Hammered: Big City, Dark Nights

I glanced around for my Police Special but only saw the beams of flashlights coming our way.

Grabbing her hand, I pulled Dinah along with me as I ran, all the while thinking how much I'd miss that good old gun.

***

We zig-zagged block by block for a few minutes, trying to put as much space between us and the supposedly safe house. I could only pray my coworkers had found safe shelter as I spirited Dinah Myatt away from it.

Yes, it was supposedly a safe house, but it obviously wasn't. With the house not being on the books, it meant that someone had to have tipped them off for them to "find" us. It meant that Red Hornaday had someone in the department who'd betrayed us, someone who'd given our location, who might even provide cover for those chasing us. A call to the local precinct or even downtown might get swept under the rug, leaving us without backup and, quite possibly before long, six-feet under.

That changed the dynamic in my mind, reminding me of my time in Korea, where one fought and killed the enemy with whatever resources were available in order to stay alive and where anyone not in our unit could be an enemy. We couldn't just escape to the precinct; if there really were traitors there, we could be dead before we knew we were in trouble. In addition, anyone coming after us could be on Red Hornaday's payroll.

No, we couldn't turn ourselves in at the precinct. We had to run.

Seconds later, I flagged down a cab. Shoving Dinah in and jumping in right behind her, I told the cabbie to drive.

***

Almost trembling, she sat close to me, seeking safety and whatever comfort my presence could provide, while trying to keep her face from being seen by the driver. Since he'd be able to hear most anything we said, we said nothing until we were a few blocks from the destination I'd given. On reaching a nondescript area, I called out, "Stop! Let us out here."

He did, looking mad about the change, but I paid him and gave him a $2 tip, and he nodded in appreciation. Once he pulled away, we circled, stepped into an alley for a moment and then doubled back, going a few blocks before taking another cab where the procedure was the same.

A little later, we switched to buses, changing routes twice more over the next couple of hours as we tried to lose anyone who might be following us and make it difficult for anyone else to track our movements.

Around 2 AM and dead tired, we took a room in a flophouse for the night.

"I'll sleep on the floor," I told her, but she shook her head.

"No, Les. We both need our rest tonight if we're going to have any chance of getting through this tomorrow and over the next few days. You'll sleep in the bed with me."

She was right, I knew, so I didn't argue.

"What happened up there?" she asked, finally verbalizing the question we both wanted answered, but I could only shake my head.

"I'm not sure, and we're both too exhausted to figure it out. Let's talk about it tomorrow, okay?"

She nodded slowly, as if unsure, before undressing for bed and climbing under the lone and seemingly threadbare cover. Next, I stripped to my boxers and undershirt and jammed the chair under the knob, hoping to give us at least a little warning if anyone tried to break in on us during the night. Lying back to back in the bed but staying as close to the edge as I could to keep from touching her, I quickly forgot my anxiousness about it. I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the ratty pillow.

I awoke the next morning with my back touching Dinah's, as if silently accepting that we had each other's backs the night before. I started to scoot away from her so I could get up, but her hand reached back and caught my hip, holding me there.

"Les, stay, please? For just a little longer, okay?"

I leaned back against her, our backs touching and I think I dozed for a few more minutes before I had to get up and go. She needed to go, too, so we quickly dressed and stepped down the hall to the lone bathroom that served the entire floor.

Determined to protect each other, we went in together and locked the door, with me standing guard with my back to her while she did her business and then switching. We quickly washed in the sink and then scooted back to our room. Minutes later, we slipped out the back door of the squalid hotel, leaving the key on the bed instead of taking a chance at anyone else seeing us.

Knowing we'd be holed up for a couple of weeks or more, I'd gotten a hundred dollars in cash for takeout or whatever; I'd used some of it for our transportation and for the room. Unfortunately, I knew that we needed some things and my money wouldn't go very far. I was counting it again to be sure when Dinah spoke up.

"I have some money, too. We'll be okay if we don't splurge."

"We need some clothes...and a gun," I replied. "And then somewhere to stay for a few days."

She smiled at me. "Like I said, we'll be okay if we don't splurge."

We hit a second-hand store and found her a couple of outfits and me a suit, a fedora, and a couple of shirts that set us back $14. Socks, underwear, some toiletries, and a copy of one of the NYC newspapers at a five and dime were another three, and a canvas-covered suitcase was another two and a half bucks. We changed behind a trash bin in a nearby alley, with Dinah tying a scarf over her hair to make herself a little less conspicuous. Her blonde hair was beautiful, but it stood out like a sore thumb.

Everything we weren't wearing, including my holster, went in the case.

Later that morning after a couple more bus rides, I spotted a pawn shop so we passed by and then circled back to make sure we weren't being followed before going inside.

The pawnbroker didn't have my preferred Police Special but I did find a similar but older.38 S&W Military & Police Model with a 3-inch barrel that looked scratched to pieces on the outside but appeared quite functional on the inside. With the man's permission and a twenty as a down payment to get it, I stripped it there on the counter, cleaned it with the man's cleaning kit, and reassembled it before pulling the trigger to test it but easing the hammer down gently.

"I'll give you $30 bucks for it."

"Nope. $50."

"Listen, you know very well that I can buy a brand new one for under $60 and this one looks like it's been rode hard and put away wet."

"You been watchin' too many of them cowboy shows on that tele-vision? 'Sides, there ain't nowhere to get a new one round here, is there? $50. Take it or leave it."

I think he suspected we didn't want to be seen and that going into a shop for a new one was out of the question.

"Forty with a box of cartridges," I countered.

"Forty-five bucks."

"Forty-five with two boxes."

"It's yours," he said with a wicked grin, having gotten himself a good deal even with the second box of ammo. "But you'll load it after you leave the store."

When I nodded, he shoved the boxes of cartridges across the counter to me, but kept his right hand under the counter. I could only guess that he had a sawed-off double barrel or something similar under there pointing at me, just in case.

"We need to go out the back," I said.

He frowned but nodded and motioned which way to go. I pulled Dinah along with me with the pawnbroker watching us all the way. Sure enough, I saw him holding the double barrel in his hands as he watched us go. As the door started to close, he finally started to move to come lock it up behind us.

It was an alley, so I stepped to the side and quickly loaded the six rounds in the cylinder with a moon clip before sticking the revolver in the back of my waistband and pulling my shirt over to cover it. It wasn't very comfortable but was necessary to avoid being spotted.

Practically starving, we bought lunch in a little diner, eating every crumb. Then, we took first one bus ride and then another before finding ourselves in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a dinky, out-of-the-way hole-in-the-wall that, from the looks of it, I suspected would never amount to anything. After finding a local market and buying a few groceries, we took a room in another nondescript boarding house in nearby Lyndhurst. The clerk gave me the eye when I signed the book as "Joe Jones" and didn't put anything down for Dinah, but I paid in hard cash, which was all he really cared about.

Once in the room, we settled in for the evening. There was no real table, just the bed, a small bedside stand, and a single chair, so we sat on the side of the bed sharing our cheese and crackers along with a couple of tins of Vienna sausages, washing it all down with a bottle of beer each.

"We were pretty poor when I was little," Dinah said as we ate. "Daddy got some of these when I was about eight or nine—"

She saw the questioning look on my face; the ADA guy had said she was 40 but I didn't believe it. "You don't ask a lady her age, Les. Course, as hard as I try, I'm not really a lady, either."

I'm not sure if it was a laugh or a sigh that followed. "I was born in 1913 so you can get close enough. Anyway, I loved these," she said, holding up a little sausage between two saltines, "when I was little and still liked them when things fell apart, but as times got tougher and tougher and Daddy couldn't find work, it wasn't long before we were practically living on crackers and these damn things. I swore when I came to the city—I was 19 at the time—that I'd never eat another."

"Dinah, I'm sorry, I'd have gotten something else if I'd known—"

"No, it's okay. They remind me of rough times but we're doing what we have to do to survive, just like I did when I came to town and just like with Dad back home. See, we're going to survive this, Les. Both of us."

The look on her beautiful face was one of trust and determination as she smiled at me. I smiled back and nodded, hoping she was right but equally determined to make it so.

We finished the last of our admittedly meager meal and put the crackers away; no need to have more crumbs in the bed than the stuff that was probably already on the sheets. Dinah must have had the same idea because we both started wiping the top of the sheet off together with a laugh when we looked at each other. I paused, watching, as she returned to it.

It was hard looking at her though, for the more I looked, the more attracted to her I became, and I realized it was quickly becoming a problem as I had to do my best to relax to avoid her noticing a potentially embarrassing issue that was threatening to get worse the more I looked at her. Perhaps it was our circumstances, the common danger, but she was beautiful and I liked her, liked her a lot, despite the difference in our ages.

That was an issue, but I wasn't sure how important it was. Based on what she'd just told me, she was about 17 years older than me, but that gave her the maturity and refined beauty that too many of the women my own age seemed to lack.

"Les, what's bothering you?"

"It's nothing," I replied, having shifted a bit to hide my problem while still having trouble looking her in the eyes. "I just...."

For some reason, she seemed to accept my evasion, allowing it to pass, and minutes slipped by in the relative silence of our room as we sat back down on the side of the bed, giving me time to relax. Then she sighed and shifted, turning directly toward me.

"Les? Thank you. Thank you for protecting me. Thank you for keeping a clear head and getting me out of there. They'd have gotten me last night on that rooftop if you hadn't been there and done all you did. Thank you for everything."

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't look into her eyes, afraid she'd see through me and see the desire that flooded back through me despite my efforts. That desire, emotional as well as physical, was building in me rather than the duty my job required of me. I looked down at the floor, covered I now realized in a smattering of dust, lint, hairs, and, yes, cracker crumbs, as I avoided her gaze.

"Dinah, it's...it's my job, and I'm not sure if I even did it all that well. I hate to say it, but I have no idea what happened to Joey, Bhutel, and Guadanni. I left them there to their own devices to try to keep you safe, and I don't know if they survived, though, I guess the good news is I didn't see anything about dead officers in the newspaper today."

"You did do it well, Les, your job, the job you'd been assigned. Your job was to keep me alive so I can testify, and I will. We'll put that S.O.B. away when I do, but I know what you mean. I hope, even pray, that the other officers are okay, but you know that if we'd stayed, they wouldn't have stopped until they got me and Red Hornady would be a free man by now. By doing what you did, you kept me alive when I would otherwise, most certainly, be dead now."

She had a point, but she didn't seem to understand. "No, Dinah, they came about that close to getting you, and me, too, despite my efforts. It was luck, pure and simple, so you don't have to thank me; the taxpayers pay me—"

She came out of nowhere, her lips capturing mine, stopping me in mid sentence and lighting a match to tinder that had been building within me for the past few days and the last 24 hours in particular.

I kissed her back, taking her in my arms, as she gave a little push, causing me to fall back onto the bed. Holding on, I took her with me, causing her to give a little squeal and a giggle and me to smile at the feel of her body against me. She had to know of my problem by then.

I opened my mouth to object again, but she gave her head a strident shake.

"Just hush about all of that, Les," she breathed, "and make love to me."

Despite how I'd grown to care for her, both during her isolation and our flight from our pursuers, I knew it was wrong, that I was her bodyguard and protector, not her lover; if I were to make love to her as she said, I would be taking advantage of her in her moment of weakness.

"Dinah, I can—"

The "'t" I was intending didn't make it out of my mouth before she was kissing me again, open mouthed this time with her tongue probing and mine responding in kind as, despite my intentions, my dick hardened even more as she seemed to deliberately rub against me.

As the old saying goes, the spirit is willing—to resist in this case—but the flesh is weak, at least until we got started, and then the flesh became quite strong—or at least, quite hard—as the rest of our clothes came off. Her tits were incredible, full but not too large, as she sat atop me, doing a sweet sway approximating infinity and possibly the mysteries of the universe until I took them in hand, finding them delightfully soft but firm enough to hold their shape and my full attention.

Once I had them, I held on lightly as she continued swaying, with me playing with her tips and enjoying seeing them harden as if begging for more. Dinah smiled as she moved, getting them closer and closer where I could almost reach up to capture one with my mouth, but then she slipped away again, over and over, before surprising me by letting me capture one and draw it in for a little suck. Okay, maybe a bit too zealous of a suck, as she whispered, "Not too hard, Les. They'll be playing all night."

"Sorry," I whispered, being sure to hold it in place so it didn't slip away while I said it. Back in it went, gentler this time; holding it in place with my lips, I flicked it a few times with my tongue, leading her to nod in appreciation.

Then it slipped out, slipping away, gone again, as if taunting me, just out of reach, with Dinah smiling throughout it all, beaming pure beauty and desire at me. This, I realized, might even be what true love looked like, though I wasn't sure I'd ever experienced anything close, and my own smile stretched from ear to ear.

Dinah leaned down against me then, her tits pressed against my chest as she nuzzled my neck and ear lobe, kissing and giving little love bites that sent shivers throughout my body. She was sliding herself along my dick, but each time I tried to angle up to enter her, she moved just enough to prolong our little dance.

"I want you, Dinah, more than anything in the world." I said the words and believed them with every fiber of my being.

"I'm so glad," she replied before drawing my lobe between her lips and giving it a sweet little suckle that shivers throughout me. Then it was free and she was up, as if slipping away, before she leaned over my dick, took me in hand and then in her mouth, bobbing up and down my length a couple of times and then a few more for good measure, making me fear that I'd explode and die right there under her sweet torture.

It was so smooth, I didn't even see where she got it, but Dinah applied a rubber on my head with her mouth and rolled it down me with her lips, all the way down to the bottom, making me wonder how she could even take me all in like that. She was back off and smiling again, just as quickly, before she climbed back on top and directed me into heaven's gate. Down, down on me she went in a slow but incredibly smooth motion.

Dinah took charge as she braced her arms against my chest, her tits swaying gently as she slowly and ever so skillfully circled her pelvis against me, my cock deep within her as she caressed it with muscles I didn't know existed. I'd been with several women over the past few years, including a few pros in Korea and one in Honolulu on the way home, but Dinah made them all look like rank amateurs as she rocked my world. When she saw me getting close, she pulled away and had me go down on her with much abandon.

My technique wasn't exactly skilled, I'm afraid, but I was quite enthusiastic and she gave me some gentle pointers that put her over the top as she bit her lip to stay quiet and avoid calling out. Then she was kissing me again as she pushed me back down for another ride. This time, though, she switched, facing away from me and pulling my cock back for an experience unlike any I'd ever had. She looked over her shoulder at me as she moved up and down, mesmerizing my eyes as I alternated between watching her ass and her eyes.

Getting close once more, she backed off again and kissed me for time as she directed one hand to her breast and one around her. When the danger was past, she grinned at me but this time, rather than climbing back on, she lay beside me and pulled me over the top of her, spreading her legs wide and up for me.

"Do it, Les, make love to me as hard and as fast as you can," she whispered as I entered her. "Make me feel it as you get ready to explode in me."

A couple of slow thrusts and similar withdrawals confirmed for me that I was no longer in imminent danger of blowing and so I increased my pace as she whispered encouragement to me. Her hands gripped my ass, her nails digging lightly into my skin as I thrust into her.

"Harder, Les, please. Give me all you've got," she encouraged, breathing the words one or two at a time as I pounded against her as she thrust her seemingly magical cooch back against me in perfect rhythm. "Don't stop, my love."

I don't think she even realized she'd used the word and I didn't catch it at the time, but it struck me afterward. At that particular point, I was fighting against my balls exploding with everything I had. She'd been watching me intently to that point, but then her eyes closed as she grimaced and I knew we'd both lost the fight but won our release. She collapsed back and pulled me close as I exploded into her in the most powerful shot of my life.

"Dinah, that was—"

"Incredible," she finished before we kissed, holding each other as we enjoyed our euphoria.

Dinah sensed my waning erection and grasped the rubber as I withdrew from her. She was quite skilled in removing it and giving it a twist before and dropped it to the side of the bed, out of the way. As I started to get up, she pushed me back and started cleaning me with her lips, her tongue, and her hands while I looked on in surprise. It was exquisite as she worked and I watched in rapt fascination and great delight.