An Eye for an Eye

"I haven't seen one of those for a while." She said as she took a long look at my body.

"Haven't seen one of what?"

"A six pack."

"Oh. And here I was thinking it was my impressive cock."

"Oh he's very nice, don't get me wrong he's more than nice. I can't wait to have him."

"Okay, I surrender, do with me what you will. I can see that I won't be allowed to sleep until after I've satisfied your carnal appetites."

"Oh no you don't, if you're going to make love to me you're going to have to earn the privilege, you don't get something for nothing you know."

"You're a fucking slavedriver, do you know that?"

"I couldn't have put it better myself. Now slave, lick my pussy!"

"Yes Ma'am." I bent to the task with enthusiasm, as I did when obeying any command.

"Why on earth did your husband neglect you to the point that you hadn't made love for months? There is absolutely nothing wrong with your technique or enthusiasm." This was some time later in the night, after we had made love.

"When it comes to love I was well down on the pecking order. His love for money was marginally ahead of his love for himself, followed by his love for the sexual conquest of new and attractive young persons of the female persuasion. I'm afraid I have become a distant fourth on that list."

"More fool him. Now, if I were he, you would have been way out front in number one."

"Aren't you sweet, and good in bed." She was feeling for him to encourage him to new heights.

"I seem to remember, way, way back in the deep dark past, mentioning something about getting something called sleep, do you remember that?"

"I'm trying to forget it, but go on."

"I'm having to insist on it, now go to sleep."

"My, aren't you the masterful one. Oh well, I guess that I can do without you for a couple of hours." She turned away from me, I don't know whether she was sulking or if it was resignation to the inevitable. I cuddled her to me and she sighed. "Go to sleep and stop teasing me."

She was still asleep when I woke at around 5:00am. I kept it that way and headed for my study to begin the next phase of my work. Accessing his banking records was easy, he seemed to have made little effort to cover his tracks which surprised me, given the amount of money involved. I began transferring funds into the accounts that I'd been instructed to, and that was when I discovered something very interesting, the amounts I was to transfer into one of these accounts were remarkably similar to amounts transferred out of that account a few weeks ago. I wondered about this, did my employers not think that I could access transaction records of their accounts? Was this a part of a convoluted frame designed to shaft him big time? Was I being set up myself? After all I was responsible for the intermediary account used to transfer and if the operation went pear shaped there would be total deniability on their part. Pontius Pilot would have nothing on the hand washing that would go on in their individual and collective board rooms, and guess who would be left carrying the can? Yours truly. I needed to think this through.

There was a noise behind me and I turned to see a naked apparition, a beautiful naked apparition with an unhappy look on her face. "What is it with men, computers and money? You have no idea of priorities."

I hit the kill button on my computer and grabbed her in my arms and literally ran for the bedroom with her struggling, (not very hard) squealing, (not very convincingly) body and threw us onto the bed. "I didn't want to wake you, you looked so peaceful there." I kissed her to prevent her answering while my fingers explored her pussy. After a few minutes of manipulation she gave up the struggle and flung her arms around my neck.

"You have a lot of time to make up, you do realise that, the way that I feel right now breakfast and dinner will be one and the same."

I made love to her before I broke the bad news that not everything about my job was as it was supposed to be, and that I had work to do if I was to save my worthless hide from incarceration. "There is the distinct piscatorial aroma about this whole deal, and I get the feeling that I'm going to be hung out to dry."

"What do you mean? Didn't you tell me that you checked everything out before taking an assignment?"

"Because I've done work for these guys many times in the past, and they've proven to be kosher, I naturally enough assumed that this one would be the same. This will teach me to check each out individually and not rely on past experiences."

"So what do we do now?"

"The first thing that we have to do is to get you some clothes. I don't think it would be a good idea for you to go back home to pick up clothes because we want him to think that you've run away with someone."

"I have, or hadn't you figured that out yet."

"As I was saying, you need clothes, and underwear."

"Why?" She was enjoying this.

"We can't have you wearing skirts with no underwear, what if a gust of wind blows it up?"

"It'll give some people a heart attack and others a thrill."

"You're incorrigible, do you know that? Sometime I'm going to have to get on board your husband's yacht before he takes off. It wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't a surprise waiting for him, something that someone else has set for him."

"What sort of thing?"

"They know, because I told them, that he planned to fly the coop and has plans in place that would see him get away with it. I have a horrible feeling that they won't allow that to happen. My feelings tell me that his yacht will catch fire not long after he loses sight of land, and that his radio will not be able to transmit his SOS, and probably his EPIRB will not work."

"What do you plan to do?"

"I don't believe in killing people or allowing anyone else to do it. While I think your husband is a total arsehole, and I have no qualms about relieving him of his ill-gotten gains, I draw the line at bumping him off. I plan to get on board in the wee small hours and dismantling the booby trap and making sure that his radio and EPIRB are both working."

"That leaves the rest of the day to do not a lot. Now how do you suggest we fill in all that time?" Her hand on my cock was telling me loud and clear what she wanted to do with the time, oh well, back to the salt mine.

Sometime mid-afternoon I called a temporary halt to the festivities and we went out while I made several purchases, clothes for her, and importantly, electronic equipment, not all from the same place, I wasn't taking the chance of someone taking an interest in me realising that I wasn't following the script anymore. On return I registered, in his name, the EPIRB that I'd bought to replace the one that I was sure had been nobbled. I also set up a satellite phone of the same brand as his, my new 'bestie' had her uses providing the relevant details, including the make of marine radio. I was as ready as I could be.

We had dinner and sat around talking, and other things, until it was time for me to leave. She insisted in coming with me and standing guard while I did what I had to do.

The yacht was locked, but it was a pretty standard lock and only took a couple of seconds to pick. I made my way to the hatch over the diesel auxiliary engine compartment and found what I'd expected, no imagination these guys, it was all by the book stuff. I disconnected the detonator from the lump of C4 and replaced it with a dummy that would stand all but intense scrutiny. I exchanged EPIRBS, Satellite phone, to replace the one that I'd nobbled, and radios for those that I was sure would not work when required, before removing the latex gloves and packing up the gear in my back pack and leaving.

"A car has done a couple of laps past here in the time that you were in the marina, I think they're keeping a watch to ensure that nothing goes wrong."

"I would have expected no less from this lot. When I've done work for them in the past I was certain that they were keeping a watch on what I was doing, just to be sure that everything went to plan. This time they have 2 crews working for them, me to do the important stuff like getting their money back, and another crew to make certain that he will be in no condition to come back to haunt them. As it stands, not only will they not get their money back, but he'll be alive and kicking, especially after he finds that he can't access his funds."

"Aren't you the clever dick then?" I didn't know whether she was referring to me, the person or my cock, which she was holding firmly in her hand. "Let's get home so that I can get some more of this." It looked like my cock was the cleverer of the two.

I'll give her this, when she takes the task in hand, or mouth, or pussy, she shows amazing concentration and enthusiasm. I was having a great deal of trouble working out which of the many positions we found ourselves in during the course of the rest of the night was her favourite, all seemed to be the favourite at the time we were involved in them, and her orgasms were many, and powerful, and a tad noisy. I was glad that my house was situated sufficiently far from my neighbours to have not disturbed their sleep.

A late breakfast was followed by my setting up a money transfer loop that saw the funds being moved from one country to another and occasionally passing through Australia and an account recently established by both of us. Each pass saw a smallish amount syphoned off the large amount in circulation. I figured that the principals would, if they could trace the transactions from the original, not likely given the convoluted protection in place, they'd pay little attention to those small amounts involved. Like they say, small drops will eventually fill the bucket, and by mid-afternoon there were enough small drops for my, our, purposes. For the first time in I don't know how long, I had found a woman that I could develop feelings for that were strong enough to have me thinking of a less than celibate future, and it wasn't just the sex, although I have to admit that I'd never in my entire life experienced anything like it.

We both came to the realisation, just before raiding the pantry for something to sustain us, that we had never addressed each other by name, even though we knew them. "Why is it that you've never once called me Brendan?"

"Oh, is that your name? Actually I've never called you that because I don't see you as a 'Brendan', it doesn't fit. The only Brendan I've heard of was one Brendan Behan, a drunken Irishman, and you're neither of those. I could go on calling you Lover, or possibly 'Bren', which of course is a powerful gun, which I suppose is sort of appropriate. Truth be known I was waiting for you to call me Faith, although, given the haste with which I deserted my husband, faith would hardly be my strong point."

"I'll reserve judgement on the faith bit, you never know, you could be faithful to me for the rest of your life and live up to your name."

"Are you trying to tell me that you want me to be with you forever?"

"Would that be such a bad thing?"

"No, in fact it would be a good thing. You and I make a good team don't you think?"

"I think we make a great team. Now let's see what we can cook up for dinner, we need to keep our strength up." We rummaged around for the ingredients for a meal that defied everything that the TV chef's would recommend, but which to us tasted perfect. Hunger will do wondrous things to confuse taste buds. Replete, we returned to bed and made love only twice before exhaustion took control and we fell into a long and deep sleep.

"Hello," I mumbled into the phone sometime the next morning.

"What the fuck are you playing at?" The voice was not a happy one.

"What, what are you talking about?"

"You know what the fuck I'm talking about. The money that you were supposed to put into our account isn't there. We've just checked the balance and it's not there, you've fucked up and, if you expect to be paid for this job you'd better fix it pronto!"

"Hold on a minute, you said that you checked your balance and the money wasn't there, is that right?"

"Yes."

"Did you happen to check the transactions to see if the money went into your account? I suggest that you do that before you ring me at some ungodly hour in the morning with threats of not paying me for the job that I've satisfactorily completed. Once the money goes into your account it becomes your responsibility, not mine. You are to then, as agreed, transfer the sum of $250,000 into my account immediately, or I will make sure that you live to regret going back on our contract."

"But I haven't got that amount in my account."

"And you're blaming me for not doing my job, I find that extremely insulting. I would suggest that you look 'in house'."

"What do you mean?"

"It would be obvious that, in an organization like yours, more than one person would have access to your accounts, your Division Heads for starters, then there's you Chief Finance Officers or whoever pays the bills and arranges the payment of staff wages. Any one of those could have access to your accounts, and any one of those could have stripped your account of that money."

"But there's a very large amount involved, I need that money and I need it now."

"Tough titty mate, I've kept my part of the deal, now you'd better keep yours, or word will spread that you can no longer be trusted, then let's see how long you can stay in business. Have you checked on our soon to disappear sailor's account to see if he's second guessed you?"

"No, and I don't think that we'll be able to do anything about him."

"And why would that be?"

"I don't think that he'll be with us for very long."

"Now you haven't done anything stupid as far as he's concerned have you?"

"Let's just say that he may not get a chance to pick up his new tender."

"And that would be why?"

"You don't think that you're the only iron in the fire do you?"

"Don't tell me, you've hired someone else to carry out some other form of revenge on him, haven't you?"

"That information is on a 'need to know' basis, and you don't need to know."

"In that case, I'll have to insist on my money as soon as possible because I don't trust this other mob to do their job." I could hear him banging away on a keyboard. "You've checked your bank and seen that the money went in as promised."

"Yes, but it went out again just hours later."

"Not my problem."

"Fuck, what's happening here? I don't suppose that you can track where the money has gone to, can you?"

"I might be able to, depending on how strong the encryption is and the security of the transactions. It could take days, and at present I don't think that you can afford my fee." I caught a glimpse of the amusement on Faith's face, she was enjoying this.

"Leave it with me, I'll get back to you." He was still not happy but found himself with no wriggle room, and this was an unfamiliar position for him.

"Sure thing, but I won't be holding my breath waiting for your call." I ended the conversation.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Faith asked as she kissed me.

"Which this, you and me or the money thing?"

"Both. You're an amazing man, do you know that?"

"Not really, I just don't like being shafted, that's all."

Faith sat and watched as I traced the company's accounts back several months. They were shifty bastards, I'll give them that, on the surface they were very solvent, but this was an illusion. Like my movement of their money around the world from account to account, tax haven to tax haven, they had a circular accounting system in place that moved money from division to division, always being in the right place for the scheduled reports to reflect their solvency. If the Fraud Squad were to pay them a visit they'd be in deep shit. They were in fact trading insolvent. One particular transaction caught my attention and it hit close to home. I was going to enjoy bringing these bastards down, especially the bank that was an integral part of their empire, a bank with commercial washing machines installed.

"Something's bothering you, what is it?" Faith asked as she saw the change of expression on my face.

"Just something that has made this vendetta a very personal one. My father up there," I pointed in the general direction of where heaven is supposed to be, "will thank me."

"For what?"

"A couple of years ago I was on a contract overseas. While I was away the bank foreclosed on my father's mortgage and kicked him off. I couldn't understand it at the time because I'd been sending regular payments well ahead of the due date of the mortgage loan repayments. The bank claimed at the time that they hadn't received any payments for months and were forced to foreclose. I didn't believe them but couldn't prove anything, now I can. I've found the records of the funds that I transferred to the bank for the mortgage payments, but they didn't go towards the loan, they were placed in a holding account. The money was there but not there, if you get my drift."

"But why?"

"The farm was a profitable one, and had been for decades. My father borrowed against it to finance new technology in land management that would increase the bottom line and make it even more profitable. We had discussed it and crunched numbers to the point where we knew exactly how much money we needed, how much we could afford, and how long before we were back in black. We discussed it with the bank's manager and he agreed with us and fell over himself to lend us the money. I should have seen the signs, it was all too easy."

"What are you going to do?"

"Put it on my 'to do' list for the future."

"You must have a plan in mind, surely?"

"I think that it's time I played silly buggers with them, get them running around like chooks with their heads cut off. If I can keep them off balance I should force them to re-think how they do business."

"This is going to prove interesting, I can't wait."

"You'll have to, I haven't worked it all out yet."

"Do you need me to do anything?"

"What are you good at? And I don't mean that." I had caught the sudden change in her look from thoughtfulness to mischievous, and knew exactly what she was thinking.

"I'm a good listener and may be able to offer helpful suggestions. It might be good to take my mind off my physical need for you, and I like the idea of being a part of this, something that my soon to be ex would not allow, I was for decoration only, not for my brain."

"That must have hurt you, being under-estimated like that. I think that underneath your beautiful exterior is an active mind just busting for the chance to prove itself."

"I'm used to grinning and bearing it when it comes to misogynist pigs like him, so I smiled sweetly and took his bullshit."

It was breakfast time and, that over we adjourned to my office to throw the cat among the pigeons. This took most of the morning and, after a cup of coffee to sustain us, a kiss to wake us even further, came a race to the bedroom which, being the gentleman that I was, she won, and the sight of her laying on her back issuing a very open invitation led to the first of several sexual encounters, each different and each, in the context of our growing love for each other, perfect.

"Faith."

"Why do I get the impression that I'm not going to like what you're about to tell me?"

"Probably because I don't like what I'm about to tell you."

"Then don't, don't say a word, let's go on as we've been doing for the past days."

"I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Why the fuck not? Are you telling me that you don't love me, is that it?" She was getting angry.

"No, that's not it. Will you listen to what I have to say?" The emphasis was on 'have'. Faith remained silent, staring at me with confused eyes. "It's my lifestyle that's the problem, I'm a Merc, a mercenary, a gun for hire. I go where the work is and what I do, if caught, could see me behind bars or worse, dead. I do not want to put you in the situation of either talking to me through the glass panel of the visitor's room in some prison, or sobbing at my lonely funeral. I don't want that, I can't have that. Do you understand what I'm telling you? My life is a lonely life and I have no room in it for you. Just remember this, for one brief moment in my life I found someone to love, and who I believe loved me in return, but my lifestyle will only bring hurt and sadness to that person, to you. I'm afraid, much as it pains me to do this, I have to end this before it goes too far."