Forgetting that only a short while earlier she’d thought herself willing to leap from the Golden Gate Bridge at his command, Summer sat up straight on the seat and scooted away from him, almost ending up in Connie’s lap. “You’re trying to change me!” she accused him heatedly. “Dammit, I knew this would happen. I knew you wouldn’t be content to take me just the way I am.”
“Would you please answer me one question?” Derek shouted, turning into the parking lot of the apartment building where Summer and Connie lived, his tires squealing as he pressed the gas pedal in frustration. “Why is it that you only smiled when Clay McEntire made the same damned suggestion, but when I said it, you blew your top and accused me of trying to change you?”
“Because you are!” Summer yelled back. “You’re trying to tell me what to do, just like you do to Connie.”
“Better leave me out of this,” her roommate whispered.
“I only want what’s best for you,” Derek argued. “Both of you, dammit.”
“And God gave you the knowledge of what’s best for Connie and me, right?” Summer threw at him in disgust. “It must be nice to be so omniscient, Derek.”
Almost growling, Derek shoved open his door and leaped from the car. “Upstairs, both of you!” he ordered furiously. “We’re going to settle this issue right now, if it takes all night.”
“But I’ve got a date with Joel!” Connie protested, crawling out of the car to stare at her brother aggrievedly.
“He can join us. Hell, we’ll ask the whole damned neighborhood to join us,” Derek grated between clenched teeth, already walking toward the apartment building as Summer and Connie trotted after him. “Ask them if it’s so damned terrible of me to try to help the people I care about.”
“It’s not that we don’t appreciate your intentions, Derek. It’s the way you say these things,” Summer puffed, clutching Connie’s arm as they hurried to keep up with his angry strides. “You always sound as if your way is the only right way—for you and everyone else.”
“Face it, Derek, you’ve been trying to tell me what to do since I was ten years old,” Connie said in turn. “Even when I wouldn’t see you for months or years at a time, you’d send me letters telling me to live up to my potential, to study and make something of myself. Well, I didn’t want your words of wisdom. I wanted my brother!”
“Okay, so I came down too hard on you over the years,” Derek answered heatedly, turning in the hallway to glare at the two gasping young women who clung to each other and faced him defiantly. “It’s only because I wanted so much for you. Mom and Dad didn’t seem to know how to handle you, and I thought I might have more influence with you. I knew you were capable of accomplishing anything if you put your mind on it, but I wasn’t sure that I would live long enough to see it happen.”
Both Summer and Connie frowned at that. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Summer demanded.
Derek blinked as if he couldn’t quite believe he’d said that. “As much as I traveled, anything could have happened,” he explained inadequately. “Plane crashes, car accidents, whatever.”
Connie and Summer shared a puzzled look that indicated that neither of them thought he was telling the whole story.
Derek exhaled loudly. “Let’s not stand out here in the hall. Let’s go in where we can talk rationally.”
Summer nodded her agreement. It was extremely important that they settle this issue finally, she told herself anxiously. Her future with Derek hinge
d on the discussion that was about to take place. She had to make him understand, once and for all, that, though she was willing to make certain compromises for him, he would not be able to change her into someone else. She was just herself, and if he wasn’t happy with her as she was, then they might as well give it up now. It wasn’t that she wasn’t willing to discuss possible career changes for her future with him, but she would not allow him to dictate those changes to her.
They were less than six feet from the door to their apartment when Derek suddenly stopped, frowning. “That wasn’t there earlier,” he muttered, his eyes focusing on a fresh scar near the lock on the battered wooden door.
“What wasn’t there?” Summer asked him, trying to find what he was looking at so intently.
He pushed her unceremoniously toward the hallway wall, motioning Connie to follow suit. “Stand right there,” he ordered them softly. “I want to check your apartment.”
“But, Derek, what is it?” Summer asked again, studying his expression. The look he wore now was different from the heated anger he’d shown during their argument moments earlier. He looked hard, cool, rather daunting. She swallowed.
“Hush.” He touched her arm in an absentmindedly gentle gesture that made her knees go weak despite her lingering anger with him. “Don’t move until I tell you to.”
The roommates watched in nervous confusion as Derek moved soundlessly to the door and tested the knob. The door wasn’t locked. Easing it silently open, Derek prepared to enter. Just before he stepped inside, all three of them heard a muffled crash from inside the apartment.
Summer jumped and covered her mouth in consternation, her eyes locking with Derek’s.
“My God, there’s someone in there,” Connie whispered, her own green eyes huge. “We should call the police.”
“Just a minute,” Derek whispered distractedly, looking back toward the doorway.
Summer watched as he flattened himself against the door, obviously preparing to go in. She did not miss the way his right hand slipped inside his jacket, almost as if by instinct. The hand came away empty as a look of impatience crossed his face. Then he eased the door all the way open.
“Derek, no!” Summer whispered frantically, moving impulsively to stop him from going in. He shot her a look that plastered her back against the wall, her heart in her throat. Blindly she reached for Connie’s hand as Derek slipped inside the dark apartment.
Oh, Derek, be careful, Summer pleaded silently. Oh, God, don’t let anything happen to Derek.