Liar

“I only go with you as far as that door,” Rocko said, indicating the door at the end of the catwalk.

“Any particular reason for that?” Kennedy asked as her boots clanged against the metal stairs.

“He wants to meet you, not me,” was Rocko’s response.

Snorting, Kennedy pushed her black hair back from her face as she climbed the last few stairs before turning onto the catwalk. Her mismatched eyes glanced down at the warehouse floor briefly before looking ahead again. A man was standing in front of the door, his beefy arms folded across his chest. Kennedy’s chin lifted, eyes narrowing in some form of defiance. That didn’t intimidate her.

“Long time no see,” the beefy man rumbled as he opened the door.

Kennedy said nothing while Rocko just nodded and stepped to the side. She slipped through the doorway quickly as the man followed her, closing the door after himself once he was inside. There was another door across the room, which Kennedy assumed was where she’d go. Her eyes scanned the room in silence.

“Take the gear and any weapons off,” the man ordered, his gaze focused on Kennedy.

Her eyes narrowed a little more before she undid the clasps securing the straps about her thighs as well as the belt. Setting the leather piece on the nearby table, she removed the gun from the back of her pants as well. Her other gun dangled from the previously removed thigh holster.

“Anything else?” he asked, eyes narrowed.

“Do you want me to remove my teeth?” she returned, her tongue running along the edge of her upper teeth before flicking against the tip of her left canine.

“Save the lip,” he growled, “and turn around. Hands against the wall, feet shoulder width apart.”

A thin smirk laced Kennedy’s lips before she did as she was told. She pulled her black hair over to one side of her neck before pressing the palms of her hands to the wall. Letting them rest against the wall, she twisted her neck slightly and peered over her shoulder. Her hips twitched almost suggestively in the man’s direction.

“You wanna do your job or stare?”

He leered at her before walking over. His large hands slid along her arms slowly, too slowly for it to be considered professional. Her skin crawled at the thought of where his hands had been. He was far too close to her in her opinion and it reminded her too much of the other night. Her breath caught in her throat and her fingers curled, nails scraping on the concrete wall. When his hand slid around too close to her breasts, Kennedy’s muscles tensed before she lashed out.

Her foot lifted, driving upwards into his crotch as her arms dropped and her elbows drove into his sides. Pushing off the wall, Kennedy turned and rammed her clenched fist into his nose. As he back-pedaled away, her leg lashed out and the toe of her boot was driven into the side of his thigh. His leg went dead and he crumpled to the ground as she punched him once, twice more and then crouched over him with one boot planted on his chest.

“Buy me dinner next time,” Kennedy snarled lowly, “asshole.”

“Crazy bitch,” he slurred before attempting to spit a gob of blood and saliva at her.

Her lips curled back in a sneer as the mixture dribbled down the side of his face. She shifted, slipping her leg over him so that she was straddling his chest with her knees pressed firmly into his biceps. Leaning down until they were near face to face, she rested her hands on her leather-clad thighs.

“Call me a bitch again and we’ll see who sings higher,” she hissed before pushing herself to her feet.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Kennedy’s head jerked towards the far corner of the room, the side swathed in shadows, as the location where the voice came from. A man, maybe five or six inches taller than she, walked out of the corner. His dark brown hair was pushed back from his face though a few strands hung near his eyes.

He moved with the grace of a predator, something animalistic was present in the way he carried himself. Even his dark brown eyes were like a predator’s; gauging and assessing every possible outcome of the situation in the room. The air around him crackled with unbridled, volatile aggression.

“You got blood on my floor,” he frowned, brow furrowing.

The slight Russian accent clicked in her head. This was the man who’d threatened her and then hung up. Kennedy’s mismatched eyes narrowed and she brushed her black hair from her face.

“And I got a free breast cancer exam,” Kennedy snapped, barely restraining her bristling. “It’s the little things in life that you have to appreciate.”

His head turned in an almost curious way, lips parting slightly as his eyes narrowed dangerously. She pressed her jaws together, eyes still narrowed as well. Her hands hung loose at her sides, fingers half-curled into fists. He wasn’t as tall as Steve but he had the same bulk. Rocko’s warning echoed faintly in her head as she studied the brunette but she brushed it to the back of her mind.

“There’s a lot of things that I appreciate,” he replied, his voice silky smooth but somehow deadly, “but a little girl like you with a smart mouth? I’ve seen younger that are far more clever.”

“Pedophilia’s frowned upon here, you know,” Kennedy returned. “I mean, I don’t know how it is in the motherland but, comrade, little girls and their clever mouths…it’s a dangerous path.”

A dangerous look glinted across his face as a feral smile split his lips. She didn’t return the look as she noticed that they’d both slowly crept towards each other. They were within a foot or two of each other, almost too close to each other for Kennedy to feel comfortable. The more she watched him the more she noticed that unstable gleam in his brown eyes.

“Clever’s going to get you in trouble,” he said after a moment, “and so will lying. Especially to me, Kennedy.”

“So you get to know my name and I don’t get to know yours?” she frowned, mismatched eyes watching him.

“You know what they do to liars where I come from?”

“Spankings and a ‘you naughty, naughty boy’ talking to?” Kennedy asked, lips quirking slightly.

The brunette just smiled that crocodile smile again, his eyes glinting dangerously as he looked at her. His hand lifted and silver blade twirled between his fingers slowly. The silver glint of metal around his fingers made her glance towards his hands again. She couldn’t tell if that was his hand or some form of armor. It was enough of a distraction that the next instant found her on her back with the brunette crouched over her.

He used his knees to trap her arms, his weight to keep her from thrashing about too much. She breathed shallowly and her chest heaved just a little too much than she would have liked it to. Slowly, the cold steel of the knife was traced along her lips. Her mind was flip-flopping between this and the other men. It wasn’t the same situation by a long shot but that didn’t stop her brain from playing tricks on her.

“Liars lose their tongues,” he murmured as he spun the knife between his metal-encased fingers.

“Thieves lose their hands,” Kennedy couldn’t help but snark.

He laughed in dark amusement before slamming his hands down on either side of her head. It took all of her self-restraint and pride not to flinch at the sudden proximity of his face to hers. Even then, she felt her muscles instinctively tense as the fight-or-flight sense began to kick in.

“Did you have a nice time with my friends the other night?” he asked, voice hissing between his teeth. “I have to admit, you weren’t very nice to them.”

“What can I say?” Kennedy sneered, lips curling back into a venomous smile. “I love a man screaming and crying on his knees.”

She spat in his face before howling in pain as he squeezed his muscular legs against her ribs to hold her in place. Thrashing in desperation, she pounded one fist against his thigh as he squeezed tighter with his thighs. Her spit had found it’s mark and had done it’s job in temporarily blinding him.

Kennedy spat at him again in an attempt to distract him while working the spiked tooth bracelet over her fingers to mimic a set of brass knuckles. Spitting in his face a second time earned her a harsh backhand across her cheekbone that left her disoriented for just a brief moment. One of his hands wrapped around her throat, pinning her to the floor, and squeezed as she laid there.

Her fist lashed out quickly for his face while her legs thrashed in an attempt to unseat him. She drove the tooth-studded bracelet into his cheek and felt it shatter from the force behind it. Some of the jewelry dug into her palm while the part facing the Russian dug into his skin and drew blood. Her other hand clawed at his wrist, scratching at the skin.

With a murderous look in his eyes, he yanked her off the ground by her throat so that they were face to face. They were practically face-to-face, his right eye blood-shot from where he’d rubbed at it because of her spit. The grip on her throat was tight enough that she was barely able to get enough oxygen into her lungs.

Her teeth bared in a defiant snarl before he slammed her back against the floor. Her shoulders and head throbbed as she continued to struggle against the grip on his throat. A moment later, though, the pressure on her throat disappeared and she was left with the Russian hovering over her. His hand was still wrapped around her throat though.

“Not going to kill me?” she rasped despite the voice in her head telling her to shut up. “C’mon, you kinky son of a bitch.”

The murderous look in his eyes seemed to have disappeared as he looked down at her. His eyes narrowed though, lips drawing back into malicious, feral smile. Kennedy swallowed as he leaned over her and picked up the knife that he must have set aside earlier. She wished she’d noticed that when she’d been thrashing about.

“Don’t tempt me,” he replied as he spun the knife between his fingers. “I have use for you.”

“You know, I don’t know particularly like the idea of being advertised as free for use and not knowing what for,” she snarked ill-temperedly.

“Don’t advertise yourself as being so open for business then,” was his response before she felt the knife bite into her abdomen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kennedy grimaced as she slumped against the door of her apartment. She had her left hand pressed to her abdomen as she fumbled with her keys and the lock. A bag of gauze, bandages, rubbing alcohol, aspirin and other items dangled from the crook of her elbow. Her throat ached but she could ignore that.

Finally, she got the key in and the lock clicked out of place. Licking her teeth, she shoved the door open and stumbled inside. Her tongue pressed against the roof of her mouth as she closed the door and slid the lock into place. Without glancing at Loki, she made her way into her room and closed the door after her.

Dropping the bag on the counter, she shrugged out of her vest and removed the blood-stained tank top from her torso. She wiped the blood off slowly, grimacing when the motions tugged on the cuts. Fresh blood began to seep from the wounds, dripping down the short amount of bare skin to the hemline of her leather pants.

“Mother fucker,” she hissed before tossing the rag into the sink.

She started the shower before stripping out of her clothes. Without checking the water temperature, she tossed the black wig and skull cap onto the counter and climbed inside the shower. She stepped face first underneath the water to let it plaster her short hair to her skull and pound down onto her shoulders.

The cuts burned as soon as the hot water began to seep in but she just bit down on her lip and ignored it. Her sides hurt from the brunette squeezing with his legs but he hadn’t, hopefully, done much, or any, serious damage. Various places across her body throbbed and her throat ached when she swallowed.

She hadn’t really inspected her appearance but she had a feeling that it wasn’t too appealing at the moment. The looks she’d gotten from the customers in the Walgreens had made her only shuffle through the store a little faster. Kennedy had paid with cash just in case the overly concerned cashier decided to call the cops. Of course, it wasn’t like she existed either.

Once she finished her shower, she climbed out and threw on a discarded pair of boxer shorts and a gray sports bra. She could see what he’d cut into her stomach now that the blood had been cleaned away. What looked like a ‘W’ and a ‘S’ had been carefully sliced into her flesh. Her brow furrowed for a minute before she ground her teeth together and poured the alcohol on the wound.

As the alcohol cleaned up the cuts, Kennedy poured more of the alcohol onto her hand from where her bracelet had stabbed her. She layered gauze about her palm before wrapping the crepe bandage around the gauze. She secured it at her wrist once it was wrapped securely around her palm and wrist. With that done, she returned her attention to her abdomen.

Kennedy patted down the area with a clean towel before placing several butterfly stitches over the cuts to secure them. She added a layer or two of gauze over them before taping the gauze down. Wincing a little, she cleaned up her medical mess and left the bathroom with the bottle of aspirin.

She popped two of the pills and left the bottle on her nightstand as she left the room. Ghost climbed off of his pillow in the corner of her room and followed her into the kitchen so that she could feed him. She filled each of his bowls before grabbing a bottle of vodka from the cabinet above the stove.

“You irritated him, didn’t you?” Loki asked as he looked up from yet another new book.

“I wouldn’t be me if I hadn’t,” Kennedy muttered before taking a long drink from the bottle.

Loki said nothing as she flopped down onto the couch beside him. Her bandaged hand gently rested over the bandage on her stomach. Gripping the bottle, she took another sip before letting her head drop back against the couch. The alcohol burned on it’s way down her throat.

“Well,” Loki replied as he picked up his book, “at least you’re alive.”

“At least there’s that,” she snorted tiredly.