Chapter 15 -- Shopping Around

Author's note and warning: This chapter contains a brief section of NC-17 material. I have flagged beginning and ending of that section with asterisks ****************, thus. The whole section is also in italics as well.

The rest of the chapter is rated PG-13. Skip the NC-17 material if that's not your thing, but please do read the rest of the chapter.


Gathering comforting remains
I was unprepared, running scared
Faltering, and why do I hold on?
It's gone, I know
And after all the days
of fading senses
I don't feel the same
and I want to live
The insecurity of never knowing
What a way to go

IQ - Fading Senses Pt. 1: After All

Chapter 15 -- Shopping...Around

Kevin looked at the two determined women facing him. He then glanced over at the panes of glass separating him from the city. Somewhere, somewhere out there was Rafe. Whether he was dead or alive, Kevin had no idea.

He had no idea what to say to these women, his wife, his friend. His friend, Mara, whose skin looked just about as transparent fatigue as the panes of glass of his window. He let out a long sigh into the silent living room.

"Okay. So this is what I know has happened so far. I called Rafe to warn him about Don Carlo Lombardo. Don Carlo's son, Giancarlo is the man who shot Rafe. Apparently the Don is on the war path now because his only son has disappeared. I think *he* thinks that Rafe knows, or at least has an idea where Giancarlo may be. I had some small concern that the Don would go to the trouble of hunting Rafe down, even if it meant sending some Outfit members to South Dakota. I thought it was a very small chance, but I need to warn Rafe to keep an eye out for suspicious strangers, something that's pretty easily done in a small town.

Mara cut in, "So why did he come back here to Chicago?"

"I don't know what motivated him to do that. All I know is he told me he was going out on a lead and that he would call me when he had more information. That was three days ago. I have no idea where he is because he neglected to file an initial report stating just what lead he was tracking down. Which leads me to believe he's gone looking for Don Lombardo. Ladies, that is all I know. I'm sorry to say I don't even know if he's dead or alive."

Mara covered her mouth with her hand, and tears spilled over her bottom eyelids. Kevin thought he heard her say "Crazy, honorable, lunatic bastard..." under her breath. Lara put an arm protectively around Mara as her husband eyed her with disfavor.

"So, Mrs. Kuntzler. How is it that I arrive home for the evening and I find Ms. Pitts here in my apartment rather than in South Dakota? And Mara -- this is a rather impromptu vacation for you -- who's covering the paper while you're here in Chicago? Job gotten so dull that you can just phone it in?"

Mara glared at Kevin, becoming angry at his sarcasm. He knew how much she loved the Prairiedog, that she wouldn't just leave on a whim. Yet that was what he was implying.

"If you must know, Mr. Kuntzler," she heavily stressed his last name, "there's an editor at the Argus Leader, you know, that big paper in Sioux Falls that can afford more than one editor? You remember it, don't you? Good, I see you do. This editor owed me a big favor. So I called her in to mind the troops at Pittsville. She was about to go on vacation anyway, her boss let her move up the start of her vacation by a week. So you see, Mr. Kuntzler, we're just playing musical editors and reporters all OVER the map!"

Her short flare of anger died down as abruptly as it had begun, when she caught sight of the city out of the corner of her eye. That brave, stupid... that IDIOT, Rafe was out there somewhere. She knew in her heart of hearts why he had left. He didn't want to take the chance of Lombardo or any of his goons showing up in Pittsville.

She looked up at Kevin, "I thought the Outfit went 'out of business' about 8 years ago with that big RICO bust that I read about."

"Not a chance of that, Mara. The roots of the Outfit go too deep in this city to eradicate them with just that one bust, even though it was one of the biggest in Chicago since the Prohibition and Al Capone. The dons aren't as flamboyant as they were back in the bad old days when the Outfit was in charge of the city and ran all the Machine politics around here. They're not in charge of the political end of the spectrum any more, that's in the hand of Dailey and his empire."

Mara chuckled through her tears, "Richard Dailey's STILL Mayor? God, he's as persistent as Janklow..."

"Janklow?" asked Lara.

"Yes, Bill Janklow, the once and future governor. He left office once under a bit of a cloud then came back a few years later and was elected governor again. And then Representative for South Dakota. Unfortunately, he had an ongoing bit of bad luck with driving, DUIs assorted things like that. More recently it was second degree manslaughter, with his car as weapon of choice. Needless to say, he's no longer Representative..."

"That's all well and good, ladies. I get how you're here, Mara, but I still don't get why you're here."

Mara looked down at her clasped hands in her lap. 'Kevin's going to think I've really gone off the deep end this time,' she thought glumly.

Lara came to her rescue. "I invited her out here, Kevin. I called her yesterday, she was pretty reticent at first about what had happened in Pittsville, but I haven't been a newspaperman's wife for all these years without picking up a little bit about subtle interrogation techniques." She went on to give Kevin an abbreviated version of Rafe's stay in Pittsville.

Kevin looked at Mara, this time with an expression that showed his inner battle: bafflement at why Mara would leave Pittsville so abruptly, understanding why Mara would get a wild hair and come to Chicago and the sudden understanding of why Rafe had returned to Chicago... He hadn't wanted to endanger anyone in Pittsville. He hadn't wanted to endanger Mara... He must have fallen in love, something that Kevin hadn't foreseen and would have never predicted happening. Something that he found hard to believe.

Mara apparently had done the same, fallen for his elusive, ladies man reporter. Kevin had long given up hope that either of these rather intransigent people would ever fall in love with something other than a newspaper or a newspaper story. They were so married to their careers...

He couldn't seen anything but heartbreak coming from it, even if Rafe did eventually show up again, something that was still up for grabs. Mara would never leave Pittsville, and Rafe? Rafe lived and breathed for the adventure of writing for a national news wire. He loved the constant shifting pressures of news in the area. He had what almost amounted to an inborn knack or "ear" for stories, much like a musician having an ear for music. It went deeper than just the writing of the news or the playing of an instrument.

He felt a welling of sympathy for his friend sitting next to his wife. She had learned big city smarts during her time in Chicago, but at heart she really was a country woman. And in the country it was hard to lose yourself into something. The pace moved so slowly there you were forced to contemplate whatever emotional demons were riding you.

Kevin felt worse for her than for Rafe, who had shown himself to be almost like Teflon. Nothing would stick to him. He was merely being noble by leaving Pittsville. Kevin really didn't think he should read more into it than that. Rafe hadn't suddenly fallen in love, he was being chivalrous, as always he was with women.

He wouldn't even be able to comprehend the disservice he was doing to Rafe by assuming mere chivalry and nobility on his part. At least not until much later, when the dust had settled...

Having found out everything they could or would admit to each other about the situation, the conversation turned to more trivial things. More wine was drunk, until Mara inadvertently interrupted a story Kevin was telling with a huge yawn she couldn't control.

Kevin looked at her in mock offense.

She grinned back and shrugged, "I guess the last few days have taken their toll on me even though I did sleep during most of the flight between Sioux Falls and Chicago. I really must get the name of your travel agent. The few times I do fly out of state during a given year, I always end up going to Los Angeles by way of, oh I don't know, Atlanta, or vice versa. Complete with at least five plane changes each way."

She yawned again and Lara took control of the situation and shuffled their guest off to bed. "Mara, I'm not going to wake you up in the morning. No, don't even think about setting that alarm clock. Just sleep until you wake up naturally. You need it. I'm going to be in and out all day, I have a couple of charity functions that I have to dedicate some quality face time to..." Lara smirked at that, "The charities in Chicago have as complex a set of politics as the rest of the city..."

Mara smiled at her blearily and hugged her. "I don't know what's going to happen over the next few days, but thanks for inviting me out here."

"It was the least I could do after you said you'd take on Rafe as a guest. Rafe, he's like the brother I never had, and I could just see him getting more and more tightly wound. He needed a break and was forced into one by the dubious joy of being shot. I just had hoped that he would have been able to have stayed longer in South Dakota."

"Well he did seem to be enjoying himself, if only to appreciate the humor of the whole situation. He probably never dreamt..." Mara sighed and trailed off, not wanting to expound more on feelings, either hers or Rafe's.

"Go to sleep Mara, you're worn to the bone. We can talk more, and plot and plan as I'm sure Kevin is worried that we're going to do, but after you're rested. Goodnight, sweet dreams."

Mara grinned a rueful half smile, "I'll try," as the bedroom door closed.

************************

She was lying in her bed back home and she could see the dark shadow of a man moving around in her bedroom.

"Rafe?"

"You are such a light sleeper, dear. It's still early, but I was going to sneak downstairs and throw something breakfasty together to bake in the oven while we slept a bit more. I'll be right back up, this will just take a few minutes."

"What are you making?"

"Just a simple breakfast dish that I've always enjoyed and that you happen to have all the ingredients for."

"'Kay. Hurry and get back up here, bed's cold without you in it," she said drowsily, drifting halfway between sleep and wakefulness."

"Be right back, Sleeping Beauty." Mara heard his deep voice as part of her dreams, he said something else, but she wasn't sure what.

Time passed and she drifted until she felt Rafe slide back into bed. She squeaked and jumped when he put his cold feet on her calves. "Rafe! Your feet are freezing! Didn't you wear any slippers or socks downstairs?"

Without a word, he swept her mouth into a kiss, effectively distracting her from his cold feet. She ran her hands through his long hair. She then grinned an impish grin which had Rafe looking at her, puzzled, until he felt her warm hand slide into his boxers.

He groaned as her hand slid up and down his shaft. "Mara, you're too much, you're killing me here..."

"Ah, but what a way to go, Mr. Moretti." She grinned at him again and dove under the covers, her questing mouth planting quick kisses all the way down his body until she reached her goal.

Rafe sighed in expectation as she pulled down his boxers and breathed on his erection. He shuddered with the sensation as she licked him and then blew where she had just licked. The warmth and sudden coolness were sending all kinds of crazy good signals through his nervous system. She felt him relaxing into pleasure when she suddenly plunged all of him into her mouth, or at least as much as she could take in so suddenly.

She bobbed her head up and down a few times, lubricating his erection with her spit. Then backed off again, this time moving her hand up and down on him, grasping him firmly. He could feel her kissing the top of his thighs, the inside of his thighs, then the other hand on his balls, and her mouth joining it there. He felt his hips start to buck up in response to the sensation.

She murmured, "While I find your penis wholly fascinating, Mr. Moretti, it's your balls that I find most...delectable." She suited action to word, and took first one sac into her mouth, to lovingly lick it, then the other, to give it equal attention. She heard him groan at all the sensations, feeling his arousal climbing even higher.

She felt Rafe's hands gently guiding her back up from under the covers. She realized she looked a fright when she saw that Rafe was torn between laughing at her and kissing her. Her hair was wild, flying every which way, her mouth was red and glistening from her attentions to him.

She could have kissed and licked his cock for hours, but she let him take charge, rolling them over so that she was beneath him. She felt his hardness nudging at her entrance and reached down and guided him. He filled her so perfectly; she couldn't imagine how she had existed thus far in her life without having felt that pleasure.

He began to move, to thrust into her, and she bucked her hips upward to meet him. His hand reached down between their moving bodies and stimulated her until she shattered around him, sparks flying in her vision, almost blocking out the sight of his wiry body moving above her. He was so beautiful for a man.

She felt his thrusts become stronger and faster until he finally came and collapsed on top of her. She took his weight willing, enjoying the feel of him still in her and over her.

She felt something wet sliding her shoulder. 'He's fallen asleep and drooling? He had a religious experience during that last orgasm and couldn't hold back his tears?'

She stroked his hair, but something was niggling her, just at the edge of her attention.

Something wasn't right. Whatever was sliding down her shoulder it felt too thick for saliva or tears.

"Rafe?" she asked, trying to angle her head to see his head on her shoulder.

"Rafe?" she asked again, gently shaking him. No response. Panicking, she pushed his dead weight off her and was horrified to find blood on her shoulder. She looked again, more closely at Rafe. Something wasn't right

She suddenly realized that he was dead, a bullet hole in his forehead, where the blood had been dripping from... "Oh God, I killed him," she said aloud, and felt a scream building in her throat.

***********************

Mara sat up abruptly in bed in the Kuntzler's guest room, barely holding back the scream. She shuddered. God, what a horrible nightmare. Oh God, oh god, oh god, what if he really were dead? And she, she was just lying about in bed and he was dead, dead, dead.

She shook her head hard to combat the hysteria she felt building within her. She was shaking like a leaf, but she slid to the side of the bed and stood up, not sure if her knees would hold her upright. She sat back down abruptly and had a stern talk with herself.

"Mara, you can freak out later, but you simply cannot freak out now. You've got to find out what's going on. And until you find out what's going on, this is just a story you're researching, just a damn story."

Her mind darted from idea to idea, almost flying out of control again, until she forced it tow slow down. Surely she could get some information from Kevin, no, he'd never tell her, wouldn't let her go off on a wild goose chase.

Well then, some of her friends from school surely were still in town. She would call them, find out what they knew.

She stood up and put on her robe, walking quietly out of the bedroom. The clock on the living room wall showed that it was just after 10:00 a.m. Good. Lara had mentioned something about a charity meeting to Kevin, something about it being at 9:30. So Lara would be out for a while and Mara was free to ring up her old friends.

Everything clicked into place. She felt her spine stiffen, her heart beat faster with the old anticipation of hunting down a really good story. She wouldn't let those other, debilitating emotions get in the way...

And when she knew what her old friends knew, she would find Don Lombardi and hopefully, find out Rafe's fate.