Allyssa allowed herself to be slowly maneuvered towards their bed, her leg coming up to wrap around Fey as her wife’s fingers teased between the juncture of her legs, spreading the wetness before filling her insides. She let out a gusty sigh, enjoying the sensations her wife caused with the combination of her fingers inside her and her lips on her breasts. Allyssa reached up to kiss Fey deeply. The woman’s fingers were causing her blood to slowly pool in that special spot inside her body. As the blood left her lips, they turned blue and her toes began to tingle and curl, centering all sensation around the fingers that were plunging so deeply and so hard inside her. She cried out and Fey’s mouth captured it, so they wouldn’t be overheard. “More...more...harder!” she gasped to her wife, encouraging her as her own hands began grasping at Fey’s muscular back and buttocks.
Fey loved this. It reminded her of rutting, and right now, she was feeling just like the animals she doctored. She felt almost primaeval. She wanted to fuck her wife into submission and yet, after the first set of orgasms spasmed through her, she gentled her touch to continue making love to her. She was showing her how much she loved her with her body, earning her own sets of clenching spasms in response.
“Oh, God, I needed that,” Allyssa admitted as they lay wrapped around each other, their sweaty, damp bodies still entwined. Her fingers were still being squeezed by Fey’s body as little micro-orgasms ran through her crotch and body causing little spasms and jerks.
“Me too,” Fey admitted, her sweaty forehead buried in her wife’s neck. Her heaving chest was just trying to draw in enough oxygen to keep her alive. Slowly, her own extremities began to tingle as the blood flowed back into them. She sighed gustily.
“We should get up and get dressed,” Allyssa murmured, ever mindful that they had a house filled with people.
“We should,” Fey agreed, but before either of them could move, they fell asleep in each other’s arms. They were exhausted not only from their lovemaking, but also from the events of the past few days and the stress of all their worries. Fortunately, they’d found the perfect way to forget, if only for a little while.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Several weeks later, the statement the women had prepared was scheduled to appear in every newspaper for one hundred miles around. Some reporters came in person to clarify facts because the papers would be printing their story that Friday evening. A couple papers wouldn’t send anyone, so Allyssa paid them to print the story in the form of an advertisement. Of course, they would take her money for that. She arranged for her blogs to release the same story and the same statement at the identical time. The TV stations were a little more difficult, but both Allyssa and Fey made themselves available for interviews. Their only requirement was the stations air their interviews on that same Friday. This had also been their only stipulation to the papers when they let the reporters ask their questions. The information had been released to the reporters prior to the interview but only as a basis for their interview. Questions like, “How did that make you feel?” and other equally invasive questions made them both uncomfortable, but they had known to expect them.
Surrounded by their other two babies, Allyssa held Erin in her arms as she described what Peter had done. She praised her wife for teaching her to shoot and clearly explained that she had acted in self-defense. They didn’t know if this bombardment of information regarding the incidents would work to salvage their reputations, but they hoped Fey would at least get back some work she had lost. The weeks leading up to this interview had been fraught with worry as the business dwindled to nearly nothing and their income took a big hit. With Sean and Traci standing next to them, they were the picture of the perfect family. The pieces were well-written, and Henry had approved the press releases.
“I don’t see what doing all this stuff is gonna accomplish,” Sean complained. He was upset they’d made him wear a suit for the interview. The reporters had only asked him a few questions and then they’d had him stand with the family. Allyssa had made him laugh when she said this was the family portrait.
“Hopefully, by telling our side of things, the bullying will stop. Not all people may believe us,” she conceded, “but we have to try.”
“I don’t want you having to defend us,” Fey put in after the third TV reporter’s van had left. “I also don’t want you to think you always need to make a clean breast of things to people like that when things go wrong.”
“Apparently, someone has made a habit of smearing our reputations and casting doubt on everything we have ever done, and I’m hoping to fix that,” Allyssa explained, hoping the young teen would understand. “We want and need to live here, and someone is trying to make that impossible.” She hadn’t mentioned how she’d been snubbed at the single remaining store in Sweetwater by some of the very people who had been so nice to her in the past. They hadn’t said anything, just put their heads down, so they wouldn’t make eye contact. She was sure some of the people who were judging them had just decided to avoid using Fey’s services and stay away until they could see how this situation panned out. She was confident that once people had the facts, they would quickly become supporters, clients, friends again. “Did you know there was a rebuild going on in Sweetwater?” Traci put in.
“What kind of rebuild?” Fey asked as she helped Allyssa make dinner. The threesome was hungry and had started to act up. She could feel her own hunger pangs as well, and she was sure the other two children were hungry too.
“Oh, they’re asking for volunteers to help those who have gotten permits to rebuild. I heard it through the 4-H.”
“No, but I can guess why we weren’t included,” Fey commented to Allyssa. “Still, I would have thought Gretchen or Lorna would have told you.
“No, I don’t think they would. They know how we’re being treated and are probably protecting me from having my feelings hurt anymore. They saw how surprised I was at the message boards.”
They discussed the situation, then watched the local news as a family. The report was very nice. It wasn’t exactly the full message they had wanted to get out there, and the editing of their words was a little off, but they guessed that was what the TV news did. Their own blog and the newspapers put the story out just the way Fey and Allyssa had written it, and Henry had approved both versions. He had cautioned them ahead of time that the newspapers and TV stations were in the business of making money, which meant they might put their own spin on things. One newspaper ran their opinion right next to the article they had printed verbatim, and their opinion was favorable of what the women had said. After Sean and Traci went to bed, they checked the message boards and their blogs, and the positive feedback made Allyssa cry with relief. Anonymous was sounding out, but he or she was being shouted down. Many commented on the facts that had been revealed, not only by Fey and Allyssa but also by the officials, who had also been interviewed, including the sheriff. All had corroborated the interviews.
“Think it worked?” Fey murmured, worried about all this gossip and innuendo. The interviews had been very demanding, the weeks of almost no work had been equally worrying, and she was tired of stress. She wanted a peaceful time with her wife and family, not all this crap.
By Monday, the phone was ringing almost like normal. If anything, it may have been ringing a little more as the sycophants reached out, wanting to meet the vet again just as they had after the shoot-out with the rustlers. Allyssa was being invited to barbeques, her family was included of course, and people were inquiring about the rescue once more. Things weren’t completely back to normal, but they were most definitely picking up.
“Thank goodness the horses came home,” Allyssa said as she hugged Fey close. They’d taken a walk out to their fences to give the spoiled horses a treat. “I think Ben and Red there told everyone we were home.”
Fey chuckled at the idea that horses told each other anything. Still, seeing the many rescues coming back home to roost was a blessing. She glanced over to where Rhonda and Woody were wo
rking with a horse and child. The boy was riding the horse, his helmet bobbing along as the couple explained to the disabled boy how he should feel the horse. “Yeah, I think we are home,” Fey agreed, hoping everything would continue to improve. She glanced at the growth on the hills that had started almost immediately following the fires. The grass came back first, green and rich and filling out the horses and cattle that grazed on it. The fall rains had come early, and there was enough growth on the land to prevent the rain from washing away the valuable dirt. She was thrilled. This was her home and she thanked God for sending Allyssa to share it with her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
A week later, Allyssa and Fey volunteered to help with the rebuild. Hundreds of residents were chipping in to help rebuild homes that had been destroyed by the fire. This time, they had been invited to join in, not only by the 4-H people but by members of the community. Some had apologized for believing the rumors about the two women. Some still gave them looks of distrust, thinking they had gotten away with something and wanting to believe the worst. Others welcomed them back wholeheartedly.
“We got the DNA test back on that burned body,” Sheriff Bradley told them after he pulled them aside when they had been working for a few hours.
“About time,” Allyssa murmured to Fey.
“Hush, it takes time.”
“Yeah, even with a rush job those things take forever from the state lab,” he agreed. He looked uncomfortable as he continued speaking, “I don’t know how to tell you this after all you’ve been through, but the body we found on your land wasn’t Trever Kapatrick.”
“What?” Fey squawked and Allyssa asked at the exact same time, “Then who was it?”
“We don’t know for sure, but the gunshot wound was fresh, and it wasn’t from your gun.”
“How–?” Allyssa began and then stopped. “If that wasn’t Trever, then where is he?”
“We don’t know, but a statement has gone out to all law enforcement and the media. The APB is back in effect and we will continue to look for him.”
Fey looked around at all the neighbors, townspeople, and volunteers on this site, who were helping to erect houses for those affected by the huge fire that had swept through this part of the state. She saw people stopping to play with the threesome, who were sitting or trying to stand in a portable play pen watching everything going on. She saw her sister was helping and wondered briefly where her brother was. Juanita and her beau were working at the refreshment table, making sandwiches for all the volunteers, and it was then she realized there was no one on the ranch. “Sheriff!” she gasped. “What if Trever was just waiting for us all to be off the ranch? What if he was the one who set the fire and put the body in the fire’s path to stop us from looking for him?”
Allyssa caught on immediately and asked, “What if he was Anonymous?”
Fey looked at her wife, “What if he’s the one setting out to destroy us?”
“And we’re not home to protect–”
“Oh, my God!” Fey headed for the threesome, calling for her siblings at the same time and telling Traci, who responded, to prepare to leave. Sheriff Bradley reached for his radio and called his deputies to meet him at the Falling Pines Ranch. He told them to assume there was an armed gunman on the premises. He only hoped that Trever didn’t have a police band radio and was able to listen in on his warnings.
Allyssa hooked Molly and Erin into their car seats in record time while Fey handled Tom. Juanita volunteered to bring Traci and the missing Sean when he was found; her beau would drive them. Several concerned people noticed the women’s panic and asked what was going on. Fey and Allyssa explained what they knew while they hooked the children into their car seats. Seeing the panic on the women’s faces and the sheriff tearing out of there, the gossip spread quickly about the body that apparently was not Trevor Kapatrick.
They headed towards the ranch, covering the miles in record time. They pulled into their road and drove up their driveway...and what they saw when they crested the last hill leading to their little valley nearly stopped their hearts. There were three sheriffs’ cars parked in their yard, and the deputies all had hoses aimed towards the house. They were putting out a blazing fire that was shooting out the back windows. When their motorcade arrived, the sheriff’s vehicle right behind their Suburban, a relieved Sean ran out to greet them.
“Sean!” Fey cried, her arms going around her brother automatically as he hugged her tight. “What are you doing here?”
“It was Trever! He was still alive, and he grabbed me in town!” he told her. He started to cry and hid his face against her.
Fey exchanged a look with Allyssa over her brother’s shoulder. He was growing so fast, he was almost as tall as she was. Fey also glanced to the house where the deputies were putting out the fire. She looked around, but she couldn’t see where any other buildings were affected.
“What happened?”
“He said I had to come with him. He said he was my brother and two dykes couldn’t make me a man. I told him I didn’t want to go with him. I remembered what you said, Allyssa,” he looked at his sister-in-law, “and I told him he was an attempted rapist and arsonist. He slapped me,” he told them, then backed up so both women could see the red of his tear-streaked cheek. “He pushed me in a car and drove here. He was going to show you that you couldn’t profit from his mother’s death. That’s what he said...his mother’s death. Wasn’t she my mother too?” he asked, suddenly confused.
“Of course, Rosemary was your mother. She loved you too,” Allyssa asserted, wondering if that was what the boy needed to hear right now. She could see the hoses were working steadily on the fire and suddenly heard a fire engine siren in the distance.
“He started the fire, and I tried to run. The deputies arrived and tried to stop him, but he pulled a gun and they were forced to shoot it out with him. I stayed flat on the ground where he had thrown me. I was so scared!” he cried, holding Fey almost convulsively.
Allyssa looked at the boy sadly. She knew he would be scarred for life by this event, but she was grateful he had Fey to love him. For all his bravado about being a teenager, he was still very young and had a lot of growing up to do. She exchanged a helpless look with her wife.
“He’s dead, Fey. They killed him right in front of me,” he sobbed, horrified by what he had seen. “I’m glad though, I’m really glad,” he admitted. He started to cry even harder, and Fey held him as tight as she could.
Allyssa felt tears prickling at her own eyelids. The tears weren’t for Trever, they were for the boy, who had been forced to witness all that violence. She took a couple steps and wrapped her arms around her wife and brother-in-law.
The fire department arrived, but the fire had been mostly extinguished by then. The deputies had been successful using the hoses from the spring house. The fire engine’s sirens had startled the threesome, who started crying. They set up their own screams, so Allyssa had to respond. She didn’t have three arms though, and Fey and Sean soon joined her to comfort the wailing babies. As they watched the fire department douse the last of the smoking timbers, Sheriff Bradley walked over.
“I’m going to make sure the media gets the full story on what happened here and your role in this,” he told the teen. “You prevented him from getting the fire fully going, and it’s not your fault he pulled a gun on my deputies. They are trained to fire back and not ask questions. I hope you are okay?”
Sean, still upset and tearing up while trying to comfort Molly, nodded. He wiped his wet cheeks on his little niece. “I’m okay,” he hiccupped, even though it was apparent he wasn’t. Fey looked at him over Tom’s head, then at Allyssa, who grinned ruefully over Erin’s head. They’d make sure he got therapy for this trauma; he just might need it. They both understood what Sheriff Bradley was saying about the disclosure to the media. People’s reputations were on the line, and this entire episode needed closure.
“I think you are going to have trouble with your ins
urance company over this fire. It was clearly arson...again,” he said to Fey and Allyssa with a straight face. Then, he couldn’t contain it any longer, and he started to laugh. Fey and Allyssa joined in, and after a moment, Sean did too. The babies, enjoying the laughter, although they didn’t know what it was about, giggled too.
Everyone exchanged smiles as Juanita’s beau drove his sedan over the hill, and Traci looked on anxiously at the little group. As the uncontrollable laughter wound down, Fey put her arm around Allyssa and said, “We’re here to stay. We will rebuild.” They had done it before, and they would do it again.
THE END
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If you have enjoyed VETTED AGAIN, I hope you will enjoy this excerpt from
PIONEERING
One family’s saga had just begun...In the epic sequel to Cavalcade, we learn what happens to the Herriots when they arrive in Oregon and take up their claim.
Vetted Again Page 36