My Warrior

He lurched forward to grab her, and to shut her up, he placed a hand over her mouth. She struggled against him as he started to drag her back out.

Before he had gotten halfway down the passageway, the other door opened.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Nothing, just taking my girlfriend back home. We had a fight, that’s all.” Gareth acted cool and calm.

“Help me.” She muffled the words out over Gareth’s hand.

“She does this all the time, don’t worry. A little telling-off when she gets home—you know how women like it.” He gave the guy a wink as if he should understand that it was the way she liked it.

Tears flowed down her face. She could hardly breathe because he was covering her mouth and her nose was all snotty.

“Kitt, what’s all the noise about? We are practicing here.”

As the man named Warrior walked through, his body perfectly formed, Opal looked into his eyes, pleading with him.

“Some guy and his runaway girlfriend.” Kitt shrugged his shoulders.

Gareth had still been making his way to the door that led into the street.

“Mm . . . plea . . . se.” Opal muffled out from behind Gareth’s hand.

“Your girlfriend doesn’t seem to be okay there. Maybe you should remove your hand?” Warrior stepped forward.

“She’s fine. Like I told the other guy, she’s like this all the time. We just had a fight, that’s all. I don’t live far away.” Gareth gave them both a toothy smile.

Warrior looked at Kitty who shrugged his shoulders again. I mean, what could they do, right?

They were about to turn and leave to go back to practice when Warrior turned back around. There was something that just didn’t sit right with him about it.

“Stop.”

Just that word made a flood of relief flow through Opal. Had he seen the plea in her eyes? She was praying to him, telling him silently to save her.

Gareth had one hand holding her and the other over her mouth, but he now had to work out which hand to let go so he could open the door.

He didn’t want this man, who was now walking toward him, to find out. He was not letting any man take his woman.

“She’s always like this. Can be a little brat, if you know what I mean . . .” Gareth tries his best to make out that he loves her and that she is a little bit on the mental side.

He is taking her home so she can get her medication.

Opal’s tears continue to fall. She manages to catch the eyes of the man coming toward her. His eyes are so dark she can’t tell what color they are.

“Come on, Warrior. Let the man take care of her if she’s not right.”

As Warrior keeps walking toward them, he can see in her eyes there is something more. Afraid, pained, lost, and broken.

Warrior is a man who doesn’t have women in his life. They affect his concentration when he is fighting.

He hasn’t had one since about five years ago, when the last one broke his heart, and he ended up losing his fight because of her. She appeared before he went out in the ring.

She pleaded with him to take her back. It was a mistake, she said. It would never happen again, she said . . .

Warrior took her back, only for it to happen again, for her to use him with the man who defeated him that night. It broke his heart.

But her eyes told him a different story than what the man was telling. Warrior had learned to read eyes. It was something he was good at considering he was a fighter.

But seeing a broken woman before him, he couldn’t let this man leave with her.

“What’s your name, mister?”

“It doesn’t matter, man. I got to get her home. She needs her medication.”

Opal was desperately trying to tell this stranger who was stopping her captor from taking her back to God knows where.

“What medication does she take?”

This question threw Gareth. He was the one now fumbling over his words, trying to talk his way out of there.

“Look, man, it doesn’t matter. I have to get her home.”

“Just, you see, I’ve seen this before.” Warrior took a few steps forward.

“What do you mean?” Gareth was puzzled.

Warrior got closer. Close enough he saw the woman’s pain and fear. This was no woman that was happy or needed medication.

“Let me see her.”

“Excuse me, you are in no position to ask me that.”

“I see you don’t know whose property you are on.” Although it was only the training grounds that Warrior was using, he wasn’t to know that.

“I’m leaving. You will never have to worry about this happening again.”

Even for Warrior, those words, the way he said them, didn’t sit well with him at all.

Gareth lets go of Opal for one second. It’s just enough time for him to open the door. And just enough time for Warrior to grab hold of her free arm that she reached out to him.

As Warrior held her hand, a whole load of emotions ran through him. It was as if there was some pull between them; she was here for a reason, and he was her savior.

Holding onto her, Warrior knew that this man who claimed she was his was not a good man.

“Let her go.” Warrior moved in closer, holding onto her hand tighter.

“She is mine.” Gareth was still trying to pull her out of the doorway, back into the pouring rain.

Warrior knew this man was no match for him, especially if it came down to a fight, but his heart was torn already for this woman, and he couldn’t understand why.

“I think it is up to her, and by the looks of it, she was trying to get away.”

“She will choose me every time. I give her everything. Don’t I, sweetheart?” He yanks at her, trying to pull her.

“How can she answer you if you hold your hand over her mouth?”

“Because she sometimes doesn’t know what she is saying. Like I said, she needs her medication.” He kept repeating the same thing and couldn’t understand why this man wouldn’t let it go.

Between the battle of words, the more he spoke, the more Warrior had a need to hold her here, to keep her safe in his arms.

His hand was still not letting go of hers, mainly because she wasn’t going to let go of him.

With another arm free, she reached out to the stranger again, not knowing who he was, but knowing he was her only hope of survival.