Max gets angry and makes her exit.

-co-written with sammycolt-

Max had seen this coming. Still, the proposal hit her like a sledgehammer. With an angry cry she swooped down on Jonas, grabbing the surprised older man by his throat and viciously slammed him against the car door. “Are you calling me a whore?!” she yelled.

Jonas gasped, his windpipe blocked. He grabbed her hands and tried to twist them away. He had served in Afghanistan when he was a young man and had been an excellent combat fighter. He still was a very strong man, much stronger than someone would expect from a man of his shape and age. The more surprised he was when Max’ hands didn’t budge. Not even a bit! This was impossible! He stared at her, eyes wide in panic, his mouth forming soundless words.

Max brought her face close to his, their noses almost touching. “NEVER come here again!” she spat, her voice trembling with rage. Then she tossed him to the floor, throwing him as effortlessly as some stuffed toy and stormed out of the car, slamming the door shut.

Jonas sat on the limo’s carpeted floor, coughing and rubbing his neck. His mind raced. There was something supernatural about this girl. He smiled. He was far from giving up; this encounter had just boosted his interest in her. He pulled out his cellphone and dialed a number.

“It’s Jonas. I need you to shadow someone for me!”

Max unceremoniously shoved her bag into her locker, slamming the flimsy metal door shut behind it. With a sigh she took a step back then sat down on the wooden bench that ran through the middle of the locker room. With her little meeting with Jonas Cale her day had gone from bad to weird and she still wasn't sure what to think of it.

“Hey, boo.” Cindy said, greeting her friend. She smiled brightly leaning against the door frame that separated the locker rooms from Jam Pony's lobby. “So you didn't come home last night.” Cindy stated it as a fact but Max knew it was a question.

“I went to Logan’s,” Max lied. It was an easy lie as she had stayed over at his penthouse countless times before. Better than something vague or the truth. “Nothing happened.” she added seeing her friends knowing look.

“If nothing keeps happening you gonna explode on someone.” Cindy said. “All that pent up sexual tension ain’t good for a girl, ya know?”

Max nodded. Like it did last night. She was about to change the subject but her boss, Normal beat her to it. “Bip Bip Bip! I don't pay you slackers to stand around and chit chat!” Max could hear his yell through the door. Cindy twisted slightly and caught the package he must have thrown to her. “1114 12th ave, Sector 5.”

“Duty calls...” Cindy shrugged and left leaving Max alone once again.

“So you finally decided to show up, Missy,” Normal said, peeking his head into the locker room. He glared at her for a moment before his head disappeared. “You're lucky you even have a job here with that work ethic.”

“Whatever,” Max said, but followed him, “You have anything for me or not.” He would never admit it but Max knew he would never fire her. She could out ride any other messenger there and she was the only one who never complained about deliveries into the seedier parts of Seattle. There were parts of Seattle that most of the other riders wouldn't even go unless there were two of them, sometimes three. The fact that Max would go alone without giving it a second thought made her, no matter how often she came late or was caught slacking off, a very cost efficient employee for Normal. And Normal was all about efficiency.

“394 Pike Street and 402 Harvard Ave and make it quick.” Normal her pushing two packages in her direction. As soon as they were in her hands he turned around to find a new messenger to yell at.

…

Max had noticed the van on her first run over an hour ago, but it wasn't till now that she was sure it was following her. The fact that it was doing such a piss poor job at it calmed her mind a bit. Even the bottom of the barrel idiots the Seattle Police **** seemed to recruit from would have known better, never mind a government agency. Whoever it was they were sloppy.

It was her forth run of the day, her bag was empty, her stomach growling and she getting tired of watching the rusted gray van in the corner of her eye. She knew the neighborhood, she knew the entire city, she was in sector 2. A sector dominated by small shops and markets. People hawking anything they could to make a few extra bucks, every street was crowded with homemade stalls, the alleys littered with debris and trash. Max turned her bike into an alley, wide enough for the van to follow, but one she knew would be cluttered enough to make a quick getaway in reverse a little more difficult.

Once inside the alley, and far enough away from the street nobody would really notice her Max slowed to a stop and waited. Twenty two seconds she counted in her head before the van turned in to follow, only twelve seconds after that did it stop realizing their mark was standing there in the middle the alley waiting for them.