Tina's Second Case
By Anonymous
Officer Tina teaches the crooks and the FBI a lesson.

 The mood in the squad room was grim. Lt. Bob Shannon was standing in 
front of the assembled detectives giving them the lowdown on their 
next case. It was a nasty one. 

"Jennifer Sabo has been kidnapped. You all know who her father is. 
John Sabo is one of the wealthiest men in the country. The initial 
contact from the kidnappers was a demand for two million dollars 
payable in 72 hours. Mr. Sabo has agreed to put up the money. 

"Our job will probably be to stake out the drop area well in advance 
to try to pick up the trail when they pick up the money. We will be in 
a support role in this case, folks. You all know that kidnapping is a 
federal offense. The FBI has a team flying in this afternoon. Special 
Agent Don Lammons is in charge. He has had a lot of experience in 
these cases. I would expect everyone to give Agent Lammons and his 
team full cooperation. When he arrives later today he will interview 
each of you to go over whatever information you have been able to turn 
up, and to determine what your role will be in the investigation. 

"Jennifer was taken as she was leaving school. the chauffeur was 
pistol-whipped so these people are not fooling around. You have lists 
of school personnel and anyone else who may have some information in 
this case, so let's get going. We will meet back here in two hours. 
Agent Lammons should be here by then." 

The detectives filed and got in their cars to start contacting the 
potential witnesses. One of the officers was Tina Shepherd. Tina had 
broken in with a bang a few months ago when she had captured the 
serial rapist who had been brutally assaulting and raping young 
professional women. Tina had inflicted a terrible beating on the man 
before other officers arrived on the scene. He had to be hospitalized 
for several weeks as a result of Tina's actions. That gained her the 
respect of the other officers but a severe warning from her superiors. 

One look at Tina told why she had been selected for that assignment. 
She stood five feet eight inches tall and weight a muscular 157 
pounds. In college she had majored in criminology and had been a star 
on the softball team. She worked out religiously, and now sported 
sixteen and one half inch biceps and twenty-five inch thighs. She had 
more than held her own in physical competition with male officers even 
in the boxing program at the police academy. Along with all of this 
she had shining black hair, clear gray eyes and model good looks. Just 
no model ever had a body like that. 

Tina got in her car with her partner, Tim Edwards, then drove to 
interview the school personnel to whom they had been assigned. The two 
teachers they interviewed could add nothing since they had not seen 
anything at all. Tina noticed that one of them however, seemed far to 
intent on disclaiming any knowledge of what happened. Tina looked down 
at her pad. Riley Sampson, teacher, twenty six years old. Annual 
salary twenty-eight thousand dollars per year. New at the school this 
year. Tina made a note to check his background more closely. She and 
Tim finished the interviews and drove back to the station house. When 
they arrived, Agent Lammons was already conducting his individual 
meetings with the officers. Eventually it was Tina's turn.

"Please have a seat, Detective Shepherd. My name is Don Lammons. I am 
the Special Agent who will be in charge of this investigation. Now 
tell me what you have found out." Lammons was about five-eleven, and 
at one time had been in really good shape. He was sporting a small pot 
belly now, a result of too much travel, food, booze, and not enough 
exercise. He seemed to project an air of arrogance and authority. 

Tina told him of her suspicions about Riley Sampson. Lammons did not 
agree. "You are trying to tell me from one ten minute interview that 
you think this teacher is involved. That is really a big leap isn't it 
Miss Shepherd. I guess it's woman's intuition or something like that 
which enables you to see things that the rest of don't. I'm afraid we 
can't use you on this case."  

Tina was stunned. "I don't understand. I am just as qualified as 
anyone here to work on this case."  

"Well it has been my experience that women do not have either the 
emotional makeup or the physical ability to handle a case like this, 
so you can go back to your other duties," Lammons said. 

Tina was furious. "I can do anything that any male officer can do. I 
was second in my class at the police academy and I did much better on 
the physical tests than most of the male candidates. I even did better 
in the boxing tournament than most of the men." 

"I find that very hard to believe, little girl. I have made my 
decision so let's not waste any more time discussing this." Lammons 
was adamant. "People like you are what is wrong with law enforcement. 
All women are not qualified but even when they are it is bozo's like 
you who hold us back." Tina's temper was getting out of hand as he 
continued, "You are lucky you are a woman. If a man talked to me like 
that I would take him outside and thrash him." Lammons' temper was 
heating up as well. 

"Let's go. I'll take you on. I would love to do that," Tina shouted. 

"I couldn't do that even if I wanted to. It would really look great, 
the Agent in charge in the gym fighting with a woman," Lammons 
replied. 

"If you are not afraid, I know a place where we can go and it will 
just be the two of us. What have you got to lose? No one will be 
watching and if you are right, you will knock me around a little, I'll 
probably cry, and it will be over. Here's the deal. If you win I will 
not be involved in this case at all and I won't complain. If I win you 
make me a part of the investigative team," Tina goaded him. 

"You're a real smart-ass, aren't you. O.K. I'll meet you tonight and 
we will settle this, just tell me where this place is." 

Tina wrote an address on a sheet of paper from her note pad and handed 
it to him. "Be there at ten o'clock. Knock on the door when you get 
there, I'll be waiting. Do you want me to bring gloves?" Tina asked. 

"I don't care. Make it ladies choice," Lammons said. 

"I prefer not to use them." Tina responded. "I thought you might feel 
safer with gloves to protect your face. If you want them we will use 
them." 

"Without gloves is fine, but you are the one who should worry. Now get 
out of here and let me get some work done, girlie." 

Tina almost responded to his last remark, but thought to herself, "You 
will get my answer tonight."  She spent the rest of the day doing 
clerical tasks, answering phones, taking notes. "This is why I became 
a police officer," she grumbled, "so I could be a glorified 
secretary." 

At eight o'clock she clocked out. She went home to get ready for her 
confrontation with Don Lammons. She dressed in a pair of spandex 
shorts that stuck to her big thighs like glue. She put on a 
sleeveless, cutoff tee shirt. and a pair of sneakers. She wanted to 
get to the location early so she pulled on a light sweater and left. 
The address Tina had given Lammons was in a warehouse district. Her 
uncle owned an auto parts business and this was his warehouse. Tina 
knew they would not be disturbed. There was an open space in the 
center of the building that was about twenty feet by thirty feet. It 
was surrounded by crates and cases of supplies. 

"This is perfect," she thought. 

Tina went through a long series of stretching exercises to get ready. 
She then sat down in the office and waited for Lammons' arrival. She 
held up her fists and looked at them. They looked like dangerous 
weapons. They were bigger than would be expected on a woman her size, 
and as Don was about to find out, much harder. She thought about the 
damage they had inflicted on the rapist she had captured in her first 
case. 

"He is in for a surprise if he thinks he can come in here, and slap me 
around for a couple of minutes and it will be over," she thought. "He 
will know he is in for a long night the first time he gets hit with 
one of these ." 

A few minutes after ten, there was a knock on the door. Tina opened it 
and admitted Lammons. He was wearing a pair of sweat pants and 
sweatshirt. His belly bulged out slightly under the sweatshirt. 

"You can still change your mind and back out, if you want to," he said 
to Tina. "You don't have to get hurt trying to prove a point. 

"I'm not the one who is going to get hurt," Tina told him. "You can 
have your choice. Wrestling, boxing, or anything goes." 

" You are really serious about this aren't you. Well, since you were 
bragging about your boxing skill earlier and I have done a bit of 
boxing myself that would be my choice," Lammons said. 

Tina looked at him. "I brought the gloves just in case you changed 
your mind and want to use them." 

"If you want them we will," he answered. "Then I guess it's no 
gloves," Tina said and tossed them in on top of a crate. She led him 
to the open area she had found earlier. "No rounds, no time limit. We 
go 'til one of quits or is knocked out. Is that alright with you." 
Tina wanted it like this because she felt that her superior stamina 
would help with no rest period." 

"Anything you say. Are we going to fight or talk all night?" was Don's 
reply. He was definitely getting edgy. 

"Any time you're ready," Tina said and walked slowly to the middle of 
the cleared area. Lammons followed her. They started cautiously 
circling each other and raised their fists in a boxer's stance. Don 
took a good look at Tina for the first time. He got no further than 
her face. "She is absolutely gorgeous," he thought. "Too bad she is 
one of these feminist bitches and I am going to have to rough her up." 

Don flicked out his left. Tina dodged it. This was repeated several 
times. She made no effort to retaliate and just moved around, making 
him miss. He then faked the left and as she moved to avoid it, he 
stepped in and drove his right blasting to her belly. He thought that 
would either put her down or disable her so he could finish her off at 
his leisure. Tina tensed her abs just before the punch landed. 

Instead of sinking in like Don thought it would, his fist seemed to 
bounce off her belly. Tina immediately sent a left hook sailing over 
his right arm which was still in its follow-through from the belly 
punch to smash into his right eye. His head spun to his left from the 
impact. Before he could recover her hard left fist banged into his eye 
again. He stumbled away to escape the punishment. 

His eye was already beginning to swell. He couldn't believe she could 
be so quick or hit so hard. He tried a right which caught her walking 
in, and Tina staggered back a couple of steps. Don tried a following 
left, but Tina ducked down and his fist went over her head. With his 
arm extended over her head from the punch, she fired her right to his 
gut. Don's stomach was nowhere as hard as Tina's. Her fist sank up to 
the wrist in his slight potbelly. A left to his jaw and he went down. 

Tina backed away to allow him to regain his footing. As Don stood up 
Tina moved in. Once again she was a bit overconfident because she 
walked in to a smashing right to her jaw. This time it was Tina who 
was on the seat of her shorts looking up. "That is the last time I 
make that mistake. He can take more than I thought," she admonished 
herself. 

Once again they circled, both having been wounded. Don's eye was 
rapidly swelling shut, and Tina had a trickle of blood running out the 
corner of her mouth. Don faked a right cross and tried to bring in a 
left hook. This time Tina blocked it with her right arm. Her left fist 
buried itself deep in Don's belly. Before he could react her big right 
fist blasted his nose. She felt a crunch, and blood spurted. 

That had hurt, Don was incapacitated for a second and that was all 
Tina needed. One more left to his belly, which caused him to start to 
fall, and a powerful right crashed on his jaw. Down he went, again. He 
was not out, but he was certainly not going to get up anytime soon. 
Tina reached down with both hands and lifted him to his feet. 

"I think this is about over, don't you?" she leaned in close so Don 
could hear her. "You can explain the eye and the nose anyway you want 
to tomorrow. I will not say anything about our little encounter, it 
will be our little secret. In fact tomorrow night you should take me 
out to dinner just for appearances, so everybody will think we are 
getting along." As Tina finished Lammons nodded his head. "Now it is 
time to finish this, goodnight." 

As those words registered, He thought, "Goodnight? Oh Shi-"  because 
he knew what was coming. Before he could complete the thought Tina 
swung a powerful left hook and her mallet of a left fist exploded on 
his jaw and everything went black. Tina looked down at the FBI man. 
His eye was now completely closed, and his nose was swelling to a 
point it looked like it covered half his face. She felt his nose, 
"Don't think it's broken, but he will have trouble breathing through 
it for a couple of days. I hope he's learned about making snap 
judgements."  Tina then lifted the man in her strong arms and carried 
him outside. She called a taxi and gave the driver the address of 
Lammons' hotel.

As she placed the unconscious man in the back seat, she showed her 
badge to the driver and said, "Don't ask any questions, just get him 
to his hotel. She gave the cabbie twenty dollars and sent him on his 
way. 

In a few minutes Lammons started to stir. "Where are we?" he asked the 
driver. "Almost to your hotel, sir," the cabbie said. "The lady who 
put you in the back has already paid the fare. How are you feeling?" 

"I'm fine, I just need some sleep," he answered. He managed to get to 
his room. He looked in the bathroom mirror. The eye was closed and the 
swollen flesh surrounding it was black and purple. His nose was puffed 
up to twice its normal size. "I really look great, I have to come up 
with some explanation." He winced as he started to remove his shirt. 
He looked down and saw two bruises about the size of Tina's fist. 
"Well, I guess she's part of the team. What an amazing woman!" He 
showered, took two aspirin and went to bed. 

The next morning when he arrived at the police station. everyone 
stared at his face. His story was he got up in the middle of the 
night, forgot the layout of the room tripped over a chair and fell 
face first into a table. Tina arrived a few minutes later. 

"Agent Lammons!! what in the world happened!?" she asked. "You should 
see the other guy," one of the officers called out. 

Just the hint of  a smile played at the corner of Tina's mouth. "I 
sure would like to," she said. "I have already told almost everybody. 
The short version is that I tripped over a chair and fell into a table 
with my face," Lammons said, "but that's enough about me, let's get to 
work. I have decided to add Detective Tina Shepherd to the team. She 
will work as liaison between the local officers and the FBI team." The 
rest of the day was spent in interviewing other potential witnesses 
and planning their coverage of the money drop the next day.

*  *
  *
  *

Jennifer Sabo was tied to a chair in a cheap motel room on the 
outskirts of town. Harry and Robin Johnstone were husband and wife. 
They were also two of the three kidnappers. Riley Sampson, the 
teacher, was the third. Sampson had planned the snatch and Harry and 
Robin had carried it out. Harry was a large man at six-one about 240 
pounds. That is about forty-five pounds over his playing weight as a 
baseball player. He had made it to the high minors in the New York 
Mets organization before his inability to hit the curve ball had lead 
to his being released. He had been drowning his disappointment in beer 
ever since. Robin was tall and thin at five-nine and 125. She had 
married Harry when he was a bright young prospect, and had been with 
him since. Desperately wanting the big money that he missed out on as 
a baseball player, Harry and Robin were willing accomplices for Riley 
Sampson. 

Their plan seemed to be working to perfection. John Sabo had agreed to 
pay the ransom to get his daughter back. The pickup was scheduled for 
tomorrow at six o'clock. They would come back here and pick up Riley, 
then split the money and get out of town. They were still debating 
what to do with Jennifer. They were coming to the decision that she 
had to be eliminated because she could identify them, but that would 
be done after they had the cash. They headed for the Burger King on 
the corner to pick up something for dinner. Then they would just wait 
until the time for the money-pick-up. 

At the end of the day Don approached Tina. "Did you mean what you said 
last night about dinner?" he asked. "Of course I did. That will help 
cement your story. We should leave from here so we will be noticed 
leaving together." 

"I assume you have a restaurant in mind," Don said. "Do you like 
Italian?" Tina asked. "Yes," he replied. "Then let's go. I already 
made reservations."

Tina and Don arrived at the restaurant, were seated and placed their 
order. To Tina's surprise Don ordered a bottle of wine. As they sipped 
their wine Tina spoke about the fight for the first time. 

"I don't know why I knocked you out. The fight was over and it wasn't 
necessary. I have tried to figure it out all day, and I can't" 

"You were probably still pissed that I didn't want you on the case. In 
your situation I would have probably felt the same way," Don 
continued. "If my face didn't hurt so much I would thank you. You have 
made me see that there are female officers who are truly qualified and 
can certainly do this job. When the government first decided that we 
had to have a certain percentage of female officers we were given a 
time frame to do it. We were not allowed to force them to meet the 
qualifications like you did. In fact we had to lower the standards so 
enough could pass the physical part of the test to fill our quotas. 
Most of them turned out to be inferior officers. I developed my 
attitude then and I still had it until last night. You certainly made 
a believer out of me. I will admit it was hard to conceive that a 
young woman who was so beautiful could also be so strong. So maybe you 
and I can back up and start over." 

He smiled at her and held out his hand. "Hi, my name is Don Lammons." 
Tina reached out and took his hand and the rest of the evening seemed 
to fly by. They had to drive back to the station for Tina to get her 
car. "When this case is over, maybe we could go out on a real date, 
sometime," Don looked at Tina.

She reached up and gently touched the eye that she had blackened with 
her fist, and said, "I think I would like that. Let's give it a little 
time, get this case and last night behind us, and take it from there." 
She kissed him on the cheek and got in her car. "I must be crazy," Don 
thought. "This woman beats me up and I want to go out with her. She 
sure is fascinating, though".

All the officers of both the FBI and the local police were in position 
for the pickup. John Sabo drove to the designated location, got out of 
his car, left the briefcase with the money as instructed, and then he 
left.

Several minutes went by and nothing happened. About an hour later, a 
car slowly approached the briefcase. A woman got out of the car and 
grabbed it. The car then proceeded down the street and a chase ensued. 
Tina was listening on the radio. She heard, to the dismay of all, that 
the pursuit teams had lost the kidnappers. 

Playing a hunch she jumped in her car and raced to the school. Riley 
Sampson came out and got in his car. Tina followed him. He didn't 
appear to be going home, his car taking a meandering route through 
town. She carefully maintained her distance and eventually he pulled 
in at a motel. 

Tina drove past the motel and parked two blocks down the street. She 
crept up to the unit where Sampson's car was parked. She could hear 
three people, two men and a woman. 

She had found the kidnappers. 

Risking a peek in the window she could see Jennifer tied to the chair. 
She went back to her car and called in, explaining that she had found 
the kidnappers and Jennifer. Soon thereafter, help was on the way. She 
went back to the motel in time to hear Sampson say that he would be 
back in a few minutes. As he was going he added, "While I'm gone you 
take care of the kid. Keep your eyes open." At that point Tina knew 
that she could not wait for the reinforcements to arrive as Jennifer's 
life was in immediate danger. She had to take action now! She looked 
around and found a concrete block by the parking lot. Tina carried it 
to the big picture window in the front of the motel room.

The blinds were closed, so she was unobserved. She drew her pistol and 
picked up the concrete block. She heaved it through the window. The 
glass broke with a crash. Holding her pistol Tina dived through the 
broken window. Harry and Robin were watching television when they 
heard the crash and turned around. They saw this blur as Tina came 
sailing through the window. She rolled as she landed just as she had 
been taught. Tina came to her feet and leveled the pistol at the two 
kidnappers. 

"Police!" she shouted. "The motel is surrounded. Place your hands on 
your head and turn around." Harry and Robin complied. Tina saw 
Jennifer and went to untie her. As she did, Harry threw one of the 
suitcases that they had been packing at her. She managed to avoid the 
suitcase, but Harry dived at her as soon as he threw it. Tina was off 
balance and when Harry tackled her, he managed to shake the gun from 
her hand. Both of them scrambled for the pistol. 

Harry got there first, but before he could pick it up Tina dived at 
him. They rolled around on the floor wrestling for possession of the 
weapon. During the struggle the pistol slid under a bed. As they came 
to their feet, Harry lunged at Tina again. They fell over a bed. This 
time when they separated they were in the open area of the motel room. 
As Harry started for her again, Tina cocked her fist and drove a punch 
to his jaw. She still was off balance so she couldn't get much on the 
punch. 

Harry spoke for the first time, "If that's the best you got lady, 
you're in deep shit." While he was talking, Tina got her footing. As 
Harry advanced she ripped her right fist into his beer belly. Harry 
stopped like he had hit a wall. Tina followed that with a powerful 
left to the same place. Suddenly Harry felt like he wanted to vomit. 
That big beer belly made an inviting target. Tina drove a full 
strength blast with her big right fist deep into that fat stomach. 
Harry turned green, moaned and slumped to his knees. 

Robin, who had been watching, made a move for the gun which was under 
the bed. Tina grabbed her leg and pulled her away from the bed. Tina 
pulled her to her feet. "Stay out of this. Just sit on the bed and you 
won't get hurt," Tina told Robin.  

Tina looked back to Harry who was still trying to recover. She heard a 
noise behind her and spun around to see Robin raising a lamp and 
preparing to hit her with it. 

"You just couldn't listen, could you? I don't have any time to waste 
with you." Robin swung the lamp, but Tina reached out and caught it 
with her left hand. She yanked the lamp out of Robin's hand. A look of 
fear crossed Robin's face. Tina smashed her hard fist into the middle 
of Robin's face. Her nose broke with a loud pop. Tina caught Robin's 
right arm in her left hand. She blasted her right fist into Robin's 
jaw. There was a cracking sound as her jaw snapped. Tina was still 
holding Robin's right arm. She released it and let the unconscious 
woman drop to the floor. 

Harry was finally climbing back to his feet. He tried to run for the 
door, but Tina cut him off. She put his arm in a hammerlock and swung 
him back into the room. She ran him face first into the wall, then put 
her left hand on his shoulder and spun him around. Her fist sought his 
stomach like a heat seeking missile seeks and airplane. Harry probably 
thought it *was* a missile that exploded far inside his belly. Still 
holding his shoulder Tina drove that rock-like fist deep into his 
battered stomach yet again. 

Harry thought he was going to die. As he started to collapse Tina 
brought that hard right fist up from the floor in a powerful uppercut. 
Harry's head tilted far back, his legs could no longer support him and 
he fell at her feet. Tina reached down to pull him up again, but it 
was unnecessary, he was out cold. She let him drop. She dragged the 
bodies of the kidnappers over to a bed and handcuffed them together 
around the leg of the bed. 

She retrieved her pistol from under the bed, and returned to Jennifer. 
She removed the gag and spoke to the girl, "I am a police officer and 
I am here to take you back to your family. I'm going to leave the 
ropes tied for now, so when Sampson walks in he won't notice anything 
is changed. Just relax, everything will be fine."

Tina seated herself out of sight of the window and door and waited for 
Riley Sampson to appear. Less than ten minutes had passed when she 
heard a key in the lock and Riley Sampson entered the room. He was not 
a big man, only five-nine and 160 pounds. 

Tina's voice came from behind him, "Funny seeing you here Mr. Sampson. 
I thought you didn't know anything about the kidnapping. Please turn 
around slowly and put your hands on your head." 

Sampson turned around to see Tina with her pistol leveled at him. 
"Where are Harry and Robin?" he asked. 

"They must have been tired because they are both taking naps," Tina 
told him. "You are under arrest. For a teacher to be involved with 
something like this is truly despicable. You deserve to be punished 
severely." Tina stood up and moved to where Sampson was standing. She 
dropped her pistol to the floor. "Oops, I've accidentally dropped my 
weapon. Now I think you are trying to get away."

Sampson retreated in fear as she advanced on him. "See, you're running 
away." 

"No, I'm not!" he said. "I surrUnhhhhhhh!" Tina cut him off with a 
terrific blast to his stomach with her right fist. As he reacted to 
the vicious blow, she steadied him with her left hand. That big, 
brutal right next smashed right in to his nose. It split open like a 
ripe melon, blood splattered everywhere. Tina wasn't finished. She 
drove that same terrible fist straight into his mouth the sound of 
splintering teeth was music to her ears. Sampson was pleading for her 
to stop but the plea fell on deaf ears. Tina thought planning to kill 
ten year old girls deserved much more punishment. 

He fell to his knees, blubbering. Tina hooked her left fist to his 
eye. Twice more that hammering fist drove into that eye. The eye 
immediately started to swell shut. She hauled Sampson back to his 
feet. She really worked over his soft stomach. Five ripping punches 
sinking deep into his flabby gut, caused first the contents of his 
stomach to vomit out to the floor, then blood also came from deep down 
inside. Tina wanted to continue, but she heard the sound of sirens 
approaching. She looked at her propped up victim. His left eye would 
be completely closed in a few minutes, his nose was split wide open 
and he had two teeth hanging out of his mouth. She was still pumped 
up. She flexed her huge right bicep. A huge bowling ball of muscle 
leaped up. She cocked that sledgehammer that was her right fist back. 
Instead of hitting his jaw, she blasted it into his belly one last 
time. Her fist violated his soft stomach, it disappeared from sight it 
penetrated so far. Then she let his unfeeling body fall to the floor. 
She picked up her pistol and walked over to Jennifer. As she finished 
untying the girl, the first officers came through the door. Don 
Lammons was the third man to arrive. He looked around at the carnage 
that Tina had wreaked in disbelief. The officers were unlocking the 
handcuffs and hauling the still unconscious bodies of Harry and Robin 
out.

Then he saw Riley Sampson unmoving on the floor. He walked over and 
looked down at his ruined face and moved back to where Tina was 
standing. "After seeing these three, I guess you actually took it easy 
on me, didn't you,"  he said. 

"They were planning to kill the girl. I couldn't wait for you to get 
here, it would have been too late," Tina explained. "And all three 
resisted arrest," she said with a grin. 

Now all three kidnappers had been loaded into ambulances. Tina once 
again had ended a horrible ordeal by capturing the offenders. The 
briefcase with the money was returned to Mr. Sabo. His daughter was 
trying to tell him what had happened, but she was still in amazement 
trying to describe what Tina had done to the kidnappers. The room 
cleared and the kidnappers were on the way to the hospital and the 
officers on the way back to the station. 

Don approached Tina. "The case is over now. Could I call you sometime 
about that date?" He asked hopefully. "No, you can't" Tina answered. 
As the look of supreme disappointment showed on his face Tina 
continued, "Because if you don't have plans for tonight, you could 
start by buying me dinner again." She made a fist and touched it 
lightly to his good eye. "If you don't, I might just have to take you 
to the warehouse again," she said with a smile. 

Don reached up and took that fist in his hand. He kissed those 
knuckles that had battered his face and destroyed the kidnappers and 
said "You are the most amazing woman I have ever met. I may never get 
used to going out with a woman who could beat me to a pulp. I would 
never have thought I would meet a woman with your combination of 
beauty and power." Tina looked into his eyes and said, "You aren't too 
bad yourself, cowboy." Together they walked through the parking lot 
toward their cars.