- Chapter Eighty-Eight-

She Is The Apple Of His Eye

Originally haling from the good ol' US of A - the narrowed coordinates being within the dusty outer boundaries of Sin city - the cabby had been one of many paid to keep their eyes out for a certain young woman. While unable to speak for the rest, in his particular case the driver had been stationed in place for a solid week, catching neither hide nor hair of the desired prize. However, having said that there had been pretty decent money to be had in merely accepting normal fare on the side. Who knew, it might even be worth considering sticking around a little while longer... Possibly.

Transporter a glamorous name for what he did, delivering rare goods, hostages, and "other" had been a booming business. Except what with all the recent crackdowns and the new groups all vying for a place at the table (some more ambitiously seated than others)... Well, being in his late sixties, the old toad wasn't ashamed to consider retiring to something a little quieter. Twenty years ago that was the sort of talk that would have given him hives, but now it seemed like the only reasonable thing to do.

Aware that these were the very same notions in cinema that typically guaranteed an ancillary characters' demise, the old man shook it from his mind. Retirement was still going to be years off - what was he, made of money? No one but the sickeningly rich could truly quit working in this economy. No one.

Accustomed to worse displays than the jealous boyfriend hoarding the goods for his own and the girlfriend staying mostly covered and in one place, Vegas had robbed him of his ability to care. What did it matter if some little nit got the minimal amount of undressed in the backseat when his phone had all the apps he'd ever need in his life? Plus, the bimbette wasn't really his cup of tea.

Generous enough a soul to grant the kids (ha, kids, that was rich when one of them had been roughly his own age!) a boon in exchange for ruining their date, the cabby had opted to take the scenic route. Okay, so just maybe a part of that liberty had been extended because he had missed that first turn on Elm and 7th; real talk, for the folks in his pay grade a week wasn't nearly long enough to be a hundred percent about the geography at night. The other reason for the detour was to be sure that this was really the girl.

Darkness his foe on that count, he'd only been sure of it when she made for the window, to get some air in the cab before the son of a bitch lit up. Despite what it was he did for a living, Pleb the frog really didn't care much for cigarettes, and he liked smokers even less.

Back to the matter at hand, the score might've stood that he'd lost his turn, however the other two were vegetables so steamed that neither had noticed as the paper towel snuffed out the light. Ain't no one never noticed the guy driving the car, 'less it was convenient for them. Which in this instance suited him just fine.

All lilacs and blueberries above and sepia emeralds below, the path leading from the cozy little home front on the beach to the buckshot network of houses was the stuff they could only dream of in the city. Kaleidoscope view unobstructed by precipitation or rubbish, it was a perfect 360 shot of nature in all her glory.

Valley lopping around hills that could only fantasize about becoming mountains, the lazy asphalt ribbon could either give or take long minutes at a time if you weren't paying attention. Slopes and premature peaks giving way to farms and private groves and tidy little cottages, the gently winding road added at least fifteen minutes to any commute. On clear nights like tonight, he had enough spunk in his junk to theorize that he might've been able to cut that estimate down to eleven, provided he had to hurry.

Quite the clever loophole if you asked him, his passengers had given him ample leeway without having to say a single word. Seriously convinced that the frosty silence between the couple would shatter beneath the pressure and give way to a volcanic blowout, when things went the other direction it became clear that he had to adapt to their schedule. Beginning with an eclipse over the rear view mirror, before anyone knew what was happening the two were going at it like a first degree felon on death row at his last meal.

Directive received loud and clear, he slowed the pace accordingly to draw this thing out. Not sure how long the big guy was gonna last with his pretty little felony, the cabby thought it best to go under the speed limit for as long as they needed. Fine, he thought to himself with another gaze heavenward, it was a nice enough night, and I so rarely am able to see the stars shining so bright. Or at all, what with the pollution and smog of the city.

Lovely as all the scenery was with its reclaimed earth motif, it almost seemed a damn shame to waste the night on such dirty business. Almost. Tearing his gaze from the purple sky to the immediate future, the driver turned his thoughts to how he would get at the girl. Ideally her man would play the gentleman and get out first to open the door for her, however that really didn't leave much of a window. None, even. Figuring that he could park and wait twenty minutes or so for them to get settled for bed, could be that he could follow them to their room...

Fate had other ideas. Kinder, far more fortuitous ideas...

[The Deal]

Stealing a paranoid glance over his rounded shoulder to make absolute certain that the young play thing wasn't right behind him with some kind of plan that could get them both dead, he started ever so slightly at a bird flying overhead. Denoting the turn-off by the ash sapling that had been split down the middle, the driver saw the sky above to be as open and empty as the backseat appeared to be. Relaxing when nothing else of note happened, he reminded himself that you didn't make it to his age in his line of work by being a dummy.

Intelligent for someone so young-sounding, the guy pulling all the strings had found a handful of blind spots where cell reception had a mysterious way of getting patchy. Unless you were in the know and had been given a special burner that was more of a walkie-talkie than a smartphone. Whoever invented the doodad should look into getting a contract with the military.

Simple on and off paper, the plan was that if anyone picked up anything worth the time and/or effort, they were to then proceed to one of those locales and call for further instruction. Boss laying this all out in explicit detail when the contracts had gone out, so far he hadn't needed to go that far into the proceedings. On the subject of the contracts, the cabby believed that there were at least four or five others working this gig as well, but honestly he wasn't comfortable enough with the evidence to go with the ballpark figure.

Joke's on those clowns, the toad thought in his most miserly inner voice.

Pulling up to a clearing in what looked to be an old campground (he shuddered to think what had gone so wrong as to close down such prime land), the driver turned so that his toady profile was on display. Lazily knocking on the glass to get the young lamb's attention after digging through his glove box for the burner, when she didn't surface he wondered to himself if she had somehow escaped.

Weary of all the downtrodden limbs of the sweeping oak and every last shadow that pockmarked the dirt drive (the path nearly reclaimed by nature to the point that it was a one-way road), the wonder rapidly dwindled. Frankly he would much rather wash his hands clean of this here and now than try and chase after her in the overgrown woods.

Goal twofold at this stage, the driver climbed out of the vehicle in order to both stretch his legs and peer into the backseat to make sure that there was even a reason to call this in.

Curled up and self-contained in a broken, pathetic heap, the girl had wrapped herself in a plaid covering that he didn't recall seeing before. Not questioning it too extensively, in all fairness she had just gotten done fucking her boyfriend, and at least one thing had been ripped off in the midst of all that passion. Also, it wasn't exactly like he bothered to clean out his car after every single passenger.

Fact was, girlie was still there. Making the call with his back to the vehicle, in only a few short sentences the driver had been expressly commanded to wait there.

Turns out they didn't have to wait very long, not that she minded in her little puddle of sop and woe. Sure, by now the boyfriend had definitely raised the alarm that his little chickee poo was missing, however that had probably been the case ever since they had rolled through town. Thinking it better to create an alibi for that 'just in case' situation, the car had been clocked by several folks passing all the stores closing for the night. As good as invisible, they might have passed as the last of the worker bees flying back home in their droning wave.

Rolling up in a rough old beater that was the definition of intentionally inconspicuous, the door opened and after a dramatic pause, the big boss himself emerged. Wearing a coat of heavy gray velvet cut at the sleeves to reveal a leather cuff below, it was not the first outfit you'd expect to see in a place this earthy, let alone in a meeting like this. Already young enough to call in to question how serious any of this was, the kid hardly needed to try so hard to dress the part of big money.

Dark locks drinking in the night and bound up into a tight coil that sat on the very top of his head, the boy spoke with a deep voice that resonated authority, calling in to question why in the world he would wear such a swanky jacket. Whatever, the toady was hardly one to criticize anyone for their fashion choices.

"You found what I lost?" Demanding to be shown proof, the lad swaggered on over to the apple to his orange, eager to get a peek inside the car but doing a fairly decent job at hiding it. Shame the driver had been doing this song and dance long enough to know better on principal.

No concern of his how this ended or even why the boy wanted the girl in the first place, the driver nodded in affirmation, "Yeah, I suppose I did. The money in my account yet?"

Everything digital these days, there was a modest finders fee for information and a much larger chunk of change for the girl herself. His phone had pinged just after he'd gotten off the line and arranged this little meeting of minds, but that was the small potatoes. Papa was hungry.

More concerned with getting a firm hold over everything that the young heiress represented, he waved it off, "You'll get your payment when I have her in my possession, and not a moment before. You wouldn't believe how many people get lost in transit."

Oh, he definitely would, but honestly the driver wasn't really feeling overly talkative. Bobbing his head in understanding, it was better to take what was offered and leave with his life rather than get greedy and pay for it. Sure, by most counts that didn't make him a very ambitious man, yet the frog considered himself a smart amphibian. He didn't need millions and billions if he wasn't going to be alive to spend them.

"Let me see her." Not really waiting for an invitation, the would-be client moved to the window to look inside.

"By all means..." Standing aside so that he wasn't trampled, the cabby muttered under his breath and into the wind, "Asshole."

Giddy as a child at Christmas time and prepared to fawn over the heiress, the boy chose to ignore this provocation. However, this generosity was going to be short-lived.

"Her head is bleeding." Words deathly calm, his lips twitched, the corner falling when he took stock of the young woman's quivering condition. "Tell me," pinching the bridge of his nose like so many did (or wanted to do) when they were dealing with a particularly vexing individual, the boss stared down the driver, "was that you?"

Thinking about it, the driver had heard her bang against the interior when they first set off, but it was only the once. He'd hardly gone all 'Death Proof' on the girl. Shrugging, the driver couldn't really account for some mystery dark spot. "Maybe she had it before?" Suggestion a natural evolution, it didn't seem worth hiding, "Maybe it happened when she was with her boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Taken aback by this development, the young man muttered under his breath, "Drake." Speaking up, he seemed to question something internally before addressing the matter. "Tell me, how did you get rid of him? This companion of hers?"

Recounting what had happened, the driver knew it was risky to tell the kid the details, but on the other hand, he'd been in plenty of situations where not being honest had cost dearly. "They were in the backseat, going at each other like a couple of sex-crazed teenagers. I was wondering how I'd get them apart, but she did that on her own. Went and said something that he didn't like, didn't she?"

Holding up his finger to ask for a moment, the boy cocked his head and ground his teeth in annoyance, "Wait did she say? Exactly?"

It wasn't her exact words, but the driver didn't think he'd need to retain that information, so it had seemed alright to throw that information away. Besides, who needed the letter when they had the spirit? "After getting a good dicking - from the sounds of it, not that I would know - little girl said that she wanted to be his. Didn't specify what exactly, but it's don't take no genius to guess."

"Did she?" Oh, the boy didn't like that, not one iota. Although, he didn't seem especially surprised. "I suppose the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree after all."

When it seemed as if there was nothing more that the younger male wanted to add, the toady resumed croaking his tale, "It seems like they were going to go someplace after the hotel, because he told her to wait for him. Poor girlie started crying before he even got outta the cab."

A-ha moment plain in his face, the young man turned away from the driver, palm flat against the window as if he were touching the girl through the glass. "You've had quite the go of it, haven't you?" First jumping out of a window well above ground level, it seemed like giving her heart to a known rapscallion was what was going to be the death blow. But oh, what a charming rascal he was!

Not realizing he had just overstayed his welcome, the driver blinked quite stupidly, "Her? I've seen worse spats in my day. She'll be fine."

"Fine?" Manic attention drawn back to the driver then, the young man cocked his head at the old man, "Do you really have no idea who she is?"

His answer was 'do I care', however something about the crazed look in the younger man's face warned him it would be best not to voice this opinion. Instead, he tried to play it safe and simply shook his head. But apparently it was enough to set the boy off anyways.

Enlightening the lowly transporter as to the identity of their quarry, the boy looked quite mad as he watched the tears rolling down her cheeks. Misery might have been below her station, but it certainly became her. "That girl is Daniella Adler. Daughter of Wen Bai and Rafe Adler?" Asking to see if that rang a bell in his head, when no signs of recognition crossed that toad-like stare, the boy gave up on this one.

"Who?" Question spilling out of his fat, worm-like lips before he realized it, either way this was a no-win scenario.

A weighty sigh his only answer, the kid shook his head. "First you tell me that she was acting anything but a lady, and then you can't even be bothered to pretend to know who she is." Initially the boy was going to just sock the old man in her defense, however this slight was too much to allow to slide. "For that..."

[Wilted Blue]

Blackened crimson trailing from the cut in her forehead to the inner corner of her eye, a bloody tear mingled with the veins of mercury already welling from her cracked topez heart. Defeat Daniella's prize, the heiress found herself weeping into its flag when the gun went off.

Frightened into prompt action, Dells sprang up into a dizzying sitting position. Just barely able to discern two figures lumbering outside the car door, when one sank down to its knees before it could even react, her very first thought was exactly what you might expect it to be. Sam. No. No!

Terrified but not for herself, before her brain could even consider the words 'plan of attack', she was already on her knees to bash down the door. Shoulders squared and every fiber of her being braced for impact, Dells went flying out on to a carpet of pine needles and rich brown soil when the door opened from the outside. Scrambling around to lash out at her abductor without missing a beat, in her mind's eye she was scouting for whoever it was that dared hurt the thief with lethal intent. In actuality... the girl was floundering in dead leaves.

While that mythological logical side might've told her that whoever brought down Sam was some invincible monster to be truly feared, once more it was her gut that was calling the shots. Most probably suicidal, it was telling her to bring down the bastard with tooth and nail if need be.

Except no, as per usual the girl was already at a disadvantage just being brought out to a place like like this. Kicking the heiress while she was down, a hefty leather work boot smashed painfully into the back of her rib cage, pinning her to the clearing floor. Scratching through soil and attempting to squirm free, when Dells tried to get a better look at her most recent captor, she was genuinely shocked to see that it wasn't who she was expecting it to be. Although she couldn't shake the sensation that there was something familiar about him...

Then she actually was being shocked, the electric volts sizzling until she smelled bacon. As she tapped out, a voice that she didn't recognize taunted her with smug secret knowledge. The worst kind. "Nice try... li..."

And she was out.

Author's Note:

Alright, so before I get into whatever I may have to say about this chapter, I want to take a minute to appreciate you guys reading this story. It's been a long, rocky, sometimes even meandering road, but somehow or other some of you have braved my writing this far. For a story that's easily going to pass a hundred chapters, that alone is worthy of praise (I don't know I could do it if I wasn't really invested in the story and the fate of the characters). Could be that I'm reading more into this then there is, I'll own that possibility. However, I want to be optimistic! So to all of you, thank you!

Speaking personally as a writer that thrives on the reviews and a shy, introverted individual that hypocritically does not often leave reviews, I want to take yet another moment to give a shout out to you guys!

Guest (still unsure if it was just one person or two, but considering how the second review opened, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's likely just one), your review not only shaped the improved organization but also instilled confidence in this story. Writing OCs, I always imagine that they're just going to be hated, and since they're involved with main characters... Well, you really helped me have faith in Bai, who in the early days I would have guessed was the weakest, most damnable (and stereotypical) link. She might have taken more of a backseat in these later chapters, but your contributions cannot be doubted!

dragon-queen98, I have no idea if you're still reading or not, but you built a castle on the foundation that Guest laid. All I can say is THANK YOU.

gudi, dear, kind gudi. Most recently you pointed out a little detail that I did not handle with my best foot forward. Maybe that's mixing analogies, I'm not entirely sure to be honest, but the point is that you remind me that I should always mind these small matters, even when I exhaust myself on the bigger picture. You've inspired me as a writer to keep improving!

'Death Proof' is an underrated film in my humble opinion, but 'Planet Terror' is by far the superior flick.