Protector #5 (A Navy SEAL Military Romance) (2 page)

“No, it’s not just semantics,” I shot back. “It’s an observation
about the fact that you are scanning faster than a grocery store checker, and I
thought it must be tiring to always be scanning everything.”

“I don’t even notice I’m doing it,” he replied. “It’s just part of
who I am.”

“Still,” I said.

“Still, what? Dammit, Ava!” he raised his voice in irritation.

“Don’t get irritated with me,” I warned. “I’m tired of all of this
cloak and dagger crap.”

“Lest you forget, this cloak and dagger crap is all about
protecting
you
,” he hissed.

“I did not ask you to —”

“Are you ready for a big Belgian waffle with strawberries?”
chirped the waitress as she began to set plates in front of us. Brian and I
lapsed into a polite silence during which we only spoke to the waitress. She
giggled nervously as she asked if there was anything else we needed, and when
we both replied that we were fine, she slipped out of sight and left us to eat
our meal.

I said nothing as I smeared butter on my waffle and then covered
it in a thick pool of syrup. Brian cut up his eggs, mixed them with the
potatoes and then poured catsup over the entire mix. I tried not to roll my
eyes as I watched him scoop up a forkful of the mess and shove it in his mouth.
He continued scanning the restaurant as we ate, once stopping his fork in midair
as he closely watched a man who was paying his bill at the register.

“Let it go,” I hissed through a mouthful of waffle and
strawberries. “Just eat your damn breakfast!”

Brian shot me a look that clearly indicated I was to shut the hell
up. I ate my breakfast, but the longer we sat in silence the angrier I got.
I didn’t ask to be cleared out of my dorm
room! I didn’t ask to be sequestered in a stupid hotel far, far away from my
friends and classes! I didn’t ask to be stuck in the middle of a psychotic
ex-boyfriend and the bodyguard assigned to protect me! I didn’t ask for any of
this!

Suddenly I felt incredibly sorry for myself. All of this was a
mess that I had never wanted nor asked for, and now my life was being ruined by
a man who had left me with nothing but a host of invisible wounds. I needed to
take control of the situation and get myself out of this mess, not rely on a
guy who was clearly in over his head, and was overwhelmed by the task.

“Brian?” I ventured.

“What?” he said in a short manner not looking at me.

“I want to go back to the dorm,” I said.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Ava?” he demanded.

“Don’t you yell at
me!
” I cried. “I’m
sick and tired of you making all of the decisions and I’m sick and tired of
letting that psycho rule my life!”

“Me making all the decisions?
Me?
”
Brian raised his voice as he pounded a fist on the table making the plates jump
and causing the other guests to look over at us. He raised a hand in apology
and leaned back in his chair.

“Yes, you’re making all the decisions about how to manage this
situation and I’m tired of it,” I replied.

“If you recall, you were the one who refused to involve the police
and left me hanging out to dry,” he said.

“I know! But I didn’t want to give my father the impression that
you couldn’t handle it!” I cried.

“Why? If he knew I needed help, he would get it, right?” he asked.

“No, he’d fire you and find someone else who could handle it and then…”
I trailed off not wanting to say what I was thinking.

“And then what?” he pressed.

“And then I’d have to break in a whole new person and it’s a pain
in my ass!” I said dryly. Brian shot me a dirty look as he reached in his
pocket and pulled out his phone for the tenth time since we sat down.

“I need to take this call,” he said as he got up and moved out of
earshot.

I signaled the waitress that I wanted to pay the bill and she
quickly rushed over to take the credit card I held out. I needed an outlet for
this frustration, and I knew just the thing.

*****

When
Brian finally returned, I shot him a questioning look. When he
shrugged in response, I picked up the receipt for breakfast, shoved it in my
purse and got up from the table.

“I need to work out this morning,” I said matter-of-factly. “Let’s
hit the gym.”

“Ava, I don’t think that’s the best idea,” Brian replied.

“Oh stop being such a worry-wart,” I scolded. “We’ve had zero
problems thus far, and I don’t imagine that Dominic and his henchmen have any
idea where we are.”

“You don’t know what they know,” he warned.

“Oh my God, you are such a nervous nelly!” I laughed. “Get over
it, I need to work out and that’s what we’re doing.”

Brian shot me an annoyed look as we walked to the elevator and
headed back to the room. I ignored his dark scowl and even whistled a little as
the elevator lifted us to our floor. Once in the room, I heard to the bedroom
and changed into my work out gear. It made me feel good to think about moving
my body since we’d been sitting around in rooms for almost a week now.

“Ready?” I asked as I emerged from the bedroom. Brian was still
scowling as he nodded and then headed out the door to check the hallway.
 
I rolled my eyes dramatically as he checked
both sides of the hall and the motioned for me to follow him back to the
elevator.

“This spy routine is getting old,” I said sarcastically.

“Ava, if you can’t get on board with the protection plan, could
you at least have the courtesy to not make sarcastic remarks about it?” he asked.
There was something in the tone of his voice that made me stop and look at his
face. He didn’t look happy at all, but I wasn’t happy either. In fact, I was
pretty miserable at the moment. My whole life had been upended and he was
acting like it was an inconvenience for
him
,
when he’d been hired to ensure that this exact thing didn’t happen. As I
thought about it more, I realized I was really angry.

“You know what? I’m tired of being told what to do and how to do
it,” I asserted. “From now on, I’m running this show and you will do as I say.
Got it?”

If looks could kill, I’d have been well on my way to the morgue,
but he nodded and backed off as I jabbed the elevator button repeatedly. I
didn’t care if he did have my best interests at heart, I was sick and tired of
people trying to control me. When the elevator finally arrived, I stalked into
it and crossed my arms over my chest. Brian entered the elevator and turned to
face the front. I shot dirty looks at the back of his head as we descended to
the ground floor. When we reached the bottom, Brian stood aside as the doors
slid open and held out his arm like I was royalty. I shot him a look as I
exited and marched toward the gym.

I quickly located a treadmill and hung my towel over the bar
before stretching out. Brian positioned himself at the free weights and I
watched him in my peripheral vision as he stretched and began pumping iron. It
was hard for me not to be distracted by the sight of his bulging muscles, but I
fought the urge to turn and watch and began my own workout. I set the treadmill
to mimic a slow but steady hill climb and began jogging to warm up. I soon lost
myself in the rhythm of my feet pounding on the treadmill and let my mind
wander to the places where I hadn’t wanted to go.

I thought about how far I’d come in the past year since leaving
Dominic, and I tried to puzzle out what would have caused him to want to start
stalking me after having left me alone for so long.
Why was he so obsessed with me? What triggered the obsession? Why did
he want me back after all this time?
None of it made any sense to me, but I
knew there had to be a reason. People didn’t just start stalking for no reason.
Did they?

As I ran, I noticed someone climbing onto the treadmill next to
me, and I quickly looked over and nodded, and then did a double take. He looked
familiar, but I couldn’t place him. I quickly looked over to where Brian was
working out and saw that he was furiously tapping the screen of his phone as he
shook his head. He hadn’t seemed to notice the guy next to me, and if he had,
he wasn’t worried, so I relaxed and told myself that I was imagining things.

I picked up my pace for the last few miles and tried to run a fast
time rather than slack off and get lost in my mind. It worked for a bit, but
soon I got the nagging feeling that I was being watched and when I looked over
at the neighbor treadmill, I saw that the guy who’d been there was gone.
That’s weird. He wasn’t there long enough to
work up a sweat.
I shrugged and figured he must be a businessman who got
called away by his boss or something.

As I began my cool down, I noticed that Brian was now lifting some
seriously heavy weights and the veins in his neck were popping out. I made a
note to tease him about “hulking out” and then slowed to a brisk walk as my
workout came to an end. I took a big swig from my water bottle and then wiped
my face with the towel before hopping down off the treadmill and heading over
to Brian.

“You about done?” I asked casually. “I need a shower.”

“Yeah, sure,” he sighed as he put the weights back in the rack and
grabbed his towel. I could tell he was irritated, but I’d be damned if I was
going to dig into his psyche again. All I wanted now was a hot shower and a
nap.

As
we exited the gym, I felt someone staring at me from across the
lobby, but when I turned to see who it was there was no one there. I stood
staring at the space where I swear someone had been, then shook my head and
turned back toward the elevator. I stole a glance a Brian who was quickly
tapping out a message on his phone before tucking it back in his pocket.

“Do you ever put that thing down?” I asked.

“Do you ever stop asking ridiculous questions?” he shot back.

“Wow, did someone mess up your workout or did you just not get
enough to eat at breakfast?” I snapped.

“Ava, let’s don’t do this…” he trailed off as he watched a man
getting off the elevator. Brian turned and followed the man with his eyes, then
quickly pulled out his phone and snapped a photo.

“What? Do you recognize him?” I asked.

“Him? Oh, no, just something…” he mumbled as he tapped out another
message and then slipped his phone in his pocket as he followed me onto the
elevator.

“You’re being so secretive,” I observed. “Is there a reason you
aren’t sharing information with me?”

“No, there’s no reason,” he parroted.

“You are so maddening!” I cried as I stomped my foot on the floor
of the elevator. “You drag me away from my life and then tell me nothing about
what’s going on! I’m sick of this! I want to go back to the dorm!”

“Ava, you can’t go back to the dorm right now,” Brian said in a
calm voice. “It’s just not safe.”

“Oh God, not this crap again! I’m so tired of being treated like
some delicate hot house flower!” I yelled.

“Could you keep your voice down?” he asked with no more emotion
than if he was asking me to do something as simple as press the elevator
button.

“That’s it, I’m done with your condescending attitude and your
overly protective body guard service,” I said calmly. “I’m going home.”

“You can’t,” he said definitively.

“I can do anything I want to do,” I said in a snotty tone. “And
you can’t stop me.”

“No, but I can ask you,” he said as he put a hand on my shoulder
and turned me toward him. “Ava, please? Just give me a few days to have someone
set up enough security in your dorm room so that I can properly monitor what’s
going on?”

I stood staring up at him with defiant look on my face. He waited.
His eyes softened as he looked into mine, and my defiant stance wilted a bit as
I thought about all the ways in which he’d tried to protect me, and all of the
ways in which I’d tried to slip out of his protection. Then I thought about how
angry my father would be if he found out that Brian had failed to do his job
properly, and I realized that I couldn’t let him take the blame for my
frustration and anger. I sighed and nodded.

“Two days,” I said. “That’s it. Two more days and I’m going home.”

“That’s not reasonable,” he replied. “I need at least a week!”

“A week?” I yelled. “Oh hell no!”

“Ava, a week is the best I can offer you,” he said as he reached
up and ran his fingers through my hair making me shiver a bit. “It’s a small
amount of time to ensure your safety. Give me seven days and you can go home.”

“Fine, as long as we agree,” I said gruffly to try and cover up
the effect he was having on me. “Seven days, and not a day more!”

“I just want to find him, and put him away so that you’ll be
safe,” he said softly as he ran his fingers across my cheek before lightly
brushing my lips with the tip of his index finger. That was too much, and I
backed up against the elevator wall as I looked at him warily.

“Don’t try and manage me,” I warned. “I might have had sex with
you a couple of times and enjoyed it, but do not try and manage me because you
think you have some kind of advantage over me.”