“So why did I tell you this very long story? It’s because there is a lot of history with this ring. And I wanted you to know it.” He held a ring up in between his fingers. It was beautiful. It had a solitaire diamond with twisted gold metalwork. It looked like a heart.
“Mary, will you marry me?” he asked.
I stared at him. I felt the tears running down my cheeks. “Yes.” It was barely above a whisper. He took my hand and slid that beautiful ring on my finger. His hands went to my face and with his thumbs, he wiped away my tears. He pulled me to him and kissed me.
“I love you, Ben.”
“I love you too,” he said, standing and pulling me up with him. “We need to head over to Rosa’s.”
I sniffled and grabbed a tissue while he grabbed his dessert. I grabbed my keys and the flowers. We walked over to Rosa’s. Hector opened the door. We walked in. “Hello, everyone!” I said. I went and put the flowers on the table.
Hector introduced himself to Ben, took the dessert, and headed back to the kitchen. Abe and Andres came next; they introduced themselves and started talking with Ben. Julia and Lita finished setting the table, said hello to Ben, then came back to me and said hello. I gave Lita a hug and she caught my hand and looked at the ring. “Mary?” she said quietly.
“I said yes.” Just as quietly.
“Mary’s getting married!” she screamed out. Julia wrapped me in a hug. Hector and Rosa came out of the kitchen. Hector gave me a hug. Rosa walked right past me and stood in front of Ben. She stared up at him. He stood there, unmoving, under her scrutiny. Abe and Andres congratulated me then turned to watch Rosa. All eyes were on them.
“I love her, Rosa. I will do everything in my power to make her happy and keep her healthy. She will never want for anything. I will be honest and true,” he said.
Rosa listened to his words. “Well, I guess I could always make you into soup if you’re not.” She opened her arms and gave him a hug. “I like you so far. Don’t screw up. And when will I get my coffee maker back?”
Ben was laughing. “Soon, Rosa. Soon. Your coffee is delicious by the way.”
“I only gave it to you because you would appreciate it. Unlike my kids who ruin it with their cream and sugar.”
“Ma, you are not being fair,” Hector said.
“Sure, I am. Coffee should be black, not cream-colored,” she said. We all moved towards the table. “Boys, would you serve, please?” she asked as she steered Ben to sit next to me. She went back in the kitchen and came out with a pitcher of iced tea. She started filling glasses. The boys brought out dishes of carne asada, grilled chicken, beans, rice, salsas, and tortillas. Abe led us in grace, and we shared a wonderful meal.
Ben’s dessert was thoroughly enjoyed. We were sitting at the table, enjoying after-dinner coffee and tea. We were all chatting. Then Rosa asked, “Have you two thought about the wedding yet?” She went right on drinking her coffee.
“Yes, I have, but I have not talked to Ben about it yet,” I said.
“Anything you want,” he said, smiling at me.
I looked back at Rosa. “I was hoping that you would let us have it the restaurant? I was also hoping you would cater it with the help of Ben’s Thai friends?” I said, waiting for Rosa’s reaction.
“I see. Did you have a day in mind?” she asked me.
“A Sunday. It’s family day and we would be bringing our families together that day. So, I was hoping we could have a really big family day?” I really hoped she would agree to this.
“I need a head count and two weeks. I need the contact information for the Thai friends. What about your dress?” Rosa had her phone out and was making notes.
“I am sending you Kamon’s phone number, Rosa,” Ben said.
“I don’t know. Let me look. I want to make my dress; I need to get the invites, get my parents, and find someone to marry us,” I said, taking out my phone and looking at dates. “How about December fifteenth?”
Rosa, Ben, Lita, and Julia were all buried in their phones. “Works for me. Okay, I think we have everything started,” Rosa said, putting her phone down.
“Great. I think it’s time to head home.” I got up and started to say my goodbyes. Ben did the same.
“Bye, talk to you soon, see you soon,” I called as we walked back to my house.
“Are you okay with all of this?” I asked Ben. He opened the door and let me in. I then found myself pushed up against the door. Ben had his arms around me, lifting me up, I wrapped my legs around his waist. I grabbed his shoulders and hung on. His lips sought mine. He ground into me.
“Does this answer your question?” he asked as he walked into the bedroom. He set me down and started taking my clothes off. I helped him get his off. He locked his lips onto mine, then he pushed me back on the bed, sliding home. It felt so good to have him back inside me. He thrust in me deeply, reaching places he had not reached before.
“Oh, Ben,” I gasped out. My nails dug into his shoulders. I could not believe how good this felt.
“Hmm, I think you need a little stimulation.” He reached between us and found my clit.
I moaned out; I could not think any more.
“Yeah, that’s better. Come for me, Mary.” He kept up his assault on my clit. Combined with the sensations his cock was causing in me, I flew apart in his arms. I watched as his neck constricted as his orgasm exploded from his body.
He was still thrusting in me. He had powered through his orgasm. “Let me be on top,” I whispered in his ear. He quickly flipped us. I settled into a comfortable kneeling position. I placed my hands on his chest. I start to ride him. Using the power from my legs, I found a good rhythm.
“Fuck, Mary,” he moaned out. I raked my nails across his nipple and started to flick it using my fingers. He hissed out his breath. He reached between us and started rubbing my clit. With his other hand he gave my nipple the same treatment I was giving his.
“You gonna come with me, Mary? Oh yeah, come with me.” That sent me over the edge. I felt my walls pulsing around him. He crushed me to his chest, so I had no choice but to be fully seated, and he came. “Oh God, Mary.” He didn’t let me go as we caught our breath. He brushed my hair out of my face. I could see him smiling at me. “You are so beautiful.” He reached for a kiss. He picked me up and resettled us under the covers.
“So, you liked everything then?” I was trying not to laugh.
He turned to look at me. I lost my battle with my laughter.
“I don’t know about a repeat performance if that didn’t convince you. I need to recuperate a bit,” he said. Desire had filled his eyes; I didn’t think he would need that long.
Chapter 25
Ammo
I heard my phone buzzing. I really didn’t want to get up. It stopped. I was cuddled in bed with Mary. Everything about Sunday had been perfect. Meeting her parents, her saying yes, dinner at Rosa’s, then pleasuring her. Being with her was bringing out a new side of me I had never explored before. We both seemed to be enjoying it. I snuggled into her. Then both of our phones were going off and there was no more ignoring it. I rolled out of bed and found my phone in my jeans. Mary went after hers where she had put it on the charger.
“Yeah,” I answered. It was Domino.
“Get your ass down here, now. Bring Mary too.” He hung up. I wondered what had happened. Hack had said he would be there this morning. I hoped it was not Jenn. I looked at Mary.
“I have texts from Gena asking me to come to Forces with you.”
“Domino just gave me an order to get down there with you. Did you have any clients today?”
“I have Clarisse at 2. I can reschedule her for another day this week. Her event is not till Saturday.”
“Let’s get a move on then.” We got up, showered, and dressed. She grabbed a yogurt and was ready to go. We headed down to Forces to see what was going on. As I pulled into the garage, I saw Domino waiting for us on the porch. Shit. What was up?
We walked up
. “Hello, Mary, Ammo. I am sorry to have to interrupt your day, but we have news. Let’s go to the command center.”
Walking into the command center, I saw Hack was at his station, typing away. Binary was at her computer looking a bit shell shocked. Gena was setting up a tablet. I had grabbed mine when we left. Joey was there at a computer station as well. Ninja, Lego, Sarah, and Oatmeal were sitting at the table. Tarzan was missing. I felt it.
“Situation report,” Domino said as Mary and I took seats. Gena handed her the tablet.
“I finished analyzing the photos we got from Saturday. I missed this the first two times I looked through them. Look at the upstairs window on the right side of the house. Anyone see it?” Joey asked.
It was a double-hung window. The sheer white curtains were drawn. Looked like an average window.
“No? Yeah, neither did I. Now look at it.”
He had enlarged it. In the bottom corner of the window you could see “Help Me” in blood. There were some bloodstains on the curtain. They looked like fingerprints.
“After I found that yesterday, I went back over there and watched.” He brought up another picture. “I saw this at about 6:30 last night.” It was a picture of a girl’s face in the window that had the writing on it.
I looked at Mary; she was pale. She looked at me, her eyes wide. “Oh my God,” she softly said.
“I have ID’d her as one the girls we were looking for,” Joey said.
“So now we have to decide how to get in, get the girl, if she is still there, and get out. I have had eyes on the house since Joey told me about this. We also need to see what other girls this guy has bought over the years,” Domino said. “Mary, what do you know about this house?”
She described the layout of the first floor of the house as she knew it. I could tell she was upset. I knew she would feel guilty about the girl being in the house all that time.
“We got movement.” It was Ape’s voice over the coms feed. “Holy shit, she got out.” We heard him running as the camera feeds switched over to live.
“OOOmpff.” He collided with her. He put a hand over her mouth and picked her up.
“I am the good guy. I am getting you out of here right now. Please stay quiet.” He ran them back to the van. He tossed her in; she quickly moved so he could get in, and he calmly drove off. No movement followed from the house.
“Holy fuck.” There was a sigh. “I am really sorry. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Ape asked the girl.
“No more than I already was.” She sat in the passenger seat in a bloody men’s shirt.
“Domino, are Amber or Sarah available? Should I take her to the hospital? Or bring her to base?” Ape asked.
“I have a name. It’s Greta. You could ask me where I want to go instead of talking to yourself. I do not want to go somewhere where I have to wait. I need to get home,” she said. She was a spitfire.
Ape looked at her. “Hello, Greta. I’m Lucas, or Ape. I was asking my boss over my com to find out. I am sorry.”
We all stared at the video feed from the camera facing inside the van. “Bring her to base. Lach can treat her, and Sarah is here too.
“Okay, so that solves the problem of the girl. What about the asshole that did this to her?” Lego asked.
“Ape ask her if she could ID her captor, and Ape, be nice about it,” Domino asked.
“Um, Greta? I have to ask; can you ID your captor?” Ape asked her.
She took a deep breath. “No, he wore a hood. He would blindfold me. I was not supposed to touch him, so I can’t tell you much besides I think he is small because his shirt is kind of tight on me.”
I looked at Mary, “Can you tell if that is one of the shirts?”
“It might be, but I would have to look at the stitching to be sure. But there were no identifying marks or labels. It could easily be another client’s shirt.”
I looked at Domino. He was looking at Mary. Then at Gena. “Mary, do you have any reason to go back into his house?”
“No! Absolutely Not. I will not let you do this!” The chair fell over when I stood up. I was ready to launch myself across the table at Domino.
“How else can we get proof? Greta can’t ID the bastard; Mary can’t one hundred percent ID that shirt as his. We have nothing. However. If Mary has a reason to go back into his house, she can take Gena with her. Gena can snoop while Mary does her thing. We get what we need to nail this guy, and he goes to jail with proof so he can’t buy and rape other women.”
“I have a reason, and I have an idea. Mr. Greyson wants me to make his shirts and suits for him. I was going to call him and say no. But I can set up an appointment with him to meet a friend of mine. An exclusive designer friend. Gena can be his assistant. We can go in. I’ll make the introduction and let my friend take over. He will be so distracted that he won’t see Gena doing anything.”
“Do you have an exclusive designer friend?” Domino asked.
“Not exactly. It would be Clarisse Rosenberg’s nephew. Ari Rosenberg.”
“You want that playboy to be your designer friend?” Domino asked, not believing what he was hearing.
“Well, who better to dress a man than a gay man? He is so flamboyant and over the top that Mr. Greyson will be distracted by him and Gena can do her thing. He is a designer, technically, I mean, he went to school for it.”
“It is a good idea if we get the proof ... this bastard will go down. If he has evidence, we could bring down Moses,” Domino said.
I turned to Mary. I pulled her and her chair away from the table, giving myself enough room to get on my knees in front of her. I took her hands in mine. “Mary, you do not have to do this. We can think of something else. Please don’t.” I was begging her.
She looked at me. “Ben how many more women will be hurt if I don’t do this?”
“It’s you I care about. I couldn’t handle it if something happened to you.”
She sighed. “How many more sisters are going to be lost if I don’t do this?”
I was stunned. I hung my head. I knew she was right. I knew she had a way in to do this. I looked back up at her. “You really want to do this?”
“I have to, Ben. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.” She pulled on me till my head was in her lap, I held onto her waist and she wrapped her arms around me, gently rubbing my back. I was formulating a plan to train her to keep her as safe as I could.
“Okay, we have a plan. Let’s detail it, then execute it,” Domino said.
“Ape is here with Greta,” Hack said
“Get her up in the clinic and let’s see what her story is,” Domino said, nodding to Sarah and Gena.
They left to go help Lach. Lach the Doc was our doctor. He was from Australia and always looked like he had just been surfing. He had served in his country’s army until he didn’t see eye to eye with his superiors. I knew we were lucky to have him.
“I need to call Clarisse and cancel her fitting today. I also need to get ahold of her nephew.” She kept on listing things. I took the tablet Gena had set up and opened a note app on it. I pushed it into her hands, and she started making the lists of things she wanted to do.
We heard footsteps on the stairs; we looked up in time to see Gena run back into the room. “You guys have to hear this.” She tuned into Ape’s com and we listened to Greta as she told her story.
“So, the guys that took you were all Mexican or Hispanic?” Ape asked, to confirm.
“Yes.”
“Then what did they say after they took you?”
“They threw me in a delivery truck they had. They were laughing that I was Moses’ new pet. They took me to that big house I ran away from.”
“Did they mention it any other time?”
“When we got there, and they let me out. They said Moses was going to love me. That Moses was going to save me like he did them. I didn’t know what they were talking about. I just wanted to get free.”
“Did you ever see anything of this Mos
es?”
Ammo and Mary Page 13
