Caliber

Chapter 3

5 months later

Dj walked into his apartment building, his workout bag hanging off his back, his tight black under armor shirt protecting his chest from the strap from rubbing. He just got done mountain climbing and he felt good, it kept him from unwanted company and away from the thoughts that were waiting in the background.

That wanted to tear down the walls that he built to keep the past in the past. He shook his head to get the remaining rain out of his hair from his sprint down the sidewalk, then he slicked it back out of his face as he walked to the elevator.

He wasn't paying attention to his surroundings and all of a sudden he walked into a woman carrying files. The files went airborn and she landed on her butt, Dj cursed at himself as he bent down to start picking up the scattered papers and file folders.

"I-I'm so sorry! I-I wasn't watching where I was going!"
"No it's ok, I'm to blame, my head was somewhere else" Dj said and he looked up at the young woman, the thoughts of the past instantly forgotten and he forgot what he was doing. Her eyes were gunmetal gray behind black framed glasses and her hair was a golden blonde, that was an uncommon combination.

Her checks were bright red as she noticed the way he was looking at her. Dj cleared his throat as he stood up and offered his hand to her to help up.
"Names Derek Kane, but Dj will do"
"Anaya Cohnen" Anaya said as she grabbed Dj's offered hand and he lifted her up of the floor effortlessly as if she were a feather, she stumbled again and Dj caught her against his chest.

oh my god! what does he do? He's a freaking rock! Anaya cleared her throat and mentally pinched herself. She looked up at Dj's face, her eyes drifted over his sculpted jaw and up to his sharp cheek bones and to his eyes. They were a deep green almost like the forests of her home town in Maine, then her eyes traced over the scar across his right eye.

Dj cleared his throat and stepped away keeping a hand on her arm to make sure that she was steady, when he was sure that she was, he bent down to retrieve the forgotten files and handed them to her.
"Are you headed up?" Dj asked and Anaya nodded as they turned and walked into the elevator,
"Floor 3 please" Anaya said as she tucked a strand of gold blonde hair behind her ear shyly. Dj hid a smirk as he turned to press his floor number, so this beauty with the smart glasses lived on his floor, this should be interesting to see how the events of his suddenly interesting new life unfolded. Could this little slip of a woman be the reason that his life was spared in the cave?
I might be jumping to conclusions, I barely know this woman and I'm going to suddenly be in her life?
"So, Mr. Kane, what do you do for a living?" Anaya asked and Dj couldn't hide his smirk any longer, he full on smiled at her.
"Well, for one Mr. Kane was my father, call me Dj and I'm military Ms. Anaya, here's our floor" Dj said as they walked out of the elevator.
"Our floor?" Anaya squeaked and Dj let out a chuckle as he pointed to his door,
"My apartment 214" Dj said and started walking towards the apartment, he noticed that Anaya was following him and he looked at her over his shoulder. She pointed at apartment 212,
"My apartment is two doors down from yours." Anaya said as she blushed and looked away from his muscular back.

"So Anaya, what do you do? Assuming that you're not just carrying all those files for fun," Dj asked and Anaya looked up at him and pushed her glasses that had slipped down her slender nose back up.
"I-I'm a doctor" Anaya stuttered out clearly caught off guard by his question,
"Doctor huh?"
"Well, I have my doctorates in phycology, I-I don't have many patients yet, I just started practicing, I just mostly do research. I'm sorry I'm rambling now aren't I?" Anaya asked and Dj smiled,
"Yes, but I think that it's cute" Dj said and Anaya blushed, Dj smirked, he liked seeing her go red. When she did it made the skin from her cheeks down the skin of her neck and did it go under her blouse? Dj thought. Anaya looked back up at him, he quickly hid the thought from his eyes by thinking of his best friend Dukes favorite rifle.

"What do you do in the military?" Anaya asked and Dj looked away and leaned against his door, his guard suddenly up.
"This and that, I can't really discuss my job," Dj said and then he took out his keys and started to open his door. Anaya mentally slapped herself,
Way to go Anaya, the first man to show interest in you and you go and stick your foot in your mouth. And the man is one freaking gorgeous male specimen!
"Hey Anaya," Dj said as he turned back towards her,
"Yeah Dj?"
"It was nice meeting you, or well bumping into you" Dj said and Anaya smiled at him.
"Bump into you later?" Anaya asked, Dj smiled back at her and saluted her and then walked into his apartment. Anaya unlocked her door and went in, her heart had been hammering in her chest on the way up to their floor and her body heated up from being so close to Dj. She was a woman for hells sake she wasn't dead.

Any woman could appreciate a man like him. He was fit, strong, and god did he smell good! But how in the world did he get that scar across his eye? Anaya pondered this as she walked to her balcony door and walked out. The breeze felt good, so good that she wanted to sit down and not even bother with the files that she brought home with her. Her mind was no longer on work, but occupied with a certain soldier two doors down. She lived here for a month and she hadn't ran into Dj before now.

Either he came home late or he was always gone on a mission. Anaya thought back to what was hanging off of Dj's back. It had to be a workout bag, but he was wearing what some people may call climbing clothes. Anaya's mind decided to give her an image of Dj rock climbing without a shirt on and her face went bright red.

You're a traitor brain, a big old freaking traitor. Anaya thought to herself, but she let herself indulge in the fantasy that her brain wove for itself. She was a psychologist, she knew about chemistry and all about how the brain detects a suitable mate. But she also was aware that he had went through something that she couldn't fathom on trying to understand. And that scar across his right eye was proof, oh she had spotted a few scars on his arms as well.

Anaya wanted to help, but she wasn't going to force the help on him. He seemed like the type of guy who'd back away from a psychologist like his shoes were on fire. Anaya sighed and went back into her apartment and looked warily at the files she sat on her desk. She needed to get to work on those, but there was no way that her mind wasn't going to let her.

***************

Dj rummaged through his workout bag trying to find his mp3 player. He needed to clean his sniper rifle after the workout he put it through yesterday. Duke didn't believe him when he said that he was getting rusty. He was, he missed the freaking bullseye twice yesterday. And he wanted to get back into the groove before Kerria put him back in rotation for missions.

There the damn thing was, the mp3 player had gotten nestled in between his climbing rope and all the damn carabiners. That Kerria demanded that he use when he went out rock climbing. Sure it was safe using them, but he never used them or the rope. Just kept them on him in case Kerria got on him about safety.

Dj glanced at the armor that was sitting by the door. The skull mask glaring back at him, reminding him about the reason he looked forward to gearing up again. He had fooled everyone that he had come to terms with what had happened to him. But he really hadn't, he was literally itching to get revenge on the drug/arms trafficking shit heads that captured him and that was still looking for that little five year old girl. Her father was the genius behind a new technology that would not only update the worlds weaponry, but also the medical profession.

Dj grabbed his fifty caliber sniper rifle out of the locked armored gun case from under his sofa. Placed his ear buds in and let the bass of five finger death punch sooth his troubled mind as he started cleaning the rifle.