Chapter 231

Diana and Jill (Bill's first wife) sat at a small table on the other side of the dining room, well away from breakfast preparations. "Jill, I would like you to talk to Hope. Look, I hate to ask you to do this, and goodness knows it has to be horrible to have to remember what happened to you, but Hope has gone through something of a similar nature. I'm sure you're aware of some of this, but to recap, she was raped and sold, rented out, if you will, repeatedly, to men who used her without thought of how much they were hurting her both physically and mentally. She was in mortal fear for her life on more than one occasion, and from what she tells us, at least one of the other girls involved did not survive. She says there were rumors of others who were killed and probably died horrible deaths. At least, Hope thinks they did. I won't suggest how much of your experiences you share with her, but I think it's necessary that she realize just how close you came to dying, too. She's feeling as if she is used merchandise – spoiled goods – not worthy of a normal relationship with a good man..."

Diana stopped for a second to blink back tears. "Jill, you had maturity on your side when you had all those horrible things happened to you. Hope didn't have that, and still doesn't, of course. If she could hear your story, I think it would help her to realize that she can come back from this; can be loved and respected by a mate; can be a normal person – even after all that has happened to her."

Tears sparkled in Jill's eyes also as she quietly responded. "I never in my wildest dreams expected Bill to take me back. I just wanted to see my family one more time before I died. Diana, I owe you, Jeff, and Little One so much. I'll be glad to talk to Hope, but Di, I'm not good at this. There are still gaps in my memory, and things I just ... don't want to remember..." she stumbled out. "I ... snuggle in my husband's arms at night and sometimes I still shed tears of shame for the things I did. Oh, I know that I was drugged and hypnotized, but still, I did those horrible things. I know what she feels like if she says she thinks she's spoiled goods."

"But you know better..."

"Yeah, I do. I know that part of my body isn't spoiled goods anymore, because Little One totally replaced my vagina. Not only did I have a hymen again, my whole vagina, including my womb, was grown anew. Whatever happened to me while I was in that horrible house didn't happen to that part of my body, no matter what my memory claims. Everything down there is totally new. While that ... process was taking place – well, you have no idea how odd it felt to look down at myself and realize that I was no longer a woman – did not have any sex at all. Then everything just ... grew back in a matter of days. I have nothing there that Ingles or his cronies have used and pumped their slime into. I don't think I would ever have fully recovered without what Little One did for me.

"I can certainly relate to Hope, but Di, she's young. How much should I tell her? I've never done anything like this before. Suppose I tell her too much. She's obviously still terribly upset about what's happened to her, and I'm certainly no psychologist. What if I make her worse?"

"You won't. And Jill, there's something else. You are truly a beautiful – no, more than that – a glamorous woman, as I'm sure you've been told hundreds of times. Whether you realize it or not, you have ... presence. She'll believe you, and trust you if you tell her what Little One's ... uh, makeover did for you. Hope knows you had an awful experience. If you can stand to tell some of your story and the way you felt about being spoiled goods ... and how you feel now. Well, I think she will be helped. Please think about it."

Jill reached across the table to put her hand on top of Diana's. "I didn't say I wouldn't do it; I'm just worried that I'll screw things up worse than they are already."

Diana stood, followed a second later by Jill. "I'll go tell Hope you're going to share some of your story with her. After breakfast?"

"Di, I ... I'll do the best I can, and right after breakfast is fine with me."

"Thanks, Jill. I really appreciate this."

As Diana turned to walk away, "Di?"

The Queen turned back with a smile.

"'Presence?' You tell me that I have presence?" she finished with a chuckle. Jill took the few steps to the Clan Queen and hugged her. "Coming from you, I'll take that as one hell of a compliment."

Arm in arm, the two started for the kitchen to help out with the meal.

The Night Before, in an Elegant Hotel Suite Several States Away

Hossein Madina, the diplomat, sat in the sitting room of a multi-room, luxurious suite while his personal bodyguard and chauffeur, Amin Abassi, gave the two "ladies" a tip, then escorted them out of the suite.

In the hallway, both young women stood waiting for the elevator. The redhead shivered. "Never again," she quietly said to the blond. "I don't know about you, but I'm just glad to get out of there alive. Did you hear that son-of-a-bitch keep insisting that I talk like a child while he was fucking me?"

"Yeah, I heard him. At least yours had a normal-sized dick. That bastard who fucked me put me on my hands and knees and wanted me to act like it hurt. He insisted that I should hold my legs tight together so he could 'force' his way into my pussy. With that teeny little dick of his, how was I supposed to make it so tight he had a problem pushing his 'big dick' into me? I squeezed as hard as I could, but it slipped right in, anyway. It really pissed him off. Shit, like you, I'm glad to get out of there in one piece. I slapped his hands off my throat twice. He wanted to choke me while he was fucking me. Both of those bastards are strange. Oh, I've had guys pretend I was a teenager – no big deal – but these bastards wanted to fuck kids. Shit, it gives me the creeps to even think about the two of them. What did he give you for a tip?"

"Twenty bucks. I was afraid to throw it back at him with the way the two of them acted. They just dropped six grand to fuck us, and they give me a chinchy twenty dollar tip."

"Me, too, but our half for the night is still fifteen hundred each. The escort company has never cheated either of us, so we'll get our money, and... I only have one more year to go in school. I've saved almost enough to get me through to graduation, but if we have any more assholes like these two, I'm going to quit the escort business and go work for McDonalds or something. I swear I have chill bumps just thinking about those guys. You didn't fuck yours bareback did you?"

"Hell, no."

"Me either, but it was close. The condom came off inside me twice. It wouldn't stay on his skinny little dick."

"What did you do?"

"Fished it out and put it back on him. Hell, he was only three or four inches inside me. Part of the condom was still hanging out."

The redhead giggled. "I knew that something was going on, but I didn't know what." As they stepped on the elevator and the redhead pressed the button for the first floor, "You going to pick up your half before going to your apartment?"

"Yeah, but I'm hungry. Want to go by Denny's for an early breakfast before we look Rick up?"

"Sounds good, and we can use their bathroom to brush our teeth. Did you bring your toothbrush with you?"

"Always."

"I can't wait to get his taste out of my mouth."

A couple of minutes later, the two stood by the front door of the hotel and waited as the doorman summoned a cab to the entrance. When the women were in the cab, he closed the door and stood back. The redhead had discreetly brushed his hand, leaving a twenty dollar bill in it.

He stood staring after the cab, thinking of the elegantly dressed young women. He was reasonably certain they were escorts, and he knew they were way out of his price range, but he could dream. Rearranging his hard cock in his pants, he turned to get in out of the cold.

In the suite, Amin swept the rooms with the latest detection equipment while the ambassador sat mute, waiting. A few minutes later, "The room is clear, Sir," Amin said in their native language, "The prostitutes did not leave any listening devices."

"Can not be too careful," the diplomat agreed.

"A nightcap, Hossein?"

"That would be acceptable."

The two sat sipping their drinks for a few minutes before Hossein looked over at his friend/bodyguard. "That was not satisfactory tonight."

"But Hossein, they were beautiful women, both of them just twenty years old."

"I want you to find us some young women. It's time. We have not heard any negative reports for weeks. I'm fairly certain this FBI," he said, snarling out the words, "has moved on to other projects."

"But, Sir, I thought we agreed..."

"Do it. I want two young virgins, no more than thirteen years old. After I destroy their virginity, you may do with them as you wish."

"But, Sir, I think it would be best..."

"Do it, I say. I am tired of waiting."

"Yes, Sir. I will start early tomorrow."

The Retreat

Sunday morning breakfast and cleanup over, Diana and Arlene sat at the smaller kitchen table, empty coffee cups in front of them, but their eyes were locked on the big screen at the other end of the room. "It's just ... eerie to see him sitting out there like that," Diana quietly said. "It's ten degrees, twenty-two degrees below freezing, yet he sits there with his butt on that cold planter, in a tee shirt and jeans, snow all around him."

"He's okay, Mom. I told you he was warm when I went out there last night. He accepted his coat, but when I snuggled with him, his body was warm."

Diana aimlessly slid her cup back and forth between her hands as she thought, then looked into her daughter's eyes. "He seems to be almost obsessed with this thing he's trying to do with his mind. Why is he trying so hard to learn to ... to ... do whatever the hell he's trying to do?"

"He wants to learn to consciously do what he did to hold the SUV on the road during the trip to rescue Caitlin," Arlene offered.

"Oh, I know that. He told me. But... why? Surely, he doesn't expect something like that to happen again. Heck, Caitlin hasn't even gone back to work, and I'm hoping she doesn't. Okay, I can see his learning to do the thing with the steel balls. With that, he could use practically anything as a projectile to protect us, but pushing snow across the parking lot with his mind?"

"Daddy doesn't obsess about anything," Arlene responded, indignantly, protecting her father.

Diana reached over to take her daughter's hand. "Ummm. He borrowed all the money he could; rented labs around the country; hired technical people to build components; wrecked our finances. All to build his invention. It all came together weeks or maybe even days before all those bills came due. Oh, it worked out, as I'm sure he knew it would, but viewed from the outside, most people would have thought he was..."

"He's Daddy. He's a Prime," Arlene indignantly defended her father again.

"Baby, I am not criticizing him – far from it. I love him just as much as you do. I'm just saying he won't give up until he's accomplished whatever it is that he's trying to do. But I don't have to like it. I worry about him. I had much rather have him in his lab working on his next invention than sitting out there in the cold pushing piles of snow around."

Diana squeezed her daughter's hand. "You need to go back out there and be with him."

But Arlene was shaking her head as she looked at her watch. "I can't, Mom. I need to run and change into my fatigues. Art, Kayla and I are scheduled to be on Security's range in a few minutes. We've learned to field strip and reassemble the pulse rifles. This morning, we fire them. This afternoon we're scheduled to train with the invisibility camouflage."

"Well then, I'll get..." Diana started, but hesitated as the view on the monitor shifted to the back door as Caitlin came out on the stoop zipping her coat and carrying a piece of cardboard. As the camera tracked her, she walked over to Jeff, kissed him, put her cardboard on the planter beside her husband and sat, snuggling against him.

Diana let out a soft giggle. "Looks as if she remembered your comments about a cold butt from sitting on the concrete planter. That cardboard should provide some insulation."

"Crap," Arlene said with a laugh. "Why didn't I think of that?" She turned and quickly kissed her mother. "I've gotta run, Mom. See you late this afternoon."

"Be careful," the Clan Queen admonished. "Will you be back in time to tell Matt and Courtney goodbye before they leave?"

"Already did, Mom," the teenager said over her shoulder as she rushed out of the kitchen.

I'm getting old, Diana thought as she turned to again look at her husband and Caitlin on the monitor. Security didn't offer to teach me how to shoot a pulse rifle, and I'm a better shot than my daughter. Well, I used to be. Now – maybe not. She got up and walked to the other end of the kitchen where she stared at herself in one of the many-mirrored surfaces. Arlene is growing up – has become a woman – and that makes me feel old. I look twenty, she thought, running a hand through her hair, then turned to look at the profile of her breasts. But my baby has taken on a woman's role. Beyond that, even. She's a starship ... what? Pilot? Second in command? This can't be. How did she grow up so fast? And ... she's a Queen. Where is all this going?