by Maine, Miley
He slumped to the ground. I thought I might have put him out, but his head just happened to move at the last second, so the kick was more of a glancing blow. Saul staggered to his feet. He was dazed and full of rage. He was going to kill me. I was not going to make it out of the house alive.
It felt good to finally fight back. I wanted him to attack again so I could hurt him more. I wanted to bloody his face up until it was no longer recognizable.
But Saul had other ideas. He pulled the gun from his waist. It was a glock. He cocked it and pointed it right at me. “Burn in hell, bitch.”
He started to fire.
Suddenly, a body hit me from the side and tackled me to the ground just as the bullet fired into the wall behind me. I was on the ground underneath Tony. He reached for his own gun to return fire at Saul, but Saul was too fast. He pointed at Tony as he ran to the other side of the small kitchen table so that he could get a clear shot on us.
Suddenly, the door behind him burst open.
Saul wheeled around with his gun only to run right into Derek who grabbed the gun and began to wrestle Saul for it. The two men were locked in a hard fight struggling with the gun above their heads. Saul kicked Derek in the groin and Derek’s grip began to falter. He was about to lose this fight. Saul was so dirty.
Saul kicked him once more. Derek screamed and tried to hold on, but his body was collapsing right then. He was almost out of this one. And that would mean his certain death.
Tony leapt off the floor and tackled Saul to the ground. The gun fell from his grip and scattered on the floor. Tony was on top of Saul now reigning punches on him. I could hear each punch landing with a huge smacking sound as Tony’s fist met Saul’s face, pounding him hard. Yes! It was so satisfying. I stood up and walked over to where Tony was finishing pummeling this man into a pulp.
Tony stopped punching and stood up breathing heavily. Saul was out. His face was bloodied as could be and he was unconscious.
Derek was up now pointing the gun at Saul. The other cops were running through the door right then. “Cuff him!” Derek demanded.
The cops went to work cuffing Saul. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. It was awesome to see, but the feeling I got from it was beyond anything I could ever have imagined. It was real. This was really happening.
Saul was totally unconscious and needed some medical treatment, so an ambulance was called.
I stood there looking at Tony. I felt like collapsing. The emotional and physical stress this had all just taken from me was just too much. I leaned against him and let myself fall forward. He held me tightly to his body just then. His hands came behind me. One hand was on my lower back and the other was stroking the back of my head. It was so comforting. I couldn’t believe that this was really it.
“Are you ok?” Tony asked.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I’m finally alright. I… I just can’t believe it’s done. It feels like a dream, something I am afraid I am just going to wake up from.”
“I know, but I can assure you it isn’t a dream. It’s real. Every single bit of it is real. You were amazing.”
“Yeah, it was so much fun punching him.”
He laughed. “Yeah. I saw that. I would have stepped in sooner, but it looked like you had it under control, and I didn’t want to step on your toes. I wouldn’t have dreamed of depriving you from some much-needed payback.”
“Thanks,” I said. “But you could have been a bit faster when he pulled out the gun.”
He laughed. “Yeah, that kind of surprised me, too. I should have.”
“I guess not,” I said. “But you did pretty amazing yourself. I can’t believe you set all this up. If it weren’t for you… I don’t know what would have happened.”
Tony pulled me closer to him gently and kissed me on the mouth. His kiss was warm and so loving. “Honey, I’ll always be there for you. I want you to know that. You will never be alone again. I will always do what I can to keep you safe and support you in any way that I can.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, babe. I love you so much.”
I leaned into his arms and I knew that he meant every single word.
19
Tony
Three Weeks Later
I had to do a double take when Julie walked into the room. She was by far the most beautiful vision that my eyes had ever beheld. Her long, beautiful hair was flowing and shining brightly as it bounced softly on her shoulders. Her piercing eyes were sparkling to me. The dress was clinging to her body in that oh so perfect way so that it hit every single curve when she walked.
And her energy was right on point. It beckoned to me and I smiled warmly at her as I watched her entering the room of our mansion in Anchorage. Every single person in the room turned and stared at her. None of them could believe such a beauty was real, but there she was a real-life work of art, a true masterpiece walking in poetic motion right in front of us all. And she was smiling at me. I wanted her so badly. I almost forgot where I was or what I was doing as she walked down the steps towards me.
The ball room was filled to capacity. All of our closest friends, our families, and our coworkers were there. I’d flown them all out here to celebrate the company and the love that Julie and I shared. I was going to ask Julie a question this evening that I wanted every single person in that room to witness. I just hoped Julie said the right answer to me.
I had to admit to myself I was a bit nervous. I’d even rehearsed the move, working as hard as I could to get the words, the phrasing, and the sentiment of what I wanted to say just right. It was still going to be difficult.
“You look ravishing,” I said when she met me in the middle of the ball room.
She gave me that beautiful smile, hugging me softly, making me instantly hard as a rock. “You look pretty damn amazing yourself.”
“Thank you. I was afraid you weren’t coming down.”
“Well, perfection takes time,” she teased.
“I see. Well, perfection accomplished.”
She laughed and I took her arm in mine as we walked along mingling with everyone around us. The party was our annual company Christmas party. The great day was in two weeks and I was certainly more excited about this Christmas than I’d been about any other in my entire life. It was like I’d been reborn somehow and a new chance for real happiness had been given to me. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to deserve it, but I was grateful for it. I was finally happy. I was with the woman that I loved and the woman I wanted to spend my life with.
“So, how is the happy couple tonight?” Quinton asked as we joined them at our table. The food would be out shortly and right now Quinton was piling through as much of the free liquor as he could. The guy was already three sheets to the wind and the party had just started about an hour before.
“We are fine,” I said.
“You look amazing,” Sophie said to Julie. They embraced and smiled at each other. The two had become fairly good friends the past month or so. That was great. Quinton and I had a wonderful time going out with our significant others as a foursome now. It was a lot of fun, almost as if we were college kids and goofing off together or something while we blew off the steam of mid-terms. And it turned out that Julie had become quite the extreme activities junkie. It was startling to see her transformation.
She was still the same her, but she had this other component to her. She was tougher, edgier, more confident in every single thing she did, and she was so much more enthusiastic about her life now. The thing with Saul, fighting him, confronting him, and getting the best of him had really reawakened the real her. She was no longer under that bastard’s thrall. She was not intimidated by him or anyone else for that matter.
She’d thrown herself into martial arts and was really good. She was fast and accurate. She could anticipate movements before they happened, and she had a real aggressive streak to her. On top of that she’d been shooting regularly at the range and
was so accurate. She’d learned so much about firearms, and she’d even branched out into learning martial arts weapons. Her skills with the nunchakus were amazing.
At work she was full of new ideas and she worked tirelessly on projects until everything was perfect. Barb had become a bit pissed off at her because Julie did everything better than her and she might logically be running the team soon. It was not personal against Barb, there was not a bit of nepotism involved but Julie was fantastic at what she did. We had dramatically increased profits this current quarter and a big part of that was due to Julie’s input. I loved to watch her work.
“So, what are your plans for Christmas?” Sophie asked Julie.
She looked at me and reached over to hold my hand. “Well,” Julie said. “We’ve talked about taking a nice trip to Paris. We are inviting my family and his mom. Would the two of you like to join us? I realize if you have plans with your own families, but it would be such a blast for all of us to party in Paris from just before Christmas until after New Year’s. How amazing would that be?”
“I think it would be awesome!” Quinton said. “Hell yeah. You can count me in. What about you, Sophie?”
She looked at him and then at Julie. Then she shrugged and smiled. “Sure. My family sees me too much anyway. They could use the break.”
We all held up our glasses and toasted. “To a holiday season we will never forget,” I said.
“Here, here!” They all chimed in.
“So, what about that guy that attacked you?” Sophie asked.
Quinton gave her a sharp look and an eye roll. Sometime Sophie could say the wrong thing at the wrong time. It was one of those things that she and Quinton both had in common. Sophie immediately regretted putting her foot in her mouth, but Julie eased the tension with her easygoing smile.
“It’s fine,” she said. “He is on his way to jail. Now that they have him in custody and he isn’t making any deals up here, he is ratting out a bunch of his old buddies as well. He thinks he is buying himself some freedom, but he isn’t.”
I shook my head. “The DA up here is a friend of Derek, a police officer friend of mine who arrested Saul. And he tells me that they are going to throw the book at him for attempted murder and kidnapping. So, he is going away forever.”
“Wow, that is great,” Sophie said “I don’t know how you’ve come through it all. I would be so messed up.”
“It wasn’t easy,” Julie said. “But life goes on. I had the right support system. Now, onto some better things.”
“Right,” Sophie said. “We do have some news,” she said as we were all sitting there.
“Really? What’s that?” I asked.
Sophie looked over at Quinton who nodded to her that it was time. He smiled. “I’m pregnant.”
We gasped. Then I started clapping and Julie reached out her hand to Sophie. “That’s amazing. I’m so happy for you. That’s fantastic.”
“Yeah, we are excited. I’m also nervous. I mean, this man is going to be someone’s father. Poor kid. He or she is going to be looking at me one day asking me why I chose him.”
Quinton pretended to be offended. “Well, you wouldn’t let me pull out that time…”
I couldn’t control my laughter. “Damn, you guys don’t pull any punches do you?”
“No, we don’t. It’s important to express yourself in a relationship.”
“I agree,” Julie said. “That’s what keeps things fresh and exciting.”
“Yeah, that is what it’s all about,” I said. “You got to keep it fresh…”
I couldn’t stop laughing. “Does this mean no more extreme stunts?” I asked.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Sophie said sadly.
“I bet this one is so broken up over that…” I teased.
Quinton smiled and held up his hands. “Hey, I’ve come a long way. I really do look forward to these stunts now. I’ve become a total adrenaline junky, but you know I got a kid on the way now, so I have to totally clean up my act.”
I nodded and pretended that I believed him all. “I am happy for you, man. You will be a great father. You’ll both be awesome parents.”
“Thanks,” Sophie said. Then she added, “When do you two think you will have a little one on the way?”
I expected Julie to freak out a bit at the thought and maybe choke on her drink, but she didn’t. She just sat there and smiled with her hand on her chin as if she was thinking about the idea. Then she looked over at me with those beautiful eyes. I leaned forward and kissed the air at her. She did it back and we both smiled.
“Well, we could at any time I guess,” I said. “We haven’t really talked much about that. Did you guys?”
“No, it was just something that happened. We didn’t plan for it, but now we are so excited that I can’t believe we weren’t trying for this before.”
“Interesting,” I said. “What do you think Julie?”
“I think everything happens to everyone at the right time. If it happens for us, then it will surely happen.”
We finished chatting for a few moments and then Julie and I decided to have a nice dance together. It felt good to just be together and dance to the music around us, as if no one else was even there. Everyone was having a blast at the party though. And I was becoming more and more fond of the Alaska mansion. I typically only spent a few months a year there, mostly during the hunting season, or when I just wanted to get away from things for a bit. But Julie loved it so much that we were spending a lot of our time there.
“I have some good news,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“Construction has been completed on our offices here in Anchorage.”
Julie’s eyes went wide with glee. “That’s great.”
“Yeah, I think so. That means we can work here a lot more and spend even less time in Los Angeles.”
“That’s fantastic,” she said. “I really do love it up here. And I think it will be a great place to raise a family. You want one, don’t you?”
“I do,” I said. “I want a family very badly. You know that I’ve always wanted one. I just wasn’t sure how soon you wanted to get started on that.”
“Anytime. I love you. I know you and I are in this for the long haul. I don’t see how we could ever not be together.”
“I don’t either,” I said. I rested my hands on her hips and pulled her to me. I inhaled her sweet-smelling perfume and just took in her warmth and heat so sweetly. It felt so good to be with her right there and then. I glanced over and saw her family watching as they mingled amongst some of my employees. I really liked her parents. They’d taken me in almost as one of their own, and we had become very close. They couldn’t thank me enough for rescuing their daughter, even though I tried to assure them that she didn’t need much rescuing. When her back was against the wall, she fought like the warrior that she was. And she was amazing.
I was really glad they were here. It made what I was about to do so much easier.
I kissed Julie sweetly and then said, “I’ll be back.”
I walked away without giving her an explanation and made my way up to the front of the podium. I grabbed the microphone and motioned for them to cut the music. The music stopped and everyone suddenly noticed how loud they were being and quieted themselves down. I looked around and found Julie in the crowd standing there.
I pointed to her and said, “Come forward, sweetie.”
She glanced around a bit nervously. She had no idea what was about to happen now. I was very nervous myself. I’d worked and worked on keeping the nerves at bay and keeping them out of my voice but standing up there now with everyone watching me and knowing what I was about to do, the nerves came back with a vengeance.
Julie came up onto the stage and stood beside me. “What’s going on?”
I smiled and winked at her.
I swallowed hard and readjusted myself. I was in control of this. As I stood there for a moment watching everyone looking at me, it suddenly fe
lt good. The nerves were almost gone; it was just me and my baby now.
I spoke into the microphone. “Julie, you are the most amazing woman that I’ve ever known. Ever since you came into my world, my life has a meaning that it never had before. I never could have imagined being this happy and all of it is because of you. Would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
I dropped to one knee and presented the ring to her, pulling the box out of my pocket.
Her hands flew to her mouth as she began to cry in shock. She stood there, her body heaving as she tried to get control of herself. I had never seen her look happier or more beautiful. She smiled and shook her head for a yes as she leaned into the microphone. “Yes!” She exclaimed.
I put the ring on her finger. Then I stood up and swooped her into my arms picking her up off her feet. I kissed her hard on the mouth and said, “I love you so much, baby. You are the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me.”
The crowd of people were erupting in whoops and hollers in front of us. Quinton was standing on top of his table thrusting his hips towards the sky like a man possessed. He was trying to congratulate us while at the same time giving us an obscene gesture. That was Quinton for you. He was going to be my best man. Shit.
“I’m so happy,” I said.
“I had no idea you were going to do this,” she said. “I’m going to have to stay on my toes with you.”
“Yes. I will do my best to keep you guessing,” I said. “And I will always be there for you.”
I kissed her once more and held her up in the air as I swung her around.
* * *
The party was over, and everyone had gone home. We did stay later and hang out with family and our closest friends. After they all turned into bed, we decided to do the same. I had prepared for this earlier as well. I ordered the Santa suit online and I figured it would be a very festive and Christmas way to celebrate our new engagement.
