Chapter One

The Port of Miami was one of the busiest ports in the United States. It serviced thousands of shipping container freighters coming in and going out of the country. Tourists loaded up in seven different cruise lines. Lorenzo stated there was a finite window tonight where both Marlene would be brought and loaded onto a shipping container, and the ship would remain in port. He warned, though, that once the ship shoved off, if she was on it and I was not, Marlene would be lost.

“The ship would sail directly to Greece,” Lorenzo warned. “And once in their territory. It would be untouchable.”

“I still don’t trust you,” I had said. “How do I know you aren’t sending me into a trap?”

“The Greeks don’t give two shits about you,” Lorenzo huffed through the phone. His Italian accent grew thicker in his exhaustion. “It’s Marlene. Marlene is all that matters. Do you hear me? They will have all their men. All there… how do you say contractors guarding the terminal… You will be alone when you do this…”

“I know,” I sneered. “What terminal? What ship?”

“Terminal seven. The ship is called the Isabelle. The ship leaves at midnight.”

I looked at my watch. It was already 10:30 pm. “Do you know the cabin number or—”

“The man I questioned did not say, and he is no longer able to answer,” Lorenzo said. “She will be close to the front. Near the captain’s cabin. Michael, listen to me. If you rescue her… get her to the safe house. I will make you a rich man.”

I hung up the phone and tossed it to the floor. There were no more benefits it could bring me, only risk. It was true; if the Greeks or Lorenzo had wanted me dead, they could have had a bomb waiting for me with the package of IDs. A sniper or anything. I would be dead if he truly betrayed us. Besides, I had to take this chance to rescue her, even if its possibility of success was slight.

Taking the black trash bag from the motel bin, I dumped the cash, jewels, and IDs inside and tied it off. I pocketed all the magazines I possessed and holstered my pistol. I took a cab and had them drop off on the side of the road about a mile shy of the port. Walking the rest of the way, I was alone on the desolate road.

When I neared the front entrance, I found a patch of tall grass and weeds beside a unique traffic sign covered in pink graffiti and stashed the black trash bag of money and jewels.

Either I’ll be back in an hour’s time for this, or I’m going to make a homeless man’s dreams come true with this trash bag when they find it. I snickered and gave myself a last chance to back out of my suicide mission. There are billions out there. Am I sure I want to die for this one?

Biting my lip, I nodded to myself and whispered aloud, “Yes… yes…”

Hopping the chain-link fence, I landed hard and stepped softly across the open fields, heading for the shipping docks. The smell of salt water came as I traded the grassy fields for the hard pavement. The night was my friend. I stuck to the shadows as I took to the open concrete. Three football fields of nothing but open concrete where a sniper could take me out or anyone with a focused eye could spot me. I had trained for missions like this. I had executed hostage recovery missions like this before, but never alone. Special forces worked as a team. That was why we were so effective. So deadly. We covered each other’s blind spots.

I had no one covering me as I approached Terminal Seven.


Chapter Two

A lone man walked the front of the office building along the perimeter. He puffed on a cigarette and let his MP5 submachine dangle uselessly off of its shoulder strap as if it were a purse. Definitely Blue Stone security. The laziness and unprofessionalism oozed from his every step and movement. I was armed with only my pocket knife and my pistol. I knew that as soon as I fired one round off, all the security would be on high alert, and most would probably be converging on me. This was a zero-sum mission. Either I saved her, or we all died. There was no halfway about it.

I had to keep this quiet as long as possible before making a gunshot. Preferably, if I could do this entire op without firing a single round, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Carefully, I flicked open my knife so that not even the blade’s locking mechanism would alert my target. Waiting for my window, I started walking for the guard with long strides and soft feet. Only once I had halved the distance did I start to run. Whether it was the sound of my feet crunching across the gravel-filled asphalt or just the innate human sixth sense of a predator’s presence, the man turned while I was still five steps away.

The gasp the man made was loud but not nearly as loud as a gunshot. He was still fiddling with where his weapon hung off of him when I lunged. Diving on top of him, the two of us rolled, and our hands struck and grabbed one another. I grabbed at his weapon in such a way that he couldn’t get a finger into the trigger guard and tied the weapon to his chest. He turned, trying to free it from my grasp, which is when I took my opening. Taking the blade in my other hand, I reached around his neck and slit his throat. Holding him to the ground as I listened to the gurgle of death escape him, I scanned my surroundings, ensuring no others were alerted.

Satisfied, I stood and began stripping away what I needed. The MP5 machine gun, three spare clips, a cell phone, and a small walkie-talkie. Closing my knife, I pocketed it and shouldered the submachine gun as I ran for the office building.

Entering the office building through the first unlocked door I came across, I scanned with my weapon high. The building was dark. All the lights were turned off, but it wasn’t empty. I heard talking. Maybe it was a TV. Taking the hallway, my eyes looked over the dark, empty rooms that I passed as I neared the sound. Taking a corner, I saw an office light that was spilling out into the second hallway. I approached and heard two men talk.

Americans. English accents.

They spoke of nothing of importance. Basketball. If they thought the Miami Heat were going to win tomorrow. Stopping beside the door, I heard clinking glass and coffee being poured. It wasn’t an office; it was a break room. Two men. Both their hands were busy, it sounded like. I clicked open my knife, moved it to my left hand, and kept the MP5 in my right.

Listening and waiting, I prepared myself for what was about to happen. I knew that this was when things could easily go downhill. The moment I heard the refrigerator open, I took the corner. I had to adjust my plans on the fly. The man with his head buried in the fridge was the closest man to the men and blocked the way to the second man, who sat at a table in the back of the room. His shotgun rested just out of reach on the kitchen counter. Pressing the muzzle of the submachine gun into the fridge man’s back, approximately where his spine was, I pulled the trigger twice and let him fall. His body cut the sound of the gunshots in half but made a mess as blood sprayed the room and my body.

The second man had lunged for his shotgun and had just laid two hands on it. He would get his shotgun on me before I could turn back the other way and point mine at him. Thinking fast and on my feet, I kept turning the way I had been turning and let go of my gun. Relying on my distance and a little luck, I whipped my left around with the knife in my fist like a pickaxe. The blade penetrated his chest and knocked his hands off the gun. Closing the distance, I covered his mouth with my right as I cut his throat with my left.

Easing his body to the ground, I listened intently for anything. Doors opening and closing, shouting in the distance. Anything that would show I hadn’t muffled my gunshots enough. Seconds turned into minutes, and I heard no other sounds. Looking down at my watch, I cursed to myself.

11:48 PM and the boat leaves at midnight…

Closing my knife once more, I once more pocketed it and started moving. My MP5 up, I cleared as I ran to the back of the building. Cutting through a warehouse, I saw out the back window a shipping container ship, and under the gray moonlight, I could read, ‘The Isabelle.’

This is it.

I saw no more guards between me and the ship, but there ought to have been. Either they were the ones I just gunned down, or there were more hidden somewhere. Either way, I didn’t have time to play this slow and cautious.

Zero-sum mission, I reminded myself.

Pushing out the door, I sprinted for the ship. I kept the MP5 locked tightly in my hands as I ran. My eyes shifted left, then right, and I saw no one. That made it all the more difficult when I was three-quarters on the way there, and the shooting began. Bullets snapped at my feet and chased after me. Changing my direction of travel so I would be harder to follow, I turned towards the shots and saw a man raised two stories up in a crane.

I fired ten shots haphazardly toward him, which got him thinking defensively, not offensively. His elevation was great for firing down on a target but terrible for cover, as he had none. Slowing to a halt, I blew out my breath as my sights steadied on the target, and I fired a quick burst of rounds that trembled his body and made him go limp.

Two more men fired from atop the ship’s deck as I reached the loading plank that zig-zagged onto the ship. Refusing to slow so that they could launch early and get away, I sprinted up the plank with bullets ricocheting off the metal railing beside me as I ran. I emptied my bullets into my gun at the two men and drew my pistol as I reached the top. I fired three shots into the first man’s chest, then dove and rolled to my side as I put five more into the second guy.

Standing, I reloaded my pistol and ran for the bridge. The cabin light that lit up the window showed two men scrambling in a panic. The horn blared, and I felt the ship begin to move as they shoved us off the dock early. I didn’t care. I needed to find her. That was my only focus.

The bridge was locked. I took a step backward and fired five rounds into the porthole window, then used the butt of the gun to shatter it. Reaching inside, I undid the latch.

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I’m just the captain!” the shaggy black-haired man yelled in broken English. His Greek accent confirmed I was on the right boat.

“Where is she?” I yelled as I approached the man, my pistol aimed between his eyes.

Tears dripped down his cheeks as the captain’s knees wobbled. With a trembling hand, he pointed down the second walkway, heading towards the belly of the boat. “44A-152, next to the captain’s quarters,” he whimpered. I stormed down the walkway, leaving the man alive for now. I might need him. Following the signs, I went upstairs and took a quick corner, only to walk into a barrage of gunfire. Sharp pain cut my shoulder and chest, and I quickly went numb as I focused on the fight.

Two shooters were at the next crossing, peppering my location with bullets. Dropping to the ground, I grunted as I felt my shoulder scream in pain. Taking slow, concentrated shots, I fired rounds into their shins, knees, belly, and head. Stumbling from side to side, I worked my way to my feet and groaned as I glanced at the gunshot wound to my shoulder.

“Michael!” Marlene shouted.

My eyes became alive as her voice was like a shot of adrenaline. It sounded distant and close at the same time.

“Ma… Marlene!” I panted, ejecting one magazine and preparing to load another.

“Michael, look out!” Marlene shouted. Her voice was yelling from the next room up the hall.

Without warning, a handgun appeared next to my head. Smacking it to the side, I felt the rush of wind from the bullet buzzing my face as he fired. The man with black hair slicked back tried to fire again, but I abandoned my gun to grab his. Twisting back and forth in the skinny corridor, we battled for the weapon. Holding it over our heads, I punched him twice in the nose. He dropped the gun but grabbed my throat with two hands and head-butted me, causing a spill of blood to leak from my nose.

“No!” Marlene cried from the other room, watching our fight in the hall.

The man shook me from wall to wall, slamming against each one before tripping me and squeezing the air from my throat.

“Michael, get up!” Marlene demanded, and I saw a blur of her person from where I lay. She was tied to a pipe that ran along the wall.

Leaning back, I twisted and slammed my forearm into the man’s hands, creating enough space to breathe a breath of air. Twisting to my side, I slammed the tip of my elbow into his ear and heard him yelp. With the distance created, I got on top of him and rained down five hard punches over my shoulder to the cheers of Marlene. Finding the man’s gun behind me, I turned back, pressed the muzzle to his forehead, and pulled the trigger.

Stumbling into Marlene’s room, I was a mess. Blood covered my face and body that was both mine and stranger, but Marlene didn’t seem to mind.

“You came for me! You came!” She bounced in excitement.

“I’ll never leave you again,” I huffed as I moved over to her and sawed away the rope on her wrists with my knife. Her hands grabbed at my clothes desperately.

“We have to hurry,” she said, looking at the door. “There were like fifteen of them on this boat.”

It was then, just as I cut her loose that the sound of feet pounding on the metal floor grates filled the hall.

“Come on now, hurry!” I said, pulling her to my back as I turned back to the door. I saw the men fill the stairwell where I had just come from. Not waiting to see what they would do, I fired six times and told Marlene to run. Firing two more times, I ran behind her as the men started firing back at us. I didn’t have enough bullets or energy to kill them all.

Pulling Marlene back when she passed a set of stairs, we went down and zig-zagged through entrances until I felt the breeze of the Miami air. Making it outside onto the deck, I saw the thousand of stars blinking in the clear sky, and the Miami shore was hundreds of yards behind us.

“Come on, we have to jump,” I said as I took her down another set of stairs to get to the side of the ship.

“Jump?! Are you crazy? I can’t—” Marlene protested as I pulled her along.

“We have to now, before we’re too far away to swim,” I replied.

“We’re too far to swim now!” she said.

Wrapping my uninjured arm around her waist, I pulled her to me tightly and kissed her hard and deep. She hesitated but kissed me back. The sound of the other men thundered up the stairs and after us. We only had seconds.

Still kissing Marlene, I leaned over the railing, and she screamed as we both fell into the ocean water below.

Chapter Three

Like an anvil dropped in the ocean, the pair of us hit the water and sank in the bottomless depth of the ocean black. I was not proud to say that I was terrified of the ocean and had more than one fear involving being in the water while a massive thousand-tonne ship rushed beside me. Needless to say, getting swept into the massive propellers was included in that list of fears.

Kicking wildly and hard, I held on to Marlene’s arm with one hand and swam to the surface with the other. Every second beneath the surface was petrifying. My lungs burned for air. With every stroke, I swore I would burst through the surface, but I never did. I worried I had rescued Marlene just to drown her. Then it happened.

Cutting through the surface, I gasped a harsh breath of air, and moments later, Marlene did, too. I turned and saw the ship had passed us by twenty yards already. Finally, taking my first breaths of relief, I turned to Marlene, who clung to me.

“Are you alright? Are you… are you hurt?” I spat up a mouthful of salt water.

“No, no, but I… I don’t swim well. Can we make it to shore?” Marlene asked, her voice filled with trepidation.

“We will.”

It took the better part of an hour, but we made it to a railing on the docks. I barely had the strength to pull myself from the water. My wounded shoulder flared with pain.

“Oh, you’re hurt!” were Marlene’s first words once we were out of the water. I leaned on her as we left. We cut through a different terminal lot than before and walked out the gate as a car came in. It took a bit more walking to find where I had stashed the trash bag of money, but we found it.

There was another two-hour walk to the nearest hotel. It was a step up from the motel they stayed in for over a week, but not by much. We shared a long, hot shower together. It was filled with no talk. Just our arms resting around each other’s necks. Our foreheads leaned together in peace for the moment.

Our exit from the country was one of plain sight. Lorenzo had bought us tickets to board a cruise ship that visited the Caribbean over the next week. One of the stops would be Jamaica. We would get off on the visit but would not return to the ship. The cruise ship departed in six hours.

Marlene cleaned and bandaged my wounds, and I must have dozed off in the bed while I lay there. My sleep was heavy and deep as my body and mind recovered from the night before. I awoke hours later with a kiss on my cheek.

“Shhhh…” Marlene whispered into my ear as she kissed my cheek, then kissed a spot lower to my neck. “Don’t move a muscle. Don’t say a word.”

She instructed as she pulled my boxers down around my ankles with one hand. Her hand found my shaft and gently stroked it up and down as she spoke.

“I want you to relax. I want you to just lay there and let me thank you…”

Marlene pumped my shaft until it throbbed in her, and the girth and length outgrew her small hands as she stroked me. My breath increased as I felt her body shaped to mine as she ground her sex into the side of my hips.

“Mmmm, I want you to know how thankful I am… mmm… I want you to know that I am yours…” Marlene panted and bit down on my ear before sucking on my earlobe. “I want you to know that I’ll forever be your dirty fucking slut…”

There was a smile in her whisper of a voice as she spoke. Her grip was firm but loose around my shaft as she milked me. Pre-cum spilled down my shaft and onto her hand as she massaged the mess over my shaft.

“That wherever we go, wherever we are, you can have this pussy,” Marlene purred into my ear and then released a tempered whimper. “This wet pussy is yours. Yours to finger, yours to eat, yours to fuck, ahmmm…”

I was close to cumming, and Marlene knew it. Flicking her still-wet hair out of her face, she lowered her lips to the bulbous head of my cock and began to passionately tongue and devour it with her lips wrapped around the head. When my body flexed, and I came, I barely felt the tinge in my wounded shoulder as the orgasm was so powerful. My balls flexed up into my body as Marlene drained every drop of cum into her mouth before letting my cock go.

We fell asleep for our few-hour nap in that position. I passed out on my back, and she, with her cheek resting on my belly.


Chapter Four

Setting foot on the cruise line felt alien. Like they were walking on a different planet from where they were the night before. They departed from the same port I had killed so many men the night prior, but it was a different terminal. The documents Lorenzo had prepared for them worked flawlessly. No one gave the pair a second look, apart from the bruises I wore.

We were still exhausted from our midnight swim we endured in this very same water, so we didn’t linger to wave at the United States as we pulled away. Everyone else who did would see the country again in seven days, but us? We were never coming back.

In the presidential suite, the two of us fell asleep naked in each other’s arms. The balcony door so the warm breeze could lull us as we traveled towards our new life. That afternoon, I awoke to Marlene’s naked body sitting over top of me. She slowly pulled at my bandages over my shoulder that were red with crusted blood.

“We need to change your bandages,” she said.

“How do you feel?”

“Fine,” Marlene said quickly as she grabbed new bandaging from her bag. I grabbed her hand, getting her attention.

“I mean, how are you doing?” I asked.

Marlene hesitated and smiled, but a wisp of a frown followed by tears filled her eyes.

“I never… when they took me and put me on that ship,” Marlene sniffled. “I thought that was it. I thought that would be the last time I saw America. The outside… you…”

I clasped her hand in mine as she raised the other to caress my cheek and hold my gaze.

“And when I saw you… when you came for me… I never… My mother sold me off to some gangster at seventeen; my husband shipped me off to another country when there was no use for me… I have never known anyone to care for me like you…”

Looking into her starry eyes, I didn’t know what to say, so I said the only true thing I had already affirmed to myself. “I’d die for you.”

Marlene's eyebrows lifted as she melted before me. Her lips met mine. We kissed long, and we kissed deep. “And I, you,” she whispered in my ear.

Her bag was brushed to the floor gently as her legs positioned around my hips. We moved slowly and with ease. She brought me down to the bed carefully. Removing my bloody bandage from my shoulder, she gently kissed down my neck and around my wound that had finally closed. I reached for her body and felt the curves of her luscious body. Down the arch of her back, as she laid on me up to the plump round ass that I squeezed, I felt her entire body.

Her lips returned to mine, and she spent minutes exploring my mouth with her tongue. Her lips kissing mine, I felt her hands undoing my belt slowly and deliberately. Stroking my cock to life, she lifted her skirt and fed my shaft inside her slowly. Her wet, tight lips accepted his cock and squeezed it as she eased herself down on him.

“Ooo hmm,” she whimpered into me as we kissed.

Sliding her hips up and down on my cock, she rode me slowly. She rode me passionately. Keeping me on my back, she raised up to pull her shirt off, revealing her perfectly sculpted round breasts. Riding my shaft at a steady pace, her breasts swayed and bounced before as she cried out moans she couldn’t swallow.

“Oh, my god… Oh my… yes, yes! Please, oh god, cum inside me! I want you to cum in… side… ahh…” she moaned, rocking into me with every syllable.

Grunting, I felt her body begin to seize just as my cock began to pulse inside her. Hooking my hand around the back of her neck, I pulled her lips down to mine. We kissed deeply as my cock spurted strings of cum deep inside of her. Sharing a moment that neither of us wanted to end, we stayed in that position for the rest of the afternoon. Listening to seagulls squawking and the waves crashing, we fell asleep again in each other’s arms.


Chapter Five

The three days aboard the cruise ship were some of the best days of my life to that point. We hid amongst thousands of people and talked to no one but each other. Eating, drinking, dancing, and recovering. Taking nothing but the trash bag of IDs, cash, and jewels, we walked off the ship on the third day and made our way across the island of Jamaica. From there, we found a fisherman who took us to a Caribbean island Lorenzo had told me about.

It took three more days of travel to arrive. The house was a compound on the beach. A four-bedroom house on stilts with metal gates surrounding the two acres it sat on. Surrounded by a forest and nature, the town, which had a market, was a three-minute drive away.

“This is Tomascos?” Marlene asked as she walked through the large living room with a vaulted ceiling. The furniture appeared brand new and old at the same time. Like it had been purchased and decorated a decade ago but never lived in. Never sat on. Never slept in.

“No, this is yours,” I said, running my finger over the dusty 75-inch TV screen.

“Ours,” Marlene corrected with a smile. “Is it safe?”

“Lorenzo said this place was kept completely off the books. Unrelated to any of his other accounts.”

“And where is Lorenzo? Should we be worried?”

“He spoke of an account with money… I thought he would be here. We will give him time,” I said.

“What will we do in the meantime?” Marlene fell into one of the couches, her eyes finding mine with a wicked smile.


Chapter Six

“Ahhh!” Marlene released a high-pitched scream as she ran inside from the rain. The thunderstorm came out of nowhere while we finished our shopping at the market. Luckily, we were nearly home by the time the worst of it began. Marlene’s royal blue lacy sundress clung to her skin as the wet fabric turned into a bodysuit, and water dripped from her heavy skirt.

The trickle of raindrops had turned into the heavy patter of fat droplets soaking every inch of us. I set the three bags of fresh fruit and vegetables on the kitchen counter as I jogged inside behind her. Marlene walked to our back deck, looked out over the ocean, and saw the gray sky as it growled and emptied its water down onto the Earth. She leaned her hair to one side and combed the water that was absorbed into it.

“God, look at that,” she gawked. I swiped a palm full of water from my face. My dark gray polo shirt hugged my thick chest and broad back like it was a bathing suit. I joined the view behind her. Lightning cut through the clouds like lights along the lines between a jigsaw puzzle. The long, low growl grew from a distant place in the sky and sent a shiver through Marlene. She backed into me, and half turned into my chest.

“Hey…” I said with my calloused palm, cupping her cheek and turning her face up to mine. “You’re safe. I won’t let anyone touch you again. I’ll protect you.”

Marlene’s eyes danced from side to side as she stared up at me. Like she read a book hidden behind her irises. A smile sprouted on her lips as her arms snaked up my chest and around my neck, and she pulled me into a long, lingering kiss. Marlene’s tongue pushed into my mouth and twisted against it as my palm brushed along her face and combed her wet hair out of her face and behind her ear. Her sensual kiss was powerful enough to stir my cock in my jeans as I felt it grow against the fabric.

My hand slid down to her throat. The thumb and fingers gently grasped around her neck as I kissed her hard and tilted her head back. She pushed me backward, and our kiss broke apart for a moment as I fell against a wall briefly. The devious smile she made turned into a snicker as she chased me down and hopped onto me like a cat. My hands caught under her butt as her thighs closed around my hips and her arms around my neck. Her forehead rolled against mine as her lips pecked mine, and her tongue teased mine but constantly hovered an inch over my face.

“You want to fuck me, baby?” Marlene rasped in a desperate voice. “You want to put your cum deep inside me?”

I carried the sexy woman into the bedroom as she whined in her high-pitched voice. Her hot breath bathed my cheek and earlobe.

“I don’t want to be your good girl tonight,” Marlene whispered as a crack of thunder rumbled through the surrounding house. She bit my earlobe, then tongued it soothingly before continuing. “I want to be your bad girl. Fuck me like that bad, bad girl I am, baby. I want it hard, baby.”

Tossing her down on the bed, I heard her yelp in excitement and fear as she bounced on the California king mattress. Grabbing the base of my shirt, I pulled it off along with my jeans and tossed them in the corner of the room. Snatching Marlene’s ankles, I yanked her down to the edge of the bed, making her skirt ride up past her butt to her lower back. Her wet blue dress pulled around the sides of her breasts, restraining them as they bounced up and down her every movement. The cold, wet fabric made her hard nipples pierce through the fabric like two enormous diamonds.

“Wait, let me feel it,” Marlene protested, holding up a hand reaching down to grab my cock. “I want to stroke—ahh!”

Ignoring her demands, I fed the bulb of my head between her warm, wet pussy lips and shoved inside her. Marlene’s lips parted, and I felt her pussy walls squeeze on my cock.

“Ohhh! Gahhh!” Marlene moaned as she arched her back. Her mouth was wide, and her eyes squinted as I fed my shaft deeper inside her. I pulled on her thick, clammy thighs and brought her hips to the edge of the bed, where I stood as I pounded inside her. “Ahhh, oh yes!”

Her breasts bounced as they moved on their own. The thickness and size of them lowered on her chest as they bounced in circles, leaning to both sides of her chest with every thrust. Fucking her faster, I heard our wet bodies collide and clap together as my fingers dug into her tender thighs, just as my cock penetrated her aching lips.

“Fffuck! You keep this up, baby, and I’m going to cum alr—” Marlene started, but gasped and let her eyes go wide when I folded her legs to her chest and forced every inch of my cock inside her. Slamming the thick shaft in and out of her, the pressure became too much. “Ohhh! I’m cumming! I’m fucking cumming!”

My shaft filled her up, hooking against her G-spot with every thrust as her body seized and meaty thighs clapped together defensively. I pulled my cock out of her just as the pressure peaked, and a squirt of her juices dribbled across the bed cover between us.

“Ohhh fuck! Oh gahd yes! Ohhh…” Marlene shuddered as her hands shook, and she worked herself back and forth like she was trying to burrow her body under the bed to rest.

But I wasn’t finished with my bad girl.

Reaching between her trembling arms, I grabbed the neck of her dress on her chest and, with one powerful rip, tore the dress down the middle. Her breasts and belly button ring were exposed, and Marlene covered herself instinctually.

“Ah! Wha… what are you doing?” Marlene protested, but it only took one hard pull on her skirt to rip the remaining dress from her and send her body rolling onto the bed.

Marlene was completely nude and staggering to get on her hands and knees and orient herself toward me when my fingers found hold of her bony hips and yanked her backside towards me.

“Ooo!” she cried out and giggled at her forced position on her hands and knees. “Wait, wait, wait, I’m not ready—oh! Fuck!”

My hard cock pierced her dripping pussy lips like a javelin. My hands gripped the meat of her hips just below the bend in her waist as I pulled out and rammed back inside her.

“Oh gahd, yes!” she sang.

Slamming my cock in and out of her, I watched Marlene press her forehead into the bedcover as her small hands twisted the fabric into her balled fists. Ramming my hard shaft in and out, my eyes lingered on her sleek, beautiful back and the curve it made as she moaned into the bed. After a few moments passed, she slowly raised her face from the bed and flipped her wet hair back and over her head. It smacked the middle of her back with a wet thwack! Looking over her shoulder at me with desperate eyes.

“Fuck me, Michael… fuck me… use me like your slut ahhh!” she begged.

I grabbed a handful of her wet hair and yanked her head back hard. It made her scream and moan at the same time. Her heavy breasts swayed beneath her body with every hard thrust. Her back formed an arch as I thrust inside her, my cock flexing wildly as the grip on her pussy became too much.

“Oh fuck! Oh gahd yes. Fuck me. Fuck me!” Marlene grunted through gritted teeth.

Smack!

I slapped her ass cheek hard with my other hand, making her ass red and the meat jiggle.

“AH! Yes!” Marlene screamed, and I felt her push her ass harder back against me.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

“Oh fuck! I’m cumming! I’m cumming again! Ohh gah!” Marlene cried.

I felt her pussy clench on my throbbing cock and nearly doubled over as I groaned in her ear. The pressure squeezing my shaft became too much as I forced my cock deep inside her pussy. Feeling her wet lips milk my cock, I came just as I felt Marlene’s arm reach above her shoulder and pull my face to hers.

“Yes, yes!” Marlene moaned in her lovely accent. “Give me all that fucking cum!”

My shaft was buried in her pussy. I felt her lips pulse around my cock as she came on me.

My heart felt as though it would beat through my chest. It was pounding so hard. Falling out of her after a moment, we crawled into the bed and made do with wrapping the comforter over our intertwined naked bodies. In the shadow of the blanket, we made out for what could have been hours as the storm of rain pattered the roof and windows that surrounded us. Marlene fell asleep with her arms wrapped tightly around my back and her cheek pressed in the center of my chest. And slowly, I dozed away to sleep with my nose brushed between her drying hair, thinking, “This is what heaven must be.”


Chapter Seven

Three weeks went by in a blur. We ate fresh fruit from the market and fresh fish from the sea. The people from the nearby town were slowly becoming familiar to each of us. The friendly faces of the markets, bars, and restaurants were known to Marlene, while the local police officers, who seemed as corrupt as any other second-world police department, were known to me.

Manny was one of the friendlier officers. He seemed like a man who kept his word and was malleable to the ways of the world. It was with his help that I found a dealer to purchase a handgun and a few extra magazines in case of an emergency. I didn’t expect to hear from Lorenzo immediately, but the more time passed, the more suspicious I became. It was just the way my mind worked. In the early mornings, before Marlene woke, I’d sit and stare at the beach and make secondary plans in case we had to leave this place. If the Greeks found this place somehow, or if Lorenzo gave us up. We had enough money to last us a few more months, but soon, we’d have to look for work, which would only expose us further.

It was on one such morning that I heard a car pull into our long, secluded driveway. Heading inside, I grabbed the handgun stashed behind me and the canvas painting on the wall and peeked out the window. It was Manny. I could tell by the police car that there was someone in the passenger seat. I could see movement but couldn’t make out details. Manny was a local. Dark skin, bald, and with a mustache. The middle-aged man had a wife and four kids. I liked him from our few conversations, but if he had brought someone who would endanger Marlene, I wouldn’t have a problem ending his life in a heartbeat.

Slipping my handgun in the back of my waistband, I adjusted my shirt and stepped out as Manny approached.

“Hey, big man. How are you?” Manny asked with a smile.

I shook his hand and smiled cautiously. “Good. What brings you here so early?”

“Ah, yes, I am sorry,” he said. “There was a message for you. They wanted me to bring it to you.”

“They?” I asked and inched my hand closer to the gun in my waistband.

“The men at the docks. There was a shipment that came in on a container ship.” Manny pointed towards the town where the docks were. “Aboard was a message for you—well, for this residence.”

“What’s the message?” I asked. Manny looked back at his car and waved the second person towards them.

“What’s going on?” Marlene’s voice surprised me. She stepped outside into the morning sun, still wearing her black silk nightgown. It bristled and danced in the wind.

A panic peaked in me as I wanted to yell at her to go back inside, but I didn’t want to lose control of the moment. All that panic dampened, though, when I looked back to the car. The passenger in the car was a child. A young girl no more than ten years old with black hair that danced over her shoulders.

Marlene gasped and approached my side.

“She had a letter with this address and nothing more,” Manny said and handed me a piece of paper, confirming that.

“Caterina?” Marlene asked. And the young girl looked up for the first time. Her watery, scared eyes found Marlene’s, and the young girl melted into the woman’s arms in a swift and deep embrace. It was her. The boss’ daughter from another marriage. The little girl Lorenzo had betrayed us in order to protect…

“May I leave her with you then?” Manny asked, but it was Marlene who answered.

“Yes, yes. Thank you, Manny,” she said, holding back tears.

“My pleasure,” Manny smiled and shook my hand before returning to his car.

Releasing Caterina, Marlene lowered to a knee as she introduced us to the girl. “I’m Marlene, and this is Michael. Are you Caterina?”

“Yes,” the girl said. She appeared on the verge of tears, but perhaps that was because of her long journey. She looked at Michael for a long moment. “You’re Michael?”

“That’s right,” I said.

“Michael and Marlene,” the girl whispered to herself, then undid one of her shoes.

“What are you doing?” Marlene giggled.

Caterina removed the shoe and the sole of the shoe and removed a zip lock back with a note in it. “Lorenzo told me to give this to you.”

I shared a look with Marlene as I undid the bag and opened the note.

‘Michael,

Below, you will find the account number for Tommasco’s emergency fund. In it, you’ll find thirteen million dollars. His wife and child are all that remains of him. They will be hunted as long as they live. Keep Caterina safe. Keep Marlene safe. You’re the only one who can.

Thank you, my friend,

Lorenzo’

I took a deep and long breath and handed the paper to Marlene to read. Softening my voice for the first time and lowering myself to a crouch so I didn’t loom over the child, I looked at the girl with hopeful eyes.

“Caterina, you want to come inside and have some breakfast? Maybe stay a while?” I asked.

Caterina’s eyebrows went tall, and the hint of a smile grew on her face as she nodded eagerly. Looking up at Marlene, I saw she had finished reading the note and saw a tear in the corner of her eyes. Marlene nodded to me as well as I stood, and we embraced in a long and lingering kiss that never had to end.