Chapter 43: Attack Aftermath. Party Prep

Mark

Barnes came back to the condo after I called and fixed us all a late dinner, for which we were all grateful. Elsa was a basket case, and her sisters weren’t much better.

The runner had been our stalker.

Unfortunately, Marshall, driving the limousine, never found the man again. He’d seen him, but after racing around the corner, the man had disappeared down an alley and through some backyards. Marshall hadn’t pursued him too diligently because he thought he might need to take Elsa to the hospital in a rush, so he’d immediately raced back to her office.

The bodyguard who had primary responsibility for Elsa’s personal safety and security was summarily fired at my insistence. Even though the threat had turned out to be hollow with apparently only water and he’d tried to rescue the situation by treating Elsa, Cory had failed in his job of protecting her from harm. I couldn’t trust the man again. He was suitably apologetic. I almost had Lucas fire Marshall too, but at least he was doing what he was supposed to be doing by staying in the driver’s seat of the limo and then taking off to catch the perpetrator. I had Lucas make sure that Cory got another job.

One outcome of the acid event was that Elsa had also gotten a solid first-hand look at the stalker’s face. A police sketch artist armed with a computer worked with her for over an hour and came up with an image that was nearly photographic it was so detailed about the man. Unfortunately, running that image through their data base of other faces produced no meaningful results.

The party we’d planned for Saturday evening got cancelled. Instead, on Friday afternoon, I got us loaded into the smaller jet, and we flew to St. Croix for a couple of days in the sun.

By the time we left, Elsa was kicking herself around the world for not reacting like the ninja warrior she thought she’d become. I had Lucas and Wan Suh talk to her about realistic expectations about the kind of surprise attack she’d endured.

An acquaintance of mine from the hospital board, Dr. Sarah Slarinsky, a psychologist, came by the condominium before we left and spent two hours talking to Elsa, and then all the sisters, about the attack and how to keep something like that in perspective and still be a whole person. She was helpful and professional.

Saturday at the villa we liked, Elsa and Cindy spent part of a day doing martial arts and weaponry. Elsa and Cindy added sprints to their workout regime too. As Elsa said, “If I see that bastard again, I want to be able to catch his ass and put it in a sling.”

Cindy corrected her, “You only need to get close enough to shoot him, Sis.” The statement was delivered in a deadly tone.

Everyone else sunned and played in the water during our short stay. The security detail had been quadrupled. No one got within a thousand yards of us without being thoroughly checked out. Pleasure boats were waived further off the coastline in order to circle the island. Cars on the road were stopped and credentials checked. Meals were catered in from our favorite restaurants so we never left the compound except to go to and from the airport in a helicopter.

Elsa seemed back to her normal being by Saturday night. I think the hard workout during the day, wind sprints back and forth across the property, and firing a couple hundred rounds of ammo with her Glock at a target the outline of a human male were restorative.

Lucas went over new travel protocols with the women and me. Fundamentally, we weren’t supposed to move from any secure location until the space we’d move through had been declared ‘clean’ by the security team – meaning no possible threat existed. When possible, we’d be getting in or out of the armored limo inside a protected garage.

Further, the war wagons were to always be used when any of the six of us were changing location. We had previously dispensed with the armed and armored, black, Chevy Suburbans for the short trips between our work and offices. We were taking different routes each day already. Not anymore.

Lucas had brainstormed with his security team to come up with other ways to protect us, but they’d run out of ideas. He had an outside security consulting firm he also used, and their ideas had been exhausted as well. I floated a few ideas out and they were either doing them or they weren’t worth trying.

Elsa had received proprietary treatment in our sleeping arrangement after the acid event, meaning that she got my arms holding her even though we didn’t broach the subject of sex. Every one was too rattled for the hedonistic pleasures of the body. On Saturday night she declared that she was healed, horny, and hot for both male and female companionship.

Elsa got me revved up and we made love in the early evening. Later, I watched Sheila, Cindy and Elsa put on a little sapphic show for the rest of us, as I fucked Melanie and KC. Elsa then went off, and I’m pretty sure she found Lucas and had a long all-night sexual encounter with him in between his nocturnal security rounds. I somehow delivered pleasure to the other four women before the end of the night and an exhausted sleep.

On the flight back home on Monday morning, I had Lucas sit opposite me so we could talk.

“Lucas, I’m hopeful the new security measures will eliminate security problems but there are several things that we need to talk about. First, we need to find and stop this particular stalker. He’s done mischief time and again, making us think we have a serious threat on our hands. I’m afraid he’s softening us up, and one time the threat will be real – and deadly.”

Lucas spoke, “I’m worried about the same thing. I’m sure we haven’t seen the end of him. It’s just a matter of where and when he’ll do something again. I pray it’s not hurtful or deadly.”

“Can you put some of the private detective staff on it?”

Lucas nodded, “I already have, sir. Unfortunately, they have nothing to report, although they haven’t worked with the new police sketch for more than a day.”

I said, “My second concern is completely different and a tad embarrassing. You know we have a rather free sex life, and I believe you’ve even been the beneficiary of it from time to time. My question is, how can we continue our parties and get-togethers with our close friends without tripping too badly over the security protocols?”

Lucas nodded but the corners of his mouth twitched in a near smile. “I could join you, sir. I also know that Marcia would relish being included in your circle, especially with you, sir. I can’t speak for any of the others, but most of the team are aware of what goes on. Everyone is very circumspect about saying anything on that account. As we have in the past, we will watch the perimeter, without getting involved.”

I asked, “Do you think the two are connected in some way – our parties and the stalking?”

Lucas shook his head, “Possibly, and the head P.I. and I kicked that scenario around without seeing any linkage at this point. We have triple checked every person in your social life, and every one of them is clean as a whistle and gives us no reason to suspect them of anything. If you feel there’s a linkage let us know what you see.”

I nodded, “Nothing now. Just wondering.” As an afterthought I added, “We will probably have a party next weekend.”

Lucas nodded. “Elsa told me. She also gave the names of a new couple that she’s invited. We’re checking them out now, but he’s her boss so I doubt we’ll find anything that we didn’t discover when we checked out all her work colleagues.”

“Lucas, on yet another topic, my family is also starting to consider a home outside the city. As our ideas materialize, we’ll be including you to get input about security, surveillance, quarters, meeting rooms, and so on.”

“Very good, sir. I will have some very specific requirements, at a minimum in terms of hidden weapons caches, safe rooms, communications, and surveillance.”

Lucas started to work on duty rosters for the several dozen security personnel we had. I could see this was no simple task as he jockeyed people around on his computer. I could see that he kept a lot of the rules for what people’s preferences were in his head.

When I glanced up, he seemed to have completed his work on the coming month, I asked, “Does anyone want to avoid being on duty when we have our sex parties?”

Lucas burst out laughing, a rare occurrence for the taciturn man; he laughed so hard he eventually had to wipe his eyes. “Why, Mr. Worthington, I have every staff member asking if they can be on duty during your parties – pleading, even. I have to beat them off with a stick. I’ve seen people barter for money for a position to be on duty on those nights. Your parties are very arousing to my staff – men and women alike.” The stoic man kept laughing at my innocent question.

The humor of the situation reached me and I laughed. “Well, I’ll leave it to you to spread the wealth around.”

“I use those assignments as rewards of various kinds: upgrades in skills, re-qualifying in some way, pointing out some gap in our coverage, and things like that.” He laughed again, “They are plum assignments, if I say so myself.”

I smirked, “Well, make sure that you and Marcia are at the next party. I like that idea. I like Marcia too. I will search her out.”

Elsa

As the workweek went on I could see Greg starting to get a little nervous about Saturday evening. I finally asked, “You seem nervous; you OK? How’s Kim doing?”

Greg about leapt out of his skin. “Fine!” The one word staccato answer was delivered about an octave higher than he normally spoke. I had to laugh aloud because it was so obvious that everything was far from ‘fine.’

“Greg, it’s OK to be nervous. Calm down or you’ll have performance anxiety and it’ll take me an hour with my best blowjob attempts to get you hard enough to perform. Really, it’s no big deal. It’s just a fucking party.” I loved teasing him with double entendres.

“Elsa, it’s a big deal in so many ways and it is a fucking party. For one, I’ve never been near a billionaire except in the background when Mark showed up here after your acid attack. Kim is beside herself that Mark Worthington, who has more money than most countries, might actually make love to her only she’s started to say fuck her, and I can tell the idea excites her beyond anything that’s ever happened to her.”