Chapter 69

"What do you fucking MEAN they just disappeared!" shouted Bobby.

Brent just shrugged. Lew looked at the both of them, but said nothing. In spite of being one of Bobby's lieutenants, he was treading lightly at the moment. Bobby was none too pleased about the Roger incident, and Lew had taken a lot of heat for getting the crap kicked out of him by Tammy. Well, it would have been worse if it had been a woman other than Tammy. Most people didn't want to fuck with her.

"I talked to Jerry," Brent said. "They're not in jail. It took a few days, but we finally caught them on one of the traffic cams, heading up to the Whitestone place. After that, nothing."

"Nothing," said Bobby in disgust. "Nothing? People don't just disappear. They have to be somewhere. Maybe Whitestone's got 'em stashed at his place."

"I really doubt it," said Brent.

"Well find out!"

That was how Brent and a few of the guys from then club found themselves at the edge of the Whitestone property in the middle of the night. They'd found tire tracks from what looked like several bikes and what must have been the van. They went to a stone wall and just stopped. Brent frowned and looked around, trying to see where they might have turned around, but he nothing turned up. If it hadn't been for the bright moon, he wouldn't have even seen that much. The tracks just ended at the wall, as if the vehicles had just driven through it.

Clearly there was a way to move this section of the wall. Like maybe a hidden entrance or something. He wasn't going to find it tonight though -- no matter how bright the moon was. If Joe had known about it, Brent wished he'd told everyone else. It'd make it easier to get onto the property. But Joe wasn't the kind of guy to share information, especially if he could put it to his own use.

Unfortunately, all this told him was that Joe and his crew had come here. Not what had happened to them. And really, he was only assuming it was Joe, but he wasn't about to go back to Bobby and tell him that. The man was getting seriously unstable. Unfortunately, he was the one their contacts trusted, so he was the one with the keys to the kingdom, so to speak.

Brent stood back and looked up at the wall. It was at least ten feet higher -- much higher than was normal -- but he doubted that the town inspectors would give the rich folk any problems. Security sucked though -- he couldn't see a camera anywhere.

"Mark, gimme a hand over here," he said. "I wanna get up on the wall."

"You sure that's a good idea?" asked Mark.

"Just help me up."

Brent pulled himself up to the top of the wall, which turned out to be wide enough to easily sit on. He looked around, but didn't see anything other than a large field between him and the house in the distance. It looked like there were a lot of trees over to the right, and there were trees and some bushes here and there, but the groomed landscaping he'd expected was nowhere to be scene. Still, there wasn't really any cover between here and the house.

He bent around and looked down at the guys at the foot of the wall.

"We need to take a look around," he said. "Get up here."

Brent froze when he heard the sound of a rifle bolt being worked. A man stepped out of the shadows.

"I don't think that would be a good idea," he said.

Another man appeared behind him and this guy was huge. How the fuck they'd gotten across the field without being seen was beyond him. Worse, neither of them appeared to be carrying the rifle he'd heard.

"Oh hey!" smiled Brent, trying to salvage the situation. "I uh, well I thought my dog got in here..."

Fuck, that was lame.

The man came closer and looked up at him. Shit, it was Whitestone.

"This is private property," he said. "You should go."

"Yeah, uh, hey, that's cool," said Brent.

His heart was beating hard. He still couldn't see who had the rifle. He wasn't sure it mattered anyway. He'd heard this guy kicked ass, and he wasn't about to tangle with him without a bunch of backup. Or a gun of his own. Besides, the guy next to him was a fucking walking mountain and Brent sure as hell didn't want to mix it up with him! He started shifting around to get off the wall.

"Oh Brent," said the man in a conversational tone. "The Tankers aren't welcome here. You guys should think about leaving us alone. If you have a problem with me, I'll be happy to come by and ... discuss it. But you need to back off. Try and grab any of us again, and I promise you, I will come find you."

Fuck! This dude knew his name!?

"Hey, I think you got me mixed up with someone else, dude," said Brent. But he said it to empty air -- the people had disappeared.

Shaking just a little bit, Brent got down.

"What the fuck happened?" asked Mark, who'd heard the voices.

"They were waiting for me," said Brent. "They must have some kind of security system somewhere."

"Fuck," replied Mark. "That's gonna make it hard to grab 'em."

"Yup," said Brent.

However, he was thinking it might be a better idea to just leave them the hell alone. This shit they didn't need.

"And you say they knew who you were?" asked Bobby.

Brent really didn't like bringing Bobby this kind of news. One could never tell what he'd do anymore. Besides, it was always a little strange talking to your boss while he was getting a blowjob. Bobby pressed down on the back of the girl's head and Brent heard her choke.

"Guy called me out by name," said Brent.

"How the fuck did he know it was you?" asked Bobby.

He let up on the girl when it appeared she was about to pass out. Brent looked down at the little blonde. She and her mother were going out in the next shipment, but he wondered if the girl was going to make it. She hadn't been eating or sleeping well, and it showed. Currently, her hands were cuffed behind her and her back and ass were covered with whip marks. Bobby liked to use 'em hard.

"I don't know," said Brent.

"All right, get outta here and lemme think," said Bobby, pulling the girl to her feet and turning her away from him. He stood up and pushed. "Damn, that ass is still nice 'an tight."

Brent shook his head as he walked out, the girl's short scream following him.

"So I hear that you and Allen did the deed on V day," said Brenda.

Tina rolled her eyes. Brenda was forever saying things to mess with people. She wasn't mean about it -- she just liked stirring the pot. They were sitting and what had become the usual table for their group, and everyone was there.

"Allen was the perfect gentleman," said Tina.

"Brenda!" hissed Allen about the same time.

Tina couldn't figure out what was going on between these two. They were friends, but they were also lovers, which she understood fine. The confusion came from the fact that Brenda really had a thing for Allen, but refused to let him know. Especially now that he was officially dating Tina.

So far, no one in the group knew about the arrangement between Allen and Tina, but she knew that wouldn't last. As it was, the fact that Brenda was hiding how she felt about Allen was going to eventually cause problems. Although at the moment, Allen was completely infatuated with Tina.

Sarah, too, might become an issue. She was a very observant girl, and had very strong suspicions about Tina and Cindy. Tina knew Sarah was wondering what it might be like to have sex with Tina, and had some very dirty fantasies about what she'd like Tina to do to her. Tina found those fantasies really distracting at times.

Brenda snorted.

"Gentleman?" she scoffed. "Maybe because he hasn't been bragging about it?"

Tina giggled.

"No," she said. "Because he made sure I came first."

Kelly spit out the water she'd just taken a sip of. Sarah -- predictably -- turned red, but Tina saw that she'd misjudged Brenda's mood.

"Oh fuck you," the girl hissed.

Brenda stood, grabbed her things and left the table. Everyone watched her go in surprise.

"What the hell was that about?" asked Carl.

Kelly gave him a dirty look.

"God, guys are so oblivious."

"Hey, maybe I should go talk to her," said Allen.

"Let me do it," said Tina, gathering up her stuff.

"But..."

"Don't worry," she said, leaning down and kissing him. "It'll be fine."

Tina wasn't sure where Brenda had gone, so she headed for the nearest bathroom. Unfortunately, she was stopped before she could get there.

"Hey babe," said the guy.

It was Barry, the idiot she'd had a run in with a while ago. This she didn't need.

"Hi," she said, with a slight smile, and went to move around him. He wasn't going to let that happen though.

"Whoa," he said holding up his hand. "Where you going in such a hurry? We got plans to discuss."

"Sorry," she said, "but I'm on my way to the bathroom."

"We'll you can go as soon as you tell me where to pick you up on Friday night."

Oh for crying...

"Sorry," she said, still smiling a little. "I'm already seeing someone."

Once again, she tried to move around him, and once again, he stopped her, this time by putting his hand on her shoulder.

"So you went from not being allowed to date, to fucking Allen?"

Tina looked up, annoyed. She was sure it was just a guess, but she had the feeling Barry was already setting things up to try and ruin her reputation if she didn't go out with him. Before she might not have cared what people were saying about her, but now that she was with Allen, things were a little different.

"Barry," she said, her attitude changing from a little shy to someone much more forceful, "you really shouldn't start rumors. It isn't nice."

"Even if they're true?" he sneered. "Don't worry -- after we have our date no one will give you a hard time."

"The answer's 'no', Barry," she said. "I'm not really interested."

Of course, instead of letting her go, he tightened his grip on her shoulder and moved closer.

"Hey, I don't think I like your attitude, slut," he said in a low voice. "Now you and me can go out on a nice date, or I can..."

"Barry," came a sharp voice, "If you don't take your hand off that girl right now, you will be suspended."

Barry looked up at the voice and saw who it was. Frowning, he let go of Tina.

"Hey, this is between me and my girl, Miss Thomas," he said. "Nothin' to worry about."

"You can go Ms. Whitestone," said the teacher.

Rather than immediately leaving, Tina looked at Barry.

"Barry, I am not your girl," she said, her voice even. "Please do not touch me, or talk to me, again."

She saw real anger in his eyes as he turned back to her, but with the teacher there, he just backed away, holding his hands out. It wasn't over though, and she knew that.

Finding Brenda took longer than Tina had hoped. She wasn't in the bathroom and she wasn't in the inside common area. Tina finally tried the library, because even though it wasn't cold out, it was cloudy and threatening to rain, and she knew Brenda hated the rain.

"I'm sorry," said Tina, sitting down. "I didn't know."

Brenda didn't look up from the book she was pretending to read.

"There's nothing to know," she said.

"Look, I wouldn't have gone out with him if I'd known you were this interested," said Tina.

"Is that what you think this is about?" she asked, looking up.

Tina, confused, asked, "Isn't it?"

Brenda sighed in disgust and closed the book.

"No. Well, not entirely."

"What is it about?"

Brenda looked away and said nothing.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said.

"C'mon Brenda," said Tina. "If I did something to piss you off, tell me. I'll apologize or stop doing it, or whatever."

"You can't."

"Excuse me?"

"You can't stop doing it," said Brenda.

"Brenda you're totally confusing me," said Tina. "I don't understand."

Brenda chuckled sadly.

"The Great Tina, finally doesn't understand something," she said.

Tina flinched. Being hit on by a jerk and ignoring nasty comments from other girls was one thing. Having someone that she'd started forming a friendship with pissed off at her was something else entirely. Especially when she didn't even know what she'd done.

She sat back in her chair, hurt. Brenda looked back at her.

"You really don't get it, do you?" Brenda asked. "At first, I thought it was an act. Once you started hanging out with us, and I realized it wasn't, that made things even worse."

"Made what even worse?" asked Tina. She was hurt, but she was also getting irritated.

"You're what practically every guy in this school wants," said Brenda. "If you set your sights on a guy, none of us have a chance. I don't know what it is. I don't know why. It's not like you have the biggest tits or the longest legs. You're not even the smartest girl here -- although apparently you're not far behind. But there's something about you that makes all the guys want you. And a bunch of the girls too."

"Oh c'mon Brenda. That's just stupid."

"It's not" she hissed. "I'll bet you anything that if you just wiggled your little finger, you could steal Carl from Kelly in a second."

"That's not true," said Tina. "And even if it was, I'd never do it."

"Maybe not, but it's still true," said Brenda. "And Sarah? You're all she talks about. Of course Allen won't even look at another girl now."

"You and Allen were sleeping together, weren't you?" asked Tina. She already knew it, of course, but not because Allen had told her. She could read both of their sexual pasts like a book.

"I'm surprised he told you," snorted Brenda.

"He didn't," said Tina. "I guessed. But you never said anything about wanting to stay with him. I wouldn't have gotten involved at all if I had known."

"Yeah, whatever."

Touching Brenda's emotions made Tina suddenly realized that this wasn't about Allen at all. Well, it was, but not entirely. Unfortunately, she couldn't be the one to bring up the real problem.

"You know who Allen spent the last three Valentine's days with?" asked Brenda. "Me. He didn't even call me on Sunday."

Tina blinked. She and Allen had been pretty occupied after Tina had left the mansion on Sunday. But he could have called Brenda before that. Why hadn't he?

"I'm sorry..."

"Oh don't be sorry," Brenda snapped. "You're his girlfriend. He's not supposed to be calling other girls on V-day."

Tina didn't know what to say. Yes, she knew why Brenda was really upset, but she couldn't bring it up. She was at a loss.

"Brenda..."

"Just go," said the other girl. "Don't worry, I won't be a bitch. I just wanna be alone."

Silently, Tina left the library.

Several hours later found Tina and Allen in a park, walking together. He knew that Brenda was upset, but he didn't know why. She wasn't answering his calls, and he was upset. They'd been friends, and more, for years.