Indulgence

by Liz Crowe

  *****

  “You’re sure Lizzie?” Graeme asked, using her preferred name and deliberately blocking her view of Enwright, who sat in the dirt rubbing his wrists. “I can keep you safe, no matter what’s going on,” he added.

  “For Christ’s sake, she said she was sure. We are both victims here, Sheriff. I’ve never met the woman before in my life. I saw a man chasing her, I followed. He shot at my car, I wrecked. I shot at where I thought he might be hiding, and my Tahoe started to slide off the edge. The lady helped pull me from the SUV, and I was covering her body while I looked for the gunman. You know the rest.”

  The radio at his side squawked. “Sheriff Kennedy, come in. We have an emergency near your location. Possible kidnapping. State police and FBI are on their way. Repeat, we have an emergency—”

  “Sally, will you please remember to use alternate channels and proper protocol under unusual circumstances. I’ll call you on my private line, standby.”

  He stepped away to get some privacy, uneasy about leaving Elizabeth so close to the Enwright fellow.

  “What is it, Sally?” he demanded as soon as the call connected.

  He listened, grunted directions, and disconnected.

  “Do you know what that call was all about, Enwright?” he asked.

  “I have a pretty good idea,” Michael answered, a slight smile on his face.

  “It seems your fucking Tahoe is equipped with a satellite tracker and called the police automatically when the crash was recorded and you didn’t answer.”

  Enwright didn’t respond, just waited.

  “Why didn’t you tell me who you are?” Graeme gritted out through clenched teeth.

  “You didn’t ask. You were too busy dropping me face-first into the dirt and kicking me. God forbid you worry about who I am or what might have happened to me. If you’d like to return my phone, I imagine I can at least keep the FBI from showing up here,” Michael said, holding his hand out for his phone.

  He hit the speed dial.

  “Shit, Michael, are you okay? It’s a royal cluster fuck here. The FBI are all over the place. They said it was likely a kidnapping. What the hell’s going on? First you need a break, like some Mr. Goddamn Sensitive. Now you trashed the Tahoe.”

  “I’m all right, Jolynn. It was a freak accident. Call off the dogs. Tell the FBI to go home. I suppose I’ll stay around here a day or two to supervise the extraction of the Tahoe. Have Walker ferry up the spare Tahoe, and he can take this one back. I’m afraid we’ll have to salvage it for parts. Call and order another one and have Walker use the same specs for customizing,” he said. “Send me all new technology. You know what I need. Send it care of the local sheriff’s office.” He ended the call.

  He paused, thinking of what else he needed to do. In the momentary silence, he heard the sheriff asking the woman—asking Elizabeth, he amended—where she would stay. Her tearful reply that she had nowhere to go tugged at his heart.

  Michael interrupted. “Elizabeth, I’m sorry, I know we’re meeting under unusual circumstances, to say the least. My name is Michael Enwright, and my company specializes in security. Considering what we’ve been through together tonight, I want to offer you all of the resources available to Enwright Security. We’ll stop your husband. My company will put you up in a secure location while we track his movements. Believe me, we’ll find him. It’s the least I can do for your saving my life,” he finished sincerely.

  “Like hell you will. Lizzie will be staying with me. We’re old friends. I can keep her safe, and I have plenty of room. Besides, this is a matter for the local officials,” the sheriff said stiffly.

  “If that’s the case, Sheriff, you know the Phoenix Police Department will be taking over, and you’ll be shut out. Now that you know who I am, I imagine you know what I can do, what strings I can pull. I suggest we work together. I’ll have access to far more resources than you will, but I’ll be willing to share. I won’t even press charges against you. On one condition.”

  “What’s that?” Graeme asked suspiciously.

  “I’ll be staying with you, as well. Her husband got a good look at me. He’ll know who I am by tomorrow, if he watches the news. He’ll likely come looking for both of us, and together, you and I can keep her far safer than one of us alone.

  Chapter Two

  Neither man had said much when they’d arrived at Graeme’s house. By unspoken agreement, he’d taken Elizabeth inside while Enwright scouted the perimeter. Now Elizabeth was already asleep, knocked out from the painkillers administered by the paramedics.

  Graeme showed Enwright to his room, left him some clean clothes, and pointed out the shower before heading to the kitchen for a drink. He winced a little while later when Enwright walked into the kitchen wearing nothing but boxers and bruises.

  “Drink?” he offered.

  “If there’s a God in heaven, that’ll be a single malt whisky you’re offering,” Enwright said.

  “It is,” he confirmed, with what felt like his first smile in hours.

  “Then I take back almost every bad thought I’ve had about you tonight, Sheriff.”

  “Graeme. Call me Graeme”

  “Right then, Graeme, and you should call me Michael,” he said and poured himself a glass before walking restlessly around the kitchen.

  Graeme watched Michael move around the room and realized the man was actually working, checking the locks and window casements. He shouldn’t forget that Michael was an expert in security and protection.

  Michael was a powerful-looking man, with broad shoulders and muscled arms. There was a vicious red band crossing his chest where the seatbelt gripped him during the crash. It would darken with bruise tomorrow. He eyed the dark chest hair then his gaze followed the light trail of hair down the classic six-pack abs until it disappeared beneath the waistband of his boxers. He wasn’t sure the jeans he’d loaned Michael would fit over his well-developed thighs.

  When he glanced back up, he saw that Michael was watching him with what looked suspiciously like amusement in his one good eye.

  Caught, Graeme said, “Sorry, I was wondering if I should throw your jeans in the washer, I don’t think the ones I loaned you are going to fit.”

  “I’ll take a pair of shorts or sweats for the morning if you have them. I’m a bit overdressed for sleep right now,” Michael said, a smile tugging at his mouth.

  Graeme ignored Michael’s teasing. He handed him a bag of frozen peas from the freezer. “Put this over your eye. You should’ve let the paramedics take a look at you, too.”

  “I’m all right. It was mostly the gravel that was hard to get out in the shower. I would take some ibuprofen if you have it and then a quick tour of the rest of the place. I’ll get the specifics for the security system in the morning, but I want to get a feel for what we’ll need to set up. I like the location, nice and isolated but with plenty of clearing around the house. Shouldn’t be hard to set up a perimeter alarm.”

  He led the way around his home and watched as Michael examined every window, checking the locks. He paused outside Elizabeth’s room, hesitant to violate her privacy.

  Michael nodded. “I know,” he whispered. We’ll just go in and out quickly. I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t check every window, and hers is the most important one.”

  Together they walked quietly across the room, and he noted Michael kept his eyes focused on the window, not sparing a glance for Elizabeth. Graeme wasn’t so noble. He walked to the bed and gently pulled the sheet up to cover her exposed shoulder and pressed a quick kiss to her temple before they walked to the door.

  “Does she know you’re in love with her?” Michael asked, closing the door gently behind them.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Graeme’s fingers went to his head, and he ran his hand through his hair. “We’re friends. At least, we were friends. We’ve known each other since school. We drifted apart when she married and I took a job up here, but I think we’re still friends. I’d
do anything for Lizzie,” Graeme said.

  “Yep, you love her,” Michael said with a grin and led them away from her door. “You should tell her. Not tomorrow maybe, what with everything else going on, but soon. It might help her.”

  “Shut the fuck up. You don’t understand. You don’t know what you’re talking about. We’ve been friends for years. Of course I love her, just not the way you mean. It’s complicated,” Graeme finished lamely.

  Heading into his bedroom, Michael said, “Yes, I can see that. I’m an expert at seeing what people don’t want me to see. Now unless you want me to test my next theory, get out. I’m going to bed.” He turned his back on the sheriff and slipped off the borrowed boxers. He took his time pulling back the sheets before collapsing facedown onto the crisp cotton with a sigh.

  He smiled to himself when Graeme finally shut the door and walked away. That was two questions answered. Graeme did love Elizabeth, but given the amount of time he’d stood in the doorway and stared, it was a safe bet he liked men, too. It wasn’t the Michael swung, but he liked to know as much as he could about the people he worked with.

  Jolynn’s preliminary report indicated the sheriff was a former Phoenix detective, before taking the job in the small town halfway to Flagstaff. Was that why he’d left his job to come north? He knew life could be hell for a gay man in a macho occupation. A gay man in love with another man’s wife? Well, it wasn’t his concern unless it had something to do with keeping Elizabeth safe and catching the bastard that had tried to kill them both.

  The supplies he’d requested would be here by noon, and the team would have the windows and perimeter alarms up before dinner. He wanted to work fast, because Barry wouldn’t be a patient man. As far as they knew, Barry was unaware that Graeme was the local sheriff, but all bets were off once the news media started reporting.

  Although a domestic dispute was hardly newsworthy, one involving the head of Enwright Security would bring out the vultures. He’d lived his life as a relative recluse as far as the press was concerned yet hardly a month went by without a request for a personal interview. This would set off a feeding frenzy. As if the life of a man who ran security could be interesting to anyone.

  *****

  Graeme fisted his straining cock. Damn. After years of fantasizing about her, Lizzie was here, sleeping under his roof. So why was he in alone in his bed stroking his cock over another guy?

  That fucking Michael was hot. H-O-T! The little trick in the bedroom had been clever. It had been a test, not an invitation. In just a few hours, Michael had figured out that Graeme loved Lizzie and yet was still attracted to men. A man that observant would make a dangerous enemy.

  He’d never told Lizzie it was his desire for men that kept him from completely committing to her when they were younger. He’d pushed her into another man’s arms, rather than let her know the truth of it. Now that other man had nearly killed her.

  Firmly, Graeme turned his imagination away from Michael to Lizzie. Despite his decision to move on all those years ago, he’d never stopped loving Lizzie. She’d been the reason his last lover had walked away. He’d said he couldn’t compete with a memory.

  His hand moved faster, eyes closed, picturing silky auburn hair spilling over his stomach as Lizzie’s dusty pink lips wrapped around his cock. He wanted to see her jade green eyes fill with a sleepy passion.

  He cupped his balls with one hand, feeling the weight of them draw up as his other hand moved faster. Michael showed back up in the fantasy to lick his balls while Lizzie took him deep in her throat. Biting back a moan, he made two more short strokes before cum spurted white hot across his chest. He lay there panting, the vision of Michael and Lizzie together fresh in his mind. God, now that was really hot.

  He was wrenched from his fantasy by a bloodcurdling scream.

  *****

  It’s not real, it’s not real. Just a dream. Still, she couldn’t stop the sobs that followed the scream that awakened her. Everything hurt. Her ribs, her stomach, her head. Her heart. She knew she had to stop crying or Barry would start beating on her again.

  The door flew open, and a man she didn’t know burst through, sweeping the room with a gun in his hand. She started to scream again.

  “Shh, Lizzie, you’re all right. I’ve got you. You’re safe now,” Graeme’s voice soothed, as he came in quickly behind the first man. He climbed on the bed and stroked her hair.

  “It’s clear, Graeme,” said the stranger. “I’ll get her meds and a glass of water.” He left her alone with Graeme.

  Graeme? How had he gotten here? Where was here? Everything felt fuzzy in her head.

  “Graeme, is it really you?” she asked.

  “Yes, little bit,” he said, using his pet name for her. “You’re at my place, and you’re safe.”

  The stranger returned and sat on the opposite side of the bed, holding out a glass and a pill. “Take this. You’ll feel better.”

  Panic started to rise, again. “I don’t—”

  “Shh, Lizzie, it’s okay. This is Michael, remember? He saved you. We’re going to keep you safe. Take your pill. Now lie back down, sweetheart. We’ll talk in the morning. You’re safe for tonight.”

  “Oh Graeme, I really fucked everything up,” she said.

  “No, honey. You said Barry beat you. That’s not your fault. You don’t need to talk about it now, it’ll wait for morning.”

  She sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees. “I need to, need to—you should know that he wasn’t always like that. Barry’s in the Army, you know? He gets deployed a lot. It’s been getting to him. This last time…well, he wasn’t right when he came back from his last deployment to Afghanistan. He’s always been jealous, but he started accusing me of cheating on him, of not loving him. I came home from work about a month ago, excited because Allen...my boss—”

  She swallowed. “Allen promoted me to vice president in charge of operations. It’s a big job. I work at Brooker Technologies, and the promotion was one I’d worked hard for. Barry wanted me to turn it down, said I’d only gotten it because I was sleeping with Allen. It was so absurd, I laughed. Allen is…was—” she swallowed again “—was a mentor, not a lover. Not ever.

  “I should’ve recognized the danger. I shouldn’t have laughed. Barry exploded. He hit me, screamed at me, and called me a whore,” she said quietly.

  “When I got away, I locked myself in the bedroom and packed a bag. There was no way I was going to stay with him after that. Then I heard him sobbing. Great wracking sobs, and I let guilt override my common sense. I went to him, and he told me stories about Afghanistan, about the horrors he’d seen. He promised to get help, begged my forgiveness.

  “God help me, I stayed. If I’d only left that first time, maybe nothing else would’ve happened. He seemed okay for the next little while, quiet, but better. He said the doctor had given him meds, said he was getting help. We still weren’t okay, I was having a hard time forgiving what he’d done to me, but he seemed to be really trying.

  “Then we had another fight, and he hit me again. I swear, it was the last straw. I was packing to leave when he told me about the tumor. The doctors found a brain tumor, and he was dying. He said it was causing him to act out when he didn’t mean it. He begged me not to let him die alone.” She knew the men would hear the bitterness in her voice now, but she needed to get it all out. “How could I leave a dying man, right? What kind of a cruel bitch would that make me? I stayed but I refused to stay in the same room with him and made him promise to take me to talk to his doctors.”

  “Then last week…Oh God! Allen was killed walking to lunch. He left and never came back. The police said he was pushed in front of a bus, but no one saw who did it. When I came home from work, I could tell Barry already knew. He had that secret smile I hate so much.

  “I tried to be smart and not let on that I suspected him. I was scared, seriously scared he’d kill me. He knew I’d figured it out though, and he went wild. He kicked and punched,
and it was like nothing because I knew he’d killed Allen and if I fought back, he would kill me, too.

  “I just wanted it to end, wanted to wait until he was asleep or passed out so I could get away. Instead, he knocked me out and when I woke up I was shackled. He made me call in to work and tell them I needed a break after Allen’s death.

  “He kept me home and shackled for the past week. He acted like everything was normal, like I wanted to be there and we were happy. If I complained or tried to get away he beat me again. The only way to avoid his fits was to pretend it was all business as usual. It was so bizarre, I was tethered to the wall, and cooking him dinner like a happy little wife. Just so he wouldn’t beat me. God!

  “Tonight he was taking me to a cabin, but I don’t know where. He told me it was the last phase of my punishment, and then we would both be free. I’m sure he planned to kill me. I told him I had to go to the bathroom, promised I wouldn’t leave him. He let me go, and you know the rest.”

  Her eyes felt heavy. The drugs had kicked in while she’d been talking. She lay back against her pillow and waited for the recriminations. The men were silent for a long time.

  “I don’t understand—” Graeme began, his voice quivering.

  “It’ll wait until morning,” Michael interrupted. “Let her sleep now.”

  She saw their gazes meet, and she didn’t recognize the look on Graeme’s face. Her mind couldn’t keep a hold of reality. She was sinking, her eyes heavy, questions slipping away on a cloud. Wanted to know…so much. Safe for now. Could sleep…safe for now. Graeme’s house. In a final moment of consciousness, she thought that Graeme’s boyfriend was hot and they were both nude. She would have giggled if she could have. It was the very last thought she had before she slipped into a deep slumber.

  Graeme stroked Lizzie’s hair until her breathing was deep and even. He looked up to find Michael watching him. Their gazes locked for a long minute, and he wished he knew what the other man was thinking.