by Claire Adams
His words pierced my heart and I wondered, Is that what he thinks of me? I was trembling as Dominic spun in place. The gun was hard and cold against my head, and I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I realized that one wrong move and he’d fire a bullet right into my brain. I wouldn’t stand a chance. My eyes searched wildly for Brian, but he was on the move and was keeping us moving, too.
“Used goods? Is that all you think of her? My, my, my, that’s not very complimentary, is it, Kitten?” Dominic looked at me as he asked the question. “How do you feel about being called used goods?”
“I’m not used goods,” I whispered.
“What did you say? You need to speak a little louder, dear,” Dominic ordered. “We can’t hear you.”
“I’m not used goods,” I said more clearly.
“Well, I believe the SEAL here thinks you are,” Dominic reminded me. Brian continued moving, his attention focused on Dominic, but I could see that he was holding something in his right hand. I couldn’t tell what it was, though. Dominic pressed the gun against my head harder and more insistently. “I think maybe he might be right. Maybe you are used goods, and you know how much I hate it when something that is mine has been used.”
I couldn’t hold it in any longer, and the tears began sliding down my cheeks. I had done everything I could to try and save all of us, and now I was going to be the first one to die. Dominic was going to win, again. I’d done everything I could to escape from him, and he was going to have the last word here in this hotel room with Brian watching. I closed my eyes and willed myself to breathe deeply. If I was going to die, I wasn’t going to fight it. I would stay calm.
Seconds later I heard Brian yell, “Duck, Ava!” and without thinking I pulled away just as Brian flew across the room and grabbed Dominic’s arm. He let go of me and turned the gun on Brian. I heard myself screaming as the gun went off and the sound rendered me deaf for a moment. Was I shot? I didn’t feel like anything hurt, and it didn’t look like I was bleeding. I looked up and saw Brian punch Dominic in the face as he swore a blue streak. Dominic punched back wildly, but only landed one to every four of Brian’s.
Where is the gun? I couldn’t see it in Dominic’s hand. I frantically searched the room with my eyes and finally located it on the floor just under the sofa. Dominic had dropped it when he’d fired a round, and Brian must have kicked it out of the way. I scrambled across the floor and grabbed it from its hiding place as Dominic landed a vicious punch, and I heard the crunching of bone against bone as his fist connected with Brian’s cheek.
I winced as I lifted the gun and pointed it at Dominic. His earlier punishment had left my arm an aching mass of bruises, but I held the gun up as I stood and yelled, “Dominic, stop! Now!”
He turned and looked at me holding the arm that was holding the gun and then burst out laughing. His laughter struck a nerve, and I nearly pulled the trigger. I would have, too, had it not been for the fact that this gave Brian the opportunity to connect one very brutal punch to Dominic’s ribs. I watched Dominic crumple to the ground holding his side as he writhed in pain, then looked up at Brian and held out the gun.
Brian quickly crossed the room and took the weapon from me and tucked it back inside the holster under his hoodie before moving back over to where Dominic lay crying in pain, and gave him a swift kick in the ass for good measure. Wide-eyed, I looked up at him.
“Hey, he tried to kill both of us,” he shrugged as he pulled out his phone and quickly punched the 911 key. He told the operator where we were and what had transpired then hung up the phone, tucked it in his pocket, and moved over to help me off the floor saying, “I think we should get some clothes on you, don’t you think?”
The rush of adrenaline had made me completely forget that all I was wearing was a pair of panties. I shivered as Brian wrapped an arm around my waist and walked me back to the bedroom, where he retrieved my clothes and helped me pull my T-shirt over my badly bruised torso. I left my bra on the floor, knowing that to try and put it on would be more pain than I could handle. After he’d helped me dress, he walked me back out to the living room and sat me on the couch.
“Just stay there, okay?” he advised as he moved around the room and untied the room server and Cheese. He brought the frightened teenager to the couch and sat him down next to me. Cheese was still groggy on the floor, so Brian went into the bathroom, ran some cold water over a washcloth, and brought it out to put on Cheese’s face. Dominic lay silent on the floor until Brian nudged him with the toe of his sneaker, then he groaned in pain and tried to roll over.
“I’m going to kill you, SEAL,” he muttered as he tried to get up off of the floor. The pain in his ribs made him cry out and sink back down to the floor.
“Yeah, promises, promises,” Brian replied as he pushed Dominic’s face into the carpet a little harder than necessary. I looked away. I understood why Brian was doing what he was doing, but I still didn’t want to see it.
Despite everything that had happened, I felt sorry for Dominic. He was a sad, sick man, and he was going to pay the price for his desire to get revenge, but I also knew he was a broken boy who never felt like he’d been loved. I shook my head and looked at the poor little room server who’d gotten caught in the middle of all of this and thought he was going to be killed. I put a bruised arm around his shoulders and reassured him that it was all going to be okay.
Brian looked at me from across the room, and then looked away.
*****
Five minutes later, the police pounded on the door, and when we opened it, they came streaming in like they had prepared to storm the entire hotel, and it occurred to me that maybe they had. The first thing they did was bring in the EMTs and have them check us all out. Dominic was put on a stretcher while we were all questioned, but they didn’t roll him out.
Brian gave a detailed account of what had happened, and I was shocked to hear him telling the officers about what I had done to try and divert Dominic’s attention so that he could free himself. He’d been conscious the entire time. I felt the shame rising in my chest as I realized he’d heard me say some really terrible things about him as I’d tried to figure out how to save us all. I looked over at him, but he was deep in conversation with the officers, so I shifted my attention back to the room server who’d been obviously traumatized. I told the medics what had happened to him and how he’d stayed remarkably calm for someone so young. They took turns reassuring him that he would be okay, and then slowly led him out of the room to the waiting ambulance. Other EMTs had collected Cheese and quickly driven him to the hospital. It sounded like they feared that he had a concussion from the blow to the head, and they wanted to get a CT scan to make sure he wasn’t bleeding into his brain.
I told the police what had happened with Cheese and that while he was certainly responsible for his actions, he had not signed on for the kind of action that Dominic had decided on once they’d gotten in the room. I didn’t want to absolve Cheese of any responsibility, but I also didn’t want him taking the fall for Dominic’s evil plot to kill us all. The officers took my statement, and then finished up with Brian before they signaled to the EMTs that they could move Dominic out of the room.
“I’m not done with you, Kitten,” Dominic ranted as the EMTs wheeled him toward the door. “I’m going to find you and hunt you down! You will be sorry that you ever messed with me when I find you!”
I shot a frightened look in Brian’s direction, and he moved in next to me and put his arm around my waist as he softly said, “They will never let him out of prison again. Don’t worry, Ava. It’s a done deal. You’re safe.”
I gave him a grim smile as I watched them wheel Dominic away from the room, and then turned to the officer in charge and said, “He has evidence of all the horrible things he did to me.”
“What do you mean?” asked the officer.
“He was my boyfriend, but he beat me badly and I finally left,” I replied. “Today he said he has videos of the beat
ings that he would watch when he missed me….” I trailed off as the tears started to flow. Brian turned and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his chest and stroking my hair as I cried.
“Do you know where he keeps them?” the officer asked.
I shook my head against Brian’s chest, not wanting to have to think about where Dominic might keep such awful mementos of his abuse. For the hundredth time since this all started, I wondered how I could have possibly ended up here. Is this all my fault?
“Ava, none of this is your fault,” Brian whispered as if reading my thoughts. “Dominic is a sick individual, and you had nothing to do with that sickness. You were a victim of it as much as the rest of us.”
“But I couldn’t stop him,” I sobbed.
“None of us could, alone,” Brian soothed. “It took all of us to stop that level of sickness. You can’t blame yourself.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t sure I believed him. Brian held me as the officers finished up their preliminary work and told him that we’d need to come down to the station to file reports and give statements the next day. Brian took the officer’s card and assured him that we would be there the next morning.
As soon as the police had closed the door behind them, Brian quickly grabbed our bags, threw our things in them, and hustled me out to the car. He didn’t explain and I didn’t ask, but we both knew that staying in the hotel was no longer an option - or a necessity.
Once on the road, I knew exactly where we were headed, and I smiled when Brian pulled up outside of the dorm. He carried the bags up to my room and then said, “Get comfortable, I’m going to go pick up dinner.”
“Don’t leave!” I cried, afraid that if he left something terrible would happen. “Can’t they deliver it?”
“Ava, please don’t worry,” he smiled as he pulled me into his arms and held me close. “Nothing bad is going to happen. Not now.”
I smiled as I hugged him tightly, then whispered, “But don’t leave, okay?”
“Fine, you win,” he said as he stepped back and looked at me, smiling. “I’ll call and have it all delivered. Although, after today, I’d have guessed that you’d be a little more wary of people delivering food to your door.”
“Don’t joke about it!” I laughed as I swatted him lightly. “Just get it here soon, I’m starving!”
Brian smiled as he pulled out his phone and called in the order, then he turned and pulled me back into his arms and we stood holding each other for a long time.
*****
When the food arrived, the knock on the door startled us both. We’d been standing in the middle of the room with our arms around each other, appreciating the silence and the feel of our bodies pressed together. I could smell Brian’s cologne, and mixed with my perfume and our sweat, and nothing had ever smelled better—except maybe the pizza Brian had ordered.
We dug into the huge pizza and ate with gusto. It felt like a whole other lifetime since we’d eaten, and maybe it had been. We were the same people that we’d been that morning, and yet, totally different now. I looked at Brian as I slurped up the cheese that stretched between the dough and my mouth and wondered what he was planning to do now that he didn’t have to watch over me anymore. I wondered when my father would call and relieve him of his duties. I wondered if I’d ever see him again after tonight.
Brian smiled at me with a mouth full of cheese and pepperoni, and said, “I’m here to stay, Ava.”
“How did you know?” I asked with wide eyes.
“I don’t know, I can just hear what you’re thinking when you want to ask me something,” he shrugged.
“You can read my thoughts?” I blurted out.
“No, not like I can read your mind,” he laughed. “I can just tell when you’re thinking something that you want to ask me and you are afraid to put the question into words.”
“I’m not sure I like that,” I said darkly. After all the fear and hiding I’d had to do with Dominic, I wasn’t sure if I wanted a man in my life who thought he could read my thoughts. I wasn’t sure if that was a safe thing.
“I promise that I’ll always use my powers for good,” he swore as he raised his right hand and looked straight into my eyes.
“Alright, then…” I said, not quite convinced, but appreciative of the gesture. “So, what are you going to do next?”
“I have no idea,” he laughed. “I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“Will you be leaving?” I asked hesitantly.
“Do you want me to stay?” he replied. I looked at him and wondered if I did. Did I want him to stay with me? What would that mean? What would he do? We couldn’t live here in my dorm room, but was I ready to move in with him? The questions came tumbling one after another. “Ava, I’m not asking if you want to marry me or even move in with me, I’m simply asking if you’d like it if I stayed.”
“I think I would,” I whispered softly as I looked down at my plate. “I would like that very much.”
“Then it’s settled, I’m staying,” he announced. I smiled and took another bite of my pizza, and chewed slowly as I looked over at the handsome man sitting next to me. The one who had saved my life and was now willing to stay in a small college town to be near me.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly.
“For what?” he asked as he tipped his head and gave me a confused look.
“For the email I sent and not telling you what I was doing, and…” I trailed off, embarrassed and unsure of how to say what I wanted to say. “And for saying all of those things about you when I was trying to distract Dominic while I was hoping that you’d wake up. I know you heard me, and…I’m sorry.”
“Oh, Ava,” Brian smiled as he put down his plate and turned toward me. He raised his hand and stroked my cheek gently as he spoke, “I didn’t believe a word of what you were saying. I knew you were trying to do whatever you could to save us all. Besides, I’ve heard far worse things said about myself and in situations that were far less stressful! No apologies necessary.”
“Oh good, I felt awful saying those things,” I explained. “But I had no idea what else to do to give you time to wake up and to keep Dominic from killing us all.”
“I heard what he said to you,” Brian said with a serious look on his face. “Are you okay?”
“Who me? I’m fine!” I laughed uneasily. “I’m just fine…”
“Ava, it’s okay not to be fine,” he said gently as he opened his arms and waited for me to find my way into them. I looked up at him as tears began to well up, and then sunk into his embrace.
“I was so scared,” I whispered into his chest. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared in my whole life.”
“I know, me either,” he confided. “I was terrified of what he was going to do to you and the others, and that I wouldn’t be able to stop him.”
I nodded and buried my face in his chest as he gently rubbed my back, and as he did, the gravity of the day sunk in, and I began to cry.
“Shhh, shhh,” Brian soothed as he stroked my hair and held me close. “It’s all going to be okay. I’m not going to leave you.”
“But what happens when my father lets you go?” I sobbed. “You won’t be able to stay here with me!”
At that moment, Brian’s phone rang, and he let go with one arm to answer the call. He listened for a while and then said, “Yes, sir. No, sir. No, sir. Yes, sir. I will, sir. Thank you, sir,” and hung up.
“Well, that just answered your question,” he smiled. “That was your father, and he’s decided that I should stay on as your personal bodyguard until the end of school year. The police commissioner called him and told him what happened, and he decided it was better to be safe than sorry. He’s also decided to move you out of the dorm into an apartment where I can keep a better eye on you. The movers will be here tomorrow to pack you up and move your things. I’m to oversee the move.”
I stared at him for a moment and then burst out laughing. “You and my father have con
spired against me!”
“No, I swear I had no idea what he was going to do!” Brian said as he held up his hands in a defensive gesture.
I considered him for a moment. On one hand, I resented the idea that my father was, again, going to dictate where I lived and what I did, but on the other hand, I was going to get to have Brian in my life on a permanent basis. I wasn’t sure if I should be mad at the two of them or grateful for my good fortune. As I looked at Brian, thought about all we’d been through in such a short time and how safe I felt with him, I opted for grateful.
“Well, if the movers are coming tomorrow, then this is our last night here,” I smiled as I gazed into his beautiful blue eyes.
“Indeed it is,” he replied as he smiled back at me. “What do you say we do something to commemorate it?”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea, Mr. Flynn,” I murmured as he leaned in.
He softly brushed his lips across mine as he reached out to pull me to him. He stopped and we both laughed when we realized that I was still holding a piece of half-eaten pizza. I set it down and melted into his arms as we kissed.
Brian wrapped his arms tightly around me and pulled me against his chest as I cupped his face with my hands and felt the prickly stubble that had sprung up on his cheeks. His lips tasted warm and salty, and I giggled a little when he pulled back and whispered, “Mmmm, you taste like pizza!”
For a long time we sat on the couch kissing as our hands roamed over each other’s clothed bodies, but as our desire grew stronger, this wasn’t enough. Abruptly, Brian pulled away and stood up, and I couldn’t hide my disappointment when I realized he was stopping the action, so I looked away. Seconds later, I let out a small scream as Brian bent over and scooped me up in his arms.
“You didn’t think I was going to leave you here, did you?” he smiled as I wrapped my arms around his neck and laid my head on his shoulder.
“I wasn’t sure,” I whispered. “And I didn’t want to be disappointed.”
“Ava, look at me,” he said seriously. I lifted my head from his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “I’m going to do everything in my power to never, ever disappoint you. Not ever.”
