"Well looky what we got here." Doug smiled. "How you doing buddy?"

Lax surveyed the black teenager they had cornered in the alley. The fear in the kid's eyes reaching into his soul. He stepped back as the rest of the gang moved in on the child like a pack of wild dogs.

"Hey Vic, come over here."

Lax cleared his throat and moved beside the other man. Doug motioned to JC, who held out a baseball bat.

"Beat the boy," Doug commanded.

"Not in the mood."

"Your loyalty is under question Vic. Or should I say Captain." Doug sneered.

Lax continued to hesitate.

"Now you beat this boy or its gonna be your Yankee ass tied up on the ground and that's the God's honest truth," Doug added.

After a moment, Lax took the bat as JC smiled viciously.

... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. .. . ..

Lax settled into Ivy's embrace. She gently stroked his back as he leaned his head on her chest. His shaking began to subside as her touch penetrated him.

"I'm not who you think I am." He absently tugged the hem of her short kilt against her thigh.

"No, you're exactly who I think you are."

He moved back to regard her expression. "I am undercover. The whole thing is a setup."

"You're a cop?"

He shook his head. " A journalist. The FBI recruited me. My mission is to gain Gall's trust so I can learn what he's planning."

"I knew you couldn't be one of them."

"I'm still on your side, Ivy. I always have been. I am sorry that I didn't tell you the truth before but it was the safest way." He took a breath. "Look, my orders are to embed myself. Learn what Gall's plan is and even assist him when needed."

She turned and pulled a small spiral notebook from her purse on the floor by the bed. "Yours I assume?"

He took it and shot her a nervous glance. "Where did you…"

"In the parking lot of the shop, the night we...the first time you fucked me." She looked down and let her hair cover her face.

"You had it? I thought I lost it or that the wrong person found it…"

"Aren't you supposed to eat that kind of evidence."

Neither laughed at her poor attempt at a joke.

"Vi...Lax I mean, my dad told me about a kid getting killed over the bridge today. You were there, weren't you? That's what you were talking about."

Lax swallowed hard and nodded. "I was part of it."

"You had to don't you?"

He flashed his eyes up at her.

"They would have killed you. They were testing you. You had to pass. Life or death."

"But Ivy the kid is dead…because of me…"

"I understand why you did it."

"I can't believe I was capable of… I feel sick...sick to my stomach."

"We do some pretty fucked up things when it comes to self-preservation. Besides if you bring Gall down think of how many kids you are keeping alive."

The greater good. He thought she got that.

Lax was torn. He was both impressed and disturbed by her matter of fact analysis of his participation in the murder. But that was Ivy; she knew how to soothe him.

"I'm not saying its right that a boy is dead...but there was no other way out for you."

He contemplated her placid expression. Her face was open, waiting for him to go on. He shrugged and winced so she couldn't help adding. "They'll kill you if they find out."

He shook his head. "We all have to die sometime."

"I…don't want you to die."

"Before I met you, It didn't matter so much." He nodded and stared hard at her. "Now...man...you're not supposed to know. You were not supposed to happen to me."

"Heard that one before." She smiled slightly.

"Its like I just can't stay away."

"I know. I can keep your secret."

"Even so, Ivy, what Gall is planning is bad for everyone in the country. I've never seen anyone so filled with hate. I am putting you in danger."

"Then, get out of there. Why are you taking this huge risk anyway? Getting chummy with those psychos?"

"Because I couldn't save my sister or my dad."

"What?"

"Look my last name is Morales. My dad, he was Mexican. He was killed by a hate group when I was a teenager. My sister was with him. " He stood and turned away from her.

Lax realized he'd never told anyone about his past but Ivy. Even Isa hadn't heard the story.

"I'm sorry about your family."

He nodded.

She waited, but he didn't seem to want to reveal anything more at the moment so she approached cautiously and gently placed her hands on his hips. She wasn't sure if he wanted this, not sure if he'd let her touch him. Her hands glided softly up his body under the braces to his ribs, across his chest, down his stomach finally resting on his belt buckle. All the while she looked up into his face under her eyelashes, the question in her eyes 'will you let me?'

He reached up with one hand and brushed the hair from her face. He was trying so hard to push her away. He wanted to walk away from her and do the right thing for her safety, but his body had been deprived of Ivy's comfort and assurance. It was selfish he knew, but this was why he'd come here wasn't it? He didn't want her to stop touching him. He needed her to heal him. She pressed herself against him placed her ear on his heart. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, his lips found her forehead and his heartbeat quickened under her ear as thoughts of her next move flooded his mind.

He cupped her chin and lifted her face up so she'd scrutinize his eyes and the intense need that melted her. His gaze dropped to her lips and he leaned forward. When their lips met his breath caught in his chest feeling such tenderness, passion, and natural sensuality in her kiss. Languidly his tongue slipped out to taste hers. Her hand tightened on his back gripping him closer as her own tongue snaked out to meet his.

Her awareness of Lax overwhelmed all her senses. He tasted faintly of peppermint. She heard his soft guttural, sandy moans and she felt one of his hands tangled in her hair while the other rested on her waist holding her tightly to him. She opened her eyes to look in his face seeing his lust. She smelled his musky scent slightly sweaty and spicy. She closed her eyes again lost in him.

Sighing, she pulled away resting her forehead on his shoulder. They both knew he needed this. He moved her away just enough for her look up at him and all he said was "Please."

Ivy nodded slowly, her eyes telling him he's safe, he's home with her. "Let me." She pulled his t-shirt up and off and then unbuckled his belt.

With her cheek still pressed to his chest, she began to caress him and he sensed in her that the mood had changed. She explored all that was exposed to her, sliding her hands across his solid slightly sweaty chest, her touch ethereal. His skin burned beneath her fingertips. He closed his eyes and just let her walk him backward to her bed and lay him down. She knelt before him and unlaced his boots removing each one slowly almost reverently. When she pushed her soft hand beneath the waistline of his open jeans then boxers, he moaned loudly. She stopped, raised her head and whispered "Should I leave you alone?"

"Touch me Ivy." He didn't want her to stop, his body craved her and he was already hard as a rock. She positioned herself back down on his chest her hand dormant on his stomach, but he felt her mouth pressed against his ribs a few inches away from his right nipple. As she moved down his body trailing her warm wet lips towards his hips, he stretched his arms back behind his head his biceps bulging as he grabbed onto the bars of the bed. She forcefully grasped his inner thigh pulling it towards her as she planted her mouth firmly in the dip of his hip bone. He felt his dick pulsing and he involuntarily moved his hips towards her mouth searching for warmth; searching for wetness. She complied with the implications of his bucking pelvis and pulled him out of jeans and boxers immediately licking the head of his dick. His entire body tensed with pleasure as she ran her tongue up and down his length. He then felt her tongue on his balls. With the wetness she left on his cock, she stroked him with one hand tightly while she sucked his balls into her mouth. Knowing what he really wanted, she moved back up to take his entire length between her lips. She swallowed him in so far she almost choked herself. Lax tasted blood in his mouth suddenly realizing he'd been biting the hell out of his lip. He could explode in her mouth at any moment, but he didn't want it to end there. He hadn't even touched her yet. His legs moved back and forth across the bed reveling in the feeling of her ability with her hand at his base stroking up and over the crown then and back down again, followed by her mouth.

After a moment, she gave more attention with her hand and placed her lips underneath his navel but when she glanced up at him he pulled her face to his and shoved his tongue down her throat. He started to feel the telltale cramping in his stomach and so he moved her off and pulled up her shirt to expose her breasts. Sucking them into his mouth one at a time he roughly shoved her plaid mini skirt up and pulled her panties aside plunging two fingers into her pussy. She was tight and more importantly she was wet making his dick harden even more knowing it was because of him. He brought his lips to hers again to tongue fuck her as he fingered her clit. He whispered "I want you... I want you so bad..." and before she could answer he moved down and pressed his mouth against her clit. He skipped kissing her thighs and all the artful shit; she made him horny as hell and her moans were driving him crazy. He shoved his tongue up inside of her, Ivy's groans indicating she was there but before she could finish coming he was on top of her, shoving her knee back and guiding himself inside her. Her body quaked again as he thrust all the way in and the contracting of her muscles almost drew his orgasm out. Holding onto it, he began to rock against her, in and out of her fleshy walls so warm, so wet and so good. Her fingernails found his thigh and she dug in as if holding on for dear life pulling him against her even harder as he plunged in deep.

"Shit, you feel so good..."

"Tell me how good..." he commanded shoving into her so hard he knocked the breath out of her as she tried to answer. "Huh? How good..." He asked his voice lower and coarser than she'd ever heard.

Breathless, she whispered "So damn good, don't stop... don't ever stop."

He watched her face twist with ecstasy and moved her so both of her legs were on one side of him, her pretty ass there for him to squeeze and rub. He smacked it to get a squeal out of her then felt his orgasm coming so fiercely it burned in his gut. This one hurt but felt so damn good at the same time he had to let it go.

"Damn... shit, I'm gonna come..." He groaned into the side of her neck as her fingernails dug deeper, her muscles clenching him tighter. With one hand on each hip, he held her steady plunging into her one last time, expending all of his seed within her. A few aftershocks hit him as he felt the sweat dripping from his forehead. With his eyes still closed, his arms shaky as hell and his body so gloriously tired he fell on top of her. Ivy whispered words he couldn't make out as she kissed his face and ran her hands up and down his back, panting in his ear. After they caught their breath, Lax pulled his jeans back on while Ivy wiggled into his t-shirt over her panties.

"C'mon." Ivy motioned for him to follow her as she climbed through her window to the roof to take in the night air.

They sat their backs against the side of the house. Lax lit a cigarette and stretched his legs out.

"I love sitting up here. It feels closer to moon, closer to the stars. See that tree?"

He nodded.

"I used to sneak out of the house when I was a teenager. Climb right down the branches. I gave my daddy hell I really did." She laughed.

"I bet you did. You're a rebel huh?"

"But art, art turned me around. Drawing and tattooing. Seems so long ago now, being a kid."

After a few deep drags on his cigarette, Lax began "You get to the point where they push you too far and you have to shove back."

She looked over waiting for him to go on.

"Especially as a kid, you know you can only take so much of it. Having the last name Morales in the white bread town I grew up in, put a target on my back my whole life. Plus I was quiet, you know a loner. Loved books. Put it all together a bully's wet dream, right? I spent every day avoiding them, especially this one guy. I remember the time I'd had it. It was the last day of school, I must have been 14. I made my way down the hall with my big stack of books and stuff. Nick, his name was Nick showed up in the middle of the hallway ahead of me. He called me a dirty spic and shoved me hard. I fell backwards, books and papers went flying everywhere. My feet slipped out from under me the floor was slick and I fell on my ass hard. A painful jolt went through my whole body. My ears were ringing for a second, it hurt so bad. I looked up to see Nick standing over me. Everyone around me was looking down at me and laughing. Some other kid's lunchbox was lying next to me on the floor. The old fashioned metal kind. I grabbed it and swung it hard at Nick's legs. It hit his left knee and his leg buckled and he leaned down, grabbing his knee swearing like a motherfucker. I got up and grabbed the collar of his shirt then balled up my other fist and popped him a good one right on his big redneck nose." Lax chuckled. "I yelled stop picking on me or something like and kept hitting him. His nose was bleeding. I lost it I really did; I nailed him square on the nose again as hard as I could. He fell backward on the floor, everybody stepping back away from him like he was some kind of toxic chemical spilling across the hallway floor. You just get pushed too far and you strike back." He took another drag and blew smoke out of his mouth and nose thoughtfully. "So yeah, being a Morales wasn't easy. It was just me my dad and my sister. There was a group in my town, Aryans, Just like Gall's."

Ivy gasped.

"Yeah I know what Surville is. I lived it too. My dad owned a garage, he was a mechanic and his shop happened to be right on the line between the white neighborhood and ours. The proverbial wrong side of the tracks. He was doing good business though and that's what made him a target. One night he and my older sister Johnette were there working late; she kept the books for him. The damn Aryans burned the place down with my dad and sister trapped inside. The fuckers chained the doors, chained the doors from the outside. They made sure the fire department didn't get the call until it was too late. Couldn't prove anything of course so it was officially an accident. I was sixteen. After that, I lived with relatives, kinda got shuffled around until I was eighteen then I moved to New York and studied journalism in night school. I have to do this. Bring Gall down."

Ivy nodded. " A noble quest," she murmured.

"My FBI handler asked me if this was personal and at the time I told him no. But It is. Now more than ever."

They crawled back in through her window and Ivy flopped down on her bed.

"Are you afraid?" He asked her.

She shook her head. "But I know I should be."

He sat up and straddled her thighs. She unashamedly stared up at his physique. Her eyes briefly stared at the swastika tattoo that she had inked on his left pectoral. She took in his defined chest and shoulders. Lax silently gazed down at her and after a minute of his appraisal, she became uneasy. Suddenly he ended the silence.

"I always thought you were strong," He stated before laying his body on top of hers. "And don't worry, we can make this work. Can't go back now. I'll protect you. I couldn't protect my sister, but I won't let anybody hurt you."

"I trust you.'

At the touch of his lips, she immediately felt relief as if a heavy burden was lifted from her shoulders. This moment, laying here with Lax knowing the truth about him felt like a fantasy. Now, it was a part of her reality.

"Strong enough?"

He nodded. "You know how dangerous it is though. I still have work to do with them."

She nodded. "I don't care. We'll be careful."

"I lied before." He stated.

"Well yeah, you hid your identity."

"Not just about that. I lied when I said I didn't love you."

Please don't let this be a fucking dream she silently hoped, as he kissed her again.

…. …. … ….. ….

The next morning Ivy woke and knew it wasn't a dream. She was entangled in Lax's arms. his leg draped heavily over her thighs. She smiled and bit his shoulder lightly.

He opened his eyes squinting at the light and smiled back.

"You have somewhere to be this morning?" She asked.

"Technically I should head back to the warehouse. Don't want any suspicion especially after yesterday…" His voice trailed off.

"Well later then. Can you meet me? There's somewhere I wanna take you."

He nodded, curious.