ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR (12 page)

selfsame night, the entire trajectory of that life, of her very relationship with Matty himself,

would change in ways, dramatic and sundry ways, that would leave both of them reeling.

SEVEN

She arrived back at the dorm after working at Stop Gap until eleven that night. Jessica and

Hector were in the room, lying across her bed, with Hector putting massaging oil on her curvy

legs. Although Jessica was laughing on her cell phone, undoubtedly talking to yet another one

of her “admirers,” Hector was staring, snarling at Shay.

Shay, however, ignored him, grabbed her shower bag and headed for the shower stalls

at the end of the hall. Hector, however, after a few minutes, his face growing angrier as he sat

there, stood to his feet.

Jessica looked at him. “Hold on, Frank,” she said into her cell phone, and then put it

down on the bed. “Where are you going?”

“I’ll be back, though,” Hector said, moving from side to side, unable to conceal his

anger.

Jessica stared at him, thought about Matty rejecting her offer to have breakfast with

him, thought about Shay driving around in a BMW when she was still catching the bus.

“Whatever,” she said, and went back to her phone conversation. Hector left the room in a

near-run.

A female was just leaving the shower room when he began walking up the hall in that

direction. As soon as she went into her dorm room and closed the door, he pounced, running

up to the shower room before he could be detected. First he opened the door quietly and

peeped inside. No-one was standing at the sinks. Then he slowly moved in, looked

underneath the toilet stalls, finding no-one, and then headed for the shower stalls in back,

where only one set of feet were seen. Shay’s pretty little brown feet.

He knew he had to be quick, and he was. He slung open the thick, white curtain,

covered her mouth with one hand, and began choking her with the other hand, her small,

naked body immediately disadvantaged by the shock of the surprise attack.

“You
bitch
!” he said in an angry whisper, and he began unzipping his pants. Shay tried

to fight him off, but he was too big and managed to push her so hard against the back of the

stall that she felt as if she’d been knocked breathless.

But she kept fighting. She wiggled and fought, forcing his hand around her neck to

constantly ease and then tighten, ease and then tighten, as he kept attempting to unzip his pants

and pull out his penis.

When he succeeded, and Shay felt his rock hard penis against her back, something

happened to her. She was no longer fighting for her freedom, she felt as if she was fighting for

her life. She threw herself down to the shower floor, causing his grip to loosen and the hand

over her mouth to slip. She screamed from the top of her lungs, and began kicking and

fighting him with all she had. He attempted to re-possess her, to grab her by the mouth and

throat again, but he had lost that element of surprise. It wasn’t easy this time, because she was

fully alert now.

Hector knew her screams had been heard and he was done for now. But not before

teaching the bitch a lesson, he thought. He slammed his fist into her face, her stomach, and

attempted again to force his penis into her vagina. But she wasn’t a stationary target. She

wasn’t a surprised damsel. And before he could readjust, before he could get his second wind,

his time was up.

Women came rushing in, some with weapons like a bat and a golf club, others with

their own sense of curiosity, and they immediately fought him too. A few men visiting on the

floor came in too, and it was over. Hector was dragged off of Shay, and taken down. And

Shay, stunned, angry, and in great pain, eventually passed out.

***

The President’s ball was top flight all the way, but Matty could hardly contain his

boredom. Alex was gorgeous, in her Dior gown and jewels by Tiffany’s, looking so stunning

that Matty found himself amazed by her beauty. The older she became, the more beautiful

she became. And he wondered, not for the first time, why she couldn’t find herself somebody

else to take her to this retreat.

But he knew why. She didn’t want to give him up completely yet, either. Their

relationship had been too long to be that easily severed, although Alex’s actions, particularly

with football coach, certainly hastened their end. But he’d already told her, on the drive over,

that this would be it for him. He was in a new relationship, he announced, and was going to

try and make it work.

Alex had behaved as if she was pleased for him, she was always a master at that, but

Matty knew her too well. She was hurt by that, which only hurt him even more. But what

was he going to do? Alex’s own behavior drove him away, and Shay was his lady now. And

nothing or nobody was going to hurt Shay.

Alex’s humiliation, however, was just beginning. First Peter Dial, the school’s head

football coach, arrived at the retreat with a gorgeous woman introduced as his brand new wife.

Matty was across the room when the announcement was made, and he hurried to Alex’s side.

She was unable to hide her pain this time, and Matty smiled and whispered in her ear

for her to never let a man like that see her vulnerability. She therefore laughed, as if Matty had

just told her a major league joke, and continued the façade of being totally unfazed.

But not long after that shock, she received another one. It was shortly before midnight

and she and Matty were in a small group of administration types talking about ways to make

Franklin as well known as Howard or Morehouse. Stockard Blanchard, the college president,

came up to the small group.

“There seems to have been an incident at Devender Hall tonight, folks,” he told the

group, and just saying the name of Shay’s dorm piqued Matty’s interest.

“What kind of incident?” Alex asked her boss.

“It seems one of our students was the victim of a rape or attack of some sort, they’re

still investigating, in the dorm shower stalls.”

A collective sigh of anguish went out from the group.

“They’ve taken her over to the campus clinic, poor thing.”

“Who was the student?” Matty asked, his heartbeat in suspended animation.

“One of yours, Alex, actually,” Stockard said. “I believe you mentor the girl. A

Shanita Cooper, I believe is her name?”

As soon as Shay’s name was announced, Matty took off. He didn’t excuse himself, he

didn’t beg Alex’s pardon, he didn’t so much as acknowledge her presence. He took off. Alex,

astounded, as was the entire group, just stood there.

“What in the world is his problem?” Stockard wanted to know.

“What in the world is right,” Alex wanted to know as well. Then she sat her drink on

the tray of a passing waiter.

“Excuse me, Stock,” she said, and headed for the exit, too.

***

The automated doors of the campus clinic slid open and Matty hurried inside. Jessica saw

him coming and hurried up to him. Tears were in her eyes. She had expected Hector to scare

Shay a little, even try to get fresh with her, but she never expected him to try and rape the girl,

to nearly kill her!

“Oh, Matty,” she said, covering her mouth. She fell into his arms.

“Where is she?” Matty wanted to know, looking beyond her, moving away from her.

“She’s here, but they won’t let me see her! They say only family can see her!”

Matty hurried to the nurse’s station. No way was he going to be denied.

“Who’s in charge?” he asked the desk clerk. “I need to see the person in charge.”

His heart was pounding.
Oh, God let her be all right
, he kept saying. But as the

young clerk went to get the charge nurse, his agitation grew.

“Where did they take her?” he asked Jessica, who was coming toward him.

When she pointed toward the back corridor separated by flapping doors, he took off in

that direction. Looking from room to room, office to office, calling Shay’s name, he finally

heard her voice.

“Matty?” she said and he hurried into a small holding room. When he saw her, seated

on the edge of a gurney, in a hospital gown, her small legs dangling down, he ran to her.

“Matty!” she said, her arms opening wide. Although she had been in pain ever since

she was conscious again, she hadn’t thought to cry until she looked into Matty’s eyes. The

tears dropped freely then.

“Oh, sweetheart!” Matty exclaimed, and pulled her gingerly into his arms.

But he quickly released her. “Are you okay?” he asked her, looking over her entire

body.

“It’s a little painful, but I’ll be okay.”

He noticed the deep abrasion on her arm, the scratch mark on her face. He placed his

hand on her face. “What happened?” he asked her.

“I got back to the dorm after work and went to take a shower. Everything was fine,

but then this dude, Hector, slung open the curtain.”

“Hector? You know him?”

“Yeah, that’s why it was so shocking. I mean, I don’t know him like that, but he’s

always hanging around.”

Matty didn’t like the sound of that. “Was he a friend of yours?”

“Not mine, no. He and Jessica were tight.”

Matty’s jaw tightened. That fast-ass roommate of hers! “What did he do to you,

sweetie? Did he . . . I mean, was he able to . . .”

Shay swallowed hard at the thought of it. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “He didn’t

rape me. He tried, but thank God he didn’t do it.”

“Thank God!” Matty said, so relieved he nearly collapsed from the lightened weight on

his shoulders. “But why did he do it?”

“He was trippin’ because I wouldn’t introduce him to you.”

This surprised Matty. “To me?”

“Yeah. He and Jess figured you had to be rich because you bought me that Beamer, so

they figured you should spread the wealth around.”

“Did they, now?”

“I know. It’s foolishness, but that’s how they think. Jess understood, but I don’t

think Hector ever did.”

“Is this Hector person in police custody now?”

Shay nodded. “Yeah, they got him.”

“Good thing for him,” Matty said in an offhand way, although he was dead serious.

Hector didn’t know how fortunate he was that the cops got their hands on him first.

But then the talking stopped, as that stormy look in Shay’s eyes made him certain she

was reliving the horror again. He pulled her back into his arms.

And they remained in this position, holding onto each other, thankful to God that this

scene wasn’t as horrific as it could have been, when Alex, followed by Jessica, entered the

room.

Alex was at first taken aback, seeing Matty,
her
Matty, holding another woman. But

she was pure angry at the thought that he would be holding that hood rat Shanita Cooper. She

didn’t even know they knew each other. Was he that anonymous, third party donor who had

agreed to become Shanita’s sponsor? She recalled telling him that the girl had lost her

scholarship, but she never, not for a second, put two and two together. But he had to be the

one. Who else but Matty would be this generous with someone so undeserving?

Jessica ran past Alex and up to Shay. “Shay, are you all right?” she asked her, her face

lit up with concern.

“I’m okay,” Shay said as Matty stood back and allowed the two roommates to hug. He

looked at Alex.

“My,” Alex said, walking up to him, “how you get around.” Her beauty, her jewels,

her entire personae lit up the drab room.

“How did you get here?”

“Cab. Which was the height of embarrassment, of course. But you left me little

choice.” Then she looked past him, at Shay. “Hello, Shanita,” she said.

“Dr. Graham,” Shay said. She knew Alex didn’t care for her, and the feeling was

mutual. “You didn’t have to come.”

“One of my mentees was viciously attacked, of course I had to come. What

happened?”

“A dude jumped me in the shower stall and tried to rape me.”

Alex wanted to roll her eyes. She’d met her ghetto queens in the past, but she was

beginning to believe that Shay won the prize. “And was this
dude
known to you when he

jumped
you in the stalls?”

Shay looked at Jessica. “He was a friend of mines,” Jessica said, “but not anymore,

Dr. Graham. For real, though.”

Although Jessica Malveau garnered a little more respect from Alex than Shay did, it was

barely more. “I didn’t know you knew Mr. Driscoll, Shanita,” she said, attempting to ramp

down her overwhelming curiosity.

“Yeah, well, lots you don’t know about me, Dr. Graham,” Shay decided to say. If