A/N: So...I was planning on posting Sunday or Monday, but I got a bit distracted from my editing, because I WENT TO THE VERONICA MARS MOVIE PREMIERE IN NYC!
It was awesome. I had a blast and got to meet most of the cast. I ended up watching the movie two seats down from Jason Dohring(!). If you want to read more about it, check out my blog (HappilyShanghaied) on Tumblr.
Anyway, to make up for the wait, you're getting a massive, super sized chapter that is probably the most action-packed of the entire RH story. Hopefully, it will be exciting enough to prompt people to leave comments. They've slowed down a bit over the last few chapters, which I know is my fault for taking so much time between postings, but I'm still trying my best to get it to you. No pressure, it's just that writing is kind of a solitary endeavor, so if you do have time to let me know what your thoughts are, it would make make me really happy :)
HUGE thanks to all of you out there who have left Reviews. I do actually plan on writing you back soon, it's just been a hell of a month.
FYI: trigger warnings for some mild 'bad touch' scenes and sexy warnings for the 'Rated M' stuff at the bottom of the chapter.
Previously: Weevil and Molly had sex, and he finally discovered the identity of her tormentor, Veronica and Keith discuss her rape, and he comes clean about the Kendall money laundering scheme and explains why Cormac is after him. Logan tried to tell Veronica about Madison, but she's too preoccupied to listen. Carmen calls, tells Veronica that Liam has been released from prison for his testimony as a witness to Duncan's 'murder' of Manning. Dick and CW visited Duncan at the hospital and got him to sign away his ownership of the Kane software patents to his daughter. Lilly owning the patents makes Veronica a Petrenko target now, since she has power of attorney over Lilly. Dick and Mac tell each other how they feel and decide to have sex. At the door of Mac's apartment, they discover Gory Sorokin, making himself at home.
"Dick, I'm going to give you..." Mac turned to face the kitchen and made a show of checking her non-existent watch, "two full minutes to explain what's going on in here, before I remove the pillow from your side of the bed and put it on the couch."
"He has a side of the bed now?" Gory asked, a look of bemused approval staining his lips. "You work fast, dude." He fist-bumped a willing Dick and grabbed a beer out of the fridge, popping open on her countertop.
Absolutely not. I am not being teased by Gory Sorokin. I have a line!
"No." Mac reached over, grabbed Gory's beer bottle from his hand and took a swig. "You are not turning my living room into a frat house. Take your white boy hand gestures and your self-congratulatory looks into the hallway, if you can't help yourselves."
Dick and Gory snickered behind her as she passed through the open plan kitchen toward the couch.
Katya rose from the sofa on gamine legs, her expression vibrating with excitement. "Mac! Come give me hug."
Katya was the absolute picture of happiness - well-rested and bronzed, with her hair now a brighter shade of blonde.
If that's what 'going on the run' looks like, sign me up!
Leaning over like a palm tree bent from a stiff tropical breeze, Katya wrapped her toned arms around Mac's neck. "I miss you."
"I missed you too, Katya."
Mac was always terrible at hugging. She never knew if she should go under or over with her arms, how much pressure to apply when squeezing, or if she should even squeeze at all. though, it wasn't hard to feel awkward standing next to Katya - hugging or not - looking the way that she did.
She felt the weight of somebody's stare on her and looked up, just in time to catch Dick waggling his eyebrows at her. Her entire body flushed with embarrassment.
Good grief. I'm finding his perviness flattering now?
Katya pulled back from the hug, though she immediately scooped up both of Mac's hands between her own as a concession. "I hope you are not mad Richard kept our visit secret from you. I told Gorya it was stupid idea. No woman want surprise in her own home."
"No. I mean, yes, I'm a little pissed off that Dick lied to me, but I'll get over it. And of course, you're always welcome here. You look really great, by the way. Really happy." Mac was distracted momentarily by Katya's shorter stature - the statuesque woman seemed to have shrunk several inches since the last time they met. She looked down at Katya's feet and noticed her Gucci tennis shoes. "Tell me you blew $500 on a pair of designer sneakers."
"Gorya." She pointed at her beau and smiled. "He was afraid I would break leg on boat. He threw most of my tall shoes over the side."
"That's kind of...sweet. If you discount the whole littering aspect. And the wanton destruction of shoes."
Katys squeezed Mac's hands so hard it bordered on painful. "I almost kill him, but then I realize he just want me to be safe."
She pulled her hands away from the Ukrainian's, playing it off like she needed to scratch an itch. "Katya, don't take this the wrong way, because I'm really happy to see you, but aren't you two on the run from both of your dads?"
"I -"
Gory piped in, saving her from having to slog through the explanation with her limited English. "My father turned out to be more forgiving than either of us realized. That, and my mother was so pissed off we left town that she stopped speaking to him."
He joined them near the couch, holding out a fresh beer for Katya to take.
"So, what? You show up and all is forgiven?" Mac balked.
Gory rolled his neck as if her entire existence was tedious to him. "Not quite. I did have to sweeten the pot a bit with the promise of humiliating his largest business rival, as well as offering him a 20 point stake in the new tech company I'm funding."
"You fund tech companies?"
"What did you think I did for a living?" he asked slowly, as if she were a child.
"Uh...general gangstery stuff? Bravta business?" She shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, that seems to be what's taken up most of your time since I've known you."
Gory pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "I'm not in the Bravta, Mac. I own a venture capitalist company that's based in the Bay Area. I've probably funded a quarter of the non-Apple software you use on a daily basis."
Guess this probably means I have to stop telling people I know a guy in the mob? I mean, I guess Alexei is technically in the mob, but something tells me he's not going to be too hot to know me after I wipe out his entire life's work in one keystroke.
"And your dad is going to forgive you in exchange for a chunk of ownership in your next endeavor? Must be some hell of a software company?" A momentary pang of jealousy stirred in her gut. "If you're allowed to talk about it, what are they making?"
"Depends on what you're planning on working on next." A Cheshire Cat grin pulled at Gory's lips.
"Me?" Mac touched her chest and reflexively looked behind herself. "Is this some kind of charity drive?"
"Do I look like I do charity, Mac?" Gory was back to looking at her like she was addled. He was the only guy she'd ever met who could simultaneously make a girl feel like the dumbest and smartest person in the room. "Jake Kane wants you. Alexei wants you. Obviously, you've got something in your milkshake bringing all the boys to the yard. I want a sip."
I think I just threw up a little bit In my mouth.
"Pardon me for being skeptical, but the last time somebody offered me a blank check job, I ended up becoming an indentured servant."
Her gaze drifted past Gory's shoulder to Dick, who immediately looked at the ground and shifted his weight.
"This isn't a blank check. I'm offering equity and freedom. You'd be an idiot to say no," Gory sneered.
Mac lifted an outstretched palm in the least enthusiastic way ever. "Stop your smooth-talking, will you?"
Katya snorted a laugh. "Gorya, you are acting like asshole again. That is no way to seduce woman."
"The only woman I need to seduce is you, and I'm pretty sure you're a sure thing." Gory wrapped his arms around his girlfriend's waist and collapsed onto the couch, pulling her with him. "Mac's a businesswoman, Kat. I've made her a better offer than she probably deserves, and she'd have to have brain damage to say no. I know it and she knows it."
Mac hated that he was right, but she wasn't ready to concede just yet. "You're a VC. Why would you offer me equity in a company whose product I haven't even conceived of yet?"
"Why do you care?" he spat. "Do you have any better offers floating around that you'd rather consider? Anybody else who can keep Katya's horny dad off your tail?"
Katya cuffed the back of Gory's head lightly and mumbled something in Ukrainian under her breath.
Gory cuddled Katya in his lap and whispered something back in a conciliatory tone that Katya struggled not to smile at it.
He's got to be a dynamo in the sack. It's the only explanation that makes sense at this point.
"I'm capable of keeping Katya's dad off of my...tail by myself, thank you." Mac racked her brain trying to figure out what Gory's angle was. "Is this, like, a favor to Veronica or something?"
"Damn, how insecure are you? Look, I don't fuck around when it comes to business, and I don't do favors where my wallet is concerned. My company's been funding tech start ups for several years now and we have a great track record. You can look us up in if you have doubts. I'm very good at what I do. You've got every big player in town creaming their pants over you, so I'd be a fool not to try and snag you for myself, no?"
"I'm going to have to think about it. This sounds a little too good to be true"
"Then walk away." Gory shrugged and propped his feet up on the coffee table. "Just keep in mind that I'm offering you a piece of something. You wouldn't be an employee, you'd be a partner. And if - after a prototype is designed - you've decided you're not happy working with me, we can find somebody else to helm the ship. You would keep your stock options, but I can't promise they wouldn't be diluted somewhere down the line if you bailed. I don't feel loyalty to quitters."
"Noted."
Katya yawned, then handed Gory her beer as she slid off of his lap and snuggled into his side. "Jetlag," she groaned before drifting off like a house cat. Gory stroked her hair with his free hand and closed his eyes as well.
Mac crossed the room to where Dick was changing out the bag in her recycling bin. "Did you have something to do with this?"
He dropped the full bag of empty cans near the pantry and pulled a face. "I know fuck all about tech, Mac. Not exactly my area of expertise. But hey, if you want to start a luxury condo community or construct a fragile ponzi scheme, I'm your guy."
The sight of Dick doing something so ordinary and domestic in her house as though he lived there too, made her chest hurt.
"Come on, Bernie Madoff." Mac grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him toward her bedroom. "It's your turn in the hot seat."
"I really can't let you do that, Connor. It's too much." Veronica shook her head, wondering if one could actually see discomfort through a phone line.
Connor sighed with an exasperation so palpable she could practically picture the expression that went with along it - one part constipation, two parts irritation - he made the same face at least once in every one of his films. Usually at the end, while the villain was monologuing at him.
I always wanted to do an eeevil monologue. Probably not the time, right?
"Come on, Veronica. I make that much doing two Vegas club appearances. You don't think my reputation and peace of mind are worth two lousy gigs at Marquee?"
She scrubbed her face with her hand and wondered how there were children starving in Africa at the same time guys like Connor were being paid a king's ransom just to walk into a room and look pretty. It wasn't his fault the world was shallow. He didn't invent the system.
I'll make a healthy donation to the Neptune food bank before Rome falls.
As uneasily as it sat with Veronica to accept a million dollars for a job that she might have charged somebody else 20 grand for, she knew when she was beat. Even if she refused the cash, she was certain he'd find a way to have the fee transferred into her bank account, anyway.
Maybe it's what he needs to do to feel like he's paid his penance for his past mistakes?
That was something she could understand. "You win."
"Ha! And, I was thisclose to mentioning the contract you signed."
She chuckled quietly into the receiver. "Connor, you are seriously the only person I've ever met who would use a contract to enforce somebody else accepting your money."
"You earned it, okay? Who else could I go to who would get the job done and that I could trust? Nobody."
"Just don't get sucked into that life again. That's the best way you can pay me back."
"I'm not even a little tempted. Seriously." He sounded as earnest as an altar boy.
"Good. I'll have the evidence hand-delivered by my partner as soon as he can make it over. We were assured by one of the people involved in the scam that there weren't any other copies made."
"You're the best, Veronica Mars."
"You say that now, but you may be whistling a different tune when you feel like buying that new Ferrari and your bank account is down a cool mil. Speaking of which...you're sure you don't want to press charges?"
"And have a public trial? No thanks. I just want this to go away. Like, so hard. On a scale of one to ten, it would be a ten."
"You mean a 'Vector Force Ten'?" She couldn't help herself from giggling.
After a long pause - during which Connor was either reassessing his current position on her payment or laughing internally at himself - he spoke up. "I'll have my bank make the transfer as soon as the package is delivered. Cool?"
"Very cool." Veronica ended her call, and continued staring at the phone with a smile on her face.
"100 million pennies for your thoughts?" Logan asked, as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and rested his hands on her abdomen.
"You were eavesdropping."
"You were practically shouting at him." He kissed the shell of her right ear and worked his way around the most ticklish part of her neck. "It's probably the first and last time a conversation ever took place in Neptune where people were arguing over somebody not taking somebody else's money. We should have recorded it for historical purposes."
She squirmed away from the itchy tickle of his 5 o'clock shadow and turned around in his arms. "Connor is a genuinely good person. There are so few of those living in this town that I felt it was my duty to protect him from the vultures. I would have probably done it for free. Don't tell him that, though," she added quickly.
Logan hummed his agreement. "Maybe I'll give him a call next week. It might be fun to start up that weekly poker game again. Maybe I'll even invite Weevil to join us, just for old time's sake. Every game has to have a loser. Besides, Connor always did appreciate how 'real' Weevil was." He rolled his eyes dramatically.
"Logan Echolls making an effort with friends who are not Dick Casablancas?" She feigned a shocked expression. "Has Neptune gone into retrograde without my knowledge?"
He pulled her against him. "We have to start acting like normal people in time for the baby to arrive."
We do?
"But we're not normal people. I don't think we have the combined fortitude to keep up a performance of that scope over the long haul."
By the time she realized what she said it was too late.
Smooth move, Mars.
"The Long Haul?" Logan wrinkled his nose at the reminder of his dad. "You only just gave me more motivation to straighten up my act."
"You don't have an act to straighten, Lo." Her hand raked up his spine and settled at the base of his skull, where she scratched his scalp in slow circles, the way she knew he liked. "Every kid walks away with some kind of fucked up baggage from their childhood. Even the kids with perfect parents. Our job is just to make sure that our kid's suitcase is light enough to schlep around."
"I'm supposed to be the philosophical one, darling. You're stepping on my act."
As much as she mocked his inspirational quotes, the fact that it was a thing he did was endlessly adorable to her. "Then say something philosophical."
His mouth tightened into a line and his eyes glazed over as he mined his mental database. "'Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.' Jack London."
"Very apt." Veronica pulled his head down closer to hers. "I like that one," she whispered against his lips, following it up with a kiss.
"Now that we've muddled our way through that emotional cesspool...what do you want me to pick up for dinner?" Logan's arms dropped to his sides. "There's no way either of us is cooking tonight."
Veronica dreaded this part of the day, where she had to weigh her cravings against the foods that could potentially cause her nausea. Ugh, nothing. "Everything?"
Logan ruffled her hair. "I know I said I'd still find you sexy no matter how fat you got - and of course it's still true - but I thought I'd at least have ten good years left of you being small enough to fit into the cheap seats on a commercial flight. Not that we would ever fly commercial."
"Nonsense. Our child is going to know what it's like to sit next to somebody with body odor on a cross country flight during a holiday weekend, just like everybody else. I'm not raising a Madison Sinclair type." She gave him a warning look, then moved his hands to her belly and rubbed them over her barely-there protrusion.
Wait. We were just talking about food, right?
"Seriously, just get me anything to eat. Except sushi, because raw. Oh, and no Mexican or Indian. Spicy food has been giving me heartburn lately. Same with Italian. And no Chinese, you know, because of the MSG. Also, nothing vegetarian, because I'm supposed to have lunch with Mac tomorrow, and there's only so much vegan food a carnivore should be forced to endure."
His eyes narrowed at her with amusement. "Which leaves...Thai? Vietnamese?"
"Sodium," she said, shaking her head before looking up at him sheepishly. "My hands and feet swell from even a handful of peanuts these days."
"You're tempting me to get shellfish."
"But you're allergic to-oh, haha. I get it. You suck." She pouted out her bottom lip, which he immediately kissed.
"Well honey, I hope you like Swedish, because you've nixed the cuisine of almost every other developed country," he said, then suddenly grinned demonically at her. "I could always pop by the Red Room Club for some Russian food...they do take out, right?"
He cupped her face and pressed their lips together before she could raise an objection.
"Swedish will be fine." She turned him around at the shoulders and pushed him lightly toward the door by his ass. "Salmon is good for brain development. So is chocolate cake. And ice cream! Especially ice cream."
She could hear his laughter ring out as he walked down the driveway to the car.
"Lilly!" Veronica screamed toward the staircase, before turning to head in that direction. "Enough gaming! You're going to develop a hump if I let you stay on there any longer."
"Veronica...?" Lilly yelled weakly from the second floor.
Suddenly, I'm not her auntie anymore? Why is this girl 40?
"Hang on, I'm coming up." Veronica started up the stairs, taking breather mid-way against the banister. It was still amazing to her how tired she woke up nowadays.
Alicia told her that she'd be getting an energy boost in a couple of weeks, when she entered her 2nd trimester, but the way she felt now it seemed like an eternity away. Like an energy oasis she couldn't quite reach, just beyond the horizon.
"Veronica, come on..."
"Are you getting hungry or something? You're probably going to hate me when I tell you this, but Uncle Logan is out now, picking up Swedish food for dinner." Veronica wandered down the hallway to Lilly's room, before remembering that she was using Logan's game system in their bedroom. "I promise it's not as disgusting as it sounds. Okay, maybe 'promise' is a little too strong of a word, but I think? Okay, it's possible I might already be regretting it already."
She pulled a disgusted face, then turned on her heels and headed down the hallway in the other direction. "Are you playing WOW with the volume off? Whenever Logan plays, I feel like somebody's locked me in an arcade with no escape. Remind me some time to tell you about the time in high school that I went undercover as a gamer..."
Veronica reached out to grab the handle of her door, and froze just before she reached her target.
It's too quiet. Lilly should have been halfway down the stairs by now complaining about the choice of takeout.
With her service weapon in the bottom drawer of her bedroom nightstand and not enough time to go downstairs for a kitchen knife, she needed to think fast.
She backtracked to the hallway closet and opened it quietly, praying that Logan's jumble of sports equipment wouldn't noisily clatter to the ground like a bad sitcom joke, ruining the element of surprise.
Knee pads. More knee pads. Seriously, Logan? You haven't played a sport that's required knee pads since high school.
Most of the stuff in there was useless. Either too big for her to carry - like his surfboard or field hockey stick - or too ineffective against intruders, like his badminton racket or soccer ball.
You couldn't have taken up baseball?
"Veronica? Are you coming?" Lilly asked. This time the fear that laced through her tone was more obvious.
The little girl hadn't called Veronica anything but 'Auntie Vee' from the first day they'd met, and it made no sense for her to suddenly switch things up unless she was trying to alert her to something. How was she such an expert at this kind of stuff already?
Because she's been on the run her entire life?
"Sorry, sweetie. I'm just slower than usual today. This baby is the biggest energy vampire." Veronica quickly scanned the closet from top to bottom, her eyes finally settling on the set of 3lb iron hand weights Logan used for long walks on the beach.
At the time, she'd mocked Logan for buying hard weights, because who would choose to carry something that uncomfortable in their hands for several miles? He said the discomfort helped remind him to do his light reps while he walked. Now she was happy to be shacked up with an exercise masochist.
Veronica grabbed the set, stuffing one into the outside pocket of her carrier bag, and keeping the other wrapped tightly in her clammy, right hand, which she hid behind her.
With her left hand on the door, she took a deep breath and turned the handle, not knowing what she'd find on the other side.
"Veronica...you're here." Lilly sat motionless in the center of Veronica's bed, knees tucked under her, hands folded primly on her lap. Her face was deceptively relaxed, almost placid. To the laymen, she would appear completely fine, happy even, but Veronica knew better. She knew Lilly better.
Tell me...
Lilly's big eyes blinked twice, like an indigo lighthouse signal, and then darted toward the area behind the door Veronica had just opened.
Not willing to let the perp get the jump on her, Veronica acted quickly. She tossed her phone into the hallway and jerked her head in that direction, motioning for Lilly to run, then raised her weapon and twisted around, ready to strike.
Before she could pull the door back, a ropey hand, knotted with lean muscle, shot out and wrapped around her bicep - covering it completely - then yanked her further into the room, flinging her directly into the center.
Veronica's adrenaline was pumping hard now, but this wasn't her first hostage situation so she knew how to remain relatively calm. It wouldn't help anybody but the criminal if she lost her shit.
Though her arm was aching, she focused on her goddaughter, connecting with the child's eager gaze. "Call Papa Bear now! Don't stop moving until you find him. RUN!"
Lilly bolted from the room without hesitation, picking up Veronica's phone as she flew down the hallway. She was fast, nearly tripping over her own feet as she descended the staircase in a gaussian blur.
Yes!
Wait - why isn't he going after her?
The bedroom door slowly creaked closed, revealing the face of a man she'd desperately hoped never to see again in person.
"Veronica Mars..." he growled, rolling the words around his mouth like he was making love to them. "Fancy meeting you here."
The front door of the house slammed open and the tightly wound string that circled Veronica's heart began to loosen, knowing that Lilly had made it out. "You're in my bedroom, not the local watering hole, so it shouldn't really come as a huge shock to run into me here. It's not exactly an act of serendipity."
A predatory grin spread across his stubbled face, sending an involuntary shiver down her spine. She knew that smile well, and it was not a friendly one.
Keith stood next to his car in the parking lot of the River Stix and stared at the dinky building as if it were Mount Everest. He had to do it, he didn't have a choice, but it didn't make taking the first step any easier. Luckily for him, he was never the type to take the easy way out.
As he walked through the bar - with shoes loudly sticking to the floor upon each step - several regulars stood up and not-so-covertly sneaked out the front door. He probably could have picked up half of them on outstanding warrants of varying degrees, but that's not why he was there. He was there to interrogate a dead man.
"Sheriff," Molly said, looking anything but happy to see him. She didn't stop to acknowledge his presence, just continued sectioning the lemon on the cutting board like she was mad at it. "You're kind of clearing the place out."
"Sorry, Molly. Don't mean to put a crimp in your business, but I suspect you know why I'm here."
She finished chopping up the lemon she was working on before looking up to answer him. "Actually, sheriff, I haven't got a clue."
Right. So we're playing it that way, then?
Keith sidled up to the bar - the smell of stale beer getting stronger the closer her got - and leaned comfortably against it. "I think you've got more than a clue."
"Look," she said, tossing the pairing knife into the sink with enough force to make it ricochet sharply against the deep, steel basin, "I'm not looking for any trouble, okay?"
From this short distance, he could see the damage on the side of her face. She was worked over real well. It looked like the kind of beating a guy would give to prove a point, rather than one doled out in the heat of the moment.
Who does this to their own flesh and blood? Their only daughter, no less. Animal.
He gestured to the poorly concealed bruise in her cheekbone and winced. "Looks like trouble already found you."
"More of a reason for you to leave me alone." She stared him down like a woman with the confidence of somebody twice her age.
"That Eli's handiwork?" Keith felt like an asshole for suggesting it, but thought that in coming to his defense, she might let something slip about the man who really did this to her.
Molly braced her hands on the copper bar, leaving fingerprints where she had just polished and gritted her teeth. "You really think a lot of your boy, don't you?"
"My boy?"
"Oh don't deny it. I know he's like a son to you," she said, taking a moment to control her temper, then gestured to her face. "You know as well as I do that he would never do something like this to a woman. So, maybe you want to tell me why you're really here. I ain't got time for playing games?"
Wow. Talk about getting straight to the point. Maybe I should hire her to train my deputies?
"Fair enough." He nodded. "For the sake of efficiency, let's both agree not to play games then, shall we?"
"Okay." She cocked a hip and crossed her arms over her chest menacingly. "I'm all for you not wasting my time."
"Great!" Keith slapped both hands down on the bar and smiled at her. "Why don't we start with you telling me who you have hidden in your attic?"
Molly's arms slipped down to her waist as she struggled to contain her shock. "Eli told you?" She glanced at the ceiling anxiously before turning her attention back to Keith. "I thought he...of course. God, I'm such an idiot."
Keith hadn't actually gotten a chance to check in with Weevil that morning, but what Molly didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
Much.
She pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm down. "Asshole!" When she looked up again, her face was flushed with disappointment and poorly-concealed anguish. "Once again, my taste in men wins all the awards."
He was going to have a lot of explaining to do when Weevil found out about this, but right now, all he could do was keep his eye on the prize.
"Look..." Molly leaned forward over the bar and lowered her voice. "Obviously, you know everything by now, but he isn't here, okay?"
Keith leaned in to meet her. "Then why are you whispering?"
Her lips parted, but only a hiss of air escaped, before she was distracted by something on the other side of the room.
By the time Keith spun around to look, it was too late, he was facing the barrel of a .45mm gun.
"Long time no see, Kemosabe," Cormac Fitzpatrick growled in his husky baritone as he roughly shoved the butt of the gun against Keith's forehead.
Funny. Doesn't like you're doing much seeing these days.
The specter Keith saw before him was more ghost than man. His face looked the same - ruggedly handsome - if a bit more weathered with age and the elements - the only real difference were his eyes. A large, black patch adorned the left one, barely covering the spiderweb of scars left behind by scorch marks. The right one, though in tact, was no longer the eye of a human, but a feral beast.
"Don't tell me you forgot to bring backup? Again?" Cormac tutted, then looked over Keith's shoulder at Molly. "Some men never learn, do they?"
"Guess not." Molly's voice sounded small and weak, and Keith honestly couldn't tell if she was still reeling from what he'd falsely led her to believe about Weevil, or if she was as frightened by the current situation as he was.
Cormac barked out a laugh. "Fetch some rope, baby girl. Sheriff Mars and I are long overdue for a conversation."
Molly ducked down behind the bar and emerged with a hefty length of rope in her hands.
"Unusual item to keep behind a bar. Wouldn't think you'd get a lot of orders for Mai Thais with your clientele."
Cormac limped to the nearest table and pulled a chair out, then gestured with his chin for Keith to take a seat.
Dragging her feet as though walking to a dirge, Molly rounded the bar with the rope in hand.
"Jesus, girl. You walk any slower and you'll be going backward!"
She picked up the pace and extended her arms to offer her father the coil.
"Do I look like my hands are free to you?" he snidely barked at her.
Keith noticed Molly's subtle flinch.
Interesting.
She silently dropped to her knees and began the chore of binding Keith's wrists to the arms of the chair before switching to his legs.
"Kids. Am I right?" Cormac winked at Keith as if they were just two average dads sharing a joke. "You can teach 'em to fish, but that don't mean they're any good at it."
From behind him, Keith could hear Molly's breathing ramp up into an anxious staccato.
She's scared. Maybe even more than I am.
"Make 'em nice and tight for me, baby girl."
She made a show of pulling the cord roughly, but when it came time to actually knot the rope, her fingers slipped, allowing Keith some wiggle room.
Good girl.
"Ow!" Keith grumbled, for effect.
"Maybe I should leave you two alone?" Molly suggested, trying to back away from the scene in front of her.
"Oh, no." Before she could get too far, Cormac grabbed her wrist roughly and jerked her back over to where he was standing. "You're going to stay right here where you belong. At your dad's knee." He shoved her to the floor and took the seat next to where she was curled up in a ball. "Maybe you'll actually learn something for once."
Jesus. How long has the poor woman been living like this?
"So..." Keith spoke, trying to distract Cormac's attention away from Molly. "You're looking good...all things considered."
Cormac snorted a laugh. "Well aren't you just as full of shit as ever? Tell me how you've been, Keith. Anything exciting happen in your life since we last met?"
"Now that you mention it...there have been a few really explosive events that have rocked our family lately." He rapped his fingertips against the armrest and tilted his head in thought. "My youngest is getting a new car. The old one was running fine until one day it just - poof - stopped working entirely. Oh, and Veronica - you remember her, right? Same year as Molly at school? Well, she's now an FBI agent. They grow up so fast, don't they?"
"Veronica...yes. Always did have a good head on her shoulders, didn't she?" Cormac scratched the side of his head with the edge of his revolver.
"I like to think so."
"Well sheriff, if you're interested in keeping it that way, you can feel free to cut the bullshit at any time and tell me what I want to know."
Keith smiled tightly at his warden. "Do you know the definition of insanity, Cormac?"
"You calling me names now, Keith? I'm hurt." He feigned a sad expression and pressed the side of his gun to the imaginary wound in his heart.
"What I'm saying is, that after 14 attempts on a person's life, a sane criminal would have figured out by now that a 15th attack isn't going to yield the results they're looking for."
Cormac leaned forward in his chair and plunked the gun on the edge of the nearest table, still having the foresight to keep it aimed at his capture. "What would you do if you were in my position?"
"I think we both know that I'd never be in your position."
"Let's pretend that you are, though. Let's pretend that something very precious to you has been stolen away and you have no idea how to get it back?"
I will kill him before I let him anywhere near my daughter again.
Keith's stomach turned at the implication. "Is that a veiled threat?"
"Veiled?" Cormac smirked and leaned back in his chair. He then stretched his legs out and rested the injured ankle onto its opposing knee. The fabric from his jeans rode up his leg, flashing the gruesome remains of a bear trap wound on his ankle. "Was I being too subtle or something?"
"I don't have your money, Cormac."
He looked behind himself on either side. "Well I sure as hell don't see it around here, do you?"
"Do I look like I'm living high on the hog?" Keith aimed his gaze at his off-duty ensemble of mid-level chinos and Banana Republic button down.
"Maybe you're just lying low?" It was clear Cormac wasn't about to give up any time soon.
Is he for real?
"For seven years?" He huffed with exasperation. "I put your entire gang in prison. You were supposedly dead. If I were going to spend a bunch of illicit cash, wouldn't a normal person have picked that opportune moment?"
"You're definitely not normal, Mars. I ain't never met another lawman like you before."
"You mean one who wasn't on the take?"
Cormac shrugged his shoulders and began to unwind. "Let's say I'm willing to buy that you didn't steal the money for yourself, I'm still not convinced you don't know where it went. Kendall hired you to help her. She must've told you something about it."
Keith's expression turned cold and predatory. "Maybe you should ask Kendall where she hid the cash?"
Cormac scooted his chair forward until he was knee-to-knee with Keith, breathing the same air. He ran the cold butt of the gun lovingly down the side of Keith's cheek and flashed a toothsome smile. "You're gonna tell me what happened to my money."
"Or what? You're going to kill me? You already tried that a few times," he said, jutting his chin defiantly.
"No." Cormac slowly circled the circumference of Keith's left eye with the end of the gun. "You're gonna live a long life, sheriff, don't you worry about that. Can't say the same for your nearest and dearest though. Loving you...that's as good as a death sentence."
Swallowing hard, Keith tried to remain stony-faced and appear unaffected. "I'd say the same for you, but I'm not too sure we could scrape up an individual who fits that description. You blew the last one's brains all over the wall of your cabin rental."
Cormac leaned over and grabbed Molly by the hair, using it to yank her up onto his knee. "I've got my kid. Daughters would do anything for their daddy. Right, baby girl?"
Keith's hands balls into fists, fighting the urge to come to Molly's rescue. It couldn't be now, though. He had to bide his time.
Molly smiled tightly and nodded. "That's right, daddy."
"See?" Cormac gestured dramatically to Molly and then tapped the side of his cheek with his index finger until she took the hint and kissed him there. "Well Keith, it looks like we've both got girls who would be willing sacrifice anything for us. I just hope it doesn't come to that. I'm giving you 24 hours to tell me where the money is, and then I'm coming for Veronica. And this time, I won't miss."
It will be my pleasure for me to nail his ass to the wall.
Cormac nudged Molly slightly to get her to stand and then offered her his gun. "You care to do the honors, sweetheart?"
Molly reached for the gun and tested the weight of it in her hands, then turned to Keith with a wrecked expression and backhanded the heel of the gun against the side of his skull.
After that, everything faded to black.
After competing in what felt like a Olympic-level staring match with Veronica, Liam Fitzpatrick sauntered into the center of the room and casually folded his arms.
He's been staring at me now for five minutes, the way a cartoon dog looks at a ham hock. Something's got to give. Surely he can get his threat on some point before I turn 30?
His freshly skinned head, adorned with several white supremacist tattoos, and his physical bulk - more imposing from long spells lifting weights in the prison yard - did nothing to hide the same-old sinister Liam lurking beneath the new facade. Though his outsides had altered, his insides seemed just as terrifying as ever.
Hello Travis Bimmel at the end of 'Taxi Driver'. It's probably helpful to any would-be victims that he's wearing all of his crazy on his tattooed sleeve these days.
Veronica mirrored his pose and raised an expectant eyebrow. "You stare at me any longer and I'm going to have to start charging you."
With one hand, he stroked the back of his bald head like a preening peacock, and with the other, he tapped a baseline out on his thigh with the carbon-steel, Japanese chef's knife Dick had sarcastically gifted to Logan when Veronica moved in with him. "Always with the fresh mouth...I thought I'd cured you of that affliction years ago."
"Sorry Liam. That affliction is terminal." She brought her free hand to her hip, forcing her body language into something resembling confidence. Guys like Liam consumed fear like a drug, and she would starve herself before she'd feed him.
Liam threw his head back and cackled brokenly, then followed it up with an impressed whistle. "Gotta hand it to you, girl, there are men twice your size who wouldn't have the balls to front with me, yet here you are..." He swept his hand through the air in a flourished gesture.
Of all the assholes in all the world, why did this one have to walk into my house?
"What do you want?"
He took a step forward, right into her personal space, and she willed herself not to flinch. "You're a smart cookie, Veronica Mars," he drawled lazily, making sure to wring every drop of enjoyment out of her name on his lips. "You tell me."
"You're working for Alexei Petrenko."
"Ding! Ding! Ding!" he shouted to the heavens in a voice too loud for indoors. "Give the girl a prize!"
"Can my prize be you getting the fuck out of my bedroom?"
He chuckled at her barb, then brought his hand to her cheek, almost reverently. "I knew you could do it. Put two and two together. Always were too clever for your own good."
The feeling of Liam's skin - however minimal - rubbing up against hers was repellent. "Maybe you should ask me something harder next time? Let me show you how clever I can really be."
He brushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, and tucked it behind her ear the way a lover might. His fingers lingered on the edge of her jaw, clinging like a lizard to a rock.
"You came here to kidnap Lilly, right? To put pressure on Duncan to sell the Kane Software patents to Petrenko."
"All I heard was kidnap." He smirked and brushed his thumb across her cheekbone, then pulled the free weight easily from her hand and flung it at the glass wall of her bedroom, loudly cracking the smooth pane into several jagged lines, like an angry strike from a bolt of lightening. His hungry eyes reminded on her the entire time. "Change of plans though, little one. Now the boss man wants you instead."
Thank. Fucking. God.
She took a breath and let it out slowly, and the edges of her mouth curled upward as a small measure of anxiety left of body. "I was hoping you were going to say that."
Thrown for a moment by her relief, Liam furrowed his brow. "You want me to kidnap you? I'm touched."
"I want Lilly safe. I don't really give a shit how that gets achieved." She lifted her chin defiantly.
He tipped his head from side-to-side in consideration. "Well, okay then. Can't say I'm broken up about the switcheroo. I always hated kids. And that one especially," he glanced at the empty hallway, "is a Grade-A brat. Thought I was going to have to gag her for a minute there."
"She would have found a way around it. Trust me."
"Good thing for her she's gone then, because I wouldn't have been gentle." Liam's hand slid to Veronica's neck and tightened around her throat as he backed her into the shattered remains of the glass wall.
"Well, you got me." Her pulse started to race, thumping rapidly against the pad of Liam's index finger. "What happens next?"
"You tell me." He leaned in close and buried his nose into her hair, inhaling the scent. "I haven't smelled a real woman in way too long. And you're gonna let me."
No.
No.
Not again.
As Liam occupied himself nuzzling Veronica just behind the ear, she quietly slipped her hand into the top of her satchel and wrapped her fingers tightly around the free weight she'd stowed there. She was only going to get one shot at this, so she would have to make it count.
Liam's mouth opened on her neck and he licked a wide stripe from her collarbone to her ear, holding her in place as she instinctively jerked away. "Mmm. Just as I suspected. You taste as sweet as you are sour."
His head dropped forward and he continued laving the column of her neck. His hand loosened around her windpipe, but remained in place as he pressed his erection into her hip bone. "I almost forgot how soft you girls are. So soft," he purred, grinding into her harder. "I'm gonna really enjoy wreckin' that pussy until you scream."
Veronica silently gasped.
Oh God. I have to get out of here right now.
She immediately lifted the weight high in the air and clocked Liam on the back of the skull as hard as she could, then took advantage of the painful distraction and untangled herself from his grip, stopping only to retrieve her gun from the nightstand before getting the fuck out of Dodge.
"Fucking cunt!" Liam howled, frothing at the mouth with rage. He more pissed off than in agony, but still staggering to the bed like a wounded animal. A weaker man would have been knocked out cold. "You'd better run, you bitch, because when I find you, it'll be more than just your pussy I'll be destroying! Bitch!"
Veronica charged down the hallway, and practically slid down the banister in her haste to leave Liam in her tracks. Spying the open door, she sprinted toward the driveway.
Just as she was trying to figure out how best to scale the fence to freedom, the front gate parted, and Logan's car rolled through the breach.
After all of these years, Logan and I finally have good timing!
Veronica threw herself in the path of the car and Logan slammed on the breaks, eyes wide with fear. "Jesus, Veronica! What the hell are you doing? Do you want to get yourself killed?"
She leapt over the hood of the car, 'Dukes of Hazard' style and practically dove into the passenger's seat. "Drive now!"
"What happened?" Logan floored the gas, reversing out of the driveway, accompanied by the sound of screeching rubber. "Where's Lilly?" he asked, before shifting the car back into drive.
"I don't know. I don't know," Veronica said breathlessly, her face collapsing as she banged her forehead against the passenger door window. "She ran off with my phone about 20 minutes ago, maybe longer. We can track her that way. I told her to go find Wallace because I figured that's the last place Liam would think to look for her."
Logan's hands gripped the steering wheel so hard they turned white from the pressure. "Liam? Liam Fitzpatrick?"
"He was in the house. I thought he was there for Lilly, but now I'm pretty sure it was me he came for me."
Please do not get out of the car to go murder him.
"He tried to kidnap you?" Logan asked through gritted teeth, his jaw clenching like a blood pressure monitor. "Did he touch you?"
There is no way I'm telling Logan what happened. I don't need him going all cowboy on me. He'd definitely march up there to try and strangle Liam with his bare hands if he knew.
"I knocked him upside the head with one of your hands weights. He's not unconscious, but it should buy us a little time. Which reminds me, you need to get into playing some sports with more dangerous equipment, because the weapon pickin's were slim." She pushed her hand down on Logan's thigh to spur movement. "Drive a few blocks East and then pull into that setback house with the deep driveway at the end of Bay View Circle. You know, the one with the for sale sign in front of it and all of the overgrown trees? We can hide out there long enough there for us to track Lilly down."
He nodded and sped up their pace. "This has to do with Duncan, doesn't it?"
"It's not Duncan's fault a tweaked out psycho cracked the wall of our bedroom."
Logan glared at her through his peripheral vision. "Obviously, it's not Duncan's fault. I'm not irrational, Ronnie. I just meant, this has to do with what's happening to him and not with what's going on with your dad."
"Oh. Right, sorry." Her hand rubbed over her neck, trying to erase the lingering sensation of Liam's rough tongue running over the skin there. "So, you're thinking that because of the prison thing?
"Can't be a coincidence Liam came for you less than 24 hours after his release. There's also the fact that he was released at all." Logan turned the wheel of the car into a three point turn, before backing slowly into the hidden driveway. "Something tells me he wasn't given early parole for good behavior."
Veronica nodded in agreement and held out her hand. "Phone."
Logan stood up a little to dig his phone out of his jeans front pocket and handed it to her, before doing a double take. "What happened to your neck?"
He noticed. Fabulous.
"Would you believe me if I told you I fell on my own hand?" she asked, not looking up from the 'find my phone' app.
Logan's fingers ghosted the bruises around her windpipe as his breathing increased. "I'm trying really hard not to lose my shit right now, but I'm going to need you to tell me that you don't have bruises anywhere else."
As the implication of his question dawned on her, her shoulders drew in. "Just these. And probably a few on my upper arm. They don't hurt."
"They look like they hurt," he whispered, leaning his forehead against her cheek. "He didn't..."
A tiny green dot appeared on the map, blinking on and off a few miles in the opposite direction of their car, and Veronica finally released the shaky breath she'd been holding. "Lilly."
Logan grabbed the phone from her hand and peered at the screen. "She's traveling awfully fast if she's on foot."
"Call Wallace."
He tapped on the screen a few times and then turned on his speaker.
They both stared at the phone in silence as it rang over and over again without an answer.
Veronica tapped 'end call' and then hit redial.
Just as the phone was about to go to voicemail again, the call connected and a rustling sound filled the air.
"Did you get it?" Wallace asked another person in the background.
"I know how to answer a phone, Papa Bear," Lilly whined like the seven year old she was.
"Lilly!" Both Veronica and Logan shouted at the same time.
Thank you, karma. It's about time you paid it forward.
"Auntie Vee? You got away from the villain?"
Veronica wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and laughed with relief. "I hit the villain in the head with a free weight."
"Awesome! Is he dead?" She sounded way too excited at this prospect.
"Don't think so." Veronica signaled for Logan to begin driving again. "But you did a great job, sweetie. I can't believe Wallace got to you so fast."
"Logan called me not that long ago to invite me over for dinner. He said you were eating Swedish, so I should pick up a pizza just in case? That guy must really love you if he's willing to eat pickled herring for you, because that stuff's nasty." Wallace chuckled good-naturedly at her choice of cuisine. "I was already in my car when Lilly phoned."
"Please tell me you got the pizza."
"Seriously, Veronica?" Logan cocked his head, but kept his eyes on the road.
"What? I'm pregnant," she said, hands aloft in a mea culpa gesture. "So...we're probably going to have to hide out a while. Like last time."
Minus the being shot at by Russian thugs part.
"Got any ideas where you want to go?" Wallace asked, grabbing the phone from his passenger.
Veronica leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes as the motor started up and they rolled to the top of the driveway. "Know anywhere off the grid where we can lay low?"
Wallace hesitated before answering. "Oh I know a place. And it's a good one, real out of the way. You wouldn't know it if you didn't already know it, you feel me? But, I don't think your boy is gonna like it very much."
"No," Logan spat out quickly. "I'd rather take over the role of Liam's new prison bitch than go there."
"Come on, man." Wallace sighed. "You know she'd be happy to see you..."
"Well, I wouldn't be happy to see her." Logan snapped.
Lynn? It has to be.
Veronica placed her hand over Logan's to settle him. "I assume we're talking about-?"
"My answer is no."
"Okay," she said gently, wondering briefly if she would have the ability to call her own mom for help.
I'd rather gargle with glass.
"It's okay, honey," Veronica cooed. "You don't have to do what you don't want to. But...can you think of a better option?"
Logan huffed out a breath and shook his head. "No. There is no better option. We all know that."
She rubbed his forearm back and forth. "We could go without you..."
"Are you serious?" Logan physically jerked at the suggestion. "Do you actually think there's a snowball's chance in hell I'd ever agree to that? You're my family - my only family - and you're in danger. I know that you can protect yourself, but you can't ask me to just sit this one out and do nothing."
He slowed the car to a stop and rested his forehead against the steering wheel while his internal debate raged on. After a several seconds of silence, he expelled a shuddering breath and lifted his head. "Fine. We'll go to Lynn's house. Just don't expect me to talk to her."
"Of course not." Veronica pressed a kiss to his cheek and angled herself so her head could rest on his shoulder.
Worked like a charm.
She'd feel bad for manipulating him, if they weren't so far up Crap Mountain they were exiting US airspace.
Halfway down the hallway, Dick resisted Mac's pull like an old Bassett hound, and she nearly snapped her arm off with the rebound force. "What did I do now?"
"Why do you assume I think you did something?" She yanked hard, restarting his momentum, and pushed him through the mantle of her bedroom, before shutting and locking the door behind them. "I mean, besides the obvious." She tipped her head in the direction of the living room, indicating Gory and Katya.
Dick's body tensed with fear as Mac pushed him backward onto her mattress and climbed on top of his lap. "I can explain-"
"Please don't. Not now, at least." Mac dug her fingers into his hair, leaned over and licked the excuse right out of his mouth. "I mean, it's obvious you and Gory are cooking up something else that you haven't told me about yet, but I think it can probably wait 20 minutes. Wait - you can last for 20 minutes, right? Please say yes."
I'm not even sure I can last 20 minutes, actually.
"Last? Like last?" Dick gasped for air between kisses. "Dude, yes, I'm not in high school! Fuck. I can't tell if you're seriously into this or just lulling me into a boner so I won't see it coming when you tear my throat out." Off of Mac's look, "What? Girls do that kind of shit all the time!"
"Who the hell have you been dating?" She unbuckled his belt and then ripped it from his jeans in one smooth motion.
Dick opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off.
"Nope. That was a rhetorical question." Her nimble fingers made quick work of the button fly and zipper on his jeans. "I don't have the patience for misdirection in my personal life. I just want a guy who has genuine feelings for me - and who is not a mass murderer - to give me an orgasm. With his penis. I'm just a simple girl."
He swallowed a laugh as she shimmied out of her khakis. "Nothing about you is simple, Mackie. Every time I think you're one thing, you always find a way to fuck my shit up and prove you're something else."
"Fucking your shit up better be a good thing." Mac raised her arms and lifted her sweater over her head and then threw it on the floor, followed quickly by her nude-colored, satin bra. "You're pretty surprising yourself, Dick. I can't believe all the trouble you went to just to help me get away from Alexei."
His mood turned serious. "I'd do literally anything to keep his eurotrashy fingers off of you."
You really would, wouldn't you?
She was momentarily startled by his sincerity, caught off guard by the sight of her smiling reflection in his eyes. "I believe you. And the feeling is mutual, by the way."
One hand - tanned to a golden brown from thousands of hours at the beach - rested on her waist, thumb stroking small circles into her hip bone. "You, like, sold yourself into white slavery for me. What kind of cowardly asshole would I be if I didn't try to bust you outta Cellblock 9?"
"So, you're saying you did this out of obligation?" She was fishing for an answer she already had, but couldn't help herself.
I've officially turned into every chick who ever dated a guy.
"Well, yeah. But not the kind you're thinking of." His fingers crept up the front of her stomach and walked around to cradle her lower back. "I felt obligated to make sweet sweet love to you, and we couldn't be doing that if you were chained up in Jabba the Hutt's techno-lair. Not that you wouldn't look hot in a bronze bikini, because you totally would. And I've given this a lot of thought."
"At long as it wasn't about my welfare..." She pursed her lips in an amused smile.
"If you don't know I care about your welfare by now..."
"I know." Mac leaned over and kissed him tenderly. "And nothing is going to happen to me now. Thanks to you."
"You're the one who coded the blackmail software of death."
"Yeah, but you're the one who put Alexei's metaphorical balls in a vice."
"I'd like to put his actual balls in a vice." Dick's hand stuttered up and down Mac's back - like he was checking to make sure she was real and not a figment of his over active imagination. "I can't believe we're really doing this whole thing."
"The sex?"
"No. The whole..." he gestured back and forth in the space between them, "...thing."
"Are you nervous?"
He let out an anxious laugh. "Fucking petrified. You?"
Mac pressed her face into the curve of his neck and grinned. "I haven't been this scared since Apple revamped their last operating system."
Dick bowed his back and lifted one arm to help things along, while awkwardly inching his jeans down to his knees by shaking his legs. "The shoulder," he warned, as she lifted the hem of his short.
She slowed her movements pulling his injured limb through the sleeve with care. "Better?"
He nodded, but his attention was elsewhere, eyes glazed over with lust.
Mac gingerly touched his knotted scar - for the first time realizing just how close she was to missing out on all of this - then pressed her lips to it.
"Shit, that's hot, Mackie."
She kissed it again, letting her lips linger a little longer this time. "I'm really glad you're hard to kill."
Please don't ruin this moment with a Stephen Segal joke.
"Me too." He lifted her chin up with the edge of his finger and kissed her. "You sure you really want to get mixed up with me? There's still time for you to Houdini the hell out of here." He crooked his thumb toward the wall.
"This is...I mean, were already mixed up with each other, aren't we?" Mac's palms explored the hills and planes of Dick's muscular torso with enthusiasm. "It's not like having sex is some kind of marriage oath. This isn't 'Game of Thrones.'"
"You totally wish it were 'Game of Thrones', you nerd. Don't lie." He reached out and cupped her ass as he bucked his pelvis against hers.
How does he know me this well, already?
Mac hiccuped at the motion and held back an embarrassed smirk. "It happens to be a very popular show, okay?"
"Pass." He rocked himself into her her again, this time taking care to aim for a direct hit.
She gasped loudly and then covered her mouth with one hand. "There are a ton of sex scenes in it," she squeaked through parted fingers.
"Upgraded to a maybe, then." Dick pulled her hand down from her face and slipped her index and middle fingers into his mouth, then brought them up to her right nipple and dragged them across it. "Touch yourself for me."
She bit her bottom lip until she almost bled. "...what?"
"You heard me." He coaxed her fingers downward toward the waistband of her underwear. "Touch yourself."
"Isn't that your job?" She tittered anxiously and looked around her room at absolutely nothing.
"I'll watch one season of 'Game of Thrones' with you..." he gestured from her hand to her groin with a tip of the head, "if you rub yourself for me."
"Why do you want-"
"Because I've got one gimp arm and could use the hand. Pun-fucking-intended." Dick licked his lips like he was about to tuck into Thanksgiving dinner. "But mainly because it's hot."
"You play dirty," she said, her expression frozen in consideration, before slowly inching her hand downward, "but I accept your terms."
Dick scooted back to get a better view of the action and reclined against the pillows. "This is going to be better than when Ros and that other hooker in King's Landing started doing each other while that dude Littlefinger was whining about that chick he once banged."
Mac reared up and yanked the pillows out from behind him, then pinned him to the bed. "You lying douchebag!"
Laughing, he managed to flip her back onto the mattress and hovered over her. "What does that say about you, if you're the one who's into douchebags?" His lips feathered against hers, long and languidly and she sighed into his mouth.
Mac was panting now and he had barely even touched her yet. "Please tell me you can reach the condoms in the top drawer of my night stand?"
Dick leaned across the bed and pulled open the drawer while Mac took the opportunity to slide off her underwear and toss it overboard. "You're all out of 'em."
"What!?" She sat up in outrage.
He opened his palm and flashed the square plastic packet hidden within his fist. "Wow. Eager much? You can't wait to get it in, can you?" He stroked the line of his erection through the front of his underwear and her eyes followed. "Look at you...you want on my johnson hardcore."
I'm never going to live this down.
Mac licked her lips, then shook her head to clear it. "Call it your johnson one more time and you'll be the only one on it today." She snatched the packet from his hand and viciously ripped it open with her teeth,
Dick pulled off his boxer briefs, then took the latex from her fingers and rolled it down to the base of his length, making sure to pinch the top for extra room. Mac watched the whole preparation with a detached admiration. It's still seemed improbable to her that she'd somehow ended up in bed with her former bully.
Is this how Veronica felt the first time she slept with Logan?
The whole situation was so surreal to Mac. Just a month ago, her sheets smelled only of her, but now they smelled distinctly of them, and the fact that there even was a them still left her reeling.
Dick's large fingers canvased the curves of her face like a blind person 'seeing' somebody for the first time and she smiled at the slight tickle. "I don't know what I did to make you like me, Mac, but I feel...lucky? I haven't felt very lucky in...pretty sure I never felt lucky, actually."
For Dick, that was the equivalent of a Shakespearean love sonnet.
"You're so smart. Also way prettier and much less of a weirdo than you were in high school. Glad I figured that out before you realized how much better you could do than me."
She tugged on a lock of his hair playfully. "Dick, you're a survivor. You're brave and you fight for the people you care about. I'm lucky too."
"You don't just like me because you want to get all up in this?" He brought her hand to his chest and pressed it into his warm skin before pushing it down his flank in a move that should have been beyond unsexy but wasn't. The slide of his silky skin beneath her fingers made her weak in the knees.
When did he start smelling this good?
"Actually," she wrapped her hand around his cock and gave it an experimental tug, before teasing her entrance with the tip. "I'd like you to get all up in this, like, last week. I've had enough foreplay to keep me on edge for days. Just...get in there."
"Don't have to ask me twice." His lips fell to her sternum and traveled over the peaked skin on her collarbone up to the sensitive patch of real estate behind her ear. "I meant what I said outside," he whispered hotly, barely audible. "I really fucking-"
Mac's hands found the pert swell of Dick's ass and pulled, sliding him into her body, bit by bit. "I know."
He groaned as he bottomed out. "Shit. This feels even better than I thought it would. I gonna have to think about a really ugly chick for a minute to calm down or I'm not gonna last."
Ditto.
"Honey," Mac wrapped her legs around his waist and bucked her hips into his, "those are 'inside thoughts'."
"Honey?" He grinned deviously like a man who had big plans afoot, and wedged one hand under her behind. "I don't do inside thoughts and you know it. Lower your expectations."
He slammed into her hard, while pulling her pelvis up to meet his.
Mac yelped in a way she'd never heard herself do before in bed and bit her lip to curb the tirade of swears murmured breathlessly into the air. "Not necessary. Clearly."
"God, you're so wet for me. Your body's so tight." His face dropped to her left nipple and he sucked it into his mouth for a beat before pulling off with a lurid, sloppy pop. "I'm gonna make you come so hard you're gonna be writing dorky fan fiction about it later tonight."
"Jesus Christ you've got a dirty mouth!" She barked out a surprise laugh as he pumped into her again.
"Still want me to keep it down, honey?" he drawled into her ear, sending a shiver through her body.
"Nope, you're good. You should feel free to keep. It. Up." Mac said, each word punctuated with one of Dick's ever-deepening thrusts. Her hands scrambled for purchase on the cotton sheets beneath them, nearly pulling the edges off of the corners as he continued fucking her into the mattress like it was his one mission in life. "God, what even is your penis?"
Dick snuffled against the side of her neck and reached down between her legs. "You think this is good...you're probably going to need a respirator once my shoulder's healed."
Seriously? I'll bet he's not even bluffing. Damn, I hope he's not bluffing...
Mac whimpered as his fingers plucked and strummed her with the care of an heirloom guitar, and she tightened her knees around his waist. "I'm not going to last."
"That's kind of the point for the chick," he panted into her mouth, as he pressed himself even deeper into her.
"Oh shit!" She cried out. "Don't you dare stop what you're doing!"
"Wasn't about to!" Dick pulled back to examine her face with wonder, but continued the course. "Dude, I did not peg you for a power bottom."
"Just like that!" Using her heels to bring him closer, she lifted her pelvis up to meet his. "Just like that!"
"Ngh-" Dick moaned and bit into her bottom lip, as he picked up the punishing pace.
Mac fingers curled around his back like tiny climbers hooks and dug in for safety. She could feel that burning tickle low in her belly start to rise and spread through her limbs like a raging wildfire. "Dick! Fuck!"
"Come on..." He drove it home - once, twice, and one last, stuttering third time - sending Mac over the edge with a high pitched shriek, which he then followed closely behind with a low moan.
"Holy crap." Mac wiped the sweaty strands of hair out of her face as the last aftershocks flowed through her body. "That was..."
"Yeah." Dick rolled onto his back to catch his breath.
"I'm speechless," she said, between gulps of air.
He tied off the condom and chucked it in the bedside trash can.
"Then my work here is done." Dick abruptly sat up with her still on his lap, as if he were about to leave the bed, then collapsed back down into a heap of tangled limbs.
And you're getting a promotion.
"You ass!" She tried to kick his shin but lacked the energy for more than a tap.
"Oh, I'm sorry - were you going to pretend I didn't just rock your world?"
She huffed out a breath in concession and flopped back down to a horizontal position, resting on his chest.
"That's what's up!" he shouted, gloating from his victory, then rolled back into place and folded his good arm behind his head, looking anything but humble. "And believe me, baby, it wasn't easy to hold off. I've been trying not to come in my pants all week."
She turned her head slightly and tried to look at him. "I really get you that hot and bothered?"
"I think about you, like, all the time. And not just about your ass." His hand cupped her bottom, squeezing it gently. "Okay, a lot of it's about your ass, but I also think about the other stuff too."
Mac let her cheek squish into his chest and smirked. "Like my boobs?
"Well, yeah. Those too. But also the non-sex stuff."
She made a startled noise. "Like my brain?"
"Fuck you." He squeezed her ass a little harder this time, enough to goose a squeal out of her. "Like your everything. You're on my mind a lot. So much that I even accidentally ordered myself a soy latte at Starbucks yesterday."
I would have paid to see his reaction.
"Did you actually drink it?"
"Fuck no! I gave that shit to a homeless person. I'm pretty sure even they tossed that crap out. Nothing should be allowed to be called milk that comes from edamame."
"That's - okay, that's seriously adorable." She covered her face with her palm and laughed into it. "God, we are so completely different."
"So?" he asked, defensively.
"So, I thought this - that we - would turn out to be some epic disaster. But it turns out that you might actually be kind of perfect for me, Dick."
Dick sat up, bringing her with him. "For real?"
"I'm just as surprised as you are." Mac absently etched a heart in his skin - over his actual one - with her finger.
He gathered her in his arms until they were both resting against the headboard. "You know, Gory and Katya probably know exactly what's been going on in here. You're kind of a screamer."
Mac shrugged. "I'm past caring what other people think about us."
"Uh-oh. Keep that up and somebody's goi'n get fricked again..." His hand slipped between her slick thighs.
"Shh. You're ruining it." She pressed a finger to his lips and closed her eyes, resting boneless and sated against him.
"Nope. I actually think this is exactly the type of shit that won you over."
That, and your very talented penis.
"You didn't win me over," she said, stopping to yawn, "you woke me up. If I weren't with you, I'd probably be shacked up with some boring tax attorney or another software programmer."
Mac startled from her semi-conscious state and lunged for her phone, which was lying on the nightstand.
"You posting a Dick pic on Instagram or Tumblr?" His lip quirked into a lopsided grin as he adopted a ridiculously manly pose. "Hashtag: #BestLayEver."
On a euphoric high, she tapped furiously on the face of her phone for minute before setting it down again with a deep exhale. "That's better."
"Seriously, what was that?"
"You are now looking at a free woman." She flashed her dimples at him.
"Uh...I thought you were dating me?" he asked, truly befuddled.
"Oh I'm dating you, alright." Mac straddled Dick's legs and kissed him with ardor. "I'm going to date you so hard you'll be seeing stars."
He looked at her like she were possessed. "Did I just break you or something?"
"Not yet." She dropped a kiss on his lips with a smack and then slid off of his lap onto the the bed. "Though if you'd like another chance to try, we should probably get dressed and book it the hell out of here. Unless you'd like to have a three-way with the Russian mob?"
Dick looked for a moment as if he were actually considering it, before an epiphany set in. "You hit the kill switch on the blackmail software of death? Now?!"
She turned away from the heat of his glare and stepped into her underwear. "Okay, perhaps my actions were a bit hasty and poorly-timed."
Hasty? Try insane! God, what was I thinking? I'm going to get us both killed because of my stupid sex endorphins. This is what happens when you don't get laid properly in a year.
"Is hasty another word for suicidal?" He ran his hands through his blond locks, shaking them out.
Mac's stomach twisted with regret. "Possibly?"
"Welp..." Dick's bones cracked as he pulled himself to the edge of the bed. He stretched his legs out wide and toed the ground for his boxers. "Ideally, I like to take a power nap before blackmailing murderous oligarchs, but whatevs. Immediately post-banging works, too."
Mac peeked at Dick through the neck hole of her sweater, expecting to find him boiling in anger. Instead, she was met with a zen resignation. "You're really not pissed that I did this on a stupid whim? That I didn't warn you?"
"I mean, it's not the coolest thing you've ever done, and I didn't really figure you as the impulsive type." He stepped into his jeans and pulled them up over his thighs, but left the fly gaping open. "But we'll deal with it. We've dealt with worse shit than this before, right?"
We.
She pushed her arms through her sweater sleeves and folded them over her chest. "We have, haven't we?"
A/N: They finally banged...no more blue ovaries for Mac :)
I know I say this every chapter, but we really are near the end.
Hope you all get to download (iTunes) and watch the VM movie on Thursday - let me know what you think of it!
Special thanks to mysilverlining for beta skillz and nevertothethird for giving me her expert opinion on some of the scenes. Thanks ladies!
I would love to know what you think of this chapter - it was really complicated trying to balance all of the pieces. So if you have the time, PLEASE don't be shy and leave a review.