Defiance (The Protectors 9)

I just couldn’t. It was a line I wouldn’t…couldn’t cross.

But I didn’t move. I didn’t ask him to release me. I didn’t do anything except wish for the impossible.

He let out something that sounded like a mix between a curse and growl, and then he was dragging me back through the panel after waving his arm in front of it. By the time I stepped through the closet, the metal covers over the windows and doors had started to recede and I finally noticed how the house had been cleverly designed to hide their presence.

So this wasn’t just some safe house or something. It was really where he lived. Why the hell would someone have to live like this? I remembered how he’d crawled on the ground to check beneath his car for a bomb at the motel. And I started to wonder if I was really any safer with him.

Vincent didn’t speak as he led me to a set of stairs that led to the second floor. Both cats had joined us, though the boy, Mickey, was walking in front of Vincent while Minnie was trailing behind me. Brody and I hadn’t been allowed to have pets as children and I hadn’t had the time in recent years to get one, but I’d grown stupidly fond of the stray cat that had shown up night after night at my patio door looking for food. Just the thought of the poor creature’s fate had my throat swelling with sadness.

“Your room,” Vincent motioned to an open doorway. Mickey was already sitting on the middle of the bed when I walked into the bedroom. Like the living room downstairs, it had a stunning view of the backyard, which had a little bit of a nicely landscaped yard before opening up into a clearing surrounded by dense forest. I saw a small pond on the far side of the clearing. In the distance, I could see the double line of fencing and I could only assume that meant it stretched around the entire property.

I turned to ask Vincent if that were the case, but he was gone. I went to the hallway and peered down it, but all I saw was an open doorway at the end. I wasn’t ballsy enough to enter his private domain, so I returned to my room and looked around. It wasn’t overly extravagant, but it was definitely set up for comfort. Generous bedding in neutral tones, a huge bathroom with a whirlpool tub and separate shower, and a small sitting area by the floor-to-ceiling window. I put my hand against the glass to see if I could tell it was bulletproof, but it felt no different than regular glass, at least not to my inexperienced hand.

I took a few minutes to unpack my bag. I’d brought the picture taken of me and Brody at our grandfather’s cabin when we’d been kids, but somehow seeing it was a reminder of things I wasn’t ready to deal with. My conversation with Vincent in the car had brought back some ugly memories that I’d worked very hard to bury. It wasn’t that I’d forgotten them, I was just really good at compartmentalizing them so that I only had to deal with them when I was ready to. And I most certainly couldn’t handle them around Vincent. I was already feeling too vulnerable around him as it was.

My thoughts drifted to earlier that morning. I hadn’t missed the fact that I’d woken up on his side of the bed. I could only hope he hadn’t been in it when I’d migrated in that direction. I’d slept surprisingly well considering everything that had happened, but I was still wiped out. I waited a few minutes for Vincent to come and collect me so he could explain what was going to happen next, but when he didn’t show I decided to take a quick shower since I hadn’t had the chance to do it the night before. I closed the bedroom door and then went into the bathroom. As inviting as the tub looked, I didn’t have the time to make use of it, so I stripped off my clothes and got the shower going. My side was bruised, but it wasn’t hurting as bad as the night before. Since I didn’t have anything to cover the bandage on my hand with, I removed it, but left the small Band-Aids Vincent had used to cover the puncture wounds on my fingers. My palm felt like it was on fire, but I ignored the pain and climbed into the shower, closing the glass door behind me. The hot water felt amazing, and I found myself standing underneath the spray for a good ten minutes before I even started the process of washing myself.

Everything took a lot longer since I was pretty much one-handed, but now that I was benefitting from the relaxing spray of the shower, I took my time. I let my thoughts drift and tried not to stress about everything I should have been doing today. Even though I’d planned to take it easy today and just focus on administrative tasks like following up on emails and phone calls with constituents and party leaders, it still felt like I was slacking off.