Protecting Dallas

by Krista Wolf

  “Bitch!”

  I shoved again with my hip, and now my shoulder too. The door flexed. It shifted another quarter inch toward the closed position, but it still barely budged.

  Then he pushed back… and I was nearly knocked flat on my ass.

  Stay strong! The voice of self-preservation screamed. If you fall down, it’s all over!

  Gritting my teeth, I widened my stance. My eyes scanned desperately around for something to thrust through the opening. Anything sharp. Anything long…

  But there was nothing… so I stomped again.

  “FUCK!”

  This time I heard a crunch, or rather I felt it. The foot jerked backwards. The door slammed shut.

  My heart was pounding. My fingers betrayed me three times fumbling for the deadbolt…

  CLICK.

  I sighed with relief, slumping against the door. It rattled hard from the other side. I could hear screaming. Kicking…

  Then all at once, everything stopped.

  The windows!

  They were low and wide, easy to break. If this guy wanted in, there was no keeping him out.

  Go! Get your gun!

  I sprinted back to the kitchen, throwing open the second to last drawer. Silverware flew everywhere, clinking noisily against the tiled floor. My hand reached in, scrambling around to the back…

  …and pulled out my Glock.

  I sank back against the refrigerator, holding the weapon out before me with both hands. I flipped off the safety. Chambered a round.

  The stainless steel was cold against my skin as I waited.

  A minute went by. Then two minutes. Three. I strained to hear even the slightest sound; the breaking of glass, the creak of a door or window sliding against its frame. But I heard nothing. I saw no one.

  “DALLAS!”

  The voice came from the door again. It was pounding. Shaking. The shouting was louder than ever.

  “Dallas, OPEN UP!”

  I cocked my head sideways.

  “MADDOX?”

  “Yes! It’s me!” The door handle shook violently. “Open up!”

  I flew back to the door and slammed the bolt home. Maddox entered the foyer with a wild look in his eye, chest heaving, out of breath.

  “Are you okay?”

  I flew into his arms, being careful to keep the gun pointed away from him. Then I began shaking. Shuddering all over, as I melted into him.

  “Hey, hey…” he said, crushing me in his big arms. “It’s okay. I got you.” He smoothed my hair with his hands. “I got you…”

  Gingerly he took the gun and uncocked it before sliding it back into my palm. His hands went to either of my shoulders.

  “T—There was this guy,” I blurted quickly. “He came from out of nowhere! And he was—”

  “I know. I saw him.” His eyes did an expert-level scan in every direction. “I chased him three blocks at least, maybe more. He’s gone now.”

  “Okay…”

  “Anyone else?”

  I shook my head. “No. I don’t think so.”

  “Alright,” he said, still looking everywhere at once. “Get whatever you need. We’re going. Now.”

  “Going where?”

  “Anywhere but here,” he said, sticking close by my side.

  Twenty-Seven

  DALLAS

  Ten minutes and several miles later, my pulse was still racing. Maddox’s cool composure however, was calming me down.

  “Who was that guy?”

  “A scout.”

  “A scout?” It must’ve come off a little bitchy, because Maddox frowned.

  “He was looking for you, Dallas.”

  “I’d say he found me.”

  “Yeah,” he nodded. “He found you and he got a little too excited. Which was good for us.”

  “Good for…” My brow furrowed. “Wait. Why good?”

  “Because if he’d waited for backup first we’d both be screwed.”

  My hero drove us onward, winding through a nexus of back alleys and sidestreets to make sure we weren’t followed. I stared numbly out the window, watching as we headed clear past the strip toward the far end of town.

  “They found us because of last night, didn’t they?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “So now they know where we live…”

  “Yup.”

  I was still numb, but I regained composure enough to pull out my phone. Maddox noticed immediately.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Calling Kane and Austin,” I said. “Obviously we have to warn them. If they show up—”

  “Kane and Austin aren’t coming back tonight,” he said, closing his hand over mine. “Besides, after tonight we’re gonna need all new phones. All new everything.”

  Before I knew what was happening he took the phone from my hand and tossed it out the window. Then he shook his head in frustration.

  “I should’ve done that miles ago.”

  It was insane, living like this. I knew what it was like to not have a place, a home, a family. But over the past few weeks, I’d somehow found all of those things again.

  “So that’s it?” I asked angrily. “We just ditch? We never go back to—”

  “I didn’t say that,” Maddox interrupted. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” He looked at me for a moment, then squeezed my hand reassuringly. “Trust me Dallas, we’ll get this all sorted out. But for tonight? We lay low.”

  My shoulders relaxed, but only a little. If he was trying to show me there was a light at the end of the tunnel, it looked more like a pinprick.

  “So what did he say to you?”

  I thought back. Ran the whole terrifying scenario through my head again, trying to remain calm.

  “I heard him talking. Saw him screaming.”

  “I crushed his foot,” I said.

  “I know. I almost caught him because of that.”

  “Almost?”

  “Yeah,” he admitted sheepishly. “The fucker had legs that were four feet long. Every two strides he took were three of mine.”

  I nodded consolingly. “Should make figuring out who he is pretty easy,” I pointed out. “Not many people that tall.”

  “Solid point,” Maddox conceded. “So… what did he say?”

  “He… I think he was looking for something.”

  “Something in the house?”

  I shook my head. “No. For some reason I don’t think so.”

  “What then?”

  I searched my memory a little more, but it was hard. With each passing mile, everything was getting more and more hazy.

  “It seemed to be something I would have,” I said mechanically. “Like he was shaking me down. As if I knew where something was.”

  Maddox gripped the steering wheel as he turned again. I saw his eyes, as always, go to the rear-view mirror. “Any idea what that might be?”

  “Not a clue.”

  “Think, Dallas. It’s important.”

  I laughed, and the laugh wasn’t exactly a good one. “What the fuck could I have, Maddox?” I sneered. “I came to you practically naked that night, with nothing but the clothes I’d been sleeping in. Everything else in my house was destroyed by the fire.”

  His mouth went tight. I could see him holding back.

  “If there’s anything these guys are looking for, it’s not going to be mine,” I said. “Maybe something of Connor’s, sure. But now all his stuff is gone.”

  We rode in silence for a while, which was probably good. It gave me a chance to simmer down.

  “Look,” I said apologetically. “I didn’t mean to go off like that.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “No, seriously. I’m not usually like that. It’s just… it’s just so fucking frustrating.”

  My chin dropped to my chest, just as Maddox slid an arm around me. He pulled me across the seat, over to his side of the vehicle.

  “It’s alright,” he said, holding me close. There was a gentle bounce as we pulle
d into a parking lot. “Let’s forget about this for tonight. We’re here.”

  I forced my chin back up. The hotel he’d chosen was a good one; tall and sleek and beautiful. I hadn’t stayed here but I knew people who had. It was very expensive.

  Maddox noticed me gawking and laughed. “Don’t get too attached,” he said. “We’re only parking here.”

  I glanced at him strangely. “Parking here?”

  “Yup,” he said. “As a diversion.”

  I was still confused. “Why do we need a divers—”

  “Because they know the vehicle,” he said simply. “We can’t take the risk.”

  I sighed in mock frustration. Or maybe it was real frustration, I could hardly tell anymore.

  “Fine, then where the hell are we staying?”

  Maddox held his hand out and I took it. He smiled devilishly.

  “I saw a real shitty place about a mile that way.”

  Twenty-Eight

  DALLAS

  Maddox was right; it was a shitty place. A shitty room in a shitty strip of a shit motel, in the shittiest part of—

  “Here, go get ice.”

  He handed me a thin plastic bucket with a crack down one side. I laughed in his face.

  “Alright,” he sighed, taking back the bucket. “I’ll get the ice.”

  The moment he left the room I flopped onto the bed. We were in one of those theme motels. The room we’d taken was one of the last two left: the ‘Hawaiian Getaway’.

  I stared up at myself in the mirrored ceiling, then turned my head to see the rest of the amenities. The walls were wallpapered with beautiful beach scenes and ocean horizons. Or at least they were beautiful… about twenty years ago. Now they were faded with time and peeling at the edges.

  Hawaiian getaway, I laughed to myself. Holy shit.

  There was a poorly-made Tiki bar at one end of the room. A fake palm tree standing in the far corner. It was so plastic and ratty-looking I didn’t know whether to laugh out loud or wrinkle my nose up at all the dust.

  Hey. At least you’ll be safe here.

  That much I was fairly sure of. The Hawaiian room of the Fantasy Eighteen was probably the last place on Earth anyone would ever hope to find us, including ourselves. If the bad guys could somehow track us here, they deserved to have us.

  “Ice machine’s broken,” Maddox announced, letting himself back in. He closed the door and engaged the deadbolt. “Vending machine stuff is cold, though.”

  He held up a pair of bottled waters and half a dozen little bags of pretzels and chips. Shit, it was better than nothing.

  “Thanks.”

  We divided the spoils. Filled our bellies. Ten minutes later we were laying on our backs, staring at ourselves in the mirrored ceiling. We caught each other’s eye… and both broke out laughing at the same time.

  “We’re really fucked, aren’t we?” I asked eventually.

  “Sure looks that way.”

  I sighed, grateful for the honesty. “Well at least we’re in paradise.”

  It was a stress breaker. A mood changer. Between this, and the fifteen-minute walk we’d just endured, I was feeling somewhat good again.

  “This is hands down the best Hawaiian Getaway room I’ve ever been in,” Maddox quipped. He coughed. “The cleanest too.”

  I turned to him and giggled. “Yeah, well you haven’t seen the bedding yet.”

  “Oh?”

  I nodded. “Even the stains have stains.”

  He laughed again. “That’s fucking disgusting.”

  “Then why are you laughing?”

  He kept on going, unable to control himself. I watching him laugh until tears formed at the corners of his eyes. “Shit, I don’t even know.”

  The whole thing became infectious, and soon we were giggling together like teenagers. In a way it was cathartic. A release of emotions and adrenaline, at the end of a very long, really strange day. He was doing it to cheer me up. To make me feel safe again, despite the horrendous shit I’d just been through.

  And it was working.

  Eventually Maddox propped himself up on one elbow. The laughter died away, and he looked at me with grim seriousness from his side of the bed.

  “Look, Dallas. I want you to know I’m sorry.”

  My God, he was so good-looking! Especially like this. I couldn’t stop staring at those high cheekbones. That perfect amount of stubble. The curve of his jaw…

  “Sorry for what?”

  “For you having to go through all of this,” he replied. Slowly he shook his head. “I can’t even imagine what it must be like for you, to lose everything. Your home, your things…” He bit his lip before continuing. “Your brother…”

  I could see the depth of compassion in his eyes. Legitimate empathy, not pity. But there was an underlying pain there too. A pain I knew all too well.

  “You know some of it,” I said consolingly. “You lost Connor too. You all did.”

  I snuggled into him. Everything outside of the scope of our little hotel room was suddenly inconsequential. Everything beyond the silence seemed very far away.

  “Yes, but I always had Austin and Kane. I’ve had someone to share those memories of him, to keep them alive. But you…”

  He trailed off, his gaze tracking its way up to mine. “You’ve had only yourself,” he continued. “Not even your parents…”

  I saw his eyes go glassy. He was actually choking up! Goddamn, it was the sweetest thing in the whole fucking world.

  “I want you to know you have us now,” he said. “You’ve had us but you didn’t know it, and now… well, now…”

  I reached out to touch his face, hard yet soft. By this point I was consoling him as much as he was me.

  “I know.”

  He shifted forward and planted his lips over mine, melting the rest of the world away. Maddox kissed me slowly, deeply, sending bolts of arousal through me that rejuvenated my tired body.

  Damn…

  Nothing had felt like this in a long time — maybe ever, really. Not a connection like this. Not someone I’d let this close to my heart… someone I was okay with opening myself up to, mind, body, and soul.

  Much less three someones.

  I sighed as my head hit the pillow. Maddox was over me in an instant, kissing me harder as my hands sifted through vast fields of luscious blond hair. His mouth parted mine, driving his tongue inside with deep, soulful kisses that had me gasping for more.

  You have us now.

  The words were amazing, even though I dared not fully believe them. And yet so far, these men had protected me. They’d dedicated the last year of their lives to watching over me, over nothing more than a deceased brother-in-arm’s promise, and had already saved my life on more than one occasion.

  And they were solid. As close and tight-knit as any three men could ever possibly be. In life, in war…

  … in the bedroom…

  I was still moaning into Maddox’s mouth, my mind spinning off dizzily into blissful oblivion as I shoved him onto his back. Our eyes locked, and after a shared moment of understanding our hands moved quickly to our own bodies. Clothes flew everywhere, in a flurry of frenzied activity. They littered the bed. The floor…

  Then I was on him, straddling his warm, muscular thighs.

  “Are you really okay with it?” I asked, my lips brushing against his. I could feel his manhood, throbbing between my legs. Brushing against my entrance…

  “Okay with what?”

  “Sharing me,” I said breathlessly. “With the others.”

  My hair hung down on both sides of us, locking us together. It swayed gently as he thrust upward, eliciting a strangled gasp as he pierced me the core.

  Ohhhhhhh…

  “Yes,” Maddox said, when he was buried fully inside me. “Totally and completely.”

  I moaned loudly as his hands went to my breasts, shoving me backward to bear the full weight of my body. It drove him all the way in, bottoming me out as my palms went to h
is magnificent chest.

  “Sharing is the one thing we do best,” he said softly. “And having you with us has opened up all new doors in that regard.”

  Somewhere deep inside me his cock pulsed and twitched… as if he were already going to come. I could feel how incredibly rigid he was. How amazingly, beautifully hard.

  “We want you, Dallas,” he said, bouncing me gently. “All of us. Every part of us.”

  His hands slid down my body, dragging deliciously over my nipples before settling on my naked hips. From there he guided me up and down, taking over with his two impossibly strong arms.

  “Every part of you.”

  I cried out as he thrusted hard at the end of the statement, stretching me from within. He pulled down on my hips to maximize penetration, simultaneously rolling the rest of his body into me.

  God…

  “We’re going to protect you, Dallas,” he whispered huskily. “All three of us.”

  He was so deep! So achingly, wonderfully deep in my belly. Breathlessly, I could feel him throbbing. Pulsing. Twitching…

  “And you’ll never have to be alone…”

  Twenty-Nine

  MADDOX

  Screwing her with the others had been nothing short of incredible. Seeing her writhe beneath us. Watching her expression of rapture as we took her together, the three of us, making love to her body from all sides, all angles.

  But taking her alone…

  Holy fuck.

  Well, that was fun too.

  It was all I could do to hold back, watching Dallas glide rhythmically up and down my hard shaft. Her body was warm and amazing, her breasts bouncing firmly and hypnotically with every upward thrust. It made me want to immediately consummate our union by exploding gloriously inside her. I wanted to fill her up… then watch as the remainder of my juices ran out the sides of her pretty pink pussy.

  I could picture it in my mind’s eye: the sweet, blinding ecstasy of my inevitable orgasm. My cry of victory that would rattle the walls of our shitty little motel room. Yet as incredible as it would be, it would be even more fun to wait. More fun to make her climax first, before going to town on what had to be the tightest, wettest lover I’d ever had the pleasure of taking pleasure in.