Derek

A Few Days Later

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“THE ATTACK AT DEREK Steele’s company happened five days ago, but there’s still no sign of the assailant, the company’s COO and CEO’s best friend, Jacob Carl. The police are still on the lookout for him, and he’s said to be potentially armed and dangerous. If you see this man, do not approach him. Instead, call the tip line at the number below with any information you might have.”

The news had been droning on about the attack for days. It was headlining news in every local report, and now it had been picked up by national syndicates. And their asses talked about everything. The twenty-four-seven news stations were postulating about all kinds of ridiculous theories. They talked about how I couldn’t have seen this coming. They talked about how maybe I did see this coming and that I was in on it. They speculated about where Jacob could be, what they would do in his situation, and even what they would do in mine.

It was pure and utter bullshit, and I was tired of hearing about it.

It was a major scandal, and like I knew it would, my company was taking a massive hit. Some people had quit, fearing their safety and requiring me to hire new people on the spot. We had to retrain the new people, which took time away from the few projects people still had faith in us doing. Some new companies we had acquired had put a halt on things, and some companies even chose to go under, refused our help last-minute once the scandal had broken into the national news syndicate. The investors were uneasy about seeing their money bounced back, and my stocks were taking a serious hit.

Everything I thought would happen if this got leaked to the media was happening and more.

I sat in the television room, swirling the last of my bourbon in the crystal glass I was holding. I was brooding. Upset. Frustrated. I wanted to strangle Jacob for putting me in this position. I wanted to chew Sam’s head off for making me go to the police with this. I was irate at my security team at the company for not being able to fucking find Jacob that day after locking down the damn building.

How the hell did that man get out of a locked-down building?

I put all the company’s financial accounts on high alert. I had Jacob’s security codes and his name wiped from everything within the first twenty-four hours. I had notifications coming to my phone every time a withdrawal of more than five thousand dollars occurred. My phone never fucking stopped ringing, but it was better than having Jacob make off with millions of dollars I’d never see again.

But instead of disabling his company cards, I put them under review.

If that bastard made a move monetarily, I wanted to know about it. If he tried to swipe the company card for anything, I wanted that information sent right to Sam. I wanted to catch this son of a bitch and make him pay for what he had done to me. To us. To her.

Oh, I wanted to drown that man for what he had done to Sam.

I got notifications about everything. Paychecks that were paid and accounts ordering materials necessary for the projects that still trusted us to go forward. Investors contributing funds and receiving funds from projects who were now backing out of the loop. But there were no transactions that seemed weird or funny.

And there was no activity on his company card.

“Perimeter’s secure.”

Sam’s voice pulled me from my thoughts as I turned her way.

“I’ve got men posted at equidistant intervals all around your property,” she said. “I’ve also got them identifying and flagging everyone who wants access to your compound. Even if it’s a family member of some sort.”

“‘Equidistant.’ How grown up,” I said. “You think Jacob will come after me? Or you?”

“Now that he has nothing to lose, it’s what I’m afraid of, yes. It’s a good possibility, especially given the financial restraints you’ve put on him. Since your stock is plummeting, it’s eaten up about half of his 401(k). The rest he can’t touch because he can’t cash it in. All his personal and professional accounts have been frozen. He’ll get desperate in a hurry.”

“Good thing I left his company card open, then,” I said.

“We’ve got it constantly tracked, yes. But even with all this in play, I’m not worried. My team can handle someone like him. We’ve handled much worse and come out on top.”

“I can only imagine,” I said as I took the last sip of my drink.

“Bourbon tasting good today?” she asked.

“Especially good today. But it doesn’t erase my shock at all this.”

“Wouldn’t expect it to.”

“How the hell did I not see this? How did I not see that Jacob felt this way? We were around one another all the time. Or at least as much as two friends and colleagues were. Fuck, Sam. None of this makes any sense.”

“You’re not the only one thinking it,” she said as she stepped in front of me. “Trust me.”

“I mean, if he felt that way, then why go through all this? Why not just go to another damn company he could take over or whatever? Or create his own? Jacob’s a smart man. Very smart. He could’ve easily done it.”

“I’ve seen a lot of strange and hateful things in my line of work.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Without breaking any of my confidential agreements with prior clients, one prime example comes to mind. A woman hired me to protect her and her children from someone she felt was taunting her. Mysterious phone calls. Tapping into her children’s baby monitors and whispering to them at night. Really shitty stuff.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Things escalated. One of the children got taken hostage by the man. It was one of the men she’d had an affair with. He was convinced one of her children was really his and not her husband’s.”

“What happened to the child?”

“John saved her. I took the man out with a long-range sniper rifle. The husband filed for divorce immediately after that and tossed both her and her kids out into the cold. Her infidelity compromised the prenuptial agreement she had signed. That entire ordeal convinced him that none of those kids were his when every single one of them was his. Him dwelling on it turned him into a man who kicked his own kids to the street.”

“What a piece of shit,” I said. “Even if she did cheat. What a piece of shit.”

“It’s why I’m telling you not to dwell on this. Dwelling on it is only going to make things worse for you. I can protect you from outside forces, but I can’t protect you from yourself. You can’t let this get to you. You’ve got to find a way to rise above it.”

“And how do you ‘rise above it’?” I asked.

“Some days I work out. Can’t do that right now with my arm, so reading helps. I find anything I can. Anything that helps to relieve the stress. It would’ve killed me a long time ago had I not found a way to deal with it.”

I watched Sam, eyeing her arm in its sling as she sat down in a chair beside me.

“How’s your arm?”

“I’ve gone through worse,” Sam said. “And it’ll only be a little scar. Much smaller than some of the ones I have on my body.”

“I haven’t seen many scars,” I said.

“Then you haven’t been paying attention. Another reason why something like that would never work with us.”

I stared at her hard for a while, taking in the parts of her skin I could see. Was she serious? Were there really scars like that on her body that I had missed? I wracked my brain, trying to remember them during the encounters I’d had with her. In the shower. In the hotel room. In the elevator.

Fuck. I couldn’t remember any of her scars.

I couldn’t even remember feeling them.

“I still feel guilty,” I said as I turned my face back toward the television.

“For what?” Sam asked.

“For you almost dying. I should’ve shoved you out of the way of that damn bullet.”

“It’s my job, Derek. You don’t owe me anything.”

“I owe you my life with how many times you’ve saved it.”

“All you owe me is my paycheck,” she said.

The television was running in the background, filling the corners of the room with mindless noise. I heard Sam grunt lightly as she reached for the remote control, and then the television was shut down. She sighed and leaned back in her chair, allowing her body to spread out as she closed her eyes.

I raked my eyes up and down her form, taking her in while I could.

“The last few weeks have shown me a lot,” I said.

I watched as Sam opened her eyes and found mine.

“Like what?” she asked.

“Like how empty of a life I’ve been living in a lot of ways.”

“Sounds like a personal revelation.”

“It is. I’ve allowed myself to become closed off. I’ve allowed myself to cope with the loneliness I feel. I’ve kept everyone at arm’s length except Jacob. And with this betrayal, with all this shit that’s gone down with him, I figured I would’ve recoiled deeper, laughed at a point being proven and washed my hands of anything having to do with a personal life.”

“Don’t do that. It doesn’t bode well,” Sam said.

“I take it you know from experience?”

My eyes connected with hers, and I found her studying me, allowing her eyes to trail over my body as she mindlessly turned herself toward me. The air in the room thickened again like it had in my hotel room that night and like it had in the shower when I first laid my hands on her.

Like it had in the elevator when neither of us could stand it any longer.

“Something like that,” Sam said, murmuring.

“I’m not falling into that trap like you think,” I said. “I’m not going to allow myself to recede deeper into my reclusive depths, which means I’m not going to deny the attraction I feel toward you.”

Sam snickered and shook her head like she was trying to rid her ears of the words I had spoken.

“Personal feelings get in the way of things, Derek. I know that better than anyone. All personal feelings do is cloud judgment. Case in point, your inability to see that Jacob was doing this because of your personal feelings for him.”

“That’s idiotic, and you know it. Lovers will do more to protect each other than they will any other person in their lives.”

“Who the hell said anything about lovers?” she asked.

“I did, and I’m addressing it now. Sam, can you really tell me that if we had never encountered one another, if you had said ‘no’ instead of ‘yes’ in the bathroom back in Vegas, that you would have jumped in front of that bullet for me?” I asked.

“Yes. Yes, I would have jumped in front of that bullet. Because it’s my job.”

“Then I have one question for you.”

“What?” she asked hotly.

“Why didn’t you simply push me out of the way?”

Sam stilled in her chair as her eyes diverted from my gaze. It was the one question that had kept rattling around in my mind for days. Why hadn’t she pushed me out of the way? Why jump in front of it instead of taking us both out of its path? I leaned up and perched on the edge of the couch, watching her trying to come up with an answer as I reached for her hand. I took it in mine, pulling her from her thoughts as her eyes widened.

She looked down at our connection, but she didn’t break it. She didn’t move, but that meant she also didn’t pull her hand from mine.

“I heard you in the hospital,” I said.

“What are you talking about?” Sam asked.

“I heard you talking in your sleep that first night. I heard you moaning, and I thought you were hurt, but when I went to press the button for your morphine drip, it was still red. You kept saying my name over and over again. I heard you. I heard you that night.”

I watched her face pale, and she slipped her hand from mine. She stood from her chair, my body mimicking her movements as her eyes darted around the room. She was floundering, cornered and unable to get herself out of it. I didn’t like seeing her like this, unable to communicate and wanting to get out.

“I-I-I, uh, I did what?” she asked.

“Sam,” I said as I approached her, “just stop. Stop running. Stop fighting. I’m not asking you to give me your future. Or your life. I’m not asking you to stay home and raise kids and cook meals barefoot in the kitchen. All I’m asking for is your time.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

“Yes, you do,” I said as I threaded my arm around her waist. “You really, really do.”

“Don’t do this, Derek,” she said in a whisper. “It’ll compromise so much.”

“Then tell me ‘no.’ Look me in my eyes and say ‘no,’ and we’ll never speak of this again.”

But when she looked up into my eyes, there was no word that fell from her lips. There was no shake of her head or pulling away of her body. Instead, there was only passion and lust and desire igniting the air around us as our lips drew closer. My eyes closed, preparing for the touch of her skin against mine, and as our lips collided, I felt her body press deeply into mine.

There she was.

My beautiful, stubborn Sam.

And she was all mine whether she wanted to admit it or not.