"Hey, hey..handsome...!"
Max felt his face being ligthly slapped. Soft female fingers working in unison with a soothing voice brought him back to consciousness.
Aria Evan's face broke into a wide smile when Max's eyes opened completely. "Agent Max, nice to have you back!"
Max knew he was seated, but he could not move his legs or arms. His wrists and ankles were bound by thin plastic strips. In her right hand, Aria held the cup of champagne Max gave her 15 minutes earlier. "Slipped me a mickey in the champagne?"
Aria poured the gold, fizzy liquid on the carpet. "Do you think I'm stupid?" She bounced the cup off Max's face. "Of course you do!"
Aria pulled a chair up to Max, turning it around so she could rest her arms on the back of the chair.
"Roxana and I knew there was something wrong when Cathy was gone for three days," Aria said. "Cathy can go goofy for a guy, but she never misses a staff meeting. Did you drug her Shirley Temple?"
Max was annoyed. "Gassed her with a snoozer, put her right out."
Aria held up Max's cell phone-snoozer. "Mean this?" She pitched the snoozer against the wall and it shattered.
"My next guess? You sponsored Cathy for the rehabilitation program?"
"Yeah."
"So it's love? Cathy finally laid the man of her dreams?" Aria leapt to her feet, taking a small knife from her back pocket. "That's too bad, because we're going to see Roxanna!"
Max felt the plastic strip around his wrist give as he pulled his hands apart slightly. Aria turned the blade in Max's face, laughed happily, and cut the restraints on his ankles.
"Get up!" she ordered.
As he stood, the poorly connected strip on his wrists came loose and his arms were free.
For a moment, Aria turned her back to Max to collect her bag from the bed, all the time Max needed to land a chop on the bad girl's neck.
She groaned and staggered. Max quickly swung her around and slugged Aria low on the jaw.
The room went quiet and a soft darkness pressed down Aria's eyelids. She fought to stay standing, but the urge to sleep was stronger. Max put Aria on the couch and secured her wrists and feet.
Still knocked out cold, Aria was wheeled out of the motel room by two Justice Force agents. Agent Miki examined the disheveled room ruefully. "Looks like you had a good night, anyway!"
Max ignore her sarcasm. "How is Cathy?"
"Doing well, ready to graduate from prohibition in a month. You miss her?"
Max expected news of his attachment to Cathy Hazlitt to get around Justice Force, just not this fast. Well, they are female crime fighters.
"Nothing on Roxanna?"
"Nope," Miki replied. "The trail is dead."
In fact Roxanna had vanished completely. The safe house her organization used was cleaned out and abandoned. Agent Miki suggested Roxanna had fled to a country, likely below Mexico, that had no extradition treaty with America.
So Max was paid for his efforts and told to wait for his next assignment. Max felt a little bored and lonely since Cathy would not be paroled by Justice Force for another month. Hearing that his friend Zack had gone to Vegas with "a job," Max took care of project he'd been meaning to get to.
"What is this custom of giving women alcohol to drink while dining?" asked Scarlet Vixen as they sat in Max's favorite Italian restaurant, Zapatelli's. Vixen, recruited from the Amazon Sisterhood to Justice Force, had recovered from the beating Aria had given her a few weeks earlier. Max had invited her to dinner on the pretext of discussing a few ideas he had about getting Zack out of his life of crime.
Vixen jumped at the idea.
"You must know that alcohol impairs female judgement!" she admonished sternly. Max wondered what streak of insanity made him think he could nail Scarlet Vixen.
"Does it? Really?" Max responded. "Let me ask you, Athena: Why do you find Zack so attractive despite the obvious fact he's a thief and you're a crime fighter?"
Vixen's face twisted with thought. "He's really sexy, when I see him, i melt inside, he's like..manly!"
"Now, as far as you're concerned, do I possess those attractive qualities to same degree as Zack?"
Vixen concentrated again and frowned slightly. "I'm afraid not as much..."
"Exactly!" Max caught their waiter's attention. "Another Manhattan for the lady...thanks!"
Max returned, alone, to his apartment. He was disturbed more by the fact he actually thought he could get Vixen drunk and in bed, than that the attempt failed.
He flicked on his living room light and felt something hard strike his head. Then the living room light went out.
The black fog that filled Max's eyes focused into Roxanna, who pointed a gun in his face.
"Hello Agent Max!" Roxanna sneered. "Here I was thinking you were just a harmless fling...you seemed like a harmless non entity I could fuck and then beat up!"
"Hi Roxanna...ohhhh...we've been looking for you..."
"I bet! I knew my organization had been compromised by Justice Force when Cathy disappeared." Roxanna chambered a bullet in her pistol. "So I sent Aria after you and Scarlet Vixen to buy me time to cover my tracks. Too bad, Aria was a very effective member of our team, but she had to be sacrificed."
Roxanna pressed the pistol barrel on Max's forehead. "Too bad you and the reformed Miss Cathy won't get a happy ending!"
Roxanna pulled back the hammer on the automatic.
"But I'll be enjoying mine in Argentina! Buenos noches, Max!"
WHAP!!
A blow jerked Roxanna's head sideways. The pistol slipped from her grip and fell harmlessly to the floor. The bad girl glanced down at the gun, smiled and hit the floor herself.
Where Roxana stood was Scarlet Vixen, a sap in her hand.
"You were trying to seduce me, weren't you, Max!"
"Scarlet! Glad you could make it!" Max rose warily to his feet. "Thanks for taking out Roxy here! Help me move her."
As they carried the unconscious Roxanna to the couch, Scarlet Vixen continued to upbraid Max on his intentions earlier in the evening.
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