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Chapter Fifteen


Nick crossed the hallway in four steps, engulfing her in his strong arms and pulling her into him. Avery’s breath caught as their chests collided and he leaned down, pressing his mouth against hers, his eyes closed, hands on the curves of her hips. Her fingers trembled against his shoulders as she stepped back into the room slowly, leading him along. She was dizzy with the smell of him, and they crash-landed onto the bed, though he was careful to support his weight to keep from crushing her beneath him. He ran his palms over her arms and she touched his neck and chin and that jaw of his, her fingers tickled by the stubble beginning to grow there. They were a web of limbs and lips, and it occurred to Avery, as she wrapped her legs around his waist and he pressed his mouth to the soft spot just under her ear lobe, that Nick would be an incredibly different lover than Marty had ever been. He was being gentle, caressing her, relishing her, and each touch of his fingertips sent shivers through her body that made her feel desirable and warm in a way that she hadn’t felt in years. Maybe even ever. It was like her body was an instrument and he was a maestro. Every nerve ending was singing.

They’d been tangled like that for several long minutes, his hands exploring her body over her tank top, when he suddenly let his mouth drop away from her skin and he stared down into her face, searching her features with his eyes.

Her eyes were closed. She moaned as he ran his palm over her stomach, over that stretch of skin he’d admired before that showed between the fabric of her clothes. “Nick…”

He smirked, letting his fingers slide down the front of her panties, between her legs, pressing slightly. Her body tightened below him as she pushed her hips up at his hand, her legs parting to grant him access. He leaned down again, his mouth near her ear, and whispered, “I so want to have sex with you but it’s against the rules.”

“What?” she was too turned on to think straight. She could barely comprehend what he was saying at all as his fingers stroked her through her underwear. Marty never paid her attention during sex, she thought dizzily, by now he would’ve been pushing her head down, demanding a blow job. But Nick was sending electric shocks through her every time his fingers moved and his breath was hot on her neck as he whispered in her ear.

“No sex in the safe house,” he said huskily, “Remember? I believe it was rule number one, even.” He grinned, teasing her by slowing his finger movements, letting his hand slip over her thigh and away from her body.

“Don’t stop,” she whimpered.

“Don’t stop?” he crooned, “Don’t stop breaking the rules? The number one rule?” he nibbled her earlobe softly and she writhed under him, her body searching for his hand.

“Nick… please…”

“Why, officer,” he said thickly, “I can’t believe that you’re encouraging illegal activity.”

“Rules are made to be broken,” she panted.

He kissed the base of her neck, her shoulder, her collarbone, slowly backing down the length of her as he kissed a trail. “You’re a bad girl,” he muttered as he kissed the plane of her chest, “How many laws have you broken, officer?”

Avery’s mind was spinning. The question echoed in her head. How many laws have you broken? She felt a lump rising in her throat as she had a sudden flashback of that gas station and all of the laws that had been broken that night… and all of the other nights with Marty, travelling all over the state, stealing the money they needed to make it through day to day. Guilt suddenly flooded her, heavy as a black shroud, as she realized that Nick was right, she was a bad girl, and not in the sexy way that he meant it.

Nick realized she’d stopped responding. He looked up at her. “Are you okay?”

There were tears sneaking from her eyelids.

“I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered.

He sat up slowly, concerned. “What?”

She sat up, too, and her tears started falling harder as the guilt weighed heavier. She’d been so selfish all of her life that she’d barely thought a thing of all the things she’d done. She had just always assumed that the world owed her something more than she’d been given naturally. Just because she’d had a rough time of growing up at home, she’d taken that out on the world. Even Nick had fallen prey to her self-indulgence. She’d been so willing to do and take whatever she wanted from anyone who had it, and it was so wrong. People had lost their lives because of her now, and if the money never came for Nick’s ransom, if Marty ran out of patience, there was no telling if he would, too. Where did it stop? she wondered. What happened after the ransom money ran out, as money always does when there’s no income to replenish it? Would she and Marty simply blaze a new trail wherever they went? What happened when they ran out of places to go to start over? It was an unending spiral, a roller coaster that she very much wanted to get off of. Now.

“You’re shaking, baby, are you okay?” Nick’s voice was soft and gentle as he wrapped his arm around the back of her, his hand stroking her spine. “What’s wrong, why are you cryin’? I was just teasin’ you… I’m sorry.” He wasn’t sure what he did, but whatever it was, he wanted to take it back.

“It’s not you,” she choked the words out. “It’s not your fault.” She swept her hand over her eyes, “I just… I can’t do this.” She struggled to get out of his hands, rolled off the bed, “Give me a second, I’ll be right back.” She grabbed her cell phone discreetly and rushed out of the room.

In the bathroom down the hall, Avery sat on the edge of the bath tub and pulled up her text conversation with Marty.

Where does it end? she typed.

She bit her lips and looked up at the ceiling, her breath heavy from the congestion that came with crying.





Two blurry images filled the news station’s screen - the one of Avery from the gas station’s footage and a barely distinguishable one of Marty from footage at the Starbucks where he’d met Megan. “While we don’t have much information about the female suspect, the male suspect has been identified by an anonymous witness as a 5’11 male with dark hair and dark eyes. Going by the name Marty, he was last seen earlier this evening at a hotel not far from the crime scene, wearing jeans, a black t-shirt, and construction work boots. He is considered armed and dangerous and police do not recommend approaching the suspect, but urge anyone who may have spotted him to call the information hotline immediately.”

Marty stared at the TV screen, his sweaty palm holding the remote out in front of him. “Fuck,” he whispered.

There was a knock at the door.

He looked at the door, panic rising up in his throat.

“Room service,” called a voice, knocking again.

Marty had ordered food, but still, it could be a ruse to get him to open the door. He pressed his eye to the peep hole. Outside was a guy holding a tray with a covered plate, wearing a goofy hotel uniform. He kicked off his boots and tossed his t-shirt on top of them, answering the door in just his jeans. “Thanks,” he said, dropping a couple crumpled bills on the tray and reaching for the plate, “I got it from here.” Quickly he ducked back into the room and shut the door.

Carrying his prize of food back to the bed, he wondered what he was going to do. The only good thing was his picture was even blurrier than Avery’s, so there wasn’t really any distinguishing features to go by, other than his wardrobe. He needed to get some new clothes, that was for sure, and they still thought he was in Cincinnati, so that was a break.

He was eating one of the teriyaki sticks he’d ordered when his cell phone buzzed on the nightstand. He rolled over, picking it up to look at it, and saw Avery’s text.

Where does it end?

He wiped his fingers on his pant leg.

where does what end

He chewed thoughtfully until she responded.

This… us.. what we’re doing. The stealing, the killing, the kidnapping. Where does it end? We go to Europe or wherever and then what? Are we criminals there, too?

He swallowed and took another bite as he read the note. He took a deep breath.

naw new start once we go, he typed, saying what he knew she wanted to hear.

But we’ll need money there too.

thats y we got to be patient now we can get alot from the ransom from this fucker we wont need money ever again if we just b patient n wait for it the pay off is goin to be better then ur wildest dreams

He pictured himself sitting on a paradise-like beach in Spain, served hand and foot by the sexiest women that money could buy.

Avery wasn’t exactly a part of his vision.





Avery took a deep breath and stood up, swiping the last of the tears from her face. She washed up in the sink and pulled her hair into a ponytail. The thing was, she wasn’t sure what her wildest dreams entailed anymore. Not even twenty-four hours ago, they’d been about her and Marty and great European cities and living big on the payoff. But now she wasn’t sure. She stared at herself in the mirror.

What did she want?

She wanted to be treated right - better than she’d ever been treated. She wanted gentle caresses and reassurances that she was beautiful. She wanted all the stuff Nick was doing.

“Avery, are you okay in there?” his voice came through the door.

“I’m okay,” she said. Her voice was still thick with emotion.

“Do you want me to go back to my room?” he asked, “I can leave you alone if you want me to.”

She opened the door and found him leaning against the frame. She shook her head, “It’s not that. I don’t really want to be alone.”

Nick stared at her a moment, “Okay.”

They stood there awkwardly.

“I’m hungry, are you hungry?” Nick asked. Because she wasn’t sure what else to do, she nodded. “C’mon,” he said, and he led the way down the hall to the kitchen.

Avery followed.

Nick grabbed a box of cereal from the cupboard and a couple bowls, dumping Fruit Loops into each as she got some spoons and sat down. He pulled milk out of the fridge and poured it over the cereal, then sat, too. She handed him a spoon and they started eating. Nick watched her chew slowly as he shoveled the cereal into his mouth. When he’d finished his first bowl, he poured more cereal into the milk.

“When I was a kid, I ate so much cereal my mom used to put a lock on the pantry door,” he said between crunches. “We were kinda poor, so it was a problem that I’d eat, like, a whole box of cereal in one sitting.” He laughed, “Sometimes, when I feel shitty about my family and stuff, I eat a whole box of cereal just because I fucking can.”

Avery breathed a laugh, looking down at her bowl, “How rebellious,” she said.

Nick laughed, “Right?”

“I’m sorry your family was shitty to you,” she said.

Nick nodded. He chewed for a moment. “What about yours? I mean you talked about your gramma, but what was your family like?”

“Well my Grandmother left the house to a cat for a reason,” she said. “She didn’t want my father to have it.”

“They didn’t get along?” Nick asked.

Avery shook her head. “My father’s… a piece of work.”

“Mine, too,” Nick said.

“He’s in jail now,” Avery continued. “Has been for awhile. My mom had all us kids to deal with and she’s not the best at mothering, either. She’d rather smoke than take care of any of us kids, so we kind of fended for ourselves all the time. The only time I ever felt safe was here.” She looked around the room and it occurred to her that it wasn’t at all a coincidence that when Marty had said they needed a safe house she’d thought of this place immediately.

“So your grandparents were your refuge,” he said.

Avery nodded.

“We have a lot in common,” he said.

“I guess we do,” she agreed.

“So is that why you became a cop? Because of your dad?”

Avery’s mind paused to connect the dots between what was real and what was a lie. She nodded slowly, “Yeah.”

“That’s cool,” he said.

Avery watched as Nick scooped more Fruit Loops into his mouth, the milk dripping from the bottom of the spoon. She thought about the way he’d looked at her, how he told her she was beautiful… For some reason that she could not explain, she suddenly felt like she wanted to tell him the truth about why they were there. She shifted in her seat, pushing the bowl away, her heart rate rising with the nervousness of what she was about to do. “Nick,” she started, “I --”

He looked up.

Avery caught his blue eyes - the exact and only shade she could see - and instantly lost her nerve. “Thanks, for the cereal.”

“No problem,” he said, munching on the last of his second bowl.





“I hate the way Officer Flynn is playing with this ransom payment. Just give him whatever he wants to get Nick home safely,” Mike said, pacing. He was wringing his hands as he walked the length of the hotel room. “He doesn’t understand how fricking annoying Nick can be. He doesn’t think this guy’s gonna get sick enough of him to pop him off.” Mike shook his head.

Eddie was lying across the bed, staring at the blurry images of the two suspects on TV as the morning news encouraged the people of Cincinnati to be on the look out.

“Sometimes I want to pop Nick off myself just sharing space on a tour bus with him,” Mike muttered. “They just don’t get it. And he’s probably ten times worse than usual just because of nerves. He gets so much worse when he’s worked up. How they haven’t shot him already is beyond me…”

Eddie sighed. “I know, dude, we all hate it, but Officer Flynn knows what he’s doing, he’s dealt with these situations before. We haven’t. We have to trust the police department to do what they gotta do to get him home. That’s all there is to it.”

Mike rolled his eyes.

“They doubled the offer,” Eddie pointed out, “It’s not like they’re refusing the up the ante.”

“It’s not enough,” Mike said. “These guys have to know that Nick’s worth serious money. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have bothered kidnapping him. If this was about keeping from being outed by a witness they would’ve just shot him to begin with.”

Eddie took a deep breath, “I agree. But the department --”

“Fuck the department!”

“-- has dealt with this before and they know what they’re doing,” Eddie finished, despite Mike’s loud interruption.

“What if they get sick of waiting and they kill him and we could’ve saved him by just giving them what they want, huh?” Mike demanded. “Nick could be home now if we’d just give them the money. I can’t stand this wondering if he’s okay. I swear to God, I never let him out of my sight again. No matter how much that pisses him off. Assuming he doesn’t fire me, of course, for being the worst bodyguard in the world.”

“You aren’t the worst bodyguard in the world,” Eddie said.

But Mike wasn’t listening. He’d stopped and was focused on the TV. Suddenly, with gusto, he turned and grabbed his jacket from a chair and his cell phone and headed for the door.

Eddie scrambled to his feet. “Where are you going?” he asked.

Mike was in the doorway, “I’m gonna go find Nick.”

Eddie stared at him, “Mikey, how in hell do you think you’re going to do that?” he asked.

Mike shrugged, “I don’t know, but I can’t just sit here on my ass anymore.” With that, he quickly ducked out of the hotel and let the door close behind him with a resounding, final click of the lock.

“Damn it,” Eddie muttered, running his hand over his face.





Billy pulled his truck up to the house first thing in the morning. He climbed out of the truck and walked up the steps of the porch, his boots clunking on the old wood, and knocked on the screen door with a few solid raps of his fist, then waited, his hands looped over his utility belt. It took several minutes before Avery came to the door, her hair disheveled, but eyes alert with concern. “Billy?” she sounded surprised and relieved at the same time. She took a deep breath and stepped out onto the porch. “What’re you doing here at six in the morning?”

“I needed to have a talk with you,” he said. Billy glanced over her shoulder at the empty hallway beyond. “Where’s Chad this morning?” he asked.

“In bed. What’s going on?” Avery questioned.

Billy reached up and slid his sheriff's hat off his head. “Come, let’s walk a spell,” he suggested.

Avery sighed. She was in her underwear and tank top still, a thin bathrobe tied around the waist to cover up, but that’s about it. She stepped out into the lawn in bare feet, hugging the robe tightly closed and Billy led the way down the walkway to the backside of his truck. He leaned against the fender and waited until Avery had caught up and leaned against it, too.

“Spill the beans, Billy,” she snapped.

“Look, I got a funny feelin’ somethin’ ain’t right here,” he said lowly, keeping his eyes diverted at the house. “Somethin’ about you and this Chad feller.” Billy paused, then looked her in the eyes, “I don’t trust him.”

Avery blinked up at Billy. “You don’t trust him?” she repeated. The irony that she was the kidnapper and Billy didn’t trust Nick was almost too much for Avery to bear.

“Yeah,” Billy answered. “Look, there’s just somethin’ strange ‘bout him. You said y’all are engaged? How long have you known him?”

“Awhile,” Avery replied.

“Who’s the guy in your Facebook profile picture?” Billy questioned.

Avery’s face turned hot. “Just a friend.” She paused, Billy’s eyes still questioning, “A… a gay… gay friend.” She shook her head, “Not a big deal.”

“Why’s Chad not on Facebook?” Billy asked.

“He’s… against social media.” Avery stammered.

Billy studied her a moment. “You know you can trust me, Avery,” he said lowly. “Are you involved in some sort of sex slavery deal?”

“Oh my God, Billy, no,” Avery answered, rolling her eyes. “Look, Billy, me and Chad, we’re fine. You need to stop worrying about it and just leave it be, okay?” Billy might be way off track for now, but she needed to keep him from sniffing around for all the wrong reasons and accidentally stumbling upon something real.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his head, “Are y’sure Avery? I just got this gut feelin’ and I’m worried bout’cha, y’know?” he eyed her carefully with truly caring, concerned eyes. “I ain’t forgotten them times when we was kids, you know, I still got your back, just like I did back then.”

Avery smiled. As annoying as Billy had been the last couple days and as big a threat as his nosiness posed for her in the current situation, he was still nothing but a sweetheart underneath it all. She nodded slowly, “I know, Billy, and thank you for checking in on me. But I promise you, I really am fine.”

“Alright,” he nodded.





Nick and Avery had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room, talking and playing a really old deck of Uno on the coffee table. When Avery got up to see who was knocking on the door, Nick had woken up and sat, dazed, on the couch, waiting for her to come back, Uno cards balanced on his chest as he laid, splayed across the arm of the sofa.

Suddenly, there came the sound of Avery’s cell phone vibrating on the table as it lit up with a text message.

Nick stared at the phone, every muscle in his hands tingling like a druggie jonsing for a hit. He sat up, the Uno cards falling every which way at his feet, and glanced at the window. She was walking out to that cop guy’s truck, hugging a robe around herself. He reached across the table and snapped her phone up in his palm. It felt light and heavy and hot and cold and everything all at once in his hand and he bit his tongue in concentration as he slid his thumb to unlock the screen. “Please no passcode, please no passcode,” he whispered and then, “Yes!” The screen lit up with a hot pink background for the wallpaper. He kept glancing out the window as he pulled up the text message app. He needed to see what was happening in his case, see what sort of stuff the chief was relaying to her.


Where does it end?
where does what end
This… us.. what we’re doing. The stealing, the killing, the kidnapping. Where does it end? We go to Europe or wherever and then what? Are we criminals there, too?
naw new start once we go
But we’ll need money there too.
thats y we got to be patient now we can get alot from the ransom from this fucker we wont need money ever again if we just b patient n wait for it the pay off is goin to be better then ur wildest dreams


It was a message with some guy named Marty.

Nick stared at the words, his heart rate increasing.

There was a creaking on the porch and he knew she was coming. Quickly he shut the screen down and put the phone back on the table, sliding it across. He threw himself back against the arm of the couch, closed his eyes, and pretended he’d never woken up at all.