by Susan Hayes
“Hey, it’s like a hotel in here,” she observed and noted that their bags had already been delivered to the room. There were no windows, but in every other respect, it resembled a generic hotel room. Double beds, closet, bathroom, and even a flat-screen television set mounted on the wall across from the beds. “Now if they just had room service, I’d be ready to move in,” she joked and made her way to the bed, sinking down on it with a tired sigh.
“Oh, we’ve got room service.” Sin gestured to a phone sitting on a bedside table. “There’s a menu around here somewhere, too. The cafeteria is open twenty-four-seven. Nothing fancy, but it’s tasty.”
“You guys have your own cafeteria?”
“This is a full-service sort of place. We’ve got a cafeteria, gym, swimming pool, motor pool, armory, the works. We’re like a city in miniature here. Paladin employs more than a hundred personnel between the support staff and the specialists out in the field.”
“And here I thought you were just hired muscle,” she teased him and then blushed as her stomach rumbled.
“Room service, coming right up.” Sin tugged out a drawer from the bedside table and pulled out a simple, laminated menu. “I’m starving, too. We managed to miss dinner with all the travel time.”
She lay back on the bed and closed her eyes, part of her listening in as Sinjin ordered them what seemed like an insanely large amount of food. After he hung up, she felt the bed dip as he sprawled out beside her, one strong arm curving around her waist to tug her in close.
“You’re safe here you know.” His breath was warm and tickled where it brushed over her ear. “We’ll just avoid bathtubs and swimming pools for now, and it’s not likely we’re going to find ourselves attacked by an indoor windstorm, now is it? Tonight you can sleep, and tomorrow I’m betting Remington has a plan to deal with this situation.”
“I hope so, Sin. I really want my life back, soon.” She curled into him, amazed at how safe she felt when he was near. Even though it had only been two days, she felt like she’d known him her whole life. As if he was a part of her soul. They were probably destined for heartache, but damned if she didn’t care about the consequences right now. She needed him, and maybe, just maybe, he needed her, too.
* * * *
Sinjin had made sure she’d eaten well and then tucked her into the bed furthest from the door. He put his own body between hers and anyone or anything that might come through the only entrance to their room. The need to protect her was growing stronger, and he hoped like hell that whatever was going on between them, it didn’t disappear when the danger was finally dealt with. He’d seen it happen before. The intensity of a dangerous situation shared could bind two people together quickly, but it always seemed to fall apart the moment the danger passed. He’d experienced it once himself. The realization that what they’d shared was just a side effect of the situation had left him with a bad taste in his mouth and a reluctance to ever get involved with anyone he was supposed to be protecting. And yet here he was, lying next to Michelle, ready to give his life to keep her safe. Not because it was his assignment, but because he cared about her, deeply. At least he thought he did, but how could he be sure? He faded off to sleep, still trying to figure out if what he and Michelle had between them was real or just the product of adrenaline and lust.
He wasn’t sure what it was exactly that woke him up. Some sixth sense that told him something wasn’t as it should be. It wasn’t until he tried to move that he knew something was truly, terribly wrong. He couldn’t stir an inch. Not his hands, feet, or legs. Not even his mouth would work when he tried to speak. He felt his eyes open at last and he tried to scan the room, but his view never left the image of Michelle sleeping peacefully beside him. He could see the bare curve of her shoulder rising above the blankets by the faint glow of the clock radio’s readout. He felt his hand rise and fought to stop it, but his body was not his to control and his brain screamed in denial of the violation he was experiencing.
“Mine,” another man’s voice sounded inside his head, rife with satisfaction. “She’s always been mine.”
His hand stroked lightly down Michelle’s shoulder, smoothing the covers off of her arm, and exposing her naked beauty to his view. He could feel the silken softness of her skin beneath his fingers and the rise of goose bumps across her skin as the cooler air of the room chilled her flesh. No matter how hard he fought it, he could not stop his hand from moving. Nor could he force a single sound from his throat. He could do nothing that would wake or warn her. His fingers slid out of sight, and he felt the soft weight of Michelle’s breast beneath his palm, heard the hitch in her breathing as her body reacted to his unwilling caress.
He knew the moment she woke up. He felt the change in her body even before she moved. She turned toward him with a sleepy smile that made his heart ache. Her eyes were full of trust, and his every touch was a betrayal. He redoubled his efforts, frantically trying to push beyond the strange walls that kept him a prisoner deep in his own mind. For a moment, his hand trembled as he willed himself to move it away, to stop touching her. Then he lost the connection and that voice laughed mockingly in his head again.
“Stop me if you can, soldier boy.”
Michelle slid an arm around his neck and kissed him. “Sin,” she whispered and snuggled her soft body close. “Make love to me, please?”
He felt his body react to her touch. The hot surge of desire followed by the ache in his cock as it hardened against her thigh.
“Of course I will, Chelle.” He heard himself speaking and somehow the voice wasn’t his. The words were wrong, and the pronunciation was slightly different. His hand slid over her hip and his fingers tightened, pinching her sharply. Michelle cried out, pain and fear etched into her expression as she jerked herself away from him.
“Sin? What did you call me?”
“Chelle, Chelle, Chelly. Come to me, my darling. I’ve missed you. Now that I can touch you again, don’t you want me to?”
Sinjin could only watch in fury as she scrambled from the bed and into a corner of the room, her eyes full of terror. He was causing her pain, and he couldn’t stop himself. It was an unimaginable torture.
“Robert?”
His traitorous body nodded and sat up, moving toward Michelle. “Don’t you like my new look, darling?” He felt his limbs moving awkwardly and realized that while Robert could control a single limb, his entire body was still too much for him to handle at once. Sinjin threw his entire being into a final attempt to break free and regain control. For a moment, he could feel his body freeze up, and then the scream that had been trapped in his mind tore from his throat as his legs gave way beneath him. He came back to his senses in a heap on the floor, but entirely in control of his body again.
“Sin? Sin please, say something! Tell me that’s you and he’s gone. Please?”
“It’s me.” His tongue felt thick in his mouth, and he shook his head to clear the cobwebs from his mind. “It’s me, Michelle. He’s gone.”
“Oh thank god!” She was in his arms a second later, twining herself around him, the contrast of her warmth where she pressed against him making him realize his own body was ice cold.
“I’m sorry, baby. I—he had me and I couldn’t break free. The bastard played me like I was a fucking puppet on a psychopath’s strings.” He shuddered and gathered her into his arms, nearly crushing her to his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, Sin. It wasn’t your fault.” He heard her words, but they didn’t mean anything. He knew he didn’t deserve her forgiveness. He was supposed to be protecting her, and instead he’d given the son of a bitch another way to hurt her. His fingers brushed over the spot where he’d pinched her earlier, the rising bruise clearly visible even in the dimly lit room.
“I should have done more, done something.” He let her go and lifted her off of him, his guilt eating a hole in his heart. He stood up, putting more distance between them as he turned on the lights and grabbed h
is jeans off the back of a chair. “Get dressed. I need to make some calls. Whatever the hell Robert is, he’s getting stronger, and clearly I can’t be trusted to protect you anymore.”
He grabbed his cell phone and started dialing, barely able to breathe past the solid lump of guilt that seemed to fill his chest. He’d failed to protect another life, and this time he’d almost had to watch as someone he cared for had paid a terrible price for his failure. He couldn’t let this happen again.
* * * *
Michelle limped back over to the bed and gathered up a fresh change of clothes from her bag. Her heart felt as battered and bruised as the rest of her. Robert had taken control of Sinjin somehow, and now he was blaming himself. She wanted to go to him. She ached to hold him and explain that this wasn’t his fault. But somehow she knew it wouldn’t make any difference. His guilt was too strong, and she couldn’t stop wondering if he was right. If Robert could control him, she wasn’t safe with him, not anymore. No. If Robert can control people’s bodies, she wouldn’t be safe with anyone, ever. The truth struck her hard, and she was almost overwhelmed by the urge to give up. Her fears swirled and whispered through the recesses of her mind, making it hard to think. She sat on the edge of the bed and struggled to organize her thoughts until clarity finally came to her, like a splash of cold water to her face. So that’s it? Give up and let Robert’s ghost make you into his plaything for the rest of your life? I don’t think so. You got away from the man. You sure as hell can get away from his ghost!
She got dressed quickly, already feeling better now that her revelation had time to take hold. It was only after she tugged on her T-shirt that she realized that at some point Sin had gone into the bathroom and closed the door. She could make out his voice, but that was all. Whatever he was saying on the phone, he didn’t want her to overhear him. The moment she saw the closed door, she knew what he was doing. He was going to try to keep her at a distance, but she was damned if she was going to let him have things his way. She’d been a passive observer in this drama long enough. Remington was right when he’d called her a damsel in distress. It was time she started dealing with her own problems instead of running away from them.
She was headed for the bathroom door to let Sin know her thoughts when he came out on his own, the phone still in his hand.
“I need to go for a bit. I’ve got someone coming down to stay with you.”
“No.”
He stopped and blinked at her. “What was that?”
“No, you’re not going anywhere without me. No, you’re not sticking me in this room with a stranger for Robert to take over just like he took over you. No, you don’t get to walk out on me just when I need you the most.” She crossed her arms over her chest and met his narrow-eyed stare, determined to make her opinion crystal clear.
“Michelle.” He sighed her name. She could briefly see the guilt he was feeling, but then it was gone, replaced by detached determination. “You promised me you’d obey me without question. Do you remember that? I need you to do this for me. It’s for your own protection. This isn’t your decision to make. It’s mine. I’m compromised, and that means you need someone else to protect you. Someone with a better track record than mine has been lately.”
“So you lied to me?” She fought back the tears that threatened to fall as she hugged herself hard. “You promised me you’d protect me, Sin. How are you going to do that if you walk away from me now?”
A muscle twitched in his jaw, and she hoped she’d gotten through. But then her heart shattered in her chest as he shook his head and stepped away from her. “I’m protecting you the best way I know how, by making sure better men than I am are watching over you.” He turned and walked away, but not before she saw the flash of regret in his eyes.
“I don’t want better men. I only want you,” she whispered as the door closed behind him, but it was too late. He was gone. She’d finally found the courage to go after what she wanted, and he’d walked out on her.
Chapter 10
She’d spent the rest of the night in a well-lit, windowless room that had none of the amenities of the hotel-like room she’d been escorted out of. Curled up in one corner of a sofa, she didn’t so much actually sleep as manage to doze fitfully until morning. Given she was under constant surveillance by the two other women assigned to guard her, it was the best she could do. One was there to guard her, and one was there to guard the guardian in case Robert attempted to take over another body.
At least they had given her what privacy they could, sitting at the far end of the room. Her back ached, her mind felt dull and woolly, and her heart was still hurting from watching Sinjin walk away from her last night. All in all, she was in a less-than-perfect mood when Jase strolled through the door carrying what Michelle prayed was a cup of very strong coffee. He took one look at her and the grin faded from his face as he whistled low and crossed the room to hand her one of the two cups he carried.
“You look worse than Sin does.” He dropped onto the couch beside her and shook his head ruefully. “What the hell happened last night? I leave you two lovebirds alone for a few hours and the next morning I find you both looking like someone kicked your kitten and stole your puppy for good measure.”
“Sin is an idiot,” she muttered and inhaled the fragrance of the coffee with a grateful sigh. “Thanks for this. I’m in dire need of caffeine right now.”
“No problem, and yes, I’m aware Sin can be a bit thick. What in particular did he do this time? Give a man a clue here. It’s a big, wide ocean of possibilities.”
“Robert possessed him for a while last night, and now he’s convinced himself that he can’t protect me. So he walked out and left me to deal with this on my own. He said the only way he could keep his promise to keep me safe was to let someone better do it.”
Jase was staring at her. “Wait, back up. Robert can possess someone now?”
“Apparently.” She nodded to the two women watching them from the far wall. “Which is why I now get a two-for-one service.”
“Well that explains his lousy mood this morning.” He settled back on the couch and gave Michelle a long look, as if deciding something. “I know you care about him, that much is obvious. But what do you know about Sin? How much did he tell you about why he’s with Paladin?”
“Not much,” she confessed, suddenly aware of how little time they’d had to get to know each other.
“When Sin was in the Corp, he saw some pretty horrific things. The truth is that we all did. Some of us can let it go, and some of us…well… some of us have trouble putting it behind us. Every single employee of Paladin is either ex-military themselves or from a military family. The cooks, support staff, security officers, all of us. Remington’s company is his personal attempt to balance the scales, undoing some of the darkness we’ve all had to face. Paladins are supposed to be these chivalrous knights in shining armour, the good guys. That’s why Remington named his company for them, you see? It’s our chance at redemption. We’re the white knights, and we want to believe that the good guys don’t fail. That means we tend to take it pretty badly when we don’t win every fight.”
“So this isn’t just about me? This is about Sin’s past.” Michelle sighed and took several more sips of her coffee. “We’re both haunted, is that it?”
“You’re much too smart for him, you know.” The smile was back on Jase’s face as he flirted with her. “When you figure that out, I’ll be waiting for you.”
“Nothing personal, but I hope you have to wait forever.” She smiled back, feeling somewhat better after Jase’s explanation. “That’s if I can get Sinjin to stop beating himself up over something that wasn’t his fault. If anyone else had been possessed, I’m not sure they’d of been able to stop Robert from finishing what he’d started.”
“That bad, huh?”
“That bad.” Michelle couldn’t stop the shiver that washed over her at the memory of Robert’s arrival last night.
“Well, luckily fo
r you Remington knows some very interesting people. One of them is on her way here, and she is certain she can help.”
Hope swelled up inside Michelle, and she found herself standing before she’d even thought to move. “When will she be here? Can I meet her now? What do I need to do to make him leave me alone?”
Jase was laughing at her as he stood up and tucked her arm under his. “She’ll be here soon. I’ve been sent to wake you up and get you presentable, so yes, you can meet her soon, and you’ll have to ask her the rest of your questions. I’m just the messenger.” He led her to the door, pausing just long enough to speak to the two women guards. “One of you can head out. The other needs to come with me for another few minutes.”
The two stood, conferred for a few seconds, and the younger of the two came over to join them. “I’ll stay.”
“Thanks, Val.” Jase nodded toward the other woman and then winked at Michelle. “Now I for one like the ‘just got out of bed look’ on a woman, but I’m guessing you may want to get freshened up before we go upstairs. Sin looks like hell, so I imagine you will want to look like you slept well and don’t have a care in the world, right?”
“You have an uncanny understanding of women.” She couldn't help but laugh as he squired her down the hall toward what she assumed was the room she had been assigned earlier.
“Oh, he thinks so,” she heard Val mutter from behind them. “Please don’t add to his delusions, Ms. Jamieson. The rest of us have to work with him.”
* * * *
Sinjin was on his third cup of coffee when he heard Jase’s voice in the hallway, and it was almost painful to hear Michelle laughing in response to whatever his friend had said to her. They came through the door together, arm in arm. The sight caused a bitter knot of jealousy and doubt to form in the pit of his stomach. She looked beautiful this morning, her blonde hair loose around her shoulders and her lips shining with some sort of pink gloss that made him yearn to kiss her. She’d managed to find a dress to wear, something light and summery, and his groin tightened at the sight of her long, bare legs peeking out from beneath the hem.
