As soon as the light hit me, I was gulping down air as though I had been held underwater for longer than I could bear. It was still marred with the scent of smoke, but I didn’t give a shit. Only minutes before, I had been resigned to dying in that place, and suddenly, I could see the sun again. I placed my hands on my knees and bent over, coughing up whatever junk had ended up in my lungs from breathing in so much smoke. I had watched Angel take on Raven like it was nothing, staring her down and talking her out of using that gun on either of us. I had never seen anything like it in my life.
I glanced around, and saw that Raven hadn’t followed us outside yet. Angel had spotted it, too, and her brow was furrowed. I could hear sirens in the distance – about time, too. I had called the fire department what felt like an age ago, and had checked for their arrival every time that I had run out with another one of the girls who’d been locked in those cells. They had made a run for it, and no–one had pursued them. Without that I wasn’t sure that any of them knew what to do with themselves.
“Where is she?” Angel demanded, and I looked back through the door we’d just run through. Was I seriously considering this? It seemed like it.
“Give me a second,” I muttered, grabbing the gloves from Angel to protect my hands before I made my way back inside. I couldn’t let her burn there. Not after finding out everything she’d been through.
The heat was stifling, almost painful, and I couldn’t see much through the smoke. It took my eyes a couple of seconds to adjust to the light, but as soon as I did, I spotted Raven, standing there at the end of the corridor, as though she intended to throw the door open and walk about into the flames.
“Raven!” I yelled. I had no idea what I was doing in here. She’d killed Angel’s father, and Christ, it wasn’t as though we didn’t have a lot of history behind us. But looking at her there, I knew I couldn’t walk away. I had to get her out of here. She deserved a chance to start over again, to see what her life might have been like without all of this. And it looked like I was the one to give it to her.
I was snapped from my reverie by the sound of Angel’s voice outside, calling my name. It cut through the shadows and the smoke in a moment, and I sprinted forward, caught Raven around the waist, and dragged her away from the door. I could smell something awful, and glanced down to see that she had already gotten her hand on the metal handle. It had left a deep purple welt of burns along her palm, and the smell emanating from her burned flesh was hideous. But still, she was alive. That was all that mattered. She was alive.
She seemed to go limp in my arms, and I dragged her backward as fast as I could, towards the exit, back out into the sunlight. It was almost blinding in contrast to the darkness in the corridor, and as soon as I let go of Raven, she collapsed to the ground like a ragdoll. Angel dropped to her knees beside her, and caught her face between her hands.
“Raven!” She called, shifting her head back and forth to check for signs of like. But a few seconds later, Raven spluttered in her arms and proved once and for all that she wasn’t so easy to get rid of.
The sirens grew closer and closer, and it became clear to me that we weren’t just dealing with the fire department. Emergency dispatch had sent the fire department, the police, and an ambulance. Which was good; this much smoke wasn’t a good idea for anyone. I was used to sprinting in the opposite direction when I saw a cop car, but Angel’s glare told me that if I moved a muscle she would never forgive me for it. She helped Raven to her feet, one arm around her waist, the other holding Raven’s hand against her shoulder. I hurried over to help, and marveled at Angel. How on Earth she could find it in her heart to be so kind to the woman who had killed her father… I would never stopped being amazed by her.
It was a flurry of activity from there on in. Raven, Angel, and I got loaded up into an ambulance before anyone else so much as got a look at us, and we were in the hospital a few minutes later, getting checked out for smoke inhalation and other signs of damage. But it didn’t take long for someone to figure out who Angel was, and before I knew it, one of her colleagues turned up to keep us company.
“Angel!” An excited voice came bouncing down the corridor, one that made Angel sit up dead straight in her hospital bed. I was doing okay, but she’d inhaled more smoke than me, and they’d wanted to keep her in for observation for a little longer yet. I had taken my place at her side when we heard the voice, and we exchanged a nervous look as we waited to see the source of it. A few seconds later, a plump, middle–aged woman stuck her head around the door. Her jaw dropped when she saw who she was looking at.
“Angel!” The woman repeated, and strode up to her bedside, clasping her hand between her own. “Honey, are you okay?”
“I will be,” Angel nodded, managing a smile at the woman’s concern. The woman seemed to notice me sitting next to the bed after a moment, and her gaze narrowed as she focused on me.
“Who’s this?” She asked. “You need me to get rid of him for you?”
Angel sputtered with laughter, and it felt so good to see her in some state of actual happiness. Ever since we’d encountered each other at that auction, I felt as though I’d been seeing a side of her that was far from her best. And I hadn’t realized how much I’d desperately wanted her to be happy before that moment, because the sound of her laugh was enough to paste a big, goofy smile on my face, too.
“No, no, it’s cool,” she waved her hand. “If he starts annoying me later, I’ll let you know and you can get rid of him.”
“Isn’t he…?” The woman remarked, her eyes shifting down my body in suspicion as she tried to place where she’d seen me before. Angel nodded, but waved a hand.
“Trust me, I have so much explaining to do it’s unreal,” Angel let out a yawn. “But I think I need to catch up on some sleep first.”
“If you’re sure,” The woman nodded, not taking her eyes from me once. “But…I’d feel better if I knew he couldn’t get to you.”
“Really, I’m telling you, it’—
But before Angel could get the rest of the words out of her mouth, the woman had produced a pair of handcuffs and slapped them on me, affixing the second cuff to Angel’s bed. My mouth hung open in surprise, and my brain struggled to find some way to react to what was going on. I hadn’t even done anything wrong this time! I thought I was meant to be the good guy!
“I’ll come back later and we can get some of this in the reports.” The woman shot me one last look, a look that told me that if I tried anything, I would have her to answer to. “I’ll let you rest.”
“Thanks,” Angel nodded up at her, clearly trying to keep a straight face. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Will do.” The woman paused in the door and looked down at her, a motherly expression appearing on her face for a moment. “You know, your father would be very proud of you, Angel.”
“Thanks.” Angel smiled broadly, and it was genuine. She sank back into the pillows, indicating to the woman that she needed some time to herself, and the door soon clicked shut once again. Angel didn’t move for a moment, staring beatifically at the wall opposite her, until I jangled my handcuffs in annoyance.
“Uh, excuse me?” I waggled my cuffed hand in the air, and she turned to look at me, apparently registering the handcuffs again. She glanced back at my face, and then busted out laughing.
“Hey, this isn’t funny!” I protested. “I’m was on the cops’ side this time! I don’t deserve any of this shit!”
I’m sorry, it’s just…” She managed to choke off her laughed for a moment, and worked to catch her breath. “We could have some fun with those. You know, while we’re here.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “You serious?”
I hadn’t really thought much about us since it had all happened. Everything had moved so swiftly it felt as though I never had a chance to figure out what we were or where we stood. All I knew was that I was so happy she was alive that it made my chest ache a little. Or hey, maybe that was the smoke inhalation and without all the drama we would turn out to hate each other. Hard to say.
“Are you?” She shot back, and I could tell she was testing the waters too. I mean, what happened now? The two of us were free to do what we wanted – well, maybe. I jiggled my hand against my cuffs again, and wondered how the hell I’d ended up all tied up when I hadn’t done anything wrong. Well, not recently.
“You know that they’re probably going to arrest me again,” I pointed out. “I mean, it’s not like I’ve been on the straight and narrow since the cops last brought me in.”
She let out a sigh and glanced out of the window towards the parking lot below. There were cars making their way in and out, and I wondered who they were transporting. New babies back home for the first time, sick family members back to their own beds at last. I wondered where she would go after this.
“I know,” she nodded. “And I know I’m going to be in trouble, too.”
“What? Why?”
“For lying to them about what happened.” She took a long breath, her gaze focused on the far wall. “I’ve got so much explaining to do, Breaker. I don’t think it’ll ever end.”
I stared at her, this woman I had convinced myself I hated for so long. She had been my first arrest, the first person to catch me after years of wrong–doing. And now, here we were, the two of us, each responsible for saving lives today. I mean, she was a cop, so that came as part of her job description. Me, not so much. And all I could think about was how much I wanted to be more like her. She was brilliant, beautiful, and the bravest person I’d ever met. She’d punched Thaddeus Bane in the face, for fuck’s sake, and turned him into a sniveling baby. There weren’t many people on the planet who could claim to have done that and lived to tell the tale. I didn’t know how much time we had left together, but I wanted to make the most of it while we still could.
I leaned forward and planted a kiss on her lips; instead of being instantly overwhelmed by lust, I found myself happy just to be near her. I reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, and she reached out to hold my face to hers. I inhaled deeply, wrapping my free arm around her and pulling her in close. I had no idea when I was going to see her again, and I wanted to commit as much of her to memory as I could manage while I had the chance. Before I knew it, her hand was trailing down between my legs, reaching over the edge of the bed to grasp at my cock. I pulled back, and raised an eyebrow.
“Here?”
“Why not?” She flashed me a playful grin. “Isn’t thank–God–we’re–alive–sex a thing around these parts?”
“I can’t say I’ve ever done that,” I admitted, glancing over my shoulder to make sure the door was locked and clambering on to the bed so that I was on top of her. I ran my hand down her body, and she squirmed against the bed, which creaked dangerously below us. We both giggled, and I felt my heart flip in my chest as I looked down at her. She looked gorgeous, even after everything she’d been through.
“We’ll probably have to make this quick,” I glanced at the door. “I don’t want anyone disturbing us.”
“The words every woman wants to hear,” she teased, as I covered her mouth with mine again and kissed her to keep her quiet. She wrapped her arms around my waist, and I used what little leverage I had with my cuffed hand to shuffle down her pants a little and trace my fingertips over her skin. Shit, she was just so…tantalizing. Everything about her seemed to cry out for me to touch it, and who was I to resist?
She reached down to my pants and shoved them down my hips, wrapping her fingers around the base of my cock and squeezing lightly. I let out a groan at the sight of her small hand around my quickly–growing erection, and slipped my own beneath her shirt. I found her nipples already gratifyingly hard, and pinched and twisted at her sensitive skin until I elicited a satisfying groan from between her lips. I leaned down to kiss her once again, and we continued to grope and grab at each other like a pair of teenagers for a few minutes longer. It felt, in some ways, like we were discovering each other all over again, starting from scratch with a pair of bodies that knew nothing of the tragedy of awfulness we’d seen over the last few days. I just wanted her, and she just wanted me, and I intended to make the most of that in every way I could.
Before I knew it, the two of us were both as naked as we needed to be from the waist down. I slipped my free hand between her legs and cupped her warm, welcoming pussy. She was already wet, and shivered slightly at my touch, just as she had been back in the woods. I glanced up at her just as a small moan escaped her lips, and grinned as I once again reached into her pocket for a condom and produced one within seconds.
“How many of those things do you have in there?” She demanded, sitting up and taking it from me as she realized that I couldn’t do this with just one hand free. She planted a kiss on the top of my dick as she leaned down to sheath me, and I fought the urge to thrust my cock into her mouth and feel her soft, wet tongue over every inch of my erection.
“I get the feeling that it’s never going to be enough,” I replied, running my fingers through her hair and steadying myself as the touch of her hand send shivers all over my body. Even still, she had this effect on me. Her touch seemed to send electric shocks through my system, my entire body bowing to her caress. As soon as she had rolled the condom on, all romantic thoughts about the sweetness of her body next to mine vanished from my head, and she laid back, parted her legs, and grabbed me by the ass to pull me closer. I ran my free hand up her naked thigh and over her butt, grabbing it and tilting it so that she was positioned only an inch or two from me. Then, with one swift motion, I pushed myself inside of her.
“Shit!” She hissed through gritted teeth as I entered her, and I had to fight the urge to do the same. She felt gorgeously tight around my erection, her body welcoming me at once, spreading to accommodate my girth in seconds. She went to kiss me once again, but I pulled back a few inches, holding myself away from her, teasing her with my proximity. I loved the way her eyes widened and her breath came a little quicker as I moved into her again, and I wasn’t about to miss that. But soon enough, she caught the back of my head and drew me in close, kissing me hard, as though she was punishing me for taunting her like that.
It didn’t take long till I found myself on the edge. If I thought our last fuck had come at an intense time, I had had no idea what would come next. Her body was already growing tense beneath mine, and she had hooked her head over my shoulder to keep herself steady. Her breath was coming quickly, hot against my skin, and I placed my hand against the wall above the bed for leverage, fucking her harder and harder until–
We both let out the same noise at the same moment, one of utter and complete relief. I thrust deep into her one last time and held myself there, savoring the feel of her cunt contracting around my cock over and over again. She did her best to keep her voice down, but I would have been surprised if we didn’t attract at least a couple of sharp looks from the corridor outside. Hell, we couldn’t be the first people to fuck in a hospital bed, especially after everything we’d been through. I slowly withdrew myself from her, and tossed the used condom in a trashcan at the end of the bed. She watched as I went, giggling at the sight of me trying to navigate the room with my hand restrained.
“You know, I think I prefer you with both hands available,” she remarked with a lift of her eyebrow. I rolled my eyes at her.
“You think?” I shot back playfully.
She held her hands out to me, her expression changing slightly as the glow of the moment began to fade away.
“Come here,” she ordered softly, and I happily slid into bed next to her, tucking her in the crook of my arm and pressing my nose into her hair almost absent–mindedly. I closed my eyes, and did my best to put everything that had come before and after this moment behind me. I had no idea what the next few days would bring, but I knew that they would have all been worth it, if only for this moment.