Undone: A New Adult College Bad Boy Romance (Mature Young Adult Fun Contemporary Romance) (18 page)

“Stay back!” Carolyn screamed.

“What are you going to do little girl?” The Man laughed in a heavy Eastern European accent, drawing a knife from his pocket, “Shoot me?”

“I will?” She screamed as she looked to Dwight for help. He was being wrestled to the ground by the remaining two men and his eyes burned at her with resolve, she had to do this. The thought of her taking another man’s life made her stomach churn though, and she knew if she wasn’t careful she would vomit.

The Ginger Man smiled a black toothed grin before he lunged at her with the outstretched weapon. She took the initiative, pointed the gun at his foot and shot. The bullet pierced his shoe and sent a burst of blood cascading onto his leg. The shot was enough of a distraction for Dwight to find his advantage and he pulled the man who was crushing his neck over him, sending him tumbling to the ground as he took care of the last man by breaking his nose with his elbow.

Dwight rushed over to Carolyn, insuring she was unharmed when, from the ground, they suddenly heard a scream.

“Wilhelm!!!” The lethargic voice of the Ginger villain called as his hand clutched the radio which was pressed to his mouth. Dwight aimed a strong kick to the man’s face and he collapsed back as they heard a voice shouting back over the radio, never to be answered.

“Damn,” Dwight breathed, “we need to be quick now.”

Carolyn nodded, before saying, “I shot a guy.”

Dwight turned to her, concerned, “You okay?”

She turned to him, exhilarated, “You bet your ass.”

He smiled, “Good.”

Dwight rushed over to the ship's control panel. He pulled the radio out of its cradle and pressed it to his mouth.

“Come in, mayday, mayday. This is Dwight Alexander, calling from the Mary Elizabeth cruise liner. We have been hijacked, I repeat, we have been hijacked.”

His finger released the talk button as he awaited a response, only to be met by the cold metallic scratching of static. Dwight threw the device down and opened up the panels beneath the control board. He breathed a heavy sigh as he showed Carolyn what he had discovered within. She craned her neck to see a jamboree of torn and destroyed wires.

“What does that mean?” Carolyn asked despondently.

“It means,” Dwight returned, “that we’re on our own.”

~

In the dining room, Wilhelm held his walkie-talkie up to his mouth, trying to reach his fallen compatriots.

“Frank,” he called angrily into his communication device, “Frank.”

When it was clear he was not going to receive a reply Wilhelm hung his head and passed the device to the associate closest to him. Slowly, he lifted his head back up, and leered menacingly out to the crowd.

“It looks like one of you little chickens have flown the coup,” he declared eerily, “so I’m afraid we are going to have to speed up our timeline a little bit. Isn’t it annoying when one person comes along and ruins it for the rest of us? So, now, I give this man 3 hours. My men are going to search for our lost soul, and if he is not presented to us, or if the owner of the painting does not come forward, in the new time frame that I have allotted, then I’m afraid Captain Birdseye here is going to go down with the ship. How does that sound? Hmm? Okay, go find the missing person's boys, return him to me, and hopefully we can spare the dear Captain's life.”

Charles Lippincott looked nervously to his wife as she mouthed one word at him;

Carolyn.

~

“Where did you learn that stuff?” Carolyn asked as they made their way down another corridor.

“I’m a former marine,” Dwight confirmed, growing ever more comfortable with sharing tidbits of his past with Carolyn, “and Navy Seal.”

“Wow.” She said admiringly.

“I stopped,” he continued, “because of my daughters. But it looks like trouble finds me wherever I go.”

“Where are we heading now?” She asked.

“My cabin,” he replied as a shadow of lust crept across her face, “I have something there that might help.”

“What?”

“A communication device,” he explained, “it's old, uses Morse code. They were used in the Second World War. My Navy buddies and me brought them, in case we were ever in a jam and needed to communicate. Hopefully the batteries haven’t run out on mine, or theirs. It’s a long shot, but it’s the only one we’ve got.”

“Do you think it could work?” She timidly enquired.

“If everything’s in order?” He said, “I think it could.”

She nodded and continued to follow him down the labyrinth hallway. Despite the desperation of the situation she couldn’t deny that the thought of being permitted to Dwight’s cabin made her think terrible, and wonderful, things. Her romantic musings were quickly cut off though when they turned the corner to find three of the Nazi goons awaiting them. They pointed their guns in their direction and opened fire. Dwight pushed into Carolyn and forced her back against the wall, but not before the surface of a bullet skimmed through the fabric of his shirt and sliced a rent in the skin of his arm. He fell on top of Carolyn and gasped in pain.

“You’re hurt!” She exclaimed.

“I’m fine,” he assured her, “stay here. And
don’t
get trigger happy again, leave these guys to me.”

He disappeared around the corner. Carolyn heard a few thuds, like a series of heavy books closing, and a clatter of bullets, before Dwight appeared again, blood blossoming from the wound on his arm.

“Come on.” He said to her, offering his hand. She took it.

~

Dwight’s cabin was a few corridors along from where he left the guards. Whether they were dead or unconscious, Carolyn didn’t know. When they entered the room he pulled the ancient looking device from under his bed, put on the headphones accompanying it and tested to see if it worked. With success he managed to transmit his message.

“Okay,” Dwight said, removing the headphones, “hopefully one them has received it.”

“Good,” she said assuredly, “now let’s take a look at that arm.”

“No, Carolyn I….”

She took no notice of him as she lumbered over to a first aid kit on the wall of the room. She removed it and went about getting the bandages and alcohol she needed for the surgery.

“Lose the shirt.” She told him forcefully.

He groaned and took off the shirt to reveal a scarred, muscled torso. Carolyn gasped at his physique, so strong and beautiful, ribboned as it was with the white slithers of cuts which had penetrated him. She kneeled down. At this moment she was unconcerned with her attraction to him.

Being the size she was she knew that someone as handsome and rugged as Dwight could never be interested in her, but she wanted to care for him now, to tend his wound and let him know that she was extremely grateful for everything he had done. And so she doused a cotton bud with the clear formula and applied it to the wound. Dwight hissed in pain for a moment before she began wrapping the bandage around him.

“All finished.” She said as she began to clear away the contents of the kit.

“Thank you.” He said sincerely, looking down at her. “So what’s your story?”

“Oh, you know,” she said, avoiding his gaze as tears welled in her eyes, “love, heartbreak, loneliness. The general story of a woman my size.”

“What do you mean?” He asked, genuinely confused.

“Come on,” she replied, glowering at him with a sardonic stare, “I’m not exactly Claudia Schiffer am I?”

“No,” he said, “but you’re… you’re much
more.
”

She glanced at him, scared and vulnerable.

“Do you mean that?” She asked, afraid of the answer.

“I do,” he nodded, “I think you’re beautiful.”

She smiled, terrified, unsure of the next step. She felt as if she was wading in an ocean of stars but if she touched any one of them then the fragile light might disappear. He made it a lot easier for her though as he stepped off the bunk, pulled her up close, and lightly kissed her. She smiled, breathless.

“Do that again.” She pleaded.

He leaned down and planted another kiss, deeper this time, as they both luxuriated in its closeness. He darted his tongue into her mouth as his hands began to caress the outline of her body. She breathed heavily as his lips traced past hers and over her ears, down to her neck. Electric jolts of pleasure coursed through her as her heart swelled with warmth and understanding. He stopped kissing and looked deeply into her eyes, before he gently drew her down onto the bunk with him, breathing “you’re beautiful” over and over into her ear.

Chapter 3

Carolyn blinked as the warm Mediterranean sun leaked through the small porthole window into the cabin. Her mind wondered as she tried to reconfigure her senses and familiarise herself with the unfamiliar trappings of the room. After a few moments, memories of the day before came flooding back to her. She remembered the fear she felt at her friends being kept captive by a Nazi madman, the rush she had experienced when she fired a bullet into a man’s foot and then…and then. She turned to see Dwight in the bed beside her, felt his strong arm wrapped around her body and all of a sudden she was unsure if she was actually awake, or if she had simply slipped seamlessly into another dream.

Dwight stirred as she desperately willed him not to wake. She feared that it had all been a whim for him, a moment of madness, and if he awoke to find her smiling back at him he would instantly be disgusted. Uncertainty stabbed at her heart, but then she remembered what he had said last night, that he had whispered those beautiful words over and over again;

You’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful.

This recollection brought a smile to her face and tears sparkled in her eyes. Maybe he did want her, maybe everything he said was true. Maybe, just maybe.

Her attention was suddenly broken when she heard the smallest sound from the other side of the door. Dwight’s eyes suddenly flicked open and like a flash he was out of bed, pulling on his clothes. He looked at her, indicating quiet, and that she too should get dressed…she was happy to oblige. They both proved to be too slow though, and the door burst open as Dwight was pulling on his shirt. 5 of Wilhelm’s men broke into the cabin and this time there wasn’t much of a fight. They caught Dwight, tangled in his top, by angrily forcing a punch into his abs. After that the men easily took him down. With his face pressed to the floor they bound his hands with zip ties. Carolyn lifted her own hands into the air.

“I surrender.” She uttered, before a burlap sack was forced onto her head and her world was suddenly engulfed by darkness.

~

Light blinded her vision as the sack was lifted unceremoniously from her face. Carolyn blinked back the tears as her eyes struggled desperately to adjust to the light. The back of her head was in searing pain and she could only imagine that someone had clocked her there with a gun after the sack went on, she couldn’t remember anything. She felt as if her senses were working against her. Her hearing was muffled, and her mouth tasted like copper. She looked around to see if she could see anything familiar, or establish a bearing.  As her eyes began to adjust she began to notice the blurry outline of people, and her ears began to permit the sound of an angry, fuzzy voice.

The first thing she saw were the worried faces of Charles and Miranda Lippincott, who stared up at Carolyn, looking more terrified than she had ever seen them before. She forcibly moved her gaze away from them for she knew that if she were to keep looking their sadness would make it impossible for her to remain strong.

And so she turned, and instead searched for source of the voice. It belonged to a man with dirty blonde hair, wearing a tight t-shirt, an automatic machine gun strapped across his chest. Kneeled in front of him, bound and gagged, were two other men. One had hair as white as snow, drenched in blood. The other…was Dwight. He looked fearfully over to Carolyn, his eyes widening. Wilhelm followed his gaze.

“Ah, Sleeping Beauty, you have awoken.” He said scornfully, as he pulled the gun from his chest and stroked its muzzle against Dwight’s face. “I’ve been taking care of lover boy for you.”

His smile was deadly, and full of malice. Carolyn fought against it though, her eyes shooting red fury at him. Dwight, she thought, was the first man she had really felt anything for in 8 years, and she wasn’t sure that she had ever had feelings this strong. She was damned if she was going to let this long haired bully take him from her. Carolyn had been laid down on the floor, and though her hands were tied she managed to push herself up into a sitting position. Her self-consciousness faded, she didn’t care about her size now, all that mattered now was that she protect these people, the Lippincott’s, and Dwight. Most of all Dwight.

“You’ve no idea what you’ve done.” Carolyn laughed. “You’ve no idea what he’ll do to you.”

For a moment, uncertainty flickered across Wilhelm’s face. It was only for an instant, like a cigarette burn on a movie reel, but it was there, Carolyn saw it, and she knew that she could exploit it.

“I don’t think he’s going to be doing much of anything,” Wilhelm retorted, “I think he’s going to die. I have two lovely hostages now, as well as all these fine people. I will kill 20 of you before I stop, and then we shall take this matter to the next stage.”

“Killing people with a gun,” Carolyn snarled, “you’re no warrior. You’re a coward. Anyone can fight with a weapon, why don’t you use your hands?”

Wilhelm laughed and strolled over to where Carolyn sat. He kneeled down and spoke directly into her face.

“I don’t need to fight, this is not a war.” He said, “I’m not a bad guy. Nobody’s dead here, not yet. Just a little scuffed. I want my painting though, and I will go to any measures to get it.”

“A painting?” Carolyn blinked incredulously, “This is all about a painting?”

“He’s mad!” Charles’s voice sang out from the crowd. Wilhelm whipped his head around.

“I am not crazy!” He screamed.

“You’re pathetic.” Carolyn snarled, sensing that she was getting under his skin, praying that it was a weakness Dwight could take advantage of and that she wasn’t going to herself killed.

Wilhelm kneeled down and stroked the gun against her lips as Dwight screamed through the gag in his mouth.

“You think so?” Dwight purred, “Well, how pathetic is this?”

He stood suddenly, directly, and he levelled the muzzle against Carolyn’s temple.

“No wait!” Charles and Miranda screamed in unison, darting up out of the crowd. At that exact moment though Dwight stood, moving quick as a grasshopper. Using the back of his head he smashed the man looking over him in the face then rolled away as he anticipated bullet fire. But before that could happen, the room erupted into chaos.

There was a dull thumping sound on the windows, and the entire congregation turned their heads to see small timed detonators had attached themselves to the gleaming surfaces. They exploded, shattering the windows into a million tiny pieces as a squadron of black clad figures swung in through them. Dwight smiled, his friends had arrived.

Smoothly and efficiently the rescuers made their way throughout the room and neutralised any threats. Before a single bullet was fired they managed to subdue anyone who crossed their path.  Dwight, his hands still bound, managed to barrel over the guards near him before he made his way over to Wilhelm. The man was attempting to flee but Dwight launched himself into the air. He pushed his legs out in front of him and like a flying stone he plunged into Wilhelm’s back. The blow was met by a sickening crack and Wilhelm crashed, screaming to the floor. Dwight joined him there.

~

When the battle was done, and Dwight was released from his bonds, he rushed over to Carolyn. He took her head in his hands and planted kisses all around it. She returned them in turn and then they both hugged deeply.

“I thought I was going to lose you.” He whispered softly.

“Never,” she cried, “you’re never going to.”

He smiled at the thought. Just then, three people made their way over to Carolyn and Dwight. Two of them were the Lippincott’s, who pulled Carolyn into a massive hug. The other was a Navy Seal commander, who enthusiastically shook Dwight’s hand.

“How you doing Terry?” Dwight enthused. “You got my message then?”

“Sure did.” Terry confirmed. “Good job too, the government’s been tracking this madman down for a while. He’s left a trail of bodies behind him like Hansel and Gretel left breadcrumbs.”

“And all he wanted was a painting?” Dwight asked.

“Yep, madman, like I said. Fortunately our people on the boat were smart enough not to hand it over.” Terry told him with some relish.

“Yeah.” Dwight skeptically agreed. “And who are these mysterious heroes of yours?”

Charles looked up from his hug and broke free of the embrace as he made his way over to Dwight. He held out his hand to shake that of the Navy Seal.

“Charles Lippincott,” he said, “nice to meet ya. And this is my wife, and partner in crime, Miranda.”

Miranda slipped away from a flabbergasted Carolyn to shake Dwight’s hand.

“What?!” Carolyn spewed. “But, you’re investment brokers! You always have been!”

“Well, we have a little job on the side.” Miranda teased.

As the Lippincott’s strode away to debrief with Terry and pass the painting into safer hands Carolyn stood, cemented to the spot, mouth open and eyes wide. Dwight made his way over to her.

“You okay kid?” He asked sincerely, but not without an inflection of humour.

“I just can’t believe it,” she said, “I’ve known them all my life.”

“Yeah..?” He towered over her and suddenly, very aware of his presence, she looked admiringly up at him, “I think it’s time you got to know some new people.”

She arched an eyebrow up, “Yeah?”

He wrapped his hands around her, “Yeah. I’m Dwight Alexander. I’m a former Navy Seal and father of two. And I’d like to you on a date.”

This time, she smiled mischievously.

“I accept.”

The End