Roughing It

         Tagg’s heart lodged in his throat when he saw Collin’s car go off the road. He’d been following her for the past few weeks, despite Reeve’s warning. Ever since he saw her down in Texas, over Christmas, he knew that he couldn’t stay away from her any longer. Three years was long enough to be away from Collin. He was amazed he’d made it more then a week.
         Tagg had always had a soft spot for Collin, even when he was a rough, world-weary teenager. At thirteen, he didn’t trust anyone and his world was filled with cynicism. He spoke rudely to adults, told little kids that Santa wasn’t real, and glared at babies until they cried. And then there was Collin.
         Tagg had grown up in the streets of New York. His father had been a gang-banger who left his mom, a roughened drug-addict, high and dry when he found out she was pregnant. His mother couldn’t handle the responsibility of raising a child. When he was a baby, she’d leave him with a neighbor and would be gone for days at a time. At six, she left him home alone, to fend for himself, while she went on one of her coke runs. By the time he was eleven, she didn’t even bother to come home at all.
         It was by accident that Tagg met Vance Maddox and Reeve Bennett. He’d been roaming the streets, looking for a easy target to pickpocket. Gangs had already been recruiting him for his skills. He was good at what he did and still young enough to be overlooked as a real thief, or even a killer, as what the Snakes wanted to recruit him as.
         In the grimy streets of the lower East side of New York, Vance Maddox looked out of place in his crisp black suit. Tagg knew that wealthy men often bought housing establishments in the neighborhood, fixed them up a bit, jacked up the rent and demanded money from families who had none to give. He’d seen them before and stole from them, knowing that their pockets had promises of good money and even expensive pieces.
         Not once, in his five years of pick pocketing, had Tagg been caught. His victims never realized their wallets were missing until hours later, when they needed them. He hadn’t even made a move yet. He was following closely behind Vance, getting lost in the crowd of people, being only a few inches above five feet at the time. He was reaching into the coat pocket when the man grabbed his hand, without even turning around.
         “Hey, let go!” Tagg struggled against the grip.
         The man turned around, his dark eyes burning into Tagg’s. Then he smiled, “It’s not polite to steal from people, young man,”
         It was at that moment that Tagg became entangled in the affairs of Dark. Dark was a very successful mercenary group that was much talked about among the CIA, FBI, Interpol, and every other intelligence organization in the world. Even after years of investigating, no one knew anything about Dark, except that they never failed and that they treated law like they did chess being considered a sport; as a joke.
         Vance Maddox was twenty-four and considered the head of Dark, even though there weren’t really an official titles. His older brother, Damian Maddox, had started Dark with a group of his military friends, when they were twenty-two. Damian died five years ago and when the other creators of Dark decided to retire, they left the decision making to Vance and his seventeen-year-old apprentice, Reeve Bennett.
         They didn’t recruit him, like Tagg thought they were doing. They just gave him a home. They let him stay at their ‘home base’, which was a mansion out in the middle of nowhere, and never asked anything of him. Their forty-year-old cook was in charge of him and within a week she was more of a mother to him then his real mother had ever been. He loved her immediately.
         Tagg asked to join Dark, or at least train with them. Vance had been amused at Tagg’s fiery determination. At thirteen, Tagg was short and very scrawny. He was stubborn and when push came to shove, he could hold his own in a fight. He wanted to become stronger, because he wanted to help people who couldn’t help themselves. Like the six-year-old he’d been, waiting for his mom to come home.
         It was a month or so after he’d joined Dark, as an apprentice, as Vance liked to call it, when he first met Collin. In that time, Tagg had grown nearly two inches and had gained fifteen pounds. He had moved up to a yellow belt in karate and was almost able to hold his own against Reeve in kickboxing. Reeve was the closest person to his age that he had met since joining Dark.
         There weren’t a lot of people who stayed at Home Base for very long. Only Mae, who ran the place; Chris and Ben, the two tech nerds who handled surveillance and communication for the team; Nina, the young doctor who was also Tagg’s tutor; Bates, the butler of sorts and Tagg’s karate instructor; and then Frank, the ground’s keeper. Everyone else just came through in between missions and if they were recovering from a severe injury.
         Tagg awoke one morning, to everyone running around the mansion, like the place was on fire. Mae was baking like a madwoman; Nina was double bolting all the doors; Bates was removing all of the glass sculptures, expensive paintings, priceless antiques, and ancient artifacts that Dark had gathered over the years; Chris and Ben were adding more cameras all over the house and grounds; and Frank was putting barbed wire around his prized roses and tulips.
         “What’s going on?” Tagg asked Nina, as she struggled to push a bookshelf in front of the steel door that lead to the basement, aka the weapons room. “Are we under attack?”
         “Something much worse,” Nina gasped as she managed to get the bookshelf in place. “Vance didn’t give us any time at all. I mean, I still have to lock up the medical supplies and Bates doesn’t have time to take all of the antiquities to the bomb shelter out back,”
         Before Tagg could comment on that, Nina was rushing up the stairs. He didn’t even make it halfway into the kitchen when Mae started yelling at him and waved a spatula at him, splattering his face with egg and flour. Chris and Ben were already locking themselves in the surveillance room, both looking panicked.
         “If that devil thinks she’s gonna traipse all over my rose bushes, she’s got another thing coming,” Frank muttered to himself, as he walked through the house. “I put up barbed wire this time. Can’t turn the barbed wire off like you can an electrical fence, now can ya?”
         “She lives on a farm, with barbed wire fences, Frank!” Nina told the old man, as she ran past him, carrying a box full of drugs. Frank let out a streak of curses that made Tagg blush.
         “Bates!” Tagg caught the man as he slinked in through the back doors. “Why is everyone acting so crazy? What’s going on?”
         “Master Vance is bringing Miss Collin for a visit,” Bates said, the perfect butler as always, even if his pale eyes did have a deadly gleam in them.
         “Who’s this Miss Collin and why is everyone freaking out about her?” Tagg demanded. He still hadn’t learned manners towards anyone. Mae still had to whack him with a spatula, at least twice a day, for cussing.
         “She’s the cutest, most evilest, most sweetest, most cleverest, most adorable little devil ever to be born,” Nina came to a gasping halt beside them. “She’s Damian Maddox’s daughter. She’s the Princess of Dark and rightly so, seeing as how she’s able to drop Reeve flat in less then ten seconds. She’d be head of Dark, if she weren’t only ten,”
         When Vance walked into the door, with a scrawny little girl trailing behind him, Tagg thought that the others were being a bit overdramatic. She was adorable in a yellow sundress and purple leggings, her dark blonde hair up in a messy ponytail. She had freckles dotted around her nose, brightening her dark, almost black eyes. She looked like a wispy angel with one shoe untied. Gabe soon learned differently.
         He made it clear that he didn’t want a child following him around. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, though. He yelled at her, called her a scrawny little brat, but she just stared up at him, with innocent eyes, almost as if she were laughing at him. When he cussed, she smiled, just a little, showing that she was more amused then put off by his attitude. He sulked around the house and she followed him, imitating his glowers and frowns.
         Vance watched, amused, as Tagg tried, for the umpteenth time, to get rid of his niece. This time Tagg called her a pint sized gremlin with an ugly face and crooked teeth. Collin came back with a comment about his shaggy dark hair and piercing making him look like a girl. Tagg growled and spun around, storming away, only to have Collin skip after him, a smile on her face.
         “She really enjoys torturing him, doesn’t she?” Mae asked Vance, as she prepared supper.
         “I’m actually surprised she’s being so social with him,” Vance said, with a shrug. “Phoebe said that she’s been struggling with making friends at school, since Hannah moved away. I’ve asked Ray to send Gabe to Chandler next year, so Collin can have a friend,”
         “Do you think that you should be keeping Collin from making friends on her own?” Mae asked him, in her motherly tone.
         “By struggling to make friends at school, I meant that Collin told one of the other girls that she looked like a goose,” He shot Mae a brilliant smile. “I think that if she has Gabe there, to teach her the proper etiquette of preteen behavior, she’ll start making her own friends,”
         “You let her spend too much time with the men,” Mae waved her spatula at him.
         “She was born to be a mercenary,” He smiled warmly at his niece. He loved her as if she were his own child and felt sorry for everything she’s been through in her young life.
         Tagg didn’t start looking at Collin as more then a troublesome brat until he learned about how her parents died. Apparently, Collin had been there when her father was shot and her mother raped, then murdered. Collin escaped by screaming, making her presence known, and distracting her captor, by slashing him across the face with a piece of broken glass. She was five at the time.
         Dark never caught the man in charge of it all, just his flunkies who had been there. When they searched the building, they found Damian’s bullet-ridden body at the bottom of the stairs and Alicia’s mutilated corpse in one of the bedrooms. Reeve was the one who found Collin, huddled in a hallway closet, silently crying. They suspected that she had been molested too, but she wouldn’t let anyone near her and she physically attacked the nurse who had tried to examine her.
         Collin refused to talk about it. She moved in with Phoebe Jonathan and her younger sister Quinn, a rape victim of the Bloodbaths, a notorious anti-government group that named Dark as their rivals, only a week after the murders. She attended school without a problem and socialized with other kids, up to a certain point. Collin had always been cautious about new people, even before her parents’ deaths.
         By the end of Collin’s stay, she and Tagg were best friends. It had a lot to do with the fact that Tagg felt a sort of connection with her that he hadn’t felt with anyone else and a little to do with her being able to beat Reeve in a fight, even though she was six years younger then him and half his size. She’s a second degree black belt.
         Right before Collin, Reeve, and Vance were to leave from Home Base, Vance pulled Tagg to one side. Collin was being interrogated by Nina and Bates on why the weapons door was wide open; and Reeve was trying to sooth a frazzled Frank, who was raging about the unsightly state of his garden.
         “You know how you said you wanted to be a member of Dark?” Vance asked Tagg, softly. Tagg nodded, his heart beating rapidly. “Well, I have a job for you. It may not sound like much to you, but it’s the most important job that anyone can receive and if you fail, someone from my team will probably kill you,”
         “Okay,” Tagg gulped, a little afraid of the serious expression in Vance’s dark eyes.          
         “The Bloodbaths are searching for Collin,” Vance’s tone was serious and cold. “We believe that the man who kidnapped Collin and her parents is one of the leaders of the gang. I need someone to protect her. She doesn’t trust anyone except for you and Reeve, and I need Reeve to be with me. Can I trust you to protect her?”
         “Are you going to kill the guy who killed her parents?” Tagg asked, curiously.
         “He’s not that lucky,” Vance said, icily. “Now, will you watch over the Princess, Tagg? Keep in mind that she’s stronger then you are and smarter and way more adorable, so you have to make sure she doesn’t outmaneuver you,”
         “I can handle the scrawny brat,” Tagg promised.
         Tagg kept his promise. He watched over Collin, like a stealthy ninja. He trained with the stealth force of Dark, so he could outsmart Collin into thinking that she wasn’t being watched. It never worked. If he was hiding in the trees while she was playing outside on her farm, she’d disappear for a minute and when he was stricken with panic, she’d jump onto his back, saying “Gotcha!!”
         He fell in love with her and it hurt him to see her with Reeve, who she clearly worshiped. Reeve teased her by telling her to hurry and grow up so that he could marry her. It infuriated Tagg. He was the one who knew who she really was; the only one who knew that she only got three or four hours of sleep each night because she had nightmares that left her shaking and covered in sweat.
         Vance said that Collin never showed any signs of trauma from her abduction, but he was wrong. Collin suffered every day, remembered every night. She was just so good at hiding her feelings from everyone that no one saw it. It tore at his heart when she would sit, huddled on her bed, with her knees clutched to her chest, crying. He wanted to comfort her, but he knew she’d resent it. She didn’t like letting anyone in on how she was feeling.
         Things were pretty quiet until the day that Tagg got a call that said Vance had been killed and Reeve was moving Dark to the east coast, to keep the Bloodbaths off of Collin’s trail. He was pretty forceful in his recall of Tagg.
         Tagg was seventeen at the time, six-three and well muscled. His karate skills were pathetic compared to Collin’s, but he was good at street fighting and had already defeated over half of the men employed by Dark. He’d done a few special jobs for Dark over the past year and he did his job well, being able to keep his emotions separate. Reeve wanted him to work full-time for them. Tagg couldn’t refuse.
         Collin was fourteen and already promised to be a heartbreaker. She was tall, five-nine, still scrawny, but she was starting to get feminine curves in all the right places. Her hair was darker, a deep honey color, and it was thick and wavy, falling to the middle of her back. She had a beautiful face, with dark eyes, her freckled nose, and a full mouth that he was forever staring at.
         “I’m sorry, Col,” He told her, on the day that he was to leave. She was sitting on the top rail of the corral that held the wild black stallion that she had tamed.
         “I should be the one taking over Dark,” Collin said, staring at Midnight, who was chewing on some grass.
         “You’re only fourteen,” Tagg reminded her, knowing that this was a sore subject for her. She believed that a Maddox should be running Dark, no matter what.
         “So? Uncle Vance took over Dark when he was barely nineteen,” She gave Tagg an icy look. “Why should Reeve be in charge when I’m a better fighter then he is? I’m the best shooter in Dark,” She growled as she jumped off the rail. “Shouldn’t skill and knowledge count more then age?”
         Tagg frowned at her. She’d been training to take over Dark since before she could walk. She was a seventh degree black belt, her shooting was 97% accurate, and she could speak fluently in seven different languages. She was more than qualified to take over Dark, but no one wanted to put her through that. Deep down, Tagg knew that Reeve was only doing this so Collin could get away from all the violence, the pain, the suffering.
         “You don’t have to be strong, Col,” Tagg told her, softly. His heart was breaking, just looking at her.
         “Look who’s talking,” She snapped back. “When I first met you, you were this scrawny little street kid who thought he was so tough, even though Reeve could drop you in less then a minute. You still think you’re tough,”
         “I am tough,” He smiled down at her. “I beat you in a fight,”
         “Sitting on me is cheating!” She glared at him.
         “To counter your superior fighting technique, I used my superior weight,” He replied, laughing. “You really should eat more, Collin. You’re as thin as a rail,” Just to test the waters, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her against him. “Yup, still a scrawny brat,”
         Fire burned in her dark eyes. She didn’t like to be touched. She wouldn’t even let Reeve touch her. Quinn got by with holding Collin’s hand, but a hug was taking it too far. Gabe never hugged her, either, even though he always wanted to. He knew Collin could easily kick his ass, even though he didn’t know about her black belt, or her shooting abilities, or even her being multi-lingual. Tagg had always been jealous of Gabe, because Collin shared more with him, then she did with Tagg.
         “Tagg, do I have to break your arm?” Collin’s soft voice broke his train of thought.
         “I’m hugging you goodbye,” He murmured, holding her close.
         “Will you do something for me?” She asked, softly.
         “What?” His expression was guarded. A request like that, coming from the infamous Collin Maddox, could be dangerous. For all he knew, she could be asking him to kill Reeve, so she could become the head of Dark.
         “Will you kiss me?”
         She looked so innocent and so vulnerable at that moment that Tagg was almost afraid to kiss her. Her eyes were a startling shade of brown, almost a gold. When he stared at her, she looked away, embarrassed. She actually blushed, which sent a surge of desire rippling through him. He nearly shuddered with it.
         “Never mind, just forget I said anything,” She pushed against his chest, trying to get away from him.
         “Collin,” He cupped her chin in his hand and forced her to look up at him. She had tears in her eyes. “I’d do anything for you, honey,” And he kissed her.
         What she lacked in experience, she made up with passion. Tagg’s heart nearly exploded in his chest when their lips met. Collin wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself against him. Tagg groaned. She was just as hungry for him as he was for her. He wanted to take the kiss so much farther, but he knew he shouldn’t.
         He released her mouth, but still held onto her. She trembled against him. “You’re mine, Col, and only mine,” He whispered, fiercely, wishing it were true. “Don’t fall in love while I’m gone, alright?”
         Tagg tried to forget about Collin. It was just a teenage infatuation. When that failed, he told himself that she really didn’t want him. She just asked for the kiss, because she’d never been kissed before. That didn’t work, because it reminded him that he was her first kiss and it made him possessive and he thought of a million ways to  make Collin fall in love with him.
         Tagg only managed to escape from Reeve’s radar, because Reeve’s youngest brother had gotten tangled up in some trouble. As they looked into it, they discovered that Gabe was also involved. Gabe, being the son of one of the original Dark members, was reason enough to bring the whole of Dark into the situation.
         Because Tagg had resented Reeve so much, he’d been given the task of finding out the identity of who killed Vance. His name was Malcolm Ambrose and not only was he the man who killed Vance, he was the one who abducted Collin and her family. He was sixteen at the time. Now, at twenty-eight, he was the head of the Bloodbaths and the older brother of Mason Ambrose, a teenager who had raped over a dozen girls in the past year.
         While Reeve and Dark set up camp at their old Home Base, just twenty miles from where Collin lived, Tagg searched for Malcolm. That’s when he discovered that Mason was a senior at Riverdale High, a town just six miles from Chandler. Through that, Tagg learned that Malcolm was in the area and he was hunting for Collin. He was obsessed with her, crazy obsessed.
         Tagg didn’t put everything together until it was to late. Malcolm was planning a kidnapping attempt on Collin. After a panicked call to Quinn, Tagg learned where Collin was.
         He’d seen the black van trying to run her off the road, to no prevail. Collin was an excellent driver. She learned from Gabe, who had been racing cars since he was fourteen. Not only that, she stayed calm under pressure and that gave her the advantage to get her car under control and on the road. Tagg breathed a sigh of relief, he could make it to her in time.
         Then he heard a gun shot and saw Collin’s front passenger tire explode. They were going eighty miles an hour and the road was icy from the wet February snow. The car spun into the ditch and the black van slid to a halt beside it. In his headlights, Tagg saw the rear driver’s side door open.
         As he slid the truck to a halt, Tagg jumped out at the same time. Before his feet even touch the ground, he heard another gun shot and then he heard Collin curse loudly. She didn’t scream. She would never give anyone the satisfaction of knowing they hurt her. She wasn’t like that.
         Tagg was never a good shot with a gun, so he rarely carried one. He was, however, excellent with his fists. Before the guy even knew that someone else was there, Tagg had him unconscious, the man’s face covered with blood. He text a 911 to Nina and then the location. Dark could interrogate the man, then Tagg would kill him.
         “Collin! Collin!!” Tagg crawled over her car.
         She was kneeling in the weeds, holding herself up with one arm, while gripping her right calf with the other. In the faint light from his truck, he could see that the left side of her face was covered in blood and as he got closer, he saw the red spot on her pant leg growing bigger with each second.
         “Collin,” He sighed, then spat out a stream of curses.
         “Phoebe would wash your mouth out with soap,” Collin laughed, then groaned, falling onto her back. “I think I’ve been shot,”
         “No kidding?” He tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a choking sound. Taking a pocket knife out of his pocket he cut up the seam of her jeans, to survey the damage. “The bullet went clear through,” At least that was good.
         “Oh well, that’s something then,” She laughed, then made a straggling noise. “It doesn’t hurt any less,” She cried grabbing a fistful of weeds.
         “It’s just a scratch, Col,” He teased lightly, as he ripped off the sleeve of his t-shirt. “Imagine the big, bad Collin Maddox crying over a little scratch,” His hands were shaking as he wrapped the cloth around the bullet hole.
         “If I weren’t bleeding profusely, I’d kick your ass,” She’d given up on being strong and was crying now. “How bad is it?”
         “I don’t think the bullet hit anything vital,” He said, frowning at her. Gently, he ran his fingers over the left side of her face. The gash was small and already starting to clot. “And thanks to that hard head of yours, I don’t think you have a concussion,”
         “I’m getting tired,” She commented, softly.
         “You’ve lost a lot of blood,” He said as he pulled her into his arms. She was still scrawny.
         “I’m cold,” She murmured, shivering against him.
         She passed out then. Tagg sat her in the truck and covered her up with his own jacket. He was going to take her to Home Base, until he discovered that they were being followed. He managed to lose them, by taking back roads. He couldn’t risk, revealing Home Base to the enemy, so he settled for a cabin, out in the middle of nowhere.
         It wasn’t more then a square room, with a fireplace, a wood burning stove, and cupboard full of supplies. Vance showed Tagg this place when he first agreed to watch Collin. It was only six miles from where she lived and it was surrounded by trees on all sides. You could only get to it with a four wheel drive vehicle, even on good days. The perfect hideout.
         Tagg got the fire going, then he laid Collin on the bearskin rug in front of it. This would be romantic if Collin wasn’t unconscious and badly injured. He took off her wet clothes, leaving her in her bra and panties, his control being severely tested. She had a gorgeous body. Long, slender limbs, ample breasts. He wanted to touch her.
         He settled for cleaning out her wound and wrapping her calf with gauze. Then he wiped the dried blood from her face and hair and put a butterfly band-aid on her head wound. She looked like a little martyr, his little martyr. With a heavy sigh, he covered her up with both of the blankets in the cupboard. He changed out of his wet clothes into the ones he had in the truck; faded jeans and a black t-shirt.
         He watched her sleep. Even after three years, he still wanted her. She’d filled out and wasn’t a scrawny kid anymore, but a slender woman. She was devastatingly beautiful, like they all knew she would be. She probably had a dozen boys chasing after her. He wondered if she had a boyfriend. Had she slept with him? Was she in love with him? His heart clenched at the thought.

         Collin knew she was dreaming. She always knew when she was dreaming, but it didn’t make it any less terrifying. It wasn’t like the dream she had when she was younger. It was more eerie. Instead of leaning over her mother’s lifeless body, the man with the scar was leaning over hers. She could feel the weight of his body on hers. Then, he laughed and pulled out a gun and aimed it above her head. It wasn’t her father he was pointing the gun at. It was someone else. A man with dark hair and silver eyes. Tagg.
         Collin jolted awake on a scream. She was gasping for breath, tears streaming down her face, her body wracked with uncontrollable shudders. She felt like she had been shot through the heart and couldn’t breathe.
         Suddenly, she was being held by strong arms. Someone was stroking her hair and whispering soothing words in her ear. She didn’t like to be held, she knew that, but didn‘t feel like pulling away. The chill was disappearing, as was the terrifying feeling that surrounded her. She was safe. Knowing that, she held on for dear life and cried for the first time in a long while.
         “You still have the nightmares?” Tagg asked, when she had stopped crying. He still held on to her and she didn’t feel any need to pull away.
         “This was different,” She murmured, laying her head against his chest. He was warm and strong. His body was firm and well muscled. “More terrifying”
         “How?” He urged, gently.
         “You were dead,” She looked up at him, her breath catching in her throat. His eyes were so beautiful, silver and intense. He was staring at her with the same intensity he had, three years ago, right before he had kissed her.
         “I don’t plan on dieing anytime soon,” He assured her, trying to make things light. She was hurt and vulnerable and he didn’t need to seduce her. Not like this, anyways.
         “Good,” She snuggled against him. “Will you hold me all night?” She asked, on a sigh.
         “Of course,” He brushed the hair from her face and kissed her forehead. He felt her smile against his chest.
         “And Tagg?”
         “Hmm?”
         “Next time you take my clothes off, we’re not going to be sleeping,” And then she was asleep.

         Gabe was furious with himself. How could he not be? In being so wrapped up in something as frivolous as breaking up with Sophie, he let Collin be hurt. Collin. His best friend, who’d always been there when he needed someone to listen to his problems. He never listened to her. If he did, he would have known about Malcolm. He could have protected her, like she’d been protecting him.
         “Gabe, it’s not your fault,” Quinn put a comforting hand on his arm. “You know that Collin didn’t like to show her emotions. She wouldn’t have told you what was wrong, even if you had asked you. It’s not your fault,”
         “I should have known,” He bit off, tears blurring his vision. “She’s my best friend. I hurt her in so many ways,”
         “Hey, Gabriel!” Jesse, blonde hair sticking out in all directions, blue eyes alight with anger, stormed into the room, oblivious to Gabe’s distress. “Do you know what your ex-girlfriend is saying about my Ollie? Go tell your bitchy ex that she is the only one unfortunate enough to have had sex with you!”
         “What?” Gabe looked up, confused.
         “Sophie is telling all of her little gal pals that you cheated on her with Ollie,” Jesse was fuming. “I tried to tell her that I’ve worked long and hard protecting Ollie’s virginity, but she’s dead set on making herself look like the victim by having her best friend and ex-boyfriend betray her,” He let out a huff of breath.
         “Why would Sophie say that?” Quinn asked, worriedly. “She and Collin are like sisters,”
         “She has to be the victim in everything,” Gabe growled, storming out of the room.
         “Oh my God, Sophie, none of us has slept with Collin!!” Trace was shouting at her when Gabe walked into the living room of the mansion.
         Sophie and the girls from the basketball team were on one side of the room and Trace, Zane, and  Max were on the other side of the room. It didn’t look pretty. Sophie’s eyes were red and puffy from crying and Trace’s hands were clenched into fists. He rarely got mad and when he did, people got hurt.
         “I know that you’ve slept with her, Trace!!” Sophie shouted at him.
         “Hey, hey!” Jesse came back into the room. “He better not have slept with her,” He stood on the girl’s side of the room, glaring over at Trace.
         “Trust me, if I had slept with Collin, you all would know!” He said, accusingly.
         Reeve walked in and stood next to Gabe, “You guys sure do have strange fights,” He winced when Jesse and Trace started wrestling over their defense of Collin. “They do realize that they’re both defending Collin, right?”
         “Well, actually, Jesse is trying to keep Ollie a virgin and if given the opportunity, Trace would definitely sleep with her,” Lucas walked into the room, eating a Twinkie. “And me, she’s like my eye into the minds of women. And to Gabe, she’s the most important thing in the world, except that he doesn’t want to sleep with her. We all love Ollie differently,”
         “Who is this kid?” Reeve asked Gabe.
         “A distraction,” Gabe said as he pushed Lucas into the middle of the room. “Luke just admitted that he’s gay!” And with that Jesse was air humping him and the other boys were egging him on.
         Without any finesse, Gabe grabbed Sophie by the arm and pulled her out into the hallway. “Why are you saying those things about Collin?” He demanded.
         “Why are you constantly with her?” Sophie challenged.
         “Because she’s my friend and she’s been helping me through a rough spot. If you remember correctly, Ollie and I were friends before I even moved to Chandler. If I had wanted to sleep with Ollie, I would have asked her out instead of asking you,”
         “Feelings change,” Sophie snapped, making remember how she easily fell out of love with him.
         “Maybe so, but let me tell you this,” He spoke softly, threatening. “Collin would never and I mean never, do anything to hurt you. If I had made a move on her, she would have told you and she would have stopped talking to me. Collin’s a good person. She wouldn’t do anything to hurt the people she cared about. And you’re a horrible friend for thinking she would,” With that, he left.

         The moment that Collin awoke, so did Tagg. He felt her stir beside him and was wide awake. She was laying half on her stomach and half on her side, using his arm as a pillow. He, himself, was laying half across her, one arm wrapped around her waist. He hadn’t realized that he’d fallen asleep himself.
         “Morning,” He murmured, slowly releasing his grip on her. She rolled over and stared up at him, a half smile on her face, “What?” He asked, curiously.
         “I thought last night was a dream,” She said, laughing to herself. “I’ve been imagining you everywhere, lately. First in Texas, then out on the farm,” She shook her head, embarrassed.
         “I’d be flattered if I hadn’t of been watching you for the past couple months,” He laughed, softly. “In fact, my pride is hurt that I was easily noticed,”
         “Don’t feel bad,” She rested her hand on his cheek. “I always know when you’re watching me. Even last night. I knew you’d rescue me, which is why I wasn’t scared,” She smiled up at him, with absolute trust. He and Reeve were the only ones she trusted completely.
         “I didn’t get to you soon enough,” He kissed the cut on her forehead.
         “But you came and that’s all that matters,” She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him closely. “I’ve missed you so much, Tagg. I’d gotten so use to you brooding in the trees,”
         “I don’t brood,” He told her, sternly.
         “Okay, pouting,” She agreed, reluctantly.

         Reeve didn’t like dealing with teenagers. Having to deal with Tagg had been bad enough, now he had a dozen of them staying in his house. The boys he might be able to handle, but not all the sobbing girls. Collin had never been like that. When she was pushed, she didn’t start crying, she fought back. And you learned not to push Collin, because she would push you until you were in a hospital bed, being nursed by Nina.
         “Where’s Collin?” Jesse demanded, as soon as all of the teens were settled into the planning room. Ever since they got the news that she was safe, they’d been going crazy.
         “She’s safe,” Reeve told him. Tagg had just called in with updates, saying he wasn’t going to bring Collin to Home Base, like he’d been ordered to. Tagg was a loose cannon, but he’d keep Collin safe and that’s all Reeve really cared about.
         “Boss, you’re having a staring contest with a seventeen-year-old,” Nina tapped Reeve on the shoulder, holding back a laugh.
         “How do we know that you’re telling the truth?” Keira, the only girl who would chose Collin’s side over Sophie’s, asked. “For all we know, Malcolm could have her and you’re just covering your tracks, to keep us all complacent,”
         “I like her,” Nina whispered to Reeve.
         “Trust me, girl,” Reeve spoke with disdain, “If Malcolm had Collin, I wouldn’t be here, babysitting you guys. You each love Collin, correct?” He focused on the boys, more then the girls. They just glared at him, “Well, I love her, too,”
         “Your brother is about to get his ass kicked, Bennett,” Jesse told Trace, icily.
         “I was the one who found her after Malcolm abducted her the first time,” He stared out the window, before turning back to the crowd of teenagers. “I know her better then anyone,” He dared Jesse to challenge him. “She isn’t like your little friends,” He stared at Sophie, and they all knew he was talking about. “Even if she were with Malcolm, she’d never betray us. She’d fight back. Afterall, she’s the only one to challenge him and she was only five,”

         Collin took a quick shower and changed into clean clothes, while Tagg kept a look out for Phoebe, who was do home from work any minute. After a long argument, they’d decided not to go to Home Base, where most of the Chandler High student body were staying. Collin didn’t like crowds, even if they were a crowd of people who were protective of her and loved her immensely.
         “So, Jesse is still a crusader for your virginity?” Tagg asked her, as he waited for her to change. He remembered that the crusade had started at the beginning of her freshman year.
         “Definitely,” She called, laughing. “I swear he’s more obsessed with my sex life then he is his own. Did you know that he followed me on a date once? He snuck into the movie theater and sat three rows behind us and when Danny tried to kiss me, Jesse through his pop at him. Word got around and I haven’t had a date since,”
         “I think I want to kiss Jesse,” Tagg said, only half joking. He really liked that kid, even three years ago.
         “Sorry, he’s already promised himself to Lucas,” Collin said, opening her door. She was dressed in fresh jeans and a clean t-shirt. Her hair was still wet and curled around her face in soft waves.
         “Why’d you cut your hair?” Tagg asked, taking a strand and twirling it around his finger. He liked it long. It made her look like a angel, even when the gleam in her eye told him otherwise.
         “Why’d you cut yours?” She challenged.
         Tagg glared at her. His hair was still considered long, but it no longer reached his shoulders. It was cut in layers and curled above his ears and against the nape of his neck. He’d cut it for practical reasons. It was becoming to much of a hassle. Besides, he knew that Collin hated it when it had been that long.
         “So, what are we gonna do now?” Tagg changed the subject. “I should be checking in with Reeve,”
         “Reeve can go to hell,” Collin said, wrinkling her nose. “We’re going to prove who’s the rightful leader of Dark,”
         “Yea, like hell we are,” Tagg laughed, lifting her into his arms. Her limping had been getting worse, the longer she walked. She let out a yelp of protest. “We don’t have to check in with Reeve, but I’ll be damned if I let you do something that could get you killed,”