by Anna Collins
“Faced with this kind of dilemma, I would always turn towards my sexuality to get me out of a tight spot. I can try and lure them in a particular direction so that you can ambush them. Getting their attention won’t take more than a few choice words. You just be ready for when they come close enough for you to use whatever means necessary to bring them down,” I said feeling slightly intoxicated by the very idea of watching him in action all over again.
“I don’t feel good about hurting those men, and I really don’t need to have a repeat performance. You must know by now I abhor violence. I walked away from my duty because I didn’t want to do it anymore. I couldn’t see the person I was going to kill and live with the knowledge I was responsible for him taking his last breath,” Tristan said as I unbuttoned a couple of buttons and made myself more desirable. I could only hope these men had not had the opportunity to indulge in female companionship for some time now.
“I hope you’re going to be there for me,” I said as I walked out into the hallway, swaying uneasily on my feet as if I had been celebrating a little bit too early.
He had tried to grab me, but he had failed because he didn’t act quickly enough to prevent me from making a complete fool of myself. I didn’t have to look back to know he was there watching out for me. Tristan had always been ready to defend my honor even when we were kids. The few years that had passed were met with one dream after another about a faceless stranger in my bed. The faceless stranger was Tristan, and the body was remarkably similar to the one I had already seen for myself.
“I don’t suppose either one of you fine gentlemen could help me find my room. I’ve been looking all over the place, but I keep stumbling in where I’m not wanted. I know I shouldn’t be drinking at a time like this, but there didn’t seem to be a better time. I want to be numb, so I won’t be able to feel anything. Please…do me the honor of not telling Spencer. I’m sure he would be very cross with me for getting a little careless with the key to the liquor cabinet,” I said as I pretended to fall over my heels. I put my hand up to my mouth letting out a bit of a giggle which had them both smiling despite the fact they were on duty.
“You’re not supposed to be here. We have been given strict orders not to allow anybody to pass without authorization. You missed the staircase. We won’t say anything, as long as you don’t say anything about us having a smoke,” I could smell the nicotine and the vapor of the tobacco as they stamped out the ash against the wall before pocketing the evidence.
I put my finger to my mouth in a silence motion to tell him their secret was safe with me. I fell against the black guy. The tattoos crisscrossing his skull were erotic and dangerous looking at the same time. He had on a Timex. I knew the old saying about it being able to take a licking, but I was hoping they wouldn’t be able to do the same thing.
I purposely maneuvered myself so that I was turning their backs on Tristan. I put my hand on both of their chests, feeling the muscle and trailing my fingers down until I was touching both of their belts. I had my mouth open, sticking my tongue out and licking my lips in a seductive way to get their undivided attention.
There was no way I was gonna be able to use anything more than seductive charm to keep their attention. They were too big to use their weight against them. I was willing to give it a shot, but I was hoping I wasn’t going to have to.
“This is not appropriate behavior. Go back the way you came. I’m not going to say it again,” he said with a catch in his throat.
He swallowed hard and was looking at my cleavage. I had it on full display for his eager and hungry eyes. He couldn’t leave the pleasant valley. His eyes narrowed in, and he was most likely thinking of naughty things to do which would probably leave quite a mess.
“I do believe my partner is not thinking clearly. You are a very beautiful and sexy creature who deserves more than what you’re getting from the man you came here with. He doesn’t respect you. I know I would if I woke up in the morning next to you. Let me show you I’m a man of my word. You don’t have to be scared, and it’s not as if I bite. That is of course unless you want me to,” the black man said with a fire in his belly coming from the presence of something not exactly subtle behind his zipper.
“You…you… could learn a few things about how to talk to a woman from your body…I mean buddy. He knows what a woman wants and isn’t afraid to give it to her. Don’t tell anybody, but I like it a bit rough. It’s one of my dirty little secrets. I’m sure I could be convinced to show you what those other secrets might entail. I like what I see and having two strapping young men as you would certainly make my day. There’s just something about the idea of being taken by two that gets my motor humming. It’s even better when there is a mixed bag of…nuts. I have never been with a man of color, and I think my curiosity has gotten the best of me,” I said concentrating on their crotches and giving them the idea my only interest was physical. This was more than fine with one of them.
I grabbed the black man and squeezed his package knowing full well what I was feeling could deliver the goods. I went to do the same thing to the other one, but he grabbed my wrist and held it away from him like he was expecting this was some kind of trap.
“I’m hurt you don’t like me enough. And what is it about me you don’t like? I don’t think you swing from the other side of the fence. You have been staring at my breasts, and maybe you would like to see more. Tell me, is that where your interests lie?” I said as I tried one more time to grab him and keep him occupied long enough for a sneak attack from behind.
“I won’t be taken away from my post for any reason. My friend should realize where his bread is buttered. A moment of pleasure between your legs would be too much for most men to deny. I have somebody waiting for me at home, and I don’t want to do anything to ruin that. You are a Jezebel, and the liquor is causing you to act out in ways which might come back and haunt you,” this soldier of pale skin and a crew cut showed a bit of peach fuzz on his head trying his best to forfeit his claim to my body.
“If she’s offering it, then I don’t see any reason why we can’t have a bit of fun. It’s not like your wife is going to find out about this. Let your hair down as it were and do something reckless and careless for the first time in your life. We don’t always have to be at attention unless of course, you are talking about something a little bit nastier. I like the way she’s handling my business. My wife hasn’t touched me since she got pregnant and that was six months ago. I can’t stand to be alone anymore, and I was half tempted to go into town on the weekend and find some young thing peddling her wares on the side of the street. I don’t see I have to do this with a sure thing staring me right in the eyes,” this man had the equipment to put all others to shame. He was a testament to the saying of once you go black you never go back.
I could see Tristan slowly advancing, taking his time and moving with one foot in front of the other. He was purposely trying to keep quiet so that he could take them unaware and without a need to fight back. He was going to have to act quickly. The way this ebony god was looking at me was tantamount to throwing me up against the wall and taking what he wanted.
The other guy pulled my hand away from his friend, and it did not endear to the one who hadn’t had any play because his wife was having his child. “I don’t think there was any reason to do that. You can’t tell me you’re not tempted by this delectable dish throwing herself hot from the oven right at our feet. The liquor might be bringing about feelings which weren’t there before, but I see a woman who needs to feel my lips pressed against her. She has me spellbound. I have no idea what else it could be that could make me feel this way,” he said as I became quite aware his interest was because he was feeling neglected at home.
“I don’t think Virginia would be very happy with you. Think about her and the child you are going to bring into the world together. Do you really want something like this to come back and destroy what you already have with her? You know she wouldn’t take kindly to you fuck
ing around behind her back. I’m trying to be the angel on your shoulder. It’s obvious the devil on the other side is whispering words of encouragement into your ear,” he said as Tristan was within a couple of feet of mounting some kind of attack on my behalf.
I slapped at his chest and pretended to pout since I wasn’t getting what I wanted. “You’re spoiling the party for the both of us. If you don’t want anything to do with me, then why should you ruin it for somebody who does? The man I came here with is not even capable of lacing your friend’s shoes. He lacks in a certain department. I can feel or at least I did feel before I was rudely taken away from my prize, he has more than a woman can handle. I consider myself a woman who needs quantity over quality,” I said with both of them groaning in surprise as Tristan took them out at the knee to bring them down into a vulnerable position.
Not even thinking about it, I grabbed the one who was hesitant and pulled him down into a choking position like I had been taught. He struggled and fought back. I could feel the impact of his fist as he tried his best to wiggle loose of my grasp. I wrapped my legs around him. I held on and squeezed off the flow of oxygen from his brain.
I saw the clubbing blow Tristan made to the black man’s neck, and I was suitably impressed. The poor guy had no clue what was going on until it was too late. He fell forward on his face. He was lucky he didn’t break his nose in the process. I thought Tristan was going to help me with the one I was holding onto, but he leaned against the wall and watched to see how I was going to take care of my business. Having an audience made me work doubly hard.
“Don’t tell me I’ve been wrong about you, Willa. I have been watching every move you make, and I really didn’t see this coming from you. Don’t look at me. You’re the one who against your better judgment were going to take this man out. You can’t expect me to jump in. I don’t think that would do anything for your self-esteem. You need to know you can handle yourself. I’m kind of interested being a fly on the wall. That has never been something I have aspired to. I do like this side of you although the man you have in your grip would say differently. I can never be sure about anything, but it’s always in your smile that tells me you have more in you than you thought you did,” Tristan said as he watched me from afar and did nothing to interfere even though I was slowly losing my handle on the situation.
“I can’t believe you stand there and watch me without doing anything,” I said as the body on top of me went slack, and the arms flailing had gone silent. I waited for a few more seconds, and then I let him go. I could hear the rush of air coming from his lungs. I knew I hadn’t killed him.
“If you’re through with the theatrics, we have someplace to be, and I doubt we have seen the last of Spencer raising his ugly head,” He said as he pulled the man by the collar off of me.
I struggled to my feet feeling like I had been in a fight of a lifetime and had come out on the winning side. He was right not to help. I had to do it on my own. I thought I had lost my light. The only thing that made sense was the dark interior of my soul. Tristan had given me a reason to see a glimmer of that light, and it was getting brighter every day I was in his gravity. To make things right, I needed him to hold me close and never let me go.
“I have given you all of my heart. I thought this was something new, but it was an old love waiting patiently to come to life once again,” I said with my head spinning.
Chapter 20
We went down the elevator, and I was not foolish to think Spencer wasn’t going to call for reinforcements. There was a reason for him to pretend there was a threat against his life. Leslie’s reaction was genuine. There was no way she could fake that kind of terrified expression. There was no way she could fake the way she felt about guns or the story she had told us about her brother. That meant he had purposely and with malice aforethought let her believe her life was in danger. I wasn’t sure this was any way for him to treat somebody he claimed to love.
We got to where the elevator came to a stop. Once it went back up, there would be men waiting to come down here to stop us from talking to Leslie. I had questions, and I got this feeling she had the answers to some of them. The one that was hard to ignore was the photo of that woman with Spencer. I kept coming back to it, and yet it remained elusive and out of my grasp.
“I’m way ahead of you, Willa. Just give me a few moments to sabotage this thing, and we can go and have a very frank discussion with Leslie,” Tristan said as he used a pocket knife to unscrew part of the wall.
“I hope you know what you’re doing. Sabotaging this thing may seem like a good idea, but it also leaves us at a disadvantage. This is the only way out of here. There is no stairwell or a crawl space we can use. This was something Spencer made very clear. I don’t think he would have said this had it not been true,” I said with him now a little on the apprehensive side.
“I don’t see we have any other choice. I’ll try not to damage it too much. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to put it back together again when we get the answers we’re looking for. You do know that Spencer will be there waiting for us when we emerge out of this rabbit hole. I might be able to fight off whatever he throws at me, but I can’t do that worrying about you. That is a bridge we all have to cross,” Tristan said as he made a spark by cutting one of the wires.
It was likely he could jerry-rig it back stripping the outer layer and threading those wires back together. He was right about Spencer not being very happy with us coming down there. He would be waiting. I could only hope we would have some kind of leverage we could use against him. This was the only way.
“We need Leslie to be forthright and honest with us. That’s the reason why he did all of this. He wanted her to come down there and hide out until he came to get her. He played us, and I have to admit he was pretty damn good at it. I really did believe someone was coming. He wasn’t wasting any effort. He actually had you train us in the art of combat. He wanted us to think there was going to be a necessity for hand to hand battle. He really did commit to the story he was trying to sell us. It was only after he found us in his office his story started to crumble. I think we both know the bullet going through the window could have killed me. It was, unfortunately, a risk he was willing to take, but maybe there was no risk involved. It could be that one of his men had the kind of marksmanship and was prepared to take the shot on his behalf,” I said finding I was talking quickly due to my adrenaline running rampant through my body.
He took hold of me, grabbed me tightly and looked me in the eyes like he was trying to reach the woman I was before all this began. “I need you to take a deep breath and hold it for 5-seconds before letting it out. Go to your happy place. You need to close your mind and forget about everything but your breathing. Whatever you need me, you know you can call me, and I will be there. I’m not the small child you remember. I have outgrown Trevor, and I took my middle name, Tristan. It was my grandfather’s, and I’m very proud to carry his name,” Tristan said holding me firmly, letting me adjust to the danger found around every corner.
I finally calmed down, we approached the lab, and we were about to enter. I stopped him though when I remembered what Spencer had said before Leslie had left to come down there. The weapon he had given her and his orders for her to use that weapon. His exact words were to fire at anyone who wasn’t him coming through those doors. He really did know how to cover all of his bases. We were this close to walking in and getting a rude awakening with bullets riddling our bodies, leaving us at her mercy.
There was no doubt Tristan would enter first like a man. That was not going to stop any of the bullets from finding their way into me. Spencer really didn’t care about anybody but himself and maybe in some small part Leslie. Anybody else was fair game, and if we got in his way, then he would mow us over as if we were nothing.
“You know what he said to her before she stormed off. Think about it. Do I really have to remind you? Going in there is asking for trouble, and we need to announce our intentions before w
e enter,” I said with him staring at me and then recognition came over his eyes. He knew what I was referring to.
“That was pretty close, and this room is soundproof. Stand to the side. I’ll knock and see what kind of reaction we get. She’s going to be scared out of her mind thinking somebody is going to come in there and hurt her. She will use whatever is at her disposal to protect herself,” Tristan said as we both moved to the side and he began knocking which was, of course, answered by two very distinctive shots from a gun.
She was most likely shaking with her hand trembling and those memories of her brother now strangling her into submission. Tristan went to his knees, pulling out a lock pick set and began to fiddle with it as quietly as possible. It didn’t take him long to hear that click, and then there was another round of bullets which were not very particular about what target was going to be found.
He waited for the silence to penetrate the enclosed space and then he reached out and flung the door open with another two bullets being answered in return. We had to get her to listen. It wasn’t going to be easy with her in that state of mind. There was no doubt she would use whatever was necessary to prevent anybody from getting their hands on her.
