Jessie Ch. 21

Author's note:

This chapter contains a brief scene of sexual activity. If that is your reason for reading, you may stop following the series after it occurs.

This chapter contains a brief scene of violence, threats of violence, and cruel language and behavior. If that bothers you, please stop reading after the sex scene.

As always, thank you for the views, votes, and all your comments. I greatly appreciate it all.

###

I'm lost to release you

No heaven waits for us my sweet

I'll follow your demise to hell and beyond

We will meet again

In life or in death

- Eurydice, Sleepthief

###

Gary woke me up. I'd shifted away from him in the middle of the night, and he woke me up by spooning against me, sliding one arm under my neck to pull me close by my shoulder, his other hand sliding down to cup my vulva.

I could feel his morning wood trapped between the cheeks of my ass, and I ground back against it. "Good morning, daddy," I told him playfully.

"Yes, it is." His lips found the crook of my neck and his middle finger began a slow, delicious stroke of my cuntlips. It felt like every nerve was a firecracker, and he was dragging a match across each fuse. I could feel myself growing hotter, that delicious anxiety growing in my stomach, and lower. Wetness was dragged from the entrance of my cunt up my sensitive flesh, heightening every single sensation, and then Gary was drawing circles over my clit, teasing the sensitive bead with slick fingertips.

All I could do was grind against him, against the bed. "I've missed this," I whined. "Please don't stop, please don't stop..."

"I missed it too, babygirl. I missed you so much."

Suddenly he wasn't behind me. Gary pushed me flat on the bed and there was a straining moment of flesh against flesh, and I felt his heat and solidity stretch my insides open, gliding through the wetness he'd drawn from me. Hands pinned mine to the bed, and I grinned naughty at him as I wrapped my legs around his ass before he could pin those too.

We were moving together, hips retreating and slamming and the way he ground upon me as his cock filled my empty, yearning cunt made me cry out as colors burst behind my eyelids and pleasure contracted every muscle in me and my body fought against his strength and weight to get free, to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING.

Warm and wet exploded inside me, an extra millimeter of depth and width as daddy strained forward to fill me, and I stared up at his beautiful face, locked in a grimace of pleasure as he tensed, pulsed his cum into me. "I love you," I whispered.

I whispered it to the ceiling.

The bed was empty. Gary wasn't here. Would never be here again.

I rose and dressed, picking out my favorite clothes very deliberately. That pair of black jeans. That tank top under that black shirt. I made the bed, and the room looked sterile, a model. Un-lived-in. I slid my worn-in boots on, looked at my feet. They had followed me everywhere.

I wouldn't need the Colt, so I locked it in the safe. Sienna had the combination. Rows and rows of guns and magazines, all lovingly curated by the man I loved, for the express purpose of defending himself and me. He'd never touch them again.

What a waste.

I grabbed my collar and a couple of items from the dresser, stuffed them in my backpack, avoided thinking about the last time they'd been used.

Sienna was eating breakfast with Jane at the table, and there was a bowl of cereal waiting for me on the table. "How'd you sleep?" I asked.

"Decent. You?"

"Rested." I munched for a while. "I've got something I need to say."

Sienna stiffened. "Ok..."

"I've been in contact with the police, and we're going to try to trap Morgan today."

"Seriously? How?"

"I'm gonna meet him, make him think I have the flash drive, they're gonna arrest him. It's happening around noon."

"Jess, that's dangerous. Can't they - "

I cut her off. "It's done. We're doing it here, so I need to get you two out of the house. Can you be ready to go by nine? Police start setting up at eleven."

"Yeah, but..."

"No buts. I want you as far away as possible. I'm gonna minimize the part you've played in this. You're our housekeeper. Morgan's former girlfriend. He thinks you have something you don't. That's it. Period, end of story. I booked you an AirBnb, you can wait there." I reached out and covered her hand with mine. "By the end of the day, this will all be over. I promise."

She was hyperventilating, and I squeezed her hand. "Trust me. I got this."

The drive out to the country house took an hour. We packed toys and Jane helped me make sandwiches for them. She seemed bubbly, excited, not even noticing the cast on her hand.

In the car, we listened to kid's music, sugary sparkly rhyming garbage, and I smiled at the little girl bouncing around in her car seat with the songs. The music was irritating as fuck, but at least it made her happy. The world outside was the complete opposite, gray and brown and muted green, a messy vista of dead fields and highway and bare forests, soaking up another day of rain. The windshield wipers squeaked with every window-clearing pass, a metronome of annoyance slowly ticking in the bubblegum pop music entertaining Jane.

I let us into the farmhouse, and we looked around. The owners had decorated it for Christmas, and Jane bounded around looking at little sleighs and nutcrackers, peering under pine trees and barely heeding her mother's calls to be careful. Sienna and I inspected the quiet house, all the rooms in the gorgeous home. Maybe if Gary had lived, he and I would've gotten a house like this in Wyoming or Colorado.

Sienna looked around the large master bedroom, warmly appointed in dark wood and flannel."This place is COZY."

"Yeah, that's what I was looking for."

"So you're working with the police? They're gonna use you and my flash drive as bait, try and trap him in the house?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Something like that."

"What I'm having a hard time understanding is why they didn't want my help. I'm the only one who knows him. You just met him that one time, were unconscious when he broke into the house."

"Tried to keep you out of it." I kept my voice neutral.

"So why not put us up in a hotel? Why...trap us...out in the country in this house? It's like fifty miles to anywhere, and I'm not gonna have a car." She checked her phone. "No bars. I can't call anyone either. You want to get us out of the way a few hours, there's any number of hotels in Milwaukee where we'll be a lot more accessible in case police want to talk, which they WILL."

I glared daggers at her. "See, wait - "

"The way I figure it, you're either turning us in to Morgan, which I don't believe you ever would, or you're gonna try and face him yourself. Either way, I'm not playing along." She tried to push past me and I blocked her exit. "C'mon Jane, we're leaving!"

"Sienna, this is done. This is happening." I struggled with her, trying to hold her back from the door. She was strong, but I was stronger, and I flung her back against the bed.

"I'm not going back to Morgan, and I'm not letting one more person die for me. Gary is my fault, you won't be too!" Tears sprung from her eyes, dripped down over her enraged face. "I can't!"

She leaped to tackle me and I locked up with her in a clinch, her hands on the collar of my leather jacket.

Fuck. I'd hoped not to do this.

I snapped my baton open, exploited the bend in her elbows to force us down. She howled as the metal pressed into her burned arm. I pulled us to the ground, got the baton across her throat, held her from behind, struggling and thrashing as I locked in the choke with a hand in her fine blonde hair. "C'mon, See, it doesn't have to be this way..."

She threw elbows back into my ribs, and I forced the rod down, cutting off her air.

Eventually, she stopped thrashing, and I rolled her limp body off me, lay back for a moment, resting. That had been slightly difficult.

I checked her pulse, ran downstairs and got my backpack from the kitchen counter. Sienna was still unconscious when I returned, and I pulled the self-bondage restraints from the bag. Heavy, thick metal, each set with a computerized lock, I secured them around her wrists and ankles after muscling her up onto the bed. I set the timer for eight tonight.

That'd be enough time.

Jane shrieked at the sight of her sleeping mother, and I shushed the little blonde girl. "It's ok, she's just napping. You need to be quiet, ok?"

"Ok."

I put snacks and some toys on the master bathroom floor, gave Jane a new coloring book and crayons, and put Sienna's cell phone in the top dresser drawer. All set.

I looked down at the unconscious blonde one last time. I felt ugly, dirty, stained. Messy. I hated having to do this.

I couldn't bring myself to look in on Jane again. I couldn't have kids of my own, didn't have a partner to have them with anymore. Seeing her again would break my heart.

It would weaken my resolve.

I shut the bedroom door, found a chair and wedged it under the doorknob. In the kitchen I leaned against the counter, took a breath. Everything was falling into place. I knew what the ending looked like now.

My collar felt heavy when I pulled it from my backpack, and I turned the black on black leather over in my hands. I reached up and slid it around my neck, struggled to work the clasp under my chin.

It occurred to me, I'd never put it on myself. Gary had always collared me.

Fuck.

If I died today, I wanted to be wearing it. It was as close to a wedding ring as Gary had ever given me. As close as I'd ever wanted.

I let myself remember the times he'd put this on me, and my vision blurred. I blinked back the tears, wiped my eyes on my sleeve.

I left a letter and my baton on the counter, took another moment just to breathe, and walked out into the rain.

It didn't seem possible, but the day looked to have gotten darker, clouds thickening, turning blacker and heavier.

Appropriate.

###

Church was a warehouse in the industrial section of Milwaukee, and I walked into the main office. Cheerily lit with bright fluorescents and a Christmas tree, it looked like any other office one could find in a factory or mill or industrial building. A little cold, a lot efficient, thick black rug over black tile, a scarred counter blocking the clientele from the receptionist. A door on the far wall was locked. Two chairs that were not built for comfort sat next to the Christmas tree.

I stood at the counter and tried not to fidget. Tried not to think. Tried to be serene, at peace with what I was doing.

At noon, the door slammed open. Morgan took two steps into the room, suppressed pistol raised in front of him as he scanned back and forth for signs of a trap.

Not seeing any, he shut the door, holding the gun on me. I was fighting myself, my own fear, just to stay still. I hated him. I wanted to kill him, but I knew I couldn't. I'd given away my element of surprise previously, and I simply was not as strong as he was to attack him head-on.

"Morning, sunshine," Morgan said with a smile. "What's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?"

"Fuck you."

"I know. I'm the bad guy in all of this. Big fucking deal." He walked past, pulled up the sleeve of his jacket, and showed a QR code tattoo on his arm to the scanner by the door.

I suddenly realized why they'd burned off Sienna's tattoos.

The door beeped and sprung wide, opening to the warehouse beyond, empty and cavernous, without even shelves within.

He motioned with the gun. "Go through."

I walked through, kept walking, occasionally glancing behind me at the former soldier.

In the center of the massive space, Morgan said "Stop."

I did, and turned around to face him.

"Now undress."

"What?" I felt shock, fear.

"Are you stupid? I told you to take off your clothes."

"I'm not..."

Morgan settled into a shooter's stance, aiming at me. I couldn't help but flinch.

I stripped quickly, efficiently, until I was standing there naked except for my collar, the floor burning cold under my feet. Morgan inspected each item of clothing in turn, checking the seams and pockets, feeling the boots over for any sign of tampering. I just stood there, covering myself with my hands.

Vulnerable. Exposed. Powerless. Scared. Resigned. I was submitting, but not like I'd enjoyed. This was terrifying. I couldn't stop my heart from hammering.

Morgan grimaced when he found my Skean Dhu. "Told you no weapons."

"You told me no guns."

He smirked. "Pedant." He flipped the tiny knife open, reached down and stuck the blade under the heel of his boot.

I felt terror at the sight and dove forward as he wrenched the handle up. Not that too... The snap of the blade echoed through the empty space, and Morgan jabbed me in the ribs with the suppressor, winding me.

"Why does that stupid little toy mean so much to you?"

I fought to speak. "My father...was Scottish. That...was a part...of his culture."

Morgan snorted. "Weird girl. Pretty though. Keep your hands at your sides."

I did so, and he circled me slowly. I could feel his eyes burning across my naked body, taking in what was clearly his to take if he wanted. I'd had anal sex in front of strangers and never felt so exposed. So humiliated. I felt like a piece of meat, less even.

"Why the hardware?" Morgan asked. "The collar."

"Gary gave it to me. It reminded me that I was his. If there's a chance... If you kill me today, I want to be wearing it."

"I'm gonna feel under it for a wire or weapons. If you move, I shoot."

His fingers felt thick and rough and dirty, sliding under the leather, against my skin. I felt violated by his touch, like I was in the presence of something supernaturally evil. This man had taken everything from me, from hundreds of others.

He stepped back, away, stood and looked me over again, the pistol held loose but ready across his chest. "Talk."

"Can I get dressed, please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"Talk."

I swallowed. This was part of his play, making me feel small, vulnerable. "I've got Sienna and Jane. They're holed up in a farmhouse outside of town. I'll take you to them."

He chuckled. "Not feeling so tough now, huh? What was it you said? 'I'm gonna watch you die?'"

My cheeks burned even more, and I looked at the ground.

"What about my flash drive?"

"It's safe. I'll get it to you after you pick up Sienna and Jane."

"You're giving me everything I want, darling. But didn't you say you have some conditions?" His smile was cruel, and he was obviously toying with me.

"Yeah. You don't get to fuck with my life and think I'm just going to hand everything over. I want only one thing. I don't get it, kill me right here, it doesn't matter, I ain't giving you shit."

"Shoot."

"You're gonna call the police on the entire Milwaukee chapter of the Red Flag. Gather them up in one place, call the cops."

That arrogant smile morphed into a grim scowl, and his eyes narrowed. "Why the fuck would I do that?"

"I want everyone who hurt my friends punished. I can't kill you, I'm not good enough, strong enough, fast enough, but making you give up your team will have to do. You can always get another team. Can you get another flash drive?"

"I oughta fucking - " he stepped closer, aiming over the suppressor at me, and I fantasized grabbing it, taking it off line, the surprise giving me the opportunity to lever the gun around and discharge it into his gut. I held still.

"Why do that to me?" he ground out. "What does making me rat on my guys do to hurt me?"

"Sienna said you were a Force Recon Marine. No one gets that far in the Corps without some sense of honor. Loyalty. This is the only way I can hurt you. Get you to betray your brothers in arms."

Morgan stared at me over the suppressor for a long time, jaw working occasionally like he was going to say something, then thinking against it. He was obviously weighing the value of the Milwaukee chapter against the monetary value of what was on the flash drive, and what a horrible death he'd suffer if it got out.

I smiled cutely, mustering my strength of will. "Sienna has the drive. Right now she thinks I'm talking to you - with the police. If I don't come back, her instructions are to take that flash drive to the Milwaukee news stations. I don't know what's on it, but I bet if you want it so bad, it's gotta be pretty damning. I'll give you it, and her, and your daughter. But you've gotta compromise your code. And I know you have it, cuz you're working it over instead of just agreeing automatically."

Morgan actually snarled at me. He regained his composure, and sighed, reached into his pocket for his phone. A few minutes of typing, and he held the screen out to me. "Good enough?"

Through an encrypted messaging app, he'd sent a message to a couple dozen numbers. "Non-negotiable. All hands on deck. Meet at the belfry. Four PM."

I smiled. "It's a start. Where's the belfry?"

"Big house in the suburbs."

"We're gonna go park down the street from it, watch people arrive. Then we're gonna call the cops on them. Then I'll take you to Sienna and your precious flash drive."

I moved to grab my clothes, and he gestured with the gun for me to stay still. His eyes roamed over my body, and that feeling of powerlessness returned. I'd won a small battle, but I was still just a rabbit in the presence of a wolf. Meat, to be devoured. My heart started racing again as he stepped close.

"You're right," Morgan whispered. "That was the way to hurt me."

"Good." I tried to raise my hands to cover my nakedness, and the muzzle of the suppressor waggled. I stopped.

"I'll give up my team. Sure. But when we get to Sienna..." He grinned, and it was ugly and angry and vicious, spread across his handsome face. "I'm gonna rape you. In front of her. Then her, in front of you. Then I'm gonna kill her. In front of you. It'll take me a couple of months, a year to put my team back together. But you'll never be able to undo what I do to you. You'll remember what you let me do to her for the rest of your life. I'm not gonna kill you. I'm gonna let you live. With the knowledge you betrayed a friend. Tell that to Gary, once he wakes up. If he ever does."

I felt horror at his words, and I reached for my clothes. I wanted to be dressed in the presence of this abomination, this cancer walking around in a human suit. All the evil he'd caused, all the evil I'd seen, this scared me most of all. He enjoyed it.

We walked out, and I headed for my car. "I'll drive."

"Mines around back."

I put on my most pitiful, needy expression. "I'm still not convinced you're not gonna kill me. If I'm driving to my death, I want it to be in the car Gary bought for me. Please..."

"Let me guess you've got a knife hidden under the seat? I know how this works."

"You can search the car, please, it's... Its mine." It hurt to grovel before this monster, to beg, to debase myself, but I did it. It was worth it.

Morgan grinned. "What the hell."

He did a very thorough job of searching the car, questioning only the canvas pouch under the seat - first aid kit. He got in the passenger's side, I started the engine, and I followed his instructions to drive back into town.

The former Marine sat silently except for giving me brief directions to turn there or here. He laughed at my confusion when we ended up at a Hardees. "What is this?"

"I'm hungry, bitch. Buy me something."

I remembered Gary calling me that in bed, the last time we made love. The last time we had sex. The last time he fucked me.

The same word felt miles apart.

I bought two burgers, two fries, and two sodas, and Morgan once more directed me with brief commands, my Monte Carlo wending its way through the outer edges of Milwaukee suburbia. The houses were big, and new, and empty.