Silver Fire (Guardians) (23 page)

“Sophie, my self-control isn’t all there and you need to rest,” Derek said thickly.

“I can rest after,” Sophie whispered as she bucked her hips and removed her sleeping shorts. “After you do me hard.”

That was all it took. Derek stalked toward her and dragged her by the ankle until her ass was at the edge of the bed. Sophie’s squeal of laughter was quickly cut off when he slammed inside her.
 

“Derek,” she gasped in surprise as he turned feral in his possession. Her hips slightly off the bed, his fingers digging into her sides, he impaled her on his arousal and pounded into her repeatedly until he came hard.

***

Justin Bishop surveyed the barn on a rundown farm off Route 522 in Culpeper, Virginia. The location was perfect. The barn was far enough from the main highway and fairly accessible by a dirt road. Unmowed grass surrounded the property, and since it was the middle of summer, it was tall and lush and provided the perfect screen from prying eyes. He rented the property under false identification—Dan Brown—provided by Opperman. Justin smirked at the unimaginative name his contact had provided him. Although the more common the name, the easier it was to work covertly.
 

An advantage of the property was its proximity to Washington DC. He planned on making frequent trips to visit the beautiful scientist, who had somehow managed to get under his skin in such a short time. He should know better than to get personal with his mark, but there was some vulnerability in those gray eyes that spoke to him and he was just biding his time to make his move.

The authorities should have a sketch of his face by now. What they were looking for was a college-age guy not a 32-year old man. He was quite adept at leveraging cosmetic prosthetics to disguise his age. It was one of his specialties to blend in the background.

A truck was making its way down the dirt road.
 
A delivery from Christopher Blackstone—from his middleman at least. Blackstone knew he was being watched by every local and international agency, so he had funneled some funds to a dummy company that manufactured farm equipment and he, as Dan Brown, was the owner.
 
Justin unlocked the barn gates and the truck drove straight through. Another car followed the truck inside. The occupants were Ukranian nuclear physicist, Yuri Demko, and two South African lab technicians—all hand-picked by Blackstone.

The occupants of the truck got out and opened the lift, revealing crates of all sizes. Yuri stepped out of the car and approached Justin.

“Bishop.”

“Demko.”

Justin handed him a lockbox. “It’s all there. Files and disks. That research does not leave this facility.”

Demko nodded. “Understood.”

“How long will it take?”

“About two weeks. It would take less time if we had the cores.”

“I’m working on that.”

Justin looked at the lab technicians and then at Yuri. “Are you certain you can accomplish this? Do I need to make provisions to bring in Dr. Leroux?”

Nostrils flaring, Yuri said stiffly, “I am certain. There are basic designs and improvisations I could do. Blackstone was adamant he does not want Dr. Leroux harmed in anyway.”

Justin smiled grimly.
 
“He shouldn’t have mentioned Dr. Leroux’s name to my boss in the first place.”

Justin was a freelance “facilitator” and worked frequently with Eric Opperman.
 
Justin performed the dirty work while Opperman managed the backend manipulation. Their job, simply put, was to get things done and get rid of obstacles along the way. Whoever paid them was the boss, and currently it was Damian Stoltz. The research belonged to Stoltz, not Blackstone, and he was making sure he had his two henchmen stand guard at all times. He had requested more military contractors from Stoltz. Once the zefinium bombs were built, they needed to be moved quickly to avoid getting on radar and whoever stood in their way would be eliminated expeditiously.
 

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Endpoint Systems is here,” Polly Smith informed Sophie, who was busy cataloguing some isotope enrichment results from this morning. Her meeting with MDI yesterday went very well and she was thankful to have her work to keep her mind occupied and away from the stolen research. There was nothing she could do at this point; however she knew the CIA and AGS were working to track down Justin and his crew. She had a feeling Derek was involved too. He had been acting differently since Sunday, not withdrawn or cold like he was after the first time they had sex, but he was definitely distracted.
 

“Good, send them to the lab,” Sophie replied. She was doing damage control as much as she could; she was getting rid of the weaponized zefinium cores. Christopher Blackstone had not been too happy about the core disposal when they spoke on Sunday, but he agreed it was the best option given the disappearance of the research.

Two men dressed in work jumpsuits entered the lab, rolling a huge lead crate with them.
 

“It’s not plutonium, you know,” Sophie said with amusement.

“Standard transport, ma’am,” one of the men replied courteously.

Sophie shrugged and walked over to where the cores were sitting in the high-tech safe box. Unlocking it and lifting the lid, she lightly touched the objects with her fingers as she felt the back of her eyes sting. It was as if she was saying good-bye to her father all over again. Smiling ruefully, she nodded to the men.
 

They walked over to where she was and used a Geiger counter to measure the radiation levels. As predicted, the levels were too low to cause any harm. They transferred the cores carefully to the depths of their container and handed Sophie a clipboard with the chain-of-custody paperwork.

Sophie signed three sheets of documents, handed the clipboard back and watched the sum of her father’s life work leave her lab.

Stephen must have noticed her turmoil and came up beside her. “You OK, sweetie?”

She heaved and let out a puff of air. “Yes, actually. It’s bittersweet. But there’s a big relief too you know, as if I’ve been set free.”

“You’ve been hanging on too long,” Stephen replied.

She knew what Stephen meant: the memory of the summers with Jean Pierre Leroux. Ever since her parents’ divorce, the only time she spent with her dad was in the summer. Because of his work, he had stayed behind in France after the break-up. He would bring her to his lab and even in her pre-adolescent mind, she was fascinated by the science that consumed her father’s world. He would attempt to teach her about the atom and how the beginning and end of all things revolved around this one tiny particle—she was his eager student. Those were happy times, before the explosion took his life and left her lost and angry. Then Adam came along, showing her a different world, a sensual world. He was taken away from her too. Swearing to avoid such devastation, she spent years building up her wall, and now when she thought she had fortified her defenses enough, an infuriating man took a sledgehammer and brought them down.

She was relieved to set free her old ghosts, but was she setting herself up acquiring a new one?

“Hey, where did you go?” Stephen nudged her arm.

 
“Confusing times,” Sophie murmured.

“Your look tells me it’s about more than work.” Her friend was eyeing her shrewdly.

Sophie rolled her eyes. “Yes—OK. It’s Derek. He’s confusing me.”

“Is he acting like a jerk again?” Stephen asked sharply.

“What? No, he’s been perfect.”
 

“But?” Stephen was looking at her impatiently.

“Well, it’s just that...” She felt her face flush and then lowered her voice. “After some wild and primitive sex last Sunday, we have not had sex since.”

“Sweetie, it’s Wednesday. Two days without sex does not make it the end of the world.”

“Are you forgetting the man in question here?”

Stephen’s lips curved downwards as he nodded in agreement. “You have a point.”

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Any advice?” Sophie asked, exasperated.

“Jeez, chill sweetie. I have an idea, let’s call Beth and analyze Derek Lockwood to death.”

Stephen brought out his phone and punched a speed dial number.

“I can’t leave without Derek.”

“Since when do you do as you’re told?” Stephen teased.

Sophie shrugged. “You have a point.”

***

Sophie debated the lunch choices before picking a Cuban sandwich and handing the menu back to their server. The lunch cafe in old town Alexandria was quite a way from Silver Fire Research but for the first time in her life, Sophie found the lab a bit stifling, like she wanted to get away from it for a while. Beth was debating whether to get a glass of wine or a craft beer with her fish tacos even as Stephen was glowering at her. He was starving and had not even looked at the menu when he ordered his lamb burger.
 

“You girls are crazy wanting to sit outside in this heat,” Stephen complained as he loosened his tie. He had earlier discarded his suit jacket. July in Northern Virginia was unpredictable but was frequently hot and humid.
 

“You’re the one who keeps insisting on wearing a suit, Stephen,” Sophie reminded him. She had dressed casually this morning in an embroidered white linen blouse, capris and espadrilles. Derek had raised an eyebrow at her casual attire but at the moment she didn’t care.
 

“So what’s going on, baby girl?” Beth asked.

“What? I can’t just have lunch with my best friend?”

“It’s the middle of the work week, and I thought you were backed up at the lab, what with the days you were closed.”

“The projects that matter are on track,” Sophie replied, thinking of her business with MDI. Their meeting yesterday had been brief. MDI knew how to hire good people. Their design engineers were brilliant, and Sophie had no difficulty explaining to them how to leverage the infinite power of enriched zefinium. “The plans on rebuilding the house had stalled.”

“That’s because you want to re-design it,” Stephen reminded her.

“Not all of it.”

“So now we’re done with the boring conversation, let’s move on to a more interesting topic,” Beth drawled. “How’s sex with Derek? And I want details.”

“I don’t kiss and tell,” Sophie said with mock demureness.

“Spill,” Beth insisted.

“No.” Sophie replied, but she couldn’t help grinning as she remembered the shower sex.

“Hell, look at that self-satisfied smile on your face.”

Stephen cleared his throat. Beth frowned at him. “What?”

“Sophie is worried about the demise of their relationship because they haven’t had sex in two days.”

Beth gave a shout of laughter. “Has Derek turned you into a nympho?”

“Beth!” Sophie exclaimed, mortified. Several patrons beside them turned to look at their group. Some with amusement, some with censure.

“Well, we’re talking about Derek,” Sophie said,
sotto voce
.

 
“So what did you guys do the past two nights? Play Monopoly?”

Sophie looked at her friend with annoyance. “Well, we do make out. But before anything gets too heated, he pulls back.”

“Maybe he’s taking it slow,” Stephen said.

“That’s the whole problem, I told him I wanted to take it slow, but now that he’s um, shown me great um, sex,” Sophie broke off and glared at her friends. “Stop laughing, both of you!”
 

“So now you don’t know how to take it back,” Stephen chortled. “Oh, sweetie, you’re such a typical female. See, that’s where men have no problem with gay men. Yes means yes and no means no.”

Their server arrived with their drinks, Sophie took a deep sip of her soda and said, “But I wanted to follow the natural progression of a relationship.”

“On what planet?” Stephen asked.

“Girl, you’ve hung around Stephen and I enough,” Beth said, still grinning. “Natural progression nowadays means you have sex then more sex, and then you decide whether you want a relationship.”

“Besides, with a man like Derek, who wants to talk?” Stephen added.

“Uh-oh, don’t look now, but the man of the hour just crossed the street,” Beth said in a quietly amused voice. “And he does not look pleased.”

Sophie watched Derek’s tall lean body negotiate the sidewalk leading to the outdoor patio of the cafe. Without a word, he sat down across from Sophie who was flanked, thankfully enough, by her two friends. Derek looked like he wanted to throttle her. He regarded her through narrowed chocolate eyes, daring her to say something.

“I hear the burger here is pretty good,” Sophie said, her voice pitched higher than normal. Derek did not intimidate her right now; his body was emanating sexual tension so strong, she felt a twitch between her legs.

“Don’t cute your way out of this, Angel,” Derek warned. “I thought I made myself clear.”

“It’s not like you don’t know where I am,” Sophie replied. “Don’t think I don’t know about the tail you have on me.”

“You knew the CIA was going to put someone on you.”

“That’s heartening, seeing that it was easy to clock him,” Sophie retorted.

“Taggart is a rookie. Besides, he wasn’t trying to be discreet. His presence was meant to make you feel more secure.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

Their server returned with their order and asked Derek for his. He ordered a beer.

“You’re not eating?” Sophie frowned as she took a bite out of her sandwich.

“Too pissed right now, Sophie. I had to cancel a 1:30 meeting,” Derek said. “And it’s so damned hot out here.”

Sophie felt guilty about his canceled meeting, and then she wasn’t. All throughout their conversation, Beth and Stephen were quietly observing their back and forth.

“No one forced you to cancel your meeting,” Sophie grumbled.

“I did because I care about you more than some damned meeting.” Derek sighed irritably. “I’m trying here, Sophie.”

Before she could ask him what he meant, a gorgeous woman with long dark hair sidled up to Derek.

“Derek! Surprised to see you here,” said the bombshell, who trailed her fingers back and forth on Derek’s shoulder, making Sophie want to scratch her eyes out. Sophie hypothesized that this feeling was called jealousy.