Protecting Atherine

Joe Fox stared at his watch and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. The second hand ticked by painfully slowly. He felt like he'd been waiting for hours, even though a few hours ago he hadn't even gotten this assignment yet. Joe woke up this morning thinking he was going to do his standard rounds at the Thorne estate, making sure no crazy fans or paparazzi were trying to trespass and catch a photo with his boss.

That was before Mrs. Thorne had been kidnapped after her yoga class. Understandably, Mr. Thorne wanted his only daughter safely under his roof, in case she was targeted too. That was Joe's job -- to pick up Katherine from her quaint college campus upstate, and deliver her safely back to the Thorne estate. It seemed simple enough, but Katherine could be in real danger. She was very active on social media. Everyone knew where she went to school.

Finally, the giant doors of a nearby lecture hall burst open, and dozens of students poured out. Joe straightened in his seat, eyes scanning for a tall brunette. He'd never actually met her in person, but he knew her well from the countless photos her parents had in their house. Joe finally found her at the back of the crowd, lingering by the doors as she chatted with two other girls.

Come on, Katherine, let's hurry it up.

Waving goodbye to her friends, Katherine hitched her backpack over her shoulder and strolled down the sidewalk. Joe put the car in drive and pulled out onto the road, easily catching up with her. He rolled down the window.

"Hey."

Katherine glanced up, a scowl on her face when she made eye contact with Joe.

"Get lost, asshole."

She stomped off down the sidewalk, her boot heels clicking loudly as she tried to get away from him. Joe sighed and easily caught up with her.

"Katherine, you need to get in the car."

She let out a humorless laugh and pulled out her phone from her backpack. "I'm calling campus security, you fucking creep."

"Your Aunt Francine is in the hospital, and she's not doing well," Joe said, raising his eyebrows.

Katherine stopped in her tracks, eyes wide as she looked back at Joe. "Well, shit."

Katherine had no Aunt Francine, but she looked as worried as if her favorite aunt really was dying.

"What's going on?" She asked Joe.

"No time," he replied. "Get in. I'll explain later."

She looked like she was about to obey, but she stopped at the last minute. "I've never seen you before. How do I know I can trust you?"

Joe tried not to lose his patience. "I knew the code," he pointed out.

Katherine crossed her arms. "What was the name of my childhood cat?"

Joe exhaled. They didn't have time for quizzes.

"Peaches," he answered.

She seemed annoyed he'd gotten that one right.

"Tell me what's wrong, and I'll get in."

Okay, now Joe was getting mad.

"You need to get in the damn car. Now."

"Not unless you tell me." She started walking again, and Joe accelerated to keep up. "I'm supposed to meet friends for lunch, and then I have a date tonight with this guy I've been obsessed with all semester. So you need to give me a damn good reason to come with you. Because unless someone's dead, I'm not missing that."

Jesus Christ. This was not supposed to be this damn difficult. Joe knew Katherine had to be a spoiled brat, but seeing her throw a tantrum was annoying the shit out of him.

Just as Joe was about to get out of the car and drag her in, a large group came down the sidewalk, suddenly surrounding Katherine. She pushed her way through to get out of the crowd, but Joe's heart stopped when he saw a man in a baseball cap grab her arm.

Fuck.

Joe threw the car in park and leapt out, Mr. Ball Cap now dragging Katherine away from everyone, towards a black car idling nearby.

"Get the hell off of me!" Katherine screamed, twisting to get out of his grasp. That's when Joe noticed the piece shoved in the back of his pants.

"Katherine!"

Joe sprinted over and wrapped an arm around the guy's neck, pulling back hard. Mr. Ball Cap gasped and struggled in Joe's chokehold. He let Katherine go, trying to pry Joe's arm off of his throat. Joe pulled the gun out of the guy's pants and hit him on the temple with it. The man's legs crumpled and Joe dropped him.

"Will you get in the fucking car now?" He yelled at her.

Katherine nodded and ran for Joe's SUV. Joe followed her, his heart pounding hard when he saw two more men sprinting towards them. Cursing, Joe hopped into the driver's seat, locked the doors, and sped off down the street, narrowly avoiding a group of pedestrians in the crosswalk.

"Holy shit!" Katherine sat in the passenger's seat, hand pressed over her heart. Horns blared as Joe shot through a red light, the speedometer inching up towards 60 in the 25.

"We could've avoided all of that if you'd gotten in the fucking car sooner," Joe growled, teeth gritted as he took a turn too fast. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw that black car not too far behind them. "And now we have a tail. I hope you're happy."

"Jesus, I'm sorry!" Katherine buckled her seatbelt, her knuckles white as she gripped the dash. "Unlike you, I don't know what the hell is going on! I thought the worst part of my day was going to be that chem lab I just got out of."

Joe wanted to yell at her more, but he needed to focus on driving. Besides, these guys had clearly been waiting for Katherine just like he had. It was pure luck Joe had gotten to her first.

"How do you plan on losing them?" Katherine asked, looking over her shoulder. The black car was gaining.

"I'm working on it," Joe grunted. He ran another red and took a sharp left. There was a loud thwack as Katherine's head collided with the window.

"Ow," she moaned, holding her head.

"You okay?"

"I'll live," she grumbled.

"You can't die on my watch, got it? Your dad would murder me."

She gave Joe a sarcastic smile. "I'll do my best."

Joe looked back in the rearview and saw their pursuers had gotten momentarily stuck behind a bus. He took a turn down a residential street and spotted a house with an open, empty garage. Jackpot.

Joe squealed into the garage, turned off the car, and pulled the garage door down with so much force he felt a painful pop in his right shoulder. Once the door was shut, Joe shuffled towards the window, peeking out. Sure enough, a few seconds later, that black car zoomed down the street, not even slowing down as it passed the house.

With a giant exhale, Joe slumped against the wall, exhausted. He heard Katherine's door open and she hopped out, approaching him.

"That was pretty impressive," Katherine admitted after a few seconds of silence.

"That's why I get paid the big bucks."

"Excuse me!" The door to the house suddenly swung open, and an older woman in a bathrobe stuck her head out. "I think you have the wrong house!"

"Sorry, ma'am," Joe said weakly, waving at her. "We'll be out of your hair in a minute."

"Maybe you shouldn't leave your garage door wide open," Katherine told her with a smirk. The woman made a clucking sound and slammed the door, loudly locking it.

"You do know this open door just saved our asses," Joe said, irritated at her comment.

"No, you saved our asses," she replied. "And I don't even know your name."

"It's Joe." He straightened up to his full height of six foot one, but with Katherine in those heeled boots, she and Joe were eye to eye.

"Okay, Joe," Katherine said. "Where are we going now?"

"I have no fucking idea."

***

Katherine was jolted awake when the car came to a sudden stop. Blinking, she sat up in her seat, struggling to see where they were in the deepening twilight.

Even though she could tell it was a Walmart parking lot, she asked, "Where are we?"

"Tiny town a few hours away from your school," Joe said. He was rummaging around in the backseat for something.

"I thought you were taking me home."

Joe paused. "That was the plan. But I haven't been able to get in touch with your dad yet. I..."

Katherine could read between the lines. She bit her lip. "You think something happened to him."

"Not necessarily."

He was so full of shit.

"I just don't want to take you there until we get the all clear," Joe finished. He pulled a baseball cap out of the back and plopped it on Katherine's head, squishing down her brown curls.

"Hey! Is this clean?"

Joe rolled his eyes. "We've got bigger things to worry about, sweetheart." He grabbed sunglasses from the center console. "Put these on, too."

Katherine glared at him, both annoyed at his commands and him calling her 'sweetheart.' She was going to make a bitchy comment about reporting him to her father...until she remembered her dad might not be okay.

She'd almost broken down when Joe told her about her mother. Katherine had turned away from him, resting her face against the window so he wouldn't see her cry. She'd somehow managed to fall asleep for most of the drive.

Katherine put on the aviators, which were too big and would be ridiculous on her heart-shaped face. She pulled down the visor and looked in the mirror, trying not to shudder.

"Sunglasses at night at a Walmart. Quite the look," she remarked. "Good thing my followers can't see how far I've fallen."

"Fashion isn't my main concern right now." Joe had been reaching for the car door, but he stopped. "Your phone is off, right?"

"Of course," she lied. "I'm not an idiot."

Joe surveyed Katherine like that had yet to be proven.

"Let's go. I want to be in and out in ten minutes."

Joe strode towards the store at a fast clip, forcing Katherine to hustle to catch up to him. As she trailed behind him, she couldn't help noticing the way his butt moved in his worn jeans. It was nice.

She hated to admit it, but Joe was hot. He was taller than her, which at five foot eleven, was a tough threshold to cross. Joe had some serious muscles, and clearly he knew how to use them when he disabled that guy who'd tried to grab Katherine back on campus. Joe's brown hair was buzzed short, which normally Katherine wouldn't have liked, but it worked for him. It went perfectly with his green eyes and that scar that sliced through his right brow. His whole demeanor screamed 'tough guy,' and it was pretty sexy.

Katherine wanted to ask him how he'd gotten that scar, but now certainly wasn't the time.

She caught up to Joe in the store vestibule, where he'd grabbed a basket. He thrust it at her.

"Just get the essentials. Toothbrush, shampoo, whatever. Meet me at the registers in five. Don't fucking talk to anyone."

And then he was off.

"Rude," Katherine mumbled as she made her way to the personal care aisle. She began filling the basket with everything she needed: shampoo, conditioner, hair mask, detangler, moisturizer, body lotion, razor, toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, comb. Her five minutes was definitely up, but she needed to stop in the makeup aisle. She cringed as she surveyed the drug store brands Walmart had to offer. She wondered if Joe would let them stop at a Sephora. Probably not.

"What the fuck is all that?"

Joe had found her, and he was staring disapprovingly at her haul.

"The essentials," Katherine replied, frowning at his language. He really was so rude.

"Uh-uh." Joe started grabbing things out of her basket and dumping them back on the nearby shelf. Once he was finished, all Katherine had left was the comb, shampoo, razor and toothbrush.

"What about, you know...feminine products."

Katherine crossed her arms and pushed the sunglasses down her nose. "So you can say 'fuck' every other word, but you can't say 'tampons'?"

Joe glared at her, but Katherine could see the faint blush on his cheeks. She loved it. Torturing Joe could be her new favorite hobby.

"I should be good on feminine products for two more weeks," Katherine replied. "Please tell me we won't be together for that long."

"I sure as hell hope not," Joe grumbled. He tossed his own items into the basket, along with a few other things.

Katherine picked up the 5-pack of white underwear he'd gotten for her. She held it up, horrified. "You got me granny panties?"

Joe shrugged. "It was a good deal."

Katherine dropped them dramatically and focused on the other box. It was Nice N Easy. Shade: midnight black.

"This better be for you, Joe. Because these curls cannot survive boxed dye."

"You really are a fucking pain in the ass." He grabbed the basket and headed for the registers. "Need I remind you that you're in mortal danger? Who cares what your hair looks like."

Of course Mr. Tough Guy didn't care about things like that. But when you're the child of a movie star, you can't afford to look bad -- at any time. You never knew who was waiting around the corner to snap an unflattering picture. And said unflattering picture would end up all over the internet, never to be forgotten.

After they checked out and headed back to the car, Joe drove them ten more miles until they came across a seedy-looking motel. Joe got them a room and started unloading the bags from the car.

"This perfect day just keeps on getting better," Katherine remarked.

"If you don't stop your complaining," Joe said, "I really might gag you."

That remark sent an alarming, unexpected rush of heat between Katherine's legs. She shook her head, trying to clear it.

"I am so getting you fired when this is over."

"Do it, sweetheart. Make my day."

When they trudged into the room, Katherine was both relieved and disappointed to find there were two beds. She went to put her things down on the first one, but Joe gestured her towards the other.

"Okay, Bossy," she grumbled.

"Do you wanna be sleeping right next to the door when the bad guys come bursting in?" Joe asked.

She hated that he had a point.

"Let's get this over with," Joe said. He reached into the bags and extracted the hair dye, as well as a pair of scissors Katherine hadn't seen him get.

"Whoa!" She dashed into the bathroom and hid herself behind the door. "You didn't say anything about a haircut!"

"Katherine, we need to change your appearance as much as we can. Your long hair is too recognizable."

She felt the ridiculous urge to cry. It was just hair. It would grow back. But the thought of this brute hacking away at her curls was traumatizing. She longed for her stylist Gwendolyn, with her heavenly lavender shampoo and her hilarious gossip about other semi-famous clients.

"How short?" She wailed.

"I don't know," Joe said. "Shoulder-length?"

Okay. That wasn't so bad.

"Jesus, can we get this done? I'm exhausted."

Katherine opened the door all the way and plopped down on the toilet lid, waiting.

Joe was silent as he cut her hair. Katherine closed her eyes as soon as she saw the first giant hank fall to the gross bathroom floor. After a lot of snip snip snip, Joe stopped.

"Okay, how does that look?"

Eyes down, Katherine walked to the mirror. She slowly looked up. It wasn't terrible.

"It's fine," she mumbled, sniffling a bit. "I think the right side is a little longer than the left."

Joe made a few more adjustments, his fingers brushing against the back of her neck as he worked out a few tangles. She tried not to react to his delicate touch. When he was done, Katherine examined her hair again. It actually looked...cute. It made her look older, but in a good way.

"Dye time." Joe put the box on the counter. "I'll leave you to it."

Katherine wrestled with the tube of black dye, getting several splotches on the counter in the process. After it sat for the required time, Katherine hopped in the shower and washed it out, scrubbing her body clean with the questionable motel soap.

She emerged from the bathroom in the granny panties Joe had bought and one of his shirts he'd loaned her, towel still wrapped around her head. When Joe was in the bathroom and the shower started, Katherine dug her phone out of her backpack. She had about a hundred missed messages.

Where are you?? You missed lunch.

Hey K :) We still on for tonight?

Are you DEAD? Why aren't you picking up?

Taking another peek at the bathroom door to make sure Joe wasn't about to come out, Katherine fired off some quick replies, assuring her friends she was alive, and apologizing to Sean about having to miss their date for a family emergency.

:( Will you be back tomorrow night? I'm dying to see you.

Katherine was so absorbed in how she'd reply to Sean, she hadn't noticed that Joe emerged from the bathroom.

"What. The. Fuck. Is. That."

She froze and looked up. Joe had looked irritated with her before, but now his face was twisted with fury. Hair still wet from the shower, he wore only a pair of jeans. His muscular chest was bare and covered in tattoos, along with his biceps. Everything from his physique to the way he looked like he wanted to kill Katherine turned her on in every way. Face hot, she slowly got off the bed and onto her feet.

"Look, I'm sorry, but my friends were worried and..."

Joe charged at her. Katherine screeched and tried to run somewhere, but there was nowhere to go in this tiny box of a room. Joe backed her into a corner, his body pressed against hers. He grabbed her wrist, hard, until she cried out and dropped the phone to the floor.

"I told you to keep that off!" Joe snarled. She felt his spit land on her face.

"Okay, okay, I'll keep it off..." Katherine tried to get away to grab the phone.

"I don't fucking think so." Joe picked up the phone and went back to the bathroom. Katherine ran after him, the towel falling off her head.

"What the hell are you doing!"

Joe plugged the drain, threw the phone in the tub, and turned on the faucet.

"You asshole!"

Katherine rushed towards the tub, trying to rescue her phone before it was too late, but Joe blocked her. He held her waist in a death grip as she struggled against him, pounding her fists against his hard chest. She watched helplessly as the tub filled, and her phone went black.

"God, I hate you!" She screamed, feeling the tears welling up. This was all too much. The reality of the situation was sinking in, and now she didn't even have a lifeline back to normalcy.

"Right back at you, sweetheart." Joe pushed her out of the bathroom and slammed the door in her face. Katherine ran back to her bed and grabbed a pillow, sobbing into it. She didn't even care if Joe heard her.

In fact, she hoped he could.

***

Joe felt a little bad.

He'd lost his temper last night big time, and though Katherine had been a fucking idiot and put them in danger, he shouldn't have yelled like that. He was supposed to be professional. Besides, the girl's mom was being held hostage, and things weren't looking good for her dad. That would be a lot to handle for anyone, let alone a twenty-two-year-old.

In an effort to make peace, before Katherine woke up, Joe headed over to the restaurant attached to the motel, keeping an eye on the room door the entire time he was ordering at the counter.

He returned to the room with two coffees and breakfast sandwiches, with some extra donuts for himself. Joe sat on the edge of his bed and tossed the paper bag next to Katherine.

She woke with a start, sitting bolt upright and looking around, wide-eyed.

"Sorry," Joe said, meaning both for startling her and for what had happened the night before. "I got breakfast."

"Thanks," she mumbled, peeking into the bag then setting it on the nightstand. Katherine threw off the covers and climbed out of bed, giving Joe an unexpected glimpse of a lot of leg. Unable to look away, Joe watched her walk to the bathroom, and he was still staring long after she'd shut the door.

He'd been too mad last night to notice how she looked in his shirt, but now...Joe shook his head, trying to clear it. The girl was stacked, and she had long, toned legs to boot. Joe didn't normally prefer tall women, but he found Katherine's size to be incredibly sexy. She looked strong, solid -- like she wouldn't break if Joe got a little rough with her.