Honeymoon in... Vegas 3/7
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Friday night
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They were chasing the sunset into the western sky as Jonathan watched the ground far below them. He had examined each of the confusing facts that Martha had given him over and over and they still made no sense to him.
Clark was married to Lois? His son was in love with his partner - that wasn't the questionable part. Lois might be impetuous, but Jonathan still couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that they had eloped to Las Vegas without breathing a word to anyone. Clark would have called to tell them.
It was possible that they had been posing as a married couple, wasn't it? Except Martha was adamant that the hospital said it was Clark who had told them that Lois was his wife. A chill went through him as he realized that his son - his seemingly indestructible son - was unable to make decisions for himself. As if sensing his thoughts, Martha's head came to rest against his shoulder. He knew she wasn't tired, only worried. He tipped his head, letting his cheek rest against the crown of her head.
Jonathan closed his eyes, wishing with all his heart that this was nothing more than a very bad dream.
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Early the previous Tuesday
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Lois woke up in the bathtub. Her head was resting on a rolled-up towel and she was cocooned in more towels and the complimentary robe that had been hanging on the back of the door. She blinked and sat up, wincing at the pain in her back. Had a door just slammed shut? Where was she?
And then it all came back to her. She was married to Clark. They were in a room that Mickey Raddatz had paid for, waiting for the next morning so they could follow Mickey to Hoover Dam.
Her mind returned to the most astonishing of those facts. She was married to Clark. For real. Well, sort of for real. For real in the sense that they had applied for the wedding license in their own names. But what else could they have done when Mickey and his four well-armed goons were watching?
That, she reminded herself, wasn't even the worst part. No, the truly horrifying part of all of this was the way she had thrown herself at Clark. She had practically attacked him on the bed and then she had fled for the safety of the bathroom.
Suck it up, she told herself. Go out there and demand your half of the bed. She threw the door open and marched out full of righteous indignation that was fueled more by her backache than any real conviction.
Only Clark wasn't there. The bed was empty; the covers tossed aside. The television was on. Was Clark the one who had slammed the door? The clock on the bedside table read 2:49. Where would he have gone this early in the morning? Had he decided to gamble? Go for a walk? Had he received a tip that Mickey was on the move?
She went to the window to see if Clark was going to emerge from the hotel. Her eye was caught by the flashing lights of emergency vehicles arriving on the other side of the street. Lois leaned closer, squinting to try and make out what was happening. A bus had tipped over on its side but none of the newly arrived emergency personnel looked like they were rushing to help. They were gesturing for the people standing around to move back. Her forehead furrowed and she watched in amazement as the bus appeared to slowly right itself unaided. Then someone stepped around the front of the bus and, even at this distance, the red cape was easy to spot. Superman was there - in Las Vegas.
"Clark," she muttered to herself in disgust. It was now obvious where he had gone in such a hurry. Well, this was one Superman exclusive he was going to have to share with her. She grabbed her new pair of sneakers, not bothering to change out of her pajamas, and ran barefoot down the hallway to the elevator. She got both shoes on while she waited for the elevator to arrive, then tied them as she rode down to the ground floor.
Despite the early hour, hoards of people were standing around and Lois had to push through them to get close. She ducked under the police tape and was immediately yelled at for her trouble.
"I'm with the press," she told the officer now blocking her way.
"Let's see your credentials."
Lois patted her hips and let out a frustrated growl. "I left my ID in the hotel room."
The officer took hold of her elbow. "Come on, girlie. Back behind the line."
"But I know him!" She frantically pointed at Superman. "He'll vouch for me."
Superman's head turned and their eyes met. He looked as astonished to see her as she had been to see him. No, her mind whispered, he looked worried. She shook off that thought. It made more sense that Superman was simply surprised that she was in Las Vegas and not Metropolis.
"Tell him I'm with the press." Lois tilted her head to indicate the pushy officer. "Tell him that you know me."
"I know her. She's with the press," Clark affirmed. Inside he was panicking. How in the heck was he ever going to explain this one?
The officer still looked a little dubious but let her go. Lois walked over to Superman and looked up with a grateful smile. "Thanks."
"I didn't expect to see you out here," Clark told her. That, he consoled himself, was the absolute truth. She had been asleep in the bathtub when he left their room.
"It's a long story," she said. "Actually, I'm looking for Clark. Have you seen him?"
"Um," Clark looked over at the crowd that Lois had just come from while he tried to buy himself time to think. "Clark?"
"I know. You're wondering what we're doing in Vegas." Lois appeared not to notice his discomfort. "We're following a gangster, Mickey Raddatz - do you remember him? Well, that's why we're here. Not that we could tell him that earlier today when he saw us. We actually told him we were eloping." She rolled her eyes and told herself to just shut up now. "Only we sort of ended up, well, you can ask Clark about it the next time you see him. Do you think you'll still be in the neighborhood around nine this morning?"
"I, uh..." Clark glanced down, amused and distracted when he realized that she was still wearing her pajamas.
Lois self-consciously crossed her arms over her chest. "I know. I'm in my pajamas. I kind of left the room in a hurry."
"Oh." Clark looked at the crowd behind her. There wasn't much more he could do to help and he was itching to get away before she thought too much about what an amazing coincidence this was. "I, uh, I really need to go now. Excuse me."
He flew away, landing in the darkened parking garage behind the Palace where he hurriedly changed. Keeping to the shadows, he zipped around the side of the hotel and then began to stroll towards the accident site. He was almost to the street when he heard his name being shouted.
"Clark!" He looked to his left to see Lois bearing down on him. "What are you doing out here?" she demanded.
"I, uh, I heard something," he stammered without thinking.
"Heard something? From twelve stories up you heard that crash?"
His gaze skittered away from hers and he shrugged. Lois narrowed her eyes at him as she took in his appearance. "And so you got dressed - including your tie - you were in such a hurry, and you rushed down here?"
Clark winced but doggedly stuck to his story. "Yeah."
He was lying. Lois knew he was lying. He wouldn't look her in the eye - that couldn't be a good sign.
"Nice, Clark. It's our honeymoon and you're already cheating on me."
"Cheating on you?" he repeated in disbelief.
"Absolutely! What were you really doing down here? Were you following Mickey? What happened to partners? What happened to sharing the story?"
"Mickey?" He looked utterly confused and she wondered if maybe she was wrong. He wasn't following Mickey. So what was he doing out here?
"You weren't following Mickey?"
"No." Clark gestured at the bus accident. "I was feeling restless and I looked out the window and I saw the accident."
"You said you heard it." She gave him a smirk, confident that she had caught him in a lie.
"I did. I heard it and I saw it." It was the truth and he was suddenly weary of all the lies. He should tell her, it would almost be worth it to see her speechless and surprised.
She arched one eyebrow in annoyance. "And you didn't think you should wake me up to come with you? Was that because you know how boring I think breaking news is? Especially if it has anything to do with Superman?"
"Lois, you had been locked in the bathroom for hours. I didn't think you were talking to me."
She crossed her arms, watching the fountains dance behind him as she considered her options. "I'm not," she finally said. "I'm not talking to you."
She went around him and marched back into the hotel with as much dignity as a woman in her pajamas could muster.
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Lois rested her forehead against the door and swore softly. She had forgotten her key card. She beat the heel of her hand on the door in frustration. Where was Clark? Had he decided not to come back to the room? What if he had forgotten his key card too?
"Did he throw you out, sweetheart?"
Startled, Lois whirled around to find Mickey's flat-nosed friend standing behind her. "No, Clark went down to the casino and I was going to get some ice."
"I don't see no ice bucket," the man said.
"I was just coming back for it," she lied smoothly.
"Maybe I can help you," the man said and took a step closer to her.
Her skin prickled with fear as her instincts screamed that she was in trouble. "No, that's okay. I think I'll go join Clark now. Thanks anyway."
"Tony." The man stepped sideways to block her way to the elevators. "Call me Tony."
"Thanks anyway, Tony."
"Don't be so quick to get rid of me. It happens I have a key to your room." He produced a card from his pocket. "Now whaddaya think of that?"
Lois was thinking she never should have admitted that Clark wasn't inside the room. Her panicked mind also wanted to know what Tony was doing in the hallway in the middle of the night with a key to their door.
Tony took her silence for acquiescence and moved closer. Lois tensed, unsure whether fight or flight was her best option. At the end of the hallway the elevator made a soft 'bing' and Clark stepped out.
"Clark," she breathed, grateful to see him.
Clark took in the tableau at the end of the hallway. The look of relief on Lois' face was obvious, as was the annoyance of the man who was standing much too close to her. When Clark realized the man was one of Mickey's lackeys, he quickened his pace.
"What's going on?' Clark asked as he approached them.
"You tell me," the man said. "If this were my honeymoon I wouldn't be in the casino. And my bride would be wearing nothin' but a smile." He took the sleeve of Lois' pajama top between his fingers. Lois jerked away from his grasp.
"Don't touch her," Clark warned.
"Hey, I was just helping her get back inside," Tony said smoothly.
"He has a key to our room," Lois said tersely.
Clark held his hand out. "Give me the key."
"It's not my key to give out, pal. This one belongs to Mickey."
"Why does Mickey have a key to our room?" Lois shot back
Tony backed up, putting the key card back in his jacket. "The way I see it, if a man pays for a room, he's entitled to have a key to it." Tony made a little skipping turn and headed for the elevator.
"Please," Lois whispered, "tell me you have your key."
Clark pulled his key card from his pocket and held it out to her as he watched the gangster retreat. She took it from him and opened the door, stepping inside the room and then holding the door open for him to join her. Clark lingered in the hallway, watching as the man entered the elevator. He gave Clark a mocking half-salute before the doors closed.
"Are you all right?" Clark asked as he came inside.
"Fine." Lois locked the door and put the security latch across the door. Her hands were shaking and her knees felt rubbery.
Clark gently took hold of her shoulders when he realized she was starting to tremble. "What did he say to you? Did he threaten you?"
"No, he didn't threaten me. It was just creepy," she answered, hating that her teeth had begun to chatter. "What if he had come in here while we were asleep? What in the heck was he doing in the hall outside our room in the middle of the night?"
"He wouldn't have been able to get in, even with a key. You had the dead bolt and the security latch engaged." Clark tried to sound reassuring but there was something so wrong about the whole situation and he couldn't shake his uneasiness. The realization struck both of them at the same time and their eyes met and widened.
Lois went on tiptoe and he leaned down as she urgently whispered, "He knew we weren't in here. The room has been bugged."
"Then Mickey knows that we're on to him," he whispered back.
"We have to leave."
Clark nodded his agreement. "Get dressed," he said quietly. "We can't stay here."
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It wasn't until they were a few steps into the hall and the door had shut behind them that they saw the two men lounging against the wall near the elevator. Suddenly Mickey appeared from the doorway alcove next to theirs. Tony was a few doors past the fire exit and moving in their direction. The two men by the elevator started towards them as well.
"This is the damndest honeymoon I've ever seen," Mickey said with a sad shake of his head. "I'm startin' to think you two are here to screw around with me and not each other."
"What's it to you?" Lois asked defiantly and tried to move away from Mickey only to be stopped short when he grabbed her wrist so tightly that she flinched. Fear made her suddenly lethargic and she could scarcely move.
"Don't get cute with me," Mickey sneered at her. "Who even knows you're here, kids? Besides that worthless editor of yours? Let me tell you right now that he'll print whatever your publisher tells him to print. And it ain't gonna be about me. You wanna know what I'm doin' here? Let's go and I'll show you."
Clark reached out to pull Mickey's hand from Lois' wrist. "Take your hands off her."
"Watch your mouth, Four-Eyes. I let your attitude slide earlier, but I'm not feeling so generous anymore." Mickey pushed Lois into Tony, who quickly gripped her arm with one hand while producing a gun from beneath his jacket with the other hand. "I don't wanna make a mess in the hotel," Mickey continued smoothly. "So we're all gonna take a walk now."
"And if we refuse?" Clark asked, seething at the obviously painful way that Tony was holding Lois' arm and his own impotence to do anything about it.
"Then Tony is going to take your pretty little wife back in the room and violate her in ways that you don't really want to think about."
Tony's lips twitched in a smile and he winked at Lois.
Lois jerked her arm free of Tony's grasp. "That's nothing compared to what I'm going to do to Tony."
"Fiesty," Tony said with a laugh. "I never liked that in a woman."
"I've never been all that infatuated with thick-necked idiots, so I guess we're even," Lois shot back.
"Enough," Mickey growled. "Let's go."
They walked to the stairs, going down the echoing stairwell to the basement where one of the goons used a key to let them into a long half-lit hallway. At the end of the hallway they exited into an underground garage. One of Mickey's men opened the back of a refrigeration truck and gestured for Clark and Lois to enter it.
Lois wrinkled her nose as she climbed up the tailgate. She was grateful to be out of Tony's clutches but the storage area of the truck smelled faintly like sour milk. There were stacks of boxes labeled 'perishable' at the back of the space and the air was cold and humid. The truck dipped as Clark climbed inside and then the doors were slammed shut, leaving them in darkness. Lois swayed, feeling dizzy in the blackness as she heard the bolt thrown to lock the doors.
The truck rocked again and she heard the muffled slam of a door before their prison reverberated as the engine started up. The truck lurched and she stumbled in the darkness, taking three staggering steps before she fell against something solid. Clark's hands settled on her waist to steady her. She grabbed his arm to balance herself.
"Maybe we should sit down?" he suggested.
Lois felt almost drunk in the wheeling darkness as the truck seemed to be pivoting. It was climbing out of the underground garage, she realized. Where were they being taken? Dizzy and numb with fear, she let go of Clark's arm and half-turned to feel for the boxes at the end of the truck. Clark's hands moved away from her and she shuffled forward a few steps before her knee smacked painfully against a wooden crate.
"You okay?" Clark asked when she swore.
"Yes," she bit out. "Never better." She sat down tentatively, then leaned back, uneasily resting against the crate behind her. She was grateful when she felt Clark's warmth settle next to her, making the darkness seem just a little less frightening. She reached over and found his knee. His hand came to rest on hers and she quickly laced her fingers with his.
"Where do you think they're taking us?" she asked.
"I don't know." Clark could hear the conversation in the cab of the truck, but Tony and the goon with him were more interested in cataloging Lois' charms and what they intended to do to her later than in saying where they were headed.
Lois shivered next to him and Clark let go of her hand to take his jacket off and clumsily drape it over her shoulders.
"Thanks." Her hand found his again.
The truck made a sharp, long turn, sending Lois sliding against him. Her hand clutched at his arm and he could hear the rapid, frightened beat of her heart. He was deeply grateful that she couldn't hear Tony's boasts.
"Maybe I could get us out of here," he suggested.
"Really? How? Are you going to kick the doors open?" She didn't sound at all reassured and he realized that it would be extremely difficult to explain to anyone how he managed to kick a bolted door open. Besides, there was an SUV behind them with Mickey and one of the other men. That left the fourth man unaccounted for and Clark frowned as he realized he had no idea where the man had gone.
"It might be worth a shot," he muttered. What if he went really fast? Would Mickey and the other man see? It would be difficult to explain to Lois, but at least he wouldn't have to worry about what she would do with his secret afterwards. Did he? She might not expose him, but she would almost certainly loathe him.
"And then what? We're picking up speed now, Clark. We're on a highway, not in town. We'll end up killing ourselves when we jump out."
"We could wave for help."
Lois let out an exasperated sigh. "It's the middle of the night. How many people are on the road in the middle of the night? We should try not to upset them. If they wanted us dead, they would have killed us already."
Lois was wrong. He had overheard enough to know that Mickey simply didn't want to leave any trace of their deaths where someone could link it back to him. Clark wasn't about to tell Lois that. Certainly not when she hadn't stopped shivering, even with his jacket on. He put his arm around her, rubbing his hand along her arm to warm her.
"Aren't you cold?" she asked, her words choppy.
"I'm okay."
She shivered closer to him and her next words were muffled as she spoke into his shoulder. "It's ironic, isn't it? We're going to freeze to death in the desert."
"We're in a truck, not the desert."
"Don't ruin it with details, Clark." Her arms slipped around his waist and she laid her cheek against his chest. "Just keep me warm."
Clark put his arms around her. There was no good way to get them out of this; not right now, anyway. It was frustrating, but he was going to have to wait to do anything. Several long minutes ticked by. Lois' shivering lessened and he was grateful that she was warming up. With each glance outside the truck he could see nothing but empty desert.
"So." Lois cleared her throat, feeling almost desperate to break the monotony. "You never did say how you pictured your honeymoon."
Clark wished she'd go back to talking about freezing to death instead. He let out a laugh that sounded forced to his ears. "This isn't how I pictured my honeymoon. I was thinking something more along the lines of warm sand and clear blue water."
"Mmm," she said dreamily. "That sounds nice. Hawaii? Or the Caribbean?"
"Does it matter?"
She giggled against his chest and the vibrations of her laughter reverberated through his entire body as if he were a tuning fork that had just found its perfect pitch. "I guess it doesn't," she whispered. "Like Mickey said, maybe all you really need is a bed and a door that locks."
Clark swallowed hard at the memory of their kiss earlier that night on the bed. He'd forego a bed, warm sand, or any creature comfort imaginable to kiss her like that again.
Lois rolled her eyes, grateful that it was pitch black inside the truck. Of all the things to say to him, she had to pick that. It was time to change the subject.
"Didn't Big Joe go into the restaurant business out here?" she asked.
"I don't know," Clark admitted.
"It seems like he did. What if this is one of his trucks? What if Tony and the others actually work for him and that's why Mickey is hanging out with them?"
"I guess it's possible."
They lapsed back into silence, each of them caught up in their own thoughts. Clark weighed the merits of escaping from the truck against waiting to see where they were going. Lois, fatigued from her catnap in the tub, was soothed by the warmth and solid presence of Clark beside her. The initial adrenaline rush of being kidnapped had dissipated, leaving her worn out and exhausted. Her eyelids grew heavy. Each time she snapped back to awareness she would find that nothing had changed. They were still trapped in cold darkness.
The truck slowed down, stopped briefly, then made a right turn and slowly built up speed again. The road beneath them was rougher now and they were jostled in the darkness. Lois clung to Clark, the only constant left in her world, and wondered what was going to happen when they got wherever they were going. Tony's leer flitted through her mind and she shivered. Stay with me, she thought. Please, Clark, don't let them separate us. Clark's hand stroked over her arm and she inched closer against him.
"Are you scared?" she asked quietly.
"No." His hand squeezed her elbow gently. "I have you to protect me, why would I be scared?"
Lois smiled and let out a soft sigh that was almost a laugh. "Thanks, Clark."
The truck slowed almost to a stop, then made a turn that sent them sliding a few inches. When it started lumbering forward again their speed was slower and the road was much rougher. It seemed that only a few seconds would pass before they were bounced again. Time seemed to stretch out until neither one of them were quite sure anymore how long they had been traveling. Clark could see the horizon outside was growing lighter - it was going to be day soon.
The truck's speed seemed to vary between slow and really slow. Each bounce made the crates they were sitting on shift and creak. Lois felt like every joint in her body was being incrementally teased apart as the truck rattled and vibrated along an obviously rough road. They weren't in the city - they probably weren't anywhere near anything and it was beginning to frighten her. Mickey had said he didn't want a mess at the hotel - what was to stop him from making a mess of them somewhere in the desert?
The brakes gave a high-pitched whine and the world stopped bouncing. A few seconds later the engine turned off. Lois tensed, suddenly alert and deeply frightened. She would rather freeze to death slowly than have to face Tony again. Were they parked on an incline or did everything just feel off-kilter because it was so dark? There was the muted sound of doors slamming. Then the lock on the door rattled but the doors didn't open.
The silence stretched on and on. Clark's breathing was quiet and she realized he was probably trying as desperately as she was to hear what was going on outside.
"Can you hear anything?" she whispered.
"No," Clark lied. The truth was that they were all arguing over whether they were far enough into the desert now and the likelihood of someone finding their bodies later. The man riding up front with Tony, whose name was apparently Randy, was adamant that throwing their bodies in a mine shaft was more than adequate.
They had stopped near a dilapidated wooden building. The roof was still intact, but it looked like the ancient shingles had melted under decades of desert heat. The door and window frames were empty. Behind the small structure rose a large hill dotted with juniper and sage and a few rock houses without their roofs. There was a yawning hole halfway up the rise of the hill. Clark zoomed in on the opening and realized it was an abandoned mine. They were in a ghost town.
Lois swayed to her feet, feeling too restless to just sit there and wait to die. The truck was definitely slanted and it was an uphill shuffle to get to the doors. She couldn't feel a latch and no matter how much weight or pressure she exerted, the doors didn't budge. She put her arms into Clark's jacket, pulling it on properly to try and stay warm.
The silence was ominous. Their dark prison seemed even more oppressive now that they weren't moving. Where were they? What was going to happen when the doors opened? The blackness reverberated around her, chill and cloying.
"What do you think?" she asked Clark. "Have they left us here?"
"No," Clark said softly. "I think they're still out there."
They were - he could see them clearly through the side of the truck. He slid his glasses back up his nose and tried to adjust to the dark again. He suddenly felt ashamed of himself. He should tell Lois the truth. Just tell her, right now, that he could get them out of this. That there was nothing to worry about and she was fine. That he would never let anyone hurt her. That he had meant every word of their wedding vows and he wanted nothing more than to love her, hold her, and cherish her for the rest of her life. But what if the truck was bugged? What if someone overheard? If so, he couldn't tell her about Superman. But he could tell her about his feelings. If she felt the same way - and the way she had kissed him back in the room said she might - then he could work up to the whole truth.
"Lois," he finally said softly, "I lied to you earlier."
"Really? About what?" Lois leaned one shoulder against the side of the truck. She wanted to be close enough to the door to jump out when they opened. Clark's voice sounded strained and she wondered what compulsion had made him pick now for a deathbed confession.
"I implied that you weren't attractive in those pajamas."
Lois fell silent. This wasn't the confession she was expecting. She thought he was going to tell her the truth about why he had left the hotel in the middle of the night. "You didn't say I was unattractive. You just said you didn't want to ravish me in those pajamas."
"That was a lie," he whispered.
"Oh." It was all she could say. As confessions went, that wasn't too bad. She allowed herself a small, pleased grin. "So what else have you lied about, Clark?"
She couldn't possibly know the truth. She had to be guessing. Even so, Clark barely managed to choke out, "What makes you think that I'm lying about something else?"
Lois sent a wry smile in the direction of his voice. She didn't have to see him to know he looked guilt-ridden right now. His voice was beyond contrite. "You sound guilty."
"I sound guilty?"
She gave a small laugh. "Clark, you almost always look guilty about something. I think you lie to me on a daily basis."
Even though it was dark, Clark closed his eyes. He was unsure what to say next.
After several seconds of silence she asked, "What? You're not going to deny it?"
What were the odds that they had bugged the back of the truck? If he had to guess, that was why only Mickey had come to dinner with them. The others had been in their room planting bugs. "No more lies," he told her. "Ask me anything."
Something in his tone sent a shiver unrelated to the cold through her. Lois suddenly felt like she was standing on the edge of a giant abyss. There were a lot of questions she could ask him. Why did he run off all the time? Did he really like being married to her or had he just said that to tease her? Why had he agreed to go away for the weekend with Mayson? Had he kissed Mayson like he had kissed her last night? Was he ever going to eat that candy bar that had been sitting on his desk for at least the last three weeks?
She decided to lob him an easy one first. "Okay, why did you leave the room this morning?"
Clark sighed. "Believe it or not, I told you the truth about that. I heard the accident." Go on, he chided himself. Tell her why you heard that accident. He shook his head at his own cowardice. Why couldn't he just tell her straight out? If she hated him for it, it was nothing less than he deserved.
Lois furrowed her forehead as she thought. It wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility that he might have heard the accident. "What about last Friday when you ducked out of the staff meeting? Where did you go?"
He cleared his throat softly. "There had been an accident down the street."
Lois pressed her lips together, remembering that he had submitted a short article about an out-of-control street sweeper. She was about to sarcastically ask him if he had heard that one too when the back door of the truck opened. They each raised an arm and blinked against the sudden brightness.
"Come on out, kids," Tony instructed, waving his gun to motion them forward.
Lois froze. All thoughts of fleeing were gone and she wished there was a way to slam the door shut and barricade themselves inside the truck. Clark moved next to her and then his fingers touched hers. She slipped her hand into his and thought about how strange it was that death was going to part them before an annulment could. They jumped together from the back of the truck to the ground. A small cloud of dust went up and Clark sneezed.
Mickey approached them, his florid features twisted in a scowl. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you two are causing me?"
"So I guess we're off your list for a holiday card this year?" Lois retorted.
Clark froze, his mind racing. Every instinct in him was screaming to pick up Lois and fly away and to hell with the consequences. No secret of his was worth the risk that she might get hurt.
"Let's go, buddy boy." Tony pushed Clark's shoulder, causing him to stumble forward. There was a sharp kick to the back of his knees and Clark went down hard, reeling more from the shock that it actually hurt than from the pain itself. Then Tony landed a kick to his ribs and Clark choked on the dusty air and the pain that was radiating through him.
Bewildered, Clark tried to stand up only to be kicked again under his chin. There was a salty, metallic taste in his mouth. Blood. It was his own blood. His ears were ringing but he could still hear Lois shrieking, "Stop!"
Lois went to push Tony, to try and help Clark but her arms were pinned from behind. She kicked back, catching the man in his shin. He swore and shoved her in Tony's direction. Tony caught her, his piggy eyes crinkled in amusement. "Why don't you leave the blushing bride with me? I'll take good care of her."
"Well now, Tony, I think you'd have to ask her husband," Mickey said. "No, wait, that's right. He ain't really her husband, is he?"
Clark staggered to his feet, leaning back against the tailgate of the truck as he tried to catch his breath. "You'll touch her over my dead body," he managed to wheeze.
"That can be arranged." Tony stepped forward menacingly only to be stopped by Mickey's hand on his arm.
"Wait," Mickey said. "Let's find out what they know first. Then you can show Lois how a funeral is cheaper than a divorce."
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End 3/7
