Under His Protection
Chapter 19

As he moved his hand slowly up and down her back he would pull her closer to his body. His cheek rested on top of her head, loving the smell of her hair and how silky soft it felt against his face. Closing his eyes he imagined they were the only two people in the room as they swayed to the music. The song from the movie Ghost was playing, how I hunger for your kiss. And when she lifted her head to look at him he didn’t care where they were when he kissed her. It was soft, tender and after the kiss, he stared into her eyes. He liked that she got jealous, it showed him that she too had some deep feelings for him.

The song ended and he wanted to say something to her, something that he’d been wanting to say for some time now. Just as he was about to a man walked over to them.

“Hello Miss Edwards, may I have a few words with you?”

“Of course Mr. Brady. I’d like you to meet my friend, Zane Warner.” After the introduction, she told him she’d be right with him. Once he walked away she turned to Zane. “I have to go and speak with him. I won’t be long.”

“Do you have to talk tonight?”

“Yes. I’m going to tell him I’m retiring from the business and won’t be signing with him.”

“So you’re still planning on leaving town?”

“You knew from the beginning that was my plan. I hate my life here, the modeling and all the phony people associated with it. My life is back in Kansas. It’s my home, it’s where I belong. I’m sorry Zane.”

He watched as she walked away and headed towards Mr. Brady who was waiting for her with a drink for her in his hand. He hated the way the old bald-headed man was checking her out. Going over he leaned against the wall and refused the beer that the waiter brought over. After all, he was here to protect her and couldn’t do that if he was intoxicated. It kind of felt like a knife was being twisted in his heart at the very thought of her not being in his life. But what could he do about it? Kansas was where her heart was and he couldn’t ask her not to go. Or could he?

While she was busy with Mr. Brady he talked to his guys through his earpiece. All was clear, no sign of trouble. His eyes stayed on Jade and it looked like Mr. Brady was not happy with what she was telling him. When she was on her way back over to him a man stepped in front of her and tried to take her hand but she backed away. He decided to go over and replace out what was going on. Before he could though she walked away, replaceing her way back to him.

“Looks like Mr. Brady wasn’t pleased with you turning him down.”

“He was upset,” she smiled up at him. “He’ll get over it.”

“Who was that other man? The one who was giving you a hard time.”

“He’s nobody, just forget about him.”

“I want to know Jade.”

“If you must know he’s Clint Wells. I went out with him once and when he asked me out again I turned him down. I told him I wasn’t interested and he still keeps wanting to go out.”

“About earlier,” he started to say, but an elderly woman came over.

“Miss Edwards, I’m so thrilled to meet you. I was wondering if my husband and I could get a couple of pictures taken with you?”

“Sure, I would love to.” She turned to Zane. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”

“Ok. I’ll go grab you a drink from the bar,” he said, noticing that Clint was there. Going over he asks the bartender for a glass of champagne then turns to Clint. “Mr. Wells.”

“Yeah,” he answered snarkily. “Who the hell are you?”

“It doesn’t matter who I am. But I am here with Miss Edwards and I’m a cop. If you ever go anywhere near her again I will make your life a living hell.”

Clint stood up straight. “Is that a threat?”

“No, it’s a promise,” he answered. Picking up the champagne gave the man a hard pat on the back. “See you around pal.”

Zane waited for her to return and when she did he handed her the glass. “That was sweet of you to take those pictures with that couple.”

“They were so nice, that’s rare these days.”

“Wanna get out of here?” Zane asked, moving in close.

“Where do you want to go?” she asked, running her finger along his tie.

“Somewhere we can be alone.” Taking her hand he led her into another room and out onto the patio. He was dying to kiss her and hoped there was no one else out there. He was in luck and smiled, taking the glass out of her hand and setting it on the railing. He heard her gasp when he put her up against the wall and his mouth came down hard on hers. He felt her arms going around his neck and she pressed her body into his.

After several minutes he moved from her mouth, he reached up and traced her lips with his finger. “I want you, I want you now.”

“Then I think you better take me home,” she said, taking his tie in her hand and pulling him in close for another kiss. The feel of his cock getting harder was pressing into her and she could feel the dampness on her panties.

Zane pulled away, his head cocked to the side and he held his finger to her lips so she wouldn’t speak. Something didn’t feel right, and he wished he hadn’t brought her outside. “Let’s go back inside,” he said nervously.

“What’s wrong?” she asked when he looked all around and she heard how his voice shook slightly.

Not wanting to scare her he put his hand on her arm. “It’s nothing. It’s just that your clothes are bothering me and I want to get you home and out of them,” he said, giving her a sexy grin as he started steering her towards the entrance.

They didn’t get far when a gunshot rang out and Zane dropped to his knees before hitting the ground. Jade screamed, getting on her knees she saw the blood. “Someone help,” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “Zane, oh God you’ve been shot.”

Clutching his arm he tried to get up. “Get inside, now,” he screamed at her.

“No, I’m not leaving you.”

“Damn you woman,” he cursed and started talking into his earpiece. “Office down, west wing patio.”

Seconds later people came out, a couple were cops disguised as waiters. “Get Miss Edwards inside now.”

“Not without you,” she said, pushing the one man off her. “Help me get him inside, he needs to go to the hospital.”

They got him in and had him sit in a chair while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. He gave the officers instructions, telling them where the shot came from and to go search the area and to keep everyone inside.

“I’m responsible for you getting hurt. I should have listened to you and stayed home and you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.” She grabbed a towel and held it tightly against his wound.

“It’s just a flesh wound and this isn’t your fault. If anyone is to blame it’s me. I should never have taken you out there, I know better than that. Because of my lust for you, you could have been killed. I’m so sorry,” he said, wiping her tears away.

He protested when the ambulance arrived, saying he could drive there himself. This angered Jade and she gave him a tongue-lashing.

“You fool, you’ve been shot and there is no way I’m letting you drive now cooperate or I’ll have them sedate you. Now lay down and stop threatening these men, they are here to help you.” She put her hands on his chest and made him lie down.

“Gees Jade, it’s just a shot in the arm, nothing serious.”

“Just a shot in the arm, do you hear yourself? Damn fool, you could have been killed,” she said as a tear rolled down her cheek.

With his right hand, he placed it behind her head and drew her close to his face. “I didn’t know you cared so much.” He then kissed her but she pulled away.

“You big dope, of course, I care about you. I like you, a lot, even though you’re bossy, arrogant and at times downright rude. Are you in pain?”

“No,” he replied.

“Liar,” she hissed at him. “You don’t have to act brave around me.”

Arriving at the hospital he was taken in right away and when she wasn’t allowed to go in with him he ordered the one young officer to stay with her. “You won’t let her out of your sight not even for a second or you’ll have me to answer to.”

Some officers showed up when the shooting was called in, Joe was one who also showed up. He was Zane’s partner and when he heard what went down he rushed right over. Seeing Jade sitting, her head hung down and being guarded by the cop he went over and kneeled in front of her.

“Hey, are you ok?”

She nodded.

“Have you given a statement to the police?”

“Yes,” she said, wiping away a tear.

Joe looked at the young officer. “You can leave now, I’ll stay with her.” Once he was gone Joe sat in the seat next to her. “Can you walk me through what happened?”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “We were out on the patio, talking.” She wasn’t about to tell him they were making out. “We decided to leave and go home. Before we left he became anxious and kept looking around and when I asked him what was wrong he said it was nothing. As we were about to go back inside I heard a loud bang, like a gun being fired. I turned to look back at Zane and he was on the ground, blood coming from his arm. He got hurt because of me,” she sobbed.

Joe put his arm around her shoulder. “You must not blame yourself. Zane is a cop and he knows the risk, one he was willing to take. I talked to the doctor on the way in and the bullet went into his arm but it wasn’t deep and no arteries were hit so they are removing the bullet and he’ll be out in no time.”

“I could tell he was in pain but he insisted he wasn’t.”

Joe removed his arm. “Zane is young and fearless and I’ll bet he didn’t want you to see him as being weak.”

“That’s foolish, feeling pain doesn’t make you weak,” she said, shaking her head. “You men and your egos. Have you ever been shot?” she asked, looking at him.

“Once, in the leg and let me tell you, being shot no matter where hurts like a son of a bitch.” Smiling he looked back at her. “The only good thing that came out of it was the way, my wife took care of me and it made her realize how much she loved me. We were having problems and talked about divorce. It might sound crazy but me getting shot brought us closer, made us see that life is short and that we need to be with the ones we love.”

“I’m glad you and your wife are making your marriage work.”

“Thanks, me too. You know, Zane really cares about you. It’s so obvious in the way he looks at you.”

“I care about him too.”

Just then the doctor came out.

She stood up. “How is he?”

“The bullet wasn’t deep, we removed it. He’s going to be a little sore for a while but he’s going to be fine. You must be Jade, he’s been asking for you. You can go in and see him.”

After thanking the doctor she went to his room, followed by Joe.