by Jayne Rylon
Ellie focused entirely on Julie, handing her whatever she asked for as she worked furiously.
“What’s all this?” Ben asked.
Julie hardly acknowledged him. When Shari picked up one of the drawings, she realized it was a self-portrait. Julie was trying on princess dresses with the kidnapper in the background. His face was accurate enough to be recognizable compared to the surveillance footage.
“I think you’d better call Dr. Epstein,” Shari said. “Maybe the Men in Blue, too.”
Ellie nodded. “It might be my fault. After I was rescued, art would calm me. She was a little worried after you guys left, afraid something might happen to you. I encouraged her to use her drawings to help work out her nervous energy. I’ve never seen something like this before. It’s like her memories are pouring out. Damn, these are good work. Better than anything she’s drawn before. Beyond her years and skill. It’s like some other part of her brain has taken over.”
Shari watched in awe as Julie completed another image and reached for a blank piece of paper.
While she did, Ryan jogged to the bedroom and returned, handing Ben his tablet. They’d Skyped with Julie’s therapist a few times already since they’d arrived and she’d told them to call anytime.
She hoped the doctor had meant it.
After just a few rings, the doctor answered. “Everything okay?”
“I’m not sure. Take a look at this.” Ben flipped the camera setting so that it showed Julie hard at work.
“Wow, she did all of those?” The doctor squinted as she studied the pictures.
“Yes. In the past couple hours.” He explained the situation and let Julie speak with the doctor for as long as they could distract her from drawing.
After about a half hour of observation Ben stepped away from the table. Dr. Epstein told him, “I think it’s okay. We knew the day would come when her memories resurfaced while she was awake. You should let it happen naturally and encourage her to talk about whatever she’s ready to discuss. Don’t push beyond that, though. Let her keep drawing as often as she likes. It’s a good thing. A positive step. And she shows real talent here, too.”
“Okay.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Great, I really appreciate you taking the time for us.”
“It’s no trouble. I’m glad to see progress.”
“Me too.” Ben nodded. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Ben?” Dr. Epstein had him stopped short before disconnecting their call.
“Yes?”
“I realize things are happening quickly, but I did want to mention one other thing to you.” Dr. Epstein lowered her voice. “I think part of this behavior is stemming from how safe she feels there. I don’t think it’s wise for you to bring her back too soon.”
“Don’t worry about that.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to make her—or myself—live among those ghosts. Not at the apartment and definitely not at that school, no way. I think it’s best if I homeschool her. I’m thinking I’d like to make a lifestyle change. Something pretty big. Move out of the city, away from the insanity. I…”
He looked up at Shari then as if she might be upset when he was saying everything she’d dreamed of hearing, him clearing one of the last hurdles to a long-term relationship with her. So she extended the offer she would have made regardless of today’s developments. “I would love it if you’d consider staying here.”
His entire posture changed, relaxing as his shoulders sank and he exhaled in a rush. “Thank you. Yes, I was hoping. This could work for us.”
Whether he was speaking about him and Julie or him, Ryan, and Shari, she approved.
“I’m happy for you, Ben. Though Julie has been my patient, that doesn’t mean I haven’t noticed your own struggles. You deserve to be happy.”
“Uh, thanks.”
Ryan was grinning like a fool as Ben wrapped up his call. Shari figured she was also.
Except they didn’t get to discuss it. No sooner had Ben hung up then Lucas’s phone rang. “It’s JRad.” He connected the call with a quick, “Yo,” then listened.
“I’m going to put you on speakerphone and connect the video feed. There’s something you should see. Record this. Ready?” Lucas punched a few buttons, then held his phone over the table and the drawings Julie had done.
“I am now. Go ahead.” JRad gave Lucas the green light.
Shari tried not to interrupt as Ben sat beside his niece and asked her some gentle questions. “Can you tell me about your drawings, honey?”
Her gaze dropped to the one Shari had picked up, the one where Julie had a princess dress on. She pitched her voice low and said, “Your fans like the purple dress best. Put that one on again.”
Then she took another, one that showed her marker tattoos and the kidnapper frowning in the background. “After dinner, we’re going to have to wash them off. I don’t think that’s what your fans will pay for. Besides, it’s too much information.”
It went on like that for a while. A lot of what Julie remembered the kidnapper saying to her had to do with fans. Shari didn’t quite understand what that meant.
Apparently, Jeremy did.
“Ho-ly…” Jeremy drew Shari’s attention to the screen of Lucas’s phone. “I don’t think you guys understand what a huge breakthrough this is.”
“Yeah, we had her therapist on the phone. Seemed like a big deal.” Lucas nodded.
“That’s great,” Jeremy said. “But I meant for the case. I think you just gave us the proof we need for a warrant.”
“What? You’ve got the guy tracked down?” Lucas moved away from the table again so Julie didn’t overhear. Shari, Ben, and Ryan followed.
“Sort of. There’s a guy who has been under investigation for a while. He sells a streaming service. A disgusting gray area. Kids doing stuff. It’s obviously aimed at pedophiles, but there’s no sex on tape. It seems like he’s been trying to find a particular model based on some videos online of a very popular little girl.” “Julie…” Shari whispered, horrified.
“Yeah. They had her on tapes from the Sex Offender scandal. I haven’t had a chance to go through them all yet. The most popular one is of her trying to protect her mom. Then April…” He shook his head. “I don’t want to tell you everything. Can’t, really, given the secondary investigation. It’s bad. I think that’s how they found Julie. Why this guy went after her.”
When she peeked over at Ben to see how he took the news, his jaw clenched and his hands balled into fists. “So what do we do now?”
“The video I just recorded of her, and the drawings, are the missing link to prove the kidnapper is the same guy that was speaking off camera on the streaming stuff. He was careful never to be onscreen. We found that movie of her trying on the princess dresses online—on that site—a couple hours ago. With her ID, and Special Agent Salinas using the schoolyard audio to confirm the voice of the kidnapper is a match to the streaming guy, we have layers of proof to bust him for something exceptionally criminal. In case the court throws out one or the other, he’s still going to be on the hook. Taken together, this stuff is pretty damn incriminating. The kidnapping, intent to harm a minor, the list goes on. He’s going away. For good.”
Sickness and relief warred within Shari.
“I need to go. Have to brief the chief and the rest of the guys. I’ve got his location. He’s not even bothering to hide since he’s gotten away with this shit for so long. We’ll be moving on him within the hour. I’ll call you when it’s done.” JRad nodded, then ended the video chat.
“Uncle Ben?” Julie reached out toward him, her voice soft. “I’m tired. Too much drawing.”
“Okay, honey.”
Shari’s heart cracked a little when he went to collect her. He lifted her as carefully as possible and started to carry her to the room she’d claimed as her own. “Wait, will you hold me for a while?”
“Anytime.” Ben kissed her hair, then brought her near Ryan and Shari, who took turns hugging
her too.
Then Shari couldn’t bite her tongue a moment longer. “Can we go back to what you said before, to Dr. Epstein?” She feared raising her hopes too high before they’d locked in a plan. Better to be direct than to assume, she figured. “About staying here. Do you mean you’d like to move in? Because you know I’d love to have you two. But what about everything else? Your job. Ryan…”
“I have a plan.” Ben shifted. He took a deep breath as he looked between her and Ryan. “I didn’t want to say anything before. There’s enough to worry about. But when I called into work yesterday, they gave me shit about taking time off to come up here. So I had a screw-it-just-do-it kind of moment. I quit.”
“What?” Shari gasped.
He shrugged. “To be honest, it was just a job. When I look at the Men in Blue and their passion for justice, or Ellie and Lucas and their commitment to improving prosthetics through their new company, or Ryan making people happy by serving them the best meals of their lives, it makes me feel like maximizing profits for a faceless corporation isn’t really how I want to spend so much of my life. I’d rather use my talents to build something I actually give two shits about. So, tell me if this is dumb. I was wondering if you’d consider letting me manage this place. I found some hospitality service courses I can take online to learn about the industry specifics. As for the rest, my experience and education will help me analyze the business and get things running smoothly for you again.”
Shari didn’t say anything. She couldn’t.
“Oh, shit. Is that too much? Am I butting in?” He frowned. “I mean, you can say no. I won’t be pissed or anything.”
“You idiot.” Ryan was grinning. “She’s about to pee her pants, she’s so excited. Just overwhelmed.”
Shari nodded vehemently.
It was obvious now that Julie couldn’t return to the city. Not until she was older. They may have shut down the kidnapper, but those videos of her from the Sex Offender ring were out in cyberspace and there was no getting them back under wraps.
Here, they could give her a fresh start.
Selfishly, Shari wanted to shout and dance around. She would get to stay here, in the place that she loved, except finally she wouldn’t have to do it by herself. Be alone.
“No, no. I don’t want to say no.” Shari laughed and clapped. “It’s…so much more than I hoped. Are you sure? If you get bored in a month or two or whatever, you can tell me.”
“I think there is plenty of potential here to keep me busy for…well, forever, I hope.” His shrug in no way came off as casually as he’d probably hoped. That only thrilled her more.
“Speaking of big ideas—” Ryan took one of each of their hands in his. “I have some of my own. How do you think an exclusive restaurant would fit into your business plan? Shari’s parents were on the right track. That barn would make an excellent facility. When we were there, together, I could picture it. Clearly.”
“That would make them so happy.” Shari sniffled. “It’s like it was always meant to be.”
Ben nodded. “Kind of makes you wonder sometimes what the universe has in store for us. Yes, I think it would be awesome. A critically acclaimed chef and his signature restaurant would drive traffic to the resort because people from the city aren’t going to haul their stuffed and probably liquored-up asses all the way back to the city after you ply them with a thousand delicious courses and fine wine. We could offer stay and dine packages for a bundle price. Maybe eventually add a spa, too.”
“Free for sisters of the cook, though, right?” Ellie had returned to Lucas’s side and was practically bouncing in place. Maybe this could work if it sounded half as good to them as it did to Shari.
“Does this mean we get to move here?” Julie’s eyes were huge when she lifted her head from Ben’s shoulder to look at them. “That we can stay with Aunt Shari? You, me, and Uncle Ryan? Could I have a cat? And ride the horses every day?”
“What’s everyone say? Should we vote on it?” Ben asked, though Shari already knew the result would be unanimous.
“Yes!” Julie shouted.
Ben grinned. “On the count of three…who wants to live here, run the best resort and restaurant in the state, and live happily ever after?”
Julie shrieked and threw both of her hands in the air.
Ryan, Ben, and Shari put their hands up too. They met in the middle in a three-sided high five and clasped each other’s hands, which made it easy to lean in for a matching kiss.
Julie pulled a face and said, “Blech.”
When they broke apart, laughing, Ben said, “I don’t have rings or anything fancy, but I hope you both know this is a promise from me to you. The forever sort.”
Shari wasn’t sure how the pieces had clicked into place so quickly. All she could say for sure was that her dreams had come true and then some.
Now she had two men, and a child, to share her happiness with.
She had plenty to go around.
With them by her sides, she would never run out.
Lucas cleared his throat then showed them a picture on his phone. The kidnapper, cuffed, in the back of a patrol car. “It’s official, boys and girls. The Men in Blue made their arrest. It’s done.”
“The new bad man is going to jail?” Julie asked.
“For a long, long time,” Ben promised.
27
Ben checked the monitor beside the bed to make sure it was on before locking the door to Shari’s room. If Julie needed them, they’d know right away. Still, he figured extra insurance didn’t hurt. She didn’t need to be disturbed any more than she already was.
Keeping quiet was going to be a challenge for them. He was up to it.
Besides, Ryan would probably enjoy being gagged.
“What’d you do that for?” Ryan asked from where he’d taken a clean T-shirt from the dresser. Somehow it made things more real to see their stuff beside Shari’s instead of in their duffle bags.
“Drop that. You won’t be needing it for a while.” He couldn’t believe how much he wanted Ryan and Shari. No matter how many times a day they managed to sneak in some loving either together or in pairs while one of them was busy with a math lesson, or resort stuff, he still needed them.
Both of them. Together like this.
Shari glanced up from her ereader and caught the look on his face. She tossed it onto her nightstand without question.
“Remember that box that came today?” He hoped his smile wasn’t as wolfish as it felt.
“I’m guessing it didn’t really have your new planner in it, huh?” The sparkle in Shari’s eyes said she couldn’t wait to find out what he’d had delivered.
“Nope.” He rummaged around in the bottom of the cedar chest at the foot of her enormous bed, then showed them his purchases.
“Fuck me.” Ryan’s murmur was followed by the man shucking the sweats he’d recently donned.
“That’s the plan, boy.”
Ryan practically leapt onto the bed without having to be told, assuming a classic position on his back, arms and legs spread. Ben had noticed he almost always closed his eyes when they played like this, so he gave Ryan his first present.
Ben handed Shari the blindfold he’d bought. It was black leather with faux fur on the inside.
She ran her fingers over it, humming at the softness as it glided over her fingertips. “You’re going to like this, aren’t you, Ryan?”
“Yes, Shari. Put it on me, please?”
She slipped it over his damp hair. As Ben watched his lovers prepare themselves for him, he took note of Ryan’s stiffening cock and the tight discs of his nipples. Then he looked at Shari.
“You’re wearing too many clothes.”
Not for long. Eager as Ryan, she shimmied out of the satin babydoll nighty before tossing it over the edge of the bed.
“She’s so beautiful, Ryan. You’re missing a pretty view.”
“I can picture it,” he murmured. “I know every curve by heart.”
/> They had spent an inordinate amount of time lately getting to know each other in every possible carnal sense. She rewarded his sweet talk by petting his chest. He rose to meet her touch.
“When I can’t see, I can feel it more. So good.” Ryan panted, already fully erect.
“That’s right.” Ben wandered closer so he could drag his hand from Ryan’s foot up his leg to his hip.
The other man shuddered.
“So you’ll be that much more turned on when we use you to pleasure ourselves tonight, won’t you, boy?”
“Fuck, yes.”
Ben brought his other hand from behind his back so that Shari could see what he had in mind. Her pupils dilated and she gestured for him to hurry.
High quality wrist and ankle restraints that matched Ryan’s blindfold would be necessary to keep the man still when they dished out exactly what he craved.
Shari held up her cupped hands. So Ben tossed her the wrist restraints while he kept the ankle shackles for himself. As one, they fastened them around Ryan’s limbs, making him moan and shiver as they buckled the cuffs.
“Thank you,” he breathed.
But it wasn’t until Ben grabbed the restraint and used it to stretch Ryan unbelievably wide open that he really understood what was about to happen. Shari attached the cuffs to the carabineers dangling from the hardware he’d installed in her mammoth wooden bed.
In less than a minute, they had their partner splayed, spread-eagled, on the bed between them.
That would definitely do.
Shari knelt close to Ryan’s head, running her fingers through his hair then along his arms to test the fit of the restraints, in no hurry to rush to the next attraction. They let Ryan soak in his new bondage, knowing the act of being bound alone was foreplay for him.
Though they were topping the shit out of Ryan, the sense of desperation Ben had felt in the dungeons or when someone else had used him, had vanished. Instead, Ben felt like they could relax into their roles, take their time, and play only to their desires.
There was something genuine and unhurried about the exchange as compared to the scenes he’d witnessed before. He supposed that was because it wasn’t a show. It was their life.
