Driven By Love (9 page)

The lightning bolts that she saw before she opened her eyes reminded Anne that she was not going to escape the killer headache. The bolts along with the throbbing that wrapped from the front of her forehead to the back like a rubber band made her want to crawl into a deep dark hole. She buried her head as a moan escaped into the pillow. There was a scent, a new one that brought her a sense of peace. Dean. His scent was the last thing she remembered before she passed out. Now, it was on the pillow she clung to as the throb of pain assaulted her.

The soft hum of an engine in the background piqued her curiosity. With the small amount of strength she had, she pushed the small tendril of energy she still had inside and threw it towards the engine. When it touched the engine it began to grow, and Anne sighed as the throbbing in her head began to become less intense.

After a few minutes, she hesitantly opened one of her eyes and peeked at her surroundings. There were small porthole windows around her and the soft slap of waves made her guess that she was on a boat. As she rolled her body over, she tried to open her other eye and decided against it once the sharp rays of sun stung her eye.

Dean’s masculine scent wrapped itself around her and she relived their passionate kiss in her mind. It shocked her how much she actually enjoyed it. She must have kissed about a dozen or so men both on screen and off and none of them left a lingering impression or reaction like Dean did.

But he’s so arrogant and bossy!
her mind screamed at her. Maybe that’s what she needed right now. Maybe she got so out of touch with reality that she needed him to bring her back down. But dating him could hurt her career – at least that’s what her publicist always told her.

“Date someone who’s more popular than you are. It’s a sure way to stay at the top!” she told her when she started dating her ex.

A lot of good that advice did for her. She was lucky she found out about his infidelity before they had any kids.

She inhaled Dean’s scent again and decided to try and get out of bed. She had to find out how Missy was doing and try to find Hawk to take her back to the hospital. It was a good plan, but Anne wasn’t sure if her legs would cooperate. She swung her legs off the side of the bed and tried to lift herself up. It worked, but with the swaying of the boat she had to hold on to anything she could so she wouldn’t kiss the floor. It was quite a while since she communicated that way with a car and she hoped she wouldn’t have to do it anytime soon.

The scent of freshly-made coffee and scrambled eggs led her out of the room and to something that looked like a living room. On the other side, she saw a small kitchenette and Dean hovering over a frying pan.

"Hey," she managed, as she wobbled her way to one of the couches and plopped down.

Dean looked over to her and smiled. "You look better. How do you feel?"

"Like I was at a frat party last night. Do you have any aspirin?"

"Yeah, want some coffee too?"

She tried shaking her head, but realized that was a bad idea. "No, the caffeine would actually make it worse. I'll just have some water or juice even, if you have any."

"Orange juice?"

"Oh yes, that would be perfect."

He reached into the mini fridge and pulled out some orange juice. He leaned over and grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it for her.

"Your mom called this morning." He walked over and handed the glass to her.

“Is Missy awake?” she asked as she gently took a sip.

"No, not yet. She wanted to let us know that Hawk took the paparazzi to one of the forest preserves and stopped there. They all thought that we got out and ran into the woods." He opened a different cabinet and found a bottle of aspirin. "They went into the woods to go search for us." Normally, he would have tossed the bottle to her, but given her state he opted to just walk over to her with it.

Thankful that her hands weren’t shaking anymore, she opened the bottle and pulled out two tablets. "I hope some wild animals ate them.”

“No such luck there. They camped all night around him. He’s apparently still there, so your dad and Elle will go pick him up this afternoon. In the meantime, she said that your dad was going to make sure Logan was at the pier when we get back.”

“Good thinking.” Anne sipped her drink again. Logan was her Dad’s thirty-year-old van. He was the car that Anne first rode in from the hospital and he was the family’s vacation cruiser for years. With Anne being around him so long, he became alive like Hawk, and now he was a permanent part of the family. Her father always took him when he, George, and Stan went on their yearly fishing trip. Logan probably knew more secrets about her dad than her own mother did. He was like an uncle to Anne but made out of metal. No one would ever think she would be driving an old conversion van.

“Did Mom say if Missy was getting better?" She sipped the orange juice as she popped the pills in her mouth.

"She said that there was no change, but if there is we'll be the first ones to know. She was just worried about you, especially after I explained what you did with Evan's car. She told me to make sure you rest today no matter what. I told her that she shouldn't worry because you were safe with me."

"And she actually believed you?" That sarcastic tone was back in her voice again and he was sure that she was on the mend.

"Of course, she did. She doesn’t have a reason not to. I’ve been in worse situations than the one we had last night.”

Anne caught his icy tone with that statement and wondered what he saw and had to do when he was deployed.

"So how did you discover your gift?" she asked as she rubbed her temples.

He took the eggs off the stove and reached into the cabinet for plates. "It was about the same time as you did. A bunch of friends and I were horsing around in an old warehouse because it was supposedly haunted and they decided to lock me in one of the rooms and left me to go downstairs. I started to get freaked out, and that's when I put my hand on the lock and realized I could see the lock and was able to open it. I then scared the crap out of my friends when I went downstairs."

“Do you want some eggs?” he asked as he filled the first plate.

“No, thanks. I’ll pass for now. I’m sure your friends never played any pranks on you again.”

He took the plate and sat down at the small table. “Yeah, they learned really fast not to try anything.”

Anne stopped rubbing her forehead as the pain started to subside. "What about your other ability? The tracking thing. That sounds really interesting,"

"It's come in handy on numerous occasions when I was in the Marines. Especially during the special missions.” He shoveled a full fork of eggs into his mouth and began to chow down on his breakfast.

Her curiosity crept higher. "What kind of missions were they?"

"They were very dangerous. Half the time, I had no idea where we were going or what would be waiting for us there."

As she sipped on the orange juice, she couldn’t begin to imagine how scared she would be if she were put into that situation. "That sounds horrible."

"It was all part of the job. We got in and out as quickly as possible to get the job done."

"You're probably ecstatic to be back in the States."

"Yeah, I needed to get out of there." He got up and grabbed a mug from the cabinet and filled it with coffee.

There was a lot of relief in his voice, and she didn't want to pry anymore and bring up bad memories.

"So, who was the first person you tracked?"

He chucked as he took a sip of his coffee. "It was actually a girl that I had a crush on. We went out on a date one day and I remember thinking to myself that it would be so neat to know where she was so I could surprise her. I was holding her hand and I then felt a slight spark come out of my pointer finger. She didn't feel anything but later on that week, I just knew where she was at and sure enough she was there when I went there. It scared her a bit and she stopped talking to me after a while. I didn't blame her, because I was scared too."

"That is scary." She rubbed her forehead again. There was only a small amount of pain left that slowly started to disappear, but she knew that she couldn't push herself too much.

Dean's phone started to ring and he glanced at the screen. "It's your mom."

Her heart jumped as she hoped for good news.

"Hello, Mrs. Stevens, I hope you have some good news."

"Oh yes, Dean, Evan's awake!"

"That's great to hear. Does he remember anything?"

"Right now, he just wanted to come and see Missy. He doesn't want to talk about anything else."

"That's understandable. Does anyone there need anything? I can always drop by later today."

"Oh, no, sweetie, we're fine. The hospital staff has been very helpful. Just stay with Anne and make sure that she rests. She needs the peace and quiet, and the press does not need to know where she is." She paused. "You're her safe haven right now."

Dean looked over at Anne, and for the first time he could see just how vulnerable she could be. She had such great power but in some cases it cost her a lot. He needed to make sure that no one else knew about her and her gift. Her life in the public eye didn't help at all.

"I understand, Mrs. Stevens." Anne waved at him and pointed to the phone. "Anne wants to talk to you."

He offered the phone to her and she immediately grabbed it. "Is Missy awake, Mom?"

"No, honey, but Evan is. He's here with Missy right now against his doctor's orders."

Anne closed her eyes and could imagine the scene. Evan was probably right by her bedside, holding her hand and stroking her face gently. Even after Missy broke off their relationship, he never stopped loving her. Anne guessed that he always hoped that Missy would get tired of being famous and come back to the quiet life that she was raised in.

"Give him my best. I'll see if I can stop at the hospital later today."

"No, don't you dare, Anne. Dean told me that you overexerted yourself last night. I know what happens to you, sweetie. You are definitely too weak to go anywhere, and the press is everywhere around here. It's worse than before because this news has gone national so the whole parking lot is packed with news vehicles. Don't push yourself any more than you have. You can come when Missy's awake. Your dad and I are here and we’ll keep you updated. Stay with Dean and please trust him, honey." Her voice cracked. “I feel relief knowing you are with him.”

The anguish in her mother’s voice made Anne’s heart twist in a tight knot. She couldn’t stand to cause her mother any more pain. No matter how many mistakes she made in the past, her mother was always there for her, helping her right back up and letting her know that she was never alone. If staying with Dean eased her mother’s worry, then that’s what she would do. Besides, she was in no condition to go anywhere. Her head still felt like a jackhammer was doing its work inside her skull, and she could barely stay up.

"All right, Mom. Please call me as soon as anything changes with Missy."

"Sweetie, you know that I will."

"Thanks, Mom." She ended the call and handed the phone back to Dean.

"Do you need anything else?"

"No, I'm fine." She rubbed her head and felt the last of the pain disappear but her body still felt so weak and tired. “I think that I’m going to lie down for a few more minutes.”

“Take as much time as you need. If it doesn’t bother you, I’ll keep the boat circling the lake.”

“No, it will actually make me feel better.” She was about to head to the bedroom when she stopped and turned back to him. "I never got a chance to finish telling you about Evan's car."

Dean grabbed the empty pan and put it I the sink. "I didn't want to ask until you felt better, but since you brought it up."

"Evan's car actually gave me a pretty good description of the guy. Medium height and build, short dark hair, and he said that he had a tattoo of a dragon on his left arm. Green with red glowing eyes and a forked tongue that wrapped around his arm."

"That alone will help us ID the guy quicker." He transferred the plates into the sink. "I'll call around and see what I can dig up.”

"That's going to go over very well—‘hey, watch out for this guy because a car told me.’"

"I have connections who can kind find out anything I need them to without asking questions.”

“Why do I get the feeling that this guy is going to show up in a body bag?”

He twisted towards her and crossed his arms. “My connections aren’t those kind of people, Anne. We’ll find this guy and we’ll make him tell us everything he knows so we can get to the bottom of this. I want to make sure that he spends the rest of his life rotting in jail.”

His cold tone made her realize that he was serious about finding this guy and making him pay for what he did to Missy, Evan, and everyone else involved in the accident.

She walked back to the bed in the bedroom. Instantly, she felt relief as her head hit the pillow and she drifted off.

*

After Dean washed and put away the dishes, he went up to the deck to think through the situation. He never met or heard of anyone like Anne even when he in the Marines. Most of those on his team were able to do things like see through the dark or have extra strength. Even his sister Jeri’s power paled in comparison to what Anne could do.  She could be a dangerous force for the wrong type of people. A pit formed in his stomach. What if somehow Missy’s accident was tied to her somehow? He had to get to figure out what was going on before something happened to Anne.