Chapter 4

The following morning I had an early breakfast, before returning to my room and working intensively for the next hour and a half. Then I called Noelle and let her know my program for the rest of the day, before starting the two-hour drive back.

My first meeting was with a makeup artist whom we had been using during our undercover operations. To call her a makeup artist was quite an understatement of her skills, since besides being able to make a temporary change to your looks, she could change your overall appearance. She was in her late fifties and had been laid off from a theater a year ago. Almost by an accident, Greg had heard about her, and we had been using her services ever since. I had heard that, now too, the local police and the feds used her services while working undercover. I let her know what I wanted now, and also informed her about the second setup I’d need a few days from now.

When I left her office in the afternoon I was about fifteen years older, a bit overweight man, who was ready to attend a business meeting. Since the purpose of the meeting was to start the negotiations for transferring a huge amount of legal responsibilities from one law company to another, I had made sure that I would be discussing this with one of the older partners.

He was in his forties, quite good-looking, hell of a negotiator - and a slimeball asshole. He did not hide the fact that he was married, but that did not mean he would not hit on the young-looking woman who served our drinks. After four hours of discussions, we had managed to create the guidelines according to which the next negotiations would continue, only this time, on a lower level. I knew that the people who normally ran my old family businesses and took care of my heritage and wealth were not happy, since this whole incident might cost us - or finally, me - some serious money. I did not really care. Besides, this was the first time I had interfered in their work since catching Sean.

Once he - Austin Thaddeus Whelan II - had left the premises, the woman who had been serving us refreshments came back. Now, she was all business - as can be expected, because she works as a part-time deputy sheriff while trying to get her law degree. She took pictures of the table we had used, and then she securely stored both the glass and the cup Whelan had been using.

I knew that I’d need to thank Twila for finding her. I had an idea where they had met, and made sure not to flirt with her. Once she was finished, I thanked her and made sure that she knew whom to contact in order to get paid.

Back at the office, both Noelle and Twila seemed overly careful when talking to me. I tolerated that for a moment, but then something inside me snapped.

“You two, that’s enough!”

They both stood still and just looked at me.

“Look, this is not the first or the last time this kind of thing happens out there. Hell, it’s not even the first time for me. I don’t like it, I’ll sulk for a while, but eventually I’ll get over it. If it seems that I don’t, then feel free to kick my ass!”

After that we were able to talk some about the trip Twila and I had planned to do the following day. Since I was not yet ready to meet Jennifer, I would spend the night at the hotel at the airport, and Twila would meet me there early tomorrow morning.

The next day, that three-hour flight went without a hitch, and Twila and I were able to pick up the car we had rented without any problems. Our drive took a bit longer than an hour and a half, but the preliminary work done by Twila and Noelle had been top-notch, and for once, the freely available satellite images had been up-to-date. So, we were able to find a location from which we could have the ranch buildings under surveillance. We already knew from the local news that the group took their own security seriously, and anyone who came closer than 500 yards from their fence would be checked, one way or another. Our surveillance point could see their ‘back yard’, and it was a bit more than half a mile from their fence. Yet we were extremely careful while we set up our equipment, so that absolutely nothing could be seen in case they watched their surroundings.

At the end of the day, we had a frighteningly expensive long-range camera on which we had disabled almost all active features. In good daylight, we’d be able to identify people quite easily, but, without active IR laser illumination, our night-viewing ability would depend on the local lights. We had discussed that, but I had finally decided against active surveillance, since I’d probably be the one who would get burned if they discovered it. Well before darkness, we had the camera set up, all the external batteries connected to the camera and to the encrypted satellite phone. Since I had seen more antennas than usual on the top of one building, we decided to drive away before even sending a text message to Noelle. Within 5 minutes, she sent a short reply: Yes! We drove back to the town, but we’d need to spend the night there, since the last suitable flight had already left.

As soon as Twila and I checked in to our motel room, I opened my laptop. I wanted to see what we could see with our equipment. Once I had the connection open, my email application chirped: there were emails from Noelle. The subject told us everything: “She’s there!”. Once Twila saw that she yelled “Yes” and hugged me tightly. The only problem was that she was in the process of changing clothes, and I had not been laid for a couple of days - and someone down there could not have cared less about her orientation. When she kept on hugging me I was soon painfully hard. She pulled back and looked down there, and then in my eyes.

“I’m sorry Will. I had no intention to tease you.”

I just had to laugh.

“Twi. You and Noelle are among the hottest women I know. I’m the one who should be apologizing to you; I know that you’d never do anything to betray Noelle. The problem is, that someone down there only notices your perfect ass and those marvelous globes. That’s all he cares about.”

She just rolled her dark eyes and finished undressing before heading to the shower. If the idea was to distract me, I could tell that it worked. I got hardly anything done before it was my turn to shower. Once there, I took the problem in my own hands, which was something that I hadn’t done for a while. In fact, I did it once more before I was out.

Once I got back to the room, I could see that Twila had already started a Skype call with Noelle. It seemed that Noelle had also just finished a shower, since her hair was still wet and she was wearing a t-shirt. Just like Twila. Suddenly, I was very happy that I had released some pressure. I was quite sure that they were doing this on purpose, as they were sure that I’d never do anything with either of them. But by making me see some skin, they were keeping my mind occupied so that I’d not have time to think about Jennifer.

“Girls, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”

I could see that Noelle was looking at me from the laptop screen and Twila turned a bit so that I could see that she was also wearing a t-shirt - and nothing else. I could easily see her dark nipples through that shirt.

“I’ve no idea what you are talking about, Will.”

I just rolled my eyes. I dropped the towel I had on my waist and started looking for clean underwear.

I could hear Noelle from the laptop.

“Shit, Will, you should perform in movies. I think that we both know at least a few girls who’d be curious to meet you. Just let us know if you’re interested.”

I pulled new boxers and a new t-shirt on, before speaking.

“Please remember that I haven’t even broken the news to Jennifer yet. Look, I appreciate your efforts and I really appreciate what I see, but I’m not there yet. Besides, we have an open case, here.”

After that it was almost all business. Noelle was sure that she had a positive identification of the girl we were looking for, but she also had some disturbing news. There probably were quite a few more people there than we had expected. It seemed that only a few of them ever left the ranch once they got in. Especially, the women - or girls - seemed to stay in the ranch house. When I asked why she suspected that, she told me she had run some facial recognition tests against the faces found from our camera and faces in the images from the nearby town. All that in a few hours! Okay, that meant that we’d not be using our plan B - which would have been kidnapping the girl back from the kidnappers.

Luckily, the small hotel had room service, so we could keep on brainstorming while checking the video feed occasionally. Twice, Noelle tried switching between video feed and hi-res pictures and the system worked flawlessly with only a few second’s delay. A disturbing thing we noticed, was that at least a few of the men seemed to wearing guns. To tell the truth, I had all the time been quite sure that the group living on that ranch would be at least partly armed, and I was not that worried about it. Having a gun and using it against other people were two different things. At least, I wanted to believe so.

The next awkward moment was when it was time to go to sleep, since the only bed in the room was a queen-sized one that had seen better days. Okay, it was clean and there was nothing especially wrong with it, unless you forgot that we only had one pair of sheets. Since the heating of the room was more than adequate, I found myself naked between the sheets with an equally naked Twila. Somehow, I was able to fall asleep.

When I woke up, I, of course, found myself holding Twila and my hard-on pressed against her stomach. I stiffened immediately when I understood what I was doing. Once she sensed the difference in my presence, she moved her head a bit and I could see those dark eyes looking at me, while her hand found my hard-on.

“You know, Will, this is the first time I’ve felt a hard cock. Since my periods started, I’ve been sure about my orientation and I’ve held absolutely no sexual interest in the male species. But even if I’d agreed this with Noelle, I couldn’t do it. I’m sorry.”

“Why Twila? Why should you have done something? You could have pushed me away, Twila.”

“You had been so happy. We thought that if you...”

The first feeling that flushed through me, was anger. But then, I remembered that neither Twila nor Noelle knew about her pregnancy. Besides, they had been worried about me.

“Twi, two wrongs would not make it right. Besides, in my mind, I’m still engaged to Jennifer.”

“Someone down there seems to disagree.”

“His morals have not changed since my freshman year at college, but he’s not the one who makes decisions here.”

After saying that, I was out of the bed and on my way to the bathroom. They may have wanted to do some good deed for me, but I was still a bit pissed off.

After my morning routines, I felt relatively calm again. I still did not like what Twila and Noelle had tried, but at least they had done it because they had thought it would help me. Shit, I needed to break up with Jenn as soon as possible. Somehow, we scrambled our way through breakfast, checked out and drove to the airport.

Our flight back was quite empty, and I managed to discuss my plan with Twila. She did not really like the idea of me going into the ranch, but I assured her that I’d been working undercover before – and for a much longer period than she knew from our time together with Greg. I was quite certain that once I got inside, I’d be able to smuggle our girl out before they could notice or react. Of course, there would have to he someone ready to pick up and hide us. Since she was a minor, forcing her to stay in therapy afterwards would not be a problem.

I guess that the thing that finally convinced Twila was how easily I had adapted to this role I had been playing since meeting Austin the Second. I did not tell her it was not really the Will she knew who was playing that role - it was the other Will, who I had been for almost two years of my life. The cunning, manipulative, heartless second Will.

Back at the office, I got rid of my disguise and, after turning on my ‘civilian’ mobile phone, I called a very pissed-off Jennifer. She did not sound too happy, even when I promised to come home after work. Luckily, I remained extremely busy for the rest of the working day, as I wanted to make sure that I’d be home before Jennifer. Once inside my home, I stared packing my stuff. I was almost surprised to see how little I actually needed. Okay, I had two suitcases and some plastic bags full of clothes, but besides that, there was not much I needed. I spent some time deleting all the private stuff I might have had on the old laptop that played the role of the home computer. Since this apartment was not very big, I had never gotten around to getting a desktop.

Everything that I had saved from my marriage to Caryn was still stored in one small storage unit. Now, it seemed that there would be nothing to store from this engagement. I was not even sure if I really wanted to save any memories. All those thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the opening door. I steeled myself, and allowed the second William Hart to take over.

She started right in, “I should be steaming mad at you for abandoning your pregnant fiancée for days. However, I promised that we both would spend New Year’s Eve with my parents.”

Despite her words, there there was nothing very angry in the way she pressed herself against me and kissed my lips. Without any conscious thought, I responded to that kiss and it took a moment to disentangle her from me and push her into a chair in the kitchen. She looked at me with a question in her eyes. The caring and kind William Hart would have hated to do this, but the one in charge just put some pictures I had printed on the table in front of her.

“About that pregnancy; I guess you forgot your pills when you didn’t sleep in your own room during those two nights.”

I was sure that she had planned to give me a hard time for abandoning her. Now, I could watch the look on her face change from determined, to confused, and again to terrified. Since she did not seem able to give me any response, I decided to continue.

“Jenn, I have already packed and I’ll move out today. The lease on this apartment has been paid for more than a year from now, so you don’t have to hurry about moving.”

“But you can’t ... and the baby has to be yours ... and it was only one weekend ... and it was a mistake.”

“Jenn, do I need to show pictures of the two of you dancing? That doesn’t look like a single mistake to me.”