by J. A. Dennam
“Where the hell did she go?” Her only answer was a direct look from the dog splayed comfortably on the floor. Melanie straightened her back. “Yeah, I’m asking you!”
“Boo.”
It was whispered softly in her ear. Melanie spun around with a hand over her heart and faced an unsmiling Rena. “Jeez!”
The woman released one of her smoky chuckles.
“How did you do that?”
“A little advice,” Rena whispered conspiratorially. “Don’t waste time with too many questions. It’s Derek’s survival mantra. When faced with the unknown, it’s best to accept.”
Her look became seductive as she took Melanie by the hand and gently pulled. Reluctantly, Melanie glanced back at her sleeping son, saw his new four-legged protector close by then allowed the woman to lead her through the open door and into the hall. Rena threw her another sultry look.
“Process.”
They turned left, away from the staircase they’d used earlier. Internal warning bells set Melanie’s nerves on edge, but as they passed by more blackened classrooms, there was one up ahead that cast a flickering amber light across the way. Rena walked backwards now, maintaining eye contact.
“Adapt.”
Heavy breathing added to an already disturbing atmosphere. It became louder the closer they inched toward the light. Rena reached it first, turned toward it and smiled. Then Melanie joined her and saw what fascinated the woman so much.
Her lips parted in stupefied wonder as Rena whispered the word, “Advance,” a mere inch from her ear.
Holy. Moly.
“Magnificent… isn’t he?”
Derek was shirtless, glistening with perspiration, black athletic pants hugging a defined ass as he performed chin-ups from a fingerboard. She remembered him using the training tool before when she’d caught him hanging from the basement rafters at his home. Rock climbers gained hand strength with it by performing a series of repetitions by their fingertips. It always looked painful to her, but Derek made it look effortless. It also indicated he’d prepped this place for a lengthy stay.
The doorway he hung from by mere digits led to an adjacent classroom, from which came more flickering light. Prayer candles were burning everywhere, most likely since he’d sacrificed his own lamp in order to replace her broken one. But the effect was stunning.
And that’s exactly what she was. Stunned. Not only did he exhibit no signs of debilitating injury, he was bigger. Better than he used to be. From a broad upper body to a lean, narrow waist, the man was a moving mixture of sex, power, and allure. Muscles, further defined by shadow, bulged from all over. A fine network of veins that pumped with each repetition enhanced every hardened swell and the whole compilation triggered a violent carnal reaction deep within her belly.
“I told you to leave her alone.”
The gruff statement came just before he dropped to the floor. As he stood with his back to them, Melanie glimpsed scars she’d never seen before. To her chagrin, they only added to his rugged appeal.
Rena continued her open perusal as well. “Since she refused to listen, I thought I’d use visuals. And, honey, you make one hell of a visual.”
Anger radiated from his body as he turned to address them. “Take her back to her room.”
“Derek…” Shell-shocked, Melanie stuttered in the doorway. “H-how did you…”
“How did he go from a bag of splinters to this?” Rena chuckled again, but the sound abruptly stopped when the woman met his eyes.
“She needs,” he said with painful slowness, “to leave.”
Instead of obeying, Rena moved toward him, took his wrist between thumb and three fingers, hesitated a moment. “Oh, hell.”
Melanie stepped closer. “What’s wrong?”
Derek jerked his arm from Rena’s hold. “I said get her out of here. Now.” And closed his eyes as he began to pace. He must have expected immediate cooperation because he reacted violently when he didn’t get it. “Rena!”
“I’m not leaving you!” she yelled back, rummaging through a black duffel bag on the floor.
“Goddammit!” he thundered, and came at Melanie himself.
Should she fear for her life? No… she didn’t think so but the look in his eyes told her he wasn’t… quite…
“Sit down.” Rena produced a loaded syringe and a soft rubber strap. Melanie’s eyes widened when the man met her nearly nose-to-nose, but then suddenly pulled away.
He was a frenzied mess. “Get that shit away from me,” he growled when the woman yanked on his arm again.
“Melanie, help me.”
It was there in Rena’s eyes. A stern warning that told her all hell would break loose if she didn’t. Now would be the time to cut and run. Get DJ the hell away from here and leave these two while she could.
But she couldn’t. Her instincts told her Derek was in serious trouble and that Rena was genuinely worried. Without giving it another thought, Melanie took his other arm and the two women wrestled him down into the corner together.
“We have to get your heart rate down.” The words were muffled since Rena held the syringe between her teeth while she worked the stretchy band around his bicep. That’s when Derek really began to struggle. Rena fumbled with the tourniquet and cursed loudly. “Melanie, help me!”
But he was too strong. The man didn’t want to get stuck and wasn’t about to let it happen. So, since muscling him into submission wasn’t an option, Melanie moved to plan-B and kissed him. Hard.
His mouth was like rock. He was so tense, Melanie was afraid her attempt at distraction wasn’t going to work, but when she angled her head, his lips opened to allow a better fit. As the kiss softened, she felt the textured scruff against her chin, tasted the salt of his sweat and melted into it.
“Melanie, you kill me!” he groaned, waiting until his body had released the final drop before collapsing exhaustedly on top of her. They were both panting like dogs without water, the sun beating down on their naked bodies. Derek’s posterior was taking most of the heat but he didn’t mind it. He never minded it.
“You’re a mystery,” he huffed next to her ear. “Been working all day… I’m dirty, sweaty, I smell… yet here we are again. Rolling around on a job site.”
“I like you this way,” she said smiling, catching her own breath as she held him inside her amid a pile of crushed boxes. “You smell like a man. And I don’t have to share you with anyone else before you shower.”
His short laugh was incredulous. When he lifted up, Melanie gazed into his eyes, panting, still coming down from the pleasure she’d found with him. “Besides, I wanted to do it outside,” she said, running her tongue over swollen lips. His beard stubble chafed, but she liked that, too. “Even now, someone could walk by and see us here.” Her hands skimmed over his tight posterior in a teasing circular motion. “Making love among the pile of rubble, buck naked and…” she slapped him hard, “soooo hot.”
“Ow,” he responded through a smile.
“Okay, you two, break it up.”
The sound of Rena’s voice shocked Melanie back to the present. The kiss had turned into something wild. While Derek explored her mouth with his tongue, his free hand had curled up and clenched tightly in her hair, refusing her the option of pulling away if she tried. His sweat permeated her clothing. Her breasts were flattened against him, warm and awake, craving his touch.
When she lightly pushed against him, he loosened his hold. She broke the kiss and gazed into brown eyes darkened by desire. If she didn’t know better, she’d suspect he experienced the same flashback as she.
But he wasn’t that Derek anymore.
Chapter 6
As her lustful haze cleared, Melanie sat up a little more. “What the hell just happened?”
“Not sure...” Derek rasped, “but I think they call that a kiss.”
Was he joking? At a time like this? She looked to Rena for an actual answer.
“He’s experiencing withdrawals,” the woma
n said while coiling the tourniquet and placing it back in the bag. “We didn’t expect it to happen this soon, but lucky for him I was able to pilfer some meds before I left the psych ward.”
Derek groaned as he moved to sit up. “What the fuck… did you just give me…”
“Withdrawals from what?” Melanie asked in horror.
Rena shrugged, thumbed Derek’s eyelids open for a close inspection. “We don’t know. That’s the problem.”
“Is he a drug addict?” The thought of it rocked Melanie back on her heels. The man she knew would chew glass before taking drugs.
“Not by choice,” Rena answered grimly. Then, satisfied with the results, she gave Derek a nod. “Aside from some heavy breathing, the caged animal look is gone. How do you feel?”
Derek eyed Melanie with something akin to fear. “Like I’ve been rode hard.”
“Are you sleepy?”
He shook his head a little. “Not too bad, but if you ladies would like to get off me...”
Oh, what an ass! It wasn’t like she’d been unable to resist his charms or anything. With a huff, Melanie pushed to her feet and planted hands on hips. “A little appreciation for the sacrifice would be nice.”
He stood and peeled the bandage back, scoped out the injection site on his arm. “Gee… thanks. Something else I get to withdraw from.”
“Hey,” Rena piped in as she continued to organize the contents of the bag. “It’s a common anti-anxiety drug. It’s a quick fix and yes, it can be addictive, but at least we know what it’s all about.” She turned and pointed at him. “And next time that happens, take something for it. You can’t exercise it out of your system, remember?”
“And what if I’d rather try?”
“That’s the anxiety talking.”
“I’m risking a hell of a lot more than my life, lady.” He pointed at Melanie. “I’m risking hers, her kids’, yours, just for a shot at pulling away from this kind of shit!”
“You’re no help to her or her kids or yourself if you can’t function.”
Melanie joined in with a, “Yeah, what about that mantra of yours Rena told me about? All that adapt and process and… advance… stuff?”
“What?” Derek looked downright annoyed while Rena rolled her head back and forward again. “Have you been fucking with her?”
The woman gave an overzealous shrug and attempted to close the conversation. “I saw it in a movie once, it sounded good.”
“Wait a minute.” Melanie began to feel like a class-A fool. “You mean that whole song and dance down the hallway was a load of bullshit?”
“You’re the one who thinks I’m crazy, you tell me.”
“Go to hell!”
“And yet we were getting so close.”
“Enough!” Derek growled.
It wasn’t so much the volume as it was the tone that silenced both women. Each closed their mouths and took the stance of scolded children while he glared. Melanie couldn’t remember him ever sounding like that before.
“Don’t you have a baby somewhere?” he asked her, his calm restored.
Her face turned scarlet. When she moved to leave, Rena jumped in. “Chewie’s with him, but I’ll check in while you brief her on your drug problem. She’ll need to know what you’re dealing with in case you have another episode.”
* * *
As much as he hated to admit it, Rena was right. Melanie’s abduction, his big reveal, all the crap he put her through to keep her safe would be for nothing if he ended up hurting her himself. Dammit, it didn’t happen this fast before. Was the drug in his system really that unstable? It was only an hour past the time he should’ve been administered the next dose.
Melanie stood there staring at the door, practically wringing her hands. It was clear she was torn between overwhelming curiosity and motherly duty.
“She won’t hurt him,” he said gruffly, hating everything about the situation they were in. “I hate to say it, but you can trust her more than me at the moment.”
Her look was doubtful. “It’s too much,” she said, her gorgeous blue eyes becoming suspiciously glassy. “Please, Derek. Talk to me. I’m feeling a little crazy myself right now.”
By small degrees, his sympathy intensified. Whatever Rena had given him was still taking effect and he appreciated her apprehensive state on a personal level. He ran a hand through sweaty hair and indicated the bedroll beside them. When she sat, he joined her there, their backs against the wall.
“I feel like such a fool,” she murmured. “I could have sworn your spirit was with me. I thought you even saved me at one point.”
“Saved you?”
Golden light flickered against her skin. “When the tree house fell down. But we aren’t going to talk about that right now because this is about you.”
So much for redirection. “Where do you want me to start?” he asked, raking his hands over his face.
“From the beginning, I guess,” she answered, staring blankly at the cluster of burning candles before her. “Rena said you were taken by someone, but she wouldn’t say who or why.”
Derek propped arms over knees and began to sort through what he should and shouldn’t say. “A security firm called IGP. Ignacia Global Protection. Rena works with them.”
Her breath came out in a loud rush. “I knew it. She planned this somehow.”
“No. Not at first. I was just sort of caught in the middle.”
“When you were hurt in the accident she caused?”
He shook his head. Melanie was putting together pieces from information she already knew, but... “This stems from years before that. Rena took something valuable from them. I sort of… acquired it.”
“How would you possibly end up with anything of hers?”
When he fell silent, she rolled her head toward him in expectation and caught him studying her profile. “Through Austin,” he answered. “When we were friends.”
She was speechless for a moment. “Wow. You really mean years, don’t you?”
“I’m still waiting on the full story, but by the time IGP found out about it, she and Austin were engaged. They put pressure on her to get it back and I guess that’s when she started going nutty on him. The morning I was taken from the hospital, she had come to me in the ICU and asked me questions.” He closed his eyes, drummed up the foggy memory. “I was so hyped up on meds I couldn’t put two words together. She had them arrange an extraction so she could interrogate me on their turf. To make a long story short, she slipped me something to make me seize. They wheeled me down to surgery. I was handed from one medical team to another and… boom. Gone.”
Melanie narrowed her eyes. “That sounds too easy.” When he simply shrugged, she exhaled loudly. “Okay, fine, but I don’t see Rena caring enough to put that much work into faking your death. Or your funeral, for that matter.”
“Not her. Them.” Derek pinched the bridge of his nose. There was a lot to tell and just as much to keep secret. “It’s sort of their specialty. Rena just told IGP I had information they needed and to keep me alive until I was in a better position to answer her questions. I had no idea what information she thought I had. Neither did they since she kept the details to herself as sort of an insurance policy. Smart move on her part. They couldn’t interrogate me themselves.”
“I can see why you trust her so much,” Melanie drawled sarcastically.
Derek reached over, rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “She’s as much IGP’s victim as I am. We understand each other, which is the only reason either of us might survive this.”
Melanie’s fingers tentatively found his and they eventually interlocked. “I’m listening.”
He released a slow breath, immensely pleased by her touch. “Anyway, I woke up in a stainless room with five guys in lab coats. I was helpless and in a lot of pain. No one cared, they were clearing the meds out of my system for when Rena came back. It got pretty brutal.”
Melanie shivered beside him. “They completely cut you o
ff?”
“Yeah,” he breathed. “I got to feel it all. From head to toe. For days.”
A tear rolled down her cheek now and she sank her forehead against his shoulder.
“They wanted me in pain so I’d be more pliable,” he continued. “But my body couldn’t wait for Rena and I went into cardiac arrest. They revived me. Then police captured her and that’s when their plans for me changed. Since they couldn’t move forward without either one of us, and since I’d suddenly become a permanent resident, they decided to put me to work. The plan was to heal me, hone my particular skillset that, luckily, was extremely useful to them, and use me to break her out.”
“Hone your skillset?”
He watched her swipe her face with the back of her hand. “Urban climbing. With a little... extra training... I’d be their guy on the outside working with their guy on the inside. The task was a lot more difficult since she was kept underground in a maximum-security psych ward. They needed a different approach. Problem was, it was going to take a lot of work. A lot of planning. A lot of time. When we were ready, they had their inside guy give her something that put her in a catatonic state. Then she was moved to a sixth floor hospital wing.”
“What made them think you could be healed completely enough to accomplish a six story climb like that?” Melanie asked. “The doctors said you’d never fully recover.”
“I wouldn’t have. Not without the misuse of some very gnarly drugs. Illegal shit the FDA would never pass and ethical physicians would never use. IGP doesn’t work within those boundaries, so they loaded me up with whatever it took. They weren’t concerned about the long-term effects as long as I could serve out my purpose.”
Melanie nodded against his shoulder, closed her eyes. “Knowing your aversion to drugs, that must have been hell for you.”
He pushed out a small laugh. “Pretty much. I told them if I ended up with limp dick, I’d slit my own throat and take my information to hell with me. Fuck them.”
Her mouth quirked, but it was without humor. “Now, that’s the Derek I remember.”