“Thanks, I’d better go pack then.”
Jay is making me nervous as he slowly advances toward me, cornering me between tables. Suddenly he’s standing way too close, smelling like stale beer.
“Jay, have you been drinking?” I work my way back across the tent, trying to put as much distance as possible between us.
“Where are you going?” Jay starts stalking me across the tent.
I look quickly around, hunting for another exit as I try not to panic. He’s trapped me between my only escape and himself. I wonder fleetingly if I scream, will anybody come to my rescue.
“Jay, I’d like to go back to my tent, please,” I say, trying once more to duck around him.
With a nasty grin, he takes another step toward me.
“You’ve been teasing me all month.”
He is so close to me now, that I put my hands out, pressing against his chest in an effort to hold him back.
Leaning into me, he continues in a hoarse groan. “Shaking that ass at me every time I come around. Hard little nipples paraded around like some kind of whore. I bet you’d like me to fill up that mouth with something hard.”
Taking a deep breath, I make my move. Curling my fingers, I hit him as hard as I can in the solar plexus, running for the door. If I’m lucky, he’s bent in half, gasping for breath. But I’m not that lucky or not that good at throwing punches. I’ve almost made it to the door when he grabs me by the hair, slamming my body down onto a table.
“Stop. Please stop,” I cry out with a sob as I struggle to get out of his grip.
I’ve moved into survival mode, biting, kicking, scratching, anything to get away from him when he drags me off the table onto the ground, knocking the air from my lungs. Within moments, Jay has pinned my hands above my head with one hand and holding my legs down with his body. He reaches down, ripping my shirt open with his free hand. I’m struggling to fight him off, but he is just too strong.
Suddenly, he is no longer holding me down. Something has ripped him off of me and has him pinned to the ground. With a scream, I sit up trying to fight off the arms encasing me.
Opening my eyes when I feel someone trying to calm me down, I find Ms. Shieffer is holding me as I sob. Two soldiers rush in hauling a man up from the ground where he was punching Jay in a rage. I can already see that Jay has an eye swelling shut and his lip is bleeding. Two more soldiers run into the tent, jerking Jay off the ground to hold him between them. The man lands another punch to his stomach, doubling him over before they secure him again.
“Touch her again, I’ll fucking bury you. I’ll fuck you up so bad your mother won’t even know your ass.” The growl that comes from my rescuer sounds familiar but I’m sobbing into my hands too hard to place it.
Ms. Shieffer rubs my back as she calmly talks to me. After I begin to calm, her words finally sink in.
“Don’t worry. I’ve already notified the home office. You won’t ever have to worry about him again, he’s done.”
The soldiers leave with Jay whimpering between them.
“Sophia?”
I look up at my boss.
“This young man claims he has been chasing us all over the Middle East, looking for you. Before I leave you again, I just need to make sure you recognize him.”
I slowly look over. Teddy is standing with his fist balled up, looking like he has walked through hell. The remaining soldiers are half-heartedly holding on to his muscled arms. A slow smile spreads across his beautiful face when my eyes meet his.
7
Teddy
Itrek across hell and back to find her and the first thing I see is some douchebag with my woman pinned to the ground? Oh, fuck no. As my heartbeat begins to pound in my ears, all I can see is red. Pulling him off of Sophia, all I can think about is making sure he pays for touching her.
When they finally pull me off of him, my fists are raw and bloody, but I don’t feel them as I look at the tears streaming down her face. If they turned me loose, I would have a hard time deciding if I go to her or bring more pain to him.
Grayson’s plan had seemed simple when we first started discussing it. I would fly to Israel, hire a driver, and find Sophia somewhere near Syria. Because life is that simple, right? Nothing is ever that simple.
I made it to Tel Aviv just fine, but when I tried to find a guide into Syria to find a reporter with American forces, I was greeted with disbelief. That was actually the tamest of the reactions. Several people laughed, quite a few yelled and one even spit at me.
After days of futility, I finally hitchhiked to the Syrian border. I was fortunate enough to run into a group of servicemen that were able to find out that Sophia’s team had moved to Afghanistan. However, I was nowhere near Afghanistan.
