Protected by You

by Nikki Mays

  “You ran like a coward to Rocco’s!” I yell after him. Unfortunately, he was already out the front door.

  “That’s a smart man right there. No one needs to be near all that hormonal evilness at one time.”

  I raise me eyebrows at him. “You sound like you’re in love with him. Would you like to be the one dating him?” I ask, halfway serious. Their bromance is really starting to get freaking ridiculous.

  Danny stares at me for a few moments. Long enough that I’m kind of wondering about him. “If I liked dick, your man would definitely be the one I would go for.” He sits there calmly telling me that he somewhat has the hots for my man.

  I walk back around my desk and sit in my chair, payroll completely forgotten. I steeple my fingers on top of the desk and give Dan a serious look. “I feel like we really need to start coming up with some boundaries.”

  He looks back at me just as seriously. “I feel like we’re about sixteen years too late with that. Honestly, the time for that would’ve been right after we had the girls. Face it, we’ve been through way too much shit in our lives together to ever have any true boundaries.”

  He gets an evil grin on his face that he knows annoys the hell out of me. “Plus, let’s call a spade a spade. You just want me to break up with your boyfriend. Your jealous ass doesn’t like the competition.”

  I snap my fingers and point at him. “See this just proves my point! You’re convinced that you’re dating my man too!”

  He scoffs at me. “Hell yeah I’m dating his ass too. He’s most likely going to be my girls’ step-father. That’s an important role in their lives. I don’t want just any dickwad involved in their lives. So, fuck yes, his ass and I are dating too, so that I know exactly what type of man will be taking my place if something happens to me. The fact that we get along so well and that he treats his girl like gold, is just a major bonus. Plus, he makes you smile.”

  Well shit. What the hell do I say to that?

  I’m standing here in all of my gear, not completely comprehending what I’m staring at. Taking a look around at the rest of my team, I can tell that I’m not the only one. On the one hand I understand why we have to be here and were called in on a much-needed day off. But at the same time, I kind of wish that this guy would either shit or get off the pot.

  Well to be frank, I wish he would either shoot himself or give up the fucking gun. We’ve all been standing here for two fucking hours watching this douchebag complain about every single boring ass detail of his life.

  His mommy didn’t love him enough. His daddy didn’t pay him enough attention. Kids at school made fun of him. It’s hard for him to get a date. The woman he loves is obsessed with someone else. And on and on he goes, when he’ll stop nobody fucking knows.

  I feel like shooting him myself just to put us all out of our misery.

  “Can we say that we thought he raised the gun towards us and just shoot him. I don’t know how much more of his pathetic bullshit whining I can listen to.” Damon growls at us.

  Marc looks over at him with an incredulous look that surprises me but is taken away once he opens his mouth. “As cops we already get a bad rap. We can’t go around killing pansy ass mother fuckers just because they’re sad and pathetic and have no real hope for the future.”

  Damon gives him his serial killer expression. “I don’t know why everyone thinks that I’m the psychotic one in this group. I just meant for us to shoot him in the damn arm or something so that we can all get the fuck out of here. Your ass went straight to murder.”

  Declan tilts his head at his twin. “In Marc’s defense, even your own wife compared you to a serial killer. It’s only natural that when you talk about shooting people, we naturally assume that you mean to kill them. Really, that’s not entirely his fault.”

  Damon looks around at all of us standing here looking at him. “You all thought that I was talking about killing him?”

  He looks around again and sees all of the sheepish expressions that we’re wearing. I mean this is Damon we’re talking about. With him, maiming isn’t the first thought.

  He just blinks at us a few times and goes back to ignoring us completely. That’s probably for the best really. No need to piss off the crazy one in the group more than we already have.

  “Anyone have any useful ideas?” Rocco asks, even though I’m pretty sure that we’re all agreeing with Damon, that maiming him might be the way to go.

  Sure, the paperwork would be a bitch. But at this point, after listening to this dumbass for over two hours whine about everything in his life, I’m willing to sit around doing bullshit paperwork. That’s how sad and annoying this guy is.

  Damon, knowing damn well that we are all suddenly agreeing with his idea turns and gives us all a creepy ass grin.

  Him and Michelle still confuse the hell out of me to this day. Although, with how good of a shot she is, it’s Damon who’s probably the one who’s worried in that relationship. Only he would find someone who’s just as good of a marksman as he is.

  “We can’t shoot him.” Morris drawls like he’s talking to one of his kids. “Seriously, when did letting Damon come up with the plans become a thing?”

  “When his plan will get us out of here the fastest.” Marc retorts with no shame what-so-ever.

  I really wonder what it says about me as a person, that I’m somewhat tossing the idea of shooting this idiot around in my head. It’s not like we would have to kill him or even hit anything major. Just a flesh wound. Just enough of a graze to get him to drop the gun so that we can run in and capture him.

  We can’t even get near him. He’s sitting in the middle of a fucking playground. He’s on the thing that kids twirl and try to make each other hurl or whatever. He can literally see from every direction. If I wasn’t so convinced of his utter stupidity, I would say that it was a pretty genius placement.

  “Listen, we need to come up with something quick. I can’t listen to him blather on and on about this chick who’s completely obsessed with someone else. What the hell does he expect? He’s the very definition of geeky and scrawny. Of course, this chick is going to want some beefed up athlete. Especially going off of what he describes this chick to look like.” Marc states in an agitated voice.

  “Something isn’t right about all of this.” I say. Something is running in the back of my mind and I just can’t grasp onto it.

  “No shit. This guy thought that he actually had a chance with a girl who’s been described as a ten.” Declan states like I’m an idiot. Some days I really wish that hitting him wouldn’t be frowned upon.

  Rocco set forward a bit. “No, I get what he’s saying. This guy keeps talking about her like she’s going to give him a shot in the future. Men who are about to off themselves don’t talk like that.”

  Marc now – finally – is looking extremely serious. “Has he mentioned this chick’s name? Something about her description is bothering me.”

  “Afraid it’s one of your one nighters?” Morris asks on a chuckle.

  Marc gives him a blank look. “No, but I feel like I’ve heard her description before. I just can’t remember where.”

  “He’s right. Something about her sounds really familiar.” I agree.

  Rocco walks over to the negotiator whose spent the past few hours talking to Kenneth here. He says something to him and the negotiator nods his head.

  Through the bullhorn we hear. “Kenneth you never did tell us her name and where you met her. Why don’t you tell us more about her?”

  Kenneth looks over – with the gun still at his damn temple – and gives a weird and downright creepy smile. “I met her at the club that she works at. She’s a wonderful dancer and always pays me a lot of attention.”

  He’s fallen for a stripper.

  But now that niggling feeling at the back of my mind is getting worse. I look over at Marc and can see that something about all of this is bothering him too.

  Over the bullhorn we hear. “So, Kenneth, what is you
r lovely lady’s name?”

  Kenneth gives a dreamy smile. “Candy, well it was with a Y but I convinced her that it would look much better up in the lights if it was spelled Candi with an I.”

  “Motherfucker!” I yell.

  “That’s not good.” Declan states.

  “Anyone talk to Danny recently?” Rocco asks calmly, way too calmly.

  And that’s when I remember, Danny was picking up Paige for me. I look up and Damon is crouched down in position to take a shot if necessary. Marc is over talking to the negotiator. And I suddenly realize that Rocco and Declan are surrounding me.

  The negotiator gets back on the bullhorn, obviously asking whatever it is that Marc is telling him to. “Kenneth if you love Candi so much, then why are you here trying to kill yourself?”

  Kenneth tilts his head. “Oh, I’m not. I’m just supposed to keep the police department busy for a while. Candi wanted to get back at the guy who broke her heart. Something about a few other women in his life or something. See?” He pulls the gun away and shows it to us. “It’s just a toy that I spray painted black. I got it at a costume store.”

  And that was it. The entire department pretty much stormed him all at once. Marc, that long-legged bastard got to him before I could. Although, judging how Kenneth is now face down in the sand with a very large knee digging into his back, I don’t think that he’s getting off too easily.

  That’s when I remember that Marc loves all those girls just as much as he loves his own. The triplets of terror are his babysitters and nieces, regardless of blood. Marc doesn’t take too kindly to people messing with his family.

  Once Kenneth is pulled up and cuffed we sit him down for a moment. This motherfucker looks confused as hell too. “Why am I being arrested? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “You threatened to kill yourself by holding a gun to your head in the middle of a children’s playground.” Declan explains slowly to this idiot.

  “But the gun wasn’t real.”

  “Do you realize that you can’t waste police time pretending to kill yourself?”

  “Candi said everything would be fine. All I had to do was keep you all busy for a little while so that she could go talk to her ex. I don’t see why since we already destroyed his stupid gym. I just don’t understand why everything keeps coming back to that annoying asshole. He isn’t even that good looking! And he’s a stupid fighter, obviously he’s not going to be intelligent enough for someone as good as Candi.”

  “Has he been read his rights?” I murmur to Marc.

  He gives me his megawatt smile. “Yup.” He states while popping the P. “I did that while he was being cuffed. We can use everything this moron is saying against him and Candi.” Gleeful doesn’t even begin to describe Marc right now.

  “Just wait until she calls me.” Kenneth continues completely unaware of the fact that he just keeps screwing himself more and more. Not that any of us are going to stop him. “She said that once she was done doing whatever at the gym to her ex and his annoying brats, that we could go away and be together. Just you all wait and see.”

  I take a step forward and am halted by a huge arm that belongs to Declan. He gives me a barely there shake of his head before turning his friendliest smile onto Kenneth. “So, she’s at that gym now with her ex? Man aren’t you worried that they’re getting back together?” Declan asks with wide worried eyes. This asshole deserves an Oscar.

  Our buddy Kenneth rolls his eyes. “Of course not, him and his three brats will be dead. I told her to just wait until they were all in the building one night and to lock them in and then just burn it to the ground. But does she listen to me? No, she has to go and do it personally she said. That she wants to feel the knife go into them and see their blood running. I thought that it was a bit excessive, but he did break her heart, so I guess that she knows best.” He shrugs like all of this was completely normal to say.

  The one thing running through my mind is three brats. It’s true though. Danny has never once treated Paige any differently than he has the twins. Since Sage and I have gotten together, he’s acted just as over bearing towards her as I do. I never thought that someone loving my daughter as much as I do would ever come back to bite us all in the ass.

  Marc tosses Kenneth at one of the uniformed officers. “Book him in!” He shouts as he makes a run for our SWAT bus, with all of us on his heels.

  We all get in with Rocco driving like a bat straight out of hell. Morris is calling this into command and letting them know where we’re going and what we think is happening.

  Declan is trying to call Danny and I’m trying Sage. We both look at each other realizing that neither of us is getting an answer. My stomach has dropped like a rock to the bottom of the sea.

  “There’s no answer at the front desk” Damon states from the front seat.

  “The cameras!” Marc yells. “Do you have access to the cameras in the alarm system?” He looks at me and at this moment I could kiss him.

  “Yes, Danny thought it would be a good idea for me to be able to log in, in case he’s away and something happens. He didn’t want Sage to go in blind.” I swear that fucking guy really does think of everything to try to keep all the girls safe.

  Morris tosses me one of the tablets and I log into the security system for the gym. From the first few video feeds, the place looks deserted. Then I find the one feed that makes bile creep up the back of my throat. There is some crazy ass bleach blonde bitch wielding a Bowie Hunting Knife at Dan, Sage and the three girls.

  I can tell that Danny is bleeding. My guess is that he tried to disarm her and she cut him. The gash looks pretty bad from here and there’s a steady stream of blood coming from the wound. He’s still making sure that the girls are behind him though, even as he looks like he’s about to drop.

  It’s like an out of body experience. I can hear the other guys relaying information to other people. Telling command that there’s a hostage situation and that we’re going to need EMS. But all I can do is sit here and watch this screen. My entire world is on that screen being threated and I’m in this fucking bus instead of where I should be...standing next to Danny in front of them.

  If they make it through this, I promise on my life that I will never take anything for granted. I won’t even run and hide at Rocco’s during shark week anymore. Okay, that’s a lie, but I’ll make sure that the house is fully stocked with chocolate, ice cream, pringles and wine.

  I would say that I’ll back off the girls a bit, but after this they are never leaving anyone’s sight ever again. I’m even going to figure out a way to go to college with them. Cameras these days are tiny.

  They’ll never have to know how many are in their dorm rooms, cars and purses. I’m also going to look into trackers that we can implant in them. I’m sure Danny has enough money to pay for all this shit.

  “What are you thinking about?” Marc asks me in a weird tone.

  I look up at him and give him a feral grin. “That after I put a bullet between this bitch’s eyes, I’m implanting trackers in all three of the girls and adding small cameras everywhere that they could possibly be.”

  “Sounds reasonable.” He mutters. “Hey, so any chance of us getting you to stay in here and letting us go in there?”

  I raise my eyebrow at him. “Would you stay in here if it was Kayla and your kids in there?”

  “Fuck no.” He shrugs carelessly. “I just figured that one of us should try to cover the bases. Ya know, pretend like we tried really hard to hold you back. I feel like that will help us all look better in our reviews after what I’m sure is going to be a total clusterfuck.” He says in an oddly jovial tone.

  “That’s fine, as long as everyone understand that the cunt is mine to take out.” I growl.

  “What happened to “we don’t just kill people”, huh?” Damon asks as sarcastically as humanly possible.

  I stare him dead in the eyes. “According to the feed, she’s already attacked once. It’s just a matter o
f time. And of course, it will be by complete accident that she dies. You know how people can move the wrong way at the last second.”

  “I feel like I’m the only one in this group most days who isn’t homicidal.” Rocco plainly states.

  “What’s your point?” Questions Declan.

  Rocco shakes his head. “Nothing. I just wanted it to be known that I’m really the only morally salvable one in this fucked up group. That’s all.” We all just stare blankly at him because truthfully he isn’t all that wrong. “Oh, and we’re here, so gear up.” He says like we aren’t already armed to the teeth.

  I hope out with purpose. The only purpose that I’ll ever have. To go protect my family.

  I knew. I just knew that I should’ve stayed in bed today. I should’ve just let Paige say fuck her mother and not show up at that stupid wedding. The girls and I should’ve just stayed at home watching movies and eating junk food. The fucking payroll could’ve waited another two days. It wasn’t even due yet.

  But did I do any of that? Nope. I was an adult. I did stupid adult things like force a poor girl to wear a dress that puts actual strippers to shame.

  I did all of the payroll. I came up with new ideas to grow the business. I totally adulted like that bad ass boss lady that I am. And look where that fucking got me. Standing a little behind a bleeding Danny, protecting our girls from a crazy ass, knife wielding stripper!

  Fucking Candi! The bitch can barely spell her own fucking name, yet she somehow pulls this off. Like, I don’t know whether to be impressed or dumbfounded. How can someone so dumb, capture this many people with a fucking knife? Granted the thing looks like a machete, but whatever.

  And of course, she’s been ranting and raving about how Danny broke her heart. Like come on bitch, you can’t be dumb enough to believe that anything real would happen between the two of you? He fucked you hours after meeting you. You don’t wife a stripper, honey pie. Those are just the damn rules. Even with parents like ours, that would be a stretch for even them, and they’re all about the free love and shit.