Divine (46 page)

I nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, that's a great idea. But, I don't have any cash on me.”

“
Your money's my
money; you know that.”

A smile lifted the
corner of my mouth as I shifted myself to the side, allowing him to
get to his wallet easier. “You know what's crazy?” I
asked.

“
What?”

“
He's actually a
Divine.”

He moved his arm back
around my waist with his wallet in his hand, opening it up in front
of me and thumbing through the small stack of bills. “He is?
How do you know that?”

“
Because I gave
him a couple of dollars after he helped me. He lifted his hat off of
his head without even touching it and stuck the money underneath it.
I actually think that's the same hat he was wearing when I met him.
Anyway, it was pretty cool.”

“
Wow, that
is
cool. I wonder why he's homeless with such a great skill?”

“
Oh man, that's
crazy,” I said, shooting a glance back at him.

“
What's crazy?”

“
I thought the
same exact thing when I met him! Jeez, we are always on the same page
. . .”

“
Even before we
met,” he smiled.

I smiled back with a
nod. “Even before we met.”

He pulled a twenty
dollar bill out of his wallet and closed it back up, pulling his hand
away from me to stick it back down into his pocket. “Think this
is enough?”

“
Uh, yeah. I
doubt anyone has ever given him that much at once before.”

“
Well, I owe it
to him.”

I smiled at his
kindness and pushed myself up from his lap. “You're right,
that's little to pay for what he's done.”

Jonah stood up and
brushed the dirt off of the back of his pants before walking over to
my old homeless friend. “Excuse me, Sir?” he called out
as he approached him.

The man was hunched
over a garbage can, digging through the mound of discarded debris. He
raised up at Jonah's call and smiled warmly at him. “Yes?”

“
We have
something for you,” he said, sticking the money out in front of
him.

His eyes lit up as if
he was staring at a rare jewel. “Twenty dollars?”

Jonah nodded and
stepped to the side while pointing his finger back at me. “You
see that girl over there? She says you helped her a long time ago.
Does she look familiar to you?”

The old man peered past
Jonah with a squint, carefully searching over my face. “No,”
he said softly, “I'm sorry. I don't remember her.”

“
Well, she
remembers you, and she's the love of my life. If it weren't for you I
would've never met her, so thank you.”

The man smiled and gave
Jonah a single nod. “Well, you're welcome. And thank
you
very much.”

Jonah smiled and turned
away, walking smoothly back to where I was standing. “I think
that made his night.”

“
Yeah, you made
my night, too.” I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a
passion filled kiss. What he had said about me being the love of his
life filled my heart with such joy; I was one lucky woman.

Our lips left each
others and he pulled me in for a tight hug. I hugged him back,
resting my face against his shoulder while breathing him in, the
moment taking me back to the recent memory of our love-making in the
cove.

My eyes strained to
adjust as the soft lighting of the lamps flickered around the park
and then buzzed back on.

Am I seeing things?

I lifted my head away
from his shoulder and looked up at him. “Did you see that?”

“
Yeah, I did.”
His eyes searched the spacious area of littered grass around us,
looking past me, moving his head to see around the trees that were
scattered throughout the property.

“
Maybe we should
go,” I began with a chill. “It's getting kinda creepy.”
I looked up at his face to hear his answer, but saw that he was
staring ahead at something in the shadows. I turned around and
studied the area, trying to see what he did. “What do you see?”

“
It's Fox.”

The sound of his name
made me shiver and clench closer to his muscular body. “Fox?
Are you sure?”

“
Yeah, I'm sure.”

The lights flickered
around the park once more before going completely black, leaving us
with only the light from the moon to see through the darkness.

Jonah's arms tightened
around my waist. “We better go,” he warned me quietly,
keeping his eyes ahead on the shadows.

“
I'm getting
freaked out.”

“
It's okay. Let's
just go.”

I kept my arms around
him but moved to his side so we could walk away. A soft ocean breeze
swayed the trees around us as we made our way through the park,
trying to get out from the center of the darkness and into the more
heavily lit area by the street. It felt as if I were walking down a
prison hallway to the electric chair, with my heart racing and my
face looking down at the ground in front of me, preparing myself for
something horrible to happen.

We made it to the
brightly lit sidewalk and hurried down the street, trying desperately
to remember where we had parked.

“
Damn, I can't
remember if it was this street or the next one,” Jonah huffed,
irritated with himself for forgetting.

“
It's okay, let's
just keep walking.”

The faint sound of
hurried footsteps following behind us found my ear. I didn't want to
look; I knew who would be there. Still, I just had to know if it was
Fox who was following so closely behind us in the night. I turned my
head to the side, trying to see who it was out of the corner of my
eye.

“
Hello, Summer.”

Jonah and I stopped
dead in our tracks and slowly turned around toward the familiar
voice.

“
What are you
doing here, Fox?” Jonah spat out, his body tensing next to me.

Fox crossed his arms
and stood cockily in front of us with a narrowed stare. “Oh,
just out on the town, having some fun.”

“
Oh yeah? Well,
you can go have fun somewhere else.”

Fox looked down at the
ground with a laugh. “I would've thought you would be happy to
see me, Jonah. Now that you're not on my property we can have a fair
fight. What do you say?”

The muscles in Jonah's
jaw clenched at his offer. “I'm not going to fight you in front
of Summer.”

“
Awe, your little
girlfriend can't handle a couple of men resolving their issues with
one another?”

“
Fox,” I
cut in, still gripping onto Jonah's side, “I have a restraining
order against you. If you don't leave right now I'm going to call the
cops.”

“
Call the cops?”
he scoffed. “I'm much more powerful than the cops can handle.”

I took his statement
seriously. Jonah was right about him: he was a very dangerous man.
Or, more specifically, a very dangerous Divine.

“
Summer,”
Jonah began with a whisper next to my ear, “I want you to go
down to the beach, okay?”

I shot him a look of
despair. “What? No!”

“
Hey, it's okay.
Fox and I are going to settle this. You might get hurt; I don't want
you to be around while this happens.”

My eyes glazed over
with fear as they pleaded up at him. “Jonah, please, let's just
call the cops.”

“
Oh, aren't you
two just the cutest couple,” Fox spat out with disgust. “Where
should I send your wedding gift?”

Jonah's eyes shot up at
him, ready for a fight. His hand gently rubbed my arm as he moved
away from me, releasing me into the night air.

“
Jonah, please .
. .” I begged him.

“
Just go down to
the beach. I'll be there in a little while.”

Fox walked closer,
slowly closing the gap between us and him. “You know, I think
Summer should stay here for this. I hope to open her eyes, show her
who the
real
man is here.”

“
She knows who
the real man is.”

Fox shrugged his
shoulders with ease. “Well, that's easy for you to say; you're
sending her away from us. She won't know the difference if she can't
see the fight.”

With my ears growing
sick of hearing Fox's ridiculous words, I crossed my arms and took a
step away from the two of them. “Jonah, I'm going to do what
you asked me to; I'll go down to the beach.”

“
No,” Fox
countered, “you're staying here.”

Jonah stepped closer
with a raised chin and looked down at him with the beginnings of
red-colored eyes. “You don't tell my girlfriend what to do.”

“
Oh, but I guess
it's okay for
you
to tell her what to do, huh?”

“
Hey,” my
wavering voice interrupted him, “you guys need to stop this,
now.”

Fox glared ahead at
Jonah's angry stare. “Oh shut up, Summer. You need to learn
where your place is as a woman.”

That was all it took
for Jonah to swing his arm up and nail Fox right across his handsome
face, sending him to the cold ground.

My hands flew over my
mouth at the sight of Fox's blood pouring out of his nose and running
down the front of his white shirt. “Oh my god, Jonah, are you
okay?” I shrieked, more concerned with his hand than with Fox's
face.

“
Yeah,” he
nodded casually. “Didn't even feel it.”

Fox sat up and pulled
the bottom of his shirt up to his nose, smearing away the bright, red
blood. “Whew, that's a mighty strong punch you've got there,
Jonah. I would of thought that someone with such a pretty pair of
sparkling little eyes like yours would be a lot weaker than that.”

Jonah firmly stood in
the same place, unmoved by the powerful blow that he had thrown
moments before. “There's much more where that came from. You
sure you want to find out what else I can do?”

Fox chuckled as he
pushed himself off of the ground and stood with his arms crossed in
front of him. “Yeah, I'm sure. I want to show you what I have
up
my
sleeve.”

“
I'm calling the
police,” I warned him, reaching into my back pocket for my
phone. I pulled it out and pressed the button to bring the screen to
life, but it stayed black. “My phone's dead. That's weird, it
had a full battery . . .”

“
You're not
calling the police,” Fox growled. “I made sure of that.”

I looked up at him in
disbelief. “How . . . how did you do that?”

A low laugh bled out
from his mischievous smile. “Haven't you figured it out yet? I
can do a lot more than just dimming lights; I control all
electricity. I've kept it hidden over the years; I didn't want people
to know how strong I am. But when it comes to something I want, I'll
do whatever I can to get it, including using
all
of my
ability.”

My eyes shot over to
Jonah who was still unwavering in his position, breathing heavily
with glowing red eyes and clenched fists. “You can't have her,”
his deep voice rumbled tightly from his throat.

Fox's head dropped to
the ground for a moment, his arrogant laugh filling the air around
us. “Well,” he huffed, bringing his gaze back up to meet
Jonah's, “I beg to differ.”

I clenched my phone in
my fist and slowly backed away from the two powerful men. “I'm
going down to the beach to try and call the cops.”

“
You're not going
anywhere,” Fox bellowed, swinging his arm out in front of him
and pointing at my closed fingers.

My phone zapped with
electric current and shocked the skin of my palm, making me quickly
open my hand to send it slamming to the ground. “Ouch, Fox,
that hurt!”

Jonah lunged forward
and landed another punch across his face, this time breaking his
nose, and once again opening up the stream of blood that poured out
from his flaring nostrils.

Fox stumbled backwards
with an overconfident laugh. “Oh, Jonah,” he muttered
through the warm stream of red, “that was a big mistake.”