Lea's heart pounded wildly in her chest. She reached for Sam, pulled him closer and kissed him long and hard on the lips, urging herself on despite the overwhelming taste of stale beer and cigarettes that plagued her.
Sam kissed back excitedly, and began to push her down on to the mattress. He made his way from her lips to her neck and her pulse quickened with each form of contact. She wanted to break down and cry, but she couldn't show any weakness, so she forced herself to keep her hands busy, and got to work on the buttons in his shirt.
When he started to pull her shirt over her head Lea moaned, "Sam wait..."
"There's no time to wait, Sweetheart. I've got a job to get back to," he whispered and leaned in to kiss her again.
Lea pulled away, her insides becoming frantic. She couldn't actually sleep with Sam, so she had to think on her feet. "What do you say we make this more interesting?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Once again, listening," he said with a smirk.
...
"Do you want something to eat?" Jade asked her brother, a while later. "I can cook dinner."
Dylan looked up at her from the couch. "No you can't, J. You can't cook anything."
"I've watched Lea do it a bunch of times. I can do it, it's not that hard."
Dylan shook his head. "I'm not going to let you burn Lea's apartment down." He turned away from his sister's concerned face, and buried his own face in his hands. Dylan tried in vain to get images of Lea and that sleazeball out of his head. 'Why did we let her go out there?' he asked himself grudgingly. 'She's going to get killed, and I'll have another person's blood on my hands.'
Then Dylan knew what he had to do.
He stood up and grabbed one of Mason's jackets off of the rack. He threw it over his broad shoulders and went for the door. "Don't wait up," he called back to Jade, hoping she would just let him leave.
She didn't.
"Where are you going!?" Jade exclaimed, going toward the door to stop him. "We can't go out there, there are cops on every corner! It's not safe!"
"I don't care. We never should have let Lea do this, and now I have a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that something's gone wrong."
"So...?"
"I'm going out to find her. And there's nothing you can say to stop me." Dylan told her.
Jade's eyebrows furrowed as she was thrown into deep thought, then she threw one of Lea's jackets over her as well. "Then I'm coming with you."
Dylan shook his head at her. "No, you're not."
"Yes, I am! Lea's my friend and I got her into this mess too! I want to go with you." She shot back quickly.
"Lea's already in danger, I'm not putting my little sister in danger too." He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Stay here, hold down the fort and I'll be back soon." He opened the door and ran out into the hallway and down the stairs.
Jade followed him and called over the top railing. "Why do you get to have all the adventures!?"
Dylan turned toward her and a hint of a smile pulled at the corners of his lips. "I'm the older brother. It's in my job description."
His sister scowled, then let out a deep sigh. "Yea, well...be careful. Okay? And bring her back.
Dylan's smile grew a fraction more, he nodded and ran out into the dark of night.
