The Stand Off (12 page)

“Grab his legs!” Lux shouted.

“Fine!” Pixie snapped back.

Lux grabbed him under his arms
and Pixie carried him by his legs. They struggled for over ten minutes trying
to get him into the house. It didn’t help that Pixie needed to take frequent
breaks. After a spell, they had finally managed to get him inside. They carried
him into the living room and tried to sit him in the chair while Lux put the
handcuffs on him.

“Hold him while I grab the rope,”
Lux instructed.

“I can’t hold him anymore; that
man is unbelievably heavy,” Pixie complained.

“Fine. I’ll hold him, and you get
the rope. Hurry, I think he’s starting to wake up.”

It was around that time that Dean
opened his eyes.

“Shit hurry!” Lux yelled, but it
was too late; Dean had managed to stand up although he was obviously
disoriented.

“Sit down,” Lux warned him as she
grabbed the stun gun.

“You should re-think this.” Dean
said as his foggy brain began to clear.

“Sit down or I will stun you.”
She held the stun gun close to him. “I don’t want to, I swear I don’t, but I
will.”

“Please don’t tempt her, she’s
slept like a total of 5 hours in over five days; she’ll do it,” Pixie pleaded.

“You haven’t been sleeping well?’
he looked at Lux.

Lux turned to Pixie, “Thanks for
telling the enemy that I’m tired and possibly weak from lack of sleep. Nice
job, Pixie.”

“That bit of information could
work to your advantage once we go to trial for
ab-duc-tion
,” Pixie shot
back.

“I told you I’m taking full
responsibility. You won’t step foot in a jail cell,” Lux promised.

“I am not just going to let you
take full blame.”

“You don’t have a choice, you’ll
do as I say on this,” Lux demanded in her bossy, older sister voice.

“Why haven’t you been sleeping?”
Dean asked her as if it were just the two of them in the room.

“Why do you think? I have been
trying to figure out how to keep the music hall.”

“And she hasn’t eaten either;
she’s delirious,” Pixie continued to set up her case.

“Please sit down.” She waived the
stun gun at the chair. “Or I will be forced to stun you.”

“I could take that from you right
now.”

“With your hands cuffed behind
your back?” she raised a brow in doubt.

“Yes. Do you want to bet that I
can’t?”

She took a step back and held the
stun gun tighter. “I will stun the shit out of you if you don’t sit down.”

He grinned at her, clearly amused
and then sat down in the chair.

“Get me the rope,” Lux instructed
Pixie. Lux made short work of tying him to the chair; she triple knotting
everything and double checked her knots.

“You have to call them and tell
them not to tear down the building,” Lux said as she held out his cell phone.

“I can’t it’s not scheduled to be
torn down today.”

“But you said it was today. It
was on the demolition notice,” Lux said skeptically.

“I pushed it back.”

“You’re lying.”

“Call them.”

“Why would you do that?” Lux
asked.

“You know why.”

“You really thought I would
change my mind?”

“You really thought I would sell
the building to you?”

“Thanks to you I have another day
to try,” she grinned.

“So now what?” Pixie asked.

“I guess I keep him here until
tomorrow,” Lux answered.

“Really?” Pixie asked.

“Yes.”

“Here?” Pixie looked around.

“Where else? I need him to call
his men off. And trust me he is not going to let me abduct him again tomorrow
morning.”

“But,” Pixie started to object
but Lux stopped her.

“Do you have a better plan?”

“At this point I think any plan
is better than this, sister dear. I’m going outside to smoke.” Pixie rolled her
eyes and headed out of the room.

“This is a lot of trouble,” Dean
said once they were alone.

“I would do anything to keep the
music hall.”

“Almost anything.”

“I will not resort to
prostitution.”

“No, but you’ll resort to
abduction. I don’t understand you; all you had to let me do was fuck you. Do
you have any idea how many women have begged for that?”

“Then go find one of them because
I don’t want to have sex you.”

“Liar, I know you want me to fuck
you almost as badly as I need to fuck you.”

“You’re wrong.”

“You’re lying and if you weren’t
such a coward, you would let me prove it. I’ll give you the building just to
let me prove it. I will give you the whole fucking block.”

“You’re like a magician with a
hat full of magical garbage. You’re so full of shit. You’re a trickster, a
womanizing prince Charming, covering your deceit with sexy lies and layers of
money. I’ve told you, that shit won’t work on me. Don’t forget all the deep
investigation I did to find dirt on you. I know you and your filthy little
mind.”

“There’s nothing little about my
filthy mind… there’s nothing little about me at all. I can prove that, too,” he
said smugly.

“No thank you, I know more than
enough about you.”

“You don’t know me at all.”

“I know enough.”

“You know what you’ve heard, and
you know what you’ve read, but you don’t know me. No one really does, but I
would be willing to tell you. I would let you inside of my head and my life.”

“Stop talking like that!”

“Talking like what?” He almost
laughed at the situation. He’d always been the angry one when women tried to
get inside of his head. How the tables had turned.

“The niceties, the sweetness,
stop being nice... be mean! I’m not a sucker, I know it’s all lies; it’s
well-crafted deceit from a man who knows how to properly sucker punch a woman’s
heart. I swear it’s like you have a liquid silver centered tongue. You can’t
still want me! I abducted you, and I want to take your fucking property! You
should be angry with me.”

“I’m more amused,” he admitted.

“How?”

“Your audacity is almost
addicting. I’m always waiting to see what you’ll do next. The harder you try to
make me hate you, the more I want you. So by all means, keep trying; my cock’s
never been this hard.”

She stood there for a moment, a
silent battle waging in her head. She wanted to slap him, there was no doubt
about that, but what she’d do after that was what had her conflicted.

“Slap him and then slap him
again or slap him and then kiss his smug fucking lips?”

She couldn’t even trust herself
at this point. This guy was too charming and too disarming for her to think
rationally. She needed some air.

“Fuck this,” she headed towards
the door.

“You should lift that skirt when
you’re walking away from me; I want to see that beautiful ass again,” he said.

Refusing to respond, she huffed
silently as she stormed out of the room, slamming the rickety door behind her.
She walked down the hallway and opened the back door.

“Everything alright?” Pixie asked
when Lux stormed onto the back porch.

“Will you keep an eye on him for
a minute? I need a little break.” She asked.

“Of course,” Pixie agreed and
walked in to the house. She walked into the living room and sat in the fold out
metal chair in front of Dean.

“I have to know what you said to
Lux to get her all flustered like that,” Pixie smiled in good spirits.

“I told her the truth.”

“Must have been the sex thing
again. Do tell.” She smiled and got comfortable in the metal chair.

“Ask Lux.”

“I should while I have the
chance, before we all go to prison. But in her defense, she hasn’t slept, she
hasn’t eaten, and she’s been drinking wine… lots of wine. Trust me, she gets a
little intense and can be very driven, but she’s not really the abduction
type.”

“It’s not abduction if I’m here
voluntarily.”

“Do you mean,” she started to
ask, but he cut her off.

“Yes.”

“You would do that for Lux?”
Pixie was blown away by his admission.

“Where is she?”

“On the back porch.” She took out
a fresh stick of gum and tossed the wrapper into the garbage can.

“Go get her,” he said in an
authoritative tone, despite the fact that he as tied to a chair.

“Like I could, she’s not coming until
she’s ready. I can’t make Lux do anything she doesn’t want to do; no one can.
You should know that by now.” She grinned knowingly.

“You could untie me, and I could
talk to her myself.”

“Nice try, but I would rather
face you and the cops then Lux when she’s mad. She gets way too intense.
Besides, I can’t lie; I would like to see if the two of you could work out this
little dilemma. I think a big dose of Dean is just what my sister needs.”

To that comment he raised his
right brow. They heard the front door open and watched as Kiki walked into the
living room.

“What a beautiful day for an
abduction,” Kiki joked as she walked over to Pixie.

“Sure is.” Pixie smiled.

Graves walked in behind Kiki and
asked, “Where’s Lux?”

“On the back porch with a fresh
set of pinch marks, I’m sure,” Pixie answered and Dean looked at her for a
moment, analyzing her words.

“What happened?”

“She needed a little break from
the wrecking ball man.”

“You must have been hinting about
sex again.” Kiki raised her eyebrow.

“More than a hint, I think.”
Pixie corrected her.

“Really? Oh, do tell.” Kiki got
excited.

“She was too flustered for it to
be just a hint,” Pixie explained.

“Well, well, well… Mr. Blake.”
Kiki sat in the chair next to Pixie. “You’ve got our little Lux in a tizzy.
I’ve never seen her so
frazzled
… it’s refreshing.”

“Refreshing?” he asked.

“To watch that icy shell of hers…
slowly-shatter,” Pixie answered instead.

“She needs to let loose.” Kiki
nodded.

“We’ve been telling her that for
years,” Pixie added.

“Cupid, much?” Graves scoffed and
rolled her eyes. “Ms. And Miss Obvious.”

“Says Ms. Morose.” Kiki grinned.

“Don’t back out now Gravely
Gloom; you know the plan,” Pixie reminded her.

“What plan?” Dean asked.

“No plan.” Pixie smirked and
turned back to Graves.

“I don’t agree with it.” Graves
crossed her arms over her chest.

“You’re out ranked.” Pixie batted
her lashes and smiled dramatically.

“Remember that when the wrath of
Lux comes down on you,” Graves warned them.

“She’ll be thanking us,” Kiki
said with a smile.

“Bullshit, it’s not going to
work, especially after what she’s just done. She abducted him!” Graves tried to
get it through their heads.

“It
will
work.” Pixie
nodded with confidence.

“Did you forget who you’re
dealing with?” Graves raised her arms in question.

“You just have to have a little
faith. It’s so obvious, I know it will work,” Pixie tried to explain.

“You know your sister better than
anyone. She’s not giving up,” she stopped and whispered the next three words
low, “
the big V
in exchange for property. She kidnapped the dude
instead, isn’t that enough evidence.”

“Was that supposed to be a
whisper? Cause that didn’t sound like a whisper,” Pixie pursed her lips as she
asked.

“That was way too loud to be a
whisper,” Kiki said as she shook her head.

“Did you forget about the hostage
tied to the chair who happens to have a set of perfectly functioning ears?”
Pixie asked.

“Oh shit.” Graves turned to Dean
and boldly lied. “V means Virginia; that’s one of her old stage names.
Sometimes she refers to herself in the third person, so we do too sometimes.”

Kiki and Pixie burst out laughing
as Dean once again raised his right brow.

“Looks like you’ll get a little
of that wrath too,” Pixie shot back at Graves.

“Hopefully he can’t decipher your
mumbo jumbo,” Kiki joked.

To that Pixie turned to Dean and
smiled as she said, “Just remember the sullen, little blonde told you.”

“Told him what?” Lux asked as she
walked into the room.

“That we need supplies,” Pixie
lied quickly.