*
“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 that 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 Jen 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 car to 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 Jen 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 him and stood silently, not knowing how to comfort her. She felt 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 both of his.
“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 just 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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Driven By Love Page 20