Dark Abyss

by Kaitlyn O’Connor

  Joshua blushed to the roots of his fair hair. He looked so miserably uncomfortable she regretted the comment even though she’d intended it as appreciation. He looked so miserable, she lifted her arms to him impulsively, wanting to sooth him.

  He hesitated fractionally and got up from the chair. Lowering the rail on the side of the bed, he leaned down over her and very carefully gathered her into his arms, burrowing his face against the side of her neck. “It wasn’t much of a rescue,” he muttered. “I’m not sure you would’ve been hurt worse if I hadn’t done anything at all.”

  Anna searched her memories and discovered everything that had happened almost from the time Paul had taken her was a confusing jumble. She did remember the terror that there were explosives in the house, though mostly her fear that Simon would be killed and then Caleb and Ian when they’d rushed off to help him.

  She stroked Joshua’s cheek soothingly, trying to think of some way to banish his guilt. It was misplaced to her thinking, but she could tell it was troubling him deeply and it made her ache for him. “You saved my life. You’ve got no reason to feel guilty that I got hurt anyway. Don’t you think I feel just as guilty that you got hurt trying to save me?”

  He lifted his head enough to search her eyes. Apparently he saw what he needed to see in them. Some of the tension eased from him. He moved closer, nuzzling his nose against hers as if seeking forgiveness. Anna was more than willing to bestow it.

  Although there was nothing to forgive him for in her mind, she could tell he needed it to forgive himself.

  Cupping his hard cheek, she guided his lips to hers and brushed her lips lightly back and forth along his and then pressed her mouth to his more firmly. He plucked her lips gently, almost experimentally with his own, drawing warmth from her that was a combination of empathy, affection, and gratitude at first. The instant he settled his mouth more firmly over hers, though, the entire tenor of the kiss changed, and the warmth with it, to something else entirely.

  The heated pleasure of desire spiraled through her as her focus shifted to the feel of his mouth on hers. His taste and scent were as beguiling as his touch, seductive, drawing forth an appetite for more.

  Surprise flickered through her, for although she’d noticed from the first that Joshua was a very attractive man, she hadn’t sensed a mutual attraction. She’d thought of him more as a friend, thought he saw her that way.

  It was a little disorienting to feel his desire and surprisingly exciting. There was nothing even vaguely platonic about the way he made her feel now, though.

  “That’s enough of that!” someone said briskly from directly behind Joshua, making both of them jump guiltily and break apart.

  Joshua met her gaze with a mixture of guilt, desire, apology, and amusement and then, as carefully as he’d embraced her before, he disentangled himself and straightened, moving away from the bed.

  She was acutely conscious of him waiting near the door as the doctor checked her out, half fearing he would leave and just as uneasy about him staying when she was no longer sure about how to act around him. Had she read more into the kiss than there was? Or had she misunderstood his friendliness before? Or had something changed between them because of what had happened?

  “I’m guessing you’re getting antsy about getting out of here?” the doctor murmured with amusement, then added dryly, “I know someone—actually several who’re certainly anxious for me to cut you loose.”

  Anna felt her face heating but hopefulness ousted her discomfort. “I can go?” she asked hopefully.

  “Not today,” the doctor responded with a mixture of amusement and censure, “but if you’ll behave yourself and you’re showing this much improvement tomorrow … I’ll think about it.”

  She studied Joshua a little warily when the doctor left again, struggling with her confusion. The doctor’s reference to ‘several’ had resurrected a dim memory. Someone, a stranger not the doctor, had been talking to her about ‘her’ men, she remembered abruptly. He’d been referring to Simon, Ian, Caleb and, she supposed, Joshua because she’d kept asking about them. It had seemed strange to her even then that he’d referred to them as hers.

  It dawned on her that multiple ‘marital’ partners, or pods as they often referred to them, were the norm in the territories, not the exception. The author of the piece she’d read had cited several reasons why the practice had come about—finances being one of the biggest factors. The shortage of women and the difficulties of protecting their ‘claim’ in an area still pretty wild had also made it necessary and acceptable if not completely satisfactory to the men.

  Had the doctor simply assumed since she was so concerned about them and, maybe, they’d been equally worried about her, that they were a … ‘pod’? Or did he know something she didn’t?

  The thought made her pulse go a little wild for a few moments until it dawned on her that there was no agreement between them. There’d never even been a discussion—not a hint that they had interest in that direction, as far as that went. As shocking as their custom was to land dwellers like herself, the Atlanteans still took it very seriously, just as seriously as land dwellers did marriage, maybe more seriously. It wasn’t an informal thing. It was a commitment.

  It couldn’t have just ‘happened’ without her knowledge and consent. The depth of her disappointment when she realized it had to be a misconception on the part of the hospital staff was telling.

  Then again, she’d found all of them extremely attractive from the first. The circumstances that had brought them together had taken that physical attraction to an extreme dependency with dizzying speed—from her perspective anyway. She’d had her security snatched out from under her so abruptly and so completely she’d been like someone who couldn’t swim being suddenly tossed out into an ocean. She’d been ready to grab anything to keep her afloat and safe, and hold on for all she was worth.

  It didn’t follow that they felt anything like that. In fact it seemed highly unlikely that they would. She certainly wasn’t a man magnet. She thought she was average, maybe even a little better than that, but she was shy and socially awkward and men hated having to carry the burden of courtship entirely on their own shoulders. It made them uncomfortable and they tended to avoid that, and her, like the plague even when they seemed interested. They might enjoy the hunt, but they expected the woman to let them know she wanted to be hunted, not run like hell in the other direction.

  And, unfortunately, she’d never really mastered that part. Her college ‘hunk’, Chance, wasn’t the only man she’d ever mooned over, just the only one who’d managed to stick out the hunt until he caught her. She had a ‘taste’ for ‘pretty’. Unfortunately, it scared her so badly when they actually noticed her, she made like a frightened rabbit and scurried into her burrow to hide until they gave up.

  She couldn’t even really trust her own feelings, if it came to that. What she felt for them could be as real as it could get. They were handsome, fatally attractive men, she w as sure, to any woman with eyes in her head. Beyond that, they were ‘hero’ material, the very epitome of what a man should be, flawed, temperamental, aggressive, possessive, but intelligent, protective, and capable of gentleness and affection. She could’ve easily fallen just as hard and just as fast if not for the extreme circumstances, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility that she was blinded by her need for safety either.

  Not that that mattered, ultimately. If they were waiting for her to make a move, they were doomed to disappointment. She was too afraid of being laughed at to chase after them.

  She’d wanted Caleb desperately enough to overcome her fatal character flaw of cowardice and that had been a total disaster! She still cringed when she thought about her encounter with Simon that day.

  Chapter Ten

  Joshua returned to the chair he’d been occupying before when the doctor finally left. “Don’t worry. We’ve got you under twenty-four hour watch until we can
move you to a more secure location.”

  Anna blinked at him in shock, her mind erupting immediately into disorder. “We didn’t get him?”

  Joshua’s face tightened. “We caught the bastard alright.”

  He didn’t elaborate. He seemed disinclined to do so, and that made her more uneasy.

  “But? It isn’t over, is it? You think he might still try something.”

  Joshua shifted uncomfortably. “Simon planned to brief you on all of it once we got you out of here. You need to focus on getting better.”

  “Worrying isn’t going to help me do that,” Anna said pointedly.

  Joshua blew out a breath of disgust and grinned at her a little sheepishly. “I knew I’d stick my foot in it,” he muttered, then frowned. “I guess they did, too, and that’s why …. I just ….” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Jesus! I wasn’t thinking about anything but getting you out of there before the place blew. I’m not used to women!” He sent her a horrified look and blushed fierily. “What I meant to say is, being around them …. That didn’t come out right.”

  Anna touched his hand, curled her fingers around it and held it. “Stop beating yourself up about that, ok? I thought we’d covered that? You weren’t being careless. There wasn’t time to … worry about anything but getting as far away as possible and taking cover! I know that and I know you weren’t being deliberately rough or inconsiderate. In all honesty, I think it was just a freak accident. I’ve fallen down plenty of times and never broke anything before.”

  “Yeah, well that might’ve been because you didn’t have me on top of you,” he said dryly.

  “And I would’ve been hurt a lot worse if you hadn’t been! I do remember that you were hurt because you were shielding me with your body!”

  He looked like he wanted to argue it further, but she redirected him to the previous conversation. She would’ve suspected he’d been deliberately trying to sidetrack her if he hadn’t still looked so miserable about it.

  “Just tell me what’s going on. I’m not nearly as fragile as you seem to think and I’ll worry a whole lot more not knowing why all of you are worried.”

  He shrugged. “I guess we’d rather err on the side of caution than dismiss any possibilities after what happened. I don’t think any of us really thought he would bother you again—before. Now ….” He shrugged again. “Well, you are a witness and he’s a dangerous man. None of us wanted to take any more chances with you. So Simon ordered a ‘round the clock armed guard at your door.”

  She studied his face. He had an honest face, not just a handsome one, and she thought she could trust her instincts. He was still holding something back. “What else?”

  He cleared his throat. “We want to hold you in protective custody when they let you out of here.”

  Anna was more thrilled at that prospect than unnerved by what it suggested.

  “You do? Would I … be staying at your place?”

  He blushed. “That was the plan. It’s actually not protocol considering ….” He stopped abruptly and sent her a look that was clearly horror at what he’d almost said. It intrigued her and amused her at the same time.

  “What I mean is …,” he began again after clearing his throat uncomfortably, “we thought it would be the best place even though it isn’t the most ideal given the circumstances.”

  She desperately wanted to ask him what ‘the circumstances’ was, but he looked so adorably miserable that she took pity on his discomfort. She hadn’t realized that he was as bashful as she was. He hadn’t seemed that way before, just quiet and rather introverted. Maybe he was more like her than she’d realized, though? The more he liked someone the more awkward he was?

  She didn’t have any trouble at all when she was focused on areas within her comfort zone—science—especially when she was around people she had no particular interest in. The very moment it mattered to her what they thought of her, though, she lost half her IQ and began to behave so awkwardly that she embarrassed herself.

  She wasn’t sure she should interpret his behavior that way, but it pleased her to think it might be a possibility.

  “And this would be ... until he goes to trial?” she asked.

  “Until we have a better idea …. Well, can come up with a more permanent … uh … arrangement.”

  The more he stumbled around, the more she wanted to probe. She sensed there was something else he was worried about, though, and, since he looked so miserable and she also wanted to make him more comfortable, she steered away from her questions.

  “Simon didn’t manage to get the evidence he’d hoped for?” she asked tentatively after she’d probed her memory for a few moments.

  Joshua’s expression hardened and he was instantly transformed into ‘lawman’.

  “Nothing that’s going to put a noose around his neck. He’s an oily snake. We got a hell of a lot of ‘suggestive’, but nothing unbreakable. With a good lawyer, and he can afford the best, he stands a very good chance of wiggling out from under what we have on him. It’s too vague and open to interpretation.

  “Right now the only thing concrete we’ve got to hold the bastard on, is attempted murder of a watchman.”

  Anna’s heart skipped several beats. “Who?” she gasped fearfully.

  Joshua sent her a panicked look. “Don’t start crying! He shot Simon, but he’s fine now. They’re letting him go home today. I don’t think they would’ve kept him this long except he lost a good bit of blood.”

  Anna calmed herself with an effort. “But … doesn’t that mean he’ll go to jail?”

  “He’s claiming he had no idea we were watchmen. He thought we were kidnappers and he was only trying to defend himself … and a lot more bullshit like that!

  He’s a smooth bastard. I’ll give him that. He’s already countered everything we’ve thrown at him. His lawyers are demanding that he be tried in the states, saying that he won’t get a fair trial here … because we’re mutants and prejudiced against anyone that isn’t.”

  “What about kidnapping me?” Anna demanded indignantly.

  His expression twisted with anger and disgust. “Paul Warner actually did the kidnapping. If he survives from the hole your father blew in him trying to shoot Simon, he may be willing to turn on his boss, but we aren’t counting on it. In any case, Cavendish is your father. He could claim that he’d only asked Paul to pick you up and you’d gone willingly.”

  “But I could testify that I didn’t!”

  He looked uncomfortable. “It would just be your word against his and he could discredit you by saying you were angry with him about something and were lying to get back at him. The jury might or might not buy it, but it’s thin.”

  “He blew up my house.”

  “Paul blew up the house.”

  “But it was on his orders! I heard him ask Paul if he’d taken care of it.”

  Joshua looked doubtful and angry. “Did he say, specifically, ‘did you blow up the house like I told you to?’”

  Frustration surfaced. “No. He just asked him if he’d taken care of it, but he couldn’t have meant anything else when Paul did blow it up!”

  “He could say he did, though. Unless Paul recovers, like I said, and is willing to spill his guts …. Anyway, that happened outside of our jurisdiction, technically. We can’t charge him with it and we haven’t told the Water City PD that we suspect him of being behind it, either—they’d demand extradition. We don’t want to take a chance on placing you where he could have someone else grab you. Whatever his motives were before, Anna, you’re a witness and Miles Cavendish doesn’t strike us as the sort of man that would let sentiment come between him and his goals. If it comes down to the possibility of going to prison if you testify, your life could be on the line.”

  She already knew that and it still set her heart to squeezing painfully. “The paddler!” she exclaimed abruptly. “Did it get blown up?”r />
  Joshua looked at her strangely. “I don’t know.”

  “Can you find out?” she asked urgently.

  “I might be able to,” he said doubtfully and somewhat reluctantly.

  Anna studied him uneasily. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  His lips tightened. She could see he was reluctant to tell her and the moment he realized there wasn’t any point in trying to keep it from her. “Cavendish’s organization has been blaming the explosion on mutant terrorists. There’s a lot of anti-mutant sentiment in the states right now. I don’t know if the Water City PD would be inclined to cooperate. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’ve shifted the focus of their investigation into the bombing to us.”

  Even though Anna had thought it was a possibility, she was horrified and furious.

  “That low down bastard! I knew that had to be part of the reason he’d done it!”

  Joshua looked at her curiously. “What do you think the other part was?”

  She looked at him unhappily. “My research. I made a copy and put it in the paddler. I was going to take it out to Simon and Ian to keep it safe, but Paul grabbed me before I could.”

  Joshua still looked doubtful. “I’ll do what I can. I can’t make any promises.”

  “I know, but it’s really important! If I just knew it was safe! I’d put my data chip in my reader and sort of slipped it under the seat in the paddler. There’s got to be at least a chance it survived the explosion.”

  He took her hand and lifted it. “I’ll try, baby,” he murmured, brushing his lips lightly across her knuckles. “I know how important it is to you.”

  Anna felt her throat close. He was so sweet! He’d almost gotten himself killed trying to save her and all he could think about was that he hadn’t been careful enough!

  And the worst of it was that he felt so badly about it when she honestly thought it had been a freak accident that she’d been hurt. There hadn’t been time to worry about anything but speed, but she didn’t recall that he’d been particularly rough with her.