Saving Sarah

"You're grasping at straws, trying to cover up your own incompetence. That's a fairy tale and you know it."

"Perhaps, and then again, perhaps not! But there is one way to be sure. If she is hiding here, then a quick look around could tell me what I want to know."

"You're not rummaging through my place. You're not violating my rights. You have no probable cause to search my home."

"I have probable cause because you're probably guilty."

"I don't have to listen to your insults. Get out. Get out now."

"Listen Tony," Browning said, softening his callous tone. "I can understand how an amazing woman like that could get under your skin, and make you want to take risks. But aiding a fugitive can send you away for a lot of years. But I tell you what I'm gonna do. If I am right, and if she is here, in your house hiding. Then if you give her up, right here, right now. I'll make sure no charges ever come against you."

"She's not here, you idiot. She never was! And I had nothing to do with her getting away! How can I get that through your thick skull? Now get out. You no longer have permission to be here. And the next time you come to my house, it had better be with a search warrant, because I ain't opening that front door for you no more."

"Alright, Tony. We'll do this your way, but I hope for your sake that you are on the up and up, because there is a search warrant on the way. It's being signed by a judge as we speak. I was just giving you an opportunity to have an out without having to do jail time. But we'll do it your way. Within the hour, we'll be ransacking this home, and if she's here, we'll find her. And if she's been here, we'll know. We have her DNA and fingerprints from the blood stains on the window ledge. If we find so much as a strand of her hair on a hair brush, or a fingerprint on a countertop, or-"

"For the last time, get out. No judge is gonna sign a warrant without cause."

"You were not seen leaving the bank through the front door last night. We checked all the cameras. They don't go inside your office, but they do show you went into your office and then never came out, which means you went out through the window. Why would you go out the window unless you were helping that robber escape? The judge signing that warrant asked the very same question!"

"Another one of your damn fairy tales! So I went out the window. Maybe I wanted to see if it was really impossible for her to get away like you said. After all, you questioned me on it for an hour. And you know what, I think she could have easily gotten away. It was getting dark, and there were bushes and parked cars to hide around or under till she snuck away."

"Right, just snuck away past ten officers. Don't be an idiot!"

"Go on, Browning. Out of my damn house! And make sure the next time you return you have that damn warrant, or I'm not letting you in."

"It'll be here, only when it comes, they'll be no more deals for you. You'll be an accessory. You'll be in jail."

"The hell with you. Get out. Get out now!"

Browning shrugged and stepped out the door. Then Tony locked it and dashed upstairs.

Sarah came out to meet him with her face awash with tears. She was trembling and resigned to the fact that there was no way out of the mess she was in. "I heard every word you two were saying. You shouldn't have put yourself in so much trouble for me. That detective is just too damn smart. He knows everything. And when he gets that search warrant, they're going to find me."

"No one is going to find you. Just do exactly as I say. Gather up your jacket, shoes, pants and any other thing belonging to you, then, take along whatever hair brushes you were using. I'm stashing you in the attic."

She stared at him incredulously. "The attic? Is that your brilliant answer? A smart detective like that? The attic's probably the first place he'll look."

"That's exactly what I'm banking on. I'll explain later. Now, while you do that, I'll be in the kitchen, trying to wipe down everything you may have touched. Meet you in half an hour."

"You honestly think you'll get all the prints?"

"Probably not, but if I even get rid of most of them, perhaps I can say you found my keys in my bank office along with my wallet that had my ID and address. If they do find the odd fingerprint, I can argue you might have tried to sneak inside my home for a few minutes while I was out, to rob my place to get some cash or something you could sell. Round up everything that belongs to you and get into the walk in closet. You'll see a ladder and a handle on the ceiling. Climb up in there and wait for me."

"It'll never work. They'll find me. We'll both go to jail. Turn me in while you still have the chance!"

"They won't find you. Just do as I say, quickly. Nobody is turning you in, and nobody is going to jail. Trust me, will you? Now please, hurry."

"Fine, we'll do it your way, only I hope you know what the hell you're doing."

He watched her scamper away. In her scanty lingerie she was truly magnificent. His hungry eyes devoured her dangerous curves, latching longingly onto her spectacular waving bum and thighs underneath the lacy, satin slip.

XXXX

"Browning here."

"Wilson, is that you? It's about time you got the hell back to me! What did the judge say?"

"I twisted his damn arm just as far as I could, but he only coughed up a partial warrant."

"How partial?"

"He thinks you're on a fishing expedition. You're allowed to look for the girl, but nothing else. You can't seize any clothing or other items of interest or look for prints or DNA. Anything you do take will be inadmissible, but at least you can find out once and for all if she is really with him or not."

"Still, I want a lot of officers looking. If she is in the house. I want her found."

"I got a van load, at least six in all. That should be enough, okay?"

"Okay. How soon can you get here?"

"In this traffic, half an hour."

"Fine. If she is in there, she's not going anywhere."

XXXX

"You think you got all my prints wiped clean?"

"Probably not, but I did the best I could with the time I had. What do you think of my attic?"

"Pretty musty and stale up here. I hate the smell of mothballs. And please tell me those are not rat droppings. I hate those damn things!"

"Don't worry. They're old. We used to have a rat problem last year but an exterminator took care of them. My dad, God rest his soul, was an accountant. But in his spare time he used to do volunteer magic shows for the hospital. That's his trick trunk over there. A magic trunk, I guess you could call it. He used to go into the children's hospitals and entertain the kids by making himself or an assistant disappear. He really did have a good heart. "

"Trick trunk?"

"Yep. It's got a false bottom. Here, hop inside."

"It's locked."

"Oh, not locked really. Just stuck. It hasn't been used in about ten years."

"It's still not giving way."

"Let me try. There. Go ahead, climb in."

"Good girl. Now you see that lever over in the corner?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Now you simply lie down and pull that lever toward you. It'll open up a false bottom and you'll drop two feet down onto a long cushion. Then the top will swing shut again."

"How the hell will I breathe?"

"There are long sliver cracks along the sides. You'll be able to breathe just fine. Just don't make any noise, that's all!"

"You sure this will work?"

"Why wouldn't it? Now lie down and pull that lever. And then just remain still and quiet for the next couple of hours. I'll come and get you after they leave."

She lay down and pulled the lever. The bottom dropped out from underneath her and she slipped down onto a long cushion. Then the top slid back over her, concealing her, making the trunk look empty.

There was a sudden knock at the door. Tony supposed Browning could have used a battering ram to take out the front door if he wanted to, but he was obviously trying to be civil, still uncertain of whether or not the female robber was actually there.

Tony climbed down the steps to the ladder and let the hinge door go as he descended, allowing it to snap back up into the ceiling. Tony hung some of his mother's dresses over the ladder and prayed Browning wouldn't notice it. If he was lucky, the detective would forget all about the attic. But even if he remembered to go up there, he was confident he would find absolutely nothing.

XXXX

His shiny BMW hugged the winding road as it traversed the cliff top, swerving at ominous curves that cared little about whether or not he plummeted over the steep sandstone wall. The Atlantic Ocean rang sweetly in their ears, taunting them into believing that freedom just might be within her grasp if they played their cards right. Still, Tony's insistence that his impulsive purchase of a hideaway home for her in a small town, seemed to defy the boundaries of logic in her weary, worried mind. But his desire to take her to that home now would seem to indicate he was anxious to put her mind at ease. Still, moving into a house in some small, quiet town might pose some risks. Wouldn't it just be better if he helped her flee the country? Still, Tony was insistent that his way was best. And up till, now, at least, she had to admit he had managed to keep her one step ahead of the law.

It had been ten days since Browning's search of his home had turned up nothing. For now, the tenacious and annoying detective seemed to be content to back off, and even admit he was starting to have his doubts about Tony's involvement in the female robber's miraculous disappearance from the bank.

Trevor was also still on the loose, and the police seemed no closer to apprehending him now, than they had been on the actual day of the robbery. Even after ten days of stellar and stubborn detective work there were no leads to speak of. Tony supposed that Browning's superiors were no doubt livid with the detective wasting valuable time investigating the assistant bank manager. Only now, Tony no longer had to work at the bank. The fifty grand had been used to put down on a comfortable home in a small town where Sarah might remain out of sight, when it came to the snooping police, but not out of mind, where Tony was concerned.

She was easily the most beautiful and sexiest woman he had ever encountered, and she was also the woman that had saved his life, and risked her freedom by taking a bullet that had his name on it. She was also charming, fun and romantic, and it irked him to no end that she had gotten somehow mixed up with a heartless gunman who merely wanted to use her in his robberies. Trevor had somehow managed to tangle up her heart, and Tony had no illusions that untangling it might prove harder that he had at first had imagined.

"You're still thinking of him, aren't you?"

"And by him, you mean whom?"

"Don't be coy, Sarah, you know exactly whom I'm talking about. The man that got you into this mess in the first place."

"No man got me into this mess," she insisted. "I got myself into it. Trevor didn't force me into it. I went into it not blind folded, but with both eyes open."

"With both beautiful eyes open," Tony corrected.

"Pull over."

"Pardon?"

"You heard me," Sarah said. "Pull over now, dammit!"

Tony did as she asked, first slowing down and then grinding to a halt along the soft shoulder of the road. "Why'd you want me to stop?"

Sarah reached out and grabbed his face with her long, all natural, pretty painted, scarlet red nails, yanking his cheeks so that he would be forced to look into her eyes.

"You know what, Tony? I'm only human. You've been complimenting me on my pretty face and sweetly sculpted cheeks, and lovely dreamy eyes and dangerous curves, and model like legs, and incredibly tiny waist and, how did you put it? Oh yeah, your silky, stunning curls, just like the kind that have always filled my fantasies. Well you know what, Tony? I store up each of your compliments the way a camel stores up water, and sooner or later, one of your well chosen words of praise is going to be the straw to break that camel's back. So if you're looking to wear me down with your telling me about how great I look and smell and act and all the rest of it, then you're eventually going to start turning my heart towards you, and then you're going to have one hell of a woman on your hands. Right now, we're both free. The cops don't know who I am or how to find me, and apparently, they even know less about Trevor. I could go to another country and hide, but you want me to lay low, and stay at this place you bought for me. And I'm grateful, but if we fall in love, what then? People will eventually start seeing you with a black girlfriend that looks remarkably like that female bank robber you were suspected of helping escape. And then what? Don't you see how hopeless it all is? Cut me loose, and cut your losses. If you want to help me, fine, give me money, a false passport, and send me packing. But don't give up your heart like that, and don't capture mine into the same damn trap. Cause all that will happen is that if you don't stop, we'll fall too deeply in love, and won't be able to live together, and we won't be able to live apart."

Her mouth was moving and sound was coming out, but he didn't recognize the well chosen words. His preoccupied ears were non-responsive. Instead, his entire focus was on her lush, full lips, their glorious sheen and fabulous shiny lipstick driving him out of his mind. His heart was thumping wildly and his tortured mind running off in a dozen directions at once. Couldn't she see how madly in love with her he had already become? Couldn't she see how it was far too late for him to let go of her now? Didn't she understand that she had come to mean more to him in the last ten short days that any other person ever had in his entire life?

He launched his warm, handsome lips against her surprised mouth, catching her off guard. He was a far more skilful kisser than she could ever have imagined, and an unexpected shockwave of pleasure rocked her love starved body, turning her on against her will.

She wanted to pull away immediately, but allowed her moist, superbly aroused mouth to stay pressed to his lips for a moment longer than it should. She then felt her nipples stiffen and swell, warning her that she should not let herself get in any deeper. Still, the kiss was amazing, and she waited stubbornly until he himself gently pried their lips apart.

"There, now that wasn't so bad, now was it?" he asked timidly, knowing he had risked offending her.

"Is that why you're really helping me? To try and turn on my sex starved body? Is that all I am to you? Some super hot black chick that owes you so much for all you've done that you think she should just drop her pants when you snap your fingers?"

"You make it all sound so crude. But you can't tell me you didn't feel anything just now?"

"Fine, I felt something. Fine, the kiss turned me on. Fine, my heart just got a little warmer where you're concerned. But to what end? Are you brain dead? Have you not been listening to any of the damn things I've been saying to you? I'm a hot blooded, over sexed woman that believes in taking whatever she wants. And if what I want should eventually turn out to be you, then we're both in trouble. How can you not see that? I tend to fall in love very easily and so far, you've been really pushing the envelope, letting me know how strongly you feel about me. But you should be helping me escape half way around the world somewhere, not putting money down on a small town secluded home that you want to turn into a love nest."

"It's my money. I can part with it any way I please."

"Fine, it's your money, but it's both our necks if I get caught."

"You won't get caught."

"Oh really? What if Detective Browning should suddenly start following you around again, doing a spot check to find out if you do indeed know more about where I am, than you've been telling? Or worse yet, what if the FBI, frustrated at coming up empty handed, should start listening to Browning and start tearing your life apart as well? Right now I have a chance to slip away for good and get us both off the hook. But the path we're heading on now, it can only lead to disaster. You're trying to make me fall for you and you're starting to do a damn good job at it, and it scares the hell out of me."

He suddenly launched his delicious mouth at her a second time, and for the second time, treated her already tantalized lips to a sensational burst of earth shattering pleasure. Only now, his jacket was open, and his skilful white hands reached round her fabulous black body and pulled her closer, squishing the giant, swollen nipples under her blouse, against the muscular chest under his skimpy t-shirt.

"Stop!" Her one word declaration stung his horny ears and he reluctantly pulled away. His eyes latched onto the bulging cleavage and heavenly engorged nipples before watching her hand brush a rolling tear off her pretty cheek. Her voice started trembling as she tried to get through to him once more.

"Please, Tony...I...I...I'm so damn confused. You're making me crazy. Tangling up my heart...setting my body on fire...on...on absolute fire, dammit! Right now I'm vulnerable and you're taking advantage. You're turning me on, you're...you're tearing up my heart...damn you!"

"So you do want me as much as I want you? I knew it!"

She stared at him with an intense level of incredulity. "Yeah, I want you, you idiot! And that's the problem. Now for the last fucking time! And I mean the last fucking time! Back off or you may just get your wish!"

"That's what I want!"

"Don't you see, Tony? You don't know what you want! I believe you when you say you think I'm the most beautiful and sexiest woman you've ever seen. But that's the problem isn't it? And it's making you fall for me even more. But I swear to you white boy, that you'd better not kiss me again, not now not ever! Because I'm getting weak, and the next fucking time your fucking sweet white mouth touches my lips, I'm gonna cave in and give you what you want. Only my body doesn't come cheap, white boy. I'm not a believer in casual sex. I'm a believer in commitment, and walking down the aisle, and all that old fashioned stuff. If I give myself to you it'll be forever, and then you'll be stuck with me for good. And stop staring at my cleavage. The bras in your deceased mother's drawer are all too small. First thing I need you to do for me when we get into this town is for you to buy me some damn bras that can fit me. You keep staring at my chest like I'm wearing cantaloupes!"

Tony lifted his gaze and stared into her gorgeous brown eyes intently. His heart thumped in his chest. He couldn't resist trying to tempt fate a third time and he leaned toward her again, pulling their chests together once more, only now her finger pressed hard against his anxious mouth, stopping their hungry lips from meeting again.

"You're really something, white boy. Tearing up my heart, getting inside my head and under my skin. I warned you for good reason and I'm telling you to just back the fuck off or you'll find yourself joined at the hip to a lifetime woman."

"What's wrong with that?" he whined. "Sounds like heaven if you ask me."

"I'm not asking you, dammit, Tony. I'm telling you! For both our sakes, and for the very last time...do you hear me? For the very last fucking time, back off! You're not ready for this relationship and neither am I!"

"I am ready," he whined.

"Are you really? Are you really Tony? We've only known each other for what, ten measly days? You don't know about any of my past relationships or even if I'm fully over Trevor. You're not giving me any time at all to sort out my feelings."

The name Trevor stung him. "After all the hell he put you through, I can't believe you would even give him a second thought."