Money Grab

"Mr. Davis, how did you come to have all these drugs?" she asked.

"Well, when I started being obsessed by this I thought I might need medicine. You couldn't buy it on the open market; the government controlled all the drugs you might really need. Apparently, they think we're all idiots. I didn't want to buy from criminals and they only sold stuff that would be as likely to kill you as help you. They had pain killers but no useful stuff like antibiotics or antivirals. I have animals and I started wondering about the drugs I gave them. I did some research. Drug companies can't afford to make drugs only for animals, and a lot of the drugs that work on humans also work on animals. I found out that the same companies that sell drugs to veterinarians sell the same drugs to pharmacies. So, I bought antibiotics for fish on the internet. They were the exact same pills that pharmacies were selling to people. I got all the things that I thought were useful from veterinarians. I've been stocking up for years. Let me look at that broken leg, Malina."

She got up and pulled down the covers. He snatched them back up. "Hey, why am I naked?"

"I have been molesting you while you were asleep," she giggled. "But really, we had to wash you Mr. Davis. You were very sweaty sometimes. You were unconscious for many days. You were unable to use the bathroom. I have seen it all and washed it, too. You have no secrets from me."

"Well, that's embarrassing. Just because you did that doesn't mean you're going to keep doing it. Just uncover my leg."

She did as he asked.

"What's that contraption? How did you make it?"

"It is half your little cutting board. I'm afraid we sacrificed it. After we straightened your leg we bandaged it to that board so it wouldn't move."

He reached down and felt along the bone above his ankle gingerly. It was very swollen, but he couldn't feel anything obviously wrong.

"Well, it feels okay. I think you girls did a good job. I have materials to make a fiberglass cast. We'll do it tomorrow. Malina, I'm afraid the pill is making me very sleepy." His words began to slur. "Would you mind if I took a little nap?"

"No, Mr. Davis. I will sleep, too." His eyes were already closed and she stood in thought for a moment. Then she slipped her undershirt over her head, discarded her boxers and slid in between the sheets, pressing her naked form to his.

When she woke up he was stirring uncomfortably in his sleep. She reached for the bottle of pills and got one out. She stroked the side of his face with her hand; the stubble along his jaw was growing softer as it grew.

He opened his eyes and she held up the pill. He opened his mouth and she put it in and gave him a drink. In a few minutes he grew more comfortable, and she slid one leg across his and pressed herself against him.

They slept again for a while. Davis slowly woke, and Malina was snuggled into his side. He wrapped his good arm around her and caressed her naked back. It slowly dawned on him that she had on no shirt. He could feel her pressing on his thigh and the feeling of soft curls between her legs was unmistakable.

He continued to stroke the silken skin of her back. Her eyes opened and he asked her, "Malina, why are you naked?"

"I embarrassed you last night because I have seen you naked. I thought that if you were to see me naked you would no longer be embarrassed."

"I would love to see you naked," he told her, "but not because of that."

"For what reason then should it be?"

"Because you want me to; that's the only reason."

"But I do."

"Then help me up so that I can go to the bathroom. There are crutches in the entry closet. Would you get them for me?"

She jumped out of bed and walked across the room in all her naked glory. She returned with the crutches and helped him get up. He could hardly take his eyes off her. She was youth and beauty personified. She helped him inside, retreated and closed the door. He called her in a moment and she returned and helped him to the bed. His face was grey with pain when he sank onto the bed.

"I need underwear and gym shorts and a t-shirt."

She got them for him and helped him put them on.

"Your turn," he smiled at her.

She padded off to her room and soon returned dressed in her usual night wear. "I am staying inside with you today," she explained. "Calley is outside doing the chores. The dogs very much like the fish we caught for them. Calley has brought back the trailer and we have picked the garden. We have very many vegetables and we need your help to make them into cans."

He threw back his head and laughed. "You mean you need my help to can them."

"Yes, that's what I said."

"You're irrepressible, little girl. Let's get this leg in a cast and I'll walk you through it. Help me to the couch."

Calley came in carrying a bucket of milk as he made his slow way across the living room. She burst out in tears and called his name when she saw him, put the milk on the bar and ran to them, helping him get to the sofa. His teeth were clenched in pain by the time he crossed the big room and he settled onto the sofa with a sigh of relief.

"That bone shifts around every time I move. We've got to get it immobilized. There's a box marked MXGT next to where you found the antibiotics. One of you get that and we'll make a cast.

Malina hurried away and Calley strained the milk and put it in the refrigerator. By the time Malina returned with the box, she was finished and they sat on the coffee table in front of Davis and opened the box. There were several different colors of material inside and Davis raised his leg with a groan and placed it between them.

"I think I must have a spiral break and you girls did the right thing setting it. Now we have to cut off the splint you made and start wrapping the casting material around my foot."

Calley carefully cut the bandages away and they discarded the remains of the cutting board. She reached into the box and came up with a package of bright pink strips.

"Why pink?" he asked. "I don't want a pink cast."

"Of course you do, Mr. Davis. Pink is a beautiful color. It will look very simpatico on you," Malina objected.

"That's what I think." Calley couldn't suppress her giggles.

"Oh, all right," he laughed. "Pink it is."

The girls carefully wrapped his foot in the cotton liner and wound the casting material around his foot, weaving a basket around the ankle and then around and around until they reached the top of his calf. They added a rubber walking pad to the bottom embedding it in the casting material and applied the hardener. He hung it over the edge of the sofa until it hardened and stood up. He walked across the room on his crutches and felt no pain. The break was stabilized and he could begin to heal.

"Wait a minute," Calley laughed. She ran to his office and came back with a black sharpie. The girls giggled uncontrollably as they both wrote their names on the cast.

They changed his bandages and demanded that he admire the stitches they had made. Calley was very good with a needle, and the running cross stitches were neat and even. The wound in his thigh was red and angry looking and they suspected that was the source of his infection. They didn't know what to do about it. Davis favored opening the wound a bit and inserting a bit of surgical tubing so it could drain. The girls were horrified at the thought and so he agreed to wait a few days, continue the antibiotic, and see if it got better.

"I'll give it a few weeks and then try the walking boot," he told them. He sat at the bar and snapped green beans while the girls cut sweet corn off the ears with electric knives.

"I like frozen corn, but not green beans," he told them. "We'll put the corn in bags and put it in the freezer. When we get that done we'll can the beans." The corn was kind of a messy job, and by the time they got it packed in bags and the mess cleaned up Davis had the beans snapped and they let them soak in salt water in the sink while they got the canner out, the jars and lids located and put water in the canner to boil. They packed the beans in the jars and the water was boiling. They filled the jars with hot tap water and lowered them into the canner in a wire basket. When the water in the jars began to boil they put the lids on and removed them. They sat them on the counter to cool and Davis and the girls sat on the sofa and talked.

"Davis, I want to thank you for what you did back there on the river. I realized while you were sick that that's what would have happened to me if I had stayed in Wichita. That's what would have happened to Malina and me both. We'd either be dead or turning tricks for some pimp to stay alive. If you hadn't taken us in, we had nowhere else to go. You saved our lives that night, and you saved us at the store and then you saved me again on the river. You almost died to save me. I'm very grateful Davis, but I don't want you to do it again." She began to cry.

"You're a better person than me and I don't want you to die because of me. I've just realized what a bitch I've been all my life. I manipulated people because I was prettier or smarter or more popular than they were. I came here with the idea of manipulating you. You knew it and you let me stay anyway. Then you nearly died because of me. Don't ever do that again. If anyone is going to die, it's going to be me. If you die, Malina and I won't make it on our own. We're too ignorant. Malina is the most beautiful person I know, and you and she would be just fine without me."

"No, Calley, that is not true," Malina objected. "We wouldn't be just fine without you. I love you and I wouldn't be just fine. Do you not love Calley, Mr. Davis? I think you must. One does not get shot for people one doesn't love." Her angel blue eyes pierced him.

"Yes, Malina, I do love Calley."

"You must tell her. She is very lonely and unhappy. Only if you love her will she not feel this way."

He put his good arm around her and squeezed her to him. "I do love you Calley. We wouldn't be fine without you."

"Really?" she looked at him with tear filled eyes. "Even after I've been so mean to you?"

"Yes, even after you've been so mean to me. You've changed Calley. That gold-dusted reporter isn't you anymore. It never was. I always saw something in you; that's why I told you my story to begin with. You thought it was because you dazzled me with your beauty and veiled hints of more. You are very beautiful, but I thought there was a very interesting and beautiful person inside that stunning body. I was right about you, and that's why I love you."

"You were very cruel to Mr. Davis, Calley; but he forgives you. You see, he loves you and I love you. No one is going to die. We are all going to live and be very happy. I do not want to hear any more of this dying."

"I'm sorry, Malina," Calley reached across and stroked her leg. "I just feel so bad about Davis getting shot because of me."

"That's just the point, Calley," Davis said. "It's not your fault. It was Grizzly and that other son of a bitch that shot me. They were going to rape you and they were probably looking for Malina. They would have shot me whether you were there or not. We made some mistakes and they cost us. We won't do it again. We're never going to be separate outside the fence again. We're going to carry guns everywhere we go. Even inside the fence. We're okay inside the wall, but if you go outside the wall, you have a long gun and a pistol. I shouldn't have left you there. It's my fault you were there by yourself, and I'm sorry. I'll never leave you alone again. What they did to you must have been awful for you."

"Yes, it was, but I knew you would come when you heard me scream. I knew if I could just hold them off you would come." She pulled his face down and pressed her luscious lips against his for a long moment. She finally pulled back and her face was flushed. "Thank you, Davis."

A tinny pop sounded from the counter. "What was that?" Malina asked.

"That was one of the jars sealing," he told her. "They'll all make that sound and then they'll keep for years because the air is sealed out and bacteria can't grow without air. There is a vacuum in the jar now. If one of them doesn't seal we'll eat them tonight."

"Mr. Davis, did you know my birthday was while you were sick?" she asked.

"No I didn't, happy birthday little girl. I'll bake a cake, and we'll have a party."

"I love parties," she said. "I am not jailbait anymore, Mr. Davis."

"I'll keep that in mind," he laughed.

He hobbled around the kitchen and cooked supper while the girls did the chores. By the time they cleaned up, he was ready. The cake was in the oven and he called them to the bar. "This is an interactive meal," he told them.

He took a loaf of slightly sweet hard bread and fried it in butter. He gave them a piece of bread and a clove of garlic.

"Bite the clove in half and put one half on your plate," he told them.

They did it. "Now rub the clove on the bread. Then you take a bite of the garlic and chew it once. Take a bite of bread and let the flavor explode."

They did as they were instructed and a look of bliss passed over their faces. They alternated through bites of garlic and bread until they had each eaten three pieces. He poured them a glass of a slightly sweet rose wine and they took a few sips. When their palate was clean, he brought out a plate of red leaf lettuce and romaine from the garden. He got another plate loaded with very thin slices of beef, fish and chicken. It was cooked with wine, garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil. He had dusted red pepper over it and he told them to put a little meat in one of the lettuce leaves. A bowl sat on the bar containing a plum sauce and he told them to put a dab on the meat, roll the lettuce up around the meat and eat it.

They devoured it until the lettuce was gone and he went to the other oven and removed a dish full of chicken breasts, pan fried and covered with a heavy cream and sour cream sauce, heavily laced with the red pepper.

There were baby carrots with brown sugar and the timer binged on the oven. The cake was done and he applied the icing and found two candles. "I don't have 18 candles. I'm sorry, Malina."

"Two is perfect," she told him.

She blew them out and refused to tell them what her wish was.

Davis poured three glasses of a Pinot and they retired to the comfort of the sofa. Davis winced as he put his cast up on the table.

"Do you need another pill?" Malina asked him.

"Yes, I guess I do," he admitted. Calley went and got one and he was comfortable in a short while.

She went to his stereo and looked over his music lists. She found a CD called Morning Dance, by Spyro Gyra and put it in. The mellow sounds filled the room and Davis gingerly took his arm out of its sling and put one around each girl. He stroked the smooth skin of their arms and sighed.

"Are you happy, little girl?" he asked Malina.

"Very much happy," she said. "I miss Spain a very little, and my mother, but you are my family now and I am content. Are you happy, Mr. Davis?"

"Very much happy," he laughed. "I was okay before you girls came, but I always felt like I was waiting for something. After Cindy was killed, I sort of thought I'd had my chance and missed the boat. Now I have you and I feel like maybe the boat is coming around again. Calley, are you happy?"

"I can't imagine that I would be. I thought happy was all about career and importance and money and glamour. I thought I was happy. Maybe I was. I can't remember. I'm happy to be alive. I'm happy that I haven't been raped. I'm not happy that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. I'm not happy that people are dying and that the violent are killing the weak. But I'm happy I'm here and not there. I'm happy that you and Malina are here with me. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather dance on the edge of chaos with. So yes, I am happy. I'll be even happier if you kiss me again." She blushed a little and looked up at him. He pressed his lips against her luscious ones and her breath quickened.

Malina felt left out. "May I kiss you, too, Calley?"

"Yes you can." The two girls embraced and their lips moved against the others for a long moment. Davis was stunned. "That is the hottest thing I've ever seen," he told them when the kiss ended.

They both giggled and Malina locked her fingers behind his neck and kissed him fiercely. He felt her little tongue against his lips. He parted them and it darted inside for a moment. He caught her pouty lower lip gently between his teeth and she pulled it slowly away.

"I'm a sick man," he told them. "I've been shot and I'm not up to this. Help me to bed.

Chapter 5

Agent Lonnie Matuszi, formerly of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, was growing desperate. The raid on the estate in Augusta had gone horribly wrong. His partner was dead and he had barely escaped. There shouldn't have been that many people inside and they shouldn't have been that heavily armed. He hadn't heard from his superiors for three months and they had lived by hiding and going out at night and making raids. The Augusta job should have left them sitting pretty. The owners had been preppers, and they would have been well equipped. As it turned out, they had been too well equipped, and they had a small army inside. They had fought doggedly and when Evans was hit, Matuszi had been forced to abandon his dying partner.

They seemed to be vengeful as well, and they had pursued him past the point when reason would seem to dictate that they wouldn't find him. Augusta was a small town and they had been going house to house looking for him. He had stolen a motorcycle and got away. He was hiding out at an abandoned grain elevator.

He went through his files. He had been thinking about a case he remembered. A rancher out in western Kansas had applied for, and been granted, a permit to own automatic weapons. Matuszi had done some research and the man was nuts. He had taken his money and turned it into gold and silver to the tune of 40 million dollars. His permit had been approved based on terrorist threats made against him by a paramilitary group. He had also obtained a permit for a German 43 Panzerschreck Bazooka, and registered 50 rocket rounds as Destructive Devices. The rounds had been manufactured by a local machine shop to his specifications. He also owned a Browning M2 .50 BMG. Matuszi had been investigating him for two years, looking for possible weapons violations, but the man seldom left his ranch and wouldn't allow the BATF on his property without a warrant.

He was just one guy and Matuszi felt like with some help the man would be an easy target. If he could get his hands on that hard currency and the supplies the man had stockpiled, he would be sitting pretty. He had a couple of people in mind. He had worked with a fellow BATF agent named Gerald Johnson before, and he knew he was running a prostitution racket out of a club called Wild Cherries on the south side. Johnson had a crew of thugs, and they could easily knock off a soft target. He would show Johnson the file and the smell of all that money should be enough.

Chapter 6

With Davis confined to the crutches, the work that fell on the girls increased. Calley complained a little, but they took it in stride. They took Davis with them when they went outside the wall and he rode in the Polaris when they went to check the cows or pigs. One sow gave birth, and they were delighted with the eight piglets. Davis warned them not to get too close to the tiny pigs on foot.

"That sow will eat you both. I want my pigs to be wild. They fend for themselves down here along the creek and that's the way I want them. They aren't pets; they're mean and short tempered. I start feeding them corn when I want to eat one. That gets them coming to the feeder so I don't have to hunt for them and they taste better. Even the dogs stay away from them. I imagine they could take one down, but they know they'd get torn up in the process.