Chapter 71

Jeff realized it was past time for Joyce to come by and tell him goodbye before going to work. Shortly, she walked into the living room still casually dressed in shorts and a comfortable top. Crawling into his lap as he sat in a chair in the living room, she said, "I'm going to be home again tonight."

Jeff kissed her forehead and hugged her to him. "And how did you manage to get two nights off in a row, My Sweet."

Joyce didn't answer him for the moment, but snuggled to him with a contented sigh. "I can't believe how lucky I am to be your wife and be living here."

"Well, I would be more pleased if you were here all the time," he said.

Joyce looked up at him. "I'll admit that I'm not as anxious to be a deputy as I once was, and before you ask, it has nothing to do with getting shot. It has everything to do with you, all my sister-wives, and well ... just everything. But I can't quit and leave the Sheriff shorthanded. Maybe when things settle down ... I don't know."

Jeff just kept his own counsel, knowing he had pushed enough in the past, better to just let her make the decision.

Leaning up, she softly kissed him. "I'm off tonight because I'm signed up to go to a seminar on hostage negotiations in Denver tomorrow. I'll have to leave here by six-thirty to get there on time. Sheriff Tate sent me a note last week, and I stayed over to talk to him the next morning. I guess I thought he was implying that I could have negotiated with the guy I killed. I was pissed and ... well, I guess my feelings were hurt a little, too. Tate just laughed at me and said I had done exactly what he would have done, but it was my 'time in the barrel, ' the slot in the class was open and he needed to fill it. He told me to be cool and not harass the instructor too much. I might even learn something. He also warned me to get plenty of sleep tonight and to try to stay awake in class, because it tended to be boring."

Jeff chuckled as he looked at his frustrated wife. "Well, the military wasn't big on hostage negotiations, and the reserves in Georgia weren't required to take the class, so I missed it at the police department, too. I can imagine it's a bit..."

"Boorring," Joyce supplied, stretching out the word.

Jeff slipped a hand down to gently cup her groin. "That boring?" he teased.

"Nooo," she hissed out, shivering. "Take me to bed and fuck my brains out."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said, standing with her in his arms.

THE HIDDEN BASE

At the base, Colonel Buckmann sat in his office, his eyes on his computer screen. It was late, everyone in the section having gone to quarters many hours ago. Sighing, he turned from the screen to pour two fingers of scotch into his glass, took a slug and sat thinking.

Just when I had everything going smoothly, that fucking Whitworth hauls ass with that sister-in-law of his. Hauls ass straight to Matthews and that fucking healer. Then he calls back for me to set up a security team for Matthews. Shit. Fucking son-of-a-bitch. If he had waited a few weeks, we could have developed more information, but nooo, that bastard has to stick his nose in. That damn healer is a fucking gold mine, but once a security team is in there, I could never get away with an attack. No telling how many mercenaries it would take to take out the security force. Shit. Shit. Shit. Then Whitworth comes back without even telling me, with his sister-in-law hanging all over him, healthy as a horse. No damn wonder she's pleased, she left here half dead, now there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her at all.

Then that sorry bastard I went to school with bypasses me and contacts the mercenary himself, gives them the go-ahead, then tells me. Just like the bastard; he was always trying to usurp me, even way back in high school. He stole my girl, but I put a baby in her belly a year after they were married. How in the hell we've remained so-called friends, I'll never know, but if he hadn't figured out what I was doing with the blocks, and I hadn't needed his money to finance this, I would still be in this without the bastard. Now he goes around me and moves the timetable up — way up.

I told him that Matthews had a damn good security system, but Don thinks he can get past it by just sending in the two mercenaries who have been cleaning for Matthews, plus two more hidden in the cleaning van, along with the Hagewoods to take the blame. He told me he wasn't worried about a few women, even after I reminded him that Matthews had told me he had trained them to shoot. And Matthews can shoot the ass out of a gnat at a hundred meters. Worries me that he has taught his women to shoot. No telling what they can do.

With Matthews reporting to me, I was getting some good info without trying to push it. Don says we don't need any more info, and thinks the women will panic when they see the guns. I'm not so sure about that. I wanted this to look like Matthews and the Hagewoods shot it out in the bedroom after the place was set on fire. Let the fire investigators worry about how the fire got started. But we don't know enough to go in now. I want that healer, but we don't know exactly where it is. Matthews mentioned keeping it in a drawer, and we had just been talking about his new lab and his office, so I assume he keeps the healer in there, but hell, I don't know. And we don't know how far along Matthews is with his next invention. We should have waited, security force in the near future or not. But Don is fronting the money for the mercenaries, and I made the mistake of giving in and letting him have the codes so he could talk to them.

Fuck Whitworth. If that son-of-a-bitch had stayed away from the Matthews' place, there would be no security force hanging over our heads in the near future to fuck up my plans. Fuck Don, too. How in the hell did that asshole get as far in politics as he has managed? What I ever saw in that bastard, I'll never know. Of course, fucking his wife every chance I got was a real turn-on. Every time I shot off in her pussy, I thought about that bastard taking her away from me. Hell, she went with the money, so I guess he did me a favor in the long run — no doubt about it.

She would have probably fucked around on me, too. The first two kids are mine, though, and that bastard has raised them. I've made him a cuckold for years, but either he, or some other bastard, put the last kid in her. She says it's Don's, but I have my doubts. Oh, hell, the kids are about grown now, anyway, but Lisa's pussy is still good, and fucking a politician's wife makes it even better. But the bastard might just have screwed things up about the attack. Fucking mercenaries are liable to go in there shooting, and Whitworth will start an investigation that might very well turn me out. Fuck!

Colonel Buckmann continued to run the program that would forensically erase the files that would incriminate him, worrying that the attack on Matthews would precipitate an investigation that might spread to the base. His diligence was useless though, for Lieutenant Nicholas Campbell had already copied all Buckmann's encrypted and passworded files to the General's computer, along with Buckmann's passwords. It had taken Campbell's program only a few minutes to decipher the passwords. Now the information was available to General Whitworth as soon as he got around to looking through the files.

THE RETREAT

Tired, but in a good mood, they had returned from the range and Jeff's impromptu firearms class. After a shower, everyone felt better, though. Laughing and playing grab ass with Jeff, they went to bed.

Later. "Hey, we saved the sheets tonight," Jennie chortled.

"Might have had something to do with that stack of washcloths you had," Jeff teased as he lay in bed looking up at Jennie as she now stood beside the bed.

"Yeah, but we're still changing the sheet," Diana said, laughing as she slid out of bed to stand by Jennie. Without further ado, she pulled the fitted sheet loose from the bottom corner of the bed. "It still has wet places from the sweat. Get your butt up, Stud, so I can get this off."

Jeff just got out of the way. If he tried to help, he would still have been fumbling with his section of the big sheet while the others waited on him, and he knew it. With the same efficiency his wives exhibited in the kitchen, they had the new sheet on in seconds. Shortly, everyone was in bed with the lights turned down, Diana snuggled to his right side, with Ann snuggled to his left. Diana absently twirled his chest hair around her index finger as they lay facing each other.

In a quiet voice, "I told the girls they could go with Dave and Evie in the morning. Evie wants to take her sister wives and the girls to The Denver Zoo, and also wants to introduce the girls to Kim's mom and dad, plus showing them around the construction office. You don't have any problem with that, do you?"

Jeff kissed the tip of her nose, a hand gently massaging a nipple, not really trying to sexually arouse her, but just gently loving her. "No, I guess not. I'm always uncomfortable when any of you are out of my sight, but the girls need to get out more. As you know, they have never gotten to go anywhere much, let alone a great place like Denver's zoo."

"Well, Mom is going with them. She said she wasn't letting her granddaughters get that far away from her. Jeff, the girls asking her to become their Meemi has really affected her — favorably affected her. And having Whitworth tell about what you did, not to mention those helmet cam videos, has just about stunned her. Well, stunned all of us, I guess. Jeff, my darling, I've always loved you, even when I..."

"Don't go there," Jeff interrupted. "You've apologized enough about Jack. That's over and done with. You've made up for it a thousand times over," he finished, gently touching his lips to hers.

A moment later, Diana cleared her throat, hoping with the near darkness in the bedroom he couldn't see the tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "Uh, anyway, we can hardly talk of anything else. We're sleeping with our man — our man who commands a starship."

"Diana, don't start that bullshit. You're making more out of it..."

Diana pressed her lips to his for a second to cut him off. "Let us enjoy what thrills us, please. And you might as well get used to us wanting to know more. We can be told now — the General said so — and we want to be."

Jeff just sighed and changed the subject. "What's all this about wearing uniforms when the guests arrive for the wedding?"

"Well, you've seen the room in the basement where all the serving staff uniforms are? The staff that used to work for Frank. I used those as a pattern and had a shop make us uniforms with our crest and interlocking MM on the shoulders. That's what UPS brought Friday."

"Di, aren't you going a bit far with this?"

"Certainly," she giggled. "That's what is so much fun about it. Your wives are all into this, bigtime. So don't hurt anyone's feelings and say something derogatory about our little game. Besides, it was either your wives becoming the staff, or Frank would have to bring in a group of strangers to take care of the guests. Having a large number of guests in here for a couple of days will be stressful enough. I don't want serving people in here that none of us know, as well."

"It just seems like one hell of a lot of work for my wives."

"Oh, come on, Baby, even Dave's wives are helping out, just like they do when we prepare meals. We all clean bathrooms, make beds, vacuum and cook, so adding a few extra people isn't such a big thing."

"'A few, '" Jeff repeated with emphasis. "What the heck do you call a lot? And Frank is worried that some of these people will talk down to us because they will think we're staff."

"So?" she quietly giggled. "In case you haven't noticed, you don't have a single wife who doesn't cover every inch of the ground she stands on — as I've said before."

"Yeah, I know. Heck, that may be one of the reasons I'm worried. I'm afraid someone will grab Arlene's butt and she'll break a finger for him, or toss him over her hip, like she did that punk on the farm. That would be an embarrassment for Frank and Margaret."

"Not to say anything about pissing you off and your stomping the prick's ass," Diana choked out to keep from laughing loud enough to wake her sister-wives.

"Yeah, that too," Jeff quietly agreed, the amusement showing in his voice.

Diana kissed him again, the kiss transforming from love to lust as she licked his lips, then pushed her tongue into his mouth. Breaking the kiss, she whispered in his ear. "I've going to turn over. Slide it into me and make gentle love to me, then put me out. Just leave it in when you come. I want to sleep with your cock in me like we used to."

Diana bit the back of her hand to keep quiet as Jeff did as he was bid. A few minutes later, he pumped his sperm into her as she passed out. But sleep wouldn't come for the Prime — again. Last night, he had only slept a few minutes, the night before, only a little more than that. Fatigue was beginning to rear its ugly head, but when he closed his eyes, the feelings were back — feelings that had no direction other than making him ill at ease.

He pulled himself gently from his wife, then carefully made his way out of the bed without waking anyone. Looking back, he smiled at his sleeping wives and Kayla. Diana was already including Kayla in everything the wives did. He wanted to kiss Diana again, but worried that she would wake or he would wake some of the others. She's going to wake up with a sticky groin in the morning, but it sure won't be the first time.

Walking into the closet, he shut the door before turning on the light. After putting on undershorts and a tee shirt, he turned the light off, then returning to the bedroom, he pulled his jeans back on, then a fresh pair of socks. Shortly, by the night-lights in the hall, he padded toward the kitchen. After starting a pot of coffee with the smaller coffee maker, he stood under the big monitor that was mounted above the cabinets at the end of the kitchen. Instructing the computer, he slowly cycled through the security cameras. When his coffee was ready, he took a big mug down, filled it and sipped as he finished with the cameras. The wind was calm, the moonlight on the snow making it almost seem like day.