"Gimme the Glock." He stalled her up in the doorway with a guttered whisper, half his body wedged outward as he squinted into the hall, hand reached out toward her blindly and sliding against her leg. "Give it to me, Ally. Now."

She shook her head in frustration but accepted the way he leaned back his Berretta and took her department firearm. The realization that his brain could accelerate past the multiple possible avenues of what was about to happen – already cleaning up the mess that had yet to be created. It blinded her astounded for a moment and it was the shift of his hips away from hers snapped her attention back into the way he caught her eyes before nodding.

And then he just tipped away from her.

She didn't necessarily appreciate the fact that he'd used her as a luring bait in the bedroom doorway, but then he'd also placed himself ten steps closer to the kitchen as he'd back angled into the generally unused half bath and motioned for her to stay farther down the hall. But she'd told him to lead and for a fleeting moment wished she could stop to enjoy the vision of it. But all too quiet. It was too quiet. She sharpened a breath into the deep down beating of silence, debating a step up the hall before she heard a scrabbling noise echoing at her.

"Goddamn it!"

It wasn't his voice.

Though it was familiar while slurred.

But it wasn't his voice.

"Telford?!"

And if he wasn't going to answer then she didn't give a damn about holding back.

"Do you know him?" the rage that both paled and aged his face as she stepped back into the hall, weapon raised - it was a shade of the man that seemed nearly unrecognizable. And for a moment he was formidably terrifying.

His arm was hooked hard up under the other man's throat, a blade she hadn't even seen him grab for turned sidelong into pale skin while the other hand kept her weapon aimed into the smaller man's temple. She searched his angry face sharply, shaking her head minutely in confusion as she exhaled into the shifted darkness of an echo of who she'd been sleeping next to and what was standing in front of her.

"Jarry." He snapped her attention back. "Do you know him?"

"Yes. Jesus." she answered harshly with a quick nod of her head, stepping swiftly forward to prize her fingers onto Telford's arm as she angled the Berretta down. "He's one of my deputies."

His head cocked into a scrutinizing darkness before he inhaled through his nose and dropped the hold, letting the younger man slump onto her hallway carpet. "Shitty deputy."

"Oh, go to hell." The blond that was crumpled to his knees on her carpet was palming against the thin slice that had grazed his throat. "Shit bag."

"Yeah?" Chibs asked brashly, shoulders bent forward as the Glock leveled down faster than she could break between them. "Repeat it, Nicky."

"Chibs." She slapped into his chest, rebounding him back slightly as she shook her head and let air rattle off her lips. "Let him up."

She offered a hand into the way the younger man shifted up onto his feet, refusing her help and leaning his body still forward as he kept pressure along his throat, "If you knew it was me why'd you - "

"Don't like the way you look at her." Telford explained with a taunting smirk before lifting her sidearm back to her. "And I didn't at first."

"Are you even speaking English?" Dulane shot up at him and Ally stepped her hips easily into the way Telford turned, her hands lifting both guns into his chest as she intentionally laid herself into his space to distract him from the way he was biting down on his cheeks before answering sharply back.

"Okay." She nodded him a calming smile, relief finally finding the knots in her shoulders and flaring an ache there, "Okay. Take these. Relax."

"Little tense, Ally." He shrugged into her as he accepted both weapons. "One of 'yer boys just happens to jack your back door at three in the morning? He's lucky I didn't slit his throat."

"I saw the bike out back. I just wanted to make sure everything was all right." Dulane flushed back against her hall wall, his head tipping back as he slumped a little, eyes reddened up even in the shadows. "I obviously wasn't aware that this was your new loading zone, Telford."

"What'd y'just say?" The acidic vitriol that laced his tone tweaked her back up.

"Shut it, Dulane." She caught against Telford's wrists, drawing them up slightly to lock between them as she started walking him backwards down the hall, drawn in and ached up by the twitched fury that was tamping on his jaw. "Hey, go put them away."

"Oi." He cast over her shoulder as he continued stepping backwards toward her bedroom slowly, "You stink like a Brighton fuckin' distillery, Nicky. Classy, son."

"What the hell, Lieutenant?"

"Kitchen." She aimed him down opposite direction of the hallway. "You need to dry out."

"Why'd he have your gun, Lieutenant?"

"In case he shot you. Self defense looks better on a sheriff than a biker." She snapped over him tightly, setting the coffee down hard onto the table in front of him. "Jesus, Nick."

"I get that." There was a lazed haze to his voice, his glance pointed. "I meant, why'd you let him have it?"

She flinched into the question and turned away from it, not sure if she even had an answer that was logical. Or realistic.

"Because I don't hesitate, Nicky."

Dulane lifted the coffee and sniffed at it, "You can stop fuckin' calling me that, Scotty."

"See? Not sexy when he says it." He cast in her direction as he grabbed the chair beside the other man, turning it round so he could lean his arms into the back, shirt tugged on and a cigarette already tucked in his fingers. "So tell me why you been trackin' through her back yard, huh?"

"He lives on the opposite side of the block." She supplied softly as her hips backed up against the counter, her own coffee tucked in her palm and the smooth skin of her thighs a little more visible under the t-shirt than he'd like. "His kids cut my yard to walk to school. Sarah know where you are?"

The other officer gave her a wincing glance before swallowing down a gulp of coffee, hissing off the heat of it. "Sorta."

"Carreira foot the bill again?" she asked with an arched brow. "Just the booze this time, right?"

"Yes, ma'am." The younger man sipped against the cup, his eyes bleary and unfocused as he stared across the table.

"Done this before, huh?" Filip panned her a darkening glance, flicking open his Zippo with a near accusatory bite to his tone.

Ally rolled him an annoyed glance before dragging an ashtray off the back of the counter and laying it to the table, "Not like this. What happened, Nick?"

"I'm on my knees, LT." he let his head slump back on the chair and Ally caught the arched glance Telford gave her as he hissed down a lungful of smoke. "I need hours."

She leaned her shoulders forward tightly, ignoring the interested and smirking way the Scot watched her as her voice graveled, "You don't get the hours if you can't stay sober."

"I need the money. Tranny on Sarah's Civic's shot, mortgage is due, tuition payments, fucking soccer cleats."

"Althea." Filip's jaw lifted a fraction as he flicked the ash, stretching his back up so that his shoulders leveled, questioning in his glance.

She met his eyes briefly, nodding silent agreement before dipping her head at an angle. "Pay your mortgage, buy the cleats."

"TM's got the transmission." Telford sucked down another swallow of smoke as she gave him a shallow smile of appreciation.

The younger man blinked him blatant confusion but shrugged into it. "Thank you."

"Thank her." The older of the two men pushed up from the chair, catching the way she pointed down the hall as he stepped away. "That debt ain't on me, Nicky."

"Gun cabinet." She offered after the Scot quietly, catching the nod he let off before lifting his hand in acknowledgment, smoke still lingering after him.

She stared the younger man down over her coffee, noting the interested way he studied her as his eyes started to clear a little. "Ask me."

"What the hell you doing, Lieutenant?" he asked sharply, letting the cup hit the table a bit louder than necessary.

"Taking what I want and keeping what I have." She murmured over the steam from the coffee. "I hear it's the Charming way."

"Jarry - "

"I will do what I need to in order to make this place safe again." Ally dipped her coffee cup to the counter as Telford stepped back into the kitchen, her jaw lifting into the older man's movements as he dropped one of a few familiar envelopes onto the table. "Maybe he's my reward."

"Or curse, darlin'." Telford winked at her before laying both palms onto the table, his head angling over the deputy, "The lovely Lieutenant is going to have a chat with your wife soon, ask about the kiddies and school. Because if this money goes down your throat or up your fuckin' nose, you'll owe the club and not her. Clear?"

"Clear." The other officer nodded, eyes pinned down toward the table as he avoided the other man's grazing tone.

"Good." Filip stretched his back up, catching her eyes as he stepped away from the table and wiped his fingers into her shirt. "He breaks into your house again and I'll kill him, Althea."

"Clear." She agreed into a hushing nod, a smirking riding her lips as he cocked her a knowing glance. "I'll walk him out."

"That boy has a real mommy problem, Ally." He hushed over her with a teasing that was finally welling warmth back between them. "And he's pinning it on you."

"Thank you," her fingers brushed against the way his hand strafed off her. "I'll keep that in mind."