Protector (A Navy SEAL Military Romance) Read online

  “Very good, Lara!” Professor Blake exclaimed.

  As I looked over my shoulder and gave Lara a thumbs up, I caught sight of Brian standing guard out in the hall, and again my blood began to boil as I reminded myself that my father, the one who was so overly concerned with my safety, had never even met Dominic. Come to think of it, my father had never made the time to come to campus and see what was going on or even offer to come see me. Instead, ever year he’d assign one of his minions to pack up the car, drive me to school and drop me off in my dorm room, and the night before he’d come in and hand over cash, one new credit card for all my school expenses and another one “for fun” he’d say with a wink and a nod, then I’d roll my eyes and tuck the cards in my wallet. It became our yearly ritual.

  Sometimes during the year, I’d fly to New York and go on a huge shopping spree just to see what he’d say when he got the bill, but he never said anything; not even when I spent over $15,000 on clothes and shoes in one trip to Dior. I’m not sure he even noticed.

  “What do you think, Ava? Do you agree with Jessie?” Professor Blake’s voice cut through my thoughts pulling me away from my family and bringing me back to the classroom.

  “I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” I apologized as I turned beet red from the embarrassment of being caught off guard.

  “Ah ha, I see,” he nodded and then rephrased the question. “What is the base definition of Stockholm Syndrome? What makes it so powerful?”

  “That the victim finds a way to identify with the abductor and actually falls for him,” I said without hesitation.

  “Good, good!” he encouraged. “Can you tell me more about it, Ava? What’s the danger?”

  “That the captive empathizes so much with the abductor that they see the abuse as kindness…” my voice trailed off.

  “Yes! Excellent answer, Ava!” Professor Blake crowed as he turned his attention back to the whiteboard at the front of the room where he began writing terms and asking other students to define them.

  I sat quietly, listening to my classmates calling out the answers to questions the professor asked in rapid fire and wondered if Brian was still out in the hallway. I quickly turned to check and caught his eye before he turned and scanned the corridor again.

  I wasn’t scared, but something felt off and I didn’t know what it was.

  *****

  “What did he say about the exam, Ava?” Lara was tugging on the back of my shirt. “Did he say it was fifty percent of our grade?”

  “No, he said the essay would be fifty percent of the exam grade,” I answered in an irritated tone. “God, Lara! Would just slow down and listen every once in a while?”

  Lara’s pouty lower lip told me that I’d hit a nerve, so when I finished packing up my things, I stood and put an arm around the tiny redhead and said, “C’mon, cheer up! You answered so many questions right today that you’re bound to be on Professor Blake’s good side. I’m sure he’ll cut you slack on the essay.”

  “I did do a good job, didn’t I?” Lara chirped, my scolding was completely forgotten - or at least forgiven.

  Brain was waiting outside of the classroom, but I ignored him as I linked arms with the girls and said, “Let’s go get something to eat, I’m starving!” Lara and Jessie enthusiastically agreed that burgers were just what we needed, so we headed over to Five Guys and proceeded to polish off enough food to keep us full while we studied all afternoon. Halfway through the meal, Jessie elbowed me and quietly asked if we should order something for Brian.

  I shrugged and felt a little guilty, but when I turned toward him, I saw he was positioned in a corner table eating his lunch while scanning the premises for any threats. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the girls. “Apparently he can take care of himself,” I reported with just a hint of sarcasm.

  I’m not sure why I felt so angry at Brian. He’d had nothing to do with the situation and he was only doing the job he’d been hired to do. My real beef was with my father, so I vowed to refrain from taking it out on Brian anymore. I’d just ignore him and go about my life as I had before he’d arrived. If he was really good at his job, he’d find a way to keep up with me.

  For the rest of the day I tried to ignore the large muscled man tagging after me, but the people around me made it difficult as they gave me funny looks and then stopped to whisper to each other as they looked back and forth between me and Brian. It didn’t faze me too much since I’d grown up in a family with money and was used to being stared at, but the attention that Brian brought was on a whole other level. His handsome good looks caused women to literally stop and stare, and then when they noticed that he was walking a few feet behind me, they’d make a comment about me just loud enough for me to hear.

  The last straw for me was when I stopped in the bookstore to pick up the study guide for the Psych exam and overheard two of the cashiers talking about me. Their backs were turned to the registers, so they didn’t see me walk up behind them and place my items on the counter.

  “I heard the bodyguard was hired to ensure that no one talks to her unless she acknowledges them,” whispered the girl with the mousy brown hair to her friend, a tall blond with a buzz cut and a pierced nose.

  “Oh, I heard it was because she carries so much cash on her that it’s dangerous for her to be out in public!” the blond replied excitedly as she twisted the ring in her nostril.

  I cleared my throat and looked away, embarrassed that I’d overheard them. The mousy girl spun around and I watched as the color drained from her face and wondered if she was going to faint.

  “I’m…I’m…I’m…so sorry!” she stammered.

  “It’s okay,” I said shrugging. “It happens all the time.”

  She rang up my purchase without saying anything. She didn’t even tell me the total so I slid my card through the reader and punched in the code. I could see her searching for something to say that would erase the shame of having been caught talking about me, but I had nothing to offer because I was so aggravated by Brian’s presence and the fact that he was the reason this was happening. And then it came to me.

  As I grabbed my bag off of the counter, I leaned in and quietly said, “Actually, neither theory is correct. He’s an actor friend of my dad’s who is researching a role for a movie. It’s annoying, but you know…” and I turned and shrugged toward Brian.

  The girl said nothing, she simply nodded as I swung the bag off the counter and walked out the front door. The whole way back to my dorm, I fumed about my father’s decision to upend my life on campus and give people yet another reason to stare at me and talk about me. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized she’d forgotten to give me a receipt, but I wasn’t terribly annoyed because on the walk home my resentment had morphed into a plan to get rid of Brian and get my father to leave me alone.

  *****

  Around eight o’clock, I stuck my head out the door of my dorm room, and sure enough, Brian was standing in the hallway scanning the premises as usual.

  “Hey, I’m planning to head out for a run,” I told him. “Care to join me?”

  “Only if you’re going to head over to the track,” he replied. “It’s the only place I can guarantee your safety.”

  “Oh my God!” I shouted. “Would you please knock it off with the stupid guaranteed safety stuff? You sound like an ad for medical alert devices or something — and I’m not old!”

  “Just doing my job, Ms. Klein,” he replied, but I swore I could see a hint of a smile forming around the edge of his lips.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I replied waving him off like a pesky fly. “Fine, we’ll go over to the track and run. Happy now?”

  “It’s not about my happiness, ma’am,” he responded seriously. “It’s about your safety.”

  “Argh!” I let out an exasperated sigh as I slammed the door to my room and went to change into my running clothes. I emerged a ten minutes later ready to do some good hard running to work off the frustration I’d been feeli
ng all day and eager to see if my plan would work.

  Brian followed close behind me, not speaking, just maintaining a close watch on our surroundings. When we entered the gate surrounding the track, he held up a hand and made me walk behind him as he checked out the area before signaling it was safe for me to run. My irritation with this whole set up was palpable and I had half a mind to tell him how incredibly ridiculous it was getting, but then I remembered my plan so I shut up and rolled my eyes as I stretched. Once I was warmed up, I looked over at Brian to get the go-ahead, he nodded and I took off at a slow pace.

  Thankfully he didn’t run with me.

  Instead, he continued scanning the area as he perched on the bleachers and maintained surveillance of the entire area. I rolled my eyes again at his vigilance and picked up my pace. It felt good to let off some of the steam that had been building all day and after a couple of laps I felt warmed up enough to begin devising a way to put my plan into action. The bright lights that illuminated the track reached into the dark edges of the field and then tapered off past the fence line. I made note of the trees and shrubs surrounding the fence thinking that they’d provide excellent cover. I picked up my pace and ran a little faster as my mind raced. I knew I could do it; the question was whether Brian would figure out what I was doing in enough time to stop me. I decided that the risk was worth the payoff and on my sixth lap around the track I broke into a dead run heading for the darkness lining the fence on the opposite side of the field. I knew it had to be more than six feet high, but I felt certain that I’d be able to clear it quickly, and I was right.

  It took less than fifteen seconds for me to scale the fence and drop down on the other side. From the other side of the field, I heard Brian cursing up a storm as he tore after me, yelling, “Ava! Stop! This isn’t a smart thing to do!” And then “Dammit!” when I didn’t heed his warning.

  When I looked over my shoulder to see where he was I knew there was a good chance he’d catch up to me if I didn’t run full speed, so I put my head down and ran into the darkness as hard and fast as I could. I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going, all I knew was that I needed to get away from Brian, and away from the reminder that my father didn’t care about how I felt about anything.

  *****

  I could feel the ground beneath my feet as I ran, and the night air provided some refreshing relief as I pumped my legs as hard as I could hoping that, since Brian didn’t know the campus as well as I did, he wouldn’t be able to catch up with me. I ran past Brody Hall and then up the hill toward the administration building, my legs were burning as I took the steps two at a time, but it was a good burn that made me feel strong and fast. I circled around to the back side of the building and ran down the steps toward the path alongside the river that ran through the center of campus. The farther I ran, the harder it became to keep the negative thoughts at bay and tears of self-pity began to well up in my eyes. I fought them for about a half a mile and then I let them flow warm and wet down my cheeks as I tried to outrun the pain of everything that had happened over the past year.

  I learned my lesson! I started over! Why do I have to be singled out as different? Why don’t you care about me? The thoughts raced through my brain as I ran. I felt sorry for myself, but I also felt angry. Angry that my father never talked to me. Angry that he and my mother didn’t seem to want me around. And angry that I couldn’t talk to anyone about what had happened in my life.

  The darkness wrapped itself around me as I ran the river path not noticing where I was or caring where I was headed, all I cared about was leaving Brian and my father behind me. I ran until my lungs felt like they would burst and my legs felt like two lead poles, but even then I didn’t stop.

  When I finally tired enough to slow down enough to take stock of my surroundings, I realized I was on the outer edge of the library building. I’d run out my frustration and felt bad that I’d left Brian had no clue where I was. If my father found out, Brian would be put through the ringer, maybe even fired. And as much as I wanted to ditch the security detail, I didn’t wish my father’s angry tantrum on Brian. I didn’t need to carry the burden of feeling responsible for yet another man in my life, so I decided to turn around and head back to the track. Hopefully Brian would have gone back there to wait for me once he realized he wasn’t going to be able to follow my lead.

  At the corner of the library, I turned left and hit something with such force that I found myself sprawled out on the ground on my back trying to suck air back into my lungs. The force with which I’d hit whatever had been blocking my path had knocked the wind out of me and left me seeing stars. What the hell just happened? Did I hit my head on the sidewalk? I wondered as I looked up into the face of the one person I thought I’d never see again.

  “Aren’t you out a little late, Ava?” the sinister voice slithered its way into my ears and made me shudder. “Nice girls like you shouldn’t be out running around in the dark, you never know who you’ll run into.”

  When I was finally able to take a deep breath and refill my lungs, I looked up and saw Dominic standing over me. Illuminated in the artificial glow of the halogen lights outside the library, he looked almost ghostly. His blond hair glowed and his ice blue eyes had a sickly shine. He was holding out his hand and smiling that same crazy smile he’d had on his face when I walked out the door of his apartment after telling him I’d never come back. I ignored his hand, took another deep breath and quickly pushed myself back up to my feet as I moved away from his creepy smile. I didn’t move fast enough, though, and before I knew it, he had his hands wrapped tightly around my upper arms as he stared at my face.

  “Ava, you know how much I still love you, don’t you?” his voice had that psychotic pleading tone to it. The one that I knew would lead to nothing good if I didn’t escape his grasp.

  “I know you do, Dominic,” I said in a soothing voice. “I know you think you love me, but you don’t. You know that, don’t you? This isn’t love.”

  “I’ve always loved you, Kitten. Always,” he repeated. I hated that nickname, it always made me feel like a small helpless creature, and now his icy blue eyes were fixed on me. I felt like prey for the predator. “You have always been the center of my world and I’ve always loved you.”

  “Dominic —,” I began.

  “We used to be so good together, Ava!” he cried. “We used to do things and laugh and have fun, don’t you remember? We could be like that again, but you have to come back!”

  “Dominic, you and I broke up because you cheated on me!” I yelled.

  “That was nothing! It was a meaningless fling with some bimbo from my English class. She meant absolutely nothing to me. I swear!” his grip on my arm grew tighter and his voice took on a menacing tone. “I never loved anyone but you, Ava. You were the only one I loved. You are the only one I will ever love.”

  I shook my head as I frantically looked for someone to come out of the library and intervene, but the more I fought him, the harder he dug his fingers into my arms to make his point.

  “Why won’t you take me back?” he whined.

  “Dominic, you’re hurting me!” I cried out as he brought his fingers together and pinched the skin of my upper arm, and I knew he wasn’t going to let go unless I saw his point of view.

  “I just don’t understand. I gave you everything! I loved you! I took care of you! I worshiped the ground you walked on! And you just left me. Alone.”

  “Dominic, that wasn’t love, that was the opposite of love,” I took a deep breath and tried to find a calm tone, hoping that if I reasoned with him, he’d remember how things had ended and let me go. “We weren’t in love anymore. You found someone else and it was too painful for me to see you so happy, don’t you remember?”

  “I remember none of that. All I remember is how much you meant to me and how lonely I’ve been since you left,” his tone grew morose, and he sounded like he was on the verge of breaking down. “You have to come back. I can’t live without you. Yo
u must come back.”

  “Dominic, I can’t come back,” I quietly reminded him. “We can’t be together.”

  “Yes, yes we can!” he cried as he shook me by my arms. “We can, and we will, be together. And I’m not going to give up until you come back to me. Until we’re back together. We belong together, Kitten. You and me.”

  “Dominic, stop calling me that! I’m not coming back,” I stood my ground and tried to reason with him, but there was something desperate about the way he was trying to convince me to return to him, and it was his desperation that scared me.

  “Well, I want you to come back, and sooner or later you’ll want to come back,” his voice dropped to a calm tone that scared me even more than the pleading.” I will not give up on you.”

  “Let go of me, Dominic,” I said as evenly as possible hoping that my voice sounded stronger than I felt.

  “I will never let go of you, Ava,” he whispered as he leaned in close enough that I could feel his breath on my cheek. “And if I can’t have you, then I will make sure that no one else will.”

  *****

  “Let go of her!” Brian’s voice bounced off the stone walls as he rounded the corner and saw Dominic holding me as I struggled to break free. He pointed his pistol at Dominic and calmly repeated, “Let go of her. Now.”

  Shocked that I’d been followed, Dominic let go of my arm and turned to confront my defender, but he took one look at the gun in Brian’s hand and backed away.

  “Hey man, don’t shoot,” he immediately switched to the friendly guy-to-guy manner he had when he talked with his buddies and even laughed a little as he assured my rescuer, “We were just talking about old times.”

  “The time for talking is over,” Brian replied as he aimed the pistol at Dominic’s stomach. “It’s time for you to scram.”

  “Hey, don’t get your boxers in a bunch, buddy!” Dominic joked as he looked over at me with narrowed eyes and quietly muttered so that only I could hear him. “This isn’t over yet.”