Maelstrom

I shifted in my guest chair. "He didn't go down easily and he wants a piece of you."

"I'd think less of him if he didn't threaten to kill me," she said flippantly.

"What a fucking cock up," she observed with a chuckle. "I understand Neufeld's being reassigned to the Parking Division as a reward for his incompetence."

"Asshole gets his just desserts," I said, agreeing wholeheartedly with management's decision to put him in the broom closet. It also negated my promise to transfer and the unenviable task of starting over once again as a beat cop. My rescue of the former police chief's daughter earned me beaucoup brownie points with upper management.

"Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. It's just dumb luck that no one was killed," I observed. It was a miracle that the blast didn't kill anyone. Apparently the armor of the truck protected the occupants and also partially shielded the officers behind it. The department was now down one assault vehicle, costing about a quarter million dollars.

"And your partner..."

"Lesley," I added.

"Yeah Lesley, the cute blonde. Saul's kid. That was some ballsy work you did." DaVanna said it with admiration in her voice.

"I wasn't going to let my partner get hurt." That was the truth.

"I can see your sense of loyalty Max."

She picked up her phone and asked her assistant to bring in a sparkling water with a brand name I didn't recognize.

She signaled to me to ask if I wanted one too and I shook my head.

"You really helped Alessandra out," she said, resuming as if the water interlude didn't happen.

"She's a good kid. She got mixed up in a bad crowd."

"I think she wanted to be different. When she was younger she didn't realize different didn't mean rebellious. She did exactly what my parents told her not to do and hung out with the people my parents told her not to associate with. I think you helped her find her passion."

"She already found her passion when I met her. I just helped her find an outlet for that passion."

"I owe you Max."

That was a phrase DaVanna didn't dole out lightly. A favor from the D.A.'s office. That was like drawing a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

"Thanks DaVanna..."

"Use it wisely Max," she warned me. She knew I was a loose cannon and working under the protection of the D.A.'s office was fraught with danger. She already knew me too well. I was already making plans in my head to deal the remainder of Trong's gang that was responsible for Nicky's shakedown.

She opened a drawer in her desk and put the bottle of nail polish in it. Her desk was immaculate. She relaxed in her desk chair. I tried to, but couldn't take my eyes off her alluring beauty.

"I'm going to Nicky's tonight..." I started to say before DaVanna cut me off.

"I've got another engagement," she said, delivering her excuse before I had a chance to get invite her along to the diner to experience Alessandra's opening night."

"Oh," I said, suddenly speechless. Why would big sis miss Alessandra's coming out party?

"You have fun and say hi to Alessandra for me." It was the phony politician talking. There was something deeper and festering between the two sisters.

Before I left there was one more question on my mind. "Who's going to take Trong's territory?"

DaVanna of course had already assessed it. "Ukrainians are trying to muscle in but Trong's remaining men are going to try to hold onto it."

"Maybe the Vietnamese will succeed in holding their territory," I said. There was a lot of money to protect.

"Maybe that's for the best," she said as I got out of my chair.

"The devil you know..." I observed on the way out of her office.

* * *

There was a line clear down the block to enter Nicky's. For that night only she was featuring her fried chicken dinner for the menu price in 1980, when the diner was opened, $4.99. I squeezed through the crowd in the front. Courtney was already inside and unlocked the door to let me in.

"Line's a mile long," she said, taking a peek at the crowd before she locked the door behind me.

"When you're practically giving away fried chicken it'll be this way." She looked gorgeous as usual. She smelled like fried chicken. I wanted to eat her.

"I'm glad you talked me into this investment." She kissed me on the lips and squeezed my butt. There was going to be sex that night. That made me very happy.

"I'm hungry," I told her. She didn't know I meant for her, not the fried chicken.

She touched her non-existent gut, which I hated her for. "Already put on a couple pounds."

"I'm going to need to take off your clothes to find them," I threatened. I snuck my hand inside her pants.

"You're not going to find them there."

"I'm checking there first anyway."

Nicky spotted me. "Max... the woman of the hour!" she announced. I pulled my hand out of Courtney's pants.

"Which hour?" I asked.

"Why this one." She was about to open the door to let her diners come in. She paused for a moment.

"You made it all possible. You found me Courtney and Alessandra. What more could I ask for?"

"Hopefully nothing. What you asked for almost killed me."

She leaned closer to me so only could hear her.

"Max, I didn't want to darken this moment, but some Ukrainian guy came by this morning and told me he wanted $1,500 on the first of each month."

She opened the door and a stream of people came between me and her. I didn't have a chance to answer.

Ukrainians. I hadn't dealt with them before. As DaVanna said, how much worse could they be than dealing with the Vietnamese?

* * *

We got back to the Royal Palms that night with a belly full of fried chicken and my arm around Courtney's waist. Alessandra's first night was a huge success. The revamped menu earned raves, and the crowd didn't die down until closing time at ten.

It was around midnight, which for this motel was rush hour. There were two women going at it as they backed into the room adjoining ours. We both watched from the parking lot and chuckled as they fumbled with their clothes as the door shut behind them.

I loved that moment. Knowing that I was going to have sex with Courtney. The anticipation was almost as good as the fucking.

"Max, as much as I like the fried chicken at Nicky's, I still like fucking you more."

She was such a vamp.

"Let's get upstairs." I pulled on her hand. This motel was for hook-ups, and I wanted desperately to hook up with her.

We fell into the room while pulling off each other's clothes. I threw the bolt to lock the door and drew the curtains shut with a swift tug. She threw herself on the bed on her back, bouncing and kicking off her panties. With her knees up she spread her legs apart so show me her dark haired pubic patch, glossy and wet. I needed no invitation.

"I know this is what you were waiting for," she said, knowing me as well as I knew myself. She dipped her finger into her pussy to touch herself.

I knelt between her slender, sexy little legs and put my head between them and snorted in her musty, feral scent, imprinting it in my mind for some future masturbation fantasy. I licked her honey soaked fingers as she pulled them out of her pussy.

"Yeah... Max. You lick my pussy so good... ahhhh," she moaned while I swabbed her labia with broad strokes of my tongue.

Courtney was a talker. I liked that about our sex. She knew it got us both off.

"That's it... that's it..." she encouraged me when I sucked her clit into my mouth and lashed it with my tongue.

Her hips snapped up as she readied herself for the irresistible ripple of pleasure. I licked my finger and massaged her anal ring while my tongue worked on her clit. I could sense the muscles in her legs tensing.

"Fuuuuck!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. Shouting while cumming was permissible in the unwritten rules of the Royal Palms.

I stayed with her as she thrashed beneath me, still urgently licking the honey seeping from her pussy. She knew I didn't want to quit. It was still too good -- being drunk and eating pussy, that is. She had to push my head away with her hand when it got too intense.

I waited for a minute for us both to catch our breath. I didn't feel like talking but Courtney did.

"You like sex as much as I do Max."

Yes I did.

* * *

What is DaVanna's secret? What will Max do to uncover it? Will Max and Courtney stay together?

Max will return.