Chapter 9

I woke up the next morning at 4:20 AM, with Claire sleeping soundly next to me. In my sleep, I had rolled onto my right side and was spooning her. My left hand had gripped her right breast, holding her body close to mine. Despite what I kept telling myself, I knew I could have just stayed like this for hours and enjoyed the closeness I had missed out on for so long. It was more than just closeness, though, since my hard cock was firmly nested in between her legs. I would have expected to wake up with my cock planted in between her butt cheeks, like it had happened whenever I woke up cuddled up to Tess.

I suspected Claire had a helping hand in this, because the crotch of her panties was once again, or still, pushed to the side. My cock was pressing into her bare and wet pussy, as her slow breathing caused her hips to rub along my shaft in the most minute movements. When I moved my hips back to remove myself, to the point where the tip of my dick was perfectly lined up with her opening, the feeling was so intense I had to use every ounce of willpower to not thrust forward, impaling her on my cock and invading her most inner parts while she sleeps. She did, after all, claim to never deny me anything anymore. And either she was awake and horny, or asleep with a naughty dream, because she certainly felt wet enough to accept me.

However, just as I was entertaining that idea, I felt the pain radiating throughout my entire torso. I finally understood why I was hurting so much in the morning after my ‘Tess’ dream.

When people orgasm, their stomach muscles will at least tense up. If it’s a strong orgasm, like the one I had last night, the stomach muscles can even spasm a little. And if either of that happens while a few of your muscle strands were cut and had to be sewn back together, it will fucking hurt! No more sex, or at least no more straddling, for at least a week, I decided.

I carefully got out of the bed without disturbing Claire’s sleep, took two ibuprofen, and put on some sweatpants. Then I walked to my desk. I pressed the button to start the computer, placed a cup into my coffee maker, and took the next capsule out of the mix package. A ‘Choco Cappuccino’. Then I started working on my main-task again. I was trying to figure out how they laundered their money.

I got into the owner’s phone the very first day, when he connected it to his laptop to charge it, but he diligently deleted all his messages immediately, so I could only get copies of what he was receiving since I gained access. I got into the staffs’ phones by recording my own DNS-server in their WiFi router. So, whenever their devices tried to access any Apple or Google services, they were instead redirected to a punycode phishing-domain that asked for re-authentication. It even came with a secure connection, so people weren’t suspicious about the missing lock icon in their address bar. Merely a handful of people turn punycode off, because most simply don’t know about it in the first place, and the ones who do know about it don’t like the inconvenience.

So, after only two business days, I had access to most of their iClouds, Google Drives, OneDrives, and whatever else they used, and could use those to push my malware onto their phones. I even got into the phones of the three I encountered in that parking lot, despite them never showing up at the shop, through shared cloud drives. Still, even after going through all of their messages, chats, and emails during my all-nighter, I couldn’t find any clue how they were laundering their gambling income. They just didn’t talk about it, which frustrated the hell out of me!

After roughly two hours of going through their network, I noticed it was soon time for Claire to get up. She and Ava liked to work out in the mornings, so I went back to the mix package for my coffee maker and thought about what Claire could possibly like.

She woke up maybe five minutes after her drink went through. I heard her groan, the sheets rustle, and then the tapping of bare feet on the ground. She walked up to me from behind, wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and pressed her breasts into my shoulder as she kissed me on the cheek.

“Good morning, Baby.” she smiled.

I had just discovered that the bar’s surveillance system used wireless Samsung SmartCams, and was totally engrossed in those. These things were so bad that I could watch the feed even without having access to their network. And that was public knowledge! There were news articles about it! I guess they simply didn’t expect anyone to try something with them. So, instead of answering Claire, I just extended my left arm and pointed at the coffee maker. Claire followed my hand with her eyes, and, when she discovered the readily waiting hot beverage, let out a quiet but happy squeal before she almost jumped towards it. She took it, dropped down sideways onto my lap, and started watching the video feed I had running on my second monitor.

“Huh. This is new. Did you secretly drive to Austin last night and bugged the place!?” she asked after noticing the different camera angles.

“No. I’m using their existing surveillance system.”

Hearing that, she looked at me for a few seconds, then shook her head.

“When did you learn all this? I had no idea!” she said lightly. I refrained from using this unintentional assist to throw another jab at her disinterest in my life. She took her first sip from the coffee I prepared and perked up. “This is tasty! What is it?”

“Caramel Latte Macchiato.” I answered aloofly.

“Thank you!” she said, with a disturbingly bright smile on her face, as she leaned back into me to kiss my cheek for the second time in just as many minutes.

I couldn’t help but glance down and notice her still being in nothing but her panties. The urge to play with her nipples came back again, and the distinct feeling of blood rushing into my lower parts got me worried for a moment. A short lived moment, though, because it prompted me to think about last night.

I asked myself why I let it continue as far as I did. Sure, I was horny and exhausted, and after years of researching the topic of my family’s recreational activities, the thought of having sex with them wasn’t disturbing in any way anymore. The way Claire was behaving now, however, had me worried she would just think everything was good now. Like one quick fuck, while I was barely awake and she assumed I was drugged, would somehow make up for four years of pain. The way she had plopped herself into my lap, acting all loving and completely glossing over the comment she had just made, told me this was exactly what she seemed to think.

As my thoughts revolved around this, my eyes remaining on her body, my door opened and Ava stepped in, seemingly looking for Claire. When she had opened the door, her mouth had instantly opened to say something, but seeing Claire basically naked in my lap made her stop and apparently forget what she was about to say.

I quickly raised my eyes back to the monitor, trying not to look as drawn into my mother’s mature and admittedly distracting body as I really was. Just in time to see the staff place shrink-wrapped bricks of cash into a safe in the owner’s office, and a few Straps into a box underneath the counter!

I immediately realized how fucking stupid I was!

They operated a legitimate sports bar. All they had to do was ring the register a few times throughout the day to sell imaginary drinks or food, and pay with the cash from one of the bricks. Just like that, in a single night, they could easily turn eight to ten Grand of the gambling proceeds into legitimate revenue from the bar. I checked their menu on their website, and discovered that every item on it came as an even ten-spot after including taxes. They didn’t even have to deal with change after placing the notes from the bricks in the register! And any decent evening would amount to more than a hundred dollars per guest.

I leaned forward a little, unintentionally alerting Claire and Ava to having seen something interesting. Ava, upon seeing her mother immediately scanning the monitors for whatever I had seen, rushed over and joined us.

“What is it?” Claire asked.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I put the feed from the office in full screen on my bigger display, trying to make out what kind of notes were in those bricks.

“Holy FUCK!” Ava shouted. “How much is that!?”

“Well ... if they follow the norm, like we do when transporting money, each Brick would be made up of ten Straps. Each Strap would be made up of a hundred bills. So, one thousand notes of the same value per Brick. I can’t make out what kind of notes those are, though.” I explained.

“Holy Fuck!” Claire repeated Ava’s words.

“Can’t you zoom in on them?” Ava asked.

“I could, but I won’t. They are handling a shitload of money right now. It’s possible someone is keeping an eye on these people through the feed, to make sure nobody succumbs to temptation. If the camera suddenly starts moving or zooming, they will know someone else is not only watching too, but also has control of their surveillance system.” I explained.

“Someone’s watching them?” Ava asked.

“Oh!” we heard from Claire. “You mean what your boss told us at the meeting! That’s not their own money!”

“Exactly. The feed of the camera is tied to their network drive. But the camera itself is also streaming the videos to a cloud storage. And I couldn’t find any hint to that cloud access on the owner’s devices. I don’t think he even knows about it. Maybe, he doesn’t know his accomplices can watch while he handles their money.”

That was definitely way too much money for a single bookie to handle at once, unless he just had a whale lose. I counted thirty Bricks, so they amounted to something between $30,000 and $3,000,000 in pristine cash, depending on whether they contained $1 or $100 notes! After what I had discovered on their menu, though, Hundred-Dollar bills would make more sense.

Bill was probably right about this guy. Which meant potential extra trouble for us if anything went wrong. And the possibility of them not just letting bygones be bygones after I got rid of the videos increased drastically. I needed an additional contingency plan. I was totally lost in my thoughts, when I noticed Claire and Ava stare at me with concerned looks. Seemed like my worries were visible on my face.

“What is it?” they asked.

“Nothing.” I said, pensively. “Probably just overthinking it.”

Claire watched me for a second longer, then realized her drink was empty. When she looked up at Ava, raising her glass to her like she wanted to tell her about it, she seemingly realized why Ava was with us in the first place and jumped off my lap.

“Oh! I’m sorry, Sweety. Let me just get dressed!” she said, as she ran out of the room.

Then Ava was the one watching me, but I was already busy going through the connected network drive, copying the surveillance video for my backup plans. By the time I looked up again, Ava was gone too.

I spent the entire weekend hidden away in my bedroom, going through their surveillance videos, copying whatever seemed useful, making up plans and throwing them out again. I just couldn’t decide how to handle this. But I also managed to get into the phones of his entire staff and all of his frequent patrons. The one saving grace for this whole fucked up situation was that I couldn’t find anything even indicating that they already uploaded or shared the videos.

The other nice thing in all of this, though I was reluctant to admit it, was the fact that the family seemed to eagerly try and actually take care of me. They kept checking in on me, bringing me a plate with food whenever I didn’t show up for lunch or dinner, and asking me maybe two-hundred times a day if I was feeling Okay and whether the pain was manageable. I decided to just enjoy it and let them know how much I appreciated it, but knew that it would come to a close once this whole shitshow with Logan’s debt was over. Only then could I actually believe that they weren’t just doing it to keep me in a helping mood.

While Logan hated every second of it, I was surprised to see absolutely no hesitation in Ava when it came to caring for me. I went to bed alone on Saturday night, but I awoke cuddled up next to my half naked sister on Sunday morning. I didn’t know when she had crawled into my bed, but sometime during the night, my hand had moved underneath her shirt to hold her small (compared to the other two I had held so far) bare breast. Grabbing breasts in my sleep seemed to quickly have become a habit.

What woke me up, though, was Logan opening my door. He was standing in my doorway, one hand still holding the doorknob, watching us with an incredulous expression on his face. His expression quickly turned to anger when he looked at Ava’s face, and then he suddenly stormed off like a petulant child. I was just wondering what the hell his problem was while trying not to loudly laugh at his way of leaving, when Ava suddenly spoke.

“He doesn’t like that you’re in charge.” she said in a matter of fact kind of way.

“The hell!?” I asked in shocked confusion. I hadn’t even known she was awake, or I’d have removed my hand from her breast. Ava, however, seemed to think my statement was solely directed at her comment about Logan.

“You haven’t noticed?” she asked in a slightly amused tone, “We talked about it the first evening while you were pulling your all-nighter. Uncle John and Aunt Danielle told us how relieved they were when you immediately knew how to get rid of those videos. And Mom and Dad were too. They were really proud of how you just ... took control and got Logan to talk, while we were all too horrified to even think straight. And then you, like, immediately had a plan. None of us had any idea you could do all that, and Granny and Gramps are really impressed. Though they called it ‘being reliable’. And after Mom and Dad came back from the meeting with your boss, nobody questioned your plan anymore. If those videos come out, it would literally destroy our lives! So ... ever since you knocked Logan down on Thanksgiving, you’re just in charge.”

As she spoke, she had placed her hand on mine holding her breast. She obviously had no problem with me doing it. Quite the opposite, actually, as I could feel a small pebble-like object poke into the palm of my hand, that wasn’t so pronounced when she began her speech. I had no idea how to handle that. On one hand, I’d love to take advantage of her apparent gratitude and make her pay for all the pain she had caused me. On the other hand, I was still hurting and, after the session with Claire, knew for sure that I really needed to let my stomach muscles heal first. So, I shook it off, got out of bed and back to work.

Logan showed up in my doorway multiple times during the day, looking quite unhappy when I was just working, but right out frustrated when one of the others was with me. All the while, I was growing more and more anxious about those guys simply selling the videos to some porn site to make up for Logan’s continued refusal to pay them. I decided to discuss that with Bill, first thing Monday morning.

That day began differently than planned, though.

I had a wonderful dream about the night I spent with Claire. I got to relive the loving teasing she had subjected me to before getting my permission to take care of my needs. Sadly, the dream ended before it moved on to the main part. Interestingly, though, the sensations remained.

As I opened my eyes, I realized that I wasn’t alone in my bed. Just like I had gone to bed alone on Saturday night and woke up with Ava next to me on Sunday morning, I went to bed alone on Sunday night and woke up with my grandmother next to me on Monday morning! She was lying on her side facing me from the right, her arm extended above my head so the fingers of her left hand could caress my left cheek. Her face was buried in the nape of my neck to kiss it, while the fingernails of her right hand lightly scraped up and down the length of my hard shaft that was still covered by my tight shorts.

“Wha ... Granny?” I asked, my voice still hoarse after just waking up.

“Good morning, Pumpkin!” she purred.

My eyes wandered down her body in an attempt to fully understand what was going on, causing her to smile and position herself in a way that I could take in the sight. She was basically naked. All she wore were frilly panties underneath an almost fully transparent negligee that allowed me to realize where Claire got her breasts from. Granny’s were the same size and shape, though hers had quite a bit of sag to them. Which, interestingly, didn’t make them look the least bit less fun to play with! Actually, I could imagine myself enjoying it quite a bit if she were to let those things literally smother me. The fact that she could clearly feel my dick not softening at all while taking in her form seemed to make her happy.

“Uh ... what are you doing here?”

“Cuddle duty, Pumpkin. It’s my turn today.” she informed me in a sultry tone, “Did you know that you mumble in your sleep?”

“No. What did I say?” I didn’t like where this was going.

“You kept calling me ‘Mommy’. Now, if you insist, I can call your mother here. But how about you let Granny take care of this?”

As she said that last word, she switched from scraping her fingernails over my shaft, to rubbing it by pressing her fingertips against it. I admit, I was tempted. But I quickly realized that my interest in them was considerably lower when I was fully awake and remembered why I didn’t like them.

“It’s a compelling offer, Granny. But I need to get back to work.” I said matter of fact, causing her hand to abruptly stop moving.

“What? Are ... are you sure, Pumpkin?” she seemed genuinely surprised about me rebuffing her. She caught herself quickly, though, and returned to her sultry voice while now actually grabbing my shaft through the shorts. “This here certainly feels like it could use some loving attention.”

“Thanks, but it’ll go away on its own once I get to pee.” I said, climbed out of bed, and left the room. The last thing I saw, before rounding the corner, was her looking at me in utter disbelief.

The first thing I did, after getting ready to leave, was visit the school to turn in my prolonged sick note, so they knew I would be gone until school opened up in January again. They gave me the login-data for a website on which I could work on assignments and not be totally behind when I could go back to class. Then I drove over to the Firm and went directly into Bill’s office.

“Look at how much money they’re stashing.” I pointed out when I showed him the surveillance video I copied.

“Well, that somewhat confirms the cash cleaning.” he stated, not even batting an eye when seeing the cash. It wasn’t an unusual amount for him, since he was used to transporting money for clients. Then he turned towards me but pointed at the monitor. “Kid, how the hell did you get this?”

“Insecure security system and dumb Smart Devices.” was my entire explanation, causing him to chuckle. “I have to admit, though ... I’m getting anxious. What if he sells the videos for quick cash because Logan keeps avoiding him?”

“Doubtful.” he discounted my worries, but continued when he noticed my questioning look. “Remember what I told you at the meeting with your folks? He dabbles in producing porn with women he or his associates forced into prostitution. I didn’t want to mention this with your family here, to keep them from totally losing it, but if he doesn’t get his money, he will probably take those four to his studio. Maybe even Logan too. Selling or publishing the videos beforehand would only take away his leverage to force them into compliance.”

My entire body tensed up while he spoke. As far as I knew, nobody ever told him what those videos actually showed, only that they were compromising material they could blackmail the family with. Without even outright saying it, he just offhandedly confirmed that he already had guessed what kind of videos they had of my ‘loving’ family. Did he also guess those videos showed incestuous intercourse? The remark for Logan possibly being put in front of a camera with Ava, Claire, Maggie, and Danielle could hint at that. I decided not to ask him, though. I really didn’t want to have that discussion with him. Also, if I was wrong, and he didn’t already know or maybe only suspected, me nervously asking about it would all but confirm it.

“Sorry if this sounds stupid, but I’m not exactly well versed in rape. How would he use the threat of publishing their compromising videos, to get them to make even more compromising videos for him?” I asked instead.

He nodded sagely while thinking his words over carefully.

“It’s hard to make rational decisions when you’re scared and feel like you’re with your back to the wall.” Bill recounted soberly, “Even if they somehow keep their heads straight, he doesn’t need to tell them. He could use the videos to force them into sex without them knowing he’s filming. Or, more likely, he could use the videos to make them simply agree to a meeting with him. Then they are drugged and dragged into the studio for an extensive shoot with his entire crew.”

I stared at him wide eyed for a good ten seconds.

“Yeah ... let’s move the plan forward!” I commented eagerly, “Let’s get this over with before he gets any ideas.”

“You heard what I just told you about rational decisions, right?”

“Yes! I’m actually very confident I can get all the copies. I’m in every computer, drive, phone, and cloud storage he, his goons, and all of his employees have access to.”

He watched me for a moment, and only responded when I gave him a confident nod.

“All right. Then let’s get you home first. Get dressed, get your gear and the USB drive with your evidence. I’ll put it in the safe here, just in case anybody has quick ideas.”

“I’ll need to visit my GP first. Getting my stitches out today.” I remembered.

“Reschedule for tomorrow. If this goes sideways, you’ll appreciate the extra support on those incisions.” he said, as he opened the door for me. “I’ll call Paul to get ready when you are.”

He followed me home with his own car. When we entered the house together, we saw all six adult members of the family gathered in the living room. Logan should be on his way back to college, and Ava and Maggie should be back in school, so their absence wasn’t unusual. What was unusual were their expressions and demeanor. It told us, at a single glance, that all my careful planning had gone to shit!

“What happened?” I asked into the room in a defeated voice.

“Logan’s message in the group chat.” Aaron explained, like I should know what he’s talking about.

“What group chat?” I asked.

“The family cha...” Grandpa started, but stopped when he remembered I wasn’t a member of that. Just then, he realized it wasn’t because I disliked Facebook and WhatsApp. So, he got his phone out and showed me.

“The fuck does he mean by ‘fixing it himself’? How!?” I shouted at this point.

The idiot just had to ruin everything! He didn’t have the money, he didn’t have the evidence, what the hell was he trying to do? Then it dawned on me, and I ran to my bedroom to look through my drawer. I seriously asked myself why I even went through all this shit for these people. Especially since I, after further thinking, realized I probably wouldn’t be sent to a group home anyway, but rather a halfway house. If I was sent anywhere in the first place, since I had a job and an apartment I already paid rent for.

“What?” Bill asked. He and the family had followed me into my room.

“The drive’s gone. He took the evidence I gathered about their operation.” I answered in a resigned tone.

I started my laptop, ignoring the family’s looks. When it was ready, I immediately logged into their surveillance camera overseeing the main office in the sports bar, presenting us with a great view of Logan, looking like he took a few good ones to the face.

My mind was racing, trying to figure out what to do next and how to salvage this situation. I wanted to immediately send the request to my C&C-server before they did anything with the videos as additional punishment for Logan. However, Claire and Danielle gasped upon seeing Logan in that state, which reminded me of what would happen if the videos vanished in the midst of THAT kind of situation. He was a fucking asshole, but there was a chance they would actually kill him. Looking at them, I remembered what Bill had just told me in his office, and pulled out my phone to type a message to Logan.

We heard them talk.

“I mean, it’s fucking stupid to try and make demands of me.” the owner told Logan, sounding quite amused and waving something in his hand. I suspected it was my USB drive with the evidence. “But I do appreciate that you brought this to me. Now I know exactly where to make changes. Doesn’t matter if you have copies or tell anyone. Nothing on here is definitive proof. By tonight, nothing you have will check out anymore.”

“Fucking hell...” I heard Bill breathe out, shaking his head.

Fucking hell, indeed. I was so done with this. I tried. All the work I put in, all the effort I had invested in helping these people, once again ruined and voided by my fucking brother.

“Now, here’s what’s going to happen.” the owner continued. “I’m done waiting for you to get my money together. You... ”

He was interrupted by someone coming into the room and wordlessly handing him a phone. After he looked at it for a minute, he started talking again.

“Who’s Tiny?”

“My ... my brother.” Logan answered in confused hesitance.

“Tiny?” Bill asked, amused.

“It’s the nickname they use for me to make fun of my small dick.” I gave my deadpan answer, jerking my head towards my family without taking my eyes off the screen to signify whom I meant by ‘they’.

I didn’t care how much Bill knew or learned anymore. From the corner of my eye I could see three things, though. First, Bill’s face that had instantly lost it’s amused look. Second, the uncomfortable feet-shuffling from my family. And, third, Bill throwing a confused and disbelieving look at John.

“You have a brother? How come we didn’t know about this?” We heard the voice from the Surveillance Feed again.

“We’re not... ” Logan starated to answer. Then he quickly lifted his head and continued in an almost desperate tone. “I used his money to pay you back, then he found all the stuff that’s on the drive. He was the one who put your guys in the hospital, too!”

I felt my stomach drop a few feet and paled. Bill grunted next to me. The fucker was trying to sell me out to save himself. The rest of the family just looked on anxiously.

“And how did he get all this?” the owner asked, once again holding up the Stick.

“I don’t really know. He does computer stuff for a security company.”

“OH, FOR FUCK’S SAKE!” I called out.

“Calm down.” Bill’s hand strongly gripped my shoulder. “Remember what I said about scared people and rational decisions!”

“Security makes sense.” the owner mused. “Probably asked around with the local bouncers and shit. Doesn’t matter anyway. But my guys will want a piece of him to make it even again. Looks like your family’s debt just went up again. I’ll give you all a way to make it up to us. According to your Bro, your grandmother fell and broke a hip or some shit. They’ll be taking care of her for a few days. When they’re back, I want you to invite them here. It’s about time we all had a talk about how to get me my money’s worth.”

“Okay, sure! I’ll talk to them as soon as they’re back!” Logan eagerly agreed.

And just like that, they gave him his phone back and threw him out of the bar.

“Quick thinking, Kid.” Bill commended me. The others in the room just looked at us questioningly, so he addressed the others. “He just bought us a few days to come up with a new plan.”

“What new plan!?” Grandpa asked, “We have to call the police!”

“With what!?” I asked angrily, “You heard the man. Logan gave them everything I had on them, and now they’ll just use that as a fucking instruction manual on to avoid prosecution. It’s not like I found a spreadsheet titled ‘Proceeds from illegal gambling’. All we had was circumstantial evidence and paper trails that would’ve checked out if the police had used it to raid their bar, or their warehouse, or set them up somehow. But now they’ll move their stuff and change their meeting places, and we have no idea where to.”

“But Logan is in danger!” Claire protested, “You saw him, they already hurt him! The police has to do something!”

“They just let him go, Mrs. Brown.” Bill attempted to calm her down, as I opened the video file from their network drive and showed him how Logan had entered the room already reeling. “Even if we go to the police now, they’d file a report about an alleged assault, but we can’t prove anything since they didn’t do it on camera. They also didn’t outright threaten any of you or admit to anything. All the man said was that Logan owed him money, and he’ll want his parents involved.”