Driven By Love

by D. Anne Paris

  The anguish in her mother’s voice made Anne’s heart twist in a tight knot. She couldn’t stand to cause her mother any more pain. No matter how many mistakes she made in the past, her mother was always there for her, helping her right back up and letting her know that she was never alone. If staying with Dean eased her mother’s worry, then that’s what she would do. Besides, she was in no condition to go anywhere. Her head still felt like a jackhammer was doing its work inside her skull, and she could barely stay up.

  "All right, Mom. Please call me as soon as anything changes with Missy."

  "Sweetie, you know that I will."

  "Thanks, Mom." She ended the call and handed the phone back to Dean.

  "Do you need anything else?"

  "No, I'm fine." She rubbed her head and felt the last of the pain disappear but her body still felt so weak and tired. “I think that I’m going to lie down for a few more minutes.”

  “Take as much time as you need. If it doesn’t bother you, I’ll keep the boat circling the lake.”

  “No, it will actually make me feel better.” She was about to head to the bedroom when she stopped and turned back to him. "I never got a chance to finish telling you about Evan's car."

  Dean grabbed the empty pan and put it I the sink. "I didn't want to ask until you felt better, but since you brought it up."

  "Evan's car actually gave me a pretty good description of the guy. Medium height and build, short dark hair, and he said that he had a tattoo of a dragon on his left arm. Green with red glowing eyes and a forked tongue that wrapped around his arm."

  "That alone will help us ID the guy quicker." He transferred the plates into the sink. "I'll call around and see what I can dig up.”

  "That's going to go over very well—‘hey, watch out for this guy because a car told me.’"

  "I have connections who can kind find out anything I need them to without asking questions.”

  “Why do I get the feeling that this guy is going to show up in a body bag?”

  He twisted towards her and crossed his arms. “My connections aren’t those kind of people, Anne. We’ll find this guy and we’ll make him tell us everything he knows so we can get to the bottom of this. I want to make sure that he spends the rest of his life rotting in jail.”

  His cold tone made her realize that he was serious about finding this guy and making him pay for what he did to Missy, Evan, and everyone else involved in the accident.

  She walked back to the bed in the bedroom. Instantly, she felt relief as her head hit the pillow and she drifted off.

  *

  After Dean washed and put away the dishes, he went up to the deck to think through the situation. He never met or heard of anyone like Anne even when he in the Marines. Most of those on his team were able to do things like see through the dark or have extra strength. Even his sister Jeri’s power paled in comparison to what Anne could do. She could be a dangerous force for the wrong type of people. A pit formed in his stomach. What if somehow Missy’s accident was tied to her somehow? He had to get to figure out what was going on before something happened to Anne.

  He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number he knew by heart.

  "What's up, bro?" Keith answered after the second ring. Dean knew that he couldn’t protect Anne alone, and Keith would be able to help him track the guy who sabotaged her sister’s car.

  They were like brothers, almost as close as Dean was with Eric. Keith would help him with anything.

  When Keith came back from the service, he joined the police force and was assigned to one of the special task forces. He was damn good at his job. Everyone knew it and stayed out of his way. Dean also owed him a great deal of gratitude for helping Jeri during her divorce and for helping her move out to the farm when Dean was still stationed away. Not once did Keith ever say no to Dean when it came to Jeri. He had a suspicion that Keith wanted to be with Jeri but he was too loyal to his longtime girlfriend, Jen, a highly competitive businesswoman.

  "I need you to look up someone for me."

  "What did they do?"

  "Cut the brake line on a friend's car and now there are people in bad shape."

  “Is Jeri okay?”

  “What is with your curiosity about my sister?” he teased him. “I thought that you had a girlfriend or is Jen just not satisfying you?”

  “Shut up!” Keith cut him off so abruptly that it caught Dean off guard. “Is Jeri alright?”

  “She’s fine, but it’s her good friend’s daughter that is in bad shape. We think this guy cut the brakes on the car she was in.” Dean filled him in on the details of the guy they were looking for and where the car was parked.

  “I’ll see what I can dig up and let you know.”

  “Thanks, Keith.”

  “Anytime.”

  With that, he hung up the phone and wondered what was going on with his friend. He was with Jen for a couple years now and he didn’t seem all that happy being with her. She was always flying off on various business trips and was never around. Why was he torturing himself by being with her?

  As he sat on the deck and looked out into the lake, he remembered the kiss that he and Anne shared the night before. It was so intense that it dulled his senses, something that never happened before, and why did he let it happen? He was trained not to let his guard down, and yet somehow she managed to do just that. He had to keep his guard up around her, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to protect her.

  As he walked to the helm, he let the beauty of the lake calm him. This was what he missed the most when he was out in the desert— the cool breeze, the soft waves, the scent. Taking the wheel, he slowly started to move the boat around and head north.

  Chapter 9

  Dean couldn’t control his eyes as they stared at Anne. With none of her own clothes available to her, she borrowed Jeri’s bikini top and short shorts and basked in the sun on the deck of Dean’s boat. She looked like the Hollywood star that she was.

  His instincts just wanted to take her into his arms and protect her from the world. She was so naïve when it came to danger and she had no idea how perilous it was for her to have anyone see her use her powers. It seemed that she thought that her power could protect her from anything or anyone, but what happened to Keith in the field proved that wrong.

  As he stood at the helm he made sure the boat really was in control. With Anne on board, the boat became alive and Dean was a bit wary when it started to cruise by itself. After about a half an hour, he decided that it was safe to leave the helm and walked over to Anne to sit next to her.

  He smiled. “I take it you are feeling better?”

  She grinned back at him. “Headache’s gone and having your boat moving is recharging me.”

  “I’m glad that it’s helping. Usually, it recharges my soul but I had no idea it would heal your headache.”

  “Yes, it does. Anything with a motor in it usually helps.”

  “So what about chainsaws and weed whackers?” he teased.

  Her lips curled in a smile. “How did I know you would ask me that? No, it’s usually anything that has a big motor in it. Something bigger than a motorcycle or those outboard boat motors.”

  “How did you manage growing up in such a rural area?”

  The sunlight kissed her skin and caused her face to brighten. “It was tough mainly through puberty. There were days when I just felt like I couldn’t get out of bed.”

  Looking up towards heaven, she recalled her darkest days as a teenager. “There was one day when Stan borrowed my mom’s car and the tractor was also at the shop having both tires replaced. It didn’t help that Evan's dad borrowed Logan. I couldn’t leave my bed because I felt so weak. My parents freaked out and called our neighbor who drove me down to the emergency room, but when I got there, I felt better being around all those cars in the parking lot. That’s when I knew that I needed to be closer to a city than a rural area. I also knew that I needed to have my own car to recharge in since my parents were alwa
ys out driving their cars.”

  Rubbing her forehead, she looked over at him. “I worked as a waitress at a restaurant in town after school to make enough money. I found Hawk through a friend of mine whose cousin was selling him. When I met him, he had 190,000 miles on him and was driven without oil a few times. Her cousin was going to sell him to a junkyard but I just jumped at the chance to be able to restore him.”

  “You didn’t restore him with parts, did you?” Dean prompted.

  “No.” She shook her head. “The day I met him, he started to heal and I started to heal with him. I bought him on the spot and took him home. It was so strange. He had a few faded paint spots and rust spots, but after I bought him they just went away.”

  She looked over at Dean. “Only my family and closest friends know about what I can do.”

  He reached over and took hold of her hand. “Your secret is safe with me.”

  A loud roar broke their thoughts as they looked up and saw another boat a few feet from them with photographers on-board who were snapping pictures at a mile a minute.

  “Shit!” Dean muttered as he ran over to the helm, Anne in tow right behind him.

  “Don’t those guys ever take a day off?” he asked as he tried to take control of the boat but realized that his actions were useless as the boat decided to try to outmaneuver them.

  He snapped at Anne. “Can you tell my boat that I’d like to take control and try and lose these bozos?”

  Anne closed her eyes and the engine of the boat roared even louder and propelled them forward. Dean grabbed Anne before she fell down and held her tight against him.

  “Anne, what the hell?”

  “He wants to lose them himself. He knows what he’s doing.”

  “Great, I have to trust my own boat to get rid of these morons!?”

  “Yes, you do.” The boat turned sharply and she grabbed hold of him as it glided faster across the waves.

  Dean wrapped his arm around Anne as the boat hit another wave, shot up, and then slammed down on the water and accelerated. He never took his boat this fast before and was shocked by how fast it moved.

  He snuck a quick glance behind them. Even at the boat’s top speed, the other boat gained more speed. “The boat that they’re on is faster than ours! It’s a speedboat. How the hell are we supposed to beat that?”

  A twinkle formed in Anne’s eyes as her mouth curled and her eyes closed. At first Dean thought that she was going to pass out but then he heard the other boat’s motor shut down. He whipped his head around, and saw the paparazzi were no longer in pursuit and their boat was dead in the water.

  Anne opened her eyes and smiled.

  “What did you do?” he asked her.

  “I just asked the boat to leave us alone for a while. He’s got a little problem with one of his fuel hoses.”

  Dean wouldn’t have believed anyone if they told him this story, and yet,he was in the middle of it. A deep fear formed in his gut. Anne was a lot more powerful than he originally thought and she would be extremely valuable to a bunch of terrorists or egotistical maniacs. There was no way he was letting her out of his sight. He had to protect her at all costs for her sake and for the world.

  Chapter 10

  The buzz of the microwave broke through Anne’s daze as she looked out the porthole of the boat. The sun set in the distance and she couldn’t help but stare at the beautiful orange colors that painted the dusk horizon. She missed sitting on the beach and watching the sunsets here. There was something magical about them that she didn’t feel anywhere else.

  Dean was silent all through the rest of the trip back to the pier. Anne wondered if he wanted to quit after everything that happened. She wouldn’t blame him at all if he did. Her powers scared her on occasion, since she never really knew the limit of what she could do. What if there really was someone out there who was trying to come after her? Anne shook her head. It sounded so ridiculous. Who would want to try and hurt her? She wasn’t a nasty person who stabbed people in the back. Even with her divorce, she was the one who got hurt the most. So why would she be a target?

  She pressed the button to open the microwave and pulled out the bowl of soup with pot holders. As she placed it on the counter, she inhaled the sweet scent of her delicious culinary creation as it slowly penetrated the kitchen. With their limited food stock being cans of vegetables, dried noodles and spices, she whipped together a rather healthy vegetable soup. Mentally she made a note to thank her mother for passing on her culinary creativity to her as she brought the bowl to the table next to the other one that was already made.

  With her headache gone, her appetite instantly came back and Dean gave her his blessing to ransack through the mini kitchen to create herself a meal. She really was craving soup but knew that it wouldn’t completely fill her so she decided to make chili as well.

  “Looks like I’m just in time.”

  Anne’s head spun towards the stairwell as Dean emerged from above deck. The green polo shirt and beige khaki shirts he wore made him look like a true sailor.

  “Soup’s done and the chili is almost ready.”

  “Wow, where did you find the ground beef?”

  Anne smirked. “Unfortunately I couldn’t find any meat, so it’s vegetarian.”

  Dean sat down and inhaled the smell of the soup. “Hell, if it tastes as good as this soup smells, I really don’t care.” He took the spoon, scooped up the soup and tasted it. “Oh, this is good. You know if you get out of acting, you can really make a career out of being a cook.”

  Anne smiled as she started to eat.

  “Thanks, but I think I prefer to be in front of the camera instead.”

  Dean’s eyebrow lifted up. “Even after all this?”

  She put her spoon down. “Dean, it’s all I know how to do. I’ve been in the industry so long that I don’t know what else is out there.”

  Dean grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “But are you happy?”

  His touch became warm and she felt her insides start to sizzle. There was no denying that he had an effect on her even with a single touch. She gazed into his mystic eyes and she felt close, safe. Maybe it was because they both shared a special secret or maybe it was because she never was this emotionally connected to a man before. Her ex-husband didn’t even know all her secrets and she was thankful that she held back from him. Something about him just made her not want to reveal her true self. With Dean, it was different. He knew what it was like to not be ordinary. She liked that.

  As she rubbed her thumb across Dean’s hand, she felt a tingle slowly creep up her arm. “Right after I became hugely famous, I treated myself to a shopping day and after I hit a few stores, I decided to stop off at the cosmetic counter to check out their cleansers and foundations…” She stopped and saw Dean intently listening. “When I went there, the girl behind the counter was obviously totally shocked to meet me and was so nervous her hands shook as she showed me some of their facial cleansers.”

  Anne looked down at their entwined hands. “When she was reaching for one of the bottles, she knocked over an expensive perfume bottle that broke and her manager, this ancient troll of a woman, ran in screaming like a banshee ready to rip this poor girl’s head off. She apologized for the girl’s actions and told me that she was fired.”

  “Sounds like she was the one that should have been fired.”

  Anne smiled. “I told the woman that I was happy to hear that.”

  Fire burned behind Dean’s eyes. “You what!?”

  The curl of her lips made his heart skip a beat. “I told her I was very happy to hear that because I needed a new make-up artist and I offered the girl the job.”

  “She took it?”

  Anne nodded. “Tracey’s been my personal make-up artist from that day forward and I don’t regret it. I found out later that Tracey was getting desperate for money to help support her and her son and she was going to turn to prostitution just to have enough money for groceries.” His face became blurry as
tears filled her eyes when she remembered how Tracey wept when she told Anne her story shortly after she started working for her.

  “I saved her, Dean. I gave her a chance she desperately needed and it was because of who I have become.” She pulled her hand away from him and wiped her eyes. “And yes, it does bother me that I have no privacy and that photographers are taking pictures of everything I do, but if it means that I can help someone else then I will deal with it because that’s what really makes me happy.”

  With the pad of his thumb Dean wiped away another tear that ran down her cheek. “What if we find out that you being in the spotlight could cause danger to you and your family? Would you be able to give it all up?”

  Why did her heart race so much when he was so close to her and why did his touch just make her body feel like it was on fire? Her lips curled as she remembered how his lips felt on top of hers. Warm, gentle, and yet strong and demanding of her. She wanted to feel them again, remember that night when all of the insanity vanished for a moment and she was in the comfort of his arms.

  Would it be so wrong to kiss him again? Slowly she leaned in towards him.

  He quickly turned away and focused back on eating the soup.

  The sting of his rejection hit her to the core. Anne got up and walked over to the chili on the stove-top. She picked up a spoon and mixed it as she tried to sort out what just happened. Was he still attracted to her? There was no doubt in her mind that these feelings she had for Dean were nothing she ever experienced before not even with her ex. He had to have felt the same with that explosive kiss. So what changed? Did her power scare him?

  Dean walked over to the sink and washed his dish. “Thanks for the soup.”

  “Sure. I’ll call you when the chili is ready.”

  He avoided her glance and placed the clean dish back in the cabinet. “Thanks.”