Round Robin--Late but what's new

Okay, it's my turn again. And of course I'm late. I'm always late. My only excuse is that I've been guest blogger at Romantically Inclined this week. It's been so much fun, but it's used up a LOT of brain cells. Anyway, here we go. Two weeks ago April Harvey, our Round Robin contest winner, took us back to Fat Frank's Tooney Salooney on Calista Fox's blog. Then last week Kaia James gave us front row seats to a mud wrestling match. So here I go.

*************
As Frank and Glory made their way back to Frank's office, the PA system let out a filling-rattling whine and an unfamiliar voice came on.

"Ladies and gentlemen . . . tonight we have a special treat for you all."

Frank paused and Glory nearly ran into him. He turned and looked back at the mud ring. There stood a man he'd never seen before beside a naked woman with a white plastic bag over her head. The bag was loose and not formed to her face, so she could still breathe, but the man held a roll of duct tape in his hands and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what he intented to do with it.

Frank frowned as he looked for his men. Where were there? As he glanced from the doorway to the bar, he realized not one of them was at his post. Frank looked back to the woman in the ring. She was tiny, with pale white skin and small high breasts. Exposed and defenseless she shivered in the cold mud.

The guy with the mike was saying, "We'll let her have a word before the fun begins."

He thrust the microphone in front of her face and twisted her arm. She let out a cry and Frank made three simulataneous realizations.

He knew the woman with the bag over her face .

Someone had just stepped behind him and there was suddenly the unmistakeable feel of a gun at his back.

And he and Glory were screwed.

"Christ. It's Suzy up there," he said just before all hell broke loose.

****

"Are you sure about this?" Leann asked Aaron as they pulled into Fat Frank's parking lot.

"Oh, I'm sure. Everything leads back to Frank."

He stepped out of the car and Leann followed, eyeing the packed parking lot with misgiving. During business hours, the strange, cavorting characters took on a new persona. They shivered and jumped in the animated neon lighting. The rabbit in the hot dog bun made a continuous hand movement. At first she thought he was taking a bite of a carrot--like he always did before he said, "What's up, Doc?" But at second glance she realized it wasn't a vegetable he had in hand and he certainly wasn't biting it.

Aaron led her through the lot without even glancing at the porn-tunes. "I think we've been wrong all along. I don't think Suzy has what they want. I think it's Frank."

"Then why would they have Suzy?"

"Because Frank cares enough about her to give whatever it is up for her."

Frank and Suzy? The visual was more than Leann could take.

"Wait," she said, pulling his arm. "When did you figure this out?"

"About five minutes ago."

Suddenly Aaron stopped and he put out an arm, pushing Leann behind him. The doors to Fat Franks were closed. "These doors are always open," he said.

From inside a woman screamed, her voice coming over a PA system and carrying outside. And then a gun fired. In a flash Aaron was racing for the doors. From the corner of her eye, she saw his men rushing from different points in the lot. He hit the doors with his shoulder and they flew open.

Inside were wall to wall people, a layer of smoke that sat like a roof over their heads, and the smell of excited fear. Leann followed Aaron in but no one seemed to notice them. Aaron pushed to the front of the crowd and there was a woman with a bag pulled tight around her neck, the air already sucked out of it so that it formed to her face. Her hands had been bound behind her. The crowd watched in mounting horror as she flailed in the mud under the watchful eyes of armed me.

It was Suzy.

Check Kallie Owen's blog next week for the next installment. :-)