Cruel and Unusual Punishment

"What is it?"

"I don't want to know who it is, but have you found out? Have you...?"

"Not yet to both questions. You did a good job with the email. It's taken me all this time to narrow it down to seven people, but they're all pretty good operatives, so confirming the kill will be difficult.

"I'm pretty sure it's the youngest of them because the veterans would never have broken the unwritten rule that's been drilled into us from day one. You always get the back of a fellow agent. No matter what the agent does. Violation means death.

"If it's her, I think she met you a few times, knew what a great guy you were and let herself fall into the righteous anger trap when she saw what I was doing to you. I'm sure she didn't have designs on you."

He looked hard at her and spoke in a voice that she knew from the few times he had ever insisted on having his own way.

"You have to promise to stop trying to find the person who wrote me," he said. "If by accident you ever do find out, you must never tell anyone in your company and never do anything or have anything done to that person."

"You know I can't do that, even if you remove my motivation."

"What motivation?"

"Since my life was destroyed, it was only fair that the person who did it should be wiped out, too. If you're coming back to me, I won't have that to drive me anymore."

"I don't care about your company rules. No, I take that back. They are there to protect you. But you are going to break that rule this one time."

"I'm sorry, Bennett."

"I am, too. I guess we're done."

He got up from the kitchen table where they had been sitting.

"Wait a minute," she said. "I want to hear what else you were going to tell me."

"What's the use," he said. He thought for a moment. Was she wavering? He was sure there was barely a chance of her agreeing to his terms anyway. Why not tell her and be done?

"All right. First of all, there's another pre-condition. I don't know whom you cheated with and I don't want to ever know. You have to keep his name a secret.

"There are two parts to the agreement. The first is that I am going to try to be the husband and father I was before. You will have my complete trust again, and I will never question you about your work. I will love you completely and unconditionally as I did before and take pleasure in your happiness."

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"What makes it possible for me to do that is the second part that will happen at the same time: my revenge. I am going to take a page from you and focus on myself. I will spend more time on fitness, clothing and appearance.

"It hasn't happened often, but I've been approached by women at the office a few times and by others out of the office. I was never receptive, but now I will be. I won't go after them, but if they are interested in getting to know me better even after I tell them I'm married and have children, I won't discourage them.

"I'm not going to tell you what I do with them until the relationship is over. After that, I'll tell you whatever you want to know. I have no plans for what I will do with them. Everything will depend on the woman and the situation. It's open-ended. I'll do it as often as I want.

"I know for you this will be worse for you than any kind of physical torture, and I look forward to seeing you suffer."

He stopped and took a breath.

"I think now you understand the kind of person you've turned me into."

He waited.

"I, I," she started to say, and then she collapsed into her chair. He jumped up and caught her before she slipped down to the floor. He carefully lifted her and carried her to his bedroom, where he lowered her onto the bed. He closed the door as he left the room and went back to his wine.

Ten minutes later, he heard her pacing back and forth. It was another ten minutes until she rejoined him. He saw that she had washed her face. She didn't sit down.

"I'll do it," she said. "I agree to everything."

"Including violating the unwritten company rule and not killing the person who told me."

She hesitated and sighed.

"Are you recording this?"

"Didn't you hear what I told you before? I now trust you completely again. I don't need to record anything because I believe everything you tell me. I don't need a decision today. Think it over a few days and let me know."

"It's too late, Bennett. You gave me a choice and I've made it. I agree to everything, and I'm shutting it all out of my mind right now because I'm only focusing on one thing. I'm going home to tell the children you'll be back with us tomorrow."

She quickly walked to the front door and slammed it behind her.

***************

Bennett paused and drank some more water. The tent was silent now. He didn't see her, but Raven had turned around and was staring at his back. She waited for him to speak and then spoke herself. Her voice was calm but still full of emotion.

"That's not all there is, is it?" she asked.

"As I've said before, you're perceptive," he said. "There's not much more. I went home, and to all appearances, nothing changed from our previous life. She suggested that since I was now more interested in exercise we would train together at her club. I joined her and saw her watching me like a hawk whenever I was near a good-looking woman.

"I bided my time. When the first opportunity for revenge presented itself, I was conflicted. I knew I would do it, but I realized that it would be the first intentionally evil thing I had ever done in my life, and that bothered me.

"I worked on it as a coding problem and found the solution to the glitch. It let me be as despicable as I wanted and still feel good about myself because I would be helping others. My evil would do good.

"I'm sure Sloane has received reports every time I was with a woman. She knows everything about you, probably more than Brian."

"What?"

"Yes. By now, she and her colleagues have had you thoroughly investigated. They've been tracking our cars. They've been in your house. You have micro things embedded in your clothing, in your purse, maybe in your jewelry. That's why everything is in the trunk of my car and we drove here in a car that even I didn't know I would be driving a couple of hours ago.

"All my preparations only bought us a little time. Remember the sound you heard. You probably thought it was a bird. That thing is hovering around the tent right now trying to hear us. If we stay here another hour, there will be tiny holes in the fabric above us and she'll have video of us as well as audio.

"She's desperate to know what I'm doing with you, and she's using every resource at her disposal. She's torturing herself more savagely than her company tortures enemy agents. She can't help it. That's the strength that I'm turning against her.

"When she can't hear or see anything for even a few minutes, I think it drives her crazy. Sometimes when I come home from a meeting with a woman friend, I can tell she was debriefed just before I arrived. Her face shows her suffering and her body is like a dead weight that she's dragging around. I feel bad, but I also feel good. I know that sounds terrible."

"Wait a minute," Raven said. "You just said something about turning evil into good. How is that good?"

"It isn't. That's the evil part. The good part is what I do for the woman. Once she approaches me, I screen her carefully to see if she's suited to what I can offer her."

"They all approached you?"

"Yes, in various ways, usually more than once."

"How many women have there been?"

"Not a lot. You're number five."

"Why did they all have to leave town."

"Did that rumor intrigue you? A couple of women told me it made me sound dangerous and drew them to me. The truth is one of the women moved because of her husband's job. The others are still working at our company, but, understandably, they asked for transfers to different departments. We're all still friends."

"How can that be?"

"You can ask them. They all know each other, and I hope you get to know them, too. I don't talk to them, but every year I get emails from them. Sloane secretly reads all my mail, so it's another torture for her."

"What do they say?"

"They wish me happy holidays. Sometimes they thank me again for everything I did for them."

"Do their husbands know?"

"No, and I know you're too smart to ever tell Brian about us."

"Don't worry. I won't. I hope you're not disappointed, but I don't think I'm like the others."

"You're not. Each of them was different. But you all have some things in common, too."

"I mean, I'm sure it would be as wonderful for me as it was for the other women, but I'm not ready for you. I mean, I'm certain now I'll never be ready."

"I totally understand. Do you want to get dressed?"

"Yes."

"I'll turn around. Our clothes are right outside the flap, so you can reach your arm out and feel for them. That will be the only thing Sloane's drone will see."

"I forgot about that."

"Don't worry. The video will be top secret. Nobody we know will ever see it."

"It's scary anyway."

They dressed in silence until she spoke.

"I have an intimate personal question," she said. "I'll understand if you don't feel like answering."

"I think we've been intimate enough with each other that no question could be too personal."

"I'm not changing my mind, but I was wondering what you did with the other women that they can't ever forget."

"Nothing much different than what I'm doing with you," he said. "I was with each of them in a different place. This is the first time I've been outdoors. All I did was tell each of them my story, and they reacted the same way as you did.

"I told two of them I was worried they might be tempted again. I said that if that happened, I hoped they would remember my story and it would spoil any pleasure they got out of their affair.

"I'm not worried about you. There's one thing about you that is different from any of the others. Working with you and listening to you talk about Brian and your children is like déjà vu. Brian could be me before I found out about Sloane. So maybe I'm just flattering myself when I tell you what you already know. You've got a special husband."

He stopped as she broke down and began sobbing loudly. When she quieted down, he continued.

"You have a lot in common with Sloane, too, besides being beautiful. Talking to you over the last few months has affected me. After today, I'm certain. You're the last one. I'm going home to a tortured woman when I leave here, but this time I'm not taking pleasure in it. I'll tell her I've finally had my fill of revenge. I'm looking forward to repairing our marriage. For that, I have to thank you."

For background on the stories of edrider73, see "Author Interview: edrider73" by Literoticauthor. Tag: "author interview."