Adventure Comes to Houston: An Erotic Adventure Book III (Erotic Adventures 3)

by T. S. Hill

“Now, I guess, our boring work begins.”, I commented. I saw that Annette had put on her poker face, but that her eyes were opened very big. Then, I began speaking again. “I think that we all need to be spot-on familiar with the summary, and executive summary. When we’re presenting to Al, if one of us gets a memory lapse, then there’ll be four more to back up the forgetful one, who of course, is most likely to be me.”

  “Sash, can you…”

  “Got’m right here Babe!”, she piped up, reaching for a stack of paper. “I figured that we’d all need our own copy, so here’s one for each of us, the summaries that is.”

  “Good deal, Sash!”, I replied. “Now, if each of you will please spend the next little bit, reading these summaries, then when everyone is finished, we’ll come back together to briefly discuss this. And then, we’ll see if anyone has any questions that could possibly be answered from the data that we already have, that hasn’t been addressed sufficiently. The point is, we want to close any obvious holes in this report, before we present it. We’ve done a helluva job throwing this together in this brief period, so it would only be natural, if we missed some detail or another. This is a huge amount of information to have to consider and summarize. You all have done a super job, and especially Sasha, in pulling the strings to organize it all. Are we ready to read?”, I asked.

  “After that, are we finished for tonight?”, Lori asked.

  “Yes.”, I replied. Sasha, gave a thumbs-up at my answer.

  “Let me start.”, Rosita said reaching out to Sasha, for her copies.

  Sasha handed each of us copies of the two summaries, then said, “Finally, I get to proofread this mess!”

  For the next good while, the house was silent, except for the sound of a page being turned, and tucked. Finally, when I finished, and looked up, everyone appeared to be done, except Rosita. Despite speaking English far better than anyone else in this room knew, except me, she was a tad slow understanding the written word. But, within a few minutes, she also had finished.

  “Questions? Comments? Suggestions?”, I asked the group as a whole.

  “Yes.”, Lori spoke up. “With the day to day, detailed involvement that the general manager has in this company, how could he not know that they were dealing in stolen ideas, and developments?”

  “He had to be aware of what was happening.”, I stated. “I think that’s clear. Sash, is that effectively backed up in the full report?”

  “I believe that it is.”, she replied.

  “Then, I think that needs to be reflected clearly in both summaries.”, Lori commented.

  “I agree.”, I responded.

  “Duly noted. Will do.”, Sasha confirmed back to us.

  “Next?”, I questioned.

  “The same has to be true for the R and D director, Sasha pointed out. Dunno how I missed that. I’ll add that notation to both reports also, if that’s okay?”

  “Yes.”, I responded. “Anything else? Anyone else have anything to add, or offer?” Everyone shook their heads negatively. “Then, we’re done!”, I announced.

  “Shower time for me!”, Lori said heading toward the hallway.

  “I’m dying of thirst! Anyone else for apple juice?”, Sasha said, rising from her chair, and heading across to the refrigerator.

  “It’s good night, and off to bed for me!”, Rosita said, standing, and stretching with her arms over her head.

  “I’ll take some of that juice, Sasha.”, Annette said, following Sasha to the refrigerator, then turning and looking at me, with an odd look on her face, she asked, “Do you hear that chopper?”

  “Not yet.”, I responded.

  “I hear the bed calling me.”, Rosita said sleepily.

  “Shuuush!”, Annette sounded out toward Rosita, but scanned her eyes around the room at all of us. Her brows knitted, and eyes shifted toward the floor, as though she could read something there, that we couldn’t see. Suddenly, she rushed to the kitchen side door, that opened to the side portico of the guest house. Pulling the door open, she stuck her head out, while hanging on to the door knob.

  “I hear it now!”, I told her, but she snapped her head to face me, raising a finger to her lips. I looked at the giant clock on the great room wall. It read eleven fifteen.

  “It’s way too early for Al to be back!”, I snipped at Annette.

  “That’s not a Sikorsky!”, she hissed back at me.

  “Maybe it’s just a helicopter passing over?”, Sasha offered.

  “That’s not a Sikorsky! That’s a Hughey!”, Annette said in an excited voice.

  “Lori!”, I called out, raising my voice. “Get the AR’s!”

  “Oh, fuck! It’s landing!”, Annette shouted.

  “Sash, Rosita!”, arm up!”, I yelled.

  Sasha dashed into the hallway, just behind Rosita. Annette dashed across the room to her purse. A few seconds later, Lori ran back into the room with an AR in each hand. Dropping the rifle cases on the floor before me, then she dashed toward her purse also, and pulled out her .45 cal Colt, tucking her spare magazine into the waistband of her yoga pants.

  “Annette, take one of these!”, I barked at her.

  “Yes sir!”, she popped back at me, tucking what looked like a nine mil from her purse, into her waistband, and heading toward the rifle cases. I ran back to the spare bedroom, and met Sasha and Rosita in the hallway, running back to the great room with a cased AR in each of their hands. Sasha had the nine mil that I had given her, with the shoulder holster strung loosely over one shoulder.

  In the bedroom, I slung my holstered .45 over my shoulder, and grabbed an ammo bag, that I knew had extra 5.56 loaded magazines packed in it. Returning to the great room, the women had all four of the AR’s out, and ready to move with. I could hear the chopper touching down.

  “Let’s go!”, I yelled at them, and charged out of the kitchen side door. I never looked back, but thankfully, the women followed me. As I ran toward the landing chopper, at full speed, I could hear someone’s steps keeping pace, just behind me. I didn’t turn to look, but when I came into range of the chopper and stopped, Annette knelt beside me. Within a second, Lori was on my other side. Rosita and Sasha were only a few seconds behind her.

  “Wait, until I give the order to fire, or if we’re fired on.”, I told them. “Your rifles charged? Are we ready?”. I heard bolts slamming shut, and then everyone saying, “Ready!”, Okay!”, “Yes!”, “I’m ready!” I stood up, and yelled out to the men who were piling out of the Hughey, and onto the field between the guest house, and the helipad, “Halt! You are trespassing on private property! Return to your aircraft!” Three shots rang out over my head. That was the last thing that I heard for the next several minutes, except for the roar of wide open gunfire. The women unleashed with the AR’s, all of which had been loaded with the tracer rounds, that we had been shooting at the target range, before leaving the tree house. They literally lit up the night!

  From the light of the tracer rounds, I could see that the several men that had made it out of the chopper, were quickly piling back in. Luckily for them, most of the rounds the women were firing, were all over the place. Inexperience, adrenaline, and rage, may have kept them off center target, but they were accomplishing what we needed, which was to get the chopper full of men, completely out of there.

  I patted Annette twice on the back, and she stopped firing. Her shots had appeared to be actually doing some damage, of course she had experience, and evidently, a coolness under fire, much like Lori had demonstrated only a couple of weeks back in Canadian Texas. Next, I reached for Lori, and she held her fire. I stood and touched Sasha next as the chopper began lifting.

  Rosita continued to fire around the chopper, as it rose into the night. That’s when I opened up with my .45, knowing that I wasn’t going to bring the chopper down, but that I would leave a signature, and message, that I had been all over the ass of their chopper, as they retreated. Lori joined me, and as I replaced my magazine and holstered my weapon, she emptied h
er last five rounds at the chopper.

  We were all about stone deaf from the roar of the rifles and .45’s, but each of us managed to frantically check on the others. And then, although no one could hear it, we all breathed a big sigh of relief, that no one was injured. I managed to get everyone together, and somehow, communicate that we needed to sweep the field to the helipad, to look for wounded and left behinds. After making sure that everyone had a fresh magazine and their rifles charged, we spread out and searched the field past the spot where the Hughey had landed, all the way to the Helipad, and shed.

  Once we were satisfied that no one was left behind, we headed back. When we arrived at the guest house, I motioned for everyone to continue with me, and headed through Al’s rose garden, toward the main house. All of the lights in the main house were out. And, the rear portico lights, that always stayed on all night, were also out. I cautiously approached the portico, and in the moonlight, I could see Tony standing just outside of the door.

  “Frank, is that you?”, Tony asked. None of us were Frank, and so, that was sufficient reason, in my mind, to charge him, and I did, knocking him flat on his ass, on the hard brick paving of the portico. Jerking him up from the pavement, by the back of his collar, and the belt around his waist, I slammed his face into the side of the Hummer, that was still parked there. Locking his arms behind him, I called out to Lori to take off my belt.

  “I’ve got one better, sir!”, Annette said, stepping up beside me. She unclipped the shoulder strap from her AR and then skillfully weaved it around Tony’s wrists, effectively bound them behind his back, using the clips to finalize her improvised hand cuffs.

  “Sweet!”, I commented.

  “Iraq!”, She responded

  “Show me that tomorrow?”, Lori asked her.

  “Sure!”, Annette, cheerily piped back to her.

  “Now his ankles.”, I said. Annette swiftly removed the strap from Lori’s AR, and proceeded to perform the same tie and clip weave around Tony’s ankles.

  “What the fuck are you doing Mr. Hill?”, Tony blubbered, as he began to come back to his senses, from my having slammed his face against the Hummer’s right door panel.

  “I’m keeping you out of trouble Tony.”, I commented. This way, maybe I won’t have to kill you within the next few hours!”, I barked at him. At that second, the portico lights came on and, Mrs. Baker burst through the door, from the house.

  “Oh, my!”, she cried out, rushing toward Tony. “Tagg, what are you doing?” I caught her by one arm, and Lori, her other.

  “We’re going to keep Tony safe, Mrs. Baker.”, I told her. “So that he doesn’t hurt anyone, and no one hurts him.”

  “He hasn’t done anything!”, she cried, looking into my eyes pleadingly, all the while still pulling herself toward Tony.

  “Just come back into the house, Mrs. Baker.”, I told her, as I turned her away from Tony, and began leading her, with Lori’s help, back toward the rear entrance door.

  “Everything’s going to be alright.”, Lori tried to reassure her. “We just have to get some things sorted out.”

  “He’s hurt!”, Mrs. Baker cried. Why did you hurt him, Tagg?”, she sobbed, with tears streaming down her face. “He needs me. He’s hurt!”, she sobbed on. Rosita, joined Lori, in escorting Mrs. Baker back, into the house, and I stepped aside. The two women seemed to calm her some, but she was still crying hysterically, when they passed into the house.

  “Don’t go further than the kitchen.”, I asked them. “We don’t know if this is over, for the night, or not.” Then turning back to the other two other women, I said, “Help me get him in the back of the golf cart.” Sasha and Annette helped me pick Tony up, with him moaning, and dripping blood out of his mouth and nose, and all over the paving bricks.

  “What the fuck are we going to do with him?”, Sasha asked.

  “We’re going to keep him out of mischief, until we can figure out, for sure, whose side of the fence he’s on. Then, we’ll take appropriate action.”, I replied.

  “What’s appropriate action?”, Sasha asked.

  “Later, you may wish that you didn’t know that.”, Annette quipped to her.

  “Then don’t fucking tell me!”, Sasha shot, back to her forcefully. “Babe! What the fuck?”

  “We’ll either let him go, or turn him over to the police, well, the feds that is.”, I replied.

  “So why would I not want to know that?”, Sasha said, cutting her eyes at Annette.”

  “Sorry Sasha.”, Annette said to her meekly. Army habit, where the rule of thumb is, don’t tell anyone anything, without there being an apparent need to know. And even then, unless it’s life or death, you don’t tell. And depending on whose life, or whose death it is you’re talking about, you just might still not tell.”

  “That’s fucked up!”, Sasha told her.

  “Yeah, it was!”, Annette replied. “I lost a lot of good friends, and otherwise, good people, over there. It’s good to have people like you beside me now. I’m sorry, Sasha.”

  “No probs, girl. I’m glad as hell to have you beside me tonight!”, Sasha told her. “I’ve never done this shoot out shit before. I think I might have shit my pants!”, she said.

  “That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”, Annette told her.

  “Guys! Lift, please!”, I spoke to them. “We need to get Tony loaded, and to the guest house. Mrs. Baker’s right. He’s a bit hurt.” After we had Tony loaded in the golf cart, I sent Annette into the house to get everyone out. I figured that the main house was too large for our few people to defend if we were attacked again. But the guest house was smaller, and well built, therefore we possibly could defend four sides for some time, at least until the police or other help arrived.

  Lori and Mrs. Baker came out, minus Annette.

  “Where the hell’s Annette?”, I asked Lori.

  “A county sheriff’s deputy was at the front door, wanting information about gun shots fired in the neighborhood. She was telling them that we didn’t know anything, but like everyone else in the neighborhood, we heard it.” About that time Annette came through the rear door.

  “I’m glad that we don’t have to depend on that fruit cake for protection!”, She mused.

  “Did they seem satisfied? Did they leave? Do you think that they will be back?”, I asked.

  “Woah, fellow!”, Annette, said. “They’re gone. Will they stay gone? Who the fuck knows? They seemed to believe me when I told them we heard it, just like everyone else, but we don’t have a clue what it was, or where it came from. They thanked me and left.”

  “Well, thank you Annette.”, I said. “Now let’s all get loaded up, and get to the guest house. I’ve got a phone call to make!” I put Sasha driving the golf cart, with Annette, Mrs. Baker, and Tony on board, while Lori, and Rosita, joined me in walking back through the rose garden, to the guest house.

  “Do you think that they’ll try to come back tonight, Cowboy?”, Lori asked me.

  “At least, not in a chopper.”, I answered her. “Otherwise, who knows? Either way, this will be an all-nighter. I’m calling in reinforcements. This has gotten way serious, really quick. I thought that we had sent the signal, though our little farce at dinner with Francine, that we were gone. But now this? This tells me that the SOB has a source of info here, on the estate.”

  “Are you thinking that it’s Tony?”, Rosita asked.

  “I’m thinking that I don’t know.”, I responded. “I’m very suspicious of him, but honestly, I don’t know.”

  “It’s got to be one of those three.”, Lori offered, “Tony, Mrs. Baker, or Annette.

  “I just can’t fathom that it would be Mrs. Baker.”, I spoke up. “She was working for Al already, before I met him. Tony and Annette are both recent hires. Annette says that Tony has to be okay if Al trusts him. Maybe both of them are SOB plants. Annette’s background check came out clear though. So, who knows?”

  Back at the guest house, Sasha and Annette were struggling to g
et Tony in the house, without unbinding him, so I jumped in, and gave them a hand. Once we had him safely sitting in a chair, Mrs. Baker began tending to his bloody nose, and bleeding mouth. Soon enough, she had the bleeding stopped, and I ordered her to stay away from him from that point on. She didn’t seem to like it, but she complied. I left the women, watching Tony, and took one of my throwaway phones outside, to call in the only reinforcements that I knew, that were capable of overwhelming any force that Sam Milinni could muster up to throw at us.

  Another of my odd friendships, formed during an assignment some years back, was Buster Hollifield, CEO of Back Bay Operations, a top drawer group of mercenaries, made up of nothing but former special operations people, and from all over the world. Based in Mobile, Alabama, Buster’s personnel would dispatch to anywhere in the world, that special forces were needed. He only had four restrictions. He wouldn’t work for Muslims, communists, or dictators. And, he wouldn’t knowingly break any laws of any government, within whose borders he worked.

  I asked Buster for eight men. He said that he would send six. I told him that he was underestimating Sam Milinni. But, he said that I was underestimating his men. I hoped that was true, for all of our sakes. Back in the house, I told the women that I had BBO sending us reinforcements. “Who’s BBO?”, Sasha asked.

  “Back Bay Operations?”, Annette asked, raising her eyebrows.

  “Exactly!”, I replied. “We’ll have six men on the ground before daylight. Probably within a couple of hours, three at the most.”

  “Six!”, Annette blurted. “We are in deep shit then!”

  “Do you think that’s overkill, Annette?”, I questioned her.

  “I only hope so!”, she replied. BBO personnel are total bad ass! If we’ve got something coming at us that can whip six of those guys? Then I don’t want to be here to see it!”

  “Actually, that makes me feel better then. So how do you know about BBO?”, I asked Annette.

  “I was approached.”, she replied. “But, as exciting and profitable, as that is, I don’t want that for an everyday life. Occasional excitement is one thing. Gunfire, and mayhem every day? No thank you!”