Page 7 of Protected By the SEAL

“Alex, please.” I hope that using his name, whether it’s his real one or not, will help to bond us a little bit. “Alex, you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to be this person. I don’t blame you for being here. I understand. You aren’t a bad person.”

“Fuck off, rich bitch,” he spits back, venom exploding all over me with every single word. “Just fuck you. Theyaregoing to come, thisisgoing to work out…” I don’t know where this newfound confidence comes from, but it’s just as fucking terrifying as the anger. “And then I’ll be someone. I’ll be wealthy and known as well. I’ll be worthwhile. So, shut the fuck up. If your endless whining hasn’t worked to save your life so far, then why the hell do you assume that’s going to change now?”

Tears come from nowhere. I don’t even sense the prickle of them beginning. They simply burst like a pipe. Weirdly, I’m crying because of what he just said. I want to be someone too, a person in my own right, not just a member of the Jones family, and I haven’t. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted todo but never quite got around to it, and it’s hitting me hard. I wasted too much of my life, and there isn’t any way that I can get it back now. It’s done. Over. My life is lost to me for good.

“Tears won’t work on me either,” Alex continues, with an arrogance lacing his tone now. As if he wasn’t unpleasant enough, this takes him up to a brand-new level of asshole. “I’ll just watch you cry until there isn’t any water left in your body. I don’t care if you want to expend your energy in such a silly way. It means nothing to me. You are just my entertainment.”

He sits back with his arms folded, defiantly watching me as if that’s going to stop the flood of my emotion now. I can’t, it’s too late. It really is over now. I’m fucked. There’s no turning back. Even if these gang members don’t turn up, Alex will leave me out here to rot. He’s only out for himself, and there isn’t a damn thing in the world that will change that. I’ve lost for sure.

“Shut up,” he barks all of a sudden. The way that he leaps up with his eyes maniacally scanning everywhere, I do as he commands without even thinking about it. This isn’t just him yelling at me, but him screaming because something’s happening. His eyes dart everywhere. He becomes like a predator hunting for his prey, or perhaps the other way around. Maybe despite all of his arrogance, he’s the prey and he’s afraid of this gang. Goddamn it, why didn’t he just listen to me? My father would have done something to protect him, I’m sure of it. He would have made sure that no one destroyed him, even if they were Cartel.

Either that or he could have gone to jail where he would probably be a whole lot safer.

“Did you hear that?” I strain my ears, not quite sure why I’m assisting the guy who wants me dead, but I suppose I need toknow what’s going on as well. “I definitely heard something. Someone is here. This is it. They have come at long last.”

The nervous energy rocketing off him is palpable. It amps my anxiety up tenfold. I don’t know if I can stand this. My body is squirming to get me away from this place because it’s scaring the living shit out of me, but I still can’t go anywhere. I suppose the only positive about this is the anxiety is overshadowing my pain. I can’t feel anything in particular.

“What’s going on?” I hiss, unable to hide how I’m feeling now. I guess the floodgates have opened and I just don’t stand a chance. “What’s happening? Do you know who it is? Is it them? Oh, my God, I don’t want it to be them. Please, Alex, help?—”

“Shut the fuck up, Cassie.” Oh, my God, if Alex is terrified, then I really need to be fucking scared. “I don’t know yet. We just need to calm the fuck down and wait to see, okay? We have to just… just be patient. Just wait for them to come to us.”

Why the hell is Alex messing around with these people? Clearly, he doesn’t trust them one bit. How can he be around people he has no faith in whatsoever? His life seems to be on the line almost as much as mine. It’s insane. Unless he somehow got mixed up with them without meaning to. I suppose in my privileged position, I don’t know about his life.

“I can’t stand this any longer.” Alex steps—well, he basically tiptoes—over in the direction he heard a noise. I didn’t notice any sounds, so I really don’t know what the hell he’s talking about, but it isn’t for me to judge. I wasn’t listening. But with every step that he makes, I can feel my heart pounding heavier and heavier in my throat. The end is coming for me, it’s over….

He stops. Alex’s face changes. I know without even needing to ask him that he’s seen something. Someone is there. I wish that he would speak so that I could have a little inkling about what’s going on, but he’s strangely silent. I can’t see his face enough to read his expression either, but I don’t think he’s pleased. Has something gone wrong with the mission? That’s good, that’s exactly what I want to happen, but I’m scared shitless in case. Dying here like this will be agony.

“What are you doing?” Alex growls. He’s saying too much to be full of fear now. Unless it’s terror that he’s dead which is making him brave. “This isn’t right. This isn’t the way things are meant to be happening. What’s going on?”

I hold my breath while I wait for some kind of answer. Something needs to happen. I don’t know what, exactly, but the anticipation is killing me. I feel like I’m at the top of a rollercoaster, waiting to tip over the edge into the abyss…

Bang!

The sound is so loud, so shocking, it reverberates right through my brain. I want to block it out, but I can’t press my hands to my ears. It’s unlike anything that I’ve ever heard before, so I don’t know what the hell it is. It takes me a few seconds too long to process the sound and to realize what it was. By which time, Alex is falling. His hand is on his face, covered in a deep redness which seems to be consuming him, and he’s tumbling hard, losing himself as he goes.

“Alex!” I cry out in shock, as if he’s my friend and not my kidnapper. But right now, he’s the only person with whom I’m somewhat familiar. Without him, I’m lonely, floating. I have no anchor to keep me in place. What will replace him is worse.

But he hits the ground hard and doesn’t get up. Of course he isn’t getting up. Why would he be? That was a gunshot. Alex is dead, and I’m still here battling with this fucking tree, with the ties keeping me in place, with the knowledge that it’s too late…

7

BENJI

“Shit, I didn’t want to do that.” As I watch the kidnapper’s life slip away, I feel like shit. Of course, death is sometimes necessary in this line of work, just as it was in my last one, but that doesn’t make it feel good. Nor has it madethisany easier. I figured that reasoning with him and getting Cassie out without any violence would be better, but he didn’t want to play ball. Now, we are in even more danger than before. I have to get her out of here, and fast.

The gunshot will attract any gang members around. Now, I don’t know if any of them are anywhere to be seen, but since the meeting time is soon and they will all be headed for this one direction, I think it’s safe to assume. I need to move fast.

“I’m here to help,” I call over to Cassie as I run toward her, but to be perfectly honest, I think that she might be in shock. She has glazed over eyes and the look of someone who might be about to really lose her shit. Not that I can blame her. “I know that this is all a bit much, and I’m sure you are very traumatized, but I’m here to help you. I’ll get you out of here.”

I tuck the gun away, hoping that this will show her how serious I am, and I grab out my knife. Those ropes clinging to her are tight and not easy to loosen. Plus, her arms look like shit from where she has clearly tried to free herself. As soon as I’m close enough to do so, I drop to my knees and begin sawing away at the ropes, moving as quickly as I can without hurting her.

“A… Alex?” she stammers breathlessly, sounding monotone, not quite human. “You killed him. Why did you do that?”

Uh-oh. Has she got some kind of Stockholm Syndrome? It doesn’t seem possible since she’s only been with that asshole for a little while, but considering what her life was like beforehand, maybe she did fall for him in a way. Holy shit, that’s a whole other level of bullshit that I’m not prepared to handle. But I’ll carry her out of here if I have to. I’m not leaving her with him.

“He… he was working for you,” she continues, her voice now a little bubbly. It sounds like she might puke. “He was…”

“That little scumbag wasn’t working for me,” I inform her rapidly. “I don’t have anything to do with criminals and people who assume that it’s okay to kidnap women. I’ve always lived my life on the right side of the law, thank you very much.”

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