Chapter 22
Sam woke to the noise of someone pounding on the door. For a moment he found himself in unfamiliar surroundings. Memories of what he'd done were slow to return. When had he fallen asleep? Tamara's final words bubbled to the surface in his brain, causing him to turn his head and look to where she was curled up beside him. She was beautiful and at peace. It brought a smile to his lips.
The knocking came again, forcing his smile into a snarl. Sam scrambled to get out of bed. Tamara had taken his prosthetic off in the most seductive way last night and now he had to hop to the door before she woke up and the spell of sleep was broken.
“What?” Sam demanded as he cracked the door. He was still naked.
Brock was on the other side. He was the last person Sam wanted to see. He hadn’t forgotten the way the jock had knocked him over as he rushed into the abandoned house. Or the way he’d ignored everything around him once Subie was back in his arms.
“Hey, um, you want to go get some breakfast?” Sam continued to glare at him. “Well, I guess it’s more like lunch since it’s around noon.” Sam stayed silent. Brock lowered his voice and stepped up to the door. “It’ll give me a chance to talk to you about last night.”
Sam hesitated, before turning back to Tamara. He couldn’t leave her. Not when here were three crazy people out there hunting her.
“I can’t leave her,” Sam said. He tried to close the door, but it was pushed back and Subie forced her way in. Where had she come from? On only the one leg, Sam was thrown off balance and had to brace himself against the wall.
“I’ll stay with her,” she said. She was dressed in the most modest clothes he’d ever seen her in. “Wow. I can see why she was sore after the first time you two were together.” Subie gave him an appraising glance and seemed to like what she saw by the smile that split her lips. “Too bad I’m happy with my man, or I’d give Tamara a run for her money.”
The heat that that filled Sam’s cheeks was almost as embarrassing as her appraisal. At least she was acting normal again.
“It’s all right, Sam,” Tamara mumbled as she sat up. Her naked chest made his mouth water as it reflected the light streaming through the window. Thankfully Brock was still out in the hallway. “I’ll be fine here. We won’t let anyone in. Besides, after last night I’m pretty hungry.”
Now that Sam thought about it, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten. And he wanted to find out what happened while he slept.
“I’ll be out in a moment,” Sam told Brock and shut the door in his face. Sam knew the gesture was petty, but he didn't care.
He endured a running commentary on his physique from both women as he dressed. Tamara helped him with his prosthetic, using the excuse to let her hands wander up his thighs. If Subie weren’t in the room he would have taken his naked girlfriend to bed again. By the time he was ready to leave he felt like a piece of meat on the auction block. After Tamara’s smoldering kiss at the door, he didn’t care if Subie was there or not.
Both women’s giggles followed him as Tamara pushed him out the door.
“As long as you were in there, I was beginning to wonder if I needed to bust down the door and save my girlfriend,” Brock teased him with a slight edge to his voice. Sam stayed quiet as they walked down the hall. He tried to adjust his crotch as he walked, but couldn’t do it well while being subtle enough that Brock wouldn’t notice. The last thing he needed right now was for Brock to get the wrong idea.
One thing was certain. When he made it back to the room, Subie was getting kicked out, and Tamara was going to get stuffed by something other than food.
“You’re an animal, man,” Brock told him as they got in the elevator. “We could still hear you two going at it long after Subie drained me dry.”
“What happened last night?” Sam asked, hoping to change the subject. “At the house, I mean.”
Brock grimaced, and shuffled his feet. The elevator doors opened and they walked through the lobby in silence.
There was a burger joint a block down the road and they headed for it. It wasn’t as good as the Sandis Drive Inn, but that was miles away and he wasn’t going to pay for cab fare. After the workout last night with Tamara, and the one he planned on having when he got back to the room, he figured he could splurge on one meal.
“I don’t want to talk bad about Tammy,” Brock started.
“Tamara. She hates being called Tammy,” Sam corrected him without thinking.
“Oh, right. Tamara. Anyway, she saved our hides last night. Not that you didn’t either,” Brock rushed on when Sam glanced at him. “I know I fucked up, but I couldn’t think straight, knowing Subie was in the hands of those bastards. Did you know she cried on my shoulder last night? God, she’d kill me if she knew I told you. I’ve never seen her cry before. Never.”
“Last night? The house?” Sam prompted. He didn’t care one way or another if Subie ever cried. He wanted to get some food and get back to Tamara.
“Right. Last night. Well, after that lady threw you, Tamara went crazy.” Brock shook his head and stayed silent for a moment. Sam was about to prompt him again, but Brock continued. “I don’t even know how to describe what I saw. The guy you shot reached into his gut and pulled the bullet out, laughing the whole time. Then they all advanced on Tamara as she tried to wake you up. The way they talked all at once was disturbing. They told Tamara to go with them. They said she belonged with them as a fallen angel.”
There was that term again. A fallen angel. Were heaven and hell real? Was Tamara some sort of guardian angel that’d come to help him? She’d saved his life yesterday and it had been supernatural. Despite the extra stress she caused him, he had to admit to himself that she made him happy.
But the three that came for her last night were not good guys. Why would they say she belonged with them? Was Tamara an angel that had gotten into some sort of trouble and kicked out? Knowing her, it was likely for some sort of sexual infraction. The girl was insatiable!
Sam realized that Brock had stopped talking. He was about to prompt for more information, but they were at the restaurant.
Brock insisted on paying for the food after Sam and Tamara had saved them last night. Sam didn’t have enough money in his account to object. In fact, he was going to have to call Latoya and explain his absence today. Hopefully he could blame it on the accident and use emergency leave.
As soon as they were back outside, Sam pressed for more information.
“You’re going to think I’m crazy,” Brock hedged.
“After the last few days, I already know how crazy I am. You can’t be any worse.”
“I don’t know,” Brock hesitated. Sam glanced at him and he relented. “They reached for her. I. . . It was. . .” Brock took a deep breath before continuing. “She screamed at them.”
“She screamed?” Sam asked, uncertain he heard correctly. Why would Brock act so worried about that?
“Yeah, but it was more than that. There was something in the scream. I felt it.” Brock shook his head again. “They felt it too. The three psychos, I mean. One second they were there, the next. . . the next they just vanished.”
“Is that why you didn’t tell the police?” Sam asked. People didn’t just vanish. But then again, fully loaded semi-trucks didn’t stop on a dime, and if someone pulled a burning pan of bacon out of the oven with their bare hands, they ended up with nasty burns. Maybe Tamara could make bad people disappear. He’d have to introduce her to his ex and see what happened.
“Come on. They weren’t going to believe me! Hell, I barely believe me, and I watched the whole thing.”
“Did Subie see any of it?” Sam wondered aloud. Maybe if she had, she might tell a different story. Two eye-witness reports could be drastically different, but each one painted more of the story.
“I don’t know,” Brock answered as he pushed the button to call the elevator. The doors opened immediately and they stepped in. “If she did, she didn’t say anything about i
t.”
Sam wondered about that. Subie had acted like Tamara and Sam had saved her last night. If what Brock said was true then Subie would have had to see something of Tamara’s unnatural abilities to think that way.
Maybe she didn’t want to talk about it, Sam thought.
Something didn’t sit right in his stomach.
As soon as the doors opened, Sam rushed out and down the hallway.
“What’s the rush?” Brock asked as he caught up.
Sam ignored him.
The uneasy feeling turned into a lead rock as they approached his door.
It was wide open.
Sam dropped the bag of food he was holding and ran into the room. Subie was unconscious on the floor; her dark hair spread out around her head and matted with blood.
Tamara was nowhere in sight.