Micheal was crying in agonizing pain as he attempted to drag himself to the door on the other side of the room. His arms had both been ripped from their sockets and his legs had been mutilated beyond repair. They were no longer legs, now, they were just piles of ripped-bloody flesh barely clinging to the broken bones still somehow connected to his body.  

“If you could shut him up that would be great,” Rogelio yelled from the other room, annoyed that Micheal was still crying.

“My pleasure,” Ainsley yelled back, happily. 

Ainsley slowly opened the door and laughed at the fact the Micheal was actually making some attempt to help himself. It was pointless really. There was no way he was getting out of here, well alive anyway. 

She slowly walked up to Micheal, her sky-high heels clicking every step of the way. Once she reached Micheal she kicked him over so he was laying on his back, kneeled down and kissed him on his forehead. Then, she stood back up, lifted her foot, and plunged one of her heels into one of Micheal’s eyes. He only got one scream out before he lost consciousness.

“Better?” Ainsley turned to ask Rogelio who was standing at the doorway grinning.

“Much. Thank you, my love,” he said as he reached out for Ainsley.

“Anything for you,” she giggled as she and Rogelio embraced.

“You need to get back to work,” he said, pulling back from the hug.

“I know, but this is so much more fun,” she said, bouncing up and down like a little kid. 

“It is, but you need to cover our tracks,” he said, looking at her sternly. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going. I gotta stop at the flat and change first,” Ainsley chuckled and rolled her eyes. 

“Okay, text me after your shift, love you,” Rogelio said, kissing her forehead. 

“You too,” she smiled.

Ainsley walked out of the room and down the hall to the door. Once she was outside she took a deep breath and walked to the car. Nothing was going as planned. They had kidnapped Micheal Downing, one of the head commanders at the Pentagon. That part went fairly smoothly but getting the passwords from him was not going well. No matter what they did to him, he wouldn’t talk. After about five minutes of thinking about their plans going awry, Ainsley realized she was still just sitting in the car and hadn’t even started it yet. She took another deep breath and started the car. It was just a short drive from Rogelio’s house to her flat, but today it felt like forever. 

Once Ainsley was back at her flat she looked at herself in the mirror and laughed. She was standing there in the shortest black dress and the highest heels she owned all covered in blood. It was a look she had come very accustomed to this look ever since she met Rogelio. But, now came the part she always dreaded the most, putting on her work uniform. Ainsley was a detective at the London police department. A job that until recently had been her whole world, but after meeting Rogelio and being introduced to his world, her job has now become an annoyance. She wanted to quit, but Rogelio insisted she keeps her job to cover their tracks. 

Ainsley was in uniform and gathering things when the ringing of her phone broke through the silence of her apartment.

“Talk to me,” Ainsley said as she answered her phone.

“Hey, it’s Jack, are you almost here yet?” her partner asked, sounding annoyed.

“I’m on my way in now,” Ainsley replied, rolling her eyes and rushing out the door.  

“And hey leave the attitude at your flat, we got new intel today, and the chief won’t let it slide today.”

Ainsley scoffed and hung up the phone as she got into her car. It was only a fifteen-minute drive from her flat to the station, but it always seemed to go by so much quicker. Pulling into the lot and parking into her reserved spot, Ainsley noticed that there were many more people at the station than there usually were. 

“What’s going on?” she asked Jack once she found him inside, looking around curiously.

“You know that terrorist cell we’ve been tracking?” Jack asked.

“Of course, we’ve been looking into them for months,” she answered. And I’m dating their leader, she thought.

“Well our stakeout worked, we have a photo of who we believe is someone named Rogelio Decamio. We think he’s the one calling all the shots.” He nodded his head towards the pictures on the board in the conference room.

“Oh,” Ainsely looked over to see pictures of Rogelio entering the house that she had been in just hours before, “When were these pictures taken?”

“Yesterday evening. I was on the stakeout,” Jack announced with a grin, this case had been like his baby, and this break could be the thing they needed to take this cell down once and for all.

“Are these the only pictures you guys got?”

“Yeah, we got these then came back to get a search warrant, but there were reports of a woman in there with him.”

“When should we have the warrant by?” Ainsley never took her eyes off the pictures of Rogelio.

“Should have it by the end of the hour,” Jack looked at Ainsley with concern, “You alright over there? You should be celebrating, this is the info we’ve been waiting for.”

“Yeah, I’m-”

“Okay, can I get everyone’s attention please?” the police chief yelled as he walked out of his office and into the bullpen, “This is Rogelio Decamio. This is the man who has been single-handedly running one of the biggest homegrown terrorist cells we’ve known about to date. Tomorrow at 15:00 we’re doing a soft entry. Getting Decamio out and into our custody is priority one okay? Priority two is identifying the woman that was seen with him. She is reported to be around 1.5 meters, 54kg, long brown hair, and extremely muscular.  From now until tomorrow all we do is prepare for the raid, I don’t want to see any wasting time. Understood?”

All the officers nodded their heads in agreement, then the room erupted into chaos as everyone ran around and shouted orders trying to prepare for tomorrow’s raid. 

“Baby! What are you doing here? And why are you still in uniform, you know how hard it is to get blood out of that thing,” Rogelio said, standing up and stepping over Micheals bloody body.

“Apparently there was a stakeout here last night. It was on a need to know and I guess I didn’t need to know. But, can’t change that now. Rogelio, they have pictures of you and a very good description of me,” Ainsley said sounding worried.

“SHIT!” Rogelio screamed as he turned around and kicked Micheal, probably breaking some of his ribs, Micheal screamed out in pain and curled up into a ball.

“Things are already in motion, there’s nothing I can do to stop it now. They’re planning a raid tomorrow at 15:00. We’ll just move up the timeline and be out by tonight,” Ainsley said reaching for Rogelio’s hand.

“I know you’re right,” Rogelio said, pulling Ainsley in and kissing her on her forehead, “We still haven’t gotten the information we need from him tho,” He said nodding towards Micheal.

“I know and I don’t think we’re going to be able to get it. We should honestly cut our losses and get rid of him. He’ll only slow us down.”

Rogelio walked over to the corner of the room and grabbed his toolbox, “Make me proud honey,” He said walking back and handing the toolbox to Ainsley.

Ainsley opened the toolbox and took out 22mm pistol, held it up to the light and admired its beauty. She turned around, kneeled beside Micheal’s head, pulled her red lipstick from her pocket and applied a generous amount to her lips. She kissed Micheal on his forehead, leaving behind bright red lip prints, then stood up, took aim and shot him right between the eyes.

“Well, that was fast,” Rogelio chuckled from the other side of the room, “I thought you’d want to have fun with this one.”

“Oh, I do,” Ainsley smiled, “The fun for me comes after they’re dead.”

Ainsley bent down and started digging through the toolbox. When she stood up she was holding a hacksaw. She began to sharpen the blade as Rogelio laughed.

“A saw will be pretty messy,” Rogelio said.

 “Yeah, but you’ll help me clean it up right?” Ainsley asked, winking at Rogelio. 

“That’s what I’m here for I suppose,” He responded, rolling his eyes.

Ainsley laughed and looked down at Micheal’s lifeless body. She rolled him over and positioned him on his back with his arms and legs spread out from his body. Slowly she began to saw away at his arm, ripping apart flesh, tearing muscle and screeching against bone until that arm was no longer connected to his body. Ainsley continued this until all his limbs were gone and all that was left were bloody stumps.

“Take the head too,” Rogelio demanded, “It’s our trademark.”

“Give me the ax, I need something more delicate than this, I want a clean cut,” She said, tossing the saw across the room.

“As you wish,” Rogelio said, kissing her on the hand before giving her the ax. 

Ainsley smiled and turned back to face Micheal. She slowly lifted the ax above her head and swiftly brought it down just below Micheal’s chin. There was a splatter of blood as the ax went through and his head rolled away from his body. 

“Beautiful,” Rogelio admired, “You preserve the head, and I’ll dispose of the rest?”

“Of course,” Ainsley said walking toward Rogelio, and going in for a kiss. Her lips almost touched him when they were interrupted.

“Stop, slowly step away from each other, place your hands on your head, thumbs up, and lay stomach side down. Now!” Jack yelled from the doorway.

“Jack-” Ainsley cried.

“I tried to call you and you didn’t answer and I got worried so I came down here to check on you… Backup is on the way,” Jack said.

Just as he finished, as if they were waiting, more police and swat barged into the room. Guns pointed at Ainsley and Rogelio.

“Spencer?...” one of the other officers muttered. The room was then filled with officers yelling in disbelief that one of their very own was about to be arrested for terroristic activities. 

“Everyone quiet,” Jack screamed, “Now, you two get down or we shoot.”

Rogelio looked at Ainsley and nodded. They put their hands on their heads and got down to the floor. They were immediately put in handcuffs and started to get lead out of the room when they hear someone screaming.

“Oh my god! Oh, my god, what did they do?!?”

More officers rushed into the room to find what was left of Micheal. Some officers ran out of the room and others threw up. The two officers guiding Rogelio and Ainsley out turned to see what the commotion was about, that was their chance. Ainsley and Rogelio simultaneously kicked the officers in the shins to get them to loosen their grip enough for them to get free. They began to run up the stairs, out onto the lawn and were almost to the property line when the shots rang out. Ainsley and Rogelio fell to the ground, bleeding. 

“Do you remember how we met?” Rogelio asked softly, looking Ainsley in the eye, trying so hard to keep his eyes open.

“Of course,” Ainsley said, coughing up blood.

She thought back to that day that she now considered to be the best day of her life. She had just gotten off work and was having a drink at the local pub when Rogelio sat down next to her. One thing lead to another and they ended up spending the night together. They spent every day together after that. After about a week Rogelio told her what he really did and introduced her to his world. It didn’t scare her the way it should have, it interested her, excited her. Then, instead of telling her boss anyway and doing her job, she did the opposite. She fully entered his world, fell madly in love with him, and covered their tracks from the inside. Rogelio always said that they were like Bonnie and Clyde, only less epic and not dumb enough to get caught.   

I guess that part of it was wrong all along, Ainsley thought as she watched the life drain from Rogelio and slowly fell into unconsciousness herself.