Keeley's Fight (The Protectors 1)

“What?” She whispered venomously. Shit, he thought. “What do you mean you’ve moved on? You’re fucking somebody else? Who the hell is she? I’ll…” Cutting off her words as the police arrived, she managed to get out of Cooper’s hold and was walking towards her car when the cops stopped her.

“Miss, you’re going to have to come with us, please.” The first officer said, while his partner was talking to Coop. “I don’t think so, Officer… Adams,” she purred while running her finger up and down his shirt. Thankfully the officer obviously wasn’t falling for her slutty act. Slapping a cuff on one wrist while grabbing the other hand, he had her turned, cuffed, and in the back of the car in a matter of seconds. Shaking his head, the officer climbed into a very noisy car as Tawnya won’t stop cussing up a storm.

With a twinge of regret for how truly fucked up that woman is, Ty walked over to Cooper and the other officer, just catching the tail end of their conversation. “…Nah man, I’m fine, just get the psycho viper out of here.”

Chuckling, the officer started walking away and said, “You got it, guys.”

*******

Frustration ate at him as Nate was running his eighth mile on the treadmill. He wasn’t sure what to do about Keeley and her fears. He knew things were bad, but the way she just turned her emotions off scared him. He worried that maybe she couldn’t open up to them, tell them what has her so skittish and sad. He truly worried for her piece of mind. Twenty years old and she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. He hoped one day she would trust them enough to open up about her past.

Hearing footsteps on the stairs, he started to slow the treadmill to a steady walk. Looking up, he gave Keeley a welcoming smile and motioned her the rest of the way down with a wave of his hand. “Hey, sweet Butterfly, how are you feeling?”

Shrugging her shoulder she stepped up to the treadmill next to him, and asked with her eyes if she could go on. “Go ahead, do you know how to work it?” Shaking her head no, he stopped his and hopped off to help her turn it on to a nice steady walk. Getting back on his, they just walked, side by side, listening to the pound of their feet on the belts.

Damn, did Nate sure wish he knew what she was thinking?

A little while later, Nate could hear Ty open the front door. Keeley had to be into some deep thoughts, because she didn’t move when he walked in and started coming down the stairs. It wasn’t until Ty was at the bottom, and moved into her field of vision that she startled and jumped and nearly fell. Nate’s quick reflexes and grabbing her upper arm is all that stopped her.

“Deep thoughts?” Ty asked her, noticing her preoccupation until she had jumped.

Shrugging again, she just said, “Not really, just thinking about what I’m going to do.”

Getting an idea of where her head was at now, Nate asked her, “What do you mean? You’re staying here and coming to work with us in a couple of weeks. We talked about this yesterday, Butterfly.”

“I know, but I don’t want to be a

burden or take advantage of your kindness. I’m just…” Cutting her thoughts off, they waited to see what else she was going to say, but she just stopped.

“You just what, darlin’?” Ty tried getting her to open up.

“You guys are you; kind, open, and come from what I assume is a nice family. And I’m just… well… me… There’s nothing to me. I’m nobody. I can’t even remember the last time someone has been so kind to me.” She whispered that last part with a huge amount of shame in her voice. “What if I fail you? Or you finally realize I’m just not worth all the effort you’re trying to put into me? I’ll be more broken than I am now.”

Never in his life had Nate felt as hopeless as he did in that moment.

*******

Hearing those words from her mouth nearly gutted Ty; he didn’t know what to say. So he did what any red-blooded Texan would do—pulled her off that treadmill she hadn’t stopped walking on since he startled her, and slammed his mouth down on hers. Slipping his tongue in her mouth at her gasp of surprise, he took it easy and did a slow sweep of her mouth. Leaving no crevice untouched. When she melted against him and grabbed his biceps, he knew he could finally plunder the way he wanted. She tasted like the richest chocolate, and her coffee from this morning. Putting one hand under her hair at the back of her neck and one in the small of her back, he pulled her body up and closer. Feeling her soft curves against his hard body just made his cock harder, but when she moaned and whimpered, he felt like a king.

Feeling her tense slightly, he was going to slow down and pull away until he heard Nate whisper in her ear, “You look perfect moaning into my brother’s mouth Butterfly, now turn around and give me some of that sweet surrender.” She didn’t even hesitate, just turned and did Nate’s bidding. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she whimpered and started gyrating on his brother. Pressing himself closer to her, Ty buried his face in the side of her neck and just breathed her in. She was intoxicating. When she started pulling away from Nate they let her, not wanting to overwhelm her by forcing her to do something she wasn’t ready for.

“Wow.” She breathed out.

“You alright, Butterfly? We didn’t push you too far did we?” Nate asked her while running his hands through her dark tresses.

“No. I mean, it was nice.” She smiled.

“Keeley, I need you to know that what you said, it’s not true. Not to us or anybody that knows you or has ever met you. You’re special. You have an inner light that’s just dying to break out, but what your parents did, whatever it was, that’s on them not you, never you. Ok?” Nate explained to her, cupping her cheeks and staring deeply into her eyes so she knew the words he said were one hundred percent truth. She nodded her head at him, but Nate still saw the doubt in her eyes. With that though, he saw something else, too. Something he had yet to see in her… Hope.

“C’mon, let’s go make some lunch. I can hear your stomach rumbling, and Ty can tell us what was so important that he had to go into work, when we aren’t due back for a few more days.” Missing Ty’s look of apprehension, Nate grabbed Keeley’s hand to pull her upstairs. Getting her settled on a stool by the breakfast bar, Nate started pulling deli meat and everything to make a double decker sandwich out of the fridge, and put it on the counter. Grabbing a beer from the fridge he looked at Ty. Tossing it to him at his nod, Nate grabbed one for himself. “Alright Ty, start talking. What was up?”

*******

Watching Nathaniel work in the kitchen was one of the sexiest things Keeley had ever seen. It was only sandwiches, but watching him do something so domestic was as alluring as anything she’d ever known. She was so into watching him that she hadn’t felt Tyler move in behind her until he wrapped his arms around her waist, after putting his beer bottle on the counter. Looking back at him and smiling, she went back to watching Nathaniel make lunch while Tyler told them what happened to make him go into work.

“So Julia called, and umm, Tawnya was there,” Tyler revealed a little apprehensively before continuing. “She said she was going to sick Cooper on her viperous ass if I didn’t hurry up.”

“Oh, shit.”