Chapter Six: Derek

 

 

Sated and exhausted, all Derek wanted to do was lie beside his mate all afternoon.

But he couldn't. There were plans to make. Check-ins to perform.

His mate was in danger and he wasn't about to be less than fully vigilant.

Gaby made a tiny protesting noise as he pulled away from her and sat up. He swung his legs off the edge of the bed, and untangled his wadded-up jeans to get his phone out of the pocket.

"What are you doing?" Gaby asked, propping herself up on one elbow.

She looked amazing like this, her thick black hair hanging in a sex-tousled mass over her light brown shoulder. Derek smiled to allay the anxiety in her eyes. "Just checking with Keegan to see how the investigation's going. No point in worrying unduly if they've already caught the guy."

He sent off a quick text to Keegan, and another to the owner of the bar where he worked as a part-time bouncer to let them know that he wouldn't be coming in on his usual night this week.

Gaby sat up and stretched, raising her breasts gloriously before her arms dropped back down. "So what's it like, being a bodyguard? Lifestyles of the rich and famous? Do you jet-set around the world, guarding famous people?"

Derek couldn't help laughing. "Not exactly. More like babysitting the petty and drunk. I don't do much of this kind of work anymore, and when I do, it's mainly event security, short-term gigs as supplemental security for out-of-town celebrities' or politicians' families, and that kind of thing. Distinctly unglamorous. It's mostly a matter of escorting drunk college kids out of nightclubs."

"You don't normally work with the police?"

"Only when Keegan asks me to," Derek said. "He's an old friend. We go back a ways."

"School buddies?" she asked.

"Something like that." The last thing he wanted to do was tell her about the darker part of his past, which was inextricably tangled up with meeting Keegan in South America. Tales of gun battles had no place in this quiet hotel room; he had no business telling those stories to this soft, trusting woman with her gentle brown eyes and gentler hands.

There was a wildcat side to her, though. As he reached for his T-shirt, he looked down with a grin at the scratches on his chest.

Which made Gaby notice it, too. She gasped in dismay. "Oh, my gosh. Did I do that?"

"Sure did." He traced one of the faint pink lines with his fingertip, and then raised the finger to touch her lips. "Hey, if I wanted you to stop, I'd have said."

"I guess I got a little carried away."

"No, you got exactly the right amount of carried away," Derek corrected her. With a grin, he leaned over to kiss her. She hesitated before settling into the kiss.

His mate. Warm and pliant and lovely, with the smell of sex on her skin.

He would do anything to keep her safe. Even from his own past.

 

***

 

They ordered a late lunch from room service, which Gaby was adorably delighted with, even though all she ordered was a burger and fries.

"Look, I'm used to staying in the sort of hotel where you pass your credit card to the clerk through a security grille," Gaby said defensively. "I feel like I'm in a movie."

If this was a movie, hopefully it was a meet-cute chick flick and not the sort of movie Derek's life tended to resemble, which were more of the helicopters-and-explosions, Schwarzenegger and Van Damme type. Derek decided to keep his doubts to himself.

Gaby dipped a french fry in her ketchup. "Are we going to bring Mama and Sandy here?"

"It would be easier if you were all in the same place," Derek said. He felt his bear stir beneath his skin, itching to be able to protect his mate's family personally. "However, if the Ghost does come after you, it might be better if you weren't together. They're safe enough where they are, for now."

Gaby's mouth rounded in an "O" of shock. "I didn't even think ... just being with them might put them in danger, wouldn't it? I don't want to do that!"

This was all so new to her, and Derek pushed down a surge of fury at the Ghost for knocking away the foundations of her safe, secure world, forcing her into the hunters-and-prey mode of thinking for the first time in her life. The whole reason why people like him existed was so that people like her didn't have to think about those things.

But she seemed to be holding up well so far.

"You can see your family this evening, but we should probably spend the night at the hotel, just to be safe."

Gaby nodded and scooted a little closer to him. "So tell me about this guy who's after me. What did you call him? Ghost? What is he? I know he's, uh ... a guy who turns into a bear. Was he bitten by a radioactive bear, or what?"

"No, shifters are born that way." Derek hesitated briefly. "I was born that way."

Gaby gave a little nod. He still couldn't tell if she believed him about turning into a bear. She'd seen the Ghost do it, but that was one thing. The Ghost was a scary apparition, the bad guy who had chased her and tried to kill her. Knowing the guy she'd been talking to, the guy she'd just had sex with, spent part of his life as a grizzly bear was a lot to take in.

"The Ghost is muscle for hire. I don't even know his real name. When I fought with him—when he gave me these ..." He touched the scars through the fabric of his T-shirt. "He was working for a drug cartel. I assume he's doing something like that here, too, working for a local mobster or drug dealer."

"So, if the cops can find his boss, they can find him too, right? And stop him?"

"Yep," Derek said, although he was thinking that if the police closed in on the Ghost, he'd probably disappear just like his namesake. He had a habit of doing that, vanishing from one part of the world only to pop up somewhere else, months or years later.

His phone vibrated and he reached for it. There was a new text. "Hey, speak of the devil. Keegan says they haven't found the Ghost yet, but sources say he's working as mob muscle for a local crime family. They're running down those leads right now." He gave her a quick smile. "You might be back to your old life before you know it."

For some reason, this made her look slightly downcast before she smiled back. "That's good news."

Before Derek could probe the mystery of why she didn't look delighted, another text came in. "Also, Keegan says your family's security detail is about to change shifts. He wants to know if I can take it for a few hours this evening; then he can put another team of his guys on it for the night shift."

Now she did brighten. "Oh yes, let's do that! I can't wait 'til you meet my mom and Sandy."

... shit. He hoped his dismay didn't show, let alone his panic.

He was going to have to meet his mate's family.

The family she was completely devoted to.

Including a mother who was probably going to be less than thrilled when her daughter showed up with a big, scarred bruiser in tow.

A shifter family would understand, of course. Your mate wasn't someone you chose; the mate bond chose you. It was like a lightning strike. Your mate couldn't be unsuitable, no matter their outward appearance. Your souls knew each other at first sight.

But humans did things differently.

"Derek?" Gaby asked, hesitating.

"Yeah, that'll be great," he said, to himself as much as to her. "I'll just text Keegan and let him know."