by Anna Belle
In and out, deeper and harder. Faster and better. Both of us together. And finally, she was shrieking, “yes!”, and she was cumming and I was cumming. Fucking yes.
Afterwards, we breathed together. I didn’t want to open my eyes, break the spell. Fuck was she beautiful.
Someone’s phone rang.
Her eyes fluttered open, went to my lower abdomen, looked away.
“I have to go,” she said.
Chapter 19: Kohl
New day, same shit.
The boys and I were cozied up in the corner booth of Fran’s, our coffees still untouched. Business first.
“Next time we’ve got to be more careful,” I said to them. “That fire got too big.”
Angel made a face. “Of course, next time we’ll just bring along fire extinguishers.”
I looked at him head-on. “Next time, you won’t light up the whole place like a Christmas tree.”
Angel’s jaw tensed. He knew I was right.
He muttered, “Didn’t look like any Christmas tree I’ve ever seen.”
There was something tenser about Angel today. Better not have anything to do with that fucking Myla.
“Speaking of being careful,” Angel said, glancing to Red pleasantly. “How about you back off Myla?”
Damn do I hate being right sometimes.
To me, he added, “Apparently, he thinks it a good idea to sleep with the same girl I did.”
“You told her it was ok,” Red said with a shrug, although he did look a bit penitent. “And you asked me.”
“Cut it out, you clowns,” I growled.
Not that I could really blame either of them. Was I pissed because this was the second time she’d intruded when we were supposed to be focused on Vigilant business, or because out of the three of us, I hadn’t got a chance yet?
I shook my head. No. I wasn’t going to go there, no matter how tempted I was.
This girl was already causing way more trouble than she was worth.
I gave the others a grim smile. “I have an idea.”
Chapter 20: Myla
Betty and I met at Baba’s coffee shop.
I was barely in the door when Betty pulled me into a tight hug, her usual bubblegum scent washing over me.
As we separated, she scrutinized me, then gave her blond ponytailed head a decisive nod. “A new boyfriend looks good on you.”
“I don’t have a new boyfriend.” I resisted the urge to sigh – after all, this even more messed-up situation was my fault. “Things just got more complicated.”
Her blue eyes widened. “Do tell.”
“Maybe in a bit. How are things with you?”
Betty mimed a yawn. “As boring as ever. Although you know how my dating life is – novel-worthy itself.”
Betty had a tendency to go out with colorful guys, to say the least. Her latest ex, when she’d tried breaking up with him, had released a whole pet store’s worth of iguanas in their shared apartment.
“Want to share?” I asked.
“Nope,” Betty said firmly. “And work is the same old, same old. Although the printer did break down the other day.”
“Thrilling,” I said deadpan. We giggled.
“What about Ivy?” Betty asked softly.
I shook my head, sipped at my peppermint tea. “Still hasn’t responded to my test the other night. She barely agreed to meet up with me as it was, and when we did… it wasn’t good. She still blames me.”
“She’ll get over it,” Betty said, although it was her faux-confidence voice.
“She’s right to hate me, though,” I reflected, “I abandoned her when she needed me.”
“You went to university,” Betty reminded me firmly. “So you could get out of there, away from your crazy alcoholic parents. You planned to send for her as soon as you had the money.”
I was quiet, glum memories clouding my head. But then I’d met Taylor and my scholarship had fell through from funding cuts. And here I was.
“Enough depressingness.” Sipping at her latte, Betty gave her pink manicured nails a wave. “Tell me more about this new guy.”
“Red is Angel’s friend,” I said. “So yeah, I basically failed at scoping out his friends for you, I’m sorry.“
But Betty didn’t seem to have heard me. Hand clapped to her mouth, she exclaimed, “Oh my God!! You’re dating two hot cops at once?”
“Shh,” I hissed. Two older ladies looked at us over their tortoiseshell glasses frames, scandalized. I sighed. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“It’s nothing serious with either of them. Angel even said it was ok if I went out with Red. Anyway, last night at the outdoor movies with Red… things got hot fast.”
“And why don’t you look more happy about this?” Betty scolded.
“Because it’s messing with my head! I’ve never liked two guys at once. Plus, it feels wrong.”
“Are they getting hurt by it?” Betty asked.
I pondered this. “Not that I can tell…”
I trailed off, then glanced to Betty a bit helplessly. “It’s still not right – is it? It’s just not a good idea.”
Betty shrugged. “You’re talking to the girl whose dated half the population of Toronto at this point. I say, if it makes you happy, go for it. There’s no harm in trying it – as long as everyone’s honest and in the know.”
I could’ve hugged her then. Somehow, her casual certainty was just what I’d needed to pop that vaguely self-hating balloon that had blown up in my chest. It rang true.
I rose, already digging in my purse for my phone.
Betty chuckled. “Aren’t you an Eager Ellen.”
“You’re right, though,” I said, “The sooner I tell Angel the better.”
Inside the bathroom stall, I was thankfully alone, so I called him up.
“Was just about to call you,” he said.
“Oh?” I said.
“Forget it – what’s up?”
No Myla, you’re not going to put off this one any longer…
“Ok,” I said. “So, I have something to tell you. And I know we aren’t serious, but I just wanted to be open with you. After you said it was ok that I went out with Red, I-“
“Slept with Red.”
Silence.
Shit, shit, shit – was this even a bad thing?
“You know?”
“I asked him and he told me.”
“Well…” I paused, trying to gauge the situation. He didn’t sound pissed, but it wasn’t like I could see his face either. “How do you feel about it?”
“Don’t know,” he said.
“Oh,” I said.
“He keeps joking that we all should…” His voice trailed off. “I don’t know. All I know is that I want to see you again, and maybe I’ll figure it out then.”
My heart leapt. That was just what I needed to hear, and yet-
“So, it won’t be… weird for you? If Red’s there? ”
“Only way to know is to find out,” he said. “Honestly – I’ve never been into sharing girls, never really cared to see the same girl many times, but you… it doesn’t seem weird at all.”
“It seems weird to me,” I admitted. “Liking two guys at once.”
And I was attracted to Kohl too…
“Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
An excited tremor went through me – was Angel hinting at what I thought he was hinting at?
The thought of a threesome shouldn’t have been as exotic as it was to me, and yet… with them, it seemed like it would be on a different plane of being entirely.
The creak of a door, then Betty’s whisper – “Myla?”
“I have to go,” I told Angel.
“I want to see you soon,” he said, “I’ll text you details.”
“I’m game,” I said, a smile curling up my lips as I hung up.
“Sorry,” Betty said, “But I had to pee.”
“I
t’s fine,” I told her, still smiling like an idiot.
Betty smiled at me knowingly before disappearing into the stall. “Date night?”
“You bet,” I said.
We parted a bit after, since Betty’s work called her wanting her to pick up a waitress shift.
I had a bunch of job interviews lined up after anyway. Not that any were super promising.
None seemed like the right fit. They either wanted me to work crazy overnight shifts, or crappy 2-hour ones, or were so far out of town that they shouldn’t have even advertised themselves as being in Toronto.
Just as I was about to change into my PJs, I got a text from Angel.
Come along tonight – we’ll pick you up at midnight.
Tingling overtook me – was I really doing this? It felt so wrong and right all at once. But exciting – definitely exciting.
Yes, I texted back.
Hell yeah was I doing this.
Chapter 21: Kohl
Winner for the biggest dumbasses in the world are…
In the back of the black Range Rover, Red and Angel were all smirky, with Myla wedged beside them. Then again, if I said I kept checking the rectangle of the rearview mirror only because I didn’t trust her, then I’d be lying.
Ever since that first time I’d seen her open those pine-green eyes…
Forget it.
Her eyes were nervous now. Good.
We’d see soon enough whether she was with us or against us.
This was a test. And if she failed…
Better not to think about that now.
But the way she was biting her thumb… I wanted it to be mine.
Forget it.
Tonight was not for that. Tonight was for the Vigilant. And we were here already – High Park with its ample parking spots.
Once I pulled in and got out of the car, I handed out the red snarling devil masks.
“You should’ve seen our Animal Farm masks,” Angel told Myla, all pleased with himself.
“Just put it on,” I growled. This wasn’t fucking date night.
“Where are we going?” Myla asked.
“You’ll find out when we get there,” I said.
A few steps away from the Range Rover, Red glanced to Angel pointedly. “Forgetting something?”
“No, why?” Angel asked.
Red smiled sanguinely, the wise-ass. “Something that helps to make fire – rhymes with basobean.”
Angel paused, cracked up. “Ok, smartie – you’ll have to help me carry it, though.”
As they ran back towards the car to get the gasoline, Myla and I continued towards the factory. Right now, it was a grey block in the distance.
I could feel Myla’s gaze on me. It was curious, still a bit afraid.
Good.
“What is it?” I said.
“Am I allowed to know why?” she said. “Obviously what we’re doing isn’t legal if we’re doing it in the middle of the night with masks on. So why?”
“Exactly why you think,” I said, “Five years and anyone with a still-working conscience would’ve started doing this. Five years of seeing too many cases fall between the cracks because of bullshit protocol and people with connections. I was tired of it.”
In my pocket, the little box of matches was jiggling. I grabbed it. “My choice was to either get apathetic or get angry.” I glanced at her. “I chose angry.”
“Oh,” Myla said. Then, a few seconds later, “I get it.”
“Now you don’t,” I said immediately. “Not until you watch a dutiful wife go blind in one eye because she won’t report her abusive husband and he decided to punch her right in the eye one time. Or you see some guy get off on a double homicide because some new cop fucked up and didn’t follow protocol. That’s why we do what we do. That’s what the Vigilant are for.”
Myla was silent, and for some reason, this time something about her face made me think that she actually might’ve gotten it.
“Mask time,” I said, so there’d be less talking. If only there was a mask for that smoking body of hers too. The last thing I needed tonight was a distraction.
By now Red and Angel were behind us, running, calling for us to wait.
We continued to the factory, over the empty gridwork of lines that was the parking lot. The building itself looked abandoned – not so much as a toothpick sliver of light anywhere. They did good.
“They’re making fentanyl,” I told Myla’s curious glance quietly as we approached. “They slip too much into drugs they shouldn’t and people take them and die. Lots of people. The Feds have been on this case for years.”
Myla’s breath came out sharply through the slit of the devil’s mask. “But if the cops know…”
“It’s an FBI mission with cop involvement,” I said. “FBI figure they can get intel on other crimes from this guy. But he hasn’t budged, not for years. Head of FBI won’t accept the years they pissed away giving this guy immunity and getting shit-all in return.”
“But if it’s the FBI…”
I shook my head. “No surveillance. Roderick, the scum they made a deal with, made sure of that.”
Now we were here anyway: at the unobtrusive cardboard-windowed doors that intel told me would be nice and fucking open. I’d made sure to take a nice long look at the file the Chief had left on her laptop. That was the thing about being a failed software engineer – it gave you some nice tricks up your sleeve. And although the Chief was ex-FBI, and now only acted as a consultant for the most part, they still kept her in the loop. Lucky for us.
The open doors made sense, too. Roderick was a cocky son of a bitch, and not without good reason. Right now, we were in a shit part of town. Anyone who lived around here knew the deal with Roderick. You fucked with him, you lost a chunk of skin, or worse.
The others paused, I grabbed the chrome handle, opened it, and walked on in.
Sure as shit - nice and fucking open.
SHRIIIII, an alarm shrieked.
“What the fuck, Kohl?” Angel hissed, grabbing me.
I ripped away, continued on. “There’s cameras everywhere – we stop to disable the alarm, we’re fucked.”
“The alarm goes off, we’re fucked,” Red intoned.
“Maybe, maybe not,” I said. “Unless you want to wait around to find out?”
That shut the fuckers up nice and good.
Inside, we navigated through a twist of seemingly unconnected, dirty rooms, with tables that looked like something out of Breaking Bad and movies: lots of test tubes, containers. It looked pretty tidy, all things considered. Roderick ran a tight ship.
And now he would get to see it all go up in flames – literally.
“Such waste,” Angel mooned, wiping an imaginary tear from his eyes as he waltzed about, pouring gasoline on everything, leaving a trail through the entire building.
The matches still jiggled in my pocket. We could’ve tried lighting it up from the outside, but I’d wanted to ensure that this trash never saw the light of day. That nothing was salvageable. Nothing.
Only a few minutes of pouring and hurrying, and we reached another set of doors. Huh, these looked to be the doors on the opposite side of the building, which meant that we’d made it through the whole thing.
Faster than I’d expected, too. And easier.
Something told me that what we’d find when we tried leaving here wouldn’t be pretty.
But there was no point in worrying about that now. No.
What do you do when you’ve got a whole load of gasoline-smeared filth and some very-effective matches?
I handed Myla the matchbox.
Chapter 22: Myla
I stared at it.
Kohl couldn’t mean… Not me.
But that long snaking line of gasoline they’d spread through the whole building, glossy and slick and demanding, was useless without the flame. Useless without me.
I struck the match. Easy. But dropping it?
Destroying this building, all the
se tables and chairs and floors and ceilings and…
Once I did this, there was no going back. Once I did this, I was a criminal.
I looked at Angel, then Red, then Kohl. They looked back at me, watching, waiting.
For my decision that would affect so many others.
I wasn’t a bad person, but – would doing this make me one?
My fingers shook as I held the match high, waiting. For a sign, for anything to decide this for me.
I still hadn’t decided when my fingers let go of the match and the flame toppled to the ground.
There.
The next second: fire. A bullet of it, shooting to the first table, devouring it in a craze of flames.
Whoa.
A hand grabbed me, yanked me out the door. Kohl.
We stopped. There was no going further. Our way was blocked by black-clad hulks of guards with massive ridiculous-looking things that it took me a good few seconds to grasp were actually machine guns.
“Just run,” Kohl said, as the air exploded.
Only he was the one pulling me again, yanking me into his arms, covering my body with his as he carried me like a doll, moving so fast I marveled that I could still make out the little-stone pavement below and the navy velvet sky above.
Kohl only stopped when we reached the black shadow that was his car. The guards weren’t in sight. Neither were Angel or Red. No, they were – my heart dropped and I did too, to my knees, trembling - back there.
Kohl’s strong yet gentle hands, gruff yet sure voice, picked me up: “They’re going to be alright”. The trembling stopped.
I almost wanted to have Kohl tell me it again, what I’d done.
It still seemed remote, dropping that match and everything that had come after. As though some other girl in some weird alternate universe had done it.
We stood there as the night flickered smoke over and the rectangle of the building blazed into view, and Kohl glared at the horizon like he’d shoot the slightest inconsistency on its part. As I tried to get my head around it. That we’d done it. I had. Lit a freaking building on fire.
