Chapter 86

{pr}EARLY THURSDAY NIGHT

Frank, Jeff, Dave, Diana, Margaret and Evie were relaxing in one of the smaller sitting rooms on the first floor away from the guests. Dave and Evie were sitting together on a love seat. The other two couples sat on a couch. "Frank, my friend, I think you have lied to me," Jeff said with just a taste of amusement in his voice.

"What? No way. What do you mean?" Wainwright quickly answered, concern obvious.

"When we were first getting acquainted, seems to me that you made some comments about not being ... physical, I guess you could say. Yet, you didn't seem to have any problem handling someone who's very little past being half your age. Also," Jeff continued as he leaned over and grabbed Frank's hand to turn it over and examine it, "there isn't a mark on your knuckles, even though I saw you obviously rubbing them as we talked to Corrigan after you hit his son. Was that misdirection?" he chuckled. "You didn't hit that prick with your fist, did you?"

Margaret chortled. "Fess up, My Love."

"Jeff, I..." Frank started.

But Margaret decided to tell it herself. "His dad started him out with martial arts instructors when he was six. Built him a dojo in their home and had the instructors sign a contract which had a strict secrecy clause."

"But why all the secrecy?" Diana asked, then, "Ohh. I think I understand."

"Yeah, and you're right," Margaret continued. "What a normal person might get away with without a moment's thought, could with a rich family, possibly result in a lawsuit just because of the money. The deep pocket syndrome. Even a kids' fight in school could lead to daddy being sued because he taught his son how to fight — how to, oh horrors, maim and kill," she said, emphasizing the words. "That's how the lawyers would probably describe it in court, anyway. Consequently, Frank never received a belt, other than a beginner's white belt to hold the ghi together, nor has there ever been a record of his training."

Jeff sat back laughing. "Like I said, you lied to me, Frank." Jeff looked at his Alpha, the grin still on the Prime's face. "So instead of skinning your knuckles on his head, you hit him with a strike using the heel of your hand, but daddy will always think you just hit him with your fist because he saw you rubbing your knuckles; martial arts never even crossed his mind. Now throwing Shithead down the hall was even more of a misdirection. I'll bet he didn't expect that. Most guys couldn't even do it," he chuckled. "But slamming into that floor was every bit as devastating, or more so, than being hit by a fist."

"He did have a startled look on his face when I picked him up," Frank laughed.

"And no one will think to sue you because of the use of martial arts," Diana injected. "Beautiful."

"I could never have thrown him without Little One's enhancement, though."

"We're going to test that enhancement tomorrow night," Margaret said as she held Franks upper arm tightly.

"You're going to kill me, Woman," Frank said, just before there was a knock on the door.

"It's Tina," Margaret said, jumping to her feet. "I told her where we would be and asked her to come and join us as soon as she was settled in her new suite."

Margaret opened the door and ushered Tina in, introduced her to Dave and Evie, then seated her between Frank and herself. Everyone talked for a while, Tina already having been enlightened about the serving people actually being the family who owned the retreat.

Margaret stood and pulled her fiancé to his feet. Kissing him tenderly, she touched his face one last time as she prepared to leave. "I'll see you tomorrow night when I walk down that aisle. Think of me."

Frank chuckled. "As if I could think of anything else."

"As we go by, I'll tell the bartender to close the bar down, and also tell him he has free time until tomorrow night. You guys go ahead with your bachelor party. We women are going to have my bachelorette party, and I know you guys are going to have a good time, too. Just don't get too drunk," she teased.

"Drunk?" Wainwright laughed, almost mentioning that Little One had made alcohol taste bad to him, but realized a half second before he voiced the thought that Tina was in the room. He stopped before the blocks locked down, but even so, he felt a nudge in his mind. "Uh, no way. I don't want to have a hangover tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Mr. Wainwright. And again, thank you for saving me," Tina said as she stood up.

"It's Frank, remember?" Wainwright said, his voice softening without his realizing it. "See you tomorrow."

Diana, Evie, and Tina went out the door with Margaret bringing up the rear. Just before she turned right into the hallway, she looked back over her shoulder and winked.

"Yep," Jeff said as soon as the door was closed. "Somebody I know dropped the seine overboard before I even had a chance to get in the boat." (Jeff was referring to an earlier comment he had made about throwing out the "seine" to catch another wife for Frank.)

"What?" Frank said, turning back to Jeff as what his Prime had said sunk in. "No way. She's..."

"One hell of a pretty girl," Jeff interjected. "Her asshole boyfriend is history, and your mate obviously thinks she's great. Guess what they're going to be talking about at that hen party tonight, huh. And by the way, you stumbled at rehearsal. I'm going to laugh my ass off if you do that tomorrow night."

"Fuck, I was scared shitless," Frank griped, "and it was just a damn rehearsal."

"Just so you don't faint tomorrow night," Dave said.

"Faint? I'm not going to faint — well, I hope I don't."

"That's all right," Jeff said, laughing. "We'll prop you up and I'll try out my ventriloquist skills. I do," he finished, trying to keep from moving his lips while sounding a little like Frank — a very little.

Frank glared at him.

"So what are we going to do tonight," Dave asked, "drink Pepsi and just tease Frank? Seems kind of tame for a bachelors party."

"What about tomorrow night?" Frank said. "I tried a sip of my best champagne. It tasted like..."

"Piss," Dave offered.

"I don't think I know what piss tastes like," Frank answered.

"Bullshit," Dave said. "I know damn well you eat pussy. So, unless she's just gotten out of the shower, you've tasted a little urine on occasion."

"Did anybody ever tell him he's gross?" Frank said as he looked to Jeff for help.

Jeff ignored him. "Di bought some ginger ale that looks like champagne. She's going to put it in champagne bottles and keep it separate for us to drink at the wedding reception."

"Why bother?" Dave said. "If anybody asks, just tell them we don't drink."

"Ever tried to tell a drunk you don't drink?" Jeff laughed. "You've suddenly become a project. 'Just one taste. Oh, you'll love it.' That sort of thing. Booze will be flowing. Expensive booze," he laughed as he looked at Frank. "And the owner of that expensive booze can't even drink it anymore. Life's a bitch," he laughed.

"Do you have any idea how many years I've been collecting that wine?" Frank groused, "Not to mention everything else," he finished, a bit of morose slipping through.

They ignored him, yet again.

Frank's expression changed to a fake glower, "So we're just going to sit around tonight drinking Pepsi while you two harass me?"

"Of course not," Dave said, pushing over a serving cart loaded with food. "We're going to drink Pepsi, and eat a bunch of food our wives have prepared for us... and harass you."

"And watch a porn movie or two that my Queen has ordered for us," Jeff said as he picked up the remote.

"Porn?" Frank said, selecting a big piece of fudge. "You have nine wives and you're going to watch porn? Seems a little on the ... redundant side. And where's Sheriff Tate? I thought he would be here."

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you. He called earlier and said that a bunch of citizens were going to have a meeting about drugs in their neighborhood. Kind of a mandatory show for Tate and his wife. He sent his apologies..."

"Wow!" Dave interrupted, as the video came on. "Look at the tits on that gal."

"Tits? Those aren't tits," Frank said as he cut himself a piece of cake to go with the fudge. "Those are silicone buckets. Lots and lots of silicone. And if Evie catches you staring at them, she'll cut your balls off."

"Big buckets, though," Dave muttered.

"Well..." Jeff said as he flopped back down on the couch and put his feet up on an ottoman, two freshly baked doughnuts in his hands, "actually, Evie helped Diana and my wives pick out the videos."

Frank sat and took a bite of the cake before saying, "I think Margaret is a little more conservative than that..."

"Bullshit," Jeff said, his voice muffled by a mouthful of doughnut. "Guaranteed she's sitting in your suite right now — the night before her wedding — talking to your second wife. How long do you suppose it will be before Tina knows the size of your dick and exactly what it looks like, hmmm? Then she'll hear about your love-making techniques and just how good a fuck you are."

"No fucking way," Frank said, shaking his head. "No fucking way." But his voice somehow didn't sound nearly as positive as the words he used.

The men had stuffed themselves with chips, a dip that Laura had made to go with the chips, some sort of tiny wieners in something that tasted vaguely of barbeque sauce but with a kick of hot peppers in it, plus a variety of finger foods, not to say anything about the sweets that they had already sampled. Suddenly, the door opened and Margaret marched in, an obviously stressed Tina in hand, the other women following.

Dave, looking guilty, hastily shut the video off.

"You've got to do something, Frank," Margaret demanded, the women ignoring the video.

"What..." Frank got out as he jumped to his feet, narrowly missing Jeff's glass of Pepsi sitting on the floor. "Uh, Honey, I thought I couldn't see you until the wedding. Tradition..."

Jeff snatched his drink out of the way as Margaret continued, "Screw tradition," she snapped. " Maybe you need to go into Denver and really beat the shit out of that prick."

"Honey, calm down," Frank said as he took the few steps to his fiancée. "What's going on?"

Margaret glanced around her, then grabbed Frank's hand and dragged him into the hallway, closing the door behind them, leaving Tina and the others standing there.

In the hallway, Margaret fumed as she responded to Frank's question, "What's going on is that prick drugged Tina. She woke up, or came to herself if you prefer, with him fucking her the next morning. He told her he loved her. She had developed an amount of affection for him over the last months while they were dating. He had asked her several times to marry him, but suddenly she had already made love to him — or so she thought. But all she could remember drinking was part of a glass of wine. Anyway, to make a long story short, they had sex several more times during the weekend. Finally, she agreed to marry him.

"Frank, you've got to remember that he really wooed this girl, snowed her with expensive gifts, the whole works. Yet before that night, they hadn't done anything more than a little above the waist petting. Then, she wakes up and is suddenly his. Well, his mister-nice-guy act quickly fell by the wayside. The coup de grâce was a video he had made while he had her drugged. I assume from her description of the video and the loss of memory, that it must have been some type of date rape drug that he used on her. She is totally humiliated about the things she did, not to say anything about the enthusiasm she exhibited while she was doing them — all recorded on the video. He has told her he'll put the recording on the Internet and give a copy to her friends and family if she ever tries to leave him. She took a giant step when she charged out into that hallway today. We've got to help her."

"Where's the video?"

"She said he brought a copy with him on a DVD. It's also on his desktop at home, and maybe on his laptop, too."

Frank took time out to lean over and gently kiss Margaret's lips for a moment. "I love you, you know."

"I love you, too." There was a moment's hesitation, then, "Baby ... she's the one."

Wainwright knew what she meant. The guys had certainly been kidding him enough, but he tried to stall her, anyway. "Who? What do you mean?"

Margaret smiled at him. "I want her, My Darling. I want her for our second wife."

"Margaret, you just met the girl today. How could you know..."

"I don't know how I do — I just do. Trust me on this, Frank. You know that when I have a feeling, it's always right. I have that feeling now. I think you feel it too."

Frank started to shake his head, but Margaret was too familiar with him for him to even get started with denial. "Damnit, Frank. I've trusted you time and again when you have had feelings about business. You know what I mean." Then with emphasis, she is the one. "And I know you feel it, too. I know you do. You're an Alpha. Look at all the wives that Jeff has. He's done that in just a few months — or rather, Diana has. Can you honestly say that Jeff doesn't love each and every one of them? Can you, huh?"