Anything But Ordinary
Chapter 15
Chapter 15
“Let’s get out of here!” One of the guards shouted, shoving Oliver in front of him, out the cell door. Sounds of the murdering beast that were first heard at an echoing distance now seemed to boom ever closer. Chloe’s heart raced as they shoved her through the corridors.
“Hands off of her,” Oliver barked at their rough handling of her. Clearly she was weakened and unable to keep up with the pace they wanted her to maintain.
“You gonna carry her with your hands tied behind your back, lover boy? She needs to keep up, or get torn to pieces.”
Oliver didn’t answer. In their haste, they had not tied him securely, and Oliver bided his time, until they were exiting the building.
Once outside, they were ushered through the darkness to the waiting van. Oliver had to move now or be taken elsewhere. He’d stealthily slipped his wrists from their bonds, and activated the night vision mechanism in his glasses. One guard headed toward the driver’s side, while another opened the hold, two others held their guns on the captive couple.
One guard spoke into a walkie-talkie, assuring someone on the other end that the two captives were ready to be moved. A fuzzy reply came over as a response ordering him to head toward another vehicle. “Separate them.” His voice sounded into the dark stillness. “She’s being taken elsewhere,” he said, and then left them, trotting off to wherever he was needed. One less guard was a good thing.
Chloe searched for Oliver’s tall, hooded frame in the darkness. “No!”
Through is night vision glasses, he saw one guard grab her up, her face registering her terror as she struggled weakly against the man. “Chloe!”
The guard holding her groaned. “We don’t have time for this shit. There’s some kind of fucking monster in there, tearing people apart, and bitch boss wants us to separate these two?” He maintained his hold on a squirming Chloe. “Fuck that, put them in the van together.”
“We have orders,” the second voice said, determined to do his boss’s bidding.
“Fuck orders. I’m not getting my guts ripped out.” The guard holding Chloe shoved her toward the rear van entrance.
What the other guard would say, no one would know. Oliver leapt forward, swinging viciously with his right arm, knocking him squarely in the back, then as the guard doubled over, Arrow upper cut him to the face, then spun with a roundhouse kick to the gut, knocking the man down. Darkness was his ally, as the first guard who’d shoved Chloe, didn’t know what hit him when Oliver lowered his right shoulder and charged, sending him sprawling backward, the gun nearly flying from his hand. “Get in!” Oliver called to Chloe, who did her best to scramble up into the hold of the van with her hands tied behind her back. Oliver moved toward the guard he’d just dropped and delivered a steel fist into the man’s face, retrieved his gun, then trotted over to the driver’s side of the van.
The Green Arrow opened the van door abruptly, startling the man inside, who saw nothing but the barrel of a gun pointed at his face. “What the fuck?”
“Get out.” Oliver’s tone was deadly as he cocked the weapon.
The driver didn’t need to be told twice, and scrambled out of the passenger side. Oliver nearly leapt into the seat. “You okay, Chloe?”
“Can’t shut the doors… just go!”
She slid backward, nearly out the opened rear doors as Oliver gunned it. He’d gotten several yards away, stopped, and then moved quickly to the hold to retrieve her. “Sorry,” he murmured, his expression sheepish. “Come up here,” he said, pulling her up, and setting her in the passenger seat. “We’ll get those bonds off later.”
“It’s okay, Ollie, let’s just get the hell out of here.”
Oliver lowered his hood, and removed his glasses as they sped away, churning up dirt and tires spinning, spitting up gravel in their wake. He found what appeared to be the exit ahead in the distance, an arm gate blocking the way.
“Blow through it,” Chloe urged, bouncing lightly in her seat as the van sped over bumps and dipped into potholes.
He searched for the switch quickly, then disabled the airbags with a push of a button. “Of course, Sidekick,” Oliver answered her, glancing her way, offering her the tiniest hint of his old arrogant smirk. Chloe smiled back as best as she could with her swollen lips and half-opened eye. His foot pushed the pedal to the floor, and Chloe braced her feet on the dashboard in front of her, pressing herself back as far as she could into the seat, crushing her hands tied behind her back.
As they made impact with the gate, she lowered her head onto her knees, hearing the sounds of debris clank and bounce off of the van, the crack of a window as something struck the windshield.
“You okay?”
She lifted her head. “Yeah.”
Oliver continued to speed down the road, not really certain where they were going. He fiddled with the dashboard controls, finding the navigation system screen. “We’re about two hours outside of Metropolis,” he said, his eyes moving back and forth from the road to the small dashboard screen. “And we’ll have to stop somewhere soon, because this baby is Lojacked.”
“Get us to the nearest town, we’ll take care of it there. We don’t have a big jump on them, I’m sure Tess knows we’re gone by now.”
Oliver was comforted by the fact that so far, he’d not seen any approaching headlights in the rear-view mirror. He was troubled by other thoughts however. “Chloe. Why do you think the creature was there?”
“Do you think he followed me, Ollie?” she asked, fearful.
“I don’t know, angel. Tess knows more about it than we think, right?”
“Yeah, but how would she have gotten him there? I don’t think Tess even knows Davis.”
“What if she does?”
“Tess had photographs of us in the alley behind Luthorcorp the night I healed you.”
“So, she might have photos of the creature too,” Oliver mused.
“I have no idea what her interest in him could be.”
“Whatever her interest is, she’s playing with fire.”
Chloe was silent for a long time. “Then let her get burned,” she murmured, her voice cold, void of any emotion.
Oliver glanced over at Chloe, whose head was lowered. It was unlike her to say something like that, and it further solidified his feeling that Tess was the one to hurt her so badly. She’d said that physical wounds healed faster, but emotional ones didn’t disappear as quickly, and he wondered what invisible wounds Tess has inflicted.
They drove the rest of the way to the nearest town mostly in silence. Oliver pulled up into the parking lot of a motel, untied her wrists, and then set about finding and removing the GPS device from the van, tossing it into a dumpster behind the building.
On their way back to the van, he reached for her, pulling her into his arms, holding her briefly before they had to speed off again. He brushed his lips against her forehead. “Let’s go home,” he whispered, but she remained silent, only nodding in agreement at his words. Now that the excitement of their getaway had passed, she’d been noticeably quiet, and his concern grew.
Finally in the safety of the penthouse, Chloe was able to relax. Oliver gave her a white T-shirt to wear, and told her she could shower and sleep in one of the guest rooms, if she wanted. Chloe took him up on his offer, showering quickly and slipping on the shirt. It almost reached her knees. She gazed at herself in the mirror. Her wounds were healing, but she frowned at her reflection. She was certainly a sight, and none too attractive at the moment. There was no help for it. Shrugging lightly, she stepped out into the dimness of the living room, not finding him there. Thinking he must be showering and changing, she padded barefoot, to sit on the edge of the sofa, staring out unseeing into the quiet space in front of her.
* * * * *
Tess wasn’t getting the answers she wanted. Chloe was steadfast in her denial of knowing the whereabouts of the crystal. Tiring of getting nowhere, she decided upon a new tactic. “So, what has he given you? A bracelet? Earrings? A trip to Malibu at sunset?”
Chloe glanced away. “Look Tess, whatever your game is, I’m not playing. What have you done with Oliver?” she demanded.
“Oliver is quick to give away objects, things,” Tess went on, ignoring her question. “But he’s incapable of giving himself.” Tess circled Chloe’s chair, her hands and ankles had been tied securely. She reached out to lift a lock of Chloe’s hair, rubbing the strands between her fingers.
Chloe nearly snorted. If Tess had only known that for most of her engagement to Jimmy, Chloe sported a plastic Cracker Jack ring. “Objects aren’t that important to me.”
“I see. You must be quite the novelty to him then. I’m sure it will wear off soon, and you’ll become another Oliver Queen castoff,” she taunted, moving around her once more, lifting Chloe’s chin with a finger, scrutinizing her features. “You’re quite unlike his usual conquests. He’ll come to his senses and dump you soon enough.” Tess moved a few steps away from her.
“And if that happens? So be it. I’ll survive. I won’t hold a grudge like someone else might.”
Tess stopped in mid-step whirling, slapping her hard, causing the blood to flow anew from Chloe’s mouth and nose. She’d already begun to recover from her beating on the Luthor Mansion grounds when they were first captured, but the wounds were still fresh. She and Oliver had been brought to a facility several hours away from Smallville, Chloe wasn’t certain where they were, but this was a place similar to the one she’d been housed in months ago in Montana. Chloe worried. Oliver was still unconscious when they’d been brought here. She didn’t know where he was at the moment or what they’d done to him.
Chloe lifted her head to stare defiantly up at Tess, tongue peeking out to lick the blood away from her top lip before she spoke. “What’s the matter Tess? Can’t let it go after all these years?”
“He lied to me, betrayed me. Caused the deaths of people close to me. Told me he’d help me, told me we’d be together, work together. Lies. All of them.”
“Seems he changed his mind, once he saw your true colors.”
At this, Tess withdrew her pistol, pointing it inches away from Chloe’s face. “And what are your true colors Ms. Sullivan?”
Chloe eyed the pistol. She should be frightened, but instead she was emboldened. “I’m not sure, Ms. Mercer. But evidently they’re unlike yours.”
Tess nearly smiled. “When he hurts you, and he will, I’m sure you’ll see things the way I do.”
“I hope not. Tranquilizing people and tying them up isn’t my style, really.”
Tess lifted the hand wielding the pistol, and struck Chloe with it, the hard metal connecting brutally with the left side of her face, over her eye.
This time she did cry out, the pain explosive and unexpected. Chloe’s head reeled, and she felt herself on the brink of consciousness. Fresh crimson dripped onto her blouse.
Tess shook her head. “No. He needs to pay for what he’s done; to me, to Lex, to Luthorcorp. He needs to pay dearly, and it starts with you.”
Chloe struggled to keep her eyes open. She couldn’t see out of her left eye, knowing it had begun to swell shut. Her head bobbed slightly, as she struggled to lift it, but it seemed to weigh more than her entire body at this moment.
“Why me?” Chloe’s voice croaked, barely a harsh whisper.
“For all your intelligence, Ms. Sullivan, you certainly are quite oblivious, aren’t you?” She flashed Chloe a look of disdain. “Why you?” Tess scoffed, raising her weapon once more. “Because for some reason I can’t begin to fathom, he loves you,” Tess admitted, replying to her own question, her voice tinged with anger and envy, bitter jealousy stirring inside her. Tess spat the words as though they were an accusation. She brought down the pistol once more, effectively sending Chloe into swirling darkness. Her head hung over her chest, blonde, tousled hair covering her face. She didn’t move. Satisfied that Chloe was unconscious, but alive, Tess stepped toward the door, opening it. She cast a glance back at Chloe’s slumped, wilted form. It was time to let the Green Arrow have an exclusive viewing of his newest ladylove.
* * * * *
“Hey,” Oliver’s soft voice broke into her thoughts and she lifted her head to find him moving to kneel in front of her. He was freshly showered, shirtless and barefoot; wearing only a pair of black sweats. He took her hand in his, thumb softly stroking her skin.
“Hey,” she answered, offering him the tiniest of smiles, before her eyes flitted away once more.
“Talk to me Chloe,” he urged gently.
Chloe’s eyes fell to their hands clasped together. She shook her head lightly, her lips thinning briefly. “It’s nothing. I’m just… tired.”
“You’ve forgotten how well I know you,” he whispered, his other hand moving to take both of her hands, now enveloped in the warmth of his. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you… it’s killing me that I wasn’t there for you…”
“You were drugged and unconscious. There was nothing you could have done, Oliver.”
Oliver moved closer, insinuating himself between her legs on his knees before her, their bodies nearly touching, her breasts brushing against his chest. Oliver lifted a hand; fingers threading the hair back from her cheek. Her injuries were healing, and it looked as though she’d been beaten a week ago instead of a few hours’ prior, bruises turned yellowish-green, cuts healing over, her eyelid much less swollen. He cupped her cheek gently. She did look tired and worry worn, but something weighed heavily on her mind, he knew. “What is it, Sidekick?” he asked, his gut clenching painfully, not completely certain he wanted to know the answer.
Chloe’s breath hitched. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, hesitant. “Tess…” She lifted her eyes to his. “Oliver, maybe this isn’t a good idea. Us.”
Oliver shook his head. “No. She did this, didn’t she?” Oliver asked, a gentle finger trailing from her eyebrow down over her cheek, but Chloe knew he meant more than her exterior wounds. He spoke of her doubt as well.
Chloe looked down at her lap, nodding lightly. “Most of it. Not all.”
“Tess and I had a past, Chloe. As much as I’d like to, I can’t erase it. But I don’t want that past to condemn my present or my future.” Oliver swallowed hard. “Whatever she did or said to you was out of some twisted sense of entitlement and jealousy.”
“And what would give her that sense?”
Oliver felt his heart sinking fast. He was a drowning man, clinging to a lifeline. He couldn’t lose her, not before he’d really had a chance, not now, not ever. “I’m not a perfect man, Chloe, but Tess is not exactly the voice of reason here… she’s speaking from a place of revenge. Please don’t let her destroy something we’ve only just found together. It’s what she wants. To destroy me for what she believes I’ve done to her whether or not I’ve actually done it. I’m guilty of a lot of things, Chloe, I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and paid the price for most of them, but I never loved her.”
Chloe gave him no response. She lifted her eyes to his once more, liquid green, finding his chocolate brown, his gaze pleading.
Oliver watched her face with acute and loving anxiety, trying to read her expression, his eyes danced, searching hers. He needed her to understand, to know. Wetting his lips, he continued. “If I ruin this, us, then let it by my fault, my failure, my regret forever, and then I’ll know there’s no hope for me as an honorable man; that I’m incapable of loving anyone, unable to make a commitment and stay with it…. Let the punishment be mine, but not because of Tess or anyone else who’d try to come between us.”
She lifted trembling fingertips to his lips, her eyes never leaving his. She hated to admit that Tess had aroused old fears and insecurities within her. In the short time they’d been together, Oliver had never once questioned her past with Clark, or Jimmy. Granted, her past was not as riddled as his was, and Jimmy hadn’t taken a pistol to Oliver’s face, but thus far, he hadn’t doubted her, not once.
Oliver’s large, gentle hand surrounded her small one, pressing his lips to her fingertips, then easing her hand to slide down over his neck, his collarbone and finally over the muscles of his bare chest, holding it there. Throughout his past relationships he’d been a master at self-sabotage, ruining his own chances at happiness, for reasons unknown, even to himself. “I’m not going to ruin this. Not this time. Not with you, Chloe.”
“You don’t have to make promises, Oliver,” she whispered.
He shook his head, realizing something he hadn’t before, the thoughts coming to him with sudden clarity. “It’s not about promises, Chloe. It’s about knowing who we are, living honestly, being true to ourselves. We’re together, and now it’s as though it all makes sense. It’s the way it should be, should have been a long time ago, and maybe it took all of this… all of our past mistakes and heartbreak to bring us here.” He pressed her palm over his chest, his fingers lightly stroking hers, his eyes imploring, but she said nothing. “It feels right. The way it’s supposed to feel… in the way that I’m yours and you’re mine… something in my life finally feels honest. Being with you, is being true to myself. If you can tell me it's not the same for you, that it's not the reason you let Jimmy go, then... I don't know...” Her silence worried him. Usually she was the more talkative one between them. Had he frightened her away with his words? Had Tess really gotten to her? Never before had he felt the strings of the new bond between them stretch closely to the breaking point. “I don’t know how else to say it, Chloe,” he whispered, clearly flustered over what he felt was his inability to express himself. Oliver blinked, lowering his eyes. “If you really believe that us… being together is not a good thing…”
She was Chloe Sullivan, Watchtower, truth-seeker, and super-intelligent, meteor-infected healer. Living honestly and authentically was something she could never do with Jimmy or anyone else. He was Oliver Queen, billionaire CEO, philanthropist, the Green Arrow, a crime fighter. And he was kneeling before her, telling her that he belonged to her. Living honestly was something he couldn’t do with Lois or Tess or anyone else. Tess had said that he was incapable of giving himself to anyone, yet as Chloe studied his features in the dimness, her entire being urged her to prove Tess’s words wrong. Chloe’s breath stuttered, her throat constricting in an effort to hold back the tears, as the truth of his words washed over her. “She told me… Tess… told me,” Chloe hesitated swallowing harshly; her eyes shining with unshed tears. “That you loved me. How would she know something like that?”
“I don’t know how. Maybe once she saw us together, she knew, but if she believes I love you, it explains her jealousy, wanting to hurt me by hurting you, and trying to drive a wedge between us.” His broad shoulders lifted as he breathed, and Chloe could feel his heart beat quickening under her palm. He glanced down and away nervously, then lifted dark eyes to hers once more. “You don’t have to say anything, or answer or…” he took another lung-filling, calming breath, exhaling slowly. “I’m in love with you.” There. He’d said it; he’d uttered words rarely spoken to any woman he’d known, and now his heart nearly stopped, waiting for her reaction. He hadn’t thought it was possible to love someone so deeply, so completely in such a short time. Or was it that he had loved her long before this moment, and never knew?
Chloe slid her hand upward over the warm smooth skin of his chest, wrapping both of her arms around his neck. The sweet sensation of her breasts pressed lightly against him through the thin fabric of his T-shirt nearly undid him. Chloe closed her eyes, tears squeezing out from beneath her lashes. Oliver brushed them away gently with the pad of his thumb.
“You’re all I want,” he whispered, his head descended as he touched his parted lips soft as down against hers, hands sliding over her spine, grasping her bottom, scooting her forward on the edge of the couch, increasing the pressure of their bodies against one another. “Let me love you, Chloe.”
His words and his nearness sent her senses into a tailspin. She ached for him, wanted him. His lips trailed down over her cheek softly. Mouth grazing her sensitive skin, he kissed the pulsing hollow of her throat. Chloe’s eyelids fluttered closed, she clung to his neck like a lifeline and on her soft sigh that reached deep inside of him, she gave in to the pleasure he offered. Burying his face in her neck, he breathed more tender kisses there. “Oliver,” she whispered his name, so full of longing and hope, her breath caught on a surge of yearning so abrupt and intense it felt like pain.
Oliver slid his hands beneath her bottom, lifting her from the couch slightly, her thighs wrapping around his waist, her hands plunging into his hair, still damp from his shower. He continued to press slow, gentle kisses over her; her cheeks, her eyes, the tip of her nose, her lips, ever mindful of her fading injuries. His kisses, soft and unhurried, showered down like a cleansing rain into her soul, soothing her doubts, washing away her fears, yet building a smoldering, burning fire of need for him. She moaned softly, a sound of surrender. ‘Let me love you,’ he’d asked. There was only one answer that came to her. “Yes,” she breathed.
Rising from his knees in one fluid motion, Oliver carried her to his room.
End Chapter 15
No comments:
Post a Comment