Her Protector

by Mallory Monroe

  and knocked him down.

  There was a struggle, for Red’s gun, and Red lost that battle too. Teddy won, took the gun

  from Red, and pointed it at his head.

  “Get up,” Teddy ordered, pulling him up.

  Mick came running downstairs. “You okay?” he asked his son.

  “I’m okay. What about upstairs? You got’em?”

  “Every one of’em,” Mick replied.

  Teddy should have known because the shooting had ceased.

  “So that’s the infamous Damon Tarver,” Mick said.

  The man laughed one of those bitter, hateful laughs. “I should have known it wasn’t going

  to be that easy,” he said. “Even with all of that planning, I should have known!”

  “What the fuck you’re talking about?” asked Teddy. “Shut the fuck up!”

  “I’m a dead man,” Red said, “why should I listen to you?” Then Red, to prove his point,

  reached for his backup piece, aimed it, but was shot down by Teddy. If he was going to die, he

  apparently thought, then he was going out on his own terms.

  The front door of the house opened, and Tosh, along with a gang of men, rushed in.

  “What’s the count?” Teddy asked one of the capos.

  “Heavy losses, Boss,” said the capo. “Real heavy. We just couldn’t reach them. They had

  this shit planned to the last detail.”

  “That’s what he just claimed.”

  “What’s this about?” Tosh asked, looking at Red.

  Teddy and Mick looked at him. “What are you talking?” Teddy asked. “That’s Damon

  Tarver.”

  “No, it’s not. That’s not Damon.”

  Teddy was floored. Mick was too. “Then who the fuck is it?” Mick asked.

  “That’s Red. Damon’s brother and right-hand man,” Tosh responded, still looking at Red.

  “But that ain’t Damon.”

  Teddy and Mick were both shocked. “Then where the fuck is Damon?” Teddy asked.

  Then, as if they were answering the question without saying a word, Teddy and Mick looked

  at each other.

  And then they took off running!

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  “We’ve got some action,” one of the capos inside the safe house said, and the men pulled

  out their guns as their crew chief went to see who it was.

  “It’s Max and Dave,” he said, easing the tension in the house, and he quickly opened the

  door.

  Nikki was sitting on the sofa, sipping coffee and reviewing notes on her iPad, when she

  looked up and saw the two capos enter. But when she saw Damon Tarver coming in with them,

  she nearly dropped her cup of tea. And she rose to her feet.

  Damon laughed. “Nikki Tarver. My wife.” He said it with obvious bitterness.

  Then Damon smiled as one of the capos began to remove his handcuffs.

  “Don’t remove those cuffs,” Nikki warned the capo. “Why would you remove them?”

  “Why are you taking his handcuffs off?” asked another capo who had remained with Nikki at

  the safe house.

  But as soon as the capo questioned what Max and Dave were doing, Dave pulled out a gun

  and shot him dead. And Max shot the other two capos, who would have never suspected him

  or Dave, before they could reach for their weapons.

  But Damon, his hands free, turned his attention to Nikki.

  Nikki threw her hot cup of coffee on him, and then began taking off running. She ran

  toward the back of the house. If she could get in that bedroom, she stood a chance. Teddy had

  a gun there for her. But She had to get to it!

  But Damon, now free, ran her down and tackled her to the floor.

  They fought. Nikki turned onto her back and threw punches and kicked her legs and slid on

  her butt trying to get away from him. She fought him as if she was a prizefighter. They fought

  hard. But Damon overpowered her, took full control of her arms, and sat on her as he

  straddled her. He pinned her down

  “Same old Nikki the asshole,” he said bitterly. “You could always outsmart me, couldn’t

  you? You were always one step ahead of me, weren’t you? That’s why I wanted your ass out of

  my way. Although, at one time in my life, I was smarter than you think. I let your father believe

  you snitched on us. I was able to turn your own father against you,” he said proudly. “He fell

  for it lock, stock, and barrel.”

  “What do you want, Damon?” Nikki asked angrily, still wrestling with him to break free.

  “What the fuck do you want?!”

  Damon smiled. And then he was staring at her. “You always had a pretty face,” he said.

  “And still got those curves. My buddies used to say you had too many curves for their liking.

  And that embarrassed me. I was embarrassed to be around you in public. But I had no

  problems being with you in private. Because they didn’t know fine when they saw it. And

  you’re still fine, Nikki. That’s the only thing I miss about your arrogant ass. How fine you were,

  and how much I loved what you did to me in our bed. You were good in bed, Nikki. Real good.”

  He disgusted Nikki. His eyes were filled with lust at a time like this. But that was Damon.

  He always thought rules never applied to him.

  But when he moved toward her face, to kiss her, she spat on him. “I’d rather die!” she cried

  out.

  And Damon slapped her hard across her face.

  He was about to do even more to her, but the cell phone she had in her pocket began

  ringing. And the sound of that ringing reminded Damon of his limited time. He smiled, but

  Nikki could see his nervousness. “Expecting someone?” he asked her. Then he got off of her,

  and violently pulled her to her feet.

  Teddy, Mick, and Tosh were in the SUV racing back to the safe house. Nikki wasn’t

  answering her phone, and none of the capos they had left for her protection were answering

  either. All three men cared deeply for Nikki. All three were terrified. It felt like a race against

  time itself to all of them.

  But for Teddy, it was even more than that. All he could hope for was her ability to fight

  back. Give’em hell, Nikki, he kept saying to himself. Give’em hell!

  When they arrived at the safe house, a car was backing out. Dave was behind the wheel,

  and Max was on the passenger seat. They stopped when they saw the SUV and pressed down

  the window.

  “What’s happened?” Teddy asked them.

  “Damon Tarver’s here,” said Max anxiously. “And he has a gun on Miss Tarver and he’s

  threatening to kill her. He’s killed everybody else. We were just going for backup. We were

  just about to give you guys a call. He killed everybody else inside, Boss. Everybody’s dead!”

  “You and Dave cover the back side of the house,” Teddy ordered. We’ll take care of the

  front!” And Teddy’s SUV sped up and headed toward the entrance.

  But just as the SUV stopped, and they were all about to pile out of the vehicle, Teddy sensed

  something was wrong. Something was off! “It’s a trap,” he said suddenly.

  Mick and Tosh looked at him. “A trap?” Mick asked.

  “Why were they leaving?” Teddy asked. “The person they were responsible for is being held

  hostage, and they’re asses are leaving?”

  Then Teddy quickly turned to see if that car containing Max and Dave was heading toward

  the back of the safe house as he had ordered. But just as he had suspected, they weren’t. They

  were heading off of the
property.

  “Turn around!” Mick ordered the driver.

  “Turn around!” Teddy ordered too. He was waving his gun hysterically. “Nikki’s in that car!

  Turn the fuck around!”

  The SUV driver turned around quickly to head off of the safe house property. But just as

  they turned around, and were driving off of the property, the safe house exploded, rocking the

  SUV. The house went up in flames.

  Teddy’s heart dropped. Tosh, stunned, looked at him. “I pray to God you’re right,” he said,

  “and Nikki’s in that car somewhere. Because if she was in that house,” he started saying, but

  couldn’t even bring himself to finish it.

  “She’s not,” Teddy said. “She’s in that car. She has to be!”

  “But what if your ass wrong?” Tosh yelled.

  “I’m not wrong!” Teddy yelled back. “I’m not wrong! I should know where my wife is. She’s

  in that car!” Then Teddy impatiently climbed over the seat to the front of the SUV. “Give me

  the wheel!” he ordered. “Driving like Miss Daisy up in this bitch! Get out of the fucking way!”

  The SUV came to a sudden halt, causing both Tosh and Mick to jerk forward.

  “Steady, Teddy!” Tosh said. “Damn!”

  “He’s got it under control,” Mick said.

  But Tosh looked at Mick as if he was crazy. “If that’s under control,” he said, “I don’t wanna

  see out of control!”

  Teddy got behind the wheel, and sped away.

  But then he thought about what Teddy had said earlier. “Your wife?” he asked.

  Damon was in the trunk of the car, and when he got out of the trunk through the opening of

  the let-down backseat, he pulled Nikki, who was bound and gagged, out with him. He lifted the

  seat back up, and slammed her against it.

  Damon looked back as the house explosion rocked the entire area. And he laughed. “They

  didn’t suspect a thing!” he said. “Stupid motherfuckers! We outsmarted their asses this time!

  We got them good this time!”

  “It worked like a charm,” Max said. “We volunteered to be the backup car should they need

  an emergency pickup, and nobody questioned it. As soon as they headed for your farmhouse--”

  “Where I made a point of not being,” Damon reminded them.

  “We headed to pick you up.”

  Dave looked at Damon through the rearview mirror as he drove. “But what about Red?” he

  asked. “What about your brother?”

  “Probably dead,” Damon said. “If the Sinatras made it out, it had to mean Red didn’t. But I

  can’t help that. He’s a casualty of war. What the fuck can I do about that?”

  Then he looked at Nikki, who was struggling to break free. “But at least I just might have the

  most important hostage since the Lindbergh baby. Okay, I’m overexaggerating. But it’s big. I

  don’t know why I didn’t think about this sooner. I wanted to cut my losses. But now that the

  Sinatras are on to me, that’s not possible.” A look of regret appeared in Damon’s eyes. “Nikki’s

  the next best thing.”

  “But we’ll get paid, Boss, at least, right?” Max said.

  “Hell yeah!” Damon said. “We’ll get paid. We fooled the shit out of their stupid asses!”

  But then Dave, the driver, suddenly slammed on brakes.

  Damon and Nikki both nearly fell off their seats. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Damon

  angrily asked.

  Then he looked past Dave and out of the windshield too. And that was when he saw it. The

  SUV carrying Teddy and Mick was stopped in front of them. And then Mick the Tick and Teddy

  T, both with rifles that might have well have been weapons of mass destruction because of who

  was carrying them, got out.

  “Reverse this motherfucker!” Damon yelled anxiously, and Dave slung the gear into Reverse,

  and began backing away as fast as he could.

  But Teddy and Mick began running as they fired their rifles. And they weren’t shooting to

  kill. They were shooting to take out all four tires.

  And they succeeded. All four ties became disabled and the car was too wobbly to drive. But

  Teddy knew they still could go. He ran past his father, ran as fast as he could toward the still-

  backing up vehicle, and stopped in place. Then he aimed his rifle and shot the driver through

  the head. The car continued to roll, but then it came to a stop.

  Mick ran up to Teddy and then they both began hurrying for the car.

  Damon knew he had only one option left: the hostage option.

  He grabbed Nikki and got out of the car with a gun to her throat. “Come any closer,” he

  said, “and she’s dead. I won’t hesitate, I mean it! Don’t come any closer!”

  Mick stopped in his tracks. Tosh got out of the SUV and stopped in his tracks too. But

  Teddy, as his father knew he would, kept walking.

  And Damon was panicking. “You heard me!” Damon yelled. “Don’t come any closer!”

  But Teddy kept coming, with his eyes on Nikki. There was no way in hell Damon was taking

  her away from that spot where they stood to just kill her later. Teddy was determined to kill

  him now.

  “Are you nuts?” Damon said, his gun pressing into Nikki’s flesh. “I’ll kill this bitch! I’m not

  fucking with you!”

  But Teddy kept coming. He wasn’t stopping. Nikki saw it too. And she knew what she had

  to do.

  Nikki’s hands were bound, and her mouth was gagged, but her feet were available. Damon

  was yelling for Teddy to stop right there, over and over, and Nikki, when she felt Teddy was

  close enough, took her shoe, gently moved it to the front of Damon’s leg, and kicked him hard

  in the shin. His reaction to the pain was swift, as his gun moved away from her face just slightly

  enough for her to move her head away from Damon, and for Teddy to take his shot.

  He hit Damon right through his cheek, and Damon fell out instantly. Dead.

  As soon as Damon dropped, Nikki broke away from him and began running.

  “Oh, thank God!” Tosh was saying. “Thank you, Jesus!”

  Mick let out a hard exhale. It was that close.

  And Teddy, his heart still in his shoe, just stood there. He didn’t think he could ever move

  from that spot. It was that close.

  But he didn’t have to move. Nikki ran so fast to him, bound and gagged, that he had only

  just to open his arms, and she was running into them.

  EPILOGUE

  It was Friday night at Mick and Roz’s and their dinner guests, Teddy and Nikki, were relaxing

  with them on their patio. Mick was grilling steaks, and they were leaned back on the patio

  table, drinking beer, and enjoying elevator music on the stereo. But the music truly didn’t

  matter to any of them. Good company did.

  “We had a lot of breaches, Pop,” Teddy was saying. “I’m still trying to figure out how to fix

  that.”

  “You can minimize it,” Mick said, “but you can’t fix it. Until we’re able to see what’s in

  another man’s heart, we will always have wolves among us.”

  “It didn’t seem this bad when you were full time,” Teddy said.

  “Didn’t seem this bad to who?” Mick asked. “I’m the don who had to take out my entire

  crew one time. Remember that?”

  Teddy smiled. “Oh, yeah, that’s right!”

  “Your entire crew?” Nikki asked.

  “His entire crew,” Roz said, nodding her head. “My man don’t play!”


  Nikki laughed.

  “But I forgot about that, Pop,” Teddy said. “Now I don’t feel so bad about the breaches

  under my watch!”

  They all laughed.

  “But what I will say is this,” Mick said to Teddy.

  Teddy and Nikki both looked at him. What was he going to say, they wondered?

  “You comported yourself very well in New Orleans,” Mick said. “I was impressed. You made

  every move I would have made.”

  Teddy smiled. “Thanks, Pop.”

  “Except one,” Mick said.

  “Ah, man!” Teddy said with a laugh, and Nikki laughed too. “I knew it was going to be

  something! What, Pop? What’s the exception?”

  “You were too quick to bring Tosh Baker into the fold. I know he’s Nikki’s father, but he also

  had a lot of mob shit going on. Make sure next time you’re a little more careful.”

  “I agree,” Nikki said.

  “Will do,” Teddy said.

  “It worked out,” Mick said. “He does his underhanded shit, don’t misunderstand me, but

  he’s not a violent man. He’s alright.”

  “I agree,” said Teddy. “I’m a good judge of character, and I scoped Tosh out right away. He

  wasn’t a great father, but he’s a cool cat. If you ask me.”

  “Who’s asking you?” Mick said and they laughed as he got up and went to the grill, to flip

  the steaks.

  Nikki basked in being with Teddy’s parents. It was a surreal experience for her. Even when

  the invitation came, she was surprised. She even asked Teddy if they ever invited his other

  girlfriends over.

  “Never,” Teddy said. “Are you kidding?”

  “But why us?” Nikki asked.

  “They like our company,” Teddy had said.

  But as they sat on that patio, Nikki realized she liked their company too.

  But Teddy, Roz noticed, was subdued. “What’s on your mind, Bubba?” she asked him as he

  took another swig from his bottle of beer.

  “The only thing on his mind,” Mick said as he turned the steaks, “is how to avoid doing any

  work.”

  “That’s me,” Teddy said whom, everybody in the family knew, was a workaholic.

  “His ass is turning the meat the next time,” Mick added.

  “He’ll be happy to,” Nikki said, speaking up for Teddy.