- Chapter Eighty-Seven-

Serves You Right

Saved from having to answer that, there was a sudden rap on the other side of the glass as the driver told the twosome that they had arrived at their destination. Unceremonious, completely out of left field, and lacking all kinds of tact, it had caused the girl to jump out of her skin. Because of course it did, he thought somewhat unfairly, taking shots not at her delicate nerves but at how attentively her eyes were fixated on him, waiting for any kind of sign.

Ten minutes, twenty, the exact measure of time they had been parked in the sketchy back end of the parking lot remained to be seen, however in light of current events, it was hardly even an afterthought. Playing the role of a professional, Sam supposed that the thing that ought to have mattered was that they had even made it at all, or that no one had seen them...? Truly blindsided when the heiress had said what she did, something important fried in the circuitry, melting the part of his brain that was in charge of the planning and the doing.

"Just..."

Broken to the extent that he couldn't even fall back on the parameters of his job, the hired thief decidedly could not wrap his head around it. Making the mistake of seeing the young woman still perched atop his lap - her arms falling slack in the confusion but still very much around him - Sam saw more than white-faced horror.

Beyond terrified himself, admittedly in hindsight the historian was a hair too ready to compare his companion to the worst offerings of the past. In all the time he had known her, Dells had proven herself to be little like her parents, and yet he was so prepared to accuse her of their nasty tricks, of playing mind games with him.

Daniella may have looked like Rafe, but she was NOT her father.

"Wait here." Clearly a command, in the moment the man felt wholly justified for thinking that this was some sort of ill-conceived scheme. Or worse, that the young woman was merely trilling those words because she had somehow gotten it into her thick skull that it was the 'right' move.

Although, not entirely on board that she was saying such things to be a malicious bitch, a tiny voice of reason chimed in on her behalf, if that were the case, why now?

Nervous about the dodgy driver as well as how god-awfully this was blowing up in her face, the heiress instinctively moved in an imploring fashion, which in this case meant her motions had more to do with the way she tilted her head than actually reaching out. Raw and inexperienced as she was, she knew straight away that it had been the wrong course to take, yet it had been automatic. A reflex born more of trust than dependency (although there had been enough on that later count to mask the truth, if she had been smart). Quickly trying to get it through to her bodyguard that this fear wasn't strictly a personal matter between them, she faltered at the stern look he gave her. Stern, dangerous, and downright miffed.

"But..." Sam wasn't having it.

Talk about screwing the pooch. Truthfully, Dells couldn't really blame the grizzled brunette for shunning her for... it wasn't really an antic, as in her head that implied some kind of insincerity, but it was the closest word that fit. Sleeping beauty knew proof positive that she had royally fucked everything up, but at the same time, this was something she felt strongly about.

Something about their driver wasn't sitting right now that she actually looked at the squat man in his golf cap, but maybe that feeling of foreboding was only because he was the one other thing she could latch on to. Or maybe it was due to the way his eyes were shooting lasers through the rear view at her back.

Recoiling from the silvery stare of Sleeping Beauty (as well as her desperate attempt to seize his person), Sam made it a point to take his eyes off the girl, "Fix your shirt. Someone... Someone might see." Saying it as if the girl had no shame whatsoever and was trying to run around flaunting herself, the ex-con more or less shoved her aside so he could get out of the car. All traces of tenderness gone, the man's reaction to her was nearly mechanical, as removed as if he were tearing off a band-aid or a strip of velcro.

"..."

Silence the only thing that could be mustered - well, the only sound that wasn't the undignified passing over of a rendezvous expiring - suddenly the only thing colder than the juices coating her sex was her blood. It was one thing to not say anything to her faux pas, but to treat her this harshly...

Hand on the outside of the roof, as the relapsed smoker remembered his own part in what had transpired on the ride over, he paused long enough to check his fly before throwing the door open and ducking out into the buzzing night air.

Before he could completely divest himself of the young woman's clinging warmth, the grizzled brunette was stayed by the driver adding in his two-cents (proving that their little affair was not exactly the definition of discretion). Turning enough to show off a toad-like profile, the puffy-eyed cabby left it a mystery who precisely he was addressing, "I have some nappies up here. For the clean-up."

Cruelly offering the heiress a small ray of hope, Drake reached back into the interior for his shirt. Meekly extending her hand out for the man as she was left just sitting there in their combined fluids, the heiress could feel a single tear roll down her cheek when he completely ignore her. Heartbroken in every sense and agreeing that she probably deserved it on some level, Daniella tried to blink back a full-blown leak as Sam dusted out his shirt, pulled it over his head, and slammed the door between them. Slammed it! Angrily.

Knuckles rapping the glass from the outside, he issued her orders once more, as if she were incurably stupid on top of everything else. Oh, that's right, she was. "Wait here."

If she were an ordinary girl, or if their relationship was in any way usual, the biggest hurdle in their path would have been something as mundane as how clumsy she was, or quite possibly the considerable age difference. Little things that she could only imagine, or that might come up in the future, when things had calmed and the relationship wasn't so shiny and new. Obviously the girl had no way of knowing what could happen, but this... Daniella wasn't sure she could endure if she had to deal with this kind of behavior.

Then again, on the other side of that argument... Hating that she had been shut alone in the cab with an overly observant driver, as the heiress hurried to put everything back in it's proper place, she touched her scarred shoulder and pictured the way Sam had kissed the ruined flesh.

Like he was savoring it...

Dammit. Dammit! Damn that man! Painfully aware that even in the midst of this fresh misery that she was falling all over again, the heiress did the unthinkable and actually took some of her Mama's advice. Straightening her spine and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, Dells finished yanking her bra back in place, jiggling the girls very minimally as she did so. Patting down her blouse into some semblance of respectful, all that was left was the bottom half.

Glad her skirt was just long enough to cover the hole in her leggings, on the same token she would feel marginally better once she could change into something that didn't leave her so exposed. Cheeks flushing the color of shamed posies at the thought, the young woman didn't want to think of how many other customers had made use of the promised cleaning cloths. Peeking around the partition for some hidden window to pass the items through, when none appeared she leaned over to open the door so that she could collect them that way.

Only...

When she attempted to open the door, she couldn't. Used to making these sorts of technical errors on good days, the rational part of her brain did its thing and reasoned that she was just being clumsy in her state. Except nope, that wasn't the case, and they both knew it. Panic rising in her breast, Daniella was horrified to realize that she was being kidnapped.

Slamming his cargo into the floor as he tore out of the parking lot, the driver glanced through his side mirrors to make sure that the thief hadn't come back early. Frankly he wasn't too worried about some washed-up crook that only came around a handful of times each year; it was the outsider writing the check that wanted as much separation between the couple as possible. Given how close the duo were, a little precaution against self-sacrificial heroics was a wise judgment call.

Hitting the ground like the human trash she was, the young woman clung to the nearest thing she could find - naturally it was Sam's plaid over shirt - and devolved into a puddle. Immediately going into the fetal position as she sobbed, Daniella counted all the ways tonight had gone wrong.

One: someone - probably Jian or one of his Orange Tiger goons - had snatched her back into their jaws.

Two: she never did get that nappy.

Three: Sam... Sam... Well, he was never going to reciprocate her feelings anyways.

[Stairway To Understanding]

Angry as he marched a blazing path up the stairs to their room for the suitcases that were waiting just inside, the man shook his head as he ascended the steps. Auburn locks burning twice as hot as his collar, the thief was so convinced that the heiress was full of it he was almost willing to put good money on it. Almost. If not for that stung way she had broken in the back seat of their cab...

Chewing the filter off the unlit cigarette he'd grabbed on the way into the lobby, Sam couldn't shake the way she had looked at him. Or the things she had said. Dells was so earnest, so... young.

Immediately telling himself that she was either daft and crazy as her old man or confused on a fundamental level, at best this was a faze and at worse it was a major mistake in the making. Baby girl had no idea what she was saying, what she was trying to sign up for. Or maybe she knew exactly what it was she was doing, and it's all just some mind fuck like her parents would have played on their unwitting victim.

Victim.

Tears shinning too often in those blue-gray diamonds, trying to coalesce the frightened young woman that he had marked as a non-threat and the absolute wreck that inexplicably kept him coming back for more, the only victim was the heiress. He wasn't arguing that the young miss couldn't be ruthless (that remained to be seen), it was only that when it came to him, Sam wasn't so sure she had it in her.

All too aware of what an Adler was capable of, it wasn't exactly like the ex-con was aiming to throw a loaded gun in her hand and make her face some moral dilemma in the heat of the moment. Rather, it all boiled down to being able to picture her stabbing a knife in his back, and honestly... as much as he tried to conjure that picture to ease the growing gnaw of guilt in his gullet, he couldn't. Not after the sensual, loving way she'd matched his gaze in the backseat.

For better or worse, she really might have meant it...

Author's Note:

Yeah, that last chapter... It feels like I put my soul into it... In other words, still dead from that. Hopefully this chapter doesn't/didn't suffer as a result.

Also, just to be clear, I am NOT saying that anyone deserves anything that happened to them in this chapter - it's about what they were FEELING. Y'all probably got that, but as one of my closest friends is always saying, you gotta cover your ass. It's just the way of the world, unfortunately.