Accidental dreams 05:
The crazy ladies in aisle three
With Chris back in the CEO chair, I transition to Grey Publishing. I start as a Review Editor under Elizabeth Morgan and Jack Hyde. The two different personalities are telling. Sexist, narcissistic Jack to BFF cheerleader Liz. They are both lazy, ass kissing and very talented as editors.
I find myself missing the grind of CEO. Chris is working good with Andrea and Roz. The management team I created is meshing well with my mercurial husband. The kids are strangely divided. Teddy strays with me, while Alex stays with Chris. Phoebe bounces back and forth between us both.
The world is slowly resolving as month three since Chris woke up. We arrive together, share lunch with the kids and then head home separately, I usually have to pry Alex from Christian office. But they must hold a set schedule. Next year they start kindergarten, with preschool over the summer. We can't wait or worry that this will come to pass.
I watch the birds float outside my window. Hannah my PA is a bright, city girl from Denver. We mesh and enjoy afternoon tea. Discussing the focus of the books under review and the direction the publishing is taking. I worry that Roche is just floating till retirement. I see the inner workings of the company. The top-heavy perks, salary raises and bonus are all against GEH policy.
Also, the large number of PA Jack and Liz have gone thru. Almost all left the Publishing field. I asked Taylor to review and dig into the issue. I had Barney, my IT guru, to install security cameras in my spaces. I feel someone has been in my office going thru my things.
My phone rings. "Hello?"
"Anna, get up here ASAP, Grey's having a meltdown with the WSU interview." Andrea screams over my husband's rage.
"Hannah watch Teddy, I rush to the elevator, getting to the CEO floor I watch a Blonde bombshell student, retreating. Begging forgiveness, she is in tears. "Christian!" I demand. He sputters, tearing his hair, turns and retreat back into his office. I see Alex on the couch crying.
"Alright Miss! What did you do?" She tries to get around me, I block her. Andrea and I heard her into meeting room. Forcing her to sit down. "What did you do"
Miss Kavanagh is trying to regain her composure. I lean in nearly nose to nose, "What did you do?"
She looks everywhere but in my eyes. Shit! She searching her mind for a lie that will spring her from this. Doesn't she realize that we have a tape of the whole thing. "You do know? Security tapes all press interviews." She screams a bolt for the door. Running into Elliot. he catches the falling girl. I grab her hair, yanking her back. Andrea pinches a nerve in my arm to release her. Elliot drags her out. Andrea holds me.
By the time I get into receptions they are gone, stomping in a temper tantrum. I march into Chris office, he is smiling at me. "Saw it on the monitor (pointing behind me on the wall) you are hot when your CEO mad." I laugh and crawl into his lap.
"What did she do?"
"She asked if you're my beard, since you were Mal in high School, and who was your lover to have the kids." I get all out of control raging mad, but he holds me tight in his arms. It nearly time to go home, before the blood disappears from my eyes. The children are very upset, Alex is thumping mad at her car seat. Teddy is trying to lighten the mood with fart joke Elliot has taught him.
Arriving home, I see Elliot truck in the drive. I hope he's ready to pay for teaching my kids these improper things. I'm not in the mood for Clown Grey tonight.
Walking in I see Elliot and they bitch Kavanagh. Chris grabs me, yelling for the kids and nannies to head upstairs. Dragging him into my living room, "What is she doing here!"
"Anna, stop, calm down, she is not the enemy. Let her explain." Elliot begs me.
"Alright 30 second." Chris commands.
"One of my co-workers hacked my notes and changed the question. Your IT guy Fred confirmed it ten minutes ago. I am so sorry. I didn't know who or why those questions popped up. As soon as I said them out loud, I was frightened and ashamed. Please forgive me." Kavanagh begs us. I see her eyes never leave mine, she is speaking the true.
"Ok. What now?" I ask.
"Her dad fired her. Accused her of lying against the roommate, senior news editor and the COO. Told her she's out of the business and family. This was the last straw, according to him. She is scheduled to be Valedictorian next week at WSU. Her neighbor called on the drive over here. Her stuff was dumped in the dumpster behind her apartment; Before the interview took place." Elliot explains.
"Its confirmed Anna and Christian." Taylor says behind us, I relax as Christian loosens his hold on me.
"Do you have a place to stay Miss Kavanagh?" I ask, she looks very guilty and shamed.
"Kate staying with me, at my place." Elliot says. Kate is blinking very fast at the news, turning very red.
"I am?" she sputters
Elliot sits next to her and pulls her hands into his. "yes, you are."
"Well, stay for dinner. its fish and chips night. Chris I'm getting a shower then I'll be down." I head upstairs finding my kids and nannies on the top step. Eavesdropping on us. "homework, clean up dinner. MOVE!" I startle them into motion.
Relaxing under the multiheaded shower sprays, letting today fade away. I feel my man's hands grabbing my hips. Kissing my neck and back. Letting my sex god cure my woes. Later at dinner, I start to have a good feeling that Kate a I will be friends if not sisters-in-law. As Elliot is clearly head over heels in love and she with him. The Man whore of Seattle is bagged by a Coed from Vancouver WSU.
The kids fall in line, after Alex warns Kate to not make her mother sad again or else. I laugh at my serious young daughter face and shirt covered in chocolate cake crumbs and icing. Teddy seconds the words then ask "Uncle Lliot are you and Katie getting your freak on now."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Two weeks later:
Kate begins her first week at Grey Publishing, as my social secretary and friend. Her mother brokered a deal to get her back in the family, but couldn't get her father to take her back into the business. Seems Daddy hire her former roommate Lea Williams, a budding artist; With a BA is commercial drafting. Kate and her mother suspect Daddy and Lea are more than friends.
The senior Kavanaghs don't exactly have a tight or closed marriage. Since Kates mother is sleeping with several of her designers' friends. If Chris even thinks I would accept shit like that, he deserves to have his balls nailed to the wall.
Even Man-whore Elliot and slutty Kate are demanding monogamy is their relationship. She is proving to be a very good, friend, sister-in-law and snoop. My personal company spy: wait that me, she's came after me, that makes her my side-kick industrial super spy. She smirks when I explain it to her.
Start of Kates second week, first thing Monday morning. I reformed Grey publishing, Roche is retired and gone. Max Pelletier is now COO, and he is bringing the company under GEH guidelines and practices. Several Editors quit within days, I made sure no golden parachutes or other bullshit. You do your job or you find somewhere else to slack.
Jack outwards is unchanged, but he digs in and works harder to hold his job. Liz is publicly supportive but Kate hears words leading us to believe she's stabbing me in the back. I watch both very carefully, paying attention to each's words and deeds.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Three weeks later:
Walking up stairs to lunch, I'm confronted by three of Taylors CPO. They escort me out of the stairwell into an elevator, to the garage; And into a SUV. Whisked to the Boeing Field, I'm airborne for where no one can tell me. all my electronics are dead. If Sawyer wasn't on the plane, I would be freaking out.
We land in a small airport outside of Ely Nevada. Meeting a rental jet, with Chris and the kids, Gail, Taylor, Taylors daughter Sophie and Mia. We are airborne in fifteen minutes, landing in Hawaii's Lanai island. We head to Our friends Larry Ellison's private beach house on the western shore of the island. Only Welch and Roz know where we have disappeared to.
On the plane, Christian explains my mother has disappeared from Florida with husband number five. A loser psychopath named Henry Mildes. Welch and Taylor suspect he may be the trigger man against my father.
Seem my mother alibis was good, she was in Georgia. She was publicly seen in Savannah at a hotel bar. Video showed her using two cell phones. Her personal one and a burner. She is seen outside on the river walk tossing something into the river. Less than thirty minutes after my father was killed. Morton's alibi also checked out.
Seems Mildes was busted on an armed robber in Edmonton two days after the killings. Since I disappeared thirty days after Ray's death. With my suspicions on her and #3: they couldn't get out here till forty days after the killings. I suspect Mildes was suppose to grab me, control me till they could get out and claim me and the insurance and house(sell) money.
Till they surface, we are hiding in paradise. Long days sunning, swimming and nature hikes; fill the days. As two overheating couples fill the night. Lucky the kids are over joyed to be in the separates main house and we hold cottage north and Mia and Sawyer cottage south. "Kids, we love you but if you expect brothers and sisters. We have to practice really hard." I try to explain the noises.
"Ok, mommy. We understand." They walk away muttering, something they started to do. I hear words like parents, and freaking. And I want a brother, so you too stop picking on me. I shake my head, where did we get these kids. I blame Christian sperm. He points out my bookworm eggs.
Argument turns into sex, make up sex. Fight sex, so we can have make up sex. If I don't get pregnant here, I don't think I ever can. We are sneaking away every hour to get are freak on, make out or just conspire against Mia and Luke. Seems the kids caught them polar tanning down the beach and joined them. I thought the naked phase was over. Till the love-sick twosome started it again.
My shock when they walked in for cookies and an afternoon nap buck naked and complaining about tan lines. I almost fired the nannies, because they joined the nudist. OMG! I'm am killing everyone on this island to avoid the shame of seeing them tomorrow. Taylor is right with me, as Sophie walks in nude.
I don't know how I can walk around beet red over the nudist. Even Chris is begging me to join the hippies, since he converted. Which lasted ten minutes, till I threaten to become a nun. After a few days I have to go nude with just the girls which now included Gail: to explain how its ok, don't be ashamed of your body; but cloths are better. I seemed to convert them after a day of nudism.
Seemed Christian couldn't stop his reaction to my nude body nor Taylor to Gail's. I could hide a little of the wetness. They both started wearing board short bathing trunks. Once Christian started wearing cloth, the kids quickly followed. Mia and Luke and the other adult nudist are banded below the far south jetty as the only clothing optional area. Which the kids are forbidden to pass.
The one thing the kids have not rebelled against is the hard boundaries. I could overlook them rampaging in GEH build, but never step outside without a nannies and CPO. The one time they did I was in tears for hours. Three CPO, two nannies and four lobby guards stopped being employed by me within minutes of the failure. Taylor was beside himself over the failure, a simple ice cream vendor cart lured them outside. Could have been a trap, a kidnapping, anything. They were very sorry and worried over my break down. Visions of my mother waiting out there haunted me for weeks.
Elliot and Kate are in Paris working on a Green building technology; we are going to fund. The parents are in Australia on a medical mission, slash vacation. Mal and Jose are working at GEH in New York, Jose as an engineer and Mal in Accounting. A knee injury his first pro season ended his career. Roz and Gwen are holed up in Seattle. Theses two are the bait, they both volunteered.
Xxxxxx
New York: Union Square: day thirty-one of siege.
I spy the love birds working in their loft across the street. Looking at the monitors of the camera I have in place. Watching for other watching the love birds. I really wish they would close their shades during sex. I don't think any spot in that apartment is unused. Maybe the top of the eight-foot bookshelf, maybe I hope.
The other two hunters are sleeping. The six of us take four-hour shift. Three watchers, birddogs and three hunters. We are staking out the only available targets for the crazies. Scanning the sidewalks and empty apartments. I spot a guy trying to not looks suspicious on the roof of our building using an unmounted rifle scope.
Running to the bedroom. "UP! we have a target upstairs on the roof. Spotting with a sniper scope" The birddogs start doing their computer mojo, while we hunters arm up and head to the elevator and both stairwells. Surging up the three flights we converge on the roof. Moving towards the target we spot him assembling his rifle. Stupid shit. I switch to a traq gun, we want him alive.
He raises up, squirming into a shoot position. I take the chance and fire. The dart floats in the wind, strike high between the shoulder blades. He nearly falls over the edge, before me haul him back. The dart pierced his spine, clear liquid bleeds from the wound, before blood appears. Good! He will never shoot anyone else.
The FBI hauls him away babbling about Anna, Ray's daughter. About how Ray begged for her life. Wallace breaks, striding before we can stop him. Driving his k-bar into Mildes groin. The blood spurts out. the EMT save his sorry life. I grab his severed junk and throw it into a sewer. No Bobbitt miracle for his sorry ass.
The FBI want to charge us, but me will be in Iraq Tomorrow. A new team will be watching for the bitch. We all remember Ray Steele our EXO in Delta. Little Annie, sweet Annie. The FBI let us go, the Welch and Quantico match Mildes to two border patrol murders in Texas.
Jose-pov
Watching the ruckus on the roof, we breath easier. The apartment was custom build for Anna and Christian love nest away from their penthouse on central park and the kids, including bullet resistance windows and walls. Now if Carla would just raise her head. I so want to kill her; dark vision haunts me as Mal holds me.
The pain and misery of my mothers last years, the cancer, alone, with just me. The terror and unknown stress of his war days haunted her, with the reality that a simple fishing trip with his buddy killed him. Took her soulmate when she needed him most. The pain of Anna disappearance, losing my adopted big sister, her pseudo daughter. just when the sparkle was back in her eyes, after Morton.
We can't take the closing in walls of the apartment. We head over to the village for dinner. Walking over we float thru Nieman Marcus store. Mal is hoping the fashion will improve my mood. I see several good outfits for us and Anna, mia and Kate. My three dressing trees, smirking at the image of pouting Mia. I dress her better than she does herself.
Looking over a winter formal, I hear a pig scream. Turning I see two older women fighting in the aisle. Walking towards them I see our shadows drawing guns, rubber necking around, looking for the threat. I don't see it just a couple of crazy ladies in the aisle.
Till Mal tackles me, "BANG, BANG_BANG!"
Rising up we see one of the crazies with a gun in her hand and blood rushing from hole in her head. Walking up I see the tattoo on her wrist. Mal and Two CPO haul me off kicking the dead corpse of Carla Wilkes, Lambert, Steele, Morton, Adams, and Mildes. The bitch is dead, my father is avenged, my mother at peace. Justice has been done. I shake as the reality and tension leave my adrenaline depleted body. Looking from a makeup chair across the store. The other women walk up, she's older, seem familiar. I can't place her. She laughs at us.
"Jose, Jose, little Jose. Did you think your fairy godmother would forget about you? sorry it took this long to find you again. I just retired from the Army last year." My father's CID friend from Ft. Bragg. She helped hide me with the Cazadors'. The woman who encouraged me to be who I am, and help my father accept my being gay. The woman my mother called her sister. I hug her tight, feeling the love and pain. The nightmare is final over for me. I hope for Anna as well.