Silver Fire (Guardians) (15 page)

“I slept with him.”

Maia snorted her drink and it spewed everywhere. Sophie started patting the Guardian’s back. Stephen and Beth were staring at Sophie in disbelief.

“He said nothing happened!” Maia said furiously when she had recovered.

“I said we slept together. Slept. Nothing happened,” Sophie declared merrily, enjoying the brief shock on their faces.

Beth’s brow shot up. “Well, I’ll be damned. Lockwood losing his touch or something?”

“Hardly,” Sophie said enigmatically. “But I’m finding out I don’t like to kiss and tell.”

“Sophie Leroux!” Beth said in mock anger. “How dare you keep things from your best friend.

The four of them continued exchanging banter as a second and then a third round of drinks were ordered. The bar got packed as Friday night got into full swing. Every seat at the bar was taken and it was pushing two people deep all around. Sophie should have stopped at two drinks; the third martini was making her feel woozy.
 

“You doing OK?” asked a pleasant-looking man who was seated beside her. Sophie squinted her eyes and looked closely at him. He was plain-looking, but his spectacles gave him that intelligent nerdy look that Sophie always found so adorable and safe to be around.

“Yes,” Sophie replied and smiled.
 

“Justin,” the man introduced himself and held out his hand.

“Sophie.” They shook hands.

“You a student around here?”

“No. Just hanging out with some friends. You?”

“Third year, Political Science. So what do you do?”

Sophie hesitated. “I’m a nuclear physicist.” Gosh, she hoped she didn’t come off too snobby.

Justin’s eyes widened before saying, “Wow. I wouldn’t peg you for a nuclear physicist.”

“Why not?”

“Well no one should be so lucky.”

Sophie smiled uncertainly. “What do you mean?”

Justin leaned in closely and grinned. “You’re very beautiful and to think there’s a brain behind that...let’s just say I have a thing for smart girls.”

She looked down at her empty martini glass. “Um, thanks.”

“Hey, I did not mean to embarrass you.” Justin pulled his bar stool closer. Sophie started feeling uncomfortable and got more so when he said, “Can I buy you a drink?”

Before she could answer, Beth leaned past her and told
 
Justin, “You better back off, preppy boy. See that big guy bearing down on us? That’s her man, and you do not want to mess with the likes of him.”

Sophie glanced up and saw Derek shouldering past the crowd, his gaze fixed on Justin. He was not pleased.

“Isn’t he a bit too old for you?” Justin said in a stage whisper. Beth started laughing and Sophie couldn’t help grinning.
 

Derek was scowling when he got to them. He gave Sophie a light kiss on the lips. “Angel.” Looking at Beth. “Did I miss a joke?”
 

A mischievous gleam entered Beth’s eyes and before Sophie could stop her friend, she chortled, “College boy here thinks you’re too old for Sophie.”

“What are you trying to do?” Sophie hissed at Beth.

Derek raised an eyebrow and looked over at Justin. “Care repeating that to me?”

Justin should be quivering in his shoes. Sophie thought Derek was easily a head taller than he was, and Justin confirmed this when he got up from his bar stool and looked at Derek steadily. “I don’t want any trouble. You can have my seat.” His voice was calm, cold even.

Justin got out a pen and scribbled on a drink napkin and pushed it toward Sophie. “My number. Just in case you tire of this guy.” He smirked at Derek, who had narrowed his eyes glacially, before turning and disappearing into the crowd.

Beth and now Stephen bore identical shocked expressions, Maia and Jack were too absorbed in each other to notice, and Sophie did not know how to react to what had just happened.

“Damn, Lockwood, that guy has balls,” Stephen said.
 

“I’d say.” Beth nodded.

Derek’s lips lifted in a sexy half grin as he looked at Sophie. “Guess he can see you’re worth the trouble.”

Sophie rolled her eyes. Derek chuckled and gave his drink order to Will. He leaned over to catch Jack’s attention. “Yo! McCord, quit snogging your wife and get a goddamned drink!”

“Snog?” Sophie asked. “Are you British or something?”

“Worked with British Special Forces for two years, picked up some slangs,” Derek replied. “So what’s with the flirting?”

“We were just talking.”

“Uh-huh. I’m usually pretty easy-going, Angel,” Derek said smoothly, but there was a hardness in his eyes. “But with you, I’m not.”

“We were just talking,” Sophie repeated, annoyed.
What is wrong with these MDI men?
she thought.
They take possessiveness to the extreme
.
 

Derek shrugged. “Fine. But just so you know, next time the other guy won’t escape unscathed.”

“Derek,” Sophie said carefully. “Everything is moving too fast for me. Maybe we should go on dates first and see if we’re compatible.”

“I don’t do dates,” Derek said abruptly.

“Wh...What?” Sophie wasn’t sure she heard him right.

“Angel, I’ve never had relationships. I had women, and I fucked them. I never date them.”
 

“Well, if I’m just a woman you want to fuck,” Sophie said indignantly. “I’m going home with Beth.”

Beth, hearing her name turned toward them, but it was obvious she and Stephen had been eavesdropping on her conversation with Derek.

“I don’t think so,” Derek returned darkly.

“Well, we’ll just find out when we leave tonight, won’t we?” Sophie said snarkily.

She turned her attention to Beth and Stephen and ignored Derek. Not date. Huh! She might be naive and inexperienced, but she’d take another thirteen years of celibacy rather than be treated like another one of his women. What a jerk!

CHAPTER EIGHT

The man known as Justin got into a nondescript vehicle parked at an alley some distance away from Rooster Bar. He took off his horned-rimmed glasses and threw them on the dashboard. Leaning forward, he got out his smartphone, punching a number and waited for the call to go through.

“How did it go?” A cold low voice crackled over the phone.

“Hit pay dirt,” Justin replied. “Followed the reporter, led me straight to Sophie Leroux. She was in the company of a redhead.”

“Were you able to get close to her?”

“Yes. But I have not heard anything of consequence. They were just rehashing the incident at the lab yesterday.”

“The Abu-Haxa nearly got her. We need to make our move soon.”

“We have a problem.”

“What?”

“She has a man. He is not an ordinary business executive or political player in DC.” Justin waited for the cursing on the other end of the line to cease before he continued. “It’s hard to read him.”

“A spook?”

“Difficult to read,” Justin repeated.

“We can’t lose track of her again. She’s our backup plan.”

“I’ve got that handled.”

“Good. But Bishop, time is running out. Blackstone informed me that the cores are built and she has them somewhere. But he is against any type of force. Fool has some personal attachment to the girl. I don’t. And my patience is at an end. He can’t deliver, we take the research by force. I have other mining corporations in a bid for the towns.”

“I’ll see what I can do to get rid of the complication.”

“And our other plan?”

“I was able to look into the information Roscoe sold me. It’s solid.”

“Excellent. Abu-Haxa may have just done us a favor. Anything else you need from me?”

“Sending you a picture of the redhead. Have Opperman find out who she is and if we can exploit her. We might have to use coercion to get Dr. Leroux’s cooperation and the more people we can use to threaten her, the better.”

“And her man?”

“Leave him to me,” Justin said. His boss couldn’t see him, but he could feel a chilly smile curve his lips. Sophie Leroux did not stand a chance. He sent the picture of the beautiful redhead at the bar, started the car, and pulled out of the alley.

***

Derek and Jack stood by the hallway leading to the exits. They were all leaving through the back when Beth decided she needed to use the ladies room and the other two women decided to join her. Of course there was a line already snaking out of the restroom, so the three women had fallen in line, delaying their departure.

“Can’t you wait until we get home?” Jack had groused to his wife, obviously impatient to get her alone.

Derek was anxious to get Sophie alone too. In her mind, she was going home with Beth. Well, fuck if he would let her. He had behaved like an asshole, that much he would admit. Derek was unprepared for his reaction to seeing Sophie talking to another man. He tried so hard to act like it had not bothered him. When Sophie suggested they try to get to know each other first by going on dates, that’s when his self-preservation kicked in and he couldn’t stop those hateful words from spilling out of his mouth. He had planned to take her on dates—he figured it was no different from when he,
 
Jack and Maia went out to dinner together. He never dated women before he fucked them. He’d have a drink with them in public during the initial hook up and after that, everything was done in private.
OK, maybe not exactly in private
. He had fucked in stairwells, parking lots and elevators before, but those hardly qualified as dates. Derek knew he wanted Sophie to be more than a hook up. He just had no idea how to handle her or himself.

The women came out of the ladies room together. Derek always wondered why women did that—go to the ladies room in packs and leave together.

“Ready?” Maia breathed as Jack quickly yanked her into his arms and planted a wet one on her lips.

“Talk about a raging inferno,” Beth teased the couple. “Where’s Stephen?”

“He went ahead,” Derek replied shortly.

“Maia, my stuff is in your car,” Sophie said.

“I’ll go get it,” Derek offered.

“I’m going home with Beth,” said the blonde girl, flashing defiant eyes at him.
 

He bent his head close to her and said, “Wait here with Beth. Don’t fucking move.” Not waiting for Sophie’s response, he spun on his heel and followed Jack and Maia out the exit. Thankfully, since the girls arrived early, the car was parked close to the bar.
 
Jack popped the trunk and grabbed the overnight bag.

“This is it?” Derek frowned.

“She was planning to go back tomorrow with Beth to move her out of the bungalow,” Maia replied.

“I’m moving her out of the bungalow,” Derek answered.

“Does she know that?”

“Not yet.”

Jack started laughing as he clapped his friend’s back. “Damn, I’m beginning to see how pathetic I was with Maia.”

“Shut it, McCord. Might I remind you how pathetic you were this morning?”

Jack immediately stopped laughing and scowled.
 

Maia shook her head, her lips were twitching as she gave her friend a nudge. “Go get her, Tiger.”

Beth and Sophie were waiting outside the bar’s exit when Derek returned. He stopped in front of the blonde woman. “You’re moving out of the bungalow tomorrow and moving in with me.”

Sophie’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not moving in with you.” She reached for her overnight bag, but he held it out of the way.

Derek looked at Beth who had her arms crossed and was observing the scene before her with interest. “Are you going to interfere?”

Beth shrugged.

“Good.” Without warning. Derek dropped her bag, grasped Sophie by the hips and threw her over his shoulder, bumped her solidly into place, ignoring her screech of outrage. Then he leaned forward, picking up the overnight bag and started marching to his car.

“Beth, do something!” Sophie screeched.
 

Beth had a hard time speaking between her laughter. “Lockwood. Derek! Aren’t you taking this to the extreme?”

Without stopping, Derek said, “Maybe.”

People were starting to stare, but none seemed eager to interfere. In fact some of the women clutched their hearts and made swooning noises as the trio walked through the crowded sidewalks of Georgetown. Derek smirked. “See Angel, women think I’m romantic.”

“This is kidnapping!” Sophie hissed.
 

“No, Angel this is me claiming you.”

“That’s an outdated anthropological custom. You’ve regressed from millions of years of evolution.”

“It’s a primal instinct.”

“What, being a caveman?”

“I shouldn’t be enjoying this, but I am,” Beth broke in.

“Beth!”

“Oh, chill Sophie. You need some manhandling in your life.”

“I can’t believe this!” Sophie cried in a frustration.

Derek had lowered her and bleeped the locks of the Escalade. Keeping an eye on her, he moved to the back of the SUV, opening the liftgate and deposited her bag into the cargo area. Rounding to the passenger side he opened the front and back doors. “Get in Sophie. Beth, can you drive? I can take you back to your apartment and we can figure how to pick up your car tomorrow.”

Sophie hesitated getting in. Taking one look at his face she complied, but not without flipping him a mutinous glare. Beth got in merrily behind her friend.
 

“Thanks, Derek, but I’m sober enough to drive. Drank three glasses of water over the last hour.”

Derek nodded and rounded the front of the Escalade to get into the driver’s seat. Beth continued to make small talk as they made the short drive to her car. She got down and waved to Sophie. “Call you tomorrow, baby girl. Be good both of you.”

“Traitor,” Sophie whispered under her breath.

She continued to ignore Derek even as they got back on the Beltway to head back to New Park City.

Derek sighed. “So is it going to be the silent treatment now? Come on, Sophie, grow up.”

“What do you expect me to say?” Sophie snapped. “You humiliated me, carting me off like some damned Neanderthal.”

He fell silent trying to justify what he had done. Hell,
 
Jack had tranquilized Maia when she was being stubborn, what Derek did was more acceptable.
Was it
? All he knew was he had to get Sophie alone so he could make it up to her. But he wasn’t sure if his methods only aggravated the situation. Now he had just added abduction to his asshole behavior earlier.