Locked Out of Love (8 page)

Joel's eyes widened at the word
hurt
. His face darkened with rage. Trepidation crept up Melanie's spine, but Joel's anger wasn't directed at her.

“He never hit me,” she explained, though she had no idea why she was defending Alexander. “He used to leave lots of bruises on my arms. He liked to grab me, especially when we'd get into arguments, as if he could force his opinion into me with nothing but the pressure of his fingers on my skin.”
Never again
. “He's also the reason why I carry this around.” She pulled out her key chain and showed him the bright pink can of pepper spray.

“So that is why you pulled away from me earlier when I mentioned fate?” Joel asked carefully.

She nodded. “There's no such thing. It's just an excuse. A reason someone can keep pursuing another when clearly the interest is only one-sided.”

Joel's shoulders slumped and something passed through his eyes too quickly for Melanie to identify. She felt as if she'd let him down.

“What's this guy's name?”

“Alexander.” She didn't offer his last name.

She didn't trust the dangerous and protective glint in his eye.

“If he ever shows up at your work, you call me.” He pulled a business card from his wallet and handed it to her. “Call me whenever you need anything. And I mean that.
Anything.
”

Again, if she'd received that line from any other man, she'd have taken it sexually, but maybe that wasn't the case with Joel.  Maybe he cared about her and she'd been too caught up in her own problems to probe deeper into why that was.

What was so special about her?

Besides the obvious supernatural ability she held.

It was a mystery she was determined to unravel, but the moment had passed.

Already Joel was shifting into mentor mode. He let his arm fall across the table, his palm open to the ceiling. “Okay,” he told her, “training starts now. Try and take my ability. I want you to Lock my arm to the table as well as my index and middle finger together.”

She didn't believe in fate. She didn't believe in destiny. And Joel knew Melanie sure as hell wouldn't believe in Mirror Mates.

Maybe that was a blessing in disguise.

He drove home in silence, his mind replaying his conversation with Melanie. His fingers tightened around his steering wheel at the idea of that bastard Alexander leaving bruises on her. He ground his teeth and pulled into his driveway. He shoved his truck into park perhaps a bit too forcefully and slammed the door as he took his front stairs in one big leap.

There was a message waiting for him on his cell when he pulled it out. Sydney. The last person he wanted to hear from right now. Ignoring the voicemail, he pitched his cell into the living room as he headed to the kitchen.

He fixed himself something to eat before calling Felix. He needed a distraction from Melanie. While things were taking a step in the right direction, he had no idea how he was going to breach the topic of Mirror Mates, or even if he should.

“Please tell me you have something to report on these new suit guys?” Joel asked as soon as Felix picked up.

“Sorry, man, nothing. The only new information we have is that these guys aren't working for Vander. Cali got ahold of Jente. We ruled out that it's not them. Cali asked Jente to let her know if he comes across anything else.” Joel could hear the repressed anger in Felix's voice. Nearly a year ago  Vander Donahughe had abducted Cali, and it still rubbed Felix the wrong way that Jente and not he had been the one to save her from that horror house.

“I guess if anyone can gather information on these suit guys, it's that kid,” Joel said. Jente was a Veiler, so he had the ability to turn invisible, which made him such a great commodity. The only problem was that he worked for Vander. He couldn't be trusted, but what choice did they have at this point? Joel was coming up with nothing electronically. And now they knew these goons didn't work for Vander. Joel didn't like how this was playing out one bit. New meat sniffing around was not what he needed. It stacked the odds against them, and now that Melanie had shown up in his life, he had one more person to worry about.

“Did you listen to the message Sydney left you yet?” Felix asked, breaking Joel from his thoughts.

He should have known Sydney would ask Felix to do her dirty work. Sydney and Felix had been best friends for years, well before the Guild of Aletheia was ever formed. “Not yet. Want to give me the Cliffs Notes version?”

“Niella called in sick today at the clinic,” Felix said.

And this was concerning, how?

“She's never called in sick before,” Felix explained. “She's not sick either; she just didn't want to come in, which isn't like her.”

“Maybe she wants a vacation.”

Felix sighed. “I don't think that's it. Sydney's worried, Merrick's worried … shit, we're all worried.” Joel could all but see Felix running his hand through his hair, a habit he did whenever he was stressed out.

“Did anyone go check on her?” Joel was technically the closest and he could drive over if they needed him to.

“Luke and Cali drove over there earlier, but Niella didn't open the door. She talked to them through it.”

Joel frowned. That didn't sound like Niella. She might close the door in your face, but she'd at least open it. Why didn't she want anyone to see her?

“We don't know what's wrong with her,” Felix said. “Do you think you could search the web for anything?”

Joel was already on his way to his office. “I'm on it.” He booted up his computer.

“How'd your date go with Melanie?”

Joel dropped down into his computer chair. “Not so good. I mean the lesson went great, but she … ” He drifted off as he remembered her tongue along his finger, the wet heat of her mouth as she sucked on him. His blood quickened.

“If you dozing off is any indication, than I don't think it went that bad.” Felix's voice held a smile.

Joel wished that was all that happened. Well, if he were honest, he'd wished more than her mouth on his finger had happened. “She doesn't believe in fate,” he confided to Felix. “Or destiny or anything like that, where a higher power is in control of who she loves.”

Felix was quiet for a moment. “That could be a problem.”

“Maybe not. I mean, I'm only here to keep her safe.”

Silence. Then finally, “Joel, she's your Mirror Mate.”

“We don't know that.”

“Why are you denying this?” Felix asked.

“Because I'm not ready for it,” he confessed.

Felix laughed without humor. “What a bunch we make, huh? Our whole guild knows about Mirror Mates, and what do we do when we find them? Hop on the denial train. Cali denied it, Sydney did, Merrick too. Now you. You'd think we'd know better by now, but I guess it's human nature or something.”

“Or something,” Joel mumbled.

Was he being unreasonable? To deny something he'd dreamed of simply because he wasn't ready?

Was this fate's way of saying, “So you had a bad breakup. Life goes on. Now start living”?

“So she's not your Mirror Mate,” Felix said with an air that made it obvious he thought Joel was an idiot. “Where did this disbelief in fate come from?”

“It turns out that her last boyfriend would get a little violent with her, and he believed fate wanted them to be together.”

“Well, shit.”

“In a nutshell. Things were going great between us and then she mentioned something about not knowing me and I stupidly opened my mouth, telling her that she knew enough and that fate would take care of the rest or some bullshit. It completely freaked her out.”

“Why'd you bring up fate in the first place if you didn't think she was your Mirror Mate?” Felix said with annoying rationale.

Angry silence was Joel's answer.

“Look, I know right now you think Melanie isn't your Mirror Mate, but
if
she is, trust me when I say that everything you're going through now will be worth it in the end. The feeling you get when the bond is complete is simply indescribable.”

Joel could only imagine. He felt the spark between himself and Melanie, couldn't imagine a stronger chemistry with anyone. He'd been so content with Sydney that he didn't think there was anything more out there. How wrong he'd been. What he felt for Melanie was intoxicating. He wanted to hear her voice, touch her skin, and breathe in her scent. He wanted to be able to put a sparkle in her eye and a flush on her cheeks.

You're in over your head, Kegler.

Maybe.

Maybe he was an idiot for ignoring what appeared to be right in front of him, but he didn't care. He was going to be there for Melanie. As much as he'd love to knock that bastard Alexander's teeth in, he wasn't a fighter like Felix was. If by chance Joel ever learned that fucker's last name, perhaps he'd ruin his credit scores and destroy his whole electronic identity.

The thought made him smile.

“You still there?”

He'd forgotten he was even on the phone. He chatted a little more with Felix before hanging up and searching for anything on Niella's condition.

The task was a good distraction from Melanie and Mirror Mates.

• • •

Melanie blinked, certain she wasn't seeing properly. Nope, nothing wrong with her eyes. Joel was sitting on a yoga mat on the far left side of her class, waving her over. He was in black basketball shorts and another graphic tee. This time it was Batman.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered as she rolled her mat out beside him.

A couple of people shot her dirty looks for making noise during their warm up stretches, but she ignored them. Joel didn't even seem to notice them.

He spread his arms wide. “I signed up for yoga with you,” he said brightly. Then he proceeded to try to get his fingers to touch behind his back in that age-old test kids had been doing since grade school. “Think it'll help me with this?”

Melanie failed to repress her smile. “You do realize there's no talking during yoga, right?”

More angry glares and Melanie jerked her head in their direction.

Joel dropped his arms to his side. “I thought that was only for certain kinds.”

She covered her laugh with a cough.

“Well, this was pointless,” Joel mumbled, but it was too late to help him slip out. The instructor came in and started the session.

Melanie was oddly pleased at Joel's surprise appearance. It'd been a long time since she'd gotten this kind of male attention—healthy male attention. He wasn't a barfly ogling her, he wasn't stalking her out of some sick obsession, he was genuinely interested in spending time with her. She also had to admit that she didn't mind the view either. As the instructor took them through the poses, her gaze kept drifting over to Joel and the black material of his shirt stretched taut over his back, showcasing all that lean muscle hidden underneath.

She wasn't the only one taking in the lone male in the class either. Three young women had set up shop behind Joel. Melanie narrowed her eyes every time she caught them staring. Especially when they giggled at Joel's lack of flexibility. Melanie had to bite her cheek a couple of times when he nearly fell over doing tree pose and warrior pose. He was a trouper though, never getting frustrated, just persisting.

He caught her staring a couple of times and gave her one of those grins. She was tremendously grateful she hadn't signed up for a hot yoga class. She would have died from heat stroke.

Off-limits, Melanie
.

She knew she couldn't get involved, but that didn't mean she couldn't look.

Once the class was finished, Joel rolled up his mat and flopped it over his shoulder. “Want to grab a cold drink?”

“Yes.” Her answer was immediate. She needed something to cool her off, and quickly.

It wasn't until they were standing in line for a smoothie that she realized this was their first time hanging out outside the community center.

This was almost like a real date.

She tried not to think on that too long. It made her objective sit like a stone in her gut. It was time to play detective for Juliet.

Melanie grabbed one of the tall, bar-style chairs set up at the front of the smoothie bar, looking out at the people walking by on the sidewalk. Joel took the seat next to her and she propped herself on her elbow, all nonchalant. “So,” she took a sip of smoothie, “ever been to jail?”

Joel choked on his drink. “Where the hell did that come from?” he said, once his coughing subsided.

Way to blow it.

She shrugged one shoulder and tried to think of a believable lie. “It beat asking you what your favorite color was.”

She could tell he didn't buy it. He watched her as he took a long pull on his smoothie, and she forced her eyes to stay on his.

“Can't say that I have, and blue.”

“What?”

He put down his drink and reached for her. “You asked if I've ever been to jail, can't say that I have. As for my favorite color,” he touched his thumb to the side of her eye, “it's blue.”

Her pulse kick-started; she wanted to tell him blue was her favorite color too. Midnight blue. Heat pooled low in her belly and her breasts ached for him.

His hand dropped away. He went back to drinking his smoothie. “So tell me, have you ever been to the big house?”

She'd walked right into that one.

She should have expected him to turn the question back on her. It was only fair she reciprocate, but she wasn't very proud of her past. Nathan hadn't kept the best company in high school, and she'd hung out with the same crowd. She'd even dated one of her brother's friends who she'd thought was different than the rest, but it only sucked her further down the rabbit hole. It wasn't until he'd tried to force himself on her when they were both baked that she flipped her life around.