Cancer: Book 5 in a Young Adult Paranormal Romance Series (The Zodiac Twin Flame Series) (5 page)

‘Don’t ask me, mate, I have no idea,’ Derek muttered. I looked up at him as he swung towards me. ‘Antony said have you and Matt sorted things out?’

I raised my eyebrows, unsure what to say. Had they picked up on what was happening?

‘Tell them it’s none of their business,’ I said, stomping across the room and snatching the phone out of his hand. ‘You need to stop worrying about me and get on with your own lives. Derek will be home soon, I promise.’

I switched the phone off. Derek continued his search around my room. I had no idea why he was bothering to check, no one knew where I was. Picking up my bag, I left him to it. I figured that I might as well try and find somewhere I could at least get something to wear for bed. Not that I had to get anything urgently but I needed a distraction.

‘Cancer, wait,’ Derek called from my open doorway. I paused by the lift, turning to look at him.

‘What do you want?’ I didn’t mean to snap.

Closing his eyes briefly, he ran a hand through his hair. ‘Are you going for dinner?’

I clenched my jaw, resisting the urge to flip him my middle finger. I had flown to a brand-new country that I didn’t know, with the man who I thought would be all over me the minute we landed. Instead, my bodyguard wanted me to grab himself some dinner.

‘What can I get you?’ I put my hands on my hips.

A grin spread across his lips. I shook my head, ignoring the urge to grin back. The least I could do was feed him.

‘Oh no, you don’t get away with it that easily.’ He pulled my door closed behind him. I pressed the button for the lift as he joined me. ‘You can buy me dinner.’

Chapter Seven

‘So you’re telling me, that even though Matt was married when you first met, you fell in love with him?’ Derek stirred his tea.

The hotel was quiet as we ate breakfast. It was a good thing. It meant we had plenty of time to work out our next move.

‘Well, I did try and fight it. It’s not like I wanted to fall for one of Nick’s men. Besides, I didn’t know that he was married at the time.’

Derek coughed as he looked into his tea, avoiding eye contact with me.

‘What aren’t you telling me?’ I asked.

The shady way he glanced at the waiter before looking straight at me made my stomach clench. I didn’t appreciate the expression that crossed his face. Pity.

‘Nothing. It’s not my place to say,’ Derek said, giving up on his cereal. His spoon fell into the bowl as he waved to the waiter.

The Greek music in the background soothed me. The vine that crept up the wall outside the hotel was visible through the window. It really was a tranquil typical Greek hotel.

I leant my forehead against my hand as my elbow rested on the table. I didn’t know how to react. Should I scream at him and beg him to tell me the truth? Or should I get up and go back to my room to be alone?

‘So, instead you’re going to make me paranoid?’

Derek sat back in his seat, his hands resting on his thighs. He was quite lanky. Not what you would expect in a bodyguard. Even Matt was a bigger man.

‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s…’

I thumped the table, making the cutlery clatter. The waiter quickly removed our plates. Neither one of us had touched our food. It had been a long night.

‘I think I’m going to go to my room,’ I said, getting up.

Derek stood quickly, bashing his legs on the table. ‘I really am sorry.’

I shook my head quickly, dismissing his apology. It wasn’t his fault. It was mine. ‘Do I need to speak to Matt about what you’re not telling me?’

He nodded without making eye contact. I reached up and patted his shoulder. I had dragged him out to a foreign country for my own benefit. And now, I had to get the truth from the man who I believed was my twin flame soulmate.

‘Don’t worry, I will get to the bottom of this. And I will sort my life out.’

Leaving him, I made my way upstairs and knocked on Matt’s door. He opened it, scratching his jaw as he wandered back into his room. I followed him in, waiting for him to speak. He didn’t. In fact, he climbed straight back into bed.

‘There’s something you need to tell me, isn’t there?’ I lowered myself into a chair in the corner of the room.

He pulled the covers up over his face. I was tempted to jump on him to try and get him to communicate with me. He had seemed so keen the day before. Making me come out to a Greek island to be with him.

‘Are you going to tell me or not?’

His head popped out. He rubbed his eyes like a small child would after just waking up. When he had finished, he looked at me. Our gaze locked. Memories of the attic came back to me. The corners of his lips lifted into his cheeks. He also remembered our long discussions. The conversations about our dreams. There was one common thread throughout both of our lifelong goals: to fall in love, to settle down and have a wonderful family. I had never told my brothers and sisters that all I ever wanted in this life was to have a family. My own family.

‘Do you remember when we said that we’d love to come to a Greek island?’ He sat up and leant against the wall.

Resting my elbow on my thigh, I put my chin in my hand. I tucked my hair behind my ear when it fell forward. ‘Of course I remember. Why do you think I’m sitting in a hotel room on the island of Crete?’

Placing his hands in his lap, he stared down at them. It was coming. Whatever it was that he had to tell me, he was about to say it.

‘When we were in the attic, I didn’t tell you that I was married. Although we spoke for hours into the night, all I thought about was my wife.’

I bit my lip to stop myself from screaming at him. I really didn’t need to hear that he had been thinking about his wife while talking to me. Why had he carried on pursuing me after he had left? If he had just left me alone, I would have got over him by now.

He glanced up at me, his eyes tracing the line of my clenched jaw. Sitting up, he leant forward and held out his hand, beckoning for me to go to him. I shook my head quickly. There was no way I was going to climb onto his bed with him. Not when he was talking about his wife.

‘I didn’t mean it like that. The guilt that washed over me when I realised how much I…felt for you, was too much,’ he said, letting his hand drop when I completely ignored it. ‘I told you when you found out about her that I hadn’t loved her for a while. It was true, although there will always be a part of me that belongs to her.’

I pushed away from my seat. There was no point in listening to a declaration about his wife. My heart clenched in my chest. It hurt too much.

‘Sit down.’ Matt got up from the bed.

Taking my arm, he guided me to the mattress. I let him. Climbing under the covers, he took my hand and held it between his. ‘You can’t run any more. We ran away from London so we could be together. We need to face the truth and get on with what we need to sort out. You know how this works.’

I swallowed but the lump in my throat didn’t move. He was right. If we were going to have a successful relationship, we had to speak the truth. There was something he still wasn’t telling me. That much I knew.

‘I have no secrets, Matt. It’s always been you. You need to tell me right this minute what’s going on.’

His head moved up and down very slowly. I was tempted to rip my hand away from him. I knew I wasn’t going to like what he was going to say.

‘I’m still married.’

I shook my head and cleared my throat. His grip on my hand tightened as I tried to pull away. I didn’t understand why he was in Greece with me when he clearly still wanted to be with his wife.

‘Why are we here? I don’t understand.’

I really didn’t.

Letting go of me, he got up and put on his jeans. Opening the balcony door, he stepped outside. The sunlight stroked his naked torso. I stood and followed him out into the fresh morning. I couldn’t help but watch the muscles in his back as he swung his arms from side to side to stretch them out.

‘Don’t you see?’ He turned to me, taking my hands in his.

I looked up at him. His blue eyes sparkled as the sun reflected on them. His broad shoulders were smooth and slightly tanned already. The Greek sun would only darken his skin.

‘The court case is next week. I don’t know what to do. If I go back, there’s a chance that Nick will try to kidnap me again. However, if I don’t go, I won’t be divorced.’ He squeezed my fingers with his own.

I closed my eyes. He wanted me to tell him what to do. It was such a mess. There weren’t many options. In fact, there were only two. Either, he stayed with me but remained a married man. Or, he went back to London and risked his life. There would be no way that Nick would allow him to live after running from him.

‘I’ve been separated from my wife since I met you. I promise that it’s you I’m in love with. You know that, why else would you have come with me? Why doubt me now? I had to escape from Nick. It’s not my fault that this happened before the divorce went through.’

I opened my eyes as he tugged me closer to him. I allowed my feet to shuffle me forward. His arms came around me as my hands travelled up his bare chest and around his neck. In all the time we had spent together, we had hardly ever touched each other. I was not happy that he was still a married man. That was why I hadn’t allowed anything to happen between us before.

‘Please say something,’ he said, leaning down towards me.

Our foreheads touched briefly. My breath was long as I released the air from my lungs. ‘I believe you. I know that if you didn’t love me, you wouldn’t have done all that you have. Running from Nick, trying to get me to leave with you multiple times, and now moving to another country just to be with me.’

A bang on the door interrupted me. Matt cursed, letting go of me and resting his hands on the balcony. I stepped away from him, making my way through the room to open the door.

‘I’ve spoken to your father,’ Derek said. ‘He’s given me an address for a villa that we can move into.’

I stood with my hands on my hips. He went to tuck his hands into his pockets but I stepped forward and grabbed them before he could. He frowned at me, his eyebrows pulling low. I let go of him, stepping back into the room.

‘Okay, we’ll meet you downstairs in a minute.’

He nodded once and turned to leave. I closed the door slowly, letting out a deep sigh. Everything was so up in the air. We needed a concrete plan.

‘Was that Derek?’ Matt came back into the room.

I smiled gently, glad when he smiled back. ‘Yes, Father has found us somewhere to live. Derek will take us there now. When we’re settled, we’ll carry on with this conversation.’

Reaching over to grab his shirt, he glanced at me sideways and winked. ‘I know. This is only the beginning, you know that don’t you?’

My heart skipped a beat as my lips twitched. I didn’t want to have too much hope, not before the divorce was settled. But the glint in his eyes, the way they ran up and down my figure, caressing me with just a look. It made my palms sweat. I had no idea if I was going to be able to resist him until next week. It would take full blown resistance to keep my distance. I was determined to do it.

Chapter Eight

‘Derek, is it me or is the man in the car next to us wearing a black outfit?’

Taking his eyes off the road for two seconds, Derek looked to where I pointed. I was in the passenger seat of the hire car but we were on the wrong side of the road. Not for the Greeks, obviously, but it was weird to me. I had offered to drive on the small island but Derek had refused. Even Matt had raised his eyebrows at me. Just because I lived in London didn’t mean I couldn’t drive.

‘No, he has a bit of white on his jumper, a logo. Nick’s men only ever wear black outfits.’ Derek went back to driving, ignoring me when I glanced over my shoulder at Matt in the back seat.

Matt shrugged, winking when I frowned at him. ‘He’s right, babe,’ he said.

Clicking my tongue against the roof of my mouth, I faced the road again, squealing when a car overtook, cutting us up in the process. The Greeks weren’t the safest of drivers.

‘The man behind us has a black outfit on, though.’ Derek peered into the rear-view mirror again. I ducked my head to try and see in the side mirror. It didn’t work.

Matt turned in his seat, straining to look out of the back window. I was about to say something when Derek put his foot down on the accelerator and the car shot forward. Clamping my mouth shut so I didn’t disturb him, I dug my phone out of my bag. If anything was going to happen, my father needed to know.

‘He’s sped up with us,’ Derek said, spinning the steering wheel and overtaking a car in front of us. ‘Yep, he’s definitely following.’

I dialled my father’s number, looking over my shoulder at Matt again. He kept his gaze focused out the back.

‘I’m not sure if he is, you know,’ he said.

The car swerved. I dropped my phone as Father answered it. I could hear him calling from where my phone had landed. I undid my belt and leant forward to scramble under my seat. I clasped my hand around the phone but as I moved to sit up again Derek slammed the brakes on.

I propelled forward, my head smashing straight into the dashboard. The sound of smashing glass echoed around me as tiny pinpricks rained down over my head and shoulders. Pain exploded in my head as car tyres screeched in the background. The swearing in the car went ignored as I struggled to stay awake. The last thing I heard before I passed out was my father’s frantic cries from the phone that had fallen to the floor.

*

The siren blared next to my head. Covering my ears with my hands, I squeezed my eyes closed. It was the third time the air raid alert had gone off that day. The sound vibrated through my bones and made me shiver.

‘We need to get down into the shelter,’ my mother said.

I only just heard her. She shouted at me but I didn’t want to listen. Every time the blare of the siren sounded, I thought about John. His jet would have been scrambled.

‘I’m sick of this,’ I yelled as mother took my hand and pulled me.

She shook her head, ignoring me. I let her lead me towards the entrance of the underground station. The roads were hectic. People rushed, trying to get to safety. My knee length skirt hindered my run. Mother clucked her tongue as I stumbled beside her. Nothing I wore pleased her. It was the forties. Fashion was very different from when she was my age. I wasn’t going to let her tell me what I should wear.

‘Darling, I wish you would think about these things before coming out of the house.’ She squeezed my fingers together. It was a soft gesture, only meant in kindness. She didn’t smirk, even though she was right on this occasion. With bombs landing on London daily, I should have expected the air raid. It had been the busiest few days of the war so far. And also the deadliest.

‘Okay, I admit that I might not have thought about it.’ My heels clicked against the pavement as we hurried along.

The whooshing sound of a jet overhead made me yelp. Others screamed as they looked up to the sky. Their footsteps only faltered for a second. We didn’t want to hang around and wait to see if a bomb would land on us. I had lost many friends in the war. I really didn’t want to lose myself.

My mother tugged on my arm. ‘We’re almost there.’

The sound was completely recognisable. The buzz of electric in the air made me pause. The silence was followed by the rushing sound of something falling from the sky. A bomb had been released from the plane that screamed over our heads. My ankle twisted as I glanced up. My eyes searched the skies to see where the bomb was heading. Would it hit us?

‘Quick, get in here!’

I shoved my mother into the open doorway of a shop, following her inside. The blast vibrated through the walls and under our feet as the bomb made contact. We lost our footing, tumbling onto the hard floor.

No one was there. It was just us.

‘Where do you think it hit?’ My mother brushed her skirt as she stood.

Shaking my head, I stayed where I sat. Yet another bomb. Hopefully no more lives had been lost. The constant bombardment meant we were on our guard.

‘It wasn’t far from here. I really hope everyone managed to get to the shelter in time.’

How long would it go on for? Thousands of people were dying every day. My own beloved fiancé put himself in danger by flying into the skies. He had shot down numerous planes. Killing a lot of people. It made my heart ache every time I thought about someone dying at the hands of another human being.

My mother went to the open door and peeked outside. I glanced down at my legs, annoyed that my skirt hindered me. I was used to my high heels so that didn’t bother me quite as much.

‘We need to get out of here,’ my mother said, gesturing for me to get up.

Clambering to my feet, I glanced around the shop. There were still a few items on the shelves but not much remained. The owner had left in a hurry. The cash register was open and empty. It didn’t look like they would be back anytime soon.

I skimmed my finger across the counter. Dust lined every single shelf, showing that the blast of the bombs made the remains of the bricks shatter, sending dust everywhere.

My mother clapped her hands at me. ‘Come on!’

Shaking myself, I touched my hair to make sure it was still in place. When I reached my mother, she grabbed my arm and pulled me outside.

We looked up the street towards the shelter. My mother’s hand covered her mouth as a gasp left her throat. I instantly bit my lip. The bomb had fallen onto the entrance of the underground. A long line of smoke reached up into the clouds.

‘See, sometimes it’s good to be late.’

I regretted my words as soon as I had uttered them. My mother’s frown made me bite my tongue. Maybe it wasn’t the right time to be flippant. Letting go of my arm, my mother left me standing there. She marched towards the impact area. I waited, unsure whether or not I could face any more destruction. I didn’t want to get used to seeing dead bodies. Maybe I didn’t have a choice.

My mother didn’t glance back once. She had obviously given up on me. It wasn’t anything new, she often left me behind. Sometimes I didn’t understand why but on this occasion I did. It wasn’t a good time to be joking about being late. Even though it had probably saved our lives.

‘Are you just going to stand there?’ a young man said as he moved towards the scene.

I debated whether to take my heels off and run to catch up to him. How dare he judge me on a day like today? Instead, I sighed and followed him slowly. There were many people already at the site of impact. I wouldn’t really make a difference.

The rubble of a bombsite told how destructive the bomb had been. The underground entrance was gone completely, flattened to the ground. My mother spoke to the young gentleman who had insulted me. Other men tried to move some of the bricks out of the way. The station was no longer in use, the tunnels blocked off. The small area below was used as an overflow shelter.

The people inside may have survived but they were now trapped. I swallowed hard as I imagined their faces. They were probably looking at each other, wondering whether or not they would get out alive. The bomb hadn’t killed them but maybe the aftermath would.

‘I hate to interfere,’ an old woman said to me. ‘I want to let you know that it’s okay to be scared.’

The woman had crept up behind me. I jumped when she put her hand on my shoulder. Was I really that obvious? Just because I didn’t want to start digging out the bricks for human bodies, didn’t mean that I didn’t want to help. It wasn’t because I was lazy. It also wasn’t because I thought I was too good. I just couldn’t handle another death. No more pain.

I bit my lip as my eyes started to sting. The woman was elderly, only a few years younger than my grandmother. The grandmother that had died in the first wave of bombs a few weeks ago. As a tear travelled down my face, she smiled and pulled me to her. Her small arms wrapped around my back. She was very short, coming up to my chin. It didn’t matter though. Her warmth enveloped me as a massive weight lifted off my shoulders.

‘My name is Mary and if you don’t mind, I would like to get to know you better. You see, I have a feeling that we’ve met before.’ The old lady gestured towards my mother.

A full rescue operation was now underway. Men worked together to shift bricks and mortar. They communicated so that each one of them knew what they were doing. They had to succeed. They needed to rescue those people.

I glanced down at the woman as she stepped away from me. ‘Do you mean that you’ve met me before? Or my mother?’

She chuckled, reaching up and tucking my perfectly set hair behind my ear. I swallowed hard, resisting the urge to untuck it. No one ever touched my hair any more. I had loved it when my mother used to brush it as a child.

‘Will you come over here and help?’

Turning from my new friend, my gaze met my mother’s. She glared at me, communicating her disgust with just a look. She had never approved of me. Not since I’d grown-up, anyway. In fact, it seemed that as soon as I had become engaged to John, she decided that I was no longer good enough. That’s how it felt, anyway.

I patted the elderly lady on the shoulder. ‘It was nice to meet you.’

Going over to my mother, I hissed at her. ‘What would you like me to do?’

As the words left my mouth, I heard the tone of them. Bitterness coated them so thoroughly, it shocked me. I clamped my teeth together and looked to the ground. My mother shook her head. I could see the gesture in her shadow on the ground.

‘When will you ever stop thinking about yourself? Isn’t it time you grew up?’

I kept my head down. She was right. All around us people rushed to save lives. And there I was begrudging my mother for ordering me around. I was being unreasonable.

‘I’m sorry, I-’

‘Don’t apologise, just get on with it.’

As she strode away, I glanced over my shoulder at the elderly lady. She had disappeared. Her energy had calmed me but I still didn’t know what to do.

‘Here, can you hold my daughter, please? That way I can help with the rescue.’ A young man handed me a baby. I dropped my bag on the floor as my arms were all of a sudden full. A bundle of blankets filled with a small baby rested against me. The man moved away to help.

The life that nestled in my arms was precious. I stood back as a man was pulled from the rubble. His head was badly injured but he was still alive. I breathed out the air held in my lungs as he was pulled to safety. The child I was holding made a mewling sound. I moved the blanket to take a peek at her little face. Her tiny little nose screwed up as the cool air hit it.

‘There’s someone else here,’ the daughter’s father shouted to his mates. ‘He didn’t make it.’

I couldn’t look up. The hope in my heart as the little baby moved made me keep my eyes down. The man that died had a family. Someone loved him and someone had lost him.

John popped into my head. Whenever there was a rough day, which was most days, I hoped and prayed that he would live through it. I hadn’t seen him in a long time but we were supposed to get married in two months’ time.

The elderly lady appeared next to me again. ‘I have something to tell you,’ she said, smiling down at the baby.

Her face was almost directly in line with the new-born. Her gaze was sweet and soft as she watched her. My own face was probably as smitten. There was something soothing about new life around so much death and destruction.

‘Do I know you?’ I asked her.

The sense of familiarity was too strong for me to ignore. Maybe I had known her as I was growing up. Although, I was sure I had never seen her before.

She shook her head slowly at first but nodded all of a sudden. The gesture was confusing and a little odd. ‘If I told you how you knew me, you would never ever believe me. Let me start by saying that you and John do not belong together. I don’t say that to be unkind,’ she said, looking up into my face. She must have read my expression. My heart started beating very fast. How dare she tell me that my fiancé and I were not meant to be together?

‘I don’t expect you to understand. We’ve been here many times before, you and I. In fact, I’m surprised I’m not her…’ She gestured towards my mother.

My mother bent over the injured man. Leaning down, she ripped the bottom of her skirt off and started to wind it around his bloody head.