After lunch Alice drove them around the large marina pointing out places they could go and eat eventually and they went near the breakwater where large waves crashed along and splattered the rocks. Kit could understand now why they wouldn’t be going out into the ocean and that they were safe inside the harbor that the breakwater made. “Someday I’ll take you both out to Catalina,” Alice told her and then had to explain about the large island off of California’s coast.
Their afternoon sped by and they all became bronzed with a hint of red before Alice took them home. Kit was tired and was dozing when Alice tied off the boat at her dock.
“I can’t carry her,” Kathy bemoaned the fact as Alice handed her the basket.
Alice laughed. “I would but not on this dock,” she indicated the motion against the boat and the dock.
“I can carry myself,” Kit asserted sleepily.
Kathy ended up leading her inside the house as Alice finished tying off the boat and covering it before joining them in the condo. Something told her as soon as she entered the condo though that something was wrong. It wasn’t anything Kathy or Kit did though, Kit was sleeping already on the couch and Kathy was in the kitchen unpacking their picnic basket, some sixth sense warned Alice that something wasn’t right. She glanced around and realized a lot of things were moved slightly in the house, she was such a perfectionist about where she put things that she could see someone had been here while they had been gone. She immediately went up to her computers. Spraying a mist on the keyboards told her someone else’s fingers had attempted to type on the keyboards; she knew this since she had wiped the keys just that morning before they left. She carefully sprayed another mist on them and lifted several prints to be carefully placed on cards and stashed as Kathy came upstairs.
“I’m going to take a quick shower and get this oil off of me,” she said as she looked at Alice curiously. “Aren’t you ever done with work?”
Alice smiled but it didn’t quite reach her peculiar yellow eyes. “Well, no rest for the wicked,” she answered.
Kathy smiled back but faltered slightly, something was off, she didn’t know what but something was ‘off’ she was sure of it, Alice’s eyes were a little odd. She went into her bedroom and grabbed some clothes to change into and tried to shrug off the peculiar feeling she had gotten from looking into Alice’s eyes just now.
The minute that Kathy was in the bathroom Alice began looking around the condo and examining things. Using a special scope she was able to ascertain that someone, and she wasn’t sure if it were just one person or two had been in her condo while they were gone. They had been thorough too, going through everything in the house. She checked the cars and found they had been examined thoroughly as well. She got out the bag she had used at Kathy’s and checked for bugs and cameras. She found the bugs but no cameras, perhaps they hadn’t had enough time. She also found a special device next to her computer that would have screwed it up had she started up the computer, it might have also given the intruder access to sensitive personal data that she certainly didn’t want anyone to find. She barely was able to check over the whole condo with her devices before Kathy got done in the shower, fortunately a long one probably from removing the suntan oils. She glanced nervously at her safe but couldn’t tell if the carpeting hiding it had been touched. As she heard Kathy finish up in the bathroom she sprinted for her own staircase and her own shower as she thought over what had happened and her feelings over the intruder or intruders and what she would do.
Alice had thought her condo impenetrable. Whoever Eli Watson had hired had been good, had been very good. The guard at her gate would be easy to fool, but her alarm system was state of the art and with a sixteen digit code on it hard to bypass, but somehow someone had. Alice cursed herself for being lax, it wasn’t like her. Knowing she had two others to be responsible for made her angry that she had been so lax. She had to somehow eliminate Eli Watson and do it quickly. She knew he had a lot of defenses up though and she knew nothing about his home that would help her. She too could hire intruders but the less people who knew of her interest in him the better. It was better to work alone, solo, so that there were no witnesses to her work or what she wanted. She didn’t relish the idea of having to eliminate innocents who were only doing their jobs.
Alice carefully thought over her problems, her difficulties that had arisen from having two more people to be responsible for. How had the intruder’s gotten in? That was her first concern. She couldn’t alarm either Kathy or Kit though when she searched. She couldn’t keep them prisoner here indefinitely though either, they didn’t realize it was for their own safety and if she said anything Kathy would become alarmed. Right now she was feeling safe and Alice wanted her to continue to be so. There were things she needed to do, business to attend to and having guests here had become inconvenient. Then she thought about the relationship she had started with Kathy and she knew she couldn’t very well ask them to leave. Putting them up at a hotel would only make it easier for Eli and his minions to find them and do who knew what.
Over the next week Alice was able to figure out there was a short in her system by one of the patio doors. She solved that by putting in extra wiring that doubled the capacity of the sensors, she did this carefully in the guise of working around the house having Kit help her under their very noses. Kathy had no reason to suspect the real reason for this sudden interest in her ‘wiring’ and naively thought that Alice was just keeping her daughter busy. Kit had become a problem. With no school to go to she wanted to see things. Southern California was a mecca for entertainments and Alice would have loved to take them to Disneyland, Magic Mountain, or Knott’s Berry Farm as well as the countless museums and other attractions but she didn’t dare. Already she had spotted two well-placed vehicles in her complex that were obviously watching the condo and trying to monitor her place. The bugs were already in the marina and not her concern but she had swept the condo several times for more sophisticated equipment that she might have missed. She also knew of the binoculars that were trained from across the water from a condo that had suddenly been rented out. The flash of light had tipped her off one morning as she worked in her alcove telling her that someone was using the binoculars. Her own telescope focused in on the men who were attempting to see into her windows and through the blinds that were drawn. Alice’s anger began to grow over the situation and her own inability to control the situation.
Nights though were passion filled as she taught Kathy her likes and learned more about the brunette who was proving to be a charming and avid lover. She was eager to learn and nothing that Alice tried or introduced her to seemed to turn her off. She engaged in all of their love play with enthusiasm and excitement that Alice had to muffle with passion filled kisses. Her education was lacking on some levels though and Alice hadn’t been sure how to address it.
“No, I enjoy our lovemaking, it’s just that,” she didn’t know how to tell her without hurting her feelings. “I need more,” she looked at her hoping she was making herself clear or that Kathy would offer up some words she was having a hard time saying.
Kathy looked at her lover, she was falling in love with this woman and she was telling her she was inadequate? She was never so insulted in all her life, but before she could get really angry she took a deep breath and Alice continued.
“I need it a little more intense,” she said, her eyes full of meaning.
“Intense?” Kathy was confused, for her it was intense, very intense.
“I don’t know if you understand,” she said gently, she hadn’t meant to imply anything; she could see the hurt on Kathy’s lovely face. “I need it a little more….rough.”
Kathy’s eyes opened wider in her surprise and at what that implied, she knew she was new to lovemaking between women. She had enjoyed the sensuality and beauty of what Alice did to her, she just tried to duplicate it for Alice but she realized now that her hesitancy to take the initiative, her own duplication was not what Alice neede
d, she was trying to tell her what her needs were, not insult her. She wasn’t sure what more intense or rough actually meant and then she had a sudden vision of leathers and whips and she knew she couldn’t do that!
Alice tried not to smile but it was difficult, Kathy’s face was so expressive and open. “I’m just asking that the next time we make love we try other things okay?” She took Kathy’s chin into her hand, cupping it. “I still want you and I enjoy what we do, but I also want more, okay?”
Kathy was relieved, there would be a next time, she wasn’t being criticized, just asked to try different things, and she could do that. She smiled tentatively. “Okay,” she agreed, massively relieved.
Alice released the smile she had been holding in check as she pulled Kathy into her arms for a hug. “I love you, you know?”
Kathy pulled back to look into those strange yellow eyes, she realized she too loved this woman more than she had known she could, she leaned in to gently kiss her and murmured against her warm lips, “I love you too Alice,” in a breathless whisper that began to ignite their passions.
“Mom!” Kit’s voice intruded on their warm intimate moment and they pulled reluctantly apart from where they had been making out and talking on the couch.
Kathy walked up the steps without a trace of a limp, the stitches had been removed a few days ago and the injury was healing well. Alice watched her as she made her way up to the demands of her child. This situation needed settling and she wasn’t sure how to settle it at the moment. She knew how she’d like to settle it but that might not work, she knew how a predator felt when they met another predator who was equally matched, maybe superior. Eli had used resources that Alice refused to employ. He had other’s involved, on his payroll that Alice refused to involve. She was a solitary hunter and this situation had become intolerable. They were virtual prisoners in her condo and only she knew it. Only she saw the noose tightening around them. Kathy and Kit were oblivious to the two cars that followed them whenever they went out to the store, the binoculars that watched them whenever they were out on the boat or on the back patio. Alice’s trained eye spotted them and a few other possible dangers and she didn’t know yet how she was going to solve the problem.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Kathy’s return to the couch. “There, she just needed to know I was nearby, she had a bad dream.”
Alice smiled up at her, not realizing her yellow eyes looked fierce and foreboding, they changed rapidly at seeing the brunette though, and they changed to warm and loving. While their lovemaking had been wonderful, it was the nuances that had started to melt Alice’s cold heart, made her believe that she could love, could be in love, and it was all due to this woman. Their conversations were interesting and intriguing, she adored Kathy’s daughter who was funny and inventive, and all around it gave Alice a sense of family she had never had before, never dreamed she needed. “Bad dream over what?”
“I wonder sometimes if she heard you and I talking about Eli, she said a bad man was coming after her…”
Alice frowned wondering if she had overheard something or perhaps seen something. Children were a lot more intuitive than people gave them credit for. Alice found Kit fascinating and amusing and enjoyed her immensely. A protective streak came out whenever she was around the little imp. She didn’t realize it yet but she was not only in love with the mother but the child had wrapped her little hands around Alice’s cold heart and begun to melt it as well. “Anything I can do?”
Kathy shook her head as she plopped down on the couch and laid her head on Alice’s shoulder. Alice wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close as she thought about what she could do, would do. She had to remove this cloud over their heads.
Alice’s opportunity came the following week. She didn’t know why the fates had thrown this in her lap but Eli had fallen into not one but two of her traps and she now had access to his accounts, in fact she slowly but surely delved into his finances finding little hidey holes and tax traps that he had set up to incur no additional expenses and to hide vast sums of money. Setting up accounts with such easy things as Pay Pal and complicated ones through third party Swiss bank accounts was not difficult and she began to drain his financial assets, slowly and assiduously, making it impossible for him to realize it until it was too late. She set up dummy accounts that made it appear that all his assets were in place, that in fact he was getting interest, deferring taxes, and cunningly avoiding the federal government. Instead what happened over the next couple of weeks was that his accounts were drained, differed, transferred through so many dummy accounts that it couldn’t be traced and finally all this information about his accounts reported to the government. By the time he would know what hit him all his physical assets would be seized and his liquid ones gone. Alice didn’t do things halfway; she wasn’t done with him yet.
“Hey, I got an email from Portia, she mentioned she is going to be in Los Angeles next weekend on business,” Kathy told her late one day.
“That’s cool, why don’t you invite her to stay here?” Alice looked up from the financial papers she was reading. They read Robert Small but only she knew they were for Eli Watson and she was very satisfied with what she was reading. In just another day all of his accounts would be drained, this time tomorrow the information would be sent to the right sources and all the accounts she had set up mysteriously disappear.
“There really isn’t any room,” Kathy looked at her and then glanced at the dining room table where Kit was putting together a puzzle Alice had bought her.
“You said next weekend right?” Alice looked up from her financials and at Kathy’s nod said, “I told you I had to go to Vegas to look at some business properties, remember?”
Kathy thought for a moment and only vaguely remembered Alice mentioning something weeks ago but she had had other things on her mind at the time, not the first of which was learning to make love to this incredible woman. She was still learning and enjoying all of it but then they both got their periods and it had been a long dry spell of only holding and touching but no actual screwing and they both had suffered. “How long will you be gone?” she asked suddenly realizing they hadn’t been apart in the time she had been here, in fact she had been seriously thinking of enrolling Kit in a local school.
Alice shrugged. “Too long,” she said with a meaningful look that Kathy saw and acknowledged. They both enjoyed their time together.
It worked out well for Alice. She met and welcomed Portia to her home, spent a few hours reminiscing and assuring her she was welcome. There were clean sheets on her bed, clean towels in the bathroom, and she had shopped yesterday with Kit and Kathy to fill the kitchen. She pulled Portia aside and asked that they hang out at the condo that she was concerned about Kathy’s safety because of some guy named Eli and from the look on Portia’s face she knew Kathy had told her. Alice examined Portia’s face to see if she knew more and something about the look in Portia’s eye told her Kathy had confided in her and the love affair they were sharing.
Portia confirmed it when she said, “I’ll look after her for you, don’t worry.”
Alice grinned ruefully; she had never been in such a situation before. She only knew if Eli’s minions got a hold of her she didn’t know what she would do. She wanted this solved and this weekend should do it. She had to go. She examined Portia’s earnest and honest face, she had deep tan lines from living in Phoenix, she had dark black hair from her Latino heritage, and a sexy little body that had garnered her many boyfriends that rivaled Connie’s, in fact they had shared on more than one occasion that Alice knew of. She was also a competent attorney who had taken care of business yesterday so she could spend the weekend with her friend once she found out they were in the same city together.
Alice’s bags were packed and she put them in the Pathfinder. She gave Kit a hug and peck on the cheek before heading to the garage with a meaningful look at Kathy. “Hang on a moment Alice, I want to tell you something,” Kathy called and closed the
garage door between them and those looking from in the condo before Alice wrapped her in her arms kissed her deeply.
“I’m going to miss you,” Kathy breathed against her lips.
“As am I,” Alice breathed back as she pushed Kathy up against the wall grinding against her, wanting her desperately. She kissed her gently, using her tongue in the unique ways she knew how, groaning as she sucked on Kathy’s, wishing she could have made love to her the night before but the final vestiges of her period were working their way out of her body and she wouldn’t be clean until tomorrow. While she would have made love with toys despite the blood it had grossed out Kathy to think of doing so. She had respected Kathy’s wishes and held her during her period, and enjoyed being held during her own.
“Hurry back, we need to start living and have a lot to talk about when you get back,” Kathy whispered.
Alice smiled. “Yes we do, start looking at the ads in the paper, I think we need a new place to live,” she grinned at the surprised smile that appeared on Kathy’s face.
“You want me to stay?”
Alice nodded. “Yes, I think for always but we have a lot to discuss, to plan, and we have to sit down with Kit at some point and explain this.”
Kathy blanched at how to explain to an eight year old about a lesbian relationship.
Alice saw her expression. “Don’t worry, we will figure it out, meanwhile, dream while I’m gone and I’ll be home soon!”
Alice drove away from the condo taking note of one of the two cars parked strategically so they wouldn’t be noticed as they watched the condo. Having Portia there gave her some latitude in how she could maneuver. It gave a witness to anything that might happen and she knew it only bought her some time away from the condo. She intended to use that time productively. She knew someone had been snooping around her place whenever they were gone, looking for ways to get in. Her own camera’s had caught them time and again as they tried windows and doors, set off the silent alarm, triggered their own monitors, they had even had the private security firm she used superficially show up time and again and scare them away. In fact she knew their routines very well because she had slowly orchestrated them until she knew their reactions to several scenarios. She knew for instance that this car would follow her and the other might check on the condo until they were sure she was home again. This time though she cut through several alleys she knew about as she drove towards the back part of LAX. It threw them off but she wasn’t going to LAX, it was only a ruse. She wondered how impatient Eli was becoming; she only hoped that she could find out more about him with this trip to plan her next step.
Malice Masterpieces Page 24
