The Last 24 Hours

We arrived at the lot and were face to face with a 2006 Travel Supreme RV. It was Raven Black in color, forty-two feet in length and had a Cummins four hundred horsepower diesel engine. It was, in a word, magnificent. It had all of the amenities and luxuries you could ask for. It also had an empty car hauler trailer attached to the back.

Beth and I got out of the Jeep Commander Paulee was driving, and looked at our new home-away-from-home. I walked over to Josh and asked, "You're sure your friend doesn't mind you loaning us this thing for the next two months? I mean this RV has to be worth at least three-hundred thousand dollars."

Josh corrected "Three-hundred-sixty-nine thousand and change. Carl doesn't mind because he's only doing a sixteen-month stretch upstate in the Western Missouri Correctional Center instead of the fifty years they tried to give him. As long as this" he patted the door of the RV "is not where his soon-to-be-ex wife can find it he doesn't care. In addition, it's um, collateral shall we say, for my fee. If he doesn't arrange payment soon it reverts to me anyway. So no, the owner doesn't care as long as you take care of my baby." This last he said with a wink as we all laughed.

Bill walked over to us and said, "I've swept it for bugs and tracking devices. Aside from the listed GPS unit and the unit from On Star, it's clean. Let me see your laptop Alex." I retrieved the case from the Jeep and set up the laptop. After it had booted up and I had logged on Bill pulled the 'sweeper' from his pocket and ran it over the Laptop several times. It remained silent.

Bill looked at me and asked, "Has anyone had this since you got it? Any techies or anybody?"

I smiled at him and Beth answered, "Bill, Alex is our resident techie and nobody touches his machines but him. He is an architect, but he also has a degree in computer science. It was a double major. Graduated Summa Cum Laude, I'll have you know. Highest honors in both disciplines, too." My sweet Beth hugged me as she spoke with pride of my accomplishments.

I blushed and said, "Give me a second." I ran a couple of logging programs that I had written and said, "Nobody else but me has used it since the day I booted it up. I don't even think Lisa knew I had it. I had it delivered at work, purchased through my company for our discounts but it's mine. Lisa locked me out the first day I took it home. She never really had access to it after that. It sat in my closet until I got it to show Beth her house."

Bill and Paulee looked at each other then at me, "You needed a laptop to show Ms. Taylor a house?"

Beth piped up, "No he needed it to show me a house. My mother didn't have anything to do with it!"

Bill had the grace to look chagrined. "I stand corrected. But why..."

Paulee interrupted him by tapping him on the shoulder and tapping his watch, Bill nodded, "We can do this later we need to get on the move. We're too exposed out here." Turning to Beth and I he asked, "Have either of you driven something this big before?"

We both answered in wonder, "No."

I went on, "I've driven smaller ones on vacation before but never one this big. I've never been in one over thirty feet before."

Paulee spoke, "That's close enough, and you'll pick it up quick. I'll drive us to the drop point. You two make a list of things we absolutely need before we get out of here. Then make a list of wants. Right now, time is not our friend. Once we get on the road out of here time will be ours to spend. But, for right now we are pushing it."

Beth and I gawped at him like a sideshow exhibit. They were the first words we had heard him speak and it was the most beautiful male voice I had ever heard. Beth looked as stunned as I was.

Bill smirked at Paulee and said, "I told you, you should be doing phone sex. You'd make a fortune."

The comment and the look it received brought Beth and I back to reality. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to insult or embarrass you. You have a beautiful voice is all." At his nod, Beth and I quickly unloaded the Jeep. We loaded our limited stash of clothing into the RV while Bill and Paulee made plans and consulted the road map. Josh loaded the Commander onto the car carrier.

I looked at the instrument panel and found a universal docking station for the laptop on the passenger side dashboard that seemed to be linked into the entertainment center as well. A CD labeled 'GPS Uplink installation' was sitting on the laptop-docking tray. There was a GPS Navigation system and back-up camera system. Techie that I am I could hardly wait to see how all of the gadgets worked. In the co-pilots chair there was a copy of the 2006 North American Road Atlas and RV Park guide (Large Print Edition) with DVD Navigation software for GPS navigation. I took the uplink software and moved back into the living area.

I was very excited, but put it on hold. Beth and I walked to the back of the RV and saw the biggest bed I'd ever seen and it was in an RV. Josh piped in "It's a Custom King Mattress and box spring. The choice was this or a California King-size and Carl went the extra for the best. It's never been anywhere so enjoy it. Each room, bed and bath, has its own climate control and the rest of the RV is serviced by another unit so you can be comfy."

He turned and pointed to the front of the RV, "There are four slide-outs, bedroom, living, bathroom, and kitchen. Once you're parked, you can open it up into a small apartment. The RV has an automatic air leveling system so you won't have to bother with leveling the thing once you park as the computer handles it. There is a six-megabit broadband satellite internet connection and TV system with all the stations. The Trac-Vision in-motion satellite dish tracks to the satellite automatically as well so you won't have to bother about it. You can watch TV in the living room and the bedroom, or access the internet even while you're moving. There is a twenty-four inch flat panel plasma screen in the bedroom and a thirty-two inch in the living room.

"There is a walk-in bathtub/shower with the hydrotherapy option in the bathroom big enough for two. The kitchen has a microwave, four-burner stovetop, oven, garbage disposal, and dishwasher. You also have a full-sized four-door refrigerator/freezer with an icemaker and water dispenser in the door and more freezer space in the bottom slide-drawer. There are three powered awnings and a compact stacking washer/dryer. Oh, and you can hook into just about any water supply, this rig has a built-in water purification system that's military grade. You could drop your siphon pump into any body of water, it's on a four hundred foot tether, and you would get fresh pure water to drink inside of two minutes. The filters by the way have a one million gallon capacity and, as I said they have never been used. The fresh water tank is huge so once you fill it you're good for a while. It's already been filled so you're good to go."

Josh's obvious pride led me to believe he had more than a passing hope that Carl would default on his payment. If Carl didn't default, I knew what Santa was bringing my good little brother-in-law-to-be for Christmas. I held out a hand and said "Thanks. I'll never be able to thank you enough for this, Josh" I held out my hand to him

Taking my hand Josh smiled at me nodded at Beth who was still checking things out, and said in a low voice so she wouldn't hear, "Make her happy and I'll owe you forever. She has loved you for fifteen years and she's been happier these last few days than I've seen her in all of that time. She had resigned herself to being alone and now she gets her hearts desire, you. I get mine in seeing her happy with you. All I ask is that you never hurt her on purpose."

I looked him in the eye and said, "That's a promise I'll have no trouble keeping. I love your sister more than I thought possible and I intend to show her that everyday for the rest of my life." He continued to look at me for a moment and then nodded.

He smiled sadly for a second and said, "You know if I didn't have clients to take care of I'd like go with you guys. It's not like I have much more going on at the moment." He sighed wistfully, "Anyway, you guys have fun. I'll be picking up a new cell number when I transfer service to Torrington. I'll have Dantzinger get it to you."

Shit! It wasn't until that moment that I had remembered. "Josh, where are you gonna stay? My place is history and you don't have an apartment or anything."

"I've already taken care of it. I'm going to see an apartment later today that Gayle told me about when I talked to her on the phone. From what she tells me it should suit my needs and is furnished. They want a short term lease and it's not far from Beth's place." He spoke again remembering, "Oh yeah, the cops are watching her place now too, by the way. They figure to catch anyone else who might be involved in this. I have a few suspicions but I need to talk to Dantzinger about them first."

Paulee poked his head into the RV and said "Josh? We need to leave now. The longer we're here the more chance someone will find us. Beth, Alex if you'd like to get comfortable we have about an hours drive. Bill has flagged down a cab for you Josh."

We nodded and Beth hugged her brother, "You had better be careful. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

Josh smiled at her, "I'm not going anywhere. I have to give the bride away at your wedding, remember? Besides I'm not ready to give them what they want just yet." He smiled fondly at her and kissed her forehead.

He turned to me and said, "With any luck we will have this mess cleared up quickly and this can be just what you wanted it to be, a pre-nuptial honeymoon. Be safe." With that, he turned and left the RV.

I hugged Beth to me and kissed her cheek, "He'll be okay Sweets. Rudy will take good care of him." I started to hug her when a thought occurred to me. We headed to the living area and I pulled out the laptop. It was the work of only a moment to install the uplink and map software. I also added the laptop to the internal network in the RV. I took it to the front and put it into the docking station cradle.

As it finished synchronizing with the RV, Paulee came into the RV and climbed into the driver's seat. I asked, "Rudy said there were more guards. Where are they?"

He smiled, "Mel and Michaels are shadowing Josh discreetly and Asa has gone ahead to check the drop point to make sure it's clear. Yuki will be covering us to make sure we aren't followed leaving town. You'll meet Asa and Yuki later at the drop point. Asa and Yuki will switch with me and Paulee so that you have a co-ed team with you both at all times." He turned back to the RV and started the big machine on its way.

I took a seat in the copilots chair and began to check out the software for the GPS unit and the internet connection. Beth sat on the couch behind Paulee with Bill and I put the laptop screen up on the big TV so they could see what I was doing, "I'm verifying our location and checking the speeds we get. This system is something else, Beth, just as good as what I had at home." I looked over my shoulder to see her smiling at me indulgently. She knew I was an unrepentant technophile, and always had been. I then showed her a trick I wanted Bill to see.

"Bill, this should interest you." The screen shifted to show the picture from the back-up camera. The image show several vehicles approaching and passing us. "This camera isn't usually active unless the transmission is in reverse. On this network setup however, I have complete control of it. It's on a one hundred-eighty degree pan-and-tilt mount letting us see the entire area behind the RV." We watched a little as traffic ebbed and flowed around us as we traveled to the freeway on-ramp to interstate forty-four east towards St. Louis. "We can check and make sure we aren't being followed without it being obvious. It also makes a good surveillance camera for when we park. This camera also has built-in night vision and ten-power optical zoom." I zoomed in on a driver several cars behind us and snapped a still photo of him with the software; the computer put the image up in a small window on the screen. It was as clear as if it had been taken inside the RV. "There are two other cameras identical to this one, one on each side that can also be activated at will. Whoever Carl is he was paranoid as hell to set this up like it is, but I can't fault him given my current circumstances." I sighed.

Bill looked suitably pleased and said, "Most impressive!" He motioned at the laptop and I moved to accommodate him.

I slid out of the chair and moved to the sink. I got a glass and filled it with water. I then moved back to the bedroom, I glanced back and saw Beth was following me as Bill climbed into the front seat and began to play around with the camera controls on the laptop. I entered the bedroom and left the door ajar for Beth. She closed it after she entered and climbed on to the large bed with me.

I sat stunned by her beauty yet again. As she crawled towards me, her breasts swayed with a gentle rhythm of her motion and the motion of the RV. Beth climbed up and on to me, draping herself over my body, her head resting on my chest. I stroked her hair and she looked up into my eyes. She asked, "What wrong Alex? You know you can tell me."

I looked into her eyes and felt the love radiating out of them. It helped to soothe my fears a bit. "Someone is trying to kill me and may try to hurt you; they may try for the girls; they have already tried for Lisa and now your brother is in the line of fire as well, all because of me. How many people have to be hurt because of me? How many will have to die to keep me safe?"

Her head flew off my chest and she sat up. She grabbed me roughly by the back of the head, her fingers tangling in my hair, and forced my face to within an inch of hers staring into my eyes. With a brutal fierceness, I hadn't realize she had in her, she spoke, "Don't you ever let me hear you say this is your fault again! All of this... this... this shit is Lisa's fault. She and her lovers set all of these things in motion. You are a target, not the assassin. You did nothing but give love and were betrayed for it. You are not to blame and I won't have you blaming yourself for this mess. DO YOU HEAR ME?!" As she spoke, tears traced a path down her right cheek. "I love you with all of my heart and we will live out our lives together. I will not stand for you blaming yourself for the actions of a few greedy bitches who tried to steal what your grandmother left you out of love."

With that, she pulled my head to hers and proceeded to kiss my worries away. I was finding it impossible to worry about anything when Beth was kissing me. Far too soon, she pulled away and draped her body back over mine as she had before. She looked up at me and said softly, "If we didn't have an audience so close by, I would try to see what making love in an RV is like." I smiled indulgently at her because I was thinking exactly the same thing.

I decided instead to talk to her about what she had said in the hotel suite. "Beth? Why did you call me 'Master' last night? Do you want me to be a... a... dominant, I guess you could say? Do you want to have that kind of lifestyle? Bondage and the whole thing?" I looked at her uncertain what her response would be and, more importantly, what I wanted it to be.

She blushed, hid her eyes for a moment, looked back at me and said, "Last night I found out that, with you, and only with you, I like to be... restrained, I guess is the best word. I told you I had tried a little bondage before. When I tried it, it did nothing for me." Beth shuddered as she next spoke, "It took Cyndi over an hour to get me wet enough to take a small dildo without it hurting. She wanted to escalate to stronger things and I had no interest in going beyond what she had already tried."

I remembered Cyndi. My thoughts darkened. She was the most 'butch' of Beth's girlfriends and she hated me with a bloody passion from the moment she met me. She is also the only woman I had ever threatened with physical harm. The night Beth had broken it off with her, they'd had a major fight and Beth was sporting bruises on her arms and one shoulder. She had called me at three in the morning crying and I had rushed over to her place. I had been there about ten minutes when Cyndi showed up and smashed a potted plant from her patio through Beth's bay window. I dialed nine-one-one on my cell phone, told them where I was, and put it on speakerphone so they would have a recording of what happened. She was still screaming threats when the police arrived. Cyndi was arrested for aggravated menacing, assault and battery, as well as destruction of private property and disturbing the peace. Beth got a restraining order and Cyndi got six months probation and mandatory anger management counseling. She moved as soon as her probation was up and we had never heard any more about her.

I stiffened as I looked at my love. "If anything I do brings up bad memories you say so and it stops. No questions, no arguments, no recriminations, you hear me? I loved that you were so ready for me last night but if..." Beth had placed a hand on my lips.

"I've loved every last minute of what you did to, for and with me last night. I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. You are replacing the bad memories with lovely sensuous one that I'll always treasure. I want to explore this with you because I trust you not to hurt me on purpose. I trust you always to love me more than the pleasure you are getting from anything we are doing. I know you won't use it to humiliate me. I have given my body to you not just in words but also in fact and deed. You have done the same for me." She smiled at me, "I found out that with someone I trust," she traced a finger down my chest, "and most importantly, love , that I enjoy being controlled by you. I don't want to do it all the time and I do look forward to trying the same out on you someday soon. I don't like pain, Cyndi showed me that. You showed me that there are other aspects, tender, loving aspects, which I do like." She laid her head back down on my chest and snuggled as close to me as she could get.

"I want every moment of our lives to be about happiness and joy. I don't want to have to worry about the mundane world. You are now and forever my world." As she finished she snuggling down into me and stroked my chest. Soon, she had drifted into a light sleep. As I watched her sleep, I made a decision. There was nothing I wasn't prepared to do to keep Beth safe. I had just decided to be a very dangerous man.

~~~~~

I raised my head, fully awake and aware, an instant before Bill knocked on the door. He gently opened it and peaked in. "Alex? We're here. Paulee will be parking in a moment and then we'll be spending at least a couple of hours here getting ready, maybe more as we'll be going for supplies and waiting for Asa and Yuki to arrive." He looked at Beth and seeing her sleeping, restful beauty said, "You are a very lucky man. She is truly beautiful, just like you said."

I nodded and looked at Beth and said softly with a smile, "I know."

Beth opened her eyes and said, "Thank you both." Her grin telling us we'd been had. She snuggled in tighter to me and said, "We'll be out in a minute Bill." He nodded and closed the door. "So my love, are you ready to begin our great adventure?"

I smiled and said, "So long as you are by my side, I'm up for most anything." Beth stretched her hand down and felt my thigh and smiling said, "Maybe not all the way up but give me a minute." As she rubbed my cock through the fabric of my chino's.

I grabbed her hand and said, "Wicked woman! Don't start what we haven't time to finish." I took my other hand and teased her nipple. She groaned and sighed and said, "No fair Alex! If I can't tease you, you can't tease me." She looked up at me, lust and love both smoldering in her eyes. I sat forward and released the nipple I had been playing with and kissed her soundly.