Silver Fire (Guardians)

by Victoria Paige

  “Although,” Stephen said as he leaned on the door jamb watching her. “The advantage of having a gay friend is that we can give you a guys’s perspective. Maybe he’s running scared. Maybe he’s falling for you real hard and fast.”

  “What kind of reasoning is that?”

  “Uh, a guy’s?”

  “Well that’s plain ridiculous.” Sophie scrunched her nose. “If all men acted that way, then I’m better off without those morons.”

  “You said it, girl” Beth declared as she sat on the bed and watched Sophie putter around the room. “Now will you try batting for the other team? I know a couple of gals who are perfect for you.”

  Sophie laughed. “I think I’m pretty straight.”

  Beth sighed. “Yes, I think you are.”

  “Got any updates for me?” Sophie turned to Stephen.

  “Yes. A couple actually,” her friend replied. “The contractors are starting on your house next Tuesday, clearing debris and all that. We’ve got a slight problem with the insurance. They’re classifying this as an act of terrorism.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t worry, our lawyers are looking into it. Because of the nature of your work the insurance on your house has a clause covering some hostile acts. Not sure exactly how it’s worded—”

  “As long as Blanton is on it.”

  “He is.”

  “What else?”

  “Silver Fire Research should reopen on Monday. Divergent Management has given us the go ahead. They’re also beefing up security. I’ve re-scheduled your meeting with MDI that was supposed to be on Friday to Tuesday.”

  “Shoot! The mold for the trigger housing, has it arrived?”

  “No. I called the manufacturer, and they’re delivering it Monday morning.”

  “Good. Anything else?”

  “Christopher Blackstone wants to schedule an appointment.”

  “Any idea what he wants?”

  Stephen gave her a dubious look.

  “Well, you did dangle the zefinium cores in front of him,” Beth said cynically

  “What time is our meeting with MDI on Tuesday?” Sophie asked after giving the reporter an exasperated look.

  “Eleven a.m.”

  “If Christopher can come by at 9:00 a.m., that would be great. If not, he’ll have to wait for Wednesday, I plan to catch up on some work in the afternoon.”

  Stephen nodded.

  “Anything else?”

  “How about a new car?”

  Sophie suddenly got excited. Her poor SUV had been firebombed along with Maia’s vehicle and she really needed a car right now—new or rental. “Everyone up for some car shopping?”

  ***

  Derek knew he fucked up with Sophie and he had no clue how to fix it without coming across like an asshole. He freaked out, plain and simple. He did not know how to behave the morning after sex because he never had the morning after sex. The women he fucked never slept over—they left after the last fuck—no cuddling. He would get up, take a shower alone and go to the kitchen as a signal that they had to get up and get moving.

  He was overwhelmed by how incredible Sophie made him feel, his mind had shattered, and he couldn’t think coherently. After that last time he took her, he stumbled into the bathroom and started the shower. But it took him a while to go under the water spray. He was bent over the sink feeling like he’d gone into a battlefield without a Kevlar vest. A fist of fear in his gut twisting him inside and telling him this was it, he did not want anyone else. She had the power to hurt and weaken him.

  So he withdrew.

  Big mistake. He was a fucking coward.

  And now he had broken it. That tenuous bond he had with her. It was broken. He saw it when their eyes met briefly when he dropped her off at the bungalow. There was hurt, confusion and betrayal. She had just trusted him with her deepest insecurity, and he threw it back in her face. Dumb shit.

  “Hey!” Maia rapped on his car window. He had texted her a few minutes earlier that he was waiting in front of the apartment building. Derek bleeped the locks.

  Maia got into the passenger seat and gave him a playful punch. “So how did it go last night?”

  Derek waited for a bus to pass him before pulling out of the loading/unloading zone. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  But Maia, being Maia, was tenacious. “Are you telling me you’re going six days without sex?”

  “I fucked up—OK?” Derek replied tersely. “I had the most incredible sex of my life, and I blew it.”

  “Derek Lockwood!” Maia exclaimed in a censuring tone. “Do not tell me you did the shower brush off with Sophie.”

  He sighed and felt Maia bludgeon him with the binder she was carrying. “Fucking moron! I can’t fucking believe this! Why? Why would you do something like that to Sophie? Why even touch her if you’re going to treat her like any of your regular fucks?”

  “You’re a potty mouth this morning,” Derek muttered.

  “Do not change the subject, Derek!”

  “Truth?”

  “Yes!”

  “I freaked out.”

  “Oh Derek.”

  His jaw tightened as he heard the pity in Maia’s voice. Great, now he was just plain pathetic. He kept his eyes straight ahead as he took the ramp that led to the interstate.

  “Are you ending it with her?”

  “Hell no,” Derek growled. Shit. That was it. The thought of ending things with her had sent his most primal instinct of possessiveness to the surface.

  “Well, what’s the status then? Derek, you can’t be on a break, you guys had barely begun.”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  “And you fucked it up already ...”

  “Thanks for rubbing it in.”

  “The very morning after the first time you had sex.”

  “Maia—”

  “Incredible sex.”

  “Shut it, Maia!” Derek wanted to strangle his friend.

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “Don’t know yet.”

  “Did she notice the brush off?”

  “I didn’t touch or kiss her this morning, so I figure that’s an affirmative”

  Maia was shaking her head. “And I thought you were the levelheaded one. You always gave great advice.”

  Derek didn’t answer. His mind and his gut were in turmoil, but he was not too distracted not to notice that a car appeared to be following them. He glanced in the rearview mirror; an old Saturn sedan was two cars behind them. Derek noticed the car when he pulled in front of Jack’s apartment. The Saturn had shot past him and parked a few vehicles down. It then pulled out when Derek had passed it with the Escalade, and it had been trailing them ever since.

  “I think we have a tail.”

  Maia leaned to the center console to look out the back.

  “Rust-colored Saturn,” Derek informed her.

  “Hmm,” was all Maia said.

  “Did Viktor say why this meeting was so important this morning?” Derek asked. Though it wasn’t unheard of, Saturdays morning meetings were rarely scheduled.

  “He sounded concerned.” Maia frowned as if something was dawning on her. “Shit, I wonder if...” she looked back at the rear. “The Saturn is pulling up beside us. Three men.”

  Derek surveyed the traffic before him. It was early Saturday morning and the roads were fairly clear, which meant everyone was speeding. His hand tensed on the steering wheel as they approached a very sharp turn on the Beltway—he had an idea of what was about to happen and he eased up on the gas pedal. He glanced at the car beside them; it accelerated while the passenger in the backseat lowered his window.

  “Shooter!” Maia yelled suddenly.

  All hell broke loose. There was a loud pop and the Escalade swerved. They had shot out their left front tire.

  “Brace!” Derek shouted as he tried to prevent the SUV from flipping, but the laws of physics could not be denied. Their vehicle tilted on its roof. Bone-rattling
pain shot through his body as he heard the crunching of metal, the breaking of glass and the distant squealing of tires and honking of cars. He impotently watched the barrier coming in fast, and they slammed against it. Hard.

  ***

  Derek fought hard to stay conscious. He glanced worriedly at Maia, who was groaning in pain. The airbag had knocked the wind out of him and his chest was on fire. They were both hanging upside down, blood trickling from their lacerations caused by the caved-in windshield or rogue pieces of metal. There was also a strong odor of petroleum and other chemicals. They had to get out of the SUV before it blew.

  Sirens were wailing, people were yelling, doors were slamming.

  “Stay back!” an authoritative voice bellowed.

  A uniformed police officer bent over and peered over from Maia’s side. “Are you guys OK?” The grim look on the officer’s face reflected the severity of the situation. Something told Derek that the Escalade was unsalvageable, but thank fuck they were alive.

  “Do we look OK?” Maia croaked as she popped her seatbelt buckle. She fell to the ceiling of the car, howling in pain. “Damn it, I think I broke a rib!”

  “Ma’am, sir, I suggest you not move until the fire department gets here!”

  Derek clicked his seatbelt buckle and cursed when he landed. The officer sighed when he realized both occupants of the vehicle had no intention of listening to him.

  Holy hell, Derek thought as pain radiated everywhere. It felt like he had gone a couple of rounds in a wrestling cage and he’d been body slammed repeatedly. Every joint in his body felt like it had been wrenched out of its socket but nothing appeared to be broken, and hopefully he wasn’t bleeding internally either.

  The firemen arrived in time to help them clear the Escalade when they managed to pull themselves out of their respective windows.

  “You guys are fucking insane!” a fireman yelled at Maia as he helped her to her feet.

  “Well, we’d hate to wait for you guys and find ourselves blown up with the vehicle,” Maia quipped, limping to an ambulance.

  Derek immediately thought of Sophie. What if this was related to her? He grabbed his phone—which thankfully was in one piece—from his pocket and punched her number. It went immediately to voicemail. She was avoiding his call.

  He dialed Beth’s number.

  “You’ve got a lot of nerve calling.”

  “Where are you guys?” Derek asked abruptly.

  “None of your business. You fucked up big time.”

  “Listen to me!” Derek roared. “Someone tried to kill me. They shot out our tire on the damn Beltway. Where are you guys?”

  Silence for a beat and then, “Holy cow, Lockwood, are you OK?

  “Beth, for the fucking last time—”

  “We’re still at the bungalow.”

  “Lock yourselves indoors and set the alarms. I’ll send someone over, someone you will know.”

  Derek called Jack, ignoring the paramedic who was trying to get him to stand still long enough to be treated.

  “McCord.”

  “Jack, don’t freak out. Maia is fine. I need a favor.”

  “What happened?”

  “Someone tried to kill us.”

  “Fuck! Where are you guys now?”

  “We’re on the Beltway; the Escalade is totaled.”

  “What exit?”

  Derek heard the jingle of keys and knew his friend was about to race out to find them.

  “Jack, listen, I need you to get to Sophie; these guys may be after her.”

  “Damn you, Derek!”

  “Jack, Maia is fine—”

  His friend hung up on him. Derek cursed in frustration and watched Maia answer her phone.

  “News travels fast,” Maia said, her eyes cutting to Derek. She tried to keep her wince out of her voice when the paramedic started to clean the cuts on forehead. “Baby, I’m in one piece. Calm. Down.”

  “Maia, he needs to get Sophie to AGS,” Derek said.

  “Jack, you do not need to come here. Make yourself useful and get Sophie to AGS. I do not need to go to the hospital...AGS has everything... Jack, damn it, will you listen to me? Stop wasting time. Get Sophie. Derek will text you the address.”

  Maia hung up on her husband.

  “You need to have yourself checked out,” Maia said, eyeing Derek carefully as he quickly typed in Sophie’s address.

  A wave of dizziness suddenly hit him, so he sat down beside her. The paramedic who was following him around gave a sigh of relief and started cleaning his cuts.

  “We need to get you both to the hospital, have some x-rays done.”

  “We’re fine!” Derek and Maia said in unison.

  “Uh-huh,” the paramedic, who was patching up Maia, said. “You probably sustained a concussion, maybe a broken rib.”

  “Well, a broken rib, there’s not much that can be done about that, is there?” Maia pointed out. The paramedic fell silent, but he was repressing a grin.

  The cop who was first on the scene walked up to them.

  “So witnesses said someone shot out your front tire.”

  “Officer, we’d rather keep this off the radar.”

  The paramedics looked at each other. The cop raised an eyebrow.

  “Are you folks in some sort of trouble?”

  “Not what you’re thinking,” Derek said. He reached into his back pocket—the effort costing him since his torso hurt like hell—pulled out his wallet, and took out his AGS contractor card.

  “Great.” The officer sighed, returning Derek’s information. “Hard to keep this off the radar with so many witnesses. What should I put on my report?”

  Derek shrugged and looked at Maia. “Tire blow-out?”

  Maia shrugged. “That works.”

  The two paramedics started chuckling as the officer exhaled deeply and said, “I’ll have a talk with my captain.”

  “I’ll have my boss call your department,” Maia said.

  The police officer gave them a card and turned back to the scene.

  ***

  “He did say he was OK, right?” Sophie asked her friend for what could be the thousandth time.

  Beth glared at her momentarily before returning her attention to her cell phone.

  “Done being mad at him?” Stephen asked.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m just showing some concern for a friend,” Sophie replied. She was done being mad at him—for now. How could she stay mad at him when she was the most likely reason he nearly got killed? And the first person he worried about while still at the scene of the accident was her. That should mean something, right? She couldn’t trust him again, but she couldn’t explain why she had trouble breathing when Beth told her what had happened to Derek. “Besides, it could be because of my troubles that landed him in this. I’m just not a safe person to be around with at the moment. Maybe you two should stay away from me too.”

  Beth spoke up this time. “Sophie, I get death threats all the time and you’re not avoiding me.”

  “This is different. It’s not a threat anymore. People are getting hurt. Dying,” Sophie finished in a whisper, remembering Guerrero.

  “Sophie, we’re not even sure this is about you,” Stephen said. “It doesn’t make sense. Beth and I have known you for years and they have not moved against us.”

  That was true, she thought. Because Derek was ex-Special Forces and ex-AGS, it was possible he’d acquired enemies on his missions. He and Jack ran a defense company and were closely connected to the DoD and AGS. The hit might have nothing to do with her at all.

  They tensed when they heard a car door slam. Stephen looked out the window, relief washing across his features. “It’s Jack.”

  Disarming the alarm, Stephen opened the door before Jack could knock. Sophie felt her heart sink when she saw the pinched, ravaged look on Jack’s face.

  “Jack, is everything OK? You look...” Sophie began, dreading what the other man would say.

  Jack gave her a
reassuring smile. “Everything is fine. It’s just that Maia was with Derek.”

  “Oh my god, is she all right?” Beth exclaimed.

  “She’s still mouthing off to me, so I guess she is,” Jack replied, obviously miffed at his wife.

  “Well, why aren’t you with...” Sophie’s voice trailed off. “Derek told you to come for me. I’m so sorry.” Guilt washed over her in a big wave. The man was worried sick about his wife, and she did not know what Derek had said to convince him to come for her instead of going straight to Maia.

  “He did, but so did Maia,” Jack said shortly. “Gather all your things, Sophie, I’m taking you to AGS.”

  “But I’m staying with Beth.”

  “I don’t think that’s happening until we figure out what’s going on.”

  Sophie rolled her suitcase out of her bedroom. Jack took it from her and walked out the door, pausing to check for suspicious elements before signaling for her to come out of the house. Sophie grabbed her overnight bag that was still sitting in the foyer and followed Jack out the door.

  She gave Beth and Stephen a hug. “So much for car shopping. You guys check in every hour, OK? I don’t care if it’s just a simple text.”

  “Don’t worry, Sophie,” Beth said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

  They’d been on the road for a few minutes before Jack spoke. “Look, I don’t want you to feel guilty about me coming to get you. Derek and Maia are right, securing you is more important at the moment.”

  “But shouldn’t Maia come first?”

  “She does, Sophie. But in her line of work, prioritizing is important—the greater good. Even if I wanted to rush to her side, I have to respect her wishes. It’s the only way our marriage can work,” Jack said quietly.

  “That sucks, I don’t know how you can stand it.”

  “It’s easy. I love her.”

  Sophie felt herself swoon hearing Jack’s words, his face losing the harsh planes of earlier and softening with a tender look as he said he loved his wife.

  “So what’s going on with you and Derek?”

  “Nothing. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

  “What?”