Mouse in the Alley

We kissed, hard and urgent. I pushed her back against the wall as our hands roamed over each other. We could hear them, shouting and running feet. We broke off the kiss and stared towards the mouth of the alley.

‘We haven’t got time for this,’ Mouse whispered, even though her hands were already unfastening and rummaging through my clothes. I glanced down the alley again.

Mouse nibbled my lip, her tongue entering my mouth as I was about to speak. We kissed again. ‘This alley…? Do you know it?’ I said as we came back up for air.

Mouse shook her head as she moved lower.

‘It could be a dead-end.’ I glanced back at the mouth of the alley again. The voices and the running feet were getting closer. Then I had to close my eyes for a moment as Mouse’s tongue did one of its special tricks.

For a while I forgot where we were, what we’d done and who we were running from.

Then, reluctantly, I pulled Mouse to her feet. She grinned at me, licking her lips and kissed me again.

‘We have to go,’ I said, trying to fit myself back inside clothes that were now way too tight. ‘Now!’

Mouse laughed and took my hand, half-running down the alley. She stopped laughing when we reached the wall at the end.

I looked back. They were at the top of the alley; I could see torches, hear excited shouts. If there’d been only one or two, or even a handful, we could have tried to fight our way out. But this time it was the Guard and there were at least twenty of them, and they were coming down the alley.

All of them.

I turned back to see Mouse half-undressed, shoving the sack and her weapons and tools behind a barrel.

‘Quickly,’ she said pulling me to her and tugging down my trousers with one hand as she shoved my stuff with hers behind the barrel with the other.

We tried not to look as the flaming torches came closer.

‘Hey, you!’ a voice called as the torches lit up the alley.

‘What?’ Mouse cursed at the Guard. ‘Can’t a girl earn a few honest coins without you wanting your cut?’

The Guards swore and turned away.

‘We should ask them,’ a young voice said. ‘Ask if they’ve seen the thieves.’

‘Really?’ An older, more tired, voice said. ‘And do you think they’d really have noticed…? Come on, let’s go back to the crossing and try the other streets.’

I turned back to see Mouse laughing silently. ‘We should go.’

‘Why stop now?’ she laughed again and pulled me closer.

 

[Books by David Hadley are available here (UK) or here (US)]