Derrick's Choice (Titan Security Book 1)

by Cynthia P. O'Neill

  I looked up to see both her and Jonas standing side by side, listening to me. I might as well explain. “I know she wants me close right now, but that might be a reaction to what happened earlier today. When she comes to her senses, she may hate my ass. I’ve carried on different personas around her. I’ve been both Derrick and Master to her without fully revealing why I’m really here and what kind of danger she could really be in. You two, along with my brother, are the only ones who know the full scope of things.” I couldn’t admit that I had some details so secretive that I couldn’t even discuss it with them. I hated keeping secrets, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if what I knew, what I was planning, were to go south. The loss would be too great.

  Silence filed the air before I finally admitted, “I think I might be falling for her. No one’s ever made me feel so alive in my life, like there’s more to offer than just work. Before her, all I wanted was a release so I could clear my mind and refocus on upcoming duties. Now all I can think about is the next chance I’ll get close to her, the next opportunity I’ll have to hold her.” I looked up into their eyes, pleading for some kind of guidance, “What if my mind is so focused on her that I fuck this royally?” I didn’t need to provide much explanation for them to understand I was talking about the job we were still on. According to my dad, I’d already messed up, but there were things in play that even he wasn’t privy to.

  I was surprised to hear Jonas talk, especially since he was a man of few words. “Take a chance. That’s all you can do. Look at my sister, Robin. She had been through hell and back with a controlling douche bag of an ex, but she took a leap of faith and trusted a man, Jackson Lombardi, Prescott’s former son in-law. Now they’re married with several children to love and surrounded by people who have their backs. If she hadn’t taken that opportunity, she’d probably be dead now. You helped Jackson protect her. You had my sister’s back, and now we have yours to make sure you don’t send this mission into the depths of hell.”

  Cat and I both were flabbergasted by his insight. She just shook her head and pointed her thumb his way. “Yeah, what he said.” She went on to add, “Jesse might be the one that you’re destined for. Not everyone can put up with the demands of a former military operative, but she seems to be able to match you in the workplace and wants to surrender to you in private. You’ve always come off as cold and calculating, focused entirely on your job and never on your own pleasure.” A smile spread across her face, “But lately, you have a sparkle in your eyes and a kick in your step. It’s good to see some life in you, gives the rest of us hope in finding someone.”

  I wanted to argue. “But…”

  Cat held her hand up in the air, stopping me. “No buts, sir. You may be our team leader, but you need to march your ass into that bedroom and keep watch over your girl. When she gets more coherent lay it all out on the table, hold nothing back. She’s too involved at this point not to enlighten her. If you don’t, she’ll just insist she’s not in danger and try to go about things as normal, which will make trying to protect her that much harder.”

  “And if she hates me?” I countered.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “It might last for an hour, maybe even a day or two, but the more she thinks about the full story, the more she’ll see reason as to why. Let her know Tennison ordered your two identities to be kept secret—lay some of the blame on him since it was his idea. If she has any love in her heart for you, which I believe she does, then she’ll come to trust you again. You won’t let her or us down. We’ve got your back, just as you have ours.”

  One thing about crew: it didn’t matter what part of the military we served; it didn’t matter that some worked strictly for Titan Security, while some of us split our time between Prescott International and Titan; when we came together for a mission, or when one of our own was potentially in danger or threatened, we were family who stuck it out to the very end. This is the part I loved about working the security side of things.

  We’d all managed to grab some sleep off and on during the course of the next twenty-four hours. Cat had taken up partial residence, posing as Jesse at her place. Thankfully, my girl had never altered her predictable schedule, so we ran with it. Cat went out grocery shopping, actually picking some items up for Jonas and me too. We had a rental car delivered and instantly discovered a tracking device had been placed on the underneath of it. We left it in place so we could try to reverse engineer where the signal was being sent.

  Jonas had taken our “down time” as an opportunity to pour through more of the video footage we had on backlog and examine the new feed we had from the not-quite-legal cameras we’d installed, hidden within the confines of Tennison’s office at work, home, and around the various departments within Pterodyne Systems.

  Jesse was slowly coming around and staying awake for longer periods of time, but she wasn’t quite capable of carrying on a conversation. I’d stayed in bed with her, for the most part, holding her while she’d slept and grabbing a few winks of shut-eye myself.

  She’d just fallen back to sleep again when Jonas cracked open the door, holding a laptop in his hands. I motioned for him to come in. “What’d you find?”

  “I think it’s time you cornered that Middle Eastern dude, Calleum, and possibly his kids, Cassidy and Blaine. It doesn’t look good.” I watched the laptop as Jonas started pulling up different snippets of video. They were the same ones we’d watched before, where we noted he’d been the one passing the deadly items to his kids to place, but the newest one gave us a tidbit we weren’t expecting…

  “Hurry up, Blaine, and put the gun into the cabinet so we can surprise Dad.” Cassidy was keeping watch by the door of Tennison’s office at his house.

  Blaine shook his head, smiling. “I hope he likes this one. I don’t know why he got rid of the other two guns. I feel kind of weird now that our real dad is back, calling him our dad as well.”

  Cassidy looked back at her brother, “Well, Tennison had a big part in raising us. I’ve known him longer than our real dad. Heck, we thought he’d abandoned all of us. I still can’t figure out why that guy who’d helped keep Dad imprisoned contacted us after all these years, letting us arrange a payoff to get him back.”

  “Well, I just hope our adoptive father never finds out the details of our last trip, or how we managed to finagle the money. I also hope he realizes how thankful our real dad is to be back and be alive. I guess that’s why he keeps trying to give him gifts of gratitude for watching out for us all these years and raising us while he was trapped in a French prison.” Blaine placed the gun carefully in an empty slot inside the cabinet—the one I’d already known had been tampered with and responsible for Tennison’s death.

  It was the next words that caught me off guard. “Why do you think dickhead is being so helpful with getting these presents Dad wants Tennison to have? You’d think after we’d threatened to blackmail him, he’d want our heads on a plate and not want to help us. Something just doesn’t feel right, Blaine.”

  I couldn’t have agreed more with Cassidy’s words. I looked up at Jonas. “Find where Calleum is at. I don’t care if you have to drug him with a damn tranquilizer dart to get him here; I want to talk to him within the next two hours. Let’s bring in the ‘special van’ to interrogate him. First, however, I want Cassidy and Blaine brought into the van separately. I think we have just found the final pieces to the puzzle.

  Jesse was starting to wake more frequently, but in between it all I’d had enough time to talk with the individuals I’d requested and had my suspicions confirmed on the culprit. It didn’t take much to have Calleum Price admit that he was really Khalid Calleum Shabirin; the same man my father had shot all those years ago; the brother of King Raqeem Shabirin, who Tennison had killed; the one who’d vowed vengeance on him and his family for taking his brother’s life, or so it appeared…

  I called in favors from former military operatives and asked them to keep eyes on Khalid, his kids, Amy, Natalie, and
Jacob. I only pulled those closest to me to cover the whereabouts and happenings of the other individual in question. I wanted to act and get everything out on the table, but I had one person I needed to talk to first and find out how they wanted this to play out.

  I slipped out for a brief moment, meeting the van on the curb so I could talk with him. I wouldn’t tell anyone whom I was meeting with, and I had no surprises when Rick had shown up as the guy behind the wheel. He’d been the only person I could tell everything to and know this case would still remain on course.

  We drove around for several miles as I recounted the events, showed the supporting footage, and basically surprised everyone with what I knew. I utilized the equipment Rick had brought me to find supporting evidence, knowing that any attempt to trace what I was looking up would be bounced all over hell’s creation and back before they’d find where the inquiry was coming from.

  I had everything I needed to close this, but I wasn’t given permission, not yet anyway. “This is about to all come to a head. He’s desperate and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. I need these things to happen…” Our mystery guest listed everything he wanted handled and how he wanted it to play out first. We all agreed that to go in now would tip the culprit off, and we could miss our opportunity to nab him. “The trap will be set, and right before his eyes we’ll destroy everything he came so close to getting, before he’s arrested and sent back to stand trial for all of his crimes against us and the world.”

  I knew I’d been in and out of consciousness for some time now. I realized I was in someone else’s apartment…I think Master’s…or Derrick’s…I wasn’t sure. I really didn’t care at this point, just grateful for being alive.

  My mind ached every time I tried to go over the events that led to my being here. As the sounds and smells around me started making sense, I realized I must be in Derrick’s place. That’s when it hit me: my last memory was Master taking out his contacts and removing his mask to show me he was actually Derrick. How could I have been so stupid not to put the two together? Maybe that’s why my subconscious had them merging into one in my dreams.

  I didn’t know whether to be pissed at him or to be thankful. He’d definitely deceived me, which I didn’t like. My mind kept arguing the fact that I was alive and should be thankful, despite feeling sore and groggy. But my heart was hurting from his betrayal.

  A warm hand caressed the side of my face. “Come on and open up those pretty aquamarine eyes for me, sweetness. I need to check them to see if they’re more responsive to light now.” Derrick’s voice washed over me, making me feel calm in his presence. I felt confused by his gentle touch, but the words were ones Master would use. Which person was he really?

  I batted his hand away and noticed the fading light through the edges of the blinds in the window. The room was starting to darken, and I was thankful, since it hurt to focus too much on anything, but I tried looking his direction so he’d see how ticked I was. “I’m not doing a damn thing you ask or command until I get some answers.”

  “Darlin’, I’d swat your ass for you trying to top me, but I’m so happy that you’re awake and starting to talk to me that I’ll let it slide for now.” His hand held on to my chin as his face came closer to mine. He licked hesitantly over my bottom lip, nipping the side of my mouth before planting a gentle kiss on me.

  I was determined I wouldn’t fall for his sexual persuasion to alter my need for answers. I bit onto his lip, causing him to pull back. “You’re feisty, little one. I like that. That’s one of the things that instantly attracted me to you. I wasn’t supposed to fall for you, but your uncle said he’d rather see you with me than some of the jerks you’d been dating.”

  What the hell was he talking about? “You must have the wrong girl, Derrick. My uncle was dead long before I was born. I’ve never known anyone as an uncle, though Mr. Prescott and Mr. Tennison have felt like adopted ones.”

  I tried to sit up but winced a bit when I moved. “Stay put, sweetness. You’re going to be stiff and sore for a bit from being asleep for the past day.”

  “A day?”

  He nodded. “The explosion threw us both to the ground, but the driver who tried to shoot at you and run you over caused us to take quite a tumble. I tried to surround you and protect you from the impact of the pavement, but you hit your head pretty hard, resulting in a concussion. You’ve been in and out of consciousness for the past day, and you’ll probably be a bit stiff from the bruises you received from hitting the pavement. We both took on a bit of road rash.”

  “You’ve been with me the whole time? What about…”

  I didn’t manage to finish the sentence before he started explaining, “I’ve had to take care of some business during the times you were out, but for the most part either myself or my co-worker Cat has been here to check on you, help you to the bathroom, and to try and coax you to drink some water.”

  I needed to know, “Cat is?”

  He nodded and the arm he had wrapped around my shoulder tightened, pulling me closer to him. “She’s part of my team, only an employee and friend, nothing more. She’s the one you saw me with when you thought I’d been cheating on you. She was thanking me for finding out her brother is still alive and safe on his current military assignment.”

  Okay, now I was confused. “What is this team you’re talking about and what uncle? I feel lost.”

  He took a deep breath in, raising a hand to run through his hair—which I knew was a nervous tick he had at work—before finally enlightening me, “I wanted to tell you everything from the beginning, not when we met at work or here at the complex, but when we had our first encounter: the time you tried to sneak into the club dressed as a Domme.”

  My head started to hurt a bit as my eyebrows furrowed, trying to take in what he was saying. “You knew who I was before we even met? How?”

  He called out for someone named Jonas in the next room. I jumped when the door opened quickly and a hulk-sized man filled in the entire doorframe. I could only see the large, mammoth shadow of a man with light cascading in along the limited edges behind him. “Yes, boss?”

  “Could you please bring her a bottle of water and a couple of acetaminophen?”

  The hulk-sized man came back in within moments handing over the pills and water to me. He looked over my way and tried an attempt at a smile. “I’m glad to see you’re finally awake, miss. I hope you’re feeling better soon. We’ll protect you.” He looked over to Derrick, “Let me know if you need anything else, sir. Dinner should be here in an hour.”

  “Thanks, Jonas. Knock if you need me for an emergency; otherwise, I’d like to be left alone until I come out to grab us some dinner. It’s time she knows.”

  Jonas nodded and offered a meek smile my direction before turning the lock on the back of the door and closing it behind him, surrounding us in almost total darkness.

  I felt him reach for something and then stop. “You think you could tolerate some mild light?”

  “Yes. I’ll close my eyes and open them slowly.” I heard the click and let myself gradually get used to the light in the room. He’d kept to his word, turning on a small lamp that did little to brighten the room, only illuminating it enough for us to see one another.

  I looked around the room and noticed it sparsely furnished. He was wearing a loose t-shirt and sweats. That’s when I noticed we were both in his bed, but it made sense given that I’d been unconscious. I guess I needed to be taken somewhere. I also noticed I had on my own loose fitting pajamas, and my small suitcase was sitting over to the side by his closet.

  I looked back at him feeling confused, when he lifted my hand with the medicine toward my mouth. “You won’t feel any better until you take those. As soon as you do, I’ll answer your questions.”

  Of course he didn’t answer immediately—he waited until I not only had taken the medicine but also had drunk the entire contents of the water bottle. He was stalling—I just couldn’t figure out why. I finally crunch
ed the empty bottle with my grip, protesting his words. Of course he’d laugh and shake his head. “God, how I love your cheekiness, little one. Be careful or you might get me turned on.”

  I tried to sit up, but he wouldn’t allow it. “If we’re going to talk, we’re going to do it my way, where I’m in control. Just because you know I’m both Master and Derrick, doesn’t mean you can disobey me when we’re in the bedroom.”

  I’d give him that, so I answered him appropriately. “Yes, Sir.”

  I leaned back against the edge of his shoulder, his hand coming up to caress the back of my head, feeling for something, when I winced. “You still have a bit of a knot back there. We’re going to have to be careful with that. You let me know if you have any dizzy spells or if your eyes go out of focus.”

  When I seemed to settle, he finally spoke up. “I wasn’t lying when I told you my name is Derrick Caldwell. I did meet you several years ago when you took that job right out from under me.”

  I tensed, feeling guilty at his words. “Don’t worry about it, sweetness. Everything in life happens for a reason. It wasn’t the universe’s time for our paths to finally meet up—we just needed to wait a few more years. But I’ll admit, you stirred something in me the day I saw you come out of Tennison’s office. I haven’t been able to forget about you.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “I ended up working for Mr. Prescott at Prescott International. Tennison pulled some strings for my old man and got me the job there. I worked my way up from regular security to Head of Protection for both his family and the business.”

  I gasped in realization. “You were at the weddings for the Prescott kids, weren’t you?” I knew I’d seen him somewhere before.

  “Yes. I’m thankful you hadn’t remembered me until now. I worked with Rick, my half-brother, covering all of their major events. Anyhow, Tennison came to my father for assistance, needing someone on the inside of his company, since he’d had three close calls with someone trying to do him in.”