Silver Fire (Guardians) (18 page)

“Shooter!” Maia yelled suddenly.

All hell broke loose. There was a loud pop and the Escalade swerved. They had shot out their left front tire.

“Brace!” Derek shouted as he tried to prevent the SUV from flipping, but the laws of physics could not be denied. Their vehicle tilted on its roof. Bone-rattling pain shot through his body as he heard the crunching of metal, the breaking of glass and the distant squealing of tires and honking of cars. He impotently watched the barrier coming in fast, and they slammed against it. Hard.

***

Derek fought hard to stay conscious. He glanced worriedly at Maia, who was groaning in pain. The airbag had knocked the wind out of him and his chest was on fire. They were both hanging upside down, blood trickling from their lacerations caused by the caved-in windshield or rogue pieces of metal. There was also a strong odor of petroleum and other chemicals. They had to get out of the SUV before it blew.

Sirens were wailing, people were yelling, doors were slamming.

“Stay back!” an authoritative voice bellowed.

A uniformed police officer bent over and peered over from Maia’s side. “Are you guys OK?” The grim look on the officer’s face reflected the severity of the situation. Something told Derek that the Escalade was unsalvageable, but thank fuck they were alive.

“Do we look OK?” Maia croaked as she popped her seatbelt buckle. She fell to the ceiling of the car, howling in pain. “Damn it, I think I broke a rib!”

“Ma’am, sir, I suggest you not move until the fire department gets here!”

Derek clicked his seatbelt buckle and cursed when he landed. The officer sighed when he realized both occupants of the vehicle had no intention of listening to him.
 

Holy hell,
Derek thought as pain radiated everywhere. It felt like he had gone a couple of rounds in a wrestling cage and he’d been body slammed repeatedly. Every joint in his body felt like it had been wrenched out of its socket but nothing appeared to be broken, and hopefully he wasn’t bleeding internally either.

The firemen arrived in time to help them clear the Escalade when they managed to pull themselves out of their respective windows.

“You guys are fucking insane!” a fireman yelled at Maia as he helped her to her feet.
 

“Well, we’d hate to wait for you guys and find ourselves blown up with the vehicle,” Maia quipped, limping to an ambulance.

Derek immediately thought of Sophie. What if this was related to her? He grabbed his phone—which thankfully was in one piece—from his pocket and punched her number. It went immediately to voicemail. She was avoiding his call.

He dialed Beth’s number.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve calling.”

“Where are you guys?” Derek asked abruptly.

“None of your business. You fucked up big time.”

“Listen to me!” Derek roared. “Someone tried to kill me. They shot out our tire on the damn Beltway. Where are you guys?”

Silence for a beat and then, “Holy cow, Lockwood, are you OK?

“Beth, for the fucking last time—”

“We’re still at the bungalow.”

“Lock yourselves indoors and set the alarms. I’ll send someone over, someone you will know.”

Derek called Jack, ignoring the paramedic who was trying to get him to stand still long enough to be treated.

“McCord.”

“Jack, don’t freak out. Maia is fine. I need a favor.”

“What happened?”

“Someone tried to kill us.”

“Fuck! Where are you guys now?”

“We’re on the Beltway; the Escalade is totaled.”

“What exit?”
 

Derek heard the jingle of keys and knew his friend was about to race out to find them.
 

“Jack, listen, I need you to get to Sophie; these guys may be after her.”

“Damn you, Derek!”

“Jack, Maia is fine—”

His friend hung up on him. Derek cursed in frustration and watched Maia answer her phone.

“News travels fast,” Maia said, her eyes cutting to Derek. She tried to keep her wince out of her voice when the paramedic started to clean the cuts on forehead. “Baby, I’m in one piece. Calm. Down.”

“Maia, he needs to get Sophie to AGS,” Derek said.

“Jack, you do not need to come here. Make yourself useful and get Sophie to AGS. I do not need to go to the hospital...AGS has everything... Jack, damn it, will you listen to me? Stop wasting time. Get Sophie. Derek will text you the address.”

Maia hung up on her husband.

“You need to have yourself checked out,” Maia said, eyeing Derek carefully as he quickly typed in Sophie’s address.
 

A wave of dizziness suddenly hit him, so he sat down beside her. The paramedic who was following him around gave a sigh of relief and started cleaning his cuts.

“We need to get you both to the hospital, have some x-rays done.”

“We’re fine!” Derek and Maia said in unison.

“Uh-huh,” the paramedic, who was patching up Maia, said. “You probably sustained a concussion, maybe a broken rib.”

“Well, a broken rib, there’s not much that can be done about that, is there?” Maia pointed out. The paramedic fell silent, but he was repressing a grin.

The cop who was first on the scene walked up to them.
 

“So witnesses said someone shot out your front tire.”

“Officer, we’d rather keep this off the radar.”

The paramedics looked at each other. The cop raised an eyebrow.
 

“Are you folks in some sort of trouble?”

“Not what you’re thinking,” Derek said. He reached into his back pocket—the effort costing him since his torso hurt like hell—pulled out his wallet, and took out his AGS contractor card.

“Great.” The officer sighed, returning Derek’s information. “Hard to keep this off the radar with so many witnesses. What should I put on my report?”

Derek shrugged and looked at Maia. “Tire blow-out?”

Maia shrugged. “That works.”

The two paramedics started chuckling as the officer exhaled deeply and said, “I’ll have a talk with my captain.”

“I’ll have my boss call your department,” Maia said.

The police officer gave them a card and turned back to the scene.
 

***

“He did say he was OK, right?” Sophie asked her friend for what could be the thousandth time.
 

Beth glared at her momentarily before returning her attention to her cell phone.
 

“Done being mad at him?” Stephen asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m just showing some concern for a friend,” Sophie replied. She was done being mad at him—for now. How could she stay mad at him when she was the most likely reason he nearly got killed? And the first person he worried about while still at the scene of the accident was her. That should mean something, right? She couldn’t trust him again, but she couldn’t explain why she had trouble breathing when Beth told her what had happened to Derek. “Besides, it could be because of my troubles that landed him in this. I’m just not a safe person to be around with at the moment. Maybe you two should stay away from me too.”

Beth spoke up this time. “Sophie, I get death threats all the time and you’re not avoiding me.”

“This is different. It’s not a threat anymore. People are getting hurt. Dying,” Sophie finished in a whisper, remembering Guerrero.

“Sophie, we’re not even sure this is about you,” Stephen said. “It doesn’t make sense. Beth and I have known you for years and they have not moved against us.”

That was true, she thought. Because Derek was ex-Special Forces and ex-AGS, it was possible he’d acquired enemies on his missions. He and Jack ran a defense company and were closely connected to the DoD and AGS. The hit might have nothing to do with her at all.
 

They tensed when they heard a car door slam. Stephen looked out the window, relief washing across his features. “It’s Jack.”

Disarming the alarm, Stephen opened the door before Jack could knock. Sophie felt her heart sink when she saw the pinched, ravaged look on Jack’s face.

“Jack, is everything OK? You look...” Sophie began, dreading what the other man would say.

Jack gave her a reassuring smile. “Everything is fine. It’s just that Maia was with Derek.”

“Oh my god, is she all right?” Beth exclaimed.

“She’s still mouthing off to me, so I guess she is,” Jack replied, obviously miffed at his wife.

“Well, why aren’t you with...” Sophie’s voice trailed off. “Derek told you to come for me. I’m so sorry.” Guilt washed over her in a big wave. The man was worried sick about his wife, and she did not know what Derek had said to convince him to come for her instead of going straight to Maia.

“He did, but so did Maia,” Jack said shortly. “Gather all your things, Sophie, I’m taking you to AGS.”

“But I’m staying with Beth.”

“I don’t think that’s happening until we figure out what’s going on.”

Sophie rolled her suitcase out of her bedroom.
 
Jack took it from her and walked out the door, pausing to check for suspicious elements before signaling for her to come out of the house. Sophie grabbed her overnight bag that was still sitting in the foyer and followed
 
Jack out the door.

She gave Beth and Stephen a hug. “So much for car shopping. You guys check in every hour, OK? I don’t care if it’s just a simple text.”

“Don’t worry, Sophie,” Beth said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

They’d been on the road for a few minutes before Jack spoke. “Look, I don’t want you to feel guilty about me coming to get you. Derek and Maia are right, securing you is more important at the moment.”

“But shouldn’t Maia come first?”

“She does, Sophie. But in her line of work, prioritizing is important—the greater good. Even if I wanted to rush to her side, I have to respect her wishes. It’s the only way our marriage can work,” Jack said quietly.
 

“That sucks, I don’t know how you can stand it.”

“It’s easy. I love her.”

Sophie felt herself swoon hearing
 
Jack’s words, his face losing the harsh planes of earlier and softening with a tender look as he said he loved his wife.

“So what’s going on with you and Derek?”

“Nothing. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

“What?”

“And I’m not comfortable talking to you about it,” Sophie said firmly.

Jack started chuckling. “I take it my man messed up.”

“Yep.”

“He’s not used to having a girlfriend.”

“You mean being monogamous?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Well, he made it clear how uncomfortable it was for him.”

“Ouch.”

“Exactly.”

“For what it’s worth, he was thinking of you immediately after the crash.”

“Look, Jack. It’s obvious Derek makes a great friend. And maybe that’s all we’re ever going to be.”

It looked like Jack was going to argue but decided against it, much to Sophie’s relief. Now that she was sure Derek was OK, she could probably go back to hating him, because hating him, it seemed, was the only way to protect her heart.

***

Derek watched Sophie walk through the entrance of the situation room. His attention was briefly distracted by Jack giving him a chin lift before wordlessly walking to Maia, curling his hand around her neck, pulling her close and burying his face in the curve of her neck.

“Jack,” Maia whispered.

“Babe,” was all that Jack said.
 

Derek moved toward Sophie but immediately saw that her guard was up. She was still pissed at him, but at least there was a hint of concern on her face.

“I’m glad you’re OK,” Sophie said stiffly. Derek felt the yawning chasm of awkwardness that was festering between them, and it was all his fault.
 

“Sophie,” Derek said. “About this morning.”

“Don’t,” Sophie hissed. “This is not the time or the place.”

“We have to talk.”

“Is there something to talk about, Derek?” Sophie whispered. “I think your actions this morning were pretty clear.”

Before Derek could answer, Viktor walked into the room with Tim.
 

“Good, you’re all here.” His eyes swept over Maia and Derek. “You guys look terrible. Looks like old times.”

Derek smiled wryly. He and Maia had gone on several missions together and they had gotten into and gotten out of a lot of scrapes, which frequently ended with one or both of them in a hospital. Today, Maia had a bump on her head, a big bandage across her forehead, and her left wrist was bandaged up. She also had sustained a couple of bruised ribs. Derek himself had a cut above his eye, a bump on his head, broken glass fragment cuts everywhere and his chest hurt where the airbags hit. Luckily, the Escalade was a solid car to get tumbled in.

“It’s fortunate both of you were wearing seatbelts this time,” Viktor added dryly. “After this meeting though, I want you two knuckleheads to go to the hospital and get a full body scan. No exceptions. That should have been your first stop.”

“What I said,” Jack muttered.

“Dr. Leroux.” Viktor turned his attention to Sophie. “I’m afraid this is a private meeting. I will have Manning escort you to my office where you can wait for Derek.”

Sophie nodded and stood up when the big guy came in to take her to Viktor’s office.

“Jack, you weren’t supposed to be in this meeting either, but given what happened this morning, I’m afraid the incident has escalated.”

“What do you mean, this meeting wasn’t originally about Sophie?” Jack asked, his eyes growing alert.

“No.”

Derek frowned.

“We’ve picked up data searches on your name, Maia,” Viktor said. Before anyone else could say anything, Viktor handed out a picture of her as she was sitting at Rooster Bar. “This picture was used to do facial recognition on you.”

“So was I the target or Derek?”

“Nothing was uncovered that would reveal your connection to AGS,” Viktor replied. “The mined data revealed only your work as a marketing executive. However, further investigation was done on MDI.
 
Jack, here of course, because he’s your husband, and the rest of the board at MDI. But specific digging was done on Jack and Derek, even deeper than what was done for you.”