The Trust Ch. 06

Aida Caro was still inside, her and Allan siting at the bar catching up. Katey and Shelby were getting Cindy settled in a room, someone would take the girl home the next day, picking up a new phone for her on the way. Able wanted the original source of the video in case it ever became necessary to use it.

Brigid giggled and Mason looked at her in surprise. So she told him about the tour she'd given her father after showing him a room to use. He grinned when she warned him to expect a lot of shit about the girly gym he was building. Then had to coax her into telling the rest as she blushed and covered her mouth trying to muffle more giggles. When she had shown Marcus the spa, it hadn't been empty.

Becky had gotten pretty worked up as the evening went along, so when Pat left and Marcus went with Brigid to find a room, she'd wandered down to the spa, stripped and waded in. She was absently caressing herself while thinking about the two of them. As different as they were in build, she found both to be fine specimens. Maybe she would take one of them as a lover, give in to it, live it. And then with a pleasant tremor, she thought maybe she'd take both.

"This is one of my favorite places here." Brigid was telling her father as they walked off the stairs and she turned him towards the bath. And Marcus had pulled up short, startled to see Becky lounging naked in a large tiled pool. They locked eyes, her ample breasts floating in front of her, and she seemed to almost vibrate for a second then smiled broadly at him.

"I can see why." Marcus muttered to Brigid, who was trying to suppress her laughter. "Hello again girl." He called, waving at Becky and smiling. "My apologies for interrupting your bath, though I can't honestly say I regret it."

Becky was still just a bit shaky, she'd been close to climaxing when they had walked off the stair. And seeing him look at her had pushed her right over. It wasn't life shattering, but it was satisfying, and damned if he didn't see it. The smile was pure rogue as he feasted his eyes on her, setting off a few extra little sparks between her legs.

Becky stood and walked across the bath to climb out, water running off her slightly plump but very plush body. "I'd invite you to join me, but it seems I'm done now. Would you hand me one of those robes?" she asked, pointing at several hanging on the wall close to him. She was trying to be bold, but when he plucked a robe off a hook and approached her, his gaze never leaving her body which he scanned from the toes up, his grin showing more teeth the higher he looked. She damn near came again.

"It's a hard thing to ask a man to cover something so lovely." Marcus rumbled at her as he held the robe open for her, then felt her shiver as he slid it up her arms and over her shoulders. "Thank you girl." He whispered by her neck before stepping back.

Becky barely stifled a groan and Brigid choked back a laugh at the way her eyes rolled back. Marcus watched her go up the stairs, then turned to his daughter, grinning from ear to ear. "She's a fine young beur." He told her and she laughed.

Mason laughed, picturing it and Danny came running, his tail lashing. "I think Allan might be getting lucky tonight too." Brigid went on with a grin, and Mason stared at her confused. "There's something between him and the lawyer lady." And laughed harder at the unbelieving look Mason gave her. "Sometime I wonder how dense you are." She teased him. "I'd be afraid to walk between the two of them, all that sexual tension might leave me in a puddle on the floor."

The subjects of this latest insight, were currently looking at each other silently. They had caught up, Allan happy to learn her marriage hadn't survived her associate days in the firm, the hundred hour weeks turning them into strangers, and felt only a little guilty about it. He was already feeling the old comfort in her presence, and thought she was too. The silences were growing though, and he was trying to figure out how to make that move he had never figured out in their first incarnation.

Aida was on the same page. But she was damned if he was going to wimp out this time. If he'd only stepped up all those years ago, but there had been William, she couldn't really blame Allan, considering she hadn't sent William packing back then like she'd wanted to. Thinking, fuck it, she slid off her stool and pulled his head down for a kiss.

Marcus was in the huge shower in his room, the girl was stuck in his mind, but he was refusing to touch his stiff Irish pride, no matter how hard it got. There was a click and a breath of colder air, and he swung around, freezing when he found Becky stepping in with him.

"I see you're still thinking about me too." She said to him, looking him over and licking her lips. He had a harder body than she had expected to find, his shoulders and chest still heavy with muscle, even if his gut had started to grow a bit. The grey that had just frosted his head, had spread south, but she found it sexy, and the old guy definitely didn't have a case of ED. Pleased to have turned the table on him this time, catching him naked, she smiled and stepped into his arms.

The kiss stirred things in Marcus, it was the first since his Neve had left him. It hurt as much as it thrilled him, and with a sigh he said goodbye to another tiny part of his old life. Still he hesitated, "Your sure a tempting fine beur, but I don't want you getting the wrong idea here." He started and she laughed.

"Marcus," she interrupted, "I've always had a thing for older men. Granted I never scratched the itch until now, and you're about as close to my fantasies as I could ask for. But I plan on having some fun, not settle down. Tonight I wanna suck this beautiful cock of yours and hope you ruin me with it by morning. But tomorrow I might just chase Shelby's dad, if you can handle that, then shut up." And she sank to her knees.

Marcus groaned as she took hold of him and leaned in to lick at his balls. "He'd be a lucky bastard." He growled.

"I expect you have a room around here somewhere?" Aida asked softly as they finally broke the kiss.

Allan grinned and took her hand. More than a decade had passed, but in that moment, she was the college beauty that had haunted his dreams, the one person that had always been able to make him laugh. "Just don't pinch me," he told her, "I don't want to wake up." And led her toward the elevator.

Mason noticed Brigid shiver and realized the night was growing cold. He rose from the step and offered his hand to her. "Let's go back inside." He said as she stood, then he turned and called for Danny. The dog trotting out of the dark with Eric Braden at his side, the man gave Danny a final scratch and waved to them before fading away again. Both of them trying to track him and failing.

Brigid shook herself and let out a small nervous giggle, she didn't feel threatened by the man, but there was certainly an air of danger about him. "Yeah." Mason agreed, understanding, then turning and pulling her inside after him, Danny looking back out into the darkness and barking once before following them through the door.

Brigid just smirked at Mason when they looked around and saw no sign of Allan and Aida. The only person left was Shelby, who was trying to finish an engineering assignment that was due the next day. Mason sighed inwardly, wondering how he was going to juggle everything he needed to do himself the next day. They said their good nights to her and headed up the stair. Danny was already curled up on a couch, leg twitching at some prey that ran in his dream.

Brigid stopped them on the second floor, asking Mason to wait for a minute while she ran down to her father's room to see if he needed anything. Her knuckles stopped only an inch from his door though, when a very female moan of pleasure come from behind it. She blushed, stepping back guiltily, then stepped forward again, not able to help herself as she put her ear closer. A smile spreading across her face as she recognized Becky's voice in there saying things to her father that made her cover her mouth so she wouldn't laugh out loud.

Mason heard a different sound. A faint sob, only recognized when it happened a second time. He walked quietly down the hall, hearing it again at Katey's door. It stopped at his knock, and he hesitated. But when she didn't answer, he tried the knob and stepped in, calling her name softly from the open doorway. "What's wrong?" he asked, and she started crying quietly again, the pain reaching out and pulling him to her. He sat on the bed, touching her shoulder, and she rolled over, sobbing as she borrowed into his chest, his arms going around her.

Brigid stood in the door, fighting a tear of her own as she watched Mason hold the girl. Nodding her understanding when he looked over at her, before pulling the door closed and heading to her own room. It had been a long day.

***

When they met with the ADA the next day, the man couldn't have been less interested in what they had to say. He rushed them trough their depositions, and was gone inside of an hour. It seemed that all four men had taken Maslow's suggestion to heart, and there wouldn't be much more than a sentencing hearing. Able still got the waver from prosecution before he allowed any interviews.

Mason had woken up still holding a sleeping Katey. She had eventually cried herself out and he'd gotten her to talking, surprised when she began telling him about her childhood. He listened, hurting for her as she quietly told him things even Cybil and Ardella had never heard. Wishing he could go back and change her past, vowing to himself to change her future. He'd held her as she fell silent, drifting off.

He was sore and stiff the next morning, but managed not to groan too loudly as he shifted to a more reclined position on the bed. Kissing Katey's brow as she stirred and protested his movement. "Morning." He murmured to her as she opened her eyes and looked at him shyly, embarrassed that he knew so many of her secrets. Then arching and laughing in surprise as he tickled her ribs. Squealing as he got serious about it, a hand at each side, only stopping when he was lying atop her, looking down into her happy face, leaning down to kiss her, one hand sliding up to hold a breast.

It had started slow and gentle, both feeling tender towards the other from the night before. But as Mason filled her, and she clutched at him tighter, passion grew, became urgent. And the cries heard in the hall were far different from the ones that had drawn him to her. They both had too much pent-up in them to last long, clutching at each other as they became one for a brief eternal moment.

Despite Ardella's hopes of getting out of the hospital early, she wasn't released until after noon, Cybil skipping classes, refusing to break her vow to stay with her. Both were tired after a night where nurses had entered the room every two hours to wake Ardella and shine a light in her eyes, seemingly just to see if she protested.

Brigid took perverse pleasure in giving her father searching looks, and watching him blush and look away. Laughing when he finally got up from breakfast and went outside muttering to himself, Danny at his heals. Becky doing a little blushing of her own when she realized what Brigid had been doing.

Allan and Aida had hardly paused to say good morning on the way out the door, Aida reminding them of the meeting later as she followed Allan out.

Brigid was helping Katey clear the table when she saw the girl Cindy standing by the Steinway, trailing her fingers lightly along the filigree. She had such a wistful look about her that it stole Brigid's heart. She walked over to her, smiling reassuringly when the girl jerked her hand away from the piano, a brief flicker of fear in her eyes behind the glasses.

"Do you play?" Brigid asked her, sitting on the bench and folding back the keyboard cover.

"I was learning once." The girl told her, longing and loss both in her voice. "My dad was teaching me, before..." and she trailed off, lifting her glasses to rub at her eyes and turning away, but not leaving. And Brigid could guess the rest.

"So, what do you remember?" she asked her, scooting over and patting the bench, smiling at her hopefully when the girl looked back at her.

It had been a long time since Cindy had seen anyone look at her like that, maybe since her father had gone off to Afghanistan. Her mom might have once looked at her with soft eyes like that too, but not after the day they brought the news. Hesitantly, she took the invitation, sitting on the end of the bench and studying the keys, trying to remember her finger positions and not look at the woman.

The girl started out slowly, but was soon lost in it, Brigid surprised and leaning back to get out of her way as Beethoven's Love Story began filling the hall. Her heart breaking as she saw a tear slide down the girl's cheek and she stopped. Wrapping her arms around her and hugging her as she shook. "Your father must have been a good teacher." She told her, rubbing her back.

"He was the best." Cindy told her in a small voice, hoping she would hold her just a little longer. Wishing she could stay there forever, thinking about her dad.

Cindy couldn't believe her new phone. Brigid had gotten her a Samsung Galaxy s6 edge and paid for a whole years worth of unlimited service. It beat the hell out of the prepaid one she had lost. She was already trying to decide how to hide it.

Brigid noticed the girl's nervousness grow as they got closer to her home, and decided to go to the door with her, in case her aunt had questions. They lived in a rundown apartment complex, shopping carts everywhere, the rickety balconies piled with bags full of cans and plastic bottles. Cindy thanked her again at the door and slipped inside, not giving Brigid a chance to see the apartment, let alone her aunt.

Brigid stood there torn, looking around at the clutter under the stairs to the second floor, at the rotted out carcass of a propane barbecue beside the door. She felt a connection to the girl and hated to just leave her here. Then she heard what could only be someone getting slapped followed by a cry. She was already at the door, when she heard Cindy's voice cry that it was hers. She pounded on it, gritting her teeth when a different ugly voice shouted for her to go away or she would call the cops.

She was reaching for the knob when the door opened and a crying Cindy looked around it at her, the side of her face showing a clear hand print. Brigid just went in passed her, her sight locked on her bitter-faced and now scared aunt. She had the new phone in one hand and a pack of cigarettes in the other as she backed up.

"I'll call the cops!" She threatened, trying to bluster even as she retreated.

Brigid just kept going, closing on her as she backed up against the cluttered table in the dining area. Taking the phone from her unresisting hand, fighting hard to not slap the shit out of her. "This is Cindy's." She told her in a low voice.

"Well, she owes me." The woman tried. "I gave her a place, I take care of her. And I had to cover her shift last night. You got no right coming in here."

Brigid glanced at the filthy kitchen over the woman's shoulder, at the whole place. "You call this taking care of her?" she asked. "You think taking care of her includes beating on her? Steeling from her?" she was loosing it.

"If you can do better, take her." She started, and Brigid hit her. Mason wasn't the only one Marcus ever showed how to throw a straight right, the woman just folded and ended up lying under the table. It felt good, she just wished the woman had lasted long enough to do it again.

Turning to the wide-eyed Cindy, Brigid tried to be gentle. "I'm sorry about that," she started, then shrugged, admitting she really wasn't. "You're eighteen Cindy?" she asked, and the girl nodded. "Would you like that?" she went on, "Coming back to the hall with me?"

"To live?" It was a small voice, hope and fear in equal measure. It was enough for Brigid.

"Yes." Brigid told her, and watched the hope grow. "Go get anything that's important, I'll make sure she doesn't stop you." She went on, handing the phone back to her.

When she came back with an armload of clothes and a framed picture that had to be her father, Brigid wanted to kick the groggy woman trying to sit up under the table. She considered dragging her out from under it and explaining how things were going to be. Then thought the hell with it and hugged Cindy instead.

"You ready?" she asked and got a nod, the girls arms tightening around her small bundle, but she never looked back as they walked to the car. Brigid glanced at Cindy as they drove away, saw her clutching the new phone and realized that the clothes she had on must make up a third of her wardrobe, if the rest was the small pile in her lap. Instead of heading back to the hall right then, she drove back to the mall where they had gotten the phone.

"What are we doing here?" Cindy asked, tucking the hand with her phone under some of the clothes.

"Shopping." Brigid told her. "I like to shop after I bitch slap someone." And heard Cindy giggle.

***

Marcus was at loose ends. He wished he could hold Neve, talk to her, she had always been the smart one. His Neve. She'd set him straight in a hurry. He'd known that if he ever strayed on her, she'd have taken a tail docker to him and taken his nuts with her teeth to boot. The girl was feisty like her. They would have hated each other, of that he had no doubt. He was walking the property, already having seen what there was to the various construction projects.

The slab for his new cottage had promise, it looked like it would be roughly twice the size of the carriage house, though it seemed to be laid out the same. Looking up at the hall, he hoped he and Danny could get used to it looming over them like that. They'd probably never see the sun again. He'd pulled back the cover and looked at the GTO, smiling and wondering what kind of crazy stuff the boy would do to this one. He'd been impressed with the way the Chevelle had turned out, but would never admit it.

He took note of the maples scattered in with the elms, glad there were more of the later, and that none were reds. He'd have had to take those out before bringing his sheep in. He'd still have to watch and see if the Norway maples bothered them, but if he was careful where he set the water tanks, he could probably keep the sheep from grazing under them. He knew Mason had seeded for pasture, he could still see signs of the harrow discs as he looking for a good place to build a shelter for the sheep.

He was a little surprised the boy didn't already have a shelter started, but was just as glad, because he'd most likely have put it back among the trees. No, he wanted it out in the open, where the sheep could get out in the sun even in the winter. If you closed them in too tightly, they'd make each other sick, better a long three-sided shed with enough roof for the flock to fit under easily, but with an open area so they could get some sun while staying out of the wind. There was plenty of time to get it done, the new metal buildings went up fast. He'd talk to whoever ran the local feed store, and see who was doing that kind of work around there, have them build a small feed barn too.

He'd watched the soldier, Eric, watching a crew stringing fence. Knowing full well he only saw him because the man let him. Danny seemed to think the guy was okay though, so he probably was.

He wondered if she would come see him later, maybe they could sneak down to the spa, he'd liked the way her tits floated while her hands did things barely seen in the dimly lit water.

Allan reclined on Aida's bed. She lay with her head on his chest, studying the ring again, a smile of contented happiness pulling at her lips. "Second thoughts?" he asked her, laughing and protecting himself as she started smacking his chest and sat up to look down at him. Why hadn't they ever tried this before, it had been a recurring thought for both since the night before.