Of Eternal Life (18 page)

She began to do so, hesitantly at first — after all, it was a little intimidating to be going through the belongings of a woman who hung the moon for Eli and Collins — but Sergeant Collins kept up a steady stream of small talk. He asked about her schooling, her background. He seemed genuinely interested in her.

Soon, Abilene had a small pile of clothes hanging over one arm, and she felt comfortable enough around the man to ask a question of her own.

“Did you know Major Taylor, Mr. Collins?” She nibbled on her lip when Collins eyes darkened and snapped with emotion.

“Yes. Yes, I did.”

“Eli says — do you think Major Taylor is just obsessed with the experiment and that’s why he’s — he did what he did to Eli? Or — ”

He stepped toward her until they were face to face. “Let me put it this way. I wouldn’t want him around you, or Eli’s mama, or any other woman I cared about.” He’d said the words firmly, but softened their message by leaning forward and giving her a kiss on her forehead.

“And it looks like we’re practically family, hon, so you can call me Earl,” he continued, his tone now jovial. “Now get on back to Eli before he blows a gasket.”

He gave her a gentle shove in the direction of the bedroom door.

Abilene moved on legs that felt like wood. She hadn’t heard a thing since Sergeant Collins announced that Taylor was dangerous to women.

She was too eaten up by guilt to do anything but obsess over something she’d managed to forget in the last three days.

Dahlia.

And Olive, and Mary, and Lisa.

But mostly Dahlia.

Major Taylor could be headed back to them right now. He could hurt them. Torture them like he’d tortured Eli.

Bile rose in her throat.

She spotted a telephone on a stand in the hallway and dove toward it.

She had to warn them. Her fingers moved over the numbers, dialing the hospital’s line from memory.

If something happened to those women and Abilene didn’t warn them, it would be her fault. All —

“Needles Military Hospital, how can I help you?”

The sound of Dahlia’s voice rolled through her. Relief caused her to sag against the wall.

“Dahlia, thank God,” Abilene sighed.

“Abi!” the other woman screeched into the phone. “Where the hell are you? Are you okay? Are you hurt? I’m gonna kick your ass!” Dahlia’s words tumbled over each other, and despite the reason behind Abilene’s call, she felt a bubble of laughter building in her chest.

God, how could she have forgotten about Dahlia? She deserved to have her ass kicked.

“I’m fine, I promise,” she assured her friend. “But I need to tell you something very important.”

There was silence on the other line for a few moments. Finally, “Fine, I’m honestly so relieved you’re okay that you could tell me anything you wanted. Just know that you’re in trouble. The next time I see you — ”

But Abilene cut her off. She had an uneasy feeling in her stomach for a moment. Almost as though her body were telling her that she was making a mistake, though, what that mistake could be, Abilene had no idea.

“You need to be careful around Major Taylor, Dahlia,” Abilene said. “He’s not there, is he?”

More silence. “No,” Dahlia said, “he’s not here. Why do I need to be careful around Major Taylor, Abilene?”

“Never mind that,” Abilene said. “Just promise me, Dahlia. Promise me you’ll be careful around him. In fact,” she sped up as an idea occurred to her, “leave the facility. Just take the other women and leave. Don’t come back until you hear from me.”

“Abilene, you’re being crazy — ”

“Just do it!” Abilene shouted into the phone. “Please,” she finished gently.

There were several seconds of silence on the phone now. Abilene knew she’d crossed some boundaries of friendship with the way she’d yelled, but right now she just couldn’t bring herself to care.

“If I promise to leave, will you at least tell me you’re safe, too?” Dahlia asked.

Abilene sighed. “I’m safe. I’m in Georgia. A long, long way from trouble, I promise you.”

She hoped.

She could hear Dahlia’s capitulation in the way she sighed on the phone. “Alright, Abi, you win. I’ll take the girls, and we’ll go to Vegas or something. I can’t tell them the crazy crap you just threw around, but I promise I’ll find a way to get them out. Satisfied?”

Abilene looked up at the ceiling, waiting for the relief to return. It didn’t. She frowned. “Yeah,” she lied into the phone. “I’m satisfied.”

The phone clicked in her ear.

Abilene stared down at the receiver in her hand as the dial tone filled the hallway.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was never going to see her friend again.

Dahlia pressed end on her cell phone. There was no denying it: she was a genius. She’d had the facility’s calls forwarded to her cell on a hunch. Thank God it had paid off.

Major Taylor eyed her from the chair he’d been sitting in through Dahlia’s conversation with Abilene. His eyes were dazed from the painkillers he’d taken to ward off the agony of his injury.

Painkillers made you dull. Dahlia would have never taken them at such a critical time, but, then, she was learning that Major Taylor was proving to be a disappointment in several categories. Why not add this one to the list as well?

His arm was in a makeshift splint and sling for the moment. Dahlia had re-set the arm and stitched the wound. There was simply no time for the operation he needed. He would have to wait.

“She’s in Georgia,” Dahlia said. “All we have to do is find them.”

Major Taylor’s nostril’s flared. “It’s as I hoped.”

Dahlia just prevented herself from verbally castrating the man.
As he’d hoped?
Her mind scoffed.
Nothing
had gone according to plan in this fiasco.
Let the man have his fantasy
, Dahlia told herself.

“Sergeant Collins lives here in Atlanta,” he continued. “He was a sort of a father figure to the subject. They must be there. At his house.”

He looked at her expectantly.

Oh, Christ
. She was going to have to do everything, wasn’t she?

She plucked the message pad and pen from the nightstand and placed them beside Major Taylor. “Address.”

So, it was up to her to bring Abilene in. Fine by her. At least if she did it herself, she knew it would be done right.

Dahlia never failed.

• • •

When Abilene entered the guest room, Eli was nowhere to be seen. She heard the sound of the shower in the bathroom, and all of the heat from their earlier brief exchange came rushing back. Moisture pooled between her legs.

Her man was in that shower.

Naked.

She ditched the clothes on the bed and made her way into the bathroom, shedding what she wore along the way.

In the steam-filled bathroom, Eli made not a peep from the other side of the curtain. Abilene drew the curtain back.

Her heart broke.

Eli was standing under the stream of water. His back was to her. Both of his hands were braced against the tile above his head, which dipped down until his chin almost touched his chest.

His shoulders shook with silent sobs.

“Oh, Eli,” she whispered.

She stepped into the tub, pressed herself against his back, and wound her arms around his waist.

He stiffened for a second. She could feel him trying to pull himself back together, but then she pressed a soft kiss to the skin of his back, and his muscles relaxed.

“She’s gone,” he whispered into the tile.

Her arms tightened around his middle. Her hands splayed over his abdomen and chest. “I know, baby.”

“It’s my fault.”

Abilene’s head whipped up. “No.”

Eli was shaking his head, so she repeated herself. “No. Don’t you dare believe that, Eli Johnson.” She recognized the anger in her own voice, but could do nothing to stop it.

She’d be damned if he started blaming himself for this. It was what she’d had forced on her by her parents time and time again growing up: blame for something out of her control. She cared too much about this man to allow the same thing to happen to him.

The anger in her voice caught his attention, and he turned around to face her. His face was devastated. His eyes were red around the edges; deep lines marred his mouth.

Abilene felt her anger leech away. She brought her hand to his cheek and smoothed away the lines with her thumb until his mouth relaxed. She stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his lips.

She sank back on her heels and looked him dead in the eye. “This is not your fault, sweetie. She
loved
you.” Eli’s eyes closed in pain. Abilene brought her other hand up to his face. She now cradled his head between both of her hands. He opened his eyes. “She loved you,” Abilene repeated. “She would never want you to blame yourself for this. She would want you to honor her. To remember her.” She gentled her voice. “There’s no honor in blame, Eli.”

She could tell he wanted to believe her, but he just wasn’t there yet. So, she’d failed to comfort him that way.

There were other ways to bring him comfort.

She stepped into the warmth of his body. As soon as their chests touched, her nipples abraded by the smattering of hair on Eli’s torso, Eli’s eyes dilated; his pupils ate up his irises.

He breathed her name before gathering her into his arms and pulling her flush against him.

Her breath left her in a whoosh, but not from the tight hold he had on her. The heat that accompanied their close proximity always took her breath away.

He looked into her eyes as he lowered his head to press his lips to hers. His kiss was unhurried and thorough.

When her nails dug into his scalp, he gripped her ass and hauled her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he walked forward until her back was pressed against the tile.

The tip of his erection was rubbing against her just where she needed him, and she squirmed to increase the friction.

“Oh, yeah, darlin,” Eli panted. “Keep doin’ that.”

God, she loved that his accent came out even more when they were together like this. It was one way she could tell his control was slipping.

As she continued her movement, Eli pulled back from her to trail his fingers over her collarbone and down to cup one of her breasts with his hand.

He squeezed her, and her head fell back against the tile with a thud.

“Haven’t paid enough attention to these,” Eli murmured, giving her nipple a gentle squeeze. It pearled instantly.

They groaned together.

“
God
, Abi …what you do to me.”

She needed him inside her. She changed her squirming until the tip of his erection eased into her.

Eli’s breath caught, and he thrust the rest of the way inside her until they were pressed as tightly together as they could be.

He was seated more deeply inside of her than he’d ever been.

The connection between them thickened. Became more than just physical. She could see it in Eli’s eyes, which were shiny again.

“I love you, Abilene,” he whispered. His lips were a hair’s breadth from her own.

Rather than joy, she felt a pang. The word
perfect
was still in the forefront of her mind. Nevertheless, “I love you, too.”

She did. So much. Which is why it hurt so much to have him love something she was not.

He ground against her, and the friction against her clit had her eyes rolling back in her head. All of the complicated thoughts fled her brain.

She just needed him.

“You’re so beautiful when I make love to you,” he whispered into her ear. Then he pressed several kisses along the column of her neck. When he reached her shoulder, he bit her gently.

She moaned and scraped her nails down his back.

He reached between them to rub circles around her clit with his thumb. At the same time, he set a slow steady pace, withdrawing and thrusting.

In no time at all he had her spiraling up to the breaking point. Her breaths were coming short and fast.

“Let go, baby.” Eli’s voice was strained now. His own ragged breathing fanned her face. “Let me watch you come apart.”

He tweaked her clit, and she exploded.

He cut off her cry by covering her mouth with his, swallowing the noise she was making. But then he was groaning into
her
mouth as they reached their peaks together.

Stars exploded behind her eyes. She clutched Eli to her, knew she was digging her nails into his flesh, but couldn’t temper her response to him.

When she came back to earth, Eli kissed her, then lowered her to the floor of the tub, making sure she caught her balance before leading her to the spray of the shower.

Then he proceeded to wash her hair for her, massaging her scalp with his large, blunt fingers. He washed her, causing her heart to melt even more.

He turned off the shower and grabbed a towel from the stack waiting by the shower. He wrapped it around her, then kissed the tip of her nose.

“I’m going to marry you, you know,” he said. “As soon as I can.”

She gasped and stepped out of the circle of his arms.

Her blood was roaring in her ears. She could see Eli talking, but couldn’t hear anything he said over the constant litany of
No, no, no!
in her thoughts.

She stumbled into the bedroom, Eli hot on her heels. Her towel dropped, and she stepped into a pair of yoga pants and pulled a faded t-shirt over her head.

“I’m going to go get a snack,” she blurted, cutting off whatever Eli had been saying.

His eyes narrowed, and he reached for her only to drop his arms back to his sides. She could see the curse he said. He nodded.

And then she just fled.

“No, no, no,” she now said aloud as she made her frantic way to the kitchen.

Marry her?

He didn’t even love
her
.

If she married him, it would be bad. Horrible.

She would be trapped with someone who expected her to be perfect. Again.

A lifetime of stepping on eggshells? Of constantly disappointing the man she loved? Of slowly driving him away as he realized she wasn’t who he expected?