Titanium

by Linda Palmer

  "I wish I'd known him better."

  He snorted. "I don't. Dude never met a chick who didn't fall for him."

  Unsure how to take that, I let it go. "You should write his parents a note."

  "Yeah. I'll try to get his address on Monday. Surely I can talk someone out of it."

  "I'll bet Miranda would give it to you." My dry tone probably said it all.

  * * * *

  For the rest of the afternoon, we said little to each other. I knew sadness weighed him down. After a dinner of club sandwiches that I'd toasted so the cheese would melt, we watched TV. Oddly enough, we hadn't argued yet over what program we wanted to see. I figured that would happen once we got more comfortable with each other. At the moment we were both still being polite.

  One of the major stations presented a special on a new treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder aka PTSD that was being done at the Little Rock, Arkansas, VA Medical Center. I listened with interest while the host talked about veterans with issues, especially when he described their symptoms. Did any apply to Zander? Only his bad dreams, as far as I knew. Oh, and the guilt.

  He honestly seemed pretty well adjusted for someone who'd fought the enemy in a foreign land and lost body parts in the line of duty. I guess I glanced at him one time too many. Why? Because Kyle's suicide had scared me big time. As far as I could tell, Zander wasn't having that kind of problem, but I knew he faced challenges every day.

  "I'm not suicidal, okay? I already told you that."

  "I know you did." I got up from the recliner and moved over to the couch, where I sat on the cushion next to his. "But just in case you ever feel that lost, I want you to promise you'll call me before you do anything."

  "And what will you do? Ring all my wounded ex-neighbors to intervene? Is that why you got their phone numbers?"

  He was wondering why I'd done that? Good. I decided to yank his chain a little. "No, idiot. I did that because a couple of them are total hunks. I got everyone's number to keep from being obvious."

  Zander actually flinched, although he had to know I was lying.

  I tried to keep a straight face, but couldn't. So I was laughing when I gave in. "Actually, I'm hoping your friends will be my friends."

  He'd never looked more relieved. "Why?"

  "Because I had a really good time today."

  Zander's pleased smile warmed me all over.

  Leaving him to his TV, I sat at the desk to check my email. I had a short one from my father giving me his address and phone number. I was shocked to see he lived in Dallas. I sent him mine, even though he might already have them. He'd managed to get my email address somehow.

  I also had mail from my bank. Since it looked official, I clicked on it thinking someone was contacting me about the money Clint had transferred to my account. But the email was from someone else.

  Hello, Riley. Missing your panties? I'll bet Zander isn't. I promise I'll give them back to you very soon and in person. Meanwhile, I'm picturing you without them.

  I stared at the words, not quite believing my eyes, until I felt Zander standing behind me. One look at his face revealed he was there because of me though I didn't remember making a sound.

  He read the words on the screen. "I'm gonna kill that jerk off."

  Zander

  I shot out the door. Riley caught up just as I got to Charlie's side of the house and grabbed my arm before I could knock.

  "You think Charlie sent that?" Her eyes had never been wider.

  "He could easily have gotten your email address off your computer. You're always logged in." The look on her face made me walk her back home, a matter of ten steps. "You stay here. I want his full attention."

  She nodded.

  I went back to Charlie's door and banged on it. He seemed surprised to see me again. I cut to the chase. "Did you send Riley a threatening email?"

  "No way, dude."

  He wasn't lying. "Did you let someone into her apartment?"

  "No."

  Another truth. Hm. "Have you been spying on Riley?"

  "Absolutely not. What's going on? Why are you asking me all these questions?"

  "Someone's harassing her."

  "It's not me, I swear. I'd be crazy to. She's totally hot and pays the rent on time."

  Baffled, I left him and went back to Riley, who waited just inside her door. "Well?"

  "It's not him."

  She sighed so pitifully that I pulled her into my arms. "You should forward the email to Sergeant Brian. Maybe he can do something with it. And once you've done that, we should get out of here."

  "And go where?"

  "I might know a place. Let me make a quick call." Releasing me, he walked out of the room. I could barely hear him talking over the TV as I dragged myself away from the computer. Zander, standing in the living room again, motioned for me to join him. "Pack an overnight bag. We're leaving."

  "Really?"

  "Yep. Canyon Lake. Sparks's parents have a cabin there on the east side of the water. He told me where they hide the key."

  "They won't mind?"

  "They're in Florida, waiting for his sister to have a baby, but even if they weren't they'd loan it for one night. I've met Sparks's folks. They're all right."

  "Will we be safe?"

  "As safe as we are here and probably more."

  Chapter Thirteen

  Riley

  It took me no time to throw PJs, spare jeans and a top, clean undies, and a few toiletries into a cloth tote bag. I met Zander in the hall. "What if we're followed?"

  "I'll lose them. Do you trust me, Riley?"

  "Yes."

  His answering smile told me he knew I wasn't lying. "Good. Don't worry about a thing. You're safe with me."

  I believed him.

  Less than five minutes later, he backed his truck onto the street and we headed to the lake. With it being early yet, we naturally had traffic all around us. But it thinned the farther from town we got. Finally we were alone on the tree-lined highway. I looked back constantly and saw no headlights.

  Did I stop worrying, relax, and enjoy the view? After all, I had my own personal body guard. A former member of Army Special Forces, no less.

  But my fear ran deep. "What if Jason is following us with his lights off?"

  In answer, Zander doused his truck's lights and, aided by the glow of a gibbous moon, drove until we came to a dirt road. He pulled the truck onto it. We sat there for a good five minutes in the dark. No one passed us. With the lights back on, we finished the drive with me navigating from hastily scribbled instructions.

  A final turn took us down a dirt road that was barely more than a path compromised by tree roots and rocks. At the end of it, we found a small cabin. It lay in darkness, but beyond it I caught the shimmer of the moon reflecting on the water, just a short walk through the woods away. I checked Zander's watch. Twenty-one hundred hours. I subtracted twelve and converted it to nine o'clock.

  Aided by a flashlight, Zander uncovered a key tucked under a loose board on the porch floor. We went inside. I tried the light switch, but nothing happened.

  "There's supposed to be a breaker box around here." He went in search of it.

  I stood in the shadowy room, using my senses to get my bearings. With the front door wide open, I could hear the night sounds that had resumed now that we were inside. Crickets. Tree frogs. The rustle of falling leaves in the wind. I also heard a distant splash.

  I sniffed the air and smelled damp leaves, dirt, the mustiness of a cabin that had been closed for a while. My eyes, adjusted now to the dark, saw shadows within shadows, one of them Zander, who flicked on a flashlight and walked back to me.

  "Can't find the damn thing."

  "Do we need it? I see a lantern. Is there kerosene in it?"

  He picked it up and sniffed. "Yeah. But we don't even need that. We have a fireplace and plenty of logs on the porch to burn." Our gazes met. "Ever camped out?"

  "No. You?"

  He grinned at
my stupid question. "You could say that, yeah. But there was a lot more sand than there is here, and I was sweating the whole time."

  I touched his face. "You're not sweating now."

  Zander caught my hand and kissed the palm, an action that seemed to surprise him as much as it surprised me. At any rate, he quickly released it. I took the flashlight from him and began to explore the tiny cabin, which consisted of three rooms. One was part kitchen, part dining room, part den. The other two were bedrooms.

  "Where's the bathroom?" I asked.

  "Latrine's outside."

  "Wow. You do realize I'm not going to walk to it alone, right?"

  "No problem. I'll even carry the toilet paper, assuming there's some around here."

  "Ew."

  Zander burst out laughing, and for the first time in days, I let myself relax completely. We were okay here. No one had followed us, and if they somehow had, we'd hear them approaching the cabin long before they got to it. The terrain and Zander's trained eyes and ears promised that.

  The scuttle of tiny feet shattered my peace not ten seconds after I attained it. Mice? Or even worse, rats? "What was that?"

  "Rodents."

  "Oh God. Where?"

  Zander flicked the beam of the flashlight up to the ceiling. Tiny glowing eyes peered down at us from the exposed rafters.

  "Are you freaking kidding me?"

  "They're harmless."

  "I still hate them."

  "We'll be fine."

  "But they can climb anything." I shivered, totally grossed out. "They've clearly had the run of the cabin for a while now. They've probably even been in the beds." Double ew.

  "My sleeping bag is in the truck. I'll zip you into it."

  "I'm too claustrophobic to cover my head."

  "So we'll both sleep in it, and I'll keep them away."

  I decided I could live with that. "Okay."

  He grinned. "Really?"

  "Yeah." I hugged my chilly arms. "Are you going to make a fire or not?"

  "Am."

  "We should've brought some food."

  "Did."

  Ashamed that I'd been so helpless and whiny, I stepped toward Zander and gave him a hard hug. "Sorry I'm so high maintenance tonight. I really do appreciate this."

  "I know."

  Zander

  Starting the fire was a breeze, thanks to the tinder and dry logs near the hearth. Once I had it going, I went to the kitchen table and unpacked the rations I'd stuffed into one of Riley's totes before we left. She had a zillion of them, all different colors. Corn chips, leftover chili, ketchup, and cheese for Frito-chili pies. Graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate chips for dessert. I'd also brought along canned drinks and paper goods.

  And a good thing, too. The cabin had no pots and pans, cooking utensils, or dinnerware. Not even the disposable stuff.

  I noticed that Riley's gaze constantly bounced from one corner to another in the room and guessed she hadn't gotten over the mice thing. Since I'd had two whites as pets growing up, they honestly didn't bother me. My mom had always hated them, though. Probably because one got out of his cage one night and woke her when it crawled across her face.

  Laughing softly, I remembered that story and many others, most of them from the days when we lived in a white frame house in a middle-class suburb. My parents were different back then. Happier. And life was so simple. Dad worked and attended law classes. Mom helped out at my elementary school. No one was trying to keep up with the Joneses.

  Things began to change when Dad graduated and went into practice. His meteoric rise from junior assistant to full partner became an obsession. My parents set their sights on the good life and attained it, dragging Angela and me along for the ride. And while naturally proud they'd achieved their goals, I resented the role they now expected me to play. Somehow I no longer fit in with my own family, and a war in Afghanistan had further alienated me.

  "A kiss for your thoughts."

  "You don't have a penny on you?"

  Riley tilted her head. "You'd rather have a penny than a kiss?"

  Not by a long shot, but she didn't need to know. For several seconds, our glazes clashed. If I said what I really wanted, what would happen? Something that shouldn't, I decided. Riley's bright eyes and hopeful smile hinted that she might have growing feelings for me--something I'd been afraid of from the get-go.

  Or was this merely thanks for the weekend R and R? Anything but pity. I didn't want her pity.

  "Geez, Zander. A simple yes or no will do."

  "No."

  She started to respond, but hesitated, her puzzled expression nothing short of adorable. "Er, how did I word the question?"

  I cracked up and let her off the hook. "A kiss beats a penny any day."

  Riley ran right over to me. We were both smiling when she rose on tiptoes to give me a kiss on the lips. It started out kind of awkward because I held back. Riley didn't, though, and her tongue touching mine resulted in me promptly losing it. The tote fell on the floor. Two steps put her back flat to the wall. My palms under her butt and a quick boost put us at eye level. She wrapped her arms and legs around me in a monkey hug. One chaste kiss became a dozen, all-out--open mouths, tangled tongues, her exhale my inhale. I had my hands on her before I knew it. And the worst part? She touched me back.

  Me losing my balance broke us up. I don't know how I kept from dropping her. With ragged breaths, I moved away and tried to put a humorous spin on things. "Now I've forgotten what started this."

  She self-consciously tugged at her T-shirt, which wasn't even close to where it had been when we started making out. "I wanted to know what you were thinking."

  "Oh yeah." I began telling her about the good old days. While I talked, I heated the chili, which had been stored in an enameled bowl with a plastic lid. I set it directly on the logs burning in the fireplace. It scorched on the bottom, but still tasted pretty damn good when I poured in the Fritos and added the cheese and ketchup.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Riley

  With our tummies full of our dinner, the two of us sat on a dusty braided rug in front of a crackling fire. Miles away thought- wise, Zander watched but probably didn't see my attempts to evenly toast the marshmallows he'd brought. I gently rotated the skewer he'd improvised from a coat hanger. Flames threatened the golden brown I was going for. I quickly blew them out and slid the fluffy goo off the hanger.

  He opened his mouth. I popped it inside, stringing hot white sugar over his chin and lips. I resisted licking if off. I didn't want the mood of the room swinging to weird again. Was it simply a stumble that had broken us up earlier? Or had he done it deliberately? I suspected he'd taken the kiss over the penny to keep from hurting my feelings. But that didn't explain the passion that instantly flared between us.

  Or maybe it did. I was a girl in love. He was a guy. In love or not, no guy was going to turn down sex.

  Did he have any idea that my heart did funny things every time I looked at him? And that wasn't the only part of me affected. I'd have given my body to Zander in a flash, which was saying a lot. Although I wasn't a virgin, I'd definitely been picky about partners. In fact, there'd only been two--the old high-school-steady-on-prom night cliché and a guy I'd flipped for my freshman year at Rocky Falls Community College. The latter relationship had lasted a whopping six months, and I now knew why. What I'd thought was love, really wasn't. At least not when compared to my feelings for Zander.

  "Are you still scared that someone followed us?" he said.

  "Not so much now."

  Zander got up and went to the window that he'd left open so we could hear the night. With the cabin illuminated only by the flickering flames in the fireplace, he could see the woods around us pretty well.

  "All clear?" I asked.

  "Yep. It smells like rain."

  "But the moon was out when we came in."

  "Not anymore."

  I joined him at the window, staying on the other side of it as I pee
red through the dusty panes. The forest lay thick with shadows now--shadows of trunks and limbs that could be humans. "You're sure we're okay?"

  "I am. Don't worry."

  He coaxed me back to the fire, where we finished snacking. I yawned more than once as we cleared up. "How are you going to keep the mice away?"

  "We'll stay right here, very close to the flame. Rodents don't like fire."

  "And you know this because...?"

  "It was in our Army training manual. Chapter two, page seventy-three. 'How to Keep Rodents Away While Catching some Zs in a Sleeping Bag inside a Lakeside Cabin Owned by Sparks's Parents.'"

  "You are such a liar!"

  Zander unexpectedly caught my wrists and pulled me into his arms. I tipped my head back to meet his gaze. "Cute little mice are the least of our worries, okay?"

  "I know that."

  "And I already told you that you're safe with me."

  I nodded, my heart swelling with love for him. Did he love me back even a little?

  Zander stepped away. "Help me spread the sleeping bag."

  I did, grateful for something to do besides worry and wonder. In moments, the bag lay parallel and in front of the fireplace.

  "You get the warm side," he said. "I'll roast if I try it."

  "Okay. Turn around so I can put on my PJs."

  Never questioning why I suddenly needed privacy, he dutifully turned his back on me. I pulled off my boots, leggings, and Piko top. Moments later, dressed in flannel sleep pants and a thermal shirt, I crawled into the bag. Zander's bedtime prep involved removing his shoes and substituting sweat pants for his jeans. He did not ask me to turn around. He did not remove the prosthesis. I knew this because I shamelessly watched his every move. After taking one last look out the window, he joined me. Although the bag wasn't built for two, we found it plenty wide for both of us if we spooned, his front pressed to my back.