Chapter 19 Doc
DOC
Feeling her arm threaded with mine as we walked through my childhood home was something else. I watched my father treating my mother to such evenings growing up. Dinner by the pool while my sister and I watched from our bedrooms, peeking in to see what they did whenever we weren’t around.
We only did that once, that much was for certain.
I smirked at the memories of my childhood as I pulled the chair out for her.
I offered her my hand, feeling the warmth of hers as she slid it across my palm.
Tonight, I’d ask her the question bouncing around in my mind.
The one I couldn’t seem to find guidance on, no matter how much time I spent around her or inside of my head.
The question I wanted to blurt out impulsively every time she turned that beautiful smile toward me.
The question my body already knew the answer to.
I was going to ask Miss Elizabeth to be mine.
“Wow, Brutus really outdid himself,” she said with a giggle.
I scooted her close to the table. “Actually, this is all my doing.”
I sat down in front of her, scooting my chair toward the table, before I looked up and saw her balking at me.
I looked around. “What?”
She tilted her head and snickered. “You made this meal?”
My eyes dropped to the food on the table before rising back to her gaze. “Yes. Is that a problem, Miss Elizabeth?”
She picked up her fork, dipping it into the lasagna, and took the smallest bite of the meat sauce.
Her eyes lit up. “Doc, this is fantastic!”
Fucking hell, her praise made my cock jump. “Yeah? I figured lasagna, a nice salad, and some garlic bread was an easy route to go. Nice and comfortable. Warm. Familiar.”
Her shock turned into the softest smile I’d ever seen painted on her face. “Thank you for tonight, Daniel.”
My gaze met hers. “No thanks needed, Elizabeth. Trust me, I will enjoy tonight as much as you will.”
I couldn’t help myself. I watched her take the first bites of her food.
I wasn’t even hungry. Not after slaving away in a hot kitchen.
I had to cool down, at best, and as a cool breeze kicked up, it moved the clouds overhead, revealing the moon that drenched everything in that cool blue hue that came with it.
She looked breathtaking beneath it.
“Doc?”
I cleared my throat as her voice snapped me out of my trance. Fuck, how long was I staring? “Yes, Miss Elizabeth?”
When I focused back on her, though, I watched as she stood.
The smile on her face sank into something akin to a grin, and she lifted herself from her chair.
She moved with a grace I hadn’t seen in her movements yet, and I couldn’t help but to clock all of the points of her body that were injured.
I watched as she moved without her cane.
I looked down to take stock of how much her ankle limped.
I ran my gaze up to her waist and chest, seeing if she favored any one side due to her ribs.
The gash she had on her forehead, the ligature marks on her wrists.
My gaze darted around her body as she sashayed over to me, the wind kicking up that delightful sundress of hers.
My brain short-circuited when I saw a piece of that fabric blow up over her thigh.
“I’m fine, Doc,” she said as I moved without reason, easing myself away from the table and turning the chair toward her.
“You look it,” I said as my eyes raked back up to hers.
“So,” she said as she slotted herself between my legs and eased down onto my thigh, “we’ve got dinner. We’ve salad for the appetizer. We’ve got a bottle of wine—”
“Bubbling grape juice,” I corrected as I reached for the bottle and picked it up. “You’re still on hard medications that require you to be off alcohol.”
She slipped her arms around my neck and giggled. “All right. We’ve got dinner. We’ve got the appetizer. We’ve even got the drinks. But I don’t see any dessert on this table.”
I had to swallow down a snarl. “You’re dessert.”
Her grin was mischievous. “Does the good ol’ Doc that plays by the rules ever eat dessert before dinner?”
I growled as I snatched her up and stood.
I marched right over to the other patio table I had outside, and I dropped her down against it, on her back.
I grabbed her ankles, listening to her giggle as I held her legs in the air.
I slowly parted them as I stood over her, already smelling the gathering of her arousal that I wanted on the tip of my tongue.
She giggled with delight as she wiggled around, jiggling those juicy, perfect little thighs for me. “Does that mean you get to be my dessert?”
My cock stiffened at the thought. “You can do whatever you want with—”
Something caught my eye. At first, I didn’t think anything of it. My focus was on one thing, and one thing alone. Making Elizabeth scream my name again so that the entire house knew who she belonged to.
But then, the flash happened again.
Oh, no.
“RED ALEEEEEEEEEEERT!”
Miss Elizabeth flinched as I yanked her legs toward me. They spread as she flailed, and that’s when I felt it.
Whizzing right by my left shoulder.
THWIP!
She was in my arms in seconds as lights flipped on in the house. “WE HAVE A SNIPEEEEEER!”
“What!?” Elizabeth shrieked.
I turned toward the house and ran. I booked it in a zig-zag fashion, all of my training coming back to me at once as bullet holes sank themselves into the cobblestone and dirt path at my feet. Inside. I had to get Elizabeth inside.
She would be safe inside.
“Daniel, put me down, I can help,” she said as she wiggled around in my arms.
I snarled like a wild animal. “No.”
One of the bullets shot at us sank into the doorframe just as we slipped inside.
I slid the glass door closed and locked all three of the locks, thanking my fucking stars that I replaced all of the windows with bulletproof glass over the years.
After my parents passed, I sank all of my money into making this as safe of a place as possible.
Not because I ever envisioned a family for myself, but because some day, I knew me and the crew would need it.
It was mayhem the instant I started for the stairs.
“Doc! Get up here with her now!” Brutus barked.
“Come on, girls, I know,” Anna said in a voice that was so uncharacteristically soft for her.
“I know you’re scared. I know. Just come on.
Follow the line.” Smoke was already at the top of the stairs.
I didn’t know how the dog had gotten inside, or when, but there he was—planted at the threshold of the hallway like a sentry, his black body low and coiled, ears flat and eyes tracking every shadow that moved.
He didn’t bark. Didn’t pace. He just held the line, pressing himself against the wall so the women could move past him, and then fell in behind them like he’d been running this drill his whole life. Because he had.
A bullet bounced off the window of the second floor and the girls shrieked. They hit the deck, but I shoved my way through all of them, my voice bellowing above their heads.
“The windows are bulletproof! All of the women in the panic room, now!”
“Yeah, Boss,” Brutus said, speaking into his phone.
“Sniper. At the house. We’ve been found.
Wait a second, you’re fuckin’ where!? You and the guys need to get back—yes.
The women are getting into a panic room that Doc had built.
Yeah, you heard him right. Bulletproof. Get on your bikes, guys. We’re being attacked.”
It was mayhem. Bullets bouncing off the windows backdropped getting the women shoved into the bedroom that I essentially turned into a panic room.
No windows to the outside world. Lockdown mechanisms for days.
A satellite television so that we could talk with them, even via video, if absolutely necessary.
I dropped Elizabeth down onto one of the beds. Smoke was already inside, posted up near the door with his back to the room and his nose pointed at the threshold. He’d gone in with the women like it was the only logical thing to do. Like there had never been any question about where he’d be.
“Wait, wait, wait!” she exclaimed as I turned to make my way out of the room.
I felt her hand slip into mine and I whipped back toward her. “I can’t stay. I have to go help.”
“I can help, too, you know. I’m a soldier as well.”
My heart sang for her. She was so strong. So much stronger and more valiant than she ever gave herself credit for.
I cupped her face in my hands and slammed my lips to hers.
“Doc!” Brutus barked.
I released her lips before I pointed to the bedroom closet. “That is outfitted with weapons. You won’t be able to get out of this room unless someone keys in from the outside. But on the off-chance that this room is compromised, that closet is full of everything you’ll need. Anna!”
“What!?”
I whipped around, feeling Elizabeth still tugging on me. “Get in here with the girls. You and my Liz are in charge of shooting whoever the fuck crosses the threshold if they get in.”
“Awwww,” Anna said as she stomped into the room. “I want to come with you guys, though.”
I leveled her with a look. “You and Elizabeth are responsible for the health and well-being of the girls.”
She sighed heavily and flopped down onto the bed. “You and Brutus are no fun.”
“Doc, goddamn it, get out here!” Brutus barked.
I turned around and crashed one last kiss to Elizabeth’s shocked face. “I’ll be back.”
Her voice was breathless. “You fucking better be.”
I rushed out of the room and Brutus slammed the door closed behind me.
I jammed my hand into an inconspicuous place on the wall next to the door of the panic room, and when I pressed inward, it gave way.
The panel flipped open, and I pressed the big red button that locked down and armed the room they were all in.
Then all was silent on the western front, so to speak.
“The room is soundproofed?” Brutus asked.
Another bouncing of a bullet off one of the windows forced my head to turn in that direction. “Yeah, among other things.”
“Good,” Brutus said as he stormed off down the hallway. “Now, we need to be armed. Let’s go.”
To be fair, I was shocked that we went this long at my place without being found. We were here just shy of a week and a half, and I wondered when those assholes were going to rear their heads.
I wondered how long they were scouting my property.
How long it took that sniper to set up shop.
Brutus slamming open the closet door to the armory on the second floor of the house yanked me out of my mind.
“Cap and some of King’s crew were in Bryersville when I called.”
Fuck, they’re over an hour away. “All right, so we’re all being watched.”
Brutus handed me a scoped handgun. “Exactly. I know they’re striking at a point where we are all spread out.”
I read between the lines.
He meant it was just us against them when it came to protecting the girls.
And I had a fuckton to protect.
“Fair enough,” I said as I checked the magazine of the scoped rifle.
“You want a shotgun, too?”
I holstered the pistol on my hip. “Shotgun, throwing stars, and earwigs. I want us to be able to communicate, even if we get split up.”
I watched him turn one on and slip it into his ear. “Good thinking. Here.”
And when I slipped mine into my ear, I heard an alarming cadence.
Two bullets, in tandem, bouncing off the same window.
“Shit,” I hissed as I marched toward the sound.
Brutus grabbed my arm. “Doesn’t mean we have to split up now. How long before these windows are compromised?”
I just shook my head and turned back to face him. “I don’t know, but we’ve got more than one sniper out there. We need to be careful, whatever we do.”
He nodded before he reached back into the closet and instead of pulling out a shotgun for himself as well, he pulled out a scoped rifle.
“Good thing I’ve been practicing with Tank,” he muttered as he strapped it to his back.
Another doubled set of bullets bouncing off a window somewhere caught my ear.