Chapter 19: Definitely a Rogue

Brian watched the still pouting Maggie with a small frown on his face. He didn’t know why he had reacted the way he had when he saw her talking with Jack. He didn’t understand why he felt the need to berate and make Jack look like a low down villain that he really wasn’t. The man was an ex-con as in he was no longer a con man. Tank suspected it had nothing to do with the few years that Jack had spent in jail and more of the fact that he was probably richer than even Chase himself.

He wasn’t sure why but when he saw Maggie seemingly so relaxed around Jack and the little comment about being the best day of her life made him feel jealous and for the first time in his life possessive. Brian had been jealous before but never possessive, he never felt that caveman urge to stake his claim on a woman before but that was exactly how he’d felt when he rushed out of there. Her safety had nothing to do with it.

That realization of that made him feel so childish and disappointed. He needed to keep his head cool and make rational decisions not act like a hormone crazed teenager. It probably would have been best to stay with Jack a few days to let his shoulder heal. The truth was it hurt like hell and he didn’t have even an aspirin to take. With a quiet sigh, he decided to quit moaning about what he could’ve done and make a plan of what they were going to do.

They still have a few days till the court date was there and Brian’s allies were thin if nonexistent. Well, he may have one, he thought hopefully as he took out his phone. He turned it on and dialed the number.

“Marcus Jenkins,” the stoic voice of the D.A. called out.

“Hey Marcus this is Brian Hunter,” he answered.

“Brian, where the hell are you? Steve Larson was found dead with a gunshot to the stomach and to the head out in some boondock town, the witness is missing, and no one knew anything about you, besides that you went to San Francisco but there they never heard of you!” He stated heatedly.

Brian felt his stomach tighten at the news that his once best friend was dead.

“Please tell me you are possession of my key witness,” Marcus pleaded breaking him from his thoughts.

Brian couldn’t help but smile, this was about the only time he heard the shark of a DA get close to begging. “Yes, Ms. Kent is with me,” he replied and gave Maggie a wink when he saw her looking his way with an interested expression on her. She narrowed her eyes at him and looked away clearly still angry at him. He’d work on that later he thought as he turned his attention back to the D.A.

“Thank God, Brian! Where are you guys?” He demanded and at first Brian was hesitant, but Marcus had and always been a goody-goody who played strictly by the rules.

“About a couple of hours out of town. I’ve been hiding the witness till the court date, but we ran into some problems. Chase managed to buy Larson, Marcus.” He stated and there was dead silence on the phone for a moment.

“Are you sure…Steve?” the D.A. asked and Brian couldn’t blame him either. He wouldn’t have believed it himself if he went through it.

“Unfortunately Marcus I am. I heard it out of his own mouth. He tracked my phone while he was giving me updates and gave the location to Chase for a large sum of money and planned to go to the Mediterranean,” Brian explained. “He offered me a cut and when I refused he tried to kill me which was how he got the hole in the gut,” Brian lied wanting to keep Jack out of it.

“You shot him?” Marcus asked sounding surprised and a little skeptical.

“He didn’t leave me much choice, as ugly as it sounds it was him or me! I got a shot in the shoulder as proof,” Brian argued. “Chase got his hands on the witness and I just barely got her back,” he finished.

Marcus swore colorfully. “We have two days to the trial Brian and Maggie will probably have to testify in three. It would do me a lot of good if I could prep her for it. That slime ball of a lawyer Chase has will do all he can to make her look like an idiot who doesn’t know up from down. Plus the fact that Maggie is uncomfortable socially and well just plain odd isn’t going to help her credibility much,” Marcus argued.

Brian could feel his anger flare. “What does how she reacts socially and what people think of her have to do with anything?” Brian snapped.

“Everything. This is a trial by jury Brian. That sleaze is not going to have a hard time to convince twelve “normal” people that she can be considered mentally unfit and delusional. That would make it sound perfectly logical that she only thought she saw Chase commit the crime when it was, in fact, an ex-boyfriend that happened to share physical similarities with Chase,” Marcus argued and Brian shook his head with frustration.

“Alright so I get your point Marcus so what is your plan?”

“Prep her, see if we can’t mask some of her oddities and make her appear to me more “normal” thus making that lawyer look like the one who’s lacking in credibility but to do that I need her here Brian,” Marcus replied.

“That’s dangerous Marcus; Chase’s men will probably be all over that place. They’ll spot her in a matter of minutes,” Brian argued and Marcus started to say something when his phone was ripped out of his hands.

“I’m not odd,” Maggie demanded into the phone and he could hear Marcus chuckle then he heard Marcus say something, but he couldn’t discern what it was, but Maggie nodded with “Mhm. Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll be there tomorrow,” She said then hung up the phone.

“Excuse me?” Brian demanded with a look of disbelief on his face.

“The closer I am to danger the farther away I’m from harm,” Maggie reasoned and he looked at her confused.

“Wha-? That doesn’t even make any sense,” he argued.

“Haven’t you ever watched Lord of the Rings, Pippin with the Ents?” She argued and he still looked confused. He didn’t have a clue as to what she was talking about.

Maggie sighed loudly and sat into her seat. “It would make no sense for us to be back where it all started, it would be foolish as it’s Chase’s backyard but that is what makes it so much safer. He’s looking probably all over the country for us. Monitoring plane, train, and bus tickets, hotel rooms and etcetera! He’d n-never look in his backyard,” Maggie told him.

Brian ran his hands through his hair again; she had a very good point. “It still seems too dangerous and if Chase gets his hands on you again he’ll probably kill you right there on the spot,” Brian told her.

“If he d- doesn’t go to jail for murdering Hannah then I’m as good as dead anyways,” she reasoned.

Brian sighed once more; she did have a good point there too. “Alright, you do have a point,” he admitted. “But it’s going to be very dangerous Maggie,” he told her seriously as he shut off the phone. Larson may be dead, but that didn’t mean Chase wouldn’t have someone trying to use the same method to find them.

Maggie rolled her eyes at him. “No kidding, of course, it’ll be dangerous. Your intelligence stat must be suffering a penalty,” she said started to walk away from him, but he grabbed her hand with his good one.

“Maggie I really am sorry for the way that I acted before,” he told her standing up stiffly but never once letting go of her hand. He found it extremely difficult to keep an expression of apology on his face when he noticed that Maggie made no moves to remove her hand from his nor did she show signs of distress at his touch. “I don’t know why I acted the way I did, maybe it was from the blood loss but I swear I didn’t mean to offend you,” he lied, not at all comfortable admitting the real reason he ran off with her and reacted like he did.

She shrugged, “Okay apology accepted,” she told him.

“I need to lie down, mind helping me,” He asked trying to keep the sly smile off his face, but she gave him a skeptical look that made him think he wasn’t doing a good job.

“You laid down just fine without my help before,” she shot back.

“Yeah but I can’t take off my shoes or my jacket thus I need your help,” he replied and she sighed letting him now she would help. He wanted to see how comfortable she had become with his touch. “Thank you, Maggie, I really appreciate the help,” he told her as he led her over to the bed. He sat down and she started to help him remove his jacket.

He purposely leaned towards her as she carefully helped him remove his good arm out of the jacket sleeve, which he was purposely making it more difficult to remove than it should have been. He was so close that he nuzzled into her neck and delighted by the softness of her skin. Maggie’s breathe hitched by the contact and he smiled when she didn’t pull back but continued to help him with the jacket. He continued to nuzzle her neck as he closed his eyes letting himself get lost in the simple pleasure of her soft skin and fruity smell of her shampoo.

He couldn’t stop himself from placing small kisses along her neck and he heard a gasp escape from her. Suddenly she gave him a hard push that sent him tumbling backward in surprise.

“What are you doing?” Maggie demanded with a frown but as soon as she heard him groan from the shot of pain that ripped through him as he hit the bed she got a guilty apologetic look on her face. So naturally he threw away his pride and continued to moan and groan as if he had just gotten shot again. “Oh, my God. Are you alright?” Maggie asked even more worried. She touched his shoulder gently with concern on her face and he groaned even more causing her to jerk back.

“Yeah I think I’m okay. I don’t think you busted the stitches or anything,” he said trying his best to sound in pain. “Can you help me sit up,” he asked and she nodded eagerly. Evilly Brian went limp when she tried to help him sit up which made it near impossible for her to lift him but kept a look of strain on his face.

She wrapped her arms around his chest trying to pull him up. Brian sat up a slowly keeping up the look of strain and at the right moment feigned a loss of strength. He threw all his weight into her causing her to fall back. She gasped in shock as he came on top of her.

“Tank what are you doing? Are you playing with me,” she demanded.

He silently laughed inwardly ignoring the stinging pain that was growing in his shoulder. It was all worth it to get Maggie pinned beneath him. “Well you’re the gamer. Why don’t you tell me?” Brian told her with a sly grin as he brushed her hair away from her face.

She glared at him and he gave her his best charming smile. “You’re most certainly a rogue,” Maggie argued with irritation in her voice, but he simply leaned down and gave her a quick, chaste kiss.

“You can’t really blame me for wanting to be close to you Maggie,” he told her as he rested his head against her shoulder and nuzzled once more.

“I can too blame you,” she demanded, trying to push him off of her, but he refused to move.

Brian kissed her neck softly and he could hear her breath race. “We’re going into a very dangerous situation tomorrow, you don’t want me to die without knowing what it’s like to be with you, do you?” he told her, his voice growing husky as his body started to awaken with her closeness.

“I’m not going to fall for that one again! Now get up,” she shot back and he couldn’t stop from laughing.

“Well I had to try,” he told her getting up on his knees and his good hand but not before he quickly stole a kiss from her.

“I’m going to call you Rogue from now on,” Maggie demanded, smoothing over her clothes but he could see the blush on her cheeks.

Brian chuckled and shook his head side to side. “Go ahead, but can you do me a real favor Maggie,” he said as he easily took off his shoes earning another heated glare from Maggie.

“What?” she demanded with clear skepticism.

“Can you take one of those little plastic bags and fill it with ice? My roguish ways really did take a toll on my shoulder,” Brian told her as he laid down.

“Alright,” she said getting up and he thanked her. Brian sighed feeling near exhausted and his shoulder throbbed with pain, but it was all well worth it. Though he couldn’t help but be curious what she’d be like in bed. A small smile formed on his lips as he wondered what he’d have to do to get Maggie to share his one day.