Chapter Eighteen – Thickening Plot

"Phone for you boss."

Tommy Blade. Villain, mobster, vindictive, ruthless, implacable, sharp; he was a man of many talents, of many qualities. Forgetful was not one of them. He hadn't forgotten a single face he'd killed or worked with. He didn't forget when someone tried to screw him over or when someone was generous. Tommy Blade most certainly hadn't forgotten their arrangement.

So when Dominic entered the office he wasn't wondering who was on the phone.

"Yeah?" he spoke in the receiver.

Dominic could hear the other person speak, as his boss was silent, quietly listening. At Tommy's look he nodded and watched him refer, "The car's here. Perfect condition." From Tommy's nod Dominic assumed the reply had been positive and allowed himself a quiet sigh of relief. Everything had gone their way… in a way.

The car had been stolen and that had been their cue to organise the meeting with the thieves and retrieve it. The thieves that had been hired to steal it however as it turned out hadn't turned out to be as reliable as once thought. Yes the dumbasses had stolen the car, but they'd also managed to get it stolen off them. Things had gone a little sour for a moment but still without Tommy knowing any of this he'd tracked the automobile down and got it back. He'd picked the short straw, fucking stupid Scarfie. Now he had to tell the boss.

"You're coming here?" Tommy continued, Dominic watching him smile. The boss loved it when he came to visit, "Yeah."

This was good. If the boss was happy, maybe he wouldn't get too pissed off. He had to be the only person in the world who knew when Tommy Blade was happy. The smile had given him away this time but often there was no facial change whatsoever.

"The key?" Dominic cringed.

The little room was silent save for the whooshing sound of the fan, "Yeah of course. Still got it," the boss looked like someone had his balls in a vice and Dom realised his own were next, "Yeah, I'll make the arrangements. No problem."

The phone clicked shut. Dominic watched the sweat on Tommy Blade's brow, and the frustrated sigh escape, "You okay boss?"

Thump! His fist hit the desk without warning and the wood creaked crying. "We got to get that key back, you got me Dom?î his voice was quiet, he didn't yell. The car could wait til later. Dom wouldn't tell the boss now.

"Yes boss," he answered, "they're on their way now."

"They?"

Dominic was not going to take any more bullshit. Next time Scarfie could be the herald. Dom knew the phrase don't kill the messenger and he'd seen enough television and learnt enough history to know that that just wasn't the way it went. The messenger would die, brutally. Blood, guts the whole shebang. He'd lost count how many he'd witnessed the termination of. Certain things happened when you worked for the biggest and oldest Mafia family.

"Yes boss."

Tommy growled, "He better not be muscle."

Alec had been quietly sitting in the passenger seat for the drive, silently thinking that he'd been doing a lot of sitting and Max had been doing a lot of driving. He'd been contemplating the entire trip, running all that had happened through his mind. From the very beginning till some 10 minutes ago when Max had experienced some sort of divine light, epiphany, an imaginary squirrel or …well something.

And he had made a list, a short summary of the trip so far.

First and foremost Max had come up with the idea. It was entirely her doing and her attitude, though already mildly different had had a radical -not 180 but definitely close- change of direction. At whichever angle she'd altered to she was headed straight off course. This assuming that the road she'd been on before was the right one. Alec didn't want to branch off too much in his thought experiments.

Then she'd been okay with him travelling in a very conspicuous car. It wasn't very often one saw an expensive car, much less a Ferrari. Logan once had been wealthy and he'd still driven a piece of shit, though that might have been more because of his poor taste in motor vehicles than anything else. Of course what Max didn't know was that he hadn't actually stolen it but rented it under a false name and false credit card.

Slightly irrelevant but curiously odd was the amount of time Max was sleeping.

They'd fought over sweet and sour.

They'd stolen the painting AND he'd had to say Max was the best. That was still slightly eating at him; she wasn't supposed to know he thought highly of her. Max was supposed to think he loved to piss her off and be the eternal spine in her side. If he could pick places though Alec wasn't sure he'd pick her side as the preferred place to embed himself into. He just couldn't help getting sidetracked.

After driving each other insane and played a game of truth or dare which Alec had seen going differently in his mind, MAX had FORGIVEN him. That was so far the weirdest thing.

AND THEN: robbed a banker, wrestled, chatted… normally, accidentally spooned, sold a rental car (he was still cracking up about that one) and stolen another car.

Wrestled some more and in his attempts to get her into the spa bath, at some point as she held onto the balcony railing he'd 'broken' her bra.

They'd gone shopping.

Max had cut her hair.

Wrestled. àThey sure where doing a lot of that.

He'd met Gareth and found out about Gareth.

Went to a fancy dinner and stayed all of twenty minutes.

Stole the building blue prints.

Max had developed a dirty mind and then proceeded to head butt him.

Went for a swim.

The list just went on and on and on. So many things had happened that he didn't even know how to pick his favourite, not to mention place all events together and build the puzzle he'd been given. Alec remembered once seeing a jigsaw in a store where the image on the box was not the one you were supposed to construct. Instead you had to piece together what the people on the box were looking at.

If that could even be considered an analogy, it was sort of how he felt. He was desperately trying to piece together a Max, a situation with Max that he had never seen or imagined. Well… that was a lie; Alec was sure he'd imagined pretty much every single possible situation with Max, even weird ones one wouldn't normally think about. He must be the only person on the planet who had pictured Max as one of the power rangers.

It's just... she would totally kick that lobster thing's ass. Even without the robot.

Anyway… he was trying to make a picture, which he didn't know what it looked like. Not knowing what to expect either, certainly didn't help the situation. He'd thought you couldn't get much more obvious than Max. What to most people seemed completely inscrutable to him were easy pickings. And then some of his assumptions had been proven wrong. Like the father of modern philosophy Descartes, he'd been forced, in response, to have to doubt his assumptions on everything else. And if you doubt everything, what the hell can you be certain of? Possibly uncertainty. If you can't be certain of anything you can be certain that you will be uncertain of all.

That's where he'd started confusing himself and running off on a tangent. Alec had never denied the fact he thought Max was do-able; having used those exact words he'd even achieved a slap from Original Cindy. She was more than do-able anyway, and to use a more genteel language, Max was the best catch around. Dark, beautiful, not to mention fiery and when she wanted to, enough personality to go around.

Alec was not in denial. He could handle knowing he was attracted to her. 'Face it,' he thought, 'things were just so much easier when she acted like she wanted to pulverise you every second moment.'

Really, what was up with the nice stuff? Was leaving Seattle really lifting a burden off her? And what was causing the burden? It obviously wasn't him and even that had come as a surprise. So what was it? Joshua? Logan? Thousands of mutants on the loose? The Virus? Normal?

The only answer he ever reached was that he was sick of bloody guessing. Alec wanted the truth and he didn't care if that was being demanding.

With that last determined thought he turned to Max and found her looking at him. They must have arrived, but Alec couldn't be sure how long ago the car had stopped moving. A nervous smile appeared on his lips and he shrugged, but the other X5 barely registered it, "Distracted Alec?"

The blonde moved his head side to side and rolling his shoulders worked out the kinks in his muscles, "I'd say thoughtful."

Spying a smile on her lips Alec allowed one for himself; his eyes without his consent snuck a quick once over. Alec had forgotten what she was wearing –very business, very tight, very sexy- making every part of him stir just like he knew every other man in the room would. That wasn't good, he needed to focus, one did not go into a meeting with Tommy Blade thinking anything except business and how happy one was to be alive. It was detrimental to one's health.

"Alec?"

"Hmm?"

Eyes locked and she tilted her head slightly, "I don't want you to get attached to this car, it may be gone quicker than you thought," she said hesitantly. "This is Gareth's car, I borrowed it I guess you could say, to sweeten the deal between me and Tommy."

Sighing dramatically Alec conjured up a few tears, "It's okay Max, you don't have to explain…" he pretended to be distraught and as amusing as it was Max found it unnerving how credible he was.

"Stop it you ass!"

A full beam smile caught her like a hedgehog on the highway and the glint that formed in his sparkling irises reflexively darkened her own. Alec was about to say something injurious to his wellbeing but for his sake Max bet him to it, "Don't even think about commenting! Inside, you're quiet, understand? Silent, in fact act the mute, pretend you don't know how to speak. Okay?"

An impish grin remained adorning his mouth and he gave her a solemn nod provoking an exasperated groan. Starting the car Max drove it up to the gates of an establishment and waited as they noiselessly swallowed in the car.