#atf agent

Chapter Eleven:  Home is a Fusion Reactor

Kari couldn’t find his words as Tig stayed buried inside her, stretching her femininity around his thick rigidity as he slowly softened and slid out of her wet center.

“Is there any love at first sight?” Tig whispered and dropped his face to the warm curve of her neck, his question a hot exhale against her flushed skin.

“It varies,” she murmured breathlessly as he shifted and physically moved her around so they could both lay together on the small sofa. Tig molded himself against her as she chuckled and gave word to her thoughts.

“The show follows a different kind of formula,” Kari added, imagining how this kind of scenario would play out on tv, it would be an actual true-crime reality show.

The excessive stress, anxiety and too much time on the road, caught up to both of them in its own way. Sleep dragged them both into a dreamless state for a couple hours, Kari stirring awake first as her bladder protested the need to be immediately emptied.

She groaned as her body protested sitting up after being squeezed up tight in his possessive hold.

“Hey,” Tig muttered sleepily and snaked out his hand to grab her wrist and tug her back to the surface of the sofa.

“Hmmm?” she asked as he rubbed grit out of the corner of his eyes with his free hand. “On your shows, do people fall in love immediately or at least know they are on the path there?”

Kari lifted her free hand and traced her fingertips along his jaw before lowering his face and pressing her lips to his. “Yes,” she whispered before heading to the small bathroom.

Tig rolled over onto his back as Kari relieved her bladder before she pissed herself and took a few minutes to casually clean up and wash her face.

Tig’s burner phone rang from the depths of his pocket and on the other end Clay told him some of the club member’s in the area would be stopping by with a welcome wagon basket with some guns, booze, and pharmaceuticals to pass the time.

In the time before the club members arrived, back in Charming, Agent Stahl was being pressured from several supervisors about the location of their missing agent, a body at this point would’ve been a plus for Stahl. She knew the agency was beginning to tire of these missions she led and the rising body count from her fuckups.

Before the other club members showed up at their temporary residence, Tig let Kari explore the place and move things around, letting her have space with her thoughts.

He spent some time talking to a guy that Clay told him about for new identifications and passports if needed.

Kari looked out the front window as the roar of several approaching motorcycles sounded over the game show she had on the tv. She looked over at Tig who slipped into his patched vest and met her eyes, reading still present fear.

He walked over and gathered her up in his arms. “Wait here, I won’t be gone long.”

Kari nodded and watched Tig out the window as he began shaking hands and laughing with a group of hard looking men.

She switched the station to a daytime talk show and looked through the condo’s hallway closet and found a broom, mop, and dustpan.

Tig wrapped up his visit with the allied club and made his way back to the condo. The quintet of arguing women around the oval table had a popular musical guest playing their new catchy, bubble gum song.

He closed the door and peeked into the kitchen as Kari danced a tango with the mop, singing along in an incredibly off-key voice. She looked up and found his eyes on her, squealing and dropping the mop to clatter on the linoleum.

“You’re mopping,” Tig said stupidly.

Kari smiled as she dipped her head and brushed an errant lock of hair behind her ear. “Government employees are just like everyone else too,” she said with a curtsy as she blushed with embarrassment.

Tig’s expression turned feral and his eyes glowed brighter as he walked towards her, dropping his hands to unbuckle his jeans. “The other ones might be, but you’re not like anyone else,” he growled and settled his hands on her hips, squeezing the supple flesh until he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the dining room table, pushing the store bags out of the way as he dropped her on the table and pulled at her pants, adding as he had the fabric jerked down past her knees. “I don’t know what you are exactly, but I’ll do anything to never have you far from my side until I die,” Tig rasped before yanking his cock free, finding himself growing so hard it hurt.

“I’ll do anything,” he growled as he roughly pushed his cock past her shell pink intimate folds and plunged his thick rigidity inside her. “Anything,” Tig groaned as Kari tightened her thighs around his waist, the movement making the inner walls of her intimacy squeeze and massage his cock as though her body was trying to milk him dry.

Tig let himself be carried forward into the unknown as he felt acceptance within Kari’s arms and buried inside her hot, wet center while Kari let herself be swept away within the promises of his love.

Clara: henlo kind stranger, what is your name? ???: I’m not allowed to tell you that, but you can call me ATF Agent. Clara: damn another one of those wierdos

ATF Agent Ambushed During Drug Operation

Gary, Indiana – It was supposed to be a “controlled drug buy” operation. But while agents were conducting it this morning, a shootout erupted as the buy was ambushed. An undercover ATF agent was shot in the chest and the shooting suspect was killed, another suspect is in custody.

The ATF agent is expected to recover, initially reported to be in critical condition, now listed as “stable.”

It is…

Chapter Ten:  Sticky Sweet Promises

“Just say yes,” Tig repeated, urgently tightening his large hand around hers.

As Kari pressed her lips together, not trusting her voice to immediately speak, back in Charming, Agent June Stahl nearly threw her phone against the wall when she got a call that the ATF issued Yukon was found discarded hours north, traces of blood were sent to the lab to determine whose it was.

She picked up Tig’s most recent mug shot and shoved a white plastic topped push pin through his forehead into the bulletin board in her hotel room turned temporary office, the mini bar was a plus over Hale’s office.

As June opened the mini bar and selected a five-dollar bag of chocolate coated candies and tiny bottle of vodka, back in the fast-moving van, Tig held his breath as Kari’s mind began assaulting her with the accusations that were ever levied at her by former lovers.

“Cold.”

“Would being spontaneous fucking kill you?”

“Frigid.”

“Uptight.”

“Do you ever smile?”

Kari was brought back to the present as Tig squeezed her hand again. “Hey, you okay?”

She blinked and nodded, “yes and yes.”

Tig looked over, “yes?”

He both hated and was frightened by the tremor in his voice, realizing every time he looked at Kari or even heard her intake of breath, that she was not a woman he was used to being around, he didn’t know how to navigate around her.

Kari nodded. “Yes I’m okay and yes to more.”

“Yeah?” Tig asked, trying to keep from looking and sounding flustered.

Kari nodded again and pretended to brush inviable lint off her pants when even his brief glances carried too much intensity, the weight crushing her if she made eye contact.

Tig let her off the hook for the moment, letting his mind put together scenario after scenario of how he wanted their first night at the safe house to be.

Kari adjusted the seat to further recline and brushed her arms briskly at the chill in the air.

“Here,” Tig said and pulled his patched vest from behind the seat and passed it to her.

“Thanks,” she murmured as she adjusted the heavy leather vest over her legs. Kari traced her fingertip around the different patches and worn edges of the stitched lettering. She reached into the pocket and closed her hand around his wallet.

Tig barely suppressed a startled flinch when her voice broke the silence.

“Alexander.”

He looked over and saw Kari looking through his wallet and reading off his driver’s license.

“Alexander,” she repeated and mumbled as she looked through the rest of his wallet. He felt a hot coil tighten through his groin at the sound of his name on her lips.

She slipped his wallet away and at some point, Kari’s shock, anxiety, and overall shaken psyche pushed her into an uneasy sleep, the highway recently repaved kept the ride smooth.

Your tax dollars at work.

Tig glanced over as her stomach loudly growled and she moaned as a frown creased her forehead.

He realized how long it had been since either of them had eaten and it was starting to be way too long since he’d last ingested alcohol.

Tig slowed as a string of cars lined up at a red light. Kari stirred awake when he had to stop the van short before hitting the Audi in front of them with broken brake lights.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked as Kari covered her mouth when she was struck by a series of yawns.

She nodded and rubbed her eyes as Tig fished the almost empty pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He glanced over and held out the pack to her. “There’s only one left,” Kari said as she looked at his extended hand.

Tig shrugged, “it’s okay, I’ve got to stop soon for gas and pick up a few other things.”

Kari nodded her thanks as he lit the last cigarette in the pack and rolled down her a window to blow out her first exhaled cloud of smoke.

Traffic was snarled at the four-way stop as Kari looked over at Tig as he was paying attention to the no tail lights Audi. She shifted on the seat as she ran her eyes over his strong hands and scarred knuckles from where he gripped the wheel.

She inhaled an acrid lungful of the chemical saturated tobacco and unclicked her seatbelt, leaning towards him. Tig looked over at the metallic sound and was caught off guard when she pressed her lips to his and let her exhale move past his lips.

Tig ignored the sharp honks from the driver behind him as he swallowed her smoke-filled exhale and breath as he slid a large hand to cradle the back of her skull, the silken strands of her hair snagging on his ragged cuticles and heavy rings.

He broke the kiss before his lips pulled into a smile as his eyes glazed over as every fiber of his being deep dove into wanting to touch, taste, and fuck her.

An involuntary blush touched Kari’s cheeks and she sat back in her seat, securing her seatbelt back in place. Tig moved the van forward and eventually through the stop sign, anxious to get through the gas station and to the safe house for club members needing to go underground in a hurry.

The gas station was a few miles past the four-way stop. When the bright red sign came into view he asked her to climb into the back in case there was any facial recognition camera surveillance before slipping on a plain grey baseball cap.

He stopped the van at the furthest pump from the entrance and looked over his shoulder at her as she sat on the bare metal van floor.

“What?” Kari finally asked nervously as Tig tried to choose his words carefully.

“I’m going to need to go in there to get there to pick up a few things after I full up the tank. Can I trust that you’ll stay put or do I need to encourage that?”

“I’ll stay right here,” Kari breathed.

Tig held her unblinking gaze for a few wordless heartbeats before nodding slowly and slipping out of the van. He went inside the convenient market attached to the gas station and paid cash for what he guessed would be a full tank as well as an assorted mix of sodas, booze and as close to real food the place sold.

He added a bottle of bourbon that was stashed behind the counter. Tig’s eyes wandered over the impulse buys at the register and plucked something silly that he tucked in his pocket before he returned to the van, he would never have admitted aloud how relieved he was to see Kari waiting.

Tig passed her back the plastic bags and asked her to stay in the back on the way to the nearby safe house.

Kari nodded as she met his eyes in the rearview mirror before digging in the bags for a bottled iced tea.

The rest of the drive was mostly a straight shot to the cookie cutter condo complex, an older set of units with peeling grey paint and who’d never heard of a homeowner’s association.

Tig gathered up most of the bags and told Kari where Clay said the key to the front door would be hidden. It was under the potted white geranium and she opened the squeaky door, locking the deadbolt behind them.

Kari dropped the zippered duffle bag on a recliner in the sparsely furnished one-bedroom condo and looked around as Tig got right to the bottle of booze and took a few harsh, burning swallows, the alcohol spread warmth throughout his chest and belly, soothing his erratic nervous system, his lust hyperactive.

“There wasn’t anything in the way of clothing except this,” Tig mumbled when Kari rejoined him in the small dining room where he pointed at an I Love California tourist shirt. He picked out an XXL so she could wear it to bed.

Kari nodded her thanks and accepted the bottle he held towards, taking a few sips before digging a bag of sour cream and onion chips from the bag and a lemon lime soda. “Do you mind if I put the news on for a while?”

“Sure, I’ve got to make a call.”

Tig watched her walk to the faded burgundy loveseat and fumble with the remote until the right combo turned on the channel guide and she could land on a local news station.

Tig dialed Clay and watched Kari tear open the bag of chips, not realizing that Clay had answered until he repeated himself for the third time.

“Tig?!?”

“Yeah, yes, I got to the house.”

“You or ‘both’ of you?”

“Both of us.”

“Is it going to stay both of you or do I need to have someone standing by to fucking clean up?”

“She’s not going anywhere,” Tig murmured and drank deeply from the bottle, finally feeling the alcohol begin to relax him.

Tig listened as Clay filled him in on the ATF’s presence in Charming and recent round of interrogations before ending the call.

He yanked his boots free and tossed them under the square dining room table before joining her in front of the tv. “Can I join you?” he asked, and Kari nodded, curling her legs under her so he could sit on the broken-down cushion.

Tig waited until the news went to a commercial about a new show starting up on the animated network before he slipped his hand in his front pants pocket.

“I picked you up something else at the store,” Tig said casually.

“What is it?” she asked, instantly at peak curiosity.

“Close your eyes,” he murmured.

Tig heard Kari’s sharp inhale and saw her pause in hesitation. “Please.”

Kari closed her eyes and felt her chest tighten as she heard the crinkling of a plastic wrapper.

Behind her closed eyes, Tig unwrapped the cherry flavored candy ring that had been sitting by the convenience store register next to penis shaped lighters and miniature bottles of Wild Turkey.

Kari’s eyes flew open as Tig closed his hand around her wrist and slid the sweet treat onto her left ring finger. She watched in what seemed like slow-motion as he pressed his lips over the jewelry shaped cherry candy.

Tig dropped his hands to her narrow waist and yanked her underneath him, her gasp only adding napalm to his fiery wants and near-painful physical needs.

“What are you afraid of?” Tig growled as he roughly yanked her linen pants down past her hips, the fabric smoothing down her thighs. “Talk to me,” he demanded as he tugged the pants free past her feet and tossed them to the floor before he smoothed a large hand up the inside of her warm thigh, feeling the supple muscle practically vibrating under his rough palm.

Kari couldn’t help but laugh at the same time involuntary tears stung her eyes. “I’m afraid you might change your mind and hurt me, kill me,” she finally admitted.

Tig’s expression softened, “no, it’s okay,” he murmured as he started to tug her panties free. “Lemme show you,” he whispered raggedly and slid down the length of her body, pushing her thighs apart until he could lick a hot path up the inside of her thigh.

He teased his tongue over the prominence of her femoral artery, a light blue line towards her wet center.

A shudder ran the length of Kari’s body as Tig pressed his lips to the soft skin under her belly button and shifted his grip until he could dip his tongue along the shell pink folds of her pussy.

“I’m not going to ever hurt you,” he rasped before he traced the tip of his tongue in irregular circles around her clit, coaxing it to a more and more sensitive state under his touch. His cock strained behind his zipper, asphyxiating itself with its painful hardness.

Tig stifled a moan as he reached a hand down to free his rigidity before the blood supply to his cock was choked to death.

He increased his tongue’s movement, eager to make her come, wanting her to surrender to his touch.

Kari felt an electrical charge swirl in her pelvis as her thighs began to shake, her pleasure quaked inside, arching her back as his touch pushed her into any orgasmic abyss.

Tig sat up between her thighs as Kari tried to catch her breath, a warm glow and light sheen of sweat sprouted across her bare skin. He pulled her thighs tight to either side of his waist and dropped a hand to grasp onto his thick hardness, squeezing the shaft as he traced the sensitive head up and down her wet slit.

“Yes?” Tig asked on a pant, his lips wet with the rush of wetness he brought on as he fucked her tight, wet center with his tongue.

“Yes,” Kari gasped breathlessly and raised her hands to slip under his shirt and tighten her fingers in his bare sides, careful to avoid his sore ribs.

Tig lowered himself to his elbows as he slid his thick rigidity inside her until he was stopped by their intimate flesh kissing.

He groaned as he dropped his head to the curve of her neck, pressing his lips against her flushed skin.

“I’m not sure this is going to last very long,” Tig admitted with an embarrassed chuckle as he plunged inside her, deeply and erratically.

Kari’s intimate internal walls tightened around his thrusting cock as her still sensitive clit twinged each time he filled her.

Tig lifted his head when he felt Kari smooth her hands from his sides to slide one hand up to rest over his rapidly pounding heart as she pressed the fingertips of her left hand over his mouth.

Tig felt the imminence of his own knee-shaking orgasm and snaked a hand up to close viperlike around her small left wrist. He pressed his lips to her palm, his ragged exhale hot against her skin as beads of sweat blossomed on his face.

Kari watched him lick a wet pattern around the sweet cherry candy until his saliva and tongue turned red. Tig crushed his sticky lips to hers as he spilled himself in three hot spurts deep inside her.

Chapter Seven: Who Are You?

The warmth of Tig’s large hand swallowing hers made her shiver involuntarily. Kari felt a wash of embarrassment at her physical reaction while Tig simultaneously felt a twinge in his cock at wanting her body under his, making her shudder and quake.

She tried to casually tug her hand free and pretend to smooth down her already smoothed down hair.

“You ready to go?” he breathed as she collected herself and nodded.

Tig opened the door. “Try to walk naturally,” he murmured as she walked towards him.

Kari couldn’t help but laugh loudly, “natural? Gotcha,” she snorted and rolled her eyes as she crossed the shitty room’s threshold and immediately felt like a fucking child.

Kari stiffened and tried not to goose step or look like she had a stick up her ass as she marched to the stolen van with a newly stolen set of license plates and the pried off VIN number tossed out the window earlier on the road.

Tig didn’t see any of her facial expressions or detect anything out of sync in her gait. He only had wide, unblinking crystalline blue eyes for the space between her upper thighs, sunshine peeking through as she walked away. He could’ve waterboarded himself with his own saliva as he restrained the desire to slide a hand up the inside of her thigh before he bent her over and fucked her.

As Tig shook himself back to reality and followed her to the van, still anticipating her trying to bolt, back in Charming, ATF agent June Stahl paced the small, rented hotel room. She had kicked her spiked heels under his desk and let the coarse fibers of the carpet tease her nylon-encased toes. June had Tig’s file spread across the floral surface of the bed linen, trying to find the man buried between the many charges that stuck and the ones that he had slipped away from.

June frowned at one of Tig’s menacing mug shots, she reread Kari’s academy entrance essay and following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather. As she opened a bottle of red wine she had purchased earlier, hours away, Tig tried to keep his eyes on the road and the endless miles of asphalt instead of on Kari’s profile and every bit of exposed skin.

He moved to the middle lane as he passed a big rig, his gaze lingering on the fabric of the linen pants pulled taut around her supple flesh. He watched the linen wrinkle as she leaned forward and fumbled with the radio dials until she landed on an easy-listening station.

Kari reached down the side of the seat and yanked on the plastic handle until the seat reclined. She fought an audible sigh as she stared out at the passing landscape of varying fruit trees and oil refineries.

Tig hated to take his eyes off her as traffic snarled with an upcoming exit impacted by roadwork.

He was staring a few cars ahead and trying to find a smoother moving lane when she reached out quickly and turned the radio off as she spoke. Kari was nervous and her voice was shriller than she intended, she cleared her throat before repeating herself.

“What kind of crimes have you committed?”

“That’s right to the point,” Tig smirked and accelerated when a spot opened up in the left lane before continuing. “Don’t you know? The ATF bitch all over the club has to have shared all our files with you, hasn’t she?”

Tig was genuinely surprised as Kari shook her head as she answered. “I transferred here not too long ago, Stahl keeps a lot to herself,” she added lowly and rubbed her temples.

“Are you okay?” he asked and laid a hand on top of her thigh, squeezing lightly.

Kari grew still and tried not to stare at the tip of his hand. “Just a headache, I need some coffee or any form of caffeine and a fifteen-hour nap.”

Tig looked at an upcoming rectangular billboard that boasted a popular coffee chain in the approaching shopping center.

He wordlessly moved to the slow lane which would eventually exit and dump them in front of the green-signed coffee house.

Tig parked further away than a Super Bowl winning quarterback could throw a pigskin, keeping the engine idling before he turned towards her. “There’s a drive-through there,” he started as he nodded towards the colorful menu and round speaker to shout your order.

Kari glanced over briefly before bringing her eyes back to meet his as he continued.

“You need to get in the back and stay out of sight,” Tig murmured, his tone growing empty and full of fatal seriousness as he slid a faded beer cap over his luscious hair, thick and glossy black as a raven’s pinfeathers.

Kari nodded and maneuvered between the small space between their seats until she could hunker down away from the shopping center’s surveillance that began just outside of where he had the van in neutral.

“What do you want?” Tig called back, her voice returning even though he couldn’t see her beautiful face in the rearview mirror, or her full lips form each word.

“A large, extra-foam, soy caramel macchiato,” came Kari’s voice from the rear of the van.

Tig shook his head at the multiple syllables that the word coffee had evolved into. He ordered her fancy drink in a staccato manner before adding a coffee-flavored coffee and random pastries to the order before driving to the window.

Kari heard him pass over money and collect his change before navigating the few turns until he had the vehicle back on the freeway and soon up to eighty-five.

“It’s safe for you to come back up here,” he called back to her once the rearview mirror reflected five lanes of freeway.

Kari made her way back to the passenger seat and gladly reached for the hot, sweetened, caramel drink.

She didn’t feel his eyes memorizing her as she took a slow sip, she didn’t see him tip into a state of entrancement when Tig’s eyes zeroed in on a touch of toffee-colored foam perched on her upper lip.

In the very moment before her pink tongue darted out and licked away the kiss of the latte foam, he was transfixed. Tig’s heart was momentarily paralyzed before adrenaline flooded his system. His chest tightened and for a second he forgot to breathe, emotions infiltrated his system and filled each cell until they threatened to burst. “I’ll do anything you ask to have you,” he thought as his gallbladder released bitter bile and the bottom dropped out of his gut as Kari looked over and caught him staring.

Tig’s eyes dilated as her sudden and full attention stimulated each of his ropy nerve endings.

“Did you say something?”

“Fuck, did I? Did I say that out loud?” he thought.

He nearly shouted his relief when his scrambling thoughts were given a reprieve by his phone chiming in rapid succession.

Tig yanked his eyes away from her as he fished his phone out of his pocket, glancing at the brief text message Clay had sent.

“Hale and Stahl in meeting w/attorney gen. at noon, keep moving.”

“Who sent that?” Kari asked, not half-expecting him to even entertain answering.

“From a brother, we’ll be on the road a while longer,” he said vaguely.

Kari took a few more sips of the toasty coffee before speaking. “How many people have you killed?”

Tig looked over, “a few,” he said easily.

Kari blew out a deep breath. “I know I said I didn’t read about your criminal past but don’t say bullshit like that.”

“How many do you think?” he countered.

“Forget it,” she scoffed and replaced her cup in the stained, plastic holder before turning her attention to the monotonous fields, pastures, and industrial buildings.

“More than the ATF knows about,” Tig finally said.

“What other kinds of crimes?” she asked, still watching the fluffy cumulous clouds high overhead.

“Nothing you’d approve of baby,” Tig chuckled and winked as he returned his hand to the top of her thigh.

Kari initially frowned and fought a flush as he dropped his eyes to the exposed skin of her chest before back to the traffic flowing around them.

They stayed in silence for a while after that as Kari pressed the volume button and brought the staticky pop song to fill the van.

Tig felt the tension swimming under the thin linen that covered her warm, supple skin. His mind let him fall back into a rabbit hole of remembering his crimes, from stabbing his first-grade classmate over a piece of carrot cake to slitting a rival club’s old lady throat after she swallowed his come before he went and found a sexy, willing, and wanting sweet butt to lick his cock clean later before he passed out on the pool table.

He frowned as he felt a stab of regret for needing to keep scaring her, keeping her on the razor’s edge. “Stop being such a fucking dick,” he scolded himself and reluctantly lifted his hand to lower the volume of the radio.

“Why’d you become an ATF agent?” Tig asked, knocking her off balance.

Kari was distracted enough by his question to let a little tension fall away. “My grandfather and dad both had thirty-year careers as agents.”

“Are your siblings also agents?”

“No, my sister is an attorney in Philadelphia.”

“You see her much?”

“Once a year usually, she flies out here for the holidays and visits the family up and down the coastline.”

Tig watched her reach for her half-empty cup in slow-motion, feeling a cold, trickly sensation tease his spinal cord from the base of his skull to the tip of his tailbone at the sight of her bare ring finger.

“No ex-husband or future Mr. Stillwater?” he asked with a wink as she switched her cup to her right hand and almost choked at his question.

Kari lifted her hand and covered a smile when Tig grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away from her mouth.

“Why do you always cover your smile?”

Kari let him slide his fingers from her wrist to intertwine with hers. “It’s reflexive, I used to have really crooked teeth and only recently had those plastic trays that straighten your teeth.”

Tig hated that he had to pay attention to the road as he squeezed her hand. “Don’t ever cover any part of yourself from me,” he raggedly demanded.

Tig took his foot off the accelerator as they approached a CHP weigh station, a line of freightliners being inspected. He narrowed his eyes within their dark fringes of lashes as his mind tried to reimagine meeting Kari for the first time in a more casual setting, preferably where there was copious alcohol. He fantasized how he’d replay their first interaction where he’d tell her the barrel of his gun was bigger than hers, instead of choking her into unconsciousness and abducting her.

Kari’s voice broke his concentration. “Can we stop at a bathroom soon?”

Tig nodded, his thoughts still fuzzy with heady thoughts of stripping her bare and plunging his cock into her wet center until their intimate flesh kissed.

Kari nodded her thanks as he exited a few miles later and took a few left turns until he reached a state park with bathrooms that were accessible without purchasing a day pass.

Tig parked in front of the row of beige toilets behind bright green doors with the county logo and a large oak tree in the background.

They both climbed out of the van and Kari felt herself flinch involuntarily as Tig closed a large hand around her upper arm and pulled her towards the larger wheelchair-accessible bathroom.

“What are you doing?” she asked as he pulled open the door and began to tug her inside.

“I can’t trust you to be by yourself and I’m not up for chasing you down,” Tig murmured as he dragged his eyes slowly from the crown of her head to the tips of her shoes and back to meet her unblinking eyes.

Kari took a step back as he locked the door behind them, confining them and blocking the only way out.

Chapter Four:  Trapped Between Wakefulness and Death

Tig ran his hands through his glossy black hair as he took a big, deliberate step backwards, needing a rapid de-escalation despite how much her words provoked him despite their accuracy.

Kari sidestepped before he spoke, putting the flimsy chair between them.

“Look, cease-fire, please?” he asked and raised his hands in front of him.

“Fine but I need to clean up and use the bathroom first,” Kari finally said, hating the tinge of defeat to her tone.

Inwardly Tig was relieved but didn’t let it show. Instead he nodded towards the bathroom, “don’t take too long.”

Kari blew out a sharp breath and walked stiffly to the bathroom, having to keep herself from slamming the door like a petulant child, groaning as she discovered the locking mechanism broken.

She stared at the closed door before emptying her bladder which was fuller than she had realized.

As she washed her face before running the soapy rag under her blouse and over her armpits, Tig walked over to the other side of the closed door and paused as he heard the water turning on and off.

He pushed open the door and found Kari pulling her hair back and out of her face.

Kari paused as he appeared in the mirror’s reflection from where he leaned casually against the doorway.

“What?” she finally asked as he remained silent, suddenly desperate to get out of the closet-sized bathroom that moments before was a refuge of sorts.

She was suddenly the ecliptic and he was an undiscovered planet drawn closer.

“Stop doing that,” he grumbled.

“Doing what?” Kari asked as she resumed securing her hair away from her face.

“Leave your hair down,” Tig ordered casually as he remained in the doorway.

Kari frowned at his reflection as she paused her hands, “why?”

He clenched his teeth until his jaw popped, “is everything going to be this difficult?”

Kari couldn’t handle the invasiveness of his stare and dropped her hands to the sides of the sink. She stared down at the soapy water as it swirled down the drain.

She blew out a low, long breath and felt every nerve receptor come to life when Tig pushed away from the doorway and closed the small distance between them.

Kari remained rigid but ready to turn inside out as he dropped his hands to settle over hers from where she curled her fingers around the porcelain in a death grip.

Tig slowed his own breathing as he effectively trapped her in place within the circle of his arms.

Kari held her breath as he leaned the smallest amount closer to her, their bodies almost touching. He dropped his head to the curve of her neck, letting his lips hover over her flushed skin, his exhale hot as he slid incrementally closer.

She looked up and met his eyes in the reflection as he tugged her hair free of the elastic band.

Kari didn’t blink as Tig ran his fingers through the loosened, silken fall of her hair. “What’s the point of this?” she managed with a mostly steady tone.

Tig smiled and chuckled in an all-masculine tone that made her uterine walls quicken and stimulate her ovarian follicles as though she was a fucking cat.

He forced himself to take a step back from her, reluctantly letting the soft strands of her hair slip away from his fingers, snagging themselves on his ragged cuticles.

Tig felt his cock hardening behind his pants but didn’t want to cause further conflict when he needed to drink himself into oblivion.

“You can have whichever side of the bed you’d like,” he said, trying to imbue lightness into the mood.

Kari let her shoulders slump and chuckled, “so generous,” she murmured as she gratefully left the tiny bathroom, the claustrophobia ebbing somewhat when she had more space to move.

She settled on the side of the bed furthest from the door and unlaced her shoes, glad to have less of her body suffocating from the multiple layers. Kari was slipping out of her fitted jacket when she heard Tig crack open the top of a bottle of room-temperature sparkling water.

He looked over at her before he took a sip. “Here,” he said passing her the bottle, “there’s plenty more.”

“Thanks,” Kari said and took a few rapid sips before slowing down to not make herself sick.

Tig twisted off the top of a flavored gin he had lifted from the safe house as she downed half the water.

He felt an unexpected twinge of regret as he watched her consume the heavily drugged water.

Tig looked away as Kari nearly finished the water, knowing this was the surest way to keep her safe from whatever she might try and get into and give her some needed rest. He had opened the bottle originally while she was in the bathroom.

Tig had spiked the water with something that he normally used to encourage reciprocation from whomever he wanted to fuck and wherever he wanted to stick his fingers, tongue, or cock.

Tig took a few burning swallows of the bitter alcohol as Kari hung her jacket in the narrow closet but left her blouse, vest, and slim-fitting slacks on.

Kari glanced over at him after she sat back down on the edge of the mattress as the fast-acting drug raped her central nervous system, often foreplay for Tig’s fun with the nearly comatose.

She saw him suddenly double, “what did you give me?” she slurred.

Tig enjoyed the multiple flood of emotions across her features and he let a little toxic masculinity play peek-a-boo as he lowered his eyes to her chest and dragged his gaze down her body until he returned his eyes up to meet hers. He felt an electric trill in his groin at her small intake of breath as she tried to form her words.

“Am I going to wake up?” Kari breathed.

“Yes,” Tig said immediately and approached her slowly even though she was nearly asleep from where she sat.

He guided her back onto the mattress as she sagged under the party drug’s stranglehold.

Kari mumbled incoherently as he moved her around as he pulled the covers over her and adjusted the flat pillows under her head.

In the moment of staring down at her, Tig saw her as a goddess that had tumbled down from the peak of Mt. Olympus.

He reached down and cupped her jaw, running the rough pad of his thumb across her full bruised lips, the small cut leaving flakes of dried blood on his thumb.

Tig licked his tongue like an orally fixated toddler, closing his eyes as he reveled in his second taste of her, wanting more. He grunted as he returned to the clear bottle and green label and took a few more swallows until he felt the pull of alcohol into sleep.

Kari would be out for a while and would give him time to try and form a coherent plan past the end of the day.

Tig slid under the covers on the other side of the mattress and settled on his side facing her. He propped himself up on his elbow as he watched Kari’s expression go smooth under the drug’s suction cup hold with the force of its aquatic distance cousin the deep-sea squid.

Tig reached over and traced his fingertips along her jaw and dance down the front of her throat. He felt her strong carotid pulse under his touch as he dipped into the smooth shelf her collarbone created. Tig moved his fingers in slow circles in the sheen of sweat coating her upper chest, the Kevlar vest squeezing her tight under the long-sleeved blouse.

Kari mumbled and rolled away from him, her hair falling in a silken wave across her back.

Tig could feel the shitty gin’s pull into a passed out sleeplike state and closed the small distance between them and pulled her against the front of his body. He gave a ragged sigh, his alcohol laden exhale hot against the crown of her head as he molded himself against her.

He dropped his top hand to rest casually on her hip before moving his palm in slow circles as he eventually succumbed to sleep, dropping his arm around her, squeezing her close.

The night passed dreamlessly as Kari stayed locked in the drug’s hold.

Tig stirred awake before her, adjusting his hold on her until he could press himself firmly against the curve of her bottom, groaning as he reveled in the feel of her body under his hands.

She didn’t feel like the women he normally fucked or used to get himself off.

He pressed his face to the warm curve of her neck and inhaled, pulling her clean scent deep into his lungs, she smelled different.

Tig rolled away from her long enough to fetch his phone from the side table before pulling her back in the circle of his arms. He scrolled through the handful of missed messages from Clay.

He closed his eyes and blew out a relieved breath when he read the address of a condo complex a day’s drive east, a place that didn’t need to verify much for residency except a monthly payment.

Tig tossed his phone to the side as he returned his entire attention to the sleeping ATF agent. He traced his fingers along the edges of the Kevlar vest which had rubbed raw marks into her skin, not designed to be worn that long.

Tig shifted and tugged Kari onto her back. He slipped his hands to the waist of the vest and unbuckled the clasps before the Velcro straps at her shoulders.

As Tig moved her around pulling at her vest, he stirred Kari awake.

Tig didn’t notice her awareness until she was pulling on his wrists. “Stop, what are you doing?” she cried out, startled awake too fast to process. She was a surgical patient emerging from anesthesia, fighting the breathing tube in her throat, unsure of whether she was actively dying.

“I’m just helping you out of this, it can’t be comfortable,” he said quickly as Kari only increased her struggling as she further awakened.

“I don’t need any help,” she spit and slapped him across the face, startling him with the sound her palm made upon contact.

Tig paused his hand’s movements and stared down at her, stopped by her slap but also the foreign sensation that flooded over him as she returned his gaze, her chest heaving.

“Are you always this fucking stubborn?” he rasped as he roughly pulled her vest free.

Kari shoved the heel of her hand into his side, over the lower ribs he had seemed to be favoring.

“Goddammit,” he shouted with a flash of genuine anger and backhanded her, using the time it took for her vision to clear to roughly turn her over and capture her wrists behind her, burying the instant remorse he felt for striking her.

Kari screamed as loud as she could being compressed under his weight until he adjusted the grip of her wrists to one of his hands and slid his other hand over her mouth, her already bruised lips crushed against his palm.

Tig shushed her as she shook her head. “No screaming huh?”

Kari nodded slowly and took a few grateful breaths when he lifted his hand. Her struggling was soon reignited when he tightened his grip on her wrists and slid his other hand down her side and smooth around to the front of her belly.

“Wait, please,” Kari managed as he fumbled at the top button of her designer slacks.

“Please what?” Tig growled against her ear, his exhale made her shiver involuntarily as he yanked the zipper down.

“Not like this,” she mumbled so lowly he almost didn’t hear her.

“How then?” he asked and yanked her pants down further.

Kari closed her eyes and slumped against the surface of the mattress, her shoulders under such strain they felt close to popping.

Tig cupped his palm over her intimacy, the cotton front of her panties all that kept him from sliding his fingers inside her.

Tig thought of the photo of the twin boys in her wallet and spoke in the space of her continued silence. “Is there someone waiting for you at home? Children? A husband?”

Kari squeezed her eyes shut and tried to force herself to keep from crying before she finally shook her head.

“I have a roommate, with a baby, she’s divorced. The twins are my nephews,” she managed.

“Boyfriend? Husband?” Tig asked.

Kari shook her head.

“So what’s wrong then?” he asked and began moving his palm in slow circles over her panty covered pussy as he added on a feral groan. “Just relax, this doesn’t have to be bad, a little fun will be good for both of us.”

Kari surprised them both with a genuine laugh. “You think there’s a part of this that would be good for me, fucking fun?”

Tig made her yelp in fear when he roughly moved his hands and rolled her over to face him when she continued laughing at him.

Kari tried to grab at him, but he caught her wrists and pushed them over her head, slamming her hands against the mattress as he shifted his lower body and pressed himself closer.

“Get off me,” she shouted as she bucked her hips.

Tig transferred the grip of her wrists to one hand as he had earlier and pushed against a thigh out until he could insinuate himself closer to her.

Kari gave a startled gasp when she felt him growing hard against the apex of her thighs.

Tig frowned down at her as he was hit with the sudden realization that this was the first time he cared if the person at the end of his cock wanted anything, had needs. He wanted her to look up at him and say his name, Tig wanted to see her face when he made her come.

Kari snorted hard and spit a glob of phlegm up into his face.

As Tig was distracted briefly as he wiped at his face, Kari tossed her head towards him, narrowly missing his nearly fractured nose. He pressed her wrists against the surface of the bed until her fingers tingled as they grew numb and slid his other hand around her slim throat, applying just enough pressure to make breathing become difficult.

Kari froze as her abductor’s blue eyes flashed with anger, crystalline bright white flames as Tig suddenly lessened his hold around her neck and tried a different approach.

“We should discuss some ground rules,” he murmured and smoothed his hand from around her neck to slide to the back of her head. He slid his fingers through her hair and cradled her skull against his rough palm.

Stress, anxiety, and good old-fashioned fear made Kari chuckle and shake her head as much as his firm hold would allow. “Sure, now seems like the perfect time for that. Can you please let go of my wrists, I can’t feel my hands.”

“Are you done throwing punches?”

Kari blew out a low breath and nodded.

Tig loosened his hold enough to let circulation pick back up and make pins and needles inevitable but she was thankful to be able to flex her fingers.

They remained in silence as Tig moved his fingertips in slow circles on her scalp, the silken strands of her hair snagging on his ragged cuticles.

“So, what are these rules?” Kari finally asked, breaking the silence.