BEAST (8 page)

“You know what? I’m sick of your mouth!” DeAngelo stood up but Lance didn’t back down. Ashleigh tugged his hand.

“DeAngelo…you should go.”

He turned to her, his brow going up. “You’re choosing him over me?!”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You chose someone else over me!”

DeAngelo turned for the door, he paused as he left and looked at Ashleigh. “I’ll call you, Ash…when there aren’t so many people around.” He said staring pointedly at Kendra and Lance. Then he disappeared.

Ashleigh reached her hand out for Lance and he interlocked his fingers with hers. “Are you insane?” She asked. “You’re trying to go up against DeAngelo?”

“He doesn’t scare me.” The smaller man said as he leaned lightly against her. He placed a kiss on her forehead. “You can do better.”

“Peop
le do learn from their mistakes,” s
he whispered.

Now the three of them were huddled in her oversized bed. They’d force fed her chicken soup and it wasn’t homemade or even Progresso…but Campbell
’
s with that one lone little square of chicken floating in salty broth and tons of soggy noodles
; and she loved every spoonful!
She’d had two bowls and
had even
begged for
crackers
but they wouldn’t give her any.

Before that they’d watched her give herself her first insulin shot. She was so scared that Kendra almost snatched the needle from her and did it herself but Lance proclaimed that she’d have to learn to do it. She finally stabbed herself and injected the medicine—all with her eyes closed. When she opened them Lance had blanched. He gave her a shaky smile.

She dozed and when she woke up they were still there. She loved these guys.

She went to work the next day, Kendra drove her since she had left her car
and then the two
went down into the subbasement together to get her things out of the locker.
For some reason she decided to check
the gym. It was filled with toned bodies completing their before
-
work exercises—but Lt. Christopher Jameson wasn’t present. Of course he wouldn’t be present. He ended his workout at 6am
;
an hour and a half ago.

“What are you looking at?” Kendra asked.

“I was looking for the guy that helped me yesterday. I wanted to tell him thanks.” She looked at her friend as they walked back to the elevators. “Didn’t you see him in the nurse’s station?”

“
What’s he look
like?”

“Well he’s a giant, at least 6’5” and he was wearing all black and a hood over his face. His face is like—all scarred up-”

“Oh my god…do you think you
were seeing
the Angel of Death
?! Y
ou weren’t that sick-”

Ashleigh rolled her eyes. “I
am
not describing the Angel of Death. The guy I’m talking about was wearing a NIKES hoodie and sweat pants.”

Kendra pressed the button for the elevator. “Well I didn’t see anybody like that—and I don’t want to see anybody like that.
Ever.”

Ashleigh shrugged. “He was nice. He’s in there every day when I work out.” As the doors to the elevators opened she leaned in and whispered. “This subbasement is the base of operations for Homeland Security.”

“Really?”
Kendra said dismissively.

“You think I’m delusional.”

The two women walked to the cafeteria. Kendra chuckled. “No. I’m just taking everything you say with a grain of salt for another few days.”

They grabbed breakfast; Ashleigh had an egg white omelet and turkey sausage…which incidentally is what she had been eating from the canteen since dieting anyways. Well she planned to kick this diabetes thing. She was diagnosed with type 2 and if she got her weight down then there was a chance that she could throw away those dreaded needles.

Tomorrow was Friday. She would allow herself the rest of the week and weekend to recuperate but starting Monday she planned to be right back at the gym. Before it was about remaking herself into an image more appealing to the man of her dreams
, b
ut now it was about making herself as healthy as possible.

Christopher watched Ashleigh through the monitors as she and her friend carried their breakfast up to their office. He’d been running reports when TK announced that she was in the subbasement. Only now they called her ‘Little Trooper’

“The Little Trooper’s back!” Carlos had called out. Several men had come running. Christopher got out of his chair and nudged people aside
,
a frown on his heavily scarred face.

“She’s not planning to work out is she?” Someone asked.

“She better not,” TK spoke.
“Or I’ll be down there to spank her
hiney
…her very ample, nice juicy-”

Roddy
nudged him when Christopher’s face darkened. “What’s she doing?”

“She’s looking for Beast. She wants to give him a thank you kiss.” Someone made kiss smacking noises and Beast reached out and swatted the back of their head. When the two women returned to the elevators everyone cleared out except Christopher. He sat down and flipped cameras until he located Ashleigh and her friend. She looked good, healthy, pretty. He was satisfied that she was alright. But he still didn’t turn away from the camera.

CHAPTER 4

Monday morning, Ashleigh got out of bed early enough to make herself a breakfast of oatmeal and a slice of wheat toast. She dressed in sweatpants that were no longer quite as tight and an oversized shirt. She looked at herself in her full-sized mirror. Why was she still fat? Okay, she was smaller; the scale said it and so did her clothes but she was still
round…
well, her breasts had deflated. It was the one thing she hadn’t minded being oversized.

Ashleigh scowled and drove to work. She had to rush if she wanted to get in a full hour. As she headed for the gym she heard the faint clanging sound of bells. She hesitated, alarms, bells…clocks? And then she realized that it was part of a song. She picked up her pace and a smile came over her face. It was the Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd! Lt Christopher Jamieson was a god among men for playing Time at 5:
30
am!

He was pounding on the treadmill but this time he wasn’t wearing his hoodie, just a t-shirt and sweat pants. She caught her breath and her steps faltered. She had never in her life seen such a specimen of a man. His body was sheer perfection! His back formed the most perfect V down to a narrow waist and
a round butt that begged to be
pinched. His arms were wire tight with ropes of muscles. His short sleeved shirt allowed her to see that Christopher Jamieson was a ginger! He was covered in freckles…tons and tons of brown freckles over his pale skin.

He turned off the treadmill and lifted the bottom of his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face. Oh god…his six
pack
was magazine perfect, internet porn perfect, but then it instantly disappeared when he dropped his shirt back down. He gave her a crooked smile…or maybe just a smile that was crooked because of his scars.

“Welcome back. How are you feeling?” He asked in that low rumbling country drawl.

“I wanted to thank you.” She said offering her own smile. “Turns out I have type 2 diabetes and I was in pretty bad condition.” If not for him…well it could have been very bad for her.

His expression became concerned. “Are you okay to work out?”

“Yes, my doctor gave me a clean bill of health. In fact he encourages me to exercise. I just have to take it slow.”

He cleared his throat. “Um…if you like I can give you some pointers. I noticed that you don’t follow a regimen and I can suggest one that will be more effective and take half the time.”

“Half the time?”
She allowed her eyes to scan his awesome body before she looked down. “But I wouldn’t want to take you away from your workout or anything.”

“Well…” Christopher cleared his throat and she saw his face turn red. When that happened the scars on his face stood out like white stripes. She tried not to stare and focused on his eyes. He had charcoal grey eyes; a contrast in light and dark, “I could work out with you.” He said hesitantly.

Of course she would accept his kind offer. Who wouldn’t accept the offer of a free workout coach from a man with a perfect body? Obviously he knew what he was doing.

“Since you workout every day and I workout every day, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t workout together. It would make it more interesting; that and the music.” She glanced at the boom box. Time had ended and another Pink Floyd song was playing. “I don’t know that song but I know the album; The Dark Side of the Moon.”

“Us and Them,” h
e said while staring at her. “You like Pink Floyd?”

“This album is the only thing I know by the group…well except that song about the Wall. My friend and I watched The Wizard of Oz and he said that if you played this album it would be like a soundtrack to the movie.”

“Ah…The
Darkside
of the Rainbow.
Yes, it’s pretty cool.”

She was surprised. “You’ve done it too?”

“A few times, actually.”

“Me too, a few times,” s
he admitted. She had loved the experience of watching one of her favorite fantasy movies
against the strange
ethereal
backdrop of
music. It gave a new, funky dynamic to the classic. “I remember that while this song played they were dancing down the yellow brick road and the music perfectly matched their footsteps.”

“Yep, remember when the house got carried away by the tornado? The Great Gig in the Sky was playing and it was almost impossible to imagine that it was only coincidence that the music and action matched
so
perfectly.”

“I was thinking the same thing! There was cackling laughter playing while Dorothy saw visions of the wicked witch!” She exclaimed. She could barely believe that this big tough guy had confessed to watching The Wizard of Oz…and more than once. She couldn’t even beg DeAngelo to watch it with her even with the backdrop of Pink Floyd’s music. As a matter of fact he had said he didn’t want to listen to ‘white people music’.  He was so dumb. Wait…did
she
really think that? Yeah, she had and he was!

“Ready?” He asked flashing her that crooked grin again, she smiled back.

“Ready.” He made her tell him exactly what she’d had to eat this morning and he nodded in approval. And then they went through a routine that was both fun and much quicker. There were ten reps. He told her to spend only sixty seconds on each, no more, no less. Take a 30 second break between each and then start the next exercise. At first she gave him a questioning look because it seemed way too easy. After stretching they began with jumping jacks. Sixty seconds of jumping jacks wasn’t really that hard—other than the fact that she’d neglected to wear a sports bra and her boobs bounced around harder than she did.

Christopher was kind enough not to look and she was very embarrassed. He had a stop watch and when he called time they just stood around and talked, about music about exercise and then they went on to the next exercise and on and on through ten exercises. She was sweating like a pig at the end but she also felt good.

“Are you okay, Ashleigh?” He asked when she leaned over her knees and caught her breath. She nodded and swiped her brow. He passed her
her
bottled water. “Stay hydrated.” She nodded and took a long drink. “You’re not going to pass out are you?” He looked concerned, worrying that he had worked her too hard.

“No.” She said while straightening. “But I do have to go and check my blood sugar level. Hey, Christopher, you think we can start working out at six instead of 5:30? I’m going to have all kinds of extra time on my hands at this rate.”