Protector #6 (A Navy SEAL Military Romance) (4 page)

“You
bitch,” he spat. I’d hit a raw nerve and I knew it. “You really shouldn’t be
talking about parents who are disappointed now should you?”

“My
parents aren’t disappointed in me,” I said truthfully. “They just don’t care
what I do. Unlike your parents who care about everything you do and every move
you make. Man, this is going to suck when it comes out that you’re a woman
beater and a murderer.
 
I’d be surprised
if they didn’t totally disown you.”

The
sting of Dominic’s hand hitting my face surprised me only a little. It was the way
my neck snapped to the side that shocked me. He’d hit me many times before, but
he’d never hit me this hard or with this much rage. For a moment I was
frightened that he would unload the gun in my head, but then I remembered how
much he enjoyed watching me suffer and knew that he’d be far more likely to
kill the others and make me watch. Dominic’s sickness was ego and attention,
and when I was forced to pay attention, his ego swelled. I had a good idea of
what was coming next, so I closed my eyes and came as close to praying as I
ever have in my life.
Just let us live.
Just let us live. Just let us live.
I didn’t ask for any favors, just the
gift of life and hoped that someone up there would hear me.

The
next thing I felt was Dominic yanking me up off of the bed and dragging me by
my hair to the front room. The others were conscious now, but since they were
tied up, they were also helpless. I bowed my head as Dominic pointed the gun at
the room server and said, “Tell him you’re sorry, Ava. Tell him that it’s all
your fault that he’s going to take a bullet to the brain. Tell him that you
feel terrible about it, but that you appreciate his sacrifice so that you can
live.”

I
looked down into the terrified eyes of the teenager and held my breath.

I
opened my
mouth and found myself pitching forward toward the floor. I landed on top of
the terrified room server who let out a loud “
Oof
!”

“What
the hell!” I yelled as I felt someone land on top of me forcing an “
Oof
!” out of both me and the poor room server on the bottom
of the pile.

“I
wouldn’t move if I were you,” said Dominic as he pressed the barrel of the gun
to my head. “Are you going to attack me, Mr. SEAL or are you going to let me
get up?”

“Get
up, you coward,” Brian growled as he backed away from the pile.

Dominic
slowly lifted himself off of me as he kept the gun aimed at my head. He then
yanked me off of the frightened teenager and pulled me against him so that my
back was pressed against his chest and I could see Brian’s face. I could feel
the cold metal of the gun against my temple and I smiled weakly at Brian so
that he wouldn’t know how scared I was. He looked right through me as he fixed
his gaze on Dominic and the gun.

“You
see, Seal, I win. I get the girl. You lose,” Dominic proclaimed. “You are
nothing more than a hired hand.”

“Oh,
you have no idea what I am, you arrogant prick,” Brian shot back as he watched
Dominic closely. “But the one thing I’m not is you, thank goodness. Who would
want to be such a pathetic loser?”

“You’re
good at what you do, but you’re not going to get me worked up,” Dominic
chuckled. “You see, I win. I will always win. I have money and money makes
everything work. You don’t have money, so you are nobody. You can’t have girls
like this because you have nothing.”

“Is
that what you think? That I want your girl?” Brian laughed loudly as he began
circling us forcing Dominic to turn on the spot where we were standing in order
to follow him. “That’s just ridiculous. Why would I want used goods?”

His
words pierced my heart and I wondered,
Is
that what he thinks of me?
I was trembling as Dominic spun in place. The
gun was hard and cold against my head and I could feel the tears welling up in
my eyes as I realized that one wrong move and he’d fire a bullet right into my
brain. I wouldn’t stand a chance. My eyes searched wildly for Brian, but he was
on the move and was keeping us moving, too.

“Used
goods? Is that all you think of her? My, my, my, that’s not very complimentary,
is it, Kitten?” Dominic looked at me as he asked the question. “How do you feel
about being called used goods?”

“I’m
not used goods,” I whispered.

“What
did you say? You need to speak a little louder, dear,” Dominic ordered. “We
can’t hear you.”

“I’m
not used goods,” I said more clearly.

“Well,
I believe the Seal here thinks you are,” Dominic reminded me. Brian continued
moving, his attention focused on Dominic, but I could see that he was holding
something in his right hand. I couldn’t tell what it was, though. Dominic
pressed the gun against my head harder and more insistently. “I think maybe he
might be right. Maybe you are used goods, and you know how much I hate it when
something that is mine has been used.”

I
couldn’t hold it in any longer, and the tears began sliding down my cheeks. I
had done everything I could to try and save all of us, and now I was going to
be the first one to die. Dominic was going to win, again. I’d done everything I
could to escape from him, and he was going to have the last word here in this
hotel room with Brian watching. I closed my eyes and willed myself to breathe
deeply. If I was going to die, I wasn’t going to fight it. I would stay calm.

Seconds
later I heard Brian yell, “Duck, Ava!” and without thinking I pulled away just
as Brian flew across the room and grabbed Dominic’s arm. He let go of me and
turned the gun on Brian. I heard myself screaming as the gun went off and the
sound rendered me deaf for a moment.
Was
I shot?
I didn’t feel like anything hurt, and it didn’t look like I was
bleeding. I looked up and saw Brian punch Dominic in the face as he swore a
blue streak. Dominic punched back wildly, but only landed one to every four of
Brian’s.

Where is the gun?
I couldn’t see it in Dominic’s hand. I frantically searched the room with
my eyes and finally located it on the floor just under the sofa. Dominic had
dropped it when he’d fired a round and Brian must have kicked it out of the
way. I scrambled across the floor and grabbed it from its hiding place as
Dominic landed a vicious punch and I heard the crunching of bone against bone
as his fist connected with Brian’s cheek.

I
winced as I lifted the gun and pointed it at Dominic. His earlier punishment
had left my arm an aching mass of bruises, but I held the gun up as I stood and
yelled, “Dominic, stop! Now!”

He
turned and looked at me holding the arm that was holding the gun and then burst
out laughing. His laughter struck a nerve and I nearly pulled the trigger. I
would have, too, had it not been for the fact that this gave Brian the
opportunity to connect one very brutal punch to Dominic’s ribs. I watched
Dominic crumple to the ground holding his side as he writhed in pain, then
looked up at Brian and held out the gun.

Brian
quickly crossed the room and took the weapon from me and tucked it back inside
the holster under his hoodie before moving back over to where Dominic lay
crying in pain and giving him a swift kick in the ass for good measure. Wide
eyed I looked up at him.

“Hey,
he tried to kill both of us,” he shrugged as he pulled out his phone and
quickly punched the 911 key. He told the operator where we were and what had
transpired then hung up the phone, tucked it in his pocket and moved over to
help me off the floor saying, “I think we should get some clothes on you, don’t
you think?”

The
rush of adrenaline had made me completely forget that all I was wearing was a
pair of panties. I shivered as Brian wrapped an arm around my waist and walked
me back to the bedroom where he retrieved my clothes and helped me pull my
t-shirt over my badly bruised torso. I left my bra on the floor knowing that to
try and put it on would be more pain than I could handle. After he’d helped me
dress, he walked me back out to the living room and sat me on the couch.

“Just
stay there, okay?” he advised as he moved around the room and untied the room
server and Cheese. He brought the frightened teenager to the couch and sat him
down next to me. Cheese was still groggy on the floor, so Brian went into the
bathroom, ran some cold water over a washcloth and brought it out to put on
Cheese’s face. Dominic lay silent on the floor until Brian nudged him with the
toe of his sneaker, then he groaned in pain and tried to roll over.

“I’m
going to kill you, Seal,” he muttered as he tried to get up off of the floor.
The pain in his ribs made him cry out and sink back down to the floor.

“Yeah,
promises, promises,” Brian replied as he pushed Dominic’s face into the carpet
a little harder than necessary. I looked away. I understood why Brian was doing
what he was doing, but I still didn’t want to see it.

Despite
everything that had happened, I felt sorry for Dominic. He was a sad, sick man
and he was going to pay the price for his desire to get revenge, but I also
knew he was a broken boy who never felt like he’d been loved. I shook my head
and looked at the poor little room server who’d gotten caught in the middle of
all of this and thought he was going to be killed. I put a bruised arm around
his shoulders and reassured him that it was all going to be okay.

Brian
looked at me from across the room, and then looked away.

*****

Fi
ve minutes
later the police pounded on the door and when we opened it, they came streaming
in like they had prepared to storm the entire hotel, and it occurred to me that
maybe they had. The first thing they did was bring in the EMTs and have them
check us all out. Dominic was put on a stretcher while we were all questioned,
but they didn’t roll him out.

Brian
gave a detailed account of what had happened and I was shocked to hear him
telling the officers about what I had done to try and divert Dominic’s
attention so that he could free himself. He’d been conscious the entire time. I
felt the shame rising in my chest as I realized he’d heard me say some really
terrible things about him as I’d tried to figure out how to save us all. I
looked over at him, but he was deep in conversation with the officers, so I
shifted my attention back to the room server who’d been obviously traumatized.
I told the medics what had happened to him and how he’d stayed remarkably calm
for someone so young. They took turns reassuring him that he would be okay, and
then slowly led him out of the room to the waiting ambulance. Other EMTs had
collected Cheese and quickly driven him to the hospital. It sounded like they
feared that he had a concussion from the blow to the head and they wanted to
get a CT scan to make sure he wasn’t bleeding into his brain.

I
told the police what had happened with Cheese and that while he was certainly
responsible for his actions, he had not signed on for the kind of action that
Dominic had decided on once they’d gotten in the room. I didn’t want to absolve
Cheese of any responsibility, but I also didn’t want him taking the fall for
Dominic’s evil plot to kill us all. The officers took my statement and then
finished up with Brian before they signaled to the EMTs that they could move
Dominic out of the room.

“I’m
not done with you, Kitten,” Dominic ranted as the EMTs wheeled him toward the
door. “I’m going to find you and hunt you down! You will be sorry that you ever
messed with me when I find you!”

I
shot a frightened look in Brian’s direction and he moved in next to me and put
his arm around my waist as he softly said, “They will never let him out of
prison again. Don’t worry, Ava. It’s a done deal. You’re safe.”

I
gave him a grim smile as I watched them wheel Dominic away from the room, and
then turned to the officer in charge and said, “He has evidence of all the
horrible things he did to me.”

“What
do you mean?” asked the officer.

“He
was my boyfriend, but he beat me badly and I finally left,” I replied. “Today
he said he has videos of the beatings that he would watch when he missed me….”
I trailed off as the tears started to flow. Brian turned and wrapped his arms
around me pulling me against his chest and stroking my hair as I cried.

“Do
you know where he keeps them?” the officer asked.

I
shook my head against Brian’s chest, not wanting to have to think about where
Dominic might keep such awful mementos of his abuse. For the hundredth time
since this all started, I wondered how I could have possibly ended up here.
Is this all my fault?

“Ava,
none of this is your fault,” Brian whispered as if reading my thoughts.
“Dominic is a sick individual, and you had nothing to do with that sickness.
You were a victim of it as much as the rest of us.”

“But
I couldn’t stop him,” I sobbed.

“None
of us could, alone,” Brian soothed. “It took all of us to stop that level of
sickness. You can’t blame yourself.”

I
nodded, but I wasn’t sure I believed him. Brian held me as the officers
finished up their preliminary work and told him that we’d need to come down to
the station to file reports and give statements the next day. Brian took the
officer’s card and assured him that we would be there the next morning.