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Callan and Wesley remained silent, with their eyes peering through night vision goggles courtesy of a bag full of goodies Crosby had brought along with him.
“I have something to tell you both. It’s probably better you hear it from me. Wesley, how much do you know about Natalie? You must have sensed something off about her. Tell me I’m wrong and I will say nothing more about it.” I was testing the waters to see if they were open to learning the truth.
“Now that you mention it, there has always been this feeling deep inside of me whenever I’m around her. I know it’s unusual and I thought, mistakenly, it was sexual but it wasn’t that. Do you know something about her?” Wesley asked, matter of fact and was waiting for me to fill in the blanks.
“There’s no concrete evidence to prove my theory. My belief from my dreams and from what I saw in the locket is that she is related to you by blood. I think your mother was pregnant with a baby girl when she disappeared from the community. From everything I have learned; a baby girl is not going to inherit the kingdom, which is a little sexist in my opinion.” I sputtered and I hadn’t even gotten to the other part I was reluctant to tell them about.
“A baby girl would’ve been shunned. Our mother did the right thing by leaving with our sister. She had a better chance of growing up to be strong and independent away from the community.” Callan gladly said his piece, unaware of how she might have been poisoned by their mother to hate them with every fiber of her being.
“Your mother was a prisoner of your fathers and their verbal abuse. She was threatened with death if she didn’t cooperate, after her ill-advised affair with their best friend. She probably instilled this hatred in your sister. Natalie has taken it upon herself to kill the last line of your family by targeting every last one of you. This is hard for me to say but your true enemy has been underneath your nose this entire time.” It felt wrong that they didn’t have the chance to get to know her before she started this campaign of terror.
“I would probably question your visions, yet it seems the proof of your claim has just arrived. Take a look for yourself before I vomit. I’m physically ill by the knowledge my own family is conspiring against us.” Wesley said as he handed me the night vision goggles and I was able to verify how Natalie had arrived with her orders of compliance.
There was a blur of motion and one guard at the side entrance was no longer an issue. I caught sight of Crosby with his face painted in camouflage, dragging the sorry soul into the woods. I could only hope my presence had rubbed off on him. Dying for a cause was something to be proud of. Dying for money was wrong on so many levels.
“I can’t believe she was right there and I confided in her. I’m such a fool and I can be a little too trusting, believing in the good of everybody. I might have to take a cold hard look at myself in the mirror.” Wesley was chastising himself but he couldn’t possibly predict somebody else’s actions.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Callan said. “There was really no way you could have known the true extent of her plan. I doubt she had the resources to do this on her own. She had to rely on somebody with a long reach. Those kinds of resources come from money and she has plenty of that from owning her own business. I did my research on the company when you went to work for them and I saw no reason to be concerned, which makes me just as complicit as you are. It’s my job to see these things before they become a problem. I have to wonder who has been whispering into her ear.” He was correct and I was thinking along the same lines.
“Callan, you don’t have to make me feel better and it’s not your job to protect me. You might think it is, but I can make my own decisions without any words of wisdom from you. It just galls me to think I told her some of my deepest darkest fears. She must’ve used that information to come up with this plan of attack. Now it's up to me to make this right and don’t try to stop me.” He was gone in a flash, disappearing with just the whisper of the wind in response.
“I can’t have him ruining this. Stay here and let Crosby know what is going on when he gets back. I need to track him down and stop him before he does something stupid to get himself killed. I don’t need this headache.” I was about to say something, but when I turned Callan was no longer there, making me shake my fist in anger.
It didn’t matter how many times they did it, it still amazed me how fast they could move, like lightning in a bottle. Way down inside, I wanted to give them all my love and to show them the kind of affection they could only dream of from other women.
Natalie was most likely on the scene to clean up loose ends, namely the man in the hospital bed. She couldn’t afford for him to cut a deal with the authorities. The first name out of his mouth would’ve been hers. Working with an unknown benefactor behind the scenes, had her under the thumb of somebody else. Getting to the injured man would, hopefully, uncover the truth and bring into light the person treating everybody like pieces on a chessboard. There was a method to how he was pulling the puppet strings but I just couldn’t see the bigger picture.
“What did I miss?” Crosby whispered. I jumped out of my skin and my heart literally stopped for one second.
“I swear I’m going to have to put bells on all of you! I know you don’t do it on purpose but you’re taking years off of my life by startling me like that.” I was still trying to catch my breath and he was looking at me, making me feel like a bug underneath a microscope.
“Where did they go and why do I get this queasy feeling in my gizzard?” He grabbed the night vision goggles and tried desperately to spot them in the darkness near the perimeter of the hospital.
I told him of our conversation and how Wesley had acted like it was his fault. I could understand how he might feel that way but he was wrong to run off half-cocked, in a desperate need to fix things for his brothers.
“I thought we agreed that I would tell them at the right time. You should have at least waited until I was here to talk him down. Well, it doesn’t matter now, there’s nothing we can do about it. Wesley is very sensitive and he takes things very personally. Let’s hope Callan has luck in tracking him down before he does something he can’t take back.” Crosby was ready for war and this was the first time I took a careful look at what he was wearing in the cold light of reality.
Dressed all in black from head to toe with camouflage on his face was only scratching the surface. An automatic weapon, with a suppressed silencer on the end, was strapped over his shoulder. Two small caliber guns were in holsters underneath his arms, not including the knives which gleamed in the moonlight every time he moved. There was no doubt he was a consummate soldier on the prowl for action wherever he could find it. He wanted the battle and craved the excitement of putting his life on the line for the thrill of it.
“I didn’t think he was going to react that way. There was no malice and I thought they deserved to know all the facts. I feel deeply for all of you and I’m ready to commit to something long-term. It
’s hard when I’ve been alone for so long and I like my space. Making room for a man was never high on my list of priorities. Making room for three is going to be an adjustment and I certainly don’t want to do anything to alienate you.” Explaining my actions was a knee-jerk reaction and I had apologized in my own way.
I wasn’t going to grovel no matter how much I wanted his approval.
Crosby turned me toward him before this hot and passionate kiss came from out of nowhere. I thought he was mad at me but his actions didn’t convey this. His tongue in my mouth, temporarily paralyzed me, with my whole body whispering those naughty little things I wanted him to do to me. My thighs rubbed together and I was having explicit images of all three of them in various states of undress. This wasn’t the time to get physical but how could I refuse a warm and inviting embrace.
I slapped vainly at his chest, feeling his muscles respond to my touch. It wasn’t like I was fighting him, more playfully encouraging him to do more. They had become a part of me, three parts of a whole and there was no denying how much I coveted each and every one of them.
His hands were moving over my body and I could feel his fingers delicately touching me. We were in a situation where it was a matter of life and death. Sex wasn’t something I was thinking about consciously. His tongue ignited a firestorm, an emotional wave of pleasure spreading throughout my body until it all converged below my waist.
I was pretty much limp with my eyes closed, taking in the sensations he was inflicting on me. It was a little unusual and my body reacted to being in close proximity to him. Vulnerable and exposed, was the only way to describe what I was feeling. I was a hotbed of emotions festering inside. They were building with pressure, begging for him to turn it up a notch. My fingers barely moved and they were shaking with nervous energy from getting closer to the object of my desire.
I wasn’t exactly motionless but I felt completely overwhelmed. It was different. Each man had a certain technique which always left me guessing. My tongue was battling, giving him a run for his money. We made sounds of animalistic urges that were more conducive to under the cover of black silk sheets, folded around us in a warm and comforting cocoon. It felt wrong and right at the same time. Justifying our actions by getting up close and personal, flesh to flesh, was hard for me to wrap my head around.
His mouth devoured me and I felt connected body and soul, until finally, the kiss ended with me practically vibrating from the top of my head all the way down to my toes. Crosby slowly released me from his passionate embrace and I felt light as a feather, until I realized I was heavier. This was a contradiction in terms.
He had distracted me long enough to place weapons on my body strategically. It was crafty and I had no idea how he had been able to think straight while he was kissing me. He was biting my bottom lip and smiling, despite being in the middle of danger with his sister pulling the strings. He gave me this lingering look and gaze of hesitation, lost in the moment.
