The End of Fear

"Rio, that was fucking amazing!" Qhuinn caught her face in his hands, his grin tight. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

Blaylock turned her from Qhuinn, pressing her hands to his broad chest.

"Are you alright?" he asked softly, the worry still flooding his face.

"Are you kidding, Blay?" Qhuinn cried, shaking his head. "Did you see her? She's gonna kick your ass if you get outta hand."

Rio laughed as Blaylock pulled her close and tucked her under his shoulder. They followed the other two up the steps leading to the VIP section and past the velvet rope separating it from the club's gen pop area. The Barbies were waiting and as soon as Qhuinn got within range, they latched onto him like fly paper, flashing Rio another look of envy. Destination - the open banquette at the far back corner right next to the exit.

Rio stepped away from Blaylock, scanning the area for an empty table. He caught her hand as she started to move away and pulled her close again.

"Where are you going?" He frowned in confusion.

"I told you I just needed in," she reminded him. "I'm not looking for anything else."

"No, come." Blaylock tugged on her hand.

"Fuck that," Qhuinn turned, agreeing with his friend. "You sit with us, right, John?"

John nodded enthusiastically, signing quickly but carefully. You're with us. No pressure.

Rio dropped her head, not speaking for a long moment. Finally she nodded and without lifting her head she signed Ok.

"Good," Qhuinn pronounced, turning back to their table. "Now let's get those drinks happening."

Rio slid into the booth beside one of the Barbie twins and nodded in approval. Right where she wanted to be -- in the shadows. She would've preferred to be alone but all things considered, she could live with this. At least for tonight.

The waitress stopped in front of their table, waiting with half a smile. Qhuinn ordered for himself and the girls and translated John's preference. Blaylock asked for a Corona then looked at Rio.

"No beer for me. Allergic. I'll have a Grey Goose, straight up. And a shot of JD."

"You don't fool around, do you?" Blaylock asked with a smile.

Rio smiled back. "Well, I don't do the shot every time but after that dance out there," she jerked her chin in the direction of gen pop, "I think I'm good for one this round."

The drinks came and raising her shot glass in a toast to the table, she downed it in a quick swallow. Qhuinn's attention was riveted to the two girls draped over him but she saw both John and Blaylock cock an eyebrow at her as she set her glass down. She snickered and raised her vodka glass to them before taking a drink.

It wasn't long after Qhuinn shot at look at John, who slid out of the booth to let his friend and the Barbie twins out. Rio watched Blaylock's face tighten up as he pretended not to watch the three of them head to the large private bathrooms in the back. He signalled to the waitress, who nodded without coming over. Rio quickly raised her shot glass and shook her head, then reached out and stroked a finger lightly over the back of Blay's hand, the one clenched into a fist. He sucked his breath in and clenched the hand tighter.

"Easy, sweetheart," she murmured. "That 'no pressure' promise has no specific name on it, you know."

"Sorry," he answered. "I didn't mean to..."

"No worries." She took a long, slow breath. "Do you ever just stay home? Or go...somewhere else? Anywhere else?"

He shot her a quick look. Rio held his eyes, her look direct, full of knowledge. She knew he could see her compassion for him, her empathy for the pain of his situation, but there was no judgement, no condemnation. Just the sorrow that it was what it was and none of the parties involved seemed able to change it. Blaylock shot a glance at John, who returned the look with his usual solid support. He turned back to Rio with a small sigh. The sound laid out the truth in no uncertain terms.

"No." He shook his head. "What would be the point? I'd still know and I'm not sure it would hurt any less."

"It might. At least you wouldn't have to watch it happen."

Blaylock's smile was so empty, his face so ruined, that Rio felt her heart wrench in her chest, locking her breath inside.

"I'd still see it played out in my mind," he murmured softly. "At least here I'm close to him. And he isn't always with...someone else."

Her lungs unlocked and she sucked in a light gasp. She cleared her throat a couple of times then spoke in a low, hoarse voice.

"Oh, baby, what I'd put on the line for you if I thought it would make a difference."

She felt John watching her with sharp speculation but she never took her eyes off Blaylock. His shock was apparent but he let her hold his gaze steady. She stretched out her hand toward him and waited. The seconds ticked by until Blaylock finally reached out. He captured her hand uncertainly and she twisted her fingers through his and squeezed firmly. Blaylock turned her hand over and brought it to his mouth, pressing his lips to her inner wrist. Rio raised her eyebrows in surprise then slid her palm down his cheek.

John signalled the waitress for another round and as she dropped the drinks and turned away, he shot upright, his hands clenching on the table. Before Rio could ask what was wrong a figure stopped in the shadows in front of them.

"Do you want to move over a little there, John Matthew?" a low, hard female voice spoke. "I'd like to sit down for a minute, talk some business with your friend here."

John shifted a few inches further into the booth but nowhere near enough to make anyone else sliding in comfortable. Rio fought to hold back her smile, biting down on her bottom lip till it hurt. Alex Hess slid slowly into the booth and Rio knew by the sudden low hiss coming from the male beside her that the security head's thigh was pressed against his.

"John?" she spoke quietly, the warning clear in her voice, and he slowly inched a little further away.

"My name's Alex Hess. I'm head of security here."

She looked at Rio, who nodded twice.

"I've heard that," she acknowledged.

"I've seen you here a few times now," Alex continued. "You got a name?"

"Rio."

Alex cocked an eyebrow, waiting for a last name that didn't come.

"Rio what?" she finally asked.

"Just Rio."

Alex's eyebrow climbed a little higher and the light hanging over the table cast shadows on her face, turning her surprise into something dark.

"Well, just Rio, I notice you always come in alone, tonight being a surprising exception. You don't drink a lot and if you do, you don't get sloppy. You don't cause any trouble and you always leave alone. You don't seem particularly disturbed by anything that goes on around you here and I can't say that I've seen any...disapproval over anything, either. Is that a fairly accurate assessment so far?"

Rio leaned her elbows on the table and clasped her hands in front of her, propping her chin on them. With a single nod and a shrug of her shoulders, she indicated her agreement with everything Alex had just said. Then she waited.

The security head's eyes shifted to the general population area past the glassed-in waterfall that separated to two sections of the club. She shot her chin out in a quick movement then looked back at Rio.

"That was an impressive display out there with that sack of shit. Can you do that any time you need to or was it a fluke tonight?"

She felt Blaylock shift beside her and the tension that tightened John's body told her she was probably right about where her thoughts were heading. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before answering.

"Well, the last time I had to worry about it they were sober. And both armed."

She paused for a moment and felt the tension at the table crank up.

"I believe the families still take flowers to the...him...every week," she finished softly, her eyes locked on the female sitting across from her.

The energy at the table thrummed through the air and after a few moments, a hard tight smile lifted the corners of Alex's mouth. Approval flared briefly in her eyes and she nodded.

"If you don't mind me asking, where did you learn to fight like that?"

Rio laughed softly. She leaned back in her seat and dropped her hands to the table top.

"You aren't gonna believe this but I don't have a clue. I think of a situation. I close my eyes. I see it in my head, every movement needed. Then I walk through it, every step. If I can do it smoothly, if the movements are possible and easy to reach for, that's it." She shrugged. "If not, I start over and do it till it is."

Alex stared at her. Rio saw the reluctant amazement in her eyes, the belief that her explanation was so unorthodox it had to be a joke. Yet she had seen it in action.

"You have got to be kidding," she finally said, her voice flat.

Rio grinned and shook her head. "That's it. All of it."

"Fucking unbelievable," Alex breathed.

This time Rio caught the waitress's eye. Alex didn't speak until the drinks were on the table. She seemed to come to a decision and abruptly straightened up.

"Are you working anywhere right now?"

"I am unfortunately in between jobs at the moment. And I don't mind telling you it sucks."

"What did you do?"

Rio grinned ruefully and rubbed her forehead. Then she laughed as she let her breath out in a huff, drawing her hand down over her face.

"I was an admin assistant and a dispatcher at Caldwell Trucking."

There was several seconds of dead silence and then Alex spoke, her voice shaking with incredulity.

"You. Are. Fucking. Kidding. Me."

Her stare cut through Rio like a high powered drill. Blaylock burst out laughing and John slammed his fist into table, his body shaking silently.

At that moment, Qhuinn strode into view. He was alone and trying desperately to straighten out his clothing. His hair was in fabulous disarray, his lips swollen and red. His beautiful mismatched eyes had a glassy sheen to them and everything about him looked thoroughly used and well satisfied by it.

"What's doing?" he asked as he slid into the booth beside Blaylock, who was still laughing.

Rio held up a finger, putting him on hold for a moment but not taking her eyes off Alex.

"With those skills," Alex said in the same tone, like Rio was yanking her chain just for kicks and giggles. "A fucking secretary."

Rio held up a finger again and shook her head. "Not a secretary. An admin assistant."

Once again, Blaylock's laughter rang across the table and John shook his head. Rio's grin split her face wide and still not taking her eyes off the security head's stunned face she lost control over her own laughter.

"This is such bullshit," Alex said, shaking her head in defeat.

"It is what it is," Rio agreed with a sigh, her laughter drifting away. "And pretty much the story of my life. So, where are we going from here?"

Qhuinn's eyes bounced around the table, taking in the expressions on each face. It was obvious something was in the works and just like everyone else who wasn't directly involved, he held his breath, waiting. Time stretched out as the two women locked eyes, neither one making the first move. Alex seemed to be digging into Rio, looking for some sign of weakness, some flicker of uneasiness at the directness of her gaze. Rio held her stare; calm, rock solid, like the outcome didn't matter in the least and so wasn't worth worrying about.

Finally Alex nodded, satisfied at whatever she saw in Rio's head. She tapped her hand on the table twice and straightened up in her seat.

"Do you want to come work for me? The rest of my security are all male but nobody will have a problem with you."

Rio heard Qhuinn's hiss of surprise but she didn't drop her gaze from Alex. This test wasn't over yet, despite how it appeared, and Rio knew it.

"Are you sure you want to offer that?" she asked softly, her challenge clear.

"Yeah. My team is tight. I wouldn't offer if I wasn't sure," Alex said.

Her expectation was that Rio would come in needing no proving time before being accepted as an equal member of the team. And her reassurance that everyone would accept her without that proof up front was clear in her tone. It was in Rio's court now.

Rio nodded once and leaned forward on the table, her hand outstretched. Alex reached out and as the two women clasped palms the three men sagged in their seats in disbelief.

"Holy shit, Rio, am I hearing this right?" Qhuinn blurted out. "Did you just get hired as part of the security here?"

"Apparently, that does seem to be the situation," she said dryly.

"I know you said you weren't looking for anything but a faster entry time tonight," Qhuinn's eyes sparkled at her, "but this calls for some serious celebrating."

He wrapped his heavy arms around her and dragged her across his lap. Before she could protest he bent his head, his mouth covering hers. He kissed her hard, deep, his tongue finding its way into her heat despite her shock. When he released her a moment later, she smacked him hard across the back of his head.

"Drop me, kid, or we're gonna visit the alley out back and only one of us is coming back in."

Qhuinn growled at her in mock warning and bent his head to nip at her neck. Rio squealed and smacked him again as she slid off his lap.

"Watch who you're calling kid, woman." He let the hoarse growl roll off his tongue, his eyes sparking with laughter. "I'll bet you've never been around someone like me before."

"Oh, I have no doubt about that," she laughed, "but the kid still stands. I'm pretty sure I was babysitting somebody somewhere the day you decided to check in."

Blaylock choked on his beer and John leaned across the table to give Qhuinn another solid knock on the shoulder. Alex stood up, fighting a smile. She tapped her knuckles on the table and pointed at Rio.

"I'll give you tomorrow to get things together. Be here at seven pm Saturday. I'll walk you through some shit, get you ready for an eight to four shift."

Rio nodded. "Thanks, Alex."

The security head looked around the table then back to Rio. "I guess since you'll be working here you'd better call me Xhex. That's what I go by."

"Just for the select few, right?" Rio's chuckle rolled out, low and sleek.

Xhex lifted her hand before drifting off into the darkness.

Chapter 3

The silence at the table drew out and finally Rio shifted and rapped her knuckles on the table top.

"Alright, boys. If your mouths are open, close them. If you're staring at me, stop. If you're not breathing, start. This is not show and tell and I'm not a science exhibit. Somebody talk."

"Holy shit, Rio," Blaylock spoke softly, awed.

"Exactly," Qhuinn snapped, excitement sharpening his voice. "What the hell happened while I was gone?"

"You didn't miss much," Rio told him. "You were here for the important part."

"Bullshit! I missed something," he growled.

John lifted his hands. Xhex came over to talk to Rio about the fight.

Blaylock nodded. "She asked if Rio could do that all the time."

He trailed off at the memory of what came after that. He looked at her quickly and Qhuinn immediately grabbed at the shift.

"What?" he demanded. "What happened?"

Blaylock shot a glance at John before turning back to Rio.

"Come on!" Qhuinn pushed. "What the hell happened?"

Rio took a deep pull from her glass before responding, her eyes on the table.

"You might as well tell him now. You know you will as soon as you're alone anyway."

Blaylock looked at John, who raised his hands to Qhuinn.

Rio killed a guy.

Qhuinn's head snapped around and his eyes bored into her.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" he breathed.

When she didn't respond, Blaylock continued.

"When Xhex asked about the fight, Rio told her the last time she'd faced it the guys were sober and armed. She said the families still take flowers to them every week."

"Rio?" Qhuinn shot the question at her, his voice low, demanding an answer.

She'd never talked about this to anyone before, other than the police, and she couldn't believe how strong her need was to open her mouth now. Especially since the three men waiting to hear it were barely beyond being strangers. The strength of that pull inside, of the need to share this with them, made no sense to her and yet it felt right.

"It was a couple of years ago. I wasn't living here yet. I was in a small town further west. It was summer and a neighbor girl had just gotten a new ten speed for her birthday. She was dying to give it a workout but she didn't want to go alone and both her parents were working. I was off for a few days so I told her I'd go with her. She wanted to hit the country roads outside of town so she called her mom who said there was no problem if she was with me.

"We were about four miles out when she picked up a nail. The tire went flat as a board. We started back, just talking, pushing our bikes. We'd only covered about a mile when the truck pulled up beside us."

Her voice was low, barely above a whisper, with no discernible inflection in the words strung together. But despite the cacophony of sounds bleeding into every available space around them, the encroaching horror building in the softly spoken story was a scream. Rio realized that Xhex was standing in the shadows just behind them, close enough to hear the verbal equivalent of her self-evisceration.

"There were two guys in it. Probably in their late twenties, early thirties. Jenna was only fourteen but I knew it was going to be bad when I saw them looking at her. They offered us a ride but I told them we were good. They insisted we take the ride and one guy got out and threw her bike in the truck box. The other guy was crowding me, brushing his hands against me, whispering vulgarities in my ear. I knew there was only one way to get Jenna out of there safely. I offered myself if they let her go. To let her get on my bike and ride away.

"They jumped on the offer. I watched her leave. She'd only gotten a few hundred yards down the road before the first one dragged me to the back of the truck and ripped off my jeans. When he finished, the second one climbed on. He was almost finished when I heard the first one say he was going after Jenna. He jumped in the truck and I started fighting the guy on top of me. He pulled a gun and stuck it to my temple. When the truck started moving, I lost control. I knew if I didn't stop them, they'd both rape Jenna when they caught her. There was no way she'd made it back to town yet.

"I had longer nails back then and I reached up and drove them into that bastard's eyes. He started shrieking and made a grab for his face. I shoved him off me and he fell off the truck. He dropped his gun when he went over and I grabbed for it but it slid off the tailgate when we hit a bump. I turned and caught the side of the box and prayed I could keep my balance then kicked out the back window. I reached in and grabbed that other prick by the hair and pulled with everything I had. When his head came back, I started hammering on him. When he finally couldn't control the truck anymore, he slammed on the brakes and dragged me right through the window and out the door.

"He reached for his back pocket and I knew he was going for a gun. I grabbed his nuts and twisted like there was no stopping point. He went down and I started kicking the hell out of him. He kept grabbing for me and I just kept kicking. I drove my boot heel into him so many places so hard I heard bones breaking all over. His gun had worked its way out of his pocket while he was thrashing around and he tried to grab for it. I got it first but somehow he got me turned and got his arm around my neck. When I started blacking out I just reached up behind me, socked that barrel tight against his head and pulled the trigger.