Holding a Hero

by Layne, Lyssa

  I could feel the blood draining from my head. It was making me dizzy. “You’re a sick son of a bitch. You know that, don’t you? That’s fine. I won’t call the cops. But don’t think for one second that means anything. You’re not getting Wyatt. Not today. Not ever.”

  In spite of clearly being in pain, Travis looked at me smugly from the corner of his eye. “I’m his father, Joss. He belongs to me. And I will get him. There won’t be anything you or your new husband here can do about it. Hell, I could have taken him from you today if I had wanted to.”

  Derek picked him up and threw him back into the wall forcefully. “That’s enough. Joss, go check on Wyatt. I’ll finish up in here.”

  “You can’t hurt him. Please. I know you want to, but don’t. He’s not worth it. And I don’t want you to end up in trouble because of it.”

  Derek nodded, but he kept his head turned away from me the entire time I spoke. Whatever he was going to do, he wasn’t going to let me talk him out of it and the fact that he was making me leave the room to do it was making me panic all over again. But I did what he said and went back outside, because getting to Wyatt and wrapping him up in my arms safely had been all I’d wanted to do from the moment I’d seen him sitting there on Travis’s lap.

  “You and Derek sneak off for a quickie or something?” Bobby barely finished his snarky comment when he caught sight of my expression. “What the hell is going on in there?”

  “Travis.” There was no need to elaborate. Bobby was already running past me to get into the house. I didn’t stop him. If he kept Derek from killing Travis, that’d be a good thing. On the other hand, if he helped him do it and then went along for the body dump, I’d find a way to deal with that too. I was sick of living this way.

  ***

  I waited until I was sure Joss was out of earshot, then I shoved Travis face first into Wyatt’s bed to muffle any sounds he might make and put the maximum amount of pressure I could on his hand without breaking it.

  “Listen to me carefully, because I’m only going to say this once. You come anywhere near Joss or Wyatt again and I won’t tell her to call the cops. I’ll kill you. I mean it. I won’t think twice about it. Not like you’ll be the first.” Although I’d sworn myself I had seen the last life snuffed out at my hands, I would go back on my word for Travis. Taking him out would almost feel like atonement for the others.

  Travis twisted his head free from the pillow he’d been buried in. “You can’t touch me without it hurting Joss’s case and you know it.”

  “I get rid of you, there no longer is a case.” A few calculated moves and I had Travis off of the bed and in a chokehold so snug he’d be taking an involuntary nap shortly if I wanted him to. This shit was like riding a fucking bicycle. Didn’t matter how far I’d removed myself from that life, I would never be able to outrun what was living within me. Or what had died there.

  “I know you’re used to dealing with people who have to live by the law and have faith in the system, but neither of those things apply to me. I’ve been making bad guys disappear for years. And I’d be willing to come out of retirement to get rid of one more. Got it?”

  I felt a slight movement against my arm, Travis’s attempt at nodding. Not that I expected him to mean it, but at least I’d left enough of an impression on him to make him want to cooperate with me in the moment, even if that didn’t last beyond this particular encounter.

  “Good.” I eased up on his throat.

  “Want any help with taking care of this motherfucker? I don’t have any fancy Navy Seal skills, but I know how to use a shovel.” Bobby was standing in the doorway. I’d heard the door a few seconds prior and had counted on it being him. I was glad I’d been right. Things could have been awkward had one of Joss’s friends wandered in expecting to use the bathroom and instead found me nearly choking this douchebag to death.

  “Rain check. I think today we’re just going to let him walk out. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll be smart enough to just keep walking.”

  Bobby laughed dryly. “Yeah, it be the first smart thing Travis ever did.”

  I released Travis altogether and pushed him forward. He tripped but caught himself in time.

  “Not sure I’d be quite so quick to talk shit, Bobby. You remember last time, don’t you?” Travis sneered as he went by.

  The look on Bobby’s face told me all I needed to know. He wanted to beat the shit out of Travis right then and there, consequences be damned. As tempting as it was, now was not the time or place. Before Bobby could act on his feelings, I kicked Travis in the back of his knee, causing him to tumble. The palm of my hand made impact with the back of his head just as he was going down, smashing his face into the corner of a table Joss had sitting along the wall.

  “Damn, dude. You should really watch where you’re walking. That shit looked like it hurt.”

  “You tripped me, you motherfucker.” Blood was running from his nose and down his mouth and chin.

  “That’s not how I saw it happen.” Bobby shrugged, then turned toward me. “Derek, you better get this piece of shit outside. Joss’ll be pissed if you get blood on her stuff.”

  I nodded, already pulling Travis back to his feet. “Let’s go.”

  A few minutes later, Bobby and I were both standing out in the driveway watching as Travis sped off in his crappy old Civic.

  “Why are you doing this?” He wasn’t even looking at me. Just staring out into the distance waiting for the maroon streak of Travis’s trunk to disappear altogether.

  “Because it’s the right thing to do.” It was the abbreviated version. The extended one wasn’t nearly as cut and dry although it boiled down to the same reason.

  “Bullshit. I know you’re a good guy and all, plus you SEALS probably live by some extra special code of heroism, but fuck, Derek. Marrying some girl you barely know to help her win her custody battle. And then that in there. I saw the look on your face. You would kill him. If he came close enough to hurting Joss or Wyatt, you’d straight up assassinate his ass like he was some target on one of your missions. Why? Why are you so invested?”

  I could feel the intensity of his glare on me and knew he had finally turned his head away from the road. I faced him, man to man, looking him straight in the eye. Bobby was my friend. I owed him the truth.

  “My final assignment before I was discharged…things went wrong. Really wrong. Innocent people were killed.” I stopped to take a deep breath before I continued, “It’s hard enough trying to live with that. I can’t add any more victims to that list. Even if they’re just people I’m meeting while passing through. If there’s something I can do to help…to save them…I have to do it.”

  Bobby studied me through squinted eyes. “Are you? Just passing through?”

  “I’ll be here as long as I’m needed.” I was like the fucking military version of Mary Poppins or some shit. Like I’d be moving on when the wind changed. Maybe that had been my plan in the beginning. Everything was different now. I was different now. Joss was changing everything. She was changing me. And she didn’t even fucking know it yet.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  After the Travis incident, I was no longer in the mood to party. Thanks to the scowl on my face, it didn’t take people too long to catch on, and soon everyone except for Bobby and his date had cleared out.

  It wasn’t cold out, but my nerves were so fried I felt a chill all the way to my core. After checking on Wyatt for the hundredth time, I pulled a sweater over my dress and went back outside to look for Derek. Feeling the shivers run through me yet again, I wrapped both arms around myself and searched the side of the house for him.

  When I spotted him down at the end, I started toward him.

  “We got sloppy. All these fucking people in the house. That door should have never been unlocked!” I didn’t mean to be shouting. Especially not at Derek. But somehow I knew he’d just take it.

  “It wasn’t.” He was so much fucking calmer than me. Even after being yel
led at for no reason.

  “What are you talking about? Then how the hell did he get in?” I was only a few feet away now and I was still speaking at a volume that suggested he was standing on the opposite end of a football field.

  “Not sure. Still trying to figure that part out. But it wasn’t through the front door.” He started moving and next thing I knew he turned the corner of the house and left me standing there alone.

  I hurried to catch up with him again. Wasn’t hard since he’d stopped already, this time at the bathroom window.

  “How can you be so sure he didn’t use the door?”

  He took his attention from the window to answer me. “Because it was still locked and latched when I went to kick him out. Most intruders don’t go out of their way to lock themselves in. Especially not if their defense consists of claiming the door was left open.”

  Confused, I watched his hands run the length of the window frame on both sides, then along the top and bottom. Suddenly, he stopped. Then, stunned, I saw him slide his fingers into a crack along the window and slide it up.

  “Here. This is how he got in.”

  I was shaking my head. “Not possible. That window is never open. It can’t. The lock has been busted since before I moved in.”

  “It’s busted alright.” His finger ran the edge of the metal sealing in the glass. “The whole thing is missing.”

  “What?” I almost fell into him in my haste to see for myself. “Oh my GOD! We have to check all the windows.” I began to stumble off like a drunk person trying to get into the bar for one more drink before last call. Derek had a hold of my hand before I got too far.

  “Joss, stop. I’ll check the windows, and the back door, too. Just go inside and try to calm down a bit. Wyatt is going to notice something is up and I know the last thing you want is for him to get scared. Trust me. I’ll handle this.”

  I nodded. “You can’t let him back into this house.” The words choked out as the instantaneous lump in my throat threatened to rob me of my voice completely. My eyes were already stinging from the pressure of my tears and I knew there would be nothing I could do to stop from crying in front of Derek.

  I felt like an idiot. As if it wasn’t enough to ask him to give up his life for who knew how long to help me win my case, and then rope him into being our bodyguard as well, now I was fucking crying in front of him as well.

  My lip was starting to burn with a dull ache from where my teeth were piercing through the skin, but I barely noticed. I was too busy scolding myself for all the mistakes I’d made that had led to this very moment, and I had plenty to keep me busy for a while. Except there was still Derek. Derek, who reached up in the midst of my silent unraveling to gently wipe the tears from my cheek with the side of his thumb. There was something strangely contradictory about the things I knew those hands to be capable of. I’d seen what they could do to inflict harm; now I was experiencing firsthand how they could heal.

  “You should run, Derek. I mean it. Get the fuck out of here. You didn’t sign up for any of this. I proposed a simple arrangement. One I knew all along would never stay simple. I mean, I’d hoped…but I knew. And I should have told you. I should have warned you about Travis and what he was capable of. It was wrong not to. Just like it was wrong to let you deal with him before. Wrong to ask you to take care of things now. And just plain unacceptable to subject you to my blubbering. This is not your problem.”

  He tilted his head down to catch my averted gaze. “I know that. I knew all of it actually. And I signed up for every part of it. On purpose. Eyes wide open. I’m not going anywhere, Joss.” Then he leaned in and kissed my forehead softly. Without thinking, I reached for him, clinging tightly to his body while the strength of it enveloped me, making me feel safe and protected, the way I was starting to depend on it to.

  “I’m not going to let him hurt you, Joss. Not you. Not Wyatt. Not ever. I promise.”

  And I believed him. At my core, in my gut, within my chained-up, broken heart, I knew he was telling the truth.

  He held me for what felt like an eternity and, when I’d finally stopped crying, he let go, smiled at me and reminded me that what mattered most was inside waiting for me.

  So, I left him to deal with the pleasantries of discovering all the ways in which Travis had trespassed into our home and into our lives while I went to hold my son and read him bedtime stories.

  Even after Wyatt had been asleep for a while, I lay there in his bed with him, curled up against his tiny body, unable to let go. It wasn’t until Bobby showed up in the doorway, quietly rapping his knuckles against the wood, that I pried myself away from my son and forced myself to leave him alone in his room, repeatedly reminding myself that Derek had checked the lock on his window several times to make sure it was secure.

  “Hey, you doin’ alright?” Bobby reached his arm around my shoulders as we walked out to the living room where Derek, Aunt Deb and his date Miranda were sitting together.

  “Been better,” I mumbled.

  He led me over to the sofa where Derek caught my hand and I left one kind embrace to find another. Curled up against his chest, I didn’t even care what everyone else thought of our relationship anymore. Shit, I didn’t even care what I thought about it.

  “So, the good news is, all the windows and doors are securely locked again,” he said softly into my hair.

  I lifted my head, slightly tipping it back for conversation sake. “What’s the bad news?”

  He sighed heavily. “The bad news is, Deb says the set of spare keys is missing from the kitchen drawer, which means first thing tomorrow I’m having a guy come out to change out all the locks, but in the meantime –“

  “Travis has total access.”

  He slowly swayed his head back and forth in an indecisive nod. “Not exactly. He may be able to unlock the doors, but I sure as hell won’t be giving him access.”

  Bobby was looking straight at me. “Neither will I. Miranda and I are going to crash here for the night. Derek and I can take turns keeping watch. If Travis comes back, he ain’t fucking leaving this time.”

  “You guys don’t have to do that, Bobby. You have shit going on at the bar, it’s a Saturday night for crying out loud! Not to mention, Miranda probably wasn’t planning on her date turning into a sleepover.”

  She shrugged. “I kinda was.”

  I snorted at her candidness. It was a pleasant change of pace to be around people who just came right out with their intentions. “Never mind then.”

  Aunt Deb had been quietly sitting in her recliner, staring blankly at the front door. “I just don’t understand why this is happening. Why is he so hell-bent on getting a child he didn’t even know he had? Why can’t anyone tell the difference anymore between a man who wants his son and a man who wants to be a father? A father would never put his child through this. A father would never threaten his child’s mother. This is just so wrong. And so sad. The whole thing, it just makes my heart ache.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Aunt Deb was always glass half full. She was the one I counted on to show me the brighter side of life. I needed her carefree spirit to lift my hardened soul. I was utterly inept when it came to filling her shoes and returning the favor. So I just sat there looking at her, both of us smiling at the other with tears in our eyes, unwilling to accept defeat.

  Derek’s hand landed on my knee, gently squeezing. “You need to get some sleep. You look wrecked.”

  “Gee, thanks. That’s just the sort of sweet talk every girl hopes to hear on her wedding night.”

  His lips twitched playfully, but he didn’t respond other than to stand up and pull me to my feet. Then, without saying a word, he continued out of the room and into the hall, leading me by the hand straight to our bedroom.

  It was strange being led through my own house. At the same time, it was a relief. I liked that I didn’t feel like I had to be the strong one. I didn’t have to take care of everything. The responsibility didn’t lay squarely acr
oss my shoulders because now, for some miraculous reason, I had Derek. Not only was he willing to take on my troubles, but I was willing to let him because I had faith in him. Faith that he would be able to stand up to the task. I could depend on Derek. Outside of my family, I hadn’t ever felt that way about anyone. No one else had ever given me any reason to.

  Once inside the bedroom, he took me over to the bed where I had a seat. He gestured for me to lift my arms and carefully tugged my sweater over my head.

  Next he took both of my hands and brought me back to my feet. The touch of his callused fingers tickled my skin as he moved along my arms up to my shoulders across to my back where he reached around and undid the zipper slowly down until my dress fell to the floor.

  The entire time, I just stood there watching him. My eyes devouring every detail of his face, the small changes in his expression as he undressed me. The gentle way his gaze traveled over me, like I was fragile. And beautiful.

  I’d never been seductive. Not in person. Not even in my wildest fantasies. It just wasn’t in me. The hottest thing I was ever gonna do to get some action was get naked. That’s where my sexy began and ended. Until Derek. Being seen by him was giving me a view of myself I’d never had access to before. I’d simply assumed it didn’t exist. I’d been wrong.

  ***

  There she was, emeralds blazing, setting my entire being on fire with a need for her I couldn’t even begin to explain. It was so intense and damn near uncontrollable, it fucking scared the hell out of me. How would there ever be a day I wouldn’t want this woman? And what would I do when the day came that I couldn’t have her anymore?