Days of Future Past - Part 1: Past Tense

by John Van Stry

  Plus I was both surprised and a little embarrassed to find that I really liked Sarah quite a lot as well. To be honest, I think I'd gone past liking and into caring several weeks ago.

  Part of that was Heather, Sarah still loved Heather and I suspected she pined for Heather quite a bit at times. As I also cared about Heather that gave us something in common that was important to both of us. At first, I think Sarah's main interest in me was because I was living with Heather, and my main interest in Sarah was that I was a male with a pulse so there was no way I was ever going to turn down a beautiful woman who I actually liked.

  But over time, I started to develop feelings for her beyond simple physical attraction or lust, and I soon learned that those feelings were mutual. We didn't spend all of our time in bed together after all; we spent a lot of time planning the upcoming expedition as well. Sarah was also teaching me a bit more about how things worked here and then of course we always spent at least some time talking about our common interests, which was mainly Heather.

  "Sarah!" I smiled and gave her a hug as I came into her office.

  "Hi, Paul. So how are things?"

  I gave her a kiss, and smiled down at her, "Things are good. I have a bank draft for you."

  "Already?" she said looking surprised.

  "Well, it's only for ten thousand. I hope to have the rest in a month, but I figured I might as well show you that I'm serious about this."

  "Well, you're obviously serious about something," she teased in a husky voice as she rubbed up against me.

  "Restrain yourself, woman!" I laughed and handed her the draft.

  "Oh! A man with money! You really do love me, don't you?" She giggled and batted her eyes at me. "Jane!" She called.

  "Yes, Sarah?" An older woman poked her head in the door and asked.

  "Deposit this draft to Mr. Young's account. Tell William to start buying the equipment on the list I made up, this should cover half of it," She said waving the bank draft.

  Jane came in and took the draft from Sarah and walked back out of the room.

  "So, now that we got the business out of the way, how about the pleasure?" I asked grinning.

  "A man after my own heart," Sarah replied, with a smirk.

  "More like your lusts, woman!" I teased again and she led me off to her room, which was upstairs above her office. Most of her family lived on the premises actually, but then they had a fair amount of property here on the edge of the city, with several warehouses of goods and equipment.

  "So, how is Heather?" she asked as we went up the stairs and I watched her butt as I followed her.

  "Frustrated with work I think. She lost out on a couple of big busts last week, though she did get a few smaller ones. I think since I started paying her rent that it's taken a bit of the stress off."

  "Oh, I bet that is starting to sting her pride," Sarah sighed, "she needs to wake up and find something more in line with her skills. Being a cop is only good if you want to move up to investigator. She just does not have the temperament for that."

  I nodded, "Plus I think she's a bit too mercenary even for the other officers."

  "You know, you really should leave her, when she hits bottom, it is not going to be pretty."

  "With me helping her to cover the bills, I don't think that will happen until after we're gone."

  "That is not what I'm talking about," Sarah said as we stopped in front of the door to her room. "She is becoming dependent on you now, and Heather most definitely does not like being dependent. On anybody. Add to that that she believes she does not really have much of a hold on you and that you no longer need her to survive, but she is starting to need you." Sarah shrugged and turned back to the door and opened it.

  "No, we were together for years, she is not happy about any of this, and it is only going to take something minor and she'll go off on you like a catamount with PMS."

  I chuckled at the thought of that, "She does have a temper, we've already had a few scraps."

  "Trust me; Heather in full bitch is not something you want to see. She can be vicious and she can be violent."

  "I'll keep that in mind, but the truth is, I actually care about her."

  "You just like sleeping with her," Sarah said turning back to me and rolling her eyes as I closed the door behind me.

  I grabbed her shoulders and leaned forward to kiss her, "I like sleeping with you too," I whispered in her ear. "But honestly? I actually like her; hell, I like you both a hell of a lot, you're both very special to me, otherwise I wouldn't be bedding either of you at this point. I just wish I could help her do better."

  "Don't we all," Sarah sighed and kissed me back as I started to undress her.

  I was running a little late as I made my way back to the apartment, Sarah had been a little more affectionate than normal, and then we'd gone over a few things for the expedition, which had eaten up a few more hours. Sarah was a consummate planner, and obviously she knew the family business. She had even called in a man from a competing group who had been out to the California coast just two years ago, to get his take on what things were like out there.

  "Hi, Heather, sorry I'm late!" I said as I came into the room.

  "Where were you?" She said looking at me, annoyed.

  "Business," I told her.

  "But you don't gamble on Mondays, you've told me that yourself!"

  I nodded, "That's right, I don't. But today I had to make a down payment on some services and then had to go over a bunch of plans and stuff, and well," I shrugged, "it ran late."

  "What kind of business?" Heather asked, almost growling it out.

  I took a step closer to her, I remembered Sarah's warning and I had a feeling this was going to be more than just a little spat, and while I didn't think she'd pull her pistol on me, I sure wasn't going to take that chance.

  "I'm funding an expedition," I told her, "to the coast."

  "An expedition! You're going with her aren't you? That's where you've been, you've been seeing her!" She yelled and took a swing at me.

  I got my arm up and over hers, then wrapped mine around hers as she hit me in the side and locked it there against me.

  "How could you!" She yelled at me, struggling to pull her arm free. I slowly started moving her back towards the wall. Physically, she was no match for me really, but the last thing I wanted to do was hurt her, so I wanted to limit her options.

  "She saved my life, Heather," I said calmly. "And she has an expedition company. Where else should I go?"

  "But you know she betrayed me! She attacked me! She sided with some criminal over me!" She said and started to kick at me, her eyes were starting to get that wild look, and I realized that Sarah hadn't been kidding.

  "You didn't tell me any of that," I told her and I changed course and tripped her back on to the couch, landing on top of her.

  She went wild and screamed at me and tried to bite me. I reached down and cross drew my pistol and tossed it across the room, as she started to beat on me with her left hand, punching and hitting me. I got hers next and tossed it to join mine on the far side of the room, and then we fought.

  It was like being on top of a wild animal. She was teeth, claws, hands and feet, and flailing away like mad. I had to let go of her arm, I was too afraid I'd dislocate it, with the way she was thrashing and struggling under me.

  We ended up on the floor fairly quickly, which was probably for the best, the couch wasn't fairing all that well from our struggles. The hardest thing about fighting someone you didn't want to hurt, was the whole 'not hurting' them.

  Especially when they sure as hell weren't worried about hurting you!

  I was definitely getting a lot of scratches and bruises on my body, a lot more than she was. I don't know if she realized I was holding back, maybe if she had she wouldn't have been as wild. But when she finally got me in the groin with a knee I lost my own temper and punched her in the face, then while she was stunned, I grabbed her head and banged it against the floor a few ti
mes, then quickly flipped her over onto her stomach and pinned her to the floor in a submission hold.

  She continued to struggle, so I leaned down and bit her on the neck, and suddenly she froze.

  "Are you done?" I growled in her ear.

  "You bastard! You cheating bastard! You're sleeping with her, aren't you? I can smell her perfume! You were sleeping with her!"

  "So what if I was?" I told her, "Why would you care?"

  "You're mine! You're my boyfriend!" She yelled at me.

  "And here I thought you were just keeping me around to find out how I won at the Sands so you could turn me in for the bounty," I said angrily, and by god if she didn't blush!

  "Holy..." I swore, "You were hoping to find out I cheated, and turn me in, weren't you?" I said and put my knee into her back and ground it in a little, enjoying the little gasp of pain, I was even more pissed off now.

  "Well you did it, and I need the money!" she whined.

  "You really are quite the snake, aren't you, Heather?" I said rather loudly. "Only two people in this entire freaking city give a damn about you, and you turn on both of them when it comes to money."

  "You don't care about me!"

  "If I didn't care about you, I wouldn't be giving you all that money every week when I need it myself! If I didn't care about you, then why the hell would I be staying with a woman who tried to have me killed so she could make money off of me?"

  I leaned in really close and whispered in her ear, "Do you know that Sarah worries about you? That she still loves you? Even though you ignored her advice, ignored her orders as the leader of your group, and forced her to resort to knocking you out?

  "Oh yeah, I'm sleeping with a bitch alright, but it isn't Sarah!"

  She lost it again, and started to thrash under me, but I had her in a good hold, so I just pressed my knee in harder and bent her head back causing her to stop, I had her in a very painful position and the pain at least was making her behave.

  "You need to learn that money can't buy happiness, and it can't buy love!" I yelled at her. "And that you need to stop being such a heartless bastard and show a little loyalty to someone other than yourself!"

  "I'm going to kill you!" She gasped.

  "No, no you're not. Because who'd take care of you then? Who'd pay your damn bills? Who'd be around to hold you and make love to you at night? Dammit, Heather, you need to learn some loyalty to the people who care about you!"

  "If you care about me, then why are you sleeping with Sarah!"

  "Because I care about her too," I sighed. "When I first started up with her, you and I had barely been together, and well, I'm the closest person to you that there is, so yeah, she wants that connection."

  "Sure she does! She just wanted to get revenge on me!"

  I sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll invite her over and we can all have this out together."

  "What!" Heather said shocked.

  "If she's not interested in you, she would never come over, so let's find out, shall we?"

  "No! Don't you dare! No!"

  I pulled my belt off and bound her hands behind her back, then took her belt off and tied up her ankles, all while she yelled out harsher and harsher threats.

  "Oh, be quiet," I sighed and went over to the phone. "I'm the one with everything to lose here," I said.

  "Yeah, cause once I get loose I'm gonna kill you!"

  "No, because if you and Sarah do make up, I'm going to be on my own. Do you really think Sarah is going to continue being with me, if she's with you?"

  I was surprised that she shut up for a whole ten seconds when I said that. I wondered if it was shock, or hope?

  I dialed the Sarah's number and she picked up immediately.

  "You didn't kill her, did you?" She asked immediately.

  "How did you know it was me?"

  "Because she'd never call me," Sarah sighed, "I can hear her swearing in the background. So, what happened?"

  "I told her I'd hired you and she pretty much guessed we're sleeping together, not that it would have mattered I suspect."

  Sarah laughed, "She would not have believed you if you had said no. So, why are you calling?"

  "Because I want you to come over here and talk with little miss psycho."

  "And why would I do that?" Sarah asked sarcastically.

  "Because I've got her all tied up so she can't go anywhere. She's what you might call a 'captive audience.'"

  "You didn't?" Sarah laughed.

  "I didn't want to hurt her," I sighed.

  "Ooo! I'll be right over," she said and hung up.

  I went and found some rope while I was waiting, and bound Heather to one of her kitchen chairs; she had stopped calling me names and yelling at least.

  There was a knock in the door.

  "See, told you she'd come."

  "She just wants to gloat."

  "Hardly. Oh, don't tell her you were stringing me on to try and get a reward. That can be our little secret."

  Heather blushed again and I went and let Sarah in.

  "Wow, kinky. I don't think we ever did this before," Sarah said smiling and coming over to look at Heather.

  "Hello, Sarah." Heather said sulkily.

  "Do you know I have been trying to get him to leave you for a month now, and he refuses to go? Even after what you did to him when you arrested him? Really, Heather!"

  I went and got my backpack and quickly stuffed my things in it while they continued to talk in the kitchen. I couldn't hear words, but I could hear tones, and Sarah was scolding her, but not harshly. Heather was being sulky and using single words.

  I came out and saw that Sarah had pulled a chair up. I went and got my pistol off the floor from where I'd thrown it, holstered it and headed for the door.

  "Where are you going?" Heather grumbled.

  "What, you don't think I took those threats seriously?" I said with a smile. "Actually, the two of you will probably be able to talk a lot better if I'm not here, and well, if you work things out I don't expect either of you will be all that interested in me anymore, anyways."

  I looked at Sarah, "I'll check in with you about the expedition in a week or two. I'll understand if you don't want to go, but I have to. So please don't leave me high and dry on this.

  "Oh, and don't kill each other, okay?" I waved and went out there door. I really didn't know what to do, so I headed down to the Silver Witch, there was a hotel next door where I could get a room, and maybe I could pick up a game to pass the evening.

  - 13 -

  "Well, that was rather nice of you."

  I looked up from the show I was watching on the wall screen in the hotel. It was Coyote of course.

  "What, not killing her?" I asked with my best innocent expression on my face.

  "A comedian, you're not," he replied drolly.

  I shrugged, "I'm leaving in a month or two. I don't expect to ever come back. So why not try to set her up with her old girlfriend?"

  "Oh, don't get so melodramatic. I already told you, I'm not sending you off to die. I have lots of things for you to do."

  I nodded, "And none of them involve coming back here, either. Right?"

  Coyote winked and gave me a wane smile, "Okay, yes. You won't be back here for a while."

  "If ever," I added.

  "Sorry for getting you in trouble at that first casino by the way, I meant to apologize about that sooner, but the last time we spoke you weren't exactly being civil. I should have gotten you out of there earlier." He said, changing the subject.

  "Eh, if I had known better, I would have made it look more natural and I wouldn't have acted like such an ass the following week. So just as much my fault as it was yours," I said with a shrug.

  "Not really, you see, they were cheating and I thought it would be funny to take them down a few pegs. But they got all upset when suddenly their equipment all malfunctioned on them."

  "What? They were cheating?" I asked disbelievingly. "How do you cheat at craps?"

  "Th
e dice aren't plastic; they're made of a transparent metal. They have electromagnets built into the table, so they can cause them to roll however they want. It is all rather 'spiffy' as I think you would say. Computer controlled to make it look normal, a trained operator. Rather impressive."

  "So that's how they knew I was cheating."

  "Yes."

  I thought about that, I should do something to get them in trouble, but then again, I really had been cheating myself. Or rather Coyote was, and I was just helping him.

  "Could you do me a favor?" I asked.

  "They didn't kill each other," Coyote laughed.

  "Thanks, I was a little worried. It's been fairly obvious, even to me, that Sarah still has it really bad for Heather. However I honestly don't know how Heather feels. She's pretty bullheaded."

  "Oh, I think they've both forgiven each other at this point."

  "Well that's good."

  "And I think your plan to stay away for a while is also a good idea, especially the two week part. You might even want to go for three," he said with a blatant smirk.

  "They're in bed together, aren't they?" I laughed.

  "Yes, Sarah was rather militant and persuasive, and honestly, your walking out on Heather really scared the hell out of her. She was not looking forward to being alone again."

  "Yeah, being alone sucks," I agreed and waved to the empty room as an example.

  "Oh, but you have me!" he chuckled.

  "Excuse me if I'm a bit slow to put my faith in someone who has a history of pulling rugs out from under people," I said. "However, as long as you're here, can you maybe tell me which weapons and how many of them I need to get?"

  "For the most part, take whatever you want, and you can carry. I'll let you know when you go by them which ones I specifically want you to grab as well. Just don't take more than half of what's in there. Riggs is going to need a lot of different things, and while I can't tell you specifics, if you don't take more than half of any particular thing, you won't cause him to fail."