Chapter 5 - Tank Vs Healer

Gamer Vocabulary:

PVP: person verse person, it is sort of like a duel Grind: Grinding: leveling by fighting monsters and doing quests/missions Tank and Spank: gaming strategy where one play protects another while they are attacking the bad guys Maggie Kent was definitely the oddest woman Brian had met in his entire life. At first she appeared to be one of those shy nerdy girls that came apart at the first sign of confrontation but after being around her, he could tell that didn’t quite fit her. Ever since stopping by her house, he had been trying to figure her out. It was turning out to be harder than it looked. He sat on the couch, looking over the report on Maggie.

It gave him nothing new. Frustrated he pulled out his phone and tried to figure out what she meant when she called him a tank. He had become ever more curious as to what Maggie meant when she called him a tank. Brian didn’t mind that she insulted him, but he didn’t like knowing what the insult was about. Before he could get to far his phone rang. Larson was calling him again.

“Hunter, just wanted to let you know what’s going on. Chase has managed to get the judge to accept bail so as one hour ago Chase is on the streets again.”

Brian swore, but knew he should have expected this. Money moved mountains and Chase had no shortage of it to thrown around.

“That’s not all. His sleaze bag of a lawyer that he has been trying to stall the court date too, so we continue without a court date. How are things there with the witness?”

“It’s been interesting,” Brian started and he could hear his friend laugh. “Who is the D.A. on the case?”

“Marcus Jenkins.”

Brian let out a sigh of relief. Marcus was a shark and was about the only other person that wanted to see Chase rotting in jail as much as he did. “Good, express to him the importance of getting a court date as soon as possible! With Chase out of jail, he is going to do anything he can to find Maggie.”

“I reach out to him,” Larson said then hung up.

About that time, Brian noticed Maggie trying to sneak around again. Seeing her head into the kitchen he got up and followed her. She had her back turned to him and was preparing a sandwich. “What’s up?” he asked when he was right behind her.

Maggie shrieked and jumped nearly three feet sending the jar of peanut butter through the air. He caught it easily and laughed as she glared at him. Grumbling something, Maggie snatched the jar out of his hands.

Oh, so she does have a feisty side, Brian thought as he tried to hide a smile. “So are you going to tell me what you meant by calling me a tank?”

“No,” she answered bluntly.

“Why not?”

She didn’t answer but simply tried to move passed him, but Brian moved with her. Maggie squeaked again and backed up a few steps. “Why don’t you eat in the kitchen?”

“B-because I don’t w-want to,” she stuttered then tried to leave the kitchen again.

Not sure why, Brian wasn’t ready to let her escape from him. He shot out an arm on the kitchen island blocking her path. He expected her to try to push away his arm, but she backed up and glanced at his arm as if it was something disgusting.

“Will you m-move and respect my personal sp-pace,” Maggie demanded.

“Your personal space? Just how big is this personal space of yours?” Brian asked, teasing her a little as he took a step towards her.

“W-what?” She took a step back, her eyes widening just a little.

It was time to turn up the heat and see how she jumped, Brian thought and took another step forward. “Just as I said. How big this space of yours is so I know when I am respecting your space or not.”

Looking more than a little nervous, Maggie took another back and hit the counter.

Brian took another big step and trapped her between him in the counter. “How am I now? Am I invading your space now?” he teased.

She crossed her arms over her chest as if she didn’t want to touch or graze any part of him. “Yes, please b-back off.”

Curious, he thought, watching her for a moment then took a step back.

Maggie visibly shuddered with disgusted expression. Grabbing her sandwich she made a mad dash out of the room.

Brian gawked at her as she left. Was she grossed out? He’d gotten all kinds of reactions from women. Usually they were the let’s get a room kind of reactions, but he also got those that wouldn’t give him the time of day. However, never before in his life did he find a woman that was disgusted by the idea of simply touching him. “What the hell?” Still staring at the kitchen doorway, he shook his head. Maggie Kent really was one of a kind.

The next couple of days, Maggie earned Hancock’s nickname. She scurried around the house, obviously trying to avoid him. He’d started to feel guilty. Maybe she had some kind of abuse happen to her that never got reported and here he was acting like some high school punk. Not sure if he should apologize or not, Brian googled the term tank to find out what it meant, but when he looked at the results it left him even more confused.

Tank was used to describe someone who was freakishly tall, strong, or broad built. He was tall, over six feet, and his job needed him to stay fit, but nothing that would be considered way out there. Somehow, Brian didn’t think that’s what she meant when she called him ‘tank.’ After that came a lot of video game references. It seemed to describe some kind of class or strategy. He discarded that idea too; it didn’t seem like an insult at all.

Once again he got a call from Larson. “You want the bad news, good news, or really bad news first,” his boss said as way of greeting.

Brian cringed. “Give me the bad news first.”

“The ballistic evidence has been misplaced and lost. Also the only person that could and was willing to confirm besides our witness that Chase was indeed dating Hannah Hall has gone missing,” he replied.

Brian groaned in frustration. “Damn it…okay so what’s the other two?”

“Well the good is we caught our mole. The really bad news is that the body of the undercover who was acting as Ms. Kent has gone missing and presumed dead.”

Brian closed his eyes and sighed. Hancock was a damn psychopath!

“That’s not all; Chase figured out you’re not in San Francisco and that you most likely have the witness. There is a hefty bounty on both your heads.”

“Well, good thing no one knows where we are,” Brian replied.

“I suggest you go one step farther and shut off your phone, turning it on only when you expect a call,” Larson offered.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I forgot how easy these damn things are to track.”

“No kidding, I’ll call you in two days,” Larson told him then hung up.

Brian turned off his phone and sat up on the couch. He rubbed his sleepy face thinking over the conversation he just had when he heard Maggie call for help. He jumped up from the couch. They couldn’t have found them already and this easily? Grabbing his gun, Brian ran to her room. The door was locked so he kicked it open and charged it ready to deal with any threat.

Maggie squeaked and jumped, her eyes wide with shock. Her eyes lowered to his fire arm then back to his face, not uttering another sound.

“What the fu-” Brian started looking at the computer that wasn’t there before, she packed a damn computer?

“Styrene! Wake up I’m getting gang banged here by the Lich Knights,” a female voice called over the speakers.

Maggie tore her eyes from him and back to the computer screen. “Sorry L.L. I’m coming,” Maggie replied.

Brian stood there, staring at her, unable to form a rational thought as he watched her…play a game. “Come on L.L. now I am getting gang banged! Get those boney pricks off of me,” Maggie snapped.

Did she just say gang banged? “Maggie what the hell is going on?”

“Stuff! Now go away,” she shot at him He opened his mouth but had no idea what to say. “MageDude use you’re...” Maggie started to order to someone when Brian interrupted her.

“Did you forget what I said about rule number two,” he demanded, pissed that she had brushed him off.

“Whoa Styrene is that a man I hear?” the female voice jumped in. “No wonder she’s slow on the heals. She has her own hot little session of PVP going on.”

Maggie gasped looking at the screen horrified. “No, no, no,” she replied quickly still ignoring Brian.

He clenched his jaw with anger and was debating on pulling out all the cables so she’d pay attention to him.

“Awe baby you’re stepping out on me, after all the times I opened lockboxes for you and didn’t even ask for tips,” some guy complained.

“I am not stepping out on you T.K. you know you’re my favorite rogue,” Maggie told him with a flirty tone confusing Brian even more than he thought possible. “I am not having any session of PVP going on, hot or otherwise L.L, he’s….it’s….he sorta like my tank right now,” Maggie told them. There was that word, tank, again.

“That sounds hot to me, and he’s sounds drop dead sexy too! I would definitely let him grind with me and then go for a little tank and spank,” the woman said.

Brian resisted the urge to smile as he wondered what the hell they were talking about and if it really was as dirty as the woman made it sound like.

Maggie glared at Brian looking very pissed off. “Thank you, now look what you’ve done,” she snapped at him.

“Me? I thought I told you not to contact any one!”

“This isn’t exactly contacting people! They don’t know my name, face, or anything about me! We are just guildies and now thanks to you, they think I am getting it on while I should be raiding,” She growled at him.

Brian would have burst out laughing at her saying “getting it on” if he just wasn't so stupefied but what had just happened.