Chapter 34
Roger sat staring at his monitor screen, he was stuck on a word and the lingering effects of their hug still distracted him.
He briefly thought back to Ayesha's comment from their first trip to Arizona almost two years before.
"Never doubt a lamias instincts! That girl loves you and you are her protector."
Why did she have to say that and why was he brooding over it now?
There came a soft rap-rapping on his study door, he answered, "Yes? Who is it?"
The door opened silently and Anna in all her Victorian era finery entered the room.
He smiled and said, "Well, you certainly are a treat for the eyes tonight! Are you guys getting ready to leave?"
She smiled shyly and nodded a 'yes'.
Roger stood to get a better look at her as she executed a slow twirl for his benefit and finished it off with a warm smile.
She was very beautiful and his breath caught in his throat before he said softly, "You are one of the most beautiful women I have ever beheld in a lifetime of admiring beautiful women."
She grinned and said coyly, "Better not let Freya hear you say that."
Roger smiled and replied honestly, "Freya has nothing to fear, I already know she will become a true beauty in every sense of the word."
Anna smiled slightly and said softly, "I've already sensed the feelings you two have for each other, even if you won't admit to them, they're still there."
He was about to reply when Josephine came bustling in and said happily, "Well, we're all loaded up and ready to go!"
Roger smiled and walked them out to their rental car.
As he watched the red glow of their taillights disappear around the bend, he saw Freya trotting up the hill towards their house.
Her face was a mask of rage and frustration and her clothing looked a bit torn and tattered, something had happened to her.
Roger ran to her and she grabbed onto him in desperation, clinging to him tightly, he felt the wetness of her tears flowing freely from her eyes and soaking into his shirt.
Roger braced himself as her weight bore down on him while she cried and cried, he tried to ask what had happened, but she just wept freely.
He slowly sagged to the ground and held her tightly.
A car drove into the driveway and he heard the car door slamming while Anna's voice said in a strident tone, "Call them and tell them I can't make it tonight. I will be there tomorrow night and after that, you will go to sleep!"
Moments later, Anna's voice asked gently, "What happened to you? Did someone attack you?...Were you raped?"
Still clinging to Roger, Freya gasped out, "Nae, Ah wasnae raped...Ah was groped...Me friend Lorna an' Ah were playin' an' thes van full ay men stopped an' they grabbed us, Ah fought them off while she got away, 'til four ay them grabbed me arms an' put hands oan me."
Freya seemed to recover some of her composure and the two of them stood up again.
Roger pulled out his car keys and Anna asked, "What do you think you're doing?"
Roger growled, "I'm going to teach them a lesson in instant karma!" as he opened the van door.
Freya cried out , "Thaur waur six ay them!"
Roger grinned evilly and remarked, "Then it'll be a fair ass whippin!"
Anna stoutly declared, "Don't you dare leave until I get out of this crap!" then she nearly tore her elaborate outfit off, leaving her in her Victorian era undergarments.
Grabbing the van's passenger side door she said impatiently, "Well? What're you waiting for?"
Minutes later, they were pulling into the parking lot at the playground.
A group of men were playing basketball and whooping it up without a care in the world.
Freya said quietly, "Th' tall one, he led them an' groped me."
"Right!" muttered Roger and he exited the van first, strolling casually towards the ball players.
Stopping at the edge of the court he stood there smiling until the tall one Freya had pointed out, stopped playing and said, "Somethin' we can help you with?"
Roger grinned at him and asked innocently, "I was just wondering how tall you are."
He looked at Roger strangely and replied, "Six five, what's it to ya?"
Roger just grinned and replied tauntingly, "I wasn't aware you could stack shit that high!"
The tall man glared and retorted, "If you're lookin' for an ass whippin', you just came to the right place asshole!"
He suddenly lunged at him and Roger deftly stepped aside, grasping the man's outstretched hand with his right hand and using his left hand to hyperextend the man's elbow until a sickening crunch was plainly heard as the over stressed joint gave way.
The tall man fell to the pavement screaming and clutching at his ruined arm, Roger casually stepped alongside him and kicked the side of one of his legs, breaking the knee.
Roger finished him off by administering a couple of vicious kicks to his crotch.
The big man lay crying in agony while his friends all stood around in their uncertainty.
Roger turned to them and said grimly, "There's no point in you guys running, I've got your faces memorized and I will get to you. But first, I want you to meet someone dear to me and the reason why your friend will likely never have kids."
Roger whistled sharply and Freya stepped out of the van, she had taken off her long sleeve shirt and now wore her sleeveless top, her well muscled arms readily apparent.
Moments after that, Anna joined them, a slender, pale skinned blonde with a lithe muscularity and wearing little more than her underwear.
The men recognized Freya at once and one of them muttered, "That's that big bitch we played with!"
Freya glared at him and growled, "Thaur's oanly a body cheil fa can tooch me an' 'at's mah future guidman!"
He looked confused and said in puzzlement, "Th' fuck did you just say?"
Freya stepped forward suddenly.
Moving swiftly, she slammed a balled up fist into his solar plexus and he instantly doubled up in pain as she grabbed his head and brought her knee up sharply into his face, smashing his nose and staining her faded jeans with his blood.
As he fell to the pavement, his nose a bloody ruin, she hotly declared, "That's fur toochin' me!"
One of the men suddenly pulled a small shiny metal object from a pocket and Anna cried out sharply '"GUN!"
In a blur of movement, she disarmed him and broke his arm all in one motion.
He looked at her in stunned silence as her eyes blazed red while her ruddy lipped mouth opened and sharp fangs emerged from her pink gums.
She easily wrestled him to the pavement and fastened her mouth on his wrist to feed while Roger and Freya quickly finished off the remaining men.
The would be gun man lay there helplessly pinned down while Anna fed on him, his eyes staring vacantly upward at the darkening sky.
Roger and Freya quickly moved to block Anna from view as she fed, to protect her secret while the rest of the men lay unconscious on the pavement.
Anna soon raised her head from the man's wrist and she licked his wounds carefully to hasten the healing process.
Rising from his slumbering form, she went from man to man, carefully fogging and altering their memories of the evening's incident.
They would not remember who had beaten them all up and left them battered and bloodied on the basketball court.
Roger and the two ladies wasted little time in vacating the park playground and as they drove away, Roger looked up at the rear view mirror and saw a police patrol car entering the park.
He muttered half to himself, "I hope nobody saw us back there. Freya stands out so much, I probably should have left her at home."
Anna chuckled softly and remarked, "I fogged the memories of everyone in the vicinity, no one saw who did it, but they'll all think it was gang related."
Freya said grimly, "Ah needed tae be thaur, Ah needed tae punish th' lout who first tooched me. Ah needed tae e'en th' score."
A few minutes later they pulled into the driveway of the house and saw a police car and a nondescript old Toyota mini van waiting there.
Roger muttered, "Oh, shit! This could be trouble."
Standing there were a police sergeant and two civilians, Lorna Yamada and her father Toshiro "Toshi" Yamada.
Standing on the stoop of the house, was a very confused looking Josephine Dumont trying to answer their questions.
Exiting the van, Freya was glommed onto by a frantic Lorna Yamada, "Freya!" she cried, "Are you all right?! They didn't do anything really bad to you did they? I'm so sorry I ran, I should have stayed with you!"
Freya looked down at the girl who was nearly two feet shorter than her and replied, "Ah'm glad yoo're aw right, Ah got away frae them an' came back haem afterwards."
The sergeant approached Roger and as they shook hands in a familiar manner, he said, "We got a report of these jerks attempting to grab two girls who were playing basketball down at the park."
He glanced over at Freya and the Yamadas as they were talking, "Mr. Yamada here reported that his girl and Freya were accosted by these guys and that she got away while Freya stayed behind and fought them off."
Anna stepped out of the van and Josephine gasped, "Where have you been? I've been frantic, I had to cancel the book signing and I 've been trying to reach you on your phone!"
Josephine continued her fussing at Anna as they went into the house unchallenged by Sergeant Jonas, who seemingly did not notice Anna's presence.
Sergeant Jonas turned back to Roger and asked, "I've been monitoring the radio and it seems a patrol car found six men all beaten up and lying unconscious down at the playground. An ambulance has been dispatched to the scene to pick them up. Would you mind if I looked at your hands?"
Roger merely shrugged and he held out his hands for inspection.
Sergeant Jonas played his flashlight beam over his hands and saw nothing of note, no cuts or any signs of his hands being subjected to a recent traumatic event.
Not seeing anything suspicious about Roger's hands.
Sergeant Jonas stepped over to Freya and asked, "Do you mind if I look at your hands?"
Freya hesitated a bit and held out her long fingered hands with chipped nails.
Sergeant Jonas chuckled softly and said, "Your hands are just like my daughter's, she doesn't worry about keeping her nails neatly trimmed either."
The beam of his flashlight swept across her long legs and the bloodstain showed plainly just above her right knee.
"Oh? What happened here?" he asked, keeping his light on the bloodstain.
"How did this happen? Your pants aren't torn. Care to explain this?"
Freya looked very uncomfortable and when she looked to Roger for an answer, he could only say,
"Answer his question dear, everything will be fine."
She drew breath and replied, "Ah was at th' playground wi' mah mukker as' these loots cam up tae us an' began tryin' tae grab us. Ah fooght wi' them an' Lorna got awa', fower ay them grabbed mah arms an' held me while th' other twa groped atween mah legs an' inside mah sark.
"Ah broke free an' cam haem. Ah foond Roger an' we cam back tae teach them a lesson. Miss Anna joined us an' we taught them a lesson. Ah got th' bluid oan mah keks when ah broke his beak wi' mah knee."
Sergeant Jonas blinked a couple of times and he slowly replied, "Let me see if I got this... These guys started grabbing you and your friend... You fought an she got away... They pinned your arms and groped you in a lewd manner... You got away and came home to get Roger, you were joined by this 'Miss Anna' and you three went back and taught them a lesson. And somehow, blood got on your pants during all of this?"
Sergeant Jonas looked at Freya expectantly and she nodded a 'yes', he glanced over at Roger and said somewhat testily, "You didn't mention any of this to me, why not?"
Roger smiled at him and replied pleasantly, "No disrespect intended sergeant, but you never actually asked if I was involved in any of this. You only looked at my hands for any cuts from being in a fight."
Sergeant Jonas gave him an expressionless look and muttered, "I can do without the barracks lawyer tricks. I know you're ex military and probably know a few things about kicking ass without messing up your hands."
Roger smirked and replied mildly, "Okay, fair enough. Freya came home very upset and we went to go deal with those idiots. I know I should've called you guys in, but those assholes would've just denied everything even with Freya and Lorna both swearing on a stack of bibles.
"Anna decided to join us and it's a good thing she did, because one them pulled a gun and she disarmed him, accidentally breaking his arm in the process."
"Do you know where that gun went?"
"Not a clue, it happened pretty quickly and I was kinda busy at the time."
"Yes, you were busy committing mayhem at the time."
"It was also three against six, so that whole Marquis of Queensbury rules thing was not happening."
"Point taken. Tell you what I'm gonna do, I'm going to edit your statements a little bit to minimize your role in their beating. The officers who responded, haven't found any witnesses to what happened, so I can only go by your own statements.
"I'm almost tempted to walk away from this and let it go."
Freya, who had been listening quietly spoke up, "Whit does thes mean? Arenae Ah in trooble?"
Sergeant Jonas smiled up at her and replied, "You didn't do anything wrong, though officially, you should have let the police handle this.
"You do have the right to defend yourself and you exercised that right pretty well, apparently."
Freya looked greatly relieved and she and Lorna hugged briefly to everyone's delight.
Sergeant Jonas was about to get in his car when he stopped and asked, "By the way...How old are you now Freya?"
"Twelve summers." she replied.
He gaped and said, "Waitaminnit! You're only twelve years old? I keep forgetting how young you are because of your size!"
He frowned and called his subordinates down at the playground.
When the officer in charge responded, Sergeant Jonas remarked, "You might want to add child molesting to the charges against the detainees, these girls are only twelve years old and one of them was groped pretty thoroughly. Also, look around for a gun, one was pulled during the fight and may still be in the area."
Closing his phone Sergeant Jonas said, "I'm going down to the park to see what I can find out. I'm letting this slide for now, so keep it clean people."
He stepped into his patrol car and soon, they watched his taillights disappearing around the bend.
For several moments, no one spoke until Roger said, "Would you like to come in for a bit of tea or something?"
Lorna looked at her father and he smiled slightly, she smiled at Roger and replied, "Tea would be very nice, thank you!"
He led them inside where they found Anna and Josephine sipping tea in the kitchen.
Anna had changed into something a bit more demure while Josephine still wore a pantsuit.
Roger smiled at her and said pleasantly, "Somehow you escaped notice while we were talking with Sergeant Jonas."
Anna merely smiled and replied coyly, "A skill I acquired over the years to avoid overly enthusiastic fans."
"Ah."
Roger introduced Anna and Josephine to the Yamadas and said, "They're here to attend a couple of book signing events and I invited them to stay with us."
Toshiro Yamada smiled and nodded politely while Lorna remarked, "I've heard of your books, one of our classmates likes to read them and she's always writing stuff of her own."
Glancing at Freya's looming form she asked her, "What's her name?...Anita, Anita Larsen, that's it! She's a little out there, but she's always been nice to me."
Anna smiled at Lorna and said amiably, "We met at Powell's a couple of nights ago and had coffee together afterwards. She's actually very nice and she's a very talented young writer, I gave her my contact info so we can stay in touch."
Lorna grinned and said cheerfully, "That's pretty cool, I'll bet she was really stoked about that!"
Toshiro Yamada glanced at the wall clock and said regretfully, "It has been nice and we're glad to know you're okay Freya. Unfortunately, we do have to be at the shop early tomorrow morning to get everything ready to open, but Lorna was very concerned about your well being and would not let up until I brought her here. "
He briefly glanced around at the interior of the parlour, his eyes sweeping over the bookcases and display cases.
He smiled and remarked, "I see now what she meant by your house is like living in a museum."
Lorna squirmed and exclaimed, "Dad! You're embarrassing me!"
Roger laughed and replied cheerfully, "It's all my fault actually, and you should have seen it before I donated much of my collection to the museum I work for. It was more like a warehouse back then!"
Mr. Yamada chuckled and remarked, "Like that scene in that movie, with the Ark being boxed up and stored in a vast warehouse?"
Roger grinned and replied, "Well, not quite that bad, but close!"
Toshiro smiled and commented, "My grandparents house in Hokkaido has a storage building like that, it's full of old things left over from centuries ago. My uncle in Japan pretty much keeps track of it and resists the idea of getting rid of it."
Roger smiled and remarked, "I could easily become friends with your uncle. It must be very nice to know your family's roots like that. I grew up in foster homes and know almost nothing about my family, except my name."
They walked the Yamadas out to their van and thanked them for their concern, promising to come in for a nice bowl of ramen very soon.
Watching the taillights disappearing around the bend, Roger felt Freya taking his hand in hers, a habit of hers since they'd first met, except now her long fingered hand was larger than his.
He squeezed her hand and said quietly, "I know you held back on those jerks, otherwise, we'd be dealing with a manslaughter in self defense case. For whatever it's worth, thank you for your restraint."
Freya let go of his hand and swept him into her arms, holding him closely as she murmured, "Ah wanted tae hurt them badly fur whit they did, it hurt me tae get tooched loch 'at. If Ah wasnae representin' me fowk, Ah woods have held naethin' back."
Roger gently squeezed his towering young companion as she wept almost silently while he held her, his head nestled between her budding breasts.
He closed his eyes and simply held her for as long as she needed it.
His shirt was fairly damp by the time he and Freya separated and went inside the house.