Chapter 10

Leaving Marigold dozing, curled up on the bed, Thule went into the bathroom to splash some cold water on his face. Gazing into the mirror over the sink, he took a personal inventory. He was starting to show stubble and, in two or three days, would need to shave again. He was also starting to develop dark circles under his eyes again, but they did not look so bad on his tanned face as they had as when they were the only color he had. Still, he was getting deep into sleep debt and would have to catch up soon.

He ran a hand through his mass of hair, easing out a few tangles that he'd accumulated while making love to Marigold. He would get it cut tomorrow or the next day. He'd been debating a shearing before Jonas suggested it. The hair had given him a certain social credibility among the stoners and burnouts at school, but it was a nuisance, taking up far too much of his time on maintenance. Shorter hair meant more sleep and more code, which meant more money for MIT next next.

Glancing in the medicine cabinet mirror, he could see the image of Marigold sprawled, face-down on the bed. The form she'd worked so hard to hide throughout high school was openly on display. It made Thule want to run back to bed, touch her, trace kisses down her spine. Short hair would leave more time for other things, too. He chuckled, imagining that thought hadn't occurred to Jonas.

Thule realized that he was staring at Marigold in the mirror. But, since she was sleeping, there was no need to look away. He'd always known she was pretty and, through tantalizing glances at unguarded moments, suspected that she was even beautiful, but never expected it to be like this. From the first time she'd submitted to his attentions, his plans and self-control had taken a serious blow. When he looked back at the way he'd expected to use Marigold when this all started, he laughed at his own naivete.

When Thule had imagined getting revenge on Marigold, he had occasionally allowed himself to daydream about the idea that the revenge might actually change her. As foolish as it seemed in hindsight, he was completely blindsided by how it was changing him. In his more melodramatic moments, he'd thought of himself as a failed protector, no longer worthy of the mantle, seeking revenge as some final bit of redemption before falling on his own sword. Any thought that he'd been able to get away from his role as protector had dissipated when he burst through Adam's door the day before.

Until this weekend, Thule had two very different visions of the future. In one, he finished high school, went on to MIT, and lived a normal life. In the other, he brought down apocalyptic vengeance on a biblical scale on Randy Vandevoort and the cloud of miscreants who surrounded him. But, after that, there was nothing. Thule had no exit strategy. For a long time, he'd been angry enough that it was all-consuming. He was going to get his revenge. And, if it meant he ended up dead or in jail, that was a relatively minor concern.

Seemingly without waking, Marigold reached up and pulled a pillow into her arms, curling around it. Again, Thule considered just giving up the revenge business. He found that he very much wanted to come out of this year free and with his skin intact. Reluctantly letting his eyes track away from Marigold, he stared at himself in the mirror again. Ignoring the signs of sleep deprivation, he focused on his own eyes and thought about giving up. People did horrible things every day and got away with it. Why should Mannsborough be any different? But, he couldn't get through the thought without looking away.

He tried again, telling himself that he was only doing it because his crazy ex-girlfriend had convinced him to. The idea rang false. He no longer felt any connection to Maya. He'd come home to a long, tearful e-mail from her, apologizing in detail for all of her transgressions, real and imagined. He hadn't answered. There had been another long, ranty message, blaming him for all of the things she'd just apologized for when he got home today. He would have to deal with Maya at some point, but that could wait a few days.

Thule thought about what he had on Randy so far. It should be enough to get an indictment and ruin the Vandevoorts' reputation. But, was it enough for a conviction? Thule didn't know. Was he willing to hand it over to the proper authorities and hope for the best?

He looked himself in the eyes a third time and knew the answer. Conjuring up his best John Wayne impression, he said, "Well, pilgrim. A man who can't look himself in the eye when he makes a decision ain't really much of a man."

He lowered his head and laughed at himself. He could certainly be melodramatic when he put his mind to it.

With fresh resolve, Thule turned back towards the bedroom. He had thought he was done with crazy women. But Marigold had the potential to be as bugfuck bonkers as Maya in her own, special way. Looking at her gave him pause. His first attempt at the revenge business had been a rather spectacular failure. His plan had had a certain poetic elegance to it. Marigold had made Maya feel like a whore, so Thule had done the same thing to Marigold.

But, this was not the planned end result. Marigold was supposed to be broken and miserable because of it, like Maya had been, not sleeping peacefully in his bed, probably looking forward to more of the same treatment that had been intended to break her.

Again, Thule's resolve almost faltered. Thule had started with Marigold because she was the least of Maya's transgressors. How in the hell was he going to take down the real bad guys after such a spectacular failure on what had effectively been a trial run?

He physically shook his head as if his doubts were so many cobwebs that could be physically torn away by violent motion and growled to himself, "Fuck it." Randy and Brianne were going to jail. If they turned out to enjoy it, so be it.

But, he was done with revenge on Marigold, whatever games she might want to play about giving and taking orders. He wanted to protect her, not expose her. He needed to make sure that he didn't inadvertently do so if something happened to him.

He'd collected an extraordinary amount of blackmail material on her. Crossing the room, he started up his DVD-ROM burning software and started to burn everything he'd collected to a couple of discs, encrypting and password protecting it so that, even if someone else found the DVD, they couldn't see its contents. He considered just deleting the files, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

As he started burning the first disk, he realized that he had one more file to take care of. Unlocking the top drawer of his desk, he extracted a thin metallic tube, not much wider than a finger. To someone not familiar with such devices, it didn't look like much of anything. Even having drooled over this particular model in catalogs, Thule had almost missed it yesterday.

Fortunately, it fit the adapter he had gotten with some much less expensive units. Plugging it into the adapter attached to a second computer, he started the software that would allow him to view what the tiny camera had recorded.

Marigold stirred and looked up.

"I should get home," she said. Thule could hear the remorse in her voice. He checked the clock and saw she was right. He said, "Call Jonas. Tell him you'll be home soon. I just need to finish this."

Marigold walked over to the desk, still blinking sleep from her eyes. As she reached for the receiver, she asked casually, "What are you doing?"

Thule put an arm around Marigold's belly, drawing her to him, and kissed the top of her head. Even the casual gesture brought his momentarily dormant libido into the forefront of his attention. Focusing on the question, he said, "I'm moving all of the incriminating files I have of you to DVD so that there's no chance they will fall into the wrong hands. Then, I'll delete them off of the hard drive and run a special utility to make sure that they can't be recovered.

Marigold looked at the second screen, "What's that?"

"That's you and Adam," Thule said quietly.

Marigold leaned forward to look more closely, but didn't pull away, "How the hell did you record that?"

"I didn't," said Thule. "Not only did Adam sell spy cameras, he apparently used them as well. While you were in the bathroom, I spotted this one," he held up the tube, "on top of his TV. It's an Atech-Terra Model 1500, very high tech and state-of-the-art. That's why the picture is so clear."

Marigold watched the image for a while, her face unreadable, "Are you going to keep this file?"

"I was planning to," said Thule.

"Why?"

"Force of habit," said Thule. "It's in my nature to be thorough. If you would rather, I could destroy it."

"Would you want to watch it?" Marigold asked.

Thule shook his head, "No. I only watched it now to see whether I'd been right that it was recording when I took it. I would hate to think I stole several thousand dollars worth of camera based on a faulty assumption."

"So, you don't like seeing me with another man?" asked Marigold. "It doesn't do anything for you?"

Thule shook his head again, "No. I don't like seeing you with another man."

Marigold's looked back at the first screen and seemed to change the subject, "So, this is all the blackmail material you have on me?"

Thule nodded, "Yup."

"Thule, do you want me all to yourself? No other men? I know you said you don't deserve it, but would you want it if you did?"

Thule watched the image of Adam slobbering all over Marigold on the second monitor. Actually, he doubted the man was slobbering, but it helped to pretend that he was.

"I want to protect you from guys like Adam," said Thule. Then, thinking about the people they went to school with, he added, "and worse."

"Then order me not to be with other men," Marigold said. "at least for now. On some level, I knew what going with Adam was going to lead to, but I couldn't think of any compelling reason not to go."

Thule wrapped his arm more tightly around her. Marigold's naked body pressing against him was making it hard to think, "You want this?"

Marigold nodded, laying her head back on his shoulder, and nuzzling against his neck, "I want this."

Letting his fingers roam gentle over her belly, Thule said gravely, "Marigold,"

"Yes, Thule?"

"No other men. That's an order."

She lowered her head in a gesture of submission, "Yes, Thule."

Thule kissed the back of her neck and the top of her spine. His hands roamed more freely over her body.

Marigold leaned forward, resting her elbows on top of the desk, pressing her bottom against Thule's groin. Thule almost didn't hear her ask, "So, what would happen if I were to turn this computer off while you were moving files from the hard drive to DVD? Would it destroy the files forever, like none of this had ever happened?"

Thule knew what would happen. One file of the several dozen he had might get corrupted. He'd also have to start the burn over. He didn't say that, though. Instead, he laid a hand on the small of Marigold's back and said, "I don't know. It might." Then, he watched her carefully.

Marigold spread her legs slightly and began to rub herself against Thule. He stiffened immediately. Marigold lowered her head further, staring intently at the power button on the computer.

Thule laid his free hand on Marigold's shoulder and said, "Little flower, if you don't stop that, you're going to get home awfully late."

Marigold stood up straight, pulling away from Thule a little so that she could turn around and face him. Her eyes widened in what Thule presumed to be feigned surprise, "You're right," she said, "I should get dressed. It's too bad I can't stay all night. Thule, don't you think it will be nice once we get to Boston and we can be together all night?"

Thule smiled evilly, "Actually, I've got to wait at least another," he glanced at the screen, "six minutes before I can take you home." Then, he took Marigold's shoulder, turned her around and bent her over the desk again.

"Six minutes isn't..." Marigold started to say, but Thule was already pressing himself against her bottom. She only had time to gasp before he was inside of her. It didn't take Marigold long to start moaning and mewling, her body trembling under his onslaught.

Six minutes into sodomizing her, Thule slowed down. Marigold looked up at him, disbelief in her eyes, "Please, don't stop," she begged.

"I'm not," said Thule, "hold still." Then, he reached over, grabbed his keyboard and balanced it on her shoulders, pounding away at her the whole time. Marigold made a little squeal of protest when she heard him start typing, but held still. Less than a minute later, Thule put the keyboard back on the desk and focused his attention back on driving relentlessly into Marigold. As he did, he glanced over at the second screen again. The file was just getting to the part, a black streak of pre-coitus interruptus. Gripping Marigold's hips in both hands, he drove harder into her, seeking to possess her totally. It didn't take much of that before he exploded inside of her. Marigold's whole body was trembling as if with fever by that time. Thule pulled her backwards onto his lap in the desk chair where she sat panting as he shrank out of her.

Marigold leaned back to kiss Thule on the neck. Thule said shakily, "Now, you'd really better go get cleaned up. Then call Jonas."

"Okay," said Marigold. She skipped off, a look of smug satisfaction on her face.

Thule sat back and sighed. If he survived to make it to Boston, Marigold would probably be the death of him. After a few seconds of relaxing, he began gathering his clothes and putting them back on. He would need a shower after he got back from dropping Marigold off. At this rate, it was going to be another long night.

Once dressed, he sat down at his desk again, ejected the DVD, labeled it "MARIGOLD 1," and put it in the free-standing safe under his desk. With the evidence he'd collected from the coach, the DVD, and the video tape he'd retrieved from Paul in New York, it was starting to get very full. Only he and Maya had the combination. He'd spent an extra two hundred dollars on the safe so that he'd know that no one else could open it.

He'd had doubts about Maya's suitability as a partner in crime all along, but this weekend had really put things in perspective. He was going to need another confederate he could trust. Marigold seemed an obvious choice, but she really hadn't proven herself to have a mind sufficiently twisted to deal with the safe's contents. If it wasn't going to be her, his list of options was pretty much down to one.