“No,” Anne whispered as she blindly began to walk towards the tow truck.
“Keith, we need to stop her,” Dean told him as he trotted and grabbed hold of her arm with his good arm.
Anne didn’t feel Dean or Keith stopping her. Her gaze just stayed fixated on the California plates and the four letters that confirmed the images and ripped her heart out.
HAWK
Tears clouded her vision as she threw what energy she had left towards Hawk and waited for his response. A sputter, a flickering light, a puff of smoke… there was nothing.
The scream that cried out from her soul started every car, siren, and flashing light that was around her. Dropping to her knees, she harnessed the energy from the vehicles.
Dean knew he had to stop her before anyone got hurt. Dropping in front of her, he moved his hand to her neck. “Forgive me, Anne.” He hit a pressure point and in an instant she was slumped over him.
Tiny leaned down and picked Anne up. “What the fuck was that, Dean?”
“Her gift, Tiny.”
“Shit. That’s why that bastard brought her to the island.”
Dean nodded as he held Anne’s limp body. One of the police walked over to them and Tiny intercepted him, realizing it was one of his cousin’s friends and made up a story about them partying too late. Moments later they were on the road, headed to the hospital.
Chapter 30
Anne felt the steady hum of the cars in the parking lot coming and going, even before she fully woke up. As she slowly regained consciousness, the sound of the hospital began to draw her attention. She heard the monotonous beeping of someone’s heart monitor, intercom pages for various staff, and general bustling of people around. Suddenly, she remembered Dean and shot awake.
“Hey there, sleeping beauty.” Anne heard a male voice. She couldn't immediately place it, though she was unalarmed as she turned round to meet it.
“Keith! Where's Dean?” Anne looked around her hospital room and saw no sight of him.
“Relax, he's fine. They are just wrapping up the surgery on his shoulder. I spoke with the doctor twenty minutes ago. He's in no danger.”
Anne sighed in relief. Then, she thought about Hawk. She couldn't shake the lifeless feeling she got from him. He was dead, she knew it. He had been there for her through so much of her life. How would she go on without him?
“Hawk,” she murmured.
Keith leaned forward. “Well, you'll be glad to know the cops caught the lackey that pushed your car into the water. He's singing like a canary to the cops. If that creep Foss somehow survived, he's a fugitive and broke now. They have enough to lock him away for good. All his assets are frozen.”
She looked up in alarm.
“You think he might have survived?”
“Oh no, I am sure he's a goner. I am just saying even if they can't find a body, you still have nothing to worry about. That little imp isn't anything without his wealth and his goons.” He leaned back against his chair. “After the basting we gave them, I doubt anyone would work for him again even if he had his money. Mercenaries are chicken shits. They fight for cash and pussy out the second it gets rough.”
Anne slumped back into her bed and breathed in deeply and sighed. “I don't know how you guys do it. I mean, day after day, risking your life like that. I just keep seeing Dean bleeding. I can't shake it from my mind.” she looked up trying to clear her thoughts.
“That'll go on for a while, Anne. You'll get through it. You guys have each other to lean on. Believe me, he'll need you just as much as you need him.”
“Do you have someone like that? Is that how you deal with this?” Anne asked.
“Her name's Jennifer. We… live together. It's not what you and Dean have though. I can tell. You guys have something special. Just listen to each other. Talk to each other. You'll be all right.”
“And what if I'm not all right? What if I always feel like this?”
“Well, a fifth of gin usually does the trick for me.”
Just then the doctor stopped in. He chatted with Anne for a few minutes and cleared her for release. He also reported that Dean's surgery was over and completely successful. They could visit him after he finished in recovery.
*
“Thanks again, Keith.” Dean grabbed him in a bear hug, careful not to crush his injured shoulder. Keith stayed a few extra days until Dean was released from the hospital to make sure that Anne still had someone to protect her even though they were sure that Foss was long gone.
“You know that if you ever need anything…”
“Oh, I’ll find you, Miller. You can count on that,” he said with a smile. Glancing over, he nodded towards the garage. “She going to be okay?”
Dean shook his head.
Keith knew that his friend was worried about her and with everything he learned about her over the past few days Keith could see why. Ever since they brought back what was left of Hawk, Anne kept trying to “revive” him, as she put it. He learned from Kenneth that normally those cars who Anne had a more permanent connection with had a brightly colored blue fluid instead of the golden brown color of regular oil. They never really had to change the oil or any other fluid in those cars. Now, when they pulled out the dip stick the fluid was a dark blue color. Adding some of the fluid from the van named Logan also didn’t help at all.
“I don’t know. He was more than just a car to her, he was probably her best friend. Kind of strange to me, but to her with her gift it makes sense.”
“You really can pick ‘em, Miller.”
“Hey, Keith!” The door to the house opened and Jeri came running out with a large bag.
“You can pick a great one too, Brinks,” Dean told him as he slapped him on the back and headed off to the garage.
Keith knew he referred to Jeri, and he silently cursed his friend. He didn’t know why he had these feelings for Dean’s little sister, but he knew he couldn’t act on them.
“I made you a little something for the road,” Jeri said as she handed him the bag.
“What's all this?” Keith asked as he looked through the bag of goodies.
“It's just a few little snacks for the road. I wanted to give you a little thank you for helping my brother.”
“A thank you? This looks more like full scale bribery to me. Pie, fresh peaches, blueberries. Keep this up and you'll never be rid of me.” He smiled in appreciation.
“Well, I could think of worse problems. I could always put you to work out in the fields weeding.” She winked at him.
Keith caught himself entertaining the thought for a minute as he leaned over and hugged her.
“Call me if you ever need anything.” He let go before the sweet scent of her intoxicated him.
“I will. Say hi to Jennifer for me.” When they released each other, he walked towards his car and reached into the bag to pull out a peach. As he started the engine, he took a bite out of it and looked at Jeri as she walked back to the house. This peach is sweet but not a sweet as her. He shifted the SUV into reverse.
The smile on his face faded as he thought about the events of the last day. The gun fight and seeing Dean hurt had brought back a lot of ugly memories from his time in the service. His missing foot began to throb again with ghost pain as he pulled onto the on ramp of the expressway. Now that the fight for Dean and Anne was over, he wondered what was waiting for him at home. Was Jennifer back from her business trip yet or was she still on the road? He texted her a few times to let her know where he was to which there was no reply. That meant she either didn’t get them because she was out of the country or she was pissed and didn’t care to reply. His mood slowly darkened with each mile that took him closer to home.
Chapter 31
The normally warm metal panel now felt cold and hard. Anne leaned her head against Hawk’s body and wondered what else she could do. Logan was parked next to him and stood silently, not knowing how to comfort her. She fel
t his confusion and anger over what happened to Hawk and she had to calm him down a number of times so he wouldn’t drive off and find the machine responsible and pound it to a metal pulp.
So many got hurt because of Foss, and Anne couldn’t help wonder how she could have stopped it from happening.
“How you holding up?” a voice from the doorway called out to her.
She sighed and pressed her palm against the metal by her head as Dean walked in and sat down beside her.
“I still can’t believe everything that’s happened. I would have never thought that Marshall would be the one who wanted to kidnap me, or that he even knew about my powers…” Worry choked her. “I was always so careful to not expose my secret. I didn’t even tell my ex-husband so how did he find out? And what is the Orion project he kept talking about?”
Reaching over, he took her hand away from the metal and embraced it in his good hand.
“Your brother has been doing some digging and found a few things. Seems like back during World War II, there was an experimental serum that was given to a few men in order to give them strength. It looks like it worked and they all gained strength plus some other abilities. They went to fight the war, but all of them mysteriously disappeared except for one who died during a battle.”
Anne’s eyes widened. “Does it say how they developed it or what happened to the formula?”
“That’s what he’s trying to figure out now. There isn’t much information, so it might be that those files were lost or they have not been digitized.”
“We must be the descendants of these men, but if they disappeared…”
“They could have wanted to disappear and that would have been easy to do in that era.”
“What could have happened that made them want to disappear?”
“Hopefully, we will find out.”
Anne’s heart sagged again at the thought of leaving Dean. Her next movie was due to start filming in a month and for the first time in years she really didn't want to be in the spotlight again. All she could think about was Dean and how much she wanted to stay with him on his boat and just sail away.
“Dean, I’ve been thinking about quitting acting.”
His head shot in her direction. “But you love it.”
“I love you more.”
“Anne...” His strong fingers lifted her chin and those hazel green eyes captivated her again.
“Don't give up what you love to do because of me.” His lips leaned closer towards her. “I'll follow you, Anne. You are a huge part of my life now. Where else would I go?”
“What about your sister? She needs your help on the farm. ”
Dean shrugged. “I have a strong feeling that she won’t be alone for very long. There’s a certain sergeant who has her heart and he doesn’t know it yet. Besides...I love you too, Anne. I want to be your bodyguard forever.”
Tears blinded her vision as his lips captured hers in a deep and sensuous kiss that held hope and promise for the future.
Thank you for reading Driven by Love!
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Here is a short excerpt from it. Enjoy!
Growth of Love: Heirs of Orion Book 2
by: D. Anne Paris
Chapter 1
Keith Brinks carefully balanced his freshly cleaned suit and a bag with the box of rose petals in one hand and Jennifer's favorite, special-occasion vanilla cupcakes in the other. He silently swore at the building maintenance people for taking so long to fix the elevator. Each step was a balancing act for him with his prosthesis, so it took him twice as long as he wanted to reach his floor. On a regular day wearing the prosthesis on his leg was second nature to him and he didn't even think twice, but having to climb up three flights of stairs made him feel it.
As he slowly climbed, a smile formed on his face. Tonight would be the start of a new chapter in his life. He'd surprise Jennifer when she comes home from work. Candles, rose petals, champagne, the ring, everything would be perfect.
When he got to the second floor an ugly thought hit him. What if she said no? He shook his head. That wouldn't happen. She'd mentioned getting married before.
He continued climbing and finally reached their floor. When he got to the door he managed to fumble his keys out, open the door and place his suit in the entryway closet before he heard the passionate moans coming from the bedroom.
Had he left the TV on in the bedroom?
Setting the box of rose petals down on the side table, he paused then made his way down the hall toward the bedroom.
What the hell kind of x-rated show was on this early in the morning? The moans kept getting louder and he now recognized them as being a female and male.
Mrs. Brown would call the landlord if he didn't shut it off. He was surprised that she wasn't banging on the...
He turned a corner and froze. The door to the bedroom stood open and there were people on his bed. A moan escaped from a blonde haired woman riding a man cowgirl style. A brunette was sucking on her breasts. The blonde moaned again and flung her head back.
The air sucked out of his lungs and his hands clenched into fists.
Jennifer.
Her eyes were closed and a smile was plastered on her face.
She moved again and Keith could see the man, Jake Livingten, his friend Jeri's ex-husband. The jerk had tried to ditch her with a ton of debt and had become a major asshole during their divorce proceedings.
A pit formed in his stomach.
"What the hell!?"
Jennifer's eyes flew open. "Keith!"
Her two companions stopped and their gazes shot towards him. Their faces paled as Jennifer jumped off of Jake and bolted towards Keith.
"I can explain,"
"The hell you will." The heat from the pit of his stomach started to burn hotter than the IED that had taken his foot. He pulled the Colt 45 pistol he carried from his waistband and pointed it at Jake's now exposed penis.
"I will give you to the count of three to get the hell out of here! One!"
Jake and the other woman jumped off the bed and grabbed their jeans, underwear and shirts off the floor and started to run down the hall.
"Keith, stop it!" Jennifer screamed as she tried to push the gun from his hand. He wouldn't shoot them, that's not who he was, but he was definitely going to scare the shit out of them.
"Two!" He heard someone slip on the floor and knock down one of the tables.
"Keith, you're not a murderer! Put the gun down!"
"Three!" He strode down the hall as the door slammed. The pit inside was burning hotter and hotter. He needed to get away from Jennifer and clear his head. The image of her riding Jake kept flashing in his mind.
He turned back to Jennifer, holstered his Colt and headed toward the closet where their safe was hidden.
All the years of military training had taught him to be prepared at moment's notice in case of an emergency. He never would have thought he would use that training to flee from a cheating girlfriend.
"Keith, we need to talk about this!" Jennifer screamed as she grabbed her robe and wrapped it around herself.
The closet door rattled when he flung it open. "We have nothing to talk about Jennifer. It's over."
"What?" The shock in her voice made him want to wring her neck. "No, no, no! I've been here for you all this time. I helped you lick your wounds when you came back from the war. I was there for you when you had all those
nightmares and stayed by your side the whole time."
A large military bag lay by the safe. He grabbed it and ripped the zipper open. He'd wasted enough time with her over the past five years. He closed his eyes a moment as the flames of his anger leapt higher, searing his insides as his head kept screaming that Jennifer had cheated on him. He needed to hit something badly and repeatedly. Something he could destroy- a punching bag. Yes, he'd go to the gym. He wouldn't hit Jennifer, no matter how much he hurt, but he needed to be far away from her as he could. He pulled a couple of shirts and pants from the hangers and stuffed them into the bag.
"Keith, are you listening to me!?"
He could still hear the moans she'd made while riding Jake. Keith punched in the numbers and the safe beeped open. He reached in and pulled out the additional guns, ammo and half of their emergency cash. He didn't trust her. She'd cheated on him. What else would she be capable of?
He zipped up the bag and turned towards her. "No, Jennifer, because... I keep reliving what I just saw in my mind! How long have you been screwing with Jake and his friend?"
She looked away from him. "This was the first time."
Keith knew she was lying as well as he knew his own name or that the sky was blue, but he needed to hear her say it. For the first time in years he broke his vow never to use his powers on someone close to him. He grabbed her chin. Turning her face toward him he stared straight into her eyes. His eyes narrowed and he let his power of persuasion penetrate into her mind. "Tell me the truth Jennifer."
The room around him began to spin, but her face stayed in place as her pupils turned to tiny dots.
"Six years this April."
Six years? His mind spun back in time. Jeri had separated from Jake five years ago, around the same time he'd started dating Jennifer. "You screwed him when he was married to Jeri and you were dating me?"
Driven By Love (The Heirs 0f Orion Series Book 1) Page 20