Hero

by Shani Greene-Dowdell

  “Watch your backs from afar and scope out the place for the idiot carrying a torch for the woman who’d rather he put it down. Got it. Hold the hell up. You two are going on a date now?” His astonishment was almost tangible. “What happened to get her switch for professional conduct turned off?”

  “I suspect Chad’s antics turned it off. I asked her about going to the carnival with me to talk, called it a date by mistake, and she co-signed it. I’m still shocked by the turnaround from her demanding professional distance to it being a date.” I’d probably still be shocked when we were on the date.

  An automated system’s voice announced the successful change of destination on Andre’s end. “That means she likes you, Tobin. She probably did from the beginning. Some situations wake people up about letting a good thing slip by.”

  “She sure opened my eyes the first time I met her,” I mumbled to myself. She had done more than open my eyes, she set my life on a whole new course. Had it not been for meeting Cherise, I never would have joined the military and left the bad elements I was involved in.

  Of course, he heard me. “You should thank the fucker for opening her eyes and seize the chance to make her yours before she changes her mind.”

  “I will if she lets me, Andre. Hold on.”

  At the eight-foot wrought iron gate around the two-story townhomes, Cherise had yet to punch in the access code for entry. With no idea why she was procrastinating, I scanned the background in my rearview mirror. A white Dodge truck emerged at the end of the street, creeping down it. It was the same truck from yesterday, moving at the same pace. There was no coincidence that it meandered past her office and now her home. Deeply ingrained instincts began clanging like church bells in my head. Chad was here.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I roared as he got within yards of us.

  Cherise leaned out the window, reaching for the keypad. The worse time ever to enter the code.

  “Tobin!” Andre thundered back. “What the fuck is going on?”

  Slinging my driver’s door wide, I jumped out with the phone, running between Chad’s line of vision and the keypad directly in it. The last thing he needed was the code to the gate. Our stalker was getting busy. He’d make a bigger play for Cherise soon. We had to get more vigilant. I was already working on it, coming to a stop at her outstretched arm to block Chad’s view with my body.

  “Stop, Cherise,” I ordered.

  Cherise paused in the middle of punching numbers to stare at me like I’d misplaced all my good sense. “What the hell, Tobin?”

  Andre hollered my name again. Then, one more time for good measure.

  Fixated on Chad’s truck, I replied to them both, “I think the fucker’s here. I need to get his license plate number this time.”

  “This time?” Cherise parroted behind me.

  Chad crept by. She gasped, obviously recognizing the truck.

  I took off after it, shouting, “He rode by the office yesterday! Go inside, Cherise!” I wanted her out of harm's way like I wanted another tomorrow to be with her.

  She yelled my name. Chad hit the gas. He knew that I was after essential details about him. He’d be stupid to not watch me as much as I was concentrating on him, closer than close. There were a lot of horses under the hood of his automobile, but every powerful engine required time to gain speed. I took advantage of the delay. Getting a good glimpse of the rear plate, I slowed to a stop a quarter mile down the road. Cherise rolled up beside me, standing next to the curb.

  “Get your ass in the car now, Tobin!” She exploded on me. What was she doing here?

  I swung around. “I told you to go in the house.”

  She hurled her head in the direction Chad went. “Not when you’re out here dealing with that. Never do that to me again.”

  “What did I do?” If I was crazy, I’d think she was pissed and cared for me as much as I did her. I did know she was absolutely stunning when mad. The only thing I wanted to do to her was kiss her at the moment. The other things on my list could come later.

  Cherise jabbed a manicured finger at me. “You chased a maniac by yourself, and you thought I was leaving you out here?” Then, she jerked back in her seat, crossing her arms. Yes, she was pissed.

  “That’s exactly what I wanted, Cherise.” Getting in the car, I realized keeping her alive was likely going to kill me. I’d take that chance every day, all day for her. Cradling her face in my hands, I turned it to me. “Cherise, you have to do what I tell you when I say it. It could cost you your life if you don’t. Do you really want to put me through that?”

  I never got an answer. One second, she was drinking me in with her eyes, and I was doing the same. The next, she was dragging me close by the neck to kiss me like there was no tomorrow. There damn well better be a tomorrow and plenty more after that. She. Was. Kissing. Me. Nothing on this earth came close to her lips on mine. It was magical and hair-raising. The swipe of her tongue sent bolts of static electricity through every inch of me. I was a live wire until a car shot by, its horn blasting the owner’s annoyance with us blocking the road.

  We crashed back into reality together. Cherise edged away to move the car out of the street. There was this small but mesmerizing smile playing on her mouth. In the back of the car, a muted Andre was repeating my name from the floor. I didn’t even remember tossing the phone back there.

  Sneaking a glance at me as she pulled into a neighboring driveway, she advised dryly, “You should get that before he comes through the phone.”

  Snickering at her sarcasm, I reached between our seats to get the phone. “Andre, I’m fine. I had to take off for a minute.”

  “I know that much, dude,” he sniped. “The problem was how long it took you to come back. Did you get the plate numbers or not?”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “Send them to me,” he dictated. “I’ll get in touch with my cousin’s precinct in Harlem, have him get the ball rolling on opening a case here for ole boy stalking your doctor.”

  How could I refuse that? I couldn’t and didn’t. On the second time around, Cherise and I made it to her condo. I got out first, examining her doorway. When I thought all was good, I waved for her to get out of her car too. She wasted no time hustling across the sidewalk to a trio of steps up to her home. After unlocking it, she rotated back to me standing behind her.

  “Are you coming in?

  If I did, we would never come out again. “Not right now, no. I have to meet someone at my place. You’ll get to meet him later. Go inside. I want to have a look around the property. Lock every door and window upstairs and down tight. Don’t open the door if you’re not sure it’s someone you know. I’ll be back at eight sharp. Let Malaysia know what’s going on and to be vigilant. See you later.”

  Frowning, she wasn’t loving my instructions in the least. “Okay. Please be careful.”

  “Damn straight, I’ll be careful. Thank you for listening.” I hesitated to go, craving something only she could give. Tipping her chin up with the side of my knuckle to look deeply into her, I couldn’t stop from going in for a slow peck on her mouth. Anything more intense and Andre would be finding his own way inside my home.

  I took my time releasing her then stepped back. Sucking her lips inward as if savoring my taste, she went inside. I left only after hearing the click of the deadbolt sliding into place. Extensive grounds surrounded her condo. Three sides were encircled by dense forest. The gate with spikes to deter climbing it would only help so much. A determined person would find a way around it. I was much more determined to make them wish they had stayed on the other side of it, where it was safer for them.

  An hour later, I got a text from Andre that he was waiting for me. I drove to the red-brick apartment complex a few minutes away. It wasn’t in a gated, landscaped community or had pristine white siding like Cherise’s. The street was seven feet away on the other side of two patches of grass split up the middle by a sidewalk. Andre’s humongous, black rental truck hid took u
p most of the two-car drive in front of my home. I had to maneuver my truck in or risk clipping his outrageously extended side mirror. Andre remained standing on the microscopic amount of porch with his gear.

  A grin stretched a mile wide across his face as I got out to bro-style embrace him. “It’s good to see you, Underwood.”

  He gave me the once-over then sniggered. “What the fuck do you have on, Graham?”

  I glanced down at myself. “Casual dress clothes.”

  “Exactly. Why?”

  I flicked the collar of his unbuttoned combat jacket. “Because camouflage fatigues don’t exactly go with an office setting outside of a base.”

  “Bullshit. There’s barely any women on this planet that don’t like a man in uniform.”

  “The same can be said about women and a man looking dapper in a collar shirt, slacks, and loafers.” That shut him up for three seconds. I knew how long because I counted.

  He took another look at my outfit. “Okay, you got me there. I’ll have to remember that.”

  “Andre listened to me about something?” I projected sarcastically. “I have to write that down and post it to my fridge.”

  “Only if you open the damn front door first. I’m starving, and I need to tell you some things about Chad Lowell. He’s a very bad boy.” He had my devotion with that statement.

  “Let me call Cherise before we get into it.” She had the right to learn who we were dealing with more than we did.

  Throughout the day, we swapped enough information to fill a semi-tractor trailer. Cherise contributed to the workings of Chad’s mind, calling on a colleague by the name of Lambert to corroborate. Andre read off Chad’s arrest record from his phone after sending it and his mugshot to me. Chad was not a bad looking dude in the least. Women should have been falling at his feet. Cherise assured me that they were. She had a feeling they weren’t the women he wanted. That would cause problems for everyone involved, I guessed.

  He not only had a long string of harassment charges dating back to his teens, there were a couple women he was suspected of making disappear over the span of thirty years. One more had been added to his file, Dr. Eva Laurent, who had gone missing recently. It took us all by surprise that something had happened to one of Cherise’s ex co-workers in California. She got off the phone immediately to confer with her people and parents in Los Angeles. There was no good news to be had when she called back.

  “She’s still missing, guys. They suspect she was taken from the parking deck below the building. There’re no cameras down there.”

  Andre cursed.

  “Right. Fuck!” she impersonated. “Jesus, this is so sad. I didn’t really like the woman, but I don’t think she deserves to be hurt or dead either. Somebody needs to get Chad off the streets.” Her honeyed, somber tone glided out of the phone, acting as a centerpiece in the middle of my two-chair, oak kitchen table.

  “And we will, baby,” I pledged to her, checking the time on my electric stove. “It’s seven. I need to get ready for our night out. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  Always the clown, Andre mouthed, “Baby?” then made air kisses at me.

  I gave him a bird salute and ended the call with Cherise. He and I parted ways for me to get equipped for my date. For a moment, I stood in the bathroom mirror and just marveled at my luck turning; my dream girl was about to be mine. That still hadn’t sunk in fully after I had exchanged the casualwear for a shower and combat fatigues.

  Tucking my pants in black hi-tech boots was all I had left to do. I was more than ready should Chad surface again with a fight on his demented mind. He had declared war for Cherise, and on Cherise, thus me too. I planned to win it by any means necessary without a single hair moving out of place on her head.

  “Ready, Tobin?” Andre inquired from the other side of my bedroom door. He didn’t have to change and had been twiddling his thumbs on the brown couch while I suited and booted up. Not giving a damn about unpacking, he had stashed his gear in the spare room. “It’s seven-fifteen.”

  I stood up from the bed. “Yep. Let’s go.”

  Cherise

  “This is the first time I had to dress down for a date, and I’m more nervous about this one than all the ones that started in a five-star restaurant,” I told Malaysia as she curled the last lock of straight hair for me.

  “Cherise, for the one hundred and thirty second time, it’s not the clothes. It’s how you feel when you wear them. On the other hand, that outfit is banging, dressed down, or not.” She had a point.

  My blue and white ombre belly top and ruffled pants paired with tennis shoes were pretty cute. The set of glittered lips on my chest would definitely draw attention. I changed the subject, repeating the things about Chad I had learned from Tobin and his visiting friend. Patting the curl into place, she sprayed a choking mist of hairspray all over my head then patted that too.

  “There, done. It’s sad about Eva.”

  After fanning the mist away, I took a long look in the oval mirror in my bathroom. “It really is sad. I hope she’s okay.” I prayed Chad had not hurt her.

  Malaysia unplugged the wand curlers, setting them on the marble countertop to cool. “God willing, she’ll be okay, and the next time, she’ll look beyond a man’s exterior before judging him fit for her company. Like I had to learn to do.”

  “Amen,” I murmured, getting up to go in my bedroom and grab my purse.

  The doorbell rang at the same time.

  “I got it,” Malaysia apprised me on her way out my bedroom. Well, shit. I dashed out behind her, breaching the hallway. She was already halfway down the stairs and uncatchable. “I have one thing I want to say to Tobin.” One thing was an abundance when concerning her.

  “Malaysia, play nice,” I urged, tracing her steps and hating that her long legs were faster.

  She flung the door wide. “Hey. Come in. Let’s chat for five seconds. I’ll do all the talking.”

  He and I made a sizzling brown eyes to gray connection. Legs weakening, I put on the brakes at the bottom of the steps. Crossing over to him wasn’t an option. I’d have walked on my mouth that had hit the floor. The raw essence of him had struck me dumb. Mother of God, he was fine as wine in camouflage. His tight, black t-shirt framed drool-worthy bulges of brute power. His trim waist flared into well-made hips and thighs. All I could hear in my head was, “Lord have mercy.”

  Malaysia was not impressed as she directed him into the front room. “If anything happens to my sister at that carnival, I’m will fuck around and kill everybody that was in the vicinity, Tobin.”

  He perused my body, miming, “Beautiful,” before recognizing her. “Hey to you too, Malaysia. She’ll be safe. Trust me.”

  Malaysia wandered away, glimpsing back at him. “I’ll trust you after you bring her back in one, breathing piece. Have a good time.” That was as civil as she was going to get.

  He called after her as she vanished into the kitchen, “That’s the plan! Ready, sweetheart?”

  Only if he was going to scoop me off the stairs because I had melted down them. Walking on my own was a stretch when complete mush inside. I didn’t have to go to him after all. He came to me, reaching for my hand. Needing a stable link to the earth, I took it. Only his strength kept me upright as we traveled outside. Dusk had moved in. He was in the lead, scanning the area while guiding me to his truck. Giving me a hand up, I slid into my seat, sightseeing in his territory. Usually, we were in mine. It was a nice change to be in his.

  He climbed in and off we went. “I figure we’d start in the middle of the carnival and work our way outward back to our ride.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me. The closer we are to the truck when it’s time to go, the better. I’m not in shape period.”

  Chuckling quietly, he cut his eyes my way. “Could’ve fooled me. So, tell me about yourself from beginning to end, Cherise.”

  The tables had turned. I regaled him with my story. It wasn’t that long or that entertaining. He seemed to
find something stimulating about it, asking questions when I went vague in some places deliberately. He was truly listening, and that pulled on my heartstrings. Since I listened for a living, I knew how important it was to have that in a partner. To have him do the same for me was utterly appealing.

  A couple hours later, he was still engaged. We had walked in an endless circle, talked, played games, and argued good-naturedly about most of everything under the sun, including defense tactics, proper techniques for gunplay, and politics. If we could survive a debate of republican versus democrat, we could persevere through anything. Respecting someone’s differing opinion was another great quality to find in a man.

  Night had fallen, coming in with a cool breeze hours ago. It was refreshing. In his company, I was constantly warm. The grounds were lit like the fourth of July. That was a plus considering my situation with Chad, who had a habit of showing up out of nowhere. He wasn’t even a concern as we went down one dirt track at the back of the carnival where Tobin took my hand. He used it to pilot me to a duck shoot tent. There, he pointed up at the hung stuffed animals on a panel wall.

  “I want that unicorn up there, Cherise.”

  Had he lost his mind?

  Licking the last of my ice cream cone then tossing the remnants in the trash bin nearby, I tapped him on the chest to console him beforehand. “Poor thing. You don’t want it at all if you want me to shoot something to win it. Good luck.”

  I swiveled to go have a seat on a bench nearby. As I turned, another soldier walked by dressed as Tobin, who snagged my waist in both hands. Tobin nodded at the man then gently swung me back around. I found my back pressed to Tobin’s chest, a rigid pole against my spine.

  He folded his body around mine, forcing me to bend slightly as he gripped the stationary BB gun in front of us. “You wanted to learn how to shoot. Here’s your chance to do it without fatally wounding somebody.”

  His warm breath glided over my cheek, sending my blood pounding through my veins. “I don’t know the first thing about guns, Tobin. I’ll probably fatally wound myself with that thing, and it has pellets. Hard pass.” I had no intention of moving away, though. He was every bit of a haven. I’d be a fool to let that go to waste, especially when my legs had become jelly again.