by Maine, Miley
I got dressed and groggily made my way to the garage where Tony fired up one of the four wheelers. We rode out together to the edge of the property where we were closing on the forest that surrounded everything. I could see several targets set up about thirty yards away.
Tony stopped the four-wheeler and then grabbed the bag he’d had strapped to the back of it. I could tell it was heavy by the way he carried it. He sat the bag down and reached inside of it. Tony started pulling out different types of guns.
I’d never seen that many guns up close before. The only ones that I had ever seen belonged to Saul and he had forbidden me to ever touch any of them.
Tony stood up and handed me a pistol. “That is a .38 snub nose. It’s a nice little gun, but it does have a big punch to it. So, don’t let its size fool you. It will take a man down quickly.”
I held the gun in my hand. I was shocked at how heavy it was relative to the size of the gun. I wasn’t sure how it could do that much damage, but I trusted Tony’s word. The weapon felt powerful and deadly in my hand. Just having it made me feel so much stronger. I had always hated guns but holding this thing in my hand I knew that if Saul or anyone was bent on hurting me then they were going to be sorry they ever tried. It was great for peace of mind.
“Alright, have you ever shot a gun before?” Tony asked me.
I shook my head. “No.”
“Ok, then follow me,” he said.
He led me over a few feet where we stood in front of the targets closing the distance to about fifty feet. I was a bit nervous. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was doing.
“Alright now, you need to learn how to defend yourself properly. If your opponent has a gun and you can’t escape, having a gun is your best defense. Period. If you have a gun, it puts you right back in the game. Now, I’m going to show you how to shoot.”
I followed Tony’s guidance as he showed me how to stand, how to squeeze the trigger, how to use the sight, and how to relax properly when I fired the weapon.
“Ok, now you try it,” he said.
I got into my position, using both hands, squatting down some and then relaxing my grip but not too much. I got the target in my sight and then I squeezed the trigger. The gun exploded with power. I saw the flash of the fire and the loud boom of the explosion rolled up my arms with the kickback. I almost dropped the gun, but I was able to hold on. My shot missed the target completely.
“Like I said, it does pack a wallop,” Tony said. “Try it again.”
I took a deep breath and tried it again. This time the bullet hit the target but just a bit to the left of where I was aiming. I fired shot after shot and my aim began to improve.
After about twenty rounds, I was accurately hitting what I was shooting at. I was starting to feel better.
“Great job,” Tony said. “Now let’s try the nine-millimeter.”
I tried the nine and I was shocked to see how much different it felt in my hand. It was smoother somehow, a bit thicker. I was amazed at how much fun I was having getting familiar with these weapons. The relief was washing over me in awesome waves of peace.
I fired off a clip of the nine and I hit the target several times. I was still working on getting it right, but I knew all of that would come with patience and practice.
“You want to keep your stance strong,” Tony said. “That is your base. Here, you want to hold it like this.” Tony stepped behind me, wrapped his arms around and held my hands in his. I held the gun tightly, my body responding longingly to his warmth behind me. I felt so safe right then and there. I breathed easily.
“Like this?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he replied. “You want your knees to be slightly bent, but still strong. All of this will help you with the recoil. Then you want to slow your breathing down. You want to watch the target with both eyes and look down the sights to line it up. I find it’s better to keep both eyes open. Then when you are ready you just release the breath as you squeeze the trigger.”
I followed his instructions, and the gun came to life in my hands. It fired a solid round right down the center and hit the target hard. If that had been a person, he or she would have been gone.
“Great job!” Tony said. He kissed me on the ear and hugged me.
“Yeah, but I’m not sure I can do that.”
“What?”
“Well, I don’t know if I have it in me to kill someone.”
“You never know what you can do when you have no choice. If you have no choice but to defend yourself then you want to make sure that you can defend yourself well without second guessing anything. That is the reason behind all of this. That’s enough for today. We can pick this back up tomorrow.”
We packed up the guns and ammo and then hopped back on the four-wheeler. We didn’t say anything on the trip back. It was nice to enjoy the ride in silence. I thought about what Tony said, about having to defend yourself. I wondered if it came down to it, would I really be able to blow Saul away? I’d once loved the evil bastard. But then again, I’d loved only a shell of who I thought he was. That wasn’t him. He was a monster and he wanted to take me away from the life that I wanted, the life I should have been living. He had me locked away from the job I loved. He’d even had me running scared and had almost cost me the love of my life.
But Tony never lost faith. He would always be there for me. I knew that.
Over the next several days, Tony and I worked on a variety of skills. We did archery, we worked with the guns several times, and we even did some swordplay and martial arts. These were all things about Tony I had no idea about. It was fun learning all of these new skills and by the end of the week I actually felt like I was ready to take on whatever might come my way, but avoidance was still my best strategy.
“So, where did you learn to do all this?” I asked one night after dinner. Tony had caught some fish in a stream nearby and thrown it on the grill. It was some of the best fish I’d ever had. It was delicious. I ate until I was so full, I thought I might throw up any moment. I was stuffed to the gills.
Tony leaned back and sighed a long windy breath. He looked tired. But he stared straight at me with that winning smile. “When I was a kid my dad worked all the time. We occasionally did things together, but mostly it was just work all the time. And I saw that my father paid other people to do every little thing for him. I realized then that my father was only capable of working his job. He didn’t know how to do anything else. Someone cooked for him, cleaned for him, repaired things for him, shopped for him, and even called him to wake him up in the morning. All of these things I felt someone should be taking care of themselves. But it was not until I was a teenager that I actively began pursuing these things. I realized that I didn’t want to be ignorant about anything. My father once told me that the world is a cruel, mean, vile place, and I realized that he was right in many ways. There are bad people, bad things in the world that want to do us harm. One must protect themselves and those they care about instead of counting on others to do it for you, even if it is their job.”
“That’s a good way of looking at things,” I said. “I just never thought I would need that kind of protection though. But I’m glad I’m getting it now. I want to thank you for showing me these things and for being so patient with me.”
He reached out his hand on mine. “I won’t let him get to you. I’ve got my team trying to track him down. He has to know that someone is looking for him if he is trying to avoid detection, right?”
I shook my head. “Someone is always looking for him. I’m fairly certain he made a deal for a lighter prison sentence than what he actually got. He had a great lawyer, a shyster, but he also made some deals happen.”
“Like what?”
“Well, he knew a lot of bad people and he knew what a lot of bad people did. I heard rumors that he worked out a deal to roll over on this drug kingpin that he knew about. He turned states’ evidence and made a deal. That is why he got out so soon. But I could never really prove it. It was
never brought up in court because it had nothing to do with my case. He made a deal and now those same people might be after him.”
Tony licked his lips and ran a hand through his hair. “So, why is he so obsessed with you, now?”
“Well, I got him sent to prison to begin with. All of this mess he blames on me. And he wants me because I fought back, because I fought against him and he has to punish me. He doesn’t actually want me.”
“He will never lay a hand on you,” Tony said. There was silence for a moment before he continued. “What about your parents? How do you know they are safe?”
“I don’t. I mean, he pretends to have scruples that he wouldn’t dare go after them, but I don’t trust that. My parents have their house listed in a friend’s name. They get their mail from a P. O. box and they don’t have their phones listed either. They do what they can to play it safe. So, I think they are fine for now. But I do worry about them.”
“I can have someone watch them for you,” Tony said. “I’ve spoken with them at length the past few months. They are great people. It took some doing, but I finally got them to let me into their little world. They told me about you and the whole situation. And I’ve become pretty friendly with them recently. I think they like me.”
“I’m sure they adore you, just as I do,” I said.
He smiled. “We can expedite the time frame on this if you want. We can set a trap to lure Saul here, get a message out to the underground that is sure to get to him somehow. And then when he comes for you, we can lock him up. But doing that is all dependent upon you and how you feel, and what you want.”
I didn’t answer right away. This was heavy. The very idea of doing this terrified me. “I’d be using myself as bait basically.”
“Yes, but you’d never actually be in any real danger. And besides, you’d have a weapon on you at all times. And then he would be ours. We lure him here, he tries to abduct you or hurt you and we have him. It’s nothing he can get out of and he will be sent to prison for life for kidnapping in Alaska. Alaskan prisons are no joke. He would be crying for his mom within a week.”
I laughed at the thought of Saul broken down and crying. That would be so gratifying. But I didn’t know if I could go through with it. “What if something goes wrong? Things always go wrong, don’t they?”
“You have a pessimistic way of looking at life.”
“I do. I guess I always have. It is a lot to do with what happened to me. I guess I learned that bad things are going to happen to you and there is little that you can do to protect yourself.”
“I think you are half right. Bad things will happen. They happen to everyone, but you have to be prepared to deal with them. And no, you can’t be prepared for every single thing or every imagined scenario, but you have to at least try. And you can’t let it color how you see the world around you.”
He held my hand in his. I loved his warm touch and his words. They seeped into me and imprinted themselves in my brain. It felt really good and reassuring. God, I’d missed him so much.
“I see what you mean,” I said. “But right now, I just can’t put myself out there. I can’t take the chance of facing him. It’s too scary. I’m sorry. I want this over so badly, but I’m not taking that risk. He has too big of a hold on me. It’s like I am still trapped under his thumb and I can’t escape it no matter what I do.”
“This is the only way. You have to face him head on. But I know that it is hard. And ultimately it is up to you to decide when the time is right. Only you can decide that. I’m not going to try to do it for you and I’m not going to try to force you.”
“Thanks,” I replied.
“Now, what about dessert?” he asked with a big smile on his face.
“What? I’m stuffed. I couldn’t eat another bite.”
He held up his finger and smiled as he walked into the house. He came back with a French silk pie. It looked and smelled like Heaven. I wasn’t able to resist as he cut into it and put down a slab of it on his plate. “Fine, I’ll try some.”
He cut me a piece and then put it down on the plate for me. I bit into it and practically melted into the chocolate goodness. “Ah, this is wonderful. You know I’m going to get fat if you keep feeding me this way,” I teased.
“More of you to love,” he said. “That’s fine with me.”
“How do you stay so ripped when I see you eating this crazy food?”
He laughed. “It’s a secret of the Gods,” he said.
15
Tony
Two Months Later
“Why are we out here?” Julie asked with a giggle.
I could tell she was uncomfortable.
“Why? Are you cold?” I teased her.
“I’m freezing.”
“Yeah, you’ve got to get used to those Alaskan evenings. The days are pretty mild this time of year though. Be thankful. This winter it is frigid all the time. And the winter starts early. By October it feels like you are on another planet.”
“Why did you buy a mansion up here?” Julie asked.
I shrugged. “It is really far from everything. It’s peaceful. I love the outdoors, nature, and I like to vary my surroundings. I love the desert. That’s why Southern California is such a great place to be, but I also love the wild of Alaska, the trees, the nature, and the weather makes it a wonderful place to live. I think it would be an ideal place to raise a family.”
I saw a twinkle in her eye at the mention of family. “You think about having a family one day.”
I wanted to be careful how I answered the question, but I also wanted to be honest. “Yes. I really do. I think about it quite often. But at the same time, I am not one to rush into things. I believe all things have their own time frame. And when I have kids one day, I know it will be the time in my life when I’m supposed to have them. Do you want kids?”
“I do. I absolutely do,” Julie answered quickly. I smiled as I looked over at her, those beautiful eyes flickering in the flame of the campfire.
I’d decided to bring Julie out in the woods a bit so we could do some camping. She said she’d never actually been camping, so I thought this would be the perfect time to do it. It was good to get away from the modern world for a bit and commune with nature. It helped me get in touch with my roots. I loved to come out here in the wild and sit for a while and meditate. The most serene thoughts entered my brain at a time like that and I found myself just so thankful for everything in my life.
And now I had an even bigger reason to do that. The past few months had been hard but wonderful. I knew that Julie was becoming increasingly isolated and more afraid to venture out. She was of the mind that everywhere she went she was going to run into Saul. I tried to reason with her and get her calmed down on this issue, but she was not hearing any of it. She just wanted to stay isolated in the mansion and lately she hardly ever wanted to venture out among people at all.
I hoped that a bit of fresh air and nature might help that. It was a thought anyway. So far, she did not seem to be enjoying herself.
“I see us together in a long, wonderful future,” I said. “I’ve seen us that way since shortly after we met. I realize it took you a bit longer, but when you see these children of the future, do you see me?”
“Yes. Of course.” I could see it in her eyes that she really meant it. This put me at ease. It was something I’d been wondering lately. Julie didn’t communicate her feelings nearly as well as I wished that she did sometimes. “I see you. I’ve seen you there for a long time now. I want to spend my life with you.”
“I want that, too,” I said. I leaned in and kissed her and then I pulled her closely against me. She felt so good in my arms.
We relaxed together a few moments, both of us just enjoying being there with each other and staring up at the stars and the bright moon ahead of us. The air was cool and crisp, and with the breeze I could smell the winter that was coming in the next few months. I could tell it was going to be a doozy. Coming up here for so man
y years had really fine-tuned my senses for such things. I wondered if it was something that I could teach Julie. I thought about it and then dismissed it from my mind. I think you had to really experience it for it to become something that ingrained within you. I hoped that Julie would get there in time.
But I wanted to get her out of here and back to her normal life. I wanted to find Saul and bury him right where he stood. I wanted that bastard to be under my shoe begging for mercy before I killed him. I gritted my teeth silently and tried to control the shudder of anger in me. I hoped I would never have to kill that man, or any man for that matter, but I had no problems doing it if I was really pressed. And nothing would press me harder than to protect the woman I loved. Nothing.
I rubbed Julie’s hair and let the soft strands coat my palm and rub against my body as I held her close to me. I was tired, but at peace. Lately we’d been working so hard trying to get her prepared for any kind of physical conflict. It was time for a good break.
That morning, I woke her up early and took her to the gym inside the mansion where we did some rounds with the heavy bag. I showed her the basic punches and then we went through a couple easy grappling holds and judo throws. The martial arts were coming fairly easily to Julie. She was a fast learner. She was nimbler and more athletic than I expected. She was tough, a natural fighter. All of this turned me on a great deal about her. She was fast, strong, and when she really pushed herself, she could be quite the formidable opponent.
And now we were relaxing after a good dinner by the campfire. I figured we would maybe roast some marshmallows later, tell ghost stories—all that goofy kid stuff. And at some point, we might end up doing something very naked together. I’d been ready and turned on since earlier when she was helping me put the tent up. Watching Julie’s wonderful ass writhing in my face was enough to make me grab her and take her right then and there. I didn’t need a reason, right?
