Too soon to Say Goodbye
Part One
“I’m going to enjoy your wife, dipshit.”
The taste of tape adhesive haunted Lee’s mouth as the icy water filled his left nostril. Violent involuntary shaking from the cold splashed the water around his face.
Cannon laughed.
“Yeah, I think I’ll smack her around a bit, and then use her as a footstool while I tell her about how you died. I love it when they cry.”
Lee worked to keep breathing, straining up, up, up, snag a gasp of air, swallow any water, and try not to think about the blood and brains floating in the dark cab of the 4x4.
“She gives me wood every time I think about her. God damn, she’s fucking hot, and that was before I read your file, shithead.”
Too cold to focus on Cannon’s taunting, though he might interrupt if he could get his mouth above the water. Of course, then the tape would be an issue.
Cannon continued as the rising water dripped into Lee’s right ear.
“Your old lady is (GLUG) too good looking to be married to (GURGLE) Did you see what I did there? (POP) sorry about your partner. I (GLUG-GLUG) Jessup, but I fucking hate you.(GURGLE) enjoy the ride to the bottom.” (SILENCE)
The nylon rope that had been holding the heavy vehicle at the surface of the lake stretched enough to submerge Lee’s head under the water, making it impossible for him to get another breath without snorting in pure water polluted with gas, oil, and Jessup.
CRACK!
The sound warbled through the water when Cannon sliced the taut line, sending the heavy 4x4 to the bottom of Broken Plate Lake. Already freezing, Lee felt the water chill even further with an unexpected speed as the truck plummeted toward the bottom hundreds of feet below, but the heavy engine sunk faster, rotating the truck and stirring the contents inside.
Now able to frisk Jessup’s body with his bound hands, Lee found a Buck Knife as his sinus cavities squealed under the rapidly increasing pressure. He freed himself, but something in the pitch black caught his coat. Lee wiggled out, taking his phone, but as he reached for Jessup’s gun, the truck hit the bottom and it slipped from his frozen fingers. Lunging coatless out the open window with a phone and a buck knife, he kicked for his life.
Thank god for the duct tape, he thought as he fought to keep from breathing during the long trip up. His lungs burned, death closed in on him, and the strength in his legs faded away. The lake didn’t seem so cold anymore. He thought about how beautiful the moon looked through the thickness of the water. He saw the sparkling flashes of Cannon’s headlights dancing across the lake and then disappear.
When his head broke the surface, he ripped the soggy tape free. Lee gasped and splashed loudly, paddling to the shore. It would have easily given him away had Cannon stayed but a moment longer. Then again, there’s no guarantee Lee wouldn’t freeze to death, as the frigid night air from the snowcaps drifted down to valleys below. He knew hyperthermia would set in long before he could save himself.
Lee gave to his damaged shoulder, but picked up speed, crawling through the mud toward the smell of smoke from Cannon’s discarded cigarette. Until there in the moonlight, he could make out an almost complete Marlboro smoldering just off the trail. Lee had to restrain himself. The moment he’d touch it with his soaking wet hands would put it out.
After using dry moss to pick up the smoke, Lee blew on the hot pink cherry, shivering uncontrollably, but once the moss caught, he enjoyed his first smoke in five years while he assembled twigs and branches to build a respectable fire. He didn’t care if Cannon could see it. A fire was better than the cold.
The long night allowed Lee to take stock of his situation. He had more than enough moss to wrap up in if he didn’t mind the bugs, and plenty of ready firewood in the way of nearby limbs and sticks. All he had to do was keep the fire going, dry his clothes, and stay alive.
A breath-taking morning greeted Lee’s bloodshot eyes. The ruddy sun peeked up over the mountain tops to find him wrapped in enough moss to pass for Sasquatch. Unlike the mythical mountain beast, Lee was not only real, but still among the living. He put on his smoky shirt and pants with his charred but dry street shoes, and began the long trip down the unpaved Fire Service road. In less than a mile, the bites and cuts on his feet gave way to runny blisters. His fairytale beginning resembled a death march until two locals showed up in a homemade 4 wheeler.
This was not the time to tell the truth. Lee knew that anyone he touched would die an agonizing death at the hands of Jack Cannon. Two young guys on an early morning drive didn’t deserve to die for helping him out. Then again, he’d have to say something believable, or they might take him to the sheriff, which would be even worse than being found out by Cannon.
“Little early for Halloween,” said the fat one, putting a huge chunk of chewing tobacco in his jaw.
“Ah yeah, well, I didn’t really think that I’d be spending the night up here.”
“Seriously dude, how the hell did you get way up here like that?” said the thin one, taking Lee’s photograph.
Damn it, kid, Lee thought as he imagined Cannon searching for stories like an unexplained oil slick on Lake Broken Plate. Only to discover one about a city slicker found wrapped in moss and mud.
“Can you do me a favor?”
“You mean you need a ride?”
“Yes, that, but the photo. If you’ll just give me five days before you tell anyone about finding me or posting it online. See, I found an old girlfriend from high school on Classmates. She’s living in Vail, and I’m driving cross country. I thought maybe I’d get a free room and some pussy. Ya know? We connected. She took me to a great local joint, country music, burgers, and beer. Everything’s going great, and she says that up here at the lake you can take photos of the full moon’s reflection in the water.”
“What’d she do, dump your ass?”
“Apparently, we didn’t leave on good terms. The problem is, I’m married, and my car’s abandoned at Margarita Mulligan’s bar. I haven’t called Barbie in 24 hours, and even after I get back to Vail, it’ll take me five days to get home and patch things up with her. After that you can put my picture in the god damned newspaper, but boys, please don’t make me lose my marriage.”
“Come on, man, we’ll take ya down to the Broken Plate Chalet. You can get something to eat and make some phone calls,” the fat one said, spitting out a mouthful of tobacco juice.
“Yeah, I dropped this in the water,” said Lee, waving his phone.
“Don’t matter, you’re up above the cell towers here. And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone, just yet,” the skinny one said with a sly grin.
“I slept at the lake last night,” Lee said to the cashier, a cute, transient college-student too stunned to speak.
“I’ve never seen anyone go full Grizzly Adams before,” she said from behind her round glasses. She tilted her head, looking at the water oozing out of Lee’s wallet, dislodging the pompom on top of her yellow cable-knit beanie,.
“I’d like to get a room,” he said, pulling out a credit card and then putting it back. “How much is it?”
“Two-hundred.”
“Okay,” Lee said with a deep breath, pulling out his last two one-hundred-dollar bills.
“Plus taxes and fees.”
Lee pulled off his ring, placing it on the counter made of a slab cut log.
“It’s white gold. You should be able to get five hundred for it.”
“Your wedding ring?”
“It won’t do me any good if I can’t get home to save my marriage.”
Lee’s sincerity changed the cashier’s demeanor. He could see her heart melt in her blue eyes.
“Save your marriage?”
“It’s a long story, and I’m sure that Hunter and Jacob will tell you all about finding me at the lake, but right now, I desperately need a break.”
“I’ll give you the local rate one hundred bucks a night and I’ll cover the taxes and fees,” she said, sliding one of the wet bills back in Lee’s direction.
He looked around the rustic yet upscale office/general store and picked up a pair of moccasins, a hoodie, some first-aid antiseptic, and a box of granola bars, sliding the money back.
“We’ll call it even,” she said, snuffling her red nose and pushing up her glasses, but not ringing up the total.
“Housekeeping,” the young woman said with a smile, entering the room with a master key. “I brought you some hot soup. What the hell? Did someone shoot you?”
Lee looked up at his Good Samaritan in Carhartt coveralls and a thick cowl necked sweater. She had just seen too much.
“Yes, and no. I had on body armor, but the one thing the movies don’t tell you about getting shot. It really fucking hurts.”
“You guys in suits weird me the fuck out,” she said, backing away in fear.
“You guys?”
“Yeah, last night at closing some A-type man-in-black, what a pain in the ass. He came through and made my life hell,” she said, getting a little too stressed for Lee’s success.
“Hell? And I was thinking about calling Saint Peter because Heaven’s missing one of its angels.”
She smiled.
“You’re not supposed to use a pickup line once you get the girl in the room,” she said, rolling her eyes away, embarrassed by her remark.
“I didn’t know you were my girl.”
“I don’t know… what?” she said, looking down at her thermos. “I think maybe I should go.”
She turned to leave, still carrying the soup.
“Wait, please. We’re just talking, um, tell me about this man-in-black. You checked him in, right? What was his name?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Okay, was he tall or short? Did he have hair, or was he bald?”
“I, I don’t know, and please don’t make a blonde joke,” she said, hugging the warm thermos of soup for security.
“Never. Guys that dress like Grizzly Adams have got no room to make blonde jokes. But, I want to say something to you and you tell me if you’ve heard it before. Purple pineapple protocol.”
The girl straightened up, wearing a blank expression.
Lee studied the emotionless girl. Without saying a word, he took the thermos of hot soup.
“Purple pineapple protocol, termination report.”
“Friday, seven AM,” she said, parroting back an instruction given her by the circuitry inside the device.
“Cancel termination.”
“Override code?” she asked, and Lee shook his head in sorrow.
“Fuck you Jack. She’s just an innocent girl. Why kill her?”
He looked at her in her dazed state. He cherished her youth, the round glasses and hippie clothes. She was somebody’s kid, going to college in Colorado somewhere. She got a gig in ski country, happy to make a couple of bucks and hit the slopes during the fall break. What did she do to deserve to die?
“A lovely bunch of coconuts,” he said.
Hearing the odd phrase broke the spell, causing the girl to look down and then around for the thermos.
“I’ve got the soup, but you’ve got other issues.”
“What issues?” she said, looking suspiciously at Lee.
“It’s called an SSO field modulator, think mind control device. It’s a micro-miniature neuro-link chip jammed up your nose. I just said a trigger phrase that put you in a hypnotic state. I took the soup away and then said a second trigger phrase that woke you up. Jack Cannon, otherwise known as the ‘A-type man-in-black,’ put the field modulator there and programmed it to make you commit suicide this Friday at seven.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Take off your clothes.”
“What!? Now see here! That hoodie? It costs 79.99 all by itself. Real Indians made those moccasins in Canada. They are 125, retail. Hell, those dried up granola bars costs 25.99. I don’t remember the first aid ointment, but the point is I let you have it all for 100 bucks, and brought you soup because I felt sorry for you. And you turn out to be a sexist PIG!”
“Then why are you naked?”
“Oh my god, pull the mind control thing out now!”
“I can’t. It’s extremely small, and stapled deep inside your sinus tissue. We’ve got till Friday to get it voided by a clean-up team, but first let’s talk about Jack. I’m going to put my hand on your shoulder. That’s okay.”
She didn’t know how much she needed his touch until his warm hand rested on her bare shoulder.
“Now, I’m going to move my hand to your hip. When I do, you will bend over, putting your hands on the mattress. Don’t worry, I won’t let go.”
She hadn’t worried until he pointed out the possibility of letting go. Suddenly, it became very important to her he never let her go. She bent forward, presenting her ass to him.
“When did he leave?”
“I, I don’t know.”
“Sure you do,” he said, rubbing the small of her back. “Mind control is far from a perfect science. The voices in our subconscious have a way of getting messages out. You said you guys in suits. I wasn’t wearing a suit. Your subconscious was telling you I might help you deal with the weird man in the suit. You said he was a pain in your ass. Maybe he raped you anally?”
“No, he didn’t touch me. I’d, I’d remember that for sure.”
“That’s fine. I’m going to take my hands away, but you’re going to spread your ass-cheeks apart to make sure I come back.”
Lee lifted his hands, and the girl obediently pulled her ass open.
“Why did you let go?” she asked.
“I’m going to use your phone to take a picture,” said Lee, digging through her clothes.
“Here we go.”
The electronic click of the phone let them both know he’d photographed her winking asshole.
“See what I mean.,” said Lee, putting the image of her inflamed sphincter on the bed in front of her. “Keep your ass spread.”
Lee stroked the girl’s back from her shoulder to her ass crack. Comforting her as she studied the image, with the hard nipples of her pert young breasts hovering an inch above the patchwork quilt.
“Jack stripped you. He held your face in the pillow until your were on the verge of passing out and then he shoved his cock up your dry ass, probably in this very cabin.”
The girl panted beneath Lee’s touch. He slipped his hand to her open asshole and ran his finger around its swollen rim.
“No! It was cabin five. I remember. He kicked me in the stomach. It hurt so bad. I couldn’t breathe and he yanked down my pants, and.”
She stopped talking and sobbed quietly to herself.
“I bet that’s why you wore coveralls today. No one could rip them down. I need you to focus. When did Jack leave?”
Lee moved his finger from her ass and held it under her nose. She sniffed at it without taking her eyes off the image. Slipping it into her mouth, she sucked his dirty digit as memories returned and tears rolled down her cheeks.
“He left just before you got to the store. His plate from an omelet and home-fries sat on the table as you walked past.”
“You were sniffling. I thought maybe you had a cold. But really, your rapist ate breakfast right in front of you… watching you cry,” said Lee.
“Please, no.”
A kiss cut her words short and derailed the torrent of tears. After minutes of kissing and fondling, the girl asked, concerned about Lee’s predicament.
“Don’t you have a wife to go save?”
“Yes, I’m gathering a team as we speak.”
“You mean me?”
“You love anal sex.”
“Huh?”
“That’s the shit Jack would do. Rape you up the ass and make you love it. You cum the hardest from anal sex.”
“Are you telling me, or asking?”
“You love getting fucked up the ass. You will bend over and hold yourself open and beg for it. Because you cum the hardest from anal sex.”
“Like this?” the girl said with a breathless sigh, bending over.
“I bet Jack didn’t bother to do this,” said Lee, again rubbing his open palms in circles against her hard nipples, barely off the bed. “He’s not interested in making a woman desire sex, or even enjoy it.”
“Aaaaah, I’m h, h, holding it open,” she said with a shuddering gasp.
“Well, let’s see if you’re really ready. Do you feel that?” he said, giving her wet pussy a slight tap with his open hand.
“Ah, yeah!” she yelped.
“Almost there. See how it jiggles like jelly,” he said, patting her pussy in quick little smacks.
“It’s there. It’s there. I promise, it’s there. Please do me.”
“Well, you’re wet alright, and damn, your clit’s stiff. It’s like the world’s tiniest erection. My wife says men spend too much time on the clit. Oh yeah, didn’t you say we should go save my wife?”
“Now? No, no, no, please, mister, shove your cock up my ass. I’ll cum real quick, and we can go, I promise. Please fuck my ass. Pretty please.”
“Only if you’ll go with me.”
“Yes, oh god, yes. I’ll go with you and you can fuck my ass every day. Please fuck me, sir.”
“You have to get it wet. Jack Cannon would shove a dry dick up a girl’s ass. That’s not me. Trust me. I’m a great guy.”
Lee put his cock in the girl’s face. She hungrily took it into her mouth, coating the head and shaft with gusto. While she busied herself, Lee continued to insist, in his relaxed manner, that she needed to orgasm. Again, he rubbed his palms in circles against her nipples.
“You are ready to cum. You need to cum. As soon as my hard, wet cock slides up your hot, horny hole, you will begin to orgasm, because Jack programmed you to cum hardest when getting fucked up the ass. You will experience an orgasm unlike any other and you will forever remain my faithful servant, hoping I will grace you with the gift of the ultimate pleasure,” said Lee, spinning his words like a stage hypnotist grooming her, teasing her, and bending her to his will.
Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, as her whole body shook in anticipation.
“You will prove your worthiness to me,” he said, pinching her nipple to get her to focus.
“Yes, yes, gladly please anything, anything you ask.”
He returned to her trembling backside, first reaching around to cup her swollen sex, putting two fingers on either side of her slit so he could rake his fingers up and down, teasing her clit at will. She radiated an almost unbearable heat. Lee guided his cock into her gaping hole, causing her to make sounds akin to a bellowing calf.
“Then cum for me,” he said, letting the orgasms began.
Lee fucked the abused girl gently, going both quick and slow. He would slowly sink his cock into the girl’s wounded ass and only at the last half inch pull her hips to slap against his. She remained supported, and didn’t have to fight for balance. After a powerful climax, she slipped into delirium, and Lee let her down gently. Running his fingers through her hair, she quaked and jerked as Lee jacked his meat.
He stayed on the edge, enjoying her orgasm almost as much as she did. Then at last she rolled her big blue eyes toward his throbbing erection. She opened her mouth in solemn adoration, like a bird begging for a worm. He let fly rope after rope of thick knotty splooge, draining his balls with a low guttural groan. Closing his eyes, he wished his wife could be there to share in this minor victory, allowing the girl to lick and suckle him until he went soft.
“You’re hired.”
“Best job interview I’ve ever been to,” she said with a sigh.
“Are you sure this place will let you go?”
“What choice do I have? If you leave, I’ll commit suicide. If I go, we’ll get to do that again, right?”
“Right. Now we know, the man last night was in fact Jack. He has a three to four-hour head start. I’ll take a shower while you tell the manager you had a family emergency and you’ll be gone for the next five days.”
“I thought we were partners?” she said, getting to her knees on the bed and pulling him close. “How about we take a shower together? After all, you’re going to have to clean up your mess back there, because I can’t get to it,” she said, twirling her fingertip around his stiffening nipple. “Then you eat my soup that I so lovingly heated from a can for you. While I tell Marty we’re leaving. And stay naked. I like you this way, and besides, I think some of Rick’s old clothes will fit you,” she said with a, ‘so there,’ expression.
“Rick?”
“Does it matter?”