She loved this town.

Only in New Orleans could you submerge yourself neck deep into every aspect of the richness that life had to offer. She was making a decent living with the modelling work, but in all honesty, it was her hostessing job at Johnny's that was exciting. Every night, she dressed to the nines in an elegant, yet simple gown and stiletto heels, and led all manner of mobsters and molls to their candlelit tables. There were tourists, sure, but the vast majority were regulars, and those regulars tipped obscenely well. Bits and pieces of conversation would float to her, because who ever remembers that the help have ears? Thefts, takedowns, even murders were common topics. Never a dull moment at Johnny's.

One Friday night, a man came in with two friends. They didn't look connected, but they were well dressed and didn't look like trouble, so she seated them. She handed out three menus, and when the third man thanked her, she nearly melted.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" She asked, with a stupid smile on her face. She knew exactly what he'd said, and simply wanted to hear him again.

And he knew it.

"I said thank you," he grinned up at her, and it took everything she had not to reach for the edge of the table and grip onto it for support. He was probably not a local, he didn't even sound American. She was still standing there staring at him like a lovestruck teenager when she realized she hadn't said anything else.

"Oh. Yes, you're welcome." Very, very welcome. In her head, terrible, delicious thoughts started competing for space. She was used to men hitting on her, but this was the first time she'd visually, or perhaps audially, sought one out. She wished she was the wait staff, then she could listen to him ordering. Maybe she could linger nearby when-

"THIS IS FOR MY BROTHER, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

Three men barged through the front entrance, and taking a stance, each opened fire with tommy guns. Kassandra was frozen in place when a hand grabbed her upper arm and pulled her to the floor. He was on top of her in a flash, this beautiful man with the musical voice, his weight pressing her into the plush red carpet as broken glass and splintered wood rained down around them. Screams of pain, shouts of anger, small fires igniting as candles fell to the floor. 

It was the most romantic evening she'd ever had. As they stared at each other, out of breath and panting into each others' faces, he winked at her and lifted himself off of her. In a low crawl, they slunk out through the kitchen and back entrance, with white-jacketed servers and chefs pushing around and ahead of them in a panic. Once they were in the alleyway, they stood and looked in both directions. One was the right one, the other, very wrong.

The answer was a squeal of brakes to the west. The hit was over, but had they been seen? They needed to move. Running east as best she could in high heels, Kass held tightly to the hand that had been offered her. They stopped at the street, and her savior peeked around the corner.

"Looks safe enough for now, Darling, but we need to keep running. Across the street, through that alley there, then up a block or two. Zig-zag, alright?" He asked her.

She was staring again, watching his mouth in the dark as he spoke. "Mmm? Oh. Yes. Of course. Zig-zag," she said, and then they ran. 

It felt like miles, but they'd only run five minutes before he deemed it safe enough to walk and appear casual. Sirens were rising into the night behind them. Kassandra realized she'd probably just lost her job, and if she was spotted, likely had lost her home, and privacy. She didn't want to lose her life, not yet. 

"I have some money at home. I don't know if you realize where you were eating tonight, but all that? It may not be over. We're witnesses. We may need to, you know, leave town," she said sadly. She really loved it here. A car went by, driving much too fast. Was it their pursuers? The man who'd just saved her life went to potentially do it again, pressing her back into the alcove of a tailor's shop, and into shadows. 

She had no choice, not really. He was just right there, and she wanted a teensy little taste. Pressing herself back into him, she moved forward, her lips pressing against his while the world exploded behind her eyes.

"OI Camdyn!! Wake up!"

Startled, he looked up in the direction of the noise having been suddenly snapped out of his daze to find 3 pairs of eyes starting back at him.

"Huh? What?" he shot back.

"Me and Rossi are planning on heading over to a local for a few drinks to drown our sorrows, do you fancy joining?" Tony said with a wry smile.

"You're fucking buying them if you do, seeing as you've just fleeced us for everything we have" Rossi added with a deflated sigh.

Grinning, Camdyn looked down at his haul of poker chips sitting on the table, picked up one of the numerous thousand dollar chips and threw it at the dealer. "I suppose I do owe you both one, where did you have in mind...?"

As the private car they had taken neared the building, Camdyn started to hear the odd few faint notes of music on the wind and not too long after it came to a stop at the side of the road. As he opened the door to step out he was met by a impressively large building, an equally large wooden door which had a subtle neon sign above it that just said "Johnny's". Two huge behemoths of men were standing in front of it and a rather long queue of eager faced young'ins waiting their turn to get in. One of the bouncers seemed to immediately know who Tony and Rossi were and instantly moved backwards to open the door and allow them through much to the frustration of some people in the queue. As they walked through the door Camdyn noted that both bouncers seem to shift their gaze downwards and Rossi and Tony both gave them the slightest of head nods.

Almost immediately upon entering the building a young and incredibly attractive woman came over to them and beckoned them towards a quiet secluded table in a small alcove. Shortly after, the stunning little waitress came back with three menus and he couldn't help but notice an instant connection with her when she handed him his. Camdyn struggled to contain a massive smile when she sweetly drifted off whilst looking into his eyes, it almost felt like she was able to look into his heart and soul and see the that he had an instant attraction to her.

Just as he was about to summon up the courage to ask her name there was a large crash and commotion, people were shouting and guns were firing. Camdyn seen Toni and Rossi head straight for the back exit with Tony turning around to shout at him "Camdyn!!!! Get the fuck out and follow us!!". Just as he was about to follow his orders he looked up and seen the young lady standing froze to the ground in shock, in a flash he abandoned his own safety and ran over to her, grabbed her and threw her to the ground as carefully as he could making sure to shield her with his own body. Realising that he was spending way too much time on top of her just looking at her beautiful face during a gunfight, he snapped himself out of the trance, winked at her, picked her up and ran as fast as he could in the direction of the exit.

Once outside he quickly scanned the bloodied faces of all the people pushing and shoving to get out but fortunately he seen no sign of Tony and Rossi, he took this as a good sign and assumed that they had managed to flee to safety. He turned his attention to his companion, shit he didn't even know her damn name, grabbing her hand again he headed off in the direction that sirens weren't coming from, darting from alley to alley he tried his best to make sure that they weren't seen or being followed.

Finally when it seemed to be safe enough for them to return to normality and walk instead of run, Camdyn suddenly became very aware of the soft and delicate touch of skin on his own and smiled to himself as he realised that she was still gripping his hand tightly. He had found himself to be immensely infatuated with this woman since the moment he had met her but couldn't understand why considering he knew nothing about her. His head was racing trying to make sense of it all but one thing stood out to him like a shining light, he knew for sure that prior to this night he would never ever have thrown himself into danger to protect someone else, so this woman had to special to him even if he didn't know why.
Suddenly, breaking his train of thought, she spoke to him mentioned that she had money at her house and that he and her were now witnesses to a major crime and that they should probably consider leaving town and going on the run. "Holy shit" he thought, what had he got himself caught up in now, he made a mental note to have words with Tony and Rossi for taking him to that damned bar but at the same time he thought maybe he would actually have to thank them as he would never have met this woman of such perfection.

Just as she had finished explaining, a car shot past them at such a speed that he panicked and yet again put her life first by thrusting his body in front of her and pressing her up against the wall and pinning her there. He found that he was so intoxicated by her beauty that is mind started racing with wild thoughts of what he would like to do to her. Thankfully for him she seemed to be reading his mind he felt her gently pushed herself back against him and slowly leaned into him as if to kiss him. He couldn't help himself any more, he had to have her deliciously sweet lips on his and... and before he knew it his hands were raising up to her neck to pull her closer.

She'd stopped breathing when their lips touched, so when the edges of the darkness behind her lids began to sparkle, she had to remind herself to breathe. She came out of it gasping, smiling at him as she did. 

"That was. Well. Can I keep you?" She grinned even wider now, but the smile disappeared at the sound of squealing brakes. Taillights down the street now; the car that had zoomed past before was now reversing in their direction. 

It was her time to take the lead. She didn't know one thing about this man, not even his name, but the decision was made. She performed a decent zigzag herself, maneuvering them back through the streets, alleys, and even the occasional back yard or two before they were heading up the steps to her apartment. Kass pushed through the lobby door, walked quickly to the end of the hallway to a door marked 1D, and reached inside her purse for her keys.

A hand stopped her. When she looked over, her Irish Kiss moved her aside gently, then rested his ear against her door. When he was satisfied with the silence he heard, he placed his hand on the handle, checking to see if it was unlocked, or damaged. 

"Do you have a roommate?"

"No."

"A pet, a cat?"

"No." He nodded, satisfied that nothing lurked behind her door. She resumed unlocking it, and he took the lead, doing a quick sweep of the small place while she quietly followed him. In the bedroom, she pulled down a suitcase from the closet, then proceeded to stuff it with clothes, toiletries, and cash.

"You saved my life, I don't know your name, and I just made out with you on the street. I can give you some of this money if you are choosing to run. I'm running. I'd be lying if I said I don't want you to run with me," she said, stopping what she was doing and pulling out a wrapped stack of bills, easily a dozen modelling jobs' worth of pay.

"My name is Kassandra Johansson. I'm a model... and a hostess, obviously. I love this town, I really do, but it's not safe here, not now, not anymore. I think I'm heading east. I can find work easily enough. Philadelphia, maybe? I'm not sure. I'll let the next flight out of town decide that for me," she said, stepping closer to him, the money extended. She felt like her whole life was in the balance with that simple act.

Don't take it. Don't take the money. Say you'll come with me, and we'll start a life together, somewhere new.

Her answer was him pulling her into his arms. The stack of bills fell out of her hand, hitting the floor hard enough to split the wrapper. Bills scattered around their feet as he spun her around, hands in her dark hair, his lips on hers again with an urgency only hinted at on the street earlier. 

Camdyn woke gently to a stream of sunlight breaking through curtains and into his eyes, slightly dazzled he sleepily rubbed his eyes and tried to collect his thoughts about what had happened the night before. He took his hands away from his eyes to reveal an unfamiliar room however before he could start to ask mental questions of himself he looked to his right and the past 12 hours came flooding back to him. With a smile beaming across his face he spent a while just staring down at the dark haired beauty that he was lucky enough to have met last night “So much for running away in a hurry…” he mused to himself.

He carefully managed to make his way out of the bed without disturbing Kassandra and quietly got himself dressed, having had to search for his clothes strewn across the apartment like buried treasure. He found a pen and some paper and scribbled a message down and then left the note lying next to her on the bedside table. Grabbing his jacket he quietly crept through the apartment and out the front door making sure to not let it slam behind him.

Kassandra woke up with a huge stretch and yawn, sitting herself up in her bed not quite coherent, she slowly let her eyes adjust to the brightness of the room. Suddenly, in a panic as she realised that she was alone, she snapped her head left then right searching for him only to find that he had gone. With a wave of apprehension filling her up she glanced down to her right and spotted the folded note with “Kass” wrote in the middle. She nervously picked it up, unfolded it and unwillingly read the note dreading what thoughts were already filling her head.

“My darling Kassandra,

If I am not there when you wake then I wanted to let you know that last night was one of the most unforgettable and enjoyable nights of my life and I owe it all to you. From the moment you sat us down at that table I just knew that I wanted you to be a part of my life (albeit I concede I didn’t expect that I’d have to go on the run for being murder witness) alas I woke the morning and felt something was missing and that is why I’ve had to leave.

Love Camdyn.

P.S. I’ll be back with breakfast soon. X”

Not knowing how to react, Kass found herself just sitting there, starting at the letter, mouth agape, for what seemed like an eternity before she finally allowed a grin to spread across her face as she thought about how delicious her revenge would be on him for playing a prank on her like that.

“Wait! His name is Camdyn??” she thought alarmed to herself, how had she gone the full night without every finding out his name?!

Just as the butterflies began to fill her up whilst she reminisced about the nights events, the front door to her apartment opened.

Thrilled that he'd returned that quickly, Kass leapt from the bed and dashed out of the bedroom, wearing nothing but the sheet from the bed wrapped around her. She almost skidded to a halt on the carpet when she realized that it was not the man she'd spent the night with.

Well, she'd sort of spent the night with this man. He'd nearly shot her down in the restaurant, then chased her through the neighborhoods the night before. Witnesses. Those in The Business never, ever left witnesses. A whimper escaped her throat as she turned and tried to run back into the safety of her bedroom, but a large foot tromped down on the flowered sheet trailing behind her, and she tripped, falling to floor with a hard thump. 

She'd bitten her tongue, and blood oozed out of the corner of her mouth as she tried to grasp the doorframe. Big hands grabbed her ankles and yanked her away from it, creating a massive rug burn along the front of her body from knees to chest. She opened her mouth to scream, and one of the big hands left one ankle and clapped around her mouth. She tried to bite at it futilely as her other foot was released and she took a closed-fisted blow to the back of her skull. Kass' vision swam, dimmed, then went black.

It could have been hours, but it was likely only a few minutes before she began to come to again. She was still sprawled, face down and naked, on the carpet. Her head was on fire, and the front of her body stung. The blood from her mouth was beginning to dry to the carpet underneath her mouth. She weakly rolled her head away from the wall and tried to focus. The shape of a man came into view, one of the gunmen from last night. He didn't have a tommy gun, no, he was sitting on one of her dining chairs, legs spread, pistol resting on one knee. 

"'Bout time you woke up. It's no fun when they're out cold," he said, reaching down and grabbing her ankle again. And yet again, she was dragged across the carpet, tearing away another layer of already-raw skin. Her leg was flung wide, and she could hear a belt unfastening.

Oh, God. He was going to rape her before he killed her. Why couldn't he just kill her?

"Cam," she choked out quietly. Her eyes blurred over with tears, but God must have heard her, because He was giving her a vision of him now, standing there in her doorway, the morning light shining behind him like he was some beautiful angel. Things were not okay, they would never be okay again, but she'd been allowed that one thing before everything went so wrong.

Camdyn has just made his way up the stairwell was about to step into the long corridor to Kassandra’s apartment when he heard a loud crash coming from the direction of her room. His feet barely touched the ground as he dropped the bag containing the bought breakfast and silently sprinted up the hallway. Upon reaching the door he noted that it was slightly ajar and allowed for him to hear inside the room, unfortunately all he heard was silence. For what seemed like eternity he stood and listened trying to piece together what was going on or what had happened up to this point but as the seconds passed there was no sound whatsoever.

Suddenly his ears caught her whimper. “KASSANDRA!?” his mind blazed with fury at the thought that she was hurt. Yet before he had a chance to throw caution to the wind and charge into that room he was stopped in his tracks by a male voice.

“….no fun when they're out cold…"

Hearing some more shuffling in the room, Cam took his chance to slightly open the door further and take a look at how many of them there were. As much as it pained him seeing her naked body helpless on the floor with that ogre standing over her, he had popped his head back out of that room as quick as he had put it in.

“Just the one…” he thought “and the stupid fuck has left his piece on the counter.”

Camdyn pushed open the door hoping that it wouldn’t creak and fortunately it swung open almost silently. The intruder stood with his back to the door but leering over Kassandra’s limp and fragile body, she seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness but Camdyn suddenly froze as his brain didn’t want to believe what it was seeing as the intruder slowly undid his belt and let his pants slide down to his feet.

Before Camdyn knew what had come over him he had the son of a bitch up against the wall - who was still naked from the waist down - and was thundering his fists against the intruders jaw. Within the space of about a minute the intruders face was so smashed he looked like a completely different person, Camdyn lowered his fists and went to work on the man’s chest, not stopping until he heard a loud crack which was suddenly followed by sharp gasps for air and wheezing as the intruder slumped to the ground.

Camdyn turned back round to find Kass still laying on the floor motionless, he rushed over to her, dropped to his knees and helped cradle her up into his arms.

“Kass? Kassandra??” He demanded helplessly.

“Camdyn…” she replied weakly.

“Oh thank fuck! I’m here Kass its fine its over” he exclaimed with a sigh of relief as he leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

“We need to get you covered and get out of here, come on darling let’s get moving…” he whispered to her as he helped her up onto her feet and sat her down on one of the dining chairs.

"I’ll be right back” he said as he rushed off into the bedroom to find her something loose fitting and quick to wear. Fortunately at some point since last night Kassandra had already packed everything up into a suitcase ready to go. Having found some clothes Cam grabbed the suitcase and made his way back to her and helped her get dressed.

She hadn’t said a word since however with the assistance of the adrenaline pumping through her body Kassandra was capable of moving and obediently done as he instructed. He helped her back onto her feet, put her arm over his shoulder, picked up the suitcase and helped her to hobble out of the apartment stopping once in the hall way.

“Do you think you could stand by yourself for a moment Kass, I need to do something but I promise after that I’ll take you away from all of this?” Camdyn asked.

Kassandra nodded and took her arm from around him and stood in the hall with the suitcase as he turned around and went back into the apartment shutting the door behind him.

Camdyn walked over the counter where the intruder’s pistol was still lying, picked it up and put it into his belt. Turning to face the wheezing puddle of blood that was still struggling to breathe on the floor and felt a rage come over him again. He looked in various kitchen draws until he found a sharp 8 inch kitchen knife which he picked up and walked over to the intruder. Cam grabbed the man by the arms and pulled him upright with his back against the wall, legs spread with the little manhood he had left fully on display.

“You know… I was fully prepared to just leave you to die with that punctured lung… but then I wondered what would happen if by some miracle you survived you worthless piece of shit…”

The intruder mustered up enough strength to be able to raise his head and look him right in his eye just as Camdyn brought that knife down point first into the groin of the man, piercing straight through into the floorboard below as the intruder attempted to cry out a choked cry.

“Well. You won’t be using that again, that’s for sure."

Camdyn stood up and walked over to the apartment door and opened it to find her still standing just where he had left her, smiling to her he turned back and said "Oh and hey, stay the fuck away from my woman".