Jade

by Dark Hollows Press, LLC

  Stacey could stay here forever with Jade. The past several days had been filled with so many fun activities from ice-skating to snow shoeing to rides in horse drawn wagons. And every night she lay in Jade’s arms and felt loved.

  It was so nice not to have her body on demand for so many different people. To trust the touch of the hand that caressed her body in the dark of the night.

  Later this week they were going to buy Christmas decorations. It was the first time in a long time she could remember feeling excited about Christmas.

  The coffee finished dripping so she got up and poured a cup. Taking it back to the couch she turned the television to the local news.

  It was a story about the local animal shelter that was facing hard times. Its aim was to be a no kill shelter but to date with the lack of funds it wasn’t in the cards.

  As she listen to the news reporter interview the spokeswoman for the Kalispell animal shelter she wondered why the world was so mean to all that was sweet and gentle like kids and animals.

  Just then the broadcaster introduced one of the residents of the animal shelter. A medium sized floppy eared fluffy merle coated dog by the name of Reilly. As he smiled for the camera and dance around Stacey realized this was one of the animals slated to be euthanized at the end of the week.

  He had been adopted out a couple of times but due to his high energy and destructive behaviors he had been returned to the shelter. The spokeswoman was saying how she felt Reilly only needed the right home with structure and discipline and he would make a great pet.

  “But he may never get the chance,” The reporter intoned gloomily.

  Miranda, the spokeswoman, shook her head. “No, people see how cute he is and his sweet disposition, but that’s all they see. We try our best to explain to them he needs a lot of exercise and discipline in order to be a well behaved dog. But now it looks like he’s out of chances. If we had the funding to be a no kill shelter then we could keep him here and work with him but unfortunately that’s not our circumstances right now.”

  The news reporter bent down and scratched Reilly behind the ears. Reilly was in ecstasy as he leaned against the reporter’s leg with his eyes closed.

  Stacey knew just how it felt to be Reilly. To be used and discarded by so many people. Like her Reilly had a sunny disposition but the edges were ragged and sharp from so many years of neglect and despair.

  She knew she had to have Reilly.

  Topping off her coffee, she poured another for Jade and carried them carefully into the bedroom. Placing the mugs on the night table, Stacey straddle Jade, plopping herself on her stomach.

  “Oomph,” Jade said waking up. Smiling she tickled Stacey’s side. Stacey giggled like a madman and tried to get away. Almost capsizing the cups of coffee with her foot she managed to gasp, “Jade, the coffee, it’s gonna get knocked over.”

  Looking at her night table she saw the fragrant cups of steaming coffee sitting beside her. “Hmmm….I thought I could smell coffee close by and I was right.”

  Adjusting Stacey as she sat up, Jade handed a cup of coffee to her before picking up her own. “Must be something about this mountain water because this has got to be the best coffee I’ve ever tasted.”

  “You know it’s distilled water and not mountain water,” Stacey teased her over the rim of her cup.

  “I can pretend though can’t I?” Looking at Stacey, she put her cup of coffee down and then took hers and put it on the table as well. “I haven’t said good morning to you properly yet,” she said pulling Stacey close and kissing her hard.

  Sneaking her hands up underneath Stacey’s pajamas she gently teased and fondled her breasts. Aroused Stacey enjoyed the feel of Jade’s warm hands playing with her sensitive nipples causing them to peak and harden.

  Getting sidetracked for a few minutes in a very pleasant diversion, Stacey wrangled her top back down as she got off the bed.

  Jade smiled lazily up at her with her beautiful feline shaped eyes. “What’s your hurry this morning?”

  Stacey bit her lip. She was going to say she wanted to make them a nice breakfast and then discuss the dog as they ate. But she wanted to get over to the shelter immediately to rescue Reilly. Already she felt like she had wasted too much time.

  Taking a deep breath, she launched into Reilly’s story of neglect and abuse yet how despite it all he still maintained a sunny disposition. She could see the dismayed look on Jade’s face.

  “He reminds me of me,” she finished lamely. “Please, Jade? Can we just go and see him, please?”

  Running a hand distractedly through her hair, she said, “I don’t want a pet but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to go take a look at him.”

  Stacey gave a whoop of joy and jumped back on top of her hugging her fiercely.

  “I didn’t say we were going to get him. I only said we were going to go see him.” Her words had little impact on Stacey. All ready half the battle had been won as Jade had agreed to go see Reilly.

  ******

  Waking up in his dismal dive of a room, Colin stretched, got up and looked out the window. It was snowing outside. Sighing, Colin knew that his little car would never make it through the mountain passes and he’d end up going off a cliff. Then he’d make headline news. He really had no idea of where the two women had gone. And why they would head north when they could head to the balmy south was a hard story for him to buy. He wondered what temporary moment of insanity had caused him to head for Salt Lake City. It was time to go back.

  Checking out of the seedy motel, Colin had a momentary sensation of unease at what he was doing to this successful yet intensely private business woman.

  Shrugging it off the old adage danced in his mind – if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime. When he got back he’d have to start doing some serious leg work. He needed something to show his boss soon and it better be pretty substantial if he wanted to keep this gig.

  ******

  Grabbing a granola bar, they got in the vehicle to make the 20 minute drive to the animal shelter, it was truly a beautiful drive with pastures covered in a sparkling blanket of snow. Shaggy horses and cows huddled in shelters as they watched disinterestedly their passing vehicle.

  Out of the blue Stacey shrieked and pointed out the window. Looking, Jade saw a red fox trotting across the pristine snow.

  She reached over and rested her hand on Jade’s arm. “Can you believe how beautiful he is? Just look at him.”

  It was indeed a healthy looking fox.

  “Why do we call everything like foxes vermin? I mean we trespass on their land all the time and we’re way more damaging than they’ll ever be. They trespass a little bit on ours and all we can think about is killing them.”

  Jade knew Stacey had a point. People were way more damaging than even the worst vermin out there which, in her opinion, were rats. Having lived in New York City for the majority of her adult life she had seen a few rats in her time. While it was true they carried diseases and were unsavory, they didn’t pollute the air, promote war or murder simply for the sport of it. All that seemed to be in the human jurisdiction. And all these indiscretions were overlooked or even tolerated.

  She was pretty sure if humans were eliminated and only animals were left the world would be a better place.

  With that thought in mind she pulled up in front of the Kalispell County Animal shelter. All ready they could hear the excited barking of dogs as they strolled up to the front door.

  Stacey’s face fell as they walked through the door. “Oh no, it looks like somebody already got here before us.”

  A young couple were holding Reilly’s leash and talking to one of the shelter’s staff. As if he felt their eyes upon him, Reilly turned around and saw them standing there. Floppy ears at half mask, Reilly stood there wagging his tail grinning like mad.

  After exchanging a few more words between them, the couple surrendered Reilly’s leash back to the shelter staff.

  Taking the opportunity Stacey walke
d up to her and asked her if she could see Reilly for a few moments. Nodding the shelter staff handed his leash over.

  “You’ll be the last one, though, before we put him back in his kennel. Reilly’s had enough excitement for one day. You’ll be the seventh person already this morning that has asked to see him. Everybody falls in love with him because he’s cute but he’s got a few issues that he needs help with.” Tiffany, according to her name tag, sighed. “If we can’t find the type of home we think he needs by the weekend then his time is up. We’ll have to put him down.”

  Stacey was kneeling down beside Reilly stroking his floppy ears. “It’s too bad you’re not a no kill shelter.”

  “Need a lot of money to become a no kill shelter. More than what we have. We’d need a bigger facility and more staff. Probably take a couple of million or more to get it set up right. We take all sorts of animals in not just dogs and cats. Right now people here are pretty hard up so donating money to the shelter is the last thing on their mind. We’re hoping because of the season it might make people a little more generous.”

  Stacey listened silently to Tiffany’s story all the while scratching Reilly’s ears. Would Jade consider donating the money she no longer wanted to the shelter? It wasn’t anywhere near as much as they needed but it was bound to help.

  “Do you mind if I take Reilly over to see my friend?” she asked pointing to Jade.

  Tiffany glanced at the tall glamorous woman leaning against the wall.

  “Sure, no problem.”

  Stacey walked over to her.

  “I’d like you to meet Reilly.”

  “He’s certainly cute and has a lot of charisma.” She stooped down and gave him a few, friendly pats. Reilly was super delighted with the attention.

  Clearing her throat nervously, Stacey started to speak. “You know the money you had offered to give me for staying with you, do you think we could…?” She started to stumble over her words. This was more awkward than she thought it would be.

  Jade came to her rescue. “You want me to donate it to the shelter.”

  She nodded gratefully. “Exactly. It’s not enough to become a no kill but it’ll help and maybe it will save Reilly’s life.”

  Stacey watched as Jade looked down at Reilly sitting so nicely at her feet as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. “I think that’s something we can do. In fact I’ll double it and add an extra zero at the end. How about that?”

  Giving a whoop of joy and not caring who was watching, Stacey kissed Jade full on the lips. She could feel the eyes of Tiffany watching them from across the room. Walking back with Reilly, she was amused to see that Tiffany didn’t know where to look as she approached.

  “You have a donation of three hundred thousand dollars to your shelter,” she said smiling. “Under the one condition – no matter what this little dog is never killed.”

  “I thought what you were coming to tell me is that you wanted to adopt Reilly,” she said faintly. “This is even better.”

  “I actually didn’t ask her that. I don’t think she’s too keen on animals in general.”

  Suspicion etched into Tiffany’s face. “Where would you get three hundred thousand dollars from?”

  Happiness made her reckless without regard for what she was saying. “You see that lady that’s leaning against the wall?”

  “Yah, I do.”

  “That’s Jade Tanner of Jade Cosmetics and Tanner Enterprises.”

  Tiffany looked at the tall beautiful woman again. “Noooooo, it can’t be. Things like that don’t happen here.” Stacey, feeling so joyful, like nothing could go wrong in the world at this moment, laughed in genuine amusement at her expression. Tiffany catching the infectiousness of the moment, laughed too.

  Jade leaning against the wall was watching Reilly as he lay down at Stacey’s feet as she talked to the shelter staff.

  Jade had a dog once. Beauregard, a big rangy mutt of a dog, who seemed to carry every breed of dog in his genes. A real Heinz 57.

  Thinking about Beauregard, or Beau as she called him, Jade felt her mind crack open. She remembered racing across the fields with him, swimming with him in the pond out in the back field, tying ribbons and bows in his shaggy fur as he patiently endured her ministrations. He was the only real playmate she had on the farm. Swimming to the surface was a memory she had long ago buried deep in her subconscious.

  She and Beau had been playing in the duck pond out in back field when she had taken a notion that the ducks would appreciate some hay for their nest.

  Beau intent on splashing through the water and playing with the ducks didn’t notice her running off in the direction of the barn.

  Entering the cool dimness of the barn’s interior she was heading toward the ladder to the hayloft when a sound behind her caused her to stop and turn around.

  There, walking towards her with his penis erect, was Bert, the handyman. Stroking it as he came closer, she noticed his eyes were vacant and staring. They looked right through her.

  Backing up she felt the ladder behind her. Turning to climb it as quickly as she could to escape Bert lunged at her, catching her before she got her foot on the first rung.

  Holding her head steady he forced her to open her mouth and thrust his penis into it. Grunting and groaning, sweat streamed down his face.

  Choking she knew she was going to die. In her mind she screamed for Beauregard and then she was falling to the ground. Getting up gagging and choking, she saw Beauregard with his teeth clamped tightly around Bert’s arm. The ferocious look in his eyes was like nothing she had ever seen before in her giant gentle playmate.

  Somehow he heard me. She thought to herself as she stumbled out of the barn and toward the house to get her grandmother.

  Hearing her garbled story but getting the gist of it, her grandmother grabbed her shotgun and ran to the barn with Jade close behind.

  Bert had managed to find a shovel and was beating Beau with it, but the dog refused to let go.

  “I’d stopped that if I were you.” Jade’s grandmother said as she raised the rifle and chambered a bullet.

  Bert immediately dropped the shovel and put his hands up. “I wasn’t doin’ nothin’.”

  “Then why are your pants off?”

  “I was taken a piss that’s all and that animal of yours attacked me.”

  Jade could see her grandmother shaking in fury. “Get out before I blow your brains out you son of a bitch. If I ever see you around my property again I will shoot you – do you understand?”

  Bert whimpered like the true coward he was. “You’re not calling the cops?”

  “What good would that do? You’d get nothing but a couple of years if that and your kind would still rove the world unchecked. No, I reckon the best I can do is let you know how it stands here with me. And if I hear of you touching any child anywhere I’ll come after you Bert Cooper. Now get out.”

  There was something in the tone of her grandmother’s voice and her stance that gave the real threat to her words. Jade knew that if Bert ever tried anything with her or anyone else again in Fremont, her grandmother would kill him be damned the consequences. The thought flashed through her mind that if she wasn’t standing there her grandmother would have killed him.

  “Jade? Are you all right? You look really funny.” It was Stacey shaking her arm and bringing her back to reality.

  Her laugh was a little shaky as she said, “Oh, I was remembering my old dog Beauregard I had years ago when I was young and living on the farm with my grandmother.” Her eyes fell on Reilly who was back with Tiffany. She said, “We can get Reilly.”

  For the second time in one morning she was kissed in public by a very ecstatic Stacey.

  Stepping back from her Stacey said, “I don’t think Tiffany really believes you’re THE JADE TANNER.”

  She smiled, her thoughts still misty with the memory of Beauregard. “No, I don’t suppose she would. Why don’t we go to the bank and bring her back a cashier’s check and se
e if that convinces her?”

  “Sure, but first of all let’s tell her we want Reilly.”

  Walking back to Tiffany Jade held out her hand. She said, “I’m Jade Tanner and you’ve already met Stacey.” Pointing down at Reilly, she said, “We’d like to adopt him.”

  Nonplussed, Tiffany said, “It’s a stringent adoption process with Reilly this time around. He’s been returned twice and we’d like to make sure this time it’s permanent.”

  Jade folded her arms across her chest. “So if you can’t find him what you consider a suitable home you’d rather see him destroyed, is that what you’re saying?” She raised her eyebrow.

  “Well no.” She noted with amusement that Tiffany couldn’t meet her eyes. Few people could once they realized who she was. At times it was a very powerful rush. “But if you give us the three hundred thousand dollars than he won’t be euthanized.”

  But eventually he will, Jade thought. “That’s just a drop in the bucket to build the type of shelter you need. I want to adopt him,” she said flatly.

  Jade kept her expression icy and her eyes hard as she continued looking at Tiffany.

  “He’s yours.” She said meekly.

  She smiled at Tiffany, her look thawing. “We’ll go to the bank and get the cashier’s check.” She started to walk away and then realized she had forgotten to ask about Reilly’s adoption fee. “What’s Reilly’s adoption fee?”

  “Oh you don’t have to worry about that.”

  “Yes, I do. How much is it?”

  Flustered Tiffany said, “A hundred and eighty dollars, which includes his neuter, shots and micro-chip.”

  Jade smiled a very sexy smile at Tiffany and felt the woman’s reaction to it. She could tell she had unsettled her. “We’ll pay it.” As they got in the truck Stacey threw her hands around Jade’s neck kissing her lips.

  Amused she kissed her back soundly on the lips. “You seem very excited.”

  She smiled her eyes brilliant with joy. “Jade it’s like Christmas every day for me right now.”