The Stand Off (32 page)

“Let’s stay here a few more
days,” she suggested as she leaned her head against his shoulder and wrapped
her arms around his neck.

“That’s a good idea,” he agreed
before he kissed her.

***

“I just need to grab something
real quick,” Dean said as he led her into the closed off office.

“Okay,” Lux answered, noticing
how uncomfortable he’d gotten since they walked in the room.

Dean rushed over to the closet
off to the side of the desk and unlocked the door. He went inside and unlocked
his grandfather’s safe. After he found what he was looking for he slipped the
smaller case into his pocket before he went back out to Lux.

“Alright, I got it; now let’s get
the hell out of here.”

“Who is that?” Lux asked as she
pointed to the large portrait above the fire place.

Dean narrowed his eyes as he
looked at the portrait. He stood silently for a moment before he finally
answered, “My mother.”

“She was beautiful.”

“She was.”

“What happened to her?” Lux dared
to ask.

His eyes shifted, and Lux could
see the pain he tried to hide. “It depends on who you ask. One lawyer said that
it was car accident while another lawyer claimed it was a homicide that was set
up to look like an accident.”

“What do you think?”

“I never really knew. I sat in
that courtroom for three years while they tried to charge my father with
murder. I listened to three years’ worth of arguments over circumstantial
evidence and I still don’t know the truth. At one point, they even accused my
brother Vaughn.”

“Why your brother?”

“Because he hated her and refused
to deny it. But I know my brother, and I know he is not capable of murder.”

“What about your father?”

Dean shrugged his wide shoulders.
“That portrait used to hang above the fireplace in our living room. After she
died, my father would get drunk and spend hours cursing at that picture. I was
relieved when he finally sent it away; it was a nasty reminder.”

“Like my scar?” she asked and he
turned to her.

“I love your scar; that mark and
what it represents have made you who you are. I wouldn’t change a thing about
you.” He opened the larger jewelry case he’d grabbed from his grandfather’s
safe and showed it to her.

“Oh that’s beautiful,” she said in
awe as she looked at the thick diamond necklace and matching bracelet set.

“It’s yours,” he said as he took
the necklace out of the box.

“Dean,” she started, but he
quickly cut her off.

“I won’t take no for answer. This
belonged to my grandmother, and I want you to have it.” He walked behind her
and she lifted her hair out of the way before he clasped the necklace around
her neck. He then grabbed the bracelet and fastened it around her wrist.

She rushed over to the large
mirror on the wall and gasped, “They’re beautiful.”

“Not as beautiful as you.” he
smiled. He had the matching ring in his pocket but he wanted to wait for the
perfect moment. Standing in the room with his mother’s portrait while he
reminisced about her death was not the perfect moment.

After an unusual, enlightening,
frustrating, sexy, and amazing time at the cabin, it was time for Lux and Dean
to return to the real world. Despite the rough way their trip began, Dean had
really enjoyed his time with Lux and he was not prepared for it to fully end.
He took his time driving back to the city, even taking small breaks for kissing
and eating. They were enjoying the day but mostly they were enjoying each
other’s company.

“We should have stayed just one
more day,” Lux said with a pout as they got close to The Music Hall.

“We can go back whenever we
want,” Dean reminded her as he slid his hand up her thigh.

“We should go back soon… very
soon.”

“We will.”

“Now we face the family. Pixie
said that Kiki made a huge meal for us and a cake.”

“But no party?” Dean asked; he
was not in the mood for a party. All he wanted to do was take Lux to his
bedroom and shut out the world for a few more days. He’d been able to pry
himself away from the cabin, but there was no way in hell he could pry himself
away from Lux for too long. Dean parked in front of the music hall and frowned,
suddenly wishing they had stayed at the cabin for one more day.

“No party; just dinner,” she said
as she put her hand on his cheek and leaned in for a kiss.

He kissed her for a moment before
he pulled back to look at her, “We’re not staying long. I’m dying to get you
home.”

“Me too,” she smiled and tried to
kiss him again, but this time he pulled back.

“If you want to keep this dinner
date, I suggest you stop kissing me,” he warned her.

She smiled and pulled away from
him. “Let’s go eat.”

“I’d rather eat you,” he said
with a grin before he got out of the car. He walked over to the passenger’s
door and helped her out. They walked over to the building and saw the note
hanging on her front door. Dean pulled it off and read it.

“Door is broken; use lounge
entrance,” he repeated what the note said.

“I wonder what happened,” Lux
said although she had a sinking feeling she knew what was going on. Dean would
not be happy.

They walked over to the lounge, oblivious
to the black car parked down the street. Although they did not see the man in
black hiding in the dark vehicle; he saw them. Michael Bender had been watching
them since they pulled up; he’d been waiting for them for days.

Lux breathed a momentary sigh of
relief when she saw that the lounge was not only dark inside but very quiet.

“Maybe they actually listened
to me this time
,” Lux thought with a smile as she opened the door.

The two of them had just stepped
inside when the lights came on and everyone jumped out to yell “Welcome home!”

“I thought you said just dinner?”
Dean mumbled out of the side of his mouth.

“Like I have any control over
these people,” she retorted as she scanned the crowd before them. It was all of
their friends and the people who had supported them throughout the whole music
hall fiasco.

“Welcome home!” her mother,
Pixie, Kiki, Graves, and Lolo ran over to them.

“We missed you!” Pax said as she
hugged her daughter.

“We missed you too, Wrecker,”
Pixie grinned and hugged Dean.

“We cooked a feast for you two,”
Kiki said as she gave Lux a hug, she then turned and hugged Dean.

“And we still have champagne left
over,” Pixie added as she held up the bottle and opened it. When the top flew
across the room, everyone cheered.

“And a gallon of strawberry
vodka,” Lolo said as Pixie filled the cups that she held.

“And death-by-chocolate, fudge
cake!” Graves sang as she started passing out cups of champagne.

Pixie skipped the cup and opted
to open another bottle for herself. Once she opened it, she raised it in the
air and began, “A toast to Lux and Wrecker!”

“And to true love,” Lolo said as
she raised her glass.

“And to defrosting the frigidly
frozen Princess,” Pixie smiled widely, and Lux shook her head.

“And to turning the Royal Tyrant
into Prince Charming,” Kiki added as she raised her cup.

“More like the Royal Wrecker.”
Pixie chuckled as she raised her bottle towards Dean and Lux. She then took a
deep breath and finished, “To you both; may you have many sex filled nights
without being further harassed by the camera wielding, bogus picture creating,
detective posing, psycho stalker with a fake name.”

“Here, here!” they cheered in
unison before they tapped glasses and took a drink.

“That’s in the records for the
worst toast ever,” Kiki told Pixie although she was
smirking.                       

“Worst then Lux’s 18
^th
birthday speech?” Pixie asked with wide eyes.

“You mean the prickly prude
speech when you compared my heart to the Tin Man’s? No, not as bad as that
one,” Lux laughed as she grabbed Dean’s hand.

“Definitely not as bad as that one.
Although I was shockingly impressed with her veins to robot wires comparison,”
Kiki agreed.

“Let’s get this party started,”
Pixie yelled to the crowd before she finished off the last of the champagne.
She slammed the bottle down on the table and burped loudly as she wiped her
mouth. “I need another drink.”

“I say we do shots of that
strawberry vodka,” Lolo suggested.

“Great idea. Do you two want to
do shots?” Pixie asked Lux and Dean.

“Not tonight,” Lux shook her
head.

“Okay, we’ll be back.” Pixie
smiled and kissed her sister’s cheek.

Lux watched them head off to hunt
for strawberry vodka before she turned to Dean, “I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t
think they’d throw us a party just for coming back home. But you should
probably get used to this type of behavior. They will throw a party for no
reason at all. So if you do something somewhat clever or moderately
interesting, you should expect a big celebration. And no, there is no talking
them out of it; you’d just be wasting your breath. They never listen; they
always do what they want.”

“It’s okay; you’re going to make
it up to me later,” he said in a tone that made her vagina try to dislodge
itself from her panties.

“Am I?” she smiled as he bent to
plant a kiss on her lips.

“You are,” he kissed her again,
but she pulled back.

“I thought you said no kissing,”
she said before she put her hand on the side of his face and kissed his lips
briefly.

“I can’t resist. Besides, if it
becomes too much for me to bear, I can always take you up to your bedroom.”

“Or your house; its right down
the street.” She held him tightly and laid her head against his chest.

“
Our
house is right down
the street,” he corrected her, and she pulled back to look into his eyes for a
moment. She loved what she saw, and her heart swelled accordingly.

“Our house,” she repeated with a
dazzling smile that melted his heart and pumped up his cock.

“You better stop smiling like
that or I’m taking you upstairs,” he grumbled with a grin.

***

Michael Bender waited in his car
until Lux and Dean had gone inside of The Lounge. He sat there stewing,
wondering how it had come to this. What had started as a plan to humiliate Dean
had escalated into a full-fledged war. Michael’s name was ruined, he’d been
labeled discreditable by the media, and the police wanted him for fraud.
Despite all of that, he’d
still
not had his revenge.

“I won’t let it end like this…
not until you’ve paid for what you’ve done, Dean,” he murmured to himself as he
opened the car door. “And now I can actually make you pay. You finally love
someone else more then you love yourself so now I can make you feel the same
despair that I felt.”

He grabbed his duffel bags and
nonchalantly walked over to the designated garbage can. He’d had days to
develop a plan and had picked that particular garbage can due to its ideal
location. It was in front of the alley between Lux’s building and the empty
building next door to it. He stood before the garbage can and dumped the large
bag full of fireworks inside. He then withdrew the strip of gasoline soaked
fabric from the sandwich bag and placed it over the edge of the garbage can.
Once he was finished, he cut through the alley and made his way to the back of
The Music Hall.

He quickly opened the tiny
basement window and then eased his way through. Once inside of the dark room,
he turned on his flashlight and looked for the perfect spot to ignite. He found
an old box in the corner filled with clothing and smiled. He lit the book of
matches and quickly dropped in inside. He waited until the flames engulfed the
box before he headed back to his entrance point. He slithered out of the window
and headed back towards the front of the building.

***

The crowd upstairs was unaware of
what was going on in the basement. The loud group danced to the beat of the
fast song while getting drunk and eating cake. In the center of the crowd, Dean
and Lux held each other tightly as she swayed to the beat of her own music.

“Let’s get out of here,” Dean
whispered in her ear. The feel of her body swaying against his was too much for
him; he needed her. He was ready to take her upstairs for a quickie when the
fire alarms went off and the sprinkler system came on.

“What the hell?” Lux gasped as
the lights came on. She looked around to see her family and friends begin to
rush towards them.

She looked up to see Pixie jump
on the stage and grab the microphone. “And that ends our party for this evening
folks. All apologies for the abrupt halt, the high pitched siren and all that
damn water, but there be fire in the basement. So go, leave while you still
can,” she said in an over-the-top, ghostly-toned, talk show host voice.

Lolo grabbed the megaphone from
Pixie and spoke to the wet crowd, “It’s not that bad, just a small fire.
Everything is fine but until we get it under control, it’s best if you wait
outside.”

It was obvious that the crowd was
neither scared nor worried about the downpour from the sprinkler system. They
were in no rush to leave and were laughing as they headed towards the door in
an orderly albeit slow fashion.

Pixie grabbed the megaphone back
from Lolo, “We will be serving cake and strawberry vodka outside.”

“What’s going on?” Lux asked Kiki
as she ran towards them.

“There’s a fire in the basement;
Dean we could use your help,” Kiki explained.

“Of course,” Dean answered with a
nod.

“Where’s Mom?” Lux asked.

“In the basement with the fire
extinguisher,” Kiki answered.

“I’ll help Pixie, Lolo, and
Graves,” Lux said.

“Graves is down stairs with us;
help them get these people out safely.”

“I will.” Lux nodded.

“I’ll meet you out front soon,”
Dean said before he kissed Lux’s lips and then turned to follow Kiki.

Lux watched them quickly
disappear into the crowd as Lolo suddenly appeared next to her.

“At least it’s not a panicked
crowd,” Lolo said as she watched the people casually leave the building.

“How bad is the fire?” Lux asked
with concern as they started walking behind the crowd.

“Not too bad; they’ll be able to
get it under control. They have like thirty plus fire extinguishers down
there.”

“Don’t worry I saved the cake,”
Pixie yelled as she came towards them. She held two large, covered cake trays
and quickly passed one off to Lolo. “Take this.”

“Where’s the vodka?” Lolo asked.

“Behind the bar,” Pixie answered.

“I’ll grab it, just make sure that
everyone is out,” Lux instructed before she headed back towards the bar.

***

Michael waited in the shadows between
the buildings until he heard the fire alarm ring. At that point, he cautiously
crept out of his hiding spot and eased towards the garbage can. He managed to
ignite the end of the cloth and get back to his hiding spot before the people
started to crowd the sidewalk. The gasoline soaked fabric was long enough to
allow him the time he needed to complete his mission. He stood back and waited
until he could make his move.

***

Lux was headed outside with the
liquor when she heard a series of loud popping noises.

The crowd went wild by what they
assumed to be bullets. Everyone ducked at the same time; some people ran, and
almost everyone screamed… except Lux. Lux knew the sound well; Pixie had been
obsessed with firecrackers since she could talk. She had been known to fill the
garbage cans in front of the buildings with various fireworks over the years.

Lux sat the bottle on the ground
and listened for the source of the sound. She looked over to the garbage can
between her building and the empty building next door. She instantly saw the
familiar clouds of sparkly-smoke barreling out and shook her head. Assuming it
was the work of her sister, she walked over to the garbage can.