Unstoppable: Truth is Unstoppable (Truth and Love Series) (23 page)

DEREK

DEREK

DEREK

DEREK

I open my eyes slow. White is everywhere. White walls, white floor, white ceiling. My blankets are white. The table to the left is a young medical student’s dream. The curtains are white. In fact, the only bit of color in this sterile hospital room is the man in the chair in the corner.

“Dad.”

Dad launches himself up and practically throws himself on me. He cries as I have never heard him cry—deep, bone-crushing sobs. I bring my hands up and place them on his shoulders. I tell him it’s okay, but it’s hard because sobs jam-pack my throat. I keep trying to swallow them down with mixed results. Dad is already so upset, the last thing I want to do is add to it.

We break apart in the next moment, and that’s when I notice the other person in the room. Captain Pearce. My heart plummets. I look at him, and images assail me: the car chase, William, the gunshot. They flash through my head and all sink in at once. Any good feelings I had about seeing Dad disintegrate.

I clear my throat. “What happened?”

“Well,” Captain Pearce begins, “after you called me, and ignored my directions to stay away from William, I headed there myself. I came moments after you. One of my soldiers must have beaten me there by seconds however, as he was already in the house with you. When he saw you in William’s office, he fired. I managed to knock his aim off a bit.”

Dad says, “The doctor said he missed your heart by millimeters.”

Jesus. I take a breath and force the feeling to go back into my body.

“And William? Is he really, um, is he really—”

Captain Pearce nods. “He left a note on his desk. In it, he confessed to killing his father and setting Victoria up for the blame. He wrote that inheritance was the reason.”

It feels strange to hear him say this, like he’s telling me the outline of a movie. It doesn’t seem real. But I saw William, I saw the gun and the blood. He shot himself. I try to sit up a bit, but all of a sudden I feel like an elephant is laying on me. My chest begins to hurt unbearably.

“Dad, I’m not feeling too well.”

He gets it immediately. “I think maybe it’s time we give Derek some space. Let him rest.”

Captain Pearce moves to the door. “I’ll be back in a little while.” He says goodbye to Dad.

“Oh, wait,” I say. Captain Pearce turns. “Am I…am I in any trouble? I mean, because of everything I did.”

He looks at me a long moment. “There were a couple accidents on the road yesterday, but no one clearly saw the driver. As for anything else…nothing has come across my desk.”

“And if it does?”

A small smile quirks up his lips. “Forms gets lost all the time.”

He gives me a small nod and leaves. That’s when I notice someone else…or at least, the absence of someone else.

“Where’s Mom?”

Dad sits down next to me. He takes my hand in his. And he tells me. And I finally let the tears fall.

DEREK

I fall asleep and my mind slips into a void. I don’t dream. I don’t stir.

Somehow, someway, I know someone is standing above me. And then…

A whisper rests on my lips, confessing soft secrets and heated promises. The gentlest stream of air slips through the seam of my mouth and I open under the cool pleasure. Something warm cups my face. Something solid sits beside me.

I open my eyes.

Her chocolate brown eyes are inches from mine. Her hair hangs over her shoulders and tickles my skin. She smells like lavender and star-filled nights and every wish I’ve ever made. She leans down and I shut my eyes as her lips meet mine. I bring my hands up. She feels like silk and steel and something fragile and strong. She’s soft. Familiar. My hands roam over her back and I press forward until she’s lying against me. I touch the beauty mark I can’t see but I know is there.

Beeps fill the air. I open my eyes just in time to see her pull out the cord connected to the monitor.

Her lips come back to mine. She tastes like holidays and brisk mornings, peppermint and tears.

“Victoria.”

DEREK

Two Weeks Later

It's the first time in two weeks Victoria and I have been apart. We’ve been living with my parents since she was released; the apartment we were going to get fell through after neither one of us went to the closing. But I don’t mind the arrangement one bit. Mom and Dad are at the store. They seem to be at the store a lot these days. Reason 847,309 why I love my parents: they understand when to give me space.

It’s a rare quiet moment and I grab a sandwich, eat some grapes. I go upstairs to take a shower. As I undress, I look in the mirror at my chest. The scar is almost totally gone, courtesy of the new MEB laser technology. I can't wait to learn all about it.

I stand under the spray, eyes shut, and another girl I haven’t seen in a while comes to mind. The last I heard from Sabrina was two days after I got released from the hospital. She had sent a package to the house. When I opened it, a cross necklace lay on white gauze along with a simple slip of paper. It read, Have Faith. I slipped it on that very moment and haven’t taken it off. It’s corny beyond belief, but it makes me feel closer to her. I called her again. No answer.

I turn off the water and wrap a towel around my waist, feeling more refreshed and better than I have in a long time. I pad to my room and turn on the TV. D.R. Gibbs is just about to arrest the bad guy.

Since I’ve been home, Mom hasn’t been too bad about babying me. She cooks every single meal and snack, but other than that, she’s been great about giving me space. But as I look through my dresser and closet for something clean to wear, a part of me can’t help but wish she’d do my laundry.

I know.

Sighing, I pick up a pair of jeans from the floor that have definitely seen better days. I shake the wrinkles out as best I can, and that’s when a small black device falls out.

William’s iBullet.

I hold it for a moment, marveling that I had forgotten to turn it over, that they had forgotten to ask. Well, I suppose the Corps confiscated other things. Maybe they didn’t need it. It feels weird to hold it though, wrong and awkward. I set it on my desk. I reach for another pair of pants when suddenly, that breaking news beep sounds over the TV.

“As reported several days ago, there was a break-in at the house where Issy Campbell lived. So far, the Corps is not releasing many details, except to say that”—a picture of a dining room flashes across the screen, then a quick shot of a dresser—“a neighbor reported seeing a tall, thin man who they think is in his twenties climb through the back window.”

As another picture flashes—this time of said back window—ticker tape begins scrolling across the bottom of the screen. The weather, the sports scores, then info about the Li Kang hotel. The picture switches to the news reporter again.

I dive for the remote. It's not that picture that has me rewinding the story; it's not even the one of the back window. It's the image of the dining room that has me pausing the frame and walking so close to the TV that my nose almost touches it.

All at once, I’m back in Biology II. The class assignment was to look at various virus specimens and figure out what the components were, what the symptoms might be, all that stuff. For some reason though, I couldn’t even get a handle on the shape of it. The very form was beyond me. In fact, I was so startled by it, I raised my hand and asked my teacher if this was normal. To be honest, I was convinced that I was staring at some new strain, some killer virus that would wipe us all out. I mean, it had to be. Nothing else made sense. I had been studying for this assignment for weeks; I knew my stuff. But this specimen…I had no clue. So by default, it had to be some killer strain. In my head, I had already named it the Archer Virus.

Dr. Wiseman came over and peered at the sample. And then, without word or warning, he drew his arm high above his head and slapped the microscope so hard, it almost toppled.

“There you go,” he said and then he walked away.

Startled, I leaned forward and looked at the specimen. Just like that, my Archer Virus had been demoted from the apocalypse to a common sinus infection. Just like that, what I was so sure of moments ago had been totally rearranged.

“…while we don’t know the reason for this break-in, the Corps tells us nothing was taken…”

I race to my computer and pull up the Corps file. My palms go sweaty, my heart beats in two-time, as I click through document after document, seeing the treasure trove of answers I never realized was hiding in such plain sight. I carry the computer downstairs to the living room and turn the TV on. I bring up the news report and once again freeze the image. I shake my head, marveling at the simplicity, the incredible irony. Marveling at the small object in the corner of the screen, winking out as if it were taunting me.

Slowly, I shut my eyes. Pain and pressure fills every inch of me. My hands squeeze around my computer until I’m shaking. I’m breathing, but it hurts.

Suddenly, nothing makes sense.

Suddenly, it all makes sense.

“Fuck!”

I whip the computer across the room, where it hits the wall and breaks my whole world to pieces.

VICTORIA

Bliss. Pure, unutterably, unimaginable bliss.

The door opens before I touch the handle. Derek is silhouetted by sunshine. He was waiting for me, looking for me and it warms me. Knowing he could not wait to see me. I throw my arms around him. His lips taste as good as I remember. But then I realize, then I see. 

“Derek?”

There are tears on his face.

DEREK

I wipe my eyes. “Sit down, Victoria.”

She does as I say. Slowly, cautiously. Her face is a study in confusion. “What's wrong?”

A thousand-year silence passes between us. I want to stop time, I want to go back, I want to live in a universe where the iBullet in my hand and the stuff on the news and the information in my head never existed. But instead, I’m here. And I can’t ignore what I know now.

“Derek?”

It hurts to listen to her voice, because it still sounds so perfect.

“You know, there were times I didn’t think I’d get you out of there,” I say softly. “It just felt so…incredible. Like I was up against this huge machine and I didn’t even have a tool to use against it. But I never thought about giving up on you. Ever.” I pause, trying to think of what to say. It’s hard.

Victoria must see my struggle. She leans forward and takes my hand. I squeeze it three times before letting it go. I say, “But I got lucky. I had help and found what I needed to find. I figure it was fifty percent work, fifty percent luck.”

“Yeah,” she says on a breezy, forced out chuckle. “You did great. Without you, God knows where I’d be.” She forces another smile. “And now it’s behind us. Time to get our lives back, right?”

Silence descends.

Her smile falls but just as quick, another flashes across her face. Her voice is an octave too high as she says, “Hey, you hungry? I’m starving. I’m going to get something to eat.” She stands but as she passes me, I grab her wrist.

My words are whispers. “Sit down.”

She looks at my hand then meets my gaze. Her eyes are pleading. “Derek...”

“Sit. Down.”

Victoria takes a breath and presses her lips together. She sits on the ottoman across from me.

I can barely stand to look at her for the pain. She is so beautiful, healthy and happy and so amazing that I can’t look away and yet it kills me to keep eye contact with her. My chest contracts tightly. Lead forms in my stomach and drops.  

“Where's your pendant?"

"What?"

"Your pendant. The one I gave you three years ago. The one you swore you'd never take off, and, if I recall, you actually never have."

"The Corps," she whispers, "they took it. When they first—"

"Don’t lie to me.”

“I'm not. They took everything I—”

Silently, I stand and go to the TV. I tap it and the image from the news report comes on. I zoom in until I can’t anymore, until that small item on the dining room floor comes into perfect, agonizing view.

Victoria stares at the screen for a long moment. Finally, she looks at me. Her eyes are glistening, luminous, and burning. It’s like a cold frost slowly sweeping over clear water. She says, “I’d die for my father.”

“I know. And you’d kill for him too.”