David & Jessi Ch. 03

"Damn, Girl, you have a vivid imagination and ask lots of questions I can't answer. As far as the office goes, right now it looks like it will be the spare bedroom in my apartment and we can bring a couple of extra folding chairs and set them at the folding table I use as a desk, and as far as the rest goes, the answer is a resounding NO! At least for the time being. Just kidding. We do have office space rented on the floor just below Thom's security company that we will move into when we do start up. It will be a bit tight at first, but I do think it will take off real fast and then the money will start pouring in so fast we will have to hire someone to push the wheelbarrow filled with the checks to the bank."

"Why not just have the checks sent to the bank? That way you can eliminate the guy on the wheelbarrow and concentrate his money towards my Mercedes."

"You are really something when you feel good, you know? I like it. I like you, and I cannot wait to get to really know you, the real you. It is going to be such an adventure. With you, adventure is the only apt term I can come up with as you are so amazing. Did I tell you I think you are beautiful?"

"You are a mess. If this thing between you and I works out, my family is just going to take you in and love you like crazy, and I will have to watch my sister as she will try to steal you away."

David told her "I have been thinking of how you would fit in with my mom and sister and the word that keeps coming to mind is wonderfully. Mom would have another daughter to talk to and love dearly and my sister would have a younger sister to talk to and confide in and share secrets and help plan family functions." He then laughed and told her that here they were talking about the potential future they might have and he wasn't too sure they would even have a present before long if things did not settle down for them. "Tell me about your family, please." He told her,

Not much to tell, really. My mom and dad are both high school teachers. Dad teaches some math, but mostly science which he loves, especially physics and geometry, he also teaches general science but calls it boring. Mom teaches English and literature and a class in creative writing which she says she loves and wishes the school would expand the program some so they could entice more students into it. She says it is amazing what sometimes comes out of some of those young minds. She has submitted many papers, stories, and essays to different media forums for publication and would love to see more. Truth be told, she would really like to see some of her own work published, especially a bestselling novel. I know she could do it and be great at it if she only had the time to devote to the endless research before the writing even starts. And there is Marie, my younger sister by 11 years. I think she was a bit of a surprise to mom and dad, but they adore every bone in her body and she is spoiled rotten. She is beyond beautiful, an excellent student, and will be a world class soccer player soon if she isn't already. Only the lack of money keeps her from pursuing her dream of being a member of the USA National Soccer Team at the next Olympics.

"Money? I thought all those teams paid for everything."

"They pretty much do once you reach the big time, but you have to first get there by going through many rounds of tryouts and playing with various teams around the country for 2 or 3 years before it happens, and those teams are notorious for not paying all that well. Abby Wambaugh is the highest paid female soccer player in the US and she makes about a half million a year, then it drops down to like Hope Solo, the greatest goalie the world has ever seen is only paid like 60 thousand by her team. If it was not for endorsements by different companies and individuals, then no one would ever play at that level as you simply could not afford to pay for all the travel and lodging expenses. Those endorsements can run someone like Hope Solo's annual income to like 4 million or more, but you have to have the exposure, fans, and sponsors and then endorsements. Besides, the USA team cannot legally pay them or they would lose their amateur status and be ineligible to play competively."

"Damn, I never knew that those circumstances existed. I thought they were all affluent people that were paid to play like other sports. Maybe when this company takes off we can become your sisters sponsor."

"Nope! No way, no how. Ain't gonna happen. If and when I take you around my family, my little sister is going to go for you big time and if you sponsored her, she would be like a sheet of flypaper, meaning stuck to you. I love her too much and would miss her badly, so I cannot in clear conscience kill her to keep her away. Besides, it would make mom and dad really mad." And she laughed loudly at her own joke.

They fixed and ate some lunch and went for a walk around the area to see what resources they might have and look at potential fighting positions in different areas. This place was easier to defend than the old campsite was he thought.

Later that afternoon they were lounging around under the trees when David got up to go check the approach to their hideout. He was thinking it should be called their hideout as they were for darn sure hiding out as the cops and everyone was looking for him so badly. Once he got to the rim, he noticed in the far distance a dust trail coming their way, but at a moderate and cautious rate of speed. David ran back to the tent and told Jessi what he had just seen and to get ready for another battle. He got their weapons out and checked them carefully before giving Jessi one of the Glocks and the AR-15 and taking up his own weapons made for the trail down the slope to the dessert floor.

Once on the floor and hidden from view, David took stock of the situation, and decided how best to take the fight to the intruders. When the approaching car got closer, David noticed that it was actually one of those old cars with the huge loud speakers mounted on the roof like they use for announcements and to ask for votes in small towns and at parades. This one slowed greatly and driving along the boulders that separated the desert floor from the base of the mountain started asking for the vinyl siding contractor to call his customer as soon as possible. He did this for maybe 3 minutes and then turned and headed back the way he had come. David looked at Jessi with a look of puzzlement and shrugged and Jessi said "What now??"

David put away the weapons and poured a cup of coffee and asked if Jessi wanted one but she said no so he sat his down and went to his pack and got a burner phone out and installed the battery and turned it on to cycle and then called the office. David again got the new girl and when he asked about Susanna, she told him she was still on convalescent leave and that she was the receptionist now and that Susanna had been offered a different position when she returned. David told her that when he got back to town that he would introduce himself to her fully but probably not tell her anything about where he had been or what he had been doing but that he would send her some flowers and a box of candy and offer her a lunch to apologize for all the agony he might have caused her, and to please put him on to Thom as quickly as possible. "You are that vinyl siding contractor person, aren't you? I keep hearing about you so that must be a heck of a project you have going." She said.

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you." He replied as Thom's phone rang. Thom picked up on the second ring and said "David!! How the hell are you my friend? Are you and your patient about ready to come home? Give us about 5 days and we will come and get you. Now, if the speaker phone is on, turn it off and walk away to where Jessi cannot hear you as she isn't going to like what I am going to say and what you will have to tell her when I am finished." David did as Thom asked and walked towards the canyon rim.

"This sound ominous Thom. What is up?"

"David, there was two moles, or rather a mole and a half. The actual and worst was mine and Jessica's friend Elton. We thought it was the OCU boss, but come to find out it was Elton, and he had a friend in OCU that did not know he was doing anything wrong other than have a conversation with an old friend and telling him what they were doing at work. It seems that Elton got into severe financial trouble because his wife had cancer and was sick and in all sorts of programs before she died and their insurance did not cover most of the experimental stuff, and then he has a daughter in an expensive private university bleeding him dry and he just succumbed to the temptation of the money the mob boys offered him for just a little information. Same old story......just a little seemingly harmless information to get their hooks in and then ask for a little more and then a little more and then demand even more. He was devastated when he found out that Jessica had been injured as he really did think of her as another daughter and loved her like one. He wrote a long letter naming names, dates, and times and then he swallowed his gun. The word went out and a warrant was issued for the whole mob family but before the warrant could be served, somebody blew the boss' car up with him and his chief assistant and his lawyer in it along with a driver and a bodyguard. Things are quiet now on that front, so Jessi will be safe.

"As for you, we are letting the world know the program is finished, tested, and ready to start finding and putting away cheats and thieves. The government has been in a frenzy wanting to shut us down and take over the application of this program and we have had many long discussions with them about the different options. After some long talks and much thought, I have come to the conclusion that we should go ahead and let them have it for these reasons: First, they will pay us, meaning you and me and our little company sixty million dollars, tax free, plus they will give us a 5% bonus commission on all the ill-gotten gains they find each year. I asked about how accurate their accounting would be and was assured that it would be both accurate and fair to us.

"What do you think, David? Is this going to be acceptable to you? Did I do a good job of negotiating with the super powers?"

David was quiet for a minute and said "Wow! I cannot believe all that has happened in such a short time. I don't know quite what to say. However, I do know that I think you did well on your, well, our deal with the Feds. I guess I will have to come in and sign some forms won't I? What are we going to do with our company now? Have you given it any thought? I have never given a lot of thought to anything other than what our original goal was, so I am at a bit of a loss."

Thom then told him that he had a couple of ideas that he would run by him after they got back home, but the best and his favorite was to move the whole operation to somewhere close to Denver and change the name to Mountaintop Security Consultants or maybe Mountaintop Security Services and offer all forms of security services like internet security, loss prevention, security, hardware, software, you name and they could supply it and asked what David thought.

David told him it all sounded amazing and he was just awed at the present time and would have to really think things over as they went along. And that he was anxious to get off that mountain and out of the woods and to stay out for a while.

Thom then asked David about Jessi, saying that it seemed to him that David had an extraordinarily deep interest and concern in her. David told him that he did in fact have those feelings and that he was bringing her into the business for several reasons not the least of which was because she is a trained investigator and was a degreed accountant and licensed and bonded CPA and wound be an invaluable asset to them and she was resigning from the FBI because she was excited about what they were doing.

Thom said that he didn't see a problem with that and that they would talk more when they got off the mountain. Thom then told him to save his battery, but to keep the phone handy and that in a couple of days he would call with the information about their pickup, and good luck with Jessi. David said that he had 3 phones left and that he would give one to Jessica so she could call her mom and dad and he would use one to call his mom and sister, leaving him with the phone he was on and one additional in his pack. Thom agreed with that idea.

David hung up and waited a minute before he headed back to where Jessi was anxiously waiting, curious about what was so private and important that David had to go off to talk.

When he got back to her, he took her into his arms and held her tightly and kissed her forehead, cheeks, and neck before he gave her a very tender and meaningful kiss on the lips, which she returned. When she pulled back, Jessi looked at David and asked what was wrong as she could tell something was upsetting him.

He led her over to where they could sit side by side and told her it was over and that in just a couple of days they would be picked up so they could go home. She was overjoyed at first, but noticing the look on David's face she also adopted a look of worry and told him she knew there was more and for him to continue.

David looked deep into her eyes and then he told her that he thought that he had fallen in love with her. He could not be sure as he had never had any kind of relationship with a woman before, but he knew that he did not want to ever be without Jessi in his life and by his side. She looked at him funny and asked if this was what had him looking so worried and he told her that it was part of it as he had never made such a statement to anyone before in his whole life, and it kind of scared him and was something that felt he had to say first.

"Come on, David, I think I am falling in love with you, too. Now, what is bothering you, I am a big girl, so just spit it out."

"Jessi, it is true that it is all over. You are now safe as safe can be. Someone blew the Mob boss that ordered the hit on you and his lawyer and chief assistants up. That is the good news, the bad news is that your friend Elton was the mole supplying the information on us to the mob. He evidently got into very serious money troubles with his wife's illness and his daughter's college and took some money to pass along a little almost innocent information, and that passing along built and built until it came to this. Elton did love you like a daughter, and was devastated when he heard you had been shot and wrote a long letter of confession naming names, dates, places and more on all the mob he knew about and then in his sorrow for his actions, he took his own life. I am so sorry, Honey. I know how much you loved him and how you respected him. Remember those thoughts and times and forget all the others. They are gone and will never come back.

"Now, the feds want our program and have made a disgustingly generous offer for it and I guess we will accept it as soon as I can get back and sign the papers. And, no, you are not out of a job before you even started it. We are going to reform, rename, relocate, and restructure our services and you, my dear, are going to be an integral part of it right from the start. You know the Denver area pretty well, and know where a state of the art security company with a lot of growth potential should be located and set up business. By the way, the interim name of our company is Mountaintop Security Services. What do you think?"

Jessi just sat there slack jawed with tears in her eyes for a minute and then leaned over and put her head on his shoulder waiting for him to wrap his arms around her, which he gladly did and just held her while she sobbed softly into his shoulder for a few minutes. Raising up, she wiped her eyes and told him that was the last time she would cry for Elton as he had passed from a loving mentor to a traitorous criminal that had almost gotten her and David killed several times. She would mourn the memories of a bygone time and forget the rest.

David sat down at his tree and Jessi came over and sat in his lap and put her arms loosely around his neck and told him that she knew a couple of places in the Denver area they might like, but if they had the money that there was a multitude of beautiful settings for a new office complex, depending on how large it was going to be. She said there were some very good commercial realtors in the Denver area and contact with one of them should be done for their ideas and input. She said that Stapleton Airport was on the wrong side of Denver for good business service if they wanted to be located in a quieter area and close to the mountains, so if they wanted a place along the hills and trees of the Front Range it should be a snap to find a suitable location for the business. It would be kind of fun to look and also a lot of fun and work, too, to get the business set up and functioning.

They just sat and talked about nothing in particular, but spending lots of time just talking about their plans for each other and how they were going to approach them, as well as getting to meet and get acquainted with each other's families. David's was closest, so they thought they might start there, but it would still be a while before they could meet due to all the business they had to conduct, and of course the authorities would have lots and lots of questions they wanted answers to about all the activities while out there. And the FBI and Justice Department would probably want to debrief and question them for a month. He told her that that was not going to happen if he and a good lawyer could help it. He did tell her that they needed to play dumb as a rock about any missing or dead bad guys. Jessi agreed with that whole heartedly, saying that the authorities were going to keep hounding them looking for a crack in their armor. He told her no problem. They did not hear anything, did not see anything, and did not do anything. She laughed and asked how he was going to explain her being kidnapped and shot. David told her she could explain what happened with the kidnapping and attempted murder, but dumb as dirt about anything else. However, if they made her swear an oath, it would be best to reconsider and come clean with everything. And in that case, David would take the blame or credit as the case may be about what happened to the assassins and how they were found.

The shadows were getting quite long by then and they quickly fixed a bite to eat and when they were finished and had cleaned up David went and got two more phones out of his pack and put one together and gave it to Jessi and told her to call her mom and dad and tell them what had happened and that she was alright and would be home the middle of the week. Jessi looked shocked and overjoyed and grabbed David and kissed him fiercely and said thanks so much as she took the phone.

Jessi placed her call and when her folks answered she had to convince them that it was really her and that she was alive and well, as the FBI had told her parents that she had been abducted by mobsters and the worst was feared. When she had them settled down she went into a quick and heavily modified version of what had been going on and then explained about David and her growing feelings for him and of their plans for her to resign from the FBI and go to work with David's new company in Denver. It got quiet for a minute and then Jessi handed the phone to David and told him that her mom and dad wanted to talk to him. David identified himself and told them they had a fantastic daughter and that he thought a lot of her and he had tried to take good care of her. They told him that they so greatly appreciated all his efforts to keep their Jessi alive and well and that they could hardly wait to meet him and thank him personally and then hear the real story of what had been going on for the past two and a half months. He told her that in a couple of weeks that things should settle down and that they could then visit them and get acquainted. David handed the phone back to Jessi and told her there was still some battery left so go ahead and talk if she wanted to and she did. He walked over and fixed two cups of coffee and took her one. For the first time, he was able to build up a bit of a fire for warmth and light as the danger had passed. Jessi smiled at him and said that the fire felt almost as good as getting to talk to her parents had been and that now it was his turn.