by Alexa Land
It was miraculous that they didn’t arrest her after all of that. Apparently cute little old ladies could pretty much get away with murder. They did detain her though, eventually herding her into a holding cell, and called her eldest grandson. Dante showed up half an hour later in an expensive, dark suit, a frown etched onto his handsome features. His husband Charlie accompanied him, trying to look serious even though his green eyes sparkled with amusement.
When Dante gave Nico a once-over, staring for an extra few seconds at his cousin’s bare feet and the big handbag over his shoulder, Nico blurted, “You used to live with her, you know how it is! She’s like a tiny hurricane, she just sweeps through and scoops you up into the mayhem!” Dante had to agree with that.
It took a good hour to get everything with Nana sorted out. While that was happening, Skye was released on bail. He sat in the waiting area with his husband and the ladies in their leotards, who were passing around silver flasks. Jessie struck up a conversation with Zachary, and I was glad that they seemed to be bonding.
I slipped outside for some fresh air at one point and went around to the side of the building. I closed my eyes and tilted my face toward the sunlight as I leaned against the police station. My stomach rumbled and I wondered how long it had been since I’d eaten, but I ignored it and wrapped my arms around myself.
After a while, I was startled out of my bubble by a deep voice close by that said, “Hey.” I flinched and put up a hand automatically, but relaxed when I saw Finn standing there. He held out a candy bar and said, “Here.”
“What’s that for?” I asked, making no move to take it from him.
“I came out here to find you a couple minutes ago and heard your stomach rumbling, so I went back in and got you this out of the vending machine.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know.”
“It’s really embarrassing that you could hear my stomach from a few feet away,” I said.
“Would you please take this?” he said, and I slid it from his fingers, then looked at the ground.
“I’m sorry for coming here,” I said. “I didn’t mean to make things awkward or uncomfortable for you. I didn’t know you worked out of this station. I didn’t think you worked days, either.”
“I’m working a double today because we’re short-staffed.”
“I see.” I studied my worn-out formerly white sneakers, which were a huge contrast to his highly polished black boots.
“I didn’t mean to make it weird for you, either. We know some of the same people, so we’re going to see each other around occasionally. I just, you know, didn’t expect you to turn up at my job, the day after….” He cleared his throat embarrassedly and shifted his weight, turning his head to focus on something in the distance.
I looked up at his profile and said softly, “I really am sorry, Finn.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I did. The last thing you need is someone like me showing up at your workplace.”
“Someone like you? Chance….” He started to reach for me, but then he stopped himself. A few awkward moments passed, and then he asked, “What are you doing out here?”
“Just taking care of myself for a couple minutes.”
“What do you mean?”
I struggled for a way to explain it, and finally mumbled, “It’s just something I’ve always done. A teacher when I was in grade school said it was because I was an introvert and needed time alone to recharge my batteries. That’s how she put it. I just need breaks sometimes, a few minutes to, I don’t know. Check out from reality, I guess.”
I’d really botched that explanation, but Finn nodded and said, “I get it. You just need to zone out occasionally.”
“Yeah, basically.”
“I do the same thing, but I usually put on headphones and listen to music when I need to check out for a while.” I nodded at that, crossing my arms over my ribcage. After another pause, Finn said, “I need to get back to work. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
He started to reach for me and hesitated, but then he touched my arm. It was a strange little gesture, just the lightest graze of his fingertips against the fabric of my jacket. Finn headed for the side door then, and I turned and went to the front of the building.
When I got back to the lobby, Zachary and Jessie both looked up and smiled at me. I sat down beside them, and Zachary asked, “Where were you?”
“Just getting some air.”
“You going to eat that?”
I’d forgotten about the candy bar in my hand. He was eyeing it hungrily and I said, “You can have it.” He thanked me and tore it open eagerly, then shared it with Jessie. When he tried to give me some, I turned it down to make sure he got enough to eat.
My mind wandered to Finn as we waited. I wondered how badly I’d blown it. He must have really hated having the whore he’d hired show up at his job like that. What man wouldn’t? He probably wouldn’t call me again after something like that.
A couple minutes later, Nana burst into the lobby and announced, “I’m free! The Man couldn’t get any charges to stick. Let’s get out of here before they dream up some reason to keep me in lock-up.” She linked arms with Skye and led the procession out of the building. I glanced over my shoulder when I got to the door, but didn’t see Finn. I didn’t know what made me look for him in the first place.
Chapter Eight
I was lying in bed that night, staring at the ceiling in the darkness when my phone jingled on the table. I reached above my head and picked it up, and was surprised to see Finn’s name on the screen. “Hey,” I said when I answered.
“Hey. I’m sorry to call so late. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“You didn’t.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
There was a pause before he said, “Are you still going to want to see me after today?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because I made things weird and awkward between us. I didn’t mean to, but, well, I did it anyway.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’m glad you think so.” After a moment, he said, “I got my schedule tonight. My next day off isn’t until Thursday.”
“I can meet you then, if you want.”
“It’s so far away, though. Today’s only Friday. Oh wait, shit, no it’s not. It’s after midnight. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was that late.”
I rolled onto my side, pulling the blanket up to my shoulder as I said, “It’s fine. Really.”
“Do you swear I didn’t wake you?”
“I swear.”
“What were you doing? Not that it’s any of my business.”
“I was just lying in bed. It’s hard for me to get to sleep sometimes.”
“Same here, except when I’m with you. I guess I just have a hard time sleeping alone. You’d think I’d be used to it.” We were both quiet for a few moments, and then he told me, “I don’t want to wait until Thursday.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Can I see you tonight? I can’t get a room at the Whitman, no one works the front desk this late, but maybe we could meet somewhere else for a couple hours. It’s fine to say no, you’re already in bed. I just…I thought I’d ask,” Finn said.
I sat up and pushed my hair out of my eyes. “Sure.”
“Really? Wow, that’s great. Thank you.”
I sat up and said, “Do you want me to come to your apartment?”
“No.” He said that quickly. “Do you have a car?”
“Yeah.”
“Could you meet me up on Twin Peaks? I know that’s kind of random, but it’s not going to be patrolled tonight, so there’s no risk of my coworkers discovering us up there.”
“Sure, that’s no problem. I can be there in half an hour.”
“Thank you again, Chance. See you soon.” We disconnected and I hurried to the bathroom to get myself ready.
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*****
I ended up being a few minutes early and sat on the half-wall of the scenic overlook, pulling up the zipper on my hoodie against the cool breeze. All of San Francisco sprawled out below me. The city looked better from a distance. You couldn’t see the litter, graffiti, or the runaways and homeless people out there trying to survive one more night. That was San Francisco to me. I pivoted around, turning my back to the false promise of those glittering lights, and waited for Finn to arrive.
At two minutes before our designated meet time, an older, white SUV pulled into the empty parking lot. An immediate, involuntary fear reaction flooded me, since I didn’t know if that was Finn and I was really isolated up here. If that was someone who wanted to do me harm, I was pretty much screwed. I chastised myself for not waiting in my car as I rose to my feet and squared my shoulders.
The SUV parked next to my Honda, and I let out the breath I was holding when Finn got out and started walking toward me. I closed the distance between us, and the moment he reached me, he grabbed me in an embrace, lifting me off my feet. I wrapped my arms and legs around him and breathed in his clean scent. He’d showered for me. The hair at the back of his neck was still slightly wet.
We held each other for a long time, and after a while he whispered, “I wanted to do this so bad today when I was talking to you outside the police station. I spent the rest of the day thinking about it. That’s why I had to call you. I’m so grateful that you agreed to meet me.” I kissed his cheek and buried my face in the space between his neck and shoulder.
Finn carried me to my car and sat me down on the hood, then kissed me with raw hunger. I slid my hand between us and caressed his thick cock through his sweats, which made him gasp against my lips, drawing the breath from my mouth. He was rock hard in no time, and took a step back as he fumbled with the lube and condom that he pulled from the pocket of his jacket.
As he prepped himself, I slid off the hood of the car, pulled my jeans and briefs down to mid-thigh and bent over for him, resting on my forearms. Once the condom was on and lubed, he pushed into me with one long thrust and whispered, “Oh fuck,” when he bottomed out in me.
He grasped my hips and started fucking me hard and fast, the sound of his body slapping my ass filling the quiet night. My cock was hard, but I ignored it and concentrated on pushing back onto him to increase his pleasure. I rested my body on the warm hood of my car and reached behind me, spreading my ass for him so he could take me even deeper. He cried out and pounded me harder still. God it felt good. I moaned as he drove himself into me, his fingers grasping my hips.
Finn yelled when he came. He pushed into me so hard that it drove me onto the hood of the car, my feet coming up off the ground. Again and again he slammed into me. It was so wild and intense that I let myself stop thinking and just enjoyed how amazing it felt. I swung my arms around and braced myself against the car, my cock rubbing against the smooth metal.
It startled me when I came. It shouldn’t have, since he’d been pounding my prostate, but I hadn’t been focused on that at all. I made a weird little sound, almost a whimper, as my balls drew up and the orgasm detonated. He fucked me all the way through it and I writhed underneath him, riding out the wave of pleasure, letting it overwhelm me.
When it was all over, he collapsed onto my back for a few moments. Both of us were shaking as we tried to catch our breath. “Sorry,” he managed, “I’ll get off you in a second, soon as I can move.”
“No hurry. I like it,” I told him. It was true, too. His weight on top of me was a comfort somehow.
He got up a moment later. I just kept laying on the hood of my car, waiting for some strength to return. Finn took a sandwich bag from his pocket and deposited the condom inside, then zipped it shut and tossed it in a nearby trash can. I chuckled a little, and when he glanced at me I said, “You think of everything.”
“I try to.” After we both were dressed again, he scooped me into his arms and carried me to the spacious backseat of his SUV, then slid in after me.
I climbed onto his lap, straddling him, and put my head on his shoulder as he held me. “You feel so good,” I told him.
“I’m glad you think so.” He kissed the top of my head.
“Meeting in public like this was a pretty bold move,” I said after a pause.
“It was a calculated risk. I used to work this beat, so I know only two types of people come up here: tourists, who aren’t going to recognize us, and horny couples who are way too focused on getting off to care who we are or what we’re doing.” He thought about that and added, “Well, okay, I come up here too, sometimes. If other locals do too, then I guess it’s not so private after all.”
“Why do you come up here?”
“To gain perspective. I’m down there every day, dealing with people at their absolute worst on the job. It would be pretty easy to start to hate my hometown if all I saw were the criminals. But from up here, I just see San Francisco, and I’m reminded how incredibly beautiful she is.”
“I don’t buy that perspective, standing so far back that you don’t see any of the ugliness.”
“I don’t come up here to fool myself, I come to literally see the bigger picture. It’s not all ugly, not by a long shot. It can start to feel that way, after rolling up on my thousandth domestic violence call or drug overdose or homicide. But in reality, there’s so much more to this city. I mean, just look at that.”
He gestured behind me at the sparkling cityscape, and I glanced over my shoulder at it and muttered, “It’s a lie,” before turning away from the view again.
“What is?”
“The beautiful face that San Francisco shows the world. It’s full of false promises. I fell for it and came here with the hope of a better life, back when I was young and stupid. Well, young anyway. I’m still stupid.”
Finn shifted around and cradled me against him, lacing his fingers with mine. “If you hate it so much, why do you stay?”
“It’s not like anyplace else is much better.” After a moment I added softly, just to myself, “Moving to Saturn isn’t an option.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” I was so startled when he stroked the little tattoo on the inside of my wrist with his thumb that I pulled my hand away.
As I sat up and stared at him, he said, “Shit, sorry. You said no questions, just like I did, and I must have crossed a line. I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s fine,” I lied, sliding across the seat, away from him. “Look, it’s late. I need to go. No charge for tonight. You totally overpay me as it is, you were owed a freebie.”
I got out of the SUV, and Finn tumbled out after me, calling, “Chance, wait. Please. I’m so sorry. I obviously fucked up, but I’m not sure what I did. If it was the questions, I’ll stop, I promise.”
“It wasn’t that,” I mumbled, dropping my keys as I tried to get the door to my Honda open.
“Then what was it? I don’t understand. Why are you running from me?”
There was so much genuine grief in his voice that I turned to look at him. His face was partly lit by a distant streetlamp, the other half in darkness. But the bewilderment spelled out on his features was crystal clear. All of a sudden I felt like such an asshole. He had absolutely no idea why I was freaking out on him.
“It wasn’t the questions. It was the way you touched me.”
His eyes went wide. “Oh God, did I hurt you when we were having sex?”
“No, it wasn’t anything like that.” I took a step closer to Finn and looked up at him. Then I turned my right hand over and showed him the inside of my wrist. “This is mine,” I said quietly, running the thumb of my left hand over my tattoo, exactly like he’d done. “I doubt I can explain this properly, but…this is my safe place. When things feel out of control, I retreat there. It’s kind of like a little link to a place deep inside myself, a place where no one can hurt me. It just…it scared me when you touched it, especially because you did it without looking. I didn
’t like that you knew exactly where it was. It made me feel vulnerable all of a sudden, and I hate that feeling.”
“You actually did an amazing job of explaining that,” he said softly, “And I’m so sorry for making you feel that way. I didn’t know.”
I stared at the ground and said, “You didn’t do anything wrong. You had no idea about any of this.”
“I still feel like an asshole. The last thing I ever wanted was to make you feel unsafe.”
“Don’t. This is all me. All you did was touch my wrist. In what world is that reason enough for me to act like this?”
“I should have known it meant something to you, though.”
I glanced up at him. The breeze was pushing my hair into my eyes, and I swept it out of the way as I asked, “How could you possibly know that?”
“Well, because I saw you at my brother’s wedding. You seemed so shy and uncomfortable, except when you were taking pictures. Whenever you didn’t have your camera to hide behind, you’d hold your right hand with your left and start rubbing that spot with your thumb. I don’t think you even realized you were doing it. At first, I thought it was because the bruises around your wrists hurt, but when I got close enough to see the tattoo, I realized it must be something else, like a little personal talisman or something.”
I looked away again and said quietly, “I was hoping no one saw the bruises.”
“I doubt anyone else did. I’m a police officer, I’m trained to notice things.”
I frowned at that. “Most of your family is in law enforcement, including your brother Shea. By that logic, half the people at the wedding would have noticed them.”
“Not most. Some. There were only four or five police officers at the wedding. And anyway, so what if they noticed? They didn’t know you were a prostitute. They’d probably just assume your sex life was a hell of a lot more interesting than theirs.” He’d been trying to make a joke, but when my frown deepened, he said, “Well, who cares what my family thinks?” That was kind of ironic, since he obviously cared a great deal, but I didn’t call him on it.