Chapter 23

A terrified shriek broke through the night air waking Ed and Beth from a deep solid sleep. Heart racing, he grabbed his pants and pulled them on. Even as he raced to dress, he shouted, “Beth, get the gun and get in the bathroom. Don’t come out until someone you know calls out to you.”

Rather than argue, Beth scrambled out of the bed, naked and raced to the table with the gun. Grabbing the gun, she went into the bathroom. After closing and locking the door behind her, she sat on the toilet with the gun pointed at the door. Her hands shook in fear.

Grabbing a shirt, he raced out the door in time to see a car spinning its tires as it slid half out of control on the dirt road. He watched the car reach the end of the street and spin out of control as it tried to make the turn at too high of a speed. Putting on his shirt, he ran across the street to John’s house.

Before he hit the doorway, a number of shots rang out from within town. It sounded like a battlefield out there. Ed paused as he wondered if the bad guys had gotten away. Then his thoughts turned to concern for John. Stepping into the house, he turned on the lights and shouted, “John! Where are you?”

Relieved at finding that it was Ed in the house, John shouted, “I’m in the hall.”

Ed came around the corner. Without thinking about the consequences of his actions, he turned on the hall lights. The sudden brightness blinded John and Rover for a moment, causing them to shake their heads. Laying on the floor was a man that Ed didn’t recognize. He walked over to the man on the floor and asked, “Who’s this?”

Once his eyes adjusted to the light, John examined the man. He answered, “I have no idea.”

Kneeling next to the man on the ground, Ed examined him closely. To his surprise, Rover pushed him to the side to sniff the man. The cat then turned and went to the back door. After sitting at the door for a moment looking out into the night, he let loose with a very loud yell. The suddenness of the noise shocked John and Ed, as they immediately thought there were still men outside. The yell was answered by two more yells.

Curious, John walked to the back door and turned on the lights. There were two more cats sitting in the backyard. To the right was a bobcat and to the left was a much larger Black Panther. The two cats rose at the same time and moved over to the door. Rover pushed the door open to let them in. In surprise, John and Ed looked at each other trying to figure out what was going on.

Rover turned and left the house through the front door while John walked into the hallway to check on the person there. With nothing better to do, Ed joined him after watching the bobcat take up a position beside the back door. The panther moved through the house to sit at the front door. John looked at Ed, “I guess Rover called for re-enforcement’s.”

Ed asked, “So where did he go?”

John thought about it for a moment and then answered, “I bet he went across the street to watch your house in case anyone went over there.”

“Smart cat.”

There was a knock on the front door. A voice called out, “John, this is Juan Ortega. Are you alright in there?”

“I’m fine. I’ll be right there. Don’t come in yet.”

Juan called back, “Don’t worry, I see the panther. I’m not going to make a move.”

John whispered, “Ed, tie this guy up. I don’t feel comfortable with him here. I have no idea how to deal with our new bodyguards.”

Ed went into the bedroom and returned with the rope that was packed in the backpack. Kneeling down, he tied up the man on the floor while John went to the front door. He couldn’t hear what was said in the other room. Until he had company, he stood where he could kick the guy if he started to come around.

John followed by Juan and Robert entered the hallway where Ed was standing over the man. Pointing to the man on the floor, John said, “This bastard tried to assassinate me. He came into the bedroom and fired two shots. Fortunately, I don’t use that bedroom. I sleep on the floor in the other room.”

John pointed to the night vision glasses that hung around the guys neck. He went on explaining what had happened. “I shoved my walking stick with the light on in his face. It must have blinded him because he shot wildly in every direction. I then caught him in the groin with the walking stick. Rover bit his wrist and I hit him across the face with my walking stick. He hasn’t moved since then.”

Robert bent down to look at the guy on the floor. Barely nodding his head, he looked at the wall on the other end of the hallway. Satisfied with what he had seen, he looked in the bedroom where the first pair of shots had originated. Returning to the hallway, he knelt down by the guy again and as looked up at John said, “This guy is a professional. You’re very lucky to be alive.”

Juan swore, “Damn it, tell me how you decided that.”

Robert pointed to the man and said, “He is dressed all in black with clothes that won’t make a noise when he walks. He has night vision glasses that are Special Forces issue. The silencer on the pistol is professionally made. The two shots in the bed were where two people would normally sleep. He didn’t fire more once he realized the bed was empty. The shots in the wall form a nice pattern at locations about where a man holding a flashlight would have been standing. The pattern in the center is where a man would stand if he held the flashlight in front of him. The pattern over to there is where a right-handed man would stand if he were police trained. The smaller pattern over there is where a left-handed man would stand if he were police trained.”

John smiled at the simple factual manner in which Robert stated the evidence supporting his conclusions. He said, “Impressive.”

Juan swore, “Damn. It makes sense to me.”

Ed asked, “So what was going on with all of that shooting I heard when I ran over here?”

Juan answered, “The scream from here woke everyone in town. The Sheriff saw a car speeding away from here with its lights off. He went in pursuit and the idiot fired at him. Half the town fired back at the idiot. He crashed his car. We’ve got him in custody.”

John smiled as he said, “I guess the town doesn’t like its law enforcement types getting shot at. That would make me feel a lot better about being a cop in this area.”

Robert looked at John as he considered that maybe the townsfolk didn’t like to see one of their own get attacked. He said, “Some give one reason while others give another. It’s hard to know what motivates people.”

Rover came back into the room, with Beth following him. She knelt by the man on the floor and examined his injuries. She looked up and said, “You did a good job on him. He has a broken jaw and a shattered wrist. He also appears to have a concussion.”

John said, “I hit him in the nuts too.”

In light of the new information, Beth added, “Probably has a crushed testicle. We need to get him to the hospital.”

Juan replied, “An ambulance is on the way.”

Beth nodded, “I’ll call Kelly and let her know that she is to keep her distance from this patient. That will limit the hospital’s liability.”

With a great deal of anger in his voice, John said, “If she hadn’t taken that shift tonight, she’d be dead now, and so would I.”

Beth looked surprised at John’s reaction. She said, “All the more reason to keep her away from him. I’ll call the administration at the hospital to make sure of that.”

Beth left and went to the telephone to make her call. Letting loose with a moan, the man on the floor started to regain consciousness. In response, Rover let out a little chirp and the other two cats joined him. They formed a circle around his head and bared their teeth. When he opened his eyes, the guy wet his pants on seeing the cats looking down at him.

Robert watched the cats and looked at John. This was the kind of thing his Grandfather told stories about. He said, “You must meet my Grandfather.”

Ed stood over the man until the ambulance arrived to take the assassin away. Juan rode in the back of the ambulance. In the meantime, the Sheriff stopped at the house to take an official statement. Ed had to let him in so that the cats wouldn’t attack him.

While the Sheriff was talking to John, the telephone rang. Since John was busy, Ed took the message that an agent from the FBI called requesting that John come in the morning and debrief them concerning the attack. The big question on everyone’s mind was why John had been the target of what appeared to be a professional assassination.

When everything quieted down, John, Ed, and Beth sat down to talk about the events. Ed angrily said, “They tried to kill you.”

John nodded his agreement and said, “Yes, they did.”

Beth spat out, “We’ve got to do something about it.”

John was silent for a minute as he considered what they were doing. He said, “We are doing something about it.”

“What are we doing?” Beth was not happy at the thought of people trying to kill her husband to be.

John answered, “Our new house will be ready in a month. It will have state of the art security equipment.”

Beth folded her arms and sat back starting angrily at John. She said, “Just wait until Kelly gets here. She’s going to read you the riot act.”

Curious about the how Kelly had reacted, Ed asked, “How did she take the news?”

“She took it real good. She wants him to leave the hospital in the best condition possible.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm. Kelly actually told her that she’d cut his dick off and shove it down his throat.

Angry that he hadn’t been here to protect John, Ed considered what actions he could take. Ed made a decision that he was going to take whatever actions were necessary to protect his family. The question was, what action could he take? He thought about the medallions around John’s neck. He made up his mind, he was going to give the Gods and Goddesses a call.

Kelly’s arrival was much quieter than anyone had thought possible. She softly opened the door and entered the room without greeting. She sat on the floor next to John. Every one turned to look at her. Her voice was unnaturally loud as she asked, “What the fuck is going on?”

“We were waiting for you to talk about what we do next.”

Kelly snarled, “Did you at least torture some information out of him?”

John’s voice was calm as he answered, “No. He doesn’t know anything other than who hired him and that person probably doesn’t even know why the contract was arranged, much less by whom.”

Kelly sank down, her anger exhausted. “So what now?”

John answered, “I’d like to get naked and make love with my future spouses.”

Ed, laughing aloud said, “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all night.”

After a night of wild coupling, John was the first to wake. He carefully untangled himself from the arms and legs of Beth, Kelly, and Ed. He was stiff and sore. The night’s passion had drained him. He looked outside and couldn’t believe how late it was. He looked out the front door and saw the crowd. He knew he needed to get out there and talk with people.

He went into the kitchen and started breakfast. Today was going to be busy for everyone. He had to go to Phoenix and brief them on what happened last night. Before heading off to school, Ed was going to the house to oversee some of the construction. Beth and Kelly had to work. Breakfast this morning was going to be big: consisting of eggs, sausage, toast, and fruit.

He was almost done with preparing breakfast when Ed and Beth came into the kitchen. Both headed straight for the coffeepot. Ed was his normal slow moving self, moving but not really thinking. His movements were slightly uncoordinated. Beth moved like a robot, each motion precise but no driving emotion behind them. Kelly didn’t come out for a while.

After John set the table, a naked Beth and Ed seated themselves and started eating. John went into the living room to wake Kelly, but paused on finding that she was awake and dressed. Her shirt hung open without having buttons with which to close it. She smiled up at him as he enjoyed the occasional peaks that he had of her breasts. In his mind, it was sexier than if she were going topless.

They joined the others at the table. Breakfast started silently as they were more concerned with filling their stomachs and waking. Finally, Beth sat back and said, “That was incredible.”

John said, “Thanks, but it was a normal breakfast.”

Beth laughed and replied, “I wasn’t talking about breakfast.”

As John blushed, Kelly looked at the two men. She said, “Oh, yes. I really needed that.”

Beth asked, “So which of you two studs did me last night?”

John and Ed shrugged their shoulders as they looked at each other. Kelly laughed and asked, “Do you mean that four people had amazing sex on the floor last night and have no idea who they fucked?”

The whole group burst out in laughter. The situation was funny and no one’s feelings were hurt by the fact that they had been faceless to the others. Kelly asked, “So what is going to happen to Shadow and Tiger?”

John asked, “Who?”

“Shadow and Tiger.”

John thought about it for a minute before he said, “They will stay or they will go. It’s their choice, not mine. I hope that Rover chooses to stay. He was magnificent last night.”

Ed nodded his agreement about Rover’s actions. He said, “I like having them around, though. I feel much better.”

John got up and started clearing the table. Beth and Kelly jumped up and said, “Don’t do that. You made breakfast, we’ll do the dishes. You have to get into the city and talk to the FBI.”

After John and Tiger went out to his Jeep to head for Phoenix, Ed left the house to get clothes for Kelly and Beth. Walking beside him like an escort, Shadow looked magnificent. When he opened the door, the cat raced inside and looked around before Ed had a chance to enter it.

In his house, Ed took the moment to change his clothes. Last night, he had put on a pair of pants and a shirt. He didn’t mind wearing jeans without underwear, but preferred having something between his private parts and the zipper of his pants. The idea of getting caught in his zipper disturbed him more than he wanted to admit.