"Hey, doll." The cache of sympathetic warmth lilting in his voice caught on her shoulders and dragged them tiredly in his direction as she stepped into the too harsh sunshine. "You okay?"
"I'm fine." She patterned a line of patience into the words as she felt his hand squeeze against her forearm, the lack of leather on him blaring bright on the dark hoodie he was wearing. "You boys worry too much."
Tig gave her a quickly put upon smile as he shrugged up thin shoulders, hips angling toward the steps as he waved her forward in a gentlemanly fashion. He was tugging his sunglasses over the intense blue of his eyes as she looked over him, the rigid readiness of his body a sudden reminder of what he was probably capable of regardless how gentle his fingers brushing on her had been.
"He okay?" she angled to the side as she started a slow descent down the steps. "He's got no leash on his anger."
"Spittin' like a snake. But calm." Trager flicked her a sideways smile. "Somebody put a target on his girl."
Ally snorted as she shook her glance into the parking lot, "His girl."
"That's what I said." Tig nodded as his palm framed up against her lower back, head dipping lower as he matched his steps to hers. "That's what I meant."
"This wasn't ever made to last, Trager."
Tig just gave her a winsome smile as his nose wrinkled in odd humor. "You weren't supposed to be you, Ally. You were supposed to be someone we could ignore. I say the fault's on you."
"Thanks for the support." She clapped back into his teasing, catching the wry grin he responded with before his face fell serious.
"He put Montez on your boy. He's at Saint Thomas." He nodded. "Out of the way, quiet, low profile."
"Okay." Her head angled as she neared her car, keys prized up in her palm though she hadn't realized she'd been clinging to them defensively. "So I'm just going home? Just bait?"
"Yup." He stalled at the back of her car, a searching glance around her before he leveled an eerily intent smile on her. "Good fishy. Pretty fishy."
"You're gonna get a slap." She told him succinctly as she unlocked her door, catching the way the both of them searched the empty seats before she tossed her bag into the passenger side.
"Not my bend. Apparently, VP's a bit wilder than I am when it comes to down and dirty." He murmured on a flush grin, tugging his glasses halfway down his nose as he caught the dry way she glared at him in answer. "You just drive. And if shit goes south, keep driving. I've got ya."
"I don't need your protection." She angled between them as she leaned into the car, her head jerking into the way he was already leaned into the open space of the open door.
"You may not need it." He told her as he started leaning the door closed. "Guess that's just too bad, AJ."
"Where is he, Tig?" she broke her palm flush into the door just before he'd latched it, head angled back into the headrest as she let an intentionally sweetened begging into her tone.
Trager gave her a true smile, "Waiting for you."
She'd lost sight of Trager a good two miles from the house and she'd known it was an intentional disappearing act, his swerving off a broad exit causing a hitch into her breathing that she hated to fess up to. Didn't plan on it either. Her hands felt ached as she finished the drive and parked, instantly realizing that the absence of his bike at the house was both a good idea, and a loss that she wasn't necessarily prepared to feel so heavily in her clamping lungs.
Ally forced herself from the car and into the house, keeping her head forward in a way that kept her shoulders straight and lined up. She disregarded caution as she walked in the door, leaving it intentionally unlocked even as her hands itched in heat to bar it up. The silence of the house was usually a peaceful acceptance of home, but it echoed up loud around her as she moved into its quiet. There was nothing of him in the place, not even the scent of cigarette smoke. At least until she toed open the door to her bedroom with her boot, leaning into the frame so that she could drop a glance over the way he was leaned back on the mattress, cut covered by a sweatshirt and sunglasses pressed back into his hair.
Her head tipped into a sloping angle, lungs loosening into a temporary peace, "Get your goddamn boots off my bed, Telford."
"Y'keep those ones drawn." He aimed his fingers toward the shades on the solitary bedroom window as he nodded, shifting his shoulders forward so that he could land his boots onto the carpet, elbows angling to his knees. "Don't linger in here. I want you visible awhile."
"This baiting thing?" she asked as she stepped into the room, fingers catching into the way he reached toward her leg. "Also unacceptable."
He aimed the press of his head into her stomach, breaking past the reach of her hand so that he could wrap his arm against her legs, curling her closer as she balanced her palm into the back of his head. Ally tripped a glance down the curling of him as he exhaled a relieved sound from his lungs.
"Filip?" she traced feathering fingertips along his neck, head tipped into the sound of him humming a noise of agreement into her stomach. "Could you not just leave an AR15 sitting loaded on my mattress again? Seems gauche."
The sickened look he lifted up at her twitched into a shrug. "Man can't change what he is, Althea."
"Where's Teller?" she traced a line across his forehead, letting his hands work open her belt quickly as he stood into her.
"About." He nodded slowly, "Tiggy's coming round. It's covered."
"Okay." She stepped away from him and into a cageyness that he could see on her hands as she finished pulling off the uniform with faster fingers than his as she nodded a forced acceptance.
He watched her as she chewed onto her lip, debating her movements without a glance turned his way. His eyes followed the turn of her body as she kept the t-shirt on, drawing on a pair of running shorts from the chair, his hands far more sure than hers as he withdrew the Glock from the holster, dropping the belt to the bed. Chibs sloped the other hand against her hip on a sway, laying a smile onto his lips as he turned her into his chest, nodding in a warm support as he laid the front of his body into hers.
"Hey." His fingers shifted slowly, drawing up under the back of her shirt so that he could slide the firearm into her waistband. "Y'could always go make me a sandwich, woman."
"Chauvinist pig." She hissed into him with a clash of both humor and concern.
"I'm the pig, darlin'?" he chuckled his mouth against hers on soft kisses, hands bracing up her jaw, "You're the one with the badge."
"Don't let him shoot me." She nudged knuckles into his chest, feeling the ride of his holster under the fabric of the sweatshirt.
Chibs cocked his jaw into a squinting glance, "He's not gonna get that close, Ally."
"I want Carreira." She demanded into the way he was searching her face. "I wanna know why."
"Ally – "
"I need to know why." Her voice pulled from the guilt she was wearing.
"Y'don't." he argued tightly, fingers digging into her hips as she tried to draw from his rebuttal. "You need to leave this room. You've been in here too long already. Watch the windows."
"I want to know." Hardness went fleeting through her eyes and it pressed a surprise onto him, his hands softening as he realized how darkly serious she was.
"Depends on how it plays out, doesn't it?" his lips brushed hers lightly before he stroked both gloved palms down the length of her hair. "Trust in this, Althea. Just a little while."
She flicked him a glaring and glinting look that shallowed into the way he kissed her softly and lightly, her eyes open to his as he pressed her away from him and aimed toward the door, "Now go."
"I don't want to." She shook her head even as she barefoot back stepped toward the bedroom door.
The smile he gave her was brightened warm but it didn't break the shaded black in his eyes. "I know. Go on."