Johan Birch

"And you totally ignored the fact that I helped you get to my clinic to help Natalie and Kyle."

"My state of mind was this: You were just an employee following orders, a chauffeur."

"Shit." I added a snort for effect. "And wow."

"You have to understand, I thought we were using our resources, not commandeering yours. It never occurred to me that you were helping us out of the goodness of your heart."

"You misjudged Jaci Stone, as well."

"We did," Yvonne nodded.

"Sunday and Joy?" I asked.

"Evidently they didn't want to be here. I'm not going to ask them for the reason," Yvonne said.

"I guess we have ourselves a deal," I offered my hand to her.

"Yes, we do." Yvonne took my hand and shook it.

I waited until she packed up her stuff and was almost out the door before I spoke again. "Yvonne?"

"Yes?"

"Good luck with Kyle Andrews," I chuckled.

"We'll figure it out," Yvonne nodded in return.

When the elevator had swallowed Yvonne, Nora peeked her head around the door of my office. "Are they all gone now?"

"They are," I smiled.

She let out a sigh of relief. "That was scary. But not as scary as that day where you were battling those mafia guys. This job is a little exciting, you know?"

"Nora?"

"Yes, Johan?"

"Would you trade it for another job?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Like, maybe, a babysitter?"

She stuck her little tongue out at me. "No, especially not that. I love our little ones, but I like my job, and I love you."

"I love you too, little Kitten," I said.

"Are you sure that you are okay, Johan? I heard some references to knives and getting stabbed in the back."

Oh, neat.

"There may be some injuries that I cannot feel yet. Why don't we go check my back out.?"

Nora beamed. I followed her to the executive suite attached to my office.

My examination began with me taking off my jacket and shirts. Nora stood on the bed behind me, running her little claws through my back hair. That caused instant gooseflesh wherever she touched me. Then she dragged her claws along my spine, showing me that the kitten was gone and the bobcat had taken her place.

Nora had both hands on my back now, alternately clawing my skin and pulling my back hair. When I had enough of that erotic torture, I turned around and yanked her against me. I was rewarded with little kisses all over my face before her mouth found mine. She wiggled loose of my hug so that we could undress each other. Under Nora's office attire, she was wearing a light-blue bustier with matching stockings. Her panties were already off, assuming she had even worn any.

She slowly undid my belt, letting the slacks fall to the floor. I had to pull my boxers down, taking with them my socks and stepping out of my shoes. Nora stepped back so that I wouldn't immediately pull her back into a hug. She ran her hands down my chest, grabbing and releasing my hair as she went. That combination of pleasure caused my cock to strain itself to the limits, Nora giggling when she looked down.

The first time that Nora and I had made love, I was afraid I was going to split her in two with my cock. We ended up having perfectly normal sex, me not causing her any pain at all. Nora admitted to using magic to dilate whatever hole I chose to enter, and I would never hurt her during sex unless she wanted to feel pain.

Petra admitted that she had never heard of such a spell, and couldn't understand it when Nora read it out loud to her. Petra was rather happy with herself, telling us that this new knowledge confirmed that she made the right choice inviting Nora into my heart.

Nora put her arms around my neck and climbed onto me. She let herself slide downward until my cock was fully inside her. I had to support her ass because once she was down that far, she couldn't latch around my neck anymore.

I felt her signature purr on my chest. Her little fingers grabbed my chest hair and pulled. This was her signal to pull her away from me. When she released the hair, I pulled her back to me. Pull-release, pull-release, pull-release. I pushed her back onto me hard, causing a little mewl to escape her lips.

Nora gave up trying to choreograph the scene, happy that I was pulling her to me hard and speeding up. She squealed out her orgasm, then another on top of that. I felt a pain on my left nipple, a signal to stop moving for the moment. Nora didn't like stacked orgasms, she liked to be able to spread them out.

In this case, feeling her insides quivering was enough to set me off. The stress of the morning releasing as I released my load inside her. The purr returned, intermingling with her little contented sighs. I turned around and pulled her away from me, and she put her feet down so I could set her on the floor. Her tongue was instantly licking our mingled juices off my cock, and she was purring like a little kitten as she did so.

"Was that good, Johan?" Nora asked.

"Nothing is bad with you, Kitten."

"I love you, Johan, to the end of time and back."

Don't let Harriet hear you say that.She'll take it literally.

"I love you too, Nora."

***

Nora didn't get out of the car when we reached the condo. I knew that she had taken a call from Petra while I was getting dressed, but I didn't know Nora's reasons for leaving me.

Valerie Carpenter and Amethyst Talbot were trying to make the elevator as the doors were closing, so I stopped their closing by hitting the safety bumpers. They saw me inside and waved me off. As the doors closed I made a show of smelling my armpits. It was enough to get them to laugh.

Petra was in the middle of cooking dinner when I arrived in the condo. She told me to go take a shower, that I smelled like Kitten.

Over dinner we discussed the conference I had with Birch sisters. Petra told me that Hera had come to see her after my meeting, catching her by surprise. Hera told her that the Revengers as a group were tired of seeing people try to take advantage of my good nature.

Petra also explained that it was only because of my good nature that Vera and Diedre were still alive. They had broken so many rules that they at least deserved to lose a limb. Permanently. Petra scared me when she admitted her agreement with Hera, that Vera and Diedre needed to at least needed to get gnawed on.

I was really unsure as to what to do. Petra had offered the information and her counsel, so I would have to figure out how to act on it. This man that they were so interested in, Kyle Andrews, could possibly be someone to tone them down. I offered this to Petra, and she gave a little giggle in return.

Petra gave me a counter: If Kyle didn't tone them down, something would have to be done.

I admitted that the only reason I had been taking it easy on the Birch sisters was because of Samantha; but that I would keep my options open on dealing with the rest of them.

***

The day that my companies celebrated as the Founder's Day for Boulder, Limited was tied to the day I had purchased that company from Brookstone Pointe. The bulk of the companies were focused in Los Angeles and Gravelton, Nevada. Most of my employees in Vegas would make the hop to Gravelton for the Celebration.

Gravelton was pretty much the same distance from Los Angeles and Sprout, California, along with Las Vegas Nevada, which made the trip equal for everyone. For me, I would take the helicopter to Quarry Airfield and drive in from there. Being the boss had its privileges.

Hillary would be missing the party. She was on an international trip to Australia to negotiate for raw bauxite and land where we could construct a solar furnace. A few hours after Hillary was on her way, Nora had slipped me a binder. Inside was a deed to one hundred thousand hectares of land that Birch Industries owned in Australia, and they had owned it for over a century. She had seen the land description in the assets department and made a request for the deed.

I asked how she had gotten the deed, and she gave me a conspiratorial smile. She had purchased the land through one of my subsidiaries, so there was really no need to deal directly with any of the Birch Sisters. She got two Gold Stars.

Hillary would be missed, simply because the Jacer Semiconductor complex had been where everything had started for me. Sure, Gravelton had been a big leap forward for Jaci Stone, but Jacer would be Johan's achievement.

My trip out to the site was delayed by a teleconference with Hillary. She was done with the bauxite negotiations and we had gotten a little more out of the negotiations than what we wanted. Since the land I owned was close to Brisbane, she and her team were going to go out and do an initial survey and cost analysis.

The helicopter ride from Los Angeles to Gravelton had just begun when I got a call from Akira, my AI. She said that the armed women who were supposed to be guarding the original Jacer Semiconductor complex were now poking around in areas they should not be, my warehouse area.

After my dust-up with Tara Knight, things had settled down. She had asked Hillary for permission to station a guard force around both her and the Jacer Semiconductor complex. Hillary and I debated the pros and the cons of what was the equivalent of a platoon of female commandos wandering around the complex. I agreed to a short platoon, three squads of eight as opposed to five squads that Tara was proposing.

Hillary had specified that the guard force leave my buildings alone, as I had my own security. That didn't stop the guards from chatting up my engineers and other employees in the cafeteria or the on-site athletic center. They must have figured that the young, slightly nerdy men would be putty in the hands of the beautiful women of the guard force. They didn't know that those young men were already with families, all with women that liked men who used both heads equally well.

When that seduction didn't happen, the guard force took a different tack, trying to hit on the women they thought might be bisexual or even lesbian. I watched some of the videos that Nora showed me, and had to snicker at the brushings-off that had occurred. I had a conversation with Tara, and she agreed to talk to her team. If there wasn't any harassment felt, we'd just leave it as workplace conversation.

Gloria, the woman who kept charge over the employees of Jacer had a meeting with her people and I had a meeting with my people. They agreed that there really wasn't anything beyond conversation and a little innuendo. I told them a little conversation was fine, but if there was touching after a warning to report it to HR and I would take care of the rest.

Tara was less than amused when Gloria conferenced with her three days later. Tara's security team had told her that the men were hitting on them. Gloria called bullshit and had her assistant send Tara the videos. Tara immediately apologized to Gloria for her doubt. The recordings clearly showed the male engineers physically moving away from the women, and that was enough for her. Tara's orders to her security teams were evident soon enough, the guards stayed away from the company employees and only interacted with them when necessary.

Watching the video that Akira was streaming to my tablet made me question the ability of those women to follow any of Tara's orders. Everybody working for Jacer Semiconductor or Birch America was given the day off for the party, meaning that the guards should have just been patrolling around the Jacer Semiconductor complex, not lurking around my buildings.

My buildings didn't need a guard force, I had Akira. My AI, actually one of her offspring, monitored the now twenty buildings called 'The Boulder Division.' There were no obvious cameras, but that didn't stop them from nosing around.

"Akira, what are they doing?" I asked.

"Well, if I were to guess..."

Guess.Haha.

"I would say that given their stance and gait, that they are taking measurements."

"Just like you would for an invasion by portal." I clucked my tongue against the roof of my mouth. "They are walking along the whole line, not really sure which building they want."

"Should I activate the defense systems?" Akira asked.

"No, just wait on that," I answered. "If they drop probes then they might sense the grid. Wait."

"This might mean that Miss Knight is involved," Akira offered.

"Don't go taking her off the 'duck' list just yet. A ploy is a ploy. I know I showed her where the good stuff is at, but that doesn't mean that these invaders know."

"Portal sensed in building sixteen," Akira warned. "There is now an active drone inside. Portal closed, but drone still active."

"The ones on the ground here have control now."

"Portal active in warehouse eighteen now. Aysun is calling."

"Open."

"Dad, there are portals opening in the warehouses!"

"Aysun, Akira alerted me first. I have it under control."

"But dad..."

"Enough! Akira close the line, screen my calls."

"There was an explosion in warehouse sixteen," Akira announced. "The drone self-destructed by igniting its lithium battery pack."

"Damage?"

"Minimal. They destroyed maybe five pallets of solar cells, knocked them over, anyway. Intrusion into warehouse twenty. Drone inside."

"Warehouse twenty is where we are storing the finished nickel for the machine shop," I mused. "It'll look pretty when the drone tries to blow it up."

"Detonation, warehouse twenty," Akira announced.

"What about eighteen?" I asked.

"Portal still open. Drone active in close quarters."

"Eighteen is empty, right?"

"Aysun calling," Akira said. "Call blackholed. Portal open in fifteen, imploded on opening"

"Too much junk in there. Eighteen?"

"Four figures, now eight entering through that portal. Now twelve. Petra calling."

"Connect."

"Johan?"

"Petra, I'm aware of the situation. Keep all my kids off the goddess-damned field."

"They are blowing up your warehouses!"

"Twenty geese in eighteen," Akira announced.

"Petra, I am not in play. Keep the kids off the field, I am getting ready to hurt some people and I don't want it to be them!"

"Understood." Her voice was clipped, I'd make up for the hurt feelings later.

"Portal in thirteen."

"Geese in eighteen," I demanded.

"Geese in eighteen now number thirty. Movements on twenty of them indicate they are robots. I am sensing explosives being carried by the mechanicals, up to one hundred kilograms per."

Shit. "Activate lethal response in eighteen. Try not to hit the portal."

"Sir?" Gregory interrupted. "We are in the pattern for Gravelton."

"Pick halfway between the two sites and hold."

"Sir."

"Status on thirteen?" I asked.

"Portal collapsed when I activated the lethal response grid in building eighteen. Oh, dear."

Not my kids, please.

"What?"

"USGS sensors just recorded a six point six earthquake fifty kilometers west of Tulsa, Oklahoma. From the satellite it looks like a subsurface detonation. Sorry."

Sorry.How does that work for an AI?

"What are the outside invaders doing?" I asked.

"Nothing. As soon as the portals closed in the warehouses I jammed their communications and activated the isolation grid around the warehouses," Akira replied.

"Good work."

"That's what you pay me for. Speaking of which, there are some new processors on the market..."

"Akira, send me a memo."

"Sir!"

***

Akira had captured the supposed security team outside my warehouses, and we were in our first hour of questioning when Tara Knight showed up. "What the hell is going on, Johan?"

"Your people tried breaking into my warehouses, Tara! Your people! They were bird dogging for a team that invaded my property using portals and started blowing my shit up. There is a crater in Oklahoma with my name on it directly linked to the women you sent into my house!"

"Back up. What?"

I played back the engagement for her. Then I took her to see the women who had been on the ground and the lone survivor of the lethal defense protocol I had initiated in warehouse eighteen. I hadn't seen it when they had first been brought into detention, but the women we captured weren't the women whom Tara had sent to guard Hillary and Jacer Semiconductor. The invaders had been inserted into the detail from someone inside the four fifty-seven club's security net. The original detail had been sent back to LA and were performing other duties that they thought Tara had assigned them to do.

I wished that I could tell Tara about the hole in their security net, the one that Jaci Stone had originally and rightfully attributed to Miranda Olsen. Tara hadn't been too happy when Jaci Stone had told her Miranda was a traitor to the cause, she would be less so if Johan Birch did the same. It would be too coincidental for that smart mind of hers.

The surviving invaders, all of whom were citizens of foreign countries, would be returned to their homelands. I wasn't going to execute them outright. The others, the men and women who had died at my command when I ordered the activation of the lethal response system, their blood was on my hands.

There was a spinning wheel of justification regarding those deaths. They had come armed for lethal action. So had I. They were striking without warning. So did I. What were the invaders after? The attackers admitted that they had been sent after my technology, the technology which converted stainless steel to near-impenetrable armour.

Yes, I could have destroyed that technology and just let the invaders run around before they realized that they had failed. There were no innocents on the field, I would have been justified in ordering them all reduced to little piles of dust if there had been innocents there.

My best defense to myself rested in this: The majority of the people I killed in warehouse eighteen were actually robots carrying explosives, the lone survivor confirmed this. Petra made some off-hand reference to 'The Terminator' before I told her to shut up.

When I was finally alone, staring out at the sun setting over the desert, Joshua had come to me. He said that six of the nine humans I had killed were involved in the raid that killed the wife of Gemma's father, Artemis.

Her name was Helena, and I did remember her from Samantha and Jaci's wedding. She was a redhead and voluptuous, and they were very much in love. Helena had also been pregnant with Gemma's half-sister at the time of the attack, which had been what sent Artemis off into seclusion. The Revengers as a whole had not intervened at that time, even though a child of magic had been involved, because an actual vow had been made.

Artemis had vowed that he would hunt down and kill the murderers of his baby with his bare hands. That made absolutely no sense to me, and I told that to Joshua. He shrugged and told me that I had settled the vow with my voice and that was the best answer that he could come up with.

He vanished before I could call him a sonofabitch. Technically. Jaci-Ceres was the bitch and I had the soul of Jaci Stone and he was the son of...me...Fuck.

The damage the invaders did wasn't hard to fix, and operations resumed within a week. I did mark warehouse eighteen as off-limits, simply because I couldn't use in business a site that I had cursed as a killing floor.

***

I eventually took an interest in Kyle Andrews. He seemed to be a priority for the Birch Sisters, all except for Samantha. Petra needled me endlessly about that interest, saying that I was jealous of him. I told her that the Birch sisters were jealous of her, because she had risked her life, her sanity, and the life of a Revenger to keep my soul alive. She couldn't win that fight, she knew that I was right.

Kyle was from Pageland, South Carolina. He was divorced, with two kids, and had a harpy ex-wife who seemed to be chasing women away from him. The names of his children were Jack and Jill, and they were twins.