Aleidoscope Eyes

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Any references to sex by characters in this story involve ONLY persons 18 years of age or older. Warning! There is reference to Non-Consensual sex—if that is not to your liking, then feel free to pass on this story; I will understand. Also, there are some mild racial references that are not necessarily PC, but, unfortunately, reflect attitudes that still exist in rural Virginia.

Kudos to blackrandl1958 and her crew, including Qhml1, Stev2244, DFWBeast, Laptopwriter, HDK, Girlinthemoon, and SleeperyJim, for giving my initial draft of this story a thorough review—and a very-well-deserved slicing-and-dicing. Thanks to all of you; but especially Randi for inviting me along on this adventure and for being honest with me. She really insists on trying to make me a better writer and I appreciate it. ~ Flavian.

****

By Wednesday evening, Ruthanne and I had made plans to get her entire family, as well as Mara, out of town ahead of the incursion by the law enforcement joint task force. I would have thought they might plan for a hit during daylight, but Darryl had indicated that two semis loaded with women and drugs were supposedly due in the early evening some time, according to a confidential informant. I was sort of glad, as that gave us more time to carry out the exit plan for Ruthanne's family and her... I guess I should start saying "our" daughter, Mara.

I was emphatic at first that I thought that we should focus simply on getting Ruthanne and Mara as our first priority, but Ruthanne was adamant.

"Russ," Ruthanne explained, "We simply won't be able to get near Mara unless Mama is with her. Even then, we would need to deal with Herman, that guy who Boyd assigned to live with them and watch them like a hawk."

"Well, then," I responded, "we will just have to get Herman and your mom to bring Mara to us."

Before Ruthanne could voice any objection, I went on. "Look, my friend with the task force, Darryl Crawford, said that we just need to let him know where we would be meeting and he would arrange for us all to be taken out safely. What about your dad; you didn't mention him; don't we need to get him out as well?"

"No," said Ruthanne, "They keep him under control by means of threats to Mama and Mara; and," at this, she snorted in disgust, "they reinforce the threat by letting, and even encouraging, Herman have sex with Mama, right there in Daddy's house, and even in his bed.

"Daddy is a proud man, and I know that it irks him, despite his being an otherwise peaceful man of God, but he is powerless to go up against Boyd's gang. And no one around here has the guts to stand with Dad in this. So, he suffers in solitude.

"But," Ruthanne continued, "They still let Dad leave town for short periods of time on church business. This week, there is a pastors' conference in Bristol that he is attending. He's not scheduled to be back until Saturday afternoon. If this thing is taking place Friday evening, then he will be out of harm's way when it all goes down. By the time he returns, it should be over and Mama, Mara, and I should be safely out of here while the Feds and the State and Local folks finish up with all of this."

Ruthanne suddenly got a strange gleam in her eye as we sat there in my motel room. This time, she was sitting on the edge of the bed while I was in the easy chair.

I watched her shift a bit and uncross her legs. She leaned back and appeared to thrust her chest out toward me slowly, but subtly. She began to smile seductively at me, and I must admit, Little Russ began to make his presence known.

Man! She was very really turning on the seduction, but this vixen was not the Ruthanne whom I remembered. The girl I remembered from five years ago had been sweet and loving. Believe me. 'Sweet and loving' was NOT what I was seeing then. Little Russ, who had begun to inflate for a moment, began to retreat as I realized this.

"Ruthanne," I said to her as I rose to stand before her, "we need to agree on a meeting place and you need to plan on how to get your mother and Mara there. So, what place do you have in mind?"

As suddenly 'sexed up' as Ruthanne had been a few seconds earlier, I guess my obvious rebuff and return to serious planning mode made her realize that her efforts were wasted at this point. Inwardly, I was glad to see her face reflect a change back to a more sober expression. I did detect a hint of annoyance, as well.

"How about over where this all began?" Ruthanne offered.

"You mean the Dairy Queen?" I asked, knowing what she meant, but deliberately playing dumb as a sort of a tease for a moment.

She stood up and reached out to push a soft punch toward my shoulder with her right hand in a loose fist.

"No, Silly," said Ruthanne, with a voice very similar in tone to that of the young girl I had begun falling in love with years ago. "I mean at the high school; and near the arbor." I swear, she actually blushed in remembrance of our intimate time there for a second.

Then she frowned. I guess what had happened there to her, to us, when Boyd had arrived to wreck out lives, must have floated across her memory stream as well.

"Anyway," said Ruthanne, shaking off that memory and looking hopefully at my face again, "it is only a couple of hundred yards down the highway from here."

"Why not here?" I asked. "At the motel?"

"Well, for one thing," said Ruthanne showing a touch of frustration, "that cop friend of yours showing up with his high-and-tight haircut, his black SUV, and his suit that did not come from Goodwill or Value Town, sorta gave away that this here motel is housing someone who might be tied to the law, and is therefore a threat to Boyd and his enterprises. I mean, this is a small town; and Boyd has eyes everywhere."

I could see what she meant. I began to believe that maybe we should have the pickup point even farther away than the high school, but there were not many places that offered enough space for quick entry by several SUVs and quick turn and exit. I guessed that the high school, with its parking lot big enough to handle several buses at one time, would prove ideal for a quick load-and-go.

As I had been thinking about this, Ruthanne had eased in close to me. She wrapped her arms gently around my neck, and pulled us into a soft, warm kiss that was so-o-o-o reminiscent of our first tender kiss five years ago. As she began to move her body against me and the passion began to increase, I was tempted to give in.

I remembered that, at the moment, this was a very sexually disturbed woman, and I did not want to fall into a trap laced with several consequences.

First was her mental state. I did not want to change drastically the strong emotional but positive memory of our previous time together by giving in to the obviously ramped-up lust machine inside of her that had somehow developed since I had seen her years ago. I figured that she would inevitably be sorry for her slutty lifestyle during this period in her life once she got some help with counseling, medication, or something. At any rate, I only wanted her to have sweet memories of any intimate times we might have together. At least, I hoped for more of those times in the future.

Second, we had to maintain our sense of what was important right now. The most important thing was focusing on getting us all out of here safely.

Third, she was still married. Even though she—and, evidently, Boyd—had not been very faithful to one another over the past few years, I still had sort of an old-fashioned outlook on marriage. I was not about to have sex with Ruthanne until after the 'Boyd situation' had been dealt with and she was no longer married to him.

Hell, even in my days as 'Rusty Collins', I had made a deliberate effort to stay away from the married ladies. The only reason that I had ended up in this town five years ago while riding with Dolores was because she had been divorced, or so she had told me when she gave me the lift from Atlanta. I had always wondered if she had lied to me about the 'Divorced' status that she had claimed after she suddenly had become so anxious to abandon me and return to 'him'. I guessed I would never know for sure.

These were the reasons that caused me to pull my head away from hers. Forcing a friendly, non-romantic smile on my face, I said, "So, the high school it is." I pulled her arms down and took her hands in mine.

"As soon as I get word about the time for the pickup from Darryl, I'll text you. Okay, Sweetie?" I had to throw in that simple term of endearment as a sop to her obvious negative reaction to my rejection of her seduction attempt. I saw her sigh with mild frustration, but then she smiled up at me.

"Okay," she said softly, turning away resignedly toward my room door.

"Russ," she said as she paused in the open doorway, "Are we... I mean, is there really a chance... well..." Here, she trailed off and stopped. I realized what she was asking and I smiled and answered her in as affectionate a tone as I could muster.

"Honey," and her face lit up at this appellation, "Once we have you and Mara and your family safely away from here; and after you have a chance to... recover from all of... this," Here, she looked mildly confused, but did not say anything as I continued; "I don't see why you and I cannot begin to see each other and find out if there is enough of a spark to begin to develop a real relationship. This time, we will start by getting to know each other as people, and not just 'passion puppies', as we did before."

She frowned for a second and I added, "As sweet as our first meeting was, we never really got to know each other as people: just as lovers. I would truly like to get to know the real Ruthanne Norwood; very much." And I gave her my best 'Rusty Collins' grin.

"After all, you and I DO have a beautiful child together and, in the best of worlds, that is how that child deserves her parents to be: together."

Ruthanne rushed back to me and wrapped me in a tight hug as she sobbed in what I really believed was happiness, and probably, for the first time in her adult life, hope.

****

Friday Night

For some weird reason, the start of that old song, "Stagger Lee," came to my mind.

"The night was clear;

and the moon was yellow;

and the leaves came tumbling down..."

Well, except that the leaves were still green, and definitely NOT tumbling down on this warm humid August night. And yes, that meant the mosquitoes were definitely out, but it was definitely clear and the moon was out.

I had gotten the text from Darryl the day before, Thursday afternoon, at around lunchtime, that the pickup would take place at twenty-hundred hours. Yeah, he still loved to talk in that Army twenty-four-hour time lingo. That translates to 8:00 PM in civilian time.

Anyway, I had texted Ruthanne with the information and had gotten a smiley-face emoji as her only response, and nothing else since then. I just prayed that she would be able to get there with her mother and our daughter on time for the big event.

I had not seen her Camaro in the motel lot since Wednesday night when she had left my room after our meeting. I had seen it when I went to get some ice later that night, but her car was gone when I stepped outside the next morning, Thursday.

That afternoon, I had gone through my routine of shedding my suit after an afternoon with Martha Harley, looking at yet another empty warehouse for sale, and responding non-committally to her flirtatious banter. After returning to my room and changing, I had gone for an early supper at the Waffle House at the truck stop—as I had learned in the Army: never pass up on the chance to eat before a big operation, as you never knew when the next opportunity might occur. I took my time in order to let the daylight wane a bit.

After eating, and tipping nicely, yet not overly so, in order not to engender any surprise at my generosity—or lack thereof—I strolled back to the motel. I walked past my rental RAV-4 and only then realized that I would have to find a way back here afterward to get it and return it to the rental office at the Newport News-Williamsburg Airport (Patrick Henry Field, as the locals still called it). I would take care of that later. I had more important things to do at that moment.

I took my laptop and anything else that was work-related and slipped back out nonchalantly to the RAV-4, placing these items in the foot well behind the driver's seat, and I locked the car by pressing the button on the key fob. It was irritating to hear the confirming chirp; I had not wanted to make any noise, but car technology being what it was... well, shit!

I gave the room a final check and, closing the door behind me, I ambled down toward the soft drink and snack machines. There was enough late-day gloom in that section of the motel and the parking lot that I was able to continue walking in relative shadow so that I could walk around the motel's west wing (my room being in the east wing) and out into the deepening shadow of the grassy lot behind the building, under a lot of trees.

It took me only about five minutes of walking to reach the back side of the high school. I could see the football field light stands against the remaining light from the horizon as the last glow of sunlight was disappearing. I looked at my watch to check the time.

7:44.

****

I had just reached the beautiful arbor beside the school where Ruthanne and I had consummated our love so long ago. I could not help but feel my heart thump a bit as I remembered those sweet moments fondly.

Then, again, as they had been years ago, the sweet moments were interrupted by bitter sounds.

"Well, well, well... lookie what we got hyeah!"

Boyd Simon! WTF?

I turned to the sound of his voice and saw, once again, the evil smiling face that I had never forgotten over the past five years.

"I didn't really connect things at first," said Boyd with a nasty smile that I could discern in the fading natural light, but highlighted a bit by the automatic security yard light that had come on a few minutes earlier at the far end of the near school wing. "But, now, I reckon that this is kind of a reenactment, of sorts; huh?"

I did not say anything, but simply looked at his right hand that was holding an automatic; probably at least a 9 mil, and I had stupidly left my Kimber Micro 9 packed up in the car—shit! I had naively counted on simply assembling the folks who needed evacuating and that there would be no threat—again, shit!

In a somewhat instinctive move, I moved my arms away from my body in a way that showed Boyd that I was not armed and posed a minimal threat. Remembering how mentally unsteady he had appeared to be years before, I did not want to trigger any emotional misunderstandings that could result in my getting shot.

Although, given the situation, it was more than likely that this was what Fate had in store for me tonight anyway.

"Let's see," Boyd started saying as he walked toward me from the sidewalk on which he had been standing. I was standing on the gravel surface of the little arbor. "The first time that you trespassed in my town, you tried to take my girl. And you were even able, somehow, to beat me to the prize of being the first one to get in her sweet pussy!"

Here, he snorted. "Not so sweet these days, I guess."

For some reason, I was just about to taunt Boyd about that. I mean, it looked as if I had nothing to lose either way. I really wanted him to feel my wrath at his history of mistreating her, and for him to suffer from just a bit of indignation, if I were going to die now anyway. That was put on hold as the big Escalade that I had encountered at the convenience store up on 58 a couple of weeks before pulled into the bus turn-around and then jumped the curb to stop just about twenty meters from the arbor where Boyd and I were standing. Boyd just glanced at it and smiled, so I knew that there was no relief for me coming from its arrival.

As it turned out, Hamp Wells was driving the big black Cadillac. He exited the driver's door as the huge guard, Herman, exited the rear door on the other side. The big guy pulled a struggling form out with him with his arm around her waist.

Mara! She was crying and trying to reach back toward someone still inside the SUV's back seat. The question as to 'who' was answered when her grandmother, Naomi Norwood, followed Herman and Mara out of the back, wearing her purse on a long strap diagonally across her left shoulder with the bag at her right hip. Hamp came around and opened the front passenger side front door and beckoned to a meek Ruthanne to get out.

"And now," Boyd seemed to have kept track of what he had been saying before the others had arrived. "Now, you come here, trespassing again, and tryin' to steal my wife and daughter from me!" At this point, his voice had begun to crack with the volume and obvious emotion behind what he was saying. The boy was losin' it.

"Boyd," Ruthanne shouted, "Don't hurt him!"

"Hurt him? Hurt him? Why, Honey, he is nothin' but a connivin' thief. And a man has-ta take extreme measures sometimes in order-ta protect what's his." Boyd looked at me with absolute hatred now, as he continued to rant.

"You can bet that he ain't-a-gonna survive to take anythin' from me or anyone else after tonight." And, suddenly, there was that maniacal laugh that I had remembered from that night long ago. He wasn't just loin' it. The boy had already LOST it.

While he was settling back down, Ruthanne had moved over to a spot beside me and she now attempted to talk soothingly to Boyd.

"Look, Boyd," she tried, "you know that I am tied to you and that I would never try to leave you, especially with some outsider like him." I was momentarily hurt and shocked by her statement until I realized that she was trying to placate him.

"Right," said Boyd sarcastically, "You say that now. But, I seem to remember a girl five years ago who pined and moaned about losing her first and only 'true love' when she got left behind by some Soldier-boy who had talked her out of her drawers and had then taken what was rightfully supposed to be mine!" He was getting riled again and the pistol was waving around erratically.

I glanced at Ruthanne, and I detected movement beyond her, past the Escalade: shadows of two or more moving figures coming from the gloom of the main building, stealthily and at a crouch.

"But this hyeah thievin' Soldier-boy is-a-gonna be leavin' for the last time tonight."

Several things happened so suddenly that they seemed to be simultaneous occurrences.

With a sudden whoosh and the rush of air coming from down blast of blades in the air, a helicopter that had evidently been traveling nape of the earth on the far side of the building suddenly climbed and cleared the roof by just a hair. A spotlight attached to the helicopter hit Boyd, causing him to startle and freeze for a second as he instinctively looked up into the light, temporarily dazzling him.

To my left, the two figures emerged from the shadows and caused Herman and Hamp to freeze as they realized that they were well covered by Darryl and, of all people, Sam Chaves. Both of the lawmen wore tactical vests and gear, but with different logos and lettering.

Naomi reached out and grabbed Mara from Herman and stood away, clear of the arrest action that was going on with Darryl and Sam. Another Deputy, a woman, I noticed, approached as Naomi put Mara down on the ground. Mara, still very frightened, grabbed her grandmother's leg with a death-grip while Naomi, for some reason, fumbled with the flap of her purse.

Boyd regained some semblance of his balance and a sense of what was happening as he brought up his handgun and aimed it at me with deliberate purpose. Just as he squeezed the trigger, Ruthanne either fell or jumped in front of me.