Catch

by S. Poirier

  She’s mine, and I want everyone to know.

  ****

  Now that we have both talked about the few things that we seem to keep locked up, and I have made it very clear to the other guest that she is off limits my stomach starts to growl.

  “Hey, are you hungry?” I feel her head nod against my chest, so I smack her bare ass and tell her to go get dressed. She squeals my name and I swear I will never get tired of hearing her call me by my given name. It makes me want to bury myself deep inside of her again.

  She sits up and stretches her arms above her head. Her hair is over her shoulders covering her beautiful breasts. I get the impression she’s taunting me. I grip the comforter because it’s all I can do to keep myself from reaching out and touching her.

  Very slowly she crawls over me, rubbing her tits along my chest. She straddles my lap for a brief moment, and then quickly slides off of my side of the bed. I watch as she walks across the room in only a way Max Brady can. She exudes confidence and strength in every step she takes. Her ass bounces slightly with each sway of her hips, and there’s a delicious little, cherry red birthmark right above the crease of her ass. Her hair is still resting over her chest, so it’s parted in the back and I can see her flock of birds.

  When she reaches the bathroom door she snatches up a piece of her hair and starts sliding it slowly through her fingers. Looking over her shoulder she catches me blatantly staring. A slow sexy grin moves across her face.

  “Get dressed, Sage, I’m starving,” she purrs, and then disappears behind the door.

  Jesus Christ that woman is trying to kill me.

  The smell of bacon hits me the moment I open the door. As we make our way to the kitchen the familiar sound of Marina’s tone deaf singing rings loudly through the house.

  “Eh, is she always this chipper in the mornings?” Max asks. “She kind of sounds like a dying cat.”

  I kiss her on the temple. “Yeah, it’s kind of awful. Sit, I’ll be right back.” I motion for her to take a seat at the dining room table, and then head for the kitchen.

  Marina is dancing and singing as she flips pancakes. She’s wearing a pair of cotton shorts and a button up that appears to be a couple of sizes too small.

  “Seriously, you should stop before I feel the need to channel my inner Simon Cowell,” I yell over her obnoxious voice. She squeals and drops the spatula.

  “My God! Catch, don’t scare me like that,” she says as she presses her hand to her chest. I notice that she’s wearing her normal ridiculous amount of makeup.

  “Have you heard from Snitch?” I ask getting straight to the point. The last thing I want to do right now is spend too much alone time with Marina.

  She shakes her head. “It’s not even ten in the morning. He’s probably still asleep, especially if he had a good night.” She waggles her eyebrows before turning to flip the bacon. “And by the sounds bouncing through the house late last night I would say someone else had a pretty good night too.” Her tone goes from playful to downright icy.

  “Now’s not the time, Marina. And besides I don’t think those noises are any of your business,” I warn.

  “Well, when it’s in my house…”

  I cut her off. “Do you question all of your guests about the noises that come from their rooms while they stay here?” I ask. She spins around and throws the spatula at me. “Well, at least it wasn’t a high heeled shoe,” I mumble.

  “I’m not going to even ask what that’s supposed to mean,” she says while glaring at me. “When Snitch told me that you had a ‘girl’ I didn’t want to believe it, so I was relieved to find out otherwise when the two of you arrived. I figured Snitch was just trying to ruffle my feathers. But after what I heard last night and then again this morning Snitch obviously knows what he’s talking about.”

  Marina is Snitch’s cousin. For twelve years she has been in love with me, and there hasn’t been anything I can do to shake her. I knew coming here wasn’t the best idea. I also knew brining Max here was an even worse idea. But when choices are limited you always pick the best bet. We are safest in this house.

  “I don’t know why she’s tagging along with you. Snitch wouldn’t elaborate. But, I know that she’s not one of us,” she says while pointing her finger towards the dining room.

  “Keep your damn voice down, Marina. I won’t have you upsetting her,” I whisper.

  “I understand you in a way that she never will.” There’s a sad, pleading look in her eyes. And just like every other time she has flashed those puppy dog eyes at me I’m not the least bit affected.

  Marina starts inching her way towards me. She comes to a stop when her bare toes touch the tips of my boots. Her light blue button up doesn’t leave much to the imagination, and her cotton shorts are dangerously short. So short she has no business bending over.

  She brings her hand up to touch my face, but I catch her wrist before it reaches me. “Marina, just because you’re related to Snitch and you somehow figured out his secret doesn’t mean that you understand me. I’ve been very patient about your persistence, but now I’m going to be blunt.” The smirk on her face fades as her eyes bunch together. “When pigs fucking fly, Marina.”

  I step past her and leave her to digest those words. Max is still sitting in the same chair I left her in. Three of the stoners from last night are sitting at the table with her and the four of them are having a competition to see who can hang their spoons from their noses the longest.

  “Give it up boys, you’ll never beat me. I’ve had a lot of practice,” Max taunts. As I stand there and watch she pops the first and then the second button on her shirt exposing the swell of her breast. I hear the clatter of three spoons hitting the table. She laughs as she puts her spoon down and then buttons her shirt.

  “Dude, you so cheated,” the one with the dreads says.

  The one with the short messy hair chuckles and says, “Yeah, but it was so worth it.” That’s when I clear my throat. All four of them turn to look at me. Max’s eyes widen and her cheeks turn pink.

  “Well played, Max.” I give her a reassuring smile, and her body relaxes.

  She pats the seat next to her, and I gladly sit down, a few moments later Marina walks into the room and tosses the serving dishes onto the table. Eggs, bacons, and pancakes scatter in every direction. The three stoners jump back in surprise.

  “Whoa, babe, what was that for?” dreadlocks asks.

  “Eat up, and then get the hell out of here. This isn’t a free ride,” she barks before leaving the room.

  Max looks at me, her brows furrowed. “Is she talking about us, or them?”

  “Them,” I say as I touch her knee reassuringly under the table.

  Maybe Marina finally heard my words.

  15

  Catch

  Two days passed without a word from Snitch. Max wasn’t able to figure out anything more about Fiddle, but she was relentless. Times when she was clearly suffering from cabin fever I distracted her the only way I knew how, between the sheets.

  I had just finished nibbling a trail down her neck when my cell starts ringing. “Wow, Snitch kind of sucks right now,” she moans as she reaches in my pocket and fishes out the phone.

  “Don’t speak so soon. I have a good feeling about this call,” I say before giving the corner of her mouth a quick kiss. “Snitch, what’s up man?”

  “I need you to meet me in thirty minutes, at the bar. Leave the girl at the house,” he said before ending the call.

  “Dammit, I hate when he does that,” I mumble.

  “What? What’d he say?” She asks as she adjusts her breast in her bra.

  Damn. Snitch better have something good to pull me away from her.

  “Only that I need to meet him in thirty minutes at the bar,” I reply.

  “Well, okay just give me ten minutes, and I’ll be ready to go.”

  Here is where I piss her off. “Snitch said to leave you at the house.” I can’t bring myself to look her i
n the eyes, because I know she’s about to blow her top.

  Her arms shoot out into the air and she’s flailing them around. “Oh, hell no! I’m going. You can’t allow him to cut me out of this. I’ve been working my ass off since we got here to try and piece this crap together. I have a right to know what he knows. It’s about me for God’s sake! And don’t you dare say, ‘we don’t even know if he knows anything yet’ because I know that’s bullshit,” she yells. Her chest heaves with another large intake of breath, and I know she’s about to unleash another tongue lashing.

  “Max, baby. Shut. Up.” I walk over and put my hands on her shoulders. “Calm down, listen to me. Snitch isn’t going to put you in danger. There’s a reason he wants you to stay in the house. I know you want to get out, and I promise I’m going to make that happen for you soon, but right now I need you to trust me and Snitch.” I’m rubbing her shoulders trying to get her muscles to loosen. “Please, do this for me?”

  She sighs and her shoulders relax. “Okay, fine. Fine.” She throws her hands up in exasperation. “I’ll sit here like a good little girl, and wait for you to come back. But I expect you to tell me everything, and if I find out that you’re keeping anything from me I will kick your ass.”

  Arguing with Max burned a lot of time and I had to jog over to the bar. Snitch was standing in the cracked doorway when I arrived.

  “One minute late,” he said as he looked down at his watch. “Did that hot girl of yours give you problems about leaving her behind?”

  “You’re really going to give me shit about being one minute late?” I go into the bar when he steps aside.

  “Catch, the assassin that I know, is never late.” He waves his arm to get me to follow him. “I’m going to bring you somewhere, and if in the future anyone knocks on my door I’m going to have a lot of questions for you.” His tone was serious and I had a feeling his questions would involve a rather large bullet.

  I follow him through the bar and into the back kitchen area. The place is empty save for the two of us. He leads me over to the stove and with ease pulls it away from the wall, then he pushes the wall open. And it dawns on me.

  “You own the bar.” It’s a statement, not a question.

  Snitch grins at me over his shoulder. “I was wondering when you would figure that out. I also own the house Marina lives in. That’s how she found out about us. That girl sure can find shit out when she wants too.” He shrugs. “I guess it runs in the family. Of course she isn’t nearly as good as I am.” He’s smug, but he has every right to be.

  I follow him through a dark hallway that leads to another door. It’s lined with several deadbolts, taking him a couple of minutes to get them all unlocked. When the door swings open I step into a very large, boxy room that is cluttered. White dry erase boards, filing cabinets, desks, multiple computers, several monitors, and maps.

  “Holy shit, Snitch, this is where it all goes down?” I ask shocked that he brought me to his mysterious lair.

  He pats my shoulder. “Don’t get too excited this is only a small portion of it. I have different areas all over the United States.” He steps around me and heads over to computer in a back corner. “Come here. I need to show you something.”

  Snitch sits down in an old wooden desk chair and starts shuffling papers around. I lean over to see over his shoulder.

  “I’ve done some digging, and Max is right, Fiddle has been very, very busy. She’s right about the things you already informed me off, but I’ve figured out the parts she doesn’t know.” There’s a level of accomplished arrogance in his voice that would normally make me want to knock his teeth out, but I’m too worried about the information he found to care.

  “Max is right that James Kelly has been accepting money from terrorist groups, and purchasing them weapons. Tell Max to add murder to that laundry list she’s been working on. Now here’s what I found out. In exchange for the weapons they are providing information to the terrorist on certain politicians they want assassinated. They can access this information through Fiddle.”

  “They?” I ask.

  “Yeah, it’s that extreme group of people from that political party who broke off and formed their own group. Well, certain politicians that are secretly following that group want some of their colleagues taken out. Conflict of interest kind of thing.

  “James Kelly is one of the main members from this group. They are transferring the money from bank account to bank account, giving some to charity, and purchasing weapons to send to the terrorist groups. I’m also assuming that James Kelly is sticking a large portion of these funds in his own pocket.”

  I stood there a moment and let his words sink in. It seems like a lot and I’m more than relieved to know that we finally know why they are after Max.

  “So James Kelly has these terrorists paying him to buy them weapons? And in return they are going to assassinate politicians that don’t agree with him and his crazy followers? But what about all the extra money they’re giving him? The weapons they are sending them doesn’t cost that much.”

  “No, but when these countries are at war, they will do anything to get their hands on the things they need,” he replies.

  “Okay, well regardless, now I need to come up with a plan to get to Timer. He needs to know this shit. Maybe if he knows…”

  Snitch put his hand up to stop me. “No. Listen to me, Timer is pissed and not because she isn’t dead. Timer is pissed because he didn’t get his money. From what I’m hearing it’s double what he usually makes off a hit. I don’t know for sure he’ll take sympathy with the fact that Max is an innocent person. Timer wants his money.”

  I stand there looking around the room wondering how the hell Snitch figures these things out. But the only thing I learn looking at his cluttered area is that he is a nerdy packrat.

  I pinch the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger, trying desperately to ward off the fast approaching headache. “What if I just gave him the money?” I have the money. I could pay him his cut in exchange for Max’s life.

  “I can pass on the message, but Catch, I can’t promise you anything. Timer can be pretty temperamental at times. I know he wants the money, but I can say, don’t be surprised if he wants more than just money in return.”

  I run my fingers through my hair and squat down to the floor. I’m so frustrated I want to start smashing this place to hell and back. But that would probably earn me a bullet to the head.

  “Catch, I’m going to ask you this again, and this time I want a straight, honest answer.” I look up to see Snitch leaning over in his chair, elbows rested on his knees. He’s looking at me with a stare so intense that I almost look away. “Is Max Nora Brady worth all of this shit?”

  Without a single second of hesitation I answer his question. “Yes, more than I can put into words. Is that ‘straight’ and ‘honest’ enough for you?” I ask in a low growl.

  Snitch sits up straight. “I get it man, and I’m going to let you get back to her because the last person you want to leave her alone with too long is Marina. I keep telling her to leave you alone, but she just won’t let it go.”

  “Yeah, well I think maybe this time I got through to her,” I say as I stand up straight again.

  Snitch also stands, and then walks around me heading towards the door. “Catch, man I wouldn’t count on it. She’s relentless when it comes to the things she wants. And she wants you, badly.”

  We make our way down the hallway and back out into the bar. “Hey, thanks for everything.” I say as we approach the door.

  “You saved my life once. It’s the least I can do,” he says as he shakes my hand. “As always I’ll keep you updated. Now seriously, get back to that house before Marina sinks her claws in to Max.”

  I smile thinking to myself about how Max is without a doubt capable of handling someone like Marian. And how if it comes to that I just may enjoy watching her kick some ass. I’m lost in thought at the hot image of my girl doing one of the things she does
best when my cell phone chimes.

  A text from Snitch already?

  Unknown number: Sage, we’re being tailed.

  Shit. It’s Max. I send her a quick text to get her location and when I find out that she’s about five blocks from me a shiver of panic races down my spine. I decide that I need to meet her somewhere in public with a lot of people, and I need to get to her fast. I send another quick text telling her to meet me on the corner of Bourbon and St. Peter Street.

  Then I run.

  ****

  Max

  “He wants us in public,” Marina says as she starts pulling me down the empty street towards the sound of people and music.

  “I cannot believe that I let you talk me into leaving the house. I should have never listened to your stupid ass,” I grumble while running to keep up with her fast pace.

  “Oh stop your damn complaining. You got a kickass pair of shoes out of it.”

  “Well, that might be true, but it would be completely pointless if I die before I ever get to wear them.” I pull Sage’s stupid hat down lower on my head, trying to keep the fact that I colored my hair hidden. I’m really hoping that she’s just being paranoid.

  We’re slowing our pace to a walk down St. Peter’s Street as we approach Bourbon. There are more people and I’m starting to feel a little more at ease. Right as we’re approaching the corner a hand grabs me from behind and pulls me into a bar with loud jazz music, and into a dark corner. My heart starts to race. I try to scream but a hand covers my mouth. It’s rough with callouses and smells wonderfully familiar.

  I stop fighting and the arms around me loosen enough so I can turn around to see Sage looking down at me. He covers my mouth with his in an urgent kiss. Pressing his tongue through my teeth and licking the inside of my mouth in one quick sweep. When he pulls away he presses his forehead to mine and lets out the breath he’s been holding in.

  “Dammit, Max, why the hell did you leave the house?” His arm is protectively around my waist.