He laughed, ‘Well now I am but...’
Chloe interrupted him, ‘I’m only interested in who you are now Dan, and I like what I see.’ Chloe put her cutlery down and sat back in her chair, as she did her dress opened slightly revealing the swell of her breasts. ‘You like what you see?’
‘Of course.’
‘Good because I love you Dan, very deeply, and maybe when this is all over you can tell me all about it but right now it doesn’t really matter.’
‘It might if you don’t like what you hear?’
Chloe nodded, ‘True,’ she took a sip of her wine, ‘Did you ever hurt children?’
Dan visibly winced and Chloe started to pale, fearing that he had. Dan shook his head when he realised what she was beginning to think.
‘No, no, no, Chloe I never hurt children, or women or old people, it’s just I have a past, a past I ran from, and now with all of this going on, I’m having old feelings and I don’t like it.’
Chloe nodded. ‘Fair enough, these feelings you’re having, are they violent ones?’
Dan nodded, impressed by her perception.
‘Good, perhaps we need a little aggression to get through this.’ She downed her wine and looked at Dan thoughtfully, ‘Don’t you agree?’
Dan shrugged ‘I’m not so sure.’
Chloe continued eating, ‘All you need to know Dan is that love is a powerful emotion, whatever you, or we may have to do to get through this, I know that our love with forgive all and see through the fog at what’s really important.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘That I want to grow old with you.’
And just like that Chloe turned the conversation on to other things and they finished their meal just like two regular people on a regular date.
After the last spoonful of her cheesecake had been eaten Chloe smiled and said, ‘That was scrumptious, how can I ever repay you?’
Dan smiled at her, his eyes glanced at the table, then back to her, back to the table and then back to her eyes. He was smiling; he hoped that she knew what he was thinking.
Chloe laughed, ‘Under the table right now?’
‘Why not?’
Chloe smiled, ‘Why not indeed.’
She pushed her chair back and stood up, smoothing her dress as she did so. ‘But first I need to visit the ladies.’ Chloe gave him a quick kiss and crossed the restaurant heading for the restrooms
Dan looked up at the approaching waiter. The waiter stopped at Dan’s shoulder and said, ‘There is a gentleman at reception for you sir.’
Dan was surprised, ‘For me, at this time of night?’
‘Yes sir, he asked for you and the lady you’re travelling with.’
‘Who...’ Dan began but the waiter nodded at the arched entrance to the restaurant.
‘Ah, here he comes now; I did ask that he remain at reception sir.’
Dan looked up and saw Terry crossing the room, Dan also saw Carl loitering by the entrance; his hand in a cast.
‘Shall I ask him to leave sir?’ The waiter enquired. Dan smiled at the thought of this unassuming waiter asking Terry, of all people, to vacate the premises. Dan had no idea what Terry was doing here but he waved the waiter away, ‘No that’s okay, I know him; he’s my brother.’
The waiter nodded and disappeared in to the kitchen and Terry sat down in Chloe’s vacant seat.
‘You’ve got problems,’ Terry said matter-of-factly.
‘How did you find us?’
Terry laughed and took a sip from Chloe’s wine glass, ‘Mmm, this is good stuff; you don’t mind do you?’ Terry asked waving the glass in front of Dan.
‘Not at all, now are you going to answer me?’
‘Where’s the little lady?’
‘Oh, she’s around somewhere.’
‘Man I have to admit to you Dan, she’s one fine piece of tail; I can understand why she’s got you all obsessed and shit.’
‘I’m not obsessed,’ Dan fired back; he could feel anger boiling up.
‘Sure Dan, and that’s why you never saw the tail on you.’
‘You were following us?’ Dan asked.
‘No little brother; I had someone following the giant that’s been tailing you.’
‘What? What do you mean?’ Dan was feeling increasingly angry; angry at his brother for turning up here but mostly angry at himself for not spotting the potential threat of a tail.
‘You’ve had a tail on you since the airport; a grey Mercedes driven by one tall, mean-looking motherfucker.’
‘Are you positive about this?’ Dan asked.
Terry cocked his head to one side, ‘Are you okay Dan-Dan, you look a little flustered.’
‘I’m fine; how did you know that we’d be followed?’
‘Truthfully; I didn’t but in my line of work it pays to be prepared, I was looking out for you.’
‘Thanks; where is this big guy now?’
‘Snoozing in his car out front, I came in the back way; I’ve got a couple of guys watching him.’
‘Great, what do I do now?’ Dan said, more to himself than in the hope of an actual answer from his brother.
Terry surprised him though. ‘Find Chloe, grab your stuff and slip out the back, my guys will take care of the giant. We’ll all meet up later and get some answers out of him.’
Dan nodded his head, it was a good plan. ‘Sounds good, I’ll just wait for her to get back.’
Chloe came back across the restaurant, she saw Terry in her seat, and Carl standing over near the entrance and she forgot all about the blow-job she’d promised Dan. She took in both men’s body language and said, ‘Dan, what’s happened now?’ She stood next to Dan as he passed on the information Terry had given him, she nodded and sat down in Dan’s lap, sitting slightly to the left so that Dan could see Terry. Dan wrapped his arms around Chloe’s waist.
‘You two need to wake up, a time like this you should be alert to all dangers and planning your next move, not playing happy fucking families.’ Terry shook his head in disgust, ‘Dan, you got to get in the game, I mean it.’
Chloe coughed. ‘We thought no-one knew we were here, we thought tonight we’d be safe, its not Dan’s fault.’
Terry nodded his head, ‘Yeah well the Dan I knew would have spotted that goon within a mile if he didn’t have you distracting him, shit, look at you, I’m a professional and I’m struggling to keep my eyes off you.’
‘She’s not a distraction,’ Dan retorted, anger once more surfacing. Chloe picked up on the intonation in Dan’s voice and she thought she saw a fleeting look of concern cross Terry’s face.
‘Dan, she’s beautiful, I’m happy for you, really I am but maybe you should go your separate ways, when this is all over you can be reunited and all that shit.’
Dan shook his head in the negative, ‘I told you Terry, if it wasn’t for Chloe chances are I’d be dead already.’
Terry conceded the point, ‘Maybe, but with her you’re constantly distracted, look at what you’re wearing Chloe, fuck, you’re giving me a hard-on.’
Chloe felt Dan go tense beneath her but she soothed his worries away with a brush of her hand and said, ‘That may be so Terry, but fuck it, the way I look has made Rufus make mistakes and it enabled us to get some information from someone that we may have otherwise not been able to get, so really, I don’t give a fuck what you think of the way I dress.’
Terry shrugged his shoulders; conceding her points. He finished her wine and nodded, ‘Okay but think carefully about everything you do from this point on; you’re near the lion’s den and you don’t need him roaring at you.’
‘What do you mean, we’re near the lion’s den, are you telling me you know where this psycho actually lives.’
‘Of course; don’t you? It only took a couple of phone calls and bingo.’ Terry laughed, ‘I’m surprised you didn’t ask me Dan, I thought you must have already known.’
‘No,’ replied Chloe. ‘We have information that may lead us to hi
m, that’s why we’re at this hotel.’
Terry withdrew a slip of paper from the inside of his expensive jacket and slid it across the table to Dan, ‘That’s where you’ll find him, he’s there now.’
‘He’s there now? We thought he was trailing us, I thought we had the upper hand here, if he’s already at home, he could be hard to get to.’
‘You do have the upper hand, from what I’ve been told he’s gone into hiding. Main gates are locked and chained and all the security systems have been activated. Rufus’ Range Rover is parked in the drive way, and according to my man on the scene Rufus hasn’t been seen for hours.’
‘He’s battened down the hatches.’
‘It would appear so Dan, but the question you really need to ask yourselves is why?’
Dan scratched at his shoulder and Terry recognised the sign from many years before, Dan’s indecision could be his downfall so Terry offered to have his men storm the place.
Dan shook his head, ‘No, I need him alive, this whole thing is much bigger than one man now, I need answers and your men storming the place enmasse; well anything could happen.’
‘They’re professionals Dan-dan; they know what they’re doing.’
‘Maybe they do,’ said Chloe, ‘But if Rufus opens fire they’ll have to return fire and he could be killed, we need him alive,’ Chloe took a sip of Dan’s wine and smiled a tight smile at Terry, ‘For now at least.’
Terry thought about this, his eyes on Chloe’s cleavage; she could feel his eyes on her but she refused to let it show.
Finally Terry said, ‘It’s your call; what do you want me to do?’
Dan spoke, ‘Get your men out front to grab the goon, take him to your place, the day after tomorrow we’ll come to you and we’ll see what he has to say for himself.’
Terry laughed, ‘Assuming you’re both still breathing.’
‘Assuming that.’
‘Also pull your man away from Rufus’ place, I have a plan.’
‘Okay I can do that and what about me?’
‘Go back to London Terry, if you don’t hear from me within a couple of days then assume the worse and let your men loose.’
Terry nodded and started to stand up but he hesitated and smiled, ‘If I never see you again Chloe I’ll only wonder.’
‘Wonder what?’ Chloe replied.
Terry’s smile turned in to a full grin, ‘Whether your tits are for real.’
Before Dan could do or say anything and before Terry could apologise (for he had seen the flash in Dan’s eyes and he didn’t want to go where that look would lead) Chloe pulled the front of her dress apart and unclipped the front fastener of her bra and her breasts spilled free; her nipples were hard. She silently counted to three and then slipped the bra back over them, she quickly adjusted the cups and then smoothed her dress back in to place.
There was an uncomfortable silence, Dan quiet thinking of the past and Terry thinking how quickly Dan could get across the table and rip his throat out. But Chloe broke the silence and the tension by saying ‘So?’
Terry stood up straight and said, ‘They’re real.’
Terry shook his brother’s hand quickly and rapidly left the restaurant, he cast one quick glance back over his shoulder and saw Dan watching him over Chloe’s shoulder. Terry silently mouthed a sorry and Dan nodded just once, whether in acceptance of the apology or whether telling Terry that was a once only indiscretion Terry had no way of telling. He could now see why Dan was the way he was around Chloe, any man would die for that.
Krieger was too slow to react; by the time he realised what was happening the two men were all over him. The car window had been smashed in with a brick, not subtle but effective waking him from a foggy sleep and then it was too late. He’d managed to hit one of them in the jaw with his right elbow but it was like hitting a concrete post. The other man came in from an angle swinging something and it connected with the side of Krieger’s head and a million stars exploded in to life before his eyes. His first thought had been car-jackers but then a large revolver was pushed in his face and he knew this had something to do with the couple he’d been following.
‘Fuck you,’ Krieger said and the man with the hand cannon laughed and said, ‘Honey, please’ and he swung the revolver in a short sharp arc and the side of the gun connected with the bridge of Krieger’s nose and he felt the bone splinter. The gun man slammed the gun hard against Krieger’s temple and his last thought before darkness took him down was how disappointed Father would be that he had failed him.
Grace was in Hell. Her mind was no longer her own. Time had become an illusion; how long had she been in this torture room? Her young body ached from both the pain and pleasure that Rufus has inflicted upon her. She’d once seen an old film on cable television where there were characters called cenobites and they had the power to bestow pleasure or pain on their victims and that was how she now saw Rufus; not as the once slightly weird and frustrated uncle whom she’d enjoyed teasing but as a cenobite. After he had sodomised her; causing her pain like none she had ever experienced he had taken her in to the shower stall hidden until then behind a curtain and he had gently washed away the blood and semen. He had lathered her body with soap and had taken his time in cleaning her. The longer she had stayed in the shower with the hot water beating down on her, the better she felt; he was washing away all the pain he had caused.
Grace hadn’t noticed him drop to his knees before her and it was only when she felt his mouth on her sex that she had opened her eyes in shock. She felt disgusted when she replayed the scenes from only moments before as he had sodomised her but in the shower as he lovingly teased her with his mouth and fingers she felt something else and it confused and ridiculed her but those thoughts were cast aside as he quickly brought her to a climax and her legs gave way at the power of the orgasm. On the shower floor, the hot water splashing across her upturned face and breasts he parted her legs and pushed himself deep inside and this time she welcomed him for there was no pain and when he kissed her on the mouth she opened her mouth and kissed him back; she was now no longer able to resist him and the power that he held over her.
As he came inside her, shooting his seed deep within he kissed her and said, ‘I love you Chloe, oh how I love you so.’
She kissed his neck, not knowing who this Chloe was but she whispered, ‘Love me,’ and the shame of it was, that despite everything she craved this new sensation and she knew then as the first warm tears spilled from her eyes only to be washed away by the hot jets of water, that she was lost now, she was a captive to his every whim and any innocence that she once had was now nothing but a single flickering candle in an infinite darkness.
Dan stripped his clothes off and walked naked in to the bathroom. Chloe could hear him taking a piss and she smiled at the simplicity of such a thing.
Chloe collapsed on to the bed and rolled on to her side and moved her left leg up so that it was bent at the knee at a 90 degree angle; she did this consciously knowing that the movement would ride her dress up her left leg and expose her suspender strap and stocking top, what a strange thing to think of considering the shit they were in. She’d made a promise to herself shortly after meeting Dan that she would always wear sexy clothes and underwear when with him. She had no idea why such a thing seemed so important; so right. If she and Dan were to have a long life together then she was going to make sure that she didn’t let her guard down for one moment, she fully intended to do everything possible to make sure that every day was special; too many people became complacent and let themselves slide and she truly believed that their relationships were worse off for it. She wasn’t going to be like one of them and despite what Terry had said earlier she no intention of changing either the way she acted or the way she dressed; she was the way she was because of Dan; for Dan.
Dan came back in to the room and she admired his physique; he didn’t look like a gym-freak but there was a natural muscle definition and if she had to guess she’d say tha
t he ran a lot and she realised then that there was so much that they didn’t know about each other and she hoped that someday they’d have the time to find out.
‘You look beautiful,’ he said as he sat on the edge of the bed and ran his left hand up her leg, his fingers fidgeted with her exposed suspender strap as he thought about things.
‘Penny for them?’
‘I was thinking that maybe I should go to Rufus’ on my own tomorrow.’
Chloe sat up and said, ‘No chance, we’re a team in this.’
‘I know but what if you get hurt? What if it all goes wrong?’
‘It won’t.’
‘You don’t know that for sure.’
‘No I don’t Dan, but I’m not letting you go on your own and besides I owe him for torching my flat.’
Dan ran his hands through her hair and looked in to her eyes and said, ‘Chloe, you’re so young, you shouldn’t be taking the risk.’
Chloe smiled, ‘I risked getting in your car.’
‘Yeah and looked what happened; psychos and arson.’
Chloe laughed. ‘True but I found love too.’
‘Still, I’d feel better if I went on my own.’
‘We go together, end of discussion.’
‘I’m just worried about all the things that could and probably will go wrong.’
‘Yeah well we’ll worry about them tomorrow; right now I’m worried about something else.’
‘What?’
‘Whether you’re too old for round two,’ Chloe said and burst in to laughter as Dan lunged for her.
He spent the next two hours proving her worries groundless.
Chloe awoke to the sound of the shower. She stretched and yawned and focused on the clock; it was a little after six in the morning and the room was beginning to lighten as the sun broke through the clouds. Chloe looked around at the discarded clothes and smiled remembering last night. She got out of the bed and joined Dan in the shower.
Ten minutes later she managed to say, ‘Morning.’
Dan had already gotten to know that she wasn’t a morning person and he grinned at her as he shampooed her hair.
Rage Against The Machine: Special Edition (Dan & Chloe Book 1) Page 18