Page 16 of Protecting Talia

His lips thinned and his eyebrows rose. “You don’t know?”

She shook her head. “I never paid attention. A lot of the guys in those videos were military. I’ve never really had a good impression of military types.”

His lips curled and he looked disgusted. For a second she thought he was angry at her, but then he shook his head.

“I’m not like them. I’m special forces. I don’t fuck around with regulations. I follow the rules and keep my nose clean. Not saying I’m perfect, but losing my job would more than suck and doing shit like what they did to you would break rules that would get me kicked out.”

She was surprised by his words. She’d never even considered that the men could get in trouble for what they’d done. “You seem like a rule follower.”

“Really? You see that?”

“Yeah. You seem like a good person.”

He shrugged. “As long as you’re on my good side, I am.”

She finished her bagel and noticed he was done, too. “Want to walk?”

“Sure. I’d like that.”

They headed toward the water, and midway there, he took her hand. Her hand in his felt good. She was having intense feelings for him, and it scared her. She would pull back. She had to. But not yet. Zip made her feel special and she wanted to spend more time with him. Surely it wouldn’t hurt for her to spend a few weeks getting to know him, enjoying his company, maybe fooling around a bit.

They were on their way back to the car when she noticed a guy looking at her weirdly. Her stomach twisted. This couldn’t be good. The man was older, around forty. He was about the right age for men who would have watched the porn she’d been featured in.

Zip wasn’t paying attention, or it didn’t seem like he was. Her stomach twisted when the guy pointed at her and started talking to his friend and then he held up his phone.

“Shit.” She shouldn’t have let the word slip out, but she couldn’t hold back.

“What’s wrong?” Zip asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

He glanced around and held her hand tighter. The men were coming their way. She hated that Zip had to see this. He would walk, no question. This would be the last time they went for coffee and bagels, the last time they walked on the beach together. This was it. She would never see him again.

“Hey, aren’t you Natalie Goodgirl?” the guy called out.

Heat washed over her as the old name she’d performed under hit her ears. She wanted to hide. Both guys lifted their phones like they were going to take photos of her. They were close enough that she could see the color of their eyes.

Zip didn’t say anything, making her feel the loss so deeply it made her heart hurt. Then he moved so fast it made her yelp. He had their phones and was doing something. As he punched things on their screen, he started speaking.

“Let me teach you a lesson right now. Don’t you ever talk to another woman like that again. Better, don’t speak to women again. I’m deleting your videos and photos?—”

“You can’t do that!” one of the guys yelled.

“Really? Because I just did. Erased it from your system completely. I don’t know who you think my girlfriend is, but I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t matter. You aren’t even going to look at her again. You feel me?”

Both men dropped their heads and stared at the ground. They weren’t smiling or laughing any more. They seemed scared.

Zip continued speaking as he pulled out his phone. “Now then, if you ever speak disrespectfully to another woman and I find out, I’ll hunt you down. I’m connecting to your social media, and I’ll watch. I can find out where you live, and I will make your life hell if you ever do anything like this again. Do you understand?”

Both men nodded. Zip handed them back their phones and then took her hand, leading her away from the mess. She glanced back, noticing the men were looking the other way. Zip had shut them down. But this wouldn’t be the last time something like this happened. Could he keep it up?

They were at his car, and he opened the door. She slid in and waited for him to walk around and get in. Would he tell her goodbye after this?

When he slid into the driver’s seat she spoke, still looking straight ahead. “You know that won’t be the last time something like that happens.”

He put his hand on the steering wheel and blew out a heavy sigh. He turned his head and stared at her. “Then I’ll do the same thing again.”

“You can’t stop all the men from being jerks.”

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