Room 508 to Baltimore, Friday Night

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy studied herself in the mirror, frowning slightly. She had done a lot of stuff as Banzai, but trying to infiltrate the mafia in disguise was a whole new level of scary. If she messed up, the Ukrainians would know a lot more about her than she really wanted them too--like what she looked like, as just one exciting example. But this was an opportunity she couldn't pass up; they were recruiting locals under the guise of a motorcycle drag race, with the top performers invited to a very exclusive party--so exclusive that no matter how hard she tried, Kathy couldn't get the location. Over the past year, she'd managed to create a decent circle of street-level informants and yet no one could tell her anything besides what was 'public' knowledge: an illegal drag race, with plenty of money to be made from betting, and an excellent afterparty for the winners. That was it.

It was all very frustrating as hell.

Even the race itself was frustrating. If it had at least been a drag race with cars, Kathy might have been able to put her Driver's Ed experience into play...somehow. She was still lacking a car, but she would have at least known how to race. Ish. Maybe. But this was a motorcycle race, and Kathy had one hour of experience driving one of those from several years ago. That would get her exactly nowhere. If she had more time, she might even have been able to appeal to Parker or Eliot for help, but she'd just gotten the message that everything was going down tonight.

Kathy didn't often swear, but this whole situation deserved quite a hearty "God dammit!"

Her current plan was to dress like a biker bunny, head to where the race was going to take place, and hope to insinuate herself in the group that got brought to the party. Yeah, she could foresee no problems with that, sure.



[Primarily for one, but open to the roomie beforehand if she so chooses. Everything that happens after they leave the island is NFB for distance.]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

"Did you find something?" Kathy asked, using a discarded seatbelt and a length of rubber tubing to hogtie one of the guys that Dante had knocked down with a punch. She almost felt bad for doing that--it seemed like overkill after what he'd done to them.

Standing up, she walked over to where Dante was looking--and also stopped short. "Oh, wow," she breathed. "That is sexy."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I don't know how those hopeless fucks got their hands on this one," Dante said, patting it lovingly. He leaned over to see if-- hey, keys! "But I'm keeping her."

[spin_kick_snap]

"It probably belonged to somebody else," Kathy reminded. "...So be careful no one accuses you of stealing it, okay?"

Sure, she should probably put at least a little effort into finding out the previous owner, but Dante had agreed to help her out and race for her, so if he wanted to keep a stolen bike, she wasn't inclined to stop him.

"You don't want to take it out for a test drive or whatever? Make sure it works okay?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged. He turned the keys and the motor started. "Tires look fine," he said. "I could take it out for a test spin, but we might miss your street race."

He righted himself. "And I'm not repeating our conversation about the cops."

Being that he couldn't give less of a fuck.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I guess we'll test it out on the road then," Kathy said, shrugging. "And yes, yes, I know. 'Let them come for you, you don't care.' You're very strong and manly and I'm swooning at your biceps."

She just didn't understand the point of borrowing trouble, was all!

...Except for how she, you know, was planning on bringing a one-woman war to the mafia. But that was different.

[rebelseekspizza]

The way you looked at stuff like 'borrowing trouble' was very different when you'd long-since resigned yourself to the fact that trouble was inevitable, and it was going to come regardless of whether you borrowed it or not.

Which was why instead of throwing her a quip in reply to that statement, Dante just shrugged, grabbing the bike by the handlebars. He pulled it along towards what looked like a door.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy finished tying up the last of the guys and used one of their own phones to call the police.

"We should go," she said, wandering out the door to join Dante outside. "I don't feel like sticking around and offering witness statements." She couldn't help an eager grin. The prospect of riding a motorcycle was always exciting. "And I want enough time for a decent ride before you have to race."

[rebelseekspizza]

"See, now you're turning into an actual bike bunny already," Dante said, faking a little bunny-sniff with his nose.

Then he sat down on the motorcycle. "Hey. Comfortable."

[spin_kick_snap]

"There's a difference between wanting to ride motorcycles and being a bike bunny," Kathy informed him with exasperated amusement. "I have no intention of sleeping with random guys in exchange for a ride."

The idea of sleeping with a specific one was getting more and more appealing as time went on, but random bikers? No thanks.

Kathy climbed up on the bike behind Dante, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Wait, before we go, I need to fix something, okay?" And then she was standing up behind him and sinking her teeth back into the side of his neck.

Look, he'd healed his mark. Clearly he needed a new one. For their, umm, cover. Yes.

[rebelseekspizza]

Reaaally smooth, Li.

Not that Dante was about to complain. He liked the sting. You could tell by the way he tilted his head to give her more space-- and the very appreciative noise.

"Feeling hungry, Kat?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Just needed a quick bite," she murmured against his neck. Because it was always an appropriate time for puns. She bit down again in a different and sucked hard on his skin for a few more seconds, leaving a mark that was purple against his paleness. "We want people to think we're--we're fucking, right? I'm making sure the story sells." She followed the tendon in his throat up to his ear and nipped that, too.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Whatever you say." There was a chuckle in Dante's voice, but also something breathless.

He wasn't going to discourage her either way. Which probably wasn't a good thing if they didn't want to get distracted away from their initial goal, though that goal was largely Kathy's anyway.

He reached back and put his hand on her leg, right below the hemline of her skirt.

[spin_kick_snap]

But wasn't Dante all about the motorcycle race? He'd been so excited about it earlier!

"What can I say? I like to be very, very thorough," she murmured in his ear before moving over to his other side to leave another mark there. Slightly lower, towards his collarbone. It wouldn't do to have them look too symmetric. "Can't have anyone wondering why I'm roaming the halls of the party, now can I?"

[rebelseekspizza]

He had been excited about that. But look, 'less easily distractable from work than Ezra' was not actually a high bar to clear.

Especially when he was in a position to slide his hand up her skirt. It was the little things.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy whimpered a bit as she felt his fingers skate up her inner thigh. It was a pity he was wearing his jacket because her fingers were flexing against the fabric over his shoulders, her breasts pressed against his back. "Dante..."

She didn't really have anything to say. She just needed to say his name.

[rebelseekspizza]

Too bad, too, that she couldn't see Dante smirking from there. He let his fingers slide even further, tilting his shoulders slightly to give himself more range.

Then his movement slowed, and he skimmed his thumb gently upwards along the inside of her thigh.

It was a very short skirt.

[spin_kick_snap]

Besides being black, Kathy's underwear were flimsy and thin, made of material that was about as substantial as gossamer. Which meant that if Dante were to stroke high enough, he'd be able to feel just how damp that fabric had gotten over the last few minutes. As it was, right now he could feel the muscles in her legs flex and tighten under his thumb as she tensed in anticipation. Her lips were moving over his throat, her hair hanging down over his chest.

It was a good thing they were positioned like this. There was a limit to what they could do--unless Dante turned around or Kathy ended up sliding into his lap. Then all bets were off.

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeah. That would probably be a bad idea.

'Course, so was covering that last small sliver of skin and pressing his thumb against her panties, but that wasn't stopping Dante from doing just that. Fuck. Did this bike just get uncomfortable, or what?

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy gasped and bucked against his thumb. Forget the bike--her panties had become increasingly uncomfortable and she hadn't thought to bring another pair. Because, oddly enough, she hadn't pictured indulging in a bit of heavy petting on the back of a motorcycle when she'd tried to think of how this evening would go.

In fairness, that really was a lack of imagination on her part. Because the chemistry between her and Dante had already been sparking and she knew how she felt about motorcycles.

"Oooh, right there," she whispered. "Fuck, yes, right like that..."

[rebelseekspizza]

"'Quick bite', huh?"

Dante shifted his thumb up along her just gently, and-- suddenly he went perfectly still, tangible tension slipping into his shoulders. "Shit," he said.

Police sirens. No matter how nice this was, there was no way in fucking hell he'd ever get distracted enough not to notice police sirens. "There's the 'cavalry'."

[spin_kick_snap]

"...Huh?" Kathy asked, a little dreamy. "The caval--son of a bitch!"

All the blissful lassitude that had been spiraling through her vanished in an instant. She jerked away from his hand and sat back down on the bike with an almost audible thud. "Drive, drive!" she said, arms winding back around him again. Not for any sexy reasons, she was just holding on tightly so he could drive as fast as he needed. "Let's get outta here!"

Stupid, stupid, stupid. And she couldn't even blame this on Dante--she'd been the instigator here, no question.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante hit the pedal-- and hey, look, it worked. It worked beautifully. The bike got rolling real quick, and he sped out of the alleyway and onto the road.

Then back into an alley, to the left, onto the next road. The fear of cops was pre-programmed in his brain; fuck if he let them notice or follow him.

[spin_kick_snap]

Okay, so the purr of the engine between her legs was not helping Kathy's current physical state, though the fear of getting caught prevented her from really noticing that until they were out of the second alley. She groaned again, hoping it was lost in the general noise of the bike and rested her head against Dante's broad back, trying to slowly drag together the shards of her self-control. She had a mission tonight, dammit, and she couldn't afford to get distracted again.

No matter how nice Dante's hands were.

"Do you know where Ellwood Park is?" Kathy asked, referring to the rundown neighborhood where the race would be taking place. "Off of Pulaski Highway? Head that way."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Kinda?"

Dante'd been shying away from the causeway since he tripped and fell back into Limbo City. Not a lot of time to plug around Baltimore. But the highway sounded familiar.

And he had enough experience in ignoring his own discomfort - making it go away - in situations like this to put his mind together and head off into the right direction. "You're gonna have to tell me when to pull over."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'll give you directions once we get close," Kathy said, deliberately not thinking of how double-entendre-y that sounded. Which was definitely a word, shut up.

She told him what exit to take to get there, then added, "Open her up! I wanna see what she can do!"