by Shay Fulk
Tony called the limousine company and ordered a car to take him to Nice. When arrangements were made, he hung up.
“There are suitcases of clothes in the closet.” The door to the closet opened and several pieces of luggage floated out onto the bed. “I must leave you now. You’ll be on your own. By the way, Jeff is the one who betrayed you, but I don’t think he’s going to be happy as the erotica muse.” She laughed. “Perhaps I’ll take your place. I was a good muse, before I decided to join the council.”
There was a pop and Tony knew he was alone.
He heard the doorbell ring downstairs and going down to the front door facing the street, he opened it to find the limo driver there.
“Luggage, sir?”
“Upstairs in the master bedroom. Thank you.”
The limo driver took the stairs two at a time and came back downstairs with the luggage. Tony walked out and the limo driver let him into the back seat, after setting the luggage by the rear of the car.
The car left a few minutes later and Tony sat back to enjoy the ride to Nice and the airport.
The flight from Nice to Tulsa seemed to take forever for Tony, considering that before, he could travel instantaneously anywhere in the world. Nice to Paris to NYC where he had to go through customs. Much to his surprise, he found a passport with his name — Anthony Rice — in the side pocket of his carry-on.
He changed to another flight in New York City and arrived in Tulsa three hours later.
It was dark by the time he landed in Tulsa. Looking at the clock in baggage claims, he found that it was past ten pm. Not wanting to wake Sandy, he took a taxi to the nearest hotel and slept through the night.
Chapter Eight
Sandy was making coffee the next morning when the doorbell rang. She wondered, as she walked to the front door, who could be arriving so early.
She opened the door without looking out the window and was surprised to find Shane standing there.
“What do you want?” she snapped.
“I came to see you. I…” He stepped into the house.
“I don’t want you here, Shane.” She left the door open and walked away from where he was standing just inside the front door. “I have nothing to say to you. Nothing I want from you.”
“Where have you been for the past three weeks, Sandy?”
“None of your damned business. I’m not your wife and I don’t have to answer to you anymore. Now please leave.”
“I want to know where you were, Sandy… Now!”
* * * *
“You heard the lady…you’re not her husband and she doesn’t want you here anymore.”
Sandy’s eyes widened and she turned toward the voice. She closed her eyes. “Tony…”
“Hello, darlin’.”
“You the one fucking my wife?”
“First, she isn’t your wife. Second, that’s none of your business. And third, she told you to leave.”
Shane swung at him, but Tony anticipated it and caught Shane’s hand. He knew about Shane’s temper and his abusive nature.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Shane, but I will,” Tony said, his voice strained from holding Shane back. “When will you get it through your thick skull that the lady doesn’t want anything to do with you?” Tony pushed Shane away from him.
“Hurt me?” Shane scoffed, contempt marring his features. “You really think a little pussy boy like you could hurt me?”
“Shane, please leave,” Sandy said. She looked from Shane to Tony. Shane had spent too many years behind his desk and weighed about fifty pounds more than he had when they were married. Tony looked like he’d stepped out of the gym yesterday.
“I’ll leave, Bitch, when I get damned good and ready. Whore!” He raised his hand and started to backhand her.
“Shane, don’t do it,” Tony said.
Shane laughed contemptuously. “And what would you do, if I did it, you little faggot?” He raised his fist again, but just as he swung, Tony stepped in front of Sandy. The slap hit his palm like a gunshot.
“Leave now,” Tony told him.
“Bastard, get the fuck out of my way, before I beat the fuck out of you.”
“Try it.”
Shane balled up his fist and swung at Tony, but Tony, being ten years younger and more muscular, pushed Shane to the floor.
“You lay one finger on me, you little pussy, and I’ll have the cops on your ass,” Shane growled, but the fear in his eyes belied his tone of voice.
“Go ahead and do it, Shane. Because I’ll tell the cops that you broke into my house and tried to assault me,” Sandy said. “You already have a rap sheet for domestic violence. This would be your third offense. You’d go to prison. And your college prestige wouldn’t be worth shit.”
Shane looked from Tony to Sandy. “All right, you little whore. I’ll leave you to your little pussy boy. Just don’t come crying to me when he leaves you. You weren’t even a decent fuck.”
Sandy snorted. “You sure thought so when we were married. In fact, you little fucker, you almost murdered your own brother to have me, so what does that make you? Now get the fuck out of my house before I call the cops and have you arrested for breaking and entering.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Shane rose to his feet. “I just have one more thing to say before I leave.” Moving faster than Sandy or Tony would have thought possible, he drew a hunting knife out of the sheath at his side and plunged it into Sandy’s chest. “Die, you cheating whore!”
“NO!” Tony exclaimed as in slow motion, Sandy slumped to the floor.
Shane ran from the house still carrying the bloody knife.
“Call nine-one-one,” Sandy coughed, blood spilling from her lips with each word.
Tony laid his hands against Sandy’s bloody chest, blood seeping between his fingers. He looked up at the ceiling. “Shay, this better be the reason you gave me this power.”
Warmth spread down his arms to his hands. Light surrounded Tony and Sandy.
Tony felt warmth flood his arms and hands as a white light enveloped them both. “You will heal her, Tony,” Shay whispered into his ear. “But it won’t be just the knife wound. It will be a total body healing. All of the damage done to her in the past will be healed.”
What do you mean? Tony asked her.
“When Shane beat her before, he damaged her to where she couldn’t bear children. This healing will repair that injury as well as the knife wound.”
What do we tell the police? Tony asked her.
“Tell them that when Shane stabbed her, he hit her in the arm. Wrap bandages around her arm. There is enough blood here that you can show them that.”
Tony nodded, continuing to hold his hands over the wound. The bleeding slowed, and finally stopped.
Going to the bathroom, Tony washed his hands, and then drew out a first aid kit. “How did I know where this was?”
Then he remembered he’d been here before—as Tony Hardaway, Sandy’s attorney. In fact, he knew now that he’d been with Sandy many times before, as her attorney, as her lover, and in many other guises.
He walked back to the living room. He put a bandage into the blood, and then wrapped it around her arm. Then he went to the phone.
“Yes, this is Tony Rice. Professor Shane Yates just assaulted my girlfriend, his ex-wife Sandra Tompkins. He’s driving a red two-thousand-three Dodge Viper.”
“We’ll find him, Mr. Rice. Thank you,” the dispatcher replied. “Do you need an ambulance?”
“No,” he said. “He hit her in the arm with a hunting knife. She’s all right.”
“We’ll find him, Mr. Rice. Thank you for your report.”
“T—Tony,” she whispered, her voice thick with pain. She looked down at her blood-soaked shirt. “Tony? What happened? He stabbed me, but…”
Tony crossed to her side and knelt beside her, taking her into his arms. “Shh…It’s all right, Love. He’s gone now and the police are already looking for him.”
“I don�
�t understand. I felt the knife as it went in.” Her fingers lightly traced the unscarred skin beneath the ragged hole in her shirt.
“You know that I was your muse?” he asked.
She nodded. “You were also Tony Hardaway, and all the men in my erotic dreams…the ones I used for my writing.”
He nodded. “I was expelled from Muses’ Heaven.”
“Tony?” she asked shocked.
“I love you, Sandy. I couldn’t live without you. It was against our laws that I revealed myself to you, but I loved you so much that I had to.” He took her hands between his own.
“So how…” she asked, looking again at the hole in her shirt. Then she noticed the blood bandage around her arm. “What the fuck is going on here, Tony?”
He explained everything to her—his temporary power to heal her, his expulsion from Muses’ Heaven, the fight and stabbing, and his healing her, and the idea to use her blood but to wrap around her arm rather than her chest.
Just then the doorbell rang and Tony rose to his feet to open it.
Two Tulsa police officers stood there. “Mr. Rice?”
“Yes, I’m Tony Rice.”
“Sergeant Barber and Officer Chapel,” the lead officer replied, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at his partner. “Can you tell us what happened?”
“I arrived from Nice last night, came over to see Sandy this morning. I found her ex-husband here. He tried to hit her. I stopped him. I fought him to the floor. He started to leave, but pulled a hunting knife out of his sheath and stabbed at her. I pulled her away and he got her in the arm, as you can see,” Tony explained.
“Do you need to go to the hospital, Mrs. Yates?”
“No, and it’s Ms. Tompkins. When Shane and I divorced, I took my maiden name back.” While Officer Barber talked to them, Officer Chapel wrote down the report.
Tony and Sandy continued to tell the two officers what happened and just as they finished, static from Sergeant Barber’s radio interrupted them.
“Suspect captured—Shane Yates. Weapon secured. Ten-ninety-nine. Proceeding to City/County jail.”
“They’ve captured him, Ms. Tompkins,” the sergeant replied.
Sandy gave a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
The two police officers nodded and left.
Sandy turned to Tony. “What now?”
He came slowly to her, and drew her into his arms. “Well, that depends, Love?”
“On what?”
“Do you want me to stay…or go?”
“I didn’t go through all this bullshit for you to walk out of my life, Anthony Rice,” she said, her arms coming up around his neck. Pulling him down to her, she kissed him. “You have two choices?”
“I do?”
“Yes, you do,” she said, smiling. “You can walk out the door or you can finish what you started in France.”
Lifting her into his arms, he carried her down the hall to the bedroom. He dropped her feet to the floor and slowly undressed her, kissing and caressing her until her breath labored from her. His kisses swelled her lips and her nipples were taut with need.
When she was naked, he pushed her down onto the bed and she laughed. “You are definitely way overdressed, my love,” she said, sitting up. She removed his clothes, throwing them aside.
She kissed and caressed his warm skin. He moaned as her tongue swept over his hard belly, and then up over his nipples. Her eyes darted to his as she licked down his treasure trail to the hard cock that jutted toward her.
“Sandy!” he cried, as her mouth stretched around the hard width of him.
She paused and looked up at him. “Do you like that, Love?”
“Yes, but I’d like it more if I was eating your pussy at the same time.”
“Hmmm…sixty-nine. My favorite number,” she whispered, moving up onto the bed so he could join her.
He moved into position and soon, moans were the only sounds in the room.
“Oh, baby,” Tony finally said. “I’m going to cum!” He moved away from her and turned so that he was over her.
She looked up at him. “Tony, if you healed me so I could get pregnant, do you think I will this first time?”
“I don’t know, love,” he said, and then he smiled. “But it will be fun to find out.”
She grinned and pulled him down to her. “Then let’s have some fun.”
She arched against him as he entered her, wrapped her legs around his waist. She moaned as he filled her completely. “Oh, God, Baby. Finally.”
“I love you, Sandy…I love you so very much…” he said.
* * * *
Sandra heard the horse whinny and grabbed the shotgun. Being a woman out on the plains alone, it was best to be cautious. Stepping out onto her porch, she raised the shotgun, and then lowered it.
“Please, all I need is some water for my horse,” the man said. He was slumped over as if hurt and Sandra put the gun down.
“You’re hurt,” she stated, seeing the twinkling of a badge on his shirt, as well as the blood.
“Yes’m. Ran into a bunch of banditos about five miles ago,” the man said. “Name’s Tony Rice. I’m the sheriff over to Pawnee County, Kansas. I was chasing some banditos that robbed the stage out of Dodge. One of them shot me.”
She ran to his side.
“If you’ll get your husband, he can help me to the barn.”
“My husband is dead. He died during the War,” she admitted. She helped him off his horse, taking his weight against her own body. She carried him into the cabin, which consisted of one large room with two doors radiating off of it. One of the doors went into a bedroom in a lean-to out back, the other door led outside the back to the outhouse and the barn.
She helped him to a bed and laid him down. Almost as soon as he was lying down, he passed out.
Sandra doctored his wound, and then started supper. She knew he’d need lots of good food when he finally regained consciousness.
After she put the cornbread in the oven, Sandra went out and led his horse over to the barn. She took off his tack, set it aside, and put hay and corn in one of the troughs, as well as made sure he had plenty of fresh water.
Sandra went back to the house and found him sitting up on the side of the bed.
“You’re going to open that wound up. Now you just lay back down there,” she admonished.
“I need to go to the outhouse.”
“I can get you a chamber pot.”
Sandra reached under the bed and pulled a ceramic bowl out. “I’ll leave you to it.” She walked out of the cabin and waited on the porch until she was sure he’d finished.
She went back inside to find him passed out again. He’d used the facilities and was lying crosswise on the bunk. Sandra pulled his feet around, laid him down flat, and covered him with a blanket.
She ate supper, keeping enough back for him if he wanted it, when he woke up. After she ate and set her dishes to soak, she went out and took care of her livestock.
It was dark when she came back in the house. She lit the fireplace and then sat down to work on some sewing she’d put off.
She was darning her socks when she felt like someone was watching her. Looking up, she saw the man was awake.
“Hungry?” she asked, rising to light the oil lamp.
“Yep.”
She walked over and filled a bowl with the remainder of the beans and added a slab of cornbread. As she walked back over to the bunk, she asked, “Do you need me to feed you?”
“Naw. I can handle that myself.”
Sandra helped him sit up, propping pillows behind him. She went back over to sit in her rocker. She picked up her sewing.
“What happened to your husband?”
“He was killed during the Battle of Pea Ridge over in Arkansas. The Army sent me a notice a couple of days after the battle, when they identified his body.” She closed her eyes as she remembered that day. “The major who brought me the notice, said the Rebels had shot him, injuring him, and t
hen one of them sliced a bayonet through his heart.” Tears flowed over her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
“Nothing to be done about it now. What about you?”
“Grew up in Alabama. Daddy was a sharecropper. He grew up almost as slave labor on a plantation, but unlike the slaves, was white and free. I didn’t like it. Didn’t like the whole slave system. Told my pa I didn’t when I was sixteen and old enough to be out on my own. Next thing I know, I’m out on the road with only the clothes on my back and twenty dollars my mother slipped me.
“It was just before the start of the war. I got up into Ohio and joined up with a regiment up there. Fought at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Almost lost my arm at Vicksburg, but the doc was able to save it. I know that didn’t happen often, but…” He shrugged. “Sometimes God has good things happen to good people.”
He scooped up the last bite into his mouth and she rose to take his bowl. She washed it along with the rest of the dishes.
“If there’s nothing else, I’m going to bed. G’night.” She picked up the lamp and started for her bedroom door.
“Night,” he called after her.
Sandy closed the door, but didn’t know that it didn’t latch. It sprang open a little and Tony’s eyes widened as he watched her undress.
It had been a long time since he was with a woman and Sandy interested him, in more ways than one. She was intelligent, hard working, and pretty.
He watched her undress and put her nightgown on, and then she undid her hair and he gasped quietly as it fell in blond curls to her waist.
The urge to gather her into his arms and love her was almost overwhelming. Stop, he told himself. You don’t even know this woman. Well, you ain’t going anywhere until you get over this gunshot, so just sit back and enjoy being near her.
* * * *
For the next couple of days, he helped where he could and tried to get well as fast as he could. He ate all the food Sandy put in front of him and helped her with chores around the house and the barn, when he could.
He was working out in the barn, milking a cow, when he heard the hooves of about half a dozen horses. He’d brought his guns out to the barn with him because Sandy remarked that she’d found a dead barn cat with a rattlesnake bite in its neck.