Chapter 3

It caught Pete completely by surprise when three years later Mr. Minotas walked into his small plumbing company office in Novato.

"You weren't all of that hard of a man to find Pete, but I respected your privacy and excellent reasons for your departure. I had demanded far more from a man, any man, than was possible. I have since accepted that my eldest daughter is quite lost to me and I have moved on with my life as best that this old man can."

"So, what has happened to Katharine?" Pete enquired, rather surprised that he actually cared at all about the answer.

"Pete, I do not blame you or even your unfortunate brother for what happened after you left. As I understand the facts, it was Kate who sought your brother out, attempting to spite you and get revenge on you that way, by throwing herself at him. After the party her drinking became worse, uncontrollable even, and at length I ejected her from the family house until she could behave. Instead she went to Rennie and the two of them only fueled the other's angers and thirsts. I do not think they loved, or even much liked each other, but their rage at their families was strong and they clung together out of spite. Both were arrested at least twice more for drunk driving and public intoxication and I let them stay in jail, at the mercy of the judge. He was not strict enough with them and they only paid fines and each received a suspended sentence, and the judge forbid both of them from drinking. Not long afterwards she caused a bad auto accident while they were both drunk that severely injured a young high school couple and they both were sent to jail for their parole violations."

"I'm very sorry to hear that news Sir."

"Don't be. She deserved her punishment. She served twenty-two months in prison and will be on parole for another three years still, forbidden to drink and with her driver's license permanently revoked. A just sentence in my opinion. She has a little apartment of her own and works at a dry cleaner that belongs to a friend of mine that owes me some favors, but she doesn't know that. She has not tried to contact me since her arrest and I'm allowing her to enjoy her freedom."

"Do you know what became of my brother, by any chance?"

"He served a short sentence for his parole violation, but then he was shortly rearrested after his release for another DUI and driving on a revoked license. I believe he is still in jail, but I think he might be eligible for parole again in a few months or so, if you care?"

"I'm frankly not sure that I do." Pete sincerely replied.

"Nor do I, but I do find it interesting that your brother did recently complete his journeyman plumbers certification while in prison. The prison jobs program contacted me and asked if we would hire him upon his release. May I do so?"

Pete nodded. That was interesting to Pete. He had completed his own journeyman certification under his father's tutorage right before going off to college. Rennie had never even completed half of his requirements and their father had long given up the hope that his oldest son could be a useful part of the family business. This was one of the final last straws that made Pete's father beg for him to leave school early and return home to help with the family business, along with the promise that Pete, not Rennie would receive his controlling shares in the business. If Rennie was now sober, and had finally completed his long overdue education ... and was willing to work, then Pete didn't see how he could say no. Perhaps his brother had begun finally to grow up and accept responsibility after all!

"What I am here for today," Mr. Minotas continued, "is purely business and business alone. I have had a small rather minor stroke recently and my doctor says I have some health weakness now and must rest more. I need you to come back and be my strong right hand again. The rest of the board is in full agreement that no one can do the job better. I need someone who can hold the reins firmly in my absence and stay the course and not make sharp turns unless necessary. You are that man Pete! Please, and I do say please ... come back to us!"

Well, he did say 'please' twice. Pete just nodded his head and the two partners shook hands again like old friends reunited.

The small plumbing business in Novato was just a minor little enterprise Peter had started to keep his mind and hands busy. He'd recently completed his own Master Plumber certification and worked jobs out of the office at least three days a week, and found he liked it. The business pretty much operated on a break-even basis and Pete soon found a young master plumber willing to buy the business for just the price of the equipment and the value of the outstanding accounts receivable. No extra cost for goodwill. A good deal for everyone and soon Pete was back down south in the coastal valley as the acting-president of Alliance, which had indeed prospered while he was gone. Even his original existing stock from the old merger had nearly doubled in value in the last three and a half years, not to mention the additional stock Mr. Minotas had given him years earlier, but Pete had never cared much for just making money.

Oddly, it was like Pete had just left three days ago, rather than three years. Nothing much had changed of importance at the company, so he had little trouble getting caught up to speed with current plans and projects.

It was after-hours when Pete realized that his life had been indeed stuck in a rut for those years inbetween. Bianca was more than a little miffed that Pete had just left from her life without saying much of anything other than a brief phone call goodbye at the time. They gradually got to become good friends again, but it seemed that their time as lovers had quite ended. Bianca was very hot and heavy now with a new very serious boyfriend and there was some anticipation that he would be proposing soon. At this stage, she was keeping her affections exclusive to him, but Pete had a slight hint or two that she missed some of the fun that they used to have together.

Pete wasn't quite sure why he wanted to reinitiate contact with Katherine. It was just a subtle internal nagging that kept suggesting that he should toss some old dirty shirts into the back of his car and pay a visit to that dry cleaners and then act 'surprised' to find her working there. At first he thought that this was rather too bold and potentially embarrassing for her, to be caught working a near minimum wage job, but a quick investigation of her current habits showed that she worked her job and went right home every night. If she went to the grocery store it was usually late at night and she avoided restaurants and didn't often go to the movies either.

Katherine's previous need for constant amusement and fun had certainly decreased somewhat over the last few years. Maybe she was finally starting to grow up as well. Maybe also, he was privately admitting, there was something about their confrontational relationship that he missed. He had been firm in their previous relationship, but now it seemed that he had some greater confidence within him now that he had previously lacked. Kate by all accounts was still a bitch and an utter shrew, but for some reason he thought she was worth taking one more try at!

"Hello Katherine, you're looking well." And Pete thought she did. Her face and skin looked much better than it did back when she was regularly drinking and her eyes didn't quite have the look of focused deranged intensity that they used to have. Oh, the animated spark was still there behind her eyes, but the furnace of rage had been banked down well into the range of civilized behavior now and it appeared that she was even capable of smiling at times now.

"I am. Doing alright these days. Not drinking, not even on any happy pills at the moment. Just me, myself and I ... together, and mostly getting along with each other." She said with a smile. She had been not at all surprised by his sudden re-appearance, so Pete suspected that someone had forewarned her. That was alright, as it seems that she was quite in the mood to be friendly.

"I'm very glad to hear that, Kate. I think I would like it if we could become at least friends ... with no pressures."

"I'd like that too, Pete. Father had certain ... ideas and plans for us, and he was quite beside himself when you suddenly left. I know that I didn't fulfill at all my end of the bargain, and that a lot happened that I now regret, but I can't change it." She shrugged.

Pete didn't think some parts of her wanted to really change at all and now years later there were just different sorts of regrets; that once she used to be able to have fun and now she couldn't. The harder most obstreperous of her will was now becoming quite visible in her eye, and in the setting of her jaw.

"Would you then like to go out to dinner with me this evening? Casual, I could pick you up here after work or at your apartment. We could go to Marconi's ... but if you still don't care for the place, you can pick another restaurant." Pete could see the old irritation growing on her face so he sputtered out the invitation a bit faster than he would have preferred. It was sincere, but Kate declined, probably just out of sheer willful stubbornness.

"Oh no, I couldn't tonight ... sorry." She quickly stated, with a bit a sharpness in her tone. Just seeing him again was starting to awaken old bad memories for her and here and now was the chance for just a tiny bit of comeuppance. Pete shrugged, collected his laundry ticket for his three shirts and then left without a look behind him.

Katherine was sure that he would ask about another night, and eventually come to her begging — that if she played hard to get that this would just make him fight harder to win her once again. It was only a few weeks later that she suddenly realized that Pete wouldn't play that game with her; that in fact he hadn't (and wouldn't) even returned to collect his laundered shirts. It was cheaper, and less frustrating, to buy new ones.

As Pete had once said, 'words mean things'. Telling 'No', meant just that, no. Not, try again tomorrow when the answer would still be no, or the day after that, until she eventually 'forgave' him and said yes. She realized that she wanted to be pursued by him, but that by playing emotional games with him once again, right from the start of their new attempt at a relationship, that she'd punted it all away once again.

As the weeks turned into months, Katherine sadly realized that Pete had no need for her or her emotional tricks whatsoever and that he could find at least a thousand other women that were better behaved than she was, and just as pretty. He was handsome, strong, intelligent and good natured ... and rich entirely of his own doing even without her father's assistance, and late one evening, alone as always, in her bed she realized that she was indeed the queen of fuckups and that she had screwed and thrown away, twice, the best possible man who had ever entered her life! Feeling that her best chance for redemption was now forever lost, Katherine's world began to grow darker and more constricting until soon she was dependant once again upon her anti-depressant drugs to get through each day, let alone be able to get the ambition to get out of bed in the morning at all. How she avoided starting to drink again was a miracle that she never quite figured out.

To Katherine's delight a few months later, the notice of the engagement of her sister Bianca opened the door to a partial reunion with her family, and although Kate kept her small apartment in town, she could and did now spend some weekends at home with her family again. To her growing delight, she discovered that Pete was often at the family estate, bringing her father paperwork, discussing business options or even helping Bianca a bit with the growing wedding plans. Sometimes there are indeed third chances in life, she decided.

It would be honest to say that Pete hadn't quite forgotten about Kate either, but in practicality he had quite written her off. He'd seen that last look in her eye, and it more than hinted of annoyance and growing outrage. Kate didn't need a husband — she needed a lion tamer completely with a chair and a whip. The part that Pete was finding most disturbing was that sometimes now he had rather strong fantasies about wielding that whip. He wanted her, naked and at his feet, broken and obedient, her will now only to serve his. He started to have these thoughts often now, whenever he saw her, envisioning her nude with his whip in her mouth, eagerly begging him to wield it mercilessly upon her and then ravish her helpless obedient body afterwards. These thoughts never failed to make his cock as hard and thick as a redwood tree, and more than once he caught her eyes fixed upon his hardon, bulging down the side of his pants.

Pete had never been a wimp, even as a boy. He had lived in a house where he had had to fight for nearly everything. He'd usually lost, but he'd gained the quiet respect of his father in the process, and he'd learned how to fight harder and smarter with each and every defeat. Unlike his father, Pete had decided that he was going to firmly rule every single bit of his own life and now that he had found great success in business, ruling over the Alliance board room with ever-increasing confidence and determination, he must also keep control over any domestic realms as well.

To his eyes, always kept apparently focused upon something else other than Katherine during his visits, he still found himself remarking upon her beauty. Increasingly at night he remembered the time he had her across his lap as he paddled her ... and how that vivid memory made his cock rampant and rock hard. He had no shortage of casual girlfriends, but none had the combination of both angry pride and submission that stiffened his cock and his increasingly exotic erotic fantasies.

In their convergences, they exchanged not much other than hello's and goodbyes' for the next three months until the time of Bianca's wedding, but with this welcome event, both Pete and Katherine privately determined that they'd make the most of this singularly auspicious opportunity.

Bianca had received no shortage of masculine attentions over the years, and had a few alleged female lovers as well, if rumors were to be believed, and she had usually fairly successfully juggled at least three beau's at a time, not to mention her extra occasional flings with Pete. Once she met Oscar Tracy Bailey however, her heart went seriously aflutter and she dropped all of her other boyfriends and part-time lovers and had eyes only for him. Frankly, no one other than Bianca saw anything at all in the guy.

Women tended to be attracted to strong alpha male types that were tall, ruggedly handsome, smart, funny and filthy rich ... men a lot like Pete, but Oscar frankly had none of those things. He was a short skinny balding junior bank manager who dressed and acted a lot like an accountant, both in and out of a suit. Pete had gone out for a beer with him a couple of times and tried hard to get sort of friendly with the guy but it hadn't amounted to much. Oscar didn't even have any discernable interests in sports or even topless dancer bars, nor did he even like beer much. That made any male bonding considerably more complicated, and the bachelor party a rather boring bust when Oscar suggested a bowling alley for their party. The best man, a rather flamboyant burly gay bear, complete with black leather jacket, pants, chains and biker hat, was frankly the most interesting and liveliest person at the party, but still Pete was thankful when the evening was over.

The bachelorette party, the next night, true to Bianca and Katherine's wilder tastes and inclinations, was much more exotic and interesting. The girls and the bridesmaids were going to take the family private jet up to San Francisco and indulge in some serious partying at the famous (or infamous) strip clubs on Columbus. Most of the other bridesmaids had made their own pickup arrangements after the return flight home, but Pete agreed to be there to pickup Bianca and Katherine from the county airport and see that they got safely home.

To say that this return trip home was educational, would be an understatement, as Pete discovered exactly what Bianca saw in Oscar!

Pete had expected to pickup the girls at about 1 a.m. or so, at least according to the original plan. All during the evening, Pete had received regular updates from Bianca about how much fun the seven girls were having and how they would go to just 'one more club' before taking their limo back to the San Francisco airport. This continued all night until at last at about 3 a.m. they announced that they were finally on their way to the airport and home.