Protector #6 (A Navy SEAL Military Romance) (2 page)

I
felt the panic rising as I sat looking up at him. I
knew him well enough to know that he was fighting to maintain his impassive
expression and casual tone.
 
Underneath
it all beat the heart of a true sadist and questioning me was simply giving him
time to coil up inside himself and prepare to strike. If I could figure out how
he would strike, I might be able to avert disaster, but that would require me
to lie like I’d never lied before and I wasn’t sure I could do it.

“What’s
wrong, Ava?” Dominic whispered as he bent down in front of me, his face only
inches away from mine. “Cat got your tongue? Perhaps I should do something to
loosen it up.”

“No,
I was just remembering our summer trip to New York,” I said as I smiled softly.
“Remember how we found that little park that had the lights embedded in the
concrete and danced to the street music after dark?”

A
look of confusion flitted across Dominic’s face before he returned to his
marble mask. I smiled sweetly up at him as I continued, “You gave me that
pretty silver necklace that I love so much. The one with the diamond perched on
the edge of the half-moon because you always said you loved me to the moon and
back, Dom,” I spoke softly and smiled again.

“I…I…yeah,
I remember,” he stammered a bit before regaining control. I was getting to him,
and I knew that if I was going to take control of the situation, I was going to
have to spin a memory powerful enough to turn me back into his ally. I searched
my peripheral vision for Brian, but I couldn’t see what Cheese was doing with
him, so I focused my full attention on Dominic and hoped that when Brian regained
consciousness, he’d understand what I was doing and look for an opening. Given
how upset he’d been with me before this, I wasn’t sure he would, and that
scared me more than telling all the lies.

“You
loved me so much, Dom,” I whispered. “That trip was a dream trip, and I really
thought you were going to propose when we had dinner at Tavern on the Green. I
was so disappointed that you didn’t. Why didn’t you?”

“I…well…that’s
none of your business, young lady,” he snapped. There was something underneath
his anger and I didn’t know what it was.

“No,
it’s all my business, baby,” I cooed. “Just tell me,
it’s
okay if you were scared and weren’t ready. I totally understand. Look at me? I
got cold feet.”

“It
was…well…it was just not the right time,” he muttered as he looked over at
Cheese. I followed his gaze and saw that Brian was
laying
face down on
the
 
carpet
with a river of red slowly snaking down the side of his
face forming a growing stain on the carpet. I was distressed, but I knew that I
couldn’t show any interest in what was happening or Dominic would turn his
focus on Brian. What might happen then was anyone’s guess, but I didn’t dare
risk it.

“I
know you had your reasons,” I reassured him. “I just wanted to know if it was
something I’d done. Was I good enough for a proposal?”

“You
were fine, Ava,” Dominic said quietly. “In fact, you were more than fine. You
were stunning that night. I remember it like it was yesterday.”

I
watched him slowly sink into his memory of the night he should have proposed.
The reality of that night was that we’d fought at the hotel before dinner and
I’d said I didn’t want to go out to eat, but he’d gripped my arm so tightly
that I couldn’t get away and then dragged me down to the hotel lobby where he’d
ordered the bellman to get us a cab. Once inside the cab, he’d turned and let
loose with a torrent of abuse that had the cab driver giving me worried looks
in the rear view mirror. I’d waved him off once we reached the restaurant and
we’d gone in and had a delicious, but tense meal. It was nothing like the
romantic fantasy I was weaving, but the only advantage I had over Dominic was
that he lived in a fantasy world rather than in reality.

“We
were happy, weren’t we?” he mused.

“Oh,
it was such a lovely night,” I fed the memory. “We had champagne on the dance
floor and you whirled me around like I was Ginger Rogers to your Fred Astaire,
Dom. It was magical.”

“Yeah,
I did a good job, didn’t I?” he asked.

“The
best,” I replied in a dreamy voice. “I felt like a princess.”

“You
are
my
princess, Ava,” he said
softly. “I don’t understand why you would want to run away from all of the
wonderful things I have given you.”

“I
don’t know, Dom,” I said sadly. “I think I just got confused. I got scared.
It’s all such a big deal with my family, you know?”

When
I mentioned my family, Dominic’s face went blank and I knew I’d hit the wrong
note.
Dammit!

“Yes,
I know all too well how big a deal things are with your family,” he replied
coldly.

“They’re
not me!” I cried. I had to turn this conversation back around and quickly. “I’m
not my parents! I love you! I want to be with you! I don’t care what they say
or think, we’re meant to be together, Dom. You know that, don’t you?”

He
looked back down at me as if seeing me with fresh eyes and smiled as he said,
“Yes, I know you’re not them.”

He
walked over to
where Brian lay, looked down at his unmoving body for a moment before he turned
and faced me again. “But I also know that they raised you, and there’s no way
for you to escape that fact, Ava. You are your parents’ daughter whether you
like it or not, and you’re smart and resourceful.”

“What
do you mean?” I was absolutely confused.

“What
I mean is that you are adept at deception, my dear,” he chuckled. “Your father
is the king of lies and deceit and you are the queen of the empire!”

“I
have no idea what you’re talking about!” I cried. “I’ve never lied to you. Not
once.”

“Listen
to her, Cheese!” he roared. “She lies to me about lying to me! What a piece of
work!”

“Huh?”
said Cheese looking back and forth between us obviously confused. “She sounds
sincere to me, dude.”

“Good
lord, Cheese, you’re such a sucker,” Dominic scolded. “No wonder no frat house
wants you as a member. You’re an idiot.”

“Hey!”
Cheese protested. “I’m not an idiot!”

Dominic
rolled his eyes and turned his attention back toward me, and suddenly a glimmer
of hope peeked through the curtain of darkness. I knew what I could do to turn
the situation in my favor and get Brian and I out of there, but first I had to
get Brian to regain consciousness and then somehow get him to play along with
my little game.
 

“Dom,
tell me how we’re going to get out of here, please?” I flirted and smiled at
him. “I haven’t been alone with you in so long.”

“No,
you haven’t, have you?” he smiled as he reached out and ran his fingers lightly
down my cheek. “You must be so very lonely.”

“You
have no idea,” I said. “It’s been the longest time since anyone has even
touched me.”

“You
mean you and the body guard didn’t get your groove on?” he asked with a
surprised.

“Who?
Me and
him?
” I said incredulously.
“What on earth are you thinking?”

“Well,
I figured that close quarters with a handsome, yet simple hunk might wear you
down,” Dominic mused.

“Um,
have you forgotten that he was hired by my father?” I asked as I rolled my eyes
as far back in my head as I could. I had to channel my inner teenager to get
this one right. I’d been a child in an adult’s world my entire life and I
wasn’t sure I had it in me, but for Brian’s sake and mine, I had to try.

“True,”
Dominic replied. “Daddy dearest would not like you mingling with the help one
bit.”

Out
of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Brian’s fingers moving. The
other two hadn’t seen it, and I was determined to make sure they didn’t notice
him regaining consciousness. I shifted my focus and said, “Dom, let the room
server go. He’s nothing. We don’t need him, do we?”

Dominic
looked over at the teenager lying face down on the carpet with a blindfold
covering his eyes as if he’d forgotten he was even there. “Hmmm,” he murmured.
“You might be right, but I’m not taking any chances, my dear. I’ve got a plan,
and I’m sticking to it.”

“What
kind of plan, Dom?” I asked eagerly. “Are we going somewhere?”

“Oh,
we most definitely are,” he smiled. “You and me that is, after we take care of
the problem.”

“What
problem?” I asked as my heart sunk into my stomach. I’d been lulled into a
sense of false security because Dominic was calm, but the reality was that he
was more dangerous when he wasn’t actively angry.

“Well,
you see, my dear,” he smiled. “We can’t have the nosy body guard reporting back
to your father and screwing everything up, now can we?”

“No,
we most definitely cannot have that happen,” I said as I forced a smile and
stole a peek at Brian. He was still out cold and I was starting to sweat.
Wake up, wake up,
wake
up.

“Good,
I’m glad we agree,” Dominic smiled in a reptilian way as he moved across the
room to Cheese and said, “Get him up off the floor and into that chair.”

“How,
dude?” Cheese asked genuinely confused.

“I
don’t care how you do it, just do it,” Dominic intoned. “And how many times do
I have to tell you not to call me dude?”

“Sorry,
du—Dom,” Cheese replied as he bent down and slid his arms under Brian’s armpits
and hoisted him up off the floor. As he lifted, Brian’s head dropped forward. I
kept hoping for a miracle; that Brian would wake up and take on our captors and
free us from this nightmare. But he only groaned a little as Cheese propped him
up in the chair and secured him to the back of it using another length of rope.
I watched him as he tied it and realized that he had no idea how to tie knots.
If I could get Brian conscious, there was still hope.

“What
are you going to do, baby?” I asked sweetly.

Dominic
walked around behind Brian, rested his hands on his shoulders and said with a
smile, “He will no longer be an issue, pretty girl. You will be mine and he
will cease to be.”

My
stomach turned as I heard Dominic discuss his horrible
plan to ensure that we would have a beautiful future. He would make sure he got
what he wanted even if he had to kill Brian in the process, and my brain spun
as I tried to figure out a way to talk him out of his disgusting plan.

“Dom,
do you think that’s the best idea?” I asked sweetly. “I mean, he’s really kind
of
a nobody
, and if you off him then he becomes
somebody, right?”

“Ava,
Ava, Ava, you’re so very naive. Sweet, but naive,” he chuckled. “You see, if I
off this jarhead, then I will also make sure that no one knows I’ve done it. He
will simply disappear into nothingness and no one will know what happened to
him, so he will still be
a nobody
. Do you see, my
darling? I’ve got it all planned out.”

“Oh,
okay!” I said as brightly as I could and smiled a big fake smile. “Well, if
you’ve got it all planned out then I guess it’s done, right?”

“Yes,
except for one thing,” Dominic smiled. I didn’t like that smile, it was the one
he always used on me when he was about to punish me for some imagined
infraction and then blame me for the pain he was forced to cause me. “I need
him to be conscious so that he understands that I’m making the choice to end
him. I need him to look me in the eye as I lead him out of this world and into
the next one.”

I
knew now that Dominic had gone completely mad. Up to this moment I wondered if
it was just grief and ego that drove him to try and reclaim me, but now I knew
for certain that he had descended into madness and that he really was going to
kill Brian. I quickly worked to come up with an alternate plan that might give
us a little time. If I could buy us time, Brian might be able to figure out a
way to break free and disarm Dominic and Cheese. Cheese. Shoot. I’d forgotten about
him and the fact that he was now holding Brian’s gun.

“Wake
him up,” Dominic ordered Cheese. “I want him awake. Now.”

“But
du- Dom, I don’t know how to bring a guy out of unconsciousness,” Cheese
protested.

“Throw
some water on him! Slap his face! Yell in his ear!” Dominic shouted. “Why do I
always have to do everything around here?”

“Fine,
fine,” Cheese grumbled as he went into the bathroom, filled a glass with cold
water then walked back out and dumped it on Brian’s head.

“Are
you a complete idiot?” Dominic yelled as he began to pace the room. “You have
to throw it in his face! He’s not going to come to if you drip it on the top of
his head!”

“I’m
not an idiot!” Cheese protested. “How in the hell am I supposed to know how to
do this?”

I
stole a glance at Brian as Dominic insulted Cheese and restlessly paced the
room. Brian seemed to be breathing alright, but I couldn’t figure out why he
was still out cold. The knock to his head hadn’t been that hard and he was
someone who had been trained to take a lot of abuse before his body gave out.
Something wasn’t adding up.