The Dark Lady Ch. 09

"We've been talking to Maria. That is some woman Carlos has for a mom. She has already been on the phone to several silversmiths in Nogales and is ready to commit funds. These people are on a cash economy for the obvious reasons. How much do we want to spend?"

"If it is nice stuff, is it possible to have too much inventory?"

"No, but if word gets around the Americans are buying a lot of silver jewelry, the prices will go up."

"Tell Maria not to worry about funds up to a hundred thousand. More if she finds some special pieces. And talk to her about keeping a lid on her activity and how much we are intending to spend. Maybe the three of you and Marty could make a quiet trip down there to be sure we are all on the same page about designs."

Selma smiled at me, "Maria and I will have warm beds?"

"Yes, and keep Clara away from those handsome young jewelers."

She hissed, "Later."

As they left, Clemmie dropped into my lap. "I think we can go. Be careful how you tease."

My arms folded her in and my lips pressed to her head. "How do I start finding good guys for you all?"

"You better cool that kind of talk. Everyone is under too much pressure and they need you." She stood and pulled me up. "Your fine mind and your big thing."

I put my arm around her and said, "Yes, coach."

On Monday, Carlos, Arturo and I worked out with Lyle and his team for an hour. We needed the workout. My muscles were tight and I didn't feel in the groove at all. But I caught all of Carlos passes that Arturo didn't take. As we walked off, Lyle said, "Let me give you a little advice, Theo. You are pretty good for someone of your age and experience. Damn good, in fact. But when you get out on the field Wednesday, the eyes will be measuring you against the guys they have coached and sent to the pros. Tell me, from watching TV, what is the most obvious difference between a college player and a pro player?"

I thought about that as we walked and looked at him, "Poise, intensity, perfect execution."

"Right. You nailed it. So when you practice with Buster tomorrow, tell him you think the two of you should concentrate on just a few patterns, but do them very, very well."

"Thanks. That's good advice. How come you aren't a pro coach?"

"I never quite made the cut to play in the pros, and the owners want to see major league time on your resume before they hire coaches. It's just a fact of life. I'm happy here, you kids play well for me, and I get to chase pretty girls."

On the way in from school, the phone chimed and Clemmie said, "There's trouble at the mine. DR called and said there has been vandalism in the new corp yard and they want your advice."

"How soon can you get in your grubbies for me to pick you up?"

"I've got jeans and an old shirt here. Meet you in front as soon as you arrive."

She tumbled into the car with a smile and a punch. "I sure love going places with you, even if it is trouble. I called and the deli has some lunch ready for us."

We decided to eat in the car and were slowed by midday traffic. "How did practice go?" she asked.

"That Lyle is a clever old fox. He gave me some good advice about Wednesday."

"Tell me."

"I have to have a kiss first."

"You'll wreck us." Her tongue still had mustard on it.

"He said they would be thinking about players they have sent to the pros when they watch us. So concentrate on just a few moves and do them very well."

"You mean, like the moves you put on me?"

"Behave, and call DR on speaker."

He answered on the first ring. "We got trouble, sonny."

"Clemmie and I are headed your way as fast as we can. Maybe thirty minutes out. I guess we need to caucus about cops and all that?"

"Right. Need to have that conversation anyway. And make sure Manuel is up to speed."

"Yes. How much of the surveillance is complete?"

"About half. You need to check that out too. Your design."

"Ok. Not telephone talk. See you soon."

Clemmie was leaning against the door, still munching on part of her sandwich, and eyeing me.

"Theo, you want some feedback about your behavior?"

I looked at her, not sure what was coming.

"This better not be heavy. Remember how vulnerable I am."

The gaze was hard. "If you ever do marry me, we are going to have such good fights."

"What about the other?"

"I just decided we can't get into it right now. DR first. This is a training night, so I'll tell you at dinner." She moved over and kissed my face. "It's not bad news..."

There was a lot of activity at the mine site. A grader had been run out to the paved road and the car liked that a lot. DR and Manuel were standing in the shade, working on their own sandwiches.

We piled out. DR got a hug from Clemmie and Manuel got a big handshake from me.

Manuel gestured to some materials. "Senor, two rolls of fencing and twenty posts gone overnight."

DR said, "It's petty thievery, but we didn't expect it out here. The sentry crew didn't hear anything, and this stack is not on a camera."

We sat in a half circle of chairs and Clemmie handed out cold sodas.

I said, "Assuming this is not an inside job, someone is either very stupid or is sending us a message."

DR said, "We talked with the crew this morning and asked what they thought. They said the toughs from town wouldn't bother coming way out here to steal fencing. Easier to get closer in."

Manuel said, "My men are very good, and not stupid. Even if they weren't why bother taking a chance on getting caught taking that across the border?" He shook his head.

"If this is the stupid job, then all we need to do is hurry up and finish the surveillance system and the rest of the perimeter fence. If it's not, let's talk about who and why. DR, does this fit any pattern with mining thieves you've seen?"

"Theo, let me give you the full on conspiracy story. There are several companies that keep updated satellite files of areas in the western states where there might be valuable mineral deposits. They have automated scanners to look for any disturbance. Changed images pop up on their screens every morning. Just like the CIA guys.

"Suppose they see activity at this old mine shaft and ask themselves what is going on. Someone makes a close in run to get better resolution. They can't figure it out. Construction equipment, some single wides for the crew, some gravel moved around. But no piles of mining debris from the shaft. A search of the newspapers and business journals finds nothing. They do a quiet midnight look that gets by us but that doesn't help either. Some yahoo in management with no brains tells the field people to create a diversion to slow us down while they do a better investigation."

He smiled, "So we are sitting here in a total panic, paralyzed about a minor theft."

I said, "DR, if you are paralyzed, I'd hate to see you in a serious fit."

Clemmie giggled and Manuel covered his mouth with a laugh.

"Actually, I like that version, DR. And we do need to worry, because with the opening a few days away, and all the national publicity Kim has arranged, our cover is going to be blown big time."

DR and Manuel blinked, realizing this was an angle they had not been paying attention to.

"When a mining corp drops in on you uninvited, what happens?"

"Their lawyers are paid a lot. Challenges to your deed, your claims, any access easements. Big money offers for surrounding parcels. Big money offer to us. Articles in the paper about how much more they can contribute to the local economy if the naive locals will sell."

"But we still have a bit of an advantage. So far, they think we are reactivating the mine. The simultaneous announcements of both gold and diamonds are going to throw them for the same loop it did us. When do they get smart and do some seismo runs?"

DR clapped his head and said, "Shit, I had this thought a week ago and didn't tell you. We are on one of those checkerboard sections. Everything around us is BLM and their maps show nothing of mining interest. But we should have been trying to tie up the rest of the section with leases or licenses, even though we don't know if there is anything in these meandering ravines."

"I'll have Tom get busy contacting the owners as quietly as he can. What kind of a deal should we offer?"

"Generous. What about 50-50 split of net after extraction costs, with a guaranteed minimum annual payment of $10K?"

"If any of them are local, what about establishing an extraction partnership with Parsons as 51% managing partner, but offer minority shares and the visibility in town that goes with it? Clemmie can be President. She will blow them away."

DR and Manuel looked over at the blond beauty, who was blushing fiercely.

Manuel said, "Si. That one is smart and pretty and tough. Some guy makes a move, he will be sorry."

Clemmie stood and said, "Manuel, stand up and close your eyes until I tell you. Hold your arms straight out."

DR and I stood up too. Clemmie backed up about twenty yards and started running straight at Manuel. "Now! Open your eyes!"

What he saw was a body hurtling through the air in a full front twisting somersault and landing perfectly in his arms. "Oof! Senorita, you scare an old man!" He carefully set her down.

She hugged and kissed him. "It's not everyday a girl gets compliments from a nice man like you."

He rolled his eyes and we all laughed.

In another few minutes, we had a plan, and Clemmie and I left to get back to the office and call Tom.

She looked at me accusingly. "What is this BS about President?"

"I meant it. You know more about all the details of the project than anyone else. If you go to the county with Tom's assistant, you can pick up all the stuff about their maps, the assessor parcel numbers and the owners."

"And I still have to be your PA?"

"Well, if you'd rather not..."

"I'm dumping you buster, the abuse has to stop."

Her tongue was in my ear and her hand was in my crotch. "We are going to my house, not the office."

"We better call Tom before that. I may not be able to talk when you are done with me."

She pulled on my hair. "You have so many demerits..."

Tom answered and she put him on speaker. "Theo, how's the mining project?"

"Promising, Tom. I need a little additional help. Do you have someone smart about land titles that can do some work for us immediately?"

"Hang on a sec." He could be heard calling for someone and asking a question.

"Yes, Greg Anderson has just finished an assignment and is available."

"I have a conflict tomorrow morning, but I wonder if my assistant, Clementine Williams, could come over and brief you and Greg. This little item is her top priority at the moment, and I think you will be interested in her story and the work we need. I'd say more but it's not for the telephone."

"I understand. Have her come by around eight-thirty and we will get started."

Clemmie punched me. "You are getting soft in the head, giving me important things like this to do. I haven't even been to college."

"But you are almost twenty-one, have more native smarts than anyone I know, and have put up with me for almost six months."

She went back to licking my ear and I did drive to her house.

She stripped us and dragged me into the shower. I closed my eyes and let her smooth soapy body rub all the way around me several times. We clinched and let the water beat on us for minutes.

I stretched out on her bed and called Kim, expecting an attack any second.

"Hi, we had an emergency run to the mine. DR needed some help. I can fill you in later. Just called so you wouldn't worry. No, not coming back today. Clemmie has me on this rigid schedule to get ready for tomorrow and Wednesday. Larry is being low key, but I think he wants a good show in front of the other coaches. Buster and I are going at it in the morning against some defensive players."

Clemmie crawled on the bed with a beer in one hand and a soda in the other. She sat between my legs and handed me a hairbrush.

"No, she says this is a training night and I can only think football. She's tough, mom, I don't get any excuses. I don't even get sex until the session on Wednesday is over."

We both heard Kim laughing as she hung up. I reached for the beer, but she said, "No. If you are good, you can have sips when my hair is done. After all, if I have to be a President, the body has to be fixed up."

She could feel my erection against her and reached back to deliver a pinch. "None of that, either."

"You have a sadistic streak in you."

"It's laugh or cry, all the way." I dropped the hairbrush and pulled her tight to me, hands wrapped over the fine tits, and just held her.

"You are making me cry again."

After several minutes, I leaned back and worked on the hair some more. There was a dresser mirror across the room, and we could see each other's faces dimly in the twilight. She looked glorious.

After a bit, I put the hair in a ponytail and arranged us so we could kiss and mess around.

"You can have me if you want."

I went looking for her tongue with mine. "We kid around but you are right about the training rules."

She licked me and whispered, "Thank you for saying that. Some days, I can't tell."

"We better get some food, or I'll be asleep right here."

"I am fixing your favorite spanish omelet. Selma showed me how."

I sat on her kitchen stool in a nice terry robe that appeared from somewhere. She had her own that was dangerously short. I got to make the sourdough toast and take the hot plates out of the oven. There was exotic tea, but I settled for hot water with lemon juice and a squirt of tequila.

She gestured to the counter, "Here or the bed?"

She followed me back to the bed. We were hungry after chasing around on the field in the morning, and the desert in the afternoon. She put her empty plate to one side and leaned her head on my thigh. I took a hand and kissed and sucked the fingers.

"Tell me what to do in the morning."

"Tom's guy is likely to be pretty good, so do the sponge routine on him about how the records work. I have no idea how many parcels there are in that section, so just collect what you can of names and addresses and we'll go over it together. Tell Tom we are thinking of an extraction company, and ask about the best form. I don't know much about that LLP and LLC business."

I looked down and her eyes were closed. So much for my ever alert assistant. It was early but I turned out the light and spread the sheet over us. She never moved as I curled myself around her backside.

It was very dark and her fingers were dancing on my arm, which was over her middle.

"I heard your breathing change. Are we going back to sleep, or..." She wiggled around and felt me poking her.

I hummed to confuse her. She wouldn't know whether I was working up to an attack, or what.

She turned and pushed me on my back. Her body was half across me, with the knee well into my crotch. Her tongue licked and she said, "I have you now, you must obey."

I licked back and said, "Yes, mistress."

"You know the other time, I told you to sit in the middle of the floor and see the ball coming into your hands every time? Will you do that now, while I make some breakfast?"

She found a cushion and closed all the doors to the living room. It was quiet and still dark. I put Buster and some opposing linemen in the picture. Big guys with their pads on, making me feel small. I heard the snap and dodged around the end and down the right sideline. I was double covered, which Buster and I expected. At the very last second, I jerked left and raised my hands. The ball was there and the route to the end zone was clear.

I told myself to do some that didn't work. There was one terrifically hard in the flat that caught me wrong footed. Running full out with the ball only on the tips of my fingers, I did a rolling somersault and kept going. I smiled and thought to myself, you weren't supposed to get that one.

After two more, the door opened with no light behind it, and a shadowy figure found me. She was warm and naked and sliding into my lap. She had him hard in seconds. "Give me just a few strokes. Love taps. No orgasms, just a little loving." Her voice was soft and sibilant.

She caught the mood. Just a few tight, quick moves and we were on our way to the bedroom to get dressed. If I did poorly, it wasn't Clemmie's fault.

When we went out to the car, it was a very classy Clementine I was driving to work. Fuchsia suit with lacy white blouse. Hair up and bangles in her ears and on her wrists. Stockings and heels. Pastel lipstick and light eyeshadow.

"I said you were ready to be President."

"I am quivering inside and you know it."

"Everyone has nerves when they have to perform. You think I'm not nervous about practice today?"

"Punch me. I'm boss for a day." She got a nice firm hit on her upper forearm.

"I'm not sure this works on women."

I dropped her off and went on to Keeler to see Kim, who was in her robe in the kitchen, reading the morning paper.

I got a warm kiss. "This is a surprise."

My arm reached around and squeezed a boob. "You feel good. Clemmie was awake in the dark. We both have to perform today and are nervous."

"You feel good too. What have you got her doing?

"It's complicated. Is there someone in that big bed of yours?

Her fingers were in my hair, and her tongue tracing my lips. "Susan and Karen," she whispered.

"I might have known. They can hear this."

As we went down the hall, Kim's robe came off, so that when she advanced on the bed, the two heads squinting back at her got a full frontal with a dressed son in the background.

"Eek, man in bedroom!"

I pounced, pummeling them from above the covers. Kim slid in and I beat on her too.

Beautiful Karen asked, "Why the official visit? Is it pink slips so soon?"

"I am from the gay and lesbian alliance, investigating claims that a man has been sighted in this bed."

They sat up and pulled me to their lips. "Never! This is strictly girl territory. You must be mistaken. But why is a man in our bedroom doing lesbian investigations?"

I fell into their arms, laughing. "Maybe you should have a two-sided sign. It could say, "cocks welcome" on one side, and "cocks beware" on the other."

Kim disappeared and came back with coffee for her bedmates. "He says we are having a conference. Go pee and come back."

They refused to stop pestering my hair and leaning down for kisses for several minutes. I said, "I have an important practice this afternoon and Clemmie says no romance whatever until I prove I can play football."

Susan said, softly, "Theo, we saw you catch all those passes last fall with our own eyes. We do not need convincing. Why a conference?"

"Hold onto your jockstraps, ladies, this is about gold, diamonds, thieves and conspiracy."

"Jockstraps! What are you up to, anyway?"

I lay on their laps and sipped my coffee. "This is the abbreviated version. There was a theft of fencing at the mine two nights ago. Clemmie and I went out there to caucus with DR and Manuel. There are several explanations, ranging from stupid lightweight thieves, to a serious invasion by corporate mining interests."

They looked at each other. "You aren't shitting us, are you?"

I shook my head. "I asked DR for the most paranoid thing he could think of, and he said that some companies monitor satellite pictures and might have noticed the ground disturbance at the mine. The public records show the old mine claim and the satellite picture shows the entrance with recent construction activity. But we have been low key and are below the radar of all the papers and trade pubs."

Kim said, "Which is about to change."

"Yes." I pulled down the sheet and looked at Karen's front, gorgeous as ever. "Especially since those are getting famous already."