"Jesus," Luke said as he lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom and digesting everything that Jessica had just told him.
"Yeah," she replied, her gaze fixed on the same small area of white painted plaster.
Jessica had demonstrated none of the reluctance that Alice had shown at having the limo take her home, though it was not her home that she chose as her destination. By the time the car stopped in front of Cap's Bar and Grill, and the unmarked door that led up to the second floor apartment where Luke lived, she had almost cleaned out the limo's minibar.
"I'm not sure what's scarier, the stuff in those canisters, or the stuff she was going to shoot you full of. You'd have been tripping for a week."
"She cooks that stuff herself," Jess said, the note of disbelief as she spoke the words clear, "who the fuck does that?"
"Someone who doesn't like to just shoot people dead?"
"I don't like shooting people, and I don' t make shit like that."
"She probably can't punch through a brick wall."
"She said something that made me think she knew me, but I've never seen her before."
"Maybe your reputation precedes you," Luke said as he turned his head and reached over his body with his right hand to move a strand of Jess's hair from her face.
"I hope not."
She had kept her promise to him, the promise she had made to motivate him to help them the day before. Luke had gotten out of bed when he heard the key in the lock, and Jess had wasted no time with words as she pinned him to the kitchen wall and put a lip lock on him that he made no effort to break. She was stronger than he was, though no one outside the two of them knew that. But he was taller by about a foot, and it was a simple matter for him to reach down and pick her up so they could trade places, her back to the wall when he entered her finally, both of them hot to trot as she enveloped the full length of him, but both of them still careful of the lath and plaster wall that they could reduce to rubble if they were not careful. It was a bit over an hour later, as they lay quietly in bed, after he had carried her to the bedroom, her legs and arms wrapped around him as he used the smallest fraction of the strength of his arms to continue to move her up and down on his rock hard shaft before lowering her onto the mattress, that she filled him in on how she had spent her day since she left the bar.
Jesus, has it really been less than a day?
"So, you uncovered a secret lair, but you still don't know who put it there."
"Nope, not a fucking clue; which was the main purpose of my assignment. Assholes 1, Jessica Jones 0."
"Jesus, you're worse than a Russian figure skating judge," Luke said as he turned on his side and looked right at her, "You fucked up their plans pretty good. I'd say Jessica Jones 1, assholes 0."
Jessica rolled onto her side and readjusted the sheet that covered both their cooling, naked bodies in Luke's queen sized bed.
"I didn't do shit, Alice fucked up their plans though, now I think about it, it probably didn't hurt that no one was watching those security monitors while she was doing it."
"No idea who she was working with, or for?"
"No. Somebody named Bruce, someone who knows Kyle well enough to call in an extraction for his girl, and for me."
"Someone with serious juice then."
"Yeah."
They were both quiet for a minute, each lost in their own thoughts.
"How's Annelie holding up?" Luke asked.
"Better that I expected. She was pretty fucking upset when we got there, but she calmed down once Trish got back. She didn't bat an eye as we all watched the drone footage of them taking the plane. Maybe she took something that helped her chill out."
"An actress take drugs? that doesn't happen, does it?"
"Ha ha, it is to laugh."
"How did Alice react to the footage?"
"She was gone by then. Borrowed an old Buell of Kyle's and went roaring off into the night."
"Sounds like the two of you got along. Think you'll ever see her again?"
"I don't think any of us are done with this yet. Somebody is trying to kidnap Annelie Bodin, and had no problem killing four people in the process. Somebody else is trying to kill a shitload more. Kyle was seriously fucking pissed."
"What idiot tries to kidnap the most famous actress on the fucking planet?" Luke asked.
"A rich idiot that thinks they can do whatever the fuck they want."
"That's all rich idiots, isn't it?"
"Pretty much, including the one who is paying me."
Luke was quiet for a minute before he smiled.
"What?" Jess asked.
"Two-thousand a day. Nice work if you can get it."
