Give Me One Thing
"Hey Sam? Can you do me a favor?" Toni called through the tiniest crack she had opened from behind the bathroom door.
Sam turned his eyes away from the TV to look towards the bathroom as he answered, "That all depends… Will it help us to get out of here faster?"
"Actually, yes, yes it most likely will… Now… Can you be a big boy and not get a freaked out about seeing me in my bra again?" She further inquired while still hiding behind the door.
"Well, I'm pretty sure that as your 'husband', I'm entitled to see you in a heck of a lot less," Sam teased as he turned the TV off. "I promise, I won't freak out. What do you need Toni?"
When she stepped out of the bathroom, Toni looked ready to head out for a night on the town: She had straightened her hair, applied a light layer of make-up and pulled on a fresh pair of jeans. The only glaring omission was her lack of a top covering her still bloody bra. In one hand she had tape and a fresh pad of gauze while she rubbed in some oil into her ever healing wounds with the other.
She stepped in front of Sam and turned her back to him saying, "Be a dear and help me by covering up my stitches?"
He chuckled then took the tape and gauze from her. After she was seated, he took the opportunity to take a closer look at the damage.
"They seem to be healing quite well," he commented as he gently measured out the gauze over the crude stitches. "What have you been rubbing on it?"
"Just Vitamin E oil… Chicks may dig scars, but they seem to scare the hell out of guys when they see them."
Sam finished applying the tape to the new protective barrier for Toni's cuts then tapped her right shoulder softly. Toni then reached over and picked up her short sleeve blouse and slipped it on. Once she was fully clothed, she turned back to look at Sam and flashed him her most bewitching smile.
"Sorry I took so long, but my hair and make-up were a lot harder to complete with the stitches."
Sam's face softened considerably before he helped her into her jacket. "So… Is the bar very far from here?"
"Nope, not too far," she replied as she checked her reflection yet again in the mirror.
Sam reached around Toni to pick up her keys. While he had her somewhat pinned between his body and the dresser, he whispered into her ear, "You look gorgeous, so stop worrying about that."
Toni's breath hitched for just a second before she could reply, "Thanks Sam. Are we ready to go then?"
"I thought you'd never ask," Sam commented with a sigh as he held open the door to the room for her to exit through.
They walked somewhat uncomfortably towards Toni's pickup and when their hands touched as they both reached for the driver's side door handle, Toni chuckled uneasily.
"Sorry… I'm so not used to having a partner," she explained before making a hasty retreat to the passenger side.
As he put on his seatbelt, Sam smiled and said, "Well, I'm still getting used to having a partner that trusts me to drive on a regular basis."
Just as Toni had promised, their destination was easily found and it didn't take them very long at all to get there. The parking lot was littered with older model domestic trucks with a sprinkling of slightly rusty, well used four door imported cars. Toni smiled because this was probably the first time that her truck would actually help them to blend in with their surroundings instead of causing people to ask more questions for her to verify her identity. Her smile soon faded when she realized that during all of the research she had done, Toni had never once thought to look into what type of vehicle the Medinas drove.
Here's hoping Mrs. Medina hasn't strayed too far from their regular routine, Toni thought to herself before she met Sam at the hood of the truck.
As they walked towards the door, Toni's left hand instinctively nestled itself into Sam's right paw with ease. At the door, Sam hesitated for a moment to ask, "Are you sure you're ready for this?"
Toni took in a deep breath and nodded. Once they were inside, they each did a quick sweep of the bar, taking in the layout of the place (noting the exits in the back of their minds), as well as the faces that they could make out through the haze of smoke.
There was no shortage of free tables and booths, so Toni squeezed Sam's hand then said, "Why don't you grab us a table and I go get us a couple of beers."
Sam retained a hold of her hand and gave her a look of uncertainty so she added, "Male bartender… I'm hoping to score some information along with the beer."
He smiled and nodded then they parted ways. At the bar Toni quickly ordered their drinks, but decided to wait until the bartender brought the bottled beer back before she started interrogating him. As he handed her the chilled bottles, Toni had already started her with her non-verbal flirting. She started with a slight flip of the hair and then she shifted her stance just so, which gave the bartender a perfect view of her ample cleavage.
When he unconsciously licked his lips, Toni knew that it was the perfect time to move in for the kill. However, before she could start, she was interrupted by a woman calling her name.
"Toni? Is that really you?"
Her whole body tensed up when she thought that the voice could belong to someone from her previous life. But after she was greeted with the face that came with the voice, she smiled and relaxed completely.
"Mrs. Medina…"
"Toni, please, call me Michelle."
"Alright Michelle… You're looking…" Toni stopped while she tried to find a polite way of saying 'You don't look as shitty as the last time I saw you'.
"Better? Healthier? More well-rested?" Michelle Medina finished for her. "Well Jimmy's home so I've been able to relax quite a bit since the last time you saw me. I really wanted to thank you again for being so nice to me that day at the Police Station. I would have never thought of calling the hospitals and that really helped to ease my mind until he returned."
Toni offered her a friendly smile and replied, "It was absolutely my pleasure. So… If you don't mind me asking…"
"Woman! Where's my beer?" An unknown male's voice called out just before two arms encircled Michelle's waist.
Michelle laughed playfully and hugged his arms. "Jimmy, I was just going to order them when I ran into Toni. She's the woman I told you about that kept me from completely falling to pieces while you were hiding away."
Jimmy then stepped around his wife and offered Toni his hand. "Thank you so much for helping Michelle with that." He leaned in so closely that Toni could smell the beer on his breath as he added, "You'll have to let me show you my gratitude sometime."
Toni groaned inwardly, feeling like she needed to step into a steaming hot shower. Then Jimmy leaned back and let his gaze linger on her semi-exposed chest, which made Toni wish that she could peel off a layer of her skin. But once Michelle came back into Toni's eye-line, she completely forgot about her personal feelings of unease and remembered that she had a job to do.
"I was more than happy to help. So… If you don't mind me asking…" she tried once again until she felt two strong hands grip her shoulders.
Almost immediately after she felt the hands take a hold of her, she heard a soft voice in her ear question, "What's taking so long?"
She half turned to kiss the latest intruder on the cheek then explained, "Sorry for the delay sweetie, but I ran into Michelle and Jimmy Medina. Michelle is the lady that I was telling you about from…"
"The Police Station. Right… Well it looks like your missing person has been found," Sam interjected as he shook each of the Medina's hands.
"He most certainly has been," Michelle beamed as she wrapped an arm around her husband's waist and pat his stomach lovingly with the other.
Toni was still fairly confident that she would still be able to get a few juicy tidbits that she needed out of Michelle, but that prospect of getting anything out of her didn't seem too promising with the two men in the way. Toni then passed Sam one of the beer bottles and nodded towards one of the pool tables. Sam thankfully took the hint and offered Jimmy the other bottle.
"How 'bout we let the women folk catch up?"
Jimmy nodded, took the bottle and as they walk towards the table, Toni laughed to herself when she overheard Jimmy ask, "So Sam… Are you any good?"
When she turned her attention back to Michelle, she was met with a smiling face that was presenting her with a fresh bottle of beer. "Since my husband seems to have been offered yours and all."
Toni smiled and said 'Thank you'. As she took a drink, she mentally prepared yet another attempt to ask the one question she hadn't managed to make it all the way through, twice now.
"I'm guessing that you're wondering what happened with my Jimmy," Michelle commented before Toni was done swallowing the beer in her mouth as they walked towards a booth close to the spot where the men were now engaged in a friendly game.
Toni didn't want to scare Michelle off by seeming too eager, so she answered her as neutrally as possible, "Well… Only if you feel comfortable talking about it."
"Oh, it's so silly and stupid," Michelle started with a soft laugh. "I feel kind of ridiculous for overreacting because I hadn't even considered how the animal attacks that we had here would have affected Jimmy."
Toni nodded sympathetically and added, "I remembering hearing something about them when I first got into town. Did you… Did you two know the victims?"
"Yeah… Well Jimmy knew them better than I did. The first one was his secretary and the second one was his business partner's daughter."
"Oh my goodness, that's terrible," Toni offered with as much sincerity that she could without sounding forced.
"Yeah, it really was. He found it difficult to deal with at first so he took some time to himself out at our lake house until he felt strong enough to talk about it all with me. I of course thought the worst and envisioned him dead in a ditch… You know, as a victim of whatever had killed the girls."
Toni chuckled and finished her beer then said, "Well, he's safe now and hopefully he's learned his lesson and will call you when before he decides to hide away from the world for a bit."
Michelle grinned brightly, leaned in and then replied, "I've told him that if he doesn't, I'll put a Lo-Jack on his ass and hunt him down myself."
As they shared a laugh, the men returned with a fresh round of drinks. Jimmy nearly knelt down and placed a few kisses on his wife's cheek and neck while Toni and Sam watched slightly stunned. If this was the man that really was stalking women in this town, then were they looking at the werewolf's next victim?
Sam recovered first and wanted to make their charade appear legit, so he tilted Toni's chin upwards and caught her lips in a tender kiss. "So, did you find out anything interesting?" He questioned softly into her ear so that their new friends would overhear him.
Every inch of Toni's body was tingling with excitement and she was hesitant about reopening her eyes because she didn't want this feeling to turn out to be a dream. As she reluctantly let her eyes flutter open, she nodded softly. Sam pecked her lips again then turned back towards the Medinas and announced, "Well Jimmy, she's agreed to save the family name in a best of three at the pool table."
Toni stared at Sam until he winked and she finally realized that he must have some sort of plan. She smirked then switched places with Sam. After downing half of the new beer that he had brought her, she playfully teased, "Not a problem. I would be more than happy to show you two how this game is actually played."
She then met Jimmy beside the table and picked up her cue saying, "I'll even be generous enough to let you break first."
Jimmy leaned into her, a little too closely for Toni's liking, to retrieve the chalk to prepare his cue. It took everything that Toni had inside her to resist the urge to strike him with the wooden stick she had in her hand when she felt him sniff her hair. She really wanted to but she didn't want to blow their cover just yet. The corners of Sam's mouth tugged into a small grin as he watched the two of them at the pool table. So far, everything was falling into place exactly how he had hoped it would.
As they played, Toni held nothing back. She wasn't the most skilled player on the planet, but she had hung out at the bars on the various bases her parents had been transferred to and at every one there was always more than one eager GI that wanted to be her personal tutor, so she had picked up a few tricks. Luckily for her, Sam and Michelle had ordered a few more rounds for all of them and the alcohol seemed to impair Jimmy's hand/eye coordination so much so that Toni was starting to look more like a pool shark than the newbie she truly was.
Toni was in the midst of lining up her final shot to take the second game in a row when she felt a sweaty palm connect with her hip. Jimmy pressed his chest to her back and quietly slurred into her ear, "You forgot to call your shot beautiful."
She stood up straight and stepped away from him so that she could steal a glance at their table. Michelle and Sam were deep in their conversation and seemed to be completely oblivious to what was happening between their spouses.
"Corner pocket," she answered after taking a calming breath. Before Jimmy could come close to her again, Toni quickly took her shot and sunk the Eight Ball in the pocket that she had predicted. "And that's game," Toni announced triumphantly as she exchanged the pool cue for her beer bottle and down its contents in one long gulp.
She could feel Jimmy still eyes her up and down hungrily, so she decided that she had to do something, no matter how unorthodox, to get herself out of this situation… And fast. After she placed her now empty bottle onto the wooden edge of the pool table, she took a long step forward. Then she allowed herself to stumble towards the table until she fell onto Sam's lap.
Feeling her flop across his legs surprised Sam, but Michelle took it all in stride. "Looks like someone has enjoyed herself tonight."
"Yeah," Sam agreed hesitantly. "Are you doing okay?" He asked her with concern overtaking his tone.
Toni lifted her left hand and pet his face adoringly. "I'm doing just fine baby… How 'bout you? Ooh! Maybe we should order another round."
Sam lowered her hand then helped her to her feet saying to the other two, "I think it might be best if the two of us called it a night."
Toni offered him an exaggerated pout and batted her eyes pleadingly, but Sam just ignored it while turning her around and helping her into her jacket. Before Sam was done fastening Toni's jacket (because she faked that she couldn't get her hands to coordinate the closing the zipper) Michelle jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around Toni's waist.
"So we'll see you tomorrow then?" Michelle asked as she released Toni from her grasp.
As she swayed in her spot, Toni looked between Sam and Michelle with genuine confusion clouding her face. Michelle caught onto Toni's misunderstanding first and added, "Sorry… Sam and I were talking about the Block Party we're having tomorrow and he mentioned that you two might be interested in one of the houses on the market. I think you'll love the neighborhood."
At this explanation, Toni smiled then nodded saying something resembling, "Yeah, can't wait." When she tried to take a step forward to give Michelle a hug after her slurred reply of the affirmative, she faltered and would have fallen face first into the other woman if Sam hadn't caught her by her jacket.
"Oh-Kay," Sam proclaimed slowly. "I think I need to get somebody home so that she can rest up for tomorrow."
Toni offered no protests as Michelle laughed softly and took a glass of water from Jimmy. Then he and Michelle returned to the booth then Sam lead a staggering Toni to the door.
"Seriously Toni… Are you doing alright? Did… Did he slip something into your drink?" Sam asked in a hushed, worriedish tone.
Once they were just a few feet away from her truck, Toni checked that they were alone and that no one was watching them and then she stood up completely erect. She then gently shrugged Sam's helpful hands off her shoulders and continued to the passenger's door with a few short, quick, confident strides and then waited for Sam to catch up.
"I'm doing just fine Sam," Toni replied with a chuckle. "Seriously, I'm absolutely fine. I just wanted to keep up the 'helpless waif' persona you apparently seemed to like so much back there."
Sam opened her door and helped her into her seat, shaking his head the entire time.
Once he was behind the wheel, Toni crossed her arms and added, "Well was I wrong? Because it seemed to me like you were more than willing to hand me over to him on a silver platter."
Sam tried his best not to laugh because he could tell that she was genuinely upset, but he couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle. "Umm… Sorry if you felt like that, but I was testing a theory."
"Oh my God… Great, so when I was feeling like a piece of meat all night, you really were using me as bait," Toni pointed out with a grumble.
"That's a pretty blunt way to put it, but yeah. I heard Michelle telling you about how Jimmy knew a couple of the victims pretty well…"
"So you came up with a theory about why he changes," Toni interrupted more civilly. "Since Valerie changed because she was feeding off other people's sexual energy, then maybe…"
"Jimmy's changing because of his own raging libido," Sam concluded as he parked the truck by their room.
He started to get out, but ceased all motion when he noticed that Toni hadn't attempted to move a muscle.
"Honestly, I'm sorry Toni. I wasn't trying to exploit you at all," Sam offered, trying to sound apologetic so that she would continue to help him.
Toni turned to look at him with mischief in her eyes. "Hey, I've already been up close and personal with the business end of a werewolf's claws, so there's no way in hell I'm getting out first. Fuck, you better show me that you've got some silver bullets in that gun of yours or I might not get out at all."
Sam laughed a little too loudly, popped the clip out of his pistol to show Toni the prerequisite silver bullets and reassured her he was a good shot. When her demeanor finally softened, he got out, opened her door and escorted her (safely) to their room.