W

by Anne Leigh

  Beethoven would be cringing in his grave.

  I lost Dyan right after she had licked salt from the top of a hot guy’s abs for a third tequila shot. I knew she wanted to have fun, and I wasn’t going to be a party pooper. No one cared if anyone was over 21. As long as you looked the part, you could grab some booze and enjoy real college life – Southern California style.

  Denton’s last text came in five minutes ago. Where u at?

  Downstairs, by the kitchen, I replied. The massive amount of bodies surrounding me would be a huge factor in him finding me, so I was actually thankful that these high heels gave me the fighting spirit to find him first.

  I spun around to avoid getting hit in the head by a flying Frisbee, only to barely miss a can of empty soda being thrown in the air.

  From a foot away, I recognized my Political Science classmate, Malik, an attractive African-American guy, who looked totally wasted and was barely hanging on by the arms of two women. In Professor Dufrey’s class, Malik could summarize the criminal justice system eloquently and vowed to stand for racial and gender equality. Seeing him barely standing on his own two feet made me think that he better be careful because videos of his current state of drunkenness could be used against him in his aspirations of becoming the future Supreme Court justice.

  My chest was starting to feel tight. I needed to get some air. Anything outside of this packed Sigma Epsilon frat house would be oxygen.

  “Ouch!” I screamed as I felt someone pinch my left leg, but with the heavy metal music blasting from the speakers, my scream might as well had been a whisper.

  Why would anyone want to pinch me? At a party? Was this a new kind of kink?

  I muscled my way into a small corner where a woman in tight jeans had her legs wrapped around a guy who was busy kneading and groping her butt as if it was made of clay.

  “Hey!” Finally, the voice I’d been waiting for, the reason why I was wearing this poor excuse of a satin top, found me.

  “Hey,” I smiled, hoping the deep cherry red lipstick I’d applied was still intact and the sweat slowly dripping from my forehead would stop falling. I needed him to see me at my best – anything besides the usual plain t-shirt and jeans I wore to class.

  “Glad I found you.” Those bewitching green eyes were something a girl could only be lucky to stare into for hours. A smile formed on his lips and there was only so much handsome looks God could give a guy but for some reason, God gave it all to this guy.

  “Where were you at?” I inquired, ignoring the crescendo of moaning sounds from my right.

  “Upstairs. I was trying to win a video game, but eventually lost.” Denton’s eyes flickered in amusement at the escalating porn flick unfolding before him, his dimples showing. “Let’s go outside. It’s less crowded in the back.”

  Yes, yes, yes! Let’s!

  He clasped his right hand on my waist as he led us outside, away from the circus.

  We made our way to the kitchen, passing a group of women who were alternating sipping something from a tube with multi-colored mouthpieces. A blonde lady stood up and made her way to Denton and I before we could completely step outside.

  “Hey D, got a minute?” Her voice was a bit slurred, and the haphazard, unsteady way she was pointing her bright yellow nails at Denton made me think that one more drink would put her out of commission.

  Denton managed to take a hold of her right hand before she tripped over a plastic white chair, and I moved away from his hold to give him a private moment, but he clung tightly to my waist.

  “Maxine,” his mouth lifted in a grin, but his eyes were wary.

  Maxine, the beholder of a see-through maxi dress, flung her hair to the side and since she was now close enough to Denton’s side, tapped Denton on his blue-shirt covered chest. “It’s been a while, D, when are we hanging out again?” Flicking her gaze to me for a brief second, she continued, “Just the two of us.”

  Denton flashed a tight smile, his back stiffening as he replied, “Maybe another time.”

  He pulled me closer to him, tighter to his side, and my legs felt the rub of his jeans. “We gotta go, Maxine. My girl and I got places to go.”

  Wwwhhhattt? I’m his girl?

  My stomach did a double backflip and my heart zinged as he removed his hold on my waist and lifted his hand to brush my chin. “Later Maxine, see you around,” he said without breaking his gaze on me.

  Maxine’s brows shot up to her hairline, but she kept quiet and let us pass. Before I completely got around her, I heard her mocking loud whisper, “Flavor of the month.”

  Close to 6’6”, Denton’s long strides were hard to keep up with, and even if he had a strong grip on my waist, my heels were not a match to his pace. My awkward stilted movements must have caught his attention because he stopped, his green eyes inquiring, “What’s wrong?”

  “My shoes…” I confessed, pointing to his legs, “are no match to your sneakers.”

  He gave me a heart-stopping grin, his white teeth flashing, and in the middle of all the noise around us, my whole body wanted to absorb this moment worthy of a thousand selfies, as Dyan loved to say, and forever keep it in my memory.

  Gah.

  He was utterly, adorably, undeniably handsome.

  He lowered his head, close to my forehead and on my left ear, he said, “You’re friggin’ cute.”

  I didn’t want him to find me cute.

  “I’m not cute,” I protested, clutching my small black purse for life as a gigantic guy passed me.

  Denton tugged on my waist again, signaling that he wanted us to be out of his frat-sponsored chaos, so I followed his noticeably slower pace.

  As soon we reached the back of the house, he guided me to a small dark corner. I leaned against the wall, inhaling loudly, catching some much-needed fresh air. Anything outside of the smoke-infested and hookah-loving groupies was fifty times better for the state of my lungs.

  “Athena, I like you,” he stated, holding my waist with his large hands, while rubbing gently and lifting the sides of my dress higher.

  “I like you too,” I admitted, giving him the sultriest look I could manage, complete with eye-blinking and puckered lips as Dyan had instructed and critiqued me in front of our shared bathroom mirror a few hours ago. I hoped he could see that my lips were made for kissing and my eyes were a vortex of sexual energy.

  “I think you’re a great girl…” Can he just stop talking and kiss me already? Thank goodness my armpits stopped raining cats and dogs. “And I’d really like to kiss you.”

  He had my permission.

  I raised my head up to meet his eyes. It was hard to see because of the dim lighting, but as he lowered his head, I felt his breath hitch. He tucked a finger under my chin, lifting my head up. My hands remained behind my back against the wall. I didn’t want to raise my arms because seriously, I was sporting some major waterfall sweat below my shoulders.

  I closed my eyes, wanting to savor the moment, this was what I’d been waiting for, the stuff college dreams were made of. Gorgeous guy, star basketball player, and definitely nice.

  I took a big gulp of air because I knew once his lips latched onto mine, I’d be like a piranha, munching on his lips, not ever wanting to let go.

  I waited…waited…and waited, but his lips never met mine.

  Opening my eyes, I saw a blur – Denton’s big body being lifted in the air like it was a puny sack of cotton and then dumped on a mountain of dried leaves. The guy who lifted Denton did something and Denton flailed like a sleeping puppy.

  Oh. My. God.

  Before I could let out a scream, the huge guy, Denton’s attacker, swiftly rushed to my side and muffled my scream with his rough hands.

  In the dark, I couldn’t see his face, but I could outline his profile.

  Broad jaw, buzz cut hair, and shoulders that looked like he could lift a Ford F-150 without any trouble.

  Unlike Denton’s warm demeanor, this guy elicited a cold shiver up my spine. My
body tingled in heightened alertness and maximum awareness as I stared at the prominent Adam’s apple bobbing on his throat. He was saying something, but I couldn’t decipher it.

  I was too scared to say anything.

  My body was locking up in alarm and panic and just as I was about to kick him in his groin as I’d seen in many movies, the words he whispered in my ear made me pause.

  “Your father sent me.”

  I’m too old for this.

  Camping out for weeks in the Afghan deserts, recons on the North Korean borders, and infiltrating insurgents in Pakistan were chicken shit compared to this.

  Hell, even Hell Week was nicer than this.

  Drake, my buddy, still active in Seal Team Seven, would be laughing his ass off if he knew what I was doing right now. Judging from his call earlier, I could tell he was in the sub, prepping for an Op, most likely somewhere in Libya from the last time I’d heard. Since I’d left, he’d become the first in command and it’s been hard to keep track of him. I was surprised by his call, but he just wanted to check in on how I was doing. Good man, great friend, even better soldier.

  I’d been watching her for two weeks now. She was a funny girl. She ate too much candy. She’d pick out all the Lemon-flavored Starburst first, get started on the Lime, saved the Strawberry, and gave the Orange to her tiny Asian friend. She wore the same thing over and over again. T-shirts of different colors and jeans. Her favorite color was blue. She never did anything out of the ordinary – she went straight to her classes, ran the track on the university grounds every Wednesday and Friday, right after her Speech 102 class, and always forgot to bring bottled water so she usually bought it from the vending machine 10 meters from the entrance to the gym.

  She never went out to party...until tonight.

  I’d seen the tall guy hanging out with her after their class. Even ran a complete profile on him. As the head of this ops, I had access to data at the flick of my fingers. I could’ve asked Tony, my expert IT guy, to run a background check for me, but I had hands, a phone, and a brain – I could do this in my sleep.

  Denton Holmes. Age: 20. Star basketball player. Scores an average of 20 points per game. Favors left hand to shoot, drove a BMW with the plates LVBALL, and had one knee surgery when he was 16. He was raised in a Catholic family, had two younger brothers, father passed away when he was 14, and his mother was the governor of California. Overall good kid. His last credit card transaction was a monthly subscription to a porn site. It was none of my business why he subscribed to that site, but honestly, you could get porn anywhere nowadays without a subscription. Plus, this kid could have any woman he wanted, why would he even pay for it?

  Somehow this discovery did not settle well with me.

  That and the fact that tonight, this girl who I’d been following around for two weeks, this funny girl, had somehow morphed into a woman.

  When she came out of the apartment with her friend, I had to do a double-take and had to keep my feet balanced on my bike. What she hid behind those shirts and jeans was definitely not something I should even be thinking about. When she climbed in the passenger side of her friend’s Honda Civic, her skirt had ridden up and the show of those toned legs made me adjust my jeans.

  I preferred tall, skinny, and blonde. Any woman that didn’t remind me of her, the one I’d buried with my past.

  Athena – even her name was different. She laughed like there were no worries in the world. Her hazel eyes lit up whenever she saw her friend, Dyan. And one time, when the two of them were in their dorm/apartment’s living room, a place I had installed with a top-of-the-line security camera system because let’s face it, college apartments were the least secured establishments, and through the small camera I’d hidden on the small painting above the sofa, I saw her leaping and dancing to Sinatra’s Come Fly With Me, and I just couldn’t look away. Her dark brown hair had loosened up from the pencils she liked to use as hairclips and her hazel eyes looked naked with complete joy.

  How did she become so happy? So full of sun?

  I’d read her files. It was protocol. I knew her history.

  Glück ist nicht überall, ist Traurigkeit.

  Happiness is not everywhere, sadness is.

  A fact.

  The sun comes up, but it comes down just as fast. There are no guarantees in life. In the Bavarian Alps where I spent half of my childhood, even the summer months were filled with rain, so nothing is predictable, but the one thing that was for sure was that you had to be prepared for the worst because shit could hit the fan anytime.

  I’d entered the party through the side door after checking the perimeter outside, just in time to catch her legs being pinched by a skinny guy who was wearing the tightest black leather ever made. I passed by the guy and I might have broken his knuckle or two; there was no excuse to disrespect a female, no matter how young or how old you were. Touching another person without their consent was breaking one of the biggest rules in my book. Unless of course, it was in defense.

  She’d been looking for someone, most likely Denton. She seemed to like him. She was always looking up at him dreamily and she had the biggest smile on her face the moment she saw him come up towards her. She looked at him like he was the bearer of all great things to come, as if he could erase all her pain, and he’d be the one to fight all of her demons.

  A girl used to look at me like that before…

  Shut it off, Webb. Keep those memories buried. There’s no point in going back to them. Just shut it off.

  Focusing on Athena and Denton’s retreating backs, I stopped by a darkened corner where two kids were making out like monkeys and dialed the campus police. The absolute mess of this place, the skewed staircases, the rotting wood, the unstable foundation of the whole building was not safe. There would be a lot of casualties if someone tossed a lit cigarette on a combustible material or if there was an emergency, the presence of three extremely small exit doors would not be able to handle the surge of fleeing bodies. The burning scent of marijuana was what clinched the deal for me. Drugs, alcohol, and a lot of bodies in extremely tight spaces were not a good combo.

  After briefly giving the campus police the location of the party, I followed Athena and Denton to the back, sliding back the piece of shit doorframe that almost crumbled when I kicked the bottom part with my boot.

  Passing a couple of guys who were drowning over a keg stand, I sped up my steps to catch up with the lovebirds. This mission, this assignment was one of the easiest tasks I’d ever had to do. Follow Athena around, and once the threat was neutralized, leave her be. This assignment could have gone to Drake since he was usually the one picked for these types of shore assignments plus I wasn’t on Uncle Sam’s payroll anymore but my former commanding officer had asked me personally so I couldn’t refuse. Neither did I want to since I had a debt to settle with Joseph, Athena’s father. What he’d given me was something I would never be able to repay, so if he asked me to guard her for life, I would not hesitate. I would probably ask for a few concessions – that Athena stop attending these stupid parties, and just be the normal girl that she was would be at the top of that list.

  Athena and Denton were whispering in each other’s ears, he was gently rubbing her forearms, and time and time again, he would lean over and she let out a giggle.

  Shit, now I was feeling like a stalker.

  SEAL missions usually took days, sometimes months, to carry out. It involved a lot of time watching, waiting, observing until all the key players were in, the timing was optimal, and the last thing to do was to take out the enemy. When the enemy was unforeseen, as in this case with Athena, where there wasn’t established proof on who we were actually up against, I had nothing to go by except to ensure that she was safe.

  Please make sure everything is normal for her. I want her to experience college the way she should.

  Her father’s words rang through my ears, connecting with the part of my brain that was trained to attack and strike, letting my hands fall
to my sides even when the distance between her and Denton became an inch apart.

  I was going to leave them alone. It was none of my business what she did with him. If they wanted to do the horizontal, I’d have to call and change my plans later tonight with Estella because I’d have to wait until Athena was safely back in her apartment before I’d go anywhere.

  When the flickering lights from the bulb 10 inches away from Denton’s head hit Athena’s face, an unfamiliar, uncharacteristic wave of protectiveness washed over me. He was a nice guy, but he was subscribing to porn sites. Lame excuse, but it was all I could come up with.

  She lifted her gaze away from him for a second and that easy-going smile, the permanent show of freedom plastered on her lips was there…but it was those eyes, the vulnerability in those hazel greens, the show of naked trust, wiped clean of any subterfuge that I thrived on, that did it for me.

  I knew she couldn’t see me. I was dressed in a black shirt and jeans that blended into the darkness. However, for that second, a minute max, that she let her gaze linger away from him and her eyes unabatingly caught mine, she’d sealed her fate.

  She wasn’t going to be his.

  Not tonight.

  She was a mission, Webb.

  She was.

  When she closed her eyes, her lips opening up, waiting for Denton to close it for her, a sense of foreboding crept up my nerves, the kind that warned me, alerted me when something was off, out of the ordinary during an op. It’s the same feeling I had three and a half years ago and I couldn’t just shake it off.

  With my mind made up, the unmistaken buzzing sounds of a police radio in the front yard, signaling that they’d arrived, my ears picking up on the chatter, “10-4,” I quickened my steps to reach Denton before he could make a move on Athena, any more than he had, and I lifted him by his shoulders then hoisted him up to the closest place I could dump him.