Ding Dong!! Is She Dead?

by Alathia Morgan

  “I wish that I had known my family, but mom and dad were killed in a car crash when I was one. As far as could be determined there were no relatives that could take me or that wanted me. I went into the system and at eighteen was put out on my own. I had some scholarships from my grades and was able to attend a local Jr. College to get my associates degree.”

  “Now, I’m curious what did you get your degree in?” Justin understood more about her issues with commitment each time she gave a little more information about herself.

  “It’s a degree in business management. I had planned to try and start a business eventually, but I was trying to make ends meet and decide what type of establishment I really thought the area needed. I met Ms. Pat at the sports store and she got me started in Nova. I work less now than I did and all of the sales that I do, I make full commission on. It has been very nice to meet new people and really get to know them. I’ve only been doing it for two months, but I have established a routine that seems to be working. The next step is to really grow a team and train them how to work their business and make it successful.”

  “I’m still not sure what exactly I want to do with my whole life, but since all of this has happened it has made me think about the possibilities this business holds. I mean Nova gives women a chance to get back on their feet and realize that they are worth something. Not just what others say they are worth, but they develop confidence that lets the world see their potential. I want to be a part of changing lives so women can become independent without having to rely on a man.” Allie looked over to see Justin’s reaction to her comments, only to find him laughing at her.

  “What’s so funny?” Allie asked, but was uncertain that she wanted the answer.

  “Here you say that you don’t know what you want to do, but then you have a list with points and sub-points and everything. I think that helping other women that are in situations like Megan or even those that are looking for a way to make ends meet is a wonderful idea.” He reached across the table and took Allie’s hand.

  “I also find the idea of an independent woman to be very sexy. Do you know where I might find one of those women around?”

  Allie just rolled her eyes, “Whatever!”

  “Really Allie the idea that you could support yourself apart from a relationship is not a bad thing. I know some liberated women that take it too far, but when you make a commitment to each other you should be on equal ground. By having a job, a woman is able to fulfill parts of her that a spouse is just not able to provide for. I could tell you that you are amazing all day, but when you hear that from your colleagues and coworkers it means more because they are trying to do the same job that you are excelling at.”

  “Well, amazing is something that will take a lot more work than what I am doing now. You really don’t have a problem with your girlfriend having a career, even if she might make more than you do?”

  “No, silly. My ego might have a little problem adjusting, but in the long run that means that I picked someone that I could relate to. An independent woman might be able to keep up with me and keep me on my toes. I want someone that I can respect and who will respect me. If not then there really isn’t a common ground to base a relationship off of except for sex. Most of those relationships don’t last very long. When I finally decide to get married I want the whole shebang. Fifty plus years or until death part you from your partner. Scare you, yet?”

  Shaking her head no, Allie just sat there thinking about what he was getting at. He wasn’t just trying to get in her pants; he was talking about a full, long term relationship, white picket fence and all.

  “Are you telling me that you are serious about us starting that kind of relationship? Lasting fifty years?” Allie thought, if I wasn’t scared before I am now.

  “I’m not asking you to marry me right now, so no. I would like to see where this will go and if you could handle hanging out with me for the next fifty years or so?” Justin didn’t want to put pressure on her, but just to plant the idea in her head so that she would think about it.

  “Don’t answer now, give it a couple of days to think about it and let’s see where we stand then, okay?” He breathed a sigh of relief when she nodded.

  They cleaned up after dinner and headed back to the ranch since there was safety in numbers and it would be harder for anything to happen when everyone was on alert.

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  That night Allie lay there trying to fall asleep listening to Justin’s steady breathing, they hadn’t even talked about the fact Allie might not need a sleeping buddy. He had just come in and crawled into bed without saying anything that might be construed as an advance on her virtue.

  Realizing that he had more self-control that most of the men she had met in her entire life, Allie felt safe with him. The whole idea of someone not only being interested, but wanting a long term relationship didn’t seem as crazy as it would have even a few days ago. Judging from how Justin treated his mother and family it seemed that there might be more to the man than that first impression. Allie didn’t think that families who cared about each were real except in the movies, but now that she had had time to watch this family in action, she knew they could even be better than anything on T.V.

  Justin was willing to get to know her slowly without rushing her. He hadn’t shown any signs of violence. In fact everything that he did was just the opposite. If he could take care of her when there was nothing in it for him, then what would he be like once they actually did something?

  Allie had always had to watch out for herself because there was no one else that would take care of her when things went wrong. It might take a while to let her guard down enough to let Justin in. Not wanting to get her hopes up, she was willing to give it a try. If he could be patient with her intimacy issues, he just might be worth keeping around. Allie drifted off with thoughts of how to let him know what she had decided.

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  Throughout the next morning and into the afternoon there just wasn’t a good moment to let Justin know, she was willing to try it out. So she stuck to flirting and just enjoying the family atmosphere while she waited to get him alone. Everyone seemed occupied in the lull before dinner, so Allie challenged Justin to a game of pool, hoping that they could be alone.

  In the basement playing pool, Allie had her chance to let Justin know that they could move on and get serious about flirting with each other. It was time for Justin to make a move and kiss her or to show him she meant business, she might kiss him. . Allie was really glad that he was being such a gentleman about her feelings since the attack a few days ago, but now that she was feeling fine it was time to get a move on. Literally.

  “So Justin I know that we have been sleeping together this week. I really appreciate how considerate you are being, but I’m feeling fine. I know that we have this chemistry and I would really like to see where it leads us. We could ignore it and always wonder what would have happened. I guess what I’m telling you is the ball is in your court.” Allie grinned over at him as she missed her shot at the eight ball.

  “Actually, I am starting to feel that I have this big wart on my nose that is growing longer and its making you not want to kiss me. Maybe I’m wrong, but…" Allie never finished her sentence.

  Justin swung her around so that she was sandwiched between the table and his body. He leaned in to kiss her thoroughly. Grinning he smiled as he relieved her of the pool cue.

  “I have always thought all your warts were cute.” Justin didn’t give her a chance to answer as his hands found her butt and he nipped at her lip with his teeth before he slipped his tongue in her mouth for a sizzling kiss. Now that her hands were free, they made their way up into his hair tilting his head giving them both better access. He lifted her butt onto the pool table allowing him to slide perfectly into the space between her legs. He moved one hand up to cup her breast while the other hand slowly unbuttoned her shirt.

  Both of them stopped kissing for a moment to speed u
p the undressing process, Justin took his shirt and placed it on the pool table. Laying her down so that she could use the shirt as a pillow, he then proceeded to kiss his way back to her mouth. All Allie had to time to do was be impressed that a guy would make sure that she was comfortable. Pulling him closer with her legs, she was surprised again when he didn’t even make a move to take their pants off. He seemed perfectly content to kiss her in places that she had no idea could make her want him so badly.

  Moaning as he licked and kissed his way down to the button of her pants which was making Allie nervous. No one that she had ever been with had concentrated on foreplay so well. She just hoped that she could give as good as she got. They both jumped when the door closed at the top of the stairs indicating that someone was coming downstairs and was about to catch them.

  Allie quickly made sure that her bra was in place and closed her shirt while putting her back to the door to fasten the buttons. Justin had his shirt on and buttoned before Sally appeared on the bottom step.

  “We will have to continue this later.” He promised.

  It turned out to be days later, since there was no privacy in the big house with all of the house guests.

  Chapter 14

  While there had been no sign of Mike in the week following the incident, there was a meeting with the main law official in charge and the principal parties at the Double G Ranch house.

  The main reason that the meeting was taking place was because Allie planned to return to the scene of the crime by going to work Friday and Saturday night. The group was evenly divided, but they were hoping that an update on the search efforts would provide some relief.

  The chief of police, Dan Slayer, called the meeting to order. “Attention everyone. We have been looking for Mike for two, almost three weeks now. There have been few, if any signs of where he might be holed up. It looks to be that someone in our department may be helping him evade us as we get close to where he is hiding. That is the reason that I am the only one that is aware of where you are located. While I would love to say, let’s keep you all protected out here for your own good, we simply can’t keep using all of our manpower to protect you 24/7.”

  “The general consensus is that we let Allie go to work like normal. Justin as her official bodyguard will sit at the bar all night and watch the surroundings. We have already talked to your boss, who has agreed to keep you behind the bar and let the others take care of the waitressing for the next two nights. If we don’t have any incidents this weekend then we will seriously consider sending Karen back to her regular duties.”

  Megan spoke up, “Mike won’t stop trying to find me. There is nothing that you can do to keep him away and there are a lot of other people out there that need to be protected. I don’t want any more people to get hurt.”

  Karen started to speak up, but Megan cut her off. “Look, Karen you have done a good job of taking care of us. While I’m not sure where Mike is, I know that this is the safest place that we could stay. We have lots of people looking out for us and Mike would have to be really bold to just walk in here and take us out. It’s time for us to move on and start living without him. I will still be scared, but that’s okay because I don’t think that it will ever get better. So Chief let’s try this weekend and if nothing happens then you can take the patrols away.”

  The discussion moved to the logistics of Allie working and what could be done in case there were sightings of Mike or an accomplice. Justin would be given an emergency license to carry his handgun in as protection.

  The Chief left and while no one was especially happy, Megan decided to announce her decision to move if Mike wasn’t found by the weekend.

  “Before everyone else leaves, I would like to thank you all for trying to keep Sally and I safe during this difficult time. If there is no sign of Mike this weekend, then we will be moving into an apartment in town. I don’t want to impose any longer and am so thankful that you were willing to let us stay here. It’s time for us to stand on our own two feet.” Megan sat down and tried not to make eye contact with anyone.

  “Megan, James and I have discussed this and we are willing to let you rent the old guest house from us. Provided that you are willing to clean it out and do some repairs, would that be okay?” G.G. looked at Megan hoping that she chose someplace that would allow her to stay a little safer than living in town by herself.

  “I am going to look for a job, but I can pay you until I get one. Are you certain that we won’t be in the way though?” Megan did not want to be a burden to anyone again.

  “We will be glad to have someone use that house and it will take some work to make it livable again. We can discuss the details of money and draw up a contract later, but we have adopted you into our family so that means watching out for you as well. We can always do that better if you are closer to us. I also have several contacts that might know of a job that you could work around Sally’s schedule. By Monday we can have a game plan to get you through the next year.” That said everyone left G.G. and Megan to start working out details.

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  On Friday, Justin and Allie left early so that they would have time to set up. Since Allie hadn’t been to work in over a week, there was plenty that she needed to help restock before the big rush that happened on the weekends.

  Justin checked out the whole floor plan with the bouncer, Stan, which he had met the other night. They finished making sure that all the exits in and out were closed and locked. They also made sure that the mirrors were all in the best position to see the room without any blind spots.

  Justin left Stan to move some cases of beer to help Allie restock while he went behind the bar to put in the extra protection plan that nobody outside of the employees would know about.

  Justin planned to install loops to hold a shot gun under the bar so that if something happened, then Allie could grab it and protect herself. The owner already had a baseball bat hidden in the gap between two cabinets behind the bar, but this would be added as extra protection.

  The evening went off without a hitch. There were no sightings of Mike and the Three W’s was full of money spending customers.

  Desperate not to repeat the previous week’s incidents, the Chief, himself was waiting to escort them to Justin’s truck. He followed them to Justin’s apartment, waiting until they had gotten in without incident.

  Justin texted: “We are safely inside and there isn’t anyone hiding under the bed. Nite”

  Chief Slayer texted back: “Have a good night. ; ) ”

  Once, they both got inside they realized that it was their first night without any interruptions since the basement had started to ignite their passion. It was bubbling beneath the surface waiting for a chance to re-ignite the flame that had burst between them.

  Justin deliberately made sure that everything was shut down for the night before he took Allie’s hand and headed for the bedroom. He knew that she was nervous again, but after their last encounter, he was certain that it wouldn’t last long. Walking in and shutting the door, he turned back to Allie, “Now we can finish what we started without interruptions.”

  Justin scooped Allie up and tossed her onto the bed, causing her to giggle. He climbed up onto the bed covering her body with his. He moved slowly until he captured her mouth with his, savoring his prize. He kissed her until she responded without hesitation and they began to release all of their pent up emotions from the past week. They were engaged in the familiar dance of first time lovers who were about to embark a lifelong discovery with each other. True soul-mates, who needed no words to express their deepest feelings.

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  The next morning Allie’s fears were back, certain that Justin would be finished with her now that they had “done it”. She fled to the bathroom, so that hopefully she could be done showering and dressed before he woke up.

  She was almost finished with her shower when he hopped in the shower with her. Seeing his unclothed body, she suddenly didn’t feel as self-
conscious. Kissing her good morning, he helped her finish her shower and by the time they were done, the hot water was long gone.

  They spent the rest of the day getting to know each other better and Allie found that all of her fears were gone for the moment.

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  J.D. went back over to check Bubba out of the hospital and move him to the extended stay hotel. J.D. went ahead and rented the hotel room in his name so that there would be no I.D. required for Bubba.

  Telling his wife that he had gone fishing, he waited half the day for the doctor to discharge Mike.

  Mike was thrilled to see J.D. and hoped that the doctors would really let him leave with a nurse to oversee him. Finally after many tests and last minute consultations, they allowed him to go when the nurse showed up to start her shift and help him get settled.

  Nurse Suzie helped Mike transfer into the wheel chair and start for the front door. J.D. gathered the few personal items that “Bubba” accumulated and went to bring the car around.

  J.D. and Suzie had to help Mike into the front seat which allowed him to lean back. Once he was settled, Suzie went to get her car so that she could follow them to the motel. They had borrowed a wheelchair so that they could get Mike up to the room because he wasn’t quite ready to start walking for any length of time.

  Suzie and J.D. got him settled and while she went down to get her luggage, they held a hurried meeting.

  “Don’t do anything to make this woman suspicious about who you really are. Just take your medicine and treat her nicely or she will not give you your meds and you could end up in a prison cell.” J.D. knew that this poor woman had no idea what Mike could dish out when he was upset.