Protecting Melody (24 page)

“Me. Kill me, but leave Tex alone.”
 

Diane threw her head back and cackled. When she had herself back under control, she looked Melody straight in the eye and said in a completely normal voice, “It will be my pleasure.”
 

Melody squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head and waited. She hoped it wouldn’t hurt. When push came to shove it seemed she wasn’t as brave as she’d always hoped she’d be when it came to her mortality.
 

Several things seemed to happen at once. Melody heard the knife Diane was holding clatter to the ground. Baby made a sound Melody had never heard come out of her before and Diane cried out.
 

Suddenly she was knocked over sideways. Melody’s eyes popped open but she couldn’t see anything because she found herself underneath Tex. He’d leaped from the chair he’d been
strapped to and tackled her off the couch. He’d obviously somehow been able to get out of the bindings she’d used on him.
 

Melody heard a shot and Tex was off of her before she could get her bearings. A loud shriek and a thud echoed through the apartment. The wailing of police sirens getting closer broke through the sudden silence in the apartment. The sound eerily monotonous and still sounding way too far away.
 

“Mel, I need you to get up and go to the door. Let the cops in. Don’t look over here. You hear me? Do
not
look over here,” Tex ordered in a low commanding voice, no hint of the loving man she’d come to know over the last few weeks.
 

“How’d you get out of the rope?”
 

“I’m a SEAL, Mel. It wasn’t hard. I’m been trained how to hold my body while being restrained to minimize the effect of the bindings. I’m assuming the cops were your doing? I don’t think they would’ve gotten here so quickly if someone called them after hearing that first shot.”
 

Melody sat up on the floor and leaned her back against the front of the couch, not looking toward Tex. She couldn’t seem to get any air in her lungs. She was breathing way too fast and her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. “Yeah, I typed in a quick message to the people at the ceremony I was translating for. I didn’t know if it would work or not.”
 

“You’re fucking amazing, Mel. It obviously worked. Are you okay? You didn’t get hit? How badly is your arm bleeding?” Tex’s questions came at her quick and stoic.
 

Melody did a quick mental scan of her body. Her arm hurt, but she didn’t have any other holes in her body that she could tell, so she was pretty sure she wasn’t shot. “I don’t think so. Of course, I have so much adrenaline going through my body right now I can’t be positive, but I don’t see any blood other than on my arm, so I think I’m good. Oh my God! What about you? I need to get you bandaged up.”
 

“I’m good. Go on now. Do as I told you. Go to the door and don’t look over here. Let the cops in.”
 

“Tex, you’re not okay, she cut you.” Melody suddenly remembered. “Wait. What happened? Where’s Baby?” she breathed.
 

“Mel, don’t,” Tex warned sternly.
 

But it was too late. Melody whipped her head around to where Diane had been standing next to the couch, on the other side from where Tex had thrown her when he’d yanked her off the couch and to the floor, and inhaled. Tex was lying on top of an unconscious Diane, holding both her hands in his, keeping her captive in case she came to before the police showed up. Melody had no idea what Tex had done to knock her unconscious, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to give her a chance to get up and threaten them again anytime soon.
 

Melody looked to his side and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Baby was lying next to Tex bleeding from her mouth and her haunch. Her eyes were open, but staring straight ahead sightlessly.
 

“Oh God. No. Baby.” Melody scrambled up and crab walked on her hands and knees over to kneel at Baby’s side. She raised tear drenched eyes to Tex. “What happened?”
 

“Baby saved our lives. She gnawed through her leash and attacked Diane. Just as she was about to pull the trigger and put a bullet in your brain, Baby leaped over and bit her on the thigh. Diane turned and shot her to try to get her to let go. I’d already worked through the knots you made, Diane didn’t notice because she was too fucking busy torturing you, and Baby’s distraction gave me enough time to get to you and then to Diane and disarm her. I’m so sorry, Mel.”
 

“Nooooo. Tex, she can’t have killed Baby. She was only trying to protect us.” Melody wiped the tears away from her face with one hand and put her head down next to Baby’s muzzle. “Oh God, Baby, please. Don’t die. Don’t. God. I never wanted this to happen to you.” Melody put her hand high on her dog’s leg where the blood was slowly oozing out. She looked up at Tex. “Look at the blood on her mouth. She got Diane good didn’t she?” The words came out as hiccupped sobs, but Tex understood her anyway.
 

“Yeah, Mel. She got her good. She saved you. She loved you so much. I knew that the first time I met her. When Amy told me you had a dog I knew I had to bring her to you. Somehow I knew you needed her and she’d be important in this whole damn mess.”
 

Melody sobbed harder and put both hands over the hole in Baby’s haunch. The dog didn’t even flinch as Melody pushed down to try to stop the bleeding. She had no idea if it was futile or not, but she had to do something. She couldn’t sit there and watch the life bleed out of her precious dog.
 

Melody couldn’t see what she was doing through the tears coursing down her face, but she babbled on as she watched the red well-up between her fingers as she tried to staunch the scary amount of blood oozing from the coonhound. “Baby never liked Diane. I never thought anything about it. I just thought she was still scared like she was in the shelter when I got her. But there was one time I clearly remember when we saw Diane on the street. She came up to me and Baby growled. I just backed up and laughed it off. I tried to tell Diane it was just because Baby was a shelter dog and scared, and she’d laughed it off. I should’ve listened. I should’ve remembered and told you about it, Tex. I’m so sorry, Baby. I should’ve listened to you.”
 

Tex couldn’t stand it anymore. He leaned up and took off his belt. He lashed Diane’s hands together tightly and made sure the gun was kicked across the room. Knowing Mel needed him and Diane was out for the count at the moment, he awkwardly shuffled over to her, grimacing at the phantom pains shooting through his leg at the movement. He ignored them and came up beside Baby and Mel.
 

He put his hands on Mel’s shoulders and tried to tug her into his arms.
 

Mel jerked away from his touch, not losing her grip on Baby. “No! Tex, no. Baby’s not dead. She can’t be dead. Call a vet or something. Please. We have to try. I can’t let her go.”
 

“Mel.”
 

“God, Tex please. I can’t lose her. Not like this. I love her, I need her.”
 

Tex couldn’t stand the anguish in Mel’s voice. He pulled out his cell phone and swiped the screen, leaving a bloody smear across it, which he ignored. He punched in a number and quickly spoke into it.
 

“Yeah, I need your help. We’re good. It’s over, but I need a veterinarian, the best you can get a hold of. Baby was shot. Yeah, by the fucking stalker. Bad. Okay. ‘Preciate it.” Tex stuffed the phone back into his pocket and told Melody, “Wolf’s taking care of it.”
 

He watched as she nodded jerkily, but Tex wasn’t sure she really heard him.
 

“Keep the pressure on her leg, but talk to her, Mel. Like you do. She’ll hear you. Tell her to hang on.”
 

Tex’s heart broke as he watched the woman he loved speak to Baby through her sobs.
 

“Baby? You’re the bravest dog I’ve ever met. I have no idea what you went through before I found you, but you have to hang on. You did it. You protected me and Tex. You saved our lives. I know you were probably just paying me back for saving yours, but I still need you. There are other bad people in this world and we need you.
 

“I swear you can sleep on our bed every night. We won’t shut you out again. It’s obvious you don’t care if we make love with you there, so if you don’t care, we won’t either. I love it when you scrunch the blankets over and over until they’re just right in whatever mysterious way you decide. I promise you can come with us wherever we go. Just please, don’t leave me. I love you so much, Baby. I never knew how much. Please don’t die. Not like this. I need you.”
 

Melody looked down at the blood that was still slowly seeping through her fingers and onto the floor. Baby’s eyes hadn’t closed, but she wasn’t blinking either. It was the most horrific thing she’d ever witnessed in her life. The tears fell harder. She turned to look at Tex. She could see he was as affected as she was at the sight of Baby motionless on the floor.
 

“What am I gonna do without her?”
 

A loud knock came on the door. “Police. Open the door.”
 

Tex got up without a word and hopped to the door. Melody watched, absently noticing how even though he was hopping on one leg, he was steady and confident. All the practice he’d obviously done without his prosthetic had paid off. He was as confident hopping around the room as he was walking.
 

Tex held his hands up as the police stormed in with their guns drawn. Melody turned back to her beloved dog, not caring what the cops did. She wasn’t going to move her hands from the hole in Baby’s haunch until the vet got there. Melody couldn’t tell if Baby was breathing or not, her hands were shaking too much and the tears prevented her from being able to see clearly. Ignoring the commotion behind her she leaned down to Baby again. She’d continue to talk to her until the vet arrived. Tex said Wolf would take care of it. She trusted him. “Hold on, Baby. Help’s coming. Don’t die. I love you.”
 

Melody sat in the circle of Tex’s arms and looked around in wonderment. Her little apartment was overflowing with people. She wasn’t sure exactly how it had happened, but all of Tex’s friends were there as well as four of their women. Caroline couldn’t come because she was in the middle of a huge research project and Alabama had a final exam at school that she couldn’t miss. Both had sent their profuse apologizes for not being able to be there.
 

Melody wiped the tears from her eyes. It felt like she’d been crying forever, but she couldn’t seem to make herself stop. She’d had one hit after another and now she found herself crying at the slightest provocation.
 

“I still don’t understand what you’re all doing here,” she said, voice breaking once more.
 

“We’re here because you needed us, Melody,” Wolf told her. He was leaning against the wall as if he was overseeing the group. “All it took was a phone call and Commander Hurt helped get us on the next military flight out here. Tex might live on the other side of the country, but he’s always been there for us, it’s the least we can do for him to be here when you guys needed us.
 

“Thank you for getting Dr. Gaiser to come for Baby. We appreciate all he tried to do for her.”
 

“You don’t have to thank me, Melody. I’m just so sorry he couldn’t save that leg.”
 

“It’s okay, Wolf. Baby’s alive. That’s all that matters. And you know what? I’ve seen lots of dogs get along just fine on three legs.”
 

Tex ran his fingers through Melody’s hair. “Besides, we’re a matching set now. Me and Baby.”
 

Everyone in the room laughed. Melody closed her eyes. She was exhausted. After being seen in the emergency room for the cut on her arm, and after Tex had been patched up as well— he’d required some stitches, but refused to be admitted to the hospital—she’d spent the last day at the emergency vet with Baby.
 

Dr. Gaiser had managed to safe Baby’s life, but the bullet had cut through her femoral artery, and he hadn’t been able to save her leg. The first time Baby had woken up and licked Melody’s fingers had been completely overwhelming. The doctor had finally kicked her out, telling her to go home and get some sleep. Baby would be coming home sooner rather than later and Melody and Tex would have their hands full keeping her from chewing on her stitches and helping her get used to her new reality.
 

“So this woman, Diane, was holding a grudge from when you guys were in high school together?” Summer’s voice was incredulous.
 

“Apparently. I had no idea. But it wasn’t just that. She had some sort of mental disorder. The specialists who’d treated her in the past recommended she stay on medication for the rest of her life, but after a couple of years she thought she was better and stopped taking them. That’s when it really started. She saw me, and how happy I was with my life and suddenly I was the cause of all the bad things she’d had happened to her in her life. And well . . . you know the rest.”
 

Amy, who’d rushed back to Pennsylvania from Virginia after hearing what had happened, and had also come over to the apartment, chimed in as well. “Seriously, the bitch used me to find out where Mels was. I can’t believe it was her. I hardly even remember her from high school, but apparently she remembered us.”
 

Melody blinked and tried to keep her eyes open. She knew it was rude, but she was exhausted. She’d been stressed for what seemed like forever and having the stalker off her back and knowing Baby would be okay, was making her feel lethargic and she knew she was crashing. Worse were Diane’s words that kept echoing through her brain. “
Choose, you or him
.” It was a horrible decision to have to make. Melody knew Tex wasn’t happy about her choice, and that he’d want to talk to her about it, but she was just so tired.