The Rescuer Ch. 01

Almost ten years ago, to become one of the three trustees, I'd had to sign more paperwork than I had ever seen piled up on one table before. But I'd had my own lawyers draw part of it up though, so I knew exactly where all the loopholes had been written in for me. I could actually design and consult all I wanted to. I was just forbidden to either directly make money at it, or get credit for it.

Not a single check, drawing, contract or structure could have my real name on it.

Fortunately, I didn't care too much about either money or fame. I'd once had far too much of both of those. I hadn't liked being trapped by it all. Besides, anyone who knew my work in this town, couldn't help but tell that I'd been involved in a project the moment it was unveiled to the world.

Staying out of the spotlight, for almost all of the last nine years, hadn't been easy. What the Trust was trying to do, for my Grandfather's Estate, was just too important to mess up. Too many people were counting on us. Each secret project I completed wasn't for myself.

They were all destined for, and were going to be closely held by, the Trust.

Along with the other two Trustees, we'd been desperately pouring assets and cash into the main capital fund for years. Trying to make it fully self sustaining by our immovable deadline.

We were so damn close now!

If we succeeded, the matured Trust would irrevocably end all of the decades long legal battles, while equitably dividing up my Grandfather's huge fortune among every single possible heir. The regular payments, that all of my relatives had enjoyed since the Trust was formed, would continue. As would all of the fully paid college scholarships and educational grants.

If we failed, the legal battles would immediately reignite, and would rage on for years and years. People, even worse than my so-called cousin Anthony, would try to wrest control from us. Millions in legal fees had already been saved, and put to much better use. The idea of that horrible waste draining the estate again, made me practically slam the last of the cleaned potatoes down on to the counter.

Our family had so many damn practicing lawyers among its members already! But ten years ago, a brand new generation of my relatives had been sent to Law School to get their degrees. If the Trust failed, they would be the ones to profit from the legal fee windfalls! Whether their side won or lost!

I scowled and finished cleaning the carrots, and then had no choice but to start searching for the missing knives. They weren't in the dishwasher, or in the knife block tucked away in the cabinet by the stove. I thought Keeley had used them last on Wednesday. So, drawer by drawer, I began to root around for them. My doubly frustrated thoughts inexorably slipped back to my previous meanderings.

Starting even before the Trust was officially formed, we hadn't lost a single serious legal challenge. Not even one. The original three Trustees had long since passed on. I was the oldest of the second set, and had taken over from my own beloved Aunt.

I hadn't exactly replaced her, since no one could ever replace any of the original founders.

Emma, Avery and I?

We were just doing the best we could.

As lesser stand-ins, we each brought different and unique things to the table. Unprepared understudies, suddenly shoved into the limelight. All three of us had already basically agreed to give up a decade of our lives, to try and make this one last crazy idea a success.

My idea.

No one else's.

One by one, the original Trustees had died, all far too soon.

We'd stumbled at first. Making some very big mistakes, trying to fill shoes much too big for us. Then we all learned the secret. When we just took on the task in our ways, we began making headway again. Things went even better, when we decided to try and completely vanish from public view, and do as much of our work as possible from the shadows.

Now no one disputed that we were on the right track anymore.

My unusual solution was indisputably working. They just thought we were going to run out of time. If we went over our staggeringly ambitious financial goal? I might even be able to pick and choose a few special properties, to keep for myself. But at the moment?

Me retaining even a single penny, from over a decade's worth of work, was still in serious jeopardy.

So many things were going on right now, trying to meet the irrational arbitrary deadline, that I was finally getting stretched out too thin. It was clear, even to me, that I couldn't continue this pace much longer.

My night terrors and nearly disabling fits had become unmanageable and almost unbearable again.

But worse was surely coming.

For all three of us.

Soon, whomever had bet against us as trustees? They were certain to find out just how close we were to finally fully funding the Trust. Then they would all try their very best, to disrupt these last few critical months, right before the immovable and unforgiving deadline arrived.

My night job working in a printing plant? It had been such a good cover for so many years now! My greedy relatives and my grandfather's old enemies all originally thought I had given up taking the Trust so seriously. My sojourn into the normal working world had lulled their suspicions of what I could really do, if pressed too hard to sleep.

But over the years the kinds of things my third of the Trust was doing became far too numerous and obvious. They weren't being fooled anymore, just unsure how I was accomplishing so many projects while holding down a simple gig.

Now the job that I had once used as a cover was changing rapidly, too! It was adding to my stress and worry almost as much as my other work! As that company slowly continued to turn around, and dig itself out of it's own deep financial hole? It's critical funding deadline was just weeks away, and I still had far too much to do there.

To make my life even more difficult, I was certain I was being watched by my so-called cousin Anthony closer than ever before.

Adding a new girlfriend into my life at this point... no matter how special and vulnerable she was... was sheer madness.

But I'd already admitted to myself, months ago, that I loved Keeley. That put her near the very top of the list of people in my life that I would do anything for.

Absolutely anything.

I wasn't sure she really understood just how deeply I took all of the promises I had already made her. Tonight, if she got back home in time for dinner, before I had to go to work?

She just might find out.

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After I finally found the last of the pans I needed, and the few remaining special spices were discovered mixed in with the regular ones? I took a second to look over all the reorganized chaos, and still didn't see either the paring or carving knives. While I got down on my hands and knees and looked underneath the refrigerator, I caught a glimpse of Ruthy peering at me around a corner of the tiny efficiency.

I could hear my cat almost laughing at me, as I began digging even deeper into the small kitchen.

I let out a few choice expletives, and was able to relax a little as I stood back up on my feet. I loved swearing. Well, at least when no one else was around to hear me do it. A little gray shadow noiselessly landed on the edge of the kitchen counter that also doubled as a breakfast bar.

That narrow little spot, beside sink and the walkway to the living room, was the only clear space left in the kitchen.

Ruthy grinned at me, obviously expecting a treat, from the little drawer beneath her feet that had always held only her little snacks before.

I was about to do my best to ignore her, when she gave me one of those odd sort of a little barks of a meow her breed was famous for. The mysterious little smile widened, and suddenly I know exactly where all the missing kitchen items had gotten moved to.

Sure enough, every single tool that we used every day, was tucked next to a tiny ziplock bag that only held a few treats. I was certain the main supply of Ruthy's goodies were now right beside her other food. The rearrangement actually made sense, since the little drawer was the easiest to get to, from either the stove or sink.

I carefully slipped the two extremely sharp knives out of the drawer, and put them on the vegetable cutting board. When she wanted to, my little gray guard cat could purr loudly enough to be heard in the next room. I winced, and grabbed a few more treats than I normally gave her from the small bag.

"You know, my little imp, you could have saved me a lot of time by just telling me where Keeley had moved all this stuff! I think you just wanted to see if I could find them without your help! Right?"

My cat looked a bit sheepish, but only after a proper gloat, and delicately ate each treat that I placed on the counter for her. I waited until she was all done, and was cleaning her face with her paws, before I addressed her again.

"You know that I can't be too late today! How about you doing your part the rest of the morning? I've got to make up for some of this damn lost time! Yes, I messed up last night, I know that. But Keeley is your roommate, too! Maybe you should consider helping me, the next time we argue? It's been a long, long time since we've lived with someone! I'm not used to getting ganged up on anymore!"

Ruthy just nodded at me rather uncommittedly, then hopped off the counter, and headed for the partially open sliding glass door that lead out to the small third floor balcony. Her idea of help, evidently, meant taking a nap somewhere else.

I cleaned off the counter again, and then began tackling cutting up all the produce I had just cleaned. The small paring knife whickered and snickered as fast as it ever did. With my hands now making real progress again, my mind could get busy elsewhere.

Keeley still thought I was exactly what I wanted most of the real world to think I was.

I'd taken great pains to create several different images for public consumption. To my new girlfriend, I looked just like I thought of myself during most of the week. I worked hard on my night shifts, pushing thru printing projects thru all of my departments, and rarely took any time off for myself.

My main public life wasn't a fake, or a sham. I actually enjoyed it. Both it's monotony, and the occasional chance to show my ingenuity and creativity. I lived strictly off the pay I got each week. No more. No less. I loved working at night, by myself, tackling all the issues I came across as best I could.

My duties as a Trustee, at this point, looked minimal to any outside observer. I was sure there were still official offices for all three of us, tucked away one level below Avery's law practice. But he actually used his father's old office, on the top floor of that downtown landmark, for all of his Trust duties. Emma had one end of the converted attic at her farmhouse, hours and hours away from all the prying eyes in the big city. I had my second floor walk-up, above the third shifter bar, where all the better cops wound down after their night shifts.

To any casual eye that entire floor in Avery's building, that had once been solely dedicated to the Trust, looked as busy as ever. But in reality, Avery's law offices had nearly taken over all that extra space a long time ago. The empty dusty offices with our names on them, each had a separate intern on full law scholarships guarding them, and shuffling papers around for us.

The real work got done elsewhere.

The Trust's once huge staff was now down to just us six, and the resulting savings were poured back into the main capital fund.

After my three site visits later this morning, I had to go into my little rundown walk-up, and take care of some things. I'd bought that little strip of buildings, with my very first proxy, saving the ex-cop's bar below it. That one prescient act had gained me some very important and loyal friends to keep an eye on my office door. My second purchase, made by my second ever proxy, was close by the first. I could easily see it out of the old wavy glass office window nearest to my battered desk.

The very building that had the greedy vacant lot owner as it's very last remaining neighbor.

I'd initially been so worried that Anthony would try to use that towering structure someday, to spy down on me at my desk, while I worked for the Trust. So I had taken steps, the very first week after I had been confirmed as a Trustee.

I simply bought it... with the tiniest fraction of my Grandfather's too vast wealth... that he had originally intended to all be mine.

The long vacant historic building's other surrounding lots had come into my possession much more slowly, as had the wisdom in learning to hide all my other moves. Those had been truly tough years. Once Emma had taken over from Bertram, and then later Avery from his dad, we'd all had to learn to work together.

Now? We didn't even bother meeting in person anymore. We had streamlined the required legal procedures years and years ago. All we had to do now was use our talents to add to the Trust's bottom line. Each in our own way. Technically, our first year we'd divided up the Trust into chunks of roughly thirty percent. I had no real idea what the other two were doing. I just got to see the redundant reports, from multiple accounting firm's, proving that their ideas were working just as well as my own.

The remaining ten percent of my Grandfather's Estate, we handled jointly, as sort of a mutual slush fund. It took all three of us to agree to tap into it's resources, because that was where the payments to all the heirs and their families were drawn from.

It was sort of our safety valve, and let us run our own thirds without worrying about making the horde of greedy supplicants restless.

But in those long lonely intervening years... after the reasons for my still mysterious and unresolved breakup with Emma... I had slowly developed another even more private life of my own.

Something to help me keep my rapidly failing sanity, when the stress of all the secrecy and worry started dragging me down. Only the two other Trustees knew about my hobby now. Everyone else that had ever learned of it, had already passed on.

Now that that vitally important creative outlet was almost finished as well... I'd found out my own very private endeavor had come to mean as much to me personally... as the Trust did itself.

It was actually my thinking about how Keeley would react, when that second purely intellectual effort finally became public, that had led me to make the mistake that had started up our argument last night. My new girlfriend's anger would be bad enough, once she finally allowed me to tell her about my past, and realized that I was actually a key part of a rather famous and infamous family.

But I knew that letting that other project out into the real world was going to have real consequences. It would bring the kind of attention, to both of us, that my little redhead might never be able to fully accept.

The very first night we had met, at her strip club, Keeley had insisted on telling me so much about herself! Even things most women would never admit had happened to them. But then she had refused to let me respond back in kind! It was a little joke to her, at first, but soon the growing personal and emotional costs of that unintended informational imbalance had become very serious for us both.

Up until Keeley had moved in with me, I had let my little redhead have her way, and let her cherish her ignorance. Ducking my repeated attempts, to reveal all of my personal history, was now such an ingrained habit for her!

But last night, I had gotten so scared! I simply cherished holding her body tightly to mine too much! I couldn't dream of ever being without her again!

So after we both had begun to calm down, after the sex she craved so much, I gave Keeley my ultimatum.

I told her that since she obviously didn't want to hear about my unchangeable past or still uncertain future from me, that by the end of the week, I would arrange for someone else to make her listen to it!

Keeley had desperately and freely given me total control of our relationship just a few days earlier.

Time and time again the damage from her own past, added to the horror of her much more recent attack, had caused her fiery nature to break loose. Both of us now bore brand new physical and emotional scars, from her twisted anger and misdirected rage. When I refused to respond in kind, each and every time, and only held her tight to keep us both safe?

She finally admitted to me that I had more than earned the moral right to lead us both thru the rest of her recovery.

But the sudden shock of me actually using that new authority for the first time? Even if it was only to lay down some additional but much needed stern ground rules? That loud almost violent argument should have ended our relationship last night.

It would have, if we hadn't already shared so much this first amazing week of living together.

But as long as certain other secrets were carefully kept, on both sides, this little set back could turn out to be a good thing. I got to hold Keeley tight, for only one second, right before she left this morning. The look in her wonderfully expressive dark green eyes told me the most important thing.

The only thing that really mattered to either of us any more.

That she still loved me.

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I took a few moments to relax, after a few more dinner preparations got ticked off my mental list. But soon my mind quickly reverted back to the worries I had about proving I was really the right guy for Keeley at this point in her life.

I'd had lots of practice observing her during the last six months or so. Both on stage and off. But this last week I had gotten to see a whole lot more. Of everything. Keeley still thought it unfair that I seemed to be able to read her mind at times. I came by that talent honestly, even though I didn't always use it that way.

For months, even in a busy strip club, I could just hold her and look into her amazing dark green eyes and immediately sense what was bothering her. That trick, added to the fact that I obviously cared about her as a person, had slowly begun to win her over.

The rather chaste massages I gave her, in between dances, certainly helped my cause too.

So, long before we ever spent our first night in bed together, at least my hand's knew Keeley's body quite well. Long, tall, thin, more like a ballet dancer than an athlete, I had gotten very good at easing all of her aches and pains. All from the relative safety of my regular worn out chair, in the VIP room of the strip club where she worked.

My eye's never tired of seeing her dance on stage, or right in front of me for a private song. I loved watching her long curly red hair, first hiding then revealing her mischievous smile, and her lightly freckled little nose. To me, she looked a bit otherworldly, equal parts volatile pagan witch and noble elf queen.

To most people, she always seemed a bit waif-like, distracted and not wholly living in the present. But over the last few months, as she learned to let go around me while she danced, I had seen those wonderful green eyes come fully to life and focus.

On me.

Now that we were finally and fully part of each other's daily lives?

I could honestly say that there wasn't even one woman in this entire sleepy town, dancer or not, that came close to her irresistible combination of looks, gentle charm, vulnerability and barely suppressed sensuality.

Maybe even anywhere.

My little red headed troublemaker was truly special... and I wasn't about to lose her... especially by struggling to control my own pride and stubbornness again.