by M. C. Cerny
“The money?” I asked hoping we could speed this shit up. Being unmedicated made me cranky and that made me violent and reckless.
“Very good.” He turned the suitcase with satellite reception my way.
“That’s perfect.” I gave him the eight numbers that would activate the account. We watched the computer screen and a loading icon swirled letting us know it was taking time. Several minutes later and the transfer was complete.
I slid the thumb drive across the table. He took it turning it over in his palm marveling at the size and power of technology. The silver case looked out of place in his tan hand, but now that the transfer was complete the next phase of my plan could begin.
“This little thing will give us the advantage when your General sends his troops my way. No more dead children for my men to bury.” His stoic expression morphed into one of anger and I knew that feeling well.
“I’m pleased you think so.”
He inserted the thumb drive into his computer and we watched the design program launch. Code filled the screen before the blue prints emerged showing the Sheik the exact plans to build his own weapons of destruction. The program included a computer guidance system for smaller missiles capable of heat seeking targets as well as proximity IEDs the Sheik could install at his borders securing his territory.
“These particular weapons are unique in that you won’t need to rely on Russian components for the computer system and they can be built completely in house. I’ll have the shipment of missiles delivered by the end of the week for you to configure with the software.”
“I will keep you updated on our progress.” He grinned clearly happy with our transaction. Another satisfied customer and another plan of the General’s I personally thwarted.
“Excellent.”
“Did you want to partake in some other entertainment while you’re here?” His sly comment wasn’t lost on me. The last time I was here, a full-on harem orgy delighted me. Had my health been better I would have had the stamina for such an evening, wife be damned. Now that Elizabeth was here with me, my plans changed considerably.
“I should probably collect to my wife before the you try to offer her a place in your harem, my friend.” We had a good chuckle over that and stood shaking hands and then embracing in the way of his people.
“I should like to keep her, but alas it is not meant to be. If she ever has troubles and you are gone my friend, send her to me.” Sheik Ram led me to the entrance of the harem where we waited for the ladies to emerge under guard. “I hope you will also avail yourself of all the amenities on the return flight.” He clapped my back leaving me at the door.
Apparently, the wives enjoyed a bath and when Elizabeth slipped through the doors a calm expression filled her. “You look relaxed.”
She shuffled barefoot into my arms. An uncommon occurrence for her to seek me out, but I held her steady keeping the appearance of a loving relationship. I wasn’t under such guises that she held me in great affection. I owned her life, her soul, and her pert little ass for the time being until I could hand her off to my successor.
“Are we going home now?” Her eyes glazed over.
I leaned in tweaking her button nose. “I think you’re drunk darling.” I kissed her cheek and leaned back watching her eyes bug open and shock take over.
“Pomegranate nectar. I thought they didn’t drink here.”
“It’s fermented you little fool.” I dragged her down the hall trailing after me. Her feet slapped the floor and I tossed her beaded purse into her stomach to hold. My own body was failing me with each step and I forced the anger to take over and sustain me.
The trip to the plane was silent and boarding much easier than before. I watched Elizabeth enter the bedroom of the plane and flop face first into the bedding passed out cold. I’d deal with her later, right now I needed to get this tie off and swallow a handful of pills. I practically lived off vitamins and drugs.
“Mr. Huntley, can I get you a drink?” I turned at the sound of the stewardess in her tight navy suit holding out a glass that probably had decent scotch in it. I glanced back to the bedroom, the door cracked open and Elizabeth’s shoe dangled off her foot as she lay there immobile, snoring softly.
“I think you can do better than a drink my dear.” I leaned back in the seat reclining it back and watched the exotic woman sink to her knees in heels crawling forward.
“It would be an honor to serve such a good friend of my Sheik Ram.”
Smirking, I realized this must have been the amenities he mentioned earlier. I felt my dress slacks loosen and relaxed as full lips descended on my dick coaxing a response from it. She wasn’t as good as my wife, but considering she was indisposed, I supposed this would have to do.
18
Elizabeth
Sinking down on the leather sectional in the den, cameras flashed back on the television. News reporters haggled military staff waiting on tender hooks for the next bit of exclusive news from General Donovan Perry. We’d been home three weeks with no word from Agent Jackson. I’d gone to the library several times in a row, any more trips and I would have tipped Adam off.
The screen showed an empty podium waiting for someone to step forward and inform the world what was happening. Fiona’s Apple watch had been blowing up with notifications, but I didn’t know what was happening. A terrorist attack? A helicopter crash? Anything? Something? The blank space was more nerve wracking than the faces of men deliberating bad news while we channel surfed.
My hands flashed hot and cold while my throat remained parched. My fingers itched rolling the platinum chain around my neck back and forth, the charm part of the chain snagged a curl and a moment’s frustration to untangle it between my fingers. My head continued spinning and the only sensation grounding me was the cutting pain of my diamond ring digging into my palm as I twisted it over and over on my finger. I’d have happily given it up to have my brother home safe and sound.
Eddie served in Afghanistan with an elite group of Marines from the time he enlisted and completed his special training. He was a petty officer for SEAL Team Infinity, the only detail we were permitted to know and even that much was classified. Fi and I hadn’t heard from him in weeks even with the delay. Sometimes we received two or three letters at once and other times nothing for weeks until he could get his turn on a secure satellite phone. He never told us details. He couldn’t. I was worried, and I had every reason to worry. Eddie was only safe while he was a Marine far away from me and my complicated relationship with the devil.
Since I had a lot of free time on my social calendar, Adam had begun taking me to his business meetings. I sat in and watched him work while he taught me what he did all day, at least the front-end parts of the businesses that were legitimate. The ice cream store chain, Blizzards was probably a front for money laundering, but ended up being a popular place. He employed plenty of pretty perky teenage girls and hipster boys after school and during the summer. He gave me no reason to be a jealous wife, though it wouldn’t have surprised me if my husband preferred cock when given the choice. Turns out, I really was a trophy and the cherry on my sundae was safe for now, not that he hadn’t threatened to smash the rest of my forbidden fruit.
I knew he was into a lot of shit, illegal shit that could get him put away for a long, long time. I hoped that one day I would know enough about that part of things that I could help put him in prison where he belonged. As it stood, I had a thumb drive burning a hole in the back of my dresser. The thought of betraying him still gave me a case of IBS, wearing me down and ready to give in. Living with him required a special set of survival skills and acting that went beyond patience, and a pretty smile of an Oscar worthy performance.
Evil was often wrapped up in a pretty box with a big bow. Adam was just a man in a nice suit with a shitty set of morals and greed that had no boundaries. It was inevitable, I would be caught in the crosshairs of his target, but I was willing to go down in flames if it meant protecting the peo
ple I loved.
“Oh god, Lizzie, do you think he’s alright?” Fi clutched the necklace my brother gave her last Christmas, a match to mine. A diamond ring that no longer fit her swollen finger made in gold, and set with baguette sapphires that matched her eyes, rested between her breasts on the platinum chain.
“Fi, it may not be his group they’re talking about.” Reassurance wasn’t my strong suit, but I needed to be strong for her. We’d have plenty of time for freaking out if something was actually wrong. She needed me now. My niece or nephew needed their dad to come home as I glanced at her baby bump. Jealously filled me longing for one of my own. Maybe someday. In a different lifetime, with someone who loved me.
It didn’t matter anyway since Adam insisted on busting his nut elsewhere. That left me blessed as a barren pariah. I was both glad and depressed by the fact I would be forever alone in this marriage. Two edges of a blunt sword, and neither outcome was favorable.
Fi whimpered and I pulled her into my lap.
“I feel sick.” Her voice muffled against the skirt of my dress. She’d been deep into her medical residency when Eddie foolishly knocked her up while on leave.
“Of course, you do. I’m sure we’ll find out something soon.” Petting her hair back, my fingers untangle her red curls giving my jittery hands something to do. I hummed a lullaby from my childhood, and watched her stressed eyes ease slightly signing I See The Moon.
“You need to rest for the baby, Fi. Eddie wouldn’t want you to worry.” I hoped we learned something helpful because this was agony. We’d lost so much already. I couldn’t lose Eddie too. Life couldn’t be that unfair, but I should have known better.
Life as Adam Huntley’s wife was nothing but unfair.
We watched the General go on and on about the success of taking their target down and the minimal loss of life, but nothing about the brave men on the mission except for them to say several were critically injured by a heat seeking IED when they were pulling back from their target. He said their bodies would be given medical transport back to the states and families would be notified first.
Bodies.
He said bodies and my throat closed up.
My eyes welled and I stared blankly at the television. The wall. The window. Anywhere but down where Fi rested her head trusting me that things would be okay.
General Perry thanked everyone, especially the families for their service in supporting these brave men. Listening to Fi’s breathing deepen into slumber, I hugged my sister-in-law gently turning the television off and slipping out from under her. Guilt harbored deep and my emotional anchors weighed heavy. I settled a blanket around her shoulders when I heard him behind me. I tucked her in before turning to face him.
“Elizabeth.” Adam stood in the doorway. His cellphone clutched in his hand. A tired look I was growing familiar with marred his face. It wasn’t fair to say that marriage and time tempered him, but he looked greyer than usual. I was equally tired straightening my back.
No rest for the weary, right?
“What is it?” My top teeth worried my bottom lip and I walked over to where he was standing. His height dwarfed me and I swayed closer to his embrace. He wrapped an arm around me and tugged away from the room into the hall where Fi wouldn’t hear us.
“I got a phone call.” He flipped the phone in his hand, fingers sliding around the corners like he was playing a pack of cards before pocketing them. I stayed silent until I couldn’t hold myself back, anxiety taking over. I knew that he knew something. Adam was good at waiting me out. I wasn’t. I had to know what he knew, if anything.
“Alright. Did they say anything?” My husband clearly had some shady government shit going on behind everything else. He could probably answer the burning questions I had about Eddie better than my brother’s own squad based on his connections. Asking for those kinds of favors had a price, and I had to be willing to pay with interest.
Fi stirred from the couch and I glanced back watching her push auburn hair into a messy bun. “Oh god, what are we going to do.”
Her hands fisted wringing each one. I couldn’t let her suffer. My eyes fluttered shut as the heaviness weighed me down. I regarded my husband with an unspoken offer.
“Is there–” I stopped myself for a moment to think about how I wanted to word my question with Fi witnessing the exchange. Adam cocked his head to the right listening and a malicious smile erupted at the corners of his mouth. The bastard knew what he was doing and what pound of flesh he’d ask of me.
Clearing my throat, I started again, “Can you find anything out?”
He waited.
“Please, husband?” The last word choked my throat like a fishing lure ready to rip the sound from me. He seemed pleased if that were possible and beckoned me to come closer to him crooking his finger slowly. My legs were heavy, always heavy as I followed his lead like a marionette in his ghastly dance.
“I can do better than that my precious pearl.” His fingers brushed a lock of hair behind my ear gently. His hand rested on my collarbone, thumb stroking the hollow of my throat where my heartbeat seemed to flutter. “Get up and get ready. We’re going to head down to Bethesda, the military hospital.”
Fi overcome with emotion cried out. I needed to keep her calm, reassure her and keep my sanity intact a bit longer. I rushed to hold her up. “Easy Fi. The baby. You can’t get all worked up before we get there.”
Standing, I helped her. She looked much older than her mere 26 years. I felt older, ancient some days with the burdens I carried.
“Nelson will help you gather your belongings, Fiona. It’ll be a long drive.” Adam’s trusted butler and man of all trades took Fi’s arm and walked her up the stairs leaving me alone with my husband who sauntered toward me invading my personal space. He forced me to make a tactical retreat. The door behind us shut with a low and final click.
“No plane?” I huffed.
“Air field access is restricted. We’ll drive.” He answered at least one question. He backed me into the den purposefully rolling up the sleeves of his dress shirt and unbuttoning his vest.
“Elizabeth.” His hands rested on his hips close to his belt buckle pealing the leather back. Slowly it popped through each loop. I thought for sure it echoed through the house, but nothing stirred, and no one came to my aid as the second hand on the clock ticked against the wall.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Loosening his pants around his trim waist he peeled back the corners revealing his long thick cock to me. Eyes darted to the doorway. Hysteria threatened to overwhelm me with Fiona so close in the house. It’d been a while since he’d asked this exchange of me.
I licked my dry lips, “You really want to do this now?”
I thought of all the times I wanted the Brillo pads from the kitchen to cleanse my skin from his touch. There wasn’t a courser substance next to acid that would burn off his hands from my body or his dick from touching my lips. If I could have shaved off my hair, he’d have nothing to grab when he held me down fingers tangling in the loose strands.
“Waiting only makes it more difficult. Get on your knees, wife.” My legs gave out slowly ceasing to work as if I had aged fifty years in the last five seconds. I sunk to the floor my hands already cramping and tears spilling over my lashes reaching for the belt buckle, my head hung in shame at the task I was about to perform.
“Do you want to turn the television off?” I pleaded. The quiet would let me zone out and pretend I was elsewhere. He might have been hot gracing glossy magazines, but no one knew him quite the same way I did.
He shrugged oddly civil, “I’d like to keep it on for the weather report.” His fingers traced my lips as he slipped his thumb inside my mouth slowly. I sucked gently getting into a rhythm. His eyes travelled over my face like a nature study. He frowned. He sighed when I twirled my thumb over his digit expertly. He gave me time to get used to him before pushing my head down toward the intended target. There was a
kindness in his savagery I couldn’t explain. A paradox of who Adam showed the world outside our home, and who he often chose to be in moments like this.
His grunts echoed inside the den highlighted by the backlight of the television and the General giving his official report answering questions on the hourly news station. Squeezing my eyes shut I did what I could to block it all out counting backward from one hundred as he thrust carelessly between my lips, semen dripping down my chin spilling on antique carpet costlier than some people’s houses. His hands knotted in my hair. The singular strands more painful with each tug. I’m sure a healthy bunch would be caught in his ring by the time he finished. And oh god how I wish he’d finish.
His indifference to watch the news with more interest than with what he was doing to me strangely hurt with the reminder of how insignificant I was to him. The more I choked, the quicker he got off spraying his seed in fluid arcs splashing my face and chest. Indignity burned my skin and the walls I erected around my heart hardened like cement, for a fraction of time impenetrable until he jackhammered his way past. Maybe I was lucky Adam chose to refrain from knocking me up, bringing a child up in this dynamic would be the worst thing I could ever do. That in it of itself would make me a worse parent than my crack addicted mother and neglectful father. It was better to remain alone, barren and hollow, unloved by anyone.
Love was a dangerous drug and I had no desire to experience the fleeting high or the dependent addiction.
19
Aaron
My body sunk in sand, dense, and numb. In my head, I choked over and over again, but no sound came from my throat. My eyes were dark and useless orbs. Beeping monitors broke up the monotone sounds around me. Waves of pain receded with flashes of light from under layers of bandages. Sounds roared through my brain and then retreated like the tide in sickly shades of grey and green. I was at peace and yet at war within my own helpless body. Pain ebbed and wavered. Struggling to move, I finally gave up. My ears focused on my surroundings and my training in sensory deprived scenarios took over.