Chapter 5

Sunday morning, Jeff checked the remote thermometer. Thirty-four degrees outside. He slipped on a light jacket, went out the back door, and started his run. Shortly after he made his turnaround and started back up the mountain, big, wet snowflakes began to fall. Crap, it's not quite September. Oh, well, it snowed a couple of inches last month. I guess it can snow in August, too. The guy in Winter Park said snow fell every month of the year around here, and so did Sperman. But hearing about snow and seeing snow in mid summer just isn't the same thing.

The small LED flashlight he carried produced an unfocused blue-white light that made the snowflakes sparkle as they swirled in the gusts of wind, but the wide beam lit the road sufficiently for his needs. By the time he got back to the house, the ground was mostly white, but he could tell the snow was melting almost as fast as it fell.

This snow is but a foretaste of things to come. The mountain is going to be a real bitch in winter — but we knew that. Frank said this place had worked far better for them as a conference center in the summer than it did in the winter — getting everyone to and from the center when the weather was bad had created problems. The only place we have to go, however, is the food store every week or so. I need to talk with Diana about making sure the pantries and freezers are kept stocked. I'm not going to have my women put at risk by driving in and out of here when the weather is really bad. Georgia has only a little sprinkling of snow or ice occasionally, so we don't have the driving experience on ice that the people around here do. I want my wives to learn slowly, and carefully, on roads that are a lot less steep than these. One mistake on these mountain roads could very well be fatal.

It was still pitch black under heavy cloud cover when he got back to the house, but the yard lights cast a warm welcome during his walkdown. Hanging up his jacket and leaving his wet running shoes and socks in the mudroom, he padded down the hall and into the kitchen.

Boswell, wearing shorts and a loose pullover top, looked up from her laptop. "It's a little different out there this morning, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that wind has a bite to it, but the snow is pretty."

"I really enjoyed swimming laps while watching the snow coming down outside. That glass wall at the end of the pool is such a nice touch. The snow will probably be gone in a little while, but wait a month, or less, and it will be a near-permanent thing."

"I was just thinking about talking to Diana about starting a list of what we use every week, and stocking up on those items. Once we get a really comprehensive list, we can make sure we don't run out of anything, so we don't have to go out when the weather is bad."

"Hey, grocery lists aren't exactly a new thing," Helen teased.

Jeff grinned back. "Yeah, we have a list every week, but we still run out of milk, or bread, or something we just have to have, and wind up making a trip to Winter Park to get it. Most things can be frozen. We certainly have plenty of freezer and other storage space, and we do have a lot of stuff stored, but there is always something we need to run to the store to get. Those are the things I think we need to concentrate on stocking. And I don't mean just a week's worth, either. If a bad snow comes, we can just sit it out without the little aggravations about being out of something."

"Ah, come on, Jeff," she teased. "All three of your vehicles are four-wheel drive, and you told me that you had a contract to have your drive plowed every day it needed it."

Jeff poured himself a cup and sat down across from her. "And we're from Georgia. Plus, one mistake on that driveway and you're dead."

Sobering, Boswell looked at him. "You're already preaching to the converted. That driveway convinced me the first night. I was just yanking your chain a little. It petrifies me even now. I don't want to think about driving on it covered in ice and snow — and I've lived in this area all my life."

Jeff grinned at her. "There are several bad curves on the county road, too. And, they don't even have a rail. Oh, well, there is generally bad with the good in most things you can think of. This place is beautiful, and secluded. If we lived in the city, we would have neighbors all bent out of shape because I have six wives. We don't have to worry about that up here. We just have to worry about driving off a cliff," he chuckled.

Boswell typed for a couple of minutes on her computer while Jeff sipped his coffee. Indicating a stack of papers sitting beside the laptop, she said, "If you don't have any objections, I'm going to start with a battery of tests first thing this morning."

When Jeff raised an eyebrow, she continued. "I know it's Sunday, and school hasn't officially started yet, but I want to know exactly where the girls are academically, and I don't want to overwhelm them with a large group of tests at one time. If I start a little early, there won't be so many tests to take, one after the other, plus I can begin preparing for their classes."

"How long will today's tests take?"

"A couple of hours this morning. Then another couple of hours later this afternoon."

"Sounds good to me, but be prepared to hear some griping."

Boswell grinned at him. "I taught school for twenty-five years, remember. It's a rare teenager that doesn't gripe about school from time to time. I can handle it."

"After they get through with their test this morning, I want them, and you, for about an hour. I slept poorly last night. I kept waking up and thinking about Sergeant Goodwin's call."

"Oh, did he call after we got home?"

"Yeah, he called while you guys were setting up your computer systems. He's very concerned about threats that Hagewood made. Goodwin says that this guy and his scumbag son should have been in jail long ago, but they have managed to wrangle out of everything so far. Goodwin says that the cops charged Hagewood with the threats, in addition to the other charges, but he just laughed at them. He has gotten off so many times, that he figures that he can get away with anything.

"Goodwin says he thinks the guy may have connections somewhere in the system, and although Goodwin took precautions to protect our address on the reports, he's afraid that Hagewood won't have any trouble in getting it (our address), anyway."

"And, you want us today for..."

"Firearms training."

"Well, I've shot a rifle some, and I have been deer hunting a few times..."

"This will, primarily, be handgun, but we'll use a rifle a little later. Actually, today will only be classroom, but I'll have a couple of autoloaders to field strip and clean for practice, so there will be a little hands-on work today."

"Jeff, this is scaring me. Do you really think he'll do something?"

"Well, Goodwin told me that he had been a cop for seventeen years. The guy seems pretty sharp to me. I've seen a couple like him before — they don't want to take the Lieutenant's test because they still want to be a street cop. I guess what I'm trying to say is, yes. Goodwin was sure enough that Hagewood would try something, that he (Goodwin) made the effort to call and warn us. For what it's worth, I think he's right.

"He said he called the county Sheriff, since we're in the county here, and told him about Hagewood. Goodwin also sent pictures of the two of them. He said the Sheriff complained about not having enough deputies to patrol much out this way, but claimed that he would get the pictures to the people that worked this area, and would tell them to be on the lookout, anyway."

Jeff warmed his coffee up, but Helen waved him off when he started to give her some more. "I must have had three cups already. I swam for a while, but I couldn't get my mind off getting the school started, so I came on to the kitchen, made some coffee, and started on the girls' files while I waited for you to get back from your run."

Jeff sat back down and took a sip. "If you want privacy so you can concentrate, there are plenty of offices in the house. Several on this floor, and more on the second."

Helen glanced up at him. "Oh, no. I look forward to our morning talks, besides, what I'm doing isn't that complicated. I'm just setting up files for each of the girls."

Boswell hesitated for a moment. "You have no idea how much I'm enjoying your family. I've been so lonesome... And you have treated me like family." Winking at him, "Even if I did walk in on you making out."

Jeff chuckled. "That was some pretty serious 'making out.' But as far as we're concerned, you are family. But even loving families fight occasionally, and there are some rather strong personalities here, so don't be too upset if someone has PMS or something, and snarls a little." Contemplating for a moment, he continued. "I guess I've been expecting a bit of the snarling for weeks now, but so far, they have all gotten along so well that it's almost scary."

Helen grinned at him. "Maybe they don't want to make their Alpha Male mad at them."

"Now don't you start. I'm no more an Alpha Male, whatever that is, than I'm a turkey."

Unable to resist, Helen said, "Gobble, gobble."

The joke was a poor one, but they both laughed, anyway. The door pushed open and Ann walked in rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. Jeff got a cup down and filled it, putting in sweetener and creamer the way she liked it. Wearing nothing but a short, light blue negligee, she climbed into his lap and sleepily curled up, nuzzling her cheek to his shoulder.

"Why are you up so early, Little One?"

"You weren't in the bed," she pouted, her voice slurred, barely awake. "I couldn't sleep."

Boswell caught his eye and grinned.

Handing Ann her coffee, "It's snowing out — great big wet flakes. The ground is white, and it's sticking in the trees."

"Uhum," she mumbled, taking a sip. Sitting the cup back on the table, she snuggled back to him. "You smell sweaty."

"Sorry, Baby. I just got back from my run."

Sighing, she softly said, "I didn't say I didn't like it. It makes me horny."

Boswell's typing faltered, then resumed. Her grin got bigger.

The door pushed open again, and Diana and Laura came in wearing little more than Ann.

Laura kissed Jeff and ruffled her daughter's hair. "I knew where you had to be."

Diana took her turn, then hugged Jeff's face to her breasts for a moment. "Why are my women up so early on a Sunday morning? It's barely past six."

Diana turned Jeff's head loose and headed for the coffee. "I don't know about Ann, but when I rolled over onto my sore ass, I made a noise and woke Laura. We went ahead and got up."

Helen looked a question at Diana.

Diana poured a cup for Laura and herself, then both women sat down at the table — Diana, very carefully. "My daughter set me up to get my ass spanked last night, but she screwed up. Jeff spanked her ass, too. I was out when he got around to her, but Laura tells me that he did a good job. Serves the little imp right," she giggled.

At Helen's questioning look, Laura said, "Arlene bought this whip on the net — it looks like a small riding crop, with several leather tails. Jeff used it liberally on both of them. They orgasmed so hard they passed out."

Diana put her coffee back on the table and leaned back, a look on her face. "I would like to have seen Arlene get it, though. And I hope her rear is as sore as mine. That crop hurts like you wouldn't believe." She took some of the sting out of her words by leaning over and kissing Jeff, hard. Jeff fought to hold back a grin, mostly unsuccessfully.

As Diana eased back down in the chair, Helen remarked, "I've never done anything like that, and I think I can live the rest of my life without it. Oh, my husband spanked me a little, just playing around, but we never did anything to make me sore the next day..."

Before Helen could finish, the door swung open again with Arlene in the lead. Jennie and Melissa were obviously teasing Arlene about getting a spanking, but if Arlene was mad at her dad, it didn't show as she hungrily kissed him. Jennie had to loudly clear her throat to get her turn.

As Melissa took her turn, Jennie noticed the snow showing on the big security monitor at the other end of the kitchen. Most of the women went closer to the screen to have a look, rotating through all the cameras for different views of the snow. After comments about how pretty the trees were with snow-cover limbs, they turned to fixing breakfast.

Helen got up and moved her computer and paperwork to the big table, before joining in the production line.

After gently disengaging a grumbling Ann from his lap, Jeff headed for a quick shower.

Later, after their meal, as they gathered up the dishes and put them into the washer, Jeff, who was also helping, said, "As soon as we finish we need to have a family meeting."

"What's up Dad?" Arlene asked.

"In a little while. Let's get through with this so we can all sit down."

When the kitchen was straightened up and everyone was seated, Helen asked, "Uh, is this private?"

"Nonsense, Helen. There isn't anything in this house that's private from you. I've told you that before. Now do I have to enforce it with my cat-of-five tails?" he teased.

Helen blushed nicely, but refreshed her coffee and sat back down, saying in a deliberately pixie little voice, "Oh, no Sir."

Jeff grinned at her, thankful that she had a sense of humor, and despite all her education was not "full of herself." He winked at her, then glanced around the table. "Helen has already heard part of this, so bear with me, Doctor, while I bring everyone else up to date."

After Jeff told them about Goodwin's call, he continued, "Although I'm not a certified firearms instruction, I think I can do a decent job of teaching everyone to shoot..."

Diana interrupted, "Maybe not an instructor," she told Helen, "but they insisted he join the police reserves just so they could get him on the pistol team. He's got a whole case full of trophies."

Jeff, a little embarrassed, continued. "Being able to shoot, and being able to teach someone to shoot well, is not necessarily the same thing. I once heard an instructor say that he got someone else to teach his wife how to shoot; otherwise, he would probably have wound up sleeping on the couch for a week. I'll try not to get in the doghouse over this, and maybe, we can bring in a real instructor, later, if we need to."

As Diana started to say something, Jeff motioned with his hand. "Diana has already done quite a bit of shooting, plus she has had some extra training — actually a lot of extra training. Arlene and Laura have done quite a bit as well, and Ann has too, to a lesser extent. But if worse comes to worse, and we do have to defend ourselves from this guy, I want everyone here to be so thoroughly accustomed to their weapons, and shooting, that they can practically do it in their sleep. In a combat situation, if you have to think about how to shoot, you probably aren't going to be a survivor.

"Did they say what time they expected to deliver the bed?"

"They told me first thing Monday morning," Diana replied.

"Good, maybe they'll be through early enough for us to go to the gun shop and pick up my guns tomorrow."

"Some of us could stay here while they set the bed up," Laura said, "and you could go and get your guns" she replied to her husband.

"That would be logical, and certainly that's what we would normally do, but now with this character on the loose, I don't want us to be separated. In other words, I don't want to be away from any of you, especially until we're all better prepared than we now are to defend one another."

"Too bad our range isn't built yet," Laura spoke up.

"So true," Jeff sighed, "but I think I've thought of something that will work for the interim." Looking at Diana, he asked, "Remember how the outdoor range at the police department was set up? I think the target frames were just pieces of angle welded together to accept the two by two's. All we have to do is dig two holes about thirty inches apart, wax a two by two, stand it in the middle of the hole, and pour some Quikrete in. Then when the concrete has set a little, pull the waxed two by two out, and presto, you have a station for the target frame. Sixteen holes, some two by two's, some cardboard, some B-27 silhouette targets, and we have shooting stations for everyone.

"A lot of police departments, particularly the smaller ones, have little more than that for their officers to practice on. We can get by with that until our indoor range is finished." Thinking out loud, he continued, "Of course, it wouldn't take much to make a shed for us to be under to keep out of the weather — just three sides and a roof will make a lot of difference."

Boswell took a sip of coffee, then looked back at Jeff. "Is this going to delay the work on our classroom very much?"

"I don't think so. I'm sure the contractor either has a tractor with a posthole digger, or has access to one. It probably won't take thirty minutes to dig the holes. Since it's a hurry-up thing, he can just use Quikrete, like I said, for this little job, instead of bringing in a truck, or mixing the concrete himself. Building the two by two target frames is simple and quick. They're essentially just a rectangle with the two vertical pieces longer than the two horizontal ones, to make 'legs.'

"You staple a piece of cardboard to the target frame, then staple the silhouette target to the cardboard. The frames get shot up, eventually, especially with shotgun training. I've seen the rangemaster and an instructor building frames at a rate of about one every two minutes. Of course, they build them by the hundreds every year, so they have it down to a science, but I helped them a time or two, so I know what to do."

"Dad, I haven't the foggiest idea where our shooting stuff is. The movers packed just about everything, and there must be fifty boxes in the basement. I know that you and Mom brought your pistols, but I don't even know where to start looking for my stuff."

"Yeah, I know that's going to be a problem. We'll just have to all dig in and look."

"I've got my nine millimeter, "Laura said, "but my other shooting gear is packed somewhere, like Arlene said hers was."

Everyone started talking at once. Jeff raised his hand slightly, "I know. I know. I've got some guns and some equipment that I didn't sell. We'll have to dig through the boxes. What we don't have, we'll buy tomorrow. I'm still a dealer, so there won't be a waiting period for any guns I have to buy. I intend for everyone to have the same type of pistols, to expedite training. We also have to buy ammunition. I had a few cases left, but, as you know, I just dropped them off at the police department when we were in Georgia the last time. They get some extra training ammunition, and we get a little goodwill. We're going to make that gun dealer that was so nice to me very happy tomorrow."

"I've never even shot a gun," Jennie nervously said.

"Me either," from Melissa.

"I've shot a little. Remember, you let me shoot some about a year ago, Jeff," Ann said.

Looking at Jennie and Melissa, Jeff answered, "Everybody has a first time. And if you haven't shot any, then you don't have any bad habits to unlearn. So don't worry about it. We're going to start with the basics. It never hurts even an experienced shooter to go back over the basics from time to time, either."

Jeff turned to Helen. "When will the girls be free from the test?"

"Test?" they all said in perfect unison.

Grinning, Helen answered, "Probably about a quarter to ten, since we're all up so early."

"Okay. Then everyone meet in the small conference room on this floor at ten." Glancing at two of his wives, he continued, "Laura, you and Diana bring your weapons. Make sure that you unload and double check them before you get to the conference room, please."

Expanding to everyone, "We'll spend time on safety, basics, sight picture, and field stripping and cleaning the pistols." Catching their eye, "Laura, Diana, and Arlene, the basics, and safety can never be taught too much. You can also help the others when they need it." Speaking to everyone, again, "We have a Colt and two Glocks. The two types field strip drastically differently. Although everyone will have a Glock shortly, I want you to be familiar with my Colt, also.

"I'll buy some dummy rounds when we go to the shop tomorrow, or if they don't have any, I'll put my press together and make some. They are excellent to practice with to get over flinch, and trigger jerk, plus practice clearing jams. Modern weapons that are properly kept don't jam much, but if your weapon did jam in a combat situation, I want you to be able to clear the jam in a couple of seconds, and to know that you can."

Jennie's face was flushed as she looked at her husband. "I don't know if I can do this. I'm scared to death of guns."

Jeff reached over and took her hand. Waiting until she looked him in the eye, he said, "This guy is bad. If you don't learn to shoot, and do it well, one of your sister wives, or I, might very well die. You're afraid because you were basically taught to be afraid of guns by your family, friends, and society. When you learn how to use your weapon, how to clean and maintain it, and how to be safe with it, you will realize that the fear has gone away. It will be replaced by respect for a tool."