Marine of Her Heart

by April Zyon

  She felt his hand squeeze her knee gently. “You’re welcome,” he said softly. “You really don’t need to thank me, Gennifer. I’m glad I was able to come and help you with this. I know this likely isn’t the time to talk about it since I don’t want to upset you more, but can you tell me a bit about how he was keeping you cut off? That and how you managed to get a call out to your sister too? If that’s too much right now, I get it, but talk to me about something. I’ve been up since I got the call, driven nearly non-stop to get here, and I’m exhausted. I need you to keep me awake, all right?”

  “Oh God, why?” she asked in shock. “No, I will tell you, if only to keep you awake.” She was teasing, mostly. She was ready to just spill it, to be honest. “I met Sal one night at a club. I had just had a showing of my paintings and he loved one of them and bought it. He followed me and my friends to the club and then bought us drinks. While I was dancing, something I love to do by the way, he came up to me and began to dance with me.” She took a breath and thought back six months to that time. She sighed. “He was charming, but there was always something about him that had me feeling.” She hesitated as she thought about what to say. “He pushed his way into my life, and since I was lonely, I let him.” She could admit her fault. “But then he began to try to tell me what I could and couldn’t do. He began to warn my friends off and before I knew it, I was under his control. I couldn’t do anything without him knowing. The first time he put me in the hospital, I tried to file charges and was told by the detectives that they wouldn’t pursue him, that it was best for me to admit I fell down the stairs.” There were many moments of absolute quiet, and then she added, “He’s a monster. He has everyone and anyone under his control, and it pissed him off that he couldn’t fully control me. I never told him where I was from. He doesn’t even know my true last name.” She was thankful for that now. “I just want to go home and live a life without fear.” Finally, she was hopeful. “I was able to sneak a phone from the purse of one of the cleaning ladies. I used it to make a phone call to Gwen. I’m thankful that she left her purse out and put her phone in it. It was something that Sal always forbade, phones on the property.”

  Victor rubbed her knee gently as they cruised through the streets. “I’ll get you home, Gennifer, promise. After that, your life will be whatever you make of it. Try and take it easy for a while, though, will you? Maybe help your sister finally figure out when she’s going to marry Rhys so the poor guy quits stressing so much.”

  Genny grinned. “I had a feeling that those two would click if they ever met.” She was happy for her sister. “He’s good to her and for her, isn’t he? He’s a good guy and always had been. But, they are good together, right?”

  “They are,” he said, moving his hand back to the handlebar to make a turn. “It’s actually a little sickening how in love they are. Rhys gets all gooey and happy around her. My teeth actually ache when they are so engrossed in one another the rest of the world falls away. He’s a hell of a lucky man, and she’s happier than any woman I’ve ever seen. Gwen practically floats around everywhere.”

  That had her laughing. “I knew that as soon as she found someone who gave her what she needed, she would give every single part of her heart. She’s always held back, always kept herself from everyone and everything around her, and I was certain that the moment she found someone to love, she would hold him tight and close. I’m sure that she knew the moment she met him that he was it for her.”

  “From what Rhys said, it actually wasn’t ideal,” he told her quietly. “His father was hurt in late June. Because his tour was nearly up, the brass expedited matters and got him home. Just in time for goodbyes. Gwen was the resident looking after his father. I don’t think Rhys actually said more than a couple words to her at that time. Later, though, they started bumping into one another, and that’s when they apparently started to click.”

  “Mr. Hollister is dead?” she asked as she pulled back in shock. “Oh no,” she whispered. “How is Kristin? Poor Rhys, and Ali. Oh God. How is Ali?” She hadn’t called Ali in months, then again, she hadn’t been able to because Sal kept her from contacting anyone at all.

  “Mrs. H is doing quite well. Alison is doing well too. She’s married to your neighbor now. Well, one of your neighbors. A Joshua Carver, I think the name was,” he told her. “They had a Vegas wedding that was very nice, if I do say so in my own humble opinion. Of course, that was after they stopped her stalker. Actually, Mrs. H stopped Ali’s stalker. Clocked him with a cast iron skillet and even kicked him in the junk to make sure he was good and hurt.”

  “Holy crap, are you serious?” Genny obviously had a lot to catch up on. “Jesus. Ali is okay though, right?” She didn’t even know that her best friend had a stalker. She was a terrible friend and Ali likely hated her. She was just a waste of space. She sniffed again and sobbed, her tears falling. “I’ve missed so much. Goodness, I can’t believe that she’s married and Gwennie is looking at getting married.”

  “Hey, it’s okay,” he said quietly. One of Victor’s hands landed on hers and rubbed gently at her fingers. “Alison is fine, happy, and in love. She has Carver wrapped around her little finger and quite enjoys it. Your sister is fine, also happy, and in love. Though I think that Gwen will be even better once we get you home to her. She’s been worried about you, Gennifer.”

  “I wish I had been able to call her, but I wasn’t allowed to do anything. Even when I left him, I wasn’t allowed to do anything. He had my phones turned off, my credit cards capped, even closed my bank accounts. He controlled me even when I told him that I wanted nothing to do with him. It was bad. Really bad,” she admitted. She needed something else to focus on, so she said, “Ali has loved Josh all her life. I swear, in school, she would always talk about him and worried because he never saw her. I guess that he did, but was giving her time or something.”

  “You’ll have to ask her about that. I wasn’t really paying that much attention, given the apparent water contamination going on in Massey. Everyone drinks it and ends up in love. The CDC really needs to be made aware of this before an epidemic breaks out.” He squeezed her hand gently before the warmth of his skin left hers. “Hang on, I want to get down on the freeway so we can get some speed going to get there faster.”

  She laughed and shook her head. “So are you buying bottled water from one of the other towns around Massey then?” She hung onto him and scooted in closer, her legs close to his and clenching around him. “I’m ready. Go. Get us gone, will you already?”

  She heard his chuckle as he slowed briefly to make the turn. As they hit the on ramp for the freeway, he started to speed up. The vibration of the bike started to smooth out from the rumbling growl to a throaty roar. As they hit the freeway, he swung them over into the fast lane, and that was when he really opened the bike up. “You doing okay back there?” he asked, his voice a little distorted by the air whipping past his mic.

  “Doing great!” She leaned back and let herself move away from him so she could feel the rush of the air against her body. “I feel free!” she exclaimed, and let her hand go from his waist as she threw the unbound one up to the skies. “Finally. Thank God.” She was still clutching him with her thighs and felt safe even when not holding him. Odd. She once more wrapped her arms around his middle and smiled. “Thank you for the feeling of freedom.”

  “You’re very welcome,” he told her. He let out a chuckle as they raced along.

  Chapter Four

  When they reached the motel Victor had chosen, she waited with his bike in a shadowed portion of the parking lot. He wasn’t very long in the office with the bored-looking teenager who barely even glanced up at him. After only a few minutes, he was striding back toward her.

  “We’re on the ground floor, corner unit,” he said, slipping onto the bike in front of her again. He started it and eased them forward slowly, his boots never really leaving the ground. “I’m going to get you in, check the room, then run out to a pharmacy to get
what we need. I’ll pick up a few clothes as well as some food for us both. While I’m gone, take a shower and just try to relax, all right?” he asked as he pulled to a stop before their unit.

  “I plan on it.” She hesitated and bit her lower lip. “Are you sure that it’s going to be safe? He won’t find us somehow, right?” She was hopeful. “And yes, the really dark hair dye as well as the flattening iron so that my curls can go the way of the dinosaur.” Or so she could hope at least. “A shower sounds good, and then food too. I will eat just about anything without berries or nuts, please.”

  “Deal,” he told her. Shutting the bike off, he held out a hand to help her off, which turned out to be a good thing given how wobbly her legs were. He dug out their bags from each side of the saddlebags, and led her to the room. Inside, he dumped their bags on the king-sized bed. The only bed in the room. “It will be safe. I paid in cash and the kid didn’t even look at me for more than a second. They have no surveillance, and there are no cameras this far out of the city. We’re away from the main highway with no less than four ways out to it and several other thoroughfares. There are no gas stations or corner stores close by, so this place likely doesn’t see much of a booming business except for prostitutes and their johns. So yes, we’re safe. On top of that, I’m going to leave you with your choice of weapon when I head out as long as you swear to God not to shoot me when I come back.”

  Genny took a deep breath and looked at him. “Do you have a Glock perhaps? I’ve shot those before. Shotguns too, but I doubt that you have a shotgun with you.” She was teasing, kind of. “And I won’t shoot you. You are far too cute to shoot.” She went a little pink at that statement. “Sorry, you so didn’t need me hitting on you.”

  He just looked at her before slowly grinning. “You think I’m cute?” he asked with a chuckle. Her cheeks just got hotter as he tormented her. “Damn, I haven’t had someone tell me that in forever. As to the weapon choice,” he said, digging into his bag. He came out with a Glock and two clips, all of which he handed to her.

  She watched as he put one of the clips into the weapon and pulled the slide back. After testing the heft with the safety on, she nodded. “I’m good.” She was still blushing, but looked at him with a smile. “And yes, I think you are cute. You are sexy too, but I shouldn’t tell you that.” She liked that she could tease. It felt so good to be able to simply pester him. “You will hurry back, right? And pizza or hamburgers would be good.”

  “I will bring food and hurry back.” He dumped his heavy-sounding bag to the floor before approaching her. “I’ll knock and let you know it’s me when I return. If anyone else knocks, ignore it. I’ll put the do not disturb thing on the knob so if someone attempts to get in here, shoot first, worry later. Got it?”

  “I can do that.” She was chewing her lower lip and asked him, “How will I know it’s you again? Are you going to say, hey Genny, it’s...” She trailed off and then frowned. “I know you told me your name, but it has completely gone right out of my brain.” It was because he was looking at her with that devilish grin, the too sexy eyes seemingly peering right into her soul.

  “Victor, Victor Michaels. No, I’m not going to say either of our names. I’ll knock and tell you…” He frowned and looked away a moment, obviously thinking. Then he chuckled and shook his head. “Tricks are for more than kids,” he told her. “My call sign in the Marines was Tricks. There are only a very small number of people who know it, none of which are here. Okay?”

  “Sounds good. Tricks.” She smirked and then had to ask, “So were you a trickster? Is that why that call sign?” Oh good lord, he was a Marine. She felt her inner woman all but purring right now. A Marine. She loved Marines. Now if only he was a cowboy as well. Goodness, she would have melted in a puddle at his feet.

  “No, it’s because I always had something up my sleeve to get us out of a jam,” he told her. He startled her when he put his hands, very gently, on her jaw, his thumbs rubbing over her cheeks. “Try and relax while I’m gone. No one and nothing is going to get to you without going through me first. I am very, very hard to kill, as my entire squad could tell you, or Rhys when you get a chance to talk to him. The burner is in my bag, front pocket. When you’re done with your call, pull the SIM chip, snap it, and dump it in the trash. I will take the phone out later and slip a new one in. It’s for emergency use only. If you need me, my number is on the outside of the laptop case in the bag.”

  Genny took a step toward Victor and placed her hands on his chest. She fit him. That thought flittered through her mind once more. “Well, I’m glad that you have tricks up your sleeve. Maybe you will share some of those with me?” She licked her lower lip and then looked up at him. “I trust you. It’s not easy to gain my trust, so please don’t make me regret that?”

  “Never,” he said softly. She knew a promise when she heard one. It was in his eyes as well. Leaning in, he pressed a kiss to her forehead before stepping back. “Shower, call your sister, snap the SIM card, call me if you have issue, shoot anyone but me if they try to get into the room, and if you have time, maybe think of a name we can call you for the rest of the trip while in public. Something you will remember and answer to.” With that, he headed for the door, snagging the do not disturb door hanger, and was out before she could say much of anything.

  She watched him leave and oddly enough, it felt as if he had taken the air out of the room in that instant. Rubbing her chest, she shook her head. “Wow. There is just something about that man.” She didn’t know what the something was, but she dearly wanted to find out. Grabbing the weapon, she made her phone call first. When Gwen answered, Genny sighed. “Gwennie,” she whispered. “Thank God.” She eased back slightly and got into her conversation with her sister. After a time, Genny finally said her goodbyes once she had ensured that Victor was just who and what he said he was. She then snapped the SIM card, and then went to the bathroom to take a much needed long, hot shower.

  ****

  It seemed like forever after he’d left that there was a knock on the door. “Tricks are not just for kids,” his deep voice reached her. The knob jiggled, then in he came with his arms full of stuff, most importantly, food. He had a couple of bags of food in hand along with bags from a shopping center of some sort, a drug store, and a couple others on top of all that. “How are you feeling?” he asked, going to the small table the room offered to unload the food items.

  “Clean and better,” she said as she sat there in a shirt she’d found in his bag. “I hope that you don’t mind, but I really didn’t want to put my clothes back on. I want to be able to put on clean clothes. Please tell me that you brought lots of food?” she asked with a smile. “And hair dye so that I can see how life is with black hair?”

  “I brought lots of food,” he told her. He began pulling stuff out of the white paper bags. “We have burgers, fries, nuggets, and some nachos with everything on the side so we can make them how we want. I also have an assortment of beverages from juice to pop and even some flavored or plain water. Come and eat, then I’ll show you all the other stuff I bought while getting weird looks from people.”

  “Oh God, I could just kiss you right now.” She grabbed one of the colas and took a drink. “Oh, that’s so good.” She settled down on one of the two chairs at the table and waited for him to pull more food out of the bags. “Yum.” She grabbed a fry and munched it before grabbing a packet of nuggets and a burger. “I’m starving. Thank you for getting so much.”

  “I thought you might be,” he said with a smile. “By the way, you can borrow any of my shirts anytime you want. You look better in them than I do, that’s for sure.”

  Genny blushed at his comment and shrugged. “Well, thank you, sir. I might just take you up on that from time to time. I do rather like it.” It was large on her, but it smelled marvelous. She wanted to ask him what kind of laundry detergent he used, but didn’t.

  He shook his head as he shrugged out of his leather jacket and tossed it onto the
end of the bed. Settling across from her at the table, he pulled a flavored water from the bag of drinks and cracked it open. “Eat before it gets cold, Genny.”

  She ate happily, enjoying the food as she watched him.

  “I’m guessing you managed to get a hold of your sister,” he said as he dug out a burger for himself. He took a huge bite and rolled his eyes. “God, that is good. Did you two have a good talk?” He reached out to steal a nugget from the box she had open.

  “Yes, we did. I got to hear all about Rhys and how he asked her to marry him.” She smiled as she chewed. “I can’t believe he showed up in his dress uniform and proposed while she was at work. She was a little miffed at him because she hadn’t been able to take him and jump him, but I guess he’s made up for that in the meantime. She’s happy. That makes me happy.”

  “Told you so,” he said with a smirk. Wiggling his eyebrows, he took another bite of his burger. They didn’t speak for a while, just shoveled food in until they’d made a massive dent in what he’d brought.

  When they finally sat back in their chairs, sipping on their drinks, he looked to her again. “So, I got you a couple different brands of hair color, two boxes each given how much hair you have. I also got some basic goth type makeup and a few different outfits in case you felt like mixing things up, some distinctly goth items, some less so, and a few other more comfortable things like jeans and tees. I called your sister for your sizes, likely just after you got off the phone with her. Hopefully, everything fits as it should. You should try on everything before we head out tomorrow in case we need to exchange anything.”