Left Behind (15 page)

“Doing what?” They all asked in perfect harmony.

I was trying really hard to suppress the smile wanting to break out.
‘That.’
I pointed at them. ‘
That thing to where you all talk together.’

We ended up all going back to the study to talk because
I could tell Tory was tired. He again put his arm around my shoulder, but this time Toby helped on the other side. He asked Toby to help him to the bathroom before we got all the way to the study. I went on, leaving them to take care of Tory’s business.

‘Where is Jordan?’
I asked as I sat on the side of the bed.

“He
still at
our house
getting some materials he needs to boost the security system around here. No offense Troy, but this house only has a standard system. He has our house wired to where no one can cough without the alarms being set off.”

“No, I don’t mind. I’m going to be beefing things up around here anyway.” Troy said. “Both Toby and I are going to be calling in some buddies of ours to come in as look outs. I don’t want there to be any possibility that that bastard will get past us. We’re going to get his ass, and if we catch him on our property we can kill him with no consequences.” He had the scariest look on his face as he said that. I was just glad it wasn’t directed at me. I had never had one of the trips make me feel scared before, but even though the look wasn’t directed at me, it sent shivers up my spine, and not the good kind they normally made me feel.

I guess he saw my reaction because next thing I knew, he was in front of me with my face in between his hands, and he put his forehead to mine. “I’m so sorry, Cupcake.” He whispered for only me to hear. “You have to know that I’d never hurt you. I’d rather pull my own fingernails off first.”

I made a face at that statement. It was a disturbing thought, but I understood the sentiment behind it, so I nodded. I grabbed his shirt and pulled him even closer than he was. I tipped my head back so my lips could meet his. I kissed him softly , but soon, his tongue was seeking entrance, and I let him in.
As soon as he tangled his tongue with mine, it was like a fire ignited. My arms shot around his neck, and I pulled him down on top of me on the bed. I ran my hands down his chest to the waistband of his jeans. I pulled the shirt out, wanting to feel his skin, and slipped my hands into it and up his back. He took the hint and sat up, pulling both his flannel shirt, and the t-shirt underneath, off at the same time. He then bent over me, kissing and licking a trail from underneath my ear down to the crook of my neck.
His hands were squeezing my breasts. When he pinched my nipples, sparks ignited and shot a trail straight down to my groin . It felt like deja vous. I faintly heard grumbling in the background as James left the room. I felt a twinge of embarrassment, but it quickly dissolved when Troy’s talented mouth went back to the sweet spot behind my ear. He pulled my shirt up, and lifted off of me long enough to take it off before getting back to my mouth.

An hour, or just a couple minutes later, somewhere in that range, I heard a gasp from the door, but I was too lost to Troy’s hands and mouth on my body to look over.

“Damn.” I heard Tory whisper, and I started to get self-conscience until I heard Toby say to him, “Yea h man , they started without us.”

Next thing I know, Toby is replacing Troy on top of me, and I felt the bed dip on either side of me. As I was getting into the kiss with Toby, I felt another set of lips on my shoulder, and another set of hands working the front clasp on my bra. Then a hand from either side slipped the straps down my arms, and two mouths were sucking at my nipples, hands sliding down to the button of my jeans. I stiffened for a moment and the hands stopped in their path, but I reminded myself that these were the men I loved whom loved me in return, and I was able to relax again. The hands continued their path down my abdomen to my jeans , which were quickly unbuttoned, and slipped inside.

Toby’s mouth left mine to work its way down my neck, passing over my collar bone and finding my breast s . Tory took Toby’s place at my mouth. I looked in his eyes, and saw all of the love I‘d always dreamed of seeing in their eyes. He lifted up and whispered “I love you, Marti.”

Troy trailed his mouth down my stomach, pausing to dip his tongue in my belly button. I had never considered that an erogenous zone, but it sure did send a lightning bolt straight to my mound. I slid the fingers of my right hand into his hair as he finished making his way down to the jeans he’s slowly been removing without me realizing it. I had so many sensations coming from different places, my body was in overload.

I pulled Tory down to kiss him with a hunger I never knew I’d possess. As soon as Troy’s tongue licked my delicate nub, I exploded in sensual sensations . He sucked and licked, prolonging my orgasm until I felt like I’d pass out. I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until Toby whispered, “Breathe .” b efore going back to suckling and biting my nipple while using his hand to pinch my other one in the same rhythm.

Troy slowed his licks and worked his tongue into my channel,
lapping up all the juices, but all of a sudden there was a loud knock o n the door.

“So sorry to interrupt, but Jordan called.” I heard James say as we were
quickly trying to get me dressed again. After I was decent, Troy, with his shirt still off, opened the door to let James in.

James looked straight at me, which made me blush, but his next words had
all of the color draining from my face.

“We have to get over to our house. NOW!”

My house was on fire? I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t given James the time to give me details; I had just run as fast as I could through the woods, down the path that had been made just for us all those years ago. I realized later how stupid that was, but I had to get there to make sure Jordan was alright. I was not thinking clearly, or I would have realized that if Jordan was the one to call James, that must’ve meant he was okay.

As soon as I broke out into our back yard, I saw the flames shooting in th
e air. This was no normal fire; someone had set this off, and I knew who.
My whole life’s work, mementos of my mother’s, most of my memories; all going up in flames because he wanted to send me a message. Tears were falling down my face as I stood frozen to the spo t staring . Then I remembered that Jordan had been here. He was who I had run to check on, and I had to find him.
With that reminder, I was finally able to move and I started running, but tripped over a root sticking up from the ground.

I heard Toby and James running up behind me,
yelling my name, but all I could think of was Jordan. Where was he? I got up and started running again, this time, circling the house. I hated it. I was screaming his name, but all that was coming out of my mouth was air. He wouldn’t be able to hear me to shout and answer back.

I heard James behind me shouting his name like I couldn’t, and then I felt arms come around my waist and latch on. “You can’t go in, Pea. The fire’s too out of control. We’ll find him.” Toby kept trying to reassure me, but nothing was sinking in. I unwound his arms from me and grabbed his hand to let him know that I wasn’t trying to get away. I dragged him with me the rest of the way around the house, and that’s where I found my brother. I looked around and saw Ja mes coming from the other side o f the house.

I ran to Jordan and jumped in his arms and started sobbing.
I faintly heard James fussing at Jordan about some thing, but the fire was so loud, and my heart was pounding so loudly in my chest, I couldn’t differentiate what was being said by whom. Jordan just kept holding me, rubbing my back in reassurance that he was okay.

When I finally calmed down enough, I let go of the death hold I had around Jordan’s neck, and backed up to get a good look at him. He was covered in soot from the fire, but I didn’t see anything wrong, and he wasn’t acting like he was in pain, so I assumed he was alright, but I had to check just to make sure. I ran my hands down his arms, and his chest. He didn’t flinch, so I figured he was not burned anywhere.

‘Are you
alright
? You weren’t caught in the fire?’
I asked using the sign language. I was shaking so bad I don’t know how he under stood what I was asking, but he answered.

“I’m fine, Sis. I was in there, but when I smelled gas I
bolted . Right as I got to the great room is when the back of the house blew.
I called James and then the fire department. They should be here any minute.” He said. He still had his arms around me. I guessed he knew how much I just needed to be assured of him being alright.

We heard the sirens from the police and fire trucks just a moment later.
I finally looked back at what used to be my house, and I swore that I would not let that asshole this close to my family again. Before it was just me, and I was scared, but now he had ruined my home and almost killed my brother. I was pissed and there was going to hell to pay.

******************************************************************************

Later that evening, after we’d filed the police report
and talked to the investigators, we all congregated in the study to discuss what happened and what to do about it.

“The house had been broken into. I don’t know why my alarms on my mobile didn’t alert me, but when I got in the house, I went straight for my office to get what I needed and saw the alerts on my screen.” Jordan was explaining what happened when he’d gone back to our house. “Luckily, the first thing I did was to send all videos to an off site server I have set up for my business. I automatically do that with anything of importance. Now we can look and investigate while the police do the same. I promised to have Ricky send them a copy.” Ricky was another tech geek like Jordan that helped him with his business from his home. He was the one that did most of the traveling that needed to be done, going out to the clients and such.

“I have a couple of guys on the way here,” Troy said. “They should be here tomorrow. They’re the best on recon and fact finding, and are going to help us find this bastard. He obviously hasn’t gone far .”

“Yea
h
, same here.” Toby added in. “My whole team volunteered to come help out, so I have six guys coming. They’ll be staking out the land around here, setting traps and such. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to get Beckham before he strikes again.”

I sat there and zoned out. I was so tired of this man affecting my life. He wasn’t just messing with me anymore; he was messing with my family. I knew the fire for what it was; a warning. He’d kill anyone he had to to get me back. Like he carved into my skin; I was his ‘private property’, but I wouldn’t give in without a fight. When he first started sending the letters threatening my brothers, I had almost decided to go to him and give up. I didn’t want my family hurt because of me, but I’d realized that I would hurt them more by giving in. They would blame themselves, and I wouldn’t let that happen.

I was sitting beside Jordan because my nerves were still raw where I’d been scared for him. I turned to him and tapped his knee to get his attention.

‘I want to start my target practice again.’
I said when he looked at me.
‘I would also like to learn some self-defense.’

“I’d be happy to start
training you with a gun
again , but I don’t know anything about self-defense.” He said. “I can hold my own in a fight, but you know I have never done any real fighting.”

“She can train with me in that.” Tory said. “I was telling Troy that it would help me get some of my strength back if we started working out and training every day. We can even help her do the practice with the gun if you wouldn’t mind.” He directed to Jordan. I knew he didn’t want him to think he was pushing him to the side.

“That would be great. I want to ride with James every day and work from his office. I don’t think any of us should go anywhere alone for a while. I know I shouldn’t have stayed at our house alone, earlier, but I wasn’t thinking about that. I just wanted to get the security tightened up.”

The trips all shared a look before turning back to Jordan. “We’re going to be setting up a security firm with the guys coming in working for us. We will hire out to do some mercenary work and stuff like that, too, but we need some good tech people for the security aspect of it.” Toby offered. “You’d be able to keep your business and we could just contract your help.”

Jordan looked at me and then James, I guess to gage our reactions, but I thought it would be a good idea. I didn’t like to think of the trips becoming mercenaries, but I’d talk to them about it later .

“
Security is what I mostly deal with
now anyway, so I’d have no problem contracting with y’all, but I won’t have anything to do with mercenary work. I don’t want to be associated with that.” I guess he had been thinking the same thing as me.
“I thought y’all were just going to keep runnin’ the ranch? Are you giving up on that?”

“We’ll still be doing the ranching; this other will be on the side. The mercenary business is not what you think.” Troy said, sounding offended. “We’d be sent out ‘unofficially’ by the government for search and rescue missions that are not approved by official channels for political or tactical reasons. When shit like that happens, the forces want their men back, so they hire outside help that will not be linked back to the government. It gives them plausible deniability.”