Hunting the Fox

Chapter 5

"Ryan? Is that you?" Kiera yelled over the loud music in the bar as she walked towards a man with chestnut colored hair. The man was sitting near the end of the bar.

The man looked up towards the sound of the voice calling him. He looked up from what he was drawing on a napkin and right at Kiera with china blue eyes. He saw that she was wearing a blue tank top with the logo of the foxhole on his and tight blue shorts. Her copper red hair tied back in a ponytail at the nape of neck. She was wearing glasses that illuminated her grey-green eyes.

"Kiera?" The man looked uncertain at first, but as Kiera strolled up from the other side of the bar, she saw a dawning look of recognition in his eyes as he slipped the napkin into his jacket. She noticed stress lines along his handsome face. He had the distinct impression of a fox caught in a trap ready to chew its own leg off to escape.

He was wearing a white button shirt and hand a tan jacket thrown over the bar stool next to him. A smile spread over his face as she stepped in front of him. The bar separated the two of them and by how fast Kiera's heart was beating. She knew who was going to make an appearance.

'Let the hunt begin.' Kiera thought taking slow calming breaths.

"Ryan," Kiera smiled then let out a girlish laugh, "It has been forever." She leaned over the bar to hug him.

Ryan hugged her back. The touch of his skin set her body on fire, "What are you doing here?" Ryan said in his Californian accent as he let go. She noticed his eyes glance down at her low cut top with the pushed up cleavage. "I thought you would have your own practice somewhere and not..." She saw suspicion in his eyes.

'This is almost too easy, I have to be careful.' She thought as she watched Ryan.

"I'm undercover." Kiera leaned close to Ryan with her and hand partly covering her mouth. She smelled his familiar cologne and it made her head swim with desire for him. She remembered those long nights with him.

"What?" Ryan sputtered giving her a confused look as his eyes darted around the room. He looked on the verge of panic.

Kiera laughed pushing back from the bar working at breaking Ryan's tension, "I do have a practice downtown near capitol row."

"But what are you doing here?" Ryan waved his hand around the bar. She noticed that his panic subsided.

"I'm doing research about how drinking affects a person's ability to lie," Still observing the confusion on his face, Kiera rolled her eyes and sighed, "For the American Journal of Psychologist." Once she saw the confusion give way to understanding she continued, "This is the perfect place between the business men and politicians."

"You had..." Ryan was starting to say, but someone cut him off.

"Hey beautiful," A man pushed between Ryan and another person, "I need a drink." He waved a twenty-dollar bill between his fingers. The man had on an expensive suit.

"Give me minute," Kiera replied giving the man a scathing look and then turned back to Ryan, "What brings you to Washington D.C."

"Hey babe I'm a paying customer. So move that sweet ass of yours and get me a drink." The man said angrily.

"Hold your horses buddy," Kiera held up a hand, "This guy ordered first." Kiera gave Ryan a pleading look.

"Yeah, I will take a whiskey neat." Ryan said quickly.

"One whiskey neat coming up," Kiera winked.

Kiera turned to the shelf and grabbed the whiskey that Ryan enjoyed the best. She overheard the other person talking to Ryan.

"Now that is a sweet piece of ass." The executive elbowed Ryan, "I would tear that up."

"You need to keep that mouth shut buddy." Ryan stood up facing the man.

"What's your problem," The man pointed a finger in Ryan's chest, "That your sister or something?"

"She's an old friend. Plus you need to treat the lady with more respect." Ryan said then grabbed the man's finger and bent it a little.

The executive jumped back pulling his hand out of Ryan's grasp. "Dude relax, I don't want any problems. Let me by your drink." The man looked over at Kiera, "This is for his drink and the rest is yours, Sorry." He tossed the twenty on the bar top and left mixing with the crowd.

"Thanks Ryan," Kiera breathed out taking the twenty, "The hard part about doing this research is the creepy people who show up."

When Kiera grabbed the twenty, one of the corners cut her index finger.

"Ouch." Kiera said jerking her finger back and placing it in her mouth sucking on it.

"What happened?" Ryan asked quizzically.

"Got a paper cut off that bill." Kiera replied with her finge tip in her mouth.

"Are you ok?"

"I think so."

Kiera pulled the finger out of her mouth and looked at the small cut. It had stopped bleeding. She needed a Band-Aid for the finger. She saw that he was scanning the room slowly. He was looking at each person.

"Waiting for a special someone?" Kiera said making her voice sound disappointed and she gave a jealous look.

"No," Ryan responded still looking around the room distractedly. "I was supposed to meet a friend, and I flew in from Italy to meet the person."

"Italy," Kiera said with an impressed look, "Is that were you have been hiding all this time?" Kiera smirked, but noticed that Ryan did not take the bait. "Maybe I can help you find him? What does he look like?"

Ryan looked at her suddenly and narrowed his eyes, "How did you know it was a male I was looking for?"

"Really Ryan," Kiera gave a hurt look, "It has to be a he, you were not waiting for that 'special someone'." Kiera held up her fingers to make emphasize the words.

"Look I'm in town for a couple of weeks for business," Ryan quickly changed the subject looking at Kiera with those china blue eyes. "What are you doing Sunday?"

'That was close.' Kiera thought.

"Me?" Kiera was caught off guard, "Nothing why?" Kiera tried to regain her composure.

"Maybe we can get some coffee and talk." Ryan shrugged, but Kiera saw he looked uncertain, "I know this is going to sound lame, but I have been meaning to call you."

"Ryan that sounds really lame." Kiera said, "It would have sounded better eight years ago." Kiera gave him a half-serious look. Observing him swallow hard, she laughed and playfully smacked him on the shoulder. "I'm playing with you Ryan. I do not know why you left unexpectedly, but you are here now. Let's make the best of it." She smiled warmly, "Here is my number," Kiera wrote the number on a napkin and held it out to him. "You better call me." Kiera warned pulling the napkin back a bit when he when to grab it.

"Alright, I will call." Ryan promised and Kiera let him have the napkin.

"I have to get back to work and I need a Band-Aid for this finger," Kiera said, "You look good." She smiled then walked off down the bar to serve other people. Throughout the night, she glimpsed over at where he was sitting. She noticed that he still had the same drink she poured for him. It was untouched. He observed him glancing at his watch and then around the room with growing distress. Sometimes she would catch him watching her. It was like a predator watching its prey. It made her feel a bit uneasy.

'Something is not right?' Kiera thought as she handed a drink to a customer.

"Did your friend stand you up?" Kiera inquired.

"It's odd." Ryan said more to himself than to Kiera.

"What's odd Ryan?" Kiera asked tentatively.

"Nothing, probably forgot about the time. The French tend to do that sometimes." She was his mood change oddly from tension to relief as if Durand not showing up was part of the plan.

'What are you up to Ryan?' Kiera thought watching him.

"How is your research going?" Ryan asked taking a drink of the whiskey for the first time.

"Actually better than I originally thought, see that guy over there." Kiera said pointing to a man sitting at the other end of the bar. The mid-fifties man was talking to a girl half his age. "He is a senator. Right now he is boasting about his part in top secret missions in Iraq."

"Quite the ladies' man," Ryan laughed. He stood and stretched. Kiera smiled watching is lean muscular body stretch. "Well I'm going, looks like I was stood up as you put it, but I'm glad I was."

"And why is that." Kiera probed with a raised eyebrow.

"I would not have had such a wonderful night talking to you Gazelle." Ryan said with a wink and drank the rest the whiskey.

"Bet you say that to all the ladies.' Kiera smiled.

"Only to the important ones, I will call you tomorrow Kiera. I promise."

"You better," Kiera winked and blushed slightly, "You owe me."

She watched him smile and grab his jacket. He waved and walked out of the bar. After a minute, he glanced through the window and blew a kiss to Kiera before walking off. Kiera blew one back at him.

"Hey Kiera," A voice shouted.

Kiera turned her head to see the owner of the bar walking towards her.

"Hey Steve, what's up?" Kiera asked.

"Someone left you a phone message." Steven handed her a bar napkin, "I took the message and wrote it down."

Kiera looked down and read Steve's writing, 'Need to talk. Meet me in the alley.' She looked at Steve in confusion.

"Did the person say who they were?"

"He said you two knew each other and it was extremely important."

"What did he sound like?" Kiera probed.

"He had a Puerto Rican accent I think," Steven shrugged, "They all sound the same to me."

"Well the garbage needs to go out and I need my break."

Kiera walked out into the back alley, under the pretense of taking out the garbage. The alley felt cool and quiet compared to the inside of the bar. She took in a deep breath of the cool night air. Her legs felt sore, her lower back stiff as she dropped the garbage and stretched upward. Kiera let out a low moan as her stiff muscles loosened.

'How do they do this?' Kiera thought putting her arms back down, 'Now where is Marcus?'

Kiera looked around the dimly lit alley feeling uneasy. Marcus was not in the alley. Kiera started to back up when suddenly a hand grabbed her wrist bending it behind her back and shoved roughly against a brick wall. The impacted knocked the wind out of her lungs.

"Don't scream or I will hurt you." A male German accented voice breathed into her ear. "What is a beautiful woman like you doing in a dark place like this?"

"Wh...What do you want?" Kiera asked trying to catch her breath.

"Oh you can guess what I want." The man chuckled as he pressed himself up against her.

Kiera shuttered with revulsion as his groin pressed against her bottom. Taking advantage of the situation, Kiera stomped hard on the man's foot with the heel of her own foot. The man grunted in pain, but kept himself pressed against her. He twisted her wrist hard. Kiera cried out as pain shot up her wrist.

"Let's not repeat that again." The man said menacing through gritted teeth.

Kiera felt something cold pressed against her temple. Turning her eyes, she saw the barrel of gun in the dim light.

"You don't have to do this." Kiera shuttered.

"You're right girl." The man chuckled, "You're going to undo those shorts and pull them down slowly. Then you are going to pull out my c**k and if you are nice. I might even let you kiss it." He pressed the gun hard against her temple. It caused Kiera to grit her teeth against the pain. "Try anything and well you know what will happen next. Now let's see that sweet ass of yours." He pressed himself against her again.

"Help," screamed Kiera, "Help!" Kiera stomped on the man's foot again using her heel again. She jerked her head back and struck the man on the nose with the back of her head.

"You b***h!" The man shouted in pain. Kiera felt a sharp blow against the side of her neck, "I was going to go easy on you."

The grip on Kiera's wrist loosened as she fell to knees. She felt dizzy from the blow to her neck as her vision blackened around the edges.

"You are going to really ay for yelling." The man shouted in rage. Kiera cried out as a foot made contact with her lower back, knocking her to the alley floor, "Oh this is going to be so much better than what was originally planned."

Kiera felt her lower back spasm with pain. She was lying on her side and she saw the man pointing something at her through her fuzzy vision. Then there was a second person standing behind the first man.

"I must have been hit pretty hard to see double.' Kiera thought as fear ran through her body.

Someone struck the assailant was struck from behind. The blow effectively sent the man out of her field of vision. She heard the man fall over as some cans rolled across the ground. Then she heard some kind of gurgling wheezing sound. It sounded like someone was trying to breathe through a straw filled with water. Abruptly the gurgling sound died away and Kiera did not hear anything else.

"Kiera?" A familiar voice sounded in the distance, "Kiera are you alright?"

"Ryan," Kiera said drowsily, "Is that you?"

Kiera tried to lift her head. Her head felt heavy as if stuffed with wool and the alley floor started to spin.

"Don't move Kiera." Ryan instructed.

Her vision filled with blackness. Ryan caught her before she hit her head on the concrete floor. The blackness swallowed her as her eyes closed and she passed out.