Missed Your Lips

AN:
And after two years of dormancy, I manage to churn out another chapter. Sorry to those who were actually reading. I'll try to be a better author in the future. And now, on with the story!


Chapter 10 – Explanation


“The bed I'm lying in is getting colder
Wish I never would've said it's over
And I can't pretend that I won't think about you when I'm older
Cause we never really had our closure
This can't be the end” – Hinder

I wish I could say that there were explanations, and that the last few years were laid out for me in a storybook manner. However, Blitz was not forthcoming on the trip into the city, and suffice it to say, he refused to answer any of my questions. All he said was I should ask Vince, which didn’t make sense to me because last I remembered, I hardly knew Vince. He’d rarely spoken to me when we used to travel around.

I guess things really had changed. But had I really been out of commission for ten years? It didn’t make sense, but Blitz didn’t deny it. And just from looking at his face, I could tell that some time had passed. He wasn’t exactly known to be a gentle man, but now his face was hardened in such a way I didn’t recognize, almost like he was in a state of mixed anger and anguish. And without any information, I had no way of knowing why he looked this way, why he looked like my presence actually hurt him.

I didn’t recognize the town. Blitz did manage to tell me that the town was called New Horizon, and that my last year had been spent here. Full of twinkling neon lights, we drove down what appeared to be a main street. But we quickly turned away from the street lights and the fascinating glow of the signs, and headed for a darker side of town. Here I could see barely clothed women walking the sidewalks, a trail of men following in their wake.

We actually pulled in a parking lot at the end of the street. As I carefully got out, I looked up to the dark building. It looked like an old warehouse, about four stories high. There was a sign above a chain-locked double glass door, but it wasn’t lit. Blitz gruffly told me to follow him down a side alley to a back entrance into the building.

Together, we entered into a dark hallway. I almost tripped on the boxes piled up against the walls; their clinking and rattling together told me they were full of bottles. Blitz grabbed my hand harshly and pulled me forward. I could see light up ahead, but instead, we stopped before a door.

“Here,” he said, “go in and get cleaned up. You should find plenty of clothes inside. I’ll be in the main room when you’re finished.”

With my hand on the door, Blitz let go of me and continued down the hallway to the voices I could hear at the end. Inside the room, I saw two sets of partitions, each covered with mirrors, lights, and tables. It was like nothing I had ever seen, but guessed it was some kind of dressing room. Each table had compacts containing many varieties of make-up; many of them in colors that I couldn’t imagine were decent in public. Some mirrors had pictures of children and men taped to the surface.

That was when I saw myself reflected in the mirror’s surface. I was stunned by how pale my skin was against my long black hair. I leaned forward to examine myself closely. My skin was pulled tight against my cheekbones, and I could see the edges of my collarbone sticking up at my neck. Apparently I hadn’t eaten for a while. My hair looked so dull under the harsh lights, the only shine coming from the lack of washing.

I made my way to the back of the room. To the left was the shower area, and to the right I found a closet area full of clothes and a couple of changing rooms. I spent upwards of half-an-hour just letting the spray of the water soak my hair and wash away all the grime. I managed to shave my legs with a dull razor I found in the next stall, and I shuddered when I saw the state of my feet. What I wouldn’t give for a pedicure! Outside, I could only find threadbare towels to cover myself with as I searched the closets.

This was a travesty. He expected me to find something to wear in here? I couldn’t find anything that distinctly resembled a shirt. The skirts barely covered my butt. The pants rode so low that I was afraid they would fall off of my subtle curves. Giving up the search, I walked back to the row of mirrors to find a box tied up with a big bow sitting on one of the tables.

Inside, I found not only a fresh pair of panties and a bra, but real clothing. The pants were made of simple black cotton, cut in a comfortable boot-leg shape. There was also a crisp white button-down blouse. I buttoned down only as far as my navel, and then tied the rest of the shirt around my waist. The clothes felt soft against my skin, and the result in the mirror was mildly pleasing to the eye.

But I had to do something with my hair. I couldn’t imagine what I would do with hair as long as this. Grabbing a pair of scissors, I grabbed all of my waist-length hair into my hand, and cut it off at my shoulders. I shook it out and dried it thoroughly. There seemed to be plenty of hair products around, so I ran a little mousse through with my fingers to give it body.

I pilfered a container of foundation and a simple red lipstick to make myself look human again, and then finished off the ensemble with a pair of platform Mary Janes that I found in the closet of sadomasochism. I stood for just a moment to get a feel for the shoes before I took one wary step, and then another. I didn’t seem to have any trouble walking in them. Putting my platinum necklace back on around my neck, I took one final look in the mirror, and decided I was presentable.

~*~*~

“You can’t be serious!”

I heard this as I walked out into the massive room of tables. There was an occupied bar to my left, several little grottoes lining the walls lit only by candlelight, but it was the stage to my right that caught my attention.

“No wonder I couldn’t find anything to wear,” I said under my breath.

Laughter drew my attention back to the group of men sitting at the bar. I easily picked Blitz out of the pack, and the majority of the others I remembered as well.

“Why don’t you come over here and help me pour some drinks?” said the man behind the bar.

As I walked closer to the bar area, I could see clearly that it was Vince who had addressed me. That was more words than he had ever said to me in my years with their group.

“She’s off the clock tonight,” said a voice from behind me.

I turned around, and stood eye-to-eye with a man that had been my closest friend, the man that protected me while the others were in the field. I grinned at him, and let him pull me into a gentle hug.

“Steven,” I said in his ear. “How long has it been?”

He took a deep breath, and let it out in a long sigh. “Depends on which life you’re talking about, Syn. Technically, I just saw you a couple of days ago.”

He let me slip out of the hug, and led me to the bar. I didn’t get far. A wall of two men stood in my path.

“Synna!” yelled the first one as he yanked me off of the floor into a bear hug. I only had a moment to take a breath before a second body crushed me from behind.

“Hey, hey, hey!” yelled Vince. “That’s my top employee you’re crushing, you assholes. Let her go!”

Suddenly I could breathe again. I slid out of the encasement of arms and looked up at the twin brothers, Jericho and Tank.

“I’m sorry, Synna, it’s just good to see you again,” said Jericho as he patted me on the head.

I smiled at him, and winked at Tank as I took a seat between them. I remembered them as the scariest humans I had ever encountered. Jericho was an explosives expert. If you heard a ‘boom’ in the forest followed by a massive ball of flames, there’s a good chance that he was somewhere laughing while the world burned. Tank was, well, just that. He was good with guns, but he was great with his hands and body. If your fight came to hand-to-hand, he’s who I’d want at my side. I’d seen him break men’s’ backs, necks, legs, arms, and anything else in the human body that could crack. He scared the hell out of me back in the old days.

“All right, gents, back to the business at hand,” Vince said as we all turned our attentions to him. He set a shot glass in front of me, and filled the small glass with a dark brown liquid. “Blitz here thinks he’s going to stage this massacre in my bar.”

Wary, I picked up the glass and sniffed the contents. I heard someone clear their throat. “It’s alcohol, you’re supposed to drink it,” said Steven.

I shot him a dirty look, and sipped the liquid, and then proceeded to cough as it burned my throat. Steven laughed, and Vince groaned.

“Shit, looks like my bartender has gone soft,” Vince said. “She can’t even choke down my cheap liquor anymore.”

“I can’t believe you made her drink this pond sweat before,” Jericho said, taking my side.

I slammed the empty glass against the bar as a tear slipped from my eye and my nose threatened to run over. I fought back my need to cough more, and just thought I’d try keep some remnant of my reputation intact as my throat burned like fire.

I directed my stare back to Vince and started to count off my complaints on my fingers. “Since when am I your bartender? Since when do I drink your nasty booze? And since when do you even talk to me?”

Vince swiped the glass off the bar and tossed it over his shoulder into the full sink of water. “Well, you see, your buddy here…”

“Later,” said Blitz from the end of the bar.

The five of us all looked at him as he swallowed another shot.

“Blitz is right,” said Steven from my side. “No one will know that our group is back together, so they won’t expect to find all of us here. And from a strategic standpoint, this place is easily defendable. There are a couple of good sniping points in this room alone, not to mention plenty of places to hide. Plus, there’s only one entry point from the roof. Jericho can rig it with a simple C4 pack and then wait for the others to filter in. Once everyone’s in, we can corral them in this room, and mow them down.”

Vince nodded along with the explanation, but he wasn’t nodding in agreement. He was already resigned to the bar’s fate. “I hate that this is our only option. I really liked this club too.”

“You’re not going to be able to live here after all is said and done anyway. I’m sure anything we do here will draw attention from the local authorities,” stated Jericho as he slid off of his stool. He walked away to one of the tables where he had thrown his coat away. “I hope you’ve got another hideout set up in case of emergency.”

Tank and Steven also left their seats at the bar, each making their way to the exiting hallway. Tank waved, and Steven blew me a kiss. “We’ll be in touch tomorrow with more details. I’m sure I know some guys that can help us out. I feel you’ll be plenty busy tonight with, well, you know.”

And without so much a goodbye, the mercs left the building. “Well, that was sudden,” I said from my lonely spot at the bar. “So, about this club…”

Vince turned away to wash some of the glasses in the sink. “It’s a strip club.”

I looked to Blitz for assistance, but he was still staring into his glass of liquor. “Your bluntness is disconcerting,” I said.

Vince laughed. “Yeah, and you worked for me in your previous life.”

I took another glance at the stage. That statement did not settle well with me. “So, you mean to tell me that I was up there?” I asked as I pointed over my shoulder to the lone pole in the center.

Vince put a fresh glass in front of me, this time filled with something clear and bubbly. “No, no, no, you only tended bar. And you were damn good at your job too. The customers always liked you, some more than the strippers.”

With that statement, Blitz scooted closer around the bar, but he still kept a couple of seats between us. I couldn’t understand why he was purposefully keeping his distance from me. I couldn’t remember any point in time that he’d ever intentionally stayed away from me.

“Yeah, you were here for a little while,” Vince continued. “Came to me out of the blue with no memories and no identity. Who knows where you had been?”

I looked over to Blitz, who continued to stare at the bar. “So just like that, I wandered into your bar? Seems a little coincidental to me…”

Vince came around with a bottle, and took a seat between Blitz and I. He chose to get right to the point at hand. “Look kids, I realize that you were just following my advice, but you’ve really stirred the pot on this one. If the thought of killing those bastards didn’t excite me so much, I’d almost feel sorry for my part in this.”

I still had no idea what he was talking about, and I think Vince saw it, because he continued. “You’ve been reactivated after ten years, Synna. And we’re sure that’s what the fuss is all about. The military channels have been buzzing non-stop for the last 24-hours. Something big is coming this way, and you’re the prime target.”

That piqued my interests, and sent a chill down my back. “I don’t understand! The military is coming here!” Those were memories I wanted to erase from my mind all together. Closing my eyes I could still see those bastard doctors staring down at me while I was lying on the examination table. I could see the general standing next to me, removing his clothes. Those thoughts alone were enough to send me into action. I jumped down from my stool and headed across the room for the hallway. “I won’t go back to them!”

I made it to the doorway before Blitz grabbed me from behind and pulled me backwards into his chest. Shhh, you know I won’t let you go again without a fight…he whispered in my mind. I shivered at his words, and he tightened his arms around me.

I could hear glass cracking together from the bar. “Look, I’ll just go up to the office and get my books together. The loft is ready for the both of you. Try to get some rest.”

There were more sounds of glass beating together, then the faint sound of footsteps retreating through a heavy door. Alone at last, I could still hear the background noises from the street. Men hustling women, random gunfire, and sirens wailing through the night did not settle my nerves.

“So, I guess you had a hand in bringing me here?”

I did.

I turned around in his arms to stare up at him. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

He stepped away from me, and I followed him to the edge of the stage where he gave me a boost and sat me on the edge. The room seemed even bigger from this vantage point, never mind the pole looming next to me.

“Vince and I had been on the lookout, keeping our ears to the ground. Then after a few years, word got to Vince about a woman matching your description living in a homeless shelter in a nearby town. Where is not important, however I retrieved you, and brought to Vince for safe keeping.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” I stated, mulling his words over in my mind. Something wasn’t adding up. “Why didn’t you take me to wherever you were? Why was I just put off on Vince?”

Blitz looked away. He was ashamed of the decision he had made, but knowing what was coming for them now, he knew the end result would have remained the same. “You had no memories of me or of your past. When you looked at me, all I saw was a stranger staring back.

“You had no reactions toward me, so we knew you had been scrubbed clean. The problem was we didn’t know what they had done to you this time. Together, we agreed it was better for all involved that you be given the chance to start new, free and clear of your messy past and any previous owners.”

I leaned forward and put my head in my hands. Just the idea that I wouldn’t respond to him, the man who had saved my life so many years ago, the man I had fallen in love with, was just disturbing. Add to that the fact that he made no attempts to bring me back into his life, and I was officially in the middle of a full-blown conundrum.

Yet, there was something gnawing at the edge of my conscience. Sitting on this stage, listening to his reasoning, my mind was trying to push something into the forefront. Something my other self wanted me to know, a memory. I saw a book…leather-bound…something written in his distinct hand-writing.

“I look at my pistol as it lies on the counter, taunting me with my past, begging me to finish what I start every morning,” came from my mouth without a true recollection of why I said it, where they came from, or what the words meant.

Blitz looked at me, his eyes conveying a sudden and disorienting sadness that I had never seen in him before. “Where did you hear that?”

“I…I don’t know,” I whispered, shaking my head as I tried to free more of the memory, but it had already faded. “What does it mean?”

Grabbing a chair, he sat down in front of me, straddling it to rest his arms on the back. “It was from a journal that I kept at the cabin.”

“Wait, that was from something you wrote?” I asked before realizing the full weight of the words I’d said. My heart beat loudly in my chest as a tear slid down my cheek. “Why? Why would you ever have such thoughts?”

I looked to him for an answer, but he refused to oblige me. “No, I don’t believe it! We talked about this, about what would happen if I was ever taken back to the lab. That was not part of the plan! My Goddess, Blitz! You were always the rational one, out of all of us!” I jumped down from the stage and walked up to the chair. I shoved against his arms to get his attention. “Tell me, what did that mean? What were you planning to do?”

I made to shove him again, but Blitz grabbed my hands. He stood up and pushed me back to the stage. My back slapped against the platform as he towered over me.

“You have no idea what I was going through after you were taken from me!” he said as I struggled against the grip of his hands. “I came back for you in that bookstore, and all I found was a book. For one fleeting moment, I thought you had left me of your own free will, but then, a couple of aisles away, I found the used taser.

“I searched for you for weeks, but those men left no trail. I think they left the taser behind just to taunt me, letting me know that you had been taken back to your original owner. I locked myself away at the cabin, and went nearly insane in my grief. I refused to wash the sheets, afraid that your scent would be lost. I left plenty of your tea stocked in the cabinets, along with your favorite cups. Your shoes always sat by the doorway, and your slippers were next to the stove.

“I left things alone, hoping that someday, you would walk back into my life. But the days kept passing, and the nights grew very long. Let’s just say it was a very dark time before Vince came to check on me during the winter, and didn’t like what he found.”

Blitz was never a man that expressed himself in words, and I found myself crying for him, for his suffering. To have him lay his feelings on the line was a big step for her former merc. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

He looked at me, a hint of a smile playing on the edge of his lips. “That was my problem. You were all around me, filling my senses with memories of a person that I may never see again. You were almost the death of me.”

I laughed, and it broke the emotional tension. Blitz leaned forward, and kissed me deeply. I felt that little static buzz that we always received when we touched, and he let go of my hands, opting instead to pull me into his body. His warmth was so comforting to me.

Tell me honestly, I said, did I ever dance on stage?

Yes.

I released his mouth in astonishment. “What?!”

His countenance was back to the stoic mask that he put on for everyone on the outside. “Yes, you have danced here before.”

I looked back to the stage, and I was certain that the blood had drained from my face. “So, you know this because Vince told you, right?”

Blitz stepped away and leapt onto the stage of my embarrassment. He strolled to the pole and put one hand on its cold surface. “No, I was in the audience.”

‘Oh Goddess, let me die where I stand,’ I thought to myself. I know full well what the doctors did to me, and all the ‘perks’ that entailed. But I don’t remember ‘making a public spectacle of self’ coming up in any of the sex doll operating manuals.

Before I could respond further, deep bass beats radiated off the walls. Looking around, I saw Blitz coming from behind the curtains at the back of the stage. Like a lion on the hunt, he stalked across the stage, his footsteps timed to the slow beat of the song. I could feel my breath catch and my body start to warm at the seductive look in his eyes. He stopped directly above me, and reached his hands out to me. Putting my hands in the air, I let him pull up to the stage.

The rhythm was intoxicating, and as he led me to the pole, I couldn’t help my body starting to sway to the music. “That’s right,” he said over the music, “this time, I want my private show.”

That’s when something strange happened. My body took over at his command. My hands reached for the pole, and I took one twirl around to get a feel for it. When I stopped, Blitz was in front of me. His hands were on my blouse, tearing it away and sending the buttons flying across the floor.

I gave a squeal in response and shoved him away. Then I leaned back against the pole, and moved my hips to the music and grabbed the edges of my shirt. One by one, I slowly opened up my shirt, showing first the flesh running from between my breasts down to my stomach. Following the motion of my hips, I turned on both heels and let the shirt slide from my shoulders to the floor. I looked over my shoulder to see Blitz still watching me, his foot tapping to the beat.

Turning around again, I had one hand releasing my bra clasp while my opposite arm covered my breasts. I pushed the straps down, and carefully straightened my arms to let the lacy fabric fall onto the crumpled shirt. Turning, I grabbed the pole again, but it seemed Blitz had run out of patience already. As I leaned forward to press my chest to the cold bar, his hands slid around my waist to the button of my pants.

He yanked my backside into him, and I could feel where is patience was wearing thin. Off, now…I heard in my mind. But instead, I continued to move to the beat, grinding my backside into the now hardening section of his pants. Just feeling him ready made my body’s heat spike.

With his body, he pushed me into the pole. Holding me there with his hips, he hastily unbuttoned my pants and yanked them and my panties down to my knees. This is why I always preferred skirts…I heard him say. His frustration with my clothes sent me into overdrive. He stepped away long enough for me to kick off the remainder of my clothes, and somehow, the shoes managed to stay strapped to my feet through all of the fuss.

I started to turn around, but Blitz was on me again. His hard cock was rubbing against the crack of my ass, and I thought I might burst if I didn’t feel him inside me soon. He kicked my feet apart, and I had to grab the pole to keep my balance. Hands on my hips, he was in me in one hard stroke. Then all was still.

I waited for him adjust, but he was taking longer than I thought was necessary, so I started to sway my hips to the continuing music. It was just enough to simulate the feel of him pumping inside me, and I groaned with the feel of him stretching me.

Suddenly, I felt his breath against my ear as he thrust into me again, halting my movements. “So, you want to dance like this?” he whispered as I felt his hands slide over my arms to grab the pole in front of me. “Let’s see how you like this.”

Blitz leaned back and thrust his hips forward. Using the pole as leverage, he was able to freely thrust into me without having to account for balance. And he rode me hard, pushing me harder, and soon faster. I stretched my arms higher until I was able to grab his hands, and squeeze as drove me straight upward. I yelled through the orgasm that ripped my body from the inside out.

Letting go of the pole, Blitz grabbed me around the waist to keep me from falling as he pumped me a few more times before I felt his body tense, and he groaned through his own release. Together we leaned against the pole, the only thing that was keeping us on our feet.

I could feel his hot breath on my back, fighting to get it back after our swift foray into sexual oblivion. The cold of the pole almost seared my heated flesh, and it served to bring me back to our reality.

As I struggled with my own breath, I managed to say, “I think you’ve been holding back on me.”

His body shook with his laughter. “You cut your hair.”

Blitz laid one soft kiss to my shoulder before he stepped away, letting himself fall from my body. I turned around to see him pull his pants back up, and only zipper them.

“You know,” he said, as he turned back to see my naked form still leaning into the pole. He pointed towards it. “Vince has one of these in his apartment.”

I bent down and retrieved my discarded shirt. “Sorry, I’m only a ‘one performance a night’ kind of girl.”

Blitz smiled as I started to slowly button my shirt. “Then I guess we should just go to bed.”

Leaving everything above my stomach unbuttoned, I took two long steps toward him and put my hand down the front of his pants. Instantly I could feel him pulsing and hardening into my hand. “I like how you think.”

Thank you for reading!