Goose and the Ocelot

by Renee Hewett

  She sighed.

  “You’re magnificent,” he whispered.

  “Back atcha,” she replied, opening her eyes and turning her head to kiss him. She was ready for more.

  Turning her body, she wrapped her arms around him to pull him close and deepen their kiss. To her surprise, he stood, pulling her up in his arms.

  “What are you doing?” she squealed. “We’re going to get water everywhere.”

  “Not if you help me.” He nodded his head, and she saw that he indicated the fluffy robes within arm’s reach. Since his arms were full, holding her, she grabbed them.

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked, “I’m not taking a step until you tell me exactly what you want.”

  “I want you to take me to that bed.” Her voice was even huskier than before.

  Andrés followed her directions, barely waiting for her to throw the robes down before he placed her on top of them and began kissing down her body. He stopped at each nipple, giving them both a swirl of his tongue and a gentle nip before he started kissing lower. He went down her stomach, and then one hip, then down the leg…

  “You just pleased me,” Dedra gasped. “Andrés, it’s my turn to pleasure you.”

  He kissed back up her other leg, not yet kissing her sex, instead making his way back up her hip, then stomach, then back to the nipples before he pulled back just a bit. “This is my pleasure.” The way his eyes bore into hers with intense passion made her catch her breath. He was so damn sexy, and everything about the way he smiled promised that he meant what he said. “You let me worship your body, and I’m getting plenty out of it. Every time my name spills off that tongue, it’s an extra jolt. Trust me.”

  In a swift move, he pushed her up the bed so her head rested comfortably on the pillows and spread her legs apart, guiding her knees to drop to either side so he could dip his head and treat her to a long, slow lick over her sex.

  She couldn’t help but cry out, it felt so good. He tightened his grip on one of her knees a bit, to let her know he enjoyed hearing it.

  Despite the fact that she was enjoying herself, and he was enjoying what he was doing to her, Dedra couldn’t take it anymore. She barely felt like she was over the first orgasm, and he was about to give her another.

  She laced her hands in his hair and begged him to fuck her. When he took a moment to stop and smile up at her, she took her chance, sliding out from his hold.

  “Aww, is playtime over?” he asked, that damn dimple appearing again.

  She kissed the little notch by his smile. “Get on your back.”

  He smiled even bigger and, once again, did as told. He paused for a second, reaching over to the side table for a box.

  Dedra was glad one of them was thinking. Not that it was very likely she’d get pregnant, but it seemed like a good common courtesy to extend when you hadn’t had the STD talk yet.

  He tossed her one, and she gladly opened the wrapper and placed the rubber on his tip. She cupped his balls with the other hand and made sheathing him into a mini hand job. His eyes rolled back as she did it, and she saw what he meant about it being pleasurable to hear the other person moan.

  “Are you ready?” Dedra asked him, moving one leg to the other side so she was straddling him.

  “Fuck yeah,” Andrés said as Dedra slid him into her. She did it slowly, wanting to enjoy the first moments of feeling him inside of her. Then she began to move.

  His hips rocked with hers, and his hands reached up to her breasts. Soon they were moving faster, and Dedra had to lean over and prop herself up with the headboard.

  When Andrés was close, he moved a hand between them, massaging her clit to bring her over the edge with him. Dedra soared as his hips bucked under her, gazing into the eyes of this truly amazing man.

  It was just the first of several rounds they had that night.

  Dedra had hoped Andrés would be good in the bedroom, but he was even better than she could have dreamed.

  7

  Dedra always woke when a text came in. The little chime and buzz broke through any sleep, much like her baby’s crying had twenty years earlier.

  She hoped it was Kailee letting her know that their plane had landed and they’d be to the academy soon. She couldn’t wait to see her.

  Andrés was asleep, so she took the phone to the bathroom, where the light and sounds wouldn’t bother him. He’d been so good to her, not just last night but over the last two days. A part of Dedra was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, to find out that the person she was into had issues, like Rod’s gambling, but so far, Andrés had been great. Sure, she didn’t know much about his personal life, or even his professional life, past working for FUC academy, but something about him felt different than other men she’d dated. Maybe when things were right, you just knew.

  She saw Kailee had sent her a photo and opened it, expecting a cute selfie. Maybe she’d even have that handsome young agent in it with her.

  Instead, the image that loaded made Dedra’s blood run cold.

  It was only half of Kailee’s face but enough for Dedra to see that her daughter was gagged. The main focus of the photo was the background, which Dedra recognized immediately.

  The factory.

  Along with the photo was one line.

  Get here now.

  She frantically typed out a text, demanding to know who had Kailee, who was sending this to her, and what the hell they wanted. When she hit Send, she was treated to an alert message.

  This user has blocked you.

  “Son of a bitch!” As soon as Dedra shouted it, she covered her mouth. She didn’t want to wake up Andrés. She peeked out into the room and saw he hadn’t moved. So far, she’d played by FUC rules. She’d arrived here, and she’d been convinced her daughter was safe. Now, she had no idea what had happened to Kailee’s agent, how these assholes had gotten ahold of her daughter, but she was going to handle it herself.

  She’d tried doing it the FUC way, and that had clearly failed. FUC or not, they had nothing on Dedra Goosby-Wakins, mob princess.

  Dedra was shaking with rage. The only person she debated talking to was Grayson, but if they wanted her brother or nephew, they would have delivered them messages. Grayson had been out of the business for so long he wasn’t their target. Dedra was.

  She’d tried to hold on to the factory, to bring it around, to make it something Grayson would want to be a part of. Even Kailee, who never had any interest in it, could have come around. But none of that mattered. She’d burn the whole thing to the ground if that was what they wanted, so long as it meant she could keep them from harming her daughter.

  She turned off the bathroom light and snuck into the bedroom. As quietly as she could, she dressed then shoved a few things into her purse. She resisted the urge to kiss Andrés. He was just so damn sexy, but she knew enough about him to know he’d want to stick to the rules. He’d hear what happened and pull the whole FUC team out of bed, and then they’d sit there in another meeting while those people had her precious Kailee.

  She spared one last glance at him, thinking of how much a shame it was that they couldn’t have more time together. She’d rather enjoyed him. But she decided to look at it like one last fun time before she met her end.

  Because she would die for Kailee, if it came to that.

  She made her way through the building and down to the basement, where Andrés had parked his truck. She’d made sure to grab the keys out of his pants pocket. She felt a little guilty for it, but it wasn’t really even his truck. It was a FUC-issued staff vehicle. So really, she was stealing from FUC.

  After all they’ve done for me…

  Sure, they’d gone out of their way to bring her back here, but look at how they’d also failed! They delivered only three out of four Goosby family members, and seventy-five percent was a fail, as far as Dedra was concerned.

  She thought about trying to disable the GPS, but it really didn’t matter. As soon as they knew she was gone, they�
�d figure out where she’d gone. All that mattered was that she got Kailee out safe. She’d meet whatever terms her employees—she hated thinking of them that way; her employees were people she cared about—and MUFF made. FUC be damned.

  She felt slightly bad for the factory employees who hadn’t been a part of this. If the factory went down, they’d be out of a job. Didn’t the dissenters understand that? She took solace in the fact that they had good benefits packages. They’d be taken care of for some time while they looked for new employment.

  Dedra unlocked the truck and got in. She started the engine. Would the guard let her pass, or would she have to drive through the gate? Maybe it was automatic…

  The thoughts had taken just enough extra time to put a crimp in her plans, because, just then, the passenger door opened.

  “Hello, Xuxu.”

  Andrés.

  Andrés was wiser than to ask her where she was going while she was packing her things.

  It even amused him when she went into his pants and took his keys.

  It would have been asking her to lie to him or starting an argument if he let her know he was awake. If she wanted him to know what she was doing, she would have told him.

  So he lay still in bed, watching this wonderful woman leave him.

  He would have been sad to see her go if he hadn’t been planning on following right behind her.

  He knew that Dedra was trying to escape. He just didn’t know if she’d planned this all along or if something had changed her mind. He’d seen her take her phone into the bathroom. He wondered if she’d gotten a message.

  As soon as she was gone, Andrés took out his phone, tapped a message to Alyce, and followed Dedra.

  He watched her go straight to his staff vehicle and stealthily made his way through the garage, drawing a little extra on his ocelot to help with it. It would be best if he could get into the car without her noticing. It meant not risking getting run over.

  “Hello, xuxu.” He greeted his sexy lady, Dedra, as he sat in the passenger’s seat.

  He laughed when she jumped. He met her glare when she turned to him, and he saw she pressed her hand to her heart from being startled. “What the fuck, Andrés?”

  “Figured you could use some adrenaline. You were sure taking your time to get into gear.” He motioned to the stick. “You can drive manual, right?”

  “Of course I can! I was just wondering if I should have killed you before I left so I wouldn’t have to deal with shit like this!”

  “I’m pretty sure you were just thinking you would miss me.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Now, tell me where we’re going, and why.”

  Not wasting any more time, Dedra threw the car into reverse, letting the tires squeal as she turned out of the parking space and headed out of the underground garage. “They have my daughter.”

  8

  Kailee was sure her mom was going to kill someone.

  Maybe everyone.

  Starting with the factory workers. No, scratch that, she bet her mom would take out the cultists first then take her time in making Jimmy and the others pay.

  It wasn’t about the paychecks or sick days or bonuses. That was what every boss gave their employees. For Dedra Wakins, it was about how the workers were like family. It was about the Christmas company parties, the spring field days, the “bring your kids to work” days. The time they’d spent over the years getting to know each other and their families. Their spouses, their kids. Theirs was a small town, and the people who worked there often stayed there. Which meant some had seen Dedra grow up. They’d all seen Kailee grow up. They were like aunts and uncles.

  And now they’d betrayed Dedra and Kailee.

  The revolt was one thing, but laying hands on her daughter?

  They were fucked.

  Kailee felt confident in that, but it wasn’t enough to keep away any trepidation. She knew from the moment they took out her FUC agent that the MUFF cultists had no regard for anyone but themselves.

  Although she hadn’t been privy to any of her grandfather’s business, and she had no idea how much or little participation her mom might have had in mob activities, Kailee was sure she knew one thing about that lifestyle: even the biggest criminal should follow some code of honor. And that usually meant not getting kids involved and giving a man a chance to bargain before taking his life.

  They’d killed her FUC agent in cold blood, with no regard for any rules or any code.

  Kailee tried to change her thoughts. She couldn’t think about her FUC agent. She didn’t even want to think his name. She couldn’t lose her composure at a time like this. She had to stay focused and try to figure out how to escape her little storage room prison.

  Her hands were tied behind her with zip ties—which she sure as shit knew how to snap out of, thanks to her mother’s early training—but a cultist sat in the room with her at all times. She knew there was another in the hallway, having passed that one when Pauline came by to escort her to the bathroom—a luxury she got because the cultists said they didn’t want to have to stand watch in a room that had a crap corner.

  She was as furious with Pauline as she was with Jimmy, but she could also tell Pauline felt bad. She’d been sneaking Kailee food and apologizing, but she swore she was unable to help in any other way.

  Kailee knew she could save herself by shifting into her narwhal form if she ran out of other options. She highly doubted that they knew she could do that. It was risky, though, and had to be a last resort.

  It wasn’t whether or not she could shift out of water—she knew she could do that. Her father once told her that every young marine mammal experimented with land shifts before they accepted how uncomfortable it was. The problem she faced was how much energy it took to be in that form when you didn’t have the water to help support the weight of the medium-sized whale. Which made the whole thing uncomfortable, to say the least.

  And while shifting would crush anyone in her immediate vicinity, she’d be pretty helpless against any other armed people who rushed from other areas. Narwhals on land didn’t have offensive capabilities, and as a female narwhal, she didn’t even have a huge horn to thrash around.

  It’s not even a horn; it’s a tooth, she muttered to herself, to the tune of sour grapes.

  So she’d have to shift, crush her captors, shift back into human form as fast as possible, and hope she still had enough energy to bolt from pursuers.

  Which was why she was holding off on it until she had no other options.

  For now, she’d wait and see if they decided to make demands that she could meet.

  It was then that Jimmy came into her holding room. He exchanged some words with the cultist, who then patted him down and left.

  The sight of Jimmy infuriated her, but Kailee was also confused. “Why the pat down? I thought you were all on the same team.”

  Jimmy approached her then crouched down. She could see a sadness in his face, but she refused to fall for it. He sighed before telling her, “I’m sorry, Kailee. This wasn’t supposed to happen. They weren’t supposed to touch you. You have to understand that I had no idea.”

  Jimmy was one of the older factory workers, one who had seen her when she was just a newborn being carried around by Dedra. Hell, he probably even came to the house to the baby viewing party after she was born. This asshole! “I don’t get this at all, Jimmy. If you were so unhappy, why go this far? Why not just quit? Why not take the benefits package available to anyone who wanted out?”

  Jimmy shoved his hand into his hair, pulling at it and making the dark grey strands stand out in all different directions. He got up and started pacing the small space. “I don’t know. It’s like this idea got in my head somewhere, and everywhere I looked, there were articles about gentrification and deindustrialization, that kind of shit that talks about how the whole world is changing and no one gives a shit about people like me anymore. I got carried away with the stuff.”

  Were she not tied up and kidnapped,
Kailee might have allowed herself to comfort Jimmy. But this buffoon should have reached out before starting a riot and invited a dangerous group of cultists to bring it to another level.

  One thing struck her about what he said, though. As an internet influencer—the preferred term to “socialite” since she did more than go to parties, she also posted photos on Instagram!—she knew a lot about how algorithms, bots, and trolls worked. Was someone targeting Jimmy with this message? “Where are you seeing this stuff, Jimmy? On the news? In the paper?”

  He shook his head. “Social media, mostly, but also sometimes email. Like, junk emails, addresses I don’t know, but I can’t help but read them, and they talk about the dangers of change.”

  “And the others? Were they seeing this stuff?”

  “Yeah!” Jimmy turned back to her, animated. “That’s how we all got wound up about it. We’d come into work and had all seen the same thing, and we all got to bitching about it all day long. Then that night, we see another one, go back to work, and do it all again.”

  Kailee nodded, tucking the fact away, as it wouldn’t do her any good right then. “I just don’t get how you got from reading articles to getting a cult involved.”

  “I don’t know. I just got the video, and it had the number, and I just acted. I never really thought about how bad it could be.” He looked back at her. “You have to know I’m sorry.”

  She didn’t know he was sorry. Didn’t care. “Video?” she asked, ignoring his pseudo-apology.

  She listened, horrified, as Jimmy explained the video, how he’d gotten it, and what was on it. Kailee knew her mom wouldn’t have been on video in a field shifting. She only did it on private property or when completely alone. Hell, even when she was in hotel rooms, she always stayed in places that had automatic checkout and windows that opened!

  “And the number on the video was to MUFF? And you called them and invited them to help you without figuring out exactly how unhinged they were?”