"Y'know about CaraCara?"
She cocked him a glance of confusion as she shrugged into a nod and turned from pan she had on the stove. "Sure. Stahl shut down production before someone burned it down."
"Luann Delaney." He murmured slowly, an obvious darkness clouding on him as he slowly pried his gloves from his hands, letting them dump onto the table carelessly before he stepped around it and closer into her space. "Used to run CaraCara. Took care of her girls."
"Otto Delaney's wife." She softened her voice as she angled back into the counter, watching the way he stalked on her, his jaw a tensed line.
"Aye." Some sort of residual anger was weighing over him and it hadn't been as heavy on his frame when she'd seen him earlier. "Bashed to death and dumped on the side of the road like garbage."
His earlier humor had soured and was replaced by a thrumming anger.
"This is a history lesson?" she asked, a hand dropping to blindly turn off the burner on the stove as he angled flush into the front of her, his eyes piercing into hers.
"I mean, y'need to lock your goddamn door, Althea." The words rushed over her roughly.
"You said you were coming." She pressed a hand forward into his chest defensively, shunting and stalling the movement of him against her for a breath. "And I have a Glock .34 on my belt. What exactly is your point, Scotty?"
"The point, Sheriff," he locked around her with prying hands along the counter edge, shifting his hips into hers hard so that she was leaned back, her fingers still spread on the leather that covered his chest, "is that you're twice the target. So keep the door locked."
She focused on the heavily pointed way he was studying her face, searching the pass of whatever frustration was bending him so dark. Ally exhaled slowly and nodded a slow agreement into the way he was still staring her down. She saw the twitch of relief in his jaw before both his hands broke from the counter and caught against her jaw, jerking her into a kiss so abrupt a noise of surprise came off her throat. He swallowed it with a groan and raked her closer, tongue driving against hers as her fingers dug into him. He softened it when he realized how stiffly straight her spine was under his pressing, his hands gentling back into her hair as he sucked along her bottom lip. Her breathing shivered on him as he let his forehead lay into hers.
"What happened?" she asked harshly.
"Nothing." He blinked his eyes shut. "I just… please?"
"Okay." She relaxed her hips into the counter, letting her body angle flush into his as he finally lifted his head and looked back over her. "I get it, Filip."
A sudden self conscious flush forced him to turn a shy smile to the side, "You're making dinner?"
"I do eat occasionally." She nodded slowly as his arm weighed down to curl her waist while his left hand flicked the heat back on, the both of them looking over the meat and vegetables that were scattered in the pan. "Did you want some?"
The suddenly amused look he gave her made him seem somewhat innocent.
At least until he cocked her a leering glance in teasing.
"Dinner, Telford. I was asking if you wanted dinner." Her brow arched as she nudged him off her, pushing his hips back as she turned back into the front of the stove and reached for the spatula again.
"I do." He caught against the back of her neck tightly and leaned a kiss onto her temple, letting his forehead rub against her skin as her head angled into it. "Thank you."
"It's your rear axle, by the way." He tossed off after swallowing the forkful of food, accepting the she glass she handed him as she leaned the wine bottle in his direction and poured half a glass. "Both boots are torn off. No grease. Your inner joint's shot."
"You're serious?" she lifted the bottle away in confused disbelief as she stood over him, shaking her head in amusement.
"Probably the outer joint by now too. Y'don't feel a shudder?"
Ally arched a wondering glance over him as she shook her head, bottle waved between them to expand her point, "This moment is… highly unlikely in our relationship. And you're talking about my rear joint?"
"Inner joint, rear axle." He hummed his smile up at her before taking in a drink. "Our relationship?"
"And do I feel a shudder?" she asked him with a sardonic glance, hip flared out. "You mean in the car?"
"Or in our relationship." He teased at her and swallowed down more of the wine.
"You're about to feel a shudder." She assured cockily over his smirk as she tipped the bottle toward her own glass, pouring half and then casting a tired glance into the way he winced as he pulled his vibrating phone from his pocket.
"What?" his voice was quick and rough into the burner.
Ally rolled her eyes as she poured into the rest of the glass, filling it completely. She stepped away from his conversation but couldn't save from hearing his end as he jutted his boots farther out against the floor and leaned back in the chair, a frown thinning down his eyes as he hummed a sound of understanding and swallowed down more of the wine. He was listening patiently and she liked the way it looked to see him sitting comfortably at her table.
It was a pipe dream of a moment. Too domestic to be realistic.
And she sank into it as she blindly pressed the cork back into the bottle.
"Can I at least finish my dinner?" he groused into the phone as he lifted her an apologetic glance, face softening sadly. "For fuck's sake. When?"
Ally set the bottle down and stepped back into him, pulling the glass from his fingers with an arched look of assertion. She sipped on it slowly, letting him pull her closer and tug on her leg so that she straddled down onto his thigh to face him in his lap, feeling the hard tensing of his leg under her.
"No, stay there." He sharpened in response to the other end of the line as he let his hand brush heat against the leg she had tagged between his. "I'll call Hap out to ride with."
He suddenly grinned as he looked up at her, angling his head back as he kept the phone tucked to his ear. "I don't think she'd appreciate that much as I would, Tigger. But I'll ask."
"No." she hushed over him quickly. "Whatever he's suggesting."
"She says no." he chuckled, his accent thick with his smile. "Gimme an hour."
"Two." She murmured into him argumentatively, leaning tighter on his leg as she finished off his glass.
Chibs just groaned her a half glare and caught against her thigh to stop her shifting. His eyes casting over her face and down the front of her longingly as he closed the phone and rattled it harshly onto the table top. A growled vibration came off his throat as he leaned forward from the chair back, burying his face into her neck while his hand curled against her ass, the other one prying into the fabric of her shirt.
"At least eat something before you go." She set the emptied glass back against the table behind her, letting him curl tighter on her in silence. "We can salvage the actual dinner portion while you wait for your entourage."
"I'll be back in awhile." He hushed against her jaw. "Yeah?"
She smiled reflexively as she looked over the up turn of his jaw, questioning keeping his eyes a glittered dark. "Okay."