Reaching for The Moon by ThePeking Noodle

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Chapter Thirty-Seven: Out of the Frying Pan

Our heroine gets some practice in international relations…

Logan didn't move as he felt the gun pressing against his head.  His back was to Max, and he was more worried about her than about himself.

"Search him." Vladimir said behind him.  Hands quickly ran over Logan, patting him down. The gun he was wearing under his jacket was removed. With a sigh of relief he felt the pressure of the gun against his temple removed.

"Search her." Vladimir nodded in Max's direction.

"Wait just a minute…" Logan whirled to see a man advancing on Max.  Vladimir stood there watching, gun in hand, and Petr was nowhere to be seen.

Max just waited calmly. She shot Vladimir a sultry smile as she raised her arms and slowly pirouetted. "Where do you think I'm hiding anything, big boy?"  The other man approached closer to her and she gave him a look, "Touch the merchandise and you won't be walking for a week," she snarled drawing back her stiletto shod foot. Logan held his breath at her defiance.

Vladimir was quiet for a moment and then he laughed. "I like this one. She has spirit. Leave her alone. She's right about not hiding anything." The last was said with a leer and a look up and down Max, that had Logan vowing to himself to be sure Vladimir died slowly and in great pain. "Go with your man and be quiet." Vladimir ordered Max.

Max sent him a venomous look that he missed, to Logan's great thankfulness, and she walked over to Logan who put an arm around her and pulled her close to him. "Play along," he whispered into her ear.

"Come. Sergei waits. You will get your weapon back when your business is finished."
Vladimir turned and walked through a door. Logan and Max followed with the other man walking behind them.

Sergei, Logan's original contact was seated behind a desk and there were two chairs facing it. On the side of the room there was a long couch.  Vladimir motioned Logan to one of the desk chairs. When Max began to follow he frowned. "You sit over there and be quiet." He indicated the couch. Max shrugged and headed over to it. It gave her a better vantage of the room anyway, so she was secretly pleased.

"Welcome to my office. You will pardon the search but you must understand my need for caution. My enemies are many. Your gun will be returned to you when you leave." Sergei was speaking to Logan. "Do you have the money?"

"Have my goods been delivered?" Logan asked. "I need to see verification of that before payment."

Sergei handed Logan what looked like a shipping manifest that was several pages long.

"As you can see the goods are waiting for you in Acme Bonded Warehouse."

"You sent them to a customs warehouse?" Logan asked in disbelief. "A bonded customs warehouse?"

"Sergei laughed. "They are quite safe. They have already been inspected and passed. You may pick them up at any time once I have my payment."

"I don't think so." Logan stated calmly. "You get your payment after I get my merchandise. You can understand my caution in this matter."

Sergei stared hard at him. "So we are at a stalemate then." He glanced over at Max. "Perhaps we make a deal. You leave the little one here as guarantee of good faith while you pick up your goods. Then you bring back the money and take her home."

"No. She has no part of this. I'll give you your money, but the goods had better be there when my trucks arrive." Logan gave in reluctantly, inwardly fuming at Max for making this necessary.

Sergei nodded calmly as if he had known exactly what Logan's response would be. Logan reached into his jacket and pulled out a slim envelope. "Here. A completely negotiable, untraceable, and liquid draft for $5 million. It's been a pleasure doing business with you but now I think we need to be on our way." He placed the draft in front of Sergei and then picked up the folded manifest and slid it into his jacket. "I trust you will notify the warehouse to release these to me."

Sergei rose and held out his hand. "Of course. It's been a pleasure. I'm sure we will do more business in the future."

Logan turned and held out his hand to Max. "Let's go."

Just then there was a click and Logan looked up to see Petr standing in the doorway holding a gun. Vladimir spun and pulled his gun but Petr fired first. Vladimir dropped to the floor with a bullet in his head.  Sergei was next. Logan stood frozen as Petr turned in his direction.

"Step away from the desk." Petr directed. When Logan hesitated he turned the gun towards Max. "I'd hate to hurt such a beauty, but I will do what is necessary. Move."

Logan slowly walked in the direction Petr indicated until he was standing next to Max.

"Both of you sit down on the couch." Never taking the gun off of them, Petr moved over to the desk and picked up the draft. Then he backed to the door.  "If this is good I will not be coming back. You will eventually be able to free yourselves I am sure."

"You're leaving Seattle?" Logan asked him.

"The authorities have been close behind all of us. It was time to go from here. Sergei and Vladimir would not listen. I have the support of the rest of my people and we will be moving to greener pastures. This money will come in handy when we set up our new operation."

"Why not just kill us now then?" Logan demanded.

"Because if this is not good, I will come back and make you wish you had never tried to cross me. If it is good, we will do more business in the future. You want guns, I can get them for you. It's business that's all." He shrugged.

At that moment Petr made his fatal mistake. Confident that they were too far from him to stop him, he turned slightly to step out of the door. When he did, Max made her move. She was across the room in a blur. She sent his gun flying with a quick chop of her hand, and then rammed her knee into his stomach, doubling him over in pain. He recovered and reached out to grab her but she was now behind his back. Moving faster than Logan could follow, one of her arms was around his neck, while with the other she twisted one of his arms behind his back. Petr screamed in pain at the angle of his arm.

"Shut up." She spat at him. She squeezed his neck and he began to gasp for breath. Logan jumped up in alarm, as Petr began to turn blue and Max showed no signs of stopping.

"Max, stop. You'll kill him."

Max looked at Logan but continued to increase the pressure. "Maybe he deserves to die."

"Max. You don't want to do this." Logan spoke calmly.

Max stared at him, but she finally nodded and released her hold. Petr slumped to the floor. "Chauvinist pig," she muttered as she delivered a kick to his side. "Next time keep your eyes and your comments to yourself."

"What do we do about this?" she asked Logan surveying the scene around them.

He shrugged. "Leave them. Clear case of dissension among thieves." He leaned down and picked up the bank draft Petr had dropped.

Logan headed out the door pulling a cell phone from his pocket as he went. "Matt, I need you to make a pickup at 496 Delancey. It seems some of those Russian Mafioso you've been after had a slight disagreement. No, I don't think they're going anywhere, anytime soon."

When they reached the outside of the building the street was empty. "Damn, they must have sent Bling home." Logan swore.

Max was already walking over to a car parked across the street. As Logan watched she had the driver's door open within seconds, and she vanished into the car. The engine came to life.

Logan walked over to the driver's side and watched in admiration as she climbed out from under the dashboard. "Nice job." He commented to her. "Thanks for saving our butts back there." He hesitated, "Maybe it wasn't so bad that you tagged along tonight."

Max straightened and gave him a long look. Before Logan realized what was happening, she drove her knee hard into his stomach.

"Whooof." He doubled over as the air rushed from his lungs. Max stood and watched.

"What was that for?" Logan demanded when he could finally talk again.

" 'Sorry Max I had to do that.'" She quoted sweetly. "For behaving like a typical male idiot to me."

"I didn't ask you to come tonight. You put yourself in that position." He pointed out righteously. 

"If you had let me come in the first place, instead of that redheaded skank I wouldn't have been in that position. Who was she anyway?"

"Huh?" Logan had completely forgotten Nikki. "Bling insisted she come along as cover. I never saw her before in my life."

"Here buy yourself a drink on me?" Max threw at him. "Not to mention your hands all over her skinny ass."

"Max are you jealous?" Logan looked at her, sudden comprehension dawning.

"Jealous? Of her?" Max tossed her head indignantly. "You think I need to be jealous of her?"

Logan ran his eyes over her sending a sudden shiver down her spine. "Max," he said softly, "you don't have anything to be jealous of." He stepped closer to her, his eyes burning into hers, then sweeping over her body once again.

Max was suddenly conscious of her skimpy attire. Then Logan's arms were around her and he was kissing her greedily. She felt a rush of passion, and even as she told herself it was the leftover adrenaline from the events of the night, she was responding to him in kind.

Logan's hands were on her skirt and then they were under it pushing it up as he explored what she was wearing underneath it. His mouth continued to hold hers captive. Max realized that her arms were around him pulling him hard against her but then all coherent thought vanished.

"Max."

She looked at him in a daze as she realized he had stopped kissing her and had stepped back.

"The police are almost here. Listen." Sure enough there was the sound of sirens coming closer. "We need to go."

Logan pushed her into the car and slid behind the wheel. He pulled out and within moments they were speeding across Seattle.

"Logan, what's the hurry?" Max asked him when she was capable of rational speech once more.

"I have an important investigation that I need to get home too."

"What?!" she demanded indignantly, angry at his easy dismissal of those last few moments before the police arrived.

"I need to further investigate the matter of exactly what you have on under that thing that might be called a skirt." Logan shot her a wicked look as they pulled into the parking garage of Fogle Towers.

End of Chapter Thirty-Seven…TBC…