Between Faith and Fear

by J. A. Dennam

  Coming out of her stupor, Melanie smiled sweetly and threw out a diversion tactic of her own. “Rena’s horny. She needs you to perform your civic duty and treat her anxiety.”

  “Shut the hell up!” Rena snapped while Derek broke into hearty laughter. “I wouldn’t let him touch me if I were on fire.”

  “You know,” Ty said with deadpan calm, “I just came from between your legs and I don’t plan to revisit anytime soon.”

  Her shocked gasp was followed by a snarling departure.

  “I don’t think she likes me much,” Ty observed as he watched her go.

  “She thinks you’re in bed with IGP since we were tracked so fast.” Derek gave up the search and settled behind the wheel with a scowl. “This isn’t exactly going well.”

  Ty’s head reared back. “Why would I expose you? I want these pricks to go down as much as anyone.”

  “I made her dig her old tracking device out of her leg. It didn’t sit well.”

  Ty winced and shot another look toward the woman camped on the front bumper of Melanie’s Honda. A curled piece of roofing tin offered a temporary playground for a bevy of sparrows in the lot before her. “Harsh, man.”

  “When she told me we were looking for that bullet I was sure we’d still find it in the glove box.” Derek wiped a smudge off the dash with his sleeve. “A few people, including Danny, knew I kept it there as a good luck charm. Assuming they hadn’t sold the car, I figured it would still be here.”

  Ty lowered himself to the passenger seat and showed some love to the wiggly canine at his feet. “You know, for most guys that would be a St. Christopher cross or an amulet. But, a bullet? I can see how something like that would get lost in the shuffle.”

  Derek gave Melanie his full attention. “Do you think Danny did something with it?”

  At a loss, Melanie shrugged while she entertained her son. “I honestly don’t know.”

  “She didn’t clean out my car? Say anything about it or show it to anyone?”

  “All I can suggest is that you ask her yourself.”

  He exhaled, shook his head. “No, I can’t drag her into this. You know how she gets.”

  “If she knows where that bullet is, I don’t see how you can leave her out of it. Given the choice, she’d want her brother back no matter the cost.”

  “I don’t want her anywhere near me or IGP until I know the outcome.”

  “Look, dammit!” Melanie leaned forward, lowered her voice. “Danny still wakes up crying at night because she still blames herself for your death. Austin’s had to watch that way too many times and frankly it scares the hell out of me. Please, Derek! Let. Her. In.”

  The silence was deafening. Ty spoke over his shoulder. “You know, man, she’s going to find out about this from someone. You wouldn’t want that someone to be Rena.”

  After a few more agonizing seconds, Derek’s forehead hit the steering wheel. Melanie angled her head to look past the wide cloth hood flattened between his shoulder blades. “You said you’re no longer the man we knew. But I still see you in there, Derek.”

  She watched his back rise and fall as he took in breath.

  “I think it’s time for you to rise from the dead.”

  Chapter 9

  Rena was an issue. Melanie insisted on putting her in the trunk, but no one else seemed to tweak to that idea. Luckily, under Derek’s instruction, the woman agreed to stay out of sight until Danny had been completely filled in.

  But first she had to get here.

  “You sure she won’t bring anyone?”

  Melanie stroked a soft length of bangs from DJ’s forehead as the toddler slept on the front seat beside her. The hour was approaching 8:00 a.m. and it was beginning to heat up. The warmth did much to seduce the ever-looming fatigue that Melanie had been fighting for a while. She covered a yawn and looked over her shoulder at the man waiting anxiously in the Challenger’s back seat. “I told her to come alone. That doesn’t mean she’ll do it. I sort of hung up on her before she could ask too many questions.”

  And now that Danny would soon learn her brother was alive, Derek would soon learn he was a father. It was an inevitable fact. So, why couldn’t she bring herself to spring the news first?

  “You’re beat,” Derek observed, chewing a thumbnail. “Why don’t you sleep until Danny gets here?”

  The corner of her mouth lifted. “Because I’m afraid you’ll be gone when I wake up.”

  Slowly, he sat up and crossed his arms over the corner of her seat. Their faces were just inches apart. He glanced down at the loving ministrations she performed on her child and his eyes lingered there for a moment. Then he lifted a hand and, with utmost tenderness, moved her own bangs aside while he studied her face. It looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t quite form the words. Her heartbeat picked up in rhythm when his look intensified and he began to lean in. Eyelids heavy, she parted her lips in expectation.

  “She has that same Jeep,” he murmured mere centimeters from her mouth.

  “Wha...?” Melanie breathed in her trance-like state.

  “I’d think Cahill would fork out the funds to get her a newer car.”

  “How did you...” She leaned back from him, noticed his focus had shifted. “Can you hear her coming?”

  Ignoring the question, Derek closed his eyes. “Sound clues are essential when you work in the dark. In training, we’d sit blind for hours in each new environment, learning the orientation of our surroundings.” His jaw moved. “Then we’d learn not to ignore the subtle changes most people miss.”

  He was so still. Melanie sat paralyzed imagining the horrors of what happened when those subtle changes occurred. After what seemed an eternity, she finally picked up on the hum of deep tread tires. His eyes opened.

  “I think we need to break her in slowly.”

  They waited at a small shop window, the only window in the triple-bay garage not covered in faded black canvas. Unlike the last abandoned building they’d used for cover, this one was less dilapidated with only minor damage from squatters. When the red Jeep came to a violent stop behind the Challenger, Ty ambled into the picture hands on hips. Danny came out swinging. “What the hell, Ty!”

  “Whoa, now Danny, hold up, I didn’t--”

  She was shoving at him, barely restraining the right hook her fist was itching to throw. “You scared the shit out of me, taking off with this car! Do you know what was going through my mind?”

  “That you were seeing a ghost?”

  “Screw you, Ty! Screw you!”

  Melanie bit her lower lip and glanced over the baby she held in her arms. Was that pride she saw on Derek’s face? “She’s really pissed,” she whispered.

  His eyes were more alive than ever. “Yep,” he replied, absently removing DJ’s hand from his nose for the umpteenth time. Then he finally bestowed the boy with a playful growl and shook his little fist. “You’re a pain, kid.”

  DJ, so serious in his exploration of a face he’d only seen in two-dimensional form, gave a shy smile, but Derek was too preoccupied with the scene outside to notice.

  Danny Cahill delivered one more shove - which she somehow managed with her five-foot-three frame to Ty’s six-foot-two - and began scoping out the car for damage while Ty attempted to explain. Melanie’s name came up in the melee and it was clear she and DJ had been missed.

  “Mac’s been worried sick since she didn’t make it to our place last night. She left her phone, her purse... Are you two seeing each other or something? Has she been with you this whole time?”

  There were only a few conclusions to come to and Melanie saw them all on Derek’s face.

  He lifted a brow. “Trouble at home?”

  Feeling brave, Melanie decided it was best if he hear the truth from her. “Mac and I aren’t a couple. He’s always been just a friend.”

  His look was doubtful. “But you live together...”

  “We’re just roommates. I needed help with the rent.”

&
nbsp; Now the light was coming on. “So, that baby he was holding...”

  “Is Carla’s from apartment 2-A. He watches a few kids in his spare time and we both run a daycare in town. He’s the main caregiver while I manage the place.”

  “Mac is a... babysitter?”

  Was that relief she saw softening his brow? Yes, once the amusement died, the relief was quite evident. Okay, here goes nothin’. Melanie closed her eyes while she drew in a fortifying breath. “And DJ stands for Derek Junior.”

  When she opened them again... Derek was nowhere in sight. Crap! Where the hell did he go now? Did he even hear her last confession? Melanie turned circles, searching for his shape in the shadows, but the man had simply vanished. She must remember not to close her eyes around him, because apparently ghosts use that as an opportunity to disappear.

  Or had her worst scenario come true already? The thought of fatherhood spooked him into leaving before his existence became public knowledge?

  The back door opened and a shaft of sunlight sliced through the spacious three bay garage. Danny had spent a restless night worrying about them, as her rumpled athletic top and jeans would suggest. Her shoulder-length brown hair was a mess. Danny whipped off her sunglasses when she spotted Melanie by the window.

  “Ugh...” She briefly sagged with relief. “Do you have any idea what we’ve been through, Mel?”

  Melanie met her halfway. The door, unbalanced on squeaky hinges, hung open and lobbed off the wall behind it. “I know. I’m sorry, Danny, I wish I could have called, but,” she accepted her friend’s fierce hug and handed DJ over to a most anxious aunt, “it hasn’t exactly been a conventional night.”

  “Mac said you left your phone and your purse and when you didn’t make it to our place I thought you were broke down or mugged or that Rena had gotten to you and we’ve been driving around all night...” she showered fierce kisses all over DJ’s face. “Austin sent the search party because the police wouldn’t help out and--”

  “You called the police?”

  “How the heck did you end up here?”

  “They aren’t coming here are they?”

  “No, but I was just filing a report on Derek’s car when you called.” Danny made her way to the open door expecting Melanie to follow.

  But she didn’t budge. “Did you come alone like I asked?”

  Danny stopped in the doorway with her nephew tucked firmly on her hip. “Yes,” she said hesitantly.

  Yes, my ass. Melanie narrowed her eyes. “Yes, but...”

  “Austin’s on his way.” A slight wince. “He told me to wait for him, but... well, you know me.”

  “Ho!” This was too much. Melanie began to laugh. “And it just keeps getting better.”

  “What?”

  She flipped her bangs and held out a hand. “Come here, sweetie, we need to talk. Fast.”

  Danny stepped back into the shop, her big brown eyes cautious. “What’s going on with you, Mel? I haven’t seen you act this way since you told me you were pregnant.”

  “And you need to give me DJ so you don’t drop him when I give you the news.”

  “Uh-oh.” DJ was transferred from one pair of arms to another. “What news? Are you pregnant again?”

  It was then Melanie saw him. Out of the corner of her eye, in her peripheral vision, a dark shape loomed deep in the corner by the entrance to the store. Had he always been there?

  “Unless it’s by Immaculate Conception, no. I’m not pregnant. But the news is almost as... unlikely, let’s say.”

  “Unlikely good, or unlikely bad?”

  Melanie firmed her quivering chin and her bright smile appeared. “Oh, about as good as it can get.”

  Just as Danny rolled her eyes, his voice broke the silence.

  “Hey, Peckerwood.”

  Danny’s reaction was instant. Her tennis shoes spun on the concrete as her body whirled toward the voice. She was still for so long, processing what she’d just heard; waiting for something to tell her she’d heard wrong.

  Melanie also waited, her own heartbeat so loud in her ears. DJ clutched a fistful of her shirt as if he, too, understood the significance of this moment. Then, loud as he could, the toddler opened his mouth and pointed at the moving shape in shadows.

  “Dada!”

  Derek moved without sound until he stood within inches of the shaft of light. Illuminated dust particles swirled between brother and sister. When Danny still didn’t move, Derek took that final step.

  “Take a breath, now, Danny,” he said, reaching out just in time to catch her limp form as it sank toward the floor.

  Melanie gaped. “Oh, my God, did she just...” And she joined Derek as he cradled his sister in his arms. Yep. Danny was out cold. “Well, that’s a first,” she mumbled, putting the back of her hand against Danny’s forehead. “Even I didn’t pass out.”

  “No, you just rambled about sleep-induced orgasms,” Derek answered absently, moving layered waves of sun kissed hair from Danny’s pale face. “She’s completely sacked. There’s some water in the duffel bags.”

  Still reeling from Danny’s unexpected reaction, Melanie hurried outside. Ty waited for them. “You better make sure Rena stays out of the picture as long as possible,” she threw over her shoulder as the man pushed away from the wall.

  “Is Danny okay?”

  “Nothing a cold splash of water won’t fix.” She retrieved a bottle from the bag closest to her, multi-tasking with a heavy toddler in her arms.

  “Here, let me take him for you.”

  Once again, DJ was transferred from one pair of arms to another. The boy didn’t seem to mind as Chewie, always by Ty’s side, provided plenty of entertainment.

  Melanie smiled her gratitude, said with a wink, “I told you Danny would remember you.”

  Truck tires moaned against pavement. Melanie stopped in her tracks with water bottle in hand. The back of the abandoned service station became even more crowded as Austin swerved around and parked the Lincoln Mark LT beside his wife’s red Jeep.

  Uh-oh.

  A pair of size fourteens hit asphalt almost before the truck came to a complete stop. Melanie opened her mouth to speak.

  “What the hell is going on, Mel,” Austin boomed, black eyebrows lowered dangerously over thunderous eyes. “Where’s Danny?”

  “Uh...” Shit. The man, with his incredible height and muscular bulk, was so imposing when he was mad; Melanie still had a hard time getting past it. Her eyes betrayed her, though, as she glanced nervously at the building to her left. “You might want to calm down before you go in there!”

  But Austin, in full Conan the Destroyer mode, was already stomping through the open door, ready to do battle with the woman who continually failed to err on the side of caution.

  * * *

  Derek had heard him coming from a mile away. And he waited. Now that Danny was coming to, he palmed his sister’s cheeks and urged her to open her eyes. But it was not to happen before the doorway filled with darkness.

  It looked bad. Hooded stranger hunched over the man’s cooled wife in what could be interpreted as a threatening manner. But Derek had pulled the hood as a knee-jerk, protective measure of sorts. And embracing his inner ghost put him in the right mind for confrontation.

  Caught between concern for his sister and the fire of an old feud, Derek slowly rose to stand over the woman groaning on the floor.

  “Danny!” Austin’s dark eyes bounced from wife to attacker. Broad shoulders braced for battle.

  And it was on.

  Chapter 10

  The impact was tremendous. Derek could have easily avoided it, but he needed to feel it down to his bones. There was just something inexplicably pleasing about exchanging blows with a man he’d loathed for years regardless of the fact they’d made up before he disappeared. After all, Austin had all but held his sister against her will in order to force Derek into a damning confession. That didn’t just go away with one apology.

  Austin Cahill. Whethe
r Danny had reformed him or not, this man needed to be seriously fucked with.

  Everything else took a back seat. When Derek re-gained his footing from the power punch that failed to put him down, Austin’s murderous glare stoked the fires within.

  “Austin?”

  Danny’s groan should have distracted the man, but he remained focused on his target. Derek was impressed. This takedown would be the atypical kind that required as much physical skill as psychological trickery. Ducking the next blow, Derek put his shoulder into Austin’s gut and swept his feet at the same time. But, prepared as usual, Austin didn’t go down alone. The two men crashed to the floor. Derek broke the ironclad hold around his middle and rolled into the shadows.

  Melanie rushed to Danny’s side as the woman propped herself up on an elbow.

  Austin found his feet and gave chase, but Derek knew the man’s eyes had yet to adjust to the darkness. At a dead run, he used momentum to walk up the bare wall before him, flip and grab hold of his pursuer’s throat on his way back down to earth. It was a split-second maneuver that put both men flat on their backs in a swirling cloud of dust. But, while Austin coughed the air back into his lungs, Derek scrambled overtop him and took advantage of the man’s lowered guard. They lay in the shaft of light. Hood back, Derek was completely exposed.

  “Hello, brother,” he said, a sick smile splitting the lower half of his face. Austin’s eyes widened. Derek slid the switchblade from his ankle sheath and produced it with an operative click. “What’s the first thing I said I’d do if I were to find myself fully recovered?”

  Light zinged along the blade from the tip to the plunge line.

  “Derek, let’s say – just for shits and grins – that you re-gain all function in your body. The erector set and,” Austin stuck out a hand to indicate the halo device and the plastics and plaster holding him together, “all of this is gone and you walk out of here with a fresh start. What’s the first thing you would do?”

  Derek’s eyes locked with his. He managed to conjure the strength to speak. “I’d cut... your balls off.”