Bound to You: A Military Romance (You and Me Series Book 3)

by Tia Lewis

  “Fuck I will. What—?”

  He pushed aside my collar to see the hickey on my neck. Randy’s eyes grew wide.

  “What the hell?” he spit.

  “I said, let me go!”

  “You didn’t—with him?” Randy pointed a finger at Matthew, who just stared back at him.

  “And I said, it’s none of your business.”

  “And I told you, everything you do is my business.”

  I twisted, trying to dislodge the meaty hand from my arm, but I couldn’t make Randy budge. Randy twisted and trapped me against the edge of the car, oblivious to the storm raging in Matthew as he wrestled for self-control.

  “You’re going to tell this piece of trash to get out of town,” Randy said menacingly.

  “Hey, muthafucker!” Matthew said rushing toward him. “Get your hands off her now!”

  Randy suddenly let go of my arm to turn to face the oncoming ex-soldier. I grew very afraid then because I’d never seen that expression on Matthew’s face—the one that said he could kill.

  “I’ll put my hands on her when I want to,” Randy jeered. “I’ve had my hands all over since we were teenagers. Yeah. She was sweet then. And she was so willing.”

  “Shut up you bastard!” I shouted.

  Randy scoffed. “So, you put out for anyone? How many men have you fucked, Meleyna? Did you fuck anyone else while we were together? I thought I was your first and only.”

  Randy’s face was red, and he was shaking with rage, but Matthew was just as angered. I saw Matthew move toward Randy, but I was trapped and couldn’t stop what happened next.

  “That’s it. Get away from her,” Matthew said. And he pushed Randy away from me in one hard shove.

  The sheriff’s staggered back.

  “You fucking asshole,” he spit. And he moved at Matthew.

  Parker rushed between them barking furiously, and Matthew was forced to pay attention to his dog. A look of horror came over his face as he saw how distressed Parker was. He immediately dropped to one knee and put his arms around Parker’s neck.

  “Sorry, boy,” he said burying his head in Parker’s neck.

  “Put your hands behind your back,” ordered Randy.

  “What!” I said in disbelief.

  “I’m taking him in. Assaulting a police officer.”

  “You can’t be serious,” I said angrily. “You started this mess because you can’t have me and can’t stand the fact that I finally moved on!”

  “The man,” Randy growled, “needs to learn to keep his hands to himself. Get up, you.”

  “Don’t do this,” I pleaded.

  Matthew looked at Randy with utter hate in his eyes, but he stood and put his hands behind his back. Parker leaned against Matthew.

  “Sit, Parker,” Matthew said. “Don’t move.”

  Parker obeyed but kept a watchful eye on the sheriff as he clipped the handcuffs on Matthew’s wrist. Randy’s lips curled into a twisted smile as he tightened the cuffs. Then he methodically checked his pockets and patted him down. Matthew just stood there, stoned faced and unflinching.

  At that moment, when I witnessed the sick pleasure Randy enjoyed in putting down his rival, the universe shifted. All that had gone on between Randy Barker and me in the past lost its romantic sheen and magnetic draw. Where once what I felt for Randy made perfect sense, now it made no sense at all. Like chains dropping off my body, I lost all feelings of affection for Randy Barker. Friendship and all. He was dead to me.

  “Take the dog,” Randy said to me harshly.

  “No,” Matthew said. “He’s my service dog. The ADA says that wherever I go, he goes. Unless you want to break Federal law.”

  “Federal law doesn’t allow for this, so you’ll just have to get along without your doggie friend.”

  “Randy,” I said in a final appeal. “Please don’t do this.”

  “Take the dog, Meleyna, or I’ll take him to the pound,” Randy ordered.

  Reluctantly I took Parker’s lead. “I’ll take good care of him.”

  Matthew just nodded, but then stared ahead with his jaw tight.

  With a sinking heart, I watched Matthew get into the back of the cruiser, and Randy shut the door.

  Randy glanced at me. “This is just the beginning for your boy, here. I’m going to throw the book at him.”

  “You do that, Randy, and you’ll never see me again.”

  “Yeah,” Randy said. “I figured that out already.” He got into his cruiser and slammed the door shut. Parker strained against his leash whimpering as the cruiser took Matthew away. And there wasn’t a damn thing that I could do about any of it.

  Matthew

  The lack of Parker by my side hit me like a mortar shell. I sat in the back of Randy Barker’s police cruiser, my hands painfully secured behind me trying to make sense of the events that brought me here. It was all wrong, crazy wrong, and my emotions swirled with the force of a tornado within me.

  It was probably a good thing Barker cuffed him.

  There were a wealth of things my training told me to do to Randy Barker. The Marines taught me those. The fury that hit me when I saw Barker manhandle Meleyna urged me to do many of them. I couldn’t let that prick put his hands on her, and I was willing to risk it all. Meleyna was mine if she realized it or not and it was my job to protect her from that scumbag.

  But that would have been wrong if I used my training against Randy, so I chose the action with the least possible consequence, shove the bastard away from my woman.

  My woman? It had only been a week. We hadn’t talked about a future. Why would we? Meleyna and I were having a good time and seven days was way too short to lay claim on anyone, wasn’t it?

  But yes, there was a part of me that wanted Meleyna beyond the here and now. That’s why I kept giving her those ridiculous hickeys. But for Barker, who was a possessive sonofabitch, that hickey roused the lawman’s ire. Well, too bad. If Barker had treated Meleyna right, she wouldn’t have fallen into my arms.

  But crossing the deputy came with a set of complications. And right now, that meant sitting in the back of the lawman’s cruiser.

  Barker was on the radio to his dispatcher.

  “In transit with a 10-16. Check for warrants on a Matthew Rees, from Boise, Idaho. Arrival five to ten minutes.”

  Warrants? Hell, no, there weren’t any warrants on me. Randy Barker would be one unhappy cop when he got that information. I’d taken care of my problems in Idaho and got my suspended sentence dropped. Max, the trainer I lived with while learning to work with Parker, had helped me resolve my legal troubles.

  It didn’t take much to figure Barker would make more problems for me in an attempt to get rid of me. I figured Barker was the kind of man that if he couldn’t possess Meleyna, he’d want her to live alone.

  What was I thinking? Why did I believe I had a future with Meleyna? This guy would always make trouble, and the last thing I needed was another trigger to my impulsive tendencies. I should have just played it cool. Before my injury, I’d control my reactions without fail, but now that was nearly impossible. I thought with Parker I had a handle on this issue, but apparently not. All it took was someone ticking me off, and I was off the rails. And how did this bode for any kind of relationship? People made mistakes or were sometimes thoughtless, or careless. Normal people let slights roll off their shoulders. But me? My anger would blow up and destroy what I built. Having a woman in my life was impossible when all I ever did was fuck up.

  We rolled into the parking garage of the county jail where two officers stood outside a door marked “Detention Area Entrance.” Barker called to the officers, and one of them opened the back door of the cruiser.

  “I want to make my phone call,” I said immediately.

  “You’ll get it when we’re done processing you,” said the officer.

  I suffered through processing, trying to cast the whole experience as just another Marine exercise. The regimented order of intake reminded me of t
he Marines though the procedures were not. Once fingerprinted and stripped searched they placed me in a holding cell to wait. So I sat. I spent useless hours waiting for the opportunity to make my phone call. I wanted to get out of here, but that was impossible until I enlisted help.

  At long last, an officer came to my cell.

  “I want to make my phone call.”

  I had spent my time thinking who I’d call. I wanted to call Meleyna, but I doubted she was able to help much. I needed money for bail if they let me bond out. Dad would help, but he wasn’t the most efficient in responding to a crisis. No. There was only one person I could reach that could help.

  “Max,” I said to the man who answered the phone. “I’m in trouble, and I need help.”

  The next morning I woke after a hellish night of bad dreams, disoriented and confused. Dimly aware I’d been sleeping, I didn’t know where I was, but the nightmares hung on me like a shroud. In my fractured mind’s eye, I was lying on the ground, my head pounding, and Jack’s severed head laying on the ground a few feet away. I shivered, and crossed my arms across my chest and rocked on the creaking bed, unable to connect the present and the past. The creak of the bed told me I wasn’t at home, but the images in my head told me I was in Iraq.

  It was the clank of metal upon metal, the cell door opening and a guard ordering me to put my hands on the wall that snapped me to the present.

  “What’s wrong with you,” grunted the guard and as he cuffed me, my shivering body flinched when the man touched me.

  “Had a PTSD episode. I usually have my service dog to help me with those, but the cop that brought me in wouldn’t let me bring him.”

  “Dogs aren’t allowed in the jail. Let’s go. Time to take you to court.”

  Uniformed guards brought me to arraignment before a judge. Max came through, and a lawyer came to the bar to stand with me and argued for bail.

  “It’s not true, your honor, that Sergeant Reeves has no ties to the community. He secured employment with a local business and a residence. The Marines honorably discharged him after four years of service.”

  I sighed with immense relief when the judge granted bail. “It will take a few hours,” said the lawyer, “but I’ll be out back when they release you, and we can talk.”

  It was late afternoon when I walked out of the county detention center. The lawyer was there as promised, and he drove me to the Harris homestead.

  “Hey, Matthew. Tim Hayes. Sorry, we didn’t get a proper introduction back there.”

  “No problem. I’m glad you could help on short notice.”

  “Max is a good friend of a good friend. I’ve heard plenty of war stories about him. So, if Max vouches for you, you are okay in my book. So, tell me what happened.”

  I filled the lawyer in on the events that led to my arrest. Tim listened with a grim look on his face.

  “That tracks with what I found out, except how Barker started it. That was not in his report,” Tim said. “But the prosecutor is strictly a law and order type. He won’t let your disability lead the verdict. But he doesn’t want to take a war hero to trial. That doesn’t play well here. Tell me what you want. I can try to cut a deal with him. He might drop the charges if you leave the state and promise not to come back. And I tell you to think about that real hard, Matthew because the prosecutor has every intention of charging you with ‘assault with a deadly weapon,’ since you are an ex-marine.”

  I stared ahead as my heart dropped to my stomach. I considered how the prosecution could bring up my former troubles, and paint me as a crazy veteran who was not fit to live in society. And I knew if I hung around here, Barker would make more trouble for me.

  “Tell you what,” I said. “Have that conversation. But I won’t agree to never come back. I’ll agree to a reasonable time limit though. And if he agrees I’ll leave right away.”

  “Okay, I’ll float that.”

  We reached the long gravel driveway of the Harris’ land. My heart clenched as we stopped and I gazed at the house and the kennel. Meleyna came out from the kennel door and waved excitedly.

  “Okay. I’ll call you,” Tim said. “Max gave me your cell phone number. I suggest though that you stay somewhere else for now.”

  “I agree,” I said, not wanting to bring trouble to Meleyna’s doorstep. “I don’t need any more trouble.”

  She had disappeared but soon reappeared as Tim drove off. Parker was by her, but when he saw me, he ran toward me and jumped on me, licking me excitedly.

  “Hello, boy. I missed you.”

  “And he, you,” Meleyna said with a big grin. “And I did too.”

  I know I gave her nothing but a tight smile when she deserved so much more.

  “Good to see you.

  Her smile fell at my lackluster greeting.

  “Grandma’s been fussing since I told her what happened. She phoned Randy’s grandmother and gave her what for, then Randy’s mother and gave her hell, and then Cherie and tried to give her a piece of her mind, and found out that they broke up. The upshot is it looks like there’s going to be a mountain feud on account of you.”

  “She shouldn’t have done that. I’m not worth the trouble.”

  “Of course, you are. How can you say that?”

  “Regardless, and even maybe because of that, it’s a good idea if I leave.”

  “What?” Meleyna said with a shocked expression on her face.

  “Look, it’s obvious that I’m not good around people. Next time, someone could get hurt. I’m going to a hotel until my lawyer gets the charges dropped, and then I’m going home. Come on, Parker. Let’s go get our stuff.”

  I put distance between Meleyna and me each step a stab to my heart. Parker walked beside me but instead of his tail happily wagging it hung between his legs. He knew something was wrong.

  “Sorry, boy. We have to do this.”

  Parker bumped his muzzle into my leg as if saying, “yeah, I know, but I don’t have to agree to this.” I didn’t like it either. It took everything I had to walk away.

  I was halfway through packing my things into my duffle when I heard the front door of the cabin open and footsteps across the floorboards. I turned to see Meleyna leaning against the door frame, staring at me intently.

  “You’re really leaving,” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t want you to leave.”

  I sighed and dropped the socks I had pulled from the dresser onto the bed.

  “I don’t want to either.”

  “Then don’t.”

  “Meleyna, we’ve only been together a short time.”

  “It doesn’t feel that way. It’s as if I’ve known you forever.”

  “The fact is you don’t know me. We shared good times. And I’ll always remember them. But, as I said, I have too much baggage. You deserve a man that isn’t a danger to you.”

  “Don’t,” Meleyna said angrily. “Don’t make this about me.”

  “Of course, it is about you. I care too much for you to let you fuck up your life with someone like me.”

  “That’s a decision I get to make.”

  “Can you, Meleyna? Make that decision? Randy Barker has made it clear that he will not let you out of his life, and he’s willing to go to extremes to keep you there.”

  “I don’t want him.”

  “I agree it’s a shitty position to be in. But me in the middle makes things worse. I can’t afford to another arrest. And realistically, we haven’t known each other long enough to know if we could make it together over the course of time. I’m a long shot from the get-go.”

  “It’s not right. I just found you. It’s not fair we don’t get a chance to find what we could be.”

  “Life is not fair, Meleyna. And it was me that found you. And I’ll always be grateful for that. It was great while it lasted.”

  “Damn it, Matthew.” She took two steps and pulled me to her. Her mouth covered mine with a searing kiss that reached into my soul and demanded
I give in to her. That I stay and love her. And every part of me, my body, my heart and my soul wanted that so very much, that tears formed at the corners of my eyes. But I couldn’t. My mind warred with my heart, telling it that for Meleyna’s own sake I had to leave this love behind.

  Never before had I felt a traitor to myself. As my soul screamed at the injustice of the act, I pulled away.

  “I’m really sorry, Meleyna,” I said as my voice caught in my throat. “It just can’t be that way anymore. Now, please leave. I have packing to do.”

  Meleyna

  “What is this bullshit?”

  Randy Barker was at the other end of the line, which he should not be doing, according to the piece of paper that I assumed he was holding in his hand.

  “It’s a temporary restraining order,” I said. “The notice of the hearing when I will make it a permanent restraining order is in the mail. I’m tired of you messing up my life, of threatening and jailing my friends—”

  “It was one guy, and someone not worthy of you.”

  “That was my decision until you took it away from me.”

  “So, this is revenge.”

  “No. It’s my survival. I’ve told you I’m done with you. You don’t get the hint. You keep calling and coming around here.”

  “I miss you, Meleyna.”

  “Well, I don’t miss you. And you don’t want to know the words with which I think of you. I swear, if you don’t agree to the restraining order when we go to court, I will tell the whole story, get it, the entire story, of why I need it.”

  “You wouldn’t,” Randy said.

  “You’ve given me nothing left to lose,” I spoke with heat in my words as I remembered how I felt the first week as I waited for Matthew to call and my disappointment when he didn’t. The sadness that hit me when I discovered that he had left town without a word was profound. My frustration when I found out that he couldn’t return to Arkansas for one year.

  “Look, I’m sorry, Meleyna,” Randy said sounding contrite. “I went too far. I’m a jealous man, okay?”

  “That doesn’t help now, Randy. And I couldn’t care less about your feelings on the matter. You didn’t care for mine. Now he’s gone, and by court order, he can’t come back for at least a year.”