M Sellars - All acts of pleasure

“Fek tu! ”

“Not on your best day, asshole,” she returned sharply, shifting out of official speak for a moment, then she leaned forward hard on her carefully positioned knee.

He groaned heavily as she pressed her weight into his lower back, not that she was endowed with that much, petite as she was; but obviously she knew how to use what she had to make her point. With a practiced motion, she took hold of his other wrist and brought it behind his back then quickly applied the other cuff. Once he was secured, she backed off the pressure on his spine and stood up then stepped over him.

“Are you okay, Rowan?” she asked.

“I’ll live,” I replied with a nod.

The space between us was no longer blocked, as the dogs were preoccupied with sniffing at the prone man on the floor, seeing him now as a curiosity rather than a threat.

“Let me see,” she demanded, moving forward and gently taking my chin in her fingers.

I brushed her hand away and twisted my head, pulling back. “I’m fine.”

“You need to put some ice on that,” she pressed.

“I said, I’ll be fine.”

“Storm,” she said, shooting him a glance then cocking her head toward Austin.

“Yeah, I got ‘im,” he replied with a nod. “You get Row some ice.”

“Isn’t anybody listening to me?” I objected, voice filled with a mix of anger and exasperation, but the words came too late to matter. Constance was already halfway to the kitchen, and she wasn’t slowing down.

Ben stooped over and dragged my brother-in-law onto his knees by his upper arm, “Come on. Get up.”

“Jay-zuss, ya’ bastard!” he yelped. “You’re breakin’ me goddamned arm then!”

“You just don’t know when ta’ shut up, do ya’?” Ben snapped as he finished pulling him up to his feet. “Now, I know I heard Mandalay tell ya’ ta’ calm down. You got some kinda hearin’ problem or somethin’?”

“Aye, it’s best you stay out of this,” my brother-in-law spat. “It’s personal. It’s not your problem, then.”

“Yeah, well, trust me, I know all about personal,” Ben replied, shoving him into the dining room and planting him in a chair. “And, maybe this is, I dunno. But, the thing ya’ gotta be aware of is you made it my problem when ya’ attacked an innocent citizen right in front of me and then resisted arrest.”

“Innocent my arse!”

Ben looked over in my direction but kept himself positioned between the two of us. “Jeezus, Row. I thought you said this is the guy that liked ya’?”

“I guess he changed his mind,” I replied with a shake of my head.

Halfway through the motion I stopped, closed my eyes, and groaned. The rattling in my skull still hadn’t subsided, and now that it joined forces with the fresh ache in my jaw, moving just made it that much worse. When I allowed my eyes to flutter open once again, I saw that Mandalay was already heading back through the dining room with a dishtowel in her hand.

“What’ve you done to my sister, ya’ bastard?!” Austin shouted, lifting up and leaning to the side to look around Ben’s frame.

Before I could answer, Ben snapped, “Can it!” Then, pushing him back down into the seat he added, “Now, I’m not gonna tell ya’ ta’ calm down again, got me?!”

I was determined that someone was going to listen to me, so I shot back with, “I haven’t done anything to her, Austin!”

My own voice rose in volume as I expelled the words, and that didn’t help my head either. However, the sudden rush of anger was enough to at least blunt the pain.

“Liar!”

“Goddammit, Austin, I…”

“You too!” Ben returned, cutting me off while stabbing a finger at me. “Not another word outta either of ya’. Hear me?!”

Constance interjected her voice into the auditory fray as she came to a halt in front of me. “Stand still, this might sting a bit.”

With only that comment as warning, she began dabbing at the lower half of my face and lip with a damp towel. I immediately winced and pulled away, reaching for her wrist out of reflex.

“A bit?” I yelped.

She slapped my hand away and continued undaunted, quickly adding, “I said, stand still.”

“Dammit, Constance,” I muttered. “You aren’t my mother.”

“I’m not your wife either, thank God,” she quipped softly. “But, someone has to look after you, and until we clear Felicity, it looks like I got the job whether I want it or not. Now, hold still.”

“Bastard!” Austin snipped.

“I thought I told ya’ ta’ shut up!” Ben snarled at him.

“I’ll be fine,” I reiterated to Mandalay.

“Come over this way,” she instructed, tugging on my arm. “I need more light.”

“Constance…”

“Jeezus, Row,” Ben urged with a healthy measure of exasperation in his voice. “She ain’t gonna take no for an answer, so will ya’ just let ‘er look at it and get it over with?”

I didn’t say another word, but I did let out a heavy sigh before following her a few steps over to the floor lamp. Then, giving in to yet another of her demands, I twisted my head so she could have a closer look.

“Mmhmm,” she hummed. “It’s not too bad. I don’t think you’ll need any stitches.”

“Thanks, Doctor Mandalay,” I returned, unable to keep the sarcasm from bleeding through.

She ignored the dig and instead simply produced a second dishtowel from her other hand then carefully pressed it against my lip. It was damp and cold where the fistful of ice it was wrapped around had begun to melt through.

“Here, hold this on it for a while.”

“If I do, will you stop mothering me?”

“No.”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could really say in response, so I sighed again and held the icepack against the lower half of my mouth as I mumbled, “Okay. Fine. If it makes you happy.”

“Well isn’t that just a pretty picture then,” Austin grumbled. “Just couldn’t wait, could you, ya’ bastard?”

“Hey,” Ben barked. “What did…”

“No, Ben,” I snapped, cutting him off. “Let him say what’s on his mind.”

“Aye, I suspect you don’t want to be hearin’ that, now do you,” my brother-in-law responded with an angry snort.

“Keep it civil,” Ben instructed, taking a half step to the side, so we could see one another. “Both of ya’.”

“Actually, yes. I do want to hear it, Austin,” I replied. “Just what couldn’t I wait for?”

“Her,” he snipped. “Felicity’s in jail, and you’ve already got yourself a cailin here in her house…”

“A what?”

“Are ya’ daft?” he spat, thrusting his chin toward Constance. “Your girlfriend there.”

“Gods, Austin, get a clue. She’s an FBI agent,” I returned incredulously. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

Constance slipped out her badge case and flipped it open as she stepped toward him. “I’ve already identified myself as a federal officer, here’s my ID,” she told him coolly. “And, he’s telling the truth. I’m not his girlfriend.”

He simply harrumphed in return, giving her credentials only a cursory glance.

“So, are you trying to tell me everything was just fine until you saw Constance standing there at the door, and that’s why you decided to take a swing at me? Because, I hate to tell you this, but I have trouble believing that.”

“Aye, I was planning to hit you anyway, that’s a fact.”

“Yeah, no shit. Want to give me a clue as to why?”

As an answer he simply repeated his earlier question. “What have you done to my sister?”

“I haven’t done a thing. Just what the hell makes you think I did something to her?”

“She’s in jail, ya’ bastard.”