Untamed (12 page)

“How did you end up in the pool?”

Every muscle in her body tightened as she continued to dress. “It’s a long story, one that’s going to have to wait until after we deal with the police.”

Police arrived to break the bad news. The whole building had gone up in flames
; nothing was salvageable. Tears slid down her cheeks as she silently mourned the death of her restaurant, as if it were a living person. She spent over an hour talking to her chef about the staff and what would happen next. She worked tirelessly trying to make sure everyone was accounted for. She’d promised them all two weeks’ pay and time off to give herself some time to regroup. She didn’t have time to wallow in self-pity, not yet anyway…but the time would come, and the consequences were going to hit her hard. She already knew that it was coming, with no way to stop the emotions and thoughts hanging on the edges of her heart and mind. Breakfast and lunch had come and gone. Brody had tried to place food in front of her and she’d nibbled only to appease him, not because she had much of an appetite.

After the chef’s
concerns for Tara were voiced, and she had a peaceful minute to herself, she plopped down on the couch to lie down. After her endless night of sex and getting up so early in the morning, she’d been running on reserve energy and even that was perpetually on low.

Brody covered her with a blanket, kissed the top of her head
, and told her to rest. She didn’t need any other directions. She let the numbness of sleep pull her under, glad she hadn’t yet fallen apart. She hoped that when she woke back up she would discover it had just been one long nightmare, just some crazy dream, and her life would return back to normal. As if that was going to happen. She could hope though.

****

Brody pressed the phone to his ear and backed farther out of the double doors onto the patio. “Ridge, someone tried to kill her.”

“Do you think it was Black or one of his goons?”

Brody rubbed the back of his neck. “No. This was old school. Hit on the head to knock her out and torched the restaurant. Whoever did this didn’t use any powers. They actually got their hands dirty.”

“You need to get her back to town, but I wouldn’t recommend the base.
Lydia came down with a fever and has fallen into a coma. Some serious shit is going on, and we need to figure it out.”

Brody released a sigh. “
Is Rick with her?”

“Yeah
, he is, and Jamie has been trying to work her magic to bring her out of it.”

“
It’s like the floodgates of hell have opened, first Lydia and now Tara’s restaurant.”

Ridge paused
. “Do you think it was her ex?”

“What about the asshole!” Brody could hear his sister
-in-law in the background. “If it was him, I swear to God, after these babies are born, I’m going to fry his ass and see how he likes the burn.”

Brody listened
, unable to get a word in as Ridge tried to calm down his pregnant wife. “Calm down, honey; don’t get yourself worked up. Brody will take care of her.”

“Don’t you dare tell me what to
do.”

Ridge sigh
ed.

“Now you’ve done it. Damn it,
” she said.

“Shit
,” Ridge mumbled in the phone. “Gracie, honey, are you all right?”

“Hell no, I’m not all right. My water just broke.”

The phone clicked off, and Brody looked at the blank screen. He dialed General Lister and updated him on the status of their trip and what had just happened while on the phone with Gracie. She was, after all, the General’s daughter. Apparently Gracie and the General shared the same phone skills. He hung up on Brody also. It seemed Tara and he were on their own for the time being, but the phone rang five minutes later. Brody could hear the rev of the General’s car. “Connors, I need you back at the compound. With Ridge out of commission, I need Tara and you to come back to base, and that’s an order, not a request.”

He agreed. They needed to get back
, and soon, but not before she was fed. And she still had some explaining to do. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

****

He dropped to his knees, by the couch, and kissed Tara’s head. When she’d shown up and said that someone had tried to kill her, Brody’s heart literally stopped beating. He’d come to care for Tara in more than a “let’s be Phantom partners” kind of way. His instincts had done something he’d never had the urge to do before. He’d turned protective, Neanderthal even. He’d done the one thing he always swore to never do…he’d turned into his brother. And if that wasn’t reason enough to run for the hills, he didn’t know what was. He didn’t have time for a girlfriend, didn’t even want one. What the hell had he been thinking by sleeping with the brunette? 

“Tara baby.”
Brody brushed the stray hairs out of Tara’s closed eyes. “You need to get up.”

She rolled over and tucked her hands under her cheek.

“Tara.”

She mumbled and grumbled
, ignoring him once again. Brody leaned down and kissed Tara’s exposed neck and kissed a path to her lips. She turned, leaning into him. Content his lips had worked their magic, he stood and held out his hand. “We need to talk, baby.”

He waited while Tara washed her hands and splashed her face with water. He probably should have let her sleep, but they needed to talk, and they needed to do it now. He poured
Tara and himself a glass of tea before she’d returned to the kitchen. “I called Ridge and the General and updated them on everything going on.”

Her brow rose
, but she didn’t question him.

“I know the timing couldn’t be worse, but they need us back at base.”

She paused with the glass almost to her lips. She lowered it back down to the counter. “What happened to my twenty-four hours? I was sure they would have understood when you told them about the restaurant. I can’t just leave right now.”

Brody shrugged. “Gracie went in labor.”

Tara’s mouth parted. “When?”

Brody glanced down at his food. “When we were discussing who torched your restaurant. Peter’s name was brou
ght up, and next thing I knew she’d started screaming at Ridge that her water broke and it was his fault.”

Tara smiled. Her eyes sparkled as she pushed from her chair. “We need to pack.”

Brody grabbed her hand. “Why don’t you get something to eat while I make the arrangements?”

Tara
leaned against the kitchen counter and sipped her tea while eyeing him like he had another agenda.

“Do you care to explain how it was that you ended up in the pool when you were at your restaurant?”

She set her glass down and laced her fingers. He watched the movement and knew instantly that he wasn’t going to like what she was about to tell him. He knew it as well as he knew that her nipples were a light dusty rose. This wasn’t going to be good.

She cleared her throat. “I haven’t told you about all of my gifts.”

Brody leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. Nope, not good at all.

“You know how I can conjure things by thinking of them
. Well, I can do the same thing with my body.” She took another sip of her drink and continued to explain. “Everyone gives off a certain vibration that I pick up on. It’s like a radio, if I know the frequency. No matter where in the world that frequency is, I can tune into it and reappear wherever it is. Certain situations make it happen, and I can’t do anything to stop it, and other times, I control it. It’s tied to my emotions, and I’ve recently figured out that self-imposed pain and major determination,” she felt her cheeks heat, “keep me from vanishing into thin air.”

Brody let her words sink in. She’d kept her gift a secret from him
, not trusting him to help her with that gift too. He tried to maintain a neutral façade, even through the hurt of her secret. “Are you telling me you can teleport?”

She nodded.

“Is there anything else you’ve kept from me?”

She shook her head

If she’d kept this a secret from him, what else was she holding back? He dumped his own glass of tea into the sink and moved through the kitchen to make him and her a sandwich, so they could make a quick exit, while he digested the newest information. “I appreciate your honesty.”

They ate in tense silence
, not that Tara ate much. 

He watched her jog up the stairs and out of sight.

****

Crap, crap, crap
. That wasn’t how she wanted Brody to find out. She had been wrong for withholding the information. Wrong for thinking it wasn’t something important enough to share. Tara grabbed her suitcase from the closet and started shoving more clothes in it. She plopped down on her bed, picked up the phone, and dialed the one person she could count on to help her deal with the restaurant.

“Hi
, Peaches. Can I talk to my dad?”

“Sure Bean, hang on.”

Seconds later her dad’s voice filled the void. “What’s wrong?”

Tara’s head fell forward
, and she let her shoulders sag. Her dad knew her way too well. “What makes you think something is wrong?”

“Tara…you don’t just call out of the blue. What’s wrong?”

“Someone tried to kill me and burned down my restaurant. But don’t worry, I shimmied out of there and back to my house, but the restaurant is gone.” As she said the words, a tear fell down her cheek. “And Mary wiped out my restaurant bank accounts. She stole everything.”

Her dad was silent on the other end.

“Dad?”

“Where are you?”

Tara lowered her head. “I’m at the house, but we’ll be leaving first thing in the morning. That’s why I called. Gracie went into labor, and we need to go back to base. Can you deal with the fire and whatever else comes up? I’d really like something to come home to when this is all over. You know I wouldn’t ask if I had any other choice.”

“Oh
, honey, of course I’ll help and I’ll put in a call to the Police Chief to file a report about Mary.”

“Thanks
, Dad.” Tara closed her eyes.

“Now tell me what else is bothering you.”

She shouldn’t have been surprised that her dad had picked up on that. After all, his gift was reading people. He’d always known when something was wrong when she’d been growing up. “Dad…”

“Uh
-uh…Don’t Dad me… or I’ll send your mother over to see you.”

Tara threw her free hand up in the air. “I didn’t tell Brody about all of my gifts
, and now I don’t think he trusts me.”

“Hmm…. That can’t be good considering you two are partners. How would you feel if he
’d been keeping something that important from you?”

Tara lowered her head and closed her eyes.
“Betrayed.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “How do I fix it, Dad?”

Her dad was briefly quiet on the other end of the line. “I guess it really depends on
whether or not Brody can get over it. Just make sure you’ve laid all your cards on the table, honey, so he won’t be blindsided again.”

Well
, a lot of good that advice was going to do her. There wasn’t much that Brody didn’t know about her or her gifts. He now knew everything there ever was to know…except…

She shook her head. No
, she couldn’t tell him about the one time she’d tried to carry a living thing with her. She hadn’t told a living soul about that experience, too ashamed that she hadn’t mastered her gift.

Tara found Brody sitting in a lounge chair out
back on her deck. The stars in the night sky twinkled above as he took long swig of his beer. If he noticed she was watching him, he didn’t say a word. He just kept his gaze out toward the ocean where the moonlight danced on the waves.

She sat down in the chair beside him. “Do you know why I like it here?”

“Because of how peaceful it is?”

His guess was close, but it went much deeper than he could have imagined
, and it was a part of herself she’d never shared with anyone. She cleared her throat. “It’s my way of hiding from the world.”

She snagged the extra beer from the table and twisted off the top. “You might think that
since I own a bar and restaurant that I’m some outgoing woman that loves to be the center of attention…but that persona is just for show. I enjoy being alone.”

She took a deep swig of her beer before continuing. “It’s easier that way…
so I don’t disappoint the people who matter most.”

Brody swung his legs off the side of the chair and propped his elbows on his knees. “Is that what you’re afraid of
, disappointing me?”

She took another sip of her beer. “Brody, I didn’t tell you about my other gift because I can’t control it. Let me rephrase that. Sure
, it can take me places, but no one else. I haven’t mastered transporting anyone, so it’s no use to anyone but myself. Anytime I use it, it feels like I’m running and hiding.”