Disclaimer: Still do not own DA.
A/N: Here it is first 'new' chapter. First off, here is one reason I decided to rewrite the first three with some minor changes. I realised that her clothes did not match the description in the prologue. After making such a fuss about the ruddy chain, I put her in a dress where you can't see it! Beyond careless. I would like to thank the following people for motivating me again, partly through pleasure - it is always good to be appreciated - partly through guilt when I saw when this was last updated. Mea culpa:
Sitathelastvampire, Tory Shan, carebear, original proxy, chast and requital. Thanks guys.
Is it a good sign when you laugh at your own stuff?
The courtly love bit was me channelling four years of a BA in English Studies. Shows me for thinking a course in medieval dream poetry was a waste of time.
A/N2: I changed the second half of this chapter quite a bit after reading a short story today, in which the authoress argued that Alec was much more kick-ass in the beginning. Too true. So I tried to bring some of that back here. I'm sorry that I can't remember which story it was.
Chapter 3
Like a shark in a pool of helpless minnows, Alec followed his prey across the room. Max and Cindy were going to one of the poker rooms, easier to make money there no doubt. He knew for a fact that some of the rooms played for stakes that would make a megalomaniac dictator flush with shame.
The two ladies of his life were giggling and chatting with each other, stopping all conversation as they went. Alec wouldn't even have had to keep an eye on them, he could simply have followed by going to the pockets of silence that developed as they sashayed past. He did look though, there was no way in hell he was going to miss the slightest little movement that Max made in that dress. 'That thing needs a parental advisory sticker.'
To be less conspicuous, Alec snagged another drink from a passing tray. The prey was almost at the door to 'Shangri-La', the name the owner had given the poker room with the highest rollers. Minimum entry was $35,000. If you wanted to watch, you had to fork over $2,000. Good thing he had snagged - sorry liberated - those little black chips from the Blackjack table. The poor wee things had looked so lonely and forgotten. Moving closer, Alec felt the world sway once again.
The gold chain on her waist had no clasp! How dare she? All this time she had been hiding that beneath her clothes, while everybody thought she was this serious person only interested in TC and Eyes Only missions. And she had to have gotten it sometime after they all escaped Manticore, there was no way in hell the demons there would have let her keep it. Too dangerous.
Coming out of his reverie, Alec realised that the girls had disappeared into Shangri-La. Waltsing over to the bouncer, Alec handed over the correct amount and slid into the room and bumped straight into a woman in gold.
For one moment, he thought he had bumped into Max, but as the woman in question turned, he realised several things at once. Her hair was the wrong colour, she was about 15 pounds too heavy and she plain smelt wrong. Apologising so nicely that he left the woman behind in fluttery giggles, Alec moved around the perimeter of the room, keeping an eye out for his true quarry.
Another high-pitched giggle drew him in the right direction. Max and Cindy were sitting at a table in the corner, facing a bunch of men he would have really enjoyed meeting a in dark alley, just so he could do some well-deserved things to them. Somebody who looked like they did was almost certainly not a boy scout. Now they wore the stunned look he had no doubt been sporting a little under half an hour before. Dazzled by the visions in gold and blue in front of them, they were agreeing to nearly everything, for example no limits, starting bets at $1,000 and letting the two females play together. Alec pitied them really, they had no idea what they were letting themselves in for. Drifting closer he listened in on the conversation.
Cindy was frowning as she looked at the cards in her hand. "So high cards are a good thing?"
Max swatted her arm lightly and leaned forward. Eyes glued to her décolleté the man across from her leaned in. too.
Lowering her voice ever so slightly, Max whispered: "You have to forgive Cindy. She usually only plays strip poker." Her opponents eyes crossed for a moment and Alec struggled to hold back the laugh straining in his throat. Seeing Max glance up sharply once again, he ducked behind the corpulent oil magnate in front of him. The man simply had to be in oil, slimy git with enough gel in his hair to provide power to a small village.
Watching the girls fleece the men was an education. And it looked like almost as much fun as breaking and entering, minus the catchy cats suits, although he was willing to give those up if Max wore that dress every day of the week. He tuned back in.
"Cindy you have to put those two kings down, you have too many."
The men at the table now looked more like sharks than humans, smelling blood, gearing up to taking anything they could get. Alec smirked, sure that if Max did something that appeared so monumentally stupid, she had a very good reason for doing it. That suspicion was confirmed when he caught what she said next.
"We don't have any more money." She pouted. "But we could throw in a lap dance." She stroked Cindy's bare arm, the eyes of everybody following her every movement. "We could do one together. At the Pussycat Club we get about 2 grand for the two of us - and perks of course." She smiled winningly at her table. Alec just knew where their brains had dropped. It was highly entertaining to watch, as the men nodded one by one, no higher brain functions involved.
Ale watched as the dealer pushed over two cards to the girls and handed out one more card to the man immediately next to Max. Changing his angle ever so slightly he managed to look over Cindy's shoulder. Focussing in, he chuckled to himself. Cindy and Max had a Royal Flush, all hearts of course. One by one the men laid down their cards, secure in their victory over the two dumb females. The jackass even reaching for the pile of chips in the middle, when Max put a single finger on his hands. Fluttering her eyelashes at him she gave him the coup de grace: "Could you help us? I think ours is higher." On that last line, Cindy laid out their cards one by one until the Flush was revealed in all its glory.
Their opponents could only gape. Cindy smiled at them and asked artlessly: "Did we win?"
The entire room burst into laughter, followed by the three men a second later. Alec was the only one who saw the flash of homicidal rage flashing in the eyes of the youngest one. The other two had obviously learned to take it well when they were bested, secure in the knowledge no doubt that they had more money than they could ever spend and that there were always other games. The youngest however had not learned that lesson, but Alec would be more than happy to teach him the hard way, should he try anything.
To the applause of the room, Max and Cindy collected an amount of chips that just had to be in the high six figure region. Then smiling at the assemblage, Max and Cindy made their way out of the room and to the cashier to cash their chips. They were followed by the younger man, whom Alec quietly dubbed as the suicidal one as he followed him out. Even though Alec fully intended to make sure Suicidal came no where near his girls, he also knew that Max was fully capable of taking the idiot out herself, not that the shmuck would know that, but that was beside the point.
Suicidal stalked the ladies across the room, or at least tried to stalk the ladies, he wasn't exactly practised in the art of stealth, a fact glaringly obvious considering he was getting strange looks from the masses of bodyguards strewn across the room. Alec followed him a lot more circumspectly.
The girls meanwhile had cashed their chips and deposited the embarrassingly large amount of money in Max's ridiculously small purse. Collecting their , very, skimpy coats, they strolled out the casino hand in hand, leaving the coat boy to drool after them. As Alec passed the boy, still in pursuit of Suicidal, he smiled at him kindly and said: "I would wipe that up, somebody might slip on your drool." The boy flushed a shade of red normally associated with red peppers.
The little interchange, as amusing as it had been to Alec, had also cost time. Strolling outside he saw the girls disappear around the corner and Suicidal follow them at a not so great distance.
Alec sped up ever so slightly and caught up with his prey just as the man passed a darkened alley. 'I'm so good. Perfect timing.'
Alec clamped one hand over the man's mouth and snared his wrists with the other. One quick jerk and they were in the alley, unnoticed by the doormen in front of the casino.
"I'm going to let you go now and you will be a good little boy and listen to what I have to say. Understand?" The only answer Alec received was the man trying to bite the hand that held him captive.
Alec chuckled mercilessly. "I'll take that as a no then, shall I. Idiot." The man mumbled something.
"Oh sorry, didn't catch that. Care to repeat it?" This time he loosened his hand ever so slightly.
"Do you have any idea who I am? You're dead meat."
This time Alec did laugh out loud. Spinning the man around he pinned him to the wall with one hand, the feet several inches above the ground. Coming close enough that even a blind bat would be able to read his expression, he let the predator in him bleed to the surface and watched as Suicidal's face fell, till abject fear oozed from every pore.
"I see we understand each other, but let me spell it out for you. If I ever catch you make a move at either of my girls, or even so much as breath the same air as them, I will find you and you will wish that your mother had never clapped eyes on your father. Pain will not even come close to what I will do to you. Understand?"
The man seemed incapable of forming any response, so Alec decided to throw him a line.
"Just nod."
Eyes wild, the man nodded furiously.
"I'm glad we understand each other. Make no mistake I was doing you a favour. I could have just killed you and they would have been finding your body parts from Alaska to Fireland. And we don't want that, do we?"
The man actually had tears oozing out of his eyes as he shook his head so fast, Alec was surprised he did not have whiplash. Then he became aware of a sharp odour overlying even the stench of the alley. Looking down he saw that the man had lost control of himself. Alec smiled mercilessly.
"Look at that. You made a mess of yourself. Long evening, was it? I suggest you go home, clean up, go to bed and forget you ever went out tonight." Setting the man back down on his feet, Alec theatrically brushed him down for lintel and stepped back. Just then his victim proved that the name Alec chose for him was certainly apt. As he turned, he muttered: "This isn't over."
Alec, of course had no problem hearing this futile threat. Moving so fast the other man did not even see him coming, he swung him and punched him. It was a measure of his control that the man was still conscious afterwards.
A snarl crept into Alec's voice, playing directly along the idiot's spine and pushing a button marked primordial fear: "You will never mention this to anybody. In fact you are very tired of America and have decided that you need along vacation in Old Europe. Make no mistake, if I ever see you again I will eliminate you with extreme prejudice. Know what that is?"
The man shook his head dazedly.
"It means that I start with you and then move on to your family, your servants, your friends, acquaintances, hell even the mangy cat no doubt living off the rats in your cellar. Any person you ever liked or held dear will belong to me. And when I am done with them I will burn down their property and sow the land with salt to serve as an everlasting warning to anybody dumb enough to ever try and repeat what you did last night. I will not be played with." He waited to see the effect his words had on the man then continued: "And you know the really scary thing? You will never see me coming. It could be any day, any time. One day I will just be there and you will know that that minute was the last minute of the rest of your life." Alec's eyes gleamed yellow in the residual light of the alley.
Suicidal gave a gasp and - Alec couldn't believe it - the man actually fainted.
"Typical. Mobsters just aren't as tough as they used to be." Alec smiled ruefully. "At least Capone would have put up a fight. Wimps the lot of them. Spine removed a birth." He sighed and dragged a hand through his messy locks. 'How am I supposed to play when the mouse faints on sight?'
Looking at the man slumped in the corner of the alley, Alec felt something tickle the edges of his awareness. Turning sharply he scanned the alley. Just at the corner of his eye he saw a shadow move, but when he looked closer there was nothing there.
Rolling his shoulders to release the tension, Alec turned back to deal with the idiot who had dared to even think of harming a hair on Max's head. Grabbing on arm he dragged him to a semi-standing position. It would have been laughably easy to carry him in a fireman's lift, but Alec did not feel like sullying his suit with this man's - excretions. Hooking one arm over his shoulders, he made sure to look as if this was hard work, then stumbled out of the alley and back to the casino.
Depositing the man at the feet of the doormen, he spun a tale about how his friend had had too much to drink and had passed out and could the nice doormen please see to it that his friend made it home in one piece. A hundred dollar bill tucked into the hand of the head bounce did a lot to grease the wheels and ten minutes later, Alec was free to once again pursue his true prey of the evening. Max and Cindy may have had a head start, but there was no way Max would endanger Cindy by bringing her along to meet her contacts. He was fairly certain he could catch up with them at Cindy's flat. With a bounce in his step, Alec went off in the opposite direction to grab his bike and pick up the trail.