by Marata Eros
Mick snatches the panties from Tagger. “I've never forced any woman in my life. You know that.”
Why is Mick defending his honor?
“That past of yours though.” Tagger wags a finger like it's a good bit of comedy, though we stand around like shell-shocked survivors. “It wouldn't take anything for someone to snap after what you've been through... do the wrong thing here.” He spreads his hands inoffensively.
They glare at each other, the atmosphere thickening.
“She's coming with me, McKenna. I'm getting Miss Mitchell's statement, and she can't make one with you standing over her after an alleged assault.”
“I don't need to make a statement.” I back up farther, my butt pressing against the cold metal of the doorknob.
“You're making one, Miss Mitchell.”
What the hell is going on? How did this cop go from showing up at the scene of my demolished apartment to accusing Mick of attacking me?
My back's literally against the door, my heart hammering as Mick clenches my panties.
“No,” I say, “nothing... happened here. Mick didn't hurt me.”
I meet Mick's eyes, and his are sorry. He didn't want me to find out about the strip clubs from the mouth of a jealous cop.
I'm betting he never wanted me to know.
Tagger shakes his head, reaching for me, and I panic. I hit him with my bad hand because my right holds the strap of my purse.
Tagger grabs my bad hand, biting into the carnage of nerve damage.
I cry out, and even to my ears it's sounds like a wounded animal.
Mick doesn't hesitate.
He steps forward like a dancer in the first blush of movement. His fist lashes out in a natural strike, the knuckles set and turning as he pivots into Tagger's face.
Tagger's face rocks back, his hand convulsing on mine, and I scream Mick's name as the pain rips through my palm.
Mick swivels, his hand coming down as he turns, and hammer chops the cop's forearm. Tagger reflexively releases my hand.
Mick turns to me, my hand a shaking nightmare and wraps his arms around me.
I know Tagger didn't mean to hurt me. Probably doesn't even consider my damaged hand.
I gasp into Mick's muscled chest, tears sliding out from underneath my clenched eyes.
“Oh god,” I gasp. The old pain grinds through my hand and halfway up my forearm in the way only nerves can travel the agony highway.
I hear a pop and then feel a pain worse than I've ever experienced slices through me.
I fall back, Mick falling with me, his weight covering me in a brutal slap.
I see Tagger, his legs spread and a nasty wound on his jaw, holding a Taser.
Delivering the jolts that incapacitate Mick and transfer to me.
I see his smile before darkness takes me.
~ 9 ~
“Billionaire Jared McKenna has been detained overnight for the alleged assault of physical therapist Faren Mitchell,” a reporter chimes. Her bronzer makes her look like an oompa loompa.
Kiki turns off the television and stares at me, having just extradited me from the holding tank. I wrinkle my nose-- pee and barf still sharp in my memory. “Oh my god, girl, this is so many levels of fucked up shit.”
I can only nod at another ugly turn my complicated life just took.
I perch at her small kitchen table, déjà vu slipping over me. I've come full circle. I'm back at Millennium Tower, about twelve stories below Mick's place.
I swallow past the mental replay of what happened in his condo. “Yeah, so what I need. More notoriety.”
Kiki leans forward, long black hair misses her coffee by a millimeter. “Is it true?”
I roll my eyes. “No.”
“But he came clean about the strip clubs?” Her brows draw together as she sets her tea cup down.
I shake my head. “No, not exactly.” A laugh of pure exhaustion erupts out of me. “The cop is the one who dropped that bomb in Mick’s little humpshack up there.”
I point to her ceiling.
Kiki folds her arms. “I never even knew that McKenna lived here.” She blows a strand of hair out of her face and moves away from the table as I look out the window to the water outside, “here I was, all jonesing to meet his rich ass and then poof-- he lives above me.” She flings a hand above her head.
Kiki puts a butt cheek on the super-high seats around her trendy square nook table. It angles perfectly in the banked windows where west meets south where the glass windows intersect. “Somehow, I'm not thinking you like the proximity.”
I look at her, hand around my mug of coffee, forgoing tea for the moment.
“No. I mean, I don't know.”
She says, “They're going to dredge up all the shit again.”
“Yeah.” I lean back against the chair. “Just as I was becoming a nobody, they'll latch onto the entire Ronnie thing again.”
I slam my mug down on the table. “I don't want people knowing...”
“You took a chance when you signed up for the titillating stuff,” Kiki says.
I sigh. “Yes, I'm aware.”
Kiki lifts her shoulders in consolation. “People are entertained by sex.”
“And evil,” I add and we lock gazes.
“So here comes beautiful Faren Mitchell, survivor of an attack by her lunatic perv stepfather, only to be assaulted by billionaire bookoo bucks.”
I grimace. “Alleged.”
“Okay... so spill-- what did happen. The torn panties have made the news.”
My mouth falls open, the fire of shame coalesces inside my chest. “Are you shitting me?”
Kiki shakes her head slowly as her eyes glide over my sick expression.
“Oh my god, my life has become a soap opera.”
“It's official.” Kiki raises her hand solemnly. “You're the 'it' girl right now. Your apartment was ransacked, and that prick Tasered your supposed attacker, and you were collateral damage.”
Kiki doesn't look away. “Did he really hurt your hand?”
I nod. “I don't think he meant to.”
“Don't defend that assjack,” Kiki fumes, “why was he putting his hands on you, Faren? I mean, eff me- that's just weird.”
I did consider why he seemed so intent to nail Mick to the wall. How it seems like he's using me for his own agenda.
“The whole fucking sick situation reeks.”
“I... I guess he thought Mick was a threat?” I throw out lamely.
Kiki barks out a laugh, and slaps the table. “That'll do it, good for McKenna.” She throws a victory fist in the air.
“You can play the victim and get the police to lick your boots. You've gotta beat the press at their own game.”
I don't like the way that sounds.
“You hold a press conference, play the wounded gazelle. You know, talk sappy smack about how McKenna and you have been dating...”
“I don't know if he wants that...”
“Well, you can't say you and Mick have been casually fucking.” She cocks her brows.
The oxygen leaves the room. “Because we haven't.” I manage through my teeth.
“I want the deets,” Kiki says.
I open my mouth and she does a slicing gesture across her throat. “Later. Anyway,” she pauses, getting into her scheme, “Moneybags—”
“Mick,” I interrupt.
Kiki rolls her eyes, “Hotness?” She waits, and I let a small smile slip.
She grins at my expression. “Hotness is there for you when your apartment gets burglarized. Then this dirty cop comes by to make sure you're where you said you'd be”—her eyes swivel to mine—“and how many shades of fucked up is that anyway? Nevermind. He stomps in there, interrupts consensual… whatever it was, sees your underwear, and goes medieval with the juice.”
I guess that about covers it, but Kiki is missing some finer points.
I hold up my hand. “First, we don't know Tagger's a dirty cop.” I lower one finger.
> “He's something.” She juts out her chin in defiance and I can't dispute something reeks like a badly camouflaged turd.
“I think he knows Mick. There's bad blood there. I mean… Mick knew his first name.”
Kiki makes a sound that I translate as knew it.
“Second, my place was not burglarized, it was demolished. Third, it didn't look good.... Mick and me.” I whisper that last.
“What doesn't look good is Tagger's concern over your underwear and why he thinks Mick is capable of assaulting women. Where the hell does he get that?”
A beat of silence passes as we stare at each other.
“Google!” we yell at the same time, making a mad scramble for her laptop.
“I can't believe I haven't already thought of this.”
Kiki looks at my face. “You little weasel, you've already thought about it.”
“Well, he Googled me...” I say in lame defense.
Kiki taps her lip. “But you took him at his word.”
“Yeah… Tagger said something about how 'if I knew about his past.'”
Kiki gives a low whistle.
She flips open her Mac, and I watch over her shoulder as she inputs Mick's name.
“Holy fuckballs!” she shouts. “There's like fifty pages.” Her shoulders slump. “It'll take all goddamned day.”
I scan the first ten hits; all entail holdings, buildings, real estate... so many stories about Mick and me. I swallow, ignoring those.
No... no, no, my eyes flicking through each post. I keep scanning.
Second page: Black Rose gentleman's club holdings.
“Click that.” I point at the elegant black rose held between a skull’s clenched teeth.
Kiki clicks. It's a boatload of boring fiscal stats. My eye catches on a small thread.
Related articles: Black Rose inception.
I point again and Kiki clicks.
I don't know who finishes first, but when we're done reading, she closes the laptop.
“That's horrible,” Kiki says.
Yeah.
At least I know why he peddles flesh.
“He's like... a really honorable guy,” I whisper, feeling like a flea for my layers of deception.
The shame I'd held at bay seeps into every pore.
“Yeah… a really rich, hot, honorable guy with a tragic past.”
Kiki gives me a sharp look. “It's almost as tragic as yours.”
Almost.
~ 10 ~
Kiki drops me at the curb. I flick her a wave, and she lifts her cell. Text me, the gesture says. Our revelations swirl between us like unseen smoke. I nod and turn toward concrete steps.
I'm on my way to see Mick when a text comes in from Thorn.
Thorn: You get a pass on laps because of what went down with Mick. It's your only freebie. You feel me? Tonight Faren.
I chew on my bottom lip while I tap out my response.
Me: Yes, I'll be there.
I don't ask about Ronnie. I have to accept that Thorn understands Ronnie terrifies me, his trashing of my apartment is his newest calling card. Thorn isn't heartless; he's determined.
I don't know which is more dangerous.
I have to talk to Mick about the strip clubs and somehow keep my secret just a little longer.
When we quench this fire between us—when he realizes how innocent I am—I'll come clean about the laps. After all, I can't keep that particular secret much longer.
He won't want to keep some naïve virgin anyway. He'll take it and run.
I'm counting on that. Mick's tender with who he thinks he knows, not who I actually am.
I inhale deeply at the thought of an experienced, rich guy settling down with a terminally ill girl who gives him her virginity while grinding on the laps of strange men.
I think about what I learned on Google. Mick's protective nature makes more sense now.
A lot more.
I just don't know where that leaves us. I know what would have happened if Tagger hadn't burst in. Mick had had me right where he wanted me. I was exactly where I wanted to be.
Then fate inserted itself.
I push the glass door to the Seattle Police Precinct open, the directional reflects back at me, West.
A horse whinnies with a cop on its back as I walk into the old stone building and scan my surroundings. My body feels ultra-sensitive from the shock of the Taser. I'm certain that combined dangerously with my illness.
I shove that thought away for later reflection.
I walk over to the reception desk and stand there while a cop types something.
“Yes?” he asks without looking up.
I feel sexist for thinking it's weird that a man is working the front desk instead of a woman.
“I'm here to see Jared McKenna,” I say, my eyes sailing around the huge noisy space.
He stops typing and looks at me, really looks at me. “You're Faren Mitchell.”
“Yes.” How does he know who I am?
Nothing about that seems good.
Officer Ferric stands and walks around the chest-level, semi-curved desk. He gives me a once-over. “Follow me.”
I don't.
He's ten paces away before he notices. “Miss Mitchell?” His brows rise to a receding hairline of unkempt tufts of dishwater blond hair.
I put my hands on my hips. “Let's just say my confidence in police protection has been shaken.” I'm no longer afraid of every single thing in my life. I want to find out what I can about Tagger. What's happening between him and Mick- see Mick.
I can tell he's thinking about what words to use. “That's what this is about,” Officer Ferric replies.
I cross my arms. I don't have time for this, my life's clock is ticking. I dipped into my vacation time at the clinic and Sue is covering for my last minute request for a personal day. I have do or die laps tonight and haven't seen my mom in two days.
My world is unraveling, a slow spiral of chaos settling in for the duration. My emotions boil right underneath the surface. Being in the public eye again just makes it worse.
“Okay,” I huff. At least I can see Mick.
We pass through a door as his finger holds it open for me and I walk through.
Among the rows of desks my eyes hit on Tagger and I slow. I can't ignore the instant association of Tagger and the Taser. The Ts run together in subconscious connection.
Adrenaline rushes through my body with numbing intensity, and I actually step back when Tagger's small green eyes peg me.
I take comfort in the shadow of a bruise on his jaw. The one Mick put there because he touched me.
“Miss Mitchell?” Tagger addresses me. And I can almost feel Ferric behind me as he quits breathing.
I don't even try for polite. Tagger sends a ripple across the water of my barely concealed emotional turmoil and he's off the list for civility. He's been so out of line I don't know where to begin. “Where's Mick?”
Tagger sits on the corner of his desk, one long leg dangling off the edge. “He's lawyered up.”
Mick's not here. I squelch my disappointment.
“Why... He didn't do anything wrong.” My guilt over pigeon-holing Mick spurs me on. “You need the supposed victim to accuse someone, right?”
They can't just nail Mick to the wall because he wants to. Can they?
Tagger inclines of his head, my eyes keep fixating on the dark mar near his chin. “True... but it looked like assault from my perspective, Miss Mitchell. And we're here to protect the victim, even if they don't think they need it.” His eyes hold mine.
I see how large his hands are. I’d forgotten until that moment how they'd looked on the grip of the Taser.
The damage those hands could do to someone he wished to bring to harm.
Protect and serve, my ass.
I lick my dry lips, and his eyes shift to the movement. “It was consensual, Tagger.”
“Detective,” he corrects. Condemnation fills his gaze like brackish water .
I think of how Mick doesn't care about titles. The very thing Tagger accused Mick of—being arrogant and aloof—becomes more glaring as his character flaws.
I cross my arms. “So Mick's 'lawyered up' because of police brutality.” My eyes don't stray, but spear him with my accusation.
“How do you figure?” The scorn of his expression hits me with dismissal. “He's the one who struck me, Miss Mitchell.”
“So you gave us both the zap?” I ask. Justify that. My fingers bite into my crossed arms.
His eyes drop. When they rise, they’re filled with artificial concern. “You got in the way. It was unintentional.”
I don't believe for one second that my safety was a consideration.
“You tell yourself that. But remember, you laid your hands on me... and by your own admission, you're aware of my history. I don't need another violent episode in my life.”
My short life.
Ice creeps into his expression. The little bit of green in his eyes becomes flecks of hardened emerald steel as he stares me down.
“Tagger,” Ferric cautions.
Tagger scrubs his face, hiding his expression but unable to remove my memory of it.
“I was just about to contact you.”
I can tell he's trying to regain his composure.
Epic fail.
“Yeah, I loved waking up in the holding tank.”
He gives a hard exhale. “You didn't deserve that.”
I shake my head. My apartment's McFucked, my soon-to-be lover and I were electrocuted, and I woke up in a holding tank for criminals. Tagger doesn't get it, and I can't figure out why.
Ultimately, the biggest thievery is my time.
He looks up at me and I lean into his face, gathering courage from I don't know where.
Well, yeah I do. Nothing to lose.
“My house is wrecked, your assumptions landed me in jail—unconscious—and now the world is going to dig through what happened.” I try to unclench the tight balls of my fists, and they don't budge. Even my bad hand is like stone.
“It's sealed, you were a minor,” Tagger responds smoothly.
Unflappable.
I straighten and laugh. It sounds like brittle glass. “Oh yeah, that's going to keep everyone from finding out.”
