Running Away

We laid there for a long time just holding each other in silence. I lifted my head from her shoulder and looked into her dark eyes. "Thank you for being here." I said before I placed my lips onto hers. Our kiss was tender and warm and it reminded me that there are some good people in this world. The black haired beauty in my arms is one of them. Our lips parted and I put my head back onto her shoulder.

"Leo," she whispered. "I've got more to my story that I couldn't tell you the other day. I think now I can now. I want to because I think that if I do then I may overcome some more of my own demons. Like your preacher said, 'confession is good for the soul'. Believe it or not, what I have to say worse than what I already told you. Can you stand to hear it?"

"Anything for you. Afterwards I may want to kill somebody but I'll hear whatever you have to tell me."

"Well this happened after what I told you the other day. Remember I said that Logan threatened me with a knife and said I had to do whatever he said? Well, one day he came home high on whatever he was smoking and told me to get dressed up because he had a surprise for me. I went into the bedroom and showered and changed into one of my nicest dresses. When I finished I came into the living room and Logan was sitting there talking to some woman. He looked at me with a strange smile and introduced her to me. She was his boss from work. Her name was Faye something. She was a big woman, not fat just tall and strong looking, with short blond hair. I thought she was kind of pretty until she spoke. She had a gravely voice and used a lot of swear words when she talked. She just sat there next to Logan and smiled at me. Logan said that he was showing my pictures around at work and Faye thought I was pretty and said she wanted to meet me. I didn't think about it at the time but the pictures he was showing were the ones he took of me with his new camera, the ones where I was naked and doing all sorts of things. Anyway, Logan brought Faye home to meet me. He told me that it was important to him to make Faye happy so I was to entertain her that night. I didn't know what he wanted me to do so I just stood there and looked at the two of them. He said something like "I'll explain it to you so you can understand bitch. You will do whatever Faye here wants and I'm going to sit and watch. You've got to keep her happy so I'm happy. If you don't do what she wants or hesitate for a moment you will be punished. You know what I mean?" I just stood there stunned. I didn't know what to do. Faye stood up from the couch and came over and stood in front of me, about an arms length away. She just stood there looking at me and smiling. Then she walked past me and into the kitchen and got two beers from the refrigerator and came back out and sat on the couch next to Logan. She smiled at me standing there and told me to strip for them. I didn't know what to do. I was terrified. If I ran away Logan would only get mad and beat me. I didn't know what to do so I started to undress. Faye told me to put some music on the radio and strip to the music. I danced to the music the best as I could as I took my clothes off. All the time the two of them sat there and watched. When I was done Faye stood up and came over to me and started touching me and rubbing her hands up and down my body. I was scared so bad I was shaking. She put her arms around me and kissed me. I've never kissed a woman before. I didn't know what to do. I started to cry. Logan got mad and started yelling when he saw that I was crying. Faye just watched as he yelled at me. Then he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the bedroom and pushed me down onto the bed. Faye followed us and stood over me next to the bed. Logan sat on the foot of the bed and said to Faye "She's all yours."

Faye started undressing next to me. I looked at Logan and he was just sitting there smiling and watching both of us. When Faye was naked she got into bed next to me and put her arms around me and kissed me again. This time she pushed her tongue into my mouth. I didn't do anything but just lie there and let her kiss me. Logan must have seen that I wasn't doing anything so he told me I had a choice: Either do back to her what she's doing to me or be punished. I didn't want to be punished so I kissed her back. That made Faye happy and she started rubbing her hands all over me and kissing me harder. She squeezed my breasts and pinched my nipples. All I could do was return her kisses and rub my hands all over her. After doing that for a while she put her hand between my legs and started stroking me up and down. I was pretty wet when she put a finger up inside me. I've never had another woman touch me there before let alone put her fingers inside. She continued to do that for a while and I found that I was getting turned on. I didn't want to but I was. And Logan just sat there and watched. Before long she put another finger inside and then a third. She continued to stroke me with her three fingers until I was getting more excited than I wanted. Suddenly she stopped and took her fingers out and put them into her mouth. She sucked on her fingers cleaning off my wetness. Next she pushed Logan off of the bed and moved down to the end and between my legs. She kissed me on my knee's and started kissing up my legs until she had her face between my legs licking up and down inside the slit. She knew what to do because I was responding to her kisses. She found my clitoris and sucked it into her mouth and I though I was on fire. Before too long I was on the verge of coming. I didn't know what to do so I grabbed the back of her head and pushed her face between my legs harder. She licked and sucked me harder until I screamed. That was the first time I've cum without faking it for a long time. She did it to me and Logan just sat there smiling.

She looked up at me over my mound of hair and said "it's your turn". I was petrified. I knew what she was saying and what she wanted. I've never even thought about doing that to a woman. She moved up beside me on the bed onto her back and spread her legs. She pointed down between her legs and smiled at me. The only thing I could do was what she wanted. Logan would cut me if I didn't make her happy. So I moved between her legs and started licking her. She had no hair down there and all I could think about was making her happy or being punished. I licked her slit like she licked me. I even sucked on her clitoris like she sucked on mine. I did this over and over until she came hard in my face. Afterwards I just laid there and felt disgusted. I had never had sex with another woman before let alone while my husband watched. She got up and dressed and was talking to Logan while I just laid there. I heard her say that she would like to come over again. Logan said that he would make sure that I would be available to her whenever she wanted. When I heard that I turned my head into the pillow and cried.

When she left Logan came to bed and forced me to have sex with him and as usual he was brutal. After he finished he told me what he had planned. He said that his boss really enjoyed my company and she wanted to come over again. He told her that he would let her if she gave him a certain customer's account at work. She said she would. He also told me that he had been showing my pictures to his friends at work and they liked what they saw. He said that from now on I would have to be ready when he called to entertain his friends and coworkers and customers and do whatever they wanted. He told me that he had already arranged for me to go to a party with a bunch of his drinking buddies the following weekend. He told me to be as nice to them as I was to his boss. They were paying him five hundred dollars for me for the weekend. Then he told me that he had more plans. I was also going to go to the company manager's meeting the next month and be there for everybody to have sex with all week. He was going to be making a lot of money from me and at work he was to be going to be put in charge of more important accounts. Leo, he was planning on pimping me out to his friends and coworkers. When he told me that I knew I had to leave. So, the next day I ran away."

I watched as she went silent and stared off into the distance. Then her face started to contort and her eyes filled with tears.

"Oh God, I can't go on!" Her whole body shook as she broke down in heartbreaking sobs.

I took her in my arms and held her tightly. "Everything's all right now. You're safe and away from those people. You're here with me now. I'll take care of you. I'll love you." I whispered the words into her ear. She continued crying and the tears ran down her face and onto my shoulder. Her sobbing slowed down and before long all I could hear was the rhythmic sound of her breathing. She cried herself to sleep in my arms.

********

Anna was sitting naked cross legged on the bed looking at me when I became conscious of the new day.

"Morning," was all I said.

"Did you say that you love me last night?" she asked.

"Uh yes, I think I did. What you told me last night was horrible. You didn't do anything to deserve that brutality and I'll see to it that you never have to suffer through anything like that ever again. The only way I can make that really happen is to love you and keep you near me. With me you're safe and loved. From the moment I first saw you I felt something, I didn't know what it was, but now I think I do. Yes, I do believe I've fallen in love with you."

"God, I'm so happy! Thank you Leo, my prayers have been answered."

"I love you but I've really got to go pee and then we need to go down to breakfast," I said as I started moving toward the bathroom. Anna only smiled.

********

"You know Duke you should have a full time cook here. That way you would have more time to do the other things around here that need doing." I said offering my advice over a plate of pancakes.

"Can't afford one. When Louisa was alive she did the cooking and I did everything else. She was a wonderful cook. Me, I make do. You won't starve."

"How about Anna? She's a great cook. Maybe she can work for you to help pay the rent. I know we're the only ones here at the moment but if you get some more lodgers then maybe she can help out a bit. Is that OK with you Anna?"

"Of course. I'd love to help out if that's OK with you Duke."

"Well, I'll think about it. I have eight people due in on the next plane. We'll see how it goes."

We all went back to eating our pancakes. At the end when we were sitting back in our chairs digesting I asked "Duke, how do I make a phone call? I need to call somebody and let them know where I am."

"Well, all I've got is the radio. The people at Yellowknife can patch you through to an operator who can make the call for you. It's a bit expensive but it can be done."

"Can I use it after breakfast?"

"Sure. I'll show you how."

Anna said, "I'll just let you two alone. I'm going back to the cabin and clean up a bit. If we're going to have visitors then I want to look my best." She smiled at us and left.

The process for making a telephone call through his old radio set up was complicated and I had to use a credit card to charge the call. Duke allowed me to use his so there wouldn't be a charge on mine that can be used to find me. "I'll pay you back. Just put it on my bill." I told him. Duke politely left me alone to talk.

"Hello?" Came the voice from the old radio.

"Hi mom, it's Leo."

"Oh my God, Leo. How are you baby? Where are you?"

"Mom, I'm fine. I'm somewhere out of the country at the moment and I can't tell you where. If someone should ask then you can't lie. What's happening there? Anything I should know about?"

"They're looking for you Leo. Mister Bloom is madder than hell. When the factory burned down he immediately blamed you. The police have a warrant for your arrest. They even called in the FBI. They came out and talked to your dad and me. We didn't know where you were so we couldn't tell them anything. I think there's someone watching the house in case you show up. Things are pretty tense at the moment."

"What did you do with that package I gave you?"

"I put it in the basement behind some jars of canned peaches. I didn't open it."

"How about Sarah?"

"I don't know too much, son. Sheila came by and asked where you were. She said she wanted to talk to you. Sarah was with her. She's fine. She just wants her dada. I don't know if Sheila was trying to find you for her father or if she really wanted to talk to you. She seemed pretty upset."

"Well, I don't want to talk to her. All I care about is Sarah. As long as she's OK then I'm OK."

"Leo, I know that your divorce will be final in a couple months but could you at least talk to Sheila? Was what she did really that bad? You said that she had an affair. Is there any way that you two can talk and try to work things out, for Sarah's sake?"

"Mom, I only told you part of what happened. Sheila was having an affair the entire time we were married. But that's only half of it. I don't want to tell you or anybody else the rest because it will just hurt Sarah, maybe someday but not now."

"Well OK. I guess I'll just have to trust you."

"Mom, there's something else. I've met someone here, her name is Anna. She's running away from a bad situation just like me. I want you and dad to meet her but I don't know how I can make it work. Since I can't come back home I'll have to figure out some other way. I just want you to know that I'm not as depressed as I was the last time you saw me. I'm better. I'm actually happy when I'm with Anna. I think I'm going to be OK as long as she's with me. I just wanted to let you know."

"Oh Leo, I'm so happy for you. After all the heartache you deserve to be happy. Call and let us know what your plans are. I love you son, take care."

"Bye mom."

Oh shit what am I going to do now? The FBI's out looking for me. I didn't do anything but that fat bastard Bloom has the police saying that it was me that torched his factory. What am I going to do about Sarah? Christ, what am I going to do about Anna? Now that I've met her I can't do anything that would hurt her. Hell, she's got her own problems. What can I do to help her? How can I get away from Sheila's old man, be with Anna, and have a future with her that's free and clear of the past? Christ what a mess.

********

The following day I watched as the floatplane arrived and drop off eight men. They had expensive looking luggage and fishing gear. Duke greeted them with a big warm smile. "Welcome back gentlemen. It's good to see you again. I believe this makes your ninth year, right? Everything's the same as last year except the fishing's better. You got to see the picture of the one caught yesterday. A real monster it is." We all helped to get the men's luggage up the hill to the lodge. That afternoon they took four boats out to get in a little fishing before sundown.

Duke has Anna help him in the kitchen with dinner. She prepared the fish the men caught and steamed some fresh vegetables. Duke does the salads and bread under her direction. For dessert Anna prepared a simple pear-cranberry crisp. The new lodgers were very excited about dinner and asked the chef to come out and visit. Sheepishly Anna went into the dining room. All I could do was sit at another table and watch.

One of the men started speaking. "Madam, we want to complement you on your dinner. Everything was delightful. We expected Duke's usual rustic fare to go along with the rustic charm of the lodge, but this was totally unexpected. I know food. See, I own a string of restaurants in Detroit, Chicago and Cincinnati and none of our best chefs could match what we just ate. I know better than to ask you your secrets, but if you ever want to leave here and come to work for me you have a standing invitation."

"Thank you very much. I'm a little embarrassed at all your praise and I will keep your kind offer in mind. I'll see what surprises I can whip up for you for breakfast." Anna came over to my table and sat down beside me and put her head on my shoulder, smiling from ear to ear. The praise did her ego good.

The restaurant owner got up and walked over to us. "Sir you should be proud of your wife. She's a magnificent cook. I'm serious with my offer. Please think about it."

I said, "Yes I am proud of her, but we're not married. We both met here, refugees from bad situations back at home."

"I'm sorry to hear that, the bad situations back at home that is. Where are you from?"

Anna said, "I'm from Plano Texas." I said "I'm from a small central Pennsylvania town that nobody's ever heard of called Henley."

One of the other men spoke up and said, "I know some people in Henley. What's your name?"

"My name's Leo Baker."

"Nope, don't recognize the name. Where do you work?"

"Well up until a little while ago I worked at Bloom Enterprises. I was an accountant."

"Now that name I do know. That son-of-a-bitch Bloom cheated me and my manufacturing company out of a million dollar contract a few years back. Losing that contract set my business back quite a bit. We're only just now recovering."

"Yeah, I know the man you mean. I was married to his daughter."

The man got up from the table and came over to ours. "No shit," he said. "You're Ezekiel Bloom's son-in-law?"

"I was. I got divorced recently. Let me tell you, I'm not sorry to be out of that family."

"What happened?" The restaurant owner asked.

"In a nutshell, my wife cheated on me, I filed for divorce, and old man Bloom made sure that I came away with exactly nothing. No money, no job, no daughter, nothing. I came here to get away from everything for a while. That's where I met Anna here."

Another man got up from the large table and came over. "Did I hear someone mention Bloom Enterprises?"

"Yes, I did. I used to work there," I said.

"That name is very familiar to me. I work for the Justice Department in the racketeering section and Mr. Bloom and his company are on one of our watch lists. I can't go into specifics but the bottom line is we're investigating Bloom for violations of a dozen or more federal and state laws. I would love to talk to you in more detail about what you know sometime."

"Wow, I didn't know anything about that, but I don't doubt it one bit. Bloom owns everything in town including the judge that presided over my divorce hearings. Just before I left town one of his factories burned down and I'm the leading suspect. There's even a warrant out for my arrest and I'm positive he had something to do with it."

A fourth man got up from the table and came over to ours. "I'm sorry to interrupt but I was listening from over there and I just wanted to nose in a bit. You see it's the lawyer in me. I've just got to know things. How do you know that your ex father-in-law owns this judge? That's a pretty serious accusation."

"Well I had a video of my wife and her lover together doing, well you know, and the judge rejected it totally. He told me it didn't mean a thing and if I ever showed it to anybody, ever, I would, in his words now 'go to jail faster than you could fart'."

"That sounds just like a certain pompous ass judge that I know in Henley. I've always suspected that he took some sly money. He screwed me and a couple of my clients too and I just wish I could prove it. Sounds like you need some help getting unscrewed. Maybe we can talk and see what's possible. I know I would like to help."

The manufacturing man said, "Absolutely, I'll do anything to give old Bloom a taste of his own medicine."

A fifth man stood up and came over. "Listen everybody; this sounds like we need some military style coordination here. I haven't seen any action since Afghanistan and would love to put the screws to some big shot to help the little fella, no offense Mr. Baker."