Chapter 24

Jeff, having forgotten about the gob of semen left on the floor earlier, since he had been so concerned with getting Helen to the hot tub and whatever small relief it offered, remembered as soon as he pushed the kitchen door open. Thankfully, Helen's evidence was cleaned up.

Boy, all I need is to have those guys come in here and see a big gob of semen on the floor after they knew that we had a little ceremony in here this morning. That would make even me blush. And they would be dropping comments for the next twenty years.

Grinning that the men had missed a good shot at him, he noticed that the table was set for five, so he assumed he would soon have the guys for company. Since whoever was going to cook hadn't shown up yet, he picked up a carafe of coffee, poured himself a cup and sat down at the smaller of the kitchen tables. A couple of minutes later, Frank, Dave, Bill and Fred filed in and immediately started ragging him about his appearance.

"Forgot to comb your hair this morning, eh, Jeff?" Fred said, laying a hand on Jeff's shoulder as he walked past.

Jeff, realizing that he was right, grinned. "Uh, I guess I did."

"Ah... he had more pressing things on his mind," Dave teased. "He was probably working hard, going over his plans for the fortress as he waited for his new wife to get ready."

"Hmmm," Wainwright said, looking at the side of Jeff's face. "Missed a patch or two of beard, also."

Jeff, remembering that Helen had started giving him a blowjob as he was finishing shaving, couldn't remember if he had checked his face after shaving or not. Thinking about it, he didn't remember finishing. He put his hand on the side of his face, and sure enough, there was a little stubble on a spot or two.

"I do believe the man is blushing," Dave laughed.

Jeff knew he wasn't blushing, but there was no use denying it. They would only get worse.

"I don't believe we're going to do any shooting this morning," Wainwright said. "Well, maybe after Jeff takes his nap."

Bill didn't tease him, but he was grinning from ear to ear.

Jeff, trying to divert attention from himself, turned to the pilot and said, "I want to thank you again for the hurry-up flight. I know that had to have been rough on your two."

"No, problem, Mr. Matthews."

"Doggone it. Will you quit with the 'Mr.' I keep wanting to look over my shoulder to see if my dad is standing behind me," Jeff laughed to take the sting out of his words.

"Alright, alright, I'll try to remember," Madison said, a grin on his own face as he sat down with a cup of coffee.

They talked for fifteen minutes or so, and Jeff was wondering if the women had forgotten them, when the door swung open and Laura breezed in. Laughing, she grabbed Jeff and kissed him hard. "Wow, Baby," she said as she pulled back. "You're walking tall with your harem this morning. I hated to leave, but I got the general outline, anyway. Helen promised she would tell me everything later.

"Good morning, gentlemen," she said, turning to the others, almost bubbling. "And how are all of you this morning? It looks like our Alpha Male is a little worse for wear," she finished, mussing Jeff's hair even more as the men greeted her.

Turning away and prancing toward the work area, she called over her shoulder, "Everything is ready to go. I'll have breakfast on the table for you in ten minutes."

"Alpha Male?" Fred repeated, raising an eyebrow and looking at Jeff.

"Ah, it's just an inside joke," Jeff tried to downplay.

Dave snorted the coffee he was sipping, almost strangling. When Fred looked a question at him, Dave just grinned and shook his head. Captain Madison looked thoughtful, but didn't say anything.

Before anything else was said, the door flew open and Diana strode in. She didn't look at anyone, but instead walked to the other end of the long kitchen, turned and crooked a finger at Jeff.

"You better salute when you get there, Jeff," Dave said just loud enough for the men to hear, but nobody smarted off in response.

By the time Jeff got to the end of the kitchen, Diana and Laura were in conference. "What's up?" he said, knowing by Diana's body language that he was in trouble, and knew what it probably was.

"Helen is wrecked, his first wife quietly hissed. The outside of her pussy is swollen so badly it scares me. No telling what she is like inside. Go get the healer, Jeff."

"Baby, I already offered to do that, and tried to get her to stop before she was so swollen, but she wouldn't..."

"Go get the healer, Jeff. Right now! I'm not going to see her setting there in agony any longer. Oh, she says she is fine, but that's bullshit. Now go get the healer and fix her. Now." Looking over at the men, in a much more normal voice, she said, "They obviously know something is wrong. I'll smooth things over, and help Laura fix breakfast. Now hurry."

"What about Kathy?" Jeff started.

"The girls are going to show her our suite. They'll wait until you leave the suite to bring Kathy off the deck. Put the healer under your shirt or something. You'll pass each other in the hall." Anticipating Jeff, she continued, "I already told Helen that it's going to happen. She's made her point, but I'm not going to let her suffer. This is far beyond a sore vagina. She won't give you any shit. Now, please go, Jeff. I can't stand to see my sister-wife like this."

Startling Diana, and amusing Laura, he reached over, grabbed his first wife by the back of the neck, and kissed her hard for a few seconds. "I'm proud of you," he said, chuckling as he turned and strode toward the door.

"Be back in a little bit, guys. Go ahead and eat when it's ready. I'll get mine when I get back." Jeff said as he walked past.

"Are you talking about breakfast?" Fred "innocently" asked, trying not to grin, having seen the exchange between Diana and Jeff — an exchange that he labeled as an ass chewing.

In the suite, he entered the closet and picked up the healer where he kept her hidden unless she asked to be left in the bedroom with them at night.

{{{?? }}}

Putting her on his shoulder, he sat on the bed, relaxed and tried to concentrate.

Good morning my little friend. Helen, my new mate has...

He felt the world swirl around him, then their special place unfolded as they almost seemed to become one.

{{{ Amusement }}}

Yeah, I know, but she is hurting.

Shortly, he was walking down the hallway with the healer tucked under his right arm beneath his shirt. Just before they reached the deck where the hot tub was, they passed Jennie and Ann cutting up with Kathy as they walked toward the bedroom. Ann winked at him as they passed.

Helen was sitting on a chase lounge next to the tub with a big towel wrapped around her, Arlene and Melissa flanking her, the remains of a tray nearby. "Did I get you into trouble?" she asked, obviously concerned as Jeff knelt beside her.

"No, My Love," he lied as he leaned over and touched his lips to hers. When he broke the kiss, he brought the healer out, motioning for Helen to recline the chase lounge and lie back. Brushing the towel open down her front, he put the healer on her chest, then sat back on his heals and waited.

The blue beams came on, barely discernable in the sunlight. The healer chirped, then slowly moved down Helen's body. Helen's face turned red as the healer neared her groin, her body tensing, but the healer stopped just short of her mound.

After a moment, a tone of awe in her voice, Helen said, "That feels — odd," but she relaxed and closed her eyes.

Fifteen minutes later, the healer chirped again.

{{{ Amusement. A sense of accomplishment. }}}

Jeff picked the healer up, tucking her back into her hiding place, kissed his new wife, and left.

{{{??? }}}

Jeff stopped as he walked down the hallway. He had intended to put the healer in one of the closets in a conference room to conceal her, since the girls were showing Kathy the suite, but now he stopped.

After a moment, he went on into the conference room, locked the door and removed his shirt. Repositioning the healer, he waited for her to contour herself to his shoulders, then slipped his shirt back on.

Is that what you wanted, Little One?

{{{ Contentment. }}}

Oh, well, he thought, only Kathy, Bill and Fred don't know about the healer, and I doubt that they would notice the little bit of extra thickness across my shoulders.

As Jeff reentered the kitchen, the men were well on their way to finishing their breakfast. Diana set a hot cup of coffee at his place and piled scrambled eggs onto a platter. Laura added four biscuits that she had just taken from the oven, then added a steak just out of the frying pan.

Fred grinned over at Jeff as breakfast appeared in front of him, practically as he sat down. "Now that's timing," Fred chuckled, "I bet they couldn't do that again."

"No, not until tomorrow," Dave mysteriously said. At least it was an odd comment to those that didn't know about the women keeping track of Jeff.

"Yeah, they take good care of me," Jeff said, caressing Laura's arm as she split his biscuits and put a big dollop of butter in each one.

Bill looked on for a moment, then, "I can not conceive of my wife buttering my biscuits for me. Heck, I can't conceive of her baking biscuits for me. And I know those aren't ready made. I watched Laura put them in the oven."

Just to egg things on a little, Laura kissed Jeff like she wanted to become part of him, then laughing, went to do something else on the other side of the kitchen.

Diana set a big glass of orange juice by Jeff's plate, then kissed him as passionately as Laura had, just to make the men envious and to show them that everything was fine with the Matthews clan. Smiling, she went back to cleaning the cookware.

"And what have you got scheduled for us today?" Frank tried to innocently ask, but was obviously messing with Jeff.

"Well..." Jeff said, drawing things out. "I thought about taking a nap." Laughing as they did, he continued, "Seriously, I think we need to have a talk and bring Fred up to speed on the alarm system. As a matter of fact, other than the basics that you had time to show me, Frank, I need to learn about the system, too. Then we need to go over the fortress idea with him, and show him around the property."

"Fortress?" the detective asked.

Jeff pushed his plate back as he finished. "We might call it something else before it's finished, but that's what I initially said; although, that word might be a little misleading. We're talking about an extensive underground area, capable of supporting a number of people for a period of time — say a year — without outside intervention at all. That means clean air — free of any harmful chemicals or radiation — food, power, waste disposal, etc., plus a means of defense of any incidental assault. Say, marauding bands of individuals bent upon hurting us, or taking our food and possessions."

Pausing to take another bite, he continued, "That's where Fred comes in," he said, glancing at the others. "He has a military background, and extensive knowledge in weapons and surveillance. Coupled with Frank's technical knowledge and beyond state-of-the-art equipment, I think we can come up with a system that will be the optimum for keeping us, and our loved ones safe, should the shit hit the fan. Getting everyone together while we're still in the planning stage seems like the logical approach, rather than realize after our project in completed that we should have allowed for something that would seem obvious to either Fred or Frank.

"Fred has told me," he continuing as he nodded toward the detective, "that he isn't ready to move out here, yet. He wants to visit with his kids some, and let things settle for awhile, but I want to get his initial input, and get him on the payroll before he gets too far away from us," Jeff finished, winking at Fred.

Looking at the contractor, "Oh, and Dave, I've talked to the women and asked them to make a list of the things that they think they would need in our shelter. Helen got involved and made it a school research project, so those lists will probably be a lot more involved, and logically laid out. And you can bet that group of girls will think of things that we would never consider, not to mention what the women will come up with, and we want to be sure to get Margaret's input, too."

Dave spoke up. "Because of what happened, uh, I had to put off the feasibility study, or whatever the architects are calling it, until Monday. His people are coming out then to look the area over." Everyone knew that he was referring to the funeral.

Fred, realizing that Dave had become uncomfortable because of mentioning the rescheduling because of the funeral, cleared his throat and said. "I realize that all of you were affected by what happened, and I appreciate you have done. Jeff and his family would not have been able to get there in time if it hadn't been for you allowing him to use your plane, Mr. Wainwright. And Captain, you and your copilot worked a lot of extra hours after an already hectic workweek. And Mr. Henson, Jeff tells me that you and your wife took over and kept things running while he was gone. All of you — I appreciate it."

All the men downplayed anything they might have done. Dave and Frank, like Jeff, claimed there was no Mr. associated with his names. Jeff broke up the small amount of tension that had formed, especially with Fred now obviously thinking of his wife. "Let's get out of the way and go sit somewhere more comfortable," Jeff said after finishing the last of his orange juice.

Before they could get up, the kitchen door flew open and the rest of the women came in. Helen immediately plopped down in Jeff's lap and kissed him. "Wow," she teased, "We thought you would be taking a nap by now."

"Hah. And who do you expect to believe that, my newest wife. Every one of you knew exactly where I was," he said, tickling her until she giggled like one of her students.

Helen got up and joining the others as they all trooped out of the kitchen, leaving a quiet behind them.

"As I said, Jeff laughed, "before I was so, very nicely interrupted. Shall we go somewhere a little more comfortable to continue this conversation?"

After discussing the security system and the fortress for a while, they decided to give Fred a tour of the grounds to give him more of an idea about the general area they needed to secure.

Kathy found Bill coming out of his room. "Want to go for a walk, Captain?"

Bill laughed and returned, "Yeah, that sounds fine, pilot."

When they walked out the back, they saw the men on ATV's on the backside of the level area behind the range.

"That looks like fun, Bill."

"Looks like they have a couple more," he said, pointing to an open bay door of the garage. "Want to ride around a bit?"

Hesitating a moment, she answered, "No, I think I would still like to go for a walk."

They didn't say anything for a while, just more or less aimlessly wandered around the house where they found a bench in front under a large tree.

"So what do you think of the Matthews household?" Bill said, leaning back.

"Boy, now that's a loaded question," Kathy said, a smirk on her face as she sat down. "What you're really asking is what do I think about Jeff's harem? Isn't that right?"

Bills eyes crinkled with amusement as he looked over at his copilot. "Are we a bit touchy about that subject?" he responded, question for question, then continuing, "Actually, it's been obvious for a while, but seeing them here at their home does tend to make it a little more obvious, not to mention the wedding," he laughed."

"Obvious, as in they dote on him?"

"Yeah, that. But I noticed a while back."

Kathy sat up straighter. "Bill Madison, you didn't know anything about it until they told us Thursday night."

"Uh, well, I guess I did a little earlier. The last time they went to Georgia, Jeff came up and sat with me for a while, and... well, we got on the subject. After some conversation, he finally asked me how many of the women that I thought were his. I told him all of them, and he didn't deny it."

"And you didn't tell me?"

Bill laughed and crossed his legs. "What was I supposed to do? Say, 'Hey Kathy, did you know that Jeff is shagging all of them?'"

"Well, you could have warned me. When they told me, I must have looked like an idiot sitting there with my mouth open. Oh, I suspected something was going on, but not a harem."

"So what do you think of the Matthews household?"

"Well, I guess I was a little bit nervous when we first got here. But I was impressed with what he left that lady at the restaurant, and he didn't throw the money out on the table for all of us to see. I saw her take a folded bill from under a cup. I'm pretty sure what it was. Our table was close to the window, and we were parked right outside. Even if I hadn't seen the bill, I would have noticed the look on her face.

"But they don't act like rich people. They wouldn't let me get them a thing on the plane. They waited on themselves, and they didn't make a big deal out of it, either. And here, they include me in everything. They never even mention money, not even by inference."

A Steller's Jay saw them after it landed in a nearby tree. Eying them for a moment, he flew down and landed a few feet from them. Cocking his head from side to side, his plumb atop his head looking a little like a knight's helmet, he checked them out, then deciding that they looked like the people that gave him treats, he hopped closer, stopping about five feet away to stare at them.

"Oh, look, Bill, look. The Matthews' have feeding stations all around. But I didn't expect a Jay to be so tame. His blue is so intense it almost hurts your eyes."

Bill chuckled, and they enjoyed the bird for a moment, wishing that they had something to feed it. It got tired of the people that wouldn't cooperate, launched itself into the air, and was gone in a flash.

Kathy turned to look, but couldn't find the bird in the trees. Smiling, she continued, "The Matthews dress in jeans or shorts. They don't have servants, and from what I hear and saw in the kitchen, they cook their own food. Well, other than having the wedding catered. Of course, there was some serious money that walked into that living room last night. Those dresses didn't come cheap — and all of them identical. They told me that they all — except Helen — had on identical black outfits when they served for the meal. But hey, it was a wedding.

"Jenny told me that they had a cleaning service come in twice a week for a few hours, and even that is to keep up the part of the center that isn't used much — dusting and things like that, and to take care of the kitchen floor, and some of the hardwood floors. Like I said, they're not like any rich people that I've been around."

Bill snapped his fingers. "That's what I'm talking about. Hey, do you remember the ass in the hotel that we saw — what was it? Three or four times — throwing money around, making a big show out of being rich? I'll bet he doesn't have a hundredth what these people have, and he acted like he was better than everyone in his sight. I could name a few other times like that."

Kathy sighed, "Yeah, he almost gave that poor manager a nervous breakdown complaining about everything. Mr. Wainwright likes his limos, and rides in luxury on the plane, but he has never talked down to me. Not to say anything about just paying off all my bills. I still can't believe that."

Madison grew silent for a moment. "Jeff tried to get me to go with them just before I saw you. I don't know anything about building an underground 'fortress, ' but he tried his best to include me. The more I'm around these people, the more I respect them, harem or not. Heck all of the women hugged me as they got on the plane, and they've all done it at least once since we got here, thanking me for supposedly going out of my way for them. I kept telling them that it's my job, and a few extra hours now and then is something we're used to. But they just smiled, and said thanks, anyway."

"Yeah," Kathy smiled, "they've done the same thing to me. Heck, I'm so thrilled that things worked out the way they did, that I would have done it for free, just to get to fly."

"You'll get over that feeling," Bill laughed.

"Yeah, I guess I will, but I would never have gotten the chance if it weren't for you."

"Hey, kid, don't give me too much credit. I had an ulterior motive," he kidded, trying to raise his eyebrows up and down in a supposedly sinister expression.

"Hah," Kathy laughed. "I've never seen you even look at another woman."

"Well now, I look; I just don't touch. But seriously, my ulterior motive was to get a pilot that was trained the way I wanted, and who had the right attitude about the job, and about the company. Most young pilots get really tired of the amount of flying we have to do, and want to either be off with their families, or have some time to chase after the opposite sex. I can't blame them there, but I need someone that's willing to hang in there with me and get the job done."

Madison recrossed his legs and propped his arm on the back of the bench, turning more toward her. "Like Mr. Wainwright said, things will taper off soon, then we can take time off and enjoy life." Bill turned his glance away and seemed to stare at something on the ground, lost in thought for a moment, then he continued, "But we have to work when the work is there, and with this company, it tends to come in surges."

Kathy put her hand on his for a moment. "What's wrong Bill?"

"Wrong? Hey, nothing is wrong. I guess I'm still a little tired, is all," he said, slapping his hands on his thighs, then standing. "Why don't we walk down the driveway for a bit?"

"Okay," Kathy said, standing and following him.

"I want to see how far that slope drops off into the 'abyss' as Arlene calls it."

"Okay, but I don't know about looking into the abyss. I tend to be a little uptight about heights."

Bill stopped so quickly that Kathy almost stepped on his heels. "You, what?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Kathy sighed. "A pilot that's afraid of heights. But it's different in a plane. There for awhile, I couldn't breathe when we started up that driveway yesterday morning."

Madison chuckled as they continued on, now walking side by side.

A little later they reached the second switchback, and Bill leaned against the rail looking down. "Wow," he exclaimed, "that thing seems to go on forever. Here, Kathy, you can see it better from here," he teased.

Kathy, still standing in the middle of the road, said, "Oh, I can see it just fine from here. Maybe, too well. Come on, let's walk the rest of the way down."

Madison stopped his teasing, realizing that she was serious about being afraid of heights, the edge of the road still bothering her despite the double steel rail that make a wall almost four feet high. Turning, he walked with her down the center of the drive.

They walked on for a while just chatting until Kathy finally said, "You taught me to fly, you helped me study for my tests, and you told me about idiosyncrasies for several of the people from the company. You stood up for me when one of the politicians complained on me... But now you're lying to me."

They stopped as Bill turned to her. "What in the world are you talking about?"

"Bill Madison, something is wrong with you. For the last month, I've seen you, time and again, just sitting and staring. And there have been other things. Like what you just said back there on the bench."

"Kathy, I..."

"When you made that remark about things slacking off and enjoying life. What's wrong, Bill? Darnit, what are friends for if they can't help each other? I know that something is bothering you and..."

"My wife is fucking around on me," he bluntly said, turning and starting on down the drive.

Kathy stood for a second, then jogged to catch up. Grabbing his arm, she said, "Are you sure? I mean, we're gone all the time, well, at least for the last few months. How can you be sure? Maybe your wrong."

She wound down when she managed to stay with his long-legged-pace long enough to see that there were tears in his eyes. "Slow down, Bill. I can't walk that fast."

Madison, suddenly realizing that he was forcing her to almost run to stay with him, stopped. "I'm sorry, Kathy. I should never have said that. You have problems of your own. You don't need some old fart like me shedding his problems on you."

"'Old fart?' If I remember correctly from your last birthday, you're forty-four years old. I don't think that exactly qualifies for 'old fart.'"

"Well, it's too old to start over again."

Kathy pointed down the drive. "There's a big rock over there that looks just about right for a good seat. Why don't we sit down and you tell me about this? I'm a good listener, and if you're worried about me telling someone, then forget it. Number one, I don't have anyone to tell, and number two, I would never, anyway."

"Kathy, I'm not worried about your telling anyone. I know you better than that. Well, hell, it's just eating my guts out. I got married for life. I took my vows seriously, and I thought she had as well..."

They walked on down, stepped across the ditch on the inside of the drive, and sat down on the rock Kathy had pointed out.

They sat in silence for a while, then sighing, Madison said, "I guess you noticed how much more Linda rode with us this summer than she did last year." At Kathy's nod, he continued. "She usually has all kinds of plans for the summer, and well, after a while, I knew something was up, but I just couldn't figure out what.

"Well, I guess I mentioned it one time too many, and she started crying. After I got her settled down, she told me that her mother didn't love her any more, and was insisting that she go with me all the time. That was about a month into summer vacation and I had taken her to the mall one of the few times we were off. I knew she wasn't telling me everything, and I kept pushing her to tell me what was going on. Well she did..."

Madison cleared his throat, and when Kathy remained quiet, finally continued. "The gist of it was that she had become suspicious of her mother — had been for the last year — when she accidentally picked up the extension at the same time that Jill answered the phone. She said she almost hung up, but heard her mother say, 'Hi, sweetheart.' She listened to the whole conversation, some twenty minutes of it, where they were talking, very graphically, about what they were going to do to each other that night if Jill could 'get rid of the kid, ' so Jill could spend the night with him."

"Oh, crap," Kathy breathed. "That's some heavy stuff for a fifteen-year-old to hear her mother talking about." She squeezed his hand briefly as he continued.

"Yeah, and then Jill hit Linda with a less-than-subtle push to stay with one of her friends overnight, which she did. But Linda had this eating at her for a month before she broke down and told me about it. But that remark about getting rid of the kid was a mistake on Jill's part. My daughter went to Radio Shack and bought one of those phone recorders that activates when the phone is picked up. She has a half dozen tapes of the two of them talking."

"She did what?" Kathy said, laughing, leaning back briefly and clapping her hands.

"Well you know she's smart," Bill said, defensively.

"Oh, I know. I know. But a fifteen-year-old taping her mother talking to her boyfriend..." she finished, stifling a giggle.

Bill looked at Kathy for a moment then down at his feet. "That's not the worst of it. Linda's video camera has a motion setting. The camera comes on when it detects motion," he needlessly said. "The first night when she heard her mother talking about getting rid of the kid, Linda said she got to thinking. They had said something about doing it in 'his' bed. It dawned on her that the doctor was going to spend the night in my house and fuck her in my bed."

Looking back at Kathy, he grimaced. "Linda hid the camera on a shelf at the other end of the bedroom — we have a nice bedroom suite — zoomed the camera to show the bed, set it to come on with motion, then went to spend the night at her friend's house."

Kath cringed. "Bill, you don't have to tell me this. I know it's rough on you..."

Ignoring her remark, he continued, "Last Christmas, I bought her the most expensive digital video camera that I could find. The sound has a bit of an echo in it since the mike was at the other end of the room, but you can hear everything they said... along with everything else — and the picture is crystal clear. And she assures him that she'll get 'rid of the kid' any time he wants her to spend the night, or he wants to come to my house."