The Arrangement Ch. 12

She walked over to the chair and knelt by Daniel. She knew that it was too risky to even whisper, she just hoped that they were on the same page. She made quick work of the rope work, realizing as she did that he would eventually unravel each knot just as he had that night. That night, oh how she wished they were back there in their room, alone, the girls safely tucked into their beds. But she was determined that they would be again...soon. She stood as she finished off the last knot.

"Take his gun out of his belt, round back. And the knife out of the top of his boot." As she did, the men's eyes locked, "What didn't think I would remember, Commander? Oh, I'm thinking we should all share a little walk down memory lane before you all head towards the pearly gates...or the fires of hell in your case, bastard."

Dodd turned towards her, "Does the little woman know your part in her beloved David's death, Commander?"

Jill tried hard not give the man the satisfaction he sought, but she was too late as her hands flew to her chest and she gasped aloud.

***

Daniel watched the color drain from her face as his worst nightmare came true. His wife knew. Or she would shortly thanks to Dodd. He wanted to make excuses, to tell her that the joint commission had exonerated him, but the words would not come. Because he did not believe them himself, so why should she?

"Oh, I see she doesn't," Dodd laughed. "Well, Missus Monroe, let me tell you a little story. Once a upon a time, in a land far, far away, there were two troops of brave knights. Knights from different kingdoms, but knights who were supposedly friends. They were after the same evil overlord and they had him in their sights. There was a new magic too, a magic that would allow them to blow the bastard to kingdom come from miles away. They had only to plant a small device on the evil overlord's magic dragon."

He smiled at Daniel, "The bravest of knights volunteered to go alone into the evil overlord's encampment. The other knights would surround it and come to his rescue if anything went wrong. But nothing did. Or so he thought."

He looked back to Jill, "But the magic did not work. It was not the evil overlord that was blown to hell, but the other troop of brave knights. Their leader killed, the others wounded. And the evil overlord made his escape once again," he smiled at Daniel.

Jill shook her head, "You're wrong. It was an accident, just like they told me. No one could have known. Not David. Not Daniel. Nobody could have done anything to stop it." She looked at him as she finished. His throat tightened and he smiled weakly.

But the moment was interrupted by another laugh, "Oh, but you would be so wrong, dear queen. For you see, what neither brave leader realized was that among the knights was one, who held special powers, a new magic. A magic that might supersede all other, but it had yet to be tested. This young knight had meant only to plant the magic among the rocks that surrounded them, but then the other troop's leader found him sneaking away. He threatened to tell his own captain. Called it dereliction of duty, would have the young knight punished. Except he never lived to do it."

Daniel's mind poured over the man's words. The incident was not the last of the misfires, several other drones had failed to hit their targets. A couple had even hit civilian strongholds causing embarrassment and trouble with their allies. There had been some discussion that perhaps someone had developed a device to mimic the tag's signal. But they had not considered it would be their own supplier, selling secrets to the enemy. Although what he knew of Night Walkers and the Dodds, Daniel was not all that surprised that they would stoop to treason.

Dodd turned towards Jill, "You have a way of choosing real black and white assholes, you know that?"

His wife stuck out her chest and smiled, "Thank you, Mister Dodd. It's called honor, something that you obviously know nothing about."

The man moved so quickly that Daniel could only manage to loosen the first set of bounds. Without releasing his hold on Jesse, the man back handed Jill. The gun grazed her cheek and opened a small wound that oozed blood down her face. But his wife simply squared her shoulders and glared at the man.

"I could not be prouder of either of them. But you, Mister Dodd, are a traitor and a coward."

He laughed, "Perhaps. But it won't matter, no one will ever hear our little tale."

Daniel swore that the man was wrong. Command needed to know of this new technology and the Dodds part in it. He sought his wife's eyes as he loosened the next layer of rope. It would still be a couple more moments before he was free. Of course, it was just as likely that somewhere beyond that closed door his best man was lurking, assessing the situation and looking for an opening. They just needed to give him one.

As if sensing his thoughts, Jill spoke up. "If we are dealing in the truth, Mister Dodd. How about the other? Trisha? It was you that beat and raped her, wasn't it?"

Dodd smiled at her. "Rough sex. You should know plenty about that Mistress J. The bitch is no better than the other one was. A bad fuck. First time, I thought it was the damned drugs. The way she just lay there the whole time. But that second time, all she could do was blubber and cry for her fucking husband. At least, your bitch did not do that when I was screwing her," he said as he turned back to Daniel. Jesse whimpered in his arms and the man turned, planting a chaste kiss on her forehead right next to the barrel of the gun.

"I think the little princess is trying to apologize for not telling you sooner, daddy. See your wife made no bones about our affair. Every time you were away, I came and went in this house like it was mine." He smiled again, "Oh, Missus Monroe, if you were wondering how I got in, how I knew about your little collection, shall we call it? I have a key. The dumb bitch gave me one." He turned back towards Daniel, "I would suggest you change the locks, you never know how many men the slut gave keys to, but none of you will be around to worry about that."

"Oh and while we are clearing the air," he continued, "I was the one that convinced the lazy cow to kill herself. Well, not exactly. I convinced her that she should fake a suicide attempt, that it would finally get you to leave the Navy and come to work for Night Walkers. I was even here you know." He motioned with the gun down the hall towards the nursery, "I fed her the pills. Praised her for being brave and strong. Promised her that we and our daughters would be together at last, if she did this one last thing for me."

He put the gun back to Jesse's temple as he continued, "Of course, it was all lies. She was a lousy mother, wasn't she princess? You did most of the fucking work. Caring for your sisters." He turned towards Jill, "You on the other hand. You are a worthy vessel for my seed, too damned bad the asshole beat me to it. But oh well, once I'm finished here, me and my girls might head over to Texas, see how the other bitch is doing. She might be as vain and self-centered as Rachel but at least that one knows how to be a mother. Hopefully, our two day fuck fest will pay off. She should just about be showing by now."

***

Jill closed her eyes as Trisha's words in the hospital came back to her. That was what frightened her so much, the possibility of carrying this man's child. Jill could not blame her. Her hand curved protectively over her own precious cargo.

The man's attention was centered on her husband as he continued. "You should have seen the fear in the bitch's eyes when she realized that I had lied. As her eyes began to close, I whispered what a worthless cunt she was. Told her how you were not coming, that you never loved her anyway. It was priceless, man. But you know what's fucking ironic? Her last words were for her daughters. How the fuck is that for a shocker? The slut wasn't such a horrid mother after all," he caressed the side of Jesse's face with the gun. "Is it nice to know that in her final moments on this earth mommy dearest thought about you, princess?"

Jesse whimpered and nodded. Jill smiled, it was the first sign that her step-daughter was coming out of the daze that she had been in. "I knew she loved you all, Jesse. That's what never made sense. Why she would leave you girls?" She hoped that the sound of her voice would reach a little further to bring the girl around.

Jill turned her attention back to Dodd, "And the accidents that have been happening to us all? Bel's food poisoning? Jesse's fall? My car accident? That was all you wasn't it?"

He laughed again, she was getting damned tired of it. She wished Mistress J had the cat of nine tails that David had bought her for their fifteenth wedding anniversary. She would strip the skin right off the man's back. She supposed that just this once it would be all right to break the cardinal rule of BDSM: never lose control, never hit out of anger.

He nodded, "You might not have her beauty, but damn between the super hot Mistress J shit, the mother of the year act and that brain, damn, but you aren't sexy in your own way."

Jill smiled as she winked to her husband, "If you only knew, Mister Dodd. Care to leave this lot here. Mistress J would love a chance to show you what she's got."

He shook his head, "I don't think so, sweetie. Unlike your two fuckhead husbands, I'm not switch. I'm all Dom. Of course, from what I read on your profile, that could suit you just fine too."

"Sorry, I'll have to decline your offer. As I'm sure you know, the lifestyle is all about trust and respect. I am very picky about whom I offer my submission. And traitors, rapists and murders, don't make the cut."

He shrugged, "I never bought that whole offering submission shit. It is something that you take. Women were put on this earth to be used and bred. Of course, you've more than fulfilled your role, haven't you, sweetheart?"

"I have nothing to apologize for, if that's what you mean. I have loved and been loved by two amazing men, raised eight children and in my own way served my countries with honor. Too bad you can't say the same, shithead."

"Oh, is that a small taste of Mistress J?" he goaded.

"You could not take, Mistress J. She would have you whimpering like the coward you are inside of two minutes." Jill hoped that Daniel was using the time she was buying him wisely.

"So anything else you need to confess before we end this thing?" she asked.

"Oh, I intend on ending it. Soon. I'll begin with that weak little cunt over there," he motioned with the gun towards Bel. Then he pressed the gun into Jesse, but this time it was her side, not her temple. "Then this one. I figure watching the girls die will shut up that fat mouth of yours bitch. But then again maybe I will shut it up another way before I kill you. Right in front of him," he said motioning towards the chair where Daniel sat, a little too quietly. Jill met his eyes and somehow she knew he was ready, waiting for her to give him the opening he needed.

"Oh, Commander, since the cunt reminded me. There is one more little thing. That chopper accident that killed Thad and put Dwayne in a fucking wheelchair. That was me too. Remember, you had already forced me out of the unit, but I was there with Night Walkers. It was so fucking easy to get access to the hanger, reverse a couple of wires and as they say...Botta Bing, Botta Boom."

"So let's see the count on this one, Commander. You, one unborn baby and my career. Me, two comrades dead, two wives and two daughters dead and you too, of course. When I'm done here, I'll call us even and move on to handle that other two-faced bastard, your Master Petty Officer. Not that I have any interest in that fat cow he calls his wife. But I never got to taste this sweet young thing," he said as he licked along the side of Jesse's face. "She probably would have been as bad a fuck as her mother anyway. But I hear that Simone for all her blubber is a decent fuck, so maybe I can taste some sweet young chocolate cherry before I kill them all."

***

Daniel caught a slight movement in the kitchen. 'What the fuck took you so long?' he thought as he loosened the final bounds around his wrist. He might not be armed, but he knew Samuel would be. But could the man get the shot without endangering Jesse? They needed a diversion.

***

Jill saw the look in Daniel's eyes. She knew that he was calculating, looking for an opening and she was too. At that moment, Bel moaned and tried to sit up. She began to move to the little girl, thankful that she and the babies had slept through the nastiness. Looking briefly at Jesse, she wondered if the girl would ever recover from what had happened here. The defiant pre-teen was gone.

Bel moaned again and the man raised the gun, "One down," he said. Jill moved without thought, throwing herself between the man and her daughter. She heard thee bang then she felt the burning pain rip through her side as she fell next to the child. She could barely breath, but the child was smiling down at her. Was this heaven, she thought as the world began to explode around them.

***

The shot rang out like thunder over the Amazon. Then another. Daniel watched as red stains spread across the man's shirt. A large gaping exit wound covered his shoulder that was opposite Jesse's head. Dodd's arm hung limply at his side as he howled in pain. Jill had called him a coward and he was proving her words correct. Samuel rushed the man from behind, knocking Jesse free as she fell over the couch. He pushed the man's face into the carpet and twisted his injured arm up high behind his back, pinning him to the floor.

"Taste some sweet chocolate cherry, asshole? I'm thinking some brothers going to be all over this thick white ass every time you are in the shower where you are going, mother fucker," Samuel punctuated his assessment with a slap to Dodd's bottom, like he was a bad boy who had been caught cheating at school.

Daniel looked at Jesse, who was curled into a ball on the couch now, crying like a baby. He wanted to rush over and scoop her up, reassure her that so many things the man said were not true and that the others did not matter. But then he heard the small cry from the fireplace.

"Jill, please. Mommy, pwease. Pwease don't weave me again," he heard Bel sobbing. Then he saw his wife, pale and not moving in the child's tiny arms. The second shot had not been Samuel. The bastard had gotten off a round before his friend took him down.

Daniel rushed to their side. He lifted his wife's head and brushed back her blond hair. The stain spreading across his old tattered Academy sweat shirt was dark, almost black. His medical training kicked in, he knew what that meant. His wife had been hit in the liver. Blood mixed with bile was pouring too quickly from the wound. He reached up to the couch and grabbed a throw pillow. He had to slow the blood loss.

Samuel was busy holding the man down, Bel was too young, and he could not release the pressure on Jill's wound. But someone needed to get a fucking ambulance here. Now. He looked at his oldest daughter, still crying on the couch.

"Jesse," he called out. "Damn it, Jesse, I need you."

The girl whimpered, but she rolled over and looked at him. "That's my girl. I need you to call nine-one-one. Now." For a moment, the girl just stared at him numbly. But he sighed when she nodded and ran to the kitchen.

He turned his attention back to his wife as he noticed Samuel reaching for the rope that he had drop by the chair when he broke free. The movement stretched Dodd's arms back further and the man screamed louder. Daniel choked back glee as he stared down into his wife's face that was almost translucent now from the blood loss. She was going into shock.

"Bel, sweetie, I need a blanket. Can you get me one from your room? Please, baby girl," he asked.

"Is she going away the way my other mother did?" his daughter asked as she stood up.

He chocked back the bile that rose in his throat as his worst fear was brought to life in the words of a six year old. "No, sweetie, she's going to be fine. But she needs that blanket, please," he lied. He watched as the little girl staggered down the hall, moving slower than she should. Fuck, the child was still reeling from the blow to her head.

Anger and hatred tightened his gut into knots. He looked at his wife's face, remembering another time, another face and for the first time knowing the truth about that as well. He wanted Dodd dead. He deserved to die for all the lives he had ruined.

He felt a slight movement in his arms and looked down as Jill's green eyes fluttered open. "Lay still, my love. The ambulance is on its way." She nodded, but then winced at the pain. Her hand moved towards to the pillow that he held over the wound, but fell short instead resting lower. She tried to say something. He bent lower to listen.

"Sorry. Sorry, I could not keep them safe," she whispered as tears spilled from the corners of those green pools.

"You did fine, sweetheart," he said as he kissed her forehead. He did not even try to stop the tears that blurred his own vision. He felt her go limp in his arms. "God damn it, Jill, you can't do this to me. You can't make me love you then leave me alone. Fight, god damn it, fight. I need you. The girls needs you. Please, baby, please," he cried as he felt hands pushing him aside.

***

Daniel paced the cramped waiting room. Simone had called in the reserves when the doctors decided to admit both the twins and Bel for observation. A couple of the wives were with them on the pediatrics ward. Simone scurried between there and the waiting area bringing him frequent updates until they fell asleep an hour or so ago. He looked at the clock on the wall.

It was almost midnight. Fuck, Jill had been in surgery for over seven hours. That could not be good. He reached the back wall, turned and headed in the opposite direction.

He saw Jesse huddled silently in Simone's arms, tears trailed down her cheeks. He knew he should go to his eldest, but he simply could not, not yet anyway. It would be one more sin that she would have to forgive her old man. Although he supposed after some of what Dodd had said that afternoon, forgiveness would be a two-way street.

But right now all he could think about was his wife. Would Jill be all right? The doctors had let him see her only briefly before rushing her into surgery, but she had been intubated and unconscious, IV lines ran out of both arms. It was not anymore reassuring than the doctors themselves had been. They simply would not know how bad it was until they got in.

Daniel looked up as Samuel and Travis walked in. The frown on Samuel's face could not mean good news. But the dark scowl on Travis's reminded him of a late summer storm rolling in off the mountains, the kind that spawned tornadoes. He nodded at them. Travis nodded back, but did not say anything. He took a chair in the corner of the room, away from Simone and Jesse as well as the half dozen or so other friends from the unit, who had gathered to await news.

Samuel approached him cautiously. Did he look as much like a wounded, caged animal as he felt, he wondered.

"You look like shit, man."

"Fuck you, old man."

"Want to get a cup of coffee or something? Simone will call if there is any news," he said, putting his hand on Daniel's shoulder.

"No, I need to be here when they come out. It shouldn't be much longer," he replied staring once more at the clock on the wall, whose hands seemed to be slowing with each pass.

"They released Trav when I told them what Dodd had said."

Daniel only nodded.

"But he's in pretty bad shape. Well, his head is pretty fucked up right now. Realizing that he's been a real son of a bitch to the woman he loved and that there was never any affair really. Add to that the fact that the cops had already shown him some pretty fucking graphic pictures of her taken after the second assault. Well, he wants to kill Dodd."