Chapter 37 Drive #2
The second guard he’d been patrolling with laughed hysterically as Camaro tackled him to the ground to retrieve the Frisbee stuck in his jacket.
Giggling to myself, the rest of the patrolling guards laughed at the scene as the poor guard finally shot up from the ground, yanking the Frisbee out of Camaro’s reach. The dark expression on his face made it clear he was not as amused as everyone else.
“Sorry about that!” I shouted, hoping he wouldn’t stay too mad about it. I mean, he did literally walk right into it. For a guard, that was some piss-poor situational awareness.
Catching my apology, he looked back at me with the meanest scowl on his face and then yelled something at Camaro. He then whipped his arm back and tossed the Frisbee all the way into the damn lake, turning to finally wave and smile at me as Camaro ran straight for the water.
The sound of her jumping from the dock to the splash of the water made me glare back at him. She literally just had a bath the other night.
Marching past his post to retrieve my dog, I scowled back at him. “Thanks a lot, asshole,” I growled at him.
“Oops!” he replied sarcastically, making me want to throat punch him with the butt of his rifle.
Ignoring him, I didn’t even make it to the dock before Camaro started barking and whining like I’d never heard before. My eyes scanning the lake, I found her in a patch of floating weeds, the Frisbee long abandoned and floating away.
She yelped as she struggled to paddle forward, getting absolutely nowhere as the seaweed growing up from the water tangled under her legs.
Panic seized my heart as I watched my dog struggle to free herself, bobbing up and down in the water and barking, seemingly only making the tangles worse.
“Camaro!” I shouted in panic, racing down the dock and diving straight into the water.
I could hear Luther and Emmett angrily shouting my name, but I ignored them as I powered through the water. Fuck them. I would not sit back and watch my dog drown.
Camaro continued to bark and struggle against the weeds that held her back and I could see her panic turning frantic. I heard two loud splashes behind me, sure that Emmett and Luther had jumped in after me. If that was what it took to mobilize them then fine, maybe they could be of some actual use.
I reached Camaro within a few seconds of my initial dive, grabbing her collar to get her to stop twisting herself and calm down. With the water being too deep for me to touch, I struggled to keep Camaro contained while she scratched the shit out of my arms.
Quickly tugging away the floating weeds that she’d somehow tangled herself in, I struggled to hold her head above the water while simultaneously kicking to keep myself afloat. She was already starting to tire, her hind legs faltering to keep her up as her lower body started to sink.
“Mrs. Davis!” Emmett yelled at me as they both swam toward me. “What the fuck!”
“She’s stuck in the seaweeds! Get your knife out!”
Apparently, the water wasn’t as deep as I thought because as soon as those fuckers got here they were able to stand with the water stopping just at their chins while my ass was still kicking to stay afloat.
“Move,” Emmett ordered as he pulled out his knife and cut the seaweed while Luther took over my hold of Camaro to keep her from going anywhere and making it worse.
As soon as the seaweed was cut, I pulled them away from her while Luther gripped the scruff of Camaro’s neck and held her lower body up as he guided her back to the dock.
“Let’s go,” Emmett said with a disgruntled sigh and pulled me to start swimming back for the dock.
Now that I was coming down from the adrenaline rush, I suddenly became aware of how cold the water really was … or maybe the chill came when I noticed Darren heading toward us from the house. Dread immediately seeped into my stomach.
Goddamnit.
When I reached the dock, I gripped the edge and pulled myself up. Water instantly sloshed everywhere and soaked the wood under my soggy, drenched shoes. Keeping my shoulders squared, I watched Camaro shake the water from her fur, spraying Luther and making me smirk. At least she was okay.
Patting my dog in relief, I started to make my way back up the dock, water dripping from my hair and clothes. I was sure I looked my absolute finest right now.
When Darren’s eyes landed on me, his gaze went cold, fury igniting his features as he stopped at the dock.
“What the hell just happened?” he asked, his voice tight with anger as he looked me up and down.
“Camaro got caught in some seaweed fetching a Frisbee. I jumped in to help her.”
His eyes narrowed, that stern jaw of his clenching with rage as he stared me down.
“Why was she in the water in the first place?”
“Because dumb-fuck McGee over there decided to throw it straight into the lake,” Luther spoke up, pointing at the guard who now stood several feet away from us with three other guards.
Darren turned to look at the guard Luther had pointed at, and the man went so stiff I thought he was going to faint. The rest of the surrounding guards said nothing as they watched, grateful they weren’t the ones catching their boss’s deadly attention.
“Is that true?” Darren asked the guard, his voice barely holding back his agitation.
The guard’s face went visibly white as he stood there completely motionless. “Well, I didn’t think—”
One swift movement was all Darren made before a gunshot rang out through the air and the guard fell dead to the ground with a bullet wound in his forehead. I barely even flinched. I swore at least one person died around me every day.
“And the two of you let her jump in?” Darren continued, gun still in hand as he turned to address Emmett and Luther, the other guard now completely forgotten.
“Jesus Christ, Darren, it’s not like I was drowning or something. I know how to swim for fuck—” His giant hand struck out like a fucking whip, grasping the entire lower half of my face to cut me off mid-sentence, and yanking me to his chest.
“Not another word,” he warned before turning his heated gaze back to Emmett and Luther.
“We went after her as soon as she bolted,” Emmett said in their defense.
“How far away were you?” Darren asked, unbothered by my incessant struggle as I tried to pry his hand off my damn face. The thing was a fucking vise.
“About fifty feet,” Luther replied.
“From now on it’s twenty feet until I say otherwise.”
I groaned my objection to his sudden declaration, shoving at his chest to release my face so I could at least breathe properly.
The glare I received from him had me quickly rethinking my strategy. “You’re soaking wet, that water is over your head, and there are scratches all over your arms and shoulder,” Darren scolded as he looked me up and down.
“So?!” I muffled through my still trapped mouth as I glared right back at him. I’d survived so much fucking worse just last night. It was comical to think otherwise.
Finally releasing my face, I took a huge step back and rubbed my now achy jaw but kept my eyes level with his.
“I have enough shit going on, Jaden. I don’t need to add worrying about you creating trouble in my own backyard to that list,” he rumbled, holstering his gun behind his back.
I almost punched him. “Then train your guards to be more respectful of my activities and maybe a little more attentive of their surroundings. None of this would have happened if he hadn’t walked right into an airborne Frisbee,” I argued, pointing at the freshly dead guard still laid out on the grass.
“None of this would have happened if you had stayed inside like I told you to,” Darren countered, stepping farther into my space to crowd me.
My neck strained just to continue matching his gaze, his giant stature swallowing up not only my space but my entire fucking body, and with each inch he claimed, I felt myself growing more and more agitated.
I scowled in response. “I was not about to sit back and watch my dog drown.”
Darren’s jaw tensed again, that dark blue gaze reminding me of who I was arguing with. “I have half a mind to have that damn dog removed. She’s starting to be more trouble than she’s worth, and I won’t have that, Jaden.”
My eyes widened in shock, panic and fury igniting my entire body until a surge of adrenaline suddenly shot through my veins. This motherfucker just threatened my fucking dog!
I didn’t know what came over me. Maybe it was all the pent-up anxiety. Maybe my brain short-circuited. But in an instant, all my fear and wifely decorum instantly vanished, and I just…lunged.
Bolting forward, I wrapped my arms around Darren’s waist and shoved my shoulder into his hip, knocking him back and forcing us both off the dock and straight into the lake. Water splashed everywhere as we sank together, landing in the shallow area that was thankfully only about two feet deep.
A series of “oh shits” circulated the air, the remaining guards still watching from a safe distance, wisely refraining from intervening.
Maneuvering myself as we fell, I twisted my body so that I landed on top of Darren’s chest and gripped the collar of his shirt in my hands, yanking him to me.
“Don’t you dare touch my fucking dog! Do you hear me!?” I roared down at him. “You lay one fucking hand on her, and I swear to God, you will never know another restful night again because I will kill you in your fucking sleep!” I shouted at him, my rage matching his own as I stared him down.
I didn’t know what I expected in return from him, but it certainly wasn’t the look he was currently wearing. A flash of shock had reflected in his eyes when we landed in the water, but after my threats had been unleashed, it was quickly replaced with a softened expression and curled lips.
I recognized the look almost immediately, and it made me want to instantly punch him in the mouth. Because that was the look he usually displayed when he thought I was being the most adorable thing he’d ever seen. And it made me growl, knowing he never took my threats seriously.
A soft chuckle reverberated behind his closed lips, my first sign of incoming retribution. “You are just. So. Damn. Cute,” he sneered, barely shaking his head. And then his expression suddenly changed, turning completely blank, and I felt a small spike of fear in the pit of my stomach.
Before I could register what was happening, Darren had flipped us, his body trapping mine under the water while both his hands held my head just above the surface. The position made me feel way too vulnerable, fearful that fighting him like this would be a terrible idea, and he knew that. Bastard.
His piercing gaze held mine in place, my body still as stone while my heart raced like a damn thoroughbred. His voice was low, quiet enough for only the two of us to hear, but the warning in his tone was enough to cool down the rage burning in my chest.
“I’ll admit, that was a nice tackle,” he said, pride lingering in his eyes. “But if you ever pull something like that again in front of my men, I will punish you so harshly you’ll never be this confident in their presence again. Do you understand?”
It took me several breaths before I could answer, the frigid chill of the water stealing my voice. “Y-yes,” I whispered on an exhale.
“Good girl. Now kiss me.”
Tilting my head, I begrudgingly pressed my lips to his, giving him the surrender he clearly wanted me to display. Taking advantage, I could taste the smile on his lips as his tongue plundered my mouth, his fingers gripping my jaw to claim more of his territory.
Releasing my mouth, he tilted my face to force me to look at him. “I won’t touch your dog, but understand that she is only yours for as long as I allow it. Camaro needs to be an asset, not a liability. Consider this your one and only warning.”
I had nothing to say to that…because I knew he wasn’t wrong. He could do whatever he wanted, take whatever he wanted, and the most I could do about it was act out my tantrum and proceed to pout for the rest of my life. But even with this acceptance, I didn’t regret a single word.
“I. Said. What. I. Said.”
Darren rolled his eyes and released a heavy breath, his mouth forming the tiniest hint of a smirk as he released my face. “So you did. And now we both need a shower,” he commented.
He then placed his hands under my arms to lift me out of the water and then threw me over his shoulder. Groaning aloud in protest, Darren walked our soaking-wet bodies out of the lake, past the awkwardly silent guards, and down the lawn back toward the house.
“Stau,” Darren commanded in Romanian just as Camaro was getting ready to follow.
I sighed in disappointment as I turned my gaze up to the sky, catching the quick strikes of lightning that burst through the clouds in the far distance. And suddenly, I felt inspired again.