Slow Burn (10 page)

They had agreed and hit the road six months later after a
grueling recording session. Her body lacked energy, her soul torn apart and
rebuilt during the songwriting process.

And now, Derrick offered her solace. She looked into his
eyes. “How?”

Derrick brushed his lips briefly over hers, not quite
kissing her, but close enough to stir her senses again. “I don’t know yet. But
we sort of have more pressing matters to tend to.”

The threat on her life had reared its head and broke the
comfort Derrick offered. “Yeah.”

“When Max returns…” Derrick ran a hand through her hair,
carefully pushing it aside to expose her face. “We’ll have to come up with a
plan. Hopefully, he’ll bring a lot of food. I’m starved.”

Her stomach rumbled. She hadn’t thought of food in a few
days, which probably drained her abilities. “I could eat.”

“And we should probably shower, too. And get dressed.” He
frowned.

She hated seeing him frown, but they needed food. Max would
be back shortly and they should be dressed and ready with some sort of plan to
lure out her enemies. Determined to keep this nonsense from Derrick and anyone
else she could protect, Sonja would do whatever it took. It was
her
life,
her
mistakes,
her
life path.

The potential for war between humans and shifters existed,
and those who would try to chain Sonja would definitely use her talents against
the other party. Not all humans were aware of the existence of shifters, and
hiding became a necessary burden for many in the community. The half-human,
half-animal crowd wore that weight with mixed emotions. Some were proud of
their heritage but smart enough to keep quiet, while others couldn’t contain
themselves.

She’d seen it at the concerts, the few shifters who came to
her shows to let off steam. She’d pulled the most angst and sorrow from them.

Derrick hadn’t given her angst. Not that she hadn’t tried to
pull that from him. She did that by rote, oftentimes unaware because the
consequences seemed nonexistent. Only others in the world weighed heavily on
her. In fact, the only thing she picked up from him had been the intensity of
love neither of them seemed able to explain. Even when she knocked around in
his mind, the walls that remained shut didn’t hint at anything dangerous.

She sighed and dislodged herself from him slowly. Regretting
the separation immediately bothered her. She wanted to remain in bed with him.

Yet they had work to do.

An hour later, Sonja sat with Max in front of her and
Derrick to her side, dressed as handsomely as ever in black. She wore his
trench coat, jeans, and her top from earlier. Max looked deadly, too, but his
expression and persona differed from Derrick’s. Something remained in the back
of both men’s heads but neither would let her in.

The overwhelming scent of aggression, dark and lightning hot
filled her nostrils and came presumably from both pumas. As part of their
burden of power, they would stay in touch with their feral side. She felt
somewhat comforted by the fact that they were in public and the pumas couldn’t
argue too heavily over her chosen fate. Derrick’s life remained entwined with
hers. For now.

As the cards unfolded before her, she had no desire to put
an innocent bystander such as Derrick in danger.

Her loved ones always ended up being hurt. They’d been used
as bait, toys to get her to come forward and do what her kidnappers wanted.
Mostly it involved petty things. When it started, the kidnappers usually
convinced a local religious group to tolerate the shifters. Then things morphed
into harder events like muggings and having her blank the victim’s minds.

She fought an attacker once but he threatened her brother.

Sonja complied and tried harder to make herself less
accessible while still doing what she considered necessary in the world.

Rob never heard about the threat.

Sonja couldn’t bear the thought of someone else—someone she
barely knew—getting involved on her behalf. Frustrated, she slammed a hand down
on the table.

Both pumas looked at her, then resumed their conversation as
though she didn’t exist.

“Dude.” Max took another puff of his cigar and blew a thick
cloud of smoke into the air. “I have to burn those sheets. I can’t get the
smell of you two out of them. How could you do this to me?”

“Quit your whining, Max. It’s not like you never did that
shit to me. Besides, can you blame me?” Derrick ashed his cigar in the tray
beside them and took a swig of his beer. He turned to face Sonja.

Of course, she had to remember their heightened puma senses.
Even after the long shower, she still carried residual puma scent. Max picked
up on that. Their eyes met and for a second, she stared into the depths of his
purple eyes. He kept his emotions hidden from her.

“Hey, you two. It’s not like I’m not right here.” She leaned
forward and stared angrily at Max. “Now, what are we going to do about this
problem?”

Max and Derrick both cleared their throats. “Right. Well, I
was talking to a buddy of mine on the police force who has some connections
with the higher ups in the FBI. They’ve been trailing the guys who want you for
months and have been waiting to pounce on them. But every time they make a
move, it goes down like the earlier op.”

“Someone took the fall.” Derrick leaned in.

“Or died mysteriously.” Max continued.

Sonja didn’t miss the feeling behind his gaze. He bled off
cautious distrust. Straight distrust held a heavier weight in one’s aura than
cautious distrust. He was a spy; she had to remember that.

It didn’t stop fear from going through her.

“We have to set you up in a protected place where the two of
us, and possibly a third, can keep an eye on you, get the FBI out, and surround
them.”

“Do we know who is after her?” Derrick took another pull off
his beer and brought his cigar to his lips.

“The Anti-Shifter League has had it in for me since they found
out what I could do. We’ve had a few of them show up and hand out fliers
peaceably.”

Derrick chuckled. “Yeah, with your crowd and someone
threatening the hottest lead singer in death metal, I’m sure the Anti-Shifter
League had the brains to maintain peaceful protest status.”

“It wasn’t them, but I’m guessing they have ties to whoever
this smaller organization is that actually put the hit out on you. I will have
a buddy of mine do some fact checking later, but for now, our best bet is to
put you two together in a club where you’re seen as high rollers. You know how
word gets around underground—”

She held up a hand, cutting Max off. “Wait a moment. I never
agreed that he’d come with me.” She jerked a thumb at Derrick and tried to
sound as defensive as possible. She wouldn’t risk his life for hers.

“Yeah, I never agreed to let her go alone, either.” Derrick
turned his hot-blooded gaze on her.

An intense wave of concern washed over her. Even through the
salt-water-and-brine-laced breeze, she could smell the jungle on him. Not the
hot and muggy swamp, but the jungle, which she’d always found sexy. Dirty.

Metal.

She had to stifle a chuckle before turning back to Max.
“Why?”

“Because you cannot be trusted to keep your power in check,
and homeboy here seems to do a damn good job of keeping things under control.”

She scoffed.

Max pointed his cigar at her. “You need to think rationally
about this, Sonja. And trust me. I can read your face, sweetheart, and you’re
not in a position to negotiate if you want to keep this all under wraps.”

She scoffed harder. The nerve of this man. But he did have a
point. The world didn’t need to know that she’d been threatened or that there
had been another attempt on her life. It’d cause a raucous she’d rather avoid.
“Look, we have to do this another way. If Derrick gets hurt—”

Derrick pressed two fingers against her mouth. “Just hear
him out.”

She bit back a curse and inhaled the scent of dirty fur,
earthen cigar, and tobacco. The urge to lick his scent off his fingers reared
its head but she held it back. This wasn’t the place to posture or jump
Derrick’s bones. She rolled her shoulders, straightened, and huffed. “Fine. But
how is this supposed to help?”

“Simple.” Max waved a hand at the waitress and ordered
another round before turning back to Sonja. “If we have Derrick with you, he’ll
stabilize your power so you don’t have a moment where you read everyone else’s
crap and overload.”

She couldn’t deny that had happened. “He was with me before
you picked us up. How can you guarantee that we won’t have a repeat incident?”

“You have a point.” Max blew a huge cloud of smoke overhead.
“But I think that has more to do with the overwhelming situation and the fact
that we showed up slightly later than we wanted to. Oh, and you were running, not
waiting to be rescued, which we didn’t foresee.”

Sonja snorted. “If I waited for rescues, I’d have been dead
a long time ago.”

“Fair enough.” Max leaned back against the chair and set his
hand down near the ashtray. “But this is our best way in.”

She frowned. “Why do we need to go this route?”

Derrick reached over and gently grabbed her hand. Unable to
hide the dominance from his voice, he spoke softly. “You volunteered for one.
And you killed our last resource when you screamed at the Spetznaz men.”

She winced from the sting of his words. “It wasn’t my
fault!”

His words reminded her of yet another failure, pissing her
off. “I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“Shh.” Derrick raised his hands defensively. “No one said
you did. You aren’t a weak woman.”

She straightened. He had some nerve. “What’s that supposed
to mean?”

Derrick took a sip of his beer and blew out a cloud of
smoke. “I’m saying you…” He blinked. “Have a history of this sort of thing
happening and we’d like to keep the casualties to a minimum. My being there
with you will help.”

She rolled her eyes. It wasn’t like he was wrong, but it
still pissed her off. “If you can keep your own emotions in check, then yes.”
She took a long pull off her beer and let the liquid burn down her throat. She
needed to wrap her mind around the nonsense Max spouted. He was right; Derrick
neutralized her power with his presence.

Derrick’s face twisted, then his lips pursed together in a
thin line. He blinked, then gave her hand a squeeze. “You’re right.” He turned
to Max. “So, how do we do this and when?”

She arched a brow. “You’re in just like that?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “I will just have to keep my emotions in
check.” He glared at Sonja. “So I can balance your reaction.”

“Good. Then it’s settled. We’ll have to get Sonja some clothes,
but I’m sure we can find something. I have a friend with some options for you.”

Sonja snorted. “What I’ve got on is fine.”

“What you’ve got on won’t get you past the door guard at the
club. Derrick has clothes; we tend to run in the same circles. But you look
metal, even now. Black jeans and the shirt you stole from my closet won’t
really get you into Miami’s hottest clubs. We’ll have to do a makeover.”

She was so not a girlie girl. Those women tended to get
themselves killed or worse. She sighed and let out a long groan. “Why?”

“Because those with money aren’t typically found in the
metal and Goth clubs. They’re found in the hottest, trendiest spots in town.
You can’t drink beer here either. Champagne.”

Again she snorted. “I’m a drinker. I can do with whatever
has alcohol in it.”

“You can’t get trashed here either. We’ll need you to do
eloquent, not elusive and moody.”

Her jaw dropped. Before she could respond, Derrick’s grip on
her hand tightened. She felt the annoyance from him in a steady, low stream
rather than a torrential downpour. “Fine.” She sighed. “I can do eloquence.”

Derrick snickered.

She glared at him. “What?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. But I have wondered what the most
powerful female in metal would look like in a revealing dress. Guess we should
go shopping.”

She sighed and put a hand to her forehead. She hated having
to do this, but necessity called for desperate measures to lead the bad guys
out into the open. She had to get them off her back and keep Derrick’s presence
and involvement minimized.

She could do that. And with him near, she could effectively
use the magic of her voice to persuade the bad guys to come out into the open.
Then she could do some interrogating of her own.

Derrick gave her hand another squeeze. “Let’s go. We have
work to do if we’re going to do this tonight.”

Max got the check and the three of them left.

* * *

She hated shopping, but having access to Derrick during the
day made it a little more bearable. He’d been mostly his usual self, sensually
taunting her when she slid into the dressing room, making sure to help her get
in and out of the dresses she’d tried on, all while his hands roamed over her
body.

Just to make sure everything fit the way it was supposed to.

Right.

She wasn’t a fool, nor was she dumb enough to push his
advances away though she knew she should. It would be imperative once things
were done here and the last thing she wanted was to break his heart.

Or have hers broken.

He made the day light, despite what they were doing. She
hated the bullshit club scene with a passion and made sure to remind him.

He pointed out quickly that this was not his idea and they
were only staying around long enough to make a show, then they were leaving.

Newlyweds, a perfect cover for them, Max assured her.

She had no idea how to be in love. What she felt for Derrick
was…

What was it?

Aside from a certain protectiveness over him, she wasn’t
sure. He’d confessed his love for her earlier, though he hadn’t said the words
so much as answered her question.