by Tia Wilson
As inappropriate as it seemed after all they had been through Linda blurted out, “I’ll figure out a way for you to pay off your debt.” She could feel her cheeks redden as soon as soon as the words were out of her mouth.
Blackjack saluted her and said, “Yes sir.”
They both began to laugh and it felt good to have some joy coursing through her after so much misery. The sound echoed around the courtyard and for a moment the weariness and pain Linda felt throughout her body was forgotten. Blackjacks eyes twinkled full of mischief while he laughed and Linda noticed how attractive he looked in that instant. It was such a simple thing but it made her feel alive as if the shared laughter helped them break through the veil of horror and stand tall to declare that they were both alive and could take anything that was thrown at them. The laughter was an act of defiance that helped them feel human again.
When they stopped Blackjack said, “Take a look at these, they were on the floor in the office,” and handed three photographs to Linda. They had been taken with the instant camera and each one showed Linda’s struggle with the crazed Emily. One of the pictures caught the moment as Linda buried the needle in Emily’s leg.
“He was watching us the whole time,” Linda said, “he didn’t even attempt to save her. That’s a pretty strong message he left us.” Linda shivered at the thought of this madman running loose. “Do you have any idea who he is?”
“I’ve never seen that freak before, or his girlfriend. I meet some twisted fuckers in this line of work, him I don’t remember at all. He went to a lot of trouble to grab me. The next time I see him I’ll make sure it’s on my terms,” he said angrily. “Fuck. What time is it?” he said as he searched through his pockets for his phone.
“Judging by the height of the sun I’d say it’s close to midday”
“Fuck. We need to get to the safe house or find a phone fast. The meet at the harbor was meant to go down now. I have to contact Pops, this shit could go sideways if I don’t turn up at the designated time. Fuck that limping freak, if anything happens to one of my guys because of his twisted games I will tear this city apart until I find him. I wont play as nice with him the next time we cross paths, ill make today look like a kids birthday party.”
“What about her inside, she might have a phone,” Linda said walking towards the door.
“She doesn’t,” Blackjack growled.
“Should we give her the antidote?” Linda asked.
“Its too late she was already dead when I came out to you. Her heart probably gave out.”
Linda knew she should have felt some sort of remorse but she felt nothing but cold indifference to that crazed woman’s death. Linda had killed before in the line of duty and each time it had affected her deeply. This time was different, it was either her or that batshit insane woman and Linda knew she would choose herself anytime the choice was given. If she had any self doubt about the decision she had no time to dwell on it as they both made their way out of the industrial area to find a phone.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The cab dropped them off a few blocks from the safe house and they walked the rest of the way. Linda knew Blackjack was being as careful as possible. His gang was under threat from two fronts now and it looked like his world was slowly unraveling before his eyes. The rival gang he could deal with through sheer force. The limping man hiding in the shadows and biding his time, waiting for the right moment to strike again was completely out of Blackjacks hands and this is what had seemed to shake him the most. He hadn’t spoken since the call to Pops and had only spoken in short terse sentences. From the fragments that Linda had heard from her side it looked like the gang had been hit by a group of heavily armed men and several member’s had been killed. At one point Blackjack had raised his voice in anger and demanded that a meet be held as soon as possible. When he had gotten off the phone, a cheap burner they picked up in a tiny corner store electronics shop, he was distant and deflated. When Linda asked what was going on all he mumbled was, “Some bad shit.”
Now they were winding their way through the tight streets of a neighborhood she wasn’t familiar with. Blackjack crossed back and forward some side streets taking a circuitous route to the safe house. When he was sure that they weren’t being tailed he stopped outside a house with a high wooden fence. A metal sign was nailed to the gate. A snarling dog with snarling jaws wide open was painted on it. Flecks of spittle flew in all directions and in bright white letters was stencilled, “This beast bites. Enter at your peril”.
Blackjack keyed in a code on the pad beside the gate and a bolt slid soundlessly back allowing their entry. “Stay behind me.” Blackjack said as he closed the gate. Linda pressed into him tight as a large dog barrelled towards them from behind the house. It looked like the dog in the warning sign except this one was bigger and meaner looking. The brute was all muscle and looked like a slick torpedo of gnashing teeth as it neared them. Linda pressed in close to Blackjack using him as a shield. “Sit.” Blackjack said in a firm commanding voice. The dog immediately stopped dead on the spot and sat with its large pink tongue lolling out of its mouth. “Roll over.” Blackjack said and the dog obeyed. Blackjack knelt and scratched the dogs belly vigorously and the dog’s tail thwacked in excitement against the ground.
“Come over. Once he knows you are with me you will be ok. I got him as a puppy and he is trained to attack on sight. The only people who can step on this property safely are a guest and me. Anyone else who climbs that fence is taking their life into their own hands. Once he clamps his jaws onto you he wont let go. This place is for me and me alone. We will be safe to hole up here the night.”
Linda knelt and hesitantly stroked the matted fur on the dog’s belly. His tail wagged even faster as he enjoyed the dual attention. The dog spun around and sniffed at Linda’s hand and then gave it a broad lick.
“He’s bonded to you now,” Blackjack said, “if anyone tries to harm you he will protect you with his life.”
Blackjack rolled onto the ground and grabbed the dog in an embrace and the two rolled around on the grass as the dog licked furiously at Blackjacks face. He started to laugh as the dog licked his ear and enthusiastically rolled around with him. Hearing him laugh sounded good to Linda, the joyful guffaws buoyed her spirits. For a moment she forgot about the horrors of the day and just watched Blackjack playfully wrestle with the large Alsatian. The despair and darkness of the day pulled at this moment of joy like an unraveling sweater. Linda could feel a massive weight pressing down on her shoulders as exhaustion took a draining hold of her.
A thick metal door swung open as Blackjack ushered her inside the safe house. The windows all had thick iron bars on them and the door swung behind her with a reassuring clunk. Immediately Linda felt better and realized she had felt exposed in the garden even with the monster of a dog ready to protect her. She had felt that the limping man could pop out in any second with a ghoulish grin and his thin reedy voice declaring “You really think I would have let you go that easily?” She shuddered thinking about him and when Blackjack saw her visibly shaking he approached her and wrapped his arms around her pulling her close against him. The steely tightness of his muscles pressing into her felt good, she felt safe and already she could feel something more spread through her limbs. At first it was nothing more than a tiny glowing match illuminating the walls of a dark cave. The longer their bodies stayed pressed together the brighter the flame grew. Her skin prickled under his touch as if an unseen force was coursing through both their bodies. They were twin lightning rods beginning to crack and fizzle from the intensity of each other’s touch. Linda pulled away breaking the embrace. She feared how strongly she had felt while enveloped in his strong arms. “I am here to do a job,” she thought to herself sternly. It didn’t seem to matter as the rational side of her brain screamed to stay in control, to focus on the task at hand. The flood of emotions running through her body at that time was drowning this call to arms out. She couldn’t deny that she was beginning to
have feeling for Blackjack, she was scared to pull back the covers and see how deep these blossoming emotions went.
Blackjack looked at her concerned. “Are you ok?” he said switching on the lights in the small living room area.
“I need to clean up, its been a long day,” she said feeling the last of her resolve drain away. If Blackjack swept her up in his arms right this second she would have been powerless to resist, she knew that this time it wouldn’t be the same as the mechanical sex that she had performed earlier. This time it would be full blooded and passionate and Linda sensed the danger in letting herself get pulled into the tidal force of his charms. She could feel the walls pressing in on her and her whole body tingled in anticipation, she needed to get away from him as quickly as possible or she wouldn’t be able to control herself anymore.
“The bathrooms back there,” Blackjack pointed as he sat heavily onto a mottled grey couch, “clean towels are in the room next to it.”
Blackjack was already sleeping lightly when Linda returned to ask him a question. She stood on the other side of the room looking at his chest rise and fall as he slept. Her hands balled into tight fists as she stood there feeling confused and rung out like a dirty bar rag. She had known that this job was going to be dangerous when her chief first talked about infiltrating the gang. What she didn’t know was how quickly she would start to have these strong feeling for Blackjack. It felt like a dream and she couldn’t yet trust the intensity of her emotions. Linda dragged her stare away from Blackjack hoping that a cold shower would take her mind off him. She yearned for him and knew if she acted on it that she was walking a dangerous line.
The shock of cold water on her skin refreshed and awakened her but did nothing to clear her head. The cold water felt like penance for a sin she was about to commit. Linda felt like she was floating above her body as it went through the motions of cleaning her sore and achy limbs. Tales about undercover cops falling for their prey were a dime a dozen around the battered and leaky coffee machine at the back of her office. She had heard every variation of it over the few years of working for the special crimes division. These stories were always told in a tone of voice that denigrated and mocked the cop who had let his heart lead him astray. Some of her fellow cops liked to think they were above that kind of emotionality but the truth was in these high risk situations sometimes love blossomed. Linda refused to use the warm water on her goose prickled skin in a vain attempt to tamp down her feelings. She dried off and slipped into a pair of loose fitting jogging pants cinched tight at the waist and an old t-shirt of Blackjacks.
When she returned to the room Blackjack was sitting wide awake and looking a little refreshed even though he had only slept for a handful of minutes. Linda stood in the doorway intensely aware of her rapidly beating heart and skin that prickled under his gaze. She could feel the tension between them soak into every fixture in the room and inanely blurted out the first thing to come to mind, anything to break up the silence. “The showers all yours.” Blackjack got up and a few seconds later the shower started up. Linda let out a sigh and sunk into the soft couch. She ran through over all the information she had gathered about the gang so far, mentally building connections, crimes, gang structure and property locations. Anything to take her mind off Blackjack, how he looked, how he smelled and they way she had felt when they kissed after their frenzied escape from the pair of murderess psychos. “Stop it,” she said out loud to the room. She could feel her focus slip and shatter on the floor at the sound of her voice. She couldn’t get him out of her mind. All chances of pushing him to a dark corner of her brain evaporated when she heard a noise behind her. She turned and looked. Blackjack was standing there with a towel around his waist. His body was bruised in several spots and his torso glistened in the dim light cast from the bathroom. She could feel her nipples stiffen beneath her t-shirt and a warm sweet heat pulsed between her legs. Linda felt herself rise and walk towards him as if in slow motion. She could make out every muscle in his taut body. His eyes twinkled devilishly as they drew closer. All thoughts of being professional and not getting attached dissolved under the heat of his gaze. Linda felt powerless and deep inside she knew that this was dangerous game she was playing. In this moment she had no way to fight against it. They both stood before each other bearing the scars meted out to them by the horrors of the last few days. Both needing to draw comfort from one another, a need to scream into the void that they had not been bested and they would continue to fight the good fight. Most of all and at its most simplest they wanted each other. The rawness and power of the feeling tore through Linda’s body as Blackjack wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her close.
When their lips touched it was like a super nova being born amidst them. The warm intense pressure of his lips against hers obliterated all fears and doubt. Her lips barely registered any pain from their earlier injuries and his tenderness while he kissed her only increased his magnetism. They hungrily kissed as the electric prickle of his touch sparked across her skin. She could feel him stiffen against her, an incessant steely throb against her body. His hands moved across her exploring the ample curves of her breasts, his rough palms brushing across the peaked hardness of her nipples. Her knees nearly buckling when he began to kiss the delicate skin at the nape of her neck. She ran her fingers through his hair as he kissed her neck and shoulders and with one smooth movement pulled her t-shirt off. Any self consciousness she had was banished as soon as his warm lips engulfed her hard nipple and his tongue flicked across the sensitive surface. Blackjack hooked an arm under her and in a flurry of kissing and caressing he carried her into the bedroom and they fell into a tangled heap onto the bed.
She was on top of him and could feel his stiff cock pulsing against her. She shed the rest of her clothes and sat astride him looking down at him, their gaze unwavering as all the horrors of the day burned away like paper in a fire. He ran his fingers gently across the patch of abrasion along her side. “Does it hurt?” he said, eyes glistening in the light cast from another room.
“Only when I breath,” she said laughing. The sound of her laughter expanded in the room and at that moment it was what they both needed. All tension broke and Blackjack joined her wincing as his body shook from the force of his laughter. He pulled her in close as the laughing slowly subsided and she felt reinvigorated by his touch. They had been through so much together and she felt a connection that she had never felt with anyone before. The intensity of feeling and emotions coursing through her pushed all other concerns away. They were two glorious pinpricks of light seeking solace in each other and Linda gave in to it completely.
Linda’s back arched as he easily slipped into her. Fireworks exploded in her skull at the initial sensation of his length becoming enveloped in her silken folds. She matched his smooth thrusts with a downward stroke of her hips, each movement sending flutters of pleasure throughout her body. His hand felt powerful as they gripped the soft curves of her ass, adjusting her speed to a slow rhythmic gyration.
Their gaze was locked onto each other, pupils dilating as each sweet thrust brought them ever closer to the peak. When the explosive tendrils of the blue hued orgasm hit Linda her nails dug into the flesh of his shoulder. Her body clamped down on him hard as he was also blasted by the exquisite pleasure of his orgasm. Their limbs entwined and held each other close working as one and feeding off each other’s pleasure until slowly the explosion receded to be left behind by the warm afterglow of physical connection.
Linda lay down beside him and he held her with her head on his chest so she could hear his heart beating. Strong and unwavering it thumped under her touch, the regularity of its beats bringing sleep on quickly. As the grey folds of slumber pulled her down her last thought was, “I’m in trouble. I’m falling for him hard.”
The pungent smell of coffee filled Linda’s dreams as she slowly began to rouse. She spread out in the bed feeling the warm patch left behind from Blackjack and her stomach took a queasy tumble as th
e night before flashed behind her closed eyelids like a garish neon sign. For a split second she had hoped that last night would have felt like nothing more than a purely physical act on her behalf. No such luck. She had smiled and her skin tingled when she touched the warm patch in the bed beside her. She felt an immediate longing for Blackjack only slightly tinged by fear for how dangerous this could get for her. This is what scared her the most, the fact that she could be falling in… she couldn’t even bring herself to think the word as if doing so would make it all the more real. She told herself only half believing it that she was a professional and she could break through any emotions using brute force methods. That idea quickly died when he walked into the room with two steaming cups of coffee. Immediately on seeing his smiling face Linda couldn’t help but smile back. Her heart was beating so hard in her chest that it hurt. She was sure that he must have been able to hear it thudding away at rabbit like speeds. Her body had betrayed her almost instantly on sight and she knew she was fooling herself. Like a woman who has just got their first foot stuck in quicksand Linda was not aware of how much danger she was really in.