Milly couldn't believe her success in eluding John for the rest of the weekend. Although she went out of her way to avoid seeing him at The Keep, she was surprised by how well she managed it. He must not be very good at whatever her father had hired him to do, she decided smugly. Because on Sunday morning, she showered and dressed in a loose fitting sleeveless white sheath and sandals, packed her luggage into her car said goodbye to her father and Mae and drove off into the sunrise all by herself. And John, the big chump, was nowhere in sight for any of it.

Her triumph was short-lived concluding as it did at the end of her father's driveway. As she'd told John the day before, Milly hadn't left the estate since she'd arrived there three months ago. And as she'd John, she'd assured herself that was only because there hadn't been any reason for her to leave. She hadn't had a job for years and what few friends she'd managed to cultivate before getting involved with Dave she had neglected after her marriage. And that would be because Dave had discouraged her from having a life that didn't totally revolve around him.

Milly had herself now that her hesitation was silly, that beyond the gate to her father's estate laid a wealth of experiences she had missed for far too long. Beyond the gate laid adventure, excitement maybe even romance. Well okay probably not romance because she had no intention of getting involved with anyone until she "found herself'.

But beyond that gate laid life, she thought. And life was something she hadn't had to call her own for a very long time. So what was stopping her? Why was she so reluctant to move forward? Why did she want to turn her car around, drive back up to the house and hide under her bed for a long, long time?

When she entered the long term parking and got her things out. Just as she shut the trunk of the car, the hairs on the back of her neck pricked up. Telling herself that there was nothing amiss, Milly slipped her tote bag neatly over the metal pull handle of her garment bag and then slung her smaller cosmetic bag on the top. She took her first step toward freedom, pulling her luggage along for the trip. And she did her best to shake off another sensation that she was being watched.

She completed two more steps before she felt the presence of another person coming up behind her, much too quickly and much too close. By the time she started to spin around in an effort to identify the oncoming person's intent was to drag her, probably kicking and screaming toward a waiting van whose engine suddenly bellowed to life. What Milly's wasn't able to figure out was the identity of the person. But it was most definitely a him. Of that she was certain, thanks to the size of the arms wrapped around her throat and waist and the strength with which he used those arms to pull her backwards.

Although she tried to free herself from the vicious embrace, she was helpless to even ease the man's hold on her. Instead she could only struggle fruitlessly as he dragged her backward. She instinctively drove her heel down onto the man's foot as hard as she could and was surprised when the maneuver actually worked. In fact, the man turned loose of her so quickly that it was almost as if he'd been physically ripped from her by a third party. Spinning around, Milly realized that was exactly what had happened. Because John Cena was tangled up with her would-be abductor, doing his best and it was definitely some very good best to overpower the thug.

Before she could even think what she should do, John dispatched her assailant, who Milly realized now that she got a good look, was a complete stranger. He stumbled back to the van and climbed in and they sped off.

The next thing Milly knew, John was grabbing her hand and tugging her along behind him. He scooped up her luggage as they passed it pulling it along as they fled toward the big ruby red SUV whose engine was also rumbling like an angry beast and whose driver's door had been flung open.

"Get in." John instructed her unnecessarily as he pushed her toward the open door. He went around to the back of the vehicle and put her luggage in the back. He got in the driver's door and sped away.

"Holy cow." Milly said as he took a corner much too quickly, hurling her against the passenger side door. Hastily she clipped her seat belt into place and shoved down the lock with her fist. "What the hell was that about?"

John was still breathing much too hard to reply with any amount of coherence but what eventually came out sounded like, "Can't… beleevt. Sumbitch… tried…catnip…you." Strangely he sounded even more outraged about it than she felt herself.

"We should call the police." She said.

"Yeah, we sure as hell should call somebody." He agreed. "Just let me take care of it okay?"

Milly opened her mouth to object but something in his expression forbade her to say anything. She and John both remained quiet for some time after that until they were a few miles away from the airport. Even then Milly only broke the silence because she couldn't stand the fact that John hadn't uttered the obvious by now.

"So?" She said softly. "Aren't you going to say I told you so. I figured those would be the first words out of your mouth when you saw what was happening."

He shook his head but kept his gaze fixed on the road. "Not the first words out of my mouth were well they weren't exactly fit to repeat. But something along the lines of Hey, that matriach-fricking poopoo head is stealing Milly. If I get my gosh darn hands on him, I'll punt his gosh darned tushie right up his gosh darned proboscis. I have a job to do after all."

Milly nodded resigned now to her fate. Suddenly having her body guarded by John didn't seem like a terrible thing even if her father was the one who was responsible for it. Even if John was only doing it because he was getting paid to. In fact her body didn't seem to mind the realization either because every single cell she possessed was currently humming with anticipation at the prospect.

"Gee, I guess this make you my bodyguard after all. Just like my father wanted."

A few moments passed before John replied obviously with more than a little reluctance. "Um, actually bodyguard wasn't exactly the position your father ultimately hired me to fill."

"Then if you're not going to be my bodyguard, what exactly are you going to be?"

"I'm your kidnapper, Milly. I'm your kidnapper."

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