by T. S. Hill
“Buster,”, I told him, “After what’s happened here, you and I, will never be even! Not in this lifetime! Unless something happens to drastically change things, you will owe me for fucking ever!”
“Okay, Tagg!”, he yelled back at me through the phone. “I’ve got a chopper on the way from Dallas to back here in Mobile. Have them ready, and I’ll have both of your problems picked up within the hour.
“No Buster!”, I screamed back at him in the phone. “They’re not my problems! They are now, both your problems!” With that, I flipped the phone shut.
“Sash!”, I yelled, charging back into the guest house. Remind me, to never use this group of cock sucking mercs again, for as long as I live!”
“You’ve fucking got it, Babe!”, she yelled back at me.
I wanted to shoot something else badly, but I didn’t know what, or who. Possibly Sabri, or possibly Buster for sending him to me, or maybe Sam Milinni for being the initiating catalyst that brought me down this path. John sensed that it was better for him to just not even try to deal with me. John assisted the other two mercs in rendering first aid to Sabri. As he walked over to where they were working with him, one of them tore out toward the main house to retrieve their medical kit.
“A chopper is on the way from Dallas to pick him up.”, I told the other two. “At least keep him alive until it gets him out of here!” Then, calling John’s name, I told him to get Roy Johnson ready to transport on the chopper.
“I can’t right now, I’ve…”, when he looked up at me, he stopped talking mid-sentence. “Hold this wrist tourniquet!”, he barked at the other merc. After the other merc returned, they soon had both Roy and Sabri ready to load, and we transported them with the golf cart out to the helipad. We didn’t have to wait long, before Buster’s chopper appeared. It was only the two quick transfers to put on board, and the chopper was in the air again.
Back at the guest house, everyone was somber, except for Annette, who was still an emotional wreck, trembling in Sasha’s arms. While we waited on the additional mercs to arrive by car, I finally filled in the women about Al’s situation. I wanted to go back to the hospital to check on him, and have a talk, when he woke up, but I didn’t want to leave the evidence documents, nor the women unguarded. At this point, I didn’t trust the mercs at all, and I wasn’t sure what the next best move would be. I decided to wait on the arrival of the additional mercs, and then set some ground rules with the bunch. Possibly then, I would feel comfortable enough to leave the estate long enough to visit Al. My next best choice would be to call him, but I really wanted to see him in person. That would be the only way I could feel assured of his condition, whatever it was.
After forbidding any of the mercs to ever enter the guest house again, I left with Mrs. Baker to go back to the kitchen in the main house to get something to eat. My direction to the women, was to shoot anyone that came in the door besides myself or Mrs. Baker. While I sat eating the leftovers that Mrs. Baker warmed up for me, I finally had time to think. Now that we had the data from Al’s offices and plant, we had no reason to remain in Houston, and vulnerable to attack from Milinni’s minions. My only problem was, Al’s chopper wasn’t available to take us back to Louisiana, and Al would be left here, vulnerable to attack, and whatever injuries his crash had inflicted.
I sat in the kitchen of the main house with Mrs. Baker and began to think aloud. After a while, she interrupted me.
“Tagg, if you need transportation that has the ability to take us all back to Louisiana with you, then why not take Mr. Longworth’s motorhome?”, she asked.
“Al has a motorhome?”, I asked.
“A very nice one.”, she replied, “He takes it to all the Texas A&M games. It has two bedrooms, or sleeping chamber’s as he calls them, and all kinds of luxury features. It’s like those that the music stars tour around in. He doesn’t keep it here, because it takes up so much space.”
“Do you know where he does keep it?”. I asked.
“No, but it’s at some garage, or storage place in Houston.”
“I’ll talk with Al about all of this when he wakes up.”, I told Mrs. Baker. “But this has given me a whole new path to keeping things secure, and everyone safer than we have been. Thanks, Mrs. Baker! You’ve been a great sounding board!” I helped Mrs. Baker finish cleaning up the kitchen, and then I suggested that we take with us, back to the guest house, whatever she needed for preparing the evening meal. I helped her load everything into the golf cart and we headed back to the guest house. There I found Sasha and Rosita diligently working on pages of evidence and data sheets. Lori and Annette were in the master bedroom resting.
Not long after our arrival, John rang the guest house door bell and tapped on the door. When I answered it, Colt .45 in hand, he sheepishly, but respectfully, informed me that the additional mercs had arrived. I asked him who was taking the vehicle back to Mobile, and he informed me that Buster had told them to keep it on location, until their assignment ended. I informed him, that I wanted him to continue to coordinate with the security guards at either side of the estate, and cover everything else with his men. Except for the bathroom access that I had granted them in the main house, they were to stay out of any of the other areas of the main house, and any of the other structures on the property. Once the additional mercs were deployed, we finally had the full complement of six, that we were promised to begin with. It wasn’t my intention to let the mercs know anything about my plans for all of us to leave the estate. I would cover that issue with Buster when the time came, and not before.
I retrieved the Hummer from the garage and brought it around to the side portico of the guest house, just off of the kitchen. Then, I called a meeting with all of the women, including Mrs. Baker. I explained that my plans were to relocate all of us back to my treehouse on the bayou, and that we would be moving out, as soon as I could get Al mobile again, and out of the hospital. Meanwhile, I needed them to continue to work on our evidence piles and data sheets. But, to stay ready to move out at a moment’s notice. With Sasha’s encouragement and support, Annette seemed to be getting her head back together, and Lori mumbled to me that her pain level was now down to only when she tried to talk. When I told her, “Well then shut up!”, she giggled, then hit me, as she winced in pain. I hugged her close and told her that I loved her, but still felt inadequate to the situation.
I left the women well-armed and on alert, then headed back to the hospital in the Hummer. Mrs. Baker was busy preparing the evening meal, while the remainder were busying over the evidence, and data sheets. I had reiterated my strict orders for the mercs with John, and left through the front gate. On my way to the hospital, I sorted out more of my plans to relocate our operations back to Bayou Gauche, including Al Longworth and Mrs. Baker, at least on a temporary basis.
At the hospital, I found Al, awake, sore as hell, and begging me to get him out of there. I told him I wasn’t moving him without his doctor’s approval. As luck would have it, his attending physician, came in while I was there. Thankfully, he was a young, forward thinking doctor, who saw the risks involved in contracting pneumonia, staph, and other infections, with an extended hospital stay. He felt that since there were no signs of internal bleeding, then with proper care, Al would be at a lower risk, and better off resting at home, than in the hospital. Al promised to hire a nurse to tend to him if the doc would just let him go home, and the doc agreed to sign off on the dismissal orders.
Before I left, I also put Al on the phone to the local Cousin Cal’s Camping Coral, where his motorhome was stored, so that I had full access, and permission to pick it up. Al asked them to service and fill the tank, of, as Al called it, the Al Longworth estate on wheels. I didn’t realize it, but I was about to be indoctrinated into a whole new world of travel luxury. But, just before I left the room, Al had me close the door for a private chat.
“Tagg how has Annette been, through all of the goings on?”, he asked me. But, before I could begin to answer, he spoke
up again. “You know Tagg, I’ve realized something, and it makes me feel really ashamed of myself.”
“Oh? What’s that, Al?”, I responded.
“I let pure lust, take the place of true fondness in my mind.”
“Exactly what do you mean?”, I asked, trying to keep the conversation cogent.
“Tagg, I asked you to get your women to hint to Annette, to change her hair color back to dark brunette, like it was the first time that I met her. And, now I realize, that my request was based, not on true affection for Annette, but on shear lust, based on her appearance alone. You know, laying here, with nothing to do, makes you think. And I got to thinking about Annette. She’s a perfectly beautiful woman, but the truth is, I don’t know jack about her, that would make me love her. In fact, a great deal of the time, she grates on my nerves. Don’t get me wrong, she’s an exemplary secretary, assistant, or whatever the hell they call themselves these days. But that stiff Army personality, just grates my skin the wrong way. And, I don’t really know her. Just what she looks like. So, at the end of the day, what right do I have to ask anyone like that, to change for me? Or especially, to ask your women to ask her, to change for me? That was just wrong of me to even think that way Tagg.
So, whatever you do Tagg, don’t say anything to her about her hair color. Just let Annette be herself. She’ll figure out what’s right for her, without my lust overriding her preferences. She’s beautiful. Absolutely! But I don’t know a jackassed thing, about her personality, that really lights my fire. I was wrong to ask your intervention. So, just forget it, and forgive me, for having an old man’s dream.”
“Al, first of all, you’re not an old man. Secondly, there’s nothing wrong with dreaming, or lusting after a hot bod like Annette’s. But, I also understand your need to find someone that you actually like, and then, if the lust kicks in behind that? Well, then you know that you’ve actually found what you’re looking for. Just knowing what you’re looking for is half the battle! So, cheer up! You’re half way there Al!”, I told him.
“Go make the arrangement’s Tagg. And, get me the hell out of this hospital!”, he told me through bleary eyes.
“Just call me.”, I told him. “As soon as they release you, I’ll be here to pick you up!”
“I’m going to hire the private nurse, while you get your wheels rolling, and I wait on the bureaucracy here to set me free. That will make me feel like I’m at least a little more than useless.”, he told me.
“Make sure that she’s willing to travel to Louisiana for a couple of weeks or so, Al.” I told him, “and, sign a contract! I don’t want to next have the Feds after me, for kidnapping across state lines.”
“I’ll do it right boy! You, just go take care of your end!”, he said, grunting, and gritting his teeth, as he tried to adjust his position in the bed.
“Push the fucking button, Al!”, I fussed at him. “Let the nurses, and aides, adjust you in the bed. Why do you do everything the hard way?”
“Tagg!”, he breathed at me with a gush of breath. “Look who the hell is talking about doing things the hard way! I’m planning for the easy way! Now, go get on board!”
“Yes, sir!”, I piped back at him, and headed through the door.
After leaving Al, I drove straight back to the estate. There, I found everything as it should be, which almost surprised me. I asked Annette if she had any wheel time with a Hummer and she replied that she had plenty while in Iran. I told her that I wanted her to come with me to drive the hummer, unless she had experience with even bigger rigs, which she said that she didn’t. I also told her, that when we got on the road, I wanted her to orientate the other women, so that any of us would feel comfortable driving it. Except, that Lori didn’t drive, and to not make an issue of it. That was something that Lori and I still hadn’t cleared the air on. Afterwards, I met with all of the women, and reported on Al’s condition, and that we were definitely, and immediately, going to pack it up and go back to Louisiana.
“I know that we’re going to have tight quarters, both in the vehicles traveling, and back at the tree house once we arrive.”, I told them. But, no one seems to have figured out, because of the way that Aug and I have the land titled, exactly who lives there, nor have they been able to trace me to the property. So, right now, the tree house is the safest place for us, and Al. We’ll leave the merc’s here to protect the property, and no one will know where we’ve gone.”
“I wish we could take the Limo instead of that giant four-wheeler!”, Sasha groused.
“It would be more comfortable.”, I agreed. “But, it’s still in the body shop from the gate busting we did at Al’s plant. And, honestly, the burly four-wheel drive thing, just might come in handy. Now, do any of you have any medic or any type of medical background?”
“I was a certified nursing assistant, in the United States Air Force, back in my other life.”, Mrs. Baker answered meekly.
“I only had a tinge of training for battlefield wound, first aid.”, Annette answered after her.
“Then you will definitely ride with me and Al in the motorhome, Mrs. Baker.”, I told her. “Sash, you will ride with me also, to assist with driving and help Mrs. Baker with handling Al. For whatever reason, Al puts a great deal of store in what you think. That could come in handy in dealing with his ornery ass, on this trip.”
“The rest of us ride with Annette?”, Rosita, asked.
“Yes. Well, no.”, I replied. “Annette can orientate you on driving the Hummer Rosita, and that way, you can relieve Annette with driving some. Lori, since she is a little puny, would probably find the motorhome a little more comfortable and less jarring than the Hummer. And ladies, I do want to remind you to keep weapons close at hand at all times, and to stay on alert. If anyone figures out that we’re on the move, it won’t take much more to figure out where we’re moving toward. We’ll be using the last two of the clean throw away phones to communicate between the vehicles, to coordinate stops, etc. We’re going to leave here in a few minutes, packed tightly into the Hummer, with the evidence boxes, our gear and luggage. Then pick up Al’s motorhome, and proceed to the hospital. Annette and Rosita will wait in a parking lot, in the Hummer, while Sasha, Lori, and Mrs. Baker, will go with me in the motorhome to pick up Al.”
“Oh! By the way, Al may have a nurse hired to come with us to tend to him. If so, then she’ll also come along in the motorhome. That will take some of the burden off of Mrs. Baker, and help us assure that Al gets the best of care. Any questions?”
Sasha spoke up, “Babe, we don’t have room back at the tree house for all of these people. What are we going to do?”
“For one thing, we’ll have to stop and get an air mattress or two somewhere. But definitely not RealMart! Or, buy a couple of beds. Plus, I understand that the motorhome has a couple of sleeping compartments, and some fold down stuff. Supposedly, it sleeps six. I’m sure that requires some doubling up though. So, who knows. We’re not looking to have to live like this forever; only, until we can get the evidence processed, and the heat off of us, and onto Sam Milinni, aka, the SOB. I’m hoping that will be less than two weeks. Any other questions?”
“How long before we get back home?”, Lori squeaked out between her clenched teeth.
“After we top of the Hummer’s tank, and pick up Al, the drive, non-stop, is about five and a half hours, on interstate ten. But, we will be off the main roads as much as possible, just in case, so we are looking at six, and maybe seven hours with any stops.” Lori clasped her hands together and looked at the ceiling. I think that if her jaw hadn’t been so sore, that she would have shouted, “Oh goody!”, like she does when she’s tickled pink over something.
“I can’t wait!”, she blurted between her teeth, while holding her jaw.
“I’m with you on that!”, Sasha chimed in.
“Yes! Please!”, Rosita nearly shouted.
“It must be a wonderful place.”, Mrs. Baker commented.
“It’s home!”, all
three of my women answered her in unison.
“Then, I can’t wait either!”, Annette added.
“You gonna love it, girl!”, Sasha told her enthusiastically.
“It’s just a two-bedroom bungalow, jacked up into the trees, on poles, with a few trees sticking through the roof.”, I commented. “It overlooks the water on the east side with a balcony, but it’s sure not anything like Al’s mansion.”
“But it’s home!”, Lori forced the words out.
“It’s our home.”, Sasha added.
“All of us together!”, Rosita piped up. “It is home to us all!”
“Or will be soon!”, I added. “Now, let’s get loaded up and move out!” Within thirty minutes, we had the Hummer loaded, the guest house shut down and secure, and had cleared the fridge in both houses of any perishables. I was proud of the efficiency with which we moved. As we drove out the front gate, I informed the guard that we would be back within two or three hours. Then, after topping off the tank, we proceeded to Cousin Cal’s Camping Coral to pick up Al’s motorhome.
I had never felt poor in my life, until I saw the interior of Al’s motorhome. It would take a book to fully describe it, so suffice to say, that there wasn’t a creature comfort that it didn’t have. It took me a full twenty, maybe thirty, minutes to check out the cockpit, and familiarize myself with the systems available to the operator. But finally, I had the turbo, diesel engine running, and I pulled the behemoth, bus framed, motorhome out onto the street. Lori and Mrs. Baker had made up the main bed for Al, and were now tucked into the rearward lounge chairs. Sasha motioned to Annette in the Hummer, and we were off to the hospital to pick up Al. I only wished that we had walkie talkies instead of the throwaway cell phones to communicate between the vehicles. But, as they say on the bayou, “Life ain’t perfect, except on Saturday night, and only then, if you’re with the right girl.”
It wasn’t Saturday, or night, but I was with the right three girls, and a totally gorgeous forth one that also seemed to be chasing right behind me. So, I wasn’t ready to complain, but to keep moving forward, and back to Louisiana, on my own home turf. For the time being, I’d had enough of Texas.