* * * *
“N–no,” Kate cried distractedly. She couldn’t seem to take her eyes from John as he walked beside the wheelchair, his cock bobbing up and down with each step he took. And, suddenly, her whole body began to tighten as Tom’s hands firmed on her hips, pulling her down as he thrust up, his cock slamming into her.
“Look at John’s cock, Kate. Look at it,” Tom cried. “That cock is going to fuck your mouth while I watch, it’s going to fuck your cunt while I watch and it’s going to fuck your ass while I watch. The same with Mike’s cock. You’re going to take them both, Kate. And, I’m going to watch you do it. Then you’re going to watch me take them into my mouth and my ass. Tell me, Kate. Tell me you want it all.” His thrusts became frantic, his hands pulling her down on his cock with stunning force.
“Yes, Tom. Oh, yes. I want it all. I want you to watch me, and I want to watch you, too. I want all three of you, every way possible. All of it, Tom.” She ground her cunt against him one more time before John and Mike separated them.
“Damn it, Tom, you’re going to have to wait until we get the door of the bedroom open.” John smiled in anticipation as the four of them disappeared together into the bedroom.
The fabric of his reality began shredding before his own eyes. Rosie had been taken to the hospital last night, but he hadn’t been able to get to her with all of the police hovering around her room. Now, her room was empty and they said she had checked out. But he had been watching the entrance and hadn’t seen her leave. Damn it! Rosie was gone again. Once again, she’d left him all alone.
His hands clenched into large fists as he stood at the hospital’s information desk. Impotent rage swept through him at the loss of her. She’d been gone for so long, and he still missed her so terribly. And she had just slipped by him, again. Damn it to hell and back! He’d make her pay. She wouldn’t get away with leaving him. Never again! She was
his
, and he would make sure she could never escape again.
He’d made the isolated cabin beautiful on the inside. The living room and bedroom almost looked like the pictures Rosie had kept on her bedroom wall for years. Once she realized that she was his, she’d be happy there, he knew. Once he found her, he was certain that no one would ever be able to take his Rosie away from him again. They would die first.
“Excuse me, sir. Is there a problem?” The young security guard was very polite and glanced at the nervous information clerk reassuringly.
“What?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but other people are waiting in line behind you for information. If there is a problem, we’d appreciate it if you would—”
“No. No problem at all,” he snapped gutturally as he turned and stalked to the entrance doors.
He stood outside on the sidewalk briefly, shading his eyes from the sun and muttering to himself. People made a wide detour around him, gazing apprehensively at his menacing expression and stance. Moments later, he blindly walked toward his van in the parking lot. He had to find her. He had to find her, but where was she this time? Who had taken her from him this time? With each step he took, his rage escalated, until he was shaking with fury by the time he opened the van door.
He sat in his van for several long minutes. The air inside was stifling, but he didn’t even notice it. He’d had a dream last night. He’d seen Rosie last night and talked to her. It had made him angry that she had cut her beautiful long black hair and that she was wearing all of that heavy makeup. But he had been so grateful that he’d found her once more that he wasn’t as firm with her as he should have been. In addition, there were other puzzling changes in Rosie that he’d noticed, at least until that man had hit her. He would have killed that miserable son of a bitch if the police hadn’t come in when they did.
At least the dream last night hadn’t turned into the nightmare that had been plaguing him for so many years. The nightmare that kept coming back over and over again. The nightmare he knew was driving him mad.
Suddenly, the answer was clear to him.
He
had taken her, again. That miserable son of a bitch, Tom Martins, had taken his Rosie away from him,
again
. It was all Martins’ fault. Those friends of Tom Martins had hidden Rosie somewhere. That knowledge calmed him, banking his rage and anger and filling him with steely resolve.
First, he’d have to find out where Martins was keeping her, and then he had to rescue his Rosie! He had to bring her home. Bring her home to him. And then he’d make sure that Martins could never take his Rosie away again. He’d kill the son of a bitch and everyone around him.
He smiled grimly. Once he had his Rosie back, then the nightmares would end for good. He would never again have to see her dead face looking at him with empty surprise. He would never again have to hear the loud cracking sound as his fist hit the side of her head. He would never again have to see the blood that pooled beneath her. No, once Tom Martins was dead, and his Rosie was back with him, then the nightmare would be gone.
He needed a plan. He needed to get back inside that mansion and find out where Martins had hidden his Rosie. And once he had rescued his Rosie and had her safe, then he’d go back and take them all out, permanently.
But, first, he needed a plan.
Sheriff Benjamin Whittaker paged through the reports left on his desk. It was the same old thing. Small problems, but nothing he couldn’t handle in an hour or two.
But the Martins case had all of his professional instincts primed to the max. This was a nasty one. He picked up the picture Mike had printed from the YouTube video. He shook his head at the madness that seemed to be radiating in waves from the photograph. He felt the familiar tingle of unease at the back of his neck. This case was far from over.
Ben looked up as Carolanne walked into his office, stopping just inside the door. That instant snap of desire and attraction was growing stronger every day. His eyes settled first on her wide, whiskey-colored eyes and glistening lips before moving down to her abundant breasts. He could almost physically feel her breasts in his hands and her nipple in his mouth.
Carolanne placed her hands on her firm hips and whispered sternly, “Ben, stop it. For God’s sake, we’re in your office. Let’s have a little professionalism here. Unless, of course, you want me to jump your bones here and now with your entire staff watching and listening.”
Incendiary heat flared in his eyes as they stared into hers. A guttural “where and when” ripped from his throat.
“Ben!” Her eyes widened as Ben slowly got up from his chair and walked intently toward her, his cock straining against his tight jeans. He reached behind her and shut the door firmly before pulling her roughly into his arms.
Instead of kissing her, Ben moved two steps to the side and moved her so that her back was to the wall. He took a step forward, pinning her to the wall with his body and freeing his hands to stroke slowly from her waist to her breasts. He groaned as she lifted her hips to press against his growing arousal, but still did not kiss her.
“I want you so damn badly that I can hardly think, Carolanne. From the first time I heard your voice, the first time I saw your face, your body. I knew. I knew you were mine.” His teeth gripped her earlobe and nipped lightly.
“Ben! Oh, my God, Ben.” She tipped her pelvis up and began grinding her pussy against him.
“Since I met you, Carolanne, I haven’t been able to do anything but fantasize about fucking you, sucking on your tits, and eating you and playing with you until you scream with pleasure. I want to fuck you every way possible and—”
“Ben! Shut the fuck up and kiss me, damn it.” She grabbed his head and pulled his smiling lips down to hers.
It was instant combustion. A fiery conflagration of intense emotional and physical need. Their tongues dueled in a dance of naked desire as their hips rotated and ground together. Carolanne’s hands covered Ben’s on her breasts. He moaned into her mouth, his tongue searching for hers, and then he sucked it into his mouth.
It took a few moments for the sound of the intercom to register. “Sheriff? There’s a call from San Francisco, a Mr. Trent Palmer. Something about the Martins case. Sheriff? Do you want me to tell him to call back later?”
Ben covered the few steps to his desk quickly. “I’m here, Tobey. Tell Mr. Palmer I’ll be right with him.”
“Will do, Sheriff.”
Ben took a deep breath and exhaled roughly. He looked at Carolanne still leaning against the wall, her lips swollen from his kisses and her hair slightly mussed.
“Carolanne,” he said roughly. “Tonight. My place or yours?”
She hesitated for a moment then nodded. “Tonight. My place.”
Ben picked up the phone. “What have you got, Trent? Wait. Hold on for a second. Carolanne, get a notebook and pen. Okay, Trent, I’ve put you on speaker. Carolanne will be taking notes. She’s one of M-G Security’s best people.” He shot her a wink and smile.
“Well, we think we’ve found your guy. The only name we could come up with is T. J. Samuels, and we’re quite sure it’s not his real name. According to a former employee, he owned his own construction company for just under a year. Apparently he couldn’t keep any personnel because he’d either fire them or they’d quit. No one could put up with his ranting and raving.” Ben could hear papers shuffling as Trent paused and then continued.
“When his wife disappeared, he left what little remained of his business and took his eleven-year-old stepdaughter, Rosemary, to the Pacific Northwest. They lived in Seattle for about four years before moving to a small cabin in the mountains near you. The stepdaughter graduated from high school three years ago and since then she has disappeared, too. The home address listed at the high school is for a house that was torn down two years ago. No one knows where his cabin is located, but we’re still checking out things from our end.”
“That doesn’t sound good, Trent. Not good at all.” Ben was seriously disturbed by this tale.
“I’m with you there, Ben. I’m faxing you a copy of the stepdaughter’s high school yearbook picture. She’s a dead ringer for that girl on the video, so I’m sure this fits with the Martins case. Ian is still checking on possible locations for the cabin. It would have to be close enough to the high school for her to have attended regularly, unless they rented a place in town. Maybe the house that was torn down. So we’re checking on that end of things, as well as trying to get information on Rosemary from her classmates. But that’s all we’ve got at the present time. When we get more, you can be sure we’ll be in contact immediately.”
“Thanks, Trent, you guys have dug up an incredible amount of information. If we learn anything at this end, we’ll be in contact. Have you notified Mike and John of this new info?”
“No, we can’t seem to get through to them. If you can, let them know what we found and that we’re working on the other things. Take care. Will talk to you soon.”
“Right, Trent.” Ben hung up his receiver and looked at Carolanne solemnly. “I don’t like the sound of this, not at all.”
“Do you think he killed them both, Ben?”
“I don’t know. It’s guesswork at this point, but looking at that face, I believe it’s a valid possibility.”
Ben watched as Carolanne walked over to the fax machine which was laboriously giving birth to a slightly dark picture of a young girl. She picked up the fax and brought it over to Ben.
“She is beautiful, Ben. So full of hope and promise. And Trent was right, she looks a lot like Marylou. They could almost be twins.” She put the fax picture next to that of the hate-filled face of the man in the video. “How could she have made it living with that madman?”
Ben studied the two faces for long minutes.
“All we can do is hope that Rosemary is a survivor. Some people have the ability to look adversity in the eye and spit on it. Let’s hope she is one of them.”
“Ben, you do have the most weirdly cockeyed way of looking at things. But I like it. I like it a lot.” Carolanne smiled. “Seven o’clock, and you have my address. I’ll cook dinner.”
“This time, forget the dinner. It’ll either burn or get cold by the time we get to it. Maybe we can order pizza, as long as you’ll let us eat it in bed. I swear to God, Carolanne, I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you. I don’t know how this happened, or why, but you’ve hit me like a ton of bricks. I’ve never felt this way before, even when I was a testosterone-ridden teen. Not even during my marriage.”
“Ben!” she said as she took a step toward him.
“Come one step closer, Carolanne, and we start here. Now. On top of my desk. I’m serious!”
She stepped back quickly and looked at him with amusement. “I believe you, Ben. I believe you.” She held her hands out in front of her, palms out as she took another two steps back. “I’d better get back to work.” She paused, her face thoughtful for a moment. Then she said, “But my job here is done, isn’t it, Ben? There’s no need for me to go through any more files, is there?”
“No, there’s no need for you to go through the files, but I’m sure going to miss seeing you here, Carolanne. You’ve played havoc with my concentration while you’ve been here and nearly driven me crazy with desire. But now I have a feeling that every time I walk out of my office my mind is going to see you sitting at that desk, taunting and teasing me just by being there. Or I’ll lift my head and see you standing with your back to that wall, your lips swollen from my kisses and your hair just slightly mussed. I don’t believe I’ll ever be free from you, Carolanne. Not ever. And to tell you the truth, I don’t want to be free of you. Not ever.”
“Ben, what are you saying?” she asked in a shocked voice.
“Great. Just fucking great. Now I’ve scared you into thinking I’m some kind of fucking stalker.” He roughly scrubbed his hands up and down his face before facing her again. “I’m sorry, Carolanne. My timing really sucks. I hadn’t meant to lay this on you so soon.”
She walked up to him, cupped his face in her hands, and looked deeply into his eyes. “You’re no stalker, and I’m not the least bit afraid of you. And one other thing, Ben. I don’t want to be free of you, either. Not ever. So go ahead. Lay it on me, big boy.”