Safe (The Shielded Series Book 1)

by Christine DePetrillo

  “Not if she makes the wrong choice, Foster. Then it’s up to you to make her see, make her stay. You don’t want her to go, do you?”

  He shook his head. “But I need to respect her wishes.” He held up a hand when Estoria opened her mouth. “Darina finished guarding me. She finished her job. I was just a job.”

  “No way.” Estoria wagged a finger in his face. “I saw how she looked at you. You mean more to her than a job.”

  Foster drew in a breath, held it, then let it gush out in one long stream. Shit, he was tired. Almost getting caught by his enemies, being with Darina, nearly losing her to that injection Mikale pumped into her, having a battle on his normally peaceful slice of Vermont, and watching Darina walk out of the lab weighed down on him.

  “I need sleep.”

  “The Foster Ashby I know never needs sleep.”

  “Maybe you don’t know me at all. Maybe no one knows me.” He was being a jerk. He knew it. He wanted to be left alone. “Is there anything out there,” he pointed to the lab door, “that needs my immediate attention?”

  “No. Hydec and Rasha have taken charge of assembling teams to fix any damaged structures, and a few other volunteers are firing up the chainsaws to cut up any fallen trees. The woodshed ought to be full to the brim by the time they’re done.”

  He picked up his tablet and shoved it into his pocket. “Good. I’ll be in my library.” He made a move to walk past Estoria and out of the lab, but she stopped him.

  “You’re really not going to go after her?”

  “I’m really not.”

  Estoria made an exasperated noise, but Foster continued walking. She was often full of good advice that he usually accepted. Today, however, was different. She hadn’t seen how Darina had squared her shoulders. How she had hardened her eyes. How her lips had formed a tight, determined line. Darina thought he didn’t want her because she’d been with Mikale. She thought she had to leave now that she’d protected him successfully.

  She was wrong on both accounts, but no matter what Estoria had imagined seeing in Darina’s eyes and regardless of the strong spark he’d felt between them when they’d made love, he couldn’t keep her. She didn’t want to be kept. She wanted to go back to her life in the city, so he’d let her. He’d been fine on his own all this time. Nothing had to change.

  Except that everything has changed.

  Darina had unleashed emotions in him—ones that had made him feel wonderful. Ones that made him see there was more to life than science and working and solving other people’s problems. Ones that only came about when two people were so right for each other. Why didn’t Darina feel that?

  Foster knew he hadn’t been imagining the passion and the compatibility. That had been as real as the sun shining outside. He wasn’t one to see things that weren’t there. He didn’t hallucinate. He didn’t ignore the truth. Scientists relied on acute observation and systematic analysis. If he applied both of those to his feelings for Darina, more than enough evidence existed to support the notion they were meant for each other. In fact, he’d go as far as to say he could prove they belonged together.

  As a police officer, didn’t she live by evidence as well? She used observation and analysis. She saved people with her skills. She thought they lived different lives, but that actually wasn’t true at all. They had a great deal in common. Enough that he couldn’t see a reason why he should let her go.

  All his genetically engineered life, he’d done things for everyone else. He’d been constructed to serve, put others’ needs first, solve complicated problems. The time had come to consider what he wanted. To get what he wanted.

  He wanted Officer Darina Lazitter.

  “If she needs proof,” he said as he entered his library where he’d first touched Darina, “I’ll give it to her.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Two weeks had passed since Darina had been in Vermont. Two long weeks of feeling alone and aimless. She was busy with police work, but she could hardly focus on what she was doing. She’d helped with cure dispersal efforts as soon as Emerge Tech began releasing it. That made her miss Foster. She’d assisted in the incarceration of Warres’s associates. That made her miss Foster. She’d worked closely with Ghared on presenting citizenship cases for the Vermont GECs, and guess what? That made her miss Foster. It was as if she couldn’t make a move without thinking of him.

  “Damn annoying,” she mumbled as she shoveled her cold breakfast of artificial oats into her mouth. A far cry from Estoria’s pancakes, as Zeke had pointed out nearly every day since they’d left the woods. The kid was dying to make the pancakes himself, but the city wasn’t up and running enough to get the necessary ingredients.

  Soon.

  The signs were all there. The world was on the brink of hopping back on the tracks and forging ahead. People were recovering from Warres’s plague. No new cases had been reported last week. Some major gains had been made in cranking up the power levels across the nation. Darina could easily envision eating a better breakfast in a brighter domicile in the not so distant future.

  Still wouldn’t compare to eating breakfast after sleeping beside Foster all night long.

  She finished the last bite of her breakfast and sighed.

  “Something weighing on your mind, Mom?” Zeke rested his hand atop hers on the table where they both sat.

  “No.” She stared into the chipped glass holding her water.

  “Bullshit.”

  That word snapped her head up and her eyes connected with Zeke’s. She’d never had to talk to him about swearing, though she and Ghared swore like thugs around him on an almost continual basis.

  “Excuse me?” She sat up straighter, her hand slipping out from under his.

  “You heard me.” Zeke pushed his own breakfast aside. “Bull. Shit. When are you going to admit that you miss Foster?”

  “I don’t—” She stopped when Zeke held up a hand.

  “You do. I even miss the guy, and I certainly didn’t lock lips with him... among other things.”

  Heat instantly fired Darina’s cheeks, and Zeke laughed.

  “Yeah, I knew. What am I, blind, Mom?”

  “No… I just… I didn’t…” How she wished for spontaneous combustion right now.

  “It’s okay that you locked lips and such with Foster.” Zeke tilted his head so his hair moved out of his face. “I’ve locked lips with Mareea. On several occasions.”

  “And such?”

  Now his cheeks pinked a little, and Darina was equal parts afraid of his growing up and proud of the young man he’d become.

  “Not yet,” Zeke said, and Darina let out the breath she’d been holding. “We have plenty of time for ‘and such.’” He grinned.

  “So?” she asked.

  “So… what?” A little creased formed between Zeke’s dark brows.

  “So is Mareea a good kisser?” If he was going to knock her on her ass with his questions and statements, she could do the same to him.

  “Mom, we were not discussing me. We were talking about you and Foster.” He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.

  “I’m going to take that as a yes then.”

  The right corner of Zeke’s mouth twitched up in a slight grin as the boy no doubt imagined his lips pressed to Mareea’s. Young love. Darina hoped the kids didn’t get their hearts broken. It hurt. She should know.

  Two weeks of no contact with Foster had been torture. Which was totally stupid because she’d only spent days with the man in the first place. But shit, there had been some amazing moments during those particular days. She’d reviewed her decision to leave Vermont a million times and knew she had done the right thing, but why did it have to hurt so badly? Why couldn’t she forget Dr. Foster Ashby?

  “I figured you needed time,” Zeke said. “Time to figure out that you love him. Why is it taking you so long?”

  “It’s not taking me long.” She sipped her water, but her throat remained dry. “I figured ou
t I loved him after day one of guarding him.”

  Zeke’s eyebrows shot up. “You did? Then why are you here without him?”

  She hoisted her arm onto the table between them and waved her prosthetic hand. “You know this isn’t real.”

  “Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?”

  “Mikale Warres bought it for me.”

  Zeke’s eyes bugged. “You knew Warres before he unleashed his plague?”

  Darina nodded, not sure if she could continue, but she had to make Zeke understand why Foster couldn’t possibly want her. She didn’t want to give the kid hope. He liked Foster too, but there was no place for a genius doctor in their lives. He’d get bored with them.

  “It was a desperate time. I needed a better hand than the one I had. I couldn’t take care of you or do police work.” And then I fell in love with the selfish, unfaithful prick.

  She flexed her hand, watching the ring of stars waver on her skin. The M and W carved into the last star made her sick to her stomach. How could she have been so naïve to think she was the only woman Warres was seeing at the time? He was handsome. He was rich. He was brilliant. He could have had literally any woman he wanted… and so he had all the women he wanted. At the same time. Thinking of that now made her blood boil. She usually didn’t act that foolish.

  Except that now I’ve fallen in love with Foster. Another man who was way out of her league on all accounts. He was more handsome and brilliant than Warres and probably richer. Why couldn’t she find someone on her level in the city? Why did she and Ghared only have sibling-like feelings for each other? He was on her level. On paper, they made a great pair. In real life, however, they didn’t spark.

  “So what if Warres bought your hand?” Zeke’s voice brought her back to the present. “I still don’t see why that means you can’t be with Foster.”

  She stood and paced away from the table, her fingers pressing into her temples. No easy way to say this. “I had… Warres and I… we were… well, we were together for a time.”

  Zeke’s nose crinkled. “Like you were a couple?”

  She nodded once, hating that any of this was true about her.

  A complete body shudder coursed through Zeke and a look of complete disgust came over his features. “Eww, Mom. Why?”

  “He wasn’t a madman back then.” Just a man with an insatiable appetite for sex who had made me feel a little exotic. He’d had some different tastes when it came to what he liked in bed, and Darina had learned she didn’t mind catering to those tastes… until she realized she wasn’t the only dish at his buffet.

  Zeke waved his hands. “Okay, whatever about Warres. That was the past. I still think you could have Foster now if you wanted him.” He stood and walked over to her. “For once in your life, think about what you want, Mom. You’re always worrying about everyone else. What about you?”

  He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, and for a moment, she felt as if they had reversed roles. He was the parent, she the child.

  “I’m meeting Mareea,” he said. “There’s some activity at what remains of the old high school two streets over.”

  “Activity? What kind of activity?” Darina fingered her weapon tucked into the holster at her waist.

  “Easy now, Officer.” Zeke laughed. “No need to go all cop on me. The activity is of the rebuild nature. With things looking up on the health, power, and technology fronts, some of us were thinking we could get the learning front going too.”

  Was there no limit to this kid’s greatness? And now that he hadn’t had any seizures, thanks to Foster’s medication, Zeke was unstoppable. He would do great things with his future. Darina was sure of it.

  “Let me know if you need any help.” She stepped closer to him and ruffled his hair.

  He swatted at her hand and spent a few seconds trying to right the disheveled strands. A haircut was definitely in order, but she knew better than to suggest it.

  “We’re making lists of action steps, materials, and so on right now, but I will definitely take you up on help when we figure out what we want to do.” He walked away then turned back to her. “Until I need your help, though, I think you need to talk to Foster.”

  She followed him to the door where he tugged on his boots and squatted to tie them. Before Zeke could open the door, Ghared busted in.

  “Good,” he said. “You’re both still here.” A look of relief washed over his face.

  “What’s going on?” Darina stepped around Zeke and looked up at Ghared.

  He scratched at his bearded jaw and puffed out a breath. “Some lunatic that lives by the old high school is apparently refusing to drink the water. Claims he’s got Warres’s plague but doesn’t want the cure. He looks pretty fucked up. Boston PD is trying to contain him now.”

  “Mareea’s at the high school.” Zeke pushed past Ghared, ready to rescue his girl.

  “No, I’m not.” Mareea came around the corner of the hallway leading to Darina’s domicile. “Uncle Ghared got to me before I left to meet your sorry ass.” She lightly punched Zeke in the shoulder, and a big, goofy grin blossomed on Zeke’s lips.

  He folded Mareea in his arms. “My sorry ass is right here, so you’re exactly where you should be.”

  “And I should be at the high school,” Darina said.

  “I’ll go with you.” Ghared turned to follow her, but glanced back at Zeke and Mareea. “You two stay here, and don’t do anything stupid.” He narrowed his eyes at Zeke.

  Zeke gave him a salute while Mareea rolled her eyes.

  In the hallway, Darina said, “He can’t get her pregnant you know.” Not that she wanted to recognize the fact that her teenage son would be having sex, but it was inevitable.

  Ghared stuck his fingers in his ears and shook his head. “At the top of my list of Things I Never Want to Discuss.”

  “They’re young adults in love, Ghared, what do you think they want—”

  “If you finish that sentence, I will push you into the street, and there’s actually some traffic now. You’ll be flattened, and I’ll have some peace.”

  “Fine. Deny what you know is going to happen.”

  “I’m not denying anything. Mareea and Zeke will be little kids forever. They don’t fall in love, they certainly don’t make love, and I don’t have to start giving Zeke the get-your-hands-off-my-niece stare of death. End of discussion.”

  “Wouldn’t you rather have her with a kid like Zeke than some jackass you don’t know?”

  “I don’t want Mareea with anyone. She was playing with a torn up teddy bear like just yesterday.”

  “Sorry, buddy, but both of them grew up while you weren’t watching.” Darina broke into a run toward the high school where two police jeeps were parked at odd angles to the crumbling building.

  “Mr. Jarkins, the cure is for real. Take it, and all your problems are solved,” an officer said to the man pacing by the front steps of what remained of the high school building.

  “He looks like total shit,” Ghared whispered to Darina as she assessed the situation.

  “But he doesn’t trust the cure is real.” She couldn’t blame him. After living the way they had for so long, nothing seemed real anymore.

  Things are changing, though.

  And thank heavens for that.

  She moved toward the closest officer whose gun was trained on the sick man. “Mr. Jarkins, is it?”

  The man stopped pacing and met her gaze, his left eye filled with blood. A vein in his neck was particularly swollen, and Darina recalled when Warres had injected her with a virus strain. The all-over burn that had coursed throughout her body was like nothing she’d ever felt. She had to make this guy understand that taking the cure was his best course of action.

  “I know you’re thinking this cure is bogus, but it’s the real deal. I watched Dr. Ashby make it myself. He’s an amazing scientist.” Saying Foster’s name caused a soul-deep ache in her chest. How she wished their story had a different
ending. One where they got to hold each other for as long as they both shall live.

  “The cure works?” Mr. Jarkins asked as he rubbed the back of his neck. “How can you be so sure? What if it kills me?” The man’s hands shook, and he sat on one of the school’s steps, cradling his head in his hands and mumbling things Darina couldn’t quite hear.

  “Taking this cure is your best option. If you don’t take it, you will certainly die from Warres’s plague. That’s a definite. If you take the cure, you have a shot at living.” She folded her hands across her chest and regarded the man. “I know the pain you are in right now, Mr. Jarkins. I’ve been in similar shoes, but Dr. Ashby was there with his cure and look at me now.” She gestured from her head to her toes. “All my organs are fully functional.”

  “And doesn’t her hair look great?” Ghared added, earning a laugh from the nearest officer.

  “More than her hair looks great,” another voice said from behind her. A voice she knew. A voice she couldn’t forget.

  Slowly, Darina turned around and blinked at what surely had to be an incredible illusion of some kind.

  “Foster?”

  ****

  She was every bit as beautiful as she was two weeks ago. Maybe more so. Tank tops and cargo pants would forever be Foster’s favorite outfits on a woman.

  And Darina would forever be his favorite woman.

  He fought the overwhelming urge to run toward her, scoop her up, and twirl her around. She definitely wouldn’t appreciate that. Especially because she thought she was working.

  Instead he walked calmly to her, his heart beating faster the closer he came. How he’d managed to wait two whole weeks to see her was a mystery, but he’d wanted to give her time. Time to realize she couldn’t live without him.

  From the look on her face maybe he’d waited exactly the right amount of time. She hadn’t blinked since turning around and seeing him there.

  Slowly, Estoria, Roben, Pike, Rasha, Hydec and several other GECs came out from nearby buildings. Each of them was holding a bouquet of bright orange daylilies they’d harvested from the Vermont property. They lined up on the crumbling sidewalk, instantly turning the gray city into something magical.