The Perfect Revenge: The Couplete Series

by Grey, Madyson

  When it was finally all said and done, Augustus Klein, the ringleader, Robert Norris, Leonard Whisnant, Jerry Jasperson (the adult bookstore manager), and a couple of dock workers who were part of the smuggling ring were all sentenced to five years for each of the girls that had just been brought in when this storm broke.

  There were a total of fifty girls in all, between the ones found in Antonio Cantu’s apartment, ones found in the adult bookstore when it was raided, and more found at the docks that were just being let out of a container.

  Augustus Kline, Robert Norris, and Leonard Whisnant were all sentenced to nine years each for the rape of Victoria Rivera. They were also sentenced to eight years each for her kidnapping. These were the maximum penalties allowed under California law. The judge was so disgusted by the whole affair that he dished out the maximum penalty, and made them run consecutively. That meant that the three—Klein, Norris, and Whisnant—would serve 267 years each for their crimes.

  True to the DA’s word, Antonio Cantu only received a slap on the wrist for his participation in the ring because he turned state’s evidence against the rest of the ring. He was sentenced to ninety days of community service. His testimony was taken in private, and he was not required to appear in court.

  Rafael and Victoria were relieved when it was all over with. It had been extremely hard on Victoria to face her assailants in the courtroom. She did her best to not look at them at all when she was on the witness stand, but to keep her eyes focused on the attorneys and on Rafael and Lena.

  One of the best outcomes of the trial was that the ransom money that Rafael had put up came back to them. Because they had been made painfully aware of a group of people that they had not known about before, Rafael and Victoria chose to donate the returned ransom money to Angel’s Retreat, the organization that cares for the rescued sex slaves. The organization was most grateful for the donation.

  When they went to Angel’s Retreat where the girls were housed to deliver the donation, the president of the non-profit organization gave them a tour. Then he brought all the women who had been rescued through the Riveras to meet them. The girls were all so grateful that they couldn’t express themselves adequately.

  The girls had been told about Victoria’s assault, and they all crowded around her, patting her gently, and murmuring the few English words they had learned, like sorry you hurt, and thank you for save us, and love you. Victoria felt like royalty, the way the girls were making over her. They weren’t leaving out Rafael either. They showered almost as much attention on him as they did her.

  When they left Angel’s Retreat, they discussed maintaining the organization as a regular on their charitable donation list. The list wasn’t long, as they hadn’t grown it much yet. David Thornton had a couple of pet projects that he donated to on a regular basis, and Victoria and Rafael both thought, after checking them out, that they would continue David’s legacy. But they had talked about adding one or two of their own choosing. Now, here was one handed to them. One they both believed in after seeing the horror up close. So they would continue to send regular donations to Angel’s Retreat.

  Work on Thornton Park was progressing nicely. It seemed as if they had jumped all the hurdles there were to jump and the building and landscaping was coming along in record time. The botanical garden was going in, the train tracks were being laid, the house was finished by the end of February, and the barn was then begun.

  Victoria worked with an interior decorator who specialized in nineteenth century furnishings and décor. As this was to be a common farmhouse, the furnishings would be plain and simple. The parlor would have an oval braided rag rug on the wood floor. The walls would be papered, but the remaining rooms would just be painted. The wallpaper that Victoria chose had a dainty pattern of pink roses on it.

  Victoria and Lena spent days scouring antique stores for furnishings, old framed portraits of people and other paintings to hang on the walls, old linens, curtains, kitchen utensils, and everything that would have been in a house circa 1880. Rafael went with them a few times, and would like to have gone more, but he had other obligations in regards to the park that he had to attend to.

  In a nod to her love of art, Victoria made certain that a copy of the famed “Blue Boy” painting by Thomas Gainsborough hung in the living room of the house. She also secured copies of several other paintings of the era. She found an ocean scene that was particularly appealing, and one of an old farm that seemed appropriate for their setting.

  In doing this shopping, Victoria fell in love with antiques, and ended up purchasing a number of items for her own home. Rafael liked them, too, but he wasn’t quite as smitten as she was. She and Lena had so much fun that they were sorry when they were finished.

  They worked with the interior decorator to put all of the purchases away in all the proper places in the house. When they were all finished, it was as cute a house as any of them had ever seen. Victoria secretly wished that she and Rafael could live in the house. The only drawback was no indoor plumbing. She could not imagine having to use an outhouse all the time.

  The house was wired for electricity for their own convenience, but the wiring was hidden to the viewing public as it was not available in 1880. A non-useable outhouse was constructed out behind the house just for show.

  While the ladies were outfitting the house, there were men building the barn, so it was coming along nicely, too. When those two were completed, the train depot was next. They decided that it would be the perfect place for the gift shop. So they made it large enough to accommodate a modest-sized gift shop and a small snack bar. The snack bar was an old-fashioned soda fountain that would sell floats, milkshakes and malts.

  They planned to sell as many old fashioned toys and other things from the late 1800s as they could possibly get their hands on. Victoria was already scouring the Internet in search of appropriate merchandise. As she found things she liked, with Rafael’s go ahead, she began ordering things. They stockpiled the boxes in their garage for the time being.

  The little ticket booth at the entryway was put up in one day and painted and decorated a second day. It was made to look rather like a miniature of the farmhouse, and was painted white on the outside just like the house.

  Victoria and Lena, under the supervision of the landscaper who was doing the formal gardens, planted flowers around the farmhouse—rose bushes, lilac bushes, daffodils, iris, glads, and pansies. The landscaper laid sod for the lawn.

  The inspections of the Thornton-Rivera buildings had kinda fallen by the wayside in favor of constructing Thornton Park. But Rafael had not forgotten about them, and neither had Victoria. One evening in mid-March, after supper, they had a long discussion about how they should handle the inspections.

  When they had first come up with the idea of the inspections, they had planned to drive their motorhome around the country to the various locations, combining work with pleasure. But since the concept of the Thornton Park was fast becoming reality, they had to rethink their plan of attack.

  Finally realizing that the only logical way to do these initial inspections on the properties that were out-of-state was to fly, they focused on planning so that they would only have to be gone from home a couple of days at a time, three or four max. They made out a tentative schedule that would need to flex with airline scheduling, but it would give them a framework to work within.

  They grouped the two properties in Dallas, the one in Houston, and the one in New Orleans together, as that seemed logical. Then they grouped the two in Memphis and the three in Nashville together, also. Portland was a stand-alone, as were Denver, Des Moines, and Albuquerque.

  Plotting their itinerary on a large desk calendar in Rafael’s office, they outlined a trip every other week beginning with the first week of April. Portland would be first. That would take at least two days, as there were four properties there. Then, mid-April, they would do Texas and New Orleans. The first week of May they would do Tennessee.

  After con
sidering all the possibilities, they realized they could do Albuquerque and Denver in one trip, hopping a commuter flight between the two. That only left Des Moines and that could come the first week of June. Now that they had this much worked out, they could schedule the work on the park around these other duties.

  Even though a billing firm took care of collecting the rents on all of the properties, Rafael still liked to look over everything on a regular basis, just to see that the money was coming in as expected, and going into the proper accounts as it should. It seemed as though his plate was very full.

  On top of that, he was concerned about Victoria. She was still afraid, or repulsed by sex. He wasn’t quite sure which it was. He had thought that she would be “over it” by this time. After all, it had been nearly two months by now.

  One evening in late March, Rafael had had an especially busy day. There had been a small problem over at the park with getting the identification signs painted for the natural portion of the park. It wasn’t anything huge, but it had kinda set him on edge. Then he’d had trouble getting the quad started when he wanted to leave the park.

  By the time supper was over, and he and Victoria had retreated to their master suite for the night, all he could think about was releasing his frustrations in a long-awaited session of lovemaking. He undressed and followed Victoria into the shower. He put some liquid shower gel into the palms of his hands and began to massage Victoria’s back.

  “Mm-mmm, that feels so good,” she said with a contented sigh.

  His hopes arose, along with his manhood, as he anticipated what could lie ahead. He continued his ministrations, soaping her arms, legs, and reaching around to her belly and breasts. He pressed himself up against her so there could be no doubt what was on his mind.

  Victoria turned in his arms, put her arms around his neck, and tilted her head up, inviting him to kiss her. He needed no second invitation. She responded to his kiss far more passionately than she had ever since her rape. He knew he still needed to be careful, go slow, and be very gentle.

  Just as he thought he couldn’t wait another second, he made his move to enter her. She froze in his arms, but didn’t pull away. He hesitated, but then continued to slowly slide his manhood into her secret place. She didn’t move. Didn’t respond with her former passion. But he continued on with his entrance until he was fully inside her.

  He just stood there for what seemed like an eternity to him, but was in reality about fifteen seconds. He looked Victoria in the eyes. She had a deer-in-the-headlights look in her eyes that broke his heart.

  “Please, my love,” he begged in a hoarse whisper. “Please. It’s been so long. I need you.”

  She didn’t move. He bent his head to kiss her lips. Her response was minimal. His left hand caressed her soft bottom, and his right stroked her back, trying to relax and calm her. Slowly, ever so slowly, he felt her begin to let go and meld into his embrace. He made a slow, gentle thrust, and then another, and then another.

  She didn’t respond, but she didn’t resist him, either. When he reached his peak, she made the first move she had made since he had first entered her. She stroked his back with her hands, even caressing his buttocks.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered into his neck.

  “Sorry for what?” he whispered back.

  “For being such a basket case. I know I should be able to put it behind me. I want to. I want to enjoy sex again. I miss it in one way, and in another, I’m afraid. But it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. You didn’t hurt me. Nothing was the same. Nothing reminded me of that awful time. I think I will get better from now on.”

  She paused and gathered courage to look him in the eyes.

  “I’m so sorry I’ve made you unhappy. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to hold out on you. I just … I just … couldn’t.”

  “Sshh,” he whispered. “You haven’t made me unhappy in the least. Frustrated, maybe, but not unhappy. I don’t want to you to be afraid of making love to me. This is us, baby. You and me. Not some creep. I promise to still take it slow and easy, but I think you’ve made a breakthrough tonight.”

  “Yeah, I think I have, too,” she agreed.

  He kissed her tenderly, hoping that all the love he felt for this vulnerable woman he held in his arms would be felt by her. They finished their showering and got into bed.

  Holding her close, Rafael asked, “Can we try it again, my love?”

  She was silent for a brief moment, then turned her face to his.

  “Yes, we can try again.”

  This time, when he entered her, she tried to respond with her body. She still felt no real passion, but she wanted to pleasure him anyway. Her pleasuring would come in time. She hoped.

  After his release, they just held each other for several minutes before relaxing into a comfortable sleeping position. It was a new beginning.

  Chapter Nine

  The first week of April, Rafael and Victoria flew up to Portland, Oregon, to inspect the four buildings they owned in that city. They had taken the earliest flight they could, and so arrived just after nine o’clock. They rented a car at the airport, and with the aid of GPS, they drove straight to the first one.

  It was a tall, old building right downtown on Burnside. It housed three retail businesses on the ground floor—a small espresso shop, an insurance office, and a hairdresser. The next four floors up held a variety of professional offices such as dentists, optometrists, lawyers, the Republican Party headquarters, and others. The top five floors were all small one-bedroom apartments.

  They spent all morning just making the rounds in that one building. Victoria took copious notes as they spoke with each tenant. Almost without exception, the occupants of each unit were very impressed that the owner of the building cared enough to come and meet them and ask what, if any, problems they were having.

  Even though it was an old building, it was in remarkably good condition. David Thornton had cared about his properties, and had invested in them to keep them sound, as free from problems as possible, and as safe as possible. The Riveras fully intended to follow in his footsteps.

  They finally talked to the last tenant at twelve-thirty. They were starved by that time, and so, at the recommendation of the insurance agent on the ground floor, they drove a couple of blocks to a little hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop. They were not disappointed.

  Strength renewed, they set off to find the second building. It was supposed to be just a few blocks away. After getting frustrated with the one-way streets, and having trouble finding a parking space, they finally made their way inside a twelve-story building that was all office spaces from the ground up to the seventh floor, and then apartments from there on up. One exception was a jewelry store on the ground floor.

  This building took all afternoon to get around to everyone. They found that a lot of the apartment renters weren’t at home during the afternoon. So they slipped a form letter that they had composed at home under the doors of each apartment where there was no one home.

  With this building completed, they set out to find a hotel. Thanks to the knowledge of the girl inside their GPS, they found a nice place within about fifteen minutes. Fortunately, it had a restaurant inside, as they were hungry again.

  The next morning, they were up and at it again, and found the third building in record time. This one was only a five-story building over in northeast Portland. It primarily housed doctors of one persuasion or another. This building didn’t take as long, not only because it was smaller, but because the doctors were busy and didn’t want to spend much time talking with them.

  The fourth building was over across the Willamette River and Interstate 5 on Barbur Boulevard. It was a strip building with a mixture of twelve retail and professional offices. It didn’t take long either, and they had plenty of time to drive back to the airport, turn in their rental car, and wait for their evening flight home.

  On the flight home, they went over their notes and flagged the units that had fixable is
sues. Things like outdated restrooms, or flooring that needed to be replaced. That sort of thing. They would compose letters to each of the building managers authorizing them to do the needed repairs, and giving them a generous budget so that quality work could be done.

  They had talked with each building manager in person about the importance of hiring professional workmen and using quality materials so that each one understood what his duty was in that regard. The work would be done, and the bills sent to Thornton-Rivera Enterprises to be paid. It was too easy for temptation to set in, and inferior work to be done while extra funds ended up in the wrong pockets.

  For the next week and a half, they concentrated on Thornton Park and how it was coming along. The barn was built and painted a traditional barn red. The depot was completed and the gift shop partially stocked. The train track was laid and the miniature train was sitting at the station, just waiting an engineer to guide it along the tracks.

  The formal gardens were in, and the flowers were beginning to bloom. The informational signs were scattered throughout the woods and the natural areas of the park. The main thing left was to hire employees, and to secure the animals. But they couldn’t bring in animals until there was someone there to care for them.

  As part of the original blueprints for the property, there were three double-wide manufactured homes cleverly hidden on the property behind a wall of trees and bushes. These homes would soon house two animal wranglers, and a park general manager. The wranglers would double as assistant managers.

  This was going to be the most difficult part—hiring the type of people that they wanted to be a part of their park family, as they were calling it. First and foremost, the right person had to be honest and dependable. Second, they had to be people persons and be able to interact with the visitors in a professional, yet down-home friendly manner. Third, they had to have business savvy, and animal husbandry know-how.

  The duties of the general manager would be to oversee the operations of the park and make certain that everyone was doing his or her job properly, and that everything and every animal was in tip-top shape, or know the reason why not.