Hawk seems to think so—he thinks his biological father was trying to get back at him. That seems like a stretch, but then, I didn’t know Richard Lansing.”
“Lansing was capable of that but there might be more to it. He usually had several reasons for doing something.” Alec led her down yet another hallway, different from the one that held the room where she and Hawk had gotten, um, reacquainted. Call it like it was. Where we screwed each other’s brains out.
Hawk and a lanky soldier were waiting for them around the next corner. Hawk’s face stayed impassive, but she read the slight widening of his eyes. That was as good as a smile from him.
“Alec got you a waist holster? And the belt’s heavy enough to hold it?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I’m coming to talk to Dr. Cheshire with you,” Alec announced.
“Why?” Hawk growled.
Of course Alec wanted to be there. Hawk really did give Alec a rough time. No wonder the younger man was resentful.
“Cheshire’s here because I brought him here,” Alec said. “This is my operation.”
“Do you two always do this?” Del asked.
“You mean the dick-measuring contest? Most of the time, they do, yes,” the lanky soldier said.
“Who usually wins?” Del asked.
“I do,” Alec and Philip said simultaneously.
She smiled. The soldier caught her eye and shrugged.
“Hi, I’m Gabe.” He held out his hand and they shook. “I handle a lot of the tech around here.”
“You’re with Alec’s F-Team?”
“Yep.”
“Good to meet you, Gabe.” He didn’t seem the least bit discomfited by Hawk. Good. She wanted to have a talk with him later. It would be nice to get a normal person’s perspective on all of this. Though Gabe would have a soldier’s perspective, not a civilian one. Close enough.
She glared at Hawk and Alec. “Dr. Cheshire is responsible for screwing around with my life. I’m going to talk to him. In other words, this time, I win. Clear?”
They nodded. They did that in unison too.
Gabe left, saying he was going back to his computer searches. The three of them entered the room together. Unlike the room where she and Hawk had spent half the day, which was more like a mini studio apartment, this was a true conference room, with a central wooden table surrounded by blue-padded chairs. The walls were painted in neutral colors and the window blinds had been closed.
Dr. Cheshire, who had been seated at the table, rose to greet them. “Ms. Sefton!” He walked over to her and offered his hand. “I’m so glad to see you well.”
She ignored the proffered handshake and instead turned to open the blinds to let in light. For some reason, she craved light just now.
She sat at the head of the table. Cheshire, flustered, took the seat at her
right hand and Alec the one to her left. Hawk sat down at the other end of the table, across from her.
She put her elbows on the table and stared at Cheshire. He looked less haggard than he had in the video she’d watched this morning. In fact, he looked a little pleased with himself. She wanted to wipe that smugness off his face. She didn’t want to experience a killing rage again but, hey, that didn’t mean she couldn’t get angry.
“Am I well, Doctor? What should be wrong? You seemed concerned when you talked to Mr. Drake about my condition.”
“Of course, I’m concerned about my patient.” Dr. Cheshire tapped his fingertips on the table. “I’m concerned with any patient who I haven’t been able to examine properly in some time.”
“Your patient?” Del said, her hands flat on the table. “Be careful with your words. I’m not your anything.”
“I don’t understand,” Cheshire said, though Del was sure he did.
“Wouldn’t you more properly refer to me as an experimental subject? Or maybe I’m just the carrier for your experiment? Or, as I prefer to call him, my son?”
Cheshire cleared his throat and shrank down in his chair. Clearly, he was displeased with experiments that talked back. “Those are just words, Ms. Sefton. I meant no insult to you, please know that. Quite the opposite, I have the highest respect for you.”
“That respect must be why you didn’t mind impregnating me while I was unconscious and couldn’t possibly consent.”
She let one hand drift under the table, to tap the gun. It was more reassurance that Cheshire couldn’t hurt her anymore than a desire to shoot him. Pointing the gun at Hawk had felt nauseating and good at the same time. A horrible combination.
What she wanted now were answers. And it seemed like putting Cheshire off-balance was the way to get them. She wanted him to see what he’d actually done. She wanted him to feel what she felt.
“I thought you had consented,” Cheshire said in a small voice. “Mr. Lansing said—”
“Lansing lied,” Hawk snapped.
Hawk, she decided, carried enough rage for both of them. He burned with it from inside, enough so that it was palpable today, even more so than yesterday. She looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. He leaned back in his chair, receiving her wordless message. They had always understood each other just fine without words.
Phoenix Legacy Page 17