by Mayburn, Ann
This news made her tense and an unwelcome ribbon of fear streaked through her joy. "What did I say?"
"You repeated instructions." Asher soothed her and Kent scooted closer. His cock began to stiffen against her bottom, and her nipples hardened into points. She didn't need a hypnotic suggestion to want these men. Their mere presence made her hot.
"We know who the person is that bugged your house and the Sanjit."
"Who?" She started to sit up, and they pulled her back down into the haven of their arms.
"You," Asher said and quickly continued, "They gave you bugs and you installed them in the computers, phones and rooms of your house."
"Oh no!" she gasped.
"It's not good, but it's also not bad," Kent said as he stroked her face. "The bugs must have been there for less than two days. We just swept the house and would have found them. You aren't a very good spy, even under hypnotic influence."
"No one's going to believe me," she moaned. "I'm going to rot in prison."
Asher stood and tugged on his boxers. Even as distressed as she was, the sight of his magnificent body made her pussy clench. Kent felt her reaction and chuckled. "Better get dressed quick, or our Princess may jump you."
Arrogance filled Asher's smile as he stretched out with his arms above his head. Her mouth went dry and her grip on Kent's arm tightened. She tried to shift her hips against him, to slide that hard length pressing between her full cheeks into her pussy.
Kent groaned and rolled away. "You're temptation itself." He turned his back on her and tugged his shorts on. "We need to get to Mr. Jerry's."
"Who's Mr. Jerry?" she asked as Asher tossed her clothes to her He had good eyes to be able to find them in the moonlight.
"We were best friends with his son in the service," Kent said with a note of sadness in his voice.
"What service?" she asked while wiggling into her shorts. To her satisfaction, she noted Asher's attention was totally focused on her breasts bouncing as she moved.
Tension filled Asher's voice. "We'll talk about that later. Right now we need to figure out how to convince Mr. Jerry you're innocent."
Draping the blanket over her arm, she said, "But why is it so important he think I'm innocent."
"Mr. Jerry, before he retired, was one of the top men in the FBI. He'll have secure ways of backing up what we learned, and getting in touch with the right people."
Kent took the blanket from her arms and held her hand. Asher grabbed her other hand and they strolled back to the car. Glancing at each man, she enjoyed the way they moved. Graceful, predatory, they surveyed the world with a delicious arrogance. The joy of the simple outside show of affection in holding her hands made her smile.
"What's that grin for?" Asher teased as he stroked her fingers. Ducking her head, she blushed and avoided his gaze while swinging both their hands.
Kent chuckled and raised her hand to his lips. "I like that smile. We should make her have it more often."
They reached the car and Kent tossed the blanket into the backseat. He helped her in, and she pouted when neither man joined her.
"We need to focus, and you are entirely too distracting." Asher gave her a soft kiss and ran a fingertip over the mound of her breast exposed by her stretched out shirt.
She tried to grab him as he pulled away and Kent took his place. "Try to get some sleep, my Princess." Warm and tender, his lips stroked against hers as his thumb brushed her jaw.
Curling up in the backseat, she pulled the blanket over her shoulders and cuddled into the scent of crushed grass. Asher started the SUV and found a jazz station. The soft saxophones blended with their lowered voices, and she found herself lulled into sleep as she watched Kent's face in the blue glow of the dashboard.
* * * *
A bright light shined onto her closed eyes, and she sat up with a groan, cracking her neck to work out a kink. Rubbing her face, Lalita tried to adjust to the glow of the dome light in the SUV, and stretched.
Kent opened the door and eyed her with a grin. "You look all soft and warm. I hate to disturb you, but we're here."
The men helped her out of the SUV and into a large yard in the middle of the country. Sodium security lights shone a blue-white tint on a large barn and empty paddock. A modest white farmhouse sat opposite the barn and all the lights were out inside. She thought she saw a curtain twitch on one of the lower windows, but wasn't sure in the dim light.
"Come on," Kent said as Asher moved behind her, running his hands down her arms in a soothing gesture. Crickets chirped and the sky held a million stars. It was amazing how many stars were hidden by the lights of the city. She wished her father were here to share it with her.
Asher and Kent said nothing, continuing with their constant scanning as if they were in the middle of a war zone instead of a sleeping farm. Their tension seeped into her as they crossed the yard and approached the broad front steps, flanked by neatly trimmed rose bushes. The men slowed and Kent held up his hand.
Asher jerked her behind him a moment before a rough voice said from the shadowy reaches of the porch, "You have about two seconds to identify yourselves before I ask the coroner to do it for you."
Standing behind Asher, she pressed herself against his back and tried to peer beyond his broad shoulders. He moved with her and blocked the view as Kent drawled out, "Mr. Jerry, you couldn't shoot the dick off an elephant without your glasses."
Rough laughter, turning into a cough, rumbled out of the darkness. "Kent, is that you?"
"It's me, Mr. Jerry.”
"Then that big dark blob behind you must be Asher. What are you two rat bastards doing on my property at this time of night?" Something squeaked and rolled across the porch. "I thought you were Mrs. Jerry's secret lovers come to kill me off and take her to Disney World." Asher snorted, but kept her securely behind him as a low golden light spilled across the worn porch.
"We have a problem we need your help with." The boards of the porch creaked and Kent moved forward. "Don't freak out--"
"Fart. What hot load of donkey crap did you dump on me?" The odd squeaking came again. "Move out of the way, Asher. Whoever your hiding smells like hair dye and strawberry soap."
She sniffed her skin and edged out from behind Asher. Mr. Jerry might need glasses, but his sense of smell was amazing. Blinking against the light, her jaw dropped at the sight before her. An old man with tufts of white hair and a heavily lined face sat in a wheelchair with a submachine gun across his lap.
Dark brown eyes squinted as he took her in, and she stepped closer as Asher pushed at her back. With one hand still on the gun, he rolled his wheelchair closer. "Hello. N-nice to m-meet you, Mr. Jerry," she stammered out.
His lips pursed with a slight tremor that ran down his right side. "Indian, probably Bombay. Cultured accent, but been in the States long enough to develop a lovely north eastern society nasal pinch." Mr. Jerry tilted his head. "What's your name, girl? And what are you doing with these two over-muscled assholes?"
"Uh?" She looked to Kent and Asher who nodded. "My name is Lalita Chetana, and Asher and Kent saved my life."
Silence met this statement and Mr. Jerry's hand twitched on his lap over the submachine gun. "You better have a good reason for bringing a terrorist to my home, gentlemen."
Covering her face with her hands, she allowed Asher to pull her back into the protective circle of his arms. So much for hoping he would hear them out. He would probably call the FBI the second they left.
"She's innocent," Kent said in a careful voice.
Asher added, "She's been framed."
"Well, I figured as much. You two Boy Scouts would never mix with the anarchists. Especially after what happened to your--"
"We need to get her inside," Asher said in a harsh voice. She turned to look at him and caught an expression of heartbreaking pain. Kent's eyes held a similar flash of hurt, and she touched their arms with a questioning look. Both men ignored her and she wondered what the hell they were hiding from he
r.
Sucking on his teeth, the white-haired man nodded and hit a button on the wall. The front door opened with a pneumatic hiss, and he easily rolled over the level threshold and flicked the lowered light switch to bathe the foyer in a warm golden light.
Lalita examined the dozens of pictures lining the entrance, all featuring a family throughout the years. Following the line of the wall, she watched a blond boy and girl grow from babies, to gangly adolescents, to adults. One of the pictures showed the blond man flanked by Asher and Kent, all wearing tuxedos and drinking beers. Another featured a younger version of Asher and Kent dressed in camouflage, leaning against a tank with the young blond man flexing between them. Studying their expressions in the picture, she marveled at how carefree their smiles were.
"Woman!" Mr. Jerry yelled up the stairs leading to the second floor. "Get down here and bring me my glasses."
A shrill voice yelled from further back in the house. "I'll be right there. I'm putting coffee on for our guests."
All three men flinched while Mr. Jerry closed his eyes and shook his head. "Come into my den while the missus continues with her plot to poison me."
Lalita gave Kent a questioning look, and he said, "Mrs. Jerry's coffee is…" He looked to Asher for help.
"Stout."
"It tastes like a camel drank battery acid and pissed it out into a cup," Mr. Jerry grumped as he led them into a pine-walled den. Comfortable and worn leather furniture cluttered the room between portraits of a much younger Mr. Jerry posing with different presidents. She sat in between Kent and Asher on the sofa with her back straight and her fingers laced on her lap.
Mr. Jerry rolled over to the cluttered desk and turned on a brass lamp while shaking out his glasses. After he put them on, he turned his wheelchair to them and sucked on his teeth. "So what brought you two out of retirement?"
Lalita looked at Asher, curious to hear an actual answer about their past. "The Sanjit needed someone safe to watch after his daughter," Asher said mildly.
Kent stretched his arm over the back of the couch as Mr. Jerry laughed. "Safe? You two? I know your dishonorable discharge made--"
Both men tensed next to her as she said, "What?" Dishonorable discharge? What did Mr. Jerry mean? Only criminals or the morally corrupt were kicked out of the military.
"We'll tell you later," Kent said and turned her to face him. "I promise."
"But you--"
"Girl, listen to your men. You're in a heaping pile of dead dog crap and sinking fast." Mr. Jerry shot Asher an apologetic look. "And I'm your life preserver, so start talking, boys."
The men explained all that had happened while Lalita sat between them and rubbed her fingers against the edges of her shorts. After a demonstration of her hypnotic state, Mr. Jerry had turned deadly serious and began asking pointed questions.
Her mind whirled between what they were telling Mr. Jerry and what Mr. Jerry had said about the men. Her father wouldn't hire criminals to guard her. What the hell had happened that would get them kicked out?
Mrs. Jerry came into the room at the end of the conversation and sat on a battered leather chair. An older woman with dyed bright red hair, she still had lovely faded blue eyes that matched her thick robe.
Holding up his hand to stop Asher, Mr. Jerry locked his eyes on his wife. "Willa, what did you do?"
She twitched on the chair and gave Lalita an agonized look. "Jerry, we have to get them out of here."
"Damnation!" Mr. Jerry began to swear up a storm. "I told you not to call the police!"
"What?" Kent and Asher hauled her off the couch.
"I'm so sorry!" Mrs. Jerry wailed. "I heard you ask them why they brought a terrorist to our home. I thought you were in trouble--that your past had finally caught up to us."
Lalita's heart pounded in her chest and she felt sick. It was happening just like she thought. There was no place left on earth where she would be safe. Even Asher's arm supporting her didn't bring her any comfort.
Swearing in several languages, Mr. Jerry rolled over to the far wall and lifted a picture of President Regan giving him a high-five. Pressing on the wood paneling, he popped a hidden latch and opened the electronic safe inside.
"Kent, Asher, please forgive me." Mrs. Jerry helped her husband sort through the safe.
"How long do we have?" Kent rumbled out and twitched aside the curtain, looking out into the yard.
"Fifteen minutes, tops. We're pretty far from the closest sheriff's office, but there might be a state officer cruising the freeway," Mr. Jerry said in a brisk voice. He tossed a map and a small notebook to Asher. "Directions and disarming instructions for our compound."
Ken barked out a laugh. "You finally built it?" He looked over Asher's shoulder at the map.
"You betcha. Look at that lot of hot-headed happy crappy assholes in power."
Mrs. Jerry placed a kiss on both men's cheeks. "I'll make this right, I promise."
"Head north out of here and follow the directions on the map. Whatever you do, don't fuck up on the disarming or it'll take forever to clean the splatter of your bodies off the ceiling." He turned to Lalita and patted her hand. "I'll find a way to get in touch with your daddy and let him know what's going on. In the meantime, try to find out what your trigger word is and break down those barriers. The hypnotic state one should be easy, but the suggestion is going to be a royal bastard to get rid of. You know something important, or they wouldn't be losing their cool trying to kill you in public."
With those words of comfort ringing in her ears, she found herself alone in the back of the SUV, barreling down the country road with their lights off. Spinning in her seat, she watched a series of headlights race down the hill in the distance and head toward Mr. Jerry's house. "Where are we going?"
The SUV lurched as the road turned from pavement to dirt. In the front seat, Kent cupped his hand over a penlight and read the map to Asher.
Kent clicked off the light and gripped the dash as they hit a huge hole. "Mr. Jerry has a thing about the end of the world. We're going to his survivalist bunker in the Appalachian Mountains."
"Great," she said in a faint voice and barely avoided amputating the tip of her tongue as the SUV rocked and rolled through the countryside.
Chapter Six
The bing from the car doors being opened mixed with birds singing as they piled out of the SUV. Lalita groaned and rubbed her lower back, taking a deep breath of the clean, cool air. The sun rose over the forest in the distance, tinting the sky pink and purple. After jouncing around in her seat for the last four hours with hardly any sleep, she was tired, sore, cranky and hungry.
"Home sweet home," Asher said in a cheerful voice as she and Kent glared at him. Asher was an unabashed morning person, and it drove them nuts.
"How can you be so damn perky with no sleep," she grumbled.
Asher's full, dark lips slid into an easy grin. As Kent studied the sheer rock face of the hillside in front of them, Asher pulled her into his arms. She examined him in soft pink light and leaned on tippy-toes, placing a gentle kiss on his lips. Joy warmed her heart and body as his hands stroked up and down her back and settled on the curve of her bottom. Deepening their kiss with easy skill, he pulled her tight against his chest, and she groaned as she felt his cock grow hard between them.
Another pair of hands joined Asher's on her bottom, and both men held her against Asher, moving her over him with their strength. In a million years, she could never get enough of this.
"All right, lovebirds, time to go inside." Kent chuckled as he pressed his hard cock against her bottom. Asher ignored him and growled low in his throat. Thick and hard, he filled her hands as she stroked him, running her fingertips over the outline of his shaft. Hot desire made her pussy grow wet and soft as she pressed back against Kent.
Grumbling, Kent snatched her from Asher and tossed her over his shoulder. "Hey!" she yelled as he walked back toward the cliff face as if she weighed nothing. Asher laughed behind them, and she took a
moment to appreciated Kent's butt from her vantage point over his shoulder.
Setting her down, Kent said, "Watch this." He knelt before the cliff face and slid a portion of it over, revealing a keypad. Double-checking the notebook, he tapped in a long series of numbers. A groan echoed through the cliff side and a portion of the wall disappeared.
"Wow," she said in a whisper as the morning light filled the cavern. A large concrete bay with overhead fluorescent lights in cages gleamed out of the darkness. Rows of boxes were stacked against the far wall, and there was enough room for the SUV.
Tugging her by the hand, Kent pulled her forward while Asher carefully drove the SUV into the space. Pressing another series of numbers on the pad, the cliff wall rolled back into place.
Kent led them through a series of thick metal doors and deep into the hill itself. The walls turned from smooth white painted concrete to the natural rough granite and the floor continued to slant downward. Going through a final door, the lights flicked on as Asher scooped her up in his arms and carried her over the threshold.
They stood there in silence for a moment, taking it all in. The massive main room held a bank of flat screen displays over three computers. Further in the room, a small kitchen looked out over a comfortable lounge area with another giant flat screen TV. The click of an air purifier hummed to life and a slight warm breeze blew over the skin of her arms. The gray and brown stone had been polished down to a smooth surface for the floor and brightly colored rugs were scattered about.
"Kevin did a great job," Asher said and let her down. He wandered over to the display of flat screens and computers.
"Who's Kevin?" She removed her shoes and placed them near the entrance of the door, ignoring Kent's snicker. It never hurt to have good manners.
Asher ran a hand over the rough-hewed rock around the doorway. "Mr. Jerry's son. In the military he specialized in bunker architecture. You can bet this place could withstand just about anything you throw at it."
"I take back everything I said about Mr. Jerry getting paranoid in his old age." Kent ran the faucet and sniffed the water.