Jeff never figured out why his wife of two years went “postal;” actually it was more like “bank berserk” but that term was coined just to describe her activities, so when it started happening the only name he could come up with was “postal.” From Jeff’s perspective – maybe one a neutral observer might find flawed – he thought he had a decent marriage. What an unlikely woman, he thought, to do what she was doing. Maybe he just didn’t know her as well as he thought.

Kate sure seemed sweet when he married her after only a three month courtship. Blond, beautiful, sexy, the looks she gave him with those gray eyes were intoxicating, and the way she moved her perfect pelvis would make a dead man “rise.” He knew that she had a conceal-carry permit for her 9mm Sig Sauer P229 but had never seen her use it and she never spoke about it – she just said that she needed it to feel safe when working late nights at the office.

Maybe it was her empathetic side that led her into her life of “crime,” maybe she just liked the thrills, or maybe it was rebellion against authority; or worse yet for Jeff maybe it was rebellion against him since he was himself a banker. Whatever it was Jeff lost many nights sleep over it.

Jeff thought back upon Kate’s negative reaction to a spate of articles in the local paper about fraudulent bank practices, and how she was highly critical of bank management for perpetrating the frauds, and of the Government for not doing more about it.

He remembered how distraught Kate was when a friend of hers named Cindy was about to lose her house to a foreclosure. She begged Jeff to do something about it because the bank had duped Cindy into making commitments there was no way she could keep, but he said there was no way he could help.

Within days of Kate’s request for Jeff to do something about Cindy’s situation a gun toting blond who authorities nicknamed the “Barbie Bandit” had robbed a branch of the bank Jeff worked for, the same bank that owned Cindy’s mortgage. Although Jeff couldn’t be sure it was Kate he found it curious that the gun that the robber used that was displayed on every T V screen in ten local counties looked like Kate’s Sig Sauer, and that the flowing blond hair sticking out under her Dick Cheney mask was a dead ringer for hers too. Jeff also thought it interesting that Cindy suddenly came up with the money to prevent foreclosure shortly after the robbery.

Jeff never mentioned his suspicions to anyone until after the third “Barbie Bandit” robbery; then he confronted Kate.

“Kate, have you heard about what they’re calling the ‘Barbie Bandit’ robberies?”

“Not much, why?”

“Have you noticed that she has the same type of gun and the same color hair as you do?”

“Maybe a long lost sister – what’s your point?”

“Well, I know how upset you’ve become about bank practices, and I hope you don’t have anything to do with them.”

“If I was going to do something about bank practices I’d be more likely to shoot bank managers.”

“Look, Kate, I know how sympathetic you are with other people about their problems, but you can’t save the world or be Robin Hood. If you have anything to do with these robberies turn yourself in.”

“Screw you asshole!” Kate barked clearly angry as she stormed away.

That was the first and last time she ever swore at Jeff. It was the last time because he hadn’t seen Kate again since then. She converted her brokerage account to cash, left work telling them she was taking an extended sabbatical and to fire her if they didn’t like it, and took a few suitcases of clothes and jewelry out of their house while Jeff was at work.

Despite his best efforts to contact her, Jeff came up blank. If friends and relatives knew anything about her whereabouts they weren’t saying.

The Barbie Bandit robberies continued, not just in the city where Jeff now lived alone, but in cities within a two hundred mile radius. After several months of the robberies one investigative reporter noticed a trend.

The reporter wrote a newspaper article pointing out that each robbery occurred at a bank which had recently threatened foreclosure for a family with children; the family had gone to a non-profit organization called, quite descriptively, “Family Mortgage Assistance;” and within days of the robbery the family was able to pay enough money to forestall the foreclosure. “Maybe she’s Barbie-Hood!” was the concluding sentence of the article

The article also pointed out that one bank was particularly hard hit – the bank Jeff worked for.

The article had a dramatic impact on Jeff. This was too much coincidence for him so he went to the police and laid out his suspicions. They were interested and got the media to publish a photo of Kate as someone the police wanted to talk to about something entirely different hopefully so as not to spook her. The day after the photo was published Jeff got a call from what turned out to be a burner cell.

“Hello, Jeff Fox.”

“You went to the police didn’t you?”

“Kate, is that you?”

“No, it’s Mother Teresa.”

“Kate, we can work this out. Turn yourself in and we’ll get a sweetheart deal. I’ll work hard to repay the money.”

“Why don’t you just have your bank steal it from unsuspecting families like it normally does?”

“Kate, I don’t know where you got this perverse idea that banks are bad.”

“That’s laughable. I didn’t have anything to do with the robberies, but you won’t be seeing me again. File for divorce and send the papers to my sister in London. I’ll get them from her and sign them!”

Then the call ended abruptly.

Of course Jeff reported the incident to police but by then police had interviewed all of Kate’s relatives (except her sister in London), friends and former co-workers and were wondering if Jeff wasn’t just trying to get the woman becoming his ex into trouble. Everyone they talked to said Kate was way too sweet and kind to rob banks and that her taking off may have had more to do with her relationship with Jeff.

The cops might have entirely written Kate off as a suspect except for three things. The first was that they had no leads from the published photo of where Kate was, and Jeff played a recording of the call from Kate showing that she was still alive. The second was that they couldn’t confirm Cindy’s story of where she got the money to pay off her bank. They could never locate her “rich uncle in Australia” to get corroboration, and found it unlikely that he would express thousands of dollars of cash to Cindy. The third was the investigative reporter’s article.

Regardless of whom the Barbie Bandit was the robberies continued and the police grew more desperate. Law enforcement authorities in three states and six cities got together and offered a reward of 1,000,000 for the capture of Kate Dawson, their prime suspect. Once Jeff heard that he knew that every bounty hunter in the country would be looking for her so he became proactive and contacted the bounty hunter with the best reputation for bringing fugitives in alive.

The bounty hunter he contacted went by the nickname “Paladin,” a heady nickname indeed since a paladin was an esteemed soldier selected by Charlemagne to defend and protect the innocent and uphold the law. His real name was Blake Break, but no one except his mother and sister called him that.

Paladin was young, big, strong, smart, aggressive, and relentless, and had a cherubic face and demeanor that were disarming; all qualities making him well suited for his line of work. While extremely successful in his four years since playing football in college he was never unnecessarily violent, never killed a fugitive, and in the criminal community the word was that if you have to be caught you better hope that it’s him rather than some of the other thugs masquerading as law enforcers.

Paladin had a well-known policy of not going after women; he had a soft side when it came to the fairer sex. He had never met the right type of woman in his life, and seemed to go from one relationship to the next where he was taken advantage of because it was hard for him to refuse women anything and was entirely too chivalrous in dealing with them. Jeff intended to use this to his advantage when he met with Paladin.

“Paladin, I’ve heard lots of good things about you, including that your success rate is over 90%.”

“94.5% to be exact.”

“Great. Listen, I’m sure you’ve heard of the ‘Barbie Bandit.’”

“You mean Barbie-Hood?”

“That’s what some people call her, but she is an armed robber. Anyway I strongly suspect that she’s my wife, Kate, whom I’m sure you are aware there is a 1 million reward for. While she seems to despise me now for reasons I don’t understand, I don’t want to see her hurt. Now that the reward for her is a million bucks I’m afraid some low-life will find her and harm her before turning her in.”

“Sorry, Jeff, I don’t hunt down women.”

“Look, I know that is your normal policy. However, in this case, you’d be saving her from a worse fate by bringing her in your normal gentle manner. You’d be acting like your nickname.”

“Say what?”

“Certainly you know that the paladins invented chivalry before knights came on the scene; and you would be chivalrous by brining my wife Kate in. Here’s a photo of her.”

After a long pause, including staring at the photo of the beautiful blond with a slinky body and beguiling smile, placing his hand on top of his head Paladin replied “I’ve never looked at it like that.”

“As a bonus, I’ll give you another 100,000 when you bring her in.”

After another long pause staring at the photo some more Paladin smiled, stood up, held out his right hand and said “You’ve got a deal. Have your attorney draft a contract by tomorrow indicating that the 100,000 will be paid by cashier’s check the day she’s turned over to the police.”

“Will do,” Jeff replied, returning Paladin’s smile and shaking his hand.

Paladin, using some computer whizzes at the local technology college that he often employed, found out more about Kate in one day than the police had in their investigation and that Jeff had told him. Especially interesting were her volunteer activities in college and the article in the newspaper that coined the term “Barbie Hood,” and an interview with the author of the article.

With expertly forged documents Paladin, with a “rented” wife and kids, went to the Family Mortgage Assistance branch in a city about 200 miles away from the city where the reward would be paid and where a number of robberies had taken place recently. Paladin told a tale of woe. The bank which held his fake mortgage was a single branch local one (Presidential Community Bank) that had never been hit by Barbie-Hood before, and which was actually one of the more honest establishments though from the fake documents that Paladin had with him they looked like the worst scoundrels of all. The counselor was very sympathetic and encouraging.

“Mr. Jones I’m so sorry for you and your darling family. We have what we call an ‘angel’ that can often help in cases like this. However I know she won’t help unless you agree to keep secret the source of your funds to pay off the bank.”

“Honey, can you take the kids and bring them to the lobby?” Paladin sweetly asked his fake wife. Once she was gone he put his hand on the counselor’s and said “Ms. Phillips, I assure you that I can and will keep any secret there is if I can save my family.”

“Great. If we are able to help we will give you a check from someone out-of-town that you will have to swear you know from your past. We’ll provide you with complete information about your background with him or her. You will have to stick to that scenario no matter what, but we’ll provide you with legal assistance if necessary.”

“Thank you so much Ms. Phillips. I won’t tell even my wife about this. When can I hear from you?”

“If it works out, within a few days.”

Starting the next day Paladin staked out Presidential Community Bank. Nothing happened for two days – two boring days. Early morning of the third day, however, he saw a pedestrian with flowing blond hair creep up behind a tree in the parking lot. Parked about thirty feet behind her was a motorcycle that Paladin had not seen pull up but suspected was hers. Through his binoculars the pedestrian sure looked like Kate. When no one was nearby she reached one latex-gloved hand into a bag, pulled out a Dick Cheney mask, put her other latex-gloved hand in her jeans pocket and walked into the bank.

Paladin acted quickly. He drove to a location near the motorcycle, hid behind a tree between the motorcycle and bank, and waited. It wasn’t long before he saw a jeans-clad bubble butt bouncing toward the cycle with two bags in one hand and a mask in the other. Before she could start up the cycle Paladin was upon her.

As gently as possible Paladin put his left arm around the startled Kate and lifted her off the cycle just as she was putting her helmet on, and with his right hand reached into her jeans pocket and removed her gun and tossed it to the side. While Kate struggled it was to no avail since Paladin was ten inches taller and a hundred pounds heavier than she was.

“I’m not going to hurt you in any way; I’m just taking you in,” was all Paladin said in a gentle voice. Though struggling in a futile attempt to escape Kate didn’t scream, yell, or say anything at all as her hands were cuffed behind her back, she was placed in the passenger’s seat of Paladin’s car, and her feet were shackled to a floor bar apparently specifically for that purpose. He threw her gun, mask, and second bag onto the floor of the back seat.

“I’ll be right back, don’t go away,” Paladin said as he took the bag with “Presidential Community Bank” stenciled on it, and returned it to the shocked bank manager saying “I found this on the sidewalk outside – it must be yours.”

“Thanks,” was all the manager could say before Paladin turned and started walking toward the door. Regaining some composure he then called out “Wait, Mister, did you see who dropped this bag?”

“No, all I know is that I found it lying on the sidewalk so I brought it in. Do you want me to take it back?”

“No, no I’m grateful, but could you wait for the police and tell them your story.”

“I’ve got nothing to tell except what I told you, and I’m already late for an appointment,” Paladin replied as he hustled out the door.

When Paladin returned to his car he finally got a good up-close look at Kate. While she had looked beautiful in the photo and through the binoculars those did not provide any indication of how enchanting Barbie-Hood really was! His jaw must have dropped when he got his first real good live look at Kate. He was jolted back to awareness when she sneered “What are you looking at?”

“Uh, sorry,” Paladin replied, sure he was turning pink if not crimson. “I was just wondering why you turned to bank robbery.”

“Who the hell are you, and what do you care?”

“I’m a bounty hunter. I don’t know why I care – maybe I’d like to believe that it was for a good cause, that you really are Barbie-Hood.”

“Would it make a difference in what you’re going to do, bounty hunter?”

“Probably not; I need to get paid. It might make a difference in timing, however. If you have a good story I might let you get your affairs settled before turning you in.”

Paladin was not quite sure why he said that; he had delayed bringing in the “bad guy” only once before. Maybe he was just curious; maybe he would cut her a little slack; maybe he just wanted to be around her for a while.

Kate felt that she had nothing to lose at the present time considering her predicament; and maybe this was a guy she could manipulate. So she told him the whole story.

“When I married Jeff I didn’t know exactly what business he was in. I knew he was a banker, but not that his main job was duping people into mortgages they couldn’t afford and then swooping down on them when they got in arrears and sometimes even tricking or manipulating them into getting into arrears.”

This was something Paladin didn’t expect to hear; but he was all ears now.

“He is also a controlling S.O.B., not the easy-going tolerant guy I thought I was marrying. I started to dislike him even before I found out what his true business was.”

“So how did that lead to bank robberies?”

“My best friend Cindy, someone I’ve known since grade school, was one of the people his bank worked over. I’m not sure he was personally involved but he sure didn’t raise a finger to stop it. He kept tight control over our money – including what I made – so I didn’t have the means to help her, but I wasn’t going to let her go down.”

“Wasn’t there another way?”

“I wrote to a bunch of regulators, went to personally see several lawyers, a State regulator, and a Federal regulator, but no one was interested in helping, although I did get asked out on two dates despite the fact that I was still wearing my wedding ring then.

I had grown up in tough circumstances and thought I had the street smarts to pull robberies off as an alternative to action by the Government.”

“Yeah, but when you go into a bank with a gun, it could go off, you could be startled by someone, you could end up shooting an innocent person even if you didn’t intend to.”

“Check my gun – by the way what’s your name?”

“Blake!” Why he answered her with his real name he didn’t really know.

“Well, Blake, check my gun.”

Paladin reached into the back seat, got her gun, and checked the clip and chamber. “Empty,” he exclaimed. “I guess you can’t shoot someone without bullets, can you?”

“Exactly!”

“So what did you do with the money?”

“I gave the money from whatever bank I stole from to a family that was being screwed over by that bank, keeping only enough – usually 10% -- for expenses.”

“How did you identify recipients of your largess?”

“I won’t go into that.”

“I’m sure that the Family Mortgage Assistance people were helping you, using a ruse with them is how I set you up.”

Now it was Kate’s turn to blush, and get flustered. “That’s not true. You can’t tell anyone that. You’ll get good – no not good, saintly – people in trouble.”

“Settle down. I’m just after the reward, I have no interest whatsoever in getting anyone else in trouble, and I don’t reveal my methods to anyone so you’re the only person who will ever know I caught you through them.”

“Thanks,” Kate genuinely replied. “Look, there are some things I need to do including getting the motorcycle back to the person I borrowed it from. Can’t you wait until tomorrow to turn me in?”

Paladin replied “I don’t know…” although when he saw that she looked even more beautiful with her face flushed, and again perused her spectacular body, he knew he was going to go along with it. When she uttered a syrupy sweet “Please; I promise not to try and get away,” he consented.

“Okay. Let me get an ankle bracelet out of my trunk,” Paladin said exiting his vehicle. He returned to the passenger’s side lifted up Kate’s right pants leg exposing her sleek calf, and put an anklet on it. “This has a tracking device in it. It also has an alarm and an explosive dye pack. If you remove it without a key – something that is very, very difficult to do – the alarm sounds and the dye pack explodes. Got it?” [What Paladin didn’t tell her was that the dye had tiny emitters in it that would also allow tracking.]

“Got it. Can you take off my cuffs?”

“Sure,” Paladin replied undoing her shackles and cuffs. “Now what do we do with your cycle?”

Paladin and Kate spent the rest of the day returning the cycle, running errands, and closing up Kate’s affairs including making arrangements for her furniture and clothing from her modest apartment, located only a few miles from her last bank robbery, to be put into long term storage. They were exceedingly polite to each other, never brought up the elephant-in-the-room subject of her upcoming incarceration, and had a pleasant lunch and dinner together and even some laughs.

Kate’s first impression of “Blake” was neither positive nor negative – despite him putting her in cuffs. She was impressed with his strength, however, since though she struggled to get away when initially apprehended she could barely move when he had just one arm around her, let alone have a legitimate opportunity to escape. However as the day wore on she started getting a very positive impression of him. He was glib, smart, and exceptionally respectful not only of her, but what he said about women in general. Plus, he was cute.

She also got the vibe that he liked her. “Maybe I could work my feminine wiles on him and escape?” she thought more than once.

Paladin’s initial impression of Kate only intensified. While he didn’t approve of her actions he had to admit that her heart was in the right place and he was particularly impressed that her gun wasn’t loaded. After being exposed to her for an entire day he was certain that she was the sexiest and most enthralling woman he had ever encountered. Given his past experiences he kept repeating to himself, almost like a mantra, “Don’t let her manipulate you, don’t let her bewitch you.”

If it were a date both would have considered the dinner they had together a resounding success. The only things indicating it wasn’t a date were Paladin standing outside the women’s washroom while Kate was in there, and him surreptitiously handcuffing her to a water pipe outside the men’s room while he was in there.

After a mile stroll in the night air to digest their food Paladin hesitantly said. “Listen Kate, obviously we can’t drive back to your home city tonight. Do you want to get a hotel with two beds or stay in your apartment?”

“There’s no reason to pay for a hotel – even though you’ll soon be a wealthy man. My apartment will do.”

“But you only have one bed and no couch.”

“Yeah, but it’s a California King, and I promise not to attack you,” Kate shot back with a smile wicked enough to make Paladin blush and start getting hard at the same time.

When they got to her apartment Kate took off her jeans and sat down on the mattress only in her panties and top. “Hey Blake, you need to take my ankle bracelet off for me to shower.”

“Ah, well, OK,” Blake stammered trying hard not to look up at Kate’s very prominent camel toe as he shakily removed the anklet. That was just the start of Kate’s planned seduction to maximize her chances of escape. After she showered she returned to the bedroom with only a towel wrapped around her and started doing her toenails in a provocative manner.

Blake tried to ignore Kate, and his rising manhood, as he stammered “Uh, listen, while I’m showering I have to chain you up to the bed frame and heating pipes.”

“Okay,” Kate replied with a half pout as she held out her hands, the nail polish and applicator still in them.

Blake nervously shackled her to the bed frame and a heating pipe saying “I think there’s enough play in the shackles for you to do your nails.”

“Thanks, that’s sweet,” Kate replied stroking her hand over his as he finished shackling her.

In the shower Blake did his best to suppress a now raging hard-on as he repeated to himself at least fifty times “Don’t fall for her, she’s just trying to manipulate you, she doesn’t have any interest in you aside from that.” Even fifty times didn’t entirely convince him, however.

When he returned to the bedroom with just a tank top and running shorts on he was met by a laughing Kate “How do you like my nails – will my cellmate be impressed?” as she held up her foot, providing a great look at her creamy thighs. Blake could only come up with a guttural response.

“Do I have to be shackled all night?” Kate purred.

“Sorry, but your ankle has to be shackled to mine. I left our guns in the trunk so you can’t get them, but I can’t take the chance that you get the key in the middle of the night and escape.”

“That’s OK,” Kate said as she held out her hand to be unshackled.

After Blake unshackled her hand and removed the shackle from the heating pipe to place it around his ankle Kate dropped her towel and started to get between the sheets. A totally flustered Blake stuttered “What you, are, what doing, uh what’s going on?”

“I sleep naked and since this will likely be the last night I can for several years, I’m going to.”

“No, no you can’t,” a now frantic Blake yelled as he tented his shorts. “Here put something on” he continued as he threw some arbitrary articles of clothing at Kate. As Kate leisurely picked through what was thrown at her she knew she had done what she intended. Blake’s cock was almost puncturing his shorts, and his eyes were wide and transfixed on her until with obviously great effort he looked away as she pulled on some panties and a halter top.

Blake had never seen a better looking crotch in his life, and combined with those perky tits, sleek thighs and waist, and beautiful face, it took every ounce of willpower he had to keep his composure. He scrambled into bed as far away from Kate as he could get, faced away from her, and turned out the light as he heard her say “Sweet dreams, and thanks for treating me so nicely instead of like a piece of meat.”

“Gudnite,” was all he could mumble in response.

Blake lay awake for the longest time trying to suppress his boner and get his mind off of Kate. He was emotionally spent but didn’t fall asleep until he heard a soft snore coming from Kate. He dreamt he was fucking Kate’s brains out after eating her delicious cunt, followed by a dream of her sucking his cock. For good or bad the second wasn’t a dream. Blake awoke in the middle of the night to see his shorts pulled down below his balls and Kate furiously sucking his cock while fondling his balls.

His mind kept saying “I’ve got to stop her, I can’t succumb,” but his cock had more blood in it than his brain and was clearly in control. Any last possibility of stopping what was going on vanished when she stopped sucking and impaled her soaking wet pussy on his upright dick.

Kate rode him like a prized bull while pulling his chest hairs and swearing up a storm. Blake bucked his pelvis upwardly with each of Kate’s downward bounces while groping her splendid nipples with his outstretched hands. Their mutual orgasms were monumental and completely draining as Kate collapsed onto him whimpering, and he could do nothing but groan.

It couldn’t have been more than two hours later when Blake awoke again in response to Kate’s activities, this time fondling his balls. No longer conflicted he rolled her onto her back, licked her pussy a few minutes, and then proceeded to fuck the shit out of her, depositing a second monster load of cum into her tight slit.

They both arose the next morning with possum grins. When Blake emerged from the bathroom Kate gave him a come-hither look and motion with her index figure.

“Hey, I’m not a sex machine,” he protested with a smile. “I’m not good for three times within twelve hours.”

“You will be with me,” Kate matter-of-factly responded, pulling off the covers and exposing her pussy, with cum still leaking out of it.

“What have I got to lose?” Blake asked himself as he walked near the bed and Kate immediately vacuumed one of his testicles into her mouth while massaging the other one with both hands. After five minutes of Kate’s excellent work Blake felt he was reloaded. Sensing it Kate got on her hands and knees and said “Do me doggy.” When Blake dragged his hand over her cunt and found it soaking wet he buried his rod completely in one plunge. “My God she has a phenomenal pussy” ran through his mind as he leaned over, grabbed her tits, and started banging away. Kate orgasmed twice before Blake jettisoned another cum grenade into her, getting an anxiously anticipated scream from Kate as he grunted in pleasure.

As Kate and Blake lay pillow talking Blake didn’t care whether she was trying to manipulate him or not. It was the best sex of his life by a light year. He also was in no hurry to leave.

They finally got up and a naked Kate made him some bacon and eggs, the best breakfast he ever had in his life too – the view enhanced the taste for sure.

After he was done eating Kate came up behind him, put her arms around his neck and said “Do you have to bring me in today? What difference would it make if we went to a resort for a week? I won’t be getting cock for a long time so I need some more of your beautiful one now. Plus you’re going to be rich so you can afford a five star resort.”

“Uh, Kate, why do I get the feeling that you’re trying to play me hoping that I’ll eventually let you go.”

“You get that feeling because that is what I’m doing, genius. However that does not in any way diminish the fun. I gave you the time of your life last night but it wasn’t a chore because I absolutely loved the way you fucked me.”

“Either that or you’re the best actress in the world.” Blake had to admit to himself.

“So what’s wrong with us having a mutually gratifying fuck fest whether or not I have an ulterior motive?”

The thought of fucking Kate for another week was too good an idea to pass up so Kate and Blake finally got dressed, threw out the rest of the food in her refrigerator and pantry, and drove to a fancy resort about 100 miles away.

The resort – on a pristine mountain lake – was known for its gourmet food, health spa, tennis courts, and nightly live entertainment. Kate and Blake took advantage of it all. They went swimming and kayaking, had his-and-hers massages, worked out together, had great meals, and danced their fannies off to the beat of rotating hip bands.

It was not lost on Blake that he was with the hottest woman there. The adoring or lascivious looks she got from all the guys, and the envious looks from the women, whether Kate was in her bikini at the beach or in a sun dress gyrating on the dance floor, were blatant. Blake didn’t mind because he was the only one there fucking her – or getting fucked by her – two or three times every day.

Kate was such a tiger in bed (or in the health club locker room or the lake where Kate required Blake to fuck her once each), so adventurous, and so passionate there was no way she could be faking it. She sucked him dry and swallowed during one morning shower, he fucked her ass in the middle of one night, and she rode him every way possible, squeezing his cock with her powerful PC muscles as she bounced up and down on his dick. The week flew by way too quickly for both of them and when the appointed checkout day came Kate was crying on the outside and Blake on the inside.

As Blake sat morose on the mattress Kate cuddled up to him, sat on his lap, gave him a kiss that touched his soul, and said “Blake; despite the fact that I’ve been trying to manipulate you I want you to know that this was the best week of my life. You are a great guy, so much fun, and the fuck of a lifetime. Thank you for giving me this wonderful experience.”

Blake knew he had fallen in love. He didn’t just love Kate’s crotch, he loved everything about her. He lifted her off his lap, removed her ankle bracelet, and took all the cash out of his wallet and handed it to her. “After the best week of my life I can’t turn you in and I’ll do whatever I can to throw the cops off your trail. Good luck.”

A shocked Kate stood motionless with one hand on the cash but not yet taking it. Finally as an additional tear trickled down her cheek she gave Blake another unforgettable kiss, picked up her small suitcase and without another word but with a grateful look went out the door.

Blake sat down on the mattress again, his head in his hands, feeling worse than he could ever remember. After an hour or so he realized that he needed to check out so he got his stuff together. As he was emptying the last drawer the door opened. “They must really want me out,” he thought as he turned to tell the maid he would be leaving shortly.

It wasn’t the maid.

“What are you doing back here?” an astonished Blake blurted out.

“I came back for two reasons,” Kate replied with a coy smile on her face. “The first one is practical. Won’t one of your competitors eventually hunt me down, and can’t I expect them to be rough with me, not gentle like you?”

“I guess you’re right,” Blake replied as Kate walked up to him and put her hand on his chest. As she stared at him he asked “What’s the second reason?”

“Well; I want more time with you. Can’t we figure out a way for me to get out of this mess, and for us to be together?”

“I love you!” Blake exclaimed without thinking.

A smiling Kate said “I know that – you talk in your sleep. Maybe I love you too. I’d like a chance to figure it out.”

They spent the next two days at Kate’s apartment, with no cuffs, shackles or anklets, and interrupting their fucks long enough each day to develop a plan. One of the top defense attorneys in the country, Jack Delaney, owed Paladin a favor and he enlisted his help. Also, one of Paladin’s best buddies was a cop in the robbery division who he contacted to find out everything the police knew, and Paladin set his computer whizzes to work gathering more information.

With a good draft plan they met with Delaney the next day, and the day after Paladin accompanied Kate to her home city police station. “She contacted me and gave herself up and asked me to bring her here,” was Paladin’s statement when she was booked. Paladin collected his 1million reward and the additional 100,000 payment from Jeff Dawson within a week, and in the same time frame Delaney got Kate out on bail.

With Paladin’s favorable testimony, the lack of forensic evidence, a copycat robbing another bank before Kate got out on bail, the communications Kate had with authorities trying to get them to do something about the endemic bank fraud, and with Kate’s divorce petition providing a perfectly reasonable explanation for her disappearance and calling into question her husband’s veracity, within another two months Delaney got the charges against Kate dismissed with prejudice, and got her a book deal to boot.

Blake surprised Kate by booking a private plane for them to fly Vegas to get married. It didn’t surprise her that he insisted on joining the mile high club on the way.

Thanks to the Lush Goddess KissLoveKatie for providing the inspiration for this story!