Protect Me (The Protector Series Book 1)

by Melissa Townsend

  “Why am I not allowed to help you but you’re more than happy to accept help from those bimbos?” I huff, rolling my eyes.

  “Ah, I see what’s got you all worked up. You think I’m interested in those silicone barbies, don’t you? If that were the case, don’t you think I’d have them hiding out in here instead of fighting Kevin?”

  “Tell me why I can’t help you. I’m not scared,” I tell him.

  “I know you’re not, Nat. That’s why I don’t want you out there. You’re not scared, but you should be. Kevin doesn’t play by the rules, he never has, and I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if something happened to you.”

  “I know you want to protect me, but I want to protect you just as much. I’m going with you and you can’t change my mind. You might as well tell me the plan, unless you want me to go out there and wing it,” I say with a small grin.

  “You make me crazy,” he groans. I bend down and kiss him sweetly, attempting to remind him that I’m worth it.

  “You’re really great,” he mutters with his eyes still closed from our kiss.

  “So you’ve said,” I smirk, taking his hand and tugging him off of the bed.

  “Let’s do this,” I say as we walk back into the kitchen.

  The three women agree in unison and stand up to give each other high fives. I giggle as I join in on their fun, and I can tell Shiloh is getting irritated at all of us.

  “Can we get down to business now?” he asks in a pissy tone. Bennett stands and nods at Shiloh, clearly ready to get started.

  We all murmur an apology and give him our full attention—all of us except Chyann. She crosses her arms over her chest and cocks one eyebrow at Shiloh. It’s obvious she has a problem with someone else telling her what to do; it’s no wonder she has agreed to help us take down Kevin.

  “Everyone brought their pills with them, correct?” Shi asks, ignoring Chyann’s attitude.

  I grab the bottle off the table, dump several in my hand, and shove them into my pocket.

  “Let’s all take one now, just to be on the safe side,” Shiloh says before popping a red and black pill into his mouth. We all follow his lead and swallow our pills without anything to drink.

  “Nat, where is Kevin?” he asks.

  I glance around at the others, not sure I want them to know what I’m capable of. Shi gives me an encouraging nod and Bennett shoots me a wink. I take a deep breath before closing my eyes and focusing. The images come to me quicker than they ever have before, and I assume it’s because he is so close to where I am.

  “He’s downstairs,” I blurt out.

  “He’s here?” Laila asks in a squeaky voice before swallowing hard.

  “Is he alone?” Shiloh asks me.

  “As far I can tell, yes.”

  “Let’s move,” Chyann says as she jerks the door open and runs down the hall.

  Shiloh rolls his eyes and shakes his head before grabbing my hand and following her. Shiloh tells the other three to take the stairs while we get in the elevator with Bennett.

  “You’re sure you can handle this?” he asks as the elevator starts to move.

  “No,” I answer honestly.

  He kisses my forehead just before the doors open. Kevin is no longer standing where he was a moment ago, but Shiloh seems to know where he is going so Bennett and I follow along quietly. We walk out of our building and turn the corner, coming to an old bookstore. It’s not even six o’clock in the morning, so we don’t have to worry about anybody coming by any time soon. Shiloh tries the door, and I’m surprised that it’s already unlocked. After stepping inside, I see Kevin. He’s leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed over his chest. I can still see the bruises around his eyes that aren’t fully healed.

  “Ah, I see you’ve brought your helper again,” he says with a smirk. “Or shall we call her a distraction instead?”

  Before Shiloh has time to reply, someone comes up behind me, grabbing my arms and pushing me out of the bookstore.

  “This is between us, Kevin,” I hear Shiloh say before the door closes behind me.

  “Let me go!” I yell at the man behind me. His only response is to grunt and push me harder. He pushes me so hard I fall down. I roll to my back just in time to see Crista on the man’s back with one arm locked around his throat.

  “That explains the grunting,” I mutter as he falls to his knees, unconscious.

  “Thanks,” I say sheepishly as she dusts her hands off on her shirt.

  “Don’t mention it. Let’s go in the back way,” she says before running toward the back door. My knees are on fire after catching my weight when I fell. I can feel blood trickling down my legs underneath my jeans, but I run anyway. I have to get to Shiloh.

  Crista is holding the door open for me when I finally get to it.

  “Where are the others?” I ask before stepping inside.

  “Coming up with a new plan,” she says with a grin. I want to ask her what is so funny, but the sound of Shiloh crying out in pain distracts me. I take off running toward the sound of his voice. I have no plan in place and not the slightest clue as to how I’m going to help him, but still, I run.

  When I see Shiloh crumpled on the floor with smears of blood all around him, I run harder. I don’t slow down until I’ve run into Kevin’s body with full force. Much to my dismay, he only takes two steps back before regaining his balance. He grabs me by the hair and pulls my face up to his. The smell of his breath makes me even angrier. I try kicking him with all my might, but he barely flinches.

  “Nat,” I hear Bennett groan. I can’t see him, but I can tell he’s hurt badly from the sound of his voice.

  “You’re never going to learn, are you? I should have done away with you the day you were born,” he spits out. He backhands me, knocking me to the floor. I ignore the pain radiating from the side of my face and crawl over to where Shiloh is still lying on the ground.

  A loud bang rings out through the small store, louder than anything I’ve ever heard before. After glancing around the room, I see Chyann. She’s standing over Kevin’s body with a gun pointed directly at his chest. Blood is pooling around his left leg and I’m guessing that’s where the first bullet hit him.

  “Chyann, don’t do it,” I call out to her, speaking as loudly as I can manage.

  “Chyann, that’s not part of the plan,” Bennett says hoarsely.

  She doesn’t even look up before letting out a small laugh and pulling the trigger. An even bigger puddle of blood starts to surround Kevin’s body, and I’m certain he’s dead.

  I feel like the breath has been knocked out of me. I just watched Chyann kill a man without hesitation—and with a smile on her face. I feel vomit rising in my throat as I replay the last five minutes in my head. I do my best to shake the sick feeling and focus on helping Shiloh.

  “Shiloh? Shi, wake up,” I say as I gently shake his body. He rolls to his back, groaning in pain. I remember the pills I have in my pocket and dig two of them out. I force them into his mouth even though I know they won’t get rid of the pain coming from his own body. Once I see his throat moving and I’m confident he’s gotten the pills down, I place both of my hands on his chest and close my eyes. I’ve never done this before so it takes me longer than it should, but I don’t give up until I start feeling pain in various parts of my body. I feel Shiloh moving and open my eyes, leaving my hands firmly pressed against him.

  “Don’t,” he whispers, trying to remove my hands from his body.

  “Stop it,” I snap. “Let me help you so we can get the hell out of here.”

  He relaxes again and lets me finish taking a small portion of his pain away. When it’s finally bearable, he slowly gets to his feet and I do the same.

  He sees Laila and Crista carrying Kevin’s body out and his face instantly pales. “What happened?” he asks with wide eyes.

  “Chyann shot him,” Bennett says quietly as he limps over to us.

  He pulls his eyebrows together and cle
nches his jaw. “Protectors aren’t supposed to be murderers,” he says angrily.

  “Sometimes you’ve got to do what is necessary, Shiloh,” Chyann says from behind him.

  He turns and gives her an incredulous look. After taking a deep breath, he just shakes his head, clearly not having the energy to argue with her.

  “Clean this shit up. We’re done here,” he says angrily.

  “If I didn’t know any better, it would seem like the three of you have an agenda of your own,” Bennett says, hitting Chyann with a pointed glare.

  “Aw, you’re smarter than you look aren’t you Ben? With Kevin out of the way, a new leader will be voted in. Of course we have agendas of our own; we would be stupid not to,” she says with a sarcastic sweetness in her voice.

  “You’re stupid to think the others would vote for a murderer as their leader,” Bennett snaps.

  Shiloh tugs on my hand, letting me know he’s heard enough, and we slowly make our way back to our building.

  Shiloh

  When Nat and I get back to the apartment, I pull her straight into the bathroom with me. Without saying a word, I pull off my shirt and kick my shoes off so I can slip out of my jeans. I smile when her cheeks turn red as she looks at me standing in nothing but my boxers.

  “I need to take a shower, but I need to be close to you, too,” I tell her as I slowly lift her shirt over her head. She grins before unclasping her bra and tossing it to the floor. I watch her get completely undressed while we wait on the water to get hot.

  Once we are standing under the water, she slowly runs her hands over all the cuts and bruises she can find on my body. I close my eyes and take in the feel of her touch. “I love you, Toby Nathaniel Adams,” I say with my lips pressed against her forehead.

  “I love you, too,” she whispers.

  We stand in the shower until the water turns cold.

  “When will Macie be coming home?” Nat asks as she brushes her hair out.

  “I was actually thinking we could go get her, maybe spend a few days on the beach,” I suggest.

  Nat’s eyes go wide and a huge grin breaks out on her face. “I’ve never been to a beach,” she says excitedly.

  “I’ll start packing.” I wink.

  “I’ll call Marty and let him know I need a little more time off.”

  “Go ahead and tell him you won’t be needing his apartment any more, too. You’re moving in with me,” I say from the bedroom.

  “Yes sir,” she calls down the hall, giggling.

  I sit on the couch and watch TV while Nat fixes her hair and packs her bags. An hour passes before she’s ready.

  “Our flight leaves in an hour, babe. We have to hurry,” I remind her.

  “Okay, but can we just make a quick stop on the way?” she asks with her bottom lip sticking out.

  “Fine, let’s go,” I say, rushing her to the truck.

  I drive to the address Nat gives me and we pull up to an abandoned house. The windows have boards over them, the yard hasn’t been mowed in months, and there isn’t a single thing that would make me think people actually live there. That’s why I’m shocked when Nat gets out of the truck and puts something in the mailbox.

  “Who used to live here?” I ask her.

  “Rick and Chelsea still live here,” she says nonchalantly.

  “What did you leave for them?”

  “Someone sure is being nosey today,” she says with an arched brow.

  “Not nosey, just curious.”

  “I left them a letter,” she says simply.

  “Are you going to make me ask what it said?”

  “I just told them I forgive them for never making my life easier. I forgive them because now I have you and Macie, and if it weren’t for them being terrible enough to make me run away, I never would have met either of you.”

  I smile like an idiot the whole way to the airport. I have no idea how I got lucky enough to find her, but I know I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her for the rest of my life.

  ***

  Our first two days in Florida are spent at the beach with Macie and Bennett. Her excitement when she first sees us makes me forget all the shit that has happened over the last week.

  The day before our flight back to Washington, Nat tells Macie she is a Protector. Macie cries at first because she knows Nat won’t be able to be her babysitter any more, but when I tell her Nat will be living with us from now on, her smile returns.

  “I can’t believe you’re a better Protector than my brother,” Macie says with her mouth full of watermelon.

  “What makes you think she’s better than me?” I ask over the sound of Nat’s laughter.

  “Bennett told me.” Macie shrugs. I glare at Bennett and he raises both hands and laughs while shaking his head.

  “When I’m a Protector, I want to be just like you, Nat,” Macie says, causing the table to go quiet instantly.

  Nat glances at me and the question in her eyes is obvious. I give her a quick nod to communicate that Macie will indeed become a Protector someday. She swallows hard and a sad look takes the place of her smile. I know she’s considering all the dangers my little sister will be exposed to as a Protector.

  “How about one last swim?” I ask in a cheerful voice.

  Macie jumps to her feet and runs into the house to change. Bennett runs after her, challenging her to a race to see who can get in the water first.

  “There is nothing we can do to change it,” I tell Nat quietly as we walk into Mandy’s house.

  “Do you worry about when that day will come?” she asks with wide eyes.

  “Every damn day,” I tell her honestly.

  The End

  Continue reading for a sneak peek of the second book in the Protector series.

  Change Me

  Coming soon

  Macie

  I was considerably smaller than most girls my age. At eighteen years old, I was five feet one inch tall and weighed just over one hundred pounds. My older brother, Shiloh, had inherited all of the good height genes.

  “Watch your head, Shi,” I said as he walked through the doorway and into my apartment.

  “I know, I know,” he huffed.

  “You know he hates the idea of you moving so far away,” my sister-in-law said after she elbowed me in the ribs.

  “I think he just hates that he has to help move my shit,” I told her with a laugh.

  I had recently finished high school in Puyallup, Washington, and told my brother and his wife, Nat, that I was moving to Florida two weeks after graduation. Shiloh didn’t take the news well, but I hadn’t expected him to. He’d taken care of me on his own since I was ten years old, and according to him, an eighteen-year-old girl was incapable of taking care of herself. He wasn’t just a normal, overprotective big brother; to call him that would be the understatement of the century.

  “When do you start classes?” Nat asked after making herself comfortable on my loveseat.

  “I haven’t exactly enrolled yet,” I shrugged.

  “You’re not enrolled? Then why were you in such a hurry to get down here?” Shi asked from the doorway. He sat the box he had been carrying down with a thud and took a seat next to Nat.

  “I just wanted to get out on my own,” I said hesitantly.

  “I see,” he grunted.

  I did my best at making small talk with the two of them. I think Nat noticed that I really wanted to be able to enjoy my first night living on my own because after dinner she talked Shiloh into getting an earlier flight back to Washington. Of course he argued at first, but Nat can be persuasive.

  By seven o’clock that evening I was completely unpacked and utterly exhausted. I lay down on my couch and pulled my phone out of my pocket. I made a to-do list and saved it in my phone because I knew I would lose it if it were on a piece of paper. Maybe I was scatter-brained and unorganized, but at least I was aware of it. That’s got to count for something, right?

  I forced myself to take a shower before
I crawled into my bed. The noise from the cars outside occupied my brain and refused to let me sleep. I had just put my pillow over my face and let out a loud groan when I heard something. I froze, careful not to move a muscle as I focused on the noise. Once I was sure I had actually heard something, I rolled out of bed, falling to my knees and crawling to my window. A guy was outside of my apartment; I could hear him. Was he laughing?

  It sounded like he was right outside my window, but I was on the fourth floor and there were no balconies. When the laughter stopped suddenly, I got up the courage to peek through the glass. I jumped back and screamed when I saw the two dark eyes staring back at me. The eyes and the figure they belonged to were gone by the time I calmed down enough to look out my window again. I stood still, staring out the window, wondering if I had actually seen anything at all. Could I have imagined the entire thing?

  I knew I wouldn’t be going to sleep any time soon, so I decided to go out. I slipped into my favorite pair of black skinnies and paired a dark red tank top with them. The open toe sandals I wore showed off the black polish Nat had let me borrow the night before. Shi hated it when we used black on our nails, but we felt like it helped us show off our inner badass.

  I texted my friend Taylor and told her to meet me at a bar a couple of blocks away. I’d met Taylor four summers ago while I was staying with some family friends, Bennett and Mandy James. Taylor and I were complete opposites, but we had been inseparable every time I came to Florida.

  I chose to walk to the bar, which wasn’t my best idea. As soon as I walked out of my apartment building, I looked up at my fourth floor window. There was nothing that any living thing could have been standing on or holding onto while they looked through my window. Not even the tiniest ledge was visible.

  I was still feeling spooked when I entered the bar. However, when I caught sight of Taylor’s bright red curls after a quick sweep of the place, I relaxed instantly. She was on a stool at the bar, already flirting with the bartender. I rolled my eyes but grinned as I made my way through the crowd toward her.