Messy Ch. 11

"Dammit girl, don't scare me like that! You don't need to show up randomly in my apartment just because you have a key!" My words were harsh, but my tone was lighthearted.

"But then I wouldn't be able to surprise you," Tori pouted.

"You certainly did that." I hadn't seen my gorgeous neighbor when I'd gotten home from the clinic late on Monday, Tuesday was taken up with packing and preparation for Friday's departure to the cabin, and I'd been out all day today shopping for groceries.

Which made coming upstairs to go to bed and finding her buck naked and on all fours in the middle of my bed quite a surprise.

"You have a good trip?" Tori asked.

I hadn't been thinking much about Jessie, Milwaukee, or the previous weekend since I'd gotten home. I'd buried myself in some last duties for work and prepping for my trip up north, keeping my mind moving fast enough that I could avoid thinking about what had transpired.

Moving fast enough that I could avoid the hurt that I felt start to well up in my chest if I thought about a slim pale girl in front of a fireplace.

"It was good." I modulated my voice to stay normal and betray none of the...mess...that I felt when I thought about it.

"What's she like?"

I shed my clothes and pulled boxers from my top dresser drawer, put them on and started playing out clothing for tomorrow. Slim pickings now that everything was packed to go up north. Tori looked at me over her shoulder, seemingly at perfect ease maintaining her ass-in-the-air position while I got ready to go to bed. "You don't need to put clothes on, they're just going to get in the way." She grinned at me and waggled her bottom. "What's Jessie like?"

I shrugged. "Cool girl. Smart. Funny. Works for a fashion company and some kind of tech startup."

"What all did you guys do?"

I thought back, tried to recollect the intense time I'd spent with Jessie dispassionately. "Bars. Dinner. A comedy club. Toured Milwaukee Saturday and Sunday."

"Didja screw her?"

I had to smile at my neighbors blunt questioning, and the memories it invoked. "That would be a rather mellow way of putting it."

Tori laughed. "I KNEW it!"

"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever."

"You are such a slut, Gary."

"Hey, don't shame me."

Tori arched an eyebrow as she looked back over her shoulder at me. "Can I shame you into getting inside me?"

I moved to the bed and knelt behind her, running my hands over her back and taut buttocks. The globes were hard and muscular, and with her legs spread, I had an excellent view of her wide-open pussy, glisteningly-wet pink flesh framed by delicate lips. I pushed down my boxers and ran the crown of my hard-on up and down the slick slit, teasing her and gathering up feminine lubrication for the initial penetration.

I pushed in slowly and Tori groaned in appreciation as I filled her. "I haven't had dick since last weekend, that feels SO good."

It felt pretty great for me too, the hot, slippery constriction around my prick was heavenly. I gripped Tori's hips and began thrusting, picking up speed and force, as her chant of "uh uh uh" spurred me on. I reached around with one hand, rubbing her smooth mound as I hammered away from behind, determined to get her off quickly.

Tori cooperated, bucking her ass back at me and rolling her hips, giving me just as much pleasure as she was getting, grunting animalistically as we both muscled against each, seeking orgasm. Tori came with a shriek, dropping her head to the bed and clenching the blankets as her body was wracked with contractions. Just as they seemed to be tapering off, I picked up the pace again and pushed my thumb through her now somewhat slack sphincter, and she cried out again, writhing on the bed and turning her head to look at me. "No fair," Tori managed to gasp out.

"Fuck fair."

My partner grinned and then yelped in surprise when I hauled her up by the shoulders, pulling her to a kneeling position and keeping her upright with an arm wrapped around her waist and a hand wrapped around her throat. The new position was much more conducive to thrusting upwards, and the sensation of pressing against her ass was fantastic.

"Someone's feeling aggressive," Tori gasped out.

I bit her shoulder as a response and kept pounding.

She got off once more before me and then I pushed her down into the mattress and covered her with my body, pinning her down as I pushed in as deep as I could and held still, the only movement in our bodies the throbbing of my cock as I pushed load after load of hot jism into her clenching sheath.

I rolled off her back and we lay there panting, me drawing trails in the sweat on her skin and admiring the slow trickle of white leaking out of her abused pussy.

"You should go to Milwaukee more often if you're gonna come back and fuck me like that."

"I'll think about -"

Glass exploded in a loud tinkling shatter downstairs and for a millisecond we were both frozen in time.

Then Tori rolled off the bed to the floor, grabbing at her discarded pile of clothes. "Shut the door and push the dresser in front of it," she said quietly.

I was still frozen, my mind paralyzed by the unreality of it all. Heavy footsteps moved around on the lower level, and voices spoke in a language I didn't understand. The sight of Tori's gun's muzzle rising towards the door broke my trance and I nearly tripped over my feet as I vaulted towards the door. I shut and locked it with a slam, and the massive, heavy, Tori-made dresser against the wall next to it felt light as a potato chip as I muscled it over the heavy carpet to lean against the door.

Tori had her pants on now, and the was a *snick* as she unclipped a folding knife from the pocket and threw it at me. I caught it by reflex and opened the wicked looking blade. My phone had spilled from the top of the dresser to the carpet and I picked it up and dialed 911 with shaking fingers.

Two rings and I heard "Nine one one, what is your emergency?"

"Someone broke into my house. Sounds like a couple of people. They're on the first floor, I'm barricaded in the second floor bedroom. PLEASE send someone!"

"Are you safe? Hidden? What is your address?"

"Yes, yes, we're safe for the moment, just send someone!" I told her the address and grabbed my pants, tugging them on clumsily.

"Please stay on the li - "

Tori - now fully dressed - motioned to me and I threw the phone on the bed as she moved to stand next to me. "Crouch next to the door," she whispered. "If they manage to get past the dresser without a nine mil hole in their chest, stab them in neck and push them back. Stay low, if they're here to hurt us, they might shoot through the door."

I moved to crouch by the door as Tori positioned herself across the room from the door and lay down on her back, aiming down her body at the center of the door.

Blood thundered in my ears as I waited... For the police, for violence, for my death. I tried to visualize the coming fight, tried to imagine taking human life, tried to put myself in my hunter mindset, even though the thought made my stomach churn. Just an animal, right? Kill quick and humane...

Heavy footsteps moved up the stairs into the hall and I forgot to breathe.

I glanced over at Tori and the look on her face was somewhere between pure rage and calm determination. I'd never seen this side of her before. I'd seen her in martial arts tournaments before, I'd shot with her at the range a couple of times, but I'd never seen her committing to put the skills she'd studied the last four years of her life to the test. She looked like the warrior she was, awaiting the violent contest she'd dedicated her existence to winning.

Low voices outside the room, more footsteps in the hall. I closed my eyes briefly, willing away the tunnelvision, and focused on gripping the knife as hard as I could to still the shaking in my hands.

The doorknob turned the minute amount the lock allowed.

"Dammit" I breathed.

The knob rattled harder and something metal bumped against the door. They had a weapon. Shit.

The door shuddered as they shouldered it, but the wood held with the heavy furniture against it. "Open the door!" The words were heavily accented.

The whole room shook as they put more weight into their attack. The door, and the massive weight in front of it held. How long ago had I called the police, shouldn't they be here by now?

As if I'd conjured them into existence by thought, the wail of a siren sounded, distant but growing closer. Footsteps hammered the floor, the intruders tearing down the steps.

I could breathe again.

The waiting was interminable. It felt like three or four eternities before red and blue lights flashed in my front yard, and another forever or two until police broke open my front door with a crash. At that point, Tori rose and set her Sig on the bed, walked over and took the knife from my hands, folded it and tossed it on the bed too.

"We're safe," she said quietly, covering my hands with hers.

We moved the dresser away from the door - struggling now that panic had passed - unlocked the door and waited for the police.

It was early the next day before life even began to look normal.

The police escorted us outside, and we waited in the back of a squad car while they cleared the house and grounds. After that they fanned out through the neighborhood, looking for footprints, looking for people lurking in yards, knocking on the doors of any houses still lit and asking the residents of they'd seen anything suspicious.

Once the house was deemed secure, we were let inside again. The intruders had obviously entered through the smashed front window, and the were wet footprints of snow on my desk. My convertible was missing, as was a tablet I kept in the kitchen. Oddly enough, my wallet was still in my jacket hanging over one of the dining room chairs, the TV was still on the wall, and various other valuables were still scattered around the house.

The police questioned us about any enemies, any suspicious activity, and Tori and I interrupted each other numerous times in our rush to tell them about the vandalism earlier in the fall and my sabotaged car a few weeks ago, and I let them know about the car idling outside the townhouses in September.

Fingerprints were dusted, footprints photographed and measured, the house inspected and yard inspected further, and when they'd determined that we weren't crazy, lying, hiding information, and we seemed in fact to be thoroughly traumatized victims who were not in further danger, they wished us luck, gave us a case number and the promise of a few black and white drivebys, and left.

Tori and I retired to her townhouse to quiver in fear privately.

Ok, that was just me.

I tacked a spare tarp up over the broken window, found some nails to hold the broken door shut, and grabbed a bottle of Chopin from my liquor cabinet before Tori and I locked ourselves in her apartment. Even the normally strict Tori took a shot, and then she set about triple-checking the doors and setting out guns in her bedroom. I just walked into her second story bathroom and stripped, stood under the shower blazing scalding water until smooth skin and lips pressed to my back. I turned and gathered Tori in my arms, burying my face in her slowly wetting hair. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"If you hadn't been there, I'd probably be dead."

The smaller Latina looked up at me. "I'll always be there."

I stroked sodden hair away from her face, shifted my stance to shield water from her eyes so that I could gaze into them. The sight was new, alien, as if I was seeing my best friend for the first time. "I know," I said, and my words were wondering, almost confused. It was the first time I'd considered it - the fact that she would ALWAYS be there.

ALWAYS.

The word had a finality to it, a promise, a simplicity that I welcomed.

We went to bed shortly thereafter, scrubbed dry from washing off what we could of the fear and violation from having had our lives unjustly threatened. While I usually slept separate from Tori when we shared a bed, tonight I did not, pulling her close and basking in the heat and soft solidity of her body.

Morning found her rising from my arms and heading downstairs, kissing me goodbye before heading to her job. I rose shortly thereafter, crossed into my townhouse to retrieve new clothes, and then ran the days errands. First was a fifty dollar gift card for each of my townhouse rows' residents, as apology for last night's disturbance. Then a call to my general contractor set up a repair call for my window and door later that day. Finally I stopped by the townhouse at the end of the row - the one belonging to Tommy Kwan - to arrange to have the row looked after in my absence. He was always happy to manage a well-cared-for apartment block for a hundred a week until I returned.

The window and door were repaired and paid for that afternoon, and I loaded my bags into the SUV as the crew worked. A quick note to Tori, another for her to share with Sienna, and then I headed north.

I stopped at a florist on the way out of town for a bouquet, and then filled a few hours with the sound of hot air through the jeeps vents, the whine of tires upon the asphalt, and a CD series of Huck Finn.

The sky was black, moon and stars shining down upon the snow-covered scene when I arrived at The Curve. I slowed and parked upon the side of the road, and then exited the vehicle, the cellophane crinkling loudly in the cold. I knelt and propped the bundle of flowers against the new-looking k-rail barrier. I tried to think of something to say to my dead parents.

I couldn't.

"Dammit," I whispered.

I pulled out my phone and thumbed through the contacts list with cold-numbed fingers by the light of my vehicles headlights. My finger hesitated only a moment over the name "Jessie Rigg" and then I pressed the glowing line.

My heart hammered unreasoningly as the line rang, and then it went to voicemail with equal parts relief and disappointment.

"Hey Jessie. I'm heading up north and about to leave cellphone reception. Before I'm out of comms, I... wanted to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I...I miss you already and I'll see you again soon. I... Goodbye."

The cabin was cold and dark and empty when I raised the garage door and parked in the frigid stall. I transferred my bags to the dark interior of house, the sounds loud and distinct as I moved through the night. With my luggage moved, I finally turned on the lights, the bear-bedecked interior drawing a feeling of helpless sorrow and loneliness to the top of my throat.

I stood in the kitchen, surrounded by my luggage, and felt like I was going to cry, though I would've fought any tears that surfaced upon my eyes. I ground my back teeth together and summoned all my strength to hold my composure.

The moment passed, and I headed downstairs to the safes.

Even with my LWD on the end table next to me and a rifle by my chair I failed to sleep, every creak of the house, every clatter of frozen branches outside, every howl of night wind set my nerves on edge and brought me almost to my feet before I realized it was just my abused nerves acting up. I poured myself a drink at eleven, another at eleven forty, and dozed from the time glass emptied until four twenty seven, rising to make myself a sandwich.

My Friday was pretty much shot due to lack of sleep, but I did get the garage set up for processing deer, and went for a long hike in the snow, tracking the number of squirrels and rabbits I saw in the woods. Back at the house I did a cursory check of my snow mobile then made dinner and tacked my map of northern Minnesota to the kitchen wall, plotting my routes while I cleaned a few guns.

I felt slightly silly with one of my ARs sitting on the counter as I showered, but I rationalized it with the fact that two days ago someone had broken into my home with malicious intent. Following my shower, I wandered around the house checking the doors and windows. Kitchen and deck, bedrooms, bathrooms, and office on the first level, storage and utility and game room and den in the basement. Outside the windows, the world was totally black, impenetrable with the lights on behind me. I peered out each window, straining to scrutinize the night, looking for threats in the darkness.

I went back back upstairs, poured myself a drink, and slouched in a deep chair, turned on a spy movie and tried to relax.

The last thing I remembered was a parkour chase, and then I was awakened by a ringing doorbell. The movie has been sitting on the menu screen for a long time, and I had apparently shut down and slept, finally.

The doorbell rang again and I just about jumped through the ceiling. Then I remembered that if anyone wanted to break in, they'd just smash a window like they'd done on Wednesday. I kept my Glock behind my back and checked the peephole, smiled, and opened the door with a blast of icy air.

"We only rang like eight hundred times, Tori sniffed as she lugged duffel bags in.

"I fell asleep. Hey Nina, how's it going?"

"Fucking frozen. Can you help us carry in the rest of the luggage."

I dashed out into the frigid night, so cold my eyes stung and my mouth stopped working temporarily as I the air stabbed icicles into the back of my throat. I pulled a few more bags out Tori's vehicle and rushed them back to the house, passing Nina and Tori on their way to do the same.

It felt like a relief to finally close the door on the bitterly chilled, windy night and while the girls put their bags in the spare bedroom I built a fire downstairs in the massive game room fireplace and started heating up some hot chocolate.

There was just a moment, kneeling in front of the fireplace , fighting with the matches and newspaper and wood shavings, that I remembered a slim, pale girl silhouetted before raging flames.

Then the fire caught and the moment passed and I turned my attention to the beverages.

By the time Tori and Nina came down the hot chocolate was mixed and warming before the fire. They'd changed into bathrobes and wrapped themselves in blankets, trying to drive out the chill in their bones. Nina pulled both of us into a hug, wrapping us fiercely in her strong arms. "I'm sorry that happened to you. You ok?"

I squeezed her back. "Thanks, Nina. We're ok."

She sniffed. "I see violence every day, thinking of it happening to two of my favorite people...I don't take it well."

"We're ok, Tori was there the whole time."

Tori giggled and slipped out of the embrace, grabbed the cocoa and handed one off to her friend. "Goofball here woulda been shit out of luck without me, doesn't even have a gun in his house." She nodded at the Glock on the coffee table. "Not like he hates them or anything, he just didn't BOTHER. I know what he's getting for Christmas..."

"So what brings you guys up north at..." I checked the clock on the mantle as I sought to turn the conversation from my supposed failings at home security. "Three in the morning?"

Tori arranged herself in a mound of blankets on the couch, and Nina, in keeping with her submissive attitude, knelt on the floor, laid her head on Tori's knees, and tugged her own pile of blankets around her. "Well, as you know my job ended for the year yesterday," Tori told me. "I'm officially on seasonal unemployment. I got out at five, packed, and picked her up when her shift ended at nine." She stroked Nina's cheek and temple, and I could've sworn the Somalian beauty purred.

"I've gotta go back Monday," Nina said. "But I wanted to spend one last weekend with you guys this year."

I waggled my eyebrows at the two. "I'm looking forward to it."

We talked for another hour before the two girls started yawning, and I suggested we go to bed Tori stretched and groaned, set her mug on the table. "I'm too tired."