Red

"Fuck that," she told him as her teeth chattered. "I have to get out of here. Like disappear."

"You aren't equipped to do that right, Mirabelle," he said gently. "You can't outrun the whole police force."

She raised her leg and shook the ankle monitor at him like she had the first time they met. "I'll take it off, and that gives me a head start anyway." Jared noticed that even she didn't sound convinced though.

Wolf walked to the cop and felt for a pulse. It was there, it was weak but the man was still alive which was more than he deserved.

He called the only person he could call at a time like this. "Javi, I'm going to text you an address. It's a matter of life and death, okay. I need you to drop someone off at Stroger Hospital."

As he sent the address, Mueller burped out blood and sighed. "He's not going to say shit at the hospital, Red," Wolf told her. "And Javi will move the car. He's just a cop that was attacked and nothing he says is going to contradict that. He knows better."

Red rubbed her arms and hugged herself in his jacket. "Or he dies here and then we know for certain."

"As soon as he doesn't show up for roll call, they'll come looking for him." Jared felt desperate when he asked, "how many murderers do you think are on his list of parolees?"

"You're forgetting something, Wolf," she walked toward the table, slowly, as if it were almost too much effort to move her legs. "My fingerprints are on the screwdriver," she said before she lit the cigarette between her lips. "And all I have to do is take my screwdriver back. Problem solved."

The femoral artery would cascade the man's life blood to the floor. He'd bleed out fast instead of die slowly like he was going to do if Javi didn't get here.

"He was in the house, late at night," Jared put his hands up, almost a surrender. "You didn't see him, it's not your fault. No one mentions any of this," he added: although someone should mention it. "It's nobody's fault. If he lives anyway."

Red blew a careful smoke ring and winced as if even that was almost more pain than she could manage. "If he lives," she repeated in a hollow voice.

Jared heard the chirp of his phone and he checked it. "I'm going to take him to the car. Promise you'll be here when I get back."

Red shrugged and pulled the jacket around her even tighter. If she could make herself any smaller, she'd disappear in his coat and Jared was sure that's what she wished for.

Jared scooped the cop up in his arms and hefted his limp body into place. Good thing the fucker was so skinny, he thought as he looked down from the top landing. It was four flights of stairs and he couldn't risk having Javi come in the house. That would be another set of prints, which was more unexplained DNA.

His mind moved at light speed as he moved down the stairs as quickly as possible with the half dead cop. The man's head hung loose, almost like it would roll completely off if it weren't for the connecting tissue. Dammit, he didn't want to save the man's life. But if she had planned on stabbing him in the fucking femoral artery he would have tried to talk her out of it. Too much blood, too fast, it was a big risk for a quick payout.

He was more than halfway there. Jared told himself that he just had to get him to the car. Then Javi just had to get him inside the emergency room without dislodging the precisely wedged screwdriver.

That was a medical professional's job and then the hospital would be the one to actually kill him. Or not.

Jared didn't actually want to save him because he gave a shit. There was something biblical about the man living through this. Then he could be fired and brought up on charges. Then the cop would be sent to prison and he'd learn firsthand what running a train was. That was justice so beautiful Jared couldn't keep himself from smiling.

He held the front door open with his foot as he eased Mueller into the backseat. In his rush to get to Javi's car, Jared smacked the cop's head on the frame. Good, that was justice too. Hopefully it was one more ugly lump on the ugly man and it would remind him one day not to fuck with people.

"Mr. W?" Javi grimaced as he saw what Jared had in his arms. "Is he dead, boss?"

Mueller hissed and then swallowed hard. Two new rivulets of blood poured from the corners of his mouth. "Not completely dead," Jared said as he gingerly laid the cop down in Javi's backseat. The car would be shit after this with the mess. "We'll get you a new car after this." It was a bribe, Jared guessed but what the hell? He was already in way over his head. "Just get him to the hospital."

"Drop him off in the Emergency parking?"

No, because then they'd check the security cameras and get a plate and that would lead them right to Jared's estate. "No, carry him inside. You're just a Good Samaritan. You found him in the street like this. A couple blocks from the hospital. And you don't speak English."

Javi grinned and shook his head. Actually his English was impeccable but he also knew when subterfuge would help him more than a good vocabulary. "Que?" he asked Jared and nodded.

"We'll also have to dispose of his car before it's light out," Jared said as he ran his bloody hands up and down his pants.

"No problem, Mr. W. I have a cousin who will make it go away." Javi brought his fingers together, kissed them and opened his hand to show him, as if by magic, whatever it had been was gone. Abracadabra.

"Okay," Jared nodded. He had to go back inside. That shrug that Red had given him wasn't exactly a promise.

He was silent as he reentered the Draper residence and ran up the four flights of stairs back to her attic room. He took the stairs three at a time. If she had bolted, he wanted to close the head start she had as much as possible. The door creaked and announced his presence.

"He didn't die in the street?" she asked. She hadn't moved. Red was still wrapped into a bloody ball inside his jacket.

"Not yet," Jared went to her and knelt in front of the chair. Even like this, with her hair matted with blood and her eyelid swollen, she was lovely in some otherworldly way. In fact, he thought as he took both of her hands in both of his, this way she seemed even more true to herself. She was a warrior in all her gory glory.

There was one fact that should be acknowledged. "Thank you."

She snorted, "For what?"

"Well you kept him from getting the gun. So you might have saved my life." He folded her small fingers and kissed just the nails. "So I owe you something."

"A new screwdriver," Red said and then laughed wickedly.

"Come on," he prompted with his hands on hers. Even like this, beat to shit, with blood in his eyes and an ache in his ribs, there was a current underneath everything. It was the same life pulse that had sprung up from their first meeting.

Want.

Red didn't ask what and he was sure she felt it too. She rose to her feet and followed him. He took her to the bathroom and peeled his crimson stained jacket from her arms. She was a sticky, filthy mess but one glance in the mirror door of her medicine cabinet told him that he looked worse. He hardly looked human, he was more beast than man. The lump on his forehead was probably a concussion waiting for him to fall asleep.

He turned on the shower all the way to hot and began to peel his clothes off his damp body. Hot was better. Cold would feel like a thousand knives on open wounds. It was better to smolder and burn. Jared drew back the shower curtain and watched as Red entered. As soon as the water hit her body, she winced in pain. There was a bloody puddle at her feet. He reached behind her with the half used bar of soap and wet it in his hands.

As brutally as he'd attacked her before, he was whisper soft as he touched her now. Jared caressed her arms with the soap. "Let me see your wrist, darling," he whispered. He turned her wrist up and blew on the purple mark that the cop's handcuffs had left behind.

"Speaking of thanking someone, thanks for coming to rescue me," Red's voice was just a purr. "Mueller was planning on him and his friends breaking me in for the halfway house."

He washed her blister gently and watched as the blood from his arms cascaded down her body in a bloody river. "No problem, Red. Stalking you paid off." He gave her half a smile and it would have been a whole smile if his face didn't hurt so badly.

"How'd you know to come inside tonight?" she asked as he tilted her head back and the shower rinsed the blood from her hair. All the evidence ran down the drain. They could pretend that they were just a couple, just two ordinary people, showering before they made love. Normal.

"I knew he kept tabs on you. Tonight he parked down the street and turned his headlights off." Plus there was that warning in his gut. The sick feeling that he had when he thought of Red in danger.

She stood on her tiptoes and they were almost mouth to mouth like this. With her one good eye, she stared straight into both of his. "Thank you," she whispered, her full, curvy bottom lip almost touched his. Her breath on his face made every nerve come to life.

He was going to say something, something stupid or maybe, he didn't even know and whatever it was, he quickly forgot when she kissed him.

She kissed him like she was tasting him and for all Jared knew, considering their relationship so far, she might have been. Her tongue was hotter than the shower water and she licked his lips apart. She explored the full length and width of each. He moaned when the tip of her tongue hesitated right there, at the entry before she slipped inside.

Their mouths were sealed together and they breathed the other's air. Jared felt her in his lungs and swallowed it down. Her luscious lips sucked on his one at a time and her small tongue surrendered to his completely.

The kiss went on and her small hands melted down his back and curled around his ass cheeks. She whimpered as his hard cock strummed against her hip. Her dick tapped his balls and the heat from her erection melted into his skin.

When their mouths parted, he blurted out, "I want to make love with you." Jared couldn't stop himself from saying it, there were no other words.

"One time before I go back to jail?" she asked. Suddenly the hard edge was back to her voice. It didn't seem possible that seconds ago she had been just a girl in his arms.

"What if you were okay?" Jared asked as he swept her hair back from her face. Still the color of blood, it was hard to know if he'd washed it all from her.

"What does that mean?" Red wondered as she traced his mouth with her fingernail.

"You literally were defending yourself," he began and when she made a noise to stop him there in his tracks, Jared continued. "No, listen Red. You've been a model prisoner since you got out. He's harassed you ever since you came here. Once he knew what you were, he decided that he had to have you. You could sue the police department."

The water had gone cold but neither of them left or turned it off. "Who would believe me?" she whispered and her chin trembled with the tears she held back.

"All the other women he did that to before. Plus you'd have me and I'd get you an amazing lawyer." Jared pulled her close and murmured between kisses on her earlobe, "by the time this is over, you'll be off parole and have your old life back."

"My old life?" she cocked her head, as if he couldn't begin to guess anything about her old life.

"A new life." Jared bent down and turned off the faucet. His hands moved up her thighs and skimmed the swell of her hips. He followed the curve to her waist as he stared at her. "How does that sound?"

She didn't answer and he felt desperate inside. He wanted this as much as he needed her touch, her scent, her cock. "Let me take care of you," he murmured as his fingers wandered the expanse of her incredible softness.

She closed her good eye and he felt the electricity run down her body. She was warm, she was freezing, she was covered in goosebumps and trembled in his arms. When she opened the cold, blue eye once more, her gaze held a longing that was something new. Red smiled, her bottom lip was still perfect although her top lip had teeth marks on it. They were her own, not his. "Take me to bed," she sounded so young and innocent. She said it like she was just a girl and he was just a boy and this was new and quickly turning into love.

Jared pushed the shower curtain back and said, "Yes." He exited the tub and put his feet on the clammy, worn vinyl. He put his arms out for her. There was one used towel in a damp pile on the floor and nothing else to dry themselves on.

So they'd just make a fucking mess of her bed.

He carried her to the mattress and placed her gently in the center. Jared watched her bloody tangle of hair cover the pillow below. She made a face as the pain settled in once more. It didn't matter that his whole body ached. His heart ached too and his cock was relentless like this. It dripped incessantly on the indentation down the center of her abs. He was making a puddle of want for her and Red noticed.

She scooped her two fingers into his essence and languorously licked it. His precum left a shiny drop on her round bottom lip. "You taste so good," Red whispered.

Jared melted into her body and his mouth followed her scent. He placed a reverent kiss on her forehead, carefully avoiding her purple eye. It looked awful and yet, he imagined that it was hardly her first black eye. He was sure that it wouldn't be her last either. There was something about Red that seemed to be made for fighting, for ferocity. Yet at this moment, she was like a kitten curled up in his arms. He kissed the tip of her nose and then her Cupid's bow.

Jared continued down to her throat and the satin place under her jawline. She was so exquisitely soft. No matter all of the contradictions that made up Red, her creamy skin was made to be kissed and tasted. He set his hand at the center of her chest and he swore that he could feel the drumroll of her heartbeat and it matched his, beat for beat.

Jared straightened her slender arm and pressed his forehead into her armpit as he continued his slow study of every inch of Red. He pressed his face into her shoulder and listened to the rhythm of her sighs. The woman in his life, she gave herself over to his mouth. She melted for him.

He looked up and paused, there was a crimson smear right between her breasts and he felt a wave of fear churning there. "Are you hurt?" Jared panicked. Could there have been a wound that he had missed with all of that blood?

"It's you," Red told him in a dreamy voice, "Your hand. Let me see."

Jared put his right palm up for inspection and realized that yes, she was right. The cut there was swollen with his own blood. Red kissed him and her lips were printed in the center of his hand. It was a perfect copy of her mouth in blood.

Jared continued his worship, down her décolletage with feather soft kisses until he reached the place he had already marked with his blood. One of the things he had obsessed over was to precisely name the color of her nipples. Even like this, it was impossible. They were large and the flesh closet to her breasts was a tannish, creamy brown. The wrinkled areolas were gradually more and more pink until he reached the very tips of her nipples. Those were a dark pink, a ripe bud about to burst open under the careful lash of his tongue.

He groaned as he followed the hills and valleys of her buds. He sucked her slowly between his hot, sticky lips. Red quivered under him and pushed her breasts up, as if she were feeding him her flesh. She asked him in a faraway voice, "Bite me?"

Jared was eager to oblige and nipped with just the edge of his teeth. Red was so tender and she clutched him tightly to her. Her warmth and her mating scent mingled in the air around them. It mixed with the smell of sweat and the slightly copper smell of blood. Jared knew that it was now an imprint on his olfactory receptors that he'd recall forever.

Everything was Red.

He nipped and sucked and rooted at her breasts and reached for her hand with his bloody one. Their fingers folded together as if the other hand was the missing piece. Jared licked the silky crease under her small breasts and pressed his forehead into her warmth as he bit her harder. One day he would just run his teeth along every inch of her from head to toe and leave her with a trail of lines and ridges. Marks to mark her, ownership.

Something like her piss or her blade had done to him.

Jared moved to hover over her. There was something that he had dreamed of but couldn't speak out loud. The thought had haunted him since the first encounter and now, it had almost become an obsession.

He kissed down her belly and reached up to weave his fingers with her other hand. The head of her erect cock brushed his lips, like a slippery, salty kiss.

"Not going to run away now, are you?" Red whispered. There was a sassy smile on her face but her one blue eye begged him not to.

"No," he told her. He was not going to run away, never again but he also felt nervous and inadequate in his skills at this point. She had taken his virginity before and that seemed right. This time, this first, he wanted to give freely. He wanted to make a beautiful girl cum in his mouth.

On his knees seemed like a good place to start. He bowed his head and whispered, "My girl." The tip of his tongue lapped across her slit and tasted her precum directly from the source. She was cinnamon and something warm and sweet like honey. She was salty and musky all at once. She was a flavor palate and like everything else about Red, it was more than a little complicated.

Jared licked and the strand of saliva and precum drooled down his chin. He sighed into her pulsing flesh and gave her the rest of his mouth as he closed his lips around the meaty head of her dick.

"Yes, that's perfect," Red murmured and her curvy hips eased back and forth, basking in the feel of him.

Jared drank from her slit and let his mouth meld around her lovely cock. His tongue curved to lap along the hot, pulsing vein that ran the length of her. His lips pulled tight and yet were malleable around her girth.

Most importantly, he tasted her as he swallowed. His saliva now carried the flavor of Red. He felt his body respond with a new urgency he'd never known before. His own dick had been hard since the shower. The pain had never been as important as the creamy feel of Red's cheeks pressed against him. He flailed and the head of his dick spit his liquid need. It drizzled down his thigh. He knew then that the thought of making her cum in his mouth could bring him almost to the brink of an orgasm.

His mouth seemed to know her, just as his soul seemed to know hers. He fed on her and opened up wider and then wider still as she pushed her hips. They rocked the squeaky mattress with the tempo of their lovemaking. "Oh yes, that's so good," she cried out and shuddered. Red broke free from his hands to lay her own dainty fingers on his shoulder. "Slow down," it was the tenderest voice she'd ever spoken to him in. It was sweet and completely feminine. "Slow down, I don't want to cum yet."

God, she really was a woman.

She even wanted her cock sucked nice and slow. Jared lay on his belly and looked up at the scenery as he held her slender thighs apart. She mewed like a kitten and pushed her hips up. Her eye watched him intently and her gaze was full of lust and longing. A hungry lioness, she bit her full, bottom lip and pulsed between his lips.

Jared slid his hand up, up the center of her belly, and feasted on all of her sensations. The feel of her skin, the taste of her dick, the scent of her musk as her small, pink balls shifted and drew up close.