Between Faith and Fear

by J. A. Dennam

  “And what’s the life expectancy of a ghost?”

  Rafferty’s head lolled to the side as he caught his breath. “Once they retire from duty... there are a variety of jobs they can choose from.”

  Derek’s brow furrowed and he addressed the other ghosts in black. “Have you two ever met a retired ghost?” Nothing. “Neither have I.”

  “Thanks to Sophie,” Rafferty rasped, “our scope has broadened beyond the possible. Only we can... offer our own special brand of security. Our clients value our service. Pay big money. Our retired ghosts have options, not just here... but around the globe.”

  “And thanks to our secret merger,” Sophie added from the doorway, “we scratch each other’s backs. Keep each other afloat. And Lesico has an outlet for their drug trial patients.”

  “You mean their lab rats,” Derek corrected.

  Sophie addressed the ghost beside her, rubbed his back in a motherly fashion. “Are you complaining, Angelo?”

  Angelo didn’t hesitate. “No, ma’am.”

  The woman smiled and dismissed them. “I’m going to shut the door. It’s okay, we’ll be fine.” As soon as the door clicked shut, she spoke before her grip left the handle. “I see we’ve drawn more blood.”

  “Red suits him,” Derek answered, his blade holding steady on the mark.

  “Derek. I understand why you’ve retaliated. I do. As long as you understand why you can never leave this building again.”

  “Have you and Rena come to an understanding?”

  “We have. And I think we can work something out, you and me. That is, if the sample is viable.”

  “All I want is for you to call off the hit on my son. Leave him and Melanie alone.”

  Her eyes darted to Rafferty. “We can bargain after I verify the sample. But just a forewarning... if you expect Melanie to survive, she needs a reason to give you up for good.”

  “She will,” said without hesitation. “As long as DJ’s safe.”

  Sophie took a moment to think it through. “Let’s take a walk.”

  “Rafferty comes with me.”

  “No. Leave him to get patched up. You and I should be able to settle this if we can act civilly.”

  With great reluctance, Derek released the hold around Rafferty’s bleeding neck.

  “And leave the scalpel,” Sophie added as she yanked on the door. “I look dreadful in red.”

  Hood drawn low, Derek eyeballed the man in the bed as he circled around it, then threw the surgical tool in his direction. “Oops,” he uttered nastily when Rafferty barely moved his crotch out of range in time.

  When the elevator doors closed in front of Sophie, trapping them inside, she clasped her hands behind her back and they began to descend. “Remember when you came to my bed willingly, Derek?”

  He pushed back his hood and glared at her in disbelief. One would think she’d have cooled toward him after having killed two of her assistants right in front of her.

  “Depends on what you call willingly,” he answered hotly.

  Rafferty passed by the weight bench as Derek was just finishing his last set of chest flyes. “Sophie wants to see you.”

  Derek kept his focus on the ceiling as he lowered the dumbbells to his sides, brought them up and together again. “I’m busy.”

  “She has your dose this time.”

  Sensing a trap, Derek dropped the weights, sat up and grabbed a towel. As he wiped the dripping sweat from his face, he braved a look at the window of her private suite, which had a handy view of the crowded gym. There she stood, watching. He could feel her eyes on him as he left the other ghosts behind, moved up the steps to the second story suites. When he knocked, she bade him entry.

  “Lock the door,” she said innocently enough in her lab coat, drawing the blinds. He did so grudgingly. She pivoted on her stilted heels. “How long has it been since you’ve ejaculated?”

  “Five minutes ago.”

  She cocked her head dryly from one side to the other. “I can find out for myself just by touching you.”

  “I’m good, thanks.”

  “Are you trying to avoid me?”

  “Desperately.”

  The glasses came off and she tossed them onto her dresser, peered at him mindfully. “The thought of making love to me is that revolting to you?”

  “Lady, if you’ve ever coaxed a drop out of me it’s because I had no other choice.”

  Her back straightened. “All I want is one time, Derek. Just once. Make love to me like you mean it, without me having to force you... and I’ll give you what you want most.”

  “A hazmat suit?”

  The lines around her lips deepened just a little. “Control over your medication.”

  Holy shit. That was pretty friggin’ huge and she knew it. Feeling like a little kid about to take candy from a stranger, Derek narrowed his look.

  “No more Rafferty?”

  She unbuttoned the lab coat, let it fall to the floor and stood naked before him. “No more Rafferty.”

  The intense regret that had followed his surrender was one of the great contributors in his decision to defect. It was all he took from that painful experience, while Sophie took all the pleasure.

  “I want that again. So much,” she murmured softly, eyeing his reflection in the stainless steel doors.

  His fists clenched at his sides. “You know my price.”

  She turned around slowly, her milky complexion alive with hope. “So, your complete submission can be a part of our agreement?”

  When hell froze over. “Yes. As long as you don’t renege on the deal like before.”

  She pulled the emergency button and the carriage came to a jolting stop. “I may need a reason to believe you.”

  Shit. “Time is not my friend here, Sophie.”

  “Then you better hurry.”

  It was a standoff he was determined to win this time. “I will not fuck you in this elevator.”

  Her look said differently. “I want it fast, and I want it hot.”

  And what the hell was he supposed to do now? No way would he ever lay with another woman besides the one he loved ever again. But he knew that look. When Sophie was determined, a bulldog would be wise to let go. He glanced at the camera in the upper right corner, then toward the red button.

  “If you push that button,” she warned, “you can say goodbye to your son.”

  But he was tired of being dominated by this bitch. With an impatient growl, he turned her around and pinned her to the elevator doors. As she struggled to face him again, his forearm pressed firmly to the back of her neck, preventing it. He pulled her skirt up and held it there with his groin. She gasped in delight, no longer struggling.

  He took two fingers and shoved them beneath her panties, found the moist channel between her legs. “I said... I will not fuck you in this elevator.”

  “Oh...” she yelped as he worked the nub above her opening. “Oh, darling, your fingers are so rough.” Her words were strangled when he applied more pressure to her airway.

  “Shut up, Sophie. I hate you for making me do this.”

  “But...” she croaked, “I want you inside me.”

  “If I can get it up now, it would be a freakin’ act of God.”

  “Oh!” And she wheezed as she came violently. “You’re so cruel!”

  “It must work for you.” When she was done, Derek removed his fingers and twirled her around, slammed her back against the doors. Her eyes were unfocused, murky from the pleasure he’d just given her. “Open your mouth.”

  “Huh?” she breathed.

  “Open.”

  She did. He buried his coated fingers between her lips and ordered her to suck them clean. “I want no traces of you on me when that door opens. Are we clear?”

  She nodded as her tongue removed every bit of her desire from around and between his roughened digits. He hoped she enjoyed it because it was the last pleasure she’d ever squeeze out of him.

  By the time the elevato
r doors opened, Sophie was perfectly polished once again. Rena stood there with a raised brow. She looked showered, hauntingly beautiful and very professional in a stylish gray pantsuit.

  Derek nodded as they stepped out, completely unfazed by the possibility she’d heard them. “Rena.”

  They had to walk around her. When Derek frowned over his shoulder, gave her the signal to follow, Rena didn’t look happy. In fact, if her sapphire eyes were laser beams, her mother would be a smoking pile of ash.

  Just before they followed Sophie into the lab, Rena touched his arm.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I will be thanks to you,” he whispered back, giving her a look of encouragement. “Let’s do this.”

  Rena preceded him into a large room lit only by artificial light. Bulky lab equipment and lit glass cabinets lined the light-gray walls, leaving no room for windows. The floor was open except for the only cleared workspace, which was a simple white table and chairs where a security guard sat, waiting for them.

  Wasn’t this the old lab Sophie used before the new one was built? He figured something of such importance would warrant the use of the new, updated facility.

  “Let’s proceed, shall we?” Sophie was entirely too jovial. “First thing we need to do is verify this is a capsule.” She motioned for the guard who had vacated his seat when they entered the lab.

  While Derek and Rena looked on, the man handed Sophie a nine-millimeter pistol. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the round Rena had given her earlier, asked the guard to pull back the slide for her. Though Derek knew it was the capsule from his glove box by the engraving on the bottom, there was just something disturbing about watching the woman load a weapon. The guard gently released the slide and it clicked into place.

  Sophie asked him if she was good to go and he gave her the nod. Derek looked around for something safe to aim at in the lab that housed so many volatile substances. Puzzled, he looked back at her... and found himself staring at the muzzle.

  She squeezed the trigger. The shot was deafening and Derek felt a white-hot impact that knocked him back several steps. Rena screamed. He looked down and watched as blood soaked through the surface of his black uniform, spreading as the rest dripped warmly down his torso beneath it.

  He took a step. Rena caught him as he stumbled. “Derek!” she screamed, and they fell together.

  Chapter 20

  Melanie paced in the deserted suite of offices directly across the hall from the lab Derek and Rena had just entered. If only Derek had waited at the storage unit a few minutes longer, he’d have been there when Rena finally showed. Though she’d come empty handed, she assured them it was only a matter of time before she acquired enough of the drug to sustain Derek until the cure was ready. She had, however, managed to hack into IGP’s database and acquire her mother’s ID and password. A backup plan if Sophie decided not to cooperate.

  But, since Derek had gone back to IGP to look for her, Rena would now face the daunting task of finding him. Melanie was getting frustrated and still harbored some trust issues where the woman was concerned. Just because she looked all proficient in her borrowed business clothes didn’t mean she was. Something didn’t feel right. Rena was suddenly in no hurry to leave IGP. Not that she’d divulge the reason, but Melanie sensed something off about her. A sadness with a hint of nervous edge.

  What had happened since she’d been back? Whatever it was, Ty seemed suspiciously in the know. Unwilling to talk about it. Probably sworn to secrecy, which only meant Melanie would get it out of him later. The man was a terrible liar.

  For now, she and Ty were holed up again, playing yet another waiting game until Derek and Rena reappeared from the lab. Of course, Derek wouldn’t be too happy with her for insisting they follow Rena back to IGP. And Ty hadn’t exactly objected. He’d just thrown his ghost uniform on and caught up with Melanie while she still had Rena in her sights.

  The sound of a loud gunshot rang through the walls. They both jumped, looked at each other.

  “Stay here,” Ty ordered, but Melanie vacated the suite right behind him. They heard Rena scream Derek’s name. Her heartbeat raced as they reached the door to the lab, but it failed to open when Ty pushed on it. There was no handle, so he pushed again to no avail. He looked through the slit of a window.

  “Oh, my God.”

  “What! Open it, Ty!”

  “I can’t, it won’t budge.” He pounded. “Rena! Don’t!” Horror filled his eyes. His fists uncurled and his hands flattened against the surface as he continued to throw his weight against it. “Renaaaaa!”

  His shouts were so alarming, Melanie clawed at his back. “What is she doing? Ty, move!” But he wouldn’t let her see.

  Finally, he ordered her to stand back. After two powerful kicks, the swinging door still wouldn’t budge. With a frustrated roar, he shoved at it again and this time it pushed open with ease.

  “What the...”

  But he didn’t linger over the mystery of the swinging door for long. He rushed into the room and Melanie followed him in, took in the bloody scene with horror-filled eyes. A security guard lay sprawled in the corner with a knife in his face. Sophie lay over a cluttered countertop, bleeding out among a fine coating of scattered glass.

  Rena, her face and suit spattered with red, stood at the back of the lab. The knife in her hand slid from her coated, slippery fingers and clattered to the floor. She gaped down at it, then at her bloody hands.

  Ty approached her with utmost caution and she backed into the counter. “It was you,” she moaned, her wild eyes moving up and down the length of his borrowed uniform. “You switched the bullets because you’re with them! You were always with them! I warned him not to trust you! And now he’s dead!”

  The quiet lab echoed the last words of her maniacal outburst. That’s when Melanie saw Derek lying lifeless on the floor. A pool of blood grew beneath him as if it took on a life of its own.

  “No!” It came out a choked sob as she fell to his side. “Oh, baby, please no!”

  Running footsteps echoed down the hall until the lab door slowly swung closed. Then there was silence.

  Derek’s eyes flicked open and relief washed over her. “Shhh, try to stay still,” she ordered tearfully as he began to strain against the pain from his gaping chest wound. “Ty, I need you!”

  But could Ty hear her?

  “DJ,” Derek rasped, clasping the hand she’d given him. “He sent River to kill him. Warn the others.”

  “What about the river?”

  “River... is a ghost. He’s going to kill our son... and whoever has him.”

  The anguish tore through her as she released his hand long enough to pull the cell phone out of her pocket. Ty reappeared having given up his pursuit of Rena when Melanie had screamed for him. Her thumb moved over the small buttons and she put it to her ear.

  “Mac.” Melanie looked around. “DJ’s in danger. Wherever you are, you need to get out. Go for a drive, something!”

  Mac swore under his breath. “Danny filled me in a little. Tell me what I’m facing.”

  “Someone who will kill you both if he catches you!”

  A brief pause. “I’ve got DJ covered. No one will touch him, don’t worry.”

  With those words, Melanie knew DJ was in the best possible hands. The fact Mac didn’t ask more questions proved he knew the intensity of the situation.

  “It punctured a lung,” Ty said and he compressed the wound. A first aid kit with bits of wall plaster still attached lay open on the floor. “Hold it tight.” She did and he carefully lifted Derek’s shoulder to search for an exit wound. “Shit. We have to get him out of here fast.”

  “I’m calling an ambulance now.”

  “Not sure how much good that’ll do you in this place,” Ty muttered worriedly.

  Derek clutched her sleeve. “Hey.”

  It was so quiet, so broken, Melanie almost didn’t hear him. She dried her tears and ran the backs of her fingers over his
forehead. “What, baby?”

  “Remember what I told you?”

  He was cold to the touch. “When?”

  “After we made love.”

  No matter what happens from here on out, I want you to know that I have lived every day hoping to get the chance to see you again. Make love to you again. Tell you how I feel without my pride getting in the way.

  I love you, Melanie. Since the day you first batted those eyelashes at me.

  “You aren’t going to do this to me now, Derek!” she said fiercely. “Not again, you promised!”

  Ty ripped open Derek’s hooded top exposing the jagged hole to the left of his heart. He slapped on a glove and inserted a finger directly into the gushing wound. Derek failed to show pain. “I hope you’re just immune, brother,” he said packing more gauze around his makeshift patch. “Because you should be squirming a bit right now.”

  But Derek’s eyes had gone vacant. He stared unseeing at the ceiling tiles above, gasping for breath.

  More glass shattered. Melanie caught sight of Sophie as the woman dropped to the floor taking beakers and assorted glass containers down with her. Their eyes met. She was still alive.

  “You got him?” Melanie asked. When Ty gave the affirmative, she crawled to the woman whose lab coat now showed the gory results of multiple stab wounds. A calming wave of shock stilled her trembling chin. “Tell me how to get Derek’s medication.”

  The woman’s lower jaw moved back and forth. Her hair had come loose and now framed her aging face in wild disarray. “Rena... stabbed me.”

  “Because you shot Derek!” Melanie snarled.

  Sophie’s pale lips twitched. Her hand moved inside the pocket of her lab coat. When it resurfaced, she extended it toward Melanie and uncurled her fingers. There, in her bloody palm, was a brass bullet. “I only wanted... to teach her a lesson.”

  Something told Melanie she was looking at the bullet. The one she’d seen exchange hands in the exam room. “You tricked her into thinking she’d given you a real bullet.”

  “I thought... she’d learn.”