Chapter Four: Hidden Geographical Landmarks
Hours passed as the tires consumed miles of asphalt. Butcher eventually turned on the radio to a low volume since Olivia continued to stay silent, staring out the side window.
He saw the exit sign approaching for the strip mall with a couple big box retailers where he could get everything they might need from deodorant to fresh underwear.
Butcher didn't trust her to cooperate in the store among so many people and he also didn't trust the idea of her staying in the van. He dropped his left hand to the utility pocket of his thigh and felt the small zippered case tucked away.
Inside the small case were three preloaded syringes of a potent mix of a benzodiazepine base and barbiturate chaser with a surgical anesthetic. It would keep her sedated long enough for him to shop and get to a temporary place to cleanup before heading to see his parents.
Olivia perked up in her seat as he exited the freeway, and they drew closer to the mall.
Butcher parked in the rear of the lot and feigned interest in the vehicle manual for a supposed light that lit up on the dashboard. Olivia went back to resting her head against the seat and didn't notice when the sound of the pages turning stopped.
Olivia made a strange noise as he plunged the needle into the top of her thigh. She felt a curious chilly and then burning sensation as the drug filled her system.
Butcher moved with ferocious deftness and had her seatbelt unclasped and gathered up in his arms before she could entirely process everything that was happening at once.
He dragged her to the rear of the van and pressed his hand over her mouth as the cold floor bit into the bare skin of her calves.
Butcher shushed her as he watched her pupils began to dilate and her movements slow as her touch weakened from where she clawed at him.
He blew out a relieved breath as she finally succumbed to the tranquilizer. He secured her onto her side and still zip-tied her wrists and ankles as well as applied a thick strip of silver tape over her mouth as an insurance policy while he shopped.
Butcher moved through the store and efficiently filled the cart everything they might need as well as suitcases to pack. He paid cash from an envelope in the glove compartment that was for emergency use only.
There was a cheap hotel about an hour away that operated on a cash only basis and was usually rented hourly.
Butcher loaded all the purchases into the van and checked on Olivia. He got back behind the wheel once he was satisfied she was okay within the clutches of the tranquilizer.
He drove at a reasonable pace on the bumpy backroads until he found the rundown hotel.
He parked the van at the end of the lot and rented the room that was near to where he parked. Butcher turned the van around and quickly got her inside the room without any unwanted eyes on him.
Butcher settled her under the covers and clipped away the nylon zip-ties and slowly pulled off the tape, wiping the rough pad of his thumb across her lower lip as he wiped away residue from the silver adhesive strip.
He showered with the door open to make sure she didn't suddenly wake up and bolt.
Butcher was watching the local news with no mention of the fire at the mechanic shop turned safe house when Olivia began to stir.
He turned off the tv and set his bottle of alcohol aside as Olivia stirred awake and blinked her eyes rapidly as she looked around the room with the walls stained a yellow hue from the overabundance of tobacco use.
"What?" she murmured and scrambled backwards until the headboard stopped her when her eyes fell on Butcher. Olivia looked down at herself when she realized she was in a bed.
She frowned as she seemed to recall him sticking a needle in her thigh and then nothing more.
Olivia smoothed her hands down the front of her body. "Did you….. did you do anything to me?" she managed to ask.
Butcher reminded himself that she had every right to ask that question. "I just stuck a needle in ya love, you'd know if it was more," he said tonelessly and winked at her.
Olivia flushed and looked away from him, unsure whether to believe him. "Where are we?"
She tried to remember her geography as he mentioned a city right outside his parents sprawling country home.
"You need to cleanup," he said and pointed to a couple plastic bags outside the bathroom door. "I picked up a lot of stuff that I thought you'd need; the hot water works in there."
Olivia nodded and initially stood up too slowly, nausea welled up from her belly and her vision began to close in before she heavily sat back down.
Butcher stayed seated as she waved him off and shook her head. She squeezed the bridge of her nose before standing up more slowly. Olivia sorted through the bags and carried a bunch of stuff into the bathroom before securing the flimsy lock on the door.
Butcher listened to the shower water drone on and pictured her naked body under the spray of water. He drank deeply from the slender bottle of barrel-aged whiskey as he smoothed a hand down to squeeze his cock through his pants as he imagined opalescent soap bubbles sliding across and popping on her bare, wet flesh.
As Olivia rinsed off, Butcher dialed his mom for an update and continued drinking from the bottle as if it were an oasis in the desert. Connie said his father had made it through surgery well but was in ICU for the next several days and wouldn't be able to have visitors.
Butcher told Connie that Olivia was a little car sick from all the travel and they were going to spend a couple days resting up. Connie was more than understanding, more caught up in the idea of her son having someone to call his own.
Olivia emerged from the bathroom, accompanied by floral scented steam.
She put her dirty clothes in one of the empty store bags and twisted her hands nervously, unsure of where to sit.
Butcher noticed her discomfort and pointed to a bag to the right of her feet. "There's some stuff to eat in there if you're hungry."
Olivia pawed through the bag and opened a soda and package of trail mix as she resumed sitting on the side of the bed. She glanced over as he continued drinking from the bottle, the level of booze in the bottle dipped behind the off-white label.
Butcher kept the tv on to the news that began its nationwide coverage as she quickly gulped a soda, her mouth parched from the drug still floating throughout her central nervous system.
Butcher frowned at the poor-quality screen when the blonde news anchor began talking about the hurricane bearing down on the state of Florida.
He looked over to Olivia where she was rooting around in the plastic bag for another soda.
"Florida," he said to Olivia's profile.
"What's that?" she asked as she returned to the bed and opened the soda.
"Florida," he repeated as he distinctly recalled MM confronting her over a message on her phone. "Someone called you Florida."
Olivia rolled her eyes and slid back until she could lean against the headboard and pull the bed linen over her lap. "It's a stupid nickname."
"How'd that nickname start?"
Olivia shook her head. "Because I work with children, it's nothing worth repeating."
Butcher turned off the tv and turned towards her. "I'd like to know, no matter how juvenile."
She blew out a breath and chuckled nervously. "It's really nothing at all, I can hardly remember the specifics anyway.
Olivia flinched when he rose to his feet.
He could see and hear the lie.
"Tell me why your nickname is Florida."
"What time is it?" she asked suddenly. "Don't we have to get to your mom's?"
Butcher shook his head. "I told her we'll be there in a couple of days; we have plenty of time."
Olivia tucked the linen tighter under her thighs, darting her eyes around him.
"Why Florida?"
"Nothing worth repeating," she said and held his eyes.
"You're going to have to play along quite a bit more in front of my mother if anything is to be believable."
"Playing along and talking about unimportant things is completely different."
"I've decided knowing the meaning of the nickname is important love."
Olivia sat up straighter and smoothed her hands nervously over the linen. "Can you please drop it?" she asked as she raised the soda to take a sip.
She gave a startled shout when Butcher snatched away the soda can with one hand while his other hand closed around her slim wrist. "Tell me now."
Olivia uselessly tried to yank herself free as he only tightened his grip.
"I have a birth mark okay, a birth mark that looks like the state of Florida, nothing as clandestine as I'm sure you imagined."
Butcher immediately pictured all the people that he was sure she'd let look at her body. "Which Supe were you fucking that spread that around?" he growled.
Olivia flushed, "there was a woman in the changing room who made sure everyone knew."
Butcher leaned back and looked over the bare skin he could see, he racked his brain trying to remember the naked flesh he saw earlier but couldn't recall a single mole, let alone definitive shapes.
"Where is it?" he asked in a peculiar tone.
Olivia averted her eyes and resumed trying to tug her hand free. "It's covered for the most part in whatever I wear."
"Lemme see," he murmured.
Olivia shook her head until strands of her hair slipped free of her messy bun and fell across her eyes. "There's absolutely no reason to do that."
Olivia froze as Butcher pushed a few of the loose tendrils away from her face before he joined her on the bed and began to pull the linen away from her.
"Wait, give me a minute," she pleaded and took a relieved breath when he paused.
"Well?" he said when she remained frozen and wordless.
"What's the point of all this?"
"We're going to have to appear to be comfortable together, like you're choosing to be my bird. You wouldn't be embarrassed around me," he murmured as he resumed tugging at her clothes.
In the back of his mind, he truly thought she had fucked her way through the day on varying Supe and human cocks.
Butcher froze when her open palm found his cheek. She loudly slapped him and moved her hand back to slap him again when he quickly captured her other wrist and wrestled her to the messy surface of the bed.
Olivia started to shout as he transferred the grip of her wrists to one of his large hands and pinned her arms above her head. He roughly pulled at her clothes as he shifted his weight to pin her against the mattress.
Her struggling ended up bringing her thighs to either side of his hips. "Let me up," she screeched and bucked her hips up against him.
Butcher closed his eyes as her squirming brought her pelvis closer to his and made her breasts smash against his chest.
"Let me up," she repeated angrily and froze when his masculine laugh caused her to shiver. "Not a chance, especially when you're doing that."
He continued to chuckle as a warm blush filled her visible bare skin.
"Where is it?" he whispered huskily and tore her inexpensive pajama top open, the plastic buttons flying to bounce off the walls.
Olivia wrinkled her nose as his hot exhale smelled like a distillery. "You're drunk," she shouted futilely.
"Where?" he growled
"My leg," she finally muttered as Butcher dragged his gaze downwards and yanked her pajama bottoms free.
"Where?" he asked, his eyes urgently finding only bare skin.
"The inside, the inside of my right thigh," she admitted lowly.
Olivia froze as Butcher smoothed his large hand up the inside of her smooth thigh, goosebumps breaking out under his fingertips.
Butcher pushed at her thigh until he could see the deep brown mark in the shape of Florida.
He traced his index finger down the crease of her thigh, bisecting the shape on her smooth skin.
Butcher met and held her eyes he licked his thumb and smoothed the pad of his thumb across her naked flesh.
"How many people have seen this?" he rasped.
Olivia was silent too long for his liking as he pushed her thighs further apart and settled closer to her. "How many Supes have seen this?" he growled and let his broad frame threaten to force the air from her lungs.
"None," she spit, anger making her eyes flash with fire. "I haven't slept with a single person in that fucking company," she shouted up into his face.
Butcher frowned, "that's an easy thing to prove."
Olivia couldn't help but roll her eyes like a petulant teen. "What? What exactly does that mean?"
Butcher's anger surged at her smirk. "It'd just be real easy to find out if you were a used-up slag with a loose cunt."
Olivia was bombarded with too many emotions at once. The deluge threatened to drown her. Her fear competed with anger and indignation. She shook her head as involuntary tears filled her eyes and she flushed. "You're fucking disgusting, get off of me," she managed with a voice that threatened to break with each of her spoken syllables.
"I don't hate you," Butcher whispered brusquely.
"What?" she managed, off balance by his statement for the moment.
"Earlier you said I hated you, I don't."
Olivia sagged under him, any effort to break his hold was never based in reality. "Fine, you don't hate me, can you let me up?"
"Where do you need to go?" he murmured, noticing the slight hitch in her breath when he pressed himself closer to her. He wanted to pull his hardening cock free until her panties were the only layer preventing him from burning himself in her wet center.
"The bathroom," she said flatly.
Butcher stared at her so long she started to squirm "Don't take too long," he finally said as he released her hands and let her walk to the bathroom.
He tapped the room's heater dial and found it broken. He straightened the blankets, already feeling the encroaching cold.
Olivia emerged from the bathroom and found him draining the bottle and nearly missing the table as he tried to set it down. She perched on the side of the bed as he lowered the volume of the tv and turned towards her.
Butcher noticed her try to suppress her shiver.
He flipped back the bed linen and immediately had Olivia's full attention as he slipped out of his clothes until he was wearing a blue-striped pair of boxers. She looked over at the tv and pretended to be interested in the AARP commercial.
Butcher patted the mattress space next to her. "Get under the covers."
Olivia frowned at him, a million words behind her lips that were pressed together in a firm line.
"I promise I shan't do anything untoward," Butcher said and tipped an imaginary cap.
