Taking Flight (A Devereux Novel) (14 page)

If Derek had thought it had been a long day the last
time he’d gotten home, it was nothing compared to how he felt after getting
back from the hospital. He kicked aside the duffel bag he had dropped earlier to
help clear the path for Gary, who had to angle himself sideways to fit the
massive cast and crutches through the door.

“My armpits
hurt
!” Gary said. He stood in the foyer
on his good leg and shook his arms, trying to work off the pain from the
crutches jabbing into his side. “I paid enough for these things, you’d think
they would be at least a little more comfortable.”

“First rule of falling down
stairs and making an ass of yourself: the result won’t be comfortable,” Derek
said. “If I have to put up with your whining for too long, I may ship you off
to Boston. Or better yet, off to whatever country Stephen’s in so you can bug
the hell out of him. He deserves it.”

“Whatever,” Gary said. “What
time are the girls getting here?”

They had been on the way
home when Derek received Sara’s call. He’d been shocked and outraged at the
attack on her home. It was one thing for people to target him, but to go after
a woman he was seeing just because they thought it might get to him was
unacceptable. He had offered to drive over and pick them up, but Sara had
refused, pointing out she knew where he lived and they needed to bring their
car with them. They wouldn’t just leave it behind. He’d conceded the point,
although he itched to help.

“I’m not sure.
As soon as they could manage it.
I’ll call in five minutes
if I don’t hear from them.” Derek and Gary shared a look. Driving had been the
method of assault when he was almost killed the first time. “This begs the
question, again. Are you absolutely
sure
your accident couldn’t have been caused by anyone else? Did you really trip
over your own feet?”

Gary thought for a moment.
“I don’t know, Derek.
It happened so fast
,
it was such a blur
. And then with the broken leg, the pain
just about knocked me out. My brain had a lot to worry about in the moment. It
wasn’t busy keeping a crystal clear memory of what happened. Plus, I had been
drinking a little, so that doesn’t help one bit.”

It would remain a mystery
for now, but Derek committed himself to finding out which of Gary’s friends
were there so he could question them about what they remembered. It was
possible one of them had been bribed to push Gary down the stairs, or saw
something that explained it. Even with a few drinks, Derek didn’t believe his
brother could fall over himself like that.

An odd, multi-toned chime
sounded over their heads, and Derek had to puzzle out what it was for a few
seconds before he remembered it was his
door bell
.
Only his closest acquaintances knew the code to his gate, and they knew enough
to just walk in when they dropped by, so he rarely heard it.

He opened the door to the
two women. Becky’s face was liberally streaked with tears, and Sara’s weren’t
completely normal either. The two women were quiet, subdued, as though they had
spent the whole drive over in silence.

“Please, come in,” he said.
They had no luggage with them. “Didn’t bring your stuff with you? Did the
police tell you to leave it there as evidence?”

“Hardly,” Becky said. “It’s
all destroyed. The only things still in good enough shape to take weren’t worth
it. Even the tube of toothpaste got sliced open and squeezed out. It’s
like
whoever did it wanted us to have nothing.”

She looked at him with an
accusatory glare that caught Derek by surprise. Did she know the attack was his
fault? If he hadn’t expressed an interest in Sara, it wouldn’t have happened at
all. Did she figure it out on her own, or had Sara told her about the attacker
in the alley the other night?

Sara walked up to him and
threw her arms around his shoulders. His hands came up automatically to her
lower back, holding her against him. She felt warm, soft. Right. He had to
remind himself not to let his hands wander—it was not the time for that.

“Thank you for having us,”
she mumbled. “I didn’t trust a hotel or anything else. If they tracked me to
that apartment, who’s to say they couldn’t do it again? At least you have a
gate here, and a secured community. It feels safer, although who knows what
they’re capable of. Maybe
nowhere’s
safe.”

Maybe
nowhere’s
safe.
He’d had the same thought
himself, and it was chilling. If he couldn’t even trust the security at his own
house, what could he do against this unknown threat? He still didn’t know who
was responsible for this mayhem or what they wanted. They’d made no demands of
him, no requests for money, no ransom, nothing. They attacked and destroyed and
left no hint of what their goal was.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine
here,” Derek said, trying to inject confidence into his voice he didn’t feel.
He loved to live on the edge, but this was a different story. When he hunted
that fine line between exhilaration and ruin, he was always the one in control,
the one who decided how close he got to oblivion. This experience had given him
a taste of being in someone else’s power, and he didn’t like it one bit. He
hadn’t felt like this since experiencing the iron control of his father while
growing up.

“Thanks,” Sara said. Her
face lifted as she looked into his eyes, and he wanted to kiss her.

She backed away, and the
moment was lost. Derek felt like a piece of him was incomplete.

Becky had wandered to the
living room and discovered Gary, who had settled himself into a big recliner
and tried to find a comfortable position for his leg.

“Oh my God, Gary, what
happened?”

He’d forgotten in the
confusion of the phone call with Sara to tell them where he was or what he had
been doing.

“Gary?” Sara asked.
“Something happened to Gary? I didn’t even expect him to be here yet. I thought
he was out with friends tonight.”

She left his arms to head
back into the living room, leaving Derek to trail after. He admired her stance,
head still held
high,
back straight, facing the world
head-on. Her strength and resilience made it easier for him to keep his
composure. Perhaps already going through the worst experience of her life meant
that she could keep these other crises in perspective.

Gary was explaining his
story to Becky and included Sara in the conversation as she walked up. It was
the same one that Derek had heard, but he smiled when he noticed his little
brother changed the facts a bit, making it seem less his fault and more an unavoidable
accident thrust upon him. There was nothing like a pretty face to change your
tune and give you an incentive to cast your past in a more
favorable
light.

Or had he changed his story for me?

The thought gave Derek
pause. Gary hadn’t wanted him to
worry, that
much was
certain.

“If you don’t mind, Derek,
I’ll just sleep down here tonight,” Gary said. “The thought of climbing the
stairs to a bedroom is atrocious with this cast, and this chair is cozy.”

“Whatever you need. Ladies,
we should let Gary rest,” Derek said. “It’s gotten late, and his leg will need
plenty of sleep to heal. Do you need anything,
Gare
?
Water, food, blanket?”

“Maybe a glass of water,
please,” Gary said. “These painkillers should keep me out all night, but it
would be nice not to have to get up if I need one later.”

Sara rolled over. Sleep didn’t come easily, and she
didn’t know if it was the events of the day, the strange bed, or that Derek
Devereux slept on the other side of the wall.

He had graciously showed
Becky and Sara to their rooms. Becky had gotten a guest suite on the second
floor, while Derek had put Sara into the room just beside his, on the third
floor. She had been queasy climbing the
stairs,
especially when she’d gotten to the top and realized the hallway was open to
the huge living room and the view of the ocean on one side, with only a balcony
separating her from the big drop. There was a little seating area for anyone so
inclined to enjoy the view, but Sara hadn’t stuck around to soak it in,
retreating into her room.

Derek is sleeping right there. I wonder if he wears a suit to bed.
She chuckled a little at the
image of him lying down in one of his tailored suits, crinkling the fabric out
of an utter refusal to be less than impressively dressed.
Ugh, this is awful.
Her eyes burned from the lack of sleep, but she
couldn’t stop her mind from running at a mile a minute.

Finally, she rolled out of
bed. She hadn’t brought any clothes with her, not finding anything salvageable.
The thought that the intruder had picked through all her things—including
her underwear and lingerie—to make sure she wouldn’t have use of any of
it ever again was maddening. They’d seen her most intimate things, from the
sexy negligee she had been tempted to wear for Derek to the granny panties she
used when she wasn’t feeling right with the world.

She still wore the underwear
from that day, and Derek had loaned her a shirt to wear over top when she’d
asked. It hung down low, the shirttail just covering her butt and the front
covering her upper thighs. The sleeves had shot past her hands, and she’d had
to roll them up to avoid looking like a kid trying on her father’s clothes.

Sara didn’t know what she
was doing, but she couldn’t spend any longer lying in bed and staring up at the
murky ceiling. Her memories played across the empty expanse like a video on
loop. She saw the state of the apartment when she had first walked in—the
torn, shredded remnants of their things. When she finally pushed the images out
of her mind, they were replaced with memories of the attack on Derek in the
alley. These things were more than she had bargained for when she’d come to Los
Angeles, and she was afraid of how things might escalate from here.

The door to her room
squeaked a little as it swung open. Sara stepped out into the seating area,
surprised to see it wasn’t dark outside her door.

Derek sat in a cozy-looking
chair, a book open on his knee and a lamp casting soft yellow light beside him.
He looked up as he heard her door and saw her there.

“Hey, Sara,” he said with a
soft, low rumble. It was a
nighttime
voice, a bedroom
voice. Sara’s knees decided they liked it. “Couldn’t sleep?”

She shook her head and
subconsciously tried to pull the shirt lower down her legs. “No. Today was too
crazy. I can’t believe what happened, it’s like the world has gone insane. How
did this all happen?”

He sighed and placed his
bookmark before folding the volume and setting it on the low coffee table. “I
was going to ask you the same question. This is all new. Never in the past two
years have I had to wonder about events beyond my control. Please, join me.”

The chair beside him was as
soft and comfortable as it looked, and Sara curled up in it, her legs folded
beneath her.

“I’m wondering if everything
is my fault,” Sara said, haltingly. Was it time to come clean? If her
investigation put Derek in danger, then she owed it to him to stop and let him
know. Ron’s assignment could go shove it if it caused this much chaos.

“No,” Derek said. “Don’t say
that. I don’t want you to go thinking this is all because of you. What could
you have done to bring this on? No, I’m afraid it’s all on
me
and my father’s company
. It’s the only possible explanation.”

Sara held her breath. She
had never heard Derek even mention the company’s existence before. Her life
being in jeopardy might be the final key to unlocking his secrets. She had to
tread carefully. “Your father had a company?”

He nodded. “Yes, and he left
it to my brothers and I when he passed away. When he killed himself.” She could
see the conflict plain on his face. Part of his being resisted talking about
such a painful experience, but he continued on. “None of us wanted anything to
do with it, at first. We met with the company executives, and they made everything
seem very complicated, and said it was better if we let them go on running
things as they saw fit, and we’d get quarterly financial statements. They were
the trusted lieutenants of my father’s empire, and they knew what needed to be
done. It was very seductive, especially since none of us knew anything about
running a corporation. Hell, until he passed away and we met with the lawyers,
we didn’t even know he was worth so much money.”

She couldn’t believe her
ears. If what Derek was saying was true, then it was possible she knew more
about the Onyx Company’s operations than he did!

“And now? What’s changed?”

His lips firmed and he
looked at her face. Sara feared she may have pushed too hard, and he’d snap out
of the expansive mood he was in. “Evan grew dissatisfied with that approach,
after a time. He was older, more mature, and he always felt like he had to
shoulder more responsibility than the rest of us. So he devoted a portion of his
time to learn more about the company, take a senior advisory role so he could
keep us involved in the direction of the company. He found a lot of roadblocks
between him and any useful information.

“A little while ago, he
warned us about the odd little accident here or there.
Small
things, at first, but enough of them to stop being coincidental.
Finally
there were two or three big close calls, things that could have ended his life
if they had gone a little differently.
Kind of like Gary’s
trip tonight.
No one to blame, but things like that
don’t
happen over and over again to the same person.”

“And then you had the attack
in the alley. And Gary had the trip tonight. And mine and Becky’s apartment
torn to shreds.” It was a damning chain of events. They were under attack, and
Sara grew less sure she was the primary cause. Maybe she’d been caught in
bigger events than she’d known.

It raised a question.
Should I open up and tell Derek about the
things I’ve uncovered about Onyx? He deserves to know, and he might use it to
make changes.
Then again, she might just endanger his life. Someone was
already out to get them, and if she gave Derek the information he was missing
then he would become that much bigger of a target.

“There’s another one you
don’t know the full story about,” Derek said. There was
a
reluctance
in his voice as though he didn’t want to say it but he
couldn’t bring himself to stop. “Do you remember the splint I wore after the
car crash?”

“Of course. Wait—you
don’t mean…?”

He nodded. “Yes, that was
another one. I was driving back from the airport on the back roads just like I
said, but there was another car there. It chased me down, and whoever the
driver was, he was good.
Very good.
I’m not bragging
when I say I thought I could take those roads faster than anyone else alive.
I’ve been over them time and time again, and I know them so well. But no matter
what I did, I couldn’t get away from him. Eventually, he caught up and nudged
my bumper at just the wrong time, and I lost control.”

Sara stared at him, stunned
that he could recount the event in such a calm and controlled manner, as though
he described an afternoon drive with family. “Derek! I can’t believe I didn’t
know. And then I ran away from you the next day. I feel even worse about that
now.”

“Don’t,” he said. “There’s
no way you could have known. And it was my fault you were even there and had to
become so frightened.”

“No,” Sara said. “I need to
learn to face my fears.” She tore her gaze away from his too-handsome face and
looked out, past the balcony, to the view she’d fought to ignore.

The moon hung low, sitting
inches above the water. The reflection shimmered, dancing on the rippling
water, a false image that showed turmoil beneath the serene reality. Sara stood
and forced herself to take a step toward the railing.

Her leg moved as if through
molasses. Her body did not want to obey her commands, but wanted her to
run, run away!
She became acutely aware
of the drop past the balcony to the living room floor two stories below. She
took another step.

“You can do it, Sara,” Derek
said. His voice became an anchor, and a guide. “Take another step. You’re
almost there.”

She pushed herself,
screaming at her body to move the last few feet. Slowly, surely, she brought
herself to the balcony and placed her hands wide, supporting herself. Sara had
to close her eyes and fight to overcome the desperate, burning need to run
away.

Then Derek was there. His
hands covered her own, and the closeness of his body behind her gave her all
new things to think about. Her body pushed backward, and his forward, until she
leaned back against him.

“I’m so proud of you,” he
whispered in her ear. “You can do this.”

She opened her eyes and
looked down. Vertigo almost overtook her, but Derek’s hands over her own helped
to center her, comfort her, and assure her she wouldn’t fall. From the living
room floor, she looked out through the stunning wall of glass that made up the
back of the house, and was moved by the beauty of the land. Moonlight rolled
across it with a soft glow, giving the trees and the grass a glimmer of
otherworldliness. It looked like a magical faerie kingdom.

“Wow,” she breathed. “It’s
incredible.”

The hands over hers
tightened, giving her a soft squeeze. She turned her own to grab his and then
brought them to her body, wrapping his arms around her. His chin rested on top
of her head, and he surrounded her, lending his warmth and security to her in a
way she hadn’t even known she’d needed.

“You are beautiful, you know
that?” Derek asked. The deep, throaty purr in his voice was back, and her knees
weakened even more.

Sara turned her head,
searching for him. Then he was there, their
lips
meeting, melding.