Lisa Ch. 08a: Evil

Leah nodded, turned pinker too, and then winced. "I've heard of that, using your mouth. Do you really have to ... swallow? Because, I don't think I can ..."

"I guess you don't have to. But men sure seem to like it."

"I really don't think I can ..." Leah said with a look of terror.

"It's not supposed to be scary ..." Jessica said. "If it's scary then it's not being done right. Two minutes ago you were excited about the whole thing. Look, when you see Corey, or think about him, do you get all tingly ... everywhere? I mean everywhere?" Jessica said when Leah was nodding her head. After a pause and some thought, Leah nodded again. "Then just go with that feeling. Believe me, it'll make you do things you never, ever, imagined you'd do. And don't worry, Corey will do the same. Are you okay?"

Leah nodded while observing Corey. "I definitely do get the tingles when I see him."

Settling back onto the sofa Leah looked over at Jessica's men crowded around Don and the laptop.

"I guess you know all about tingles." Leah said and then looked back at Jessica. "All the girls in the clan have the hots for Scott, Jim and Josh. And now that Riley and Angus aren't assholes, them too. They're terrifying, but hot. I get so tongue tied I act like an idiot around them. No I 'm serious." Leah added when Jessica laughed like she didn't believe her. "My brain goes to mush."

"Your brain sure wasn't mush when you told Jim and Josh off at the jam session." Jessica said.

"Yeah. I don't know what happened there. That was unusual, really threw me for a loop." She laughed, "And that's probably why they looked at me like I'd grown a second head ... I really never talk to them."

Jessica giggled remembering the expressions on Jim and Josh's faces.

"Dinner's ready!" Abe called and appeared next to the sofa holding a plate, and placing a chair behind him he sat down.

"I got it." Jim said limping toward them, hand out to Abe. "I'll feed her."

"You should go eat first." Jessica said when he switched places with Abe, "I'm really not that hungry ..."

"You have to eat Jess ... I'll get my food after." Jim said.

Sean and Corey had brought extra folding chairs over to accommodate everyone and Angus, Riley, Scott and Josh were setting some up around the sofa and settling onto them.

"All of you?" Jessica asked, "there won't be any food left."

"There's plenty." Abe said, "I made a huge batch."

There was a knock at the door and Mark opened it to let Sara, Amanda and Justine in. They made a beeline for the sofa.

"Hey Jess, how you doing?" Amanda asked.

"Better thanks."

"I guess we made it in time for dinner, huh?" Justine asked eyeing the plate that Jim held in his hand.

"Help yourselves." Abe said, nodding to the kitchen.

"You'd better get some food." Jessica said to the men when Sara, Amanda and Justine left for the kitchen.

"Nah, there'll be enough." Abe said, "I made enough for an army." And he followed the girls.

"Well I guess I'll get my dinner," Leah said struggling to get off the sofa, "Thanks ..." she said to Josh in a hushed voice when he took her hand to assist her.

Leah really hadn't been kidding. Once off the sofa Leah lowered her eyes and almost ran to the kitchen.

Jessica looked at the men, and they were looking at her. And although she was numb from her waist down she felt an odd phantom tingle. To say they were hot was a major understatement. Even weak and tired from their wounds their bodies were perfectly sculpted muscle. Coiled muscle. Seeming to strain at her. Jessica's phantom tingle roared and the men seemed to notice because a look of surprise crossed each of their faces as they looked from one another to Jessica, and then leaned forward in unison. Silence hung between them as the men's eyes moved over Jessica. Her face, her body, down to her blanket covered toes. Jessica took her time looking them over too ... faces, chests, arms, legs. Finally Josh looked over at the group of noisy eaters in the kitchen.

"Figures that for years we barely saw them ..." and he nodded at the group, "and now we never don't see them."

Jim cleared his throat, "We can tell them we need time alone."

"They could patrol the grounds ... they need to patrol the grounds." Angus added.

Jessica looked from Jim, who didn't seem to notice that he was holding a plate out in one hand and a fork mid-air in the other to Angus who looked as aroused as he'd sounded. But weak. Jessica looked Scott, Riley and Josh over too. Forcing herself to ignore her desires it was obvious that none of the men were physically fit enough to walk much less ravish her despite how much she or they may have wanted it.

She sighed and shook her head, "I can't do anything anyway. I'm completely numb, can't even feel or move my legs."

"You sure look like you feel something." Riley said, "You look really ... horny."

"I am ... kind of. It's weird, I want you and I remember what it feels like to want you ... but I can't actually feel anything. I don't think I can even move my legs."

"And, you're on an IV and a catheter." Scott said quietly, "Is it wrong that I want you anyway?"

"What the hell is wrong with us?" Jim demanded, "Christ." He shook his head and then suddenly realized that he was holding Jessica's food and fork. He scooped the food onto the fork, "Here, Jess have some before it gets cold."

"Nothing is wrong with you ..." Jessica said, "I want you too, remember? I mean, I guess we could ask for some time alone ..." she paused eyeing the IV hanging next to the sofa, "and work around the IV ..." and then she looked at the tube next to it where yellow liquid streamed by, "and the catheter ..."

"You wouldn't feel anything Jess ... what would be the point?" Angus asked looking at the tube filled with yellow too.

"But you would."

"Yeah, a whole lot of guilt." Riley said. "Thanks Jess, but no way would I let you do that, no way would any of us let you do that."

"Guilt?" Jessica demanded, "Why would you feel guilt?"

"Because. Despite what some of our history may suggest, we don't like to ... use you. We don't just need your body for sex. We want to pleasure you. And you can't be pleasured like this." Angus said waving his hand at the tubes attached to her.

"It wouldn't be using me if I wanted you to, but I know what you're saying. And, thank you."

Angus picked her hand up and kissed it.

"Besides," Jessica said when Jim started moving the fork toward her mouth again, "we won't have visitors forever, right? Once Don moves the money, and we find the safe house we won't need protection anymore. And it won't be long before we're better ... right? What's wrong?" Jessica asked when the men looked less than confident about things.

"Don ran into a small problem with the money transfer." Josh said.

"What problem?"

"Jess, eat this please, come on ...' Jim said. No sooner had Jessica accepted the food than Jim was back with another forkful.

"He's going to have to go to Daryl's place. His computer's not on so he can't find the info he needs." Scott said.

"Isn't that dangerous?" Jessica asked, "I can't eat anymore Jim. Have the rest, please ..."

"You barely ate." Jim said, "But don't worry about Don, he'll be in and out. And he won't be alone. Have some more, please ..."

Jessica accepted another forkful but then pressed her mouth shut and shook her head when Jim tried another. Jim sighed and ate it himself.

"I'll be fine." Don said. Don stood behind Riley, laptop in hand.

"You guys go eat, I'll show Jessica how to find Daryl's safe house." He said, lifting the laptop higher. Jessica looked around and noticed that everyone from the kitchen was now behind the sofa. Leah, Justine, Amanda and Sara were leaning on the back of it.

"Have a seat." Jim said getting off the chair, but rather than go get some food he, like the other men, tried to see what Don was doing on the computer.

"So, I have software that will go on the site of the company that supports Daryl's car's navigation system and allow us to see all of his previous destinations." Don said.

"Did you write the software yourself?" Jessica asked while Don typed and the laptop screen flickered.

"You betcha." Don said. "There, we're in." he said turning the laptop more toward Jessica. "Now I'll put in his license plate ... like I thought it was fake. Okay, that's fine..." he muttered to himself, "There's more than one way to skin a cat ..." he his fingers flew over the keyboard. Soon a list of addresses, dates and times scrolled over the screen. "And now we find the date of the attack. There." He said pointing at an address. "That's rural. That has to be it."

"But how do you know that it's not a friend's place?" Jessica asked.

"Two ways to be sure." Don said with a smile. "One, I'll search through this listing to see if he's been there before. CTRL F, put the address, ENTER ... nothing. Second," he said opening a new browser window, "I'll Google the site and see what it's listed as ... there it's a condemned farm house. You don't always get so lucky with that kind of search, but this time we did."

"That's ... amazing. Someday would you mind teaching me how you wrote that software? That was really cool." Jessica asked.

"Sure." Don said surprised and clearly pleased.

"You want to learn to code?" Scott asked.

Jessica nodded. "It looks really interesting ... and powerful."

"It looks really complicated." Angus said.

"I'm sure Jessica is smart enough." Don said, "It's not rocket science."

Riley'd been leaning over Jessica's head to see the laptop. He brought his hand to her good shoulder and squeezed. Jessica looked up, and smiled.

"That safe house is pretty far away." Riley said bringing his attention back to the laptop and squinting at the screen.

"Yeah." Don said typing something into the computer again, "It'll take us a couple of days to get there." He turned to Mark, "I think we should transfer the money while we're at Daryl's place. It won't take long." Then turning to Riley he said, "And we should head to the safe house right from there. It'll be faster."

Riley nodded.

"So we leave tomorrow." Angus said.

"What?" Jessica demanded.

"It'll just be a few days." Angus said.

"Where exactly are you going?" Jessica asked and her tone made everyone freeze. Angus looked from Jessica to Riley and then around the room. Everyone looked as surprised as he felt.

"To the safe house ..." Angus finally said, "with Don and Mark."

"No you're not." Jessica said and neither her tone or her expression left any room for argument.

"Jess ..." Riley began.

"No." she said snapping her eyes to Riley's and then back at Angus. "Neither of you are going anywhere."

"But Jess, Don and Mark need help." Scott said.

Jessica pinned Scott with her eyes and then swung them to Angus.

"You can barely walk. You would be more of a hindrance than a help. If Don and Mark need help someone else can go."

"We can still shoot a gun Jess," Riley said .

"But you can't run away. You go on at me about self-preservation. Now take your own advice. You are not going anywhere." Jessica said. Silence hung in the air. Jim looked around the room. Riley and Angus looked shocked, everyone else looked like they wanted to crawl under a rock, and Jessica looked as if she had every intention of getting up and making them stay.

The silence dragged. Jessica and Angus stared at one another. Jessica couldn't read Angus' expression. Her mind raced. What would she do if they didn't listen to her? Beg, plead, blackmail. She wasn't beyond making them stay in lieu of the sexual consequences that they said they'd let her have.

"Jess ..." Jim said finding his voice but completely unsure what to say.

"You're right." Angus said and nodded his head. He looked at Don "You'll have to go without us. Maybe Sean or Corey could go too." Turning his eyes back to Jessica he said, "Sorry Jess. Are you okay?"

Any color that Jessica had begun to get back in her cheeks had gone and she looked like she'd pass out.

"Jess?" Riley asked, shaking her shoulder.

Eventually she nodded but in truth she wasn't sure. Her heart thudded against her chest and the feeling of terror subsided. She had no idea what she would have done if Angus and Riley had insisted on going.

"Well. We have to go check on the animals ... check the parameter ..." Sean said. It was like he'd shot a starter pistol. Don shot off the sofa, everyone other than Riley, Angus, Scott, Josh and Jim disappeared.

Angus winced as he dropped to his knees next to the sofa. He cupped Jessica's cheek in his hand.

"I'm really sorry Jess. It was a stupid idea." Angus said.

"A really stupid idea." Jessica agreed.

"You guys sure know how to clear a room." Josh said with a laugh.

"Yeah Jessica you were pretty scary ..." Scott said.

"Me?" Jessica demanded, "I was scary ... I'm pretty sure that Angus cleared the room, not me."

"I don't think so." Angus said, "Even I was scared ... seriously!" he added when Jessica gave him a 'give me a break' look. "Honest Jess, I thought I was going to have my ass handed to me."

"By me ..." Jessica said, doubt evident in her voice.

"By you. I was half expecting your head to spin around ..." Riley said.

"Ha, ha." Jessica said.

"So, are we okay?" Angus asked.

"That depends. Do you have any other stupid ideas?"

"Ouch ..." Riley said, "We're not going to live this down are we?"

"I'm sure you will ... eventually." Jessica said and smiled. "Do you really think it will be that dangerous for Don, Stan and Mark?"

"So long as they don't run into any of Daryl's friends it should be a piece of cake." Josh said lowering himself onto a chair.

"Someone else should go with them then." Jessica said.

Scott nodded, "We'll make sure someone does. Don't worry."

"Um, Jess." Riley said looking toward the door when voices could be heard just outside it. "They must be done. The girls brought some movies and some magazines ... " he shook his head, "some of those fashion and gossip magazines that I'm not at all sure Sean would approve them having. Do you have enough energy for all that?"

Jessica nodded vigorously.

"I honestly never thought there'd be a day when we had the whole clan here." Angus said.

"The whole clan?" Jessica asked, her heart dropping. Beth wasn't here. She hoped she wasn't home all alone.

"Caleb isn't here." Jim said when Jessica's smile disappeared. It was obvious to everyone who Jessica was thinking about and Angus' face contorted in anguish.

"He's out of town." Josh said, "sorry ..." he added when Jim glared at him.

"Will he be back soon?" Jessica asked.

"I don't know." Scott said adding his own glare at Josh.

"Where exactly is he?" Jim asked curiosity getting the better of him.

Josh shrugged. "Paul called him out to take care of part of the clan out west ... some kind of flu has knocked them out."

"He is a doctor right?" Jessica asked, looking around at the stunned looks on the other men's faces.

"Not officially." Riley said.

"And he's not Paul's doctor." Scott added, "Paul's doctor is here."

"Is that weird?" Jessica asked.

"He had them both at the race ..." Jim said making a fake scowl at Jessica when he said race.

"But he called Caleb out after ... Kept doc here. I guess maybe he figured a flu epidemic wasn't doctor worthy." Angus said.

Jessica and the men sat in silence mulling that over.

Scott was already looking at Jessica when her eyes met his. His face melted into a smile and his eyes softened in a way that made her heart ache. Once again she couldn't believe what he'd done for her ... taking the embarrassment of those machines onto himself. She opened her mouth to say thank you when the front door opened and Sean stuck his head in.

"Everything okay in here?" he asked.

"Yeah. Come on in." Riley said and suddenly they were surrounded by pandemonium as the men's places were taken over by Leah, Amanda, Sara and Justine.

Jessica looked around her in disappointment. She wanted to thank Scott but not with a ton of people around. It was embarrassing enough knowing that they probably all knew by now. When Jessica looked back at Scott he was cocking an eyebrow at her. Jessica inhaled. Well, he'd humiliated himself for her ... she could do the same.

"You okay?" he asked. Jessica nodded. "You sure?"

"Yes. But, Scott I know about ..." Jessica paused, looking around at the people around her and turned bright red.

"Jess, Jess, stop." Scott said, obviously confused by the red tinge to Jessica's cheeks but unwilling to let her embarrass herself.

"But I have to say thank ..."

"Wait, I'll get us a few minutes alone."

"Come on man," Corey said planting a hand on Scott's shoulder. The other men had already gravitated to the kitchen, "We're playing some poker."

"It's okay." Jessica said forcing a smile, "We can talk later. Honest, go play."

"But ..."

"I love you Scott. And, thank you."

"Huh?" but it only took a few seconds for Jessica to be surrounded by giggling women.

Jessica smiled and blew Scott a kiss. He blew one back, shook his head and headed for the kitchen. To Scott, winning money off these suckers wasn't quite as enjoyable as spending time with Jessica, but at least he could keep an eye on her while he did it. And when she had a moments peace he could go find out what she'd wanted to tell him.

"What the hell kind of noise is that?" Riley asked half an hour later. The men were in the kitchen. Corey and Sean had also brought a folding table which supplemented the kitchen table and all the men sat around it, cards in hand. The other men followed Riley's gaze to the sofa where the girls had arranged themselves into a shrieking, giggling, mass. Justine was combing Jessica's hair, Sara was holding some magazine and seemed to be reading something from it that caused ongoing shrieks and laughter from the others ... most notably, Jessica.

"They seem to be having fun." Abe said, looking up from his cards.

"Do they do this at home?" Scott asked Corey.

"No, not really. Every once in a while they get in a mood." Corey said.

"They just seem happy." Sean added. "Jessica seems happy."

"And that surprises you?" Jim asked, Sean's tone leaving no doubt that it did.

"Not anymore." Sean said. "When I first heard that you got married I was pretty sure it was against her will. I mean, how do you go from being someone's prisoner to marrying your captors ... not just one but five? But she saved your asses, and it's obvious you love each other ... with this whole safe house thing ..."

"And the machines ... don't forget the fucking machines." Corey added with a shake of his head.

"The what?" Scott asked. "What about the machines?"

"Leah told us." Corey said and shook his head again, "The fact that you'd let us all think ... and then that Jessica would want everyone to know that it was her not you that used them ... that's gotta be love."

"What?" Scott demanded.

"She didn't tell you?" Sean asked. "Leah asked her about you and those machines. Jessica set the record straight."

"Jesus Christ." Jim whispered.

"Leah should have kept that to herself." Scott said.

Sean shook his head, "Jessica told Leah to tell everyone. Even though she turned as red as a tomato, she wanted us to know the truth. That my friend is love. Even I can see that."

Jessica and the girls squealed again.

"Why does happiness have to sound like pigs being butchered?" Riley asked in mock seriousness.

"One day I hope I have that kind of love ..." Corey said and purposely ignored the questioning look from Sean.

"So are you in or out?" Rick asked Riley, looking back at his cards.

"In." Riley said forcing his mind back to the game. Scott folded and spent the rest of the night staring at the back of Jessica's head.