Protecting Melody Read online

“I’m coming! Don’t shoot him!”

  Melody stumbled back into the living room and could feel a bead of sweat roll down her face. “I’m here!”

  “Tie his ass up. And if you don’t make it tight, I’ll gut your dog and you can watch her bleed and die right now.”

  Melody looked and saw that Diane had obviously gone into the kitchen and grabbed one of her steak knives. She held a knife in one hand and the gun in the other. Melody knew Diane would kill Baby in a heartbeat. She dared a look at her dog. Baby was intently watching Diane and growling softly. At least she wasn’t cowed by her, but Melody didn’t have any time to think about Baby, she quickly walked over to Tex and kneeled at his side.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered dejectedly, dropping the items she’d collected from her room on the floor.

  Tex didn’t say a word, but kept his eyes trained on Diane. Melody took the pantyhose and wrapped his wrists together behind the chair. He sat tense and motionless as she maneuvered his limbs. She then took the rope and tied his hands to the slats on the chair. She wound the rope around his waist and down to his leg. She tied his good ankle to the chair leg. She wanted to keep the bindings loose, but didn’t want to risk Baby’s life.

  “Now back the hell away from him and sit back on the couch, bitch.”

  Melody did as Diane asked with a pit in her stomach. She had no idea how they’d get out of this. Now that Tex was tied up, she had no clue what to do. He was supposed to be the one to save them. He’d promised.

  Diane laughed a crazy laugh that made the hair on the back of Melody’s neck stand up. She’d completely lost it and Melody was at a loss as to what she could do to get them all out of this in one piece.

  Melody wanted to try to keep Diane’s attention on her. Tex was way too vulnerable right now. “So what? Are you going to shoot me? How is that going to humiliate me? Are you going to kill me, Diane? Do you think you’ll get away with that? If you shoot me you’ll have to shoot Tex. And the second you pull the trigger someone will call the cops. I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry for anything I did when I was a teenager. Please.”

  “Oh I don’t have to use the gun . . . yet. Besides, yeah, someone will call the cops, but I’ll be long gone when they get here.” Diane walked over to Tex. She was smart enough to keep the gun trained on Melody the entire time.

  “I have no idea what she sees in you. You’re pathetic. Look at you. One fucking leg. Disgusting. I’m sure it’s all scarred up too. You must have a big dick, but I’m sure she doesn’t satisfy you. Jesus, she’s cold. Robert’s told me all about it.”

  Diane took the steak knife she’d been holding and held it to Tex’s face.

  “Diane . . .”

  She sliced down Tex’s cheek, leaving a thin red line of blood in its wake. “Every time you say a fucking word, he gets cut.” The words were said nonchalantly, as if she was commenting on the weather.

  Melody swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. She couldn’t just sit here and let this crazy woman hurt Tex. But she had no idea what to do.

  “Remember when your electricity was turned off? Yeah, that was me. It’s so easy to fuck with you, bitch. Seriously. You had your payments being directly taken out of your account. All it took was two clicks of my mouse and . . . whoops . . . those auto payments stopped.”

  “You did that?”

  “Ah ah ah,” Diane chided and she took the knife and ran it down the length of Tex’s arm. Once more, blood welled up from the slice. This time Melody heard Tex draw in a quick breath, but he otherwise didn’t move and kept his eyes on Diane the entire time.

  Melody leaned over and put her head in her hands. She couldn’t watch. There was no way.

  “New rule.” Melody heard Diane’s words, but didn’t raise her head. “Every five seconds you aren’t watching, I cut him.”

  Melody’s head came up quickly at that.

  “Too late bitch, five seconds is up.” Diane took the now bloody knife and put it against Tex’s throat. She pressed in and laughed as she made a downward cutting motion.

  Melody cried silently. She could see that each cut she made was deeper and longer. At least she hadn’t cut horizontally across Tex’s throat, but cutting him vertically was just as bad. The blood oozed from his neck and was absorbed into the collar of his T-shirt, turning it obscenely red in moments.

  “It’s too late for sorry-ass apologizes, Melody. I don’t want to hear your fucking sorries.”

  Diane stepped away from Tex, obviously having tired of messing with him. Melody risked a look at him and could see that all of his attention was focused on Diane. It was as if he didn’t even feel the cuts of the knife into his skin.

  “I don’t want to hear your fucking apologies, but I do want to hear you beg. Beg me to spare your pathetic crippled boyfriend’s life. Beg me to save your dog’s life.”

  Melody didn’t waste any time, if Diane wanted her to beg, she’d beg. It wasn’t a matter of pride, it was a matter of getting out of the situation alive. “Please, Diane. Don’t do this. I’ll do whatever you want. Please. I’m begging you. Don’t hurt him anymore. Let Baby go. She’s innocent in all of this.”

  “I changed my mind.”

  Melody’s head hurt. She knew Diane was just playing with her. She might have been cutting Tex, but she was torturing her, and they all knew it.

  “You have a choice. You want him to walk out of here? Well, he won’t be walking will he? More like hopping!” Diane laughed like a loon. Melody kept her mouth shut, waiting to hear what horrible choice she wanted her to make.

  “Choose. You or him.”

  “What? I don’t understand.”

  Diane took a step toward Melody and raised the gun and aimed it at her head. She took another step. Then another. Then one more until she was right next to Melody and the gun was resting against Melody’s forehead, right where Tex liked to kiss her. “You get to pick. I figure no matter your choice, it’ll ruin your life. So fucking choose. Do I shoot you? Or him?”

  Melody looked up at Diane in horror. Was she serious? Of course she was serious. She had a gun to her head and Melody could see the evil behind her eyes. There was no compassion there…at all. Nothing that showed Melody any of them would be getting out of the apartment alive. Diane was going to kill them all, no matter what game she was playing now.

  “Me, she chooses me.” They were the first words Tex had said since Melody had tied him up.

  Diane raised the gun she’d been holding at Melody’s head and pointed it at Tex. Before Melody could say anything, Diane pulled the trigger. The sound was obscenely loud and Baby yelped then went back to her low growling. The smell of gunpowder permeated the air around them.

  “No!” Melody leaped off the couch, but quickly fell back down when Diane swiped the bloody steak knife over her arm, leaving a long gash. Melody kept her eyes on the kitchen table and was relieved to see Tex still sitting upright. Diane had missed. Thank God. Hopefully the sound of the gun going off would prompt one of her neighbors to call the police as she’d warned Diane earlier.

  “Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Crip. This is not your choice. It’s hers.”

  Melody held her bleeding right arm with her left hand and stared at the hole in the wall behind Tex. The next shot could take away the man she loved. All he was, all the good he’d done in the world, all the people who relied on him to help them…all of it would be wiped away by a mentally-ill woman with a crazy grudge.

  “Now, Melody. I believe you have a choice to make. Would you rather I blow his brains out . . . and you can live. Or I can shoot you in the head, and he can live. Choose.”

  “Diane, you wanted me to beg, and I’m begging. Please, don’t do this.”

  “Too fucking late. Choose!”

  “Don’t do it, Mel.” Tex’s voice sounded weird.

  Melody couldn’t tell if it was from fury or a deeper emotion. She looked over at him. Jesus. He seemed to be covered in blood. It was running down his face and his neck and there was
even blood dropping on the floor from the gash in his arm. Melody didn’t want either of them to die, but she didn’t see any way out of what was about to happen. Tex was tied to the chair, she’d fucking tied him there, and Diane had a gun pointed at her head. Melody knew Diane would most likely kill Tex after she shot her, but maybe, just maybe her sacrifice would give Tex time to do…something, and he’d be able to get away.

  “I love you.” Melody mouthed the words to Tex and she watched as his face hardened in fury. Not at her, but at the situation. Beneath the fury, Melody thought she saw a hint of despair. If these were going to be her last moments, she wanted to be looking at Tex when she died. Tex. The man who’d driven across the country to find her. The man who promised he’d always be there for her. The man who she knew would die in her stead in a heartbeat. Melody tore her eyes away from him, suddenly deciding she didn’t want to be looking at Tex when a bullet tore through her brain. It was better he didn’t watch her life leave her body.

  “Me. Kill me, but leave Tex alone.”

  Diane threw her head back and cackled. When she had herself back under control, she looked Melody straight in the eye and said in a completely normal voice, “It will be my pleasure.”

  Melody squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head and waited. She hoped it wouldn’t hurt. When push came to shove it seemed she wasn’t as brave as she’d always hoped she’d be when it came to her mortality.

  Several things seemed to happen at once. Melody heard the knife Diane was holding clatter to the ground. Baby made a sound Melody had never heard come out of her before and Diane cried out.

  Suddenly she was knocked over sideways. Melody’s eyes popped open but she couldn’t see anything because she found herself underneath Tex. He’d leaped from the chair he’d been strapped to and tackled her off the couch. He’d obviously somehow been able to get out of the bindings she’d used on him.

  Melody heard a shot and Tex was off of her before she could get her bearings. A loud shriek and a thud echoed through the apartment. The wailing of police sirens getting closer broke through the sudden silence in the apartment. The sound eerily monotonous and still sounding way too far away.

  “Mel, I need you to get up and go to the door. Let the cops in. Don’t look over here. You hear me? Do not look over here,” Tex ordered in a low commanding voice, no hint of the loving man she’d come to know over the last few weeks.

  “How’d you get out of the rope?”

  “I’m a SEAL, Mel. It wasn’t hard. I’m been trained how to hold my body while being restrained to minimize the effect of the bindings. I’m assuming the cops were your doing? I don’t think they would’ve gotten here so quickly if someone called them after hearing that first shot.”

  Melody sat up on the floor and leaned her back against the front of the couch, not looking toward Tex. She couldn’t seem to get any air in her lungs. She was breathing way too fast and her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. “Yeah, I typed in a quick message to the people at the ceremony I was translating for. I didn’t know if it would work or not.”

  “You’re fucking amazing, Mel. It obviously worked. Are you okay? You didn’t get hit? How badly is your arm bleeding?” Tex’s questions came at her quick and stoic.

  Melody did a quick mental scan of her body. Her arm hurt, but she didn’t have any other holes in her body that she could tell, so she was pretty sure she wasn’t shot. “I don’t think so. Of course, I have so much adrenaline going through my body right now I can’t be positive, but I don’t see any blood other than on my arm, so I think I’m good. Oh my God! What about you? I need to get you bandaged up.”

  “I’m good. Go on now. Do as I told you. Go to the door and don’t look over here. Let the cops in.”

  “Tex, you’re not okay, she cut you.” Melody suddenly remembered. “Wait. What happened? Where’s Baby?” she breathed.

  “Mel, don’t,” Tex warned sternly.

  But it was too late. Melody whipped her head around to where Diane had been standing next to the couch, on the other side from where Tex had thrown her when he’d yanked her off the couch and to the floor, and inhaled. Tex was lying on top of an unconscious Diane, holding both her hands in his, keeping her captive in case she came to before the police showed up. Melody had no idea what Tex had done to knock her unconscious, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to give her a chance to get up and threaten them again anytime soon.

  Melody looked to his side and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Baby was lying next to Tex bleeding from her mouth and her haunch. Her eyes were open, but staring straight ahead sightlessly.

  “Oh God. No. Baby.” Melody scrambled up and crab walked on her hands and knees over to kneel at Baby’s side. She raised tear drenched eyes to Tex. “What happened?”

  “Baby saved our lives. She gnawed through her leash and attacked Diane. Just as she was about to pull the trigger and put a bullet in your brain, Baby leaped over and bit her on the thigh. Diane turned and shot her to try to get her to let go. I’d already worked through the knots you made, Diane didn’t notice because she was too fucking busy torturing you, and Baby’s distraction gave me enough time to get to you and then to Diane and disarm her. I’m so sorry, Mel.”

  “Nooooo. Tex, she can’t have killed Baby. She was only trying to protect us.” Melody wiped the tears away from her face with one hand and put her head down next to Baby’s muzzle. “Oh God, Baby, please. Don’t die. Don’t. God. I never wanted this to happen to you.” Melody put her hand high on her dog’s leg where the blood was slowly oozing out. She looked up at Tex. “Look at the blood on her mouth. She got Diane good didn’t she?” The words came out as hiccupped sobs, but Tex understood her anyway.

  “Yeah, Mel. She got her good. She saved you. She loved you so much. I knew that the first time I met her. When Amy told me you had a dog I knew I had to bring her to you. Somehow I knew you needed her and she’d be important in this whole damn mess.”

  Melody sobbed harder and put both hands over the hole in Baby’s haunch. The dog didn’t even flinch as Melody pushed down to try to stop the bleeding. She had no idea if it was futile or not, but she had to do something. She couldn’t sit there and watch the life bleed out of her precious dog.

  Melody couldn’t see what she was doing through the tears coursing down her face, but she babbled on as she watched the red well-up between her fingers as she tried to staunch the scary amount of blood oozing from the coonhound. “Baby never liked Diane. I never thought anything about it. I just thought she was still scared like she was in the shelter when I got her. But there was one time I clearly remember when we saw Diane on the street. She came up to me and Baby growled. I just backed up and laughed it off. I tried to tell Diane it was just because Baby was a shelter dog and scared, and she’d laughed it off. I should’ve listened. I should’ve remembered and told you about it, Tex. I’m so sorry, Baby. I should’ve listened to you.”

  Tex couldn’t stand it anymore. He leaned up and took off his belt. He lashed Diane’s hands together tightly and made sure the gun was kicked across the room. Knowing Mel needed him and Diane was out for the count at the moment, he awkwardly shuffled over to her, grimacing at the phantom pains shooting through his leg at the movement. He ignored them and came up beside Baby and Mel.

  He put his hands on Mel’s shoulders and tried to tug her into his arms.

  Mel jerked away from his touch, not losing her grip on Baby. “No! Tex, no. Baby’s not dead. She can’t be dead. Call a vet or something. Please. We have to try. I can’t let her go.”

  “Mel.”

  “God, Tex please. I can’t lose her. Not like this. I love her, I need her.”

  Tex couldn’t stand the anguish in Mel’s voice. He pulled out his cell phone and swiped the screen, leaving a bloody smear across it, which he ignored. He punched in a number and quickly spoke into it.

  “Yeah, I need your help. We’re good. It’s over, but I need a veterinarian, the best you can g
et a hold of. Baby was shot. Yeah, by the fucking stalker. Bad. Okay. ‘Preciate it.” Tex stuffed the phone back into his pocket and told Melody, “Wolf’s taking care of it.”

  He watched as she nodded jerkily, but Tex wasn’t sure she really heard him.

  “Keep the pressure on her leg, but talk to her, Mel. Like you do. She’ll hear you. Tell her to hang on.”

  Tex’s heart broke as he watched the woman he loved speak to Baby through her sobs.

  “Baby? You’re the bravest dog I’ve ever met. I have no idea what you went through before I found you, but you have to hang on. You did it. You protected me and Tex. You saved our lives. I know you were probably just paying me back for saving yours, but I still need you. There are other bad people in this world and we need you.

  “I swear you can sleep on our bed every night. We won’t shut you out again. It’s obvious you don’t care if we make love with you there, so if you don’t care, we won’t either. I love it when you scrunch the blankets over and over until they’re just right in whatever mysterious way you decide. I promise you can come with us wherever we go. Just please, don’t leave me. I love you so much, Baby. I never knew how much. Please don’t die. Not like this. I need you.”

  Melody looked down at the blood that was still slowly seeping through her fingers and onto the floor. Baby’s eyes hadn’t closed, but she wasn’t blinking either. It was the most horrific thing she’d ever witnessed in her life. The tears fell harder. She turned to look at Tex. She could see he was as affected as she was at the sight of Baby motionless on the floor.

  “What am I gonna do without her?”

  A loud knock came on the door. “Police. Open the door.”

  Tex got up without a word and hopped to the door. Melody watched, absently noticing how even though he was hopping on one leg, he was steady and confident. All the practice he’d obviously done without his prosthetic had paid off. He was as confident hopping around the room as he was walking.

  Tex held his hands up as the police stormed in with their guns drawn. Melody turned back to her beloved dog, not caring what the cops did. She wasn’t going to move her hands from the hole in Baby’s haunch until the vet got there. Melody couldn’t tell if Baby was breathing or not, her hands were shaking too much and the tears prevented her from being able to see clearly. Ignoring the commotion behind her she leaned down to Baby again. She’d continue to talk to her until the vet arrived. Tex said Wolf would take care of it. She trusted him. “Hold on, Baby. Help’s coming. Don’t die. I love you.”